How To Receive Grace
When You Are Weak, He Is Strong
During one of the darkest hours of his life, the apostle Paul received a revelation of God’s strengthening grace that revolutionized his thinking and his life. After he had sought the Lord in three seasons of prayer, beseeching Him to cause the debilitating thorn in the flesh / messenger of Satan to depart from him, the Lord answered. But rather than delivering Paul from his situation as he had prayed, the Lord delivered to Paul a revelation of His strengthening grace! This revelation of the available provision of divine help for his time of need revolutionized Paul’s life. He began immediately to rejoice, knowing that in his weakness, the power of Christ would rest upon him and knowing that even when he was weak in himself, he could be strong in grace!
I believe it was his own revelation of strengthening grace and his own experience of the Lord’s strengthening grace that inspired Paul to exhort the Ephesians to, “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” and to exhort Timothy to, “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Paul not only understood how difficult life could be; he was also aware of the enabling power of grace. And he wanted the Ephesians and Timothy to know about and to participate in the strengthening grace of God!
Receive His Power
In both his letter to the Ephesians and his letter to Timothy, Paul exhorted them, “be strong.” When we read those words in the English language, they sound like a personal challenge; a challenge to “man up” and “toughen up” and “stand strong.” When we dig a little deeper into the Greek language, however, we find something a little bit different. The English words “be strong” come from the Greek verb endunamoo. This word is made up of the Greek word en, which means, “in,” and the Greek word dunamis, which means, “inherent strength, the power to perform, the strength of armies.” The verb endunamoo, then, means, “be inwardly strengthened, receive strength.” Paul’s exhortations, then, were not, “be strong in yourself,” but were exhortations to, “receive strengthening.”
The fact that Paul exhorted the Ephesians and Timothy to receive strengthening reveals that there was something they had to do. What was it they had to do? They had to position themselves to receive! They had to do something like the woman with the issue of blood did when she heard that Jesus was a healer. She located Him and then she touched Him. And when she touched Him, His power flowed to her and she received that healing power in her body! Too often we think that God is just going to do whatever He decides to do. But imagine the final outcome of the woman with the issue of blood if she thought that way. She would have died! Paul revealed to the Ephesians and to Timothy that there was something they should do; they should position themselves to receive strengthening grace from the Lord just as the woman with the issue of blood positioned herself to receive healing power from the Lord.
Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace
You see, although we should always do what we can to muster up our strength and to stand as strong and unmovable as we can, we will all come to life situations that are simply too much for us. The pressure is too heavy, the winds are too strong, the challenge is impossible. In these times when we are overwhelmed and not capable to withstand anymore, we often think we have only two options. We think that we either have to Give Up or we have to Escape the situation. But Paul’s words to the Ephesians and to Timothy reveal that we have another option; a third option! That option is to “be strengthened!” That option is to, “come boldly to the throne of grace,” and to, “humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand” because, “God gives grace to the humble.” We have the option to, “wait upon the Lord and renew our strength.”
When we position ourselves to receive the strengthening grace of the Lord in our inner man, we can experience what Paul experienced at his first trial when, “the Lord stood with me and strengthened (endunamoo) me!”
To be empowered in your inner man, two things are essential:
You need to know that God has made available to you a provision of His supernatural power called Strengthening Grace. It is one of the things He has, “prepared for them that love Him.”
You need to position yourself to receive that grace. In the same way that electrical power is available for you at the electrical outlet in your home, strengthening grace is available for you from the Lord. To get electrical power out of the wall, you have to plug in! And to receive strengthening grace from the Lord, you have to plug in!
So Plug in, Receive His grace, be Empowered in your inner man, and Stand, Stand, Stand!!
Guy Duininck earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethel College and attended Rhema Bible Training Center. Since 1981, Guy has traveled throughout the world teaching in local churches, Bible Schools and Ministers’ Conferences. With a strong emphasis on developing skilled spiritual leaders, strong local churches, and mature believers, Guy has significantly aided the Body of Christ in the places he travels. Guy has written five books, recorded six albums of his own music, and produced a number of audio teachings.
You can purchase his latest book, "Must We Confess Our Sins?" at www.MustWeConfess.com
For more teaching from Guy, follow him here on his Facebook page