‘Disciples of Christ are called by God to speak the power of God’s truth into darkness so the Holy Spirit can turn darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Christ, (Acts 1:8 & 26:18). This proves “…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. …Yes indeed: Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Romans 10:17-18). Their sound, the Word of God, makes intercession for the saints through the intervention of the power of the Holy Spirit, (Ro 8:27 & 2 Thess 2:13 ). With the utterance of God’s voice, His Spirit made creation take form, chaos yielded to order, light eclipsed darkness, and emptiness was filled with life. Therefore, faith in Christ compels His disciples to produce the sound of the power of the Word of God by speaking into the darkness of mankind (2 Cor 4:12-14 & Ephesians 5:11). God’s spoken truth is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, …and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Without speaking the minds who are blinded will not hear the sound of the power of the word of God nor see the light, who is the imagine of God (2 Cor 4:4). Therefore, we are God’s mouthpiece and are to use great boldness of speech, (2 Cor 3:12). For we war against evil by speaking the power of God’s Word, for pulling down arguments against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:4-6). Knowing, we will be hated by all for Christ’s name’s sake (Luke 21:17), and if persecuted for righteousness’ sake, Christ will bless us for great is our reward in heaven, (Matthew 5:12).
What attributes must men have to honor our witness of Christ to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)?
A person who has been saved by the grace of God needs to develop two essential character traits to be a successful disciple of Christ. Experience has shown these two attributes emerge as significant predictors of Christ’s triumph over evil in our community and the individual’s triumph in life, family, and their pursuit to be effective witnesses for Christ. These lasting qualities are not based on social intelligence, age, good looks or physical health. They are not even based on a person’s IQ or speaking ability. They are based on “…receiving the Spirit who is from God, that we might know (and do the things) that have been freely given to us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12).
When we are saved “…the Spirit of truth …lives with us and will be in us” (John 14:17). We then study the biblical truth to be armed with knowledge of Christ to distribute into those living in darkness. The needed ingredients of grit and grace to accomplish our goals are the invisible attributes manifested in those we are to biblically emulate, namely Jesus the Christ, John the Baptist, the Apostle Paul, and all the other disciples and apostles in the New Testament.
Grit is the passion, tenacity, and perseverance necessary to maintain short and long-term goals of being Christ’s ambassador to the world. Grace is the persona necessary to fulfill the commandment, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). Grit is having the stamina and discipline to stick with the focus on the future, day in and day out. Grace rewards the faithful with others seeing them as a person of trustworthiness and character. Therefore, training our persona how to give grace enables us to obtain a greater purpose in life other than ourselves. Out of our mouths proceed blessings because death and life are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21). Grit keeps us from giving up and grace deters us from defiling ourselves. Grit and Grace are not for the weak, nor for a short period of time, but for every day of our lives. Learning and using these two attributes are evidence that Jesus the Christ lives in us and we are being taught, guided, comforted, and shown what is to come by the Holy Spirit of Truth (John 16:13-15). This is so, we can “…take up our cross, and follow Christ” to speak His truth, and the Holy Spirit “…will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (Matt 16:24 – John 16:8-9). Therefore, the sound of the power of God’s spoken word calls upon His spirit to bring those living in darkness to the light of Christ.
The sound of the word who became flesh, and brought grace and truth (John 1:14) is the highest form of a governing power in the world. Moses in the wilderness confirmed when he said, “God sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction’s” (Psalms 107.20). We, the faithful, are given this authority and commissioned to speak the word of God. However, undisciplined and weak people have no sustained grit nor grace and fail because “The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). The grit and grace faithful, are able to act pure by showing themselves as pure; And with the devious show themselves as shrewd (Psalm 18:26). Consequently, everything we want to be or accomplish in life is going to come down to, do we have the grit and grace to stay in the fight.
The one thing everyone has to overcome is ‘to be able to do what we do not want to do and do it well.’ This is not I am going to do what I feel like doing. No, doing things well is choosing to do the things we need to do and do them on time. This is a huge hurdle for everyone because we hear ourselves or people say, I don’t feel like doing it. This is the opposite of grit and grace. Truthfully, if we want to be effective men, it doesn’t matter what we feel like, it matters what we make ourselves do, this is grit, and the way we speak, is with grace.
Men, we have to train ourselves to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves” (James 1:22). We have to make hard choices and decisions based on what we want to accomplish in the moment for the better good of Christ’s goals and our future goals. A person filled with the Holy Spirit and the attributes of grit and grace is the kind of person others want to be around. Grit and grace displays an untold forthrightness and goodness that is a rarity in humankind because of the internal influence of the Spirit of God. Therefore, men, go out and succeed as God’s chosen vessel having the power of grit, producing the sound of grace!
David Howard, Foxhole Ministry