I heard this message from And.rew Wom.mack and I want to share it because I think a lot of people really don’t know how grace and faith impact their life. I get the idea that a lot of people think that to have faith means that you just say you believe and then you sit back patiently and wait that God will move in your life. Or others believe they must do things for God, to prove that they are good people so that God would reward them. I certainly thought that was how it worked for many years, and was guilty of both, first with passivity and later works of the flesh.
When I still did not get pregnant, I made excuses, like “maybe it’s not God’s will for us to have children,” or “maybe God has a different plan for us,” or “God is probably teaching me something…” I did not have any idea how wrong I actually was, and I am so grateful the Holy Spirit gave me revelation on this not long ago.
And.rew Wommack says: “Faith does not move God. All Faith does is appropriate what God has already provided by grace. If grace hasn’t provided it Faith can’t get it. Faith doesn’t move God – God moves totally by His grace, and that means unmerited, unearned, undeserved favour. God provided things for us completely independent of our performance, but does that mean our performance has nothing to do with our receiving? No, you performance does because your performance is how you release faith. But faith just reaches out and appropriates what God has already provided by grace.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV): “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.”
This verse says that you are saved by grace through faith – you aren’t saved by grace alone, and you aren’t saved by faith alone. You are saved by a combination of the two – grace through faith.
1 Corinthians 15:10 (NIV): “10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them— yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
Paul, here, was talking about how he was not even worthy to be called an apostle, because at one time he had actually persecuted Christians and put them to death and he says, “I don’t deserve anything, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his Grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain.” He is implying that just because God extends grace towards you does not mean that you are necessarily going to prosper, because you have to mix faith with that grace, and so therefore he said, “I laboured more abundantly than they all.” In other words it was just totally the grace of God that called Paul to be a Christian and then enter into the ministry instead of killing Christians.
Justice would have demanded that God kill him, but God by grace extended mercy to him, but God’s grace had a greater impact in Paul’s life and through Paul, than many people, because he laboured, he also added to the grace of God his faith, and this is what it’s talking about in Ephesians 2: 8. It is God’s grace that saves us, but your faith is how that grace impacts your life.
Here is another way of saying it: Over in Titus 2: 11 (NIV): “11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” It says that, “the grace of God has appeared to all men,” now if God’s grace alone saved you than every single person would be saved because God’s grace that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Now this right here ought to prove to you that it’s not just up to the grace of God, whether you receive or not. God by grace provides things, but then faith reaches out and takes hold of what God has provided by grace and faith brings what is real by grace into physical manifestation.
God by grace has already accomplished everything He is going to ever do, but it doesn’t automatically come to pass in your life, you have to access God’s grace by faith. Romans 5:2 (NIV): “2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” So you aren’t saved by grace alone, you aren’t saved by faith alone, you are saved by a combination of the two. God, before you ever had a need has already provided everything by grace, but that grace won’t release its power in your life until you appropriate this grace by faith. See, if it’s a true step of faith in God’s grace that it’s already done, then you will see a supernatural supply.
So this scripture I was using of Ephesians 2:8 that says, “you’re saved by grace through faith,” not one or the other but a combination of the two, now if you go back and apply this to Titus 2:11, it says, “the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,” if grace alone saved, if it wasn’t necessary for us to have a positive response of faith on our part, if it was just the grace of God that whoever got saved, then you know what, every single person on the face of the earth would have been saved, because the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared onto all men. But we know through Jesus’ own teaching that He said that there would be more entering in by the broad gate of destruction than onto the narrow gate of everlasting life… Jesus said that the majority of people are not going to receive salvation. Why, because God hadn’t provided it? No, the grace that brings salvation has already appeared onto all men.
The atonement has been made for every single person. In 1 John 2:2(NIV) it says, “2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” Jesus has paid for the sins of the whole world, the grace of God has already paid the debt, the grace of God has purchased salvation for every single person, not only those that God foreknew would accept Him, but every person has had their sins paid for. The grace of God has bought that salvation and appeared onto every person, but not every person receives, as a matter of fact the majority of the people don’t receive, not because God’s grace isn’t there, but because they didn’t put faith in God’s grace. Man that is one powerful truth! This teaching has changed my life.
I don’t know if you are getting this because the things that I’m saying it’s so easy to say but it seems that it’s harder to comprehend because we don’t have a real example of grace and faith in our world. Really the only person who treats us with grace on a consistent basis is God. There is nobody else that does this and so because there is not a role model, a physical person that we can see, most people just can’t grab this.
You have to meditate in these truths, take the word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to just show you these things by faith and you have to grab hold of this but most people struggle with this because it’s just so contrary to their normal existence, but God has already done everything by grace, before you were ever born, Jesus died for your sins, before you ever got sick, Jesus bore the chastisement for your healing in His physical body. You were healed 2000 years ago, before you ever existed, before there was ever a sickness to be healed of. Before you ever have a financial need, God has already made Jesus poor so that we through His poverty might be made rich (2 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV): “9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”)
God has moved through Jesus, through Jesus by His own free choice and volition, He chose to provide healing, prosperity, salvation, deliverance, all of these things. He’s already done it; He’s already released His power, that’s grace – independent of you. It didn’t have anything to do with your goodness or worth because you didn’t even exist when Jesus came and provided all of these things. So does that mean that by grace God has already provided it, that everybody is going to be prosperous or everybody is going to be healthy or everybody is going to be saved, everybody is going to be delivered? No, because you have to appropriate God’s grace by faith.
Now if you can understand this, this is tremendous, because I used to think that, “well I’ve got to speak the word of God, I’ve got to pray, I’ve got to study the word, I’ve got to do these things and when I do enough good things then God sees that and my faith moves God and God will respond and grant me my finances, my prosperity, my healing, deliverance, whatever…” But no, that’s not true – God has already done it and what I have to do is study the word not in order to affect God’s grace or His heart, I study the word to affect me, to make me more sensitive to God.
If you don’t understand what I’m saying right here, if this doesn’t make sense to you, this is one of the reasons that you aren’t seeing the power of God manifest much more. If this is like speaking a different language, it’s not communicating to you, then that means that you haven’t really got a working revelation of the grace of God and you’re still under this mentality that you do one, two and three and then God responds and does this. I’m telling you God does not respond to your faith – here’s another way of saying it – that true faith is not something you do to gain a response from God, but true faith is your positive response to what you believe God has already done by grace.
Now, if you ever get that confused and if you ever start feeling like, man, I’ve got to start confessing the word and I’ve got to pray, I’ve got to go to church, I’ve got to pay my tithes and if I’ll do these things then maybe God will do this… See that’s not true faith, what you call that scripturally is legalism, works mentality and that will not release the power of God, as a matter of fact that’s really about the only sin that will stop the power of God.
Your sin of not paying your tithes and not reading the Bible and lying and stealing and any of these kind of things – that doesn’t affect God’s grace – grace means it’s independent of your performance – but the one sin that will stop the power of God is the sin of self righteousness, the sin of trusting in your works and instead of trusting in the Saviour and looking at what He’s done for you. You are going to try to make it happen, because “I paid my tithes! Now God’s got to give it to me!” That’s not faith – that’s works! That’s legalism and I guarantee you that will stop the flow of God quicker than adultery will.
Now those are some strong statements – I know that I just bumped into some religious traditions, that there are probably people very upset, but that is the absolute Gospel truth… That is the truth! That God loves you and He’s already provided all of these things by grace, but they don’t just automatically come to pass, you need to study the Word, you need to pray, you need to live holy and do all of those things so that you can be in faith, instead of fear and unbelief and then that faith will appropriate what God has already provided by grace.
But don’t ever make the mistake, don’t get this confused and think that, “my actions caused God to do this,” because that is no longer faith, if you think that. God does what He does by grace, your actions have zero to do with what God has provided. By grace God has already provided your need before you ever had one, but faith is just a positive response, it’s things you do in order to receive what God has already done, not in order to get God to do something.
If you ever get confused on that issue, and if you start thinking, “well if I pay my tithes, now God’s got to bless me, because I paid my tithes.” You know what, in a sense you are trying to manipulate, to control God, you’re using faith like a pry bar, a lever on God that will force God to do something and that will stop the power of God in your life in a heartbeat.
You know I get people coming up to me in the thousands saying things like, “well, how come God hasn’t healed me, I prayed, I studied the Word, I pay my tithes I’ve done this and this… How come God hasn’t healed me? ” Well, you told me why God hadn’t healed you, because you didn’t point to what Jesus did for you by grace, but you’ve pointed to what you’ve done and you have the mentality that this is going to make God heal you… “If I do enough right things…”
See you think faith is something you do to move God, I’m telling you that is absolutely wrong. God has already moved by grace, He’s already provided everything and your faith just reaches out and appropriates what God has already provided by grace. This concept is something that I find missing in most people’s life, they just haven’t figured this out, and I’m not trying to criticize anybody else, it took me a long, long time – decades before I got this figured out.”
I can testify that shortly after I got the revelation that Jesus already paid the price, that He already finished it and that I am healed, even though it didn’t feel like that or look like that, and once I started praising Him for healing me and making me pregnant, I actually got pregnant. When I prayed, I didn’t beg or ask for anything anymore, I just thanked Him and praised Him for already making me pregnant, even though I wasn’t yet. Every time I said things aloud I spoke about how it’s all been done, how Jesus work is finished! I totally assumed that I would get pregnant, and that it would happen soon.
The month we found out I was pregnant – that whole cycle – I just knew in my heart that it would work, because it was so much more than a belief by then… It was reality – I knew Jesus paid the full price for me, by grace. I wasn’t bothered much by what I had to do, and I was totally waiting in anticipation for the proof of what I believed, that I would get a positive pregnancy test. I was almost like a child before his birthday, counting the days before I could test and to get proof of God’s mighty works.
Oh i loved and needed this.
Found your website a couple of days ago and I started reading from January 2011.
I just want to say THANK YOU. Glad you got your “blessing”.
I have already sent the link to 2 dear ladies whom I believe like me, need to read what you have in here.
God bless you and your family.