Today’s New Covenant nugget is from 2 Peter 1:2-4
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
The Greek word translated as ‘knowledge’ is ‘epígnōsis’ literally ‘to discern, to recognize and then to acknowledge’… in other words, divine grace and divine peace will be multiplied and will increase exponentially as we ACKNOWLEDGE the Father and Jesus as our source of supply, our source of power and our source of ability.
The more you look to, or acknowledge yourself, other people, education, systems and programs, the less grace and peace, the more that you acknowledge and look to the Lord, the more grace and peace.
To acknowledge the Lord is to give credit to Him… be careful never to take credit for something that the Lord has done… I was testifying to another minister and giving glory to God for the massive world-wide attendance that our services are getting through multi-media. He immediately wanted to know ‘what WE were doing’ to get so many people to join us online… my answer to him was, “it’s all God… we pray, we rely on Him and we place our faith on Him, and then He does it.” The minister acknowledged that briefly and then asked again, “yes, but what are YOU doing?”
There are so many books and teachings that emphasize what WE do and how WE CAN MAKE OURSELVES more successful… there are so many ‘how to’ teachings out there that I cannot really blame anybody for thinking that way. Self-reliance has become the order of the day, and God-reliance is sadly on the decrease in many circles. It is however, as we acknowledge, give recognition to and rely upon Jesus that GRACE and PEACE gets MULTIPLIED to us.
The more God reliance and acknowledgement, the more grace and peace, the more miracles, supernatural ability, signs and wonders… it is that simple! The more self acknowledgement, others acknowledgement, programs acknowledgement… the more that you are going to have to stroke those people and work those programs… your life is going to consist of hard work, leadership, motivation and your ability to inspire (let me assure you, that gets old fast!)
Grace and peace is the alternative to the worldly success formula. Instead of being based on YOU, your ability, your leadership skills, your motivational skills, how driven you are, and how well that you can control and inspire others, GRACE is all about JESUS, His power, His ability, His favor and His UNMERITED supernatural supply.
Proverbs 3:5-7 - “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways ACKNOWLEDGE Him,
and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes… “
Grace gives access to His divine power and His divine nature that gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness, grace give access to every exceedingly great and precious promise in Christ, and grace gives us the power and the ability in His divine nature to escape the corruption of this world caused by evil desires!
In His amazing love, Nick
