THE RESPONSE OF FAITH
Both grace and faith need to be combined to be able to see the power of God released in your life. The body of Christ as a whole is divided between those who emphasize grace alone at the exclusion of faith and those who emphasize faith alone at the exclusion of grace. Emphasizing either one—grace or faith—is wrong if you take them independent of the other.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8
It’s the combination of grace and faith together that releases the power of God. Grace or faith taken by themselves at the exclusion of the other is actually disastrous and will destroy you.
Many people have emphasized that everything is just up to God to the exclusion of the truth that we have a part to play in what He does. This extreme teaching of the sovereignty of God—where people blame Him for every single thing that happens to us—is the worst doctrine in the body of Christ today. It just renders people passive. If God is controlling everything, what’s the point of seeking Him, praying,
studying the Word, or doing anything, because after all, it’s just up to God. A large segment of the body of Christ is stuck in this thinking and it is keeping us from taking our authority.
RESIST THE DEVIL
James 4:7 says:
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
You must recognize that some things are from God and some things are from the devil. Satan is not God’s messenger boy. This mental image that the devil is on a leash and God only lets him go so far, isn’t true. You are the one who allows Satan to come in.
Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
1 Peter 5:8
Satan cannot devour everybody. He can’t do things to you without your consent and cooperation. One of the things that turns the devil loose in your life is the attitude that things can’t happen unless it is God’s will. This thinking leads you to believe that you can’t really fight against it. James 4:7 tells us to “resist the devil.” Resist means to actively fight against. You
cannot actively fight against something if you think God has ordained or permitted it. He’s not the One who permits these things.
UNBELIEF LIMITS GOD
Consider when the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt. There are many, many instances where the Lord made it clear that He wanted them to enter directly into the Promised Land and receive the promises He had for them. But because of their disobedience and unbelief, they spent forty years in the wilderness. That wasn’t God’s will or plan for them.
Yea, they turned hack and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
Psalm 78:41
In their hearts, they turned back to Egypt, tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. Many people can’t even conceive of this. They think, There’s nothing we can do to limit God. But keep in mind, the Lord is not forcing His will upon us individually or collectively as a nation or group of people. You have to cooperate with God to see His will come to pass in your life.
Deuteronomy 7:15-18 talks about how the Israelites would have absolute victory. Nobody would stand
before them. The Lord would deliver all of their enemies into their hands—this is a promise of complete victory. Verse 17 says:
If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I [God] dispossess them?
God had just promised them absolute victory. He told them that nobody would be able to stand before Israel. They would win every battle. Everything is going to work. But God then tells the Israelites that if they refuse to believe that victory is theirs, if they get into unbelief, He would be unable to dispossess the enemy nations.
God cannot bring deliverance in your life if you yield to fear and doubt through unbelief. That stops the power of God from operating. This is a very important truth, but to those who emphasize the extreme sovereignty of God—that He controls everything—what I’ve just shared is terrible. These people hate me for teaching this. I’ve been branded a cult and all kinds of things because I preach that God’s will doesn’t just automatically come to pass. You have to choose God’s will. Personally, I think this is obvious if you are a student of the Word.
NOT IN VAIN
Paul said:
For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to he called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
1 Corinthians 15:9
That’s a strong statement coming from a man who wrote half of the New Testament and saw people raised from the dead. Paul was a powerful man of God, yet he knew that wasn’t because of who he was in the natural. It was because of the grace and mercy of God. So he said, “I’m the least, not even fit to be called an apostle, because of the things I did.”
But verse 10 goes on to say:
But by the grace of God I am what l am…
He gave all of the credit to God and said, “It’s the grace, the unmerited favor and ability of God, that was given to me that made me who I am.” Then he continued saying:
… and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:10
In Galatians 2:16, Paul said that if you are trying to be justified by the works of the law, then Christ profits you nothing. Your faith is vain and you make
Grace is what God does for us, independent of us. It has nothing to do with our performance. By grace, God has already provided forgiveness of sins, healing, deliverance, joy, and peace. Everything has already been accomplished by the grace of God. But grace alone does not transform us unless there is the response of faith on our part. This is what the apostle Paul was saying.
I LABORED MORE ABUNDANTLY
His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1 Corinthians 15:10
This verse serves as a great example of grace and faith working together. God, by grace, extended a call to Paul. He was on his way to murder Christians in Damascus, yet Jesus appeared to him in a blinding flash of light and gave him an opportunity to respond. That was grace. Paul didn’t deserve that. When the Lord spoke to him, He said:
I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Acts 9:5
The Lord had already been convicting Paul and pricking his heart. There are several scriptures that recount where people were pricked in their hearts (Acts 2:37, for example). This is speaking of the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
God had been convicting Paul ever since he saw Stephen stoned to death. Saul, who became Paul, was the one at whose feet everybody laid their coats down. He kept their garments as he watched them stone Stephen to death. (Acts 7:58.) Saul saw Stephen as he was dying, kneel down and pray:
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
Acts 7:60
Stephen saw the heavens open up and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (Acts 7:55-56.) Saul heard Stephen testify of this moments before he was killed, and God had been pricking Saul’s heart ever since. The Lord extended grace toward the man who was killing His own people. That’s the grace of God!
A SPIRITUAL BATTLE
If Paul hadn’t responded and labored more abundantly than they all, then we might have read the report about how Saul became converted, but he wouldn’t have ever become Paul. He wouldn’t have
been the apostle who wrote half of the New Testament and did all of these great miracles. It takes a response on our part for God’s grace and what He’s freely provided for us to be able to work in our life.
We are in a battle! I’m amazed how many people don’t understand this. They’re looking for physical, natural reasons why everything happens, but we are in a spiritual battle and Satan is doing everything he can to stop you. You look at things in the natural realm, wondering, Why this? That’s the reason people fall into despair when they see the political process go differently than what they want. It’s because that is where their hope and faith are rather than in God. They are looking to physical, natural things as their salvation. But there is a spiritual battle going on.
When you cooperate with God and seek Him with your whole heart, good things happen. When you don’t seek God and you’re operating in the carnal realm, bad things happen because Satan is always going about seeking whom he may devour. It takes your consent and cooperation for the devil to do anything in your life. Not many people believe that, but it’s true.
We aren’t fighting flesh and blood. Ours is not a physical battle; it’s a spiritual battle involving spiritual dynamics, and you have to cooperate. You must resist—fighting the unbelief, discouragement, and negativism of this world—to see what God wants
to accomplish in your life come to pass.
God has a perfect plan for every one of us. He hasn’t made a single one of us for defeat or failure. He has a perfect plan for everyone, but only some people will see these plans come to pass in their life. It’s not because God created some of us to be duds. It’s not because He wants some of us to be failures. It’s not because there are only a few people that God really loves. No, the grace of God is the same toward every person, but not everybody labors abundantly to bring to reality God’s purpose and plan for their life.
GO FOR IT!
Some people have had the Lord speak a word to them, yet here they are a year, two years, even three years later still not doing what God told them to do. I just can’t understand that. I don’t even want to understand that. If God tells me to do something, I’ll do it!
We offered one of our Bible college graduates a job running our night school. At the time, the night school position was just a part-time job, and this young man was used to making a lot of money. He has a large family—five kids—and it was going to be a big cut in pay for him if he accepted the position. While he was out at my house doing some things, he said, “I really feel that this is what God wants me to do, but I have a family to take care of. This is like half
of the salary that I had. What do I do?” He was asking me all kinds of questions. I just told him, “You lost me when you said that this is what you feel God wants you to do. If you truly believe that this is what God wants you to do, then just do it.”
“Well, what about…?”
I answered, “I don’t care about anything else. If you have to get rid of some things, downsize, sell your house, move into an apartment, sell your cars— whatever you have to do just do what God tells you to do.”
This man decided to take the job, but it was about four or five months until the position actually opened up. During that time, there were many changes in the personnel at our Bible college and we ended up promoting this young man to a different position which paid nearly identical wages to the job he was leaving. He didn’t lose a thing! But if he had not agreed to that part-time position, we probably wouldn’t have hired him for the higher paying, full-time position.
Some people hear God’s voice, but then they debate, saying, “But God, what about this?” Who cares about anything else? This is not a dress rehearsal. This is the real deal. If God speaks to you and tells you something, you ought to drop everything else and do whatever it is that He says. If the Lord said it, that ought to be it. God has a plan for your life that is
superior to anything you could ever plan on your own. You need to follow Him.
What a privilege it is to hear the voice of God. What an honor it is to have God Almighty speak to you. When He does, just lay aside everything else and follow.
MISPLACED PRIORITIES
A woman once told the director of our school, “I know that God has called me to come to Colorado Springs and go to Charis Bible College, but I have two dogs. What do I do?”
He answered, “The last time I checked they allow dogs in Colorado. Bring them with you.”
I told her, “Get rid of them.” Now I’m a dog lover, and I’ve had dogs myself. But if a dog was getting in the way of me doing what God had told me to do, I would turn that dog loose or give it to another family. I’d do anything it took. Why in the world would you let two dogs—or whatever it is for you—keep you from obeying God? That’s misplaced priorities.
God has a will for you. He extends grace, but there must be some effort on your part. You have to make some decisions. You need to do whatever it takes to follow God, balancing grace and faith. God, by grace,
gives us giftings, talents, and abilities that are completely independent of anything we deserve. It’s just grace. These things are God’s part. He moves by grace. But then there is a required response of faith on our part necessary to bring God’s will to pass in our lives. You must merge these two together in the proper mixture to be able to see the power of God operate in your life. Don’t get ahead of God and start making decisions on your own, trying to force Him to do things; that’s not going to work either. You need to discover what God has done by grace—what He’s provided, what His will is. Then there needs to be an appropriate response on your part, which is what the Bible calls faith.
