Today we continue our series entitled “Living the Grace Life,” where we will learn to embrace and walk in God’s unmerited, unearned, and often undeserved favor throughout 2025.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Corinthians? ?9?:?8? ?TPT??
“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.”
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??Galatians? ?5?:?4? ?TPT??
“If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen away from the revelation of grace!”
Romans? ?6?:?14? ?ERV??
“Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.”
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1 Corinthians? ?15?:?10? ?NIV??
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.“
Additional scriptures for today:
Zechariah 4:6 NIV
“‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.”
Philippians 3:3 NIV
“For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.”
Setting the stage:
Let’s go back to something we dealt with two days ago. We looked at the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar as an analogy for living by human effort versus living by God’s grace. After making the comparison between Hagar (the slave woman who Paul used to represent The Law and our flesh) and Sarah (the free woman who Paul used to represent grace and living by faith), Paul said, “It’s now so obvious! We’re not the children of the slave woman; we’re the supernatural sons of the freewoman—sons of grace!” (Gal 4:31 TPT).
Paul was using this story to illustrate the difference between trying to accomplish God’s will through human strength and allowing His grace to work through you supernaturally. Today, we’ll dig deeper into this truth and learn how to consistently live by God’s grace instead of human effort.
Many believers struggle because they’re trying to accomplish God’s will through their own strength. They’ve received the vision but attempt to bring it to pass through human effort, much like Abraham and Sarah did with Hagar. This always leads to frustration and failure. God’s supernatural plans require His supernatural power. You cannot accomplish supernatural assignments through natural means.
So, what does this mean to you today? A few things:
1. Understanding the Difference Between Human Effort and Divine Grace.
When Abraham and Sarah tried to bring about God’s promise through human effort with Hagar, they produced Ishmael. But when they finally trusted God’s grace, they received Isaac – the child of promise. Notice the language I used there. One was produced by human effort. The other was received by faith. There is a difference!
How this applies to you:
— What you strive to produce will never match what you can receive by grace (God’s part) through faith (your part).
— Striving leads to you producing an Ishmael, while trusting God leads to receiving an Isaac.
— Human effort produces what’s possible; grace delivers what’s impossible.
— Your best production can’t compare to God’s supernatural provision.
— When you try to produce something God told you to receive, you may produce something, but what you produce will cause you unexpected challenges in the long run (the rift between Muslims and Jews today, thousands of years later, all stemmed from an issue between Sarah and Hagar; one that could have been avoided if Abraham and Sarah had not become impatient).
— Grace manifests God’s best in God’s timing, but you must learn to stop trying to make things happen on your own.
— The key is not production through effort but reception through faith.
— When you try to make things happen in your own strength, you limit what God can do.
— Grace flourishes when you cease from your own works.
2. Recognizing the Limitations of Human Power.
Just as Paul compared Hagar to the Old Covenant and Sarah to the New Covenant, we must understand that living under grace means completely abandoning confidence in human ability. The flesh (human effort) will always persecute the Spirit (grace) because they are incompatible systems.
How this applies to you:
— You cannot mix grace and human effort; they are mutually exclusive.
— The more you rely on your ability, the less you experience God’s grace.
— Human power has limitations; God’s power is limitless.
— Your strength will eventually fail; God’s grace never fails.
— When you reach the end of your strength, you’re positioning yourself for God’s grace.
— The flesh always fights against grace because grace makes human effort irrelevant.
— A Christian with a religious mindset is more apt to rely on the arm of the flesh because they are conditioned to focus on human effort.
— People who are full of pride reject the notion of relying on God’s grace because they don’t want to give God ALL the glory. They want to be able to say, “I understand God’s grace and everything, but look at what I did.”
— To live like Jesus, you must die to yourself to the point where you can say what Jesus said. You can say things like, “Without the Father, I can do NOTHING… I only say what hear… I only do what I see… I am not on this planet to perform my will, but the will of the one who sent me.” It takes a grace mindset, free of self-pride and self-righteousness, to speak and live this way.
3. Embracing the Power and Wisdom of the Spirit.
Living by grace means accessing both the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. As Paul stated, Isaac was “born by the power of the Spirit.” The Spirit not only provides supernatural strength but also imparts divine wisdom and knowledge beyond human learning. Like Adam naming all creatures through divine insight rather than education, God can supernaturally equip you for any assignment He gives you.
Additional Scriptures to Consider:
John 14:26 – “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit…will teach you all things.“
1 John 2:20 – “You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.“
Genesis 2:19-20 – Adam named all creatures through divine wisdom, not learned knowledge.
How this applies to you:
— The Holy Spirit empowers you to do what you cannot do on your own.
— God’s power is made perfect in your weakness.
— The Spirit provides “grace knowledge” – supernatural understanding beyond human learning.
— You can receive divine wisdom for tasks you weren’t trained for.
— The Spirit teaches differently than the world’s system – through revelation rather than effort.
— When you depend on the Spirit, you access both supernatural power and wisdom.
— God can instantly impart knowledge that would take years to learn naturally.
4. Making the Choice Between Systems.
Just as Abraham had to choose between Hagar (human effort) and Sarah (grace), you must choose which system you will live under. You should not try to live under both. Either you will trust in human ability and forfeit grace, or you will trust in grace and cease from human effort.
How this applies to you:
— Every day presents opportunities to choose between grace and human effort.
— Many Christians fluctuate between both systems. There are moments when they rely on God and His grace, but then there are moments when they operate in the flesh. God does not want us to fluctuate. He wants us to walk in the Spirit daily.
— Living under grace requires deliberately rejecting reliance on human effort.
— Grace becomes real when you stop trying and start trusting.
— The choice between systems determines your results.
— When you choose grace, you position yourself for supernatural results.
— Your choice of systems determines whether you produce an Ishmael or receive an Isaac.
— Once you choose grace, you must stand firm in your decision, knowing that going back to human effort will only produce inferior results.
— Living consistently in grace requires a firm commitment to trust God completely, even when circumstances tempt you to take matters into your own hands.
— Make the quality decision today to live entirely by grace, trusting that God’s supernatural provision will always exceed your best human production.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for delivering me from dependence on human effort.
I declare that I live completely by Your grace and the power of Your Spirit.
I reject every temptation to accomplish Your will through my own strength.
Your grace is sufficient for me, and Your power is made perfect in my weakness.
I cease from my own works and enter into Your supernatural rest.
I trust entirely in Your ability, not my own capabilities.
I walk in the freedom of grace, liberated from the bondage of human effort.
I choose Your grace system over human effort every time.
I enter this day living THE GRACE LIFE, where Your power flows freely through my weakness, and Your supernatural ability accomplishes what human effort never could!
GREATER IS COMING FOR ME because my life IS ALL ABOUT YOU!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
