Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat (25 page)

Let’s come back to what I mentioned earlier about the importance of being rooted and involved in a local church. As we saw in the previous verse, people transformed by the gospel of grace are zealous for good works. First let me establish that you don’t have to serve as a volunteer in a local church to be favored and loved by the Lord. I tell all the people who volunteer in my church to serve out of rest. It is not an
obligation but a privilege to serve in our Father’s house. And we serve not as servants with a slavish mentality, but as sons and daughters with the spirit of sonship.

When you value the person of Jesus, you value what He values. Our Lord greatly values the local church. His Word tells us, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:24–25). The grace revolution is not an isolated experience. It is best experienced in the context of a local church where there is fellowship with true possessors of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:6 tells us that by “the glory of His grace… He made us accepted in the Beloved.” It is by His unearned, undeserved, and unmerited favor that we have been made accepted in the Beloved, Jesus. This is true for every believer. If you are a believer, then by God’s grace, you are accepted in the Beloved. The Greek word for “accepted” here is
charitoo
, which means “highly favored.”
⁵
Our Father in heaven wants you to know that you are
charitoo
, that is, highly favored in the Beloved. Joseph Henry Thayer, a well-known American Bible scholar, goes on to expound that
charitoo
also means “to compass with favor.”
⁶
In other words, we are
surrounded
with favor. This is our position in Christ: highly favored and surrounded by favor by the glory of His grace!

Now let me show you another Scripture, which says, “Wherefore we labor, that… we may be accepted of him” (2 Cor. 5:9
KJV
). We have just established that by God’s grace, we are accepted in the Beloved without labor. So what does this Scripture mean? The word “accepted” here is not the Greek word
charitoo
. It is another Greek word,
euarestos
, which means “well pleasing.”
⁷
Hence the New King James translation says, “Therefore we make it our aim… to be well pleasing to Him.”

Now,
euarestos
is not about your position in Christ.
Euarestos
(in 2 Cor. 5:9) refers to something that you do that brings your Father in heaven great delight and joy. In Christ the Beloved we are already highly favored, but there are things we can do to glorify and be extra pleasing to our Father in heaven. Let me illustrate my point: Our children Jessica and Justin are always highly favored in Wendy’s and my hearts. There is nothing they can ever do to change that position. It is a position anchored on their identity as our children. Yet there are times when they do something special for us that brings us great delight and touches our hearts. In those moments not only are they highly favored, they are also extra well pleasing to us. Do they have to do those special things to earn our love? Absolutely not! They are already loved and highly favored in our hearts. In fact, their desire to do something special for us stems from their having confidence in our love for them. They desire to please us because they know just how much we already love them.

It is the same in our relationship with our heavenly Father. When we know how much we are loved and are established in His grace, we want to do good works to bring delight to Him. The apostle Paul, who was zealous for the gospel and good works, said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of
God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15:10). Paul, who had a revelation of God’s grace, didn’t become a lazy, passive Christian. On the contrary, he worked harder than all the other apostles for the gospel’s sake, and he attributed all his ministry success to God’s grace in his life. That, my friend, is
euarestos
(well-pleasing good works) in action.

Everything we do today must flow from the lavish supply of God’s grace. Our giving has to be out of His grace. Our serving has to be out of His grace. When His grace is our delight, we can’t help but labor more abundantly and bring delight to our Father’s heart. This was the experience of Jayden, who lives in the Philippines. Where he once struggled to please God, discovering how beloved and highly favored he is in Christ has turned him into a joyful and unstoppable evangelist of the goodness and grace of God:

My dear friend, this is the grace revolution that we have been talking about in this book! It is a revolution that begins from the inside and flows to the outside. When a believer is established in just how
charitoo
—beloved, highly favored—he is in Christ, his outward response is
euarestos
(well-pleasing) actions. He can’t help it—he is just inwardly motivated to do things that glorify the Lord and bring Him great delight.

Those who have been transformed by the gospel of grace from the inside out and who have a revelation of how
charitoo
—how deeply loved, highly favored, and greatly blessed—they are in Christ have a desire to be
euarestos
(well pleasing) to God in their daily lives. Not only are they set free from the bondage of legalism and sin, they also desire to bring great glory, honor, and delight to their Father in heaven with good works.

The Bible tells us, “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord” (Col. 3:20). The words “well pleasing” here is
euarestos
. Children, when you obey your parents, it is well pleasing to the Lord. You will never lose your position in Christ, but your obedience to His Word brings great delight to Him. My daughter, Jessica, will never lose her position of being highly favored by me. She will never lose that place of closeness with me. Even when she does wrong, or makes a mistake, she will never, never,
never
lose that place of closeness with me. In fact, that’s the time she needs me the most.

Religious teachings tell you that when you make a mistake, God is disappointed and angry with you. Do such teachings make you want to draw near to your Father in heaven, or to run further away from Him? There are people who can’t believe that we are always loved and highly favored by the Father. They question, “When we fail, isn’t God disappointed with us? Won’t He withdraw His love from us?”

My dear friend, when the father saw the prodigal son coming home, before his son could utter one syllable to confess his mistake, the father ran to his son with all his might, embraced him, clothed him, put a ring on his finger, gave him new shoes, and threw the biggest
party in town to celebrate his return. Does that sound like a father who was disappointed and withholding his love from his son?

Now take a moment to think about this. If the prodigal son had thought that his father was hard, harsh, judgmental, angry, and disappointed with him, would he have considered heading home? Of course not! According to the law of Moses, the father had the legal right to have the prodigal son stoned to death (see Deut. 21:18–21). If the son had thought that his father was judgmental and sure to punish him with the law of Moses, he would never have considered returning home. In fact, he would have run in the opposite direction!

God wants every person to run to Him, not away from Him. That, I believe, is why God is causing this grace revolution to sweep across the world. Come on, let’s tell the world about the loving, caring, smiling Father Who runs to those who have failed. Let’s tell the world to stop running away from Him and to run TO Him because He is waiting. Waiting to embrace them. Waiting to restore to them all that they have lost and more. Waiting to unreservedly and unconditionally lavish His love on them. He is not angry or disappointed with them, and He is not holding their mistakes against them (see 2 Cor. 5:19). A thousand times no! His loving heart has been yearning for their return. Let’s tell the world that now is the time for them to come home to the Father’s love!

I
n this chapter I want you to see that your words are powerful. What you speak over yourself can change your life. Allow me to draw your attention to a weighty and important Scripture in the New Testament, in which the apostle Peter quotes from a psalm of David, saying, “For ‘He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit’” (1 Pet. 3:10).

God’s Word is so beautifully clear. If you desire to love life and see good days, all you need to do is to refrain your tongue from speaking evil. It sounds simple. In fact, you may even contend that it is
too
simple. How many of us truly believe that our tongues wield so much influence and power over our future and even our day-to-day living?

The tongue seems minute and insignificant compared to the rest of our body. How can such a little organ, which doesn’t have any skeletal
support, have such a direct and pronounced effect on our future? Yet the Bible reminds us not to despise the tongue simply because it is small, and compares it to the rudder of a fully rigged sea vessel to help us appreciate the power of our words: “Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things” (James 3:4–5). In the book of Proverbs, Solomon also declares, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Prov. 18:21). It is evident that God does not want you to underestimate the power of your words!

God wants you to see and experience many good days. Ephesians 6:13 says, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.” Notice that the Bible talks about an evil
day
—singular, but good
days
—plural! We all know what an evil day is. It’s a day when anything that can go wrong goes wrong. You wake up in the morning and have a horrible headache. Your child is down with a bad cold, your car won’t start, and you make a big mistake at work. Been there before? And an evil day isn’t necessarily a twenty-four-hour day; it can also be a difficult and challenging season. But I have good news for you—it doesn’t have to be a protracted season. It’s one evil day versus many good days, Amen! Let’s believe God together for many good days! The only thing that God wants us to remember in order to see many good days is to refrain our tongues from speaking evil. That’s how powerful our words are.

Now let’s take a step back to examine the scriptural context of 1 Peter 3:10:

Notice that Peter quoted the verse in the context of our relationships with people. As you have been transformed by the gospel of grace, God also wants to transform your relationships with people. These people would be your spouse, kids, parents, relatives, friends, colleagues, employers, and business associates, and any other person you come in contact with!

I believe that people who have been touched by the grace of God are carriers of His Spirit of humility and graciousness. We are not people who render evil for evil, reviling for reviling. We are people called to be a blessing everywhere we go. That’s the grace revolution in action.
Our Lord Jesus first transforms your relationship with God from the inside out, and that grace that you have experienced overflows into all your earthly relationships like a mighty tidal wave.