Today we continue our new series entitled, “Faith and Patience Volume IV — The Wonder Twins”. As I continue to lay the foundation for this series, I am providing somewhat of a faith refresher. I will do the same for patience. We need both faith and patience in order to lay hold of the promises of God. I shared 8 things about faith and we have covered 5 of the 8 thus far. Here they are:
1) We are only pleasing to God when we operate in faith (Hebrews 11:6)
2) We are saved by grace, through faith (Ephesians 2:8,9)
3) We are called to live by faith (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38, Habakkuk 2:4, and Galatians 2:20)
4) We are commanded to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)
5) We are urged to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12)
6) We are supposed to pray the prayer of faith (James 5:15)
7) We must speak the language of faith (Matthew 8:8)
8) We ultimately overcome the world by faith (1 John 5:4)
Yesterday I covered #6, but not completely. Let’s go back to it today. I will deal with praying from a position of God’s grace. Let’s look at some the Apostle Paul said and something the Apostle Peter said,
(Ephesians 1:3-6 ERV).
“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.”
(2 Peter 1:3 NKJV)
His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God has (past tense) already given you every spiritual blessing, in Christ, in heavenly places.
a) Praying from a position of God’s grace means you believe God’s part is already done, and for you, it is only a matter of time before you see God’s best manifested in the earth.
b) God’s instruction is always equal to His injection. This means that God will never instruct you to do something He has not already injected you with. So if God leads you to do something, it is because you already have the grace to do it. God has already given you everything you need. You have it 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.
c) Praying from a position of grace means you don’t pray to try to get God to do it. You pray from the position that it’s already done!
d) When you pray from a position of grace you are not praying FOR the victory, you are praying FROM a position of victory.
2. When you pray from a position of God’s grace you believe He has already given you all things that pertain to life.
a) God has already provided everything you will ever need. He prepared for your arrival. He stored up what you would need to succeed; to accomplish His will on the earth. What God is doing now is preparing you for what He prepared.
b) Everything you need in life — earthly resources, startup capital, open doors, divine connections, key relationships, etc. — has already been prepared for you, by God, because He wants His plans to succeed. Remember, your life is all about Him, not your selfish desires.
c) Everything you need to accomplish God’s will for your life has already been stored up. This is why it is critically important that you make your life about God and not you! The things you need for your selfish desires have NOT been stored up. But everything you need for God’s desires has! And when you pray for what God planned, the provision is there. However, when you pray for something that was birthed in your heart, and not God’s, James says, “you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, focused on your pleasures.” (James 4:2,3 NIV).
d) While it is true that every earthly thing you need to complete your divine assignment has already been prepared, it will not manifest before its time. This is why you must develop both patience and discernment. You need the discernment to know when it is God’s timing and the patience to wait until it is.
3. When you pray from a position of God’s grace you believe He has already given you all things that pertain to godliness.
a) While you will have to wait on God’s timing for the external resources to manifest, the internal issues are not a matter of timing, but rather a matter of development. God has already blessed you with every spiritual gift required to become the man/woman you are called to be, but these gifts must be developed.
b) You must develop the character required to be able to carry the weight of the anointing associated with your assignment.
c) God has already blessed you with every spiritual blessing. Now it’s just a matter of development. The more you die to self and grow in Christ, the more God’s spiritual gifts will be made manifest in your life.
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 received access to everything God planned for you to have and access to the power you need in order to attain it. But you must learn to access God’s grace with your faith. You must learn to pray faith-filled prayers from a position of God’s grace; from a position of God’s finished work.
*** To pray from a position of grace you must make a shift your focus from this world’s perspective to heaven’s. As far as heaven is concerned, it’s already done. The victory has already been provided. The battle has already been won. God is able to see past COVID-19 and every other challenge that will come our way. But now He is looking for us to open our hearts to see what He sees. To peer into a realm where we can see what He has already provided. And to then come back from that realm, to this realm, to pray in faith for what is already done. Further, we are to live by faith — saying words, performing actions, and aligning our financial decisions — based on what God revealed to us about our future. This is what it means to live by faith, and this is what it means to pray by faith, from a position of God’s grace. You are not praying FOR the victory. You know it’s already done in heaven and it is only a matter of time before the earth catches up with what God revealed to you!
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, thank You for teaching me 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 gave me Your best when You gave me Your Son Jesus, and that 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 for You to give it to me. I am praying with the knowledge that You have already given it to me. My prayers now seek to access Your grace with my faith. I will never be the same! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
