Begin Now To Reign In Life

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.   Ephesians 2:4-6

If the greatest miracle which is being saved and made alive with Jesus comes by grace through faith, and not by your works, how much more the lesser miracles, such as healing, provision, and restored marriages? So many believers are defeated because they are struggling to qualify for God’s blessings through their own works, We need to understand that self effort will rob us of reigning in life by God’s grace.

You cannot earn your salvation, healing, or financial breakthrough by your own efforts. It’s not about your work or performance, but JESUS’ work and performance. Only His work is a finished work. And not only did He sit down at the Father’s right hand, but today’s scripture states that He also MADE US SIT WITH JESUS. Now, what does this mean? “Sitting down” in the Bible is a picture of the believer resting in the perfect and finished work of Jesus.

He has finished all the work on the cross on your behalf and is now seated at the right hand of God. As it has all been accomplished on your behalf, this means that you can stop depending on your self efforts to earn and qualify for God’s blessings in your life. You can sit down with Jesus at the Father’s right hand. Pay close attention to this. I am not advocating a life of passiveness and laziness regarding the study of God’s Word, prayer, or worship.

When it comes to success in your job, I’m also certainly not saying that you shouldn’t be diligent or seeking to develop your abilities. God’s grace does not make you lazy and unproductive. Actually on the contrary. It makes you labor more abundantly for His glory. The Apostle Paul, a preacher of God’s grace and the finished work of Jesus, said that he “labored more abundantly than they all” (1 Cor. 15:10).

What you need to realize is, in the new covenant, God’s way is to bless you first, and the knowledge of His blessing then empowers you to labor more abundantly. In other words, we do not labor to be blessed, but rather WE HAVE THE POWER TO LABOR BECAUSE WE ARE ALREADY BLESSED. Can you see the different premise for laboring in the new covenant?

Friends, Jesus has accomplished everything for us on the cross. Our part is to trust in His perfect work. Receive with open arms His abundance of grace and His gift of righteousness, and sit down and begin to reign in life through Him. Today, let it be your prayer that you will stop trying to earn God’s grace and righteousness. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you to start depending on Jesus’ finished work and to start receiving by His grace. This is God’s way to success, wholeness, and victorious living. Glory be to God.