Today’s New Covenant nugget is from Romans 5:17 (TPT)
Death once held us in its grip, and by the blunder of one man, death reigned as king over humanity. But now, how much more are we held in the grip of grace and continue reigning as kings in life, enjoying our regal freedom through the gift of perfect righteousness in the One and only Jesus, the Messiah!
The revelation on the New Covenant message of grace has set me free. Some do not fully understand the freedom that the message of grace brings.
Some have asked the question, “what is the difference between sitting under the teachings of a ministry with a revelation of grace and a ministry that does not have a revelation on grace?”
Many of my spiritual heroes have taught me on the anointing, faith, prosperity, divine healing, confession, the move of the Spirit, the power of speaking in tongues, the gifts of the Spirit, the renewing of the mind, the power of the Word, the authority of the believer and much, much more… I am forever thankful and forever changed by the revelations of these powerful men and women of God that have imparted such life-changing truths from the Word.
There has, however been a recent, fresh impartation on ‘grace’ and on ‘understanding the New Covenant’. A fresh revelation beyond what that many of our ‘fathers of the faith’ had received. I believe that the Holy Spirit is pouring out this revelation to prepare the church for the coming global awakening. Today’s devotion is part one of an introduction to better understand this fresh move of God.
Here are some of the things that have been imparted concerning ‘the message of grace’.
1. The message of grace brings freedom from dead works…
The Old Covenant Law was based on “if you do this, you will get that…” it was based upon ‘earning’, working for, or doing things to ‘get God’ to release favor, blessings and provision. In the New Covenant of grace there is freedom from trying to earn, or perform to ‘get God’ to bless you. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-9 ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, NOT OF WORKS, lest anyone should boast.’
The message of grace makes it clear that under the New Covenant we cannot work for stuff. All of the teachings that teach all of the things that believers have to do to ‘get God’ to heal us, to prosper us, or to bless us do not have this fresh revelation on New Covenant grace. The bible calls these attempts to ‘earn’, or to ‘qualify’ for what Jesus has already FREELY given us, ‘dead works’.
2. The message of grace brings freedom from the ‘performance pleases God’ doctrine…
The message of grace makes it clear that God is pleased with us as His children, regardless of our performance! It says in Ephesians 1:4-6, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which HE MADE US ACCEPTED in the Beloved.”
As a child of God, you are fully accepted, unconditionally loved, and fully embraced by the Father… you please Him as His child, period! You cannot please Him more by doing more, or less by doing less!
People who do not have this revelation go around feeling condemned, because they may not have done enough, or been ‘successful enough’ and that, because of their ‘failure to perform’ the Lord is not happy with them.
I remember continually feeling like I was not pleasing God, due to not achieving my very high performance goals… I kept apologizing to the Lord for not achieving enough. No matter how well I performed, it was never good enough… I was under continual pressure to do more! As a result, I placed my whole team under the same pressure. One day while lamenting over a Sunday service with a low attendance, I was profusely apologizing to the Lord for our failures as well as my personal failure as a leader, The Lord spoke to me, “You cannot do anything that would make Me approve of you more than I already do, you please Me as much on the day of your greatest failure and worst performance as you do on the days of your greatest achievements… your performance has nothing to do with pleasing Me, you please Me fully, regardless of your performance.”
The Lord set me free that day, and He set our whole church free! The message of grace is all about what Jesus did, not what we do. A performance driven, works based lifestyle leads to bondage, condemnation and sin-consciousness… grace says that when we are weak, He is strong! Grace says that He is the performer, not us… grace tells us to ‘rest’ in, and ‘to have faith in’ His performance. Grace assures you that Jesus is rejoicing over you with singing on your worst day… now, that’s freedom!
Over the next several devotions, we will continue to highlight the blessings in the fresh revelation of the message of grace!
In His amazing love, Nick
