A casual reading through the book of Ephesians will reveal a whole list of things that your Creator has already done for you.  We often get so wrapped up in asking God to do something new, that we fail to appreciate and appropriate what God has already done.  I think one of the reasons that we have the book of Ephesians is so that we can learn to have the eyes of our understanding opened, so that we might see what we already have.  In fact, Paul prayed this very thing for us in Ephesians 1:17-21 when he prayed that “the eyes of your heart might be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you.”

We have been made ALIVE, but a lot of us or living like zombies – walking around as if no one is home.  The power to be alive has been purchased for everyone, but not everyone claims, receives and puts that power into action.  If you have received the gift of God’s Son, then the Spirit of God is alive within you.  The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and wanting to work in and through your life.  You do not have to try to be made alive, you need to start living, because you are alive.

It is through grace and faith, that we draw out of our spirit and into our flesh and soul.  You are not going to reach sinless perfection, this side of Heaven, but you can understand what God has done for you and learn to live in Him as He lives in you, so that you can experience the victory.

If you are in relationship with God through the gift of His Son Jesus, then you are filled with His Spirit and with His Spirit, you can allow His Word, the Bible to transform your mind, so that you begin to have victory over the old desires of the flesh as you learn to yield your soul to the direction of the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:8 says:  “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and it is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”  Grace alone cannot save you and help you to experience the joy of life in the Spirit.  Faith alone cannot save you and help you to experience victory over the sin that holds you back and keeps you down.

It takes grace and faith together to bring about the marvelous salvation of God that sets a man free.  In His grace, God has provided salvation for everyone through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This grace is the same to everyone, but not every person is saved.  You see, the provision has been made by God for each of us, but not each of us is willing to appropriate God’s grace through faith.

Faith has to be placed in the right thing, or a better way of putting it:  Faith has to be placed in the right person.  I cannot earn His grace.  I do not deserve His grace.  God’s grace is unmerited favor that I cannot earn and that I do not deserve.

My part is faith!  Some people think that faith is what moves God, but the truth is:  God does not need to be moved, because God is not stuck and is never in the wrong place.  Faith that attempts to move God is works and this is the limited stuff of man and his flesh.  All of the good stuff of God, flows by grace through faith!

Faith is simply our positive response to what God has already provided by grace.  True faith receives what God has done.  True faith reaches out with the love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and redemption of God.  True faith rescues, because it realizes that it has been rescued.

It really is simple!  God loves you and grace is His invitation into the miraculous, while faith is your acceptance that says:  “Done Deal!”