How are you gearing towards the new year? One thing that can really set you up for a new year personally where new things flow into your life, new blessings, new relationships, new doors ,opportunities and so on is something called the GRACE of God.

The grace of God coming upon your life and that situation in a tangible way in the coming new year will be something really special.
But to experience the grace of God on this life level, it is necessary to first understand what this grace is and what this grace is not.

********************************************************************
THE GRACE OF GOD IS NOT ABOUT MAN NOT DOING WHAT HE CAN DO, BUT ABOUT GOD DOING WHAT MAN CANNOT DO.
*******************************************************************

What this means is that grace is generally seen , grace is often received, after a man has done what he can do and not before.

A careful study of the Holy scriptures demonstrate this truth in practical terms and we can learn from them. We can learn practical steps to take that will result in a release of the grace of God into our lives and give us a new experience, and give us a new year.

************************************
WHAT IS GRACE?
************************************
Before I go further , let me state in plain terms the meaning of the word grace.
It means to show favour to an individual . It means for an individual to find acceptance.
It means to be found pleasant in the eyes of a superior. It means goodwill towards a person. It means to be well and do well in a thing . Grace is that thing that makes for joyous experiences in a person's life.

So, let's now begin to look at how we can put ourselves in that position for grace.

Proverbs 14:35 says" The King's favour is towards a wise servant: but his wrath is against him that causeth shame"

What this scripture tells us here, is that the kings favour, the kings acceptance, his goodwill , his pleasure flows towards the servant or individual that is wise or acts wisely. It's telling us that the servant who acts wisely finds grace. He finds favour.

However, it also tells us that the one who causes shame finds the kings anger instead. This verse of Scripture and others as we shall see, show us that the subject of grace, favour, is not a game of luck which man has nothing to do with.

There is grace, there is favour towards the one that is wise, to the one that acts wisely, but to act wisely, to be able to take wise steps, we need to know, we need to be rightly informed. We cannot be ignorant.

**********************************************************************
There is information, there is knowledge related to a desire you have, to a situation you're in right now, that if you knew, would make you act differently, would make you take certain steps that would result in a release of grace to turn things around.
**********************************************************************


Wisdom is important, knowledge is important in this thing called life. And this truth is what we see play out in the life of a man called Bartimaeus.

**********************************************************************
STORY OF BARTIMAEUS
**********************************************************************
His story is seen in LK 18:
He was blind, possibly from birth. He was brought to a spot by the roadside where he begged daily.

One day , he heard a crowd of people moving along the street. Because he couldn't see, he didn't know what the crowd was all about. Nobody bothered to tell him anything either. He however took the initiative to ask from those milling around him what was going on, he asked what the noise was all about.
He was then told it was Jesus of Nazareth that was passing by.
The rest as they say is history. With that singular information, armed with that knowledge, he immediately swung into action shouting - " thou son of David have mercy on me "


If he didn't ask, if he didn't pursue the knowledge of what was going on around him, he would never have known and would have sat there quietly and ignorantly while the solution to his problem passed him by.
But as he called for help, people shouted him down telling him to keep quiet, but he screamed the more.
All of a sudden Christ stops, Christ hears and responds to his desperate call for help and commands that he be brought to him.
He asks him what he wants, Bartimeaus says he wants to see. His request is granted. His sight is given.

Grace is at work. God did for him what he could not do for himself, he opened his eyes, but it all began by Bartimeaus first doing what he could do for himself . This is what working grace is all about.

You can listen to my 15mins radio broadcast on Inspiration FM here...https://soundcloud.com/walkingwithgodministry/24122017-the-making-of-a-new-year-ii-by-dr-tunde-ariyibi