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.
As part of this series, I am teaching a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians.
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.”
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.”
1 Corinthians 15:10 CEV
“But God treated me with undeserved grace! He made me what I am, and his grace wasn’t wasted. I worked much harder than any of the other apostles, although it was really God’s grace at work and not me.”
Scripture(s) we will study today:
Galatians 3:2 TPT
“So answer me this: Did the Holy Spirit come to you as a reward for keeping Jewish laws? No, you received him as a gift because you believed in the Messiah.”
Romans 10:9-10 TPT
“And what is God’s ‘living message’? It is the revelation of faith for salvation, which is the message that we preach. For if you publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will experience salvation. The heart that believes in him receives the gift of the righteousness of God—and then the mouth gives thanks to salvation.”
2 Corinthians 4:13 TPT
“We have that same Spirit of faith that is described in the Scriptures when it says, ‘First I believed, then I spoke in faith.’ So we also first believe then speak in faith.”
Hebrews 11:6 TPT
“And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that he is real and that he rewards the hearts that passionately seek him.”
Setting the Stage:
Over the past few messages, I’ve driven home the point that we cannot be justified by the Law and that works cannot make us righteous. However, today I need to clarify something important: this doesn’t mean we don’t have to do anything. We do have to do something under the new covenant of grace. We must have faith.
Under the Old Covenant, people focused on working to earn God’s blessing. Under the New Covenant of grace, our focus shifts from working to believing. This is not about doing nothing. This is about doing what God requires under grace.
The Law said, “Work and you might receive.” Grace says, “Believe and you will receive.” Your faith is how you tap into God’s grace. Many believers have been so focused on what they can’t earn through performance that they’ve forgotten what they must access through faith. Countless scriptures teach us that our responsibility under grace is to believe God. Let’s be clear about something. Faith is not passive. Faith is how you actively access what grace has already provided.
I’ve been ministering for nearly three decades, and I can tell you this: your life will change forever the day you start believing what God believes about you. The challenge isn’t that God hasn’t provided. The challenge is that many believers don’t know how their faith taps into what God’s grace has already provided.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. Your Focus Must Shift from Working Under Law to Living by Faith Under Grace.
Paul reminds the Galatians that they “received the Holy Spirit as a gift because you believed in the Messiah.” Under the Old Covenant, people had to work, perform, and strive to try to earn God’s blessing. Under the New Covenant of grace, your focus shifts from working to believing, and your faith taps into God’s grace.
How this applies to you:
— Stop trying to earn what Jesus already provided and start believing so you can open your heart to receive it. The pressure is off your performance and on your faith.
— Your faith is the key that unlocks God’s grace in your life. God’s part is grace (He’s already done everything). Your part is faith (believing and receiving what He’s done). Grace without faith is like having resources in the bank but no way to access them.
— Believing is not passive. It’s the most active thing you can do spiritually. When you truly believe what God says about you, it changes how you think, speak, and act. Faith is not wishful thinking. Faith begins where the will of God is known. So, faith is a confident assurance that what God has destined and promised (by grace) will manifest at just the right time.
— Many believers are exhausted from trying to work their way to breakthrough instead of believing their way to breakthrough. You weren’t designed to work your way to victory in the flesh. You were designed to use your faith to access the victory that God, by His grace, has already provided.
— Your spiritual focus is simple: believe what God says and live like it’s true. Stop making Christianity complicated. The Law required work, but grace requires faith. God said it, you believe it, and that settles it (actually, it is settled whether you believe it or not).
— Have you heard it said that “Faith is the currency in the Kingdom of God“? What does that mean? It means that in God’s Kingdom, you don’t pay for God’s blessings with works. You access them with faith. Faith is how you receive what God has already provided. Your work is to believe! Jesus said, “The work you can do for God is simply this: believe in the One he has sent” (John 6:29 TPT).
2. Faith Operates in Two Places and Is Voice-Activated.
Romans 10:9-10 reveals that “the heart that believes receives the gift of righteousness, and then the mouth gives thanks to salvation.” Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:13, “First I believed, then I spoke in faith.” Faith is voice-activated. You must believe in your heart and speak with your mouth. This is one of the ways your faith taps into God’s grace.
How this applies to you:
— What you consistently say reveals what you truly believe. If your mouth is full of fear, doubt, unbelief, and complaint, it doesn’t matter what you claim to believe in your heart. Your words are telling on you. This is why Jesus, when speaking to a group of men that he considered to be a “brood of vipers,” basically told them that their words were exposing their hearts. Jesus said, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45 NKJV).
— Many believers claim to believe in their hearts, but their words expose what they truly believe. When they undermine their faith with their words, they are exposing to everyone, on the outside, the conflict that exists in their hearts, on the inside. If they claim to believe God can heal, but they constantly talk about their sickness, they are exposing that they truly do NOT believe. They have more confidence in doctors’ reports than in God’s Word or His promises.
— You cannot separate believing from speaking if you want to see faith results. The spirit of faith operates when belief in your heart connects with confession from your mouth. This is how you release faith to tap into God’s grace in the midst of your circumstances.
— You access God’s grace by speaking the language of faith, not the language of fear. When you speak what God says about your situation instead of what the world says, you’re using your faith to tap into God’s grace.
— Start every day by speaking what God believes about you, not what your circumstances look like. Instead of saying, “I hope things get better,” say, “God is working all things together for my good.”
— Your words are creating your future. Let me say it another way. When you speak words of faith, from a believing heart, you get to tap into the future God planned for you!
— Death and life are in the power of the tongue. When you speak life, your faith taps into God’s grace for life.
— God watches over His Word to perform it (Jer 1:12). Angels are also listening for God’s Word (Psalm 103:20). So, when you speak the Word over your situation, God is listening and angels are too! God will never allow His Word to return back to him void.
3. Your Faith Must Focus on Believing What God Believes About You.
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “without faith it would be impossible to please God” and that “he rewards the hearts that passionately seek him.” The key to effective faith is learning to align your beliefs with God’s beliefs.
How this applies to you:
— God believes you are righteous, blessed, highly favored, and deeply loved. The question is: do you believe what God believes about you? Many believers argue with God about their identity instead of using their faith to access what grace says about them.
— God believes you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. But if you believe you’re limited by your past, your education, your skin color, or your circumstances, your faith is not tapping into what grace has already provided for you.
— God believes that no weapon formed against you will prosper and that you are the head and not the tail. But if you see yourself as a victim of circumstances, you’re not using your faith to access the victory that grace has already given you.
— God believes you have been given everything that pertains to life and godliness. This means that whatever you need to succeed in your divine assignment, grace has already provided it. Your faith must focus on accessing what grace has already made available.
— God believes your best days are ahead of you, not behind you. Even if you’ve made mistakes or experienced setbacks, grace believes your future is brighter than your past. Do you believe that?
— God believes that what He started in your life, He will complete. Grace has already guaranteed your success, but your faith must access that guarantee daily.
— Stop limiting yourself based on how you see yourself and start using your faith to access how grace sees you. You are who God says you are because grace made it so, not your performance. Your job now is to believe and receive that!
4. Faith Pleases God Because It Accesses What Grace Has Already Provided.
Hebrews 11:6 is clear: “without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God.” This means that all your religious activities mean nothing to God if they’re not flowing from a heart of faith.
How this applies to you:
— God would rather have you use your faith to access His promises than perform religious duties out of obligation. You can pray for hours, read your Bible daily, and attend every church service, but if your faith isn’t tapping into God’s grace, you’re missing the point.
— Faith demonstrates that you trust what grace has already accomplished. When you live by faith, you’re essentially telling God, “I believe You have already provided everything I need, and I’m using my faith to access it.”
— God is looking for people whose faith will access His grace even when circumstances contradict what God is saying. Anyone can believe God when everything is going well. But God is very pleased when your faith taps into His grace in the middle of challenges.
— God is attracted to faith that accesses grace and repelled by works that ignore grace. If you want to experience more of God’s presence and power in your life, use your faith to tap into His grace by meditating on His Word and speaking His promises over your life daily.
— Faith-filled believers attempt things that only grace can accomplish and expect results that only grace can provide. When your faith truly taps into God’s grace, you’ll try things that seem impossible to others because grace has already made “all things possible.”
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for teaching me that my job is simply to believe.
I reject the pressure to earn anything.
I’m delivered from performance-based religion.
You’ve already provided all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
You give me all things richly to enjoy.
So I believe what You believe about me.
I am righteous, I am blessed, I am highly favored, I am deeply loved.
And I believe it.
I believe in my heart, I confess with my mouth, and I experience it on the earth.
I am living #TheGraceLife by believing what You believe about 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!
