Being Strong in Grace (Part 1)

Creflo Dollar recently taught a message on grace at Charis Bible College where he described grace as depending on and trusting in God as opposed to self-reliance.

“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also,” (2 Timothy 2:1-2).

“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me,” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

These verses show us that whatever I am (in terms of gifting and calling) and whatever good I am able to do, it is all by His grace! And whatever grace is, He wants me to be strong in it–not weak, a wimp, or a novice in it!

I know one thing I have found in my life–God’s divine enablement wherever I have felt inadequate.

You and I cannot be conformed into the image of who God has already made us in our spirit man or do what He has assigned us to do by self-reliance. Rather, we must be strong in grace–we must rely on and trust totally in God in us.

“…our sufficiency is from God,” (2 Corinthians 3:5).

Our ability to do anything challenging, stretching, or outside of our comfort zone, or to face any assignment that seems beyond our skill set, experience, or knowledge, is from God–by His grace.

Since starting my journey of faith 40 years ago, this is something He has consistently required of me. I have never felt adequate to do anything God has asked me to do or assigned me to do. When God called me into ministry, I was experiencing quite a bit of success in business. I knew without a doubt in my mind it would be a modern-day miracle to transform this businessman into a pastor or minister.

I thought surely God was testing my willingness to obey and that I would be like Abraham on Mount Moriah and I would pull my arm back to kill my beloved (business) and He would provide me a ram in the bush (another business).

He didn’t do that; rather, He let me put the knife to the heart of my business and trust Him to produce a real Isaac from my loins that would cause me to discover and fulfill His real call on my life.

Because I was way out of my comfort zone, experience, and skill, I learned to depend on and trust Him to attend Bible College and start my first church where people intentionally stayed away in droves. I had to learn to put my trust in His call and assignment for my life and not judge my success or significance by outward results.

We must learn the lesson of not despising the days of small beginnings (Zechariah 4:10). This is just like David learning faithfulness and developing skill in anonymity on the hillsides as a shepherd protecting the sheep from lions, bears, and the elements.

Then I had to learn to remain dependent upon God when He began to grace me with some measure of success in men’s eyes. The church that Paul and I led grew from 60 to close to 400 in 3 years.

Adversity is not your greatest challenge and temptation; success and prosperity are. The temptation to take credit for what God has graced you with is greater.

I pastored for 24 years and learned how to depend on, honor, and give God the glory for His sufficiency and success in my life of raising up many sons and daughters, birthing churches, and developing leaders and advancing His kingdom in North Texas.

After 24 years, the Lord began to unsettle me internally to give me a new assignment that led me to Andrew Wommack Ministries. It has been quite a ride of depending on God’s grace. I began assisting Wendell with World Outreach during a significant growth time. We increased from 18 to 40 Bible schools! I knew all about pastoring but very little about running a Bible school.

I only had a word from God–He had another assignment for me, an invitation from Andrew, and something He put in my heart many years ago about being involved in leadership in some way of a Bible College. I daily had to agree that He was my sufficiency, and by His grace and call I could do this!

I then moved from World Outreach to become the Dean of Education overseeing the Education department at Charis. I knew how to pastor, but I didn’t even know what a Dean did from an experiential level. I had to learn to lean into “Deaning grace”.

I had just gotten comfortable learning how to Dean when Gary and Paul asked me to take the Director position at Charis Colorado. It’s like going from flying a Cessna 172, single engine, four seat plane to flying a 747. Things came at me at a much brisker pace. The same way I pastored my first church is how I directed Charis Bible College–leading by His grace and trusting in His sufficiency instead of myself. The result of this kind of trust is peace!

I also decided if doing my best and trusting in God to fulfill an assignment is not enough to produce success, then “not enough” in the present will have to do. I then go back to the drawing board to find a better system to accomplish it, or a person with more skill and experience to delegate it to.

Don’t allow the responsibilities of a greater role disturb your peace. In the N.T. it says “grace and peace” numerous times. Whenever we lose our peace, it is because we have left grace. In other words, we have stopped trusting in and depending on God and moved into self-reliance.