Bible Question:
Ok, so a few weeks ago at a church I just started going to, the pastor called people up to the front who wanted prayer, and I went up. A person came to each of us individually, put oil on our heads (first time for me), and they prayed for us. But when the guy got to me, he said "I don't mean to prophesize over you, but God has put a question on my heart about you. Do you feel you have a calliing on your heart?" I said "yes sir" He said "I can see you have found favor in God, and by His special grace you will accomplish your calling." I'm kind of a new christian, so could anyone explain to me exactly what the favor of God is, and how one would get it, cause I admit I don't seee how He could have it for me. Also a side question, is special grace actually special, or just regular grace. |
Bible Answer: Grace simply means, in this context, you have a task before you. Grace is something you are given freely. People get focused on salvation, because, most likely, all they have heard is sin-centric teaching and run from the threat of hell, so salvation is all they see and hear. However Grace would also apply to those works you bear the fruit of, that you were saved to be involved in. Eph 2:10 you were saved to do the works. 1 Corinthians 5 I think, we are His instruments of Righteousness. I.E. We are the tools He uses to exercise His love to the people within the creation. Matt 5:43-48 We are to learn to love as He does, no less. Galatians 5:6, theology isn't important but faith working through love is. Eph 4:11-17 through works you are made as spiritually mature as Christ was on earth, no less. Parable of the vine, Jesus is the vine, God the gardner,we are merely branches. The vine grows the fruit. The vine makes the branch strong. The vine produces the fruit through the branch. All the branch does is hold the fruit the vine produced. That's Grace. You can't make fruit, but if it's exercised through you, that's grace. If you have a special Grace, which I have no clue how the man could have known that, but what do I know, then he would be saying God has a "chore" for you to do. Judas Iscariot had a special Grace to do. Without his actions we would not have a messiah today. Pharaoh had a special Grace, without him chasing the Jews from Egypt, we would have a very different story today. They were crucial to your salvation. They had a special Grace. They had a job to do for God's plan. This is probably unorthodox, but I have yet to be shown an argument to say I'm not right. So I share it with you and challenge you to check the work yourself and see if it's not possible. Grace, in this case, God will enable you, empower you, and ensue you, to be the tool for Him to accomplish the task through. |