By His Grace

"You Gave Me Life And Showed Me Kindness, And In Your Providence Watched Over My Spirit."

Job 10:12

"The will of God will never take you to where the grace of God will not protect you."

One of my favorite quotes, I don't know who originally said it however it speaks volumes.

So what is God's Grace?

The power to do for us, what we can not do for ourselves.

On the other side of that, we can not do anything for ourselves (John 15:5).

The grace of God has no beginning and no end, like Him, it is eternal...

When I think of the word "grace", I imagine back in the day when women walked tall, head held high, back straight as a board etc...

Grace to me was always a quality women possessed...

I was never one of them.

I can't even chew gum and walk at the same time.

He loves us, even though we don't deserve it...

Truth be told, we are not worthy of living under His protection...

We sin daily, we go about our day doing what we want instead of what He wants.

The majority of us don't take the time to even find out what His will for our lives is.

We want the promise of eternal life, we just don't want to do anything for it.

We want to live our lives the way we see fit with zero repercussions and upon death, we still want to go to Heaven and live happily ever after.

I am here to tell you that it isn't going to work that way.

Never has, never will.

He gave us free will, to do as we wish however, He still wants you to follow His will for your life.

So how do you know what His will is?

You ask Him.

When you seek His will, make sure what you are asking for doesn't go against the Bible and make sure whatever you are asking will Glorify Him as well as help you grow spiritually.

He isn't going to tell you specifically because He gave you free will.

In order to know what it is He is saying, you have to learn spiritual discernment.

Spiritual discernment is the interior search for determining whether God is calling one to certain things in their lives.

It doesn't necessarily apply to being called to the ministry or vowed life.

Basically you can sum it up by saying avoid evil, do good.

Plain and simple...

You aren't stupid, you know right from wrong, it has been taught to 99% of us from the time we were old enough to walk.

You can either live by the will of the Spirit, following Him, to lead a life of holiness, a life filled with His peace, His strength, His love, His grace.

Or you can live by the will of the flesh, following your own mortal wants, leading to a life of sin...

This in turn will open the door to Satan.

The will of the flesh is easily fooled, easily rationalized, easily led astray.

We have all done it so don't sit there and think to yourself that you haven't.

There you are, faced with something your mortal self really wants, yet knowing it isn't something He wants for you so what do you do?

You take the Word and twist it to fit the sin you are about to commit.

I have seen this done time and time again...

I have personally witnessed this in the past 18 months.

You take someone who believes in God, place infidelity in their lap and watch the wheels start turning...

"He wants me to be happy", "If this wasn't His will, we would have never met", "She is a gift from Him"

Yes, I have heard each of these and many more, justifications on His word for a grievous sin being committed...

Now I know that these are just excuses because free will was being followed and not His will.

By the Grace of our Father, I have survived the past 18 months...

18 months and I am just now starting to have the fog cleared, the veil lifted so to speak...

I have recently learned that if you are walking closely with Him, truly desiring His will for your life, not your will, He will than place His desires on your heart.

The key to all of this is quite simple...

His will, not yours.

BEBO NORMAN
God, My God I Cry Out
Your Beloved Needs You Now
God, Be Near, Calm My Fear And Take My Doubt
Your Kindness Is What Pulls Me Up
Your Love Is All That Draws Me In