Today’s New Covenant nugget is from Ephesians 2:8-9 (TPT)
For by grace you have been saved by faith. Nothing you did could ever earn this salvation, for it was the love gift from God that brought us to Christ! So no one will ever be able to boast, for salvation is never a reward for good works or human striving.
Many times people ask, “how do I know that I am doing the right thing? How do I know that I am not missing God, how do I know that I am praying the right way, or, how do I know that I am not missing something in my walk with the Lord?” The fact is that we do not always do everything right… sometimes we miss God, even though we do our best not to! That is where GRACE and FAITH enter…
As a believer, when you do what you do by faith, GRACE will cover your mistakes!
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word, in other words, faith is fed, sustained and generated by the living Word of God, so when you move forward on the LEVEL of revelation of the Word that you have, you are stepping out in faith, and GRACE will cover what you do not know.
A baby Christian may read, “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.” (Titus 1:15) They may read this scripture and think, “I am not bound by religion, I am born-again and pure in Jesus, so smoking a little marijuana is fine…” so, they step out in faith and smoke some marijuana, maybe even some crystal meth, and GRACE covers them. A week later, they read about “not getting drunk with wine”, and the Holy Spirit convicts them about taking mind altering subsenses… by the same GRACE that ‘covered’ them in their ignorance, they now throw away all of their drugs ‘by grace, through faith’.
Grace covers, it releases unmerited favor, it imparts power, it anoints, it imparts supernatural ability and much, much more!
Doing something ‘BY FAITH’ means that you are placing full reliance on Jesus, not on ‘getting everything exactly right’ in your own ability through your works. Do everything that you can to be led by the Spirit according to the Word that you know, and then step out and act in FAITH, then, even if you make a mistake, or miss God, because of GRACE things will work out as though you did everything ‘exactly right’.
People who do not have this revelation are always holding back, because they want to ‘make sure’ that they do everything exactly right. They have great hearts, but they never do much for God out of FEAR that they may miss it…
Living by GRACE through FAITH is like a ‘trapeze acrobat’ with a safety net… they do amazing things that they would never even attempt if there was no net! When you get a revelation of living by GRACE, through FAITH, you will begin to BOLDLY, confidently and fearlessly do amazing exploits for Jesus… things that you would NEVER otherwise even attempt, if it was not for GRACE and FAITH!
Go ahead and step out of your boat and do some radical things for Jesus, by GRACE through FAITH… Jesus has you covered… He is right there to catch you if you fall, fail, or miss it!
In His amazing love, Nick
