FOUNDATION STATEMENT:  As believers if we desire to abound to every good work then we must live a lifestyle of love and faith, positioning ourselves to abound in the grace of God.

I. Inheriting or receiving the manifestation of the promises of God in your life is the outcome of faith working by love so that the manifestation of the promise, might be given as an act of grace (Romans 4:16)

A. The manifestation of the promise is given as an act of grace, but it came out (outcome) through love and faith

1. Of course the manifestation of healing, prosperity, or deliverance in our lives is an act of God’s grace, but receiving those things is the outcome of  love and faith

Grace cannot be earned and you can’t earn the manifestation of the promises of God (Ephesians 2:8-9)

a. I can have all of the grace in the world and offer you a gift by grace, but without you receiving it you’ll never get it

B. The purpose for the grace of God in your life is that it will cause you to always have, more than enough, in all things, so that you can abound to every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8)

1. When the need was eternal salvation and redemption grace caused you to have more than enough (Ephesians 2:8)

a. The grace that you needed to get saved came through faith working by love

C. You have to give “faith working by love” to grace

1. Faith working by love is the channel that the grace of God can flow through and cause you to always have more than enough no matter what the needs is

2. If you’re ever going to reach the level of total life prosperity that God wants you to reach, it’s going to be because you live a lifestyle of love and faith, providing the proper channel for the grace of God to flow through into your life (2 Corinthians 8:7)

II. When you step outside of the lifestyle of love and faith you’re in a place resistance to the grace of God (1 Peter 5:5-9)

A. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble

1. The proud aren’t walking in this grace

B. Humility vs. Pride

1. There’s outright pride and then there’s hidden pride that Satan doesn’t want you to see

a. The outright pride is the “I’m great” kind of pride

b. The hidden pride is the pride that people walk in when they worry and take the care

2. You humble yourself under the mighty hand of God by casting the whole of your care over onto him

a. It’s a prideful thing to pick up the care of something thinking that you can take care of it better than God

b. Your job is not to take the care of it, that’s God’s job; Your job is to fear not and believe only

3. You cast the care on God by keeping the commandment of love/fearing not and believing only

a. To get rid of the care, you have to go to the root called fear

i. Love gets rid of the fear and if there’s no fear present you can’t take the care

ii. You can spend all the time in the world in the Word of God where that care is concerned and faith will come, but it will be contaminated and there will always be this thing in you that says, “This isn’t coming to pass,” and that’s the torment that comes from fear

b. Faith is the resisting the temptation to pick up the care (V9)

4. It’s that position of fearing not and believing only that you are positioned to receive grace because you’re out of pride and into true humility

C. God wants you exalted, lifted up, and elevated out of your current circumstances

1. God doesn’t have a problem with you being exalted, He’s got a problem with you trying to exalt yourself

2. You put yourself under the authority of God, the commandment of love, and the Word of God and He/His Word will exalt you out of those circumstances

a. You have no business being up at night worrying and trying to figure out how your going to make this happen

b. God will do the exalting you do the fearing not and believing only

D. You be self-controlled, clear-headed and on guard to not pick up the care of that situation

1. If you pick up the care of that you’re a resisting the very grace that’s more than enough for that care

2. Satan’s looking for people who operate in fear and pick up the care because those he can devour (Isaiah 54:14)

3. Every time he comes you resist him in with faith working by love

III. The Apostle Paul got in a position where he was resisting the grace (2 Corinthians 11:28, 12:6-10)

A. He picked up the care of all the churches he was writing to

1. He had no business with that care any more than you or I do

2. Jesus said cares are like thorns (Mark 4:18-19)

B. The only pride problem he had was that he picked up the care of the churches instead of casting the care of those churches over on God

1. It’s clear he doesn’t have an outright pride problem (V6)

C. The Word of God was coming to him in revelation form and it was coming in abundance

1. Mark 4:14-17 – Satan came immediately to steal that Word and to keep that Word from exalting him

2. The thorn came to buffet/torment him and to keep him from being exalted above measure

a. The torment was there through his fear that something was going wrong with the churches

D. God’s grace was more than enough for him in that situation and it’s more than enough for you in your situation, but you don’t get that grace by begging God (2 Corinthians 9:8)

1. You receive the grace by coming boldly to the throne of grace holding fast to the confession of the Word of God in your mouth (Hebrews 4:14-16)

a. Love – Come boldly---Faith – Hold fast to the profession of your faith

b. When you’re in need you don’t need to tell God how hard it is because he already knows how you feel; he felt what you’re feeling right now and he’s touched by the feeling of your infirmities

i. You can come with the confession of the Word because he already knows how you feel

ii. What He needs to know is what you believe

2. The apostle Paul went from begging to confessing

a. Just because you preach it doesn’t mean that you do it all of the time automatically

b. He got in love and faith for the sake of the anointing