Experiencing God's Grace

    Grace is two things – it’s a theology but more importantly it’s an experience
-    I don’t just want to know what the Bible teaches about Grace , I want to know the living reality of it
-    In fact the teaching only serves to bring me into the experience so Grace is NOT amazing until it is a tangible , felt experience in my Life
*When you hear me say the words ‘ grace of God’ what comes to your mind?
Most people think of things like ‘forgiveness of sin ; the Love of God ; the undeserved favour of God’ and all these definitions are correct ….but God Himself also defines His Grace as His empowerment of our lives
1 Peter 4:10 says  Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
  i.e. Jesus is empowering you with His grace so you can be an expression of who He is
*And we are being told that Grace-gifted people are NOT to be treated as tools to get the Church work done
No! Grace-gifted people are manifestations of the different aspects of who Jesus is so we are in fact encountering who He is through the gifts of these people
And in this way the various parts of the body of Christ come together which enables the overall corporate grace of the Church to be magnified beyond the grace of gifted individuals
e.g. Cloud
Yes there is the grace of leadership and there should be submission to that leadership gift….
And when we extend the word ‘Grace’ to include the help of the Holy Spirit we start to discover a lot more about how the Holy Spirit works in our lives and how we are intended to respond to that help…
For Example : The Apostle Paul shares with us about a difficult time in his life when he was struggling with something he called ‘a thorn in the flesh’ and he keeps praying to God to take it from him and notice how God responds to his cry for help….
2 Cor 12:9-10 ….. "My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you." So I am very happy to brag about my weaknesses. Then Christ's power can live in me. (New Century Version)
And so Paul makes this amazing discovery about Grace:
– our humility, our open acknowledgement of our need for God, actually attracts the help of Heaven into our lives
-    but our arrogant refusal to confess our need for God actually repels grace !!
So Paul tells us that he is glad to openly acknowledge his weaknesses because by doing so he has turned himself into a ‘grace magnet’
1 Peter 5:5-6 God is against the proud, but he gives grace to the humble." Be humble under God's powerful hand so he will lift you up when the right time comes NCV

### So what are we seeing about the Grace of God?
 Wonder of wonders God has put His Spirit in us and in doing so He has seeded our hearts with His desires,
and those desires are His Will seeking manifestation on the Earth through us  
•    These stirrings in our heart are in fact the Will of God in us trying to get out !!
But fear not, God has not given you a Desire and then abandoned you to struggle on your own
He pours His Grace on you, and this Grace takes on the form of the tangible impartation of God’s power  coming into your life to help you live as God intended
2 Peter 1:2-3 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness... NASB
1 Cor 15:10-11 But God's grace has made me what I am, and his grace to me was not wasted. I worked harder than all the other apostles.  (But it was not I really; it was God's grace that was with me.) NCV
Heb 12:28-29 Therefore, since we have received an unshakeable Kingdom, let us have grace, through which we may offer service that will please God, with reverence and fear. CJB
# When we understand what Grace is  we can maximise it’s purpose and stop wasting it
# When we understand what Grace is we realise that the repeated phase‘The Grace of God be with you’ that runs through the New Testament writings is actually a prophetic declaration intended to speak the empowerment of the Spirit of God into our lives….
But God is urging us to experience His Grace
Heb 4:16 urges us to :
‘….confidently approach the throne from which God gives grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need. CJB
God is declaring Grace over your life right NOW and the word of God to some people here right now is :
Zech 4:6-7
'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,'
Says the Lord of hosts.
'Who are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! (The great Challenge is removed)
And he shall bring forth the capstone (the moment of finished achievement)
With shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'" NKJV
So let’s expect miracles of Grace to happen in this place right now