The Grace has Lifted

This has been a phrase the Lord has been speaking to me in one form or another for a couple of weeks.

It’s something I’ve had to be praying into for His heart because once I know where the Grace has lifted, I’ll need to act speedily.

Grace doesn’t always lift due to negative issues. Sometimes, a “thing” is simply finished. It has run its course. The work it was intended for has been fulfilled and it is time for a shift into a new direction of promise.

Walking where the grace has lifted is dangerous, and exhausting. If God says it is finished, then we had best listen.

Sometimes grace lifts off of a very good thing. It’s simply an Ecclesiastes 3 moment… the due time has come to move into something new and in that new place Jesus has a new grace for you.

Sometimes you’re in the midst of a flourishing season and God calls you onward. We see this in scripture with Philip.

 

Acts 4-9

4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

What a revival! Who would ever want to leave that?!?! But look now here beginning in 26.

26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

I have been saying in our meetings that we must learn to go from assignment to assignment instead of focusing in on some final destination.

You see, there was an Ethiopian in need of the good news and Jesus is a master at leaving the 99 and going after the 1.

Acts 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.

We hate ending things. Making changes. But Jesus keeps moving, advancing, changing our environments and the way in which we do things.

Why? Because we are always on mission. Christ must remain the leader at all times.

It’s likely the hardest time to put down something when it is in a fruitful place. It makes no sense to us. We feel like it should keep on keepin’ on.

But Jesus says, “It is finished.”

We often know in our hearts when a thing is done but we tarry too long. Perhaps we are afraid to let go or we are still pleasing people and their expectations of us. Either way, let us be quick to obey.

Because, listen. You and I do not want to live in any place, or in any position, when the grace has lifted.