Grace The Power To Change Part 10

Grace The Power To Change

Part 10

The Breastplate of Righteousness

What is the importance of keeping and guarding your hearts?

Pro 4:23 Above everything else guard your heart, because from it flow the springs of life.

We need to guard our hearts because all that our lives are, or have been, is the product of our hearts. The heart is the seat of our emotions. It is the spiritual strengthen, intellectual life, and inner nature or man; it is the source of emotions, feelings, instincts, and passions. In our hearts the Word of God is kept, the peace of God begins to rule, and God gives strength.

In the real you, can you see the correlation of how you live life and the beliefs in your heart?

Why did God say Abraham was the father of faith?

Abraham was the father of faith because he believed what God said. In spite of all his failures, God called him righteous.

Gen 15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Abraham believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness. This is why Abraham is an example of faith to us.

Rom 4:17 as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations." Abraham acted in faith when he stood in the presence of God, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that don't yet exist.

Abraham believed what God said. God called him righteous and related to him as a righteous man, even though he was not.

What determines if the Word of God will work in your life?

What you believe about righteousness will affect your heart more than anything else you believe. What you believe about righteousness will determine whether the Word of God will work in your life.

What does it mean to raise the shield of faith and wear the breastplate of righteousness?

Raising the shield of faith is continually rejecting anything not based on the finished work of Jesus. Wearing the breastplate of righteousness is guarding the heart with the righteousness we have in Jesus.

Grace The Power To Change Part 9

Grace The Power To Change

Part 9

Grace Through Righteousness

What is the difference between “works righteousness” and “faith righteousness”?

Works righteousness is trying to be right before God in our own strengthen. Faith righteousness is a free gift based on Jesus being obedient to the Father in life, death, and resurrection.

What does relying on Jesus’ righteousness do for us?

We are empowered when we rely on the righteousness of Jesus. As we acknowledge that we are righteous our hearts are persuaded and grace will flow out of our hearts. This causes us to abandon any trust in our own performance.

What can transform us into the likeness of Christ?

When we abandon works righteousness and enter into faith righteousness we share in the resurrection power of Jesus. That resurrection power transforms us into the likeness of Christ.

What is righteousness of heart?

Just as there is a difference in being righteous and living righteously, there is also a difference between having a righteous spirit and a righteous heart. Our spirits were made righteous the moment we accepted Jesus. Our hearts, however, are righteous only when we believe the truth.

What is the “glory of God”?

Glory means the opinion, judgment, view and opinion of God which is reality. Righteousness believes the view and opinion of God about you and accepts it as reality regardless of your own opinion.

How can I help keep my heart in righteousness?

The words that we speak help keep our hearts in righteousness. When we realize our emotions are becoming negative, we use the words of our mouth to turn the tide and convince our hearts of our righteousness.

Grace The Power To Change Part 8

Grace The Power To Change

Part 8

Grace in the Heart

How does God relate to us?

All that God does in us; He does in and through our hearts. God looks on and relates to us through our hearts and all that our lives are flows from the condition of our hearts.

Why does the Bible consider unbelief evil?

The reason unbelief is so evil is quite simple. Faith is a response to God’s character. It’s the natural response for someone who believes God is honest. Unbelief is also a response to God’s character – it does not believe in the honesty of God.

What is true humility?

Humility is not a “cast down” attitude. Neither is it a weakness. Humility is the place where you submit your will, your view, and your plans to the will, view, and plan of God.

Let’s talk about the heart of the sin nature being fear.

You cannot trust someone you are afraid of. When you are afraid of God, you do not trust Him. Because people who do not trust God -  His plans for them, His way, His opinion – they turn to sin for gratification and try to do things in their own way.

How does grace work?

Grace works in the heart and produces change from the inside out. Because grace works in our heart we can be and do all that God requires and still abide in rest. Rest is freedom from dead works.

Grace The Power To Change Part 7

Grace The Power To Change

Part 7

The Manifold Grace of God

The word “saved” comes from the Greek word sozo. What does it mean and why is it important to us?

Sozo means to save, deliver, protect, heal, preserve, do well, make whole, keep safe, or rescue from destruction. This is important to us because it means that Jesus did more when He died than just give us forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Sozo speaks of ALL Jesus died to give us. Forgiveness from sin and deliverance from the results of sin.

God’s grace is not automatic. How do we get it to work for us?

Grace works in the areas in which we operate faith and faith comes only in the areas where we have heard the Good News about Jesus.

What does the Bible mean by the manifold grace of God?

The manifold grace of God is God’s ability in any area of your life where you have a need. The manifold grace of God can make us able in any area that the Word promises and that we believe, confess, and receive.

What should the goal of our faith be?

Our goal should be to use our faith to receive grace, not to receive things. Our faith will bring us the grace to change.

How can you receive the manifold grace of God in every area of your life?

You receive grace (ability) in all areas of life by accepting and believing you are righteous in Jesus. A man believes unto righteousness, he does not do unto righteousness or perform unto righteousness.

Have you had the “serendipity” principle work in your life?

The dictionary defines serendipity as “coming upon a happy discovery when you are not looking for them”.

Grace The Power To Change Part 6

Grace The Power To Change

Part 6

Grace For Sin

When we sin, the Bible says in 1 John 2:1 that we have an advocate with the Father. What is an advocate and who is our advocate?

1Jn 2:1 My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus, the Messiah, one who is righteous.

An advocate is “someone who is for us” and our advocate is Jesus.

Why does Jesus understand our inability to cope with sin?

Jesus knows it is impossible for man to win over sin in his own strengthen. Having walked the earth as a man, He knows full well that the grace (ability) of God is the only power that can make man able to win over sin.

Can you remember a time when you ran from and not to God? Why did you run away? Fear of rejection, shame, sorrow? Did you return? What did you feel? Did you experience the love of God and His forgiveness and acceptance? Did you realize that He was right there waiting for you to return. He sought to make peace.

What is the key to being able to boldly go before the Lord in our time of need?

The key is to realize that we are approaching a throne of grace and not a throne of judgment. Becoming aware of God’s mercy will cause us to run to Him instead of from Him.

Why can we have confidence that we will be accepted before the throne of God?

We are accepted because of Jesus. It’s about what He did, not what we have done or not done. Our works do not give us acceptance; we are accepted because of Jesus.

Why does it help the believer to “confess the Word”?

We don’t confess the Word to try and get God to do something. We confess the Word to convince our hearts of what He has already done. Confessing the Word gets our heart “back on track”.

It is not enough to have a doctrine of faith righteousness; we must believe it in our hearts. When we confess the Word we persuade our hearts of the truth that we know.

Grace The Power To Change Part 5

Grace The Power To Change

Part 5

In My Weakness

How do we neutralize grace?

We neutralize grace by trusting in our own ability. There is no in between when we are trusting in ourselves or we are trusting in God. The one thing that keeps us from walking in grace is our own strengthen.

What does it mean to fall from grace? Does it mean you are no longer saved?

No, falling from grace is when you leave the realm of God’s ability. It is when you attempt to obtain righteousness by your performance.

What did Paul learn from the “thorn in his flesh”?

Paul learned that he did not need a miracle from God to remove the obstacle, but the grace of God to face and conquer the obstacle.

How does the Bible define “frustrate”?

Neutralize, trusting in your own ability that NEUTRALIZES God’s ability, attempting to gain righteousness by your performance.

The word “frustrate” and it’s meaning in light of the times when we are frustrated. Maybe our frustration is a result of not depending on or neutralizing God’s grace in that situation.

How do we obtain grace on a daily basis?

Each day we must be committed to live in the realm of God’s ability and not our own. On a daily basis, as we pray, we obtain grace for that moment.

Grace The Power To Change Part 4

Grace The Power To Change

Part 4

Where Sin Abounds

How does grace help the sin problem?

Grace is not God’s ability to overlook your sin; it is His ability working in you to deliver you from sin.

What is the difference between mercy and grace?

Mercy is God’s ability to forgive when we sin. Grace is God’s ability to overcome sin.

What effect does sin have on our hearts?

Sin damages the heart making it difficult for us to trust God in the future. It makes us doubt God’s love and His ability to forgive.

What is humility and why do we need it?

Humility is the willingness to surrender your will, your opinions, and your views to the view and will of God. We cannot receive grace unless we are humble. As we draw near to God and submit ourselves to Him and depend on Him we begin to partake of His grace.

What power does Satan have over us?

His only power is deception and accusation. When we fail to believe the truth, in that state of dullness and confusion, Satan is able to attack and destroy.

How do you win the battle over Satan?

Simply by gaining control of your thoughts and beliefs.

Truths to meditate on:

There is always more grace than there is temptation. God wants you to avoid sin because it destroys you. What you focus on, you gravitate toward.