"The Grace of God"

[Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks, PsyD]

You cannot have grace without faith; grace is present for you but without faith you cannot receive the grace God has already given you through Jesus Christ!

Grace is a free gift God has given to those who accepts His Son Jesus as their Lord and personal Savior; grace only comes through accepting Christ! The moment we believe, the moment we accept Christ as our Lord and personal Savior, grace is made available to us!

Ephesians 2:8-10 tells us this – I will use two translations:

⁸ “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. ¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (www.biblegateway.com – NLT).

⁸ “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (www.biblegateway.com – NIV).

Therefore, grace has to do with salvation; Jesus Christ. If we do not use our faith to believe that Christ died for us, provide us with salvation, we CANNOT receive God’s grace.

This believing does not require you to have great faith but requires you to use the faith God has already given you. Romans 12:3 tell us that God has given each of us a measure of faith. Jesus said in Luke 17:6: “...’If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea; and it would obey you!’’

Before Jesus said that, the apostles had asked Him how to increase their faith. Jesus did not address how to increase their faith, He said, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed...” Jesus was telling them that they could use the small faith they had to speak to things in their lives and command it to be removed.

This is important for us to grasp because Jesus said this again in Mark 11:22-24 and John 14:17:

²² “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. ²³ “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (www.biblegateway.com – NIV).

“...if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (www.biblegateway.com – NIV).

Jesus is telling us that same thing TODAY! Yes, we need to increase our faith (that comes by hearing the true Word of God) but until we do, we can use the measure of faith God has already given us to speak to every mountain that comes to destroy us (mountains of doubt, unbelief, fear, worry, drama, chaos, etc.).

As Jesus told the blind man in Matthew 9:29 when he prayed for him to receive his sight, “...according to your faith be it unto you,” He is still telling us that today. It is according to OUR faith that things happen when we pray because Jesus already told us in Mark 11:22-24, we have what we say (paraphrasing).

Proverbs 18:21 lets us know that the power of life and death lies in OUR tongue! Nobody can curse us or stop the will of God from coming to pass in our lives but us! Don’t blame what happen on no one else; if you don’t say nothing you will never have nothing! Remember? Jesus said according to YOUR faith be it unto YOU!!! YOU must speak life (the Word of God) into every situation and circumstance in YOUR life! Don’t wait to get a “word” from someone or for someone else to speak into YOUR life; you get the Word for your life yourself from God! Then His true Word will bring you life and blessings.

You must have faith in God and what He has already done through Jesus Christ; your and my Lord and Savior! We CANNOT have life without the Life Giver which is Jesus Christ ONLY!!!

Use the faith God has already given you and accept Jesus as YOUR Lord and personal Savior so you can accept and receive God’s free gift of grace.

If you already are a born again believer, begin to use the measure of faith God has already given YOU to accept God’s grace. You might say, “I have already accepted God’s grace!” Ok, but are you walking in it? Do things easily get you down? Do you fly off the handle, so to speak, when things don’t go YOUR way? Do you wonder, “What am I going to do about this?” If you do, you are NOT walking in God’s grace – you have not using your faith to take hold of God’s grace. When you walk in faith by grace, nothing that comes your way will offend you, hurt you, or cause you to lose your peace. Why? Jesus said in John 14:27:

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid” (www.biblegateway.com – NLT).

Paul said in Philippians 4:6-7:

⁶ “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (www.biblegateway.com – NLT).  

We are not to be anxious about anything but pray about everything! Then God will use His peace, the peace Jesus gave us in John 14:27 to guard our hearts and minds. Our hearts and minds will not be troubled neither be afraid (John 14:1, 27). Jesus did not leave us comfortless, He left us, the ones who loves Him and obeys His commands (John 14:15-18), the Holy Spirit to help our infirmities, or weaknesses (John 14:27; Romans 8:26-17).

Therefore, our life is tied into faith and grace – you cannot have one without the other. We must believe in the work Jesus did and we must believe what God said in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness” (NLT).

God does not even see our problems, He sees His grace. As He told Peter when he asked Him to remove the thorn from his side that His grace is sufficient, God is telling you this today. Don’t look at what you are going through, but look to God and His grace to take you through.

If you ask the Holy Spirit to give you full revelation about God’s grace and about faith, I know you will be able to truly live the abundant life Jesus died for you to live. The problem is, you are trying to live the abundant life without Jesus and that cannot happen.

I know, been there, done that!! I am not writing to you something I have not lived. For those who do not know me, let me tell you, I never write just to write; I never post messages just to post them or because I have nothing else to do – I always have plenty to do because I am an Author, have an online school, and other ministries so I am busy.

Every message I post, God has spoken to me first, I am the first partaker of these messages; these are the revelations God has given to ME! The ones He says post, I post and the other ones, I don’t post. I know God has me posting the ones that can benefit you too because I am in agreement with God for YOUR life. I want to see you totally set free in every area of your lives; walking in the calling and destiny God has called you to!!!

I will never give you my opinion or write to you out of my head; I say what God tells me to say and I write from the things I have lived through (when God tell me to share it). I can tell you trying to live the abundant life without Christ is not going to work because I tried it. I said I trust God but when the trials and tribulation came, I was worrying, crying and have temper tandems; asking God, “Why did you let this happen to me?” I am so glad for God’s grace, love and mercy because He could have struck me down many times but He knew I did not know any better.

God allowed those things to happen so I could see I was not trusting Him, I was trusting in my money, my Coach purses, my shoes, clothes, and all other material things I HAD to have; my heart was far from God – I was serving Him with lip service only – these things and people had became my god. Then when I could not get the money to buy clothes, shoes, other material things and even people, I had to turn to God and learn how to trust Him; after I repented for having other gods before Him. I learned the hard way that the only one you can trust is God; He will truly be there when everyone else who said they would be there has gone. God is faithful!!!!!

I am not saying there is anything wrong with having the best of everything but we should not put anything above God; we cannot make things or people our god and say we are serving God. Matthew 6:19-21 tells us not to store our treasures here on earth but in heaven and our hearts are where our treasure is.

In the end, I know it is not about material things; I WAS a very material person. God taught me it is not about THINGS but it is about having a relationship with Him, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit; this is all that matters to me now! I am not looking for things or people any longer to satisfy me because they cannot; only God can truly satisfy me!!!

I use to look for people to like me and look to them for comfort but they always failed me. Why? They are fallible just like I am, they do not have the capability to sustain me and God did not want them too. God DO NOT want us looking to people to deliver us, He want us to come to Him! We are to cast our cares on Him not on people!! Please hear me by the Spirit; ask the Holy Spirit to give you interpretation of what I am saying through Him.

God is our God and He does not want us to have any other gods before Him. I made the mistake throughout my life of making people and things my god; I know I said this before but it is important to understand this is wrong!! But I thank God for His grace, love, and mercy for me that He has brought me out of every bondage and I am seeking Him now for a more intimate relationship with Him, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. My ONLY goal now is to please God and not people; I want to move when He say move not to get approval from people!!

In my closing I just want to say, be all that God called YOU to be, live for Him and don’t allow nothing or nobody to pull your heart from God; don’t have any other god in place of God! Embrace Jesus’ salvation by faith, the measure of faith you already have! Use that faith to accept the grace God has given you; nothing is impossible to you if you believe in Him.

Ask God to open the eyes of your understanding and reveal to YOU what He has already done in YOUR life! Get into the God’s Word and learn of Him and He will show you you so you can give yourself away completely to God!!!

 

May God continually bless you and keep you!!

Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks

 

  

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