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.
Yesterday we looked at Philippians chapter 4, focusing primarily on verses 13 and 19. Today I feel led to go back to verse 13 and drive home the importance of the grace of God.
Verse 13 reads, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” If you are not careful, you can put the emphasis on the “I” in the verse and not the “Christ” in the verse. While there is an ’empowering’ aspect of God’s grace (where He empowers you to do what you could never do on your own), don’t mistake the message of that empowerment to be justification to put the emphasis on YOU and what YOU must then do. Grace keeps the spotlight on God.
In Philippians 4, Paul was saying that there were times when he had plenty and times when he barely had enough. Paul endured periods of prosperity and poverty, abundance and lack. What did Paul learn through it all? Paul learned that he could do all things through Christ; that his ability to do was not contingent upon his earthly conditions. Christ was his source. Good or bad, up or down, abundance or lack, Paul could always look to Christ to get done whatever the Father wanted to be done. If God led Paul to do something, then He would empower and favor Paul to get it done, whether the earthly circumstances were favorable or not.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. If you want to become the success (in God’s eyes) God called you to be, you cannot focus on what you can see with your natural eyes. Your focus must be on what God reveals to you in the spirit. What you can see with your natural eyes is subject to change. What you see with your spirit is eternal; it will not change, and it is only a matter of time before it comes to pass on earth (see 2 Cor 4:18).
2. Your ability to perform God’s assignment is not limited to what you can see in the natural. God did things through Paul that, naturally speaking, should not have happened. People could look at Paul’s life and ask, “How in the world was he able to get so much done? He did so much with so little. How?” The answer is simple: the grace of God. God can grace you to get things done in a way that far exceeds human ability.
3. God calls you to do things you cannot do without him. So if you start to think about the magnitude of the task (His calling) and how YOU will get it done in YOUR own power, ability, and strength, it will do nothing but stress you out. By stressing over your assignment, you can lose your peace, your mental health, and even your physical health. Why? Because you are taking on the pressure to perform, and you were not designed to live that way.
4. For Paul to do what He was called to do, He could not limit himself to natural circumstances becuase his natural circumstances were not conducive to his assignment. Therefore, Paul chose to live by the UNSEEN over the SEEN. Had Paul relied solely on the natural, he would have never accomplished what he did! I hope you learn from this. This is the life of faith, empowered by God’s grace, and it is how we are supposed to live!
5. The Spirit of God will enable you to see the invisible. God will reveal things to you from heaven while you are on earth. God will reveal things to you from eternity while you are living in time. Once you see it and believe it, the grace of God will empower you to perform the seemingly impossible because God will never reveal something to you what He has not already given you the GRACE to perform! You just can’t perform it in YOUR own power! You can only perform it in HIS. His power is called GRACE!
6. We are not called to live bound to earthly limitations. We are called to manifest heaven on earth. We can only do this with our faith and God’s grace. And when we do (when we perform the seemingly impossible by the grace of God), God is glorifying on this planet. That’s the goal. You and I are here to bring glory to HIS NAME!
7. We are not called to operate as mere men, trusting solely in the arm of the flesh. We are called to surrender to God and to allow His power to flow through us, so the world can SEE the manifestation of God’s love and light through us. That’s what success looks like from God’s perspective. Unfortunately, many people, believers included, think success is about money, houses, cars, and fame. Godly success is about doing whatever God leads you to do, empowered by His grace, with the singular focus of bringing glory to HIS NAME. When you live that way, if you like “things,” God will give you a bunch of them. But your life will not be about the “things” you have. Your life will be about the grace and glory of God! This is what I call #TheGraceLife.
8. Jesus was the only human perfect enough to rely on His own ability, but He refused to do it, to give us an example of how to live. Jesus completely relied on the Father. He only said what He heard the Father say. He only did what He saw the Father do. If we follow Jesus’ pattern and live the same way, the power of God will flow through us, by His grace, for His glory.
9. You can DO ALL THINGS by the grace of God! If God is leading you to do it, then you must believe that He has already given you the grace for it. Your part is to surrender to His will, to accept it by grace, and to attempt it by faith. This is how we are supposed to live!
Note: It looks me over 25 years to get to this point in my life where I have somewhat of a functional understanding of God’s grace and how our faith taps into it. What took me 25 years to learn, I often share with you in 25 minutes. I pray you open your heart to receive it!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me about grace-based success.
I have embraced my divine assignment. It is too big for me to accomplish on my own. So I am looking to You as my source.
With my own strength and by my own power, I could never do what You have called me to do. Human ability is limited, but Your ability is limitless.
I die to self, and I accept Your grace to perform Your will on the earth!
I look NOT at the seen but at the unseen. What I can see with my natural eyes is limited and subject to change. What You allow me to see with the eyes of my spirit is limitless and eternal; it will not change, and it shall come to pass.
I live by what You allow me to see. I see the naturally invisible. I attempt the humanly impossible. I die to me, so that You can freely live THROUGH me. I decrease that You may increase.
As I live this way, natural circumstances do not limit me. I simply do what You lead me to do, and I am not moved by whether or not the circumstances are favorable. There are times when I will have all I need. There are other times when I won’t. But either way, I know I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST because I will be doing them by Your grace.
This is how I know GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
