The Lord has set an open door before the believer who through acts of faith can discover and experience an ongoing and supernatural relationship with the Holy Spirit. The supernatural events recorded in the text of this manuscript have been the ongoing experience of the author for forty years. They serve only to highlight the integrity and authority of the Word of God. Come and live daringly!

A Grace Deficit

By Read I. Myers

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Read I. Myers
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-3907-7

Chapter One

The Grace Revival

'In the last days', God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.' ~ Acts 2:17

The Deficit

Deficit means to be found wanting, to be lacking, or having a deficiency in amount, and deficiency is defined as a shortage of substance necessary for health or inadequate (Webster's Seventh Collegiate Dictionary). To come straight to the point there is a deficit, a deficiency of grace clearly manifest in the body of Christ. I would suggest this deficiency of grace finds expression in four main areas of church life.

The first area where this deficit of grace is found is in the area of our basic understanding of grace, what it is by biblical definition, how it is ministered by the Holy Spirit, and how it actually functions to produce the new creation, the new man of 2 Corinthians 5:17. There are many believers who would openly declare that all the gifts of the Spirit are a present provision for the ministry of grace. Ask them and they will happily agree, "Yes all the gifts are available today." But then inquire as to how many who make such declarations actually move in these giftings and there is almost a universal absence of the gifts in their lives. This absence is recognized and yet no action is taken to bring their practice in line with their confession or the injunctions of Scripture. While ministering in church fellowships around the world, I keep getting asked the same questions over and over again, and it is in response to these questions that this book has been written. It is designed to provide a foundation from which to begin for those who really want the Spirit to release his gifts in their lives. This in intended as a place to begin and is not intended to be an all encompassing consideration of the gifts. Thus, this format employs relatively short chapters. The intent is to help believers move out of ignorance to a place of practical intelligence and a functional application of the Spirit's gift ministry.

If believers are asked to define grace without using the term unmerited favor, the room goes silent. We are over 2,000 years into the age of grace and, for the most part, believers still know nothing more of grace than the term "unmerited favor." In truth, unmerited favor is not the biblical definition of grace. There is an immense deficit when it comes to understanding the doctrine and practice of grace. In the first book, "A Dangerous Grace," I endeavored to address this general deficit of understanding as it applies to grace in introductory terms. Surely, if the covenant of grace is to be kept by believers, we have to do better than unmerited favor. How can believers be expected to keep covenant with the Lord and other believers if the terms of the covenant are not understood? Can the church that depends fully upon the grace of Christ for its existence afford to somehow be indifferent to any deficit of grace? How is it that somehow we have been stirred to not much more in this regard than "unmerited favor?"

The second area in which a deficit of grace becomes obvious is in the area of our intimacy with the God-head. The degree to which grace has become functional in the spirit man is the degree to which we will actually experience communion with the Holy Spirit. Conversely, the degree to which grace has not been understood and become a functional reality within our spirit man is the degree to which we will fail in our communion with the God-head. Perhaps we should ask ourselves if we are really satisfied with the depth of intimacy we actually experience with the God-head. Our depth of intimacy with God is not first found by prayer, fasting, bible reading and things we can do, but is found in relationship flowing out of functional grace. So often we hear that if we would only pray more, give more, go to church more, fast more or read our bibles more, then God would be pleased and we could work our way into a greater intimacy. Tragically, this is not how intimacy is discovered and experienced. What is the consequence of a lack of true intimacy with the Lord? Oh yes, we should do all the above, but they should be the fruit of finding intimacy not the method of attaining intimacy. The degree to which we miss the grace empowered relationship with the Lord will absolutely reflect in the quality of relationship we have with other believers.

The third evidence of the grace deficit is found in the quality of relationships as they exist within our church fellowships and our homes. Our communion with one another, our unity and our passion for each other will reflect the degree to which grace has become functional in our marriages and the inter-relationships within our church fellowships. Can the world, for example, look into our churches, get behind the exterior to the inner workings and find the true sweetness of God's people loving one another? Do we actually cover one another? What are the board meetings like when differences of opinion arise? What kinds of attitudes, motives, and agendas can be found when it comes to overseeing our congregations? How often does spiritual leadership have to be called in to adjudicate? How many wars have been and are being fought out both behind the scenes and within the congregation? Why is this important? Simply because it is only as supernatural, agape-style love operates that the world can know that God sent Christ into the world. Check out Christ's prayer in John 17. Folks, the only thing that will truly produce the body of Christ manifesting the nature of Christ will be an inflowing of grace!

The fourth area in which the grace deficit becomes evident is in the absence of the supernatural works. Jesus clearly said that his followers would do greater works because he was to go back to the Father (John12:14). We can read through many passages in the Old Testament, the Gospels and the book of Acts and find prolific demonstrations of the work of the Holy Spirit demonstrated by the gifts. These gifts are noted biblically to be nothing less than the manifest ministry of grace by none other than the Holy Spirit. However, when one examines the body of Christ to find these biblical evidences of functional grace they are almost universally absent, at least in the historic western democracies. Even among those who would acknowledge that the gifts of the Spirit as found in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 are still part of the Christian charter, few actually operate in those grace enablings. The degree to which we miss the grace of Christ becomes the degree to which we will lack the evident power of the Kingdom of God and will have to substitute standards of religious practice. The realms of possibility will be confined to the best efforts of skilled, talented individuals. Now before someone reacts, there can be no substitute for grace. It is the only covenant under which the believer and church are to live. Grace is the only covenant within which every believer, church, and minister must live and conduct ministry.

The degree to which a grace deficit exists in the body of Christ becomes the degree to which we will fail in our witness to the world. We may have our programs, structures and techniques well developed, but there is no substitute for functional grace! It will only be as grace finds its proper and functional place in our lives and churches that the supernatural witness will be set before the world. The apostle Paul did not win the lost of Corinth because of his vast educational background, nor did he owe his lasting impact to a PhD in religion; he attributed success in that city to "the demonstration of the Spirit's power." He engaged the men on Mars Hill intellectually, but there is no record of a church in Athens. Certainly we need to know the Word, but men are not saved because we have knowledge. They are saved by grace, and it is by grace that saving power is released to touch the lost. What you are about to read deals in brief with the grace deficit as it exists in regard to the gifts of the Spirit and offers a possible place to find the Spirit so that we may put an end to this deficit in our lives. There is an abundant provision of grace to be experienced! There is an answer to this deficit on the way! What is heaven's purposed response to this deficit?

Let me make an observation regarding the role and deficit of grace as it applies to human culture. The only answer to the depth of problems in human culture lies in that portion of grace that abounds much more than sin. The solution to the problems in the cultures of historic western democracies lies wholly in the administrations and appropriation of grace. Addressing the huge cultural dilemmas as they exist in the continent of Africa, for example, lies in the administrations of grace. Dealing in detail with this particular aspect of grace lies outside the purview of this book, yet it represents a significant aspect of the grace deficit as it applies to human affairs. Grace is, after all, the only work of God that saves (Ephesians 2:8). Grace works to save whatever it touches, wherever it operates! There is an answer to these various aspects of the grace deficit that lies in covenantal promise. What is that promise?

The Grace Revival

Prophets and preachers have long proclaimed the coming of a worldwide, end-time revival. There can be little doubt that we are in the final stages of the age of grace. The central characteristic of this end-time revival will be the expression of grace as administered in all its diversity by the Holy Spirit. If we are to understand what God is going to pour out, we must understand the dual components of this final move. It will not be a revival somehow devoid of grace. This end time revival will be fully and nothing less than an outpouring of grace! This final administration of grace will be the single motive cause of this revival. The measure of grace will determine the extent of revival to be experienced. The measure that the church is willing to receive and respond to this outpouring of grace will become the measure she will move into the revival. This end time outpouring of grace will result in a widespread spiritual awakening among our unsaved populations. It will be the final, worldwide harvesting of human souls by God. In addition, large numbers of believers who are responding to grace will have spiritual experiences and move in supernatural dimensions of power. The presence of God's glory will be at times overwhelming and will make many who do not know how to receive the Spirit or know him in personal ways very nervous.

As is the Spirit's methodology this outpouring of the grace generated revival - please put the two concepts of grace and revival together - will come suddenly. Suddenly unsaved people of all ages will experience a hunger for the supernatural reality of God. They will, because of this prevenient grace, recognize their empty desperation and open their hearts and minds to Christ. Check out Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16. In these Scriptures God has by his Spirit given us his definition of grace. I will refer to them several times in that they give us the necessary definition of grace. Hopefully by the end of the book you will understand grace beyond the accepted definition of "unmerited favor." These Scriptures clearly define for us the substance of covenantal grace at its core. What do we learn of grace here? The new creature of 2 Corinthians 5:17 is the individual to whom God has given a new heart and a new mind. This new creature lives out of a new set of passions characteristic of the Father's heart and thinks out of the thought patterns inherent in the mind of God. Once grace has become functional, the carnal mind and heart of fallen man has lost its grip on the life of this new man. This new creation is no longer a slave to sin but has become a slave to righteousness, not out of obligation but out of his or her wonderful new nature. Grace becomes more than just one doctrine among the many; it will be the full motive force at work in the many that have come into the new birth. Grace will have become functional, the driving force in the lives of those who have been touched and filled with it!

This outpouring of functional grace may very well produce an astonishing paradox in the body of Christ. Roughly speaking, it may look like this: huge numbers of people will respond to the Spirit's administrations of grace and will be experiencing it in all that grace entails. Tragically, large portions of the believing church will reject precisely what God is doing. The believing church may well be calling out to Father God for revival, but it will not conform to the theological presuppositions when it comes, and paradigms to which we have become accustomed will be trashed.

The Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of grace, is not stingy in his administrations of grace. When he ministers grace he releases it as an "abundant provision" (Romans 5:17). He "lavishes" it upon its recipients. Check out Ephesians 1:7-8. Now perhaps you can begin to perceive the problem many will have with Spirit empowered revival. The believing church is ready to receive the Spirit's administration of saving, convicting grace and not much more. What about healing grace, what about miracle grace, or prophetic grace or the graces of tongues, discerning or interpretation? Each of these represents an absolute expression inherent in the grace of God!

As the Spirit lavishes his grace upon the unregenerate population it will not be a grace with some narrow parameters as might be found acceptable to the believing body of Christ. The work of a grace-centered revival will encompass and demonstrate the full power of the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God. Now, unless there is a radical modification of our understanding of grace, it is likely that large portions of the believing church will prove hostile to the broader aspects of the Spirit's ministry of grace. New believers will be welcomed into churches, but not without being saddled with clearly defined restrictions. Such churches will be happy for the conversions and the growth in numbers but in many places the grace enablings, read the gifts of the Spirit, will be forbidden. It reads like this: "We don't believe in the works of the Spirit here. We do not allow deliverances in our services. Those shrieks upset the order and decency of our services. There will be no joyful dancing, shouting or falling down proclaiming God is among us. That's just emotionalism." And so it goes.

On one occasion when I was ministering in another country I heard one man pray, "Lord give us a controlled move of the Spirit." The inference being, "You move and we'll control it." It is precisely at this juncture that a real tension becomes apparent. There will be those newly saved people who will be experiencing wonderful measures of the Spirit's administrations of grace while the leadership of the church will be trying to have these folks fit into a paradigm that disallows what is being experienced. Here is an example that I have found to be a common occurrence amongst believers. Somewhere along the line they find Christ. In the process, they get filled with the Spirit and begin to speak in a strange new language. Wondering what has happened to them, they go down to the local pastor to ask about these strange new experiences. The local pastor calls upon the individuals to renounce the tongues stuff and to repent for opening themselves to a spirit of deception. How often has this kind of event taken place? More importantly, how much longer will it continue to be the reality in the body of Christ?

When the Holy Spirit comes upon any fellowship, either that fellowship is ready to receive and respond to what He is doing or some grounds will be found to reject what is going on. I have witnessed this first hand on several occasions. By way of example, in early 1975 the presence of the Holy Spirit swept into an evening meeting in our little congregation. The power in the sanctuary was astonishing and within a few moments most of the congregation had fallen to the floor. Many were out under the power for an extended period of time. I had never experienced anything like this and around midnight some of us started going around praying the power off those still under the power so that they could go home. In the following weeks and months we saw significant number of people come to Christ, get filled with the Spirit, and many set free from drugs.

(Continues...)

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