Mrs. DeJuanna Parker

It is through Christ that we have received GRACE

 

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me-  

I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see"

 

All of us know that familiar hymn of the church. We grew up hearing our mothers and grandmothers humming it while they swept the floor or dusted the console television in front of the picture window of our home. They sang of the saving grace of God, and clung to that grace with all their might. But we have encountered a new and expanding approach to understanding grace, this grace also has an enabling element to it. Early on in my walk with Christ, I listened to many pastors and teachers and their messages on faith, giving, and worship; but the teachings I heard on grace during that time opened up an entirely different way of looking at it. It was through the teachings of a television pastor named James Ryle that the idea about grace being an enabling force, and not simply a saving force came into my understanding. Ryle said "Grace is the empowering Presence of God enabling you to be, and to do." He talked about how, biblically, the number five was related to grace and that a believer, when touched by the hand of God (with 5 fingers) would experience the enabling grace of God. After hearing the idea it became of my core belief system. Through vivid illustrations, Ryle talked about how Jesus was full of this grace, and that we, as sons of God, are full of it too. 

Our own Pastor, Dr. Tapscott, has taught on this enabling grace recently, driving the point home even further. We are learning that grace labors 1Corinthians 15:10 makes it clear that the grace that motivated the apostle and operated in him was not some matter or some thing but a living person, the resurrected Christ, the embodiment of God the Father who became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who dwelt in the apostle as his everything and dwells within us believers as our everything. But here is the point that I often feel is relegated to the "back burner" of our sanctified minds: If God gave us this enabling grace for us to be who He created us to be and do what He created us to do, are we using it to its fullest extent? Are we using this grace only inside the church walls? Are we allowing ourselves to move in grace in the marketplace, to bring kingdom influence to the world? Often, from what I see in my everyday comings and goings, I am not so sure that this is happening.

In this year, with so many prophesies and slogans being released about blessings and prosperity: "We’re going to win in 2010’ and "It’s not going to be what it’s been in 2010", we must understand that we can’t leave our grace in our seats at church.

We are equipped to be and do what God has called us to be and do. Sometimes people, even believers, are more afraid of success than failure. But we have been given the weapon-the tool-the mechanism by which we can succeed in all things…grace enabling. If God has made you to be an entrepreneur, or a chef, or a designer, or whatever else, use the grace He has given you to accomplish that goal. 1Corinthians 15:10 says:

But by the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not [found to be] for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them [the apostles], though it was not really I, but the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God which was with me.

All of the new cell phones and smartphones are enabled (graced) with something called a 3G network which allows them to have stronger signals in remote areas and perform more complicated applications. This year I’m going to be in the 3G network…I’m going to Grab God’s Grace! Will you?