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.
(Read Daniel 2:1-11)
A few days ago, we started studying the life of Daniel. In our last message in this series, I told you that God can give you the grace to outshine and outperform your peers, which is exactly what He did for Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. We pick up their story today in Daniel chapter 2.
During Nebuchadnezzar’s second year as king, he had dreams. They bothered him to the point where he could not sleep. So the king called for his wise men, who were accustomed to using magic and watching the stars, to interpret dreams and learn what would happen in the future. Nebuchadnezzar asked them to interpret the dream on the spot, right in front of him. The wise men said, “King, live forever! Please tell your dream to us, your servants, and then we will tell you what it means.” But king Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “No, you must tell me the dream, and then you must tell me what it means. If you don’t, I will give an order for you to be cut into pieces. And I will order your houses to be destroyed until they are nothing but piles of dust and ashes. But if you tell me my dream and explain its meaning, I will give you gifts, rewards, and great honor. So tell me about my dream and what it means.” This was a bad situation for the wise men because they were accustomed to hearing the dream first and then giving an interpretation.
The wise men asked the king a second time, “Please, Sir, tell us about the dream, and we will tell you what it means.” The king answered, “You are stalling. You are trying to get more time. You know that I meant what I said. You know you will be punished if you don’t tell me about my dream… Now tell me the dream. If you can tell me the dream, I will know that you can tell me what it really means.” The wise men answered and said, “There is not a man on earth who can do what the king is asking! No king has ever asked the wise men, the men who do magic, or the Chaldeans to do something like this. Not even the greatest and most powerful king has ever asked his wise men to do such a thing. The king is asking something that is too hard to do. Only the gods could tell the king his dream and what it means. But the gods don’t live with people.”
We will stop here for today, but I am sure you know this is a setup for Daniel to do what the wise men could not do. This sounds just like Joseph’s story.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. You can be Born-Again and still live a completely human (normal to this world) life.
The power of this world is limited, but the power of God is limitless. I am convinced that most believers don’t realize how much they can do (meaning how much God can do through them) because they truly don’t see themselves as human conduits of the divine. If you are Born-Again, you are carrying GOD around inside of you. You are taking Him with you into meetings, conversations, and activities. If you don’t start thinking like God, opening your heart to His power, and attempting to do the seemingly crazy things He will lead you to do, then you will die having carried GOD around for years or decades without ever tapping into His power. If you do, to be clear, it’s your fault!
2. Our God is limitless, but we limit Him from operating in our lives when we fail to believe in what He can do IN, WITH, and THROUGH us!
To gain access to the supernatural, you must remove every limit in your mind. Wherever you see limits, you are placing artificial limits on our limitless God. God will allow what you allow. God will permit whatever you permit. If you allow yourself to be limited, then you will be limited by what you believe about limits. It’s not that the actual limits are limiting you. It’s what you believe about them. Because someone else, who does not believe that those same limits can limit them, will be able to overcome what you are allowing to hold you back.
The people who worked for King Nebuchadnezzar said, “Not even the greatest and most powerful king has ever asked his wise men to do such a thing. The king is asking something that is too hard to do. Only the gods could tell the king his dream and what it means. But the gods don’t live with people.”
They believed that what the king was asking for was beyond human (and it was). They believed that only a God could do it (and in that way, they were right). But then, they said, “But the gods don’t live with people.” This is where they were wrong. They did not know that our God actually DOES live WITH, ON, and IN us!
To be clear, if you are Born-Again, a limitless and all-powerful God is living INSIDE of you. But if you accept the limits of this world, then you have power, but the power means nothing to you because you have accepted to believe what this world says about you instead of what God says about you.
God is not limited in any way! If we are limited, it is because we are settling into our humanity and not our divinity. Please don’t settle!
If you want to be successful in your:
- Marriage
- Family
- Relationships
- Business(es)
- Health
- Emotions
- Soul
- Spirit
- Etc.
— You cannot settle! You cannot see limits. God is limitless, and He lives IN you!
— There are no impossibilities in God, but you must expand your capacity to believe to the point where the impossible becomes possible for you.
3. When the power and systems of this world fail, it creates an open door for the power of God to be manifested.
The men in the text we are looking at today (Daniel 2:1-11) were King Nebuchadnezzar’s go-to people. But they failed. The king asked them to do something that was beyond the limits of their humanity. This opened the door for Daniel!
— Where human ability ends, the grace of God can kick in and enable you to perform the supernatural.
— God wants to work through you to do what you can’t do without Him. He has the power. Your work is only to believe.
— If you can believe in God and His unlimited power to perform in your life, you can succeed where others fail. And your success will not result from your intellect, power, grit, or human determination. Your success will directly result from your spirit and your capacity to believe God!
— You can perform the supernatural because you won’t be the one doing the work. All you have to do is believe and submit, and God will manifest and perform.
— Once you are Born-Again, the supernatural should become natural for you.
— When the people of this world say something is too hard, too burdensome, and maybe even flat-out impossible, it opens the door for the children of God to show them what God can do through someone who is yielded unto Him!
— God is looking for people on the earth, who will believe what He believes about them, so He can “flex His muscles.” Said another way, God wants to manifest His glory on this planet, but in the system He created, He limits Himself to our capacity to believe. He will never force Himself on any human. He is looking for humans to open their hearts to see the invisible and perform the impossible. If you can believe it, God can achieve it, through you, for His glory!
— I don’t feel like Isabella and I are maximizing our purpose and potential yet. I know there is much more we can be doing, and we are OPEN to God for Him to do, in and through us, whatever He wants to do. So we know we are ready for more. But humanly speaking, many people ask us “how” we do all the things we do. My response is always the same: “By the grace of God.” I am convinced that far too many Christians, who are supposed to be “believers,” don’t truly believe God. As a result, they live far beneath God’s best for their lives and they are running the risk of getting to heaven, only to realize HOW MUCH MORE they could have done on the earth if they had simply DIED to their humanity and human limits.
— We are living in a time when the ways of this world are failing. The economy is going haywire, markets are crashing, businesses are closing, people are being laid-off, many are still afraid of viruses, people are seeing their friends die, marriages are falling apart all around them, and dreams are being aborted. This is a great time for the church to be the church. When King Nebuchadnezzar’s men failed, Daniel was able to step in, believe God, and allow God to do, through him, what the other men were not able to do. This is our season. This is our time! When the world is at its darkest, we, as believers, should be the light! This is our time to SHINE! Embrace the grace for success. Show people what God can do through someone who is submitted to Him in all things at all times! Live #TheGraceLife and the supernatural will be natural to you!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me about grace-based success.
You are holy, and I am, on my own, far from holy. You are perfect, and I am, in and of myself, flawed. You are limitless, and I am, in my power and ability, clearly limited. But Father, You have taken up residence inside of me, and You freely give me access to supernatural power!
As a Born-Again, Spirit-filled believer, You expect the supernatural to become natural to me. Not by my power but by Your grace.
My part is to believe and attempt whatever You tell me to do in faith. Your part is to do what I cannot do. Together, we will make a supernatural difference and leave a mark in this world that will never be erased.
As I enter this day, I say, “Here I am Father, use me for Your glory. None of me and all of You. Speak through my vocal cords, think through my mind, and operate through my limbs. That Your very power, Your supernatural power, would be manifested in the earth through me, Your child, a willing vessel.” I believe this shall come to pass. I believe You will use me for Your glory.
I believe the supernatural is now natural for me, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
