GRACE - 4 (FORGIVEN AND FORGOTTEN)

Good day Dear Believers, we have so far disussed:

Grace 1 (In need of a Saviour) - we were lost, needed a Saviour and got the best. 

Grace 2 (Welcomed back into the family) - we returned back to relationship with God. 

Grace 3 (Receive the gift) - Grace is a gift and not a reward for some work. If it is of works, then grace is no more Grace. 

Now, today, after Believers begin their faith-walk with God, the devil sometimes brings thoughts of their past life into their minds to get them to think on the wrong they did before they were saved. Such Believers may then doubt if they really were completely forgiven or will still be punished later on. As a matter of fact, whenever they face challenges, it begins to appear to them as though God won't let them go for the wrong they did before they got saved, and God is taking revenge. These are all lies of the devil, and that's why, today, we discuss the fact that Grace has made us totally forgiven, and all past wrongs, completely forgotten by God. 

{ Hebrews 8:12 } - For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

The moment we become saved; the moment we receive the gift of Grace, the moment we switch sides from the devil to God, the devil doesn't take a break with us. He still returns again, and this time to remind us of how unworthy we are, to receive Grace. He begins to remind us of all the mistakes we made, of what our past looked like, he begins to show us the picture of the people we were before God saved us. He tries to make us feel guilty, so that we can throw Grace away.

Have you ever felt like your whole past life came rushing back at you like a mighty river? And the moment that happened, you began to feel so bad and guilty that you didn't think God really saved you, maybe God just decided to keep your sins somewhere so that He can punish you later. The devil makes us think that there's no way God could have saved someone with such a dark past as us. At this point, the devil tries to convince us that when we go through any tough time, the moment nothing works out, the moment we come face to face with a challenge, it is God punishing us for all of our past. Lies! Lies! Lies! Nothing but lies. 

Here is the truth! Col. 2:14 says, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross". Your whole past life are the "handwriting of ordinances" that Jesus blotted out. He took them out of the way. He nailed them to the Cross. He completely wiped them off. Who would you rather believe? Jesus? Or the devil? Here is another truth. Heb. 8:12 says, "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more". See that? God already promised that He will remember them no more. 

Once again, who would you rather believe? Jesus forgave you and did not only forgive you, He forgot about your past life. He sees you as righteous. To Him, it's like you never committed those sins. He really gave you a new beginning. He gave you a chance to rewrite your own life. And that's the truth. So the next time the devil comes and tries to fill your head with how dirty your past was and who you used used to be, look right back at him in the face and remind him of his past also, how he used to be glorious but is now fallen from Grace, never to be redeemed again, and how Jesus came all the way for you instead of him. Let the devil know the Cross was for you, and you're now a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17). Glory! 

The truth is that the devil will keep coming. He knows he has lost a fight, and will try to get back at you by throwing thoughts in your head so that you disagree with Jesus. It's like making a wife disagree with her husband by telling her that the husband really didn't forgive her and will take revenge. All lies. Speak the Word into his face and end with the words of Angel Michael in Jude 1:9, "The Lord rebuke thee". 

DAILY CONFESSION: I choose to believe what Jesus says about me over whatever lies the devil may fabricate. I believe that I have been forgiven, that all ordinances against me have been blotted out, that my past is completely gone, that I am saved, washed clean and now a new creature, old things are past away, and now everything has become new. Glory!

If you are not yet saved, and you are ready to give Grace a chance to make you a new creature, and give you a new life, you're just a CLICK away. 

GRACE - 3 (RECEIVE THE GIFT)

Hello Dear Believers, 

So Far, we have discussed Grace 1 (In need of a Saviour) and Grace 2 (Welcomed back into the family). 

Still on the series #Grace, 

{Romans 6:23 } - For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

The first thing we should know when dealing with Grace is that it is a GIFT and not a REWARD. You didn't deserve it, you don't deserve it, and you will never deserve it. You were completely dirty, out in the dark, beaten, sick, dead, and JESUS came to the rescue. He came to give a gift, and not a reward. That is what a friend does, and not a taskmaster, or an employer. A friend appreciates you by getting you a gift, while a taskmaster waits for you to work and deserve the gift before giving it to you. You know that there is no way in the world that you would ever have done anything to deserve Grace.

Just like you are paid salaries at the end of the month, you receive the salary with joy because you know that you worked a whole month for the pay. The salary is the reward for your stress, work and effort. If you don't do the work, you know that you shouldn't expect anything. If Jesus were to wait for us to work and deserve the gift, He would be waiting for all eternity because we will never be able to. The gift is only a gift because you don't deserve it. So what do we do with it?

When someone comes to your house and gives you a gift on any day outside a celebration, maybe on a random day, what would be your first reaction to the gift? The truth is that your mind begins to wander and to think of what you did to warrant and deserve that gift. We begin to think that maybe the giver is trying to repay us for something we did. This way, we never treat a gift as a gift, instead, we see the gift as a reward. We either think that the giver shouldn't have gone through so much stress just to get us a gift, or we think that we do not deserve such expensive gift and then we see it as a waste.

In the same way, many of us see ourselves in such a way that we think that Jesus shouldn't have gone through the stress of giving His life, or we think the gift of His life is so expensive that we think He just wasted His life, and could have done something better with it. Jesus is at the door of our lives with the gift of Grace and Righteousness (Rev. 3:20). He wants to give us that gift. He knows we don't deserve it, and that we didn't work for it, but He wants to give us all the same. It only describes how special we are to Him. All we need to do is open the door for Him to come in, receive the gift, say thank you and enjoy the gift.

GRACE - 2 (WELCOMED BACK INTO THE FAMILY)

{Ephesians 2:19 } - Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

One of the worst things that can happen to anyone is to be willfully lost, to walk out of your own home with the desire never to come back again. It always appears cool at the beginning until the person begins to wake up to reality, that there is really no place like home. There is nothing the devil has to offer that is worth leaving the kingdom of God for. Whatever the devil has to offer is always short-lived (2 Cor. 4:18). The devil only uses sugar-coated poisons to lure us out of the presence of God, and then he takes the suger-coating away from the poison. That is when we wake up to reality.

The parable of the lost son in Luke 15:11-32 is about the best illustration to explain the topic. I believe the devil made him think that it was better to live alone than stay with his Father (just as the case is today). The part the devil didn't say was that the son would become his slave. The son left and wasted all, and then after that, the famine started. The suger-coating was gone. The devil helped him to come to reality very quickly. The agenda of the devil was now revealed. The son would resume work in a field, feeding swines and eating the food of the swines.

The glorious part began when he thought to himself that even the servants in his father's house were better than his current situation, which is always the case. God's "worst" will always be better than the devil's best. So he left and went back home. The moment he got back home, there was joy in the house. No scolding whatsoever, no abuses whatsoever from the Father. His Father threw a party to celebrate his return home. He was lost, but now found, he was blind but now could see, wounded but now healed, dead but now alive.

This is the true state of every Believer that is welcomed back into the family of Christ. Your past is completely past. Jesus has forgiven you and forgotten it (Heb. 8:12, Col. 2:15). He has given you a new name, He calls you Righteous (2 Cor. 5:21). He rejoices that you are back (Lk. 15:10). You know what? He didn't replace you in that family. He kept your seat and position waiting for the day you would come back. All you need to do is to thank Him, return to your position as a Son and not a slave, and enjoy your life back into GRACE, welcomed back into the family.

If this is the case, then don't put yourself in the position of a slave when God has made you a Son. Come boldly to the throne of Grace and receive mercy and Grace to help. Understand that Christ has welcomed you back with open arms, your past, completely forgiven and forgotten. Act like the Son that you are.

GRACE - 1 (IN NEED OF A SAVIOUR)

Good morning Dear Believers,

Today, we begin a short series on #Grace and it will get built and progressive. To help us understand what Grace is, what Grace has done, what Grace is doing, and what Grace will do.

{Romans 5:8}-  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

In the beginning, God Almighty created the heaven and the earth (Gen. 1:1). After He created heaven and earth, He began to fill it with all kinds of things like the firmament, animals, plants, fishes, and the likes; He made sure that there was order. However, in all of this, God knew that creation was not complete. One more thing was left. He had created a home, He was left with the occupant. So He made man. Out of His bountiful love and desire for fellowship, He made Man in His image and after His likeness (Gen. 1:26-27).

Earth was beautiful. It was perfect. Divinity and Humanity on the same frequency. Man was clothed With glory and honor. Man wore God's uniform. The glory of God is the reason why the 24 elders and 4 beasts in heaven are always on their face to the ground always worshipping (Rev. 4:10) but God clothed man with glory so that man did not need to fall face down, and could fellowship with God face to face, heart to heart. No heavenly being gave Him fellowship like Man. He was happy because He wanted it and He got in Man.

Then the devil stepped in to cut and destroy the fellowship between man and God, and he succeeded. Man fell. He lost that glory and received shame in return. He lost that life and received death (Rom. 5:17). He couldn't fellowship with God anymore. The devil began to have a nice time with man. Oppression, shame, sickness, poverty and death began to reign among Man. The devil began to have a legal authority over Man, God's greatest creation. We were deep in sin, very unworthy.

However, in all of this, God still came for the rescue. Like a Master coming to buy a slave from his master, He paid the prize completely. Just imagine a negotiation between the intending buyer and the owner. Jesus asked for our price to be bought, and the highest price to have been paid was His life, yet He gave it. What love! While we were yet sinners, unworthy of such love, Christ died for us. Grace came to the rescue. Please understand that Christ has paid the whole price for your redemption. We needed a Saviour and we got the best of all - GOD Himself. Grace has saved you.

However, it's possible for someone to buy you a gift and you refuse to accept it. It's possible for God to have paid your price and yet you refuse to move out of the house of your former owner. Please walk out of the devil's domain and come into God's life. You must accept the sacrifice of Jesus and change sides. Allow Him be the Lord of your life, then you become His child.

DAILY CONFESSION: I have been saved, delivered, made free, restored, redeemed and translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God. I accept the sacrifice of Christ. I am born of God. His seed dwells in me. I am now a member of the household of God and my citizenship is of Heaven. Glory!