Kingdom Building & Giving Grace to Others
Ephesians 4:12
“…for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,”
God is such a miracle. He’s so awesome, powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, always patient, long-suffering, abounding in mercy, and ready to help in our time of need if we only ask. God knows everything; He is working on so many levels for so many people at the same time. He sees the end from the beginning. He makes plans and knows who is going to be at a certain place at a certain time. He has a plan and a purpose for everyone who is a child of God; He always has a task for us to complete to take part with Him in His Kingdom-building work-the work of saving souls!
Even though we think that we are separate from each other, the opposite is true; we are one in Messiah! I finally understand what this means!! When one hurts, the other hurts also, and when one rejoices so does the other. In the same way, when a wife, husband, or brother/sister in the Lord prays for each other, God uses this to accomplish VERY MIGHTY things for His Kingdom and for His Glory! God will use anything if it gets people on their faces worshipping Him! This is what He wants; for us to adore Him as much as He adores us.
Things may seem bleak and scary, but if we just trust that the Lord is already working and has a plan for a higher purpose, to win others to His truth. The reason that we are here on this Earth is to worship and glorify God. Every human being has a desire to worship…God created us this way.
God can even make hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides, wind, rain and floods accomplish His Will to bring others to the truth of salvation that lies in His One and only begotten Son, Jesus. In fact, the Bible talks about this very thing in Matthew 24. Jesus foretold and gave us warning that these things must and will happen. It is out of love that He allows things like this. He allows them in order to save those who are perishing spiritually. “God is not slack concerning His promise, not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance.” Nevertheless, the Bible tells us that not all will repent; many will turn away. This breaks God’s Heart like we will never be able to understand. That is why He has stayed His hand for so long and is so long-suffering; why things have continued on in the world the way they have. God is giving us more time to turn to Him! What a loving and merciful God! His love and compassion for us have no end. “God is love.”
One thing as believers that is true: it’s funny that we all want grace for our mistakes. We all want others to “turn a blind eye” to our short-comings or quickly forgive us. We want others to understand us and our imperfections. We ask for grace, yet do we ourselves give it? Do we give others what we expect of them? I have been so guilty of this myself many times. We are so quick to judge other people, and so quick to slam down the gavel and remit judgment on them. We are so quick to shake our heads at them, and even take part in telling others how “bad” someone else is, when we ourselves have just done something that requires a lot of forgiveness!! This is the exact type of thing that Jesus condemned the Pharisees for, as they were guilty of this. How can we live in God’s Kingdom forever with each other when we cannot live here on Earth together harmoniously? We all make mistakes and no one is perfect.
However, we still need to come to the realization of the weight and seriousness of our own mistakes. Humility and confession is the key. Then when we see someone falling into sin, we need to remember when we too were in the same place.
When we humble ourselves, God is able to work effectively in our lives and use us for His Work. On the other hand, sometimes we don’t realize how selfish we can all be. We are so concerned with how a certain circumstance will directly affect us. We cannot see our own hand in front of our own face! As people that are supposed to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and having Him light our way, we often end up stumbling in the darkness when we are supposed to be showing others that we have the answer; that we have the truth that they are looking for. What we do instead is throw temper tantrums because we don’t get our own way or act without thinking. We need to see the bigger picture of what God is doing. God will always do things in His perfect way and accomplish His will whether we like it or not, whether we understand or not, and whether or not we choose to be blessed by taking part in HIS work. We need to stop focusing on self and be self-sacrificing instead; just as our Messiah Himself gave His own Blood for us to be able to have access to the Father. God has such a bigger purpose for everything that is going on in the universe. As Jesus Himself said, “not a sparrow falls to the ground that your heavenly Father does not know about.” True, the life of a believer is not an easy one; but such a worthwhile journey. God gives us the grace, and His Power through the Holy Spirit to accomplish all that He requires of us, and all that we must do in life. There is just one catch: we must humble ourselves and ask Him! We then need to wait and see His awesome deeds that will surely follow.
God Bless you ♥
Ephesians 4:1-2
“…walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,”Ephesians 4:12
“…for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,”
God is such a miracle. He’s so awesome, powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, always patient, long-suffering, abounding in mercy, and ready to help in our time of need if we only ask. God knows everything; He is working on so many levels for so many people at the same time. He sees the end from the beginning. He makes plans and knows who is going to be at a certain place at a certain time. He has a plan and a purpose for everyone who is a child of God; He always has a task for us to complete to take part with Him in His Kingdom-building work-the work of saving souls!
Even though we think that we are separate from each other, the opposite is true; we are one in Messiah! I finally understand what this means!! When one hurts, the other hurts also, and when one rejoices so does the other. In the same way, when a wife, husband, or brother/sister in the Lord prays for each other, God uses this to accomplish VERY MIGHTY things for His Kingdom and for His Glory! God will use anything if it gets people on their faces worshipping Him! This is what He wants; for us to adore Him as much as He adores us.
Things may seem bleak and scary, but if we just trust that the Lord is already working and has a plan for a higher purpose, to win others to His truth. The reason that we are here on this Earth is to worship and glorify God. Every human being has a desire to worship…God created us this way.
God can even make hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides, wind, rain and floods accomplish His Will to bring others to the truth of salvation that lies in His One and only begotten Son, Jesus. In fact, the Bible talks about this very thing in Matthew 24. Jesus foretold and gave us warning that these things must and will happen. It is out of love that He allows things like this. He allows them in order to save those who are perishing spiritually. “God is not slack concerning His promise, not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance.” Nevertheless, the Bible tells us that not all will repent; many will turn away. This breaks God’s Heart like we will never be able to understand. That is why He has stayed His hand for so long and is so long-suffering; why things have continued on in the world the way they have. God is giving us more time to turn to Him! What a loving and merciful God! His love and compassion for us have no end. “God is love.”
One thing as believers that is true: it’s funny that we all want grace for our mistakes. We all want others to “turn a blind eye” to our short-comings or quickly forgive us. We want others to understand us and our imperfections. We ask for grace, yet do we ourselves give it? Do we give others what we expect of them? I have been so guilty of this myself many times. We are so quick to judge other people, and so quick to slam down the gavel and remit judgment on them. We are so quick to shake our heads at them, and even take part in telling others how “bad” someone else is, when we ourselves have just done something that requires a lot of forgiveness!! This is the exact type of thing that Jesus condemned the Pharisees for, as they were guilty of this. How can we live in God’s Kingdom forever with each other when we cannot live here on Earth together harmoniously? We all make mistakes and no one is perfect.
However, we still need to come to the realization of the weight and seriousness of our own mistakes. Humility and confession is the key. Then when we see someone falling into sin, we need to remember when we too were in the same place.
When we humble ourselves, God is able to work effectively in our lives and use us for His Work. On the other hand, sometimes we don’t realize how selfish we can all be. We are so concerned with how a certain circumstance will directly affect us. We cannot see our own hand in front of our own face! As people that are supposed to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and having Him light our way, we often end up stumbling in the darkness when we are supposed to be showing others that we have the answer; that we have the truth that they are looking for. What we do instead is throw temper tantrums because we don’t get our own way or act without thinking. We need to see the bigger picture of what God is doing. God will always do things in His perfect way and accomplish His will whether we like it or not, whether we understand or not, and whether or not we choose to be blessed by taking part in HIS work. We need to stop focusing on self and be self-sacrificing instead; just as our Messiah Himself gave His own Blood for us to be able to have access to the Father. God has such a bigger purpose for everything that is going on in the universe. As Jesus Himself said, “not a sparrow falls to the ground that your heavenly Father does not know about.” True, the life of a believer is not an easy one; but such a worthwhile journey. God gives us the grace, and His Power through the Holy Spirit to accomplish all that He requires of us, and all that we must do in life. There is just one catch: we must humble ourselves and ask Him! We then need to wait and see His awesome deeds that will surely follow.
God Bless you ♥
Ephesians 4:1-2
