Grace is God's empowering within your heart to do what you cannot do alone. When problems or insufficiency seem to stand in your way like a mountain, His grace keeps you strong and moving ahead into His perfect plan.
Faith in God removes the mountains. Grace keeps the mountains from moving you.
This grace from God can grow and even multiply in your heart. Second Peter 3:18 tells us to grow in grace. In the epistles, Paul begins his letter with, "Grace be multiplied to you." James 4:6 tells us, "...He giveth more grace."
You must activate and develop this grace. The prophet said he would shout, "Grace, grace," to a mountain. When you increase inside, a grater influence can flow out from you to change things. First you are changed, then you can bring change to situations.
The influence of truth from God's Word will create the power to bring change. It is not truth alone, however, that brings change, but rather truth that has become a part of your life.
A.W. Tozer said it this way: "Truth that is not experienced is no better than error, and just as dangerous."
You can see this in John 1:
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not...and of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.There is a contrast here between the law given by Moses and the truth which came by the Lord Jesus.
(John 1: 4-5, 16-17)
Though the law was truth, it produced no power for those who were under it. The people were helpless to fulfill the law, because of the strength of sin within them.
The truth which Jesus brought, however, was revealed with a power to live in the revealed truth. Grace was given to empower those under the law of the New Covenant. Now all who will receive Him will receive His grace that makes them free to fulfill all that the New Covenant says.
Truth without grace brings only law. There is no power to live in the truth. Grace and truth bring the freedom to see the great promises of God's laws working in you and through you.
When you do His work, His way, you will see fruit that remains. If you try to do His will and work in your own strength, and not by His grace, you will fail to obtain the results He has promised.
I must do what I do by the grace of God! The Apostle Paul said, "But by the grace of God I am what I am..." (1Cor. 15:10). I too must be what He wants me to be by the grace of God.
In First Corinthians 3:10-13, Paul reveals the importance of this truth:
According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.Paul's work was according to the grace which was given to him. We must take heed how we build. Is what we are doing according to grace, or is it our own ideas and fleshly desires?
(1 Cor. 3:10-13)
It is not only what we do, but how we do it that is important. Only what is done by God's grace is considered to be gold or silver. All else is dead works that will not survive the fiery trials.
Trials will come, but you and your work in the kingdom of God can remain fruitful in the times of testing. Many find that their work really has accomplished nothing, because ambition has moved them, not the Holy Spirit of God.
When the devil's attacks come, you will see how you have been building in the kingdom of God. Many are so dismayed when the fire tries them that they run for shelter.
Others are not moved. They know that setbacks may come, but that they are only temporary. Storms may blow in, but they will blow out again. If your foundation is built by the grace of God, you will be standing when the storm is over.
First John 5:4 says, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
Not only can you overcome, but whatever God has caused to be born in your heart can overcome. Whatever is born of God can conquer as well as whoever. The key is: What is done must be according to grace.
When Paul faced the threats of Satan's strategies, he called upon God. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, God reveals a powerful principle in His answer to Paul's prayer: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness..."
God's grace is more than enough! The deposit of God in your heart and the ability given you by His grace, are more than enough to overcome Satan's plots. God's strength becomes effective when you recognize your own weakness.
Christianity is continually accepting what you cannot do and what Jesus Christ can do through you.
Again in 1 Corinthians 15:10, the Apostle Paul says, "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
It was by the grace at work within him that Paul labored. If the Body of Christ would grasp that truth, our effectiveness would increase, and our fleshly ambition would die.
Hebrews 13:9 says, "For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace..." You are strengthened and made to stand firm by the grace in your heart. It stabilizes you and keeps you from being shaken.
God's callings are callings of grace. His gifts of the Holy Spirit are gifts of grace. You can grow in the grace of God and complete all He has desired for you.
"Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified" (Acts 20:32, NIV).
Excerpt permission granted by Dennis Burke Ministries