I sent an email to a friend who has just had the wonderful grace of our Father revealed to her. She has been a Christian for most of her life, but says that she feels born again, again.
I am taking the liberty, and I am sure that she would not mind, to post some of the points that I sent her.
1)I once heard someone say, "teach the gospel all the time and sometimes use words." The spirit of grace permeates out of one. You don't have to say much. Just your joy, peace, energy and love will force people to want what you have.
2)Try and use the word "Grace" as little as possible. I have found that people, especially legalists, close up very quickly when they hear the g word. Substitute it with words like the Fathers heart, the gospel, etc.
3)You will ask why you are not experiencing Gods power, and start chasing signs and wonders. I have been shown recently, by Rob Rufus' teachings, that Gods power is in His glory, and God's glory is in His presents. Just seek Gods presents. Have a relationship with your Father. That is all He wants. Out of that, miracles will happen, including people getting saved and healed.
4)Most importantly remember that one obtains the revelation of grace from the Holy Spirit. It is He who will remove the scales from the peoples eyes. We are there to take the message to the people. Some will choose not to see and often they will be the ones we love the most. This will hurt.
5)There is a grace hating spirit that will persecute you. Paul writes about this all through his epistles. Take comfort that "If God is for us...". Pray much for your husband, your household, family and friends.
6)You are not alone. There are many people in the same boat as us. Go and read some of their blogs.
Here are some of the other sites
http://www.julnbde.blogspot.com/
http://www.gigcast.graceroots.org/
http://www.gracefortheheart.org/
http://www.carm.org/
7)Spend much time reading Pauls epistles. Also listen to Robs teaching often. Our minds have had many years of works based teaching that has to be renewed.
8)Guard your heart against critisism. You will hear someone say something that you know is wrong. I heard a saying the other day, "You can't stop birds flying over your head, but you can stop them building a nest in your hair". If you feel that you have to correct, do so with LOTS of grace and remember that your were in their shoes not so long ago. If you allow critisism to creep in, offense will occur and this leads to a root of bitterness (Heb12v15). This is what I am really struggling with at the moment and it sucks.
I hope this helps. I also hope that I never look like I have a "know it all" attitude. I have not even begun to scratch the surface, but I am so excited for what I am going to be shown.
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6 comments:
I found this really helpful, thanks for sharing it. # 2 was something I'd never really thought of before and I think it's wise. I tend to overuse the word 'grace' for sure. Many of the others I can really relate to and concur with.
I'm very jealous that Rob's going to be at your church though!
Hi Jul
The problem is that I have only been a true Christ follower for three years now. I am constantly learning. If you feel you can add to the list, please feel free.
I fellowship at a church about 30min away from V.F.C. Rob planted V.F.C. when he was still in South Africa and he is opening a new wing of the church building when he is here. I also think he and his family intend to have a bit of a well deserved holiday.
Little does he know that I am taking a span of people with to listen to him. Good thing that V.F.C. is a huge building.
Are you going to make his conference in Hong Kong during October?
I'm not sure about the October conference. It all depends on whether we sell this house in time and get passports. It seems a very complicated process for me to get my Canadian passposrt while living in the U.S. so I wanted to wait until we got settled back in Canada. But God is doing wild and crazy things here where we are and it seems he's not as much in a hurry to move us as we are to be moved! Anyway, if we don't make it there, we'll probably try to catch him somewhere else. Somewhere in North America would be easier for us anyway, but Hong Kong sounds so wonderful...
I also echo all of this, including number 2. In fact, I kept it in mind yesterday as I was filling out my 'biography' form for my high school reunion book. There are two sections that ask you what you've been up to since high school as well as listing your passions, hobbies, etc. I was very careful as I chose my words to talk about my "passion" for grace. :) Great advice here! BTW, thanks for the link to our podcast.
Grace grace grace grace grace grace grace grace...........
G Flood
Great advice, some 'groups' are going to embrace Grace and others are going to resist Grace. Its in these cases we need to be 'as cunning as a snake', not that we have an attacking spirit towards people that is. Its just that once some peoples defenses are up it makes it that much harder.
But I think you know that already ....
Is it not funny/strange how now that Grace has come you see the battles the early church fought were mostly because of Grace .... I never saw that before.
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