Joyce Meyer - If Not for the Grace of God: Learning to Live Independent of Frustrations and Struggles

Unless otherwise indicated, all Old Testament Scripture quotations are taken from The Amplified Old Testament (AMP) copyright 1965, 1987 by The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Used by permission.

Unless otherwise indicated, all New Testament Scripture quotations are taken from The Amplified New Testament (AMP). Copyright 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked WORRELL are taken from The Worrell New Testament, A. S. Worrells Translation with Study Notes, copyright 1904, 1980 by Gospel Publishing House, Springfield, Missouri. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Verbatim Scripture quotations are set in bold type.

Copyright 1995 by Joyce Meyer

FaithWords

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

First eBook Edition: November 2003

The FaithWords name and logo are registered trademarks of Hachette Book Group.

ISBN: 978-0-446-54992-9

In these pages I am going to be sharing with you some dynamic statements about grace. Grace is the power of God available to meet our needs without any cost to us. It is received by believing rather than through human effort.

I sincerely believe that if you will take these statements and meditate upon them, they will literally change your walk with the Lord.

In the past several years we have heard a lot of teaching about faith: what faith is, what it is not, and how to operate in it. In spite of all that, to be very honest with you, I am not sure how many believers truly understand faith. If we really understood as much about faith as we claim, we would be seeing much more victory in our daily lives than what we see.

All knowledge of faith must be built upon a clear understanding of grace. One of the things I will be sharing with you in these pages is a prophecy, a word that I received from the Lord in which He defines grace and describes its role and function in the life of the believer.

Actually the grace of God is not complicated or confusing. It is simple, and thats why many people miss it. There is nothing more powerful than grace. In fact, everything in the Bible salvation, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, fellowship with God and all victory in our daily lives is based upon it. Without grace, we are nothing, we have nothing, we can do nothing. If it were not for the grace of God, we would all be miserable and hopeless.

In Luke 2:40 we are told that as a child, Jesus grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of God was upon Him.

This verse contains everything we need to be happy, healthy, prosperous and successful in our Christian walk. We often talk about all the things we need, but in reality there is only one thing that we need, and it is the same thing that Jesus needed: we need to become strong in spirit, filled with Gods wisdom and having His grace upon us.

If you and I will allow the grace of God to have full reign in our life, nothing will be impossible to us. Without that grace, nothing is possible to us.

As Paul wrote to the believers in his day, everything we are and do and have is by the grace of God. You and I are one hundred percent helpless. Although we often confess as Paul did, I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me, that is only true by the grace of God.

In Ephesians 2:10 Paul tells us that we are Gods [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]. The writer of Hebrews tells us our works were prepared for us by God from the foundation of the world (Heb. 4:3). According to these verses, God chose us and laid out our life work for us before we were ever born, before the world was even created. Thats why we must stop talking about our ministry, as though it is something that we undertake on our own initiative or carry out by our own ability. In John 15:5 Jesus said, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

Instead of boasting of our great strength or knowledge or power or accomplishments, we should begin each day by saying, Here am I, Lord, ready for whatever You have for me to do. I empty myself, as much as I know how, to allow Your grace to flow in my life, to cause me to be able to do whatever it is that You desire for me. I cast myself totally upon You. I can be only what You allow me to be, I can have only what You will for me to have, I can do only what You empower me to do and each victory is to Your glory, not mine.

You and I are the vessels through which God does His own works. We are partners with God. What an awesome privilege! He allows us to share in His glory as long as we remember that apart from Him we can do nothing.

If we really believe that God is in complete control of our life, none of the things that go wrong will upset or discourage us, because we will know that through it all God is working out His plan for us. We will not glory in what we are doing for God, but only in what He is doing through us.

We must learn to commit our lives to God, trusting ourselves to Him in everything and for everything, relying not upon our great faith but upon His marvelous grace. It is true that faith is important, but even faith comes to us by grace, as a gift. Everything in our lives depends, not upon our merits or abilities or works, but upon Gods divine willingness to use His infinite power to meet our needs and at no cost to us whatsoever.

That is grace.

If you have needs today and who doesnt? I urge you to cast them upon the Lord. It is fine to have plans and goals and dreams for your life; it is wonderful to have things that you are believing God for, but I suggest that you make a commitment to put all that aside for a moment. Just for the time it takes to read this book, free yourself from all attempts to achieve anything by your own faith and effort. Instead, just relax and place your trust solely upon the Lord. Let go completely and see what dynamic power He will bring to bear in Your life as you simply yield yourself to receive His amazing grace. I believe you will see such a change in your entire approach to life that you will never desire to return to old ways.

Grace, Grace and More Grace

Grace, Grace and More Grace

As we begin our study of the grace of God, I would like to share with you briefly about the condition that my life was in when the Lord first began to give me a revelation about what grace actually is.

At that time I had little revelation about the subject, but as I studied, I was really stirred up in my spirit to believe God for a greater revelation. As you read, I want to encourage you to be in faith asking God to give you a deeper revelation about this wonderful thing called grace.

The Word Is Frustrating

When God first began to reveal to me what grace actually is, I suppose I was about as frustrated as anybody can be. Why was I so frustrated? There were many different reasons for my frustration, but one of the things that was frustrating me the most was, believe it or not, the Word of God.

How could the Word be frustrating me? The reason is simple. As is so often the case with believers, I was trying to