Praying From a Position of Grace

This morning we continue our series, “Maximizing 2015 by God’s GREAT GRACE” by continuing to teach on prayer.  I have been teaching on grace for the past two years and now I am teaching on prayer.  It stands to reason that I would teach on prayer from a grace-based perspective.  For the next few days we will learn about prayer and grace through the Apostle Paul and his letter to the church at Ephesus.

In this opening comments of the letter the Apostle Paul said, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in heaven.  In Christ, he chose us before the world was made.  He chose us in love to be his holy people—people who could stand before him without any fault.  And before the world was made, God decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ.  This was what God wanted, and it pleased him to do it.  And this brings praise to God because of his wonderful grace.  God gave that grace to us freely.  He gave us that grace in Christ, the one he loves.” (Ephesians 1:3-6 ERV).

So what does this mean to you today?  It means a great deal.  I could teach on this one passage for weeks, but for this morning, I will simply highlight a few things and seek to glean a few golden nuggets about God, His grace, and what it means to us concerning prayer:

1.  God has (past tense) already given you every spiritual blessing, in Christ, in heavenly places.

a)  Praying from a position of grace means you believe God has already given you everything you need and that you have it already on the inside of you.  This is much different than praying from a position of need, where you are asking God to give you something you believe you don’t have.

b)  Praying from a position of grace means you don’t pray trying to get God to do it.  You pray from the position that it’s already done!

c)  When you pray from a position of grace you are not praying for the victory, you are praying FROM a position of victory.

2.  God chose you, in Christ, before the world was made.

a)  You are not a mistake.  You were born WHEN you were born and WHERE you were born, because of WHY you were born!

b)  You are not waiting on God to do what He planned to do in your life.  God is actually waiting on you to believe and receive what He already planned to do through you, so He can manifest it.

3.  Through Christ you are able to stand before God without any fault.

a)  Jesus was born and lived from a position of righteousness.  You were born and lived from a position of sin.  God sent His Son Jesus to trade-places with you.  When you accept Jesus as Lord, you take His position of righteousness and He takes your position of sin.

b)  You are not righteous because of what you do, or what you fail to do.  You are only righteous because of what Jesus did.

c)  When you know you are righteous in Christ Jesus, you come to the Father in prayer, in the name of His Son, with boldness and confidence.

4.  God has freely given you everything He was going to give you, by His grace, in His Son.

a)  Paul said, “God gave his Son for all of us.  So now with Jesus, God will surely give us all things.” (Romans 8:32).  If God gave you His best when He gave you His Son Jesus, then do you really think He would without anything from you?

b)  When you received Jesus you also receive access to everything God planned for you to have, and access to the power you need in order to attain it.

*** To pray from a position of grace you must make a shift from living from this world’s perspective, to living from heaven’s perspective.

Closing Confession:   Father, I thank You for Your Great Grace towards me.  I also thank You for teaching me to pray and to pray from a position of grace.  There was a time in my life when I prayed from a position of need.  I thought of all the things I needed, and I asked You to give them to me.  There were times when my prayer consisted of simply laying out a laundry list of wishes before You.  I now see why those prayers were ineffective.  I was looking at things from the world’s perspective and not heaven’s.  You put Your Spirit IN me, so I could learn to see things Your way and pray from a position of grace.  I am learning.  I now realize that You have given me Your best in Jesus, and along with Jesus, You have also already freely given me all other things.  Everything I need to succeed in life, to accomplish Your Kingdom plans and purposes for me, is already in me.  Now I am NOT praying asking for You to give it to me.  I am praying knowing You have already given it to me, and my prayers now seek to access Your grace with my faith.  My faith accesses Your grace to manifest Your best in my life.  Grace-based prayers are effective, because they are the type of prayers You expect me to pray; seeing things from Your perspective, praying Your Kingdom plans and purposes, and seeking to manifest Your will in the earth.  So from this day forward I shall pray from a position of grace, You will hear my prayers, You will manifest Your best in my life, and I will never be the same!  I declare this by faith.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.

This is Today’s Word!  Apply it and Prosper!