THREE SPIRITUAL GENERATORS
My dear special friends and partners of Gerald Davis Ministries,
I haven’t written to you for a season. Our ministry has experienced some time consuming changes. We have moved our residence and office, after 30 years on the horse ranch, to a new location. Please note our new address: [Gerald Davis Ministries - 9955 Tulip St. Conroe, Texas 77385]. The old address: [P.O.Box 1286 New Caney, Texas] is no longer active. Please make this change in your system, and use only our new address when communicating with us from this time forward. Some of our mail has been returned to the sender because of this change. Please accept our apology for this inconvenience if it has affected you.
THREE SPIRITUAL GENERATORS
MOTHER TERESA
Someone asked mother Teresa, “What is the first thing you want to say to God when you see Him?” She is said to have replied; “I want to say to him, - You have a lot of explaining to do.” We will probably all have a chuckle at that. It isn’t hard to understand what would prompt such a comment. We will never reach a perfect understanding of all things until we “know as we are known” in Heaven. The following thoughts are some observations that you may find interesting. After studying the word and testing it in my own life and ministry for the last 57 years, with some disappointments and some successes, I have come to understand these basic, fundamental truths about our Heavenly Father and His ways of going with His children.
Mercy is a generator
God’s mercy is “from everlasting to everlasting.” And again, “His mercy endureth forever”. Anybody is subject to receive mercy from the Lord if they cry out for help. Many scriptures and many bible stories as well as modern day stories are witnesses to people receiving God’s mercy when they cried for help. You didn’t deserve it and possibly didn’t have faith for it; i.e.; “Oh God, if there is a God somewhere out there would you please help me now” or “Oh God, if you will get me out of this mess I will believe in you forever.” David wrote in the Psalms, ”this poor man cried and the Lord delivered him out of all of his troubles.” and “out of an horrible pit”. Mercy ‘generated a miracle’. It has happened time and again. We have all benefitted from mercy. Mercy is the unmerited favor of God. Mercy is often granted to someone because of another person’s prayers. Consider Abraham praying for Lot when he was in Sodom. The person receiving the miracle didn’t know what happened or why things suddenly worked out. God gave them mercy because of an intercessors prayers and petition. Mercy is what God’s people need as we cry out on behalf of our beloved Nation right now. Someone appropriately stated, ”More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”
Now consider this about mercy: You cannot always rely on mercy! Although God’s mercy endures forever, it may not work on your situation everytime. “He has mercy on whom he will have mercy.” The volition of God determines mercy. God, the great judge of all the earth, is constantly making judgments concerning each of his children. I have learned that you can’t just go through life as a child of God depending on mercy to carry you to victory. God expects his children to educate themselves on his word and about what pleases him and learn to walk in faith “according to knowledge”. It is called growing up in Christ and becoming mature in spiritual things. He “carries the lambs” and “leads the (adult) sheep.”
Could this answer to why some of our cries for miraculous deliverance seem to go unheeded? Mercy functions under the canopy of HOPE. I don’t have all the answers, but I try to keep watching and staying open to learn. I hate losing and suffering failure. I know you do too! “My people (not the devils crowd), but my people, are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. What we don’t know is what is hurting us. I say it again; mercy is God’s unmerited favor.
FAITH IS A GENERATOR
“The just shall live by faith”. Oh, how we thank God for Mercy. But mercy is unpredictable. That is why God gave us grace by which to live our Christian lives. Grace is totally dependable and reliable. When we live according to grace we can always be certain of triumphant lives. I have learned that we control the level of grace that we live in. How so? I think I can explain that to your satisfaction.
We already know we receive from God because of what Jesus did and not what we have accomplished. We feel unworthy, but God “has counted us worthy to be partakers” by grace. Grace meaning; - Jesus got what we deserved, and we got what Jesus deserved. There is no way to take that into our earthly, limited and finite minds except by faith. This is why I call faith a generator. Faith generates grace!
Meditate the following verses that will verify this statement: “Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace” and again, “Wherefore we have access into this grace through faith” and again, “for we are saved by grace through faith.” These are three witnesses from the scriptures that address this fact. Faith generates grace! When Jesus addressed a person crying out for help, he said, “according to your faith so be it (grace) unto you”. He was referring to grace when he said “it”. Remember this, “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”.
Is it any wonder why the word tells us; “without faith it is impossible to please God”? He is obviously limited on what he can do for us unless we apply faith to what he has promised for us through Jesus sacrifice.
The faith life is an unending battle, and is a challenge to the old nature. It is not comfortable to the natural intellect. For that reason it can become a boring and uncomfortable subject to meditate. I can say that because I deal with it too. No wonder the man cried to Jesus; ”help thou mine unbelief.” It can only come through supernatural help.
Grace doesn’t come to us because we do everything right. Air doesn’t come into our lungs because we do right. It comes into our lungs because we breathe. So also is grace generated by faith. “He that comes to God must believe—“ As our faith grows we increase in the benefits of grace. When we go from “faith to faith” (little faith to great faith) we advance from “grace to grace”(less benefits to more benefits). “And nothing shall be impossible unto you”. “Fear not little flock, it is the Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom”.
God loves to give good things to his children, but he is limited to our development in faith. These thoughts are not presented to cause discouragement or condemnation on us, but to help educate us. None of us have arrived, certainly not I, but we “press forward toward the mark for the prize”. Faith Generates grace! Selah!
OBEDIENCE IS A GENERATOR
The thing that prompted me to write this article is my meditation on this particular issue. I have come to see and believe that obedience probably causes more of the continual protection and blessings and goodness of God than we have ever come to understand. Obedience to the written word of God, and obedience to the Holy Spirit’s voice through a fertile and sensitive conscience will generate favor with God. “They that are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”
If I have the favor (approval) of God it is said in the word to be “like the early morning dew”, or like “the rain in due season”, or like the “former and the latter rain”. The favor (approval) of God will make to grow whatever we sow. “Fear not little flock, it is the fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
I have asked this question of several audiences; “if God had to make the choice of hearing you pray for one hour, or of watching you do something he told you to do, which one do think He would choose?” Instinctively we know He would choose obedience. “Study to show yourself approved of God a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Shame is coupled with losing. Glory is coupled with winning.
It doesn’t work if I approach the word in an effort to make it fit my understanding. I will never ‘rightly divide the word’ until I approach it as inarguably correct, regardless of my understanding. I know that my natural thinking is not in sync with the way God thinks. I must believe it first, - and then ask that my understanding will adjust to the word.
I heard this in my spirit one day during a time of great frustration; “If you will always concentrate on being a blessing you will seldom have to pray to receive one.” That opened me up to an entirely different attitude. I can never walk in obedience to God if I have to make the word fit my understanding before I embrace it. It is not comfortable to the flesh to discipline it to this principle. It is difficult to even think this way, much less to do it. But when we make up our mind to trust the word at that level, we enter into a favor that causes good things to come to us even when we didn’t ask for it, or even think to ask for it.
I have come to understand this: God wants to give good things to his children even more than we want to receive it. He can think up things that will please his children that we haven’t even thought of. “He daily loads us with benefits” and wants to bless us until we “don’t have room to receive it.”
One of the main reasons God created man is so he would have some children to give his goodness and possessions to. Read the creation story again. Time and again God repeated these words after creating Adam and Eve; “Let them have—.“ God, by His very nature is a giver. He couldn’t give if no receiver existed. He created the earth and all it’s wonderful glory and beauty and wealth, and then created man so He would have children to give His creation to. But it is freely divided with those who agree with (obey) him. Remember the forbidden fruit. St. Peter offered; “If you do these things you will never fall.” Failure and shame is sure to follow disobedience. Satan goes about “seeking whom he may devour.” He finds an opening to do his dirty work when he finds a disobedient child of God. He hates us! I don’t mean to bore my readers, but hearing these things and meditating them now is certainly easier to deal with than the failures and disappointment that come to us when we don’t heed them or know them.
Ponder this statement from the word; “It shall come to pass that before they call I will answer.”
God is obviously eager to bless His children. Make sure your heart agrees with God and listen for revelation and the voice of the spirit. God is so quick to forgive where we have been wrong.
I am convinced that far more blessings come to us because of obedience than through petition. Selah!
SUMMARY:
MERCY GENERATES MIRACLES AND DELIVERANCES AND SPECIAL FAVORS - but we can’t live our lives depending on it.
FAITH GENERATES GRACE WHICH ALWAYS CAUSES US TO TRIUMPH- but it requires constant feeding and developing.
OBEDIENCE GENERATES FAVOR WITH GOD - the benefits are consistent and daily but requires absolute trust.
When we read our bibles and approach it to believe it, it works like ‘weed and feed.’ It feeds our faith and
Kills our doubts.
Ps. 90:2- 1 Chron.16:34 - Ps. 34:6- Ps. 90: 2 - Eph. 2:8 – Rom. 5:2 – Rom. 1:17 – Rom. 4:16
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