Creflo Dollar — The Sovereignty of God
We've been talking about the balance of faith and grace, and tonight we're gonna spend most of our time tonight on the sovereignty of God to find out what that is. It's something you've heard about, probably quite often, but there's a history behind it, and before I finish tonight, you may find that it is probably the biggest heresy in the body of Christ. And to say that, hopefully to just kind of get your antennas up, why in the world would you say what you just said?
Well, once you go through this journey with me tonight, you'll understand what this is all about. And so, like I said, there are two groups out there. There's the group that puts emphasis on grace, and you know, that's God's part, grace is God's part, then there's a group that puts emphasis on faith, and then that's our part. And we have to understand what we need to do to get the promises of God to manifest.
There are promises in the Word of God, the issue is, how do we get those promises to manifest in our lives? Well, the key to that is to learn how to balance faith and grace.
You see, sodium by itself can be poisonous, and chloride can be poisonous, but when you put 'em together, you have salt, okay. And the same thing, faith, in the extreme, could damage some things in your life, grace in the extreme will definitely damage some things in your life, but, if you can discover the balance of faith and grace, then you'll discover what's necessary in order to see the manifestations of the promises of God taking place in your life.
And I would think that's the goal, I believe, of every Christian, that, if we're gonna life this life, we wanna live it correctly, so we can begin to live in the manifestations of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, you know, over the years, you just, you know, we just see these extremes that just kind of, like, take us away from it.
You know, the Bible says a false balance is an abomination to God. And so, I think when you balance grace and faith, and you understand how they work together, it will produce some things in your life that will make a difference in your life. You will see some great things.
Now, what I'm about to teach tonight, and I chose to teach you here tonight, it's one of the most hated messages ever. Not hated messages somebody don't hear, but people have a big problem with... I'm telling you the truth tonight. I mean, in fact, it goes against, you know, convenient truth. You know, when something happens, people don't wanna say, "Well, that's God's will, and that's God's way," and, you know, all these things.
God's will, that's God's will, that's God's way, God's in control, God wanted it to happen, all those kinda things, it's just fake and I'm just gonna come against all that. But, I needed to figure out a way where I can teach this, line upon line, so that you could receive probably one of the most controversial messages ever.
So, let's look at Romans chapter 5 verse 2, Romans chapter 5 and verse 2, and let's look at it in the King James and the Amplified. First King James, ready, read. "By whom also we have access by faith into his grace, wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."
So, we have access into this grace by what? By faith, so, faith grants us access into this grace. Now, grace is all God. You didn't do anything, grace is what God did for you before you even existed. Grace is his unmerited, undeserved favor. It's what God did, it's not what you did. It's what God did before you ever existed, alright, his unmerited, undeserved favor.
So, if grace is all about what God did, then you must understand it's never gonna be about what you do. Grace is all God's part. Now, faith is your part. Grace is God's part, but faith is your part. And, notice why faith is your part, because faith grants you access into what grace has made available. That's what faith does, faith takes, grace makes.
And so, faith takes everything that grace has made available. Faith is just the positive response to what grace has made available. So, grace has made healing available, faith is your positive response to the healing that's already been made available. Grace has made soundness available, faith is your positive response to what grace has already made available.
See, grace has already made everything that you'll ever need, whatever it is in your life. If you woke up this morning, and there was a issue in your life, I want you to know God has already taken care of that. Now, if you want God's answer to that situation, it's gonna require a positive response on your part, so that you can position yourself to receive what he's already made.
So, you wake up, you have a bad day, you just pause and say, "Lord, you knew about this day before I did, you've already provided for me for where this day is concerned, so give me wisdom and help me to reposition myself, but I believe it's already done," positive response. Or, you know, "Lord, I'm thanking you that my house is sold," versus, "Oh God, I've been praying for my house to be sold, my house hasn't sold yet."
Well, that's died all day long, but if you go before God and say, "You know what, Lord? I thank you that, from the foundations of the world, you already got somebody ready to buy my house," I'm gonna respond positively. I believe it's already done in the name of Jesus, and you just stay there in that same position over, and over, and over again.
So, grace has made everything available to you, that's all God, that's all God. It has nothing to do with you. So, you're doing doesn't have anything to do with what grace has made available. Your faith is your part, grace is God's part, faith is your part. Say that, "Grace, faith," grace is? All God, right? None of you, none of you. You ain't had nothing to do with what grace has made available, okay, alright?
So, grace is not based on your doings, grace is based on God's doings. That's pretty simple, right? Grace is totally based on God's doing, alright. Now, faith is based on you believing, okay, it's your part. Faith is your part, and if you don't do your part, you can't get God's part, that's simple to me. In order to get God's part, you gotta do your part. But, you can't be trying to do something trying to do God's part. You gotta make sure that that's all God and that faith is all you.