God’s supply always exceeds your needs. His grace is greater. Too many people live under the mistaken notion that they have to perform exactly right in order for God to supply their needs. They are demand oriented rather than supply oriented.
The principle of grace is God’s supply, while the principle of the law is demand. The law says you shall, you have to, you can’t, while grace says I will, I will, I will. The law puts demands on you to achieve. This demand comes from many sources. Religion and legalism are at their core, but it comes via religious institutions (called churches), individuals, leaders, and other sources. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying churces are bad. I'm saying religious law centered churches are nothing but a waste of time. They spend all their time putting people in bondage. Let me say it this way. There are many churches with the word "Grace" in their title like Grace Lutheran, Grace Episcopalian, Grace and Mercy Church and most of them have no Grace.
Hebrews 8:10-12 in the Easy to Read Version declares the following:
10 This is the new agreement I will give the people of Israel. I will give this agreement in the future, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write my laws on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Notice in the paragraph above I said the law says you shall, you have to, you can’t, while grace says I will, I will, I will. Notice in this verse the “I wills”. Five times He says “I will”.
11 Never again will anyone have to teach their neighbors or their family to know the Lord. All people—the greatest and the least important—will know me. 12 And I will forgive the wrongs they have done, and I will not remember their sins.”
Here He goes again with the “I will” statement. I will forgive and I will forget. It’s not that God has a bad memory, it’s that He has a good forgetter. Besides, as the scripture said, He WILLS to forget. So when you beg for God to forgive your sins, He doesn’t know what you’re talking about. He HAS forgiven and He HAS forgotten them.
13 God called this a new agreement, so he has made the first agreement old. And anything that is old and useless is ready to disappear.
The NAS says verse 13 this way. “When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would try to be obedient to an obsolete set of laws, or an old system. When a law or laws have been made obsolete, you are free from the burden of them. God MADE the old covenant obsolete. Come on. Quit trying to perform.
When you are of the belief the law is still in effect, you are now demand-oriented. You see everything as a demand placed on you, because religion and legalism does put demands on you. You continually live in an environment where you think “I must do this…I must do that…” The result is you feel stressed and pressured to perform, meet people’s expectations and achieve results.
When you are living under grace, you see the rich supply from God providing whatever you need for your situation despite the demands. The result? You walk in peace and always see God’s provision because your eyes are focused on His unfailing supply.
Can you see the difference? Under grace, God is the one doing all the doing and supplying, not you. Our relationship with Him under the new covenant of grace is that He does all the work and we do all the receiving. The law says DO, DO, DO, but grace says DONE, DONE, DONE.
I started this teaching by saying God’s supply always exceeds your needs. Just look at a few examples. First, one of the very obvious ones found in John 6:1-13. This is the story of the feeding of the 5,000.
1 Later, Jesus went across Lake Galilee (also known as Lake Tiberias). 2 A great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he did in healing the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the side of the hill and sat there with his followers. 4 It was almost the time for the Jewish Passover festival. 5 Jesus looked up and saw a crowd of people coming toward him. He said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough bread for all these people to eat?” 6 He asked Philip this question to test him. Jesus already knew what he planned to do.
Don’t miss the bolded portion of verse 6. Jesus knew what HE planned “TO DO”. Not what the disciples had to do. He does, we receive.
What was different about Jesus versus his disciples. He walked in supply-consciousness. He was clearly conscious of heaven’s supply in the face of scarcity concerning feeding this huge crowd.
When Jesus saw the five loaves and two small fish, He didn’t see the impossible demand placed on Him unlike His disciples. He saw the supply. A young boys sack lunch. His disciples, on the other hand, saw the demand and the lack. It bothered them so much that they urged Him to send the people home. They were concerned that they did not have enough food for everyone nor did they have enough money to buy that much food.
7 Philip answered, “We would all have to work a month to buy enough bread for each person here to have only a little piece!” 8 Another follower there was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Andrew said, 9 “Here is a boy with five loaves of barley bread and two little fish. But that is not enough for so many people.”
How many times have you said “that’s not enough”, “that’s not going to happen”, “I don’t know how we are going to make it”, “I’ve tried that, it doesn’t work”? Whenever you face any situation from a position of lack, you are focusing on the wrong kingdom. No believer has the authority to begin any statement from the position of lack, because that is contrary to the provision declared in the Kingdom of God.
Look at Jesus’ response to the disciples. It’s a response to us also. It’s a call to rest and see the glory of God. I have a teaching that talks in depth about sunbathing in God. It’s the story of King Hezekiah and Sennacherib. It’s titled “Telling God He’s God”.
10 Jesus said, “Tell everyone to sit down.” This was a place with a lot of grass, and about 5000 men sat down there. 11 Jesus took the loaves of bread and gave thanks for them. Then he gave them to the people who were waiting to eat. He did the same with the fish. He gave them as much as they wanted.
When grace supplies, it’s always exceeding, abundantly and above all you can ever ask or imagine! (Ephesians 3:20). If we will simply look away from the demand and see His supply and receive it by grace, we will not only have all that we need, but as much as we want.
12 They all had plenty to eat. When they finished, Jesus said to his followers, “Gather the pieces of fish and bread that were not eaten. Don’t waste anything.”
Oh what a wonderful mystery is revealed in this verse. A pearl of great price is released in what Jesus says. He says “Gather the pieces of fish and bread that were not eaten. Don’t waste anything.” The revelation I receive from this is that we are given great gifts and callings in abundance and they should not be wasted. Don’t discard your gifts and callings. Don’t throw away the anointing God has given you. Never be wasteful when it comes to God’s provision.
13 So they gathered up the pieces that were left. The people had started eating with only five loaves of barley bread. But the followers filled twelve large baskets with the pieces of food that were left.
Jesse Duplantis says “God is not enough…..He’s too much”. He always supplies in abundance. It’s the wonderful “much more” spoken about in the book of Romans and other books that Paul wrote. There are many more stories of this nature and I'll identify them in part 2 of this teaching. Until then, Grace and Peace.
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