I learned about grace 2 years ago. There are many other people who had the same experience. I hope this blesses and encourages you.
I was struggling really badly financially. God had led in a seemingly unwise and impractical direction and I had been resisting for more than a year. Instead, I did everything I thought I should do. I never conciously decided to "work" for my wealth. It just kinda kicked in. I kept tithing, I gave, fasted, prayed, served more diligently at church, sought counsel fro leaders and trusted friends, faithfully attended church, got on a budget, etc.
A year poorer, sader, tired-er, worn out-er, and later I cried out to God basically saying, "I've been doing all these things! What do you demand?!" From that moment, I felt something in my heart that I could only translate as "All that work is the problem. Finances are actually free." God didn't say those words. It was just a feeling. At the time I didn't know it was called "grace", but my heart started sniffing around for it.
In true untrusting fashion, I told God that if this "free" feeling I had had any validity, my pastor would have to preach on it. And would you guess what! My pastor at the time, who didn't teach grace, said something that made my heart leap: "We don't need to be on a treadmill of performance with God when he blesses us freely. Someone in here is going to get a hold of this and turn this world upside down!" Little did I know, he was talking about me.
I was a huge fan of Andrew Wommack so I searched his website for any teaching about what I called "free blessing", and I found "The Power of the Gospel". After hearing the first teaching, it took me an hour to pick my jaw up off the floor. "Oh my God oh my god on my god" was all I could say. The next day, I asked a friend if he had any books on grace. He gave me "Destined to Reign". The rest is history (and drama, suspense, and victory:). I only wish it hadn't taken me another year to learn about Bertie Brits and Major Ian Thomas, who are my favorite teachers.
One word to the wise: Flee mixture teaching as fast as your legs can carry you. If God has already tried speaking to you about it, let this be confirmation. Run like hell!! Forget about the relationships. You'll make new and better ones. Forget about what your leaders will think. Remember, they are just church leaders, not police officers. You can do whatever you feel led to do. Don't wait for your mind to catch up, just follow peace. If this is confirmation, RUN!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The Pearl Story
A friend asked me to share this story her Facebook wall. It touched me so much I thought I'd make it into a note. I don't think I realized how personal or pivotal this experience was for me until I shared it.
There was a young girl that had a faux pearl necklace that she adored. She wore it everywhere and with everything. B/c it wasn't real, the paint began to chip away but she didn't care. One night, as her dad was putting her to bed, he asked her for her beloved necklace. She frowned, clutched her pearls around her neck and pleaded, "No daddy, I can't give you my pearls. I love my pearls. Anything but these." "OK honey. Sleep well. Daddy loves you", he said with a kiss.
The same thing happened the next night. And still the girl would not give up her treasured pearls. "Daddy loves you. Rest well sweetheart." On the third night, her father asked her again. And with tears in her eyes she removed her pearls and gave them to her father. He said, "Thank you honey. I have something for you." He pulled out a navy blue, flat, square, velvet box and gave it to her. Inside was a beautiful, brand new string of real pearls.
God reminded me of this story one night a few months ago. I was talking to the Lord about death to self and he said, "You know, it really is like that pearl story." And I said, "So you're saying that when I die to what I want and what I think I need, when I place it at your feet to do whatever you wish...", he finished "...you get everything you wanted and more."
That was a powerful night. A definite mark of new direction and growth for me. I'd been focusing on death and it was needful and good, but he was having trouble shifting my thinking towards the next step, resurrection. Wow. That brought tears to my eyes all over again. God is so amazingly good and generous. Who is like him?
Matt 7:11 AMPIf you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and advantageous things to those who ask Him!
Who is like the Lord?
There was a young girl that had a faux pearl necklace that she adored. She wore it everywhere and with everything. B/c it wasn't real, the paint began to chip away but she didn't care. One night, as her dad was putting her to bed, he asked her for her beloved necklace. She frowned, clutched her pearls around her neck and pleaded, "No daddy, I can't give you my pearls. I love my pearls. Anything but these." "OK honey. Sleep well. Daddy loves you", he said with a kiss.
The same thing happened the next night. And still the girl would not give up her treasured pearls. "Daddy loves you. Rest well sweetheart." On the third night, her father asked her again. And with tears in her eyes she removed her pearls and gave them to her father. He said, "Thank you honey. I have something for you." He pulled out a navy blue, flat, square, velvet box and gave it to her. Inside was a beautiful, brand new string of real pearls.
God reminded me of this story one night a few months ago. I was talking to the Lord about death to self and he said, "You know, it really is like that pearl story." And I said, "So you're saying that when I die to what I want and what I think I need, when I place it at your feet to do whatever you wish...", he finished "...you get everything you wanted and more."
That was a powerful night. A definite mark of new direction and growth for me. I'd been focusing on death and it was needful and good, but he was having trouble shifting my thinking towards the next step, resurrection. Wow. That brought tears to my eyes all over again. God is so amazingly good and generous. Who is like him?
Matt 7:11 AMPIf you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and advantageous things to those who ask Him!
Who is like the Lord?
Part 2 – True Rest (MIT)
Part 2 – True Rest
Chapter 29 from Major Ian Thomas' book "The Indwelling Life of Christ"
Christian rest is not inactivity. Christian rest is rest because He carries the load.
Some people imagine if you bow yourself out and bow Jesus in, if you die to self-effort and let god do it, that is passivity. Well, it is passivity only if you consider God to be passive, and only if you consider the Lord Jesus to be a weakling and incapable of running His own kingdom as King, and that of course is blasphemous.
If I think that by stepping aside and letting God handle it, nothing is going to happen, this only indicates that I do not really believe in God or in the competence of Jesus Christ. I am assuming that if it were not for folks like me doing the work and keeping God in business, He would be in bad shape. That is the only logical conclusion we can draw when anyone assumes, “If I let Jesus do it, nothing will happen.”
When you are truly relaxed in the Lord, stripped of self-effort, and experiencing His true rest, that rest will nearly always involve more activity than we would otherwise ever know. That is because Christ is in action, and you in your humanity are simply the clothes of His divine activity.
This is the rest of faith. You relax, almost like a spectator, except that it is your hands with which He is at work, your lips with which He is speaking, your eyes with which He sees the need, your ears with which He hears the cry, and your heart with which He loves the lost.
To “let go and let God” is not inactivity, although it may appear that way as you grow out of self-effort. It is Christ-activity – God in action accomplishing divine purposes through human personality. This never reduces our status or worth, but exalts us to the stature of a king: “Thos who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).
This is not some kind of automatic sinless perfection. For it is only your faith and your obedience (to the Holy Spirit promptings) which allow Christ to be in you now what He was then (perfect!), and you will be what He was then only to the degree in which you allow Him to be in you what He is now (perfect!)
Chapter 29 from Major Ian Thomas' book "The Indwelling Life of Christ"
Christian rest is not inactivity. Christian rest is rest because He carries the load.
Some people imagine if you bow yourself out and bow Jesus in, if you die to self-effort and let god do it, that is passivity. Well, it is passivity only if you consider God to be passive, and only if you consider the Lord Jesus to be a weakling and incapable of running His own kingdom as King, and that of course is blasphemous.
If I think that by stepping aside and letting God handle it, nothing is going to happen, this only indicates that I do not really believe in God or in the competence of Jesus Christ. I am assuming that if it were not for folks like me doing the work and keeping God in business, He would be in bad shape. That is the only logical conclusion we can draw when anyone assumes, “If I let Jesus do it, nothing will happen.”
When you are truly relaxed in the Lord, stripped of self-effort, and experiencing His true rest, that rest will nearly always involve more activity than we would otherwise ever know. That is because Christ is in action, and you in your humanity are simply the clothes of His divine activity.
This is the rest of faith. You relax, almost like a spectator, except that it is your hands with which He is at work, your lips with which He is speaking, your eyes with which He sees the need, your ears with which He hears the cry, and your heart with which He loves the lost.
To “let go and let God” is not inactivity, although it may appear that way as you grow out of self-effort. It is Christ-activity – God in action accomplishing divine purposes through human personality. This never reduces our status or worth, but exalts us to the stature of a king: “Thos who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).
This is not some kind of automatic sinless perfection. For it is only your faith and your obedience (to the Holy Spirit promptings) which allow Christ to be in you now what He was then (perfect!), and you will be what He was then only to the degree in which you allow Him to be in you what He is now (perfect!)
Part 1: How He Gives Us Rest (MIT)
Part 1 - How He Gives Us Rest
Chapter 28 from Major Ian Thomas' book "The Indwelling Life of Christ"
Suppose you were digging a hole, and I offered to give you a rest. How would I do it?
While you continued shoveling, I could call down a suggestion to you such as, “Try tossing the dirt over your left shoulder instead of your right.” I could sing a song about digging, or discuss all the philosophical thinking that might relate to it.
Would any of that give you rest? No, it would more likely give you a heart attack! Yet, those approaches are very much like what today’s Christianity tries to do to bring rest to struggling believers, all in vain.
How could I truly give you rest if you were in that hole digging? Obviously, there is only one way: You must get out and let me get in. You must drop the spade and let me pick it up. You must quit and let me take over. You must vacate the hole in the ground so I can occupy it.
This is the way the Lord Jesus wants to give you and me rest. “Come to Me”, He says, “all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). This is His offer. He is saying to us, “Get out, and let Me get in. Vacate, and let Me occupy. Drop the spade and let Me dig!”This is what happens when you take Christ at His word, when you come to Him and say, “Lord Jesus, I want the kind of rest that only You can give me.” You bow yourself out and bow Him in. In true repentance you say, “Lord Jesus, I cannot, and You never said I could. You never expected me to do this on my own. All You have expected of me, apart from you sharing your life with me, is the failure that I have been on my own.
“It is true: I cannot – but in genuine confidence I acknowledge that you can! Therefore I will translate what I know and believe into faith, and I will let You do it. I will get out of this hole and let You get in. I will vacate so You can occupy. I will drop the spade so that You can pick it up."
Knowing this, and doing it (through Him working in you), is such a relief!
What happens next? As you vacate, incredibly enough the Lord does occupy. He surprises you beyond your wildest dreams. You discover at last that God is big enough for the job. Your heart is filled with joy, and this experience of His adequacy undergirds your faith for the next situation that arises when you recognize your need for Him, your need for His rest, and for relief from your own ineffective self-effort.
Then when the next time of difficulty comes and you begin to feel weary and burdened once again, you can say, “Lord Jesus, thanks for what you did the last time. It was fantastic. I had been baffled and could not see any possible solution to the problem I faced, but You came through magnificently. However, the situation I’m facing now is ten times worse, but that is exciting, Lord Jesus, because this gives you ten times more opportunity to demonstrate that , as God, You are never less than big enough! So, I thank You, for I am vacating and you are occupying.”
To your amazement, magnificently He handles the situation in His own way and in Him own time (which if you knew that you would agree completely). You have learned to walk by faith, and every new experience of his adequacy undergirds your confidence as you receive more and more of His grace.
This is how we learn to grow in grace.
============================================
And since Jesus is the one digging the hole, there’s not much left for you to do but sit in the shade and drink margaritas! So, don’t be surprised if there doesn’t always seem to be a lot of activity that the Lord leads you to. Remember, you’re not the one digging. You’re not needed right now. So go do something you want to do. Which brings me to Part 2: True Rest
Chapter 28 from Major Ian Thomas' book "The Indwelling Life of Christ"
Suppose you were digging a hole, and I offered to give you a rest. How would I do it?
While you continued shoveling, I could call down a suggestion to you such as, “Try tossing the dirt over your left shoulder instead of your right.” I could sing a song about digging, or discuss all the philosophical thinking that might relate to it.
Would any of that give you rest? No, it would more likely give you a heart attack! Yet, those approaches are very much like what today’s Christianity tries to do to bring rest to struggling believers, all in vain.
How could I truly give you rest if you were in that hole digging? Obviously, there is only one way: You must get out and let me get in. You must drop the spade and let me pick it up. You must quit and let me take over. You must vacate the hole in the ground so I can occupy it.
This is the way the Lord Jesus wants to give you and me rest. “Come to Me”, He says, “all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). This is His offer. He is saying to us, “Get out, and let Me get in. Vacate, and let Me occupy. Drop the spade and let Me dig!”This is what happens when you take Christ at His word, when you come to Him and say, “Lord Jesus, I want the kind of rest that only You can give me.” You bow yourself out and bow Him in. In true repentance you say, “Lord Jesus, I cannot, and You never said I could. You never expected me to do this on my own. All You have expected of me, apart from you sharing your life with me, is the failure that I have been on my own.
“It is true: I cannot – but in genuine confidence I acknowledge that you can! Therefore I will translate what I know and believe into faith, and I will let You do it. I will get out of this hole and let You get in. I will vacate so You can occupy. I will drop the spade so that You can pick it up."
Knowing this, and doing it (through Him working in you), is such a relief!
What happens next? As you vacate, incredibly enough the Lord does occupy. He surprises you beyond your wildest dreams. You discover at last that God is big enough for the job. Your heart is filled with joy, and this experience of His adequacy undergirds your faith for the next situation that arises when you recognize your need for Him, your need for His rest, and for relief from your own ineffective self-effort.
Then when the next time of difficulty comes and you begin to feel weary and burdened once again, you can say, “Lord Jesus, thanks for what you did the last time. It was fantastic. I had been baffled and could not see any possible solution to the problem I faced, but You came through magnificently. However, the situation I’m facing now is ten times worse, but that is exciting, Lord Jesus, because this gives you ten times more opportunity to demonstrate that , as God, You are never less than big enough! So, I thank You, for I am vacating and you are occupying.”
To your amazement, magnificently He handles the situation in His own way and in Him own time (which if you knew that you would agree completely). You have learned to walk by faith, and every new experience of his adequacy undergirds your confidence as you receive more and more of His grace.
This is how we learn to grow in grace.
============================================
And since Jesus is the one digging the hole, there’s not much left for you to do but sit in the shade and drink margaritas! So, don’t be surprised if there doesn’t always seem to be a lot of activity that the Lord leads you to. Remember, you’re not the one digging. You’re not needed right now. So go do something you want to do. Which brings me to Part 2: True Rest
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