THE GRACE OF GOD

TUESDAY 03 MAY 2022

According to Acts chapter 11, part of the Christians who were scattered by persecution as a result of Stephen's death travelled to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, to spread the gospel among Jews. The other part from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks, sharing with them the good news about the Lord Jesus. Notably, because of God's grace, a great number of people believed the gospel and turned to the Lord. When the news about what the grace of God was doing, spread abroad and reached the church in Jerusalem, Barnabas was sent to the church in Antioch to verify this truth.

Reference: Acts 11:23 New International Version (NIV) "When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts."

When Lord's hand is evident in your life, His grace will continually increase or multiply in everything you do. Grace always speaks and it can't be hidden. God Himself upgrades our results and benefits according to the condition and capacity of our grace. When Barnabas arrived at the church in Antioch, what He noticed immediately was God's grace. It set the moment for the church to experience growth in conversion of souls and in attendance, as the brethren anticipated the supernatural which had come to typify the spread of the good news they shared.

Grace is the effortless aura that triggers growth, progress and influence. It is the womb of expansion. It personifies the external manifestation of the internal glory of God's Spirit at work in us and the material evidence of the natural controlled by the supernatural, in the order of the divine blessing. Simply put, grace is evidence-based. Both in temporal and spiritual things, God distinctively deals with His people according to the measure of grace by which they are conditioned or bound to receive (Ephesians 4:7 NIV).

Beloved, you can never be left out of the outpouring of grace when you learn to fellowship with the Holy Spirit often, because He sustains the atmosphere of multiplied grace in terms of delivering any outcome and expectation of the heart. Without Him, you'll strive and labour with huge human effort and struggle. But with Him fully involved in any matter, grace will sufficiently abound and ensure a steady stream in the process. And this grace enlarges our view and results in proportion to the splendour, influence and power of the Spirit constantly revealed in us. Simply put, divine grace has the capacity to profoundly enhance and promote our flourishing in all facets of life.

Strikingly, there is no grace without Christ, just as there is no Christ in us without faith in the glorious gospel. John 1:17 noted that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (NIV). Everything about the mystery of grace starts with Christ, meaning that Christ is the life of grace without struggle. No wonder in Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV), Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Once you go deeper or travel far in the realm of "understanding" the grace available in Christ and equally abide in Him and His Word, you will cease from the hassles of operation and move from toiling to get it done, to the level of receiving grace upon grace from His fullness for smooth and easy tasks (John 1:16 NIV). Grace bears witness to the reign of Christ in our lives and the earnest truth is that the Spirit of God will always continue to bestow more grace upon our lives as we observe His ways and walk accordingly. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Acts 4:33; Ephesians 1:6-7; Acts 14:3; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Acts 20:24,32; 2 Timothy 2:1.

Exuberant Declaration: In Christ Jesus, I abound in grace because God's grace is overabundant in Christ. By functioning with the accurate perception of divine grace, there is no end to the goodness of God in my life. Thus, through the vast and endless reservoir of God's grace, I'm enriched and empowered for kingdom exploit and expansion, and I'm positioned to experience untold blessing and boundless increase, thereby becoming a medium of blessing to others in my world. Hallelujah!