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Sunday, December 28, 2014

Have You Opened Your Two Gifts From God?


Do you have any gifts from last Christmas which you have never opened?  If so, you can send them to me!  The reality is that you probably don't.  Most of us have such anticipation of opening our gifts; we struggle to even wait until Christmas!  One of my own sons always looked at his gifts in stealth before Christmas and then perfectly put the wrapping paper back on them.

Sadly, many of us have two gifts God gave that we have never opened.  These two gifts have been provided for the transformation of our lives and relationships.  Interested in knowing what they are?  According to Romans 5:17, they are abundant grace and righteousness.  "Much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." 

God says if we open these gifts and enjoy them, we will reign in life through our relationship with Jesus.  So, what does this look like in real life?

Abundant grace means the limitless life of Jesus Christ is in us.  He is in us to give us the most satisfying intimacy we can ever experience while on this earth.  One of my first staff members was what is often termed as a "complete Jew" because at 16 he received Christ as His personal Messiah.  However, over time, he fell into deep depression and tried everything he knew to free himself from it.  That all changed when he began to understand and live by God's abundant grace so much so that an elder at his church once told me that he was one of the most changed persons he knew.   That's reigning in life!

The gift of righteousness means that because we are in Christ, God has made us as righteous as Jesus.  He did this by replacing our former identity of being a sinner with a new identity of being righteous.  Romans 5:19 describes it by contrasting the identity we received from Adam with the one we received from Jesus. "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous."   As a result, you are always 100% righteous in your spirit.   

I met Billy at a pastors' retreat.  Just before I took the stage, he asked me what I was going to speak on, trying to decide whether he wanted to stay.  When I shared a little of my message, he did stay and discovered that though he had lived a very fleshly rebellious life until recently, God still viewed him as righteous instead of a dirty rotten sinner.  Before, he had seen himself as unworthy of marrying a godly Christian girl.  Afterwards, he realized that was a lie.  Why?  Because he opened his gift of righteousness by believing he was 100% righteous.  It wasn't long before our Papa brought him a wonderful Christian girl to be his wife.  He is now a full-time student pastor with a very fruitful ministry.

You can also open these gifts today but only through faith.   To open the gift of abundant grace is to depend on Jesus Christ in you, to meet your deep need for intimacy and then to live His life through you.  To open the gift of righteousness is to believe that your identity in Christ makes you as righteous as Him. 

Why don't you open these two gifts right now?  Here is a suggested prayer for you to pray today and beyond.

"Jesus, I know that I have tried many ways to find intimacy but I realize none of those will ever satisfy me. I choose to believe that You are in me to be my eternal companion, offering me intimacy far beyond what any human could ever give.  Though I may not feel it today, I believe You live in me to love me, to talk with me and listen to me.  I am also convinced that without You I can do nothing in any area of my life.  I ask You to fill me with Your love for me and to live Your life through me today in all that I do, especially in my relationships.  Finally, Jesus, I believe when You gave me the gift of Your righteousness it became my righteousness.  This is my true identity regardless of how often I have failed or succeeded.   I choose to believe that I am righteous regardless of my behavior, circumstances or feelings.  Please remind me often to enjoy these two gifts which You gave me.  Amen"

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2014 Mark Maulding

Friday, December 12, 2014

Will God Curse You If You Don't Give?


Most of my life, I heard sermon after sermon that if you don't give, God is going to curse you and you will get a flat tire or something even worse!  But if you give, and it has to be at least 10% or it doesn't count, God will bless you financially in ways you could never imagine.  I heard it so much, I believed it and preached it at the first church I pastored.  The main Scripture used for this teaching is from Malachi 3:8-10 (I think he was the Spanish prophet!  His name sounds like a mariachi band.)

8)"Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings. 9) You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! 10) Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows." 

There are some who will hedge a bit, acknowledging that we are to give by grace, but then make us feel guilty by saying things like this.  "You, who want to say we are under grace in our giving, remember that grace always does more than the law, so you should give more than 10%!"  Sadly, I believed and preached that, for many years, also.

However, when God began to show me His economy in the New Covenant, I began to question all of this teaching. As I kept studying Scripture, God affirmed that He definitely wants us to give, but not because of any of the reasons mentioned above.

Let's step back for a minute and look at those Malachi verses.  It seems like our motivation for giving is primarily fear.  Fear of financial punishment and fear of not getting a financial blessing.   Also, if we look closely at these Scriptures, they precisely fit the arrangement God had with Israel in the Old Covenant whichwas:  "If you obey Me, I will bless you.  If you disobey me, I will curse you." (See Deuteronomy 28.)

Yet, we are New Covenant people who are not obligated to keep the external standards of the Old Covenant Law.  God has placed His Laws on our hearts and minds, meaning He has put His character in us.  This gives us the desire and ability to live from the inside out instead of the outside in.  (Hebrews 10:16)  This applies to our giving as well.   He does not want us to feel obligated to give, or guilty, motivated by Law.  He wants us to give as a result of Who He is in us.  Is our God a generous God? Absolutely!

Most teaching on giving causes people to think that they can only be defined as a "generous person", if they give generously.  The New Covenant, however, turns that definition on its head by defining us by what Jesus has done, not what we do.  This means that we are generous people in Christ, whether we give or not.  It's simply who we are deep within, in our spirit, in our identity in Christ.

A good friend of mine, Pastor Brad Lynch, began teaching his people that they were generous people in Christ.  His encouragement to them was to embrace this and then to live like who they are in.  He didn't set a percentage for them to shoot for; he simply reminded them over and over that in Christ, they are generous.   Then he challenged them to begin asking God how much He wanted them to give.  In other words, he exhorted them to live by grace instead of law in their giving.  Then, an amazing thing happened.  The giving at the church doubled!  Grace does do more than the law, but not because of guilt; rather because of love.

When I was a pastor, I began to understand "grace giving" instead of "law giving".   I stood in the pulpit one Sunday and told the congregation what God had been showing me from Scripture.  I then took them through the Scriptures to unfold it for them.   Then, I paused, told them I was sorry I had taught them "law giving" instead of "grace giving" and asked them to forgive me.  But I didn't stop there.  I challenged them to go home, pray, ask God how much he wanted them to give, and then obey Him.  To be honest, I was taking a huge risk.  This was a brand new church and my salary was directly tied to the weekly giving but I knew I had to be honest and tell them the truth no matter the consequences.

Guess what happened?  The giving increased!  Imagine that, when you take people out from under the law, they are then free to listen to God, and live like who they truly are in Christ!

How about you?  Do you feel condemned, feeling like you never measure up in your giving?  Or, do you give generously but it's out of fear and obligation?  You died to all of that with Christ on the cross according to Romans 7:4.  God wants you to give cheerfully out of Who He is in you and who you are in Christ.  Let go of a law mentality and live from a grace mentality.   Ask Him how much He wants you to give, and then respond by faith.  You will experience joy instead of condemnation. 

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2014 Mark Maulding but please pass it along!