Gospel was misrepresented to you, you may have the perception of God as heavy-handed. Your opinion of God can be a supreme being looking for an opportunity to consume you in flames of fire. If you received a perversion of the Gospel, your perception of God will be distorted. Relating with God is a function of His impression we allow and accept in our lives. It can be quite divergent from His true nature and character.
Erasmus Makarimayi
There’s only one God and that God is the God of the Bible and can only be perceived in Christ Jesus. Whoever religion and false doctrines present as God the Creator outside Christ is not God, but mere dead non-existent gods. God, our Father is love. He’s a reconciler. He dispenses grace, mercy and peace to us.
Paul, apostle to the Gentiles (non-Jews and that includes you and me) always addressed his listeners and readers by confirming the grace and peace of God our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes he would add mercy. For example 2 Corinthians 1:2, “Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Timothy 1:2 reads: “Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Emanating from God, Apostle Paul said were grace, mercy and peace. You would want to know that the audience compromised believers and nonbelievers. Paganism was rife in Corinth. Against this backdrop, Paul would still pronounce grace, mercy and peace from God. He was aware that his audience used to worship idols and dead non-existent gods. In our Zimbabwean setting it would be ancestral spirits.
Ancestral spirits will always tell their followers of the need for more cattle, goats, sheep, chicken and often a wife, etc. The spirits are never satisfied; always making endless demands. Should one delay in making appeasement, they are struck with tragedy. Their followers are always on the run.
Spirit mediums will always tell their listeners that the spirits are not happy and appeasement is needed. If the payment is done and calamity befalls, the spirit mediums will say offerings were not done in the right and proper way. Vanity of vanities. People will always live in fear, doubt, condemnation, emptiness and tossed to and fro by the devil.
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But we thank God, who has brought us into Himself in Christ. We worship the only true and living God, who says grace, peace and mercy to us. What’s coming from His throne to us; grace, mercy and peace. All His anger and wrath was absorbed by Christ. God is always saying to us in Christ, grace, peace and mercy. So we don’t pray saying we’re not worthy. We’re worthy in Christ. If you think of your unfulfilled pledges, omitted prayers, skipped fasting;
He simply says; grace, peace and mercy. Now that you’re in Christ, God has no grudge against you. After having messed up, God is saying, grace, peace and mercy and that empowers and comforts us and we don’t mess up, but produce good fruit of His love.
We pray with confidence knowing that we’re accepted. We don’t try to pin, bribe, outsmart or bait God. We give Him our offerings and thanksgivings freely and we get results of answered prayers. We witness unprecedented and unparalleled manifestation of His blessing in our lives and we give Him more of our substance, time and our being. We don’t hide or run away from God. We run to Him. Our sins and shortcomings are hid in Christ and He sees us holy, righteous and acceptable in Christ. We don’t pray for victory but pray from victory.
We pray with the mindset and attitude in Hebrews 4:16: “Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
When an issue arises, we don’t panic nor get depressed. We simply call unto our Father, who is waiting to hear us and has in fact heard us and answered us in Christ. We pray to fellowship and communion with God, confirming our trust and reliance on Him. That’s why we thank God and worship Him even before we see results of our requests. The heavens are always open, you don’t pray for open heavens, but you pray under open heavens.
We stand in grace. We’re not moved, we don’t doubt, we don’t run to and fro and we don’t shake.
We stand and realise prophecy and promises fulfilled, our dreams coming to pass and desires, needs and aspirations met. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge. You’re going somewhere.
All Bible quotations are from the King James Version.
Email: [email protected] Fellowship with Pastor Makarimayi on Facebook and on www.twitter.com/PEMAKARIMAYI. Telephone +263 712 332 632
