“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoiced in hope of the glory of God.”

— Romans 5:1-2

God wants to help you. He wants to give you strength to live in the abundant life Jesus inherited and shares with you. God helps you by giving spiritual strength to your inner being. Do you know how to yield to that strength and be empowered by it?

You already do it, you just aren’t always aware intellectually when you do. The good news is, you don’t have to earn it. You can’t do anything to convince God to give strength to you, you can only yield to it and receive it freely by faith.

Grace Is God’s Power Working Through You

The active spiritual force of God’s spirit living through you is GRACE. Grace is God’s divine influence in your heart to give you capacities and abilities. The easiest way to receive grace and live under God’s power in your heart is to cease from the efforts of your own flesh. You don’t have the kind of strength it takes to change your desires and bear the fruit of God’s spirit in you. But He’ll give it to you.

When it comes to bearing the fruits of the spirit, or operating in a gift that God inspires in you, or living in the power of His righteousness; the more you stop trying to do those things in the strength of your flesh and depend on His Spirit to strengthen you with His grace, the more you will live under the power of grace.

Paul gives us a functional description of grace working from the hear in Ephesians 3.

Ephesians 3:16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

This sounds a lot like Romans 5 where Paul says we access grace by faith. Faith doesn’t convince God to give you grace, it responds to and receives the spiritual influence God is already extending to you, in your heart.

Keep in mind, faith works by love. For you to access grace by faith, you must first be aware of God’s love for you and be willing to respond with love toward him. This is the cycle of love and faith, which will access the strength God is trying to give you.

You could say it this way, if you can humble yourself and allow God to love you into wholeness, you will be in the best heart posture to receive the grace that comes with His love.

Paul prays that you would experience God’s love in your inner being or your heart. His love makes you whole, to the point that you are filled to the fullness of God. He actually gives you strength to experience His love so you will be whole and complete in Him. That strength is GRACE.

The Love Faith Grace Loop

God loves you and gives you GRACE to experience the spiritual, transformative power of His love for you. It’s like a love loop that begins with His love for you, to which you respond by loving Him, to which He responds by giving you power, to which you trust Him to give you power, to which He responds by giving you wisdom in how to follow Him, to which you respond by obeying Him from the heart.

How To Practically Live In Grace

I think it’s safe to say that you want God’s will accomplished in your life. Am I right?

To live the way He would lead you to live and see His will accomplished in your life, you must follow him when He leads. The problem is; we don’t always yield to His leading. You want to in your mind, but your heart sometimes desires another way. Not because your heart is evil, but because your heart may be more persuaded of your own understanding in any given area.

I have more good news, you follow God better than you realize. I’m positive that you follow God regularly without even being aware of it. As a new creature in Christ, you are hard-wired to follow God from the heart without intellectualizing the process. Seeing, hearing, and obeying God from the heart is natural for you as a child of God. (see God Removed Your Sin Nature)

There is one nuance I must mention, you effortlessly obey and follow God from the heart in the areas your heart is established in His Word and your new creation identity in Him, which makes the primary goal; having your heart established in the Word of God.

When I say “Word of God,” I do mean the Bible, but I specifically mean that you’re influenced in that given area by God’s ways, His logic, and His truth. To have your heart established in His Word, truth, and grace is to not only know what the Bible says but it is also to be fully persuaded that His way is THE way in that area. Whether it be behavior, sexuality, relationships, emotions, finances, etc.…

Establishing Your Heart In Grace

You have victory in the areas where the Word of God is established in your heart. If you're struggling with a particular area of life, you simply need to get the Word established in your heart in that area, pretty simple.

How do you get the Word established in your heart?

There are many ways, may I suggest meditating on the Word. Meditate in His Word in the areas you want to persuade your heart of His perspective and His truth.

There’s a process to your heart being persuaded through meditation. This is not a formula, these are just key elements in getting the logic and ways of God beyond your conscious mind and rooted in your heart. Keep in mind, meditation is simply thinking about something until it becomes true to you. We do this all the time with fear, worry, and doubt. Now it’s time to do it with God’s logos.

The Process of Meditation:

You have the correct information (scripture)
You decide that God’s logic and perspective are true
You become willing to believe His logic more than your own understanding
Now that you agree with His Word mentally, you think about it until it changes your emotions
As you are holding His truth in your mind and heart, you send away thoughts and emotions that are contrary to what His logic (Word) says
You repeat this process as many times as it takes until your natural responses are in alignment with His logic

Homework

Create a confession plan, There is power in your words. There is great power in hearing yourself speak God’s Words. Your homework assignment is to create a list of scriptures and statements in the area you’d like to establish your heart in God’s grace and speak it out loud at least twice a day. Speak out the Word until your feel the emotions of the truth behind what you’re saying. If you just speak it without feeling it, you’re sending a subtle message to your heart that you don’t believe it.

You’re not just trying to create an emotional experience, you are actually programming your whole being to believe God’s Word. You are programming yourself to believe it and live from the truth of it.

Here’s an example. Let’s look at the example of peace. Let’s say you struggle with fear, worry, anxiety, or maybe even anger.

Use a Bible study resource to look up those words and know what the Word says about them.

Fear: https://www.openbible.info/topics/fear

Worry: https://www.openbible.info/topics/worry

Anxiety: https://www.openbible.info/topics/anxiety

Then look up what you want operating in your life. Let’s go with peace, joy, and confidence.

Peace: https://www.openbible.info/topics/peace

Joy: https://www.openbible.info/topics/joy

Confidence: https://www.openbible.info/topics/confidence

Copy and paste the ones that speak to you and print them out, or write them down. Keep that list with you and speak them out.

Also, make the passages FIRST-PERSON STATEMENTS.

For example:

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Say it this way:

God has not given me a spirit of fear, God has given me a spirit of power, God has given me a spirit of love, and God has given me a peaceful and sound mind. I have a peaceful mind that God Himself gave me. I can think from this peaceful mind anytime I choose, If I feel fear or anxiety in my mind or body, I can choose to think from the peaceful mind God gave me. Fear and anxiety are not from God. Love, power, and peace are from God. God is giving me love, power, and peace in this very moment, I choose to yield to what God is giving me. I have a loving, powerful, and peaceful mind.

I pray this is helpful your you, try this and let me know how it goes.

Living Under Grace series

I will continue in this series throughout March. I pray you join us at Forward Church in person or online. Join us live on YouTube or Facebook Sundays at 10 am EST. Watch this series on YouTube.