A Grace Deficit

AuthorHouse

Chapter One

'In the last days', God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.' ~ Acts 2:17

The Deficit

Deficit means to be found wanting, to be lacking, or having a deficiency in amount, and deficiency is defined as a shortage of substance necessary for health or inadequate (Webster's Seventh Collegiate Dictionary). To come straight to the point there is a deficit, a deficiency of grace clearly manifest in the body of Christ. I would suggest this deficiency of grace finds expression in four main areas of church life.

The first area where this deficit of grace is found is in the area of our basic understanding of grace, what it is by biblical definition, how it is ministered by the Holy Spirit, and how it actually functions to produce the new creation, the new man of 2 Corinthians 5:17. There are many believers who would openly declare that all the gifts of the Spirit are a present provision for the ministry of grace. Ask them and they will happily agree, "Yes all the gifts are available today." But then inquire as to how many who make such declarations actually move in these giftings and there is almost a universal absence of the gifts in their lives. This absence is recognized and yet no action is taken to bring their practice in line with their confession or the injunctions of Scripture. While ministering in church fellowships around the world, I keep getting asked the same questions over and over again, and it is in response to these questions that this book has been written. It is designed to provide a foundation from which to begin for those who really want the Spirit to release his gifts in their lives. This in intended as a place to begin and is not intended to be an all encompassing consideration of the gifts. Thus, this format employs relatively short chapters. The intent is to help believers move out of ignorance to a place of practical intelligence and a functional application of the Spirit's gift ministry.

If believers are asked to define grace without using the term unmerited favor, the room goes silent. We are over 2,000 years into the age of grace and, for the most part, believers still know nothing more of grace than the term "unmerited favor." In truth, unmerited favor is not the biblical definition of grace. There is an immense deficit when it comes to understanding the doctrine and practice of grace. In the first book, "A Dangerous Grace," I endeavored to address this general deficit of understanding as it applies to grace in introductory terms. Surely, if the covenant of grace is to be kept by believers, we have to do better than unmerited favor. How can believers be expected to keep covenant with the Lord and other believers if the terms of the covenant are not understood? Can the church that depends fully upon the grace of Christ for its existence afford to somehow be indifferent to any deficit of grace? How is it that somehow we have been stirred to not much more in this regard than "unmerited favor?"

The second area in which a deficit of grace becomes obvious is in the area of our intimacy with the God-head. The degree to which grace has become functional in the spirit man is the degree to which we will actually experience communion with the Holy Spirit. Conversely, the degree to which grace has not been understood and become a functional reality within our spirit man is the degree to which we will fail in our communion with the God-head. Perhaps we should ask ourselves if we are really satisfied with the depth of intimacy we actually experience with the God-head. Our depth of intimacy with God is not first found by prayer, fasting, bible reading and things we can do, but is found in relationship flowing out of functional grace. So often we hear that if we would only pray more, give more, go to church more, fast more or read our bibles more, then God would be pleased and we could work our way into a greater intimacy. Tragically, this is not how intimacy is discovered and experienced. What is the consequence of a lack of true intimacy with the Lord? Oh yes, we should do all the above, but they should be the fruit of finding intimacy not the method of attaining intimacy. The degree to which we miss the grace empowered relationship with the Lord will absolutely reflect in the quality of relationship we have with other believers.

The third evidence of the grace deficit is found in the quality of relationships as they exist within our church fellowships and our homes. Our communion with one another, our unity and our passion for each other will reflect the degree to which grace has become functional in our marriages and the inter-relationships within our church fellowships. Can the world, for example, look into our churches, get behind the exterior to the inner workings and find the true sweetness of God's people loving one another? Do we actually cover one another? What are the board meetings like when differences of opinion arise? What kinds of attitudes, motives, and agendas can be found when it comes to overseeing our congregations? How often does spiritual leadership have to be called in to adjudicate? How many wars have been and are being fought out both behind the scenes and within the congregation? Why is this important? Simply because it is only as supernatural, agape-style love operates that the world can know that God sent Christ into the world. Check out Christ's prayer in John 17. Folks, the only thing that will truly produce the body of Christ manifesting the nature of Christ will be an inflowing of grace!

The fourth area in which the grace deficit becomes evident is in the absence of the supernatural works. Jesus clearly said that his followers would do greater works because he was to go back to the Father (John12:14). We can read through many passages in the Old Testament, the Gospels and the book of Acts and find prolific demonstrations of the work of the Holy Spirit demonstrated by the gifts. These gifts are noted biblically to be nothing less than the manifest ministry of grace by none other than the Holy Spirit. However, when one examines the body of Christ to find these biblical evidences of functional grace they are almost universally absent, at least in the historic western democracies. Even among those who would acknowledge that the gifts of the Spirit as found in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 are still part of the Christian charter, few actually operate in those grace enablings. The degree to which we miss the grace of Christ becomes the degree to which we will lack the evident power of the Kingdom of God and will have to substitute standards of religious practice. The realms of possibility will be confined to the best efforts of skilled, talented individuals. Now before someone reacts, there can be no substitute for grace. It is the only covenant under which the believer and church are to live. Grace is the only covenant within which every believer, church, and minister must live and conduct ministry.

The degree to which a grace deficit exists in the body of Christ becomes the degree to which we will fail in our witness to the world. We may have our programs, structures and techniques well developed, but there is no substitute for functional grace! It will only be as grace finds its proper and functional place in our lives and churches that the supernatural witness will be set before the world. The apostle Paul did...