Day 40
Discover and Experience
The Gospel of Grace
Roger and Eileen Himes
www.ThePracticalGospel.com
Email: ThePracticalGospel@Comcast.net
Living in the process of the gospel is experiencing the grace of God. It is almost
freedom from human faith — which directs us in the things we should do. This is
not a responsive faith, but a directing faith. It keeps us busy in predetermined
ways, and it connects with Bios human life. This faith says, “Here I am.” It is
based on flesh, not relying on Christ.
God’s faith in us connects us more with his heart, mind and ways. Three times in
Hebrews 3-4 Paul says, “Today if you WILL hear (God’s) voice” (KJV only). Living
in grace is living in a willingness, and an attentiveness to hear what Father is
saying, and respond to him in faith. It is a Zoë type of life that is God focused.
This faith says, “There you are.” In is founded in our spirit, which is relying
on Christ.
We speak a lot about ‘relationship’ in Christianity, but it’s often not defined,
except as ‘fellowship,’ which usually means praying our prayer lists. The gospel
speaks of connecting with God in the form of oneness, and unity. We’re integrated
into God’s gospel ways: we think, say and do as he does. A Bios life of ’SELF’ originated
in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They thought God was withholding something
from them. He of course wasn’t. The gospel reveals to us that God gives us ALL things.
There is nothing God has that is not available to us. The illustration is we drink
from him, and out of us flows rivers of living water (John 7:38). This is the process
of the gospel. In the gospel, we are always well aware that we joint equal heirs
with Jesus: we are beneficiaries of everything in God’s Kingdom. We carry Kingdom
blessing!
The Tree of Life is God’s power. The Tree of Knowledge is poison. Man lived in a
poisoned state for 4,000 years, until the cross. Now we have the choice — the decision
to live in The Tree of Life again. But most choose The Tree of Knowledge, trusting
God’s law more than his grace. This is rejecting the PERSON of God for the PRINCIPLES
of God. I know it grieves our Father’s heart.
The Tree of Life requires total trust in God. We spent Day 32 on trust. SEE THIS:
God wants us to FAIL at living the Christian life! Success and failure are defined
by The Tree of Knowledge — by good and bad, by right and wrong. He wants us to file
spiritual bankruptcy from this system and float in the river of the Spirit — the
process of the gospel. I ask God to change at least one belief, or opinion in my
life every day — by any means and by any person. I only seek the spirit of truth
in his gospel. This is the way I live in the process of his gospel.
+ + + + + + + + + + + +
GOSPEL TRUTH #79
Fathers of the gospel point us to the King and his Kingdom: The Tree of Life. We
humans do not have the right answers. Much of what we believe is wrong, even the
most spiritually astute of us. Why is this? It is because the same things, in each
of our unique life experiences, are not right for all of us at the same time. The
Christian life is a paradox. This is why Paul says the gospel FULFILLS the word
of God (Col 1:25). It fulfills it by connecting us with our King and his Kingdom:
The Tree of Life.
+ + + + + + + + + + + +
The best any father of the gospel can do is to describe to you the SEED of the gospel
of grace. The fruit takes so many different forms no one can know them all. It’s
like when I was a tour guide, people thought I should know all the birds (500 varieties
of them). They thought I should know all the wildflowers (700 varieties of them).
They thought I should at least know all the evergreen trees (over 30 varieties of
them). The different forms of expression of God’s fruit are impossible to know.
The best any father of the gospel can do is to plant good seed into you. Hopefully
these 40 days are doing this — causing you to be more gospel believing and seed
receiving.
The seed is the voice of God. It is listening for and hearing his voice: “Today,
if you WILL hear his voice. . .” God only speaks the gospel to us. It’s the only
language he speaks this side of the cross: “ALL things have been made new. . .”
The cross brought TOTAL reform.
Bank on it: if we’re not hearing gospel truth, we’re not hearing from God! Satan
is blinding our minds to God’s gospel (II Cor 4:4).
I said earlier that God will use ANY means to TRY to bring us into living his gospel
(and polls say 93% of all Christians fail in this process). Thus, this truly is
THE battleground!
Paul says the gospel is a MYSTERY. This means something not totally explained, and
at least partially secret. As we’ve seen, Jesus mostly talks about the gospel in
his parables, and he did not say anything without using a parable. But Jesus told
his disciples, including US, that it is given to us to know the mysteries of the
Kingdom of God. He says the very keys to the kingdom of heaven are ours. The entire
truth of the gospel is laid at our feet, enabling us to live powerfully (Eph 6:15).
>Why did Jesus speak in mysteries and parables? Why did he so often say, “He who
has ears to hear, let him hear”? Why didn’t he just lay the facts out on the table,
systematically, progressively, and objectively, and make everything very plain?
This is what our linear, western minds crave: a systematic, progressive, objective
understanding.
It’s because we must be trained to listen with our heart, not just our minds. We
must be trained to have the gospel transform our minds before we can understand
deeper truths (Rom 12:2).
+ + + + + + + + + + + +
GOSPEL TRUTH #80
The truth is this: we can only truly know by DISCOVERING truth, not simply by being
instructed in truth. We must EXPERIENCE truth for it to get down deep in our heart.
If Jesus had just related the gospel to us as information, none of us would get
it. The figure the Christian poll gives us would grow from 93% to 100%!
My focus has been getting you to EXPERIENCE gospel truth. This is why I’ve repeated
things. If you think you’ve missed some things, prayerfully re-read The 40 Day Gospel
Fast with this in mind. Don’t just read it for information. Read it for the purpose
of discovery and experience.
+ + + + + + + + + + + +
God makes the gospel a mystery and a secret to draw us into it. “It is the glory
of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings (us) is to search out a matter”
(Prov 25:2). We want easy information more than engaging transformation. Transforming
us, and conforming us to the image of Christ is Father’s goal. This only occurs
by discovering mysteries and being transformed by truth — not by information. On
the last day we looked at Apollos. He discovered truth and was transformed.
Paul makes a point of ‘the wisdom of man’ vs. ‘the wisdom of God.’ We like man’s
wisdom best. After all it’s our wisdom. It’s how we think. For God to truly transform
our thinking takes time, effort, and discovery. Thus the gospel is not an overnight
process. We are told 93% never arrive. SEE THIS: I keep emphasizing this 93% because,
if you have read this far, you are no longer in this group — if you were before!
In Romans 11:33 Paul says, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.” We cannot
RESEARCH God’s ways, despite what Proverbs 25:2 says. The truth is once we turn
our heart to truly seek him and his gospel, then he REVEALS it to us. As long as
we’re hung up on PRINCIPLES, we’ll never see the PERSON of God in the gospel.
Living by the wisdom of man, or in human wisdom keeps our minds from being transformed
by the gospel. The wisdom of man is living by principles and the law of cause and
effect. This paradigm will keep us from discovering and experiencing the gospel.
Man’s wisdom is cause and effect — action and reaction — reward and punishment —
good vs. bad. This is GREAT wisdom if we’re applying it to worldly things. We NEED
it. Learn MORE of it. But don’t try to make it a factor in God’s gospel Kingdom!
This is a big mistake. It will short-circuit your discovery and experience of the
gospel of grace!
+ + + + +
Remember this illustration. Man’s wisdom is the source of unbelief in relation
to God. This is seen in salvation itself. Man’s wisdom says it was OUR sin that
was keeping us from God and sending us to hell. Thus, we must deal with our sin
before we can be saved. God’s wisdom says it was Adam’s sin that made us sinners
(Rom 5). If you think it was all about YOUR sin, you’re blinded to gospel truth.
Also, man’s wisdom tells us it is UNFAIR of God to hold us responsible for Adam’s
sin. It’s unjust. This just shouldn’t be. Where is the equity in this? Shouldn’t
it be our sin that sends us to hell, and not someone else’s? But when we discover
and experience God’s gospel truth, we see that if this were the case, God would
have to hold EACH of us responsible for our own sin individually. God’s wisdom collectively
puts us all either in Adam — or in Christ. God’s wisdom is a much BETTER deal for
us!
There are COUNTLESS gospel mysteries like this: hidden gospel truths. I’ve related
many of these in A 40 Day Gospel Fast.
+ + + + +
How do you know if you’re still trapped in man’s wisdom? When something unwanted
or bad happens, do your thoughts track to YOU? — what you need to do, or not do,
to gain the upper hand again? If you do, this is the kingdom of self, founded in
man’s wisdom. This thinking asks, “What do I lack?” — or “What should I do?
Here’s the facts: We often believe Satan’s great lie that it is all about US: our
performance and our obedience. The great truth of God is that it is all about JESUS:
his performance and his obedience.
If we try to understand the gospel by using man’s wisdom, not God’s, we fall flat.
This described me the first 15 years of my Christian life. Sadly, it describes most
Christians their ENTIRE Christian life. To truly discover and experience gospel
truth, you must do something like what I did about 1989. I told God I was so fed
up with all the different things I was hearing, and all my theology that only got
me deeper in a pit. I wanted to know his truth, thoughts and ways. I didn’t know
it then, but what I was asking for was God’s wisdom.
Father has always most frequently just communicated with me in my thoughts. For
a long time I’ve known when a thought is MY thought, and when it’s NOT my thought.
Over the past years I’ve obviously come to this distinction: MY thoughts are man’s
wisdom. I know GOD’S wisdom when I hear it. As Paul says, my senses have been trained
by reason of use these past 20 years to discern this (Heb 5:14). Many times I’m
asked, “What about Satan’s voice trying to confuse you?” Since I’ve truly come to
know my authority in Christ, Satan’s voice is no longer much of an issue. He is
usually totally silent.
What I heard was, “If you truly want to know my ways and my thoughts and my truth,
you must sacrifice your thoughts, your will, and your theology on the altar every
single day. Your focus must be WHOM you believe.” Too many preachers, pastors, instructors,
and everyday Christians are so focused on WHAT they believe, they can’t hear WHOM
they believe. Their entire self image and identity is consumed in WHAT they believe.
They are ruled by the wisdom of man.