Over the past few years I have witnessed a phenomenon that can only be explained as supernatural. Something is happening that is changing the landscape of the world.
In the past few years I have met and made friends with believers and leaders who have been captivated by the grace of God from many nations across the world: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Holland, New Zealand, Philippines, Kazakhstan, and states all across America. It’s absolutely uncanny that each one describes his or her experience and revelation of grace in remarkably similar ways. We all seem to speak the same language of the Father’s heart and love, the AMAZING grace of Jesus, and the simplicity of the Gospel!
The Gospel is for every person from any culture at any economic level at any education level at any time in history.
Recently I heard someone describe what is happening as a “sound” that’s being heard. It’s a sound from heaven that God Himself is heralding, and it’s creating movement. “Movements” in history have always begun when a message from God starts being clearly communicated with passion by a group of people from every corner of the globe – scattered about – who in many cases have never met each other and don’t even know the other exists. The sound is from heaven; and, at first, those hearing it think they are the only ones. So they seek out others by echoing the sound. They hear it, speak it, sing it, live it. And then before you know it, the sound itself begins to beckon people who are hearing the same sound, and they gather and start moving together in the direction of the sound.
There’s no way to create this type of movement. There’s no man who can be the catalyst for this type of revolution. No, Jesus Himself is the Source of the power. And the sound isn’t coming from the outside. It’s coming from the inside, deep inside our spirit. It’s coming from heavenly places where we are seated in Christ. It’s what we knew in our heart of hearts was true all along. When the light comes on, we say, “I KNEW IT! I knew He was that GOOD. In my heart, I always knew!” And what we have seen, we can never unsee!
And the sound is His Gospel:
“[The Gospel] is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16)
What is the Gospel? I’ll tell you what it’s NOT. The Gospel is NOT that you hear about Jesus; you believe in Jesus; you love Jesus; you serve Jesus; and you die for Jesus. That’s not even close to the Gospel.
The Gospel is that Jesus knew YOU; Jesus loved YOU; Jesus came as YOU; Jesus died as YOU; Jesus rose as YOU so you can be as He is in perfect union with God. That’s the Gospel. Jesus served you. He came down, stooped down, and made you one with Him.
This Gospel is for anyone who will believe it and receive it freely. The Gospel which says that the blood of Jesus paid our debt, washed us clean from sin, and made us righteous before God is the POWER for our salvation in every area of our lives from here to eternity! The Gospel is the power for our healing, our deliverance, our peace of mind, our provision, and our eternal life in God. The Gospel is supernatural.
There have been many great awakenings in history, but this one seems like “the connector of all the dots.”
What more can there be than the finished work of Jesus?
But this is more than a movement. It’s an earthquake that has caused a tsunami of revelation. It’s as if the ground has shifted and the tension of centuries upon centuries of a mixed message has given way to the crystal clarity of the pure Gospel of unadulterated, scandalous, radical grace.
“…it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:21-24)
The phrase “the message preached” is the Greek word “kerygma.” It’s a kind of announcement that when the announcement is made, it happens. It’s a proclamation that has the power for its own fulfillment.
The Gospel of Grace transforms us. The Gospel of Grace changes the world. The Gospel of Grace is powerful! It’s not good instruction that produces change when we follow a set of steps to success. The Gospel is Good News that produces change because the Word is alive!
Jesus Himself is the Word, the Sound of Heaven, that is being heard across the world. And people are saved, healed, delivered, and matured by something as simple as hearing the sound of His Grace and just believing!
This Grace Nugget blog from Parresia has been a forum for some of my friends in Grace to express how the Spirit has revealed the Gospel to them so that we all might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
Each of these nuggets is a little treasure bursting from the hearts of men and women transformed by God’s grace. Many of our writers are published authors and leaders in ministry, and some are moms, dads, grandparents, and students. They all have one thing in common: they are my friends and they’ve all been ambushed by grace!
It’s my prayer that you will be ambushed by the love of Jesus as you discover the treasures here, and your heart will experience joy explosions as you read.
In His grace,
Tricia Gunn
