Grace is the transforming power that raises our expectation of the Father!  What are you expecting from God? When I ask the 'what are you expecting from God?' one might shutter at the answer "I don't know". How can faith be actived if we expect nothing from our heavenly Father? Jesus said it!  You can have what you say! Be transformed by the power of His grace!
Transformed by Grace


Acts 22:3  "I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers' law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today.  4  "I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,  5  "as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished.  6  "Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me.  7  "And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?'  8  "So I answered, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth , whom you are persecuting.'  9  "And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me.  10  "So I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Arise and go into Damascus , and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.'  11  "And since I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus .  12  "Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there,  13  "came to me; and he stood and said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight.' And at that same hour I looked up at him.  14  "Then he said, 'The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth.

Step into the early church’s shoes.  Here was the man Saul murdering and persecuting the Christians.  God divinely intervenes.  Here is the Apostle Paul ’s own testimony in Acts 22.  After God knocked Saul off his horse he gave him direction to wait for a man Ananias to show up.  Ananias was a man with an ear for the voice of God.  God tells him to go to Saul and speak the will of God.  What would our reaction be?

God’s way is not our way.  When it looks impossible God wants to work His plan!  Verse 14 reveals the will of God for Saul (We know Him as the Apostle Paul )  1st you have been chosen by God!  2nd God wants you to know His true will and plan for your life!  3rd God wants you to see the Just One Jesus the Messiah!  Finally God wants you to hear the voice of Jesus Christ the Righteous One.

What does it take for a transformed life!  It take the grace of God changing your mindset and direction!  It takes a revelation of Jesus Christ and a hunger to hear His voice!  Think of how great the transformation of Saul the murderer to Paul the apostle of Jesus Christ.  Nothing is impossible with God.  He can take the greatest of sinners and give them the great revelation of the gospel of grace!  What mountain do you need moved in your life; you serve the God of the impossible!  Do you suppose there were many Christians in Saul day praying for his salvation?  We may never know, however we know there was one obedient man Ananias who spoke life to Saul.  Ananias' obedience changed the course of history for the Gentile world.

John 1:14  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. … 16  And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.  17  For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

The law came through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  Jesus came full of grace and truth!  Of His fullness we have received from God.  Christ in you the hope of glory.  There is one exclusive way to receive from God and it is through the grace of Jesus Christ!  Paul ’s conversion is one of the greatest pictures of grace. Just because man see it as impossible does not make it true!  Hear the voice of Jesus!

Mark 10:27  But Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible."

Hear the voice of Jesus!  Nothing will be impossible for you!  There are many mindsets that need the word of God applied!  Jesus said with God all things are possible!  “With God all things are possible.”  Jesus can not lie!  He spoke with the authority given to Him by God the Father!  What is it in your life that needs redeemed?  What is it in your life that needs transformed by the divine influence and power of God?  Let your expectations be raised to the desire of God’s heart for your life.

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.  12  Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  13  And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

The transformed life comes from a transformed mind!  Do you see the desire of God to bring you peace, a future, and a hope?  Some do not seek God because they have no revelation of His goodness.  Paul, the transformed by grace had this to say, “the goodness of God leads to repentance.”  Yes, the sinner needs a revelation of the goodness of God; however the church also needs a revelation of the goodness of God.

James 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  18  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

The Father brings good and perfect gifts and there is no shadow of turning with this truth.  Oh, the church traditions have done their best to cast a dispersion upon the goodness of God.  It is time we, the church, cast off the lie of traditions and believe He is a good God.

Proverbs 10:22  The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it. 

I know some of the tradition we have taught have been drawn from the covenant of the law; however we are of the covenant of grace and we only receive grace for grace!

Hebrews 8:6  But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.  7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

The Father sent Jesus as a minister of the new covenant.  This covenant has a more excellent ministry than the law of Moses.  This covenant has a better Mediator than the covenant of the law.  This covenant has a better and greater sacrifice!  This covenant has been established on better promises then the first covenant.  Better promises bring transformation.  Better promises brings a Mediator that saves to the uttermost!  We need to have sweet meditation upon the truths of the better covenant and our minds will be transformed!  We are transformed by the divine influence upon our heart!  We have received from Jesus Christ’s fullness, and grace for grace!

Can you see yourself healed, whole, and completely set free from every yoke of bondage?  When you get a picture of grace it give you a revelation of liberty found exclusively in Jesus Christ!

Only by grace can we enter and there is no other entrance into the favor and influence of God!  The grace perspective leaves one trusting in the transforming power of Jesus Christ.  The law mentality is little more than a behavior modification of the old man and it will never work!

Who shall believe our report?  Your expectation of God can be raised at the hearing of the gospel.  The Father sent Jesus as the perfect spotless lamb to bear the sins of the world so that we might be saved.  Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead, cast out the demons, and all who were sick were made well.  He is the same Jesus and He offers you His grace!

Hebrews 10:5  Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.  6  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.  7  Then I said, 'Behold, I have come; In the volume of the book it is written of Me; To do Your will, O God.'"  8  Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law),  9  then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second.  10  By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.  11  And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.  12  But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,  13  from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.  14  For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

One perfect offering was the will of the Father.  Jesus was and is that offering!  The terms of this covenant include we the believer in Jesus are sanctified once and for all!  This one offering has done a perfected work in our spirit forever!

2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

You are who God says you are!  You can have what God says you can have.  Put His word in your mouth and it will be brought to pass!  God’s desire for you was demonstrated in the sacrifice of Jesus; God’s blessing power is demonstrated for you by the resurrection of Jesus!  That power is at work with in you!  Let His grace transform you day by day in the glory of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 2:20  "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

When God’s grace is revealed and received it fulfills its purpose every time, without exception!