GRACE WHISPERS

The Beautiful Gift Exchange

 

Grace Whispers: The Lord said – Faith is not a magic wand or formula to force Me or manipulate Me to do what you want Me to do. Faith is a gift to you to trust Me… I will do what’s best for you whether or not it makes sense or pleases you.

 

My new book, “My Return Home to Innocence,” (found on Amazon), Chapter 14 entitled, “Happily Ever After.” The chapter describes getting married then praying and believing the Lord for a baby. But, all I got was a big belly and an empty womb. Faith is powerful and can be used for anything we want if we believe hard enough. But, faith will never manipulate our Lord to get what He doesn’t want to do. From my experiences as a baby Christian, I learned to put my faith in ‘something’ rather than in ‘someone,’ the Lord… that was dangerous! Growing up in the “Faith Movement,” we learned to Name it and Claim it, or Blab it and Grab it. We believed we could have anything we desired if we believed hard enough.  We used the Word of God as a magic potion because of the promises written to us in the Bible. The message of the “Faith Movement” has a kernel of truth, the gift of faith is given to us to believe and trust in our Lord. However, the real truth is, Jesus never intended for us to use faith for our purposes to get our wants and needs met. Faith was given as a gift to fulfill His.

 

 

Romans 12:3 -For by the grace was given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. NIV

 

When our Lord gave each one of us a measure of faith, it was intended to exchange His faith with a gift to Him, called TRUST. Our brother Brennan Manning said it this way;

 

“The splendor of a human heart that trusts it is loved unconditionally, gives God more pleasure than Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, the sight of 10,000 butterflies in flight, or the scent of a million orchids in bloom. Trust is our gift back to God, and He finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it.” 

 

Faith isn’t a magic formula, method, or tool to manage our lives. It is a gift from our Lord and in exchange, we give the gift of trust to Him every moment of our lives. Trust shows our Lord how much we believe Him, love Him, and our faithfulness to Him.

 

Another thing I discovered about trust, it is difficult to trust or believe in someone when we don’t know them, right? I know. For many years, I treated my Father and Lord like foreign entities or distant beings up in the sky somewhere. I thought of God as ‘The Man Upstairs.’ What about you? So, to trust in someone who I deem as distant from me, unlike me, unable to understand me, or unable to know me, I kept them both at a distance. But one day I heard the song “God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity.” Wow! They are PERSONS! Really! What is a person?

 

A person is defined by having thoughts, emotions, will, the capacity to reason, make judgments, having the ability to love, care for, and so much more.

 

GOD is the Ultimate Person, even though He is Spirit! Unlike us, He has no boundaries, limitations, or restraints in His ability to express Himself. Jesus and the Holy Spirit showed us and is showing us what our God is like within us. There is no distance ever between us. He is in everything we experience; He sees through our eyes and hears through our ears. He is touched by everything we are touched by. Below are a few scriptures to help us understand the Person of God, found in the Amplified version of the Bible:

 

Hebrews 4:15 – For we do not have a High Priest (Jesus Christ) who is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but One who has been tempted [knowing exactly how it feels to be human] in every respect as we are, yet without [committing any] sin.

 

I Corinthians 1: 3-4 – Blessed [gratefully praised and adored] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of ALL comfort, ⁴ who comforts and encourages us in every trouble so that we will be able to comfort and encourage those who are in any kind of trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

 

Psalm 103:13 – Just as a father loves his children, so the Lord loves those who fear and worship Him [with awe-filled respect and deepest reverence].

 

Galatians 4:6 – And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! (Papa, Daddy) Father!”

 

Ephesians 4:30 – And do not grieve (hurt His feelings, make Him sad, offend) the Holy Spirit of God [but seek to please Him], by whom you were sealed and marked [branded as God’s own] for the day of redemption [the final deliverance from the consequences of sin].

 

It has taken many years to believe what the Bible said about my Father, The Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as being Persons. But once I accepted and believed their words to me, I discovered the life of the Lord within me and began to open up my whole being to them with FULL TRUST and confidence. Now, I no longer believe in the PERSON OF GOD, I NOW KNOW IN WHOM I BELIEVE! I Rest and Trust in who they are within me. They have proven themselves FAITHFUL over and over again.

 

Faith and Trust are beautiful gift exchanges between every believer and their Lord. He provides many opportunities for us to use the gift of faith in order to experience more of Himself, His grace, and life. I am still exchanging, how about you?

During this glorious season, we must never forget, even though our Father has given to us many gifts for us to enjoy… there is none greater in the universe than the Gift of Our Lord Jesus Himself who returned to our hearts and souls to be our LIFE FOREVER! ENJOY HIM!