Dear People Who Keep Company With God,

Years ago Becky saw a River in a dream and described it like this, “The River is so beautiful it takes your breath away, it is a very deep grace river photo sapphire blue color.  It has this power to draw you into it, but it is also very dangerous.”

It was right after that dream that we began our journey into a greater revelation of grace. We didn’t know it at the time, but that River would become integral to our identity, direction and destiny. It woke up something in our spiritual DNA.

Remember Jesus himself had spoken of this. He said that if anyone came to Him, he would put in them “a well of living water” (John 4:14). It will be resistant to circumstances, could not be touched by anything outside. He also spoke of “rivers of living water” that would flow from within (John 7:38). In another place, he describes this as “abiding in Him.” He said without this, “you can do nothing” (John 15:5), i.e., nothing significant, nothing worthwhile, nothing lasting.

Here are a few things I love about the Grace River.

Grace comes from the throne of God and is of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1). It gives us access to the Tree of Life (Rev. 22:2).

The writer of Hebrews calls it, the “Spirit of Grace” (Heb. 10:29). I like to call it the Grace River because the life of Christ is so continually imparted to us, like a river without end. Christ clothes himself with our personality and lives his life again in us.

One of the beautiful things about grace is as a believer in Christ; we are already in grace, standing in grace, living in grace (Rom. 5:1-2). He put us there. We just do not always recognize it because the knowledge of grace comes by revelation.

The revelation of grace is progressive. It is not a one-time thing (2 Peter 3:18). Over your life, you will come to many new understandings of grace. I believe grace is infinite (1 Peter 4:10). It is an inexhaustible river.

I describe grace as walking in harmony with God. There is an agreement in my heart with God. My heart is in tune with His heart. I am in rhythm with Him. I am not trying to play another tune.

When we get out of rhythm with Him, there is more frustration, anxiousness and striving within. It feels like everything is forced. The Message Bible calls it the “unforced rhythms of grace.” (Matt. 11:28-30)

When you go through trying and difficult times, you can get thrown out of the rhythm of grace in your life. Grace is a person, so the first thing is to get back to Him, not back to what you were doing or the way things were.

Because grace is at the heart of Christianity, it is subject to being twisted, perverted and abused (Rom. 6:1-2). But so can love, electricity and automobiles. Never let the abusers or naysayers stop you from being a grace person.

Since that initial revelation of the Grace River, we have sought to cultivate an atmosphere and culture of grace in our church. We call it the Father’s living room. In doing this we subjected ourselves to change. Grace is living and does not stay the same. It is consistent, but flowing, growing and expanding. We discovered that we stop growing in grace when we begin to resist change in our lives.

Grace has taught us one of the great lessons of the New Testament is that God is doing new things on earth. If we measure what God is doing by what God was doing then, we will miss what God is doing. God Himself never changes, but what He is doing and what He emphasizes changes.

Grace does not ask God to bless what you are doing it rather ask God to show you what He is doing and allow you to enter into what He is doing. Then you can ask what you want.

The very last sentence written in the Bible is a blessing of grace. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” (Rev. 22:21) He saves the best wine for last! 

Many Blessings, BW

 

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