Grace Enables Us to Serve With Godly Fear!

As I meditated upon God's word this morning I was led to Hebrews 12:22 which so powerfully reveals what it is that Operation Rolling Thunder empowers the Church in a city to do to bring the word into manifestation.  It's awesome!  This brings us to:

• Mount Zion and the city of the living God! (2 Sam. 5:7)
• An untold number of angels to assist the heirs of salvation (Heb 1:13-14)
• The Church, the Ekkleesia, the ones assembled and called out to govern
• The Judge of all the earth as continual praise seats His court (Psalm 22:3, Dan. 7:9)
• Jesus our Mediator, Advocate, attorney and legal counsel (1 John 2:1)
• ORT is all about positioning the Church to hear God's voice.... see that you do not refuse Him who speaks whose voice shakes the earth
• We are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken
• A portion of scripture that brings real balance to the hyper-grace message sweeping America

Hebrews 12:22-29
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.  
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven."  27 Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire. NKJV

Grace comes from a Greek word (charis) that means graciousness, a literal or spiritual divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in life. It is translated as benefit, favor, gift, grace, joy or liberality in the King James.  Many today use this word as if it means mercy which is different.  Grace is God's enabling power.  Grace empowers us to serve God with reverence and godly fear.  It empowers us to do  what we cannot do on our own.

Grace, God's enabling power, enables fallible men to go beyond what the Law required.  For example:

---

The Power of Love and Grace
In Luke 19 we see the testimony of Zacchaeus' encounter with Jesus.  His heart is changed and in verse 8 he says, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold."   Exodus 22:7 says that the law requires double.  

Recognizing that not only is God a consuming fire, but, God is also love (1 John 4:16), God's grace enabled him, motivated and inspired him to double what the Law required.  

God's grace is not an excuse to sin as it seems some use it today, but it is gift, the "charis" of God's power enveloped in and under-girded by the love of God.  

God's grace enables us to serve with Godly fear.  It empowers us to do what we cannot do in and of our-self.  

The key to walking in grace is to abide in God's love.  Abide means to dwell or stand in relation and expectancy.  This is one of the marvelous benefits of using the ORT strategy to mobilize a city.  As we work to lift up the canopy of prayer 24/7 more and more people stand watch, more and more people spend time in God's presence.  They abide in His presence, and He in theirs..... and God..... is..... love.  Person by person, these watchmen's lives are transformed by Christ's abiding presence.