Progression with the Grace Message

Isn't it amazing that as we expose ourselves to a greater revelation of grace, as we listen to a stronger, purer grace message - the shackles fall off and we are freer to discern the truth for ourselves?

I suppose it's like when kids are learning to read: they progress through different levels until they reach the highest level in that range. If someone is at level 3, they are going to struggle with level 4, although they will be able to work through some of it. But level 6 will be difficult for them.

Many Christians are brainwashed into accepting a mixture without questioning it. They simply accept the inconsistencies and adjust their thinking according to how it is preached by the pastor they trust.

When we expose ourselves to a purer grace message, we are able to look back on what we once thought was tremendous and see that it was a misleading mixture of law and grace. I think that's what's happened to me with Joyce Meyer.

I will admit - when I was deeply into WOF, I would have choked on Bertie Brits' grace teaching: if I would hear him preach on not needing to tithe anymore - I would have resisted it. I think it's only now that after I tithed for about ten years, even paid a double-tithe at one point, and found it did not work - that I begin to start questioning things. What caused me to defend WOF so much was the fantastic testimonies, the signs and wonders and such like. I just got caught up with my own fantasies and outlandish, selfish ambition.

Now that I think about it: I believe that God was enlightening me to some really radical grace teaching, even when I did not hear anyone else preach on it. But I suppose I was still caught-up in WOF and mixture at the time and I just ran them in parallel. What I find is that Christian "principles" can be so compelling.

Recently, as I've been sorting through some of my Christian books with a view to selling them: I found that as I flicked through some of them, I felt drawn towards the teaching like a magnet. It seemed good and it seemed true. Romans 7:12 says, "Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good."

So you see, God allows the wheat and the tares to grow together (Matt. 13). I don't know if this parable relates to grace/law in this context - but it seems relevant to illustrate this point. God allows different Bible teaches with different "flavours" to the Gospel message. This allows the Holy Spirit to gently guide us into a greater degree of the truth. This takes time with teaching and personal experience - some of it is painful and difficult it seems.