The Grace Gifts of the Holy Spirit
9 - Gateway to the Grace Gifts

Romans 12:
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,
5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. . . .   New International Bible

The grace of God is a flow of the mercy and favor of God through our lives that causes us to humble our hearts and minds before God our Father. An abundance of grace is the gateway into the grace gifts listed for us.

In Ephesians 2, Paul tells us that it is by grace, that is, the grace of God, that we are saved. Human beings can never do anything to deserve or work for the grace of God. This grace comes to us freely because of the love of God for us. Peter tells us some more about the grace of God.

2 Peter 3:
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.    New International Bible

The grace of God is what keeps us from being carried away into the error of the lawless. This error of lawlessness is very prevalent in the world today, especially since we have all been cooped up with the pandemic.
Everyone is anxious, and jittery. People want to express these negative emotions and these are mainly expressed through lawless behavior.

However, when we are filled with God's grace flowing through us, we are not carried away by the error of the lawless. The grace of God also keeps us from falling from our secure position in Christ. The Apostle Peter says we are to grow in grace.

This is from the writings of the late Pastor Adrian Rogers:
"I give them eternal life, and they will never perish — ever!    John 10:28
Can you imagine a little child in a family who doesn't know from one day to the next whether he may be in the family? Perhaps one day he was naughty and disobeyed, so he's no longer a member of the family. Then after several weeks he repents, and he is received back in. Then after a little while, he’s out of the family again. Can you imagine what an emotional wreck this child would be? I know Christians who are emotional wrecks because they don’t have the assurance that they are children of God. They feel like they’re in, then they're out. John 10:28 tells us it doesn't have to be that way."

We do not have to fall from our secure position in Christ.

Pastor Tony Evans explains grace this way:
"The more you understand grace, the easier it is to serve others. Imagine a boy leaving his mother a note saying: for mowing the lawn a dollar, for washing dishes a dollar, for making the bed a dollar; Mother, you owe me three dollars.
Now imagine a mother leaving her own note: for being in labor with you for 16 hours – no charge, for staying up with you all night when you are sick – no charge, for buying you clothes and food – no charge.
That is grace based service."

So, if we are to minister the gift of prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading and showing mercy, we first must be overflowing with this grace of God and growing in that grace.

Prayer:
Father in heaven,  we humans never have deserved Your Grace upon our lives, rather, we have always deserved Your stern judgment.
But Father, since You have saved us, and we don't deserve Your grace, we ask that today You will send Your river of life and mercy and love and goodness through us and transform our whole attitude to life.
This way we can minister for You both in the body of Christ and also outside the Body to those who don't know You.
Teach us to appreciate the grace You pour out upon us daily and to minister Your wonderful gift to everyone we meet.
We really need You to help us with this Lord,   in the name of the Lord Jesus, who never ceases to minister grace to us,   Amen.



Hope we can get together again tomorrow,
God willing.
Meanwhile, have a great day
walking with The Lord Jesus Christ!