The Grace Race

The “Grace Race”...

Mary Ann Wray

A prophetic perspective…

With its flaws and imbalances, I believe the current Grace movement is being used by God to strip from the church every form of religiosity, a Pharisee spirit and demands of the law to be perfected, versus The power God’s grace gives us to walk in the newness of life as God affords us through the New Birth.

Now before you get your knickers in a twist, please allow me to explain LOL

As such, I believe Jesus is preparing His ekklesia with a new wine skin for the new wine. Right now it may not look too good to the natural eye, but we need to see what God is doing through a prophetic perspective or else we ourselves can fall off the track of his amazing grace and get into a works-based legalistic mentality. That can’t save anybody. It only brings further condemnation, the same way a gospel of inclusion does. They both produce the same fruit!

Jesus will bring his bride back into balance; he always does with every move of God. He’s already doing it so can we just relax a bit and trust Jesus who is the "Head" of the Church bring things in order?

Just look at history...with every move of God, all the way back to the time of reformation (and even the early church that was being threatened by Judaizers) there has always been some amount of error and imbalance. It doesn’t upset Jesus like it does us! I think what is upsetting him the most right now is how the church is taking sides and entering into this huge mud slinging contest from one side to the other creating confusion and division!  It’s almost like a tug of war and a political spirit has entered into the church where we have the "Grace side" and the "Law side" pointing fingers at each other much like the left and the right in the political arena. Can we stop it already?

Where is the marvelous middle? I’ll tell you where I believe it is. It’s the glorious middle ground that brings peace with God and peace with Man...it’s was a old rugged cross set on a hill called Golgotha “the place of the skull.” We need to crucify our opinions and ideologies and lift up Jesus once again and the complete atoning work of the cross. Preachers, we really need to get back to preaching the glorious gospel of Christ.

The gates of hell cannot prevail against his ekklesia! Heresy, error, and imbalance hasn’t destroyed her yet and it won’t until his return - praise God!

We need to focus on HIS truth and speak it in a spirit of love and compassion. We need to stop with the condemnation. Did we forget that his amazing grace saved us when we were drunkards, adulterers, homosexuals,fornicators, liars, and indulging in all forms of wickedness and sin that’s unmentionable?

Jesus did not win sinners through condemnation; he won them by writing sins in the sand (not stone), giving the Pharisees a chance to have their sins forgiven or throw a stone themselves, rescuing women who were ready to be stoned, preaching the good news to a five times divorcee who was currently living with a man unlawfully, correcting his disciples for wanting to call fire down from heaven, and the list goes on.

Jesus was full of grace, truth, love, signs and wonders. The condemnation is this: when men choose darkness over light that is their choice and their condemnation. He’s given us a free will all the way back to the garden, and it’s up to us to use it to choose wisely or not. He doesn’t even force or threaten us: He just gives us a choice through warnings but it’s up to you and I if we will believe or not. And I’ve got more good news for you ....though you may not believe the first time you hear, He’ll keep knocking. Even though you may not hear correctly the first time He will keep knocking. He loves humanity that much! So relax preachers... you are not the Messiah! You’re just one of many messengers! We just have to make sure our heart is right (not full of pride) and we're preaching the message of the cross with the right spirit. That goes for me too!

The apostle Paul (Saul) heard the gospel many times. He was of the Sanhedrin so he heard and saw everything Jesus did! At first he persecuted the church and didn’t believe the words of the Messiah but look what happened to him!

Only God knows when that window of grace will close for anyone. Why are we so quick to condemn and give up on people? Could it be that we have been bitten by a religious asp? Could it be that we have forgotten who washed our sins away?

Our job is to preach the truth, (some refer to it as the whole counsel of God). However, I’m glad you think you know what it is in it’s entirety because even Jesus didn’t know certain things nor did he share certain things with his disciples because they were not ready to receive them-smile.

I believe some things are and remain hidden for certain reasons and are reserved for certain seasons. It’s Holy Spirit’s certain job to unveil the truth from glory to glory...His truth (not facts) will never contradict his word but as time goes on we will find hidden gems and treasures concealed not only in Old testament scriptures but in New Testament verses that we didn’t have a full understanding of until it’s unveiling or God just unpacks new layers of revelation in them. Glory! We never stop learning of the glory of Christ! In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge!

I believe his current council in this dispensation of Grace in its simplest form is this: God is love and light and Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit and went about doing good, healing all manner of diseases, casting out devils, and preaching the kingdom. If you believe, you will be saved. If you don't believe in Christ that is the condemnation! Guess what? He hasn’t changed!

We make it to be so complicated sometimes and in so doing the gospel has become unintelligible to people as to how and if they can even be saved from their sins!

Jesus is in the redemption not the condemning business. When are we going to understand that? He will come back as judge at His return at the Judgment Seat of Christ,  but that time hasn’t come  yet. He is still not willing that any would perish but that all would come to the saving knowledge of Christ.

Once your dead that’s it. Hopefully you’ve repented and accepted Christ. Hopefully you purpose in your heart to live for Him and trust Him every day despite your trials and troubles knowing that He gives you His unlimited grace to live an overcoming life! Otherwise, there is condemnation ahead for all of us but it doesn’t have to be that way my friend!

Christ died for our sins. When we repent and turn away from our sins, which by the way includes our own self righteousness or any form of religious righteousness according to the law or our own good works, we become Born Again in the spirit!

Therefore, we must acknowledge the fact that Jesus died in our stead, while we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Next we should get water baptized in His name,get Baptized with the Holy Spirit and begin to be discipled and learn to do the things He's called you to do. and do them in His might and power!  Now we’re living His life in us out loud! That’s the good news of the gospel of the Kingdom!

Men’s initial response to the good news of the gospel is between them and God-not us. Our responsibility is to preach Christ, Him crucified and risen from the dead. Paul said I have come to know nothing among you except Christ crucified. He was a Pharisee, a doctor of the law and had probably more degrees behind his name then a thermometer. But all of that was stripped from him and all he cared about and all he preached about was Jesus Christ. When are we going to get back to preaching Jesus???

The new wine that Jesus is wanting to pour out is His wine of joy and gladness! He wants to change bitter religious water into New Covenant wine! He’s wanting to pour this new wine into yielded men and women who are fed up with religion and simply want to see people saved, heeled, and delivered; not judged! Ha ha ha!

“We will go out with joy and be led forth with peace and the mountains and the hills will break forth into singing. There will be shouts of joy and all the trees of the field will clap their hands!” Isaiah 55: 12

Do we have faith enough to believe that or are we going to focus only on the wickedness and sin around us that Jesus prophesied would be? Does that change the fact that he loves humanity desperately,or that there isn’t a harvest prepared before his return? Whose report will we believe?

To reap the harvest of souls before his return will require great but child like faith and Holy Spirit joy that only comes from really knowing Jesus. His joy is our strength.

Selah and yours in the journey Mary Ann (a voice in the desert called planet earth)