By Grace

Because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I’m not about to let his grace go to waste.

1 Corinthians 15:10 (MSG)

01 Why This? Why Now? Why Me?

So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed... And the same time there arose no small stir about that way. Acts 19:20,23 (KJV)

If there’s one positive thing you can say about the devil, it’s that he’s consistent. Just as Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), our enemy, the devil, changes not. We can look to the earliest pages of Scripture to discover how he acts, and armed with that knowledge, avoid his pitfalls and prevail against his attacks. One thing you can bank on: when God moves powerfully, Satan acts desperately.

In the passage above, the Word of God was spreading mightily. People were flooding into God’s Kingdom, leaving behind their old lives of darkness and defeat. Predictably, the enemy went into panic-mode. Satan did everything possible to stir up controversy—emitting smokescreens of distraction and confusion—to keep people’s focus off the truth that would set them free. The devil worked this way in the Garden of Eden, he worked this way in the book of Acts, and he works this way today.

The devil doesn’t merely deny truth; he perverts truth. Do you understand what I mean by that? In most cases, he’s not going to get people to believe that he’s God, or that God doesn’t exist, so he works to distort the truth about God, hoping to form wrong beliefs in people’s hearts and minds. For instance, if he can get people to believe that God is mad at them and seeks their punishment, he can keep them from pursuing God. If they don’t seek God, they won’t receive Christ. If they don’t receive Christ, they die in their sins and spend eternity in Hell. The devil wins. That’s how the enemy operates—not by denying God, but by distorting God.

When it comes to believers, the enemy similarly seeks to deceive. If the devil can twist truth in the minds of God’s people, he can prevent them from receiving God’s blessings. This concept holds true in a variety of areas.

For example, I often preach the truths of biblical prosperity. But the devil hates the idea of a Christian being anything other than down and broke. A successful Christian is a powerful testimony to the goodness of God—a major threat to the enemy. So, what does Satan do? He ceaselessly works to promote mistruths regarding prosperity. How does he do this? By inspiring voices to oppose God’s truth. He’ll create no small stir by raising voices in and outside the church to quell the truth that God wants us blessed. And, too often, his methods work.

We understand that the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit at work on the Earth. There are many spirits—many voices and influencing forces—each with an agenda. These spirits seek to harness spiritual power to steer the world and the church away from the plan of God.

When a minister preaches God’s truth, God’s Spirit empowers that preacher, causing his or her voice to be stronger than would otherwise be possible. We call that empowerment the anointing. The anointing dispels darkness, allowing people once spiritually blind to see. But God’s anointing isn’t the only anointing there is. When people speak the enemy’s message, yielding their lips to his suggestions, he likewise amplifies their words from the spiritual realm. Their words become supernaturally propelled, impacting and spreading beyond what one would normally expect.

Remember, Satan perverts. He doesn’t seek to do away with truth as much as he seeks to twist it—introducing an alternate version that, to the spiritually untrained, seems almost anointed. That’s how he brings about doctrines and even movements that seem to be of God but really aren’t. And that’s why such teachings often spread so rapidly.

A Twisted Truth

Several years ago, the enemy launched an attack, opposing the truth of God’s grace. He didn’t use Satan-worshippers or con-men to propagate his perversion. He used preachers: well-meaning, genuinely called Christians. They didn’t mean to cause harm—of this I’m convinced—yet many of them took God’s truth a bit too far, perpetuating an extreme version of an otherwise orthodox doctrine.

The enemy didn’t try to do away with grace. That’s not his modus operandi. He instead sought to redefine it in a way that would create broad appeal while secretly stripping it of its power. The result? A grace-movement was born. Much of the teaching in this movement was scripturally sound, yet some of it was wrong.

This wasn’t the first time an extreme emphasis on grace emerged. The first time it happened was shortly after God’s grace was introduced.

...some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives... Jude 1:4 (NLT)

It should be obvious, one would think, that grace doesn’t lead believers into immorality. Yet, in the formative days of the church, it evidently wasn’t obvious. Many were led off course, departing from truth, because they gave heed to voices that perhaps offered a fresh take on a familiar message. How could people have been so deceived? Remember, these weren’t just human voices who wormed their way into the church. They were human voices riding the wave of a spiritual flow—different from God’s flow, yet still spiritual. There was excitement and enthusiasm as leaders spoke. The atmosphere was electric. To the untrained believer, this seemed right—it felt right.

And so it was with the movement that began in the Body of Christ many years ago. There was excitement. There were testimonies. There were doubtless many wholesome truths included in the messages that were preached. Yet I began to hear alarming reports from fellow ministers alleging serious error in the movement; tainted teaching that was spreading and affecting their congregations. Instead of an accurate presentation of grace, truth was being pushed to the extreme, derailing multitudes.

Chief among the errors was the idea that because sin had been dealt with on the cross, there was no longer the possibility of sin in the believer’s life. Because there was no sin, nothing we did could be considered sin. Therefore, one could conduct his or her life based on natural, fleshly desires without fear of condemnation or judgment. This led many to believe they could cast off restraint and live as they pleased.

Churches everywhere were losing members who felt they had been delivered from the legalistic bondage of pastoral oversight and were now free to roam about on their own. After all, they said, we’re under grace. These doctrinal aberrations had significant impact, wreaking havoc in parts of the Body while appearing to bring revival to others. Grace teachers emerged, new grace churches were established, and what many know as the grace message rose to prominence.

So, what’s my point? Why this book? I’ll get to that shortly, but first a disclaimer. It may surprise you to learn I’ve never been personally exposed to this grace message. I’ve heard a few sermons by those who were said to be leaders in the movement but recognized no error in their teaching. Beyond that, I’ve watched, heard, and read nothing firsthand; I only know of this movement from others. There’s a reason for this. As I watched a well-known grace preacher on television one day, the Holy Spirit spoke to me.

That’s not for you, were His words. Because He said that, I never watched another of this man’s broadcasts, listened to any of the other teachers in the movement, or read their books. Because I only feed on materials from those to whom God has connected me, I don’t hear everything other people are preaching and teaching. In this regard, my life is blissfully ignorant.

It must again be noted that when a message or movement veers off course, that doesn’t mean everything about it is off. Just the opposite. It’s usually the case that most of what’s being taught is biblically accurate, with just bits and pieces being stretched too far. There’s also the issue of the application of what’s being preached. Someone may preach sound biblical truth, but those hearing it can apply it to their lives in an extreme, unbalanced fashion. If the enemy can’t pervert truth through the mouth of the preacher, he seeks to pervert it in the hearing of the believer.

Some may ask, Why are you writing a book about the grace message when you’ve never heard the message? How can you write about something with which you have no firsthand experience? Fair questions. It’s true, I’m probably the least qualified to speak or write about the grace movement of recent years. But that’s okay. This book isn’t about that grace message. It’s about another one: the one in the Bible.

A Divine Assignment

At the height of the grace controversy, God began teaching me about grace. It seemed as though every time I opened my Bible, I would see more truth. I could see He was emphasizing this subject to me and I was astonished at the revelation I was receiving. Yet the spiritual climate of the day caused many, myself included, to remain overly guarded. I didn’t want to be swept into a movement that was reportedly promoting immorality, so I had a chat with the Lord.

Why are you showing this to me? And why now, with all that’s going on? I asked. His reply, spoken by the still, small voice of His Spirit, surprised me.

I was endeavoring to emphasize this subject to My Body, but the enemy crept in, and things went astray. There are still important truths about grace people are missing. I need you to help teach this.

I was stunned.

There was supposed to be a grace revival, but not one laden with error. There was indeed to be a grace movement, but not one that led to loose living. There still exists a genuine grace message that must spread throughout the Body. God needs those who will carry this message. We must eradicate the grace-deficiency in the Body of Christ.

I began to study. I began to see. I began to preach, but I didn’t preach it much. In fact, I’ve only preached this subject in churches a handful of times. Because of the sour taste that remained in people’s mouths from the error that had circulated, time needed to pass. I felt it best to err on the side of caution, taking the approach adopted by the Christian-killer-turned-preacher we know as Paul. Read carefully as he recounts the events leading to the launch of his ministry:

But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles. When this happened, I did not rush out to consult with any human being. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus. Then three years later I went to Jerusalem to get to know Peter, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. The only other apostle I met at that time was James, the Lord’s brother. I declare before God that what I am writing to you is not a lie. After that visit I went north into the provinces of Syria and Cilicia. And still the churches in Christ that are in Judea didn’t know me personally. All they knew was that people were saying, The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy! And they praised God because of me. Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing. And they supported me... Galatians 1:15-2:3 (NLT)

I’m sure you