In this part of this series on how to grow in grace, we are going to be concluding on the series on how to grow in grace. In this series, we are looking at three important keys on how to grow in grace.
In the first part of this series, we discussed the first key, which is understanding what grace is.
In the second part of this series, we discussed the second key, which is understanding and aligning with the purpose of grace.
Now….In this third and final part of this series, I will be sharing on the third key to growing in grace. This third key is “Engaging grace profitably”.
When I talk about engaging grace profitably, what do I mean?
To engage grace is to put grace to work, or to put it to use. But to engage grace positively is to put it to use, with positive results.
When I talk about engaging grace profitably, I am talking about being result oriented in your engagement of grace. It entails knowing what returns or benefits God expects from the grace he has given you, and going all out to ensure that you deliver those returns or benefits, with the Grace God has bestowed upon you.
Just like an investor, God is always looking for profitable vessels to entrust with more of his grace. A perfect illustration of this can be seen in the parable of the talents, in Matthew 25:14-30. In this parable, the first and second servants who engaged the talents that were given to them, with evidence of profit, enjoyed an increase.
Just like an investor, God is always looking for profitable vessels to entrust with more of his grace.
In this same passage, in Matthew 25:29, Jesus said “‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.” When we read this passage carefully, we will discover that what Jesus was talking about here was not the talent (or the grace, in the context of this teaching). What Jesus was referring to, was the gains or the profit from the talent or grace that was provided. So, in the context of Grace, in Matthew 25:29, Jesus is simply saying that everyone who has gains or profits of grace will receive more grace.
To better understand this, we must see God as an investor of grace. Even in the life of Jesus, we see God investing grace for a return or a profit. In 2 Corinthians 8:9, the bible says “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” In other words, you becoming rich is the return or the profit of the sacrificial grace that came upon Jesus. Again, in Hebrew 2:9-10, the bible says,
“9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
In a nutshell, what this passage is showing us is how through the grace of God, Jesus was able to die for everyone….and the result from that grace that God gave to Jesus, was many sons being brought to glory.
So, if God was result and profit oriented in his discharge of grace to Jesus, how much more you and I. As Christians, we must have the same kind of result orientation towards grace, which Jesus had.
In 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul said “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain” When you read this same passage in the New Living Translation, the bible says “But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results”
Friends, God is result oriented in his discharge of grace…and if we really want to grow in grace, we too must have that same result orientation about the grace God gives us.
Now, the big question we must answer at this point is, ‘How do we engage grace profitably?’ In other words, ‘How do we engage grace, with a result orientation?’
Friends, it's very possible to have a particular grace, and not know the exact result God is expecting from that grace. But if you know how grace is being engaged profitably, you will definitely end up with the results God desires, even if you did not know it at the onset.
It's like driving to a destination you have never been to. You may not know what it looks like…but if you know how to drive with a GPS map, such as google map, and you use that map for direction, you will definitely arrive at your desired location even though you do not know what it looks like.
This same principle applies with grace. Remember the three manifestations of grace we talked about in the first part of this series.
You see…engaging grace profitably is not something that happens when the profit appears. Many times, it is something that is consistently done for a long time, even before the profit appears. Think of it like a farmer who grows tomatoes. It may take 80 or more days after germination to get a first harvest. But there are things the farmer needs to do between days 1 and days 80, which will guarantee the harvest. This is the same case with grace, and engaging it profitably.
So, the question still is, ‘How do we engage grace profitably?’
How to Engage Grace Profitably
To answer this question, we will look at the three different manifestations of grace we discussed in the first part of this teaching, which are spiritual blessings, favor, and gifts.
So, let's start with spiritual blessings. How do we profitably engage the manifestation of grace, as a spiritual blessing?
Friends, we engage spiritual blessings profitably by taking steps of faith. As you know, faith comes from the word of God.
For every blessing, there is a word. There is a word of instruction on what your part is, in that blessing. It may be a spoken word from God, a written word from God, or an inspiration, which 2 Timothy 3:16 shows as the channel for God’s word.
We engage spiritual blessings profitably by taking steps of faith
Therefore, to engage that spiritual blessing profitably, you must locate the word or instructions that God has attached to that blessing, and you must begin to take steps in line with that word.
It is important for me to emphasize that sometimes the blessing will not come with a clear word, but an inspiration or an idea. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” Sometimes, what you will get is not a clear word but an inspiration that reveals what you must do. That inspiration may come in the form of an idea, or a mental picture, or vision.
A typical illustration of this can be seen in the case of Isaac. In Genesis 26:2-5, God blessed Isaac. Now, this blessing came at a time where there was a famine in the land where Isaac was, and when Isaac was considering relocating.
But when you read the blessing that God pronounced on Isaac in Genesis 26:2-5, you will discover that from all that God spoke, the only instruction in the spoken word of God to Isaac was for Isaac to stay in that land. But when you read further down in verse 12, we see the result of the blessing, which was a 100 fold harvest in a time of famine. However, if we think this is all to it, we must be mistaken because Isaac did a few other things, which must have been through inspiration;
First, Isaac planted crops. God never told him plant crops. As a matter of fact, Isaac grew up with His father Abraham, who was a cattle farmer and not really much of a crop farmer. So Isaac had little or no antecedent in crop farming. So, clearly, Isaac’s decision to plant crops must have been a product of inspiration that came after the blessing was released.
Second, Isaac planted in famine….and then invented an irrigation system that made it possible to have a hundredfold harvest where there was no rain. How do I know this? In verse 14, after he had such a bountiful harvest and became wealthy as a result, the bible records that the Philistines envied him. Then in verse 15, the Philistines began to cover the wells dug by Abraham. They knew the secret of Isaacs farming success was the wells from which Isaac irrigated…and so they began to cover the wells. And as a further proof that this was the secret behind Isaacs success, Isaac kept on digging more wells as they covered previously dug wells.
The bible never recorded an instruction to Isaac to dig wells and irrigate when God was blessing him. So the idea of irrigation must definitely have been an inspiration that came after the blessing was released.
In some cases, aside from the word and inspiration that may accompany a blessing, an opportunity may open up, triggered by the blessing. Remember we said in the first part of this series, that a spiritual blessing compels forces and beings in the spirit realm to favor you…and this may manifest in the form of an open door for you.
Therefore, in order to engage the manifestation of grace as spiritual blessing in a profitable way, you must act on the word, the inspiration, or the opportunities that come or show up with the blessing.
This, my friend, is how we profitably engage grace as a spiritual blessing.
Next is favor. How do we profitably engage the manifestation of grace, as favor?
Remember that when we talk about favor as a manifestation of grace, we are referring to favor with men and women who can make a positive difference in your life.
Just like water is channeled through a pipe, this manifestation of grace called favor is often channeled through relationships. Many times, when God is about to introduce grace in the form of favor in your life, he will either introduce new relationships into your life, or use existing relationships, or he can even restore a broken relationship just for this purpose.
Therefore, to engage the favor dimension of grace profitably, we must nurture these relationships with the right attitude and disposition.
An example can be seen in the case of Esther. In Esther 2:8-9, we see that Esther first had favor with the King's servant, which she profitably engage with the right attitude…and that relationship with the King's servant became instrumental in positioning her to become queen.
To engage the favor dimension of grace profitably, we must nurture these relationships with the right attitude and disposition
Then, as queen, she found favor with the King in Esther 5:1-8, which she profitably engaged with the right attitude, which resulted in the King accepting her invitation to a banquet.
Then in Esther 7:1-6, she again found favor with the King, which led to the killing of Haman, who plotted to kill the jews, and the deliverance of the jews.
Unlike her predecessor, Queen Vashti, Esther engaged the favor dimension of grace with the right attitude, which ultimately resulted in her growing to a level of favor that could deliver the jewish people from destruction.
Now, let’s look at the next dimension of grace, which is gift. When grace is manifested as a gift, how do we engage it profitably?
Grace, as a gift, is engaged profitably by putting it to use. In The Passion Translation of the bible, 1 Corinthians 12:6 refers to this as energizing and activating the gift.
1 Corinthians 12:5-6 says,
“5The Lord Yahweh is one, and he is the one who apportions to believers different varieties of ministries.
6The same God distributes different kinds of miracles that accomplish different results through each believer’s gift and ministry as he energizes and activates them.”
There are two things to stress here; energizing and activating.
To energize your gift is to create an enabling environment for that gift to function at its best. It is a deliberate attempt to subject yourself to influences or an atmosphere that makes that gift work. An example, or an illustration of this is Elisha in 2 Kings 3:15, where Elisha had to energize his prophetic gift and ministry by calling for a minstrel, whose music created the spiritual atmosphere for that prophetic gift and ministry of Elisha to come alive at that moment.
A vital way to energize your gift is to engage the help of the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, nothing electrifies and magnifies your gift like the influence of the Holy Spirit. Nothing powers your gift like the power of the Holy Spirit.
We can also energize our gifts through acquiring relevant knowledge and training that aid our gifts and its efficiency.
To activate your gift, you must put it to use. You must put it to use in service to God and to humanity. 2 Timothy 1:6 refers to this as fanning your gift into flame.
Friend, until we make a habit of profitably engaging the gift dimension of grace that God has given us by energizing and activating it, we cannot grow in this dimension of Grace.
So, in summary, we have discussed the third key, in this series, on how to grow in grace. And that key is engaging grace profitably. And since grace can either be a spiritual blessing, a favor, or a gift, as we saw in the first part of this series, we have seen that there is a way to engage each of these manifestations of grace profitably.
For spiritual blessings, we engage them positively by acting on the instructions, inspirations, ideas, or opportunities that come with the blessing.
For grace manifested as favor, we engage it profitably through the right attitude and disposition to relationships, which are the channels of favor.
For grace manifested as a gift, we engage it profitably by energizing and activating the gifts. We energize our gifts by subjecting ourselves and our gifts to influences and environments that amplify the gifts, and we activate our gifts by putting them to work for the glory of God, and the benefit of humanity.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to mention that the profit from grace God gives you is God’s responsibility….not yours. Your responsibility is to engage the grace profitably, by doing the things we have talked about….and God’s responsibility is to bring the profit.
As a matter of fact, the profit that God brings to you is often a reward for your engagement of the grace he makes available to you in a profitable way. In 1 Corinthians 3:6, Paul said “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” The planting and watering is essential and must be done for the increase….But the increase comes from God after the planting and watering have been done.
For example, if you have a blessing for financial prosperity released upon you, your focus should not be money…..Rather, your focus should be on the ideas or inspirations that come with that blessing of financial prosperity. As you take steps in line with those ideas or inspirations, God will definitely bring the money.
Remember the story of Peter who toiled all night and caught nothing, in Luke 5:1-11. But when Jesus, the embodiment of grace came on the scene, Peter received a word. In response to the instructions, Luke 5:5, says “But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” The job of Peter, in engaging the grace that was at work in a profitable manner, was to obey the instruction. The one who gave the instruction was responsible for the mighty catch Peter had. If that word had failed, and Peter caught nothing, Peter had nothing to lose….Rather, it would have been the integrity of Jesus and the word that would have been at stake.
Friend, the profit or result of the grace God makes available to you becomes the obligation of God, the moment you engage that grace in a profitable way. And once you do so, not only does God bring the profit or the result of the grace; he also brings an increase in the grace.