We're entering into a level of rest; of the Father's rest. Rest from our own works and striving and enter into His rest. I'm learning that God's love and grace extends to everyone; and that these are just different dwelling places that people have either settled in or are moving through one or the other.
It's moving into different rooms, different dwellings, and you grow into them naturally in the Lord. He brings you through them. Into these different dwelling places by His grace and His love. He draws you into it. We're learning to live in levels. We're learning to, to function with the body of Christ.
We have a tendency and I think we all have this tendency, we want to help people. But sometimes our help is not helping. . . Because I've got to walk through this to become strong in the Lord . I think everyone needs to do that at a certain place. They have to, you have to be able to stand in His presence and stand strong in His presence.
The thing of love and grace and trust, trusting Him. There must be a love and a trust in the Father.
. Grace is a gift from God. . Who are we to judge the amount of grace that somebody's walking in? I look at grace as something personal, very personal between me and the Father - the amount of grace that I'm walking in.
Now, the key is, if you're walking in grace, how responsible are you because you receive that grace? That's the other side of grace. What are you doing with the grace that was shown to you from God? When we enter into His rest we're entering into His grace. What is the number one enemy of grace? Division, if we're divided, it's very difficult to move into the grace of God.
It was made real to me the other day. Joshua stood before God in filthy rags, and they took off his filthy rags and he stood before God. And they came and they clothed with bright garments from on high. That was the dressing of you in the grace of God. And what do we have to share? We have to share that grace that was ministered to us.
Everything is the Lord working in us for His good pleasure. It's the Lord. It's not individuals. It's the Lord moving through His family and ministering. It's the Lord that's doing this. It's not us. Faith, or grace, or love, it's not us. . It's God working in us for everything. When you start seeing that, more and more, you relax because you know the whole thing was God.
If anything good came out of my life, that was God. Because I did not produce any of that. If we think that there was anything that we produced, we still aren't there yet, because He is all and in all.
How do I prepare to receive His grace? If I say, Lord, give me Your grace. I've got to humble myself. And that's why grace is so personal.
The humility that you walk in is by the grace of God. It has to be He walks you through that experience, that impartation. We can't do it. There's no good thing that dwells within us. He has to walk us through the impartation. It's Him that's working in us, and He's creating in us the humility, the love, the authority that He wants to move through.
There's no limitations on what God can do. It's up to us to give Him a voice. It's up to us to give Him, an abode, a place where He can live.
Every time I think I gotta figure it out, God comes along and try and plays with my figuring out and then says, son, this is how it is. It makes things so exciting. It's better than Christmas morning and opening the presents. It's just beyond human experience. It's got to be in the spirit. And that's what we're becoming in more and more spiritual beings. Now, is there joy in the spirit? You better believe it. That's the, one of the biggest rewards that God handed out in the Bible. Peace and joy. All this kind of stuff. Boy, am I ready for that. Amen.
