Today’s Reading:
Philippians 3
“beware of those religious hypocrites who teach that you should be circumcised to please God. For we have already experienced “heart-circumcision,” and we worship God in the power and freedom of the Holy Spirit, not in laws and religious duties. We are those who boast in what Jesus Christ has done, and not in what we can accomplish in our own strength. It’s true that I once relied on all that I had become. I had a reason to boast and impress people with my accomplishments—more than others—for my pedigree was impeccable.”
Philippians 3:2-4 TPT
The Spirit of the Lord says,
I’ve implanted the sufficiency of My grace in your heart. My grace is not only external, it’s internal. It’s not only surrounding you, connecting with favor, guiding you and furling out around you to get you where you need to go. It is implanted in your very heart. The fire of your passion is ignited by My grace. The steeling of your determination is catalyzed by My grace that I have put inside of you. My grace is like a brand new engine being put inside of a well-functioning machine. It’s not replacing the old engine. It is greatly overshadowing it though. The machine of your own efforts, your own work can be at rest, because the giant machine of My grace has come in to make things easier, to propel your farther and faster, louder and bigger than you could have done by far.
“Yet all of the accomplishments that I once took credit for, I’ve now forsaken them and I regard it all as nothing compared to the delight of experiencing Jesus Christ as my Lord! To truly know him meant letting go of everything from my past and throwing all my boasting on the garbage heap. It’s all like a pile of manure to me now, so that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embrace him as Lord in all of his greatness. My passion is to be consumed with him and not cling to my own “righteousness” based in keeping the written Law. My only “righteousness” will be his, based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ—the very righteousness that comes from God. And I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus and to experience the overflowing power of his resurrection working in me. I will be one with him in his sufferings and become like him in his death. Only then will I be able to experience complete oneness with him in his resurrection from the realm of death.”
Philippians 3:7-11 TPT
Of course, you can turn off the massive machine of My grace if you want to turn to the manual use of your own engine. You can self-propel. You can use your much smaller, self-determined internal engine. But it is dwarfed in size and power by the startlingly tremendous, powerful engine of My grace. Let the old engine rest. Let the engine of self-determination, of works, of your will rest. And make primary the masterful, tremendously powerful engine of My grace. It will take you places you had no ability to go. It will give you energy and insight that you know was not self-derived. Switch over your efforts to the engine of My grace, and let it propel and drive you forward at speed and distances, at volumes and heights you never even dreamed were possible. It requires letting go of control. It requires letting go of self-determination and self-promotion. It requires letting go of hard work for hard work’s sake. It is switching over into a more sophisticated, more powerful way of operating.
“I admit that I haven’t yet acquired the absolute fullness that I’m pursuing, but I run with passion into his abundance so that I may reach the purpose for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me to make me his own. I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. I run straight for the divine invitation of reaching the heavenly goal and gaining the victory-prize through the anointing of Jesus. So let all who are fully mature have this same passion, and if anyone is not yet gripped by these desires, God will reveal it to them.”
Philippians 3:12-15 TPT
Let Me be the driver. Let me be the one who guides and directs. You be My faithful first mate. You be My faithful first officer. Let Me do the driving. And watch the amazing, stunning, unbelievable advances we make, the places we go and the self-propelled ones we overtake along the way. I have implanted My grace engine in your heart. Allow it to be your primary engine. Allow Me to be the one who gets you there.
How to Respond
- Pray, Lord, help me to let go of my works and self-driven mentality. Help me to rest in Your grace and be empowered and directed by You, so that we can get where You want us to go faster, easier and with less mess. Thank You for implanting the engine of Your great grace in my heart.
- Declare, the Lord has not only surrounded me with His grace, but He has implanted it in my heart and empowers me with it.
- Decree, I submit my whole life, my whole will, my whole self to the Lord God Almighty. He is the driver of my life, and His grace engine will empower me to get where He wants me to go faster, more efficiently and beyond my wildest expectations. I am switching off my little self-propelled engine, so it can rest and be driven alongside the tremendously powerful engine of the Lord’s grace.
For more encouragement from Glory & the New Wine, check out the post from this day in 2022: Truth and Justice Are Rising As Mighty Towers
And in 2021: The All-Sufficient God Is Here
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