Today we continue our series entitled “Pursuing Grace-Based Success!”
Here are our foundational scriptures:
(Ephesians 2:8-10 ERV)
8 I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.
9 You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about.
10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.
(1 Corinthians 1:30,31 NLT)
30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”
(2 Timothy 1:9 NKJV)
Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.
(Daniel 1:18-21 ERV)
18 At the end of the three years of training, Ashpenaz brought all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar.
19 The king talked to them and found that none of the young men were as good as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So these four young men became the king’s servants.
20 Every time the king asked them about something important, they showed great wisdom and understanding. The king found they were ten times better than all the magicians and wise men in his kingdom.
21 So Daniel served the king until the first year that Cyrus was king.
Yesterday we saw how God gave Daniel and his friends the wisdom and ability to learn many different kinds of writing and science. For Daniel, God also gave him the ability to understand and interpret visions and dreams. The grace of God gave Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah a tremendous advantage as they matriculated through the three-year training program they were selected for in Babylon.
At the end of the training, Ashpenaz brought all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked to them and found that none of the young men were as good as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So these four young men became the king’s servants. They were enslaved, but they beat out everyone in the training program, and they did it by the grace of God. The Bible says, “Every time the king asked them about something important, they showed great wisdom and understanding. The king found they were ten times better than all the magicians and wise men in his kingdom.” Think about that for a moment. King Nebuchadnezzar had access to countless magicians, sorcerors, and what they called “wise men.” His kingdom was vast and powerful. Yet none of his men were a-tenth as good as four Hebrew boys operating under God’s grace.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. The favor of God can cast divine “light” on the work of your hands, causing you to “outshine” others.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were in Babylon’s special three-year training program. They were supposed to be seen as mere slaves. However, the grace of God was on them. As a result, it seems like God drew attention to everything they did. My point is that when God’s grace is on you, God can cause others to notice the work of your hands. Someone else can say just about the same thing you say, but your words will be received over theirs because YOU said it, and God is with YOU! Or you can do similar work to the work of others, but you get noticed and recognized over them. Why? Because God is with you everywhere you go. This is the type of supernatural you can experience by the grace of God. God will cause you to outshine your peers!
2. Not only will God cause you to outshine, but God’s grace will also cause you to outperform your peers.
— God gave Daniel and his friends supernatural wisdom and understanding. He did it so they could outperform their peers. Why? Because God is interested in your success. The more He elevates you in this world, the greater position of influence you will get promoted to. The more influence you have while walking with Him, the more influence God will have on this planet through you. So yes, God wants you to move up becuase that means He can impact more lives!
— By grace (unearned and unmerited), God made Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah “10 times better” than all of King Nebuchadnezzar’s magicians, sorcerers, and wise men. When you embrace and experience the grace of God, it will cause you to outshine, outsmart, outperform and outlast your competitors. The grace of God can usher you right into divine success. It’s one thing to say that these young men were better than everyone else in the training program, but the Bible says they were 10x greater! That is the type of success we can experience when we embrace the grace of God!
— By grace (unearned and unmerited), God empowered Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah to outperform everyone in Babylon’s elite three-year training program. The grace of God can have similar results in your life if you seek to access God’s grace with your faith.
3. You don’t have to accept this world’s limitations; God’s grace can empower you to overcome them all!
— Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah had to overcome a great deal to earn their selection for the king’s service. The grace of God empowered Daniel and his friends to overcome national bias (they were from a different country, Jews living in Babylon), socio-economic status (they were slaves and not free), and religion (they worshipped a different God) on their path to success. But still, despite all that, the grace of God on their lives caused the Babylonians to say, out of their own mouths, that these Hebrew boys were 10x better than everyone else in the training program. When you walk with God and embrace His grace, you can have similar results.
— Nothing can stop you when God is ON you, IN you, WITH you, and FOR you! You don’t have to accept what this world says or believes about you. You don’t have to allow yourself to be limited by the color of your skin, gender, socio-economic status, ethnic/cultural background, age, or anything else. God favored these Hebrew boys, He favored Joseph, He favored Esther, and He will do the same for you when you live #TheGraceLife.
4. There is no limit to what God can do through you!
(Psalm 84:11 NASB)
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.
— The four Hebrew boys who were enslaved in Babylon (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) refused the violate God’s Law, they stood on what they believed in, they walked in Godly integrity, and God’s favor caused them to outshine and outperform everyone else.
— If God could cause four slaves to outperform all the king’s men, then what do you think He can do through your life? Are you thinking too small? Are you aiming too low? God’s grace can empower you to succeed despite challenges, obstacles, and issues. Stop thinking small, open your heart, dream God-sized dreams, and allow God, by His grace, to empower you to change the world!
5. Personal testimony about the grace of God.
I am not teaching you things I just read about. This is how I live.
I joined the U.S. Army when I was 17 years old. No one in my family had ever joined the U.S. military. I knew no one. I had no connections. I had no point of reference. I did not know what I was getting myself into, but the grace of God was on me.
To make a long story short, God took a Dominican kid from Brooklyn who was raised on Welfare and was the first of his family to be born in the United States and graced him to:
— progress through the ranks (I was a Staff Sergeant at 22 years old and a Warrant Officer at 24 years old),
— do things that far exceeded his rank (I was routinely asked to operate on a level that far exceeded the rank on my chest),
— have influence on his cohort across the entire U.S. Army (I was able to make decisions and influence decisions that impacted all Signal Warrant Officers worldwide),
— have influence at the Army level on the Army’s global network (serving as the Chief Technology Officer),
— and Oh, by the way, God graced me to serve as a Pastor in Bosnia and Iraq along the way.
Beyond that, I retired in 2015, and now, in Corporate America, God is using me to impact business (in a way that is pleasing in His sight), to touch and change lives on a daily basis, and to not only influence the technology Industry but to also become a Diversity champion, seeking to make ways for those who have been disadvantaged. I don’t bring this up to boast becuase I have nothing to boast about. All my boast is in the Lord. If God can cause me to outshine and outperform others, and from a human perspective, I am not special, then God can do it for you! It’s not about us. It’s ALL ABOUT HIM! This is #TheGraceLife.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me about grace-based success.
The more I study Your grace, the more I realize why You want to bless me and use me.
You made plans for me before the world began, and You made those plans by grace.
Those plans contain my life’s purpose, and part of my purpose is to become a conduit through which You can impact and influence the world – both the people of the world and the systems of the world.
By grace, You open doors for me that no man can close. And by faith, I walk through those doors to make a difference.
So, Father, my confession is: I win in life because I operate in the grace of God on me to influence this world.
My faith accesses Your grace to outshine, outperform, outsmart and outlast my peers.
I shine in this world because I decrease to the point where Your light and love shine through me.
I experience phenomenal and supernatural success, and I leave a mark in this world that will not easily be erased. Not because I am so good, but only because of Your grace. GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
