(Read 2 Timothy 1:8-12)
Before I fully re-engage in the “Grace that is Simply Amazing” series, I am led to share a few more messages about the New Year, with an emphasis on purpose and grace. Last year, around this time, I taught on purpose and vision and I shared nuggets like these:
1. Once you know your divine purpose, it will give birth to divine vision.
2. You will never BE what you cannot SEE. You have to SEE IT (first) to BE IT. That’s vision.
3. Divine vision will give you the aim-point to strive towards.
4. Once you know where you are going, you can receive supernatural motivation to get there and this motivation will enable you to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles along the way.
This year I don’t want to focus so much on the vision that is birthed from discovering our purpose, but rather on the grace that is connected to our purpose.
I want you to read 2 Timothy 8-12, because I won’t have the time to teach the entire passage. You should read the passage to get the context, but for this morning I will focus on verse 9. The 9th verse reads, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” Let’s take a closer look at this verse and draw golden nuggets along the way:
God saved you AND called you
- If all God wanted for you was to be saved and going to heaven you would be dead.
- If Jesus only came for Fire Insurance, you would be gone.
With a Holy Calling
- God wants to be the Central Character in your life’s story.
- You were born because He has an assignment for you!
- This is a HOLY calling.
According to His own Purpose AND Grace
- God will never give you the Purpose without the Grace to accomplish it.
- Whatever He expects you to do, He equips you to do.
- Divine provision is contingent upon Divine VISION.
- Your prosperity is locked up in YOUR PURPOSE.
- When you find your PURPOSE, you will be able to access the GRACE to fulfill it.
BEFORE the world began
- You are not a mistake!
- God made plans for you before the world began!
- God finished you before you ever got started!
*** Your job is to:
- Find your purpose.
- Follow your purpose.
- Finish your purpose… before you die! And here is the motivation… you have Grace for your Purpose! Once you align with what God has assigned you to do, the grace will freely flow!
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for birthing me with and for a purpose. I am not a mistake. You made plans for me before the foundations of the world. You purposed me for a specific assignment and You then dutifully watched over me as I lived my life without You. I was lost and You knew it. You then saved me by Your grace when I called upon the name of Your Son Jesus to be my Lord. I will never cease to give You praise for saving me, but You did not just save me. You saved me and called me with a Holy Calling, to fulfill Your purpose for my life. You gave me purpose and You also gave me the grace to fulfill the purpose. You gave me the assignment and You also gave me the ability to complete it while I am in the land of the living. I declare, by faith, that in 2013 I will operate in the grace You have bestowed upon my life; a grace to fulfill my divine purpose and to maximize my potential. In Jesus’ name.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
