2019 OPERATION 18-18 (DAY 21) – COVENANT OF INFINITE GRACE II

As you are walking along the way, sing praises in your heart. It is the cheapest way to invite the presence of God, and it works! The presence of God will give you more than you ever bargained for. The presence of God will do exceeding abundantly above your requests. Why? Because praise is the highest form of prayer. The Church needs to intensify praise. Unfortunately, praise in many Churches today is nothing short of entertainment; the same instrumentalists who play in club houses on Saturday night migrate to play in Churches on Sunday morning (and get paid for their ‘job’). Instead of bringing down the presence of God, they bring down other presence.

GRACE

There are so many schools of thought on grace some of which are in error; unfortunately, one dose of error can make you miss God because error is poison, anyone who drinks it is already sick. That is why if you have the call of God on you, allow the Holy Spirit to tutor you first and then look for a good Bible school to attend; sit under a mentor and you will be surprised how little you know.

An understanding of grace will help us enter into his presence and multifaceted blessings without stress. A misunderstanding of grace may lead to conceit, pride, prejudice, delusion, deception, death and ultimately, destruction.

Meaning of Grace

The Hebrew word of grace is ‘hesed’ and appears thirty eight times in Old Testament. The Greek word for grace is ‘charis’ and appears about one hundred and twenty-two times in the New Testament. Grace can simply be defined as an expression of God’s love to man in saving and in blessing man with blessings that man does not deserve. (Grace, mercy and favour flow from the benevolent nature of God; the three words run neck to neck but they are distinct words). In the Old Testament, we see the demonstration of grace in the sovereign election and blessings upon people like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Ruth, Deborah, Samuel, Daniel, Esther and so on. Grace singled them out for special dealings of God.

Rom. 4:4-8, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”

Eph. 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Grace that brings salvation is not as a result of your works – works of righteousness; working in order to obtain right standing relationship with God, nobody can do that because our righteousness is like filthy rags. It is as you continue to look up to Jesus and to appropriate what he has done, which you need to receive by faith, that his righteousness will be imputed as your righteousness. His blood that was shed will cleanse you from all sins and you keep appropriating this blood because the blood does not avail unless it is applied. As you are doing that, something happens; the Holy Spirit takes over.

TO BE CONTINUED…