Two main lessons

Grace is all about 2 things which are:

1. Receive it.

2. Believe it. 

     The problem with most of us christians is that we want 

physical action. Religion has made us to believe that we must 

try on our own. We want to use grace and try to physically 

make changes in our lives. What we need to understand is 

that the spiritual changes have already taken place and the 

physical changes will take place naturally in due time; not by 

our own self efforts but by Grace efforts. Now, am I saying 

that we should give up on the things we do and expect Jesus 

to physically appear and get it done for us? Definitely not? It 

is okay to work hard but the problem is that sometimes we 

work too hard and forget about the power of God(the God of 

all possibilities). In other words, we sometimes work too hard 

and completely forget about God's promises for us. 

Remember, the bible says "and my God shall supply all your 

needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus"(Phil 

4:19). So you see, work hard enough but at some point, let 

God take over and trust in him; for he is the creator.  

           If you try so hard in life and you're not succeeding, don't 

worry. Just let Jesus to try for you and you'll be amazed. The 

point I am making is that you need to rely less on your self 

efforts and more on God's Grace efforts. Haven't you noticed 

that when everything feels like it is over(or impossible), that is 

when God gives it to you? Trust in the grace of God by 

simply receiving it and believing it. 

      When you are under grace, you don't have to do anything 

by yourself. Jesus already did everything. All we need to do is 

to receive it and believe it. However, the bible says "…faith by 

itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead"(Jam 2:17). 

Does this mean we have to do something in addition to 

grace? Well, the only 'something' we need to do is to receive 

and believe. So, when the verse says faith should be 

accompanied by action, the action mentioned here means 

'receive' and 'believe'. So the action(works) is a mental thing 

not a physical thing.   
       
       I often hear people say that we need to do both explaining that 

both law and grace go together. I am sorry to say this but grace and 

law can't go together. It is either you are under the grace of God or 

you are under the law of God. Remember, the law was given to 

increase sin. I can prove that claim with the following scripture: 

"..the strength of sin is the law"(1Cor 15:56). The question now is 

"why then did God give the law"? God gave the law to show our 

mistakes(our illness) and then later on provide us with the 

cure(Jesus). The law was never intended to make us good; the law 

was intended only to condemn us of our wrong deeds. On the other 

hand, Grace(Jesus) was intended to make us God. That is the 

gospel truth. So, all we need to do under the covenant of grace is to  

do what again? Receive it and believe it.  
   
       The question now is "if we are not under any law, how then do 

we know what is right"? In other words, how do we know what we 

are supposed to do as children of God? Here is the answer; straight 

to the point - the holy spirit. The holy spirit is God's spirit that 

lives inside of you and it tells you what to do with love and 

harmony at all times. The holy spirit is so soft and gentle; it can 

come in you and leave without you noticing. It is not some strong 

wind or thunder as many of us thought(although it could be as God 

wishes). Most often, the holy spirit talks to you through your heart 

and through your thoughts - I am not saying that everything that 

comes to mind is from the holy spirit; the devil fights for your 

attention most of the time and that is why we must always pray 

and ask God to guide us in making the right decision so that we are 

not misled by satan. The holy spirit tells you the right thing to do 

but in case you do the wrong thing(because you were probably 

misled by the devil), the holy spirit does not condemn you. Instead, 

the holy spirit would have pity on you and help you out of the 

trouble you put yourself in. That is how sweet and kindhearted our 

God is(recall that the holy spirit is God's spirit). For the holy spirit 

to be manifested in your life, you would need to receive and 

believe in God's free gift of grace.   


                                * Holy spirit = Jesus everywhere
                                                                      so, Jesus = grace = holy spirit  *


         Now at this point, some people actually think I am crazy to 

make such a claim - we don't need any law but we need only 

grace(holy spirit). It is not a claim I am making; it is a claim God's 

word is making. Evidences are found in Rom 6:14, Rom 10:4, 

1Cor 15:56, Rom 5:20, 1Tim 1:8-9, Heb 10:1, Mat 5:17; just to 

name a few. Some people still don't believe that the holy spirit 

alone will help us to do the right thing. For that reason, I am going 

to use a familiar story in God's holy scripture(the bible) to explain 

to you how the holy spirit really helped someone even before the 

law was given. But before I get into that, let me remind you that 

even before Jesus came to earth in human form, he was already 

existing in heaven and his spirit(holy spirit) was being manifested 

in the lives of particular individuals - the reason I specified 

'particular' is because I understand that Jesus promised his disciples 

the holy spirit on his way to heaven as narrated in Jn 14:15-31; and  

everyone is now opened to receive the power of the holy spirit if 

only we receive it and believe it. That said, permit me to talk 

about Joseph:

       Joseph was the son of Jacob and great grandson of 

Abraham(father of the jews). He was a man of peace who found 

great favor in the sight of his earthly father(Jacob) and his 

heavenly father(God). While in Egypt, he also found favor in the 

sight of his Egyptian master by name Potiphar. As narrated in Gen 

39:7-20, Potiphar made Joseph overseer in his house and God also 

blessed the house for Joseph's sake. Now, here comes the 

interesting part. Potiphar's wife found Joseph very attractive and 

even asked Joseph to sleep with her. The bible says "Joseph 

refused"(see Gen 39:8). As if that wasn't enough, Potiphar's wife 

went further by grabbing him by his garment and insisting that he 

sleep with her. Guess what? As smart as he is, Joseph left his 

garment in her hand and fled. So, here is my concern? How did 

Joseph know that sleeping with a married woman was wrong? Let 

me remind you that God had not yet given any law at the time 

because the law receiver(Moses) was not yet born at the time. 

Therefore, the holy spirit must have told Joseph not to do it. That 

is how powerful God's spirit is. The fact is that people under the 

law are instead tempted to do what the law forbids; and when the 

fall into temptation, the law condemns them. That is the general 

purpose of the law - to tempt you and then condemn you. But 

Grace(holy spirit or Jesus) empowers you to do good and does not 

condemn you in case you did bad. Grace(Jesus) is very forgiving 

and understanding because he is full of love. So, success in God's 

kingdom is not by our self-effort(law); success is by Grace-effort. 

And the only way to let grace-effort to take preeminence(charge) 

in our lives is by doing only two simple things: receive it and 

believe it.    

                               * Holy spirit = Jesus everywhere

                                                                         so, Jesus = grace = holy spirit  *