Hillsong London, Grace, Principles and Having Fun – Part 4

No Pain No Gain

Now I have come to see an important factor in the development and maturity of a Christian: the realisation that principles and formulas don’t work. It is sad that most members of Hillsong London have not yet reached that level of maturity. But I look back on my life and the lives of others and see that this revelation takes time and effort; not only that – it hurts as well. It seems as if the only way we can reach that place whereby we are convinced that principles don’t work – is to go through the religious experience facilitated by the institutional church system. This life phase can take years of time and effort to work through. It seems as if there is no “express option” available when it comes to learning this valuable life lesson – but I think with the recent explosion in grace teaching – it might change. The pain of this journey towards grace was discussed in the by The Free Believers Network in the episodes, No Pain No Gain, 27^th January 2010 and, No Pain No Gain - Part 2, 30^th January 2010.

Grace, Scripture and Moving On

I think there does need to be a healthy interest in knowing this grace message scripturally: this can be achieved by listening to the messages of well-known grace preachers such as Joseph Prince, Bertie Brits, Andrew Wommack and Paul White. But I think the interest in scripture does die-down somewhat when you finally get the message. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I think you reach the point whereby you feel you are saturated with this message – especially when grace is actually a short message, without all the principles we have been used to. Again, I think having a keen interest in grace from a scriptural standpoint; can be another phase that people go through. If this interest does wane after being fervent for a while – I think that’s okay.

This subject was discussed by The Free Believers Network in the episode, podcast Moving On, 10^th April 2010. In this podcast, the hosts discussed the way in which many Free Believers take time out from “the conversation”; when they come back for a brief time, they are more mature and solid people in terms of character.

I remember meeting quite a few people on Facebook who were just getting into the message of grace like I was. As I continued to engage with these people, I continued to network with other grace believers. I hardly hear anything from that original crowd now: it’s as if they have moved on in their life. Some of these people used to engage in discussions a lot and used to post-up quotes, blogs and links – but now they hardly engage in such activities. These people have done what they needed to do and are now living from that place of rest in the finished work of the cross. These people don’t feel the need to post-up verses of scripture on Facebook every day. I have also found that I don’t engage with other believers on Facebook half as much as I used to. You go through phases and seasons in life and you move onto new things.

The message of grace, whether it be scriptural-based (such as Joseph Prince) or essence-based (such as The Free Believers Network), should be something we finally come to understand and live from. There should not be the need to continuously listen to grace teaching or to rant and rave about how “the institution” hurt you. You should just be able to move on and live your life with a new-found sense of security in the assurance that God loves you.