Living By Grace

By: Mike Harding

What will the church of the last days look like, before Jesus comes back? What can we expect? How can we prepare for the last days? (Hint: think faith, not fear!)

 The Last Days Church

 Acts 2:17  And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.

 God says that in the last days, He will pour out His Spirit on ALL flesh. This prophecy saw a measure of fulfillment 2000 years ago, but its true fulfillment is still to come. This prophecy means that we will see a worldwide outpouring of the Holy Spirit on “every tribe and tongue and people and nation”. (Revelation 5:9) We, the church, will participate in a great worldwide harvest. We will do the works of Jesus! We will prophesy, heal the sick, raise the dead, and preach the kingdom of God!

 Ephesians 5:25-28 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.

 In this passage, Paul is talking about the husband and wife relationship. But then he starts talking about Christ and the church. This is so prophetic! There are two schools of thought about what the church of the last days will look like. Some believe and teach that the church of the last days will struggle and shrink, and that Jesus will come back for a beat-up remnant church that is just hanging on and praying to get out of here. But I believe that Jesus will have His “glorious church”. This verse must be fulfilled before Jesus comes back! The church of the last days will be so full of faith and love and power that the devil will be begging Jesus to come and take us out of here!

 Ephesian 4:11-16 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head --- Christ --- from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

 This passage in Ephesians is also very prophetic! It must be fulfilled before Jesus comes back. That’s the nature of the word of God. It must come to pass! Do you believe that? This passage tells us that the ministers in the body of Christ are coaches whose job is to prepare the saints for the work of the ministry. God’s people are the team. The ministers are the trainers. In the last days’ church, the saints will be doing the works of Jesus. They will not just be keeping the chairs warm in the church. They will not just be an audience for the preachers! We will also all come to the unity of the faith. It will happen! Denominations will mean little or nothing. All true Christians will work together in unity. We will have great revelation and understanding of God’s word. We will believe the same, and we will minister in power. We will become the “perfect man”, with Jesus as the Head, and all of us as His body. We will grow into the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”. We will be so much like Jesus that He will be proud to take us as His glorious bride!

 A Foundation of Grace

 Have you ever read Acts chapter 15? In this chapter, the first apostles had a great debate, because the Gentiles were coming to Christ. Many of the Jews thought that the gospel was only for the Jews. And when Gentiles started accepting Christ, some of the Jews decided that the Gentiles must be circumcised like the Jews and follow the laws of Moses. It caused a great argument. Is salvation by grace or by law and works? They finally came to a decision. Acts 15:10-11 tells us what they concluded.

 Acts 15:10-11 “Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they."

 The apostles understood that salvation was by God’s grace, through faith. It was based entirely on trusting in the finished work of Christ – His crucifixion and resurrection. They had to fight for the purity of the gospel. The same debate continues today. The devil wants to corrupt the gospel with religion and legalism and works. Why? As long as we focus on our own works and qualifications, we will end up condemned and defeated and powerless. Religion is about what we have done for God. The gospel is about what Christ has done for us. Religion is about what we are doing for God. The gospel is about what Christ is doing through us, by His power and grace.

 We still have to fight for the purity of the gospel today. What is the gospel?

 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you --- unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures…

 In these days, God wants us to get firmly established on the foundation of His grace. Why? The Lord spoke to me about this recently. He said that He wants His church to understand grace because, as He pours out His Spirit, He wants us to live and minister totally by His grace. Religion denies grace. Legalism blocks grace. Human striving frustrates grace. We must know that we are saved completely by His grace. We must learn to rest in His grace. Then we must learn to live by His grace. Finally, we must learn to minister completely by His grace. If we try to minister by human strength and abilities, we will fall short of what He wants to do. If we learn to minister by His power and by His grace, we will heal the sick and work His miracles, and we will shake the world with the power of God!

 What Is Grace?

 What is grace? Many of us have understood that grace is God’s unmerited love and favor toward us. That’s true. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

 But grace is something more. Grace is God’s power in operation. God’s ministry gifts are His grace in action.

 Romans 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith…

 Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

 In other words, if you want to move in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, if you want God’s anointing, if you want to have a powerful ministry, you must know how to receive and flow in God’s grace. God’s nature is grace, not law. Jesus demonstrated that. God wants to love people. God wants to save and rescue people. God wants to pour out grace on people. God wants to work miracles. We must understand His grace. We must live and minister by His grace. We must have the courage to say NO to religion and legalism. We must preach grace and live by grace and minister by grace!

 Flesh vs. Spirit

 John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

 Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born again. What is born of the flesh is flesh. Babies, in the natural, are born of the flesh. Christians are born of the Spirit. But there is another application to this verse. The decisions we make can be born of the flesh or of the Spirit. The things we do can be born of the flesh or of the Spirit. Any decision we make after a time of prayer and listening to God is a decision born of the Spirit. There will be grace on that decision. There will be favor and power flowing on that decision. Any decision we make from the flesh will probably cause problems and conflicts. The things we do that are born in a time of prayer and listening to God are things born of the Spirit. They will have grace and favor and life flowing in them. They may be tested, they may be challenged, but they will have grace and favor because they are born of the Spirit. They are powered by Heaven. But when we do things from our own desires, from our pride or ego or fear or anger or selfish ambition, these things are born of the flesh. They will cause problems. They have no grace from God. What you birth in the flesh, you must support in the flesh. Flesh babies are exhausting. They will make you tired!

 Galatians 4:28-29 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.

 Abraham taught us a great lesson in the Bible. God promised Abraham a multitude of children. Abraham believed God, even though he was already old. The years went by. Abraham was believing, but still no children. So finally, Abraham and Sarah decided to help God. (Watch out!) Abraham took Sarah’s Egyptian maid, Hagar, and made a baby with her. Abraham rejoiced – the promise was coming true! But God said, “Hey, that’s not really what I had in mind. You made that happen in the flesh!” Years later, Sarah conceived the baby that God has promised. They named him “Isaac”, meaning “laughter”. What is born of the Spirit brings laughter and grace and joy, not sorrow. Grace was on Isaac. God’s covenant lived through Isaac. The Spirit of God anointed Isaac, because he was born of the Spirit. He was born of grace!

 But Ishmael, the son born of the flesh, persecuted Isaac. Ishmael’s descendants, the Arabs, still persecute Isaac’s descendants, the Jews. I bet Abraham wished he would have waited for God, huh? Anything born of the flesh criticizes and persecutes anything born of the Spirit. But anything born of the Spirit has GRACE on it!

 GRACE to YOU!

 2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord…

 God wants you to receive His grace every day and live by His grace every day. He wants you to learn to minister by His grace. Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:8) That’s the lifestyle of the kingdom. Like little children!

 Peter said, “Grace, with peace, be MULTIPLIED to you! The more you know God, the more you know Jesus, the more His grace is multiplied to you.”

 Join me now in a prayer. Lift your hands to the Lord and say, “God, I receive Your grace! Multiply Your grace to me! Pour Your grace out on my life! Teach me to live by Your grace! Teach me to minister by Your grace! In Jesus’ name. Amen.”