New Life Church, a Kingwood, Texas Assembly of God Church
Grace Works: The Ministry of the Holy Spirit Through the Life of the Believer
By Gary W. Piercy
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Introduction
One of the greatest joys in the life of the Christian comes as the Lord uses the believer to touch the life of another. The Apostle John understood this when he wrote,
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete (I John 1:3-4 NIV).
Fulfillment in the Christian walk comes as people discover the thrill of leading someone to Christ, the wonder of praying a prayer of faith resulting in God healing another person, or the pleasure of discipling a fellow believer and helping them to mature in their faith.
Unfortunately, there are those who think that such things are, "What we pay the preacher for…" Others have the idea, "God will never use me." Both of these ideas are wrong and those who believe such things are missing the true, complete joy John wrote about.
Some might ask," How can God use me?" or "I am not good enough" or "I have sinned," or "I haven't been to Bible College." There could be any number of questions or reasons Christians might give concerning why God would not use them. However, there is one reason why God will use you. That reason is grace. God's grace opens the door of opportunity for the Holy Spirit to reach through a believer in order to minister to another. Consider the following: if God had to wait for perfect people to accomplish His work, He would never accomplish His purpose because the Bible states, "there is none righteous, not even one" (Rom. 3:10 NIV).
The common understanding of grace is "God's unmerited favor." This is a proper understanding, for certainly grace is favor and it is certainly unmerited. However, the definition has become so common it has lost its potency. A biblical equation for grace is found in Ephesians 2:4-5 where Paul wrote, "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved" (NIV). Notice "great love" plus "rich mercy" equals "grace." What is grace? Grace is the combination of God's great love and His rich mercy. Another important passage for understanding grace is Romans 11:6, "And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace" (NIV).
These two passages are very important in helping God's people to understand this amazing grace of God. First of all, works, which is what we do on our own, subtracts from grace. In other words, if it has to be earned it cannot be grace. There is nothing anyone can do to be "good enough", so stop trying! Allow God's grace to flow through you "in spite of your short comings." Next, God loves you with a great love and He has an abundance of mercy (rich mercy) to reach out through imperfect people to accomplish His purpose in accordance with His will and for His glory. That is grace!
The Apostle Paul recognized his ministry was a work of God's grace in his life. Remember, Paul persecuted the church prior to coming to Christ and through his writings, he indicates that the work of the Holy Spirit in and through him was the result of God's great love and rich mercy displayed as grace. The following passages point this out.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you (Rom. 12:3 NIV)
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace, to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me (I Cor. 15:10 NIV).
The Apostle Paul recognized his ministry was totally the work of God's grace in and through his life. The same is true of every believer. God does not use people because of who they are, because of what they have accomplished, or because of how good they are. God uses imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will through grace. It is grace at work, the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the life of the believer that brings salvation and healing to the world.
