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.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 TPT
“For it was only through this wonderful grace that we believed in him. Nothing we did could ever earn this salvation, for it was the gracious gift from God that brought us to Christ! So no one will ever be able to boast, for salvation is never a reward for good works, although God has created us to walk into the good works which he prepared for us even before we were born.”
Romans 1:17 ERV
“The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself. God’s way of making people right begins and ends with faith. As the Scriptures say, ‘Anyone who is right with God through faith will have life.'”
Hebrews 11:6 ERV
“Without faith no one can please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him.”
Setting the Stage:
I was going to move on from Gal 3:2 today, but since it’s Friday, I will give you one last message about this topic and close out the week with it. The point I have been making is this: One of the most dangerous misconceptions in the body of Christ today is the idea that grace means you don’t have to do anything. People hear that we’re not under performance-based religion and mistakenly think that means we can live however we want without any responsibility. This is absolutely wrong!
Yes, you are free from performance-based religion, but you are NOT free from faith-based living. Here’s the key difference: Performance says, “I do (or perform) to receive.” Faith says, “I believe to receive.” Grace eliminates the pressure to perform for God’s acceptance, but it doesn’t eliminate the requirement to walk by faith.
Too many believers have swung the pendulum too far. They’ve gone from legalistic performance to spiritual inactivity, thinking grace means they can coast through life without doing anything. That’s not grace; that’s laziness. Grace empowers you to live by faith, not to live without faith.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. Grace Eliminates The Pressure To Perform, But Not The Requirement For Faith.
The beauty of grace is that it removes the crushing pressure to perform for God’s acceptance. You don’t have to earn His love, work for His favor, or strive for His blessing. But grace doesn’t give you permission to live without faith; living a completely passive life.
How this applies to you:
— You don’t have to perform to be accepted, but you do have to exercise faith to access what grace has provided.
— Performance creates anxiety because it’s based on your ability. Faith creates rest because it’s based on God’s ability working through your belief system.
— Grace says you’re already qualified for God’s best, but faith is how you access and experience what you’re already qualified for.
— You can exercise faith without the pressure to perform because grace has already secured your position with God.
— Faith is not about earning; it’s about alignment and agreement. You’re not trying to get God to bless you; you’re positioning yourself to receive what He’s already provided, what He already planned to do with and through your life.
— Performance asks, “Did I do enough?“ Faith declares, “God has already done enough, and I believe it!“
2. Faith Is the Bridge Between What Grace Has Planned and Provided and What You Get to Receive and Experience.
Grace operates in the heavenly realm; faith operates in the earthly realm. Grace has already provided everything you need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), but faith is what brings heaven’s provision into the earth domain.
How this applies to you:
— Grace is God’s part; it’s what He’s already done. Faith is your part; it’s how you access what He’s done. When you understand this, you realize that you will never experience the fullness of what grace has provided without exercising the faith to receive it.
— It has been said that the richest land on the planet is found in cemeteries. Why? Because millions of people have died with God’s best still inside of them. God provided the grace, but they never provided the faith. As a result, they died with unrealized potential. I don’t know about you, but I want to die empty!
— Every blessing, every miracle, every breakthrough that grace has provided requires faith to manifest in your experience.
— Grace without faith results in spiritual knowledge without earthly manifestation. Faith without grace results in works-based religion that does not produce anything, but it is trying to force God to do something He never planned to do; and we cannot MAKE God do anything.
— The more you understand grace, the easier it becomes to exercise faith because you know God has already said “yes” to your request.
3. Grace Empowers Your Faith; It Doesn’t Replace Your Faith.
Here’s a revelation that will change how you live: Grace doesn’t eliminate the need for faith; grace empowers your faith to be more effective. When you know that God has already provided everything by grace, it becomes easier to believe Him for specific manifestations in your life.
How this applies to you:
— Grace gives you the confidence to exercise faith because you know God has already said “yes” to His promises. You are not trying to move God. You realize God is trying to move you!
— You can have bold faith because grace has already secured what you’re believing for. God will never lead you into something He has not already stored up for you.
— Grace removes the fear that your faith isn’t strong enough because it’s not about the strength of your faith; it’s about the faithfulness of God. It’s not about you. It’s All About HIM!
— When you understand grace, faith becomes natural rather than forced because you’re accessing what’s already yours. Your life becomes less about performing and more about dying to self and aligning with what God has already assigned you to do.
— Grace-empowered faith doesn’t strive; it receives. It doesn’t beg; it accesses. It doesn’t worry; it rests in what God has already done.
— Every time you exercise faith from a foundation of grace, you’re operating in supernatural rest. You are resting while your working, because you know you are not trying to be good enough. God already planned to give you what you are moving towards, so all you are doing in positioning yourself to receive.
— The combination of grace and faith is unstoppable because grace provides unlimited resources and faith believes in unlimited possibilities.
4. You Can Walk in Faith Without Walking in Performance.
The key to living the grace life is learning to exercise faith without falling back into performance mindset. Faith and performance may look similar on the outside, but they come from completely different motivations and produce completely different results.
How this applies to you:
— Performance-based faith says, “I must believe hard enough to make God move.” Grace-based faith says, “I believe what God has already done.”
— Performance faith is driven by fear that you’re not doing enough. Grace faith is driven by confidence in what God has already done what is required and you are simply doing whatever God needs you to do to receive it.
— Performance faith creates pressure and anxiety. Grace faith creates rest and expectation.
— To be clear, there are Christians today who are speaking the language of faith, taking actions in faith, and making bold faith declarations, all with the wrong mindset. In their minds, they are doing it to MAKE THEIR OWN WAY PROSPEROUS, to COMMAND GOD’S BLESSING, and to MAKE GOD RESPOND TO THEIR FAITH. But what they don’t realize is that it is supposed to be the other way around. I know, because I used to be one of them. I lived that way for years. I thought, “I exercise faith, and God responds to my faith and gives me the answer to my request.” I was sincere when I believed that, but I was sincerely wrong. God had to each me, “No, son. I don’t respond to you. You respond to me. I reveal to you what I already planned for you and you then respond in faith. When I show you what I planned, I am telling you what I have already stored up for you by faith. Now, you get to release your faith to receive it. The revelation I give you is tha authorization for your faith.” It took me years to learn this and I am sharing it with you in a few minutes. I pray it blesses you!
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You that I am free from the pressure to perform!
I don’t perform to earn Your acceptance; I exercise faith to believe and receive what You’ve already provided.
I live by faith, not to please You through my works, but to honor what You’ve already planned. My life is All About YOU!
My faith is empowered by grace and operates from a place of rest.
Faith is my response to grace, and grace is Your gift to me.
I am living #TheGraceLife through faith, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
