The Audacity of God's Grace: 10 Strategies To Living Your Best Life Now (31 page)

The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want;

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters;

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for His name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil;

for you are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life;

and I shall dwell in the house of the

Lord forever.

Avoid The Sheep Mentality

What the Psalmist was rectifying here is that because he, just like you, were created for dominion and excellence in the image of a God who is wealthy, he cannot be kept in the prison of want caused by poverty and subjected to mediocrity of the sheep mentality of unending wants. The problem that king David observed among many poor people who wanted more and more and more from the king is that poor people could do anything when they desperately want something. They are willing to take any desperate action which many of the times produces desperate results. This is one of the good reasons why you need to be stubborn with your success. The rich guys among the corrupt and greedy political class on the other hand were equally willing to do anything to crush opposition that will keep them away from receiving more and more and more since the spirit of poverty possessed most of these rich guys in the nation. To king David, God as the shepherd-leader is able to provide all our needs, not our wants, according to his riches in Christ Jesus and sustain the needs of his people. According to Barnes Note of the Bible, when king David declares that he shall not be subjected to the prison of want:

The main idea in the psalm is derived from the fact that God is a shepherd who provides sufficiently for his people. The meaning is that, as a shepherd, God would make all needful provision for his flock, and evince all proper care for it. The words shall not want, as applied to the psalmist, would embrace everything that could be a proper object of desire, whether material or spiritual; whether pertaining to the body or the soul; whether having reference to time or to eternity. There is no reason for supposing that David limited this to his temporal necessities, or to the present life, but the idea manifestly is that God would provide all that was needful for him always. Compare Psalm 34:9, “There is no want to those who fear him.” This idea enters essentially into the conception of God as the shepherd-leader of his people, that all their real needs shall be supplied. Many people in our societies who wanted more and more and more of what they didn’t really need are good reminders of what happens to us when we allow the enemy to subject us in the prison of want due to the spirit of poverty. People like Bernard Madoff; Robert Mugabe, Muammar al-Gaddafi, and the late General Sani Abacha etc are good reminders of why we need to reject the sheep mentality born out of the spirit of poverty. Those who are subjected to the prison of want are usually self-centered and careless about what happens to orders, whether they are starving, hurting, or dying; for all that matters are what they want and getting their way at all cost.

My Testimony

From my personal encounter with God, I can authoritatively affirm that God is not just interested in spiritual matters or people; for God’s interest is holistic. In our church ministry—the GraceWorld Christian Fellowship, our welcome slogan is this: “Welcome to the GraceWorld Christian Fellowship Where Jesus Reigns and the Grace of God Rules Supreme.” Why we chose this slogan is that we believe very strongly that serving God promotes holistic growth and bring about both the spiritual blessings and the material too. We believe that where ever Jesus reigns supreme in life, lives are lived not in the prison of want, but in the order of the commonwealth assembly of Zion, the wealthy place where Jesus resides.

In my ministry, we don’t believe in poverty or teachings and doctrines that prolong poverty. In fact, we hate poverty. Over the years, I have used the word of God as a powerful tool to teach people how to develop their lives and make their minds work for them, and have seen many people move from being very poor when they joined to become wealthy and some have gone into businesses and are self-employed where they arrange their lives in ways that allows them to serve God better and faithfully. We believe that serving God and allowing Jesus’ grace to rule supreme in the lives of believers has the capacity to banish diseases and all kinds of demonic, addictive, relational and emotional nightmares and fragmentation.

When we had my last daughter—Chidiamara, the child was born with a health related deficit that was to place her on certain medications for life. What I mean with this is that the child was diagnosed to have a problem that will affect her digestion and the physicians referred us to Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) in California. After series of test, the bomb shell came with the diagnosis that the child will be placed on certain medications for life, and they gave us the first prescription. As I looked at the face of the beautiful tiny innocent child on my wife’s hands who was so helpless, I was deeply moved to tears. As a scientist myself whom after undergoing a major surgical procedure that lasted almost twelve hours years before and were placed on certain medications for life to help me with digestion and as a public health practitioner and health educator with a master’s degree in public health and a doctorate degree in the same field, I knew the implications of that diagnosis. My wife, an experienced registered nurse with a Master of Nursing Science who also was completing her doctoral study in nursing science, understood the implications and the challenge that our daughter was going to face.

Faith Is About Believing What Is Impossible

However, because we are a people of faith, who have built a personal relationship with Jesus—the master physician, we decided not to take the matter and life of our young daughter to the only person who ran the best pharmacy shop at the helm of his garment and healed the woman who have suffered hemorrhage for twelve years. We refused to place our daughter on those medications that were prescribed by her physician. In fact, we never went to the pharmacy to buy those medications in the first place.

We brought our daughter to our Church—the GraceWorld Christian Fellowship, where Jesus reigns and the grace of God rules supreme with a firm belief and faith in the God of unlimited possibilities. We agreed that if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek God’s intervention that God will perform what seems to be impossible with the physicians and scientists of our time. That day, I called my pastoral staff and elder Gbenga Solademi who served in our ministry then also prayed fervently, and in unity, we called on the name of God and laid hands on the child and anointed her. We claimed the promised power of God’s word of healing and challenged God to set the innocent child free from the sickness she was born with that will place her on medications for life, and restore her to normalcy. Specifically, we told God that we do not want to place baby Chidiamara on those medications for life, and because we trust that where Jesus reigns every sickness and diseases of such nature could be put on hold, and because the weapon of our warfare is not carnal, but to the pulling down or demolition of every stronghold (2 Corinthians 10:4), we agreed in prayer that our baby daughter was healed and set free to live her best life now in the name of Jesus, and a thunderous amen was said by all in the congregation.

After that prayer in church, we believed God and that was the end of that sickness. When we took the baby back to the hospital for routine check-ups that are required by law and for further tests as was required by law, the physicians and health providers were shocked to find out that the baby whose diagnosis was confirmed in more than one hospital had been completely set free from the sickness that she was to suffer for life and be dependent on certain medications for life. The truth is that the grace of God has audacity.

The Audacity of God’s Grace Can
Work Out Your Miracle Too

The power of, and the audacity of God’s grace can be felt among recipients who have accepted Jesus and his shed blood to do the impossible for them. In return, such people like us, are able to live our best life now, by the grace of God, not by the grace that people offer. When the audacity of God’s grace is at work for you, God will step into your situation, your life, into your journey; into your vision, and into your dreams and overthrow your sorrows and things that cause you stagnation in life. You will experience real time miracles! Jesus will reach out to you, and to everything that characterize you and enable you to live your best life now by the grace of God. The result of this is that you will begin to press on the upward way and begin to gain new heights every day and in everything you touch and even as you are upward bound.

If You Only Can Embrace The Grace Today

If only you can embrace and believe the audacity of God’s grace today, the resultant effect right now is that the Lord will plant your feet on higher grounds where you will forever rise to the top and do exploits with your talents and the immense potentialities that God has deposited into your life. I decree that the Lord shall supply your needs today, not just according to the principles of banking and finance, accounting and economics, and not according to the principles of your good and great education and degrees, licenses or certificates. Not according to the principles of what you know, the connections you have, rather what I want you to believe and to begin to declare into your own life even now, by the authority given to me by God, is that: My God shall supply all your needs, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Because our God is a God of riches, of power, of signs and wonders; of healing and all kinds of miracles and because the street of heaven where God lives is paved with gold, the principles of economics, the principles of limited f finance, the principles of bank of America loans and Visa or Master Card credit cards, should not control you or count much for you. Don’t take matters of your life easy. Believe God for big promotions, big dreams, big visions, and big breath-taking breakthroughs. It can happen to you, but you must be willing to be stubborn for your success.

What Should Matter To You Now

What should matter the most to you now is that since you belong to Jesus Christ, there is even now, no condemnation that will limit you from becoming who God has created you to become, because you are a very powerful person. You can live your best life now by the special grace of God. The grace of God is God’s unlimited favor that is unmerited which God freely gives to everyone created by God in his image since God has welcomed you to become a partaker in his free economy of grace. The power of God’s word declares that: For even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing (Psalm 34:10), for those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains are around Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people, from this time forth and for evermore.

What I Decree and Declare Into Your Life

Because the Lord’s name stands in for his purposes, and because we are created for his purposes, and because we are his people and because we are named by his name, I hereby decree and declare to you by the authority given to me by God as his mouthpiece—ordained and anointed by him; by the authority given to me by Jesus, and by the authority given to me by the Holy Spirit to write this book, I declare that you shall live your best life now from today. You will live that your dream, your spouse shall live his/her dream, your children will live their dreams, your career shall live its dream, those that associate with you shall live their dreams.

I decree that you shall not die prematurely, not even your spouse, not your children, not your career, not your dreams and visions. Do you know why? Because Jesus is enough and you belong to God! Don’t ever forget that you were bought with a prize. You are very special before the throne of God. You matter to God. You are very powerful. This is why you must understand that you are unstoppable. That is what it meant to be a child of the king. Because you have accepted him, because you have his spirit, because you have his seal of approval and because of the audacity of God’s grace, you can live your best life now by the special grace of God.

PART III
SUMMARIES & ADDITIONAL
READINGS FOR WHAT THE
AUDACITY OF GOD’S GRACE
COULD MEAN FOR YOU

“The grace of God does not destroy human freedom, but renews and empowers it for partnership with God.”

—Daniel Migliore

Courage is grace under pressure

—Ernest Hemingway

PART III
SUMMARIES & ADDITIONAL
READINGS OF WHAT THE
AUDACITY OF GOD’S GRACE
COULD MEAN FOR YOU

“
Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”

—Denis Waitley

Ten Key Pointers For Daily Life & Un-situational Applications

1. Living our best life now is what God desire for our everyday life.

2. You can live your dreams today by the grace of God; it does not have to wait till the next ten or twenty years.

3. God has given you dominion. God is interested in our total welfare. God has our welfare at heart, and is always happier to see that we succeed and live in prosperity.

4. Many Church goers and professed Christians live a life of poverty and mediocrity, not because they didn’t want to live better, but because they never imagined living one.

5. You are powerful. Poverty is in the mind. In order to live our best life now, we must defeat the thoughts of doubt and assasinate the spirit of poverty and fear. Your thoughts are powerful and determine your actions. The thought of fear, never accomplish anything

6. Your Mind works like the ATM. Automate your mind to work success for your life and power it for action. Living your best life now begins with the God-factor and your thought factor.

7. Living a simple life is not a necessarily a sign of holiness. Go for big dreams and raise your expectations. You were not created for mediocrity. You can WIN big.

8. Many people live a pain-full life, fragmented and compartmentalized by multiplication of life struggles and difficulties because they are unguided by the grace of God. Remember that you don’t have to live this way.

9. The blessings and breakthrough you have been looking for is in obedience. Every time you obey God, blessings will follow. To live your best life now by the grace of God, you must maximize your God-given potentials because you are fearfully and wonderfully made, for God invested a lot in you at the time he created you.

10.
To live our best lives now, we must learn to make necessary sacrifice, take necessary risks, make mistakes and learn from them and continue to think and dream big. The reason is this: we are serving the king of kings and we belong to God. We are God’s own. We are named by his name, and because the Lords name stands in for his purpose, and because we are created for his purpose, we stand to prosper and succeed in all of our endeavors aligned to the will and leadership of God. God holds the keys to every uncommon favors. He has the keys to uncommon blessings, and has got the one key that unlock every stronghold; the keys to every victory and promotion. For it is in God’s economy of grace that holds the keys that unleash every prosperity, and the keys to the fount of every blessings to attaining new heights.

You Have God’s DNA

Part of living our best life now, means that God has unleashed his grace in full measure to every direction we thread on without pre-conditions to all of us. This is why we were created in the first place! For God was at no obligation to create us, neither was he on a gun point to create men and women in his image. God, out of his love decided to create us in order to share love and grace in freedom. God could have created us to be identical to any other animal like monkeys, chimpanzee, or donkeys. But what the scriptures says is that God, because he wanted us to live our best lives now, because he has always had our welfare at heart, decided to create us—men and women in his image. To consolidate that, God decided to breath into us, his own breath of life, and also promoted us to having dominion above every other created thing. What this meant is that you are a very powerful person because you have the breath of God in you. You have God’s DNA. You belong totally to God. You can also create things; this is why we have invented cars, computers, and airplanes, which never existed when Jesus was here on earth. Because we have been gifted and highly favored in the economy of God’s grace, there is no height that we cannot attain that is humanly possible. This is why physicians like Ben Carlson can renegotiate and recreate conjoined twins successfully, all by the grace of God.

The Law Of The Spirit Of Life

In physics, there is a law of gravity which states that “whatever goes up must come down.” Everyone is affected by it. No one can just say, “I’m not going to believe in gravity anymore, I’m just going to float to work.” It just doesn’t happen. All, from the most powerful king to the poorest peasant, are all affected by this thing called gravity. It keeps us earth-bound. If you took all the space available to us, just on this planet, gravity confines us to a very limited fraction of a percentage of that space. We look up at the miles of atmosphere above us, but we can’t do anything with it. It’s just there. It is unusable space for us simply because gravity keeps us from inhabiting that realm. However, what the law of gravity negates was the possibility that what goes up can stay up, and that was the whole idea behind the law of aerodynamics on which airplanes were built. This law is our one way “out” for the law of gravity because the law of aerodynamic says (among other, more complicated things) that the law of gravity can be counteracted if given the right variables. Simplistically, it postulates that, if you combine the right shape with the right speed with the right weight, the law of aerodynamics will counteract the law of gravity and you will not fall to the ground. What a wonder! Flight is now a possibility in the human experience. However, this law also has the downside? The law of aerodynamics ceases to counteract the law of gravity when only one variable ceases to meet a certain requirement, and the object then comes crashing out of the sky to an ugly end.

This is why we then step into this next law, which takes us from the natural, to the supernatural, and from the physical to the metaphysical. And this “law” (if we can properly follow its principle) overpowers and cancels the law of gravity and the law of aerodynamics that says certain requirements are needed to counteract gravity. Because we are promoted by the Lord of Lords, there is a power beyond the natural in operation that guides our promotional process every step of the way. It not only counters these other laws, it overpowers them, put them on hold and cancels them when in operation. Therefore, it is this better and an assuring law, that once you can have it on your side, then you can live your dream and go to places unstopped by either the law of gravity, or the law of aerodynamics, that I settle for. Why you should settle for this law is because it will guide you to living your best life now by the special grace of God. Interestingly enough, that law is found in the power of God’s word in (Romans 8:2) and is called “
the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
” which has the ability to set men and women free from the laws of limitations and condemnation.

The Operational Manual of Grace

The operational manual of “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” is grace. It is a grace with audacity. It redeems, frees people, and enhances them to do extraordinary well in the goodness of God. Typically, laws are meant to bound people and to work like prescribed medicines. When you fail to take your prescribed medicine, what happens in return is that your maladies get intensified. In the legal system, laws judge and condemn people. It sets limitations on societies and what people can do in society.

For instance, the traffic law requires that once it shows red light, you have to stop by all means for failure to do so will warrant death, auto accidents or penalties and fines. It is like going over the speed limit where the police cite you a traffic ticket for failing to observe the law that may help you to avoid causalities. While these laws are good, they all have limitations because sometimes people who have been powered to enforce them on others or to take the law and protect the interest of the populations may use them to your own disadvantage and thus, these laws inflict pain instead of joy. The laws made by men and societies are unsustainable for they change with time. Why they may aid your success now, they have many limitations because of their imperfections. The only law that can set people and populations free for life and banish them from life’s difficulties and fragmentations and enhance people to reach their everyday fullest abilities is the “law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.”

Why You Are Still Here And Alive

The only reason why you are still alive now is because of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus! It is for the sake of this law, the only law that sustains life that you are alive, are breathing this moment and well today. You are not having myocardial infarction right now because of the law of life powered by the Spirit of Christ Jesus. It is for the sake of this better law that you are not having dysrhythmias or irregularities of your heart right this minute. It is because of the “law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” that you are not breathing with oxygen machines or are not dead even as you read this literature or blink right now.

This same law is what facilitates your promotion and the maintainability of your successes and the progress of your life and household as they have been sustained by the highest God. Because of this law of grace—the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus,
your heart is able to beat an average of 75 times a minute, 4500 times per hour, 108,000 (one (hundred and eight million per day, 3,240,000 (3 billion two hundred and forty million per month), seven days a week, and 365 days a year
, without stopping to take a break or get some lunch. Because of the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus;
your heart is able to pump between 7000 and 9000 liters of blood unstopped, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 a year. Now, you can see that
the grace of God works! It’s got power. It can change your life, your situations and everything that characterize you. The audacity of God’s grace can guarantee your success. You can live your best life even now by the mercy of God, because the audacity of God’s grace has the ability to promote you with good health. Because God has insulated you with the law of the “Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus”, and because the durability of your promotion depends on the personality of your promoter, your promotion will last forever when you accept Jesus as your Lord and personal savior and go for big things in life, because we have a God we can depend on. Do you know the warfare going on in your life and the battle that God has won for you? Do you know how many angels God has sent to guide your life and your resources every second?

What The Audacity of God’s Grace Can Do For You

The audacity of God’s grace is available to set you up and equip you for greater achievements and success in life. What you need to do is to raise your expectations and increase your determination. When you do, the audacity of God’s grace will cause men and women to notice your talents and abilities. It can cause your enemies to fear and respect you because of the God you serve. Because God has promoted you, you shall live your best life now for God’s favor shall persuade you. The goodness and mercy of Jehovah Jireh will pursue and sustain you on the continuum. When this happens, the goodness of people shall follow you. Everywhere you go, and everything you touch will prosper. Maybe you have lived beggary life before now, because you have not been able to maximize your potentials and be the person of power that God has created you to be. The good news from today is that the audacity of God’s grace shall evict you from that lifestyle and the neighborhood of poverty and life difficulties. When the audacity of God’s grace is doing work for you, you shall not lack any good thing that you need, because God will continue to promote you and provide things for you when you need them.

What you must understand is this: when your promotion does not come from the laws with limitations, you shall stand promoted. If you can operate by the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, you will be giving out good gifts to people. You will not be subjected to the prison of want; neither will you be influenced by the spirit of poverty. You will overcome those poor lifestyle choices and sins that the accuser of the brethren has lodged complaints against you. You are forgiven! When you follow the principles of the law of grace, men and women will come to you to seek wisdom and counsel from you and tap into your secret for success. The audacity of God’s grace will cause you to live and perform at the top. God will open every window of opportunity for your daily endeavors: It could happen in your business deals, in your career, in your marriage, in your ministry, in giving you the gifts of children and raising those children, and in your finances etc. If you do not have much now to achieve your goals and expand your dream, you don’t have to panic. Believe God, for help will come because God has approved your promotion, which is irreversible (Isaiah 49:15-25). If this is your wish, I ask that you recite these scriptures loudly and pray this prayer of agreement with me:

Isaiah 64:4
For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.

John 10:10
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. (But) My purpose (Jesus purpose of coming to save you) is to give you a rich and satisfying life.

The End: Just Believe & Pray Along With Me

Lord I know that it has never fully entered into the minds of any man or women at any time in history what it is that you have prepared for me as I love you and wait for you. My most ecstatic dream cannot compare to what really lies ahead for me in your kingdom. But I know also, that you have made provision for every natural, economic, and human resources that I need to live at my best today, while I await your soon coming kingdom—the Commonwealth Assembly of Zion, the Wealthy Place. My greatest desires will be completely and fully satiated in you. The deepest longings of my heart will find their sweetest answers only in you. The deep well you are digging in my own life and in my heart is waiting anxiously to be filled with that wellspring of living water that springs up unto eternal life from you. Cleanse me Lord, every unjust behavior, every character flaws that has caused you betrayal and the people I have associated with. Promote me Lord, for I know that Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven you are a literal place—you are real, and I’m going there, whatever it takes. I have no good thing apart from you Lord; for you have searched me and known me and know exactly what I need to live my best life now and a life of fullness, of abundance, of hope and healing and satisfaction. Come to me, my God, help me defeat and assassinate every spirit of poverty, of fear, of doubt, and of want that subject me in the prison of mediocrity. Open my eyes to the hope of my calling in you. Show me the paths of life where life’s opportunities abound; in wealth, fruitfulness and total supernatural increase; in health, joy and vitality, and a place of peace and praise. Help me Lord to show me the way to greatness, and strengthen me to do the walking in greatness and significance. Guide me Lord, to bring your presence to my home, to the church, my household, to my community and nation, and lead me in the things you have set aside as my inheritance that only I can obtain, and only through you, for it is my desire to live at my best life now because of the audacity of your grace. I take authority in your shed blood for me, to cancel every principality, power and systems that desire to keep me in the prison of mediocrity and want. Every spirit of falsehood that wants to keep me in limitation and captivity to not reach my God given and God-driven abilities, I destroy you today in the name of Jesus. I ask that every mind-set, every force, every knowledge, every wisdom or power, and every human or capital resource that will facilitate my success locate me beginning from today; from the East, from the West, from the South, and from the North. Grant me your Holy Spirit by your special grace oh God, and in the name of Jesus’ Christ my Lord and personal savior. I pray to live my best life now in your triune will Lord, dwell in your presence all the days of my life, and be a person of significance on earth as I await your soon return. AMEN.