God’s Grace makes us receive far more than we can achieve. God’s Grace confers on us more than we can conceive. Grace is the influence of God in us for the ability to live beyond our capacity! The Zondervan encyclopedia of Bible described grace as
“a dynamic force that does more than affect our standing with God by crediting us with righteousness. Grace affects our experience as well. Grace is marked always by God’s enabling work within us to overcome our helplessness.” Two relevant synonyms of “helplessness” are powerlessness and weakness.
In 2 Corinthians 12:9A, God said “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So, by simple extrapolation GRACE is EMPOWERMENT.
In a survey involving more than 5000 born-again Christians on the definition of grace only 2% of the respondents defined grace as God’s empowerment. This result is a portrayal of how we have either drifted from or lost the full understanding of the primary character of Christian life. “By grace are you saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). I strongly believe we have entered a season of great Power of God; the Power of His Grace, and anyone who wants to live the fullness of God’s potential must activate and REST in this true grace.
The way to activate it is to believe and ask! In Genesis 45, Joseph’s emotional meltdown while revealing his identity to his brothers caught the attention of Pharaoh, who made the following promise to Joseph; “Tell your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land.’ “You are also directed to tell them, ‘Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come. Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours.’” (Genesis 45:17-20). Though Joseph as the Prime Minister of Egypt had resources to care for his father’s families, and though the king had promised the best quality of life for them in Egypt, Joseph did not only believe, he asked for the redemption of the king’s promise by grace.
You may say when did Joseph ask for grace? Please see it in Genesis 47:1-2; “Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.” He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh.” He presented five out of eleven bothers because five represents Grace. The king granted full favor; “Your father and your brothers have come to you, and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen.”
I like to amplify one of the king’s lines; Don’t even think about expending your own resources, because the best of all Egypt will be yours. You may have raised the dead, turned water into wine or walked on water before, this is where to say ‘do not focus on your past accomplishments or lack of it,’ God wants more for you, because His grace is not only redeeming grace, it is also protective and providential grace. Look around you, you will see there are greater works to do, and God is not done with you yet! I pray that you will rest in the Power of His grace in Jesus Name.
For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift. (John 1:16)
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
May grace (God’s favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue).
By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:2-4)