Have you ever listened to the Word of God being preached and wanted to get into a hole to hide and wait for the world to end?
If after hearing the Word of God, you don’t feel encouraged, hopeful, loved and forgiven, know that what you heard wasn't the good news of God, it wasn’t the Gospel. It was just a figment of someone’s imagination.
Every time when we share His Word, repentance, or changing of minds is going on inside all of us. When you hear the good news of how wonderful God is and how His plans for you are plans of good and not evil, how God is for you and not against you, your mind begins to change.
It’s the grace of God that leads you to repentance. But often what people are erroneously taught is that they should repent first before they can receive the grace of God. It’s based on their willpower, hence they remain unchanged.
That’s why the kind of teaching we do through TheWord, is dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. We just open up people's hearts and invite them to come just as they are, and let them receive God's grace anyway, because when they do, they will change. Not because of their willpower, but because of His goodness.
We empower you to refuse to be bullied into worry and fear. To refuse to be bullied into anxiety and depression. To no longer live with shame and condemnation. We were once in the dark, but we have now seen the glorious light, and we are lighting the way for others, that we may all experience the good life that God meant for us to experience, in this very world we live in. Because though we may be in this world, we are not of this world. Therefore, ours is not to struggle through life like the rest of the unsaved world does. Our portion is to live like where we came from. Our portion is to live heaven on earth.
Yet, the natural man has hard, legalistic thoughts about God. We often have the idea that we must suffer, sweat, and toil in order to truly be God’s. But God gave His Son, that through Him, we may receive God’s righteousness as a gift.
What happens today is that we mix up and confuse law and grace. The law was given by a servant, Moses. But grace and truth came by the Son. Now under law, God said that He will by no means overlook your transgressions, but will visit your sins to the third and fourth generation. But under grace God says He will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins He will remember no more. So there has been a change, all because of what Jesus did for us at the Cross.
And yet we are still preaching the law. And though it may sound right, it doesn’t tell the whole story, because today, many of us don’t have it all together but we are still so blessed. For example, Jesus says that if you look lustfully at a woman, you have sinned. Now how many of God’s men do you think looked lustfully at a woman today?!! But they and their families are still blessed.
The Pharisees on the other hand say it's only when you have engaged physically with the woman that you have sinned. Often people try to bring the standard of the law down to a level where it becomes somewhat manageable. But when the law bends, then it’s no longer the law. So Jesus used the law, in its pristine standard, to expose your inability to uphold it, to bring you to the end of yourself, so that you’ll see your need for Jesus. Your need for grace.
However, grace is not preached as often as the law is, because of fear that it will cause lack of moral restraint. But we need not have this fear, because the Bible says clearly in Romans 6:14 ~ For sin shall not have dominion over you, because you are not under law but under grace. In other words, you can't be under grace and not be holy.
The Word of God is so clear, when you are under grace and not under law, sin shall not have dominion over you. Satan shall not have dominion over you. Sickness shall not have dominion over you. Poverty shall not have dominion over you. When? When you are not under law but under grace.
A pure picture of the grace of God is depicted in the book of Exodus, which details the journey of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt:
When the armies of Pharaoh were charging against them from behind, and the Red Sea was in front of them, God parted the waters and they walked into safety
When there was no water, God made the bitter waters sweet and brought forth water from a rock
When there was no food, God rained bread from heaven
This is despite the fact that they murmured and complained to Moses, their leader, throughout the journey. Because sometimes when you’ve been a slave for too long, you consider the person trying to free you as the enemy.
Perhaps you have done good for people in the past, and they have now turned against you. Be encouraged, it was not in vain. Continue to do good. Your Father sees it, and will reward you handsomely.
So even though the children of Israel murmured and complained, which is considered sin, God didn't rain down judgement on them. Rather, He demonstrated His grace. Unearned, undeserved, unmerited favour.
God blessed them, not because they were good but because He is good. He made a way and provided for them, not because of their faithfulness but because of His faithfulness. The covenant of grace ordered and directed their steps and kept them well.
But then one day they boasted, almost arrogantly so, that they could keep all the laws that God gave them. This symbolised a change of covenants, from the covenant of grace that they had enjoyed for many days, to the covenant of the law.
In essence they were saying that God should not judge nor bless them based on His goodness like He had been doing. They were saying that He should bless them based on their own goodness and obedience. God therefore changed His tone and gave them the law. And so every time they murmured and complained from that point on, they died.
This tells us that the moment man presumes on his own strength, on his own righteousness, he blocks himself from receiving the grace of God and His righteousness, which is not by works, but is a gift to be received.
But when you insist on righteousness by works, you are putting yourself under the law. Now what makes the law difficult to uphold, at its pristine standard, is that it's unbending. God didn't say if you break one then you're guilty of the one you break. God says if you break one you're guilty of all. In other words, if you don't commit adultery but you steal God sees you as an adulterer. So you see, the law condemns us, but grace saves us.
Now, I didn’t always understand this principle of grace. As a matter of fact, I used to have a problem with it. I didn’t understand why “undeserving” people had to be blessed.
I remember a couple of years ago, due to the impact of Covid on the financial outlook of the company I worked for at the time, the employer was forced to release employees because he would be unbale to meet the financial obligations to his workforce in the foreseeable future. And for a while, as I looked for a job and it just wasn’t coming by fast enough, I started feeling some sort of way.
I started feeling like I deserved better or more than other people who had employment, because I had more work experience, I was more educated, I got better grades in school, I was always kind, etc. And that's how you know you are self-righteous, when it's all about "me, me, me". Don’t misunderstand me, there’s nothing wrong with those things. Get your qualifications, get your experience, do well unto others, but still put all your trust in God and not in your works, so that whenever you come short, the grace of God flows to bless you anyway. It's unearned, undeserved, unmerited favour. So in all things, go under God's grace and do the very best you can under the circumstances and conditions you find yourself in, and you'll be amazed, by what the Lord will do for you.
So the Holy Spirit made me see that only a self-righteous person would have a problem with seeing God's grace on other people. And of course I didn’t consider myself to be self-righteous, but the hard truth is I was, otherwise I wouldn’t have had a problem seeing people receiving what they didn't “earn”. So whether or not you are aware of it, when the grace of God on other people bothers you, it’s because you feel more deserving, based on your works. And because of your works, you feel you are morally superior. That my friend, is being self-righteous. And much like the children of Israel, you are exchanging covenants and putting yourself under the law.
The problem with being under the law is that if you keep all of God’s commandments, yes, God will bless you. But if you break one, then God has to curse you. Grace on the other hand, is unearned, undeserved, unmerited favour.
And since I have experienced being both under law and under grace, I can confidently tell you that grace exceeds much more in glory. There is no power under righteousness by works, there’s no provision, no prosperity, no grace there.
So the reason we are being shaken as God’s people is because we are still camping at Mount Sinai where the law was given. But scripture says that "those that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion (the new covenant of grace), you should not be shaken forever". Therefore we need to move mountains. We are camping at the wrong mountain of the law, and God is no longer there.
Please understand that the law is holy, but it can't make you holy. The law is righteous, but it can't make you righteous. It just reveals what you are, a sinner needing Jesus, but it has no power to cleanse away your sins. That's the same reason why people are very quick to break the laws of a nation, when they think no one is watching. For instance, when was the last time you were driving and went over the speed limit because you knew there wouldn’t be any traffic officers and speed traps? I bet it's very recent! The law doesn’t change who you are on the inside.
So when it comes to the things of God, when we preach that God will curse you if you disobey Him, thinking that it will make people to become more lawful, know that it only leads to them being condemned and condemnation keeps them trapped in the same pattern of behaviour. Condemnation kills. The Bible tell us in 1 Corinthians 15:56 that the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
To wrap up, always remember that the enemy uses the law to accuse you of wrong-doing or of not doing enough. He uses the law to condemn your works, or the lack of works for that matter. Therefore, be careful not to receive his accusations, because that opens the door of opportunity for him to steal, kill or destroy.
God says there is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in the Lord. When is there no condemnation? Now, right now. So whatever wrong you did as far back as years ago, or as recent as last night, God says you are not condemned. Receive His grace, and allow His goodness and mercy to lead you to repentance. For you are not under law, but under grace. And when you are under grace, sin, shall not have dominion over you.
"The spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to bind up the brokenhearted, to comfort all who mourn, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."