Grace and Truth

Introduction 

My dear friend and co laborer for Christ, Pastor Rob Cunningham who serves in Wagga Wagga, Australia, wrote the forward to my book: Grace and Truth…and I thought a slight modification of his words graciously provided in my forward would be a great way to start this month plus blog. I hope you agree.

Dr Stan

 One of the things I have noticed in Western Christianity has been a lack of depth and maturity in its teaching, and in many ways this is the blight on the people of God. To me one of the keys to the Kingdom is capturing who we already are in Christ, which has been established and sealed forever in heaven by the finished work of Calvary.  Jesus has forever secured the people called by His name as “The Royal Priesthood”.   Coming to terms with this is not only the believer’s right but also the way to living in victory.

After being saved, through a wonderful work of grace in my heart, and having full assurance of faith through that same grace, I felt that I needed to do something and earn my salvation. How ridiculous! This led me to “professional” Christianity, where I did things because I knew they were the right things to do. Further, my behaviors seemed to get the right responses from my peers and the people of faith.  In so many ways this led me to a faithless Christian walk, rather than into whom Christ had sealed me to be. It seems that this is the way for believers.

But being a person with an inquisitive heart with a stubborn Irish background, it caused me to reassess who I am in Him.  I realize that He has cancelled the written code of the law that separated me from Him, and has made me alive in Him in spite of errors in my walk. When we, as children of the living God, get a hold of the fact that nothing can, has, or will separate us from God, we can really start to live by faith and take risks because we realize God will not punish us for trying.

I remember when my son and daughter were first learning to walk. They would stagger a few steps and then stumble, grasping for anything that was close as they ungraciously fell to the floor, dragging with them whatever their little hands could take. Do you think for a moment that I leapt to my feet and chastised them for trying and making a mess of it. No. I would simply smile and encourage their next adventure. To think that our heavenly Father, who not only gives love but IS love, would do anything different is preposterous. I now know that He is beside me in all that I do, encouraging those leaps of faith that I undertake.

 In Galatians 3: 29 it says,

“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”

 The least of these words in the previous scripture are two of the most important words, IF and THEN. If we are Christ’s then we are Abraham’s seed, and we inherit everything that He inherits from the Father. Incredibly, the most important relationship for the people of faith is not them and their spouse or church or even with God.  It is the relationship between Jesus and His Father, because we inherit everything in that relationship. To understand and comprehend the fullness of this relationship may require significant relearning and adjustments of the beliefs we have held dear.  We may even have to move beyond what we have felt secure with in the past. To know this truth by experience leads us to realize that faith is never passive but active. It takes us into a new realm of living that overtakes all the other facets of life. From a review of the life of Abraham we can see that it was in an act of obedient faith, whereby he left what he knew and entered into the unknown where God met him and he was changed. Our belief and belonging are no different. It is in going and obedience that God meets us at every turn.  Our salvation and rest is not based upon rights and wrongs but upon belief and belonging. Living in the realm of the supernatural is based on an understanding of what Christ has done for us – in other words, becoming what we already are! You may feel like you are in many ways like Gideon or David “The least of your tribe,” but it makes a difference to the world when we know who we are and who stands with us as we walk the walk of faith.

It is with great delight that I write this for my dear friend and brother, Dr Stan DeKoven. He has captured succinctly and fluently the Grace and Truth of God’s Kingdom in such a way that if the reader takes a hold of it by faith, they can take a step closer to being who they already are!

Wow! I really could not have said it better…more to come!

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