This morning we continue our series, “Grace that is Simply Amazing” by continuing with our mini-series entitled, “Grace Based Success (Prosperity)”. For the past couple of weeks we have been discussing “Entering Into God’s rest” from Hebrews 4:1-11. We worked our way through the entire passage. Yesterday I came you a few general thoughts about God’s rest. Today we will close out the week with a few more.
So what does this mean to you today? Let’s see.
1. The battle is in your mind. If you submit to the process of mind renewal, allowing yourself to be deprogrammed and then reprogrammed through the Word of God, you can actually get to the stage where you are SO conditioned to think God’s way that it will be extremely difficult for the enemy to get a hold of your mind with his negative thoughts of fear, doubt, failure, and defeat. This is the stage I pray you desire to get to and I pray that you do. It won’t happen overnight, but if you submit to the process, little-by-little, it WILL happen! (see 2 Cor 10:3-5).
2. What will you allow? Jesus said, “Do not allow your heart to be troubled” (John 14:1). Just like you can ALLOW your heart to be troubled, you have the power to refuse it. Faith is a choice, just like fear is a choice. You cannot trust and worry at the same time, and you get to CHOOSE which one YOU will do. To enter in and remain in God’s rest, you are going to have to choose faith over fear, rest over worry, peace over anxiety. God will allow whatever you allow, so make sure you choose wisely. (see John 14:27).
3. Rule your emotions. Don’t let your feelings tell you how to feel. If you allow your emotions to rule you, you will live an unstable and possibly an unfruitful life. God has given you the power to rule over your emotions, but YOU must do so in order to enter in and remain in God’s rest (see John 14:27).
4. You can have peace in the midst of storms. The peace of God is not about the absence of conflict, but rather about the presence of God. When God is present you can have peace internally, even when everything externally seems to be going haywire (see John 14:27).
5. More grace. When you ask for less challenge, sometimes God responds with more grace. God is not always going to deliver you FROM challenges, but He will give you the grace to overcome them—delivering you IN it, rather than FROM it (see 2 Cor 12:9).
6. You can remain IN-FAITH when you enter into God’s rest. When you have an issue it’s not hard to fall on your knees and pray. It might take some humility, but praying is not the hard part. The hard part comes afterwards, in the space between your prayer and the performance, in the space between your confession and the completion, in the space between “I believe I receive, Amen” and “There it is!” That’s the challenge, because in the space between the prayer and the performance, the devil will attempt to cause problems. In the space between the confession and the completion the devil will attempt to stir up confusion. It’s in that space that you must remain in faith and patient, trusting God, abiding in His rest (see Heb 6:12).
7. Spend time at Jesus’ feet. What’s your issue? What you are dealing with? What is causing you stress, struggle, strain and strife? What is the thing that is keeping you up at night? To experience grace based success (success God’s way), you must spend time at Jesus’ feet. Humble yourself, worship your Lord, fall at His feet, call on His name, acknowledge His power, reverence His throne, and you will find that He will meet you where you are. Whether you are up or down, at the end or your rope or on the top of the world, struggling or sailing, in faith or afraid, in hope or in despair, Jesus is available to you today and there is a great exchange that takes place at His feet. Spend some time at His feet today and He will impart into you all that you need to start experience His best life NOW! (see Mark 5:22 and 5:33).
8. God trusts you with it. If we all have a breaking point (and I believe that we do) and the Father will ensure that we are not pushed beyond it (and I believe that He won’t), then we must find comfort in knowing that if we are facing a challenge, then God clearly believes we can handle it! In other words, if you are facing it, then the Father has already given you the grace to overcome it. If you couldn’t take it, you would not be facing it, so if you are, then you can! So face it head-on, in faith, with full confidence in God and enter into God’s rest (see 1 Cor 10:13).
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for caring enough about me to take the time to teach me about Your grace and the divine rest You have made available for me. I renew my mind with Your Word. The more I get Your Word IN me, the more my mind will be deprogrammed from stinking-thinking. I set my mind on You. I DO NOT ALLOW my heart to be troubled. I enter into Your divine rest and I rest from my own works. I no longer rely on my human effort and ability alone. I trust in You. My confidence is in You, Your love for me, Your commitment to the purpose You placed in me before the world began, and Your limitless power. There are times when I ask You to relieve me from the challenges I am facing, and instead of giving me LESS CHALLENGE You opt to give me MORE GRACE. So Father, I embrace Your grace, I become a conduit of Your power, I rest in Your ability, and I face every challenge head-on, in-faith, without a doubt, fully relying on Your supernatural power to access the victory. I enter into this day with Your peace all over me, because of Your presence. You have committed to be with me always… never to leave me or forsake me. Since You are always with me, I am never helpless. Since I am never helpless, I am never hopeless. My hope is in You and I believe You can meet me today, right where I am, and You can manifest Your glory in such a way that You will help me to get to where You want me to be! I know You can and I believe You will! Therefore, I enter into Your divine rest. I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
