Faith that Flows from Grace
Christopher Alam

Christopher Alam was born a Muslim and received Jesus Christ in 1975. After enduring much persecution including spending almost an entire year in prison for preaching the Gospel, Christopher was threatened with execution. After this he escaped and went to Sweden as a refugee where he was granted political asylum. There, in church, he met Swedish-born Britta. You can read Christopher’s story in his exciting book, “Out of Islam.” Click here to read the rest of Christopher’s Bio.

Visit Christopher Alam’s web-site.

Learn about the Dynamis World Ministries Farm and Orphanage Project.

God has decreed in His Word, “Now the just shall live by faith…” (Hebrews 10:38).

This exhortation tells us that we, who belong to Jesus, should not merely act in faith when the need for faith arises, but that we should live our lives immersed in faith. Living a life of Faith is one of the very foundations of the Christian life.

To live by faith would therefore mean breathing faith, thinking faith, speaking faith, acting faith, walking faith, and so on – literally every aspect of our lives being based and grounded in the spirit of Faith.

Our faith rests upon and flows from that which the Lord Jesus did for us upon the Cross of Calvary, and upon the Written Word of God. The Bible declares:
“Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5 NRSV

In other words, upon the Cross the Lord Jesus bore upon Himself our sins, our diseases, and the curses that were upon our lives so that we may be righteous, healed, free, and blessed.

This is what faith is for, to enable us to appropriate these and every other blessing that Christ has purchased for us with His own blood, so that they no longer remain as theological truths and phrases printed on paper but as living and dynamic truths in our earthly lives. By faith, we can take possession of the things which Jesus has purchased for us at the Cross.

I have noticed through my years in ministry that people carry one of two different perceptions of faith. In other words, there are two different ways in which faith is taught, preached and practiced. Both of these perceptions of faith are deceptively similar in many ways, but they are, in reality, very different from each other. Only one of them is right.

One of these is what I would call “legalistic” faith or “law-based” faith. This is when the believer believes that he can possess God’s blessings only by exercising what he calls the “laws of faith”. The whole idea is that of God being in a passive state who stands at the sidelines watching us as we go through the motions and spiritual gymnastics of faith. Once he is impressed that we have gone through all the motions of faith, he would then see to it that the miracle that we have asked him for happens.
In this “law-based faith”, the believer believes that the main factor which ultimately produces miracles in his life is his own ability to believe, to confess, to hold fast to his confession, etc.

Although confession and these things are Biblical principles, his faith leans more upon his own going through the motions of faith than it does upon Jesus.

HE is the active one, whilst God is passive. The “burden” unfortunately is on him, and not on Jesus. The results appear to depend more upon him and his ability to pray, believe, and confess, rather than upon the love and mercy of our Lord Jesus.

In this “philosophy of faith”, what appears to be “faith” is actually nothing but “works”.
The other approach is true Biblical faith. This is what I like to call “Grace-based faith”. Grace and works are opposites of each other. We live either by Grace or by works.

Many Christians try to make a convenient “mix” of the two, which NEVER works, because the two just cannot mix. It is either one or the other.

After all, the Bible does say, “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work” (Romans 11:6).

Works-based faith may give some limited results because God’s Word, even spoken or exercised under a legalistic mind-set is still God’s Word. But on the whole this kind of faith usually brings only disappointment and failure.

Now let us understand what Grace-based faith is. Before doing so let us take a look at Strong’s definition of “Grace” or what the Bible means when it says that we are “under Grace”. The word “Grace” is the Greek word “Charis” which means the following:

• God’s unmerited favor
• The merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.
• The spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace

Wow!

In other words, true Grace is the power of God’s Holy influence working in the hearts of people and drawing them close to Jesus. Grace, as many people erroneously assume, is NOT a passive attitude of spiritual laziness, complacency, or neglect of God and His Word. Grace is NOT a license for sin. Grace is the power of God working in man. When a person stands under God’s Grace it brings forth life, freedom, victory, holiness, healing, peace, and prosperity.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8

Two things stand out in this verse:

1. Grace precedes faith. In other words, Grace comes before faith. This leads us to something that most people have never realized – that we can’t truly understand faith without first understanding Grace, because Grace always precedes faith. Grace is the bedrock upon which faith rests. To truly understand faith, we must first understand the Love and the Grace of God.

2. Faith is “not of ourselves.” In other words, faith too like Grace, is a gift of God. It is through Grace that God gives us the faith to appropriate all the blessings that Grace provides!

An easy way to understand this is through this allegory: God shows me a house that He owns and says, “I am selling you this wonderful house, but it will cost you ‘x’ amount of money, which is far more than you could ever afford!” He then proceeds to give me the money so that I can use it to buy the house from Him. I may say that “I bought the house”, but did I really? It was, after all, He who gave me the money to appropriate it from Him!

Grace could also be described as the pipeline through which God freely and undeservedly pours down all His blessings to us. Faith is the pipeline that God through His Grace freely puts into our hearts. The purpose of this pipeline is to connect to the pipeline of His Grace. When we align and connect our pipeline of faith to God’s pipeline of Grace, God’s miracles begin to flow.

Grace is unmerited favor given to us just because of Jesus. Even faith, which follows Grace, is given to us by God as an act of God’s Grace. Do you know how He does this? “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Notice that faith is not “produced” by us “working the Word”! On the contrary, faith “comes” as yet another gift of God’s Grace! This is how it works: as we live in

God’s Word and immerse ourselves in it, we meet Jesus (Who Himself is the Living Word) in His Written Word and see what He has done for us. God, by this act of His Grace, deposits faith in our hearts so that we can, by that same faith, lay hold of and appropriate the very things that we have seen in His Word.

This wonderful interaction of the Word, Grace, and Faith is pivotal to our Christian life. Paul said, “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).

The Word of God is the “Word of God’s Grace”, also known as “the Word of Faith”. Grace working through God’s Word not only brings us faith, but also builds us up and brings us into the fullness of our inheritance in Christ.

Another wonderful thing about Grace is that it is for EVERYBODY! Nobody is left out, and then once we receive Grace, we receive faith too!

“And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” John 1:16-17

Grace also gives us “righteousness”, which does not mean fleshly perfection as some assume it does. Righteousness means “right standing” with God. This means that God accepts us and loves us just as we are. He looks at us in Jesus, as if we never sinned or failed in our lives. This in practical terms means that our own failures and imperfections are of no consequence when we are in Christ Jesus and walk with Him. God sees us just as He sees Jesus! Because of this we can walk with a clean conscience without guilt, and our faith is always powerful and always brings miraculous results. The Bible says:

“For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17

When we live under Grace, faith and righteousness are not an issue because they are ours, given to us freely by our Lord. The problem is that man’s natural tendency is to turn to legalism. There is something about the natural man that, although he recognizes that he is saved by Grace, he feels he has to turn to legalism for Christian life and conduct. This is religion and not freedom in Christ. The Bible says:

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage…Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” Galatians 5:1, 4

Religion and legalism are more dangerous than we realize because they can actually put us in bondage and cause us to fall from Grace! That is why we have to fight the fight of faith – to fight against the tendencies of our flesh to go into the works of the law. We should fight to stay in Grace and in faith where we know that God’s favor abounds to people like us, not because we deserve anything, but we are blessed with all things only because of Jesus, and Jesus alone!

Lastly, True Grace makes us holy. I say “True Grace” because the concept of Grace has been so misinterpreted and misunderstood by some, that there are those who have come to believe that God’s Grace is a license to neglect godliness and even to indulge in the lusts of the flesh. True Grace is NOT lawlessness!

A man truly living under God’s Grace develops a mind- set that says, “God loves me so much, He has given me so much more than I could ever deserve in this life; therefore, I will never allow anything into my live that would cloud my communion with Him!”

Grace, Faith, Righteousness bearing rich fruit in our lives and in our ministries. This is true and wonderful living indeed!

Effective Nursing Home Ministry
(Lord, You Want Me to Go Where?)
Paul DeNeui

Paul DeNeui graduated from Rhema Bible Training College in 1995. Paul and his wife Ann have been married for 40 years and have four children and four grandchildren. He traveled with a gospel group for 7 years, and was an associate pastor/music minister at Church On The Word in Warner, OK for 12 years. Paul is now traveling fulltime as an itinerant minister ministering over 480 times a year in nursing and assisted care facilities. He also travels to churches, ministering and sharing his vision. Paul has written a book entitled the Nursing Home Chronicles, which can be purchased at Amazon.com. For more information about his ministry go to www.pauldeneui.org.

Toward the middle of October, 2009 I was sensing a call to minister in nursing homes. Several years ago, my wife and I had ministered in nursing homes. We had four nursing homes and went to each one once a month on Sunday afternoons. This time the call was different. It seemed like I was to do it full-time.

(I am a preacher’s kid, grew up in the church. My dad pastored for 40 years. I had worked in the church all my life. Many ministers came to our home and spoke at the church, but in all those years I never heard of anyone in full-time nursing home ministry. I remember my dad going to nursing homes in our local community and I went with him a few times. I don’t remember anyone else in the church getting involved.)

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the Lord was answering a prayer I had prayed in early 2008. During a time of prayer, I had rededicated my life to the Lord and wanted to be used more than ever before. I said, “Lord, put me in situations and circumstances where I can be used the most.” I felt that I should be doing more than I was. I said, “Lord, put me on the fast track. Connect me with people that will help get the job done. Let’s build Your kingdom. Let’s strengthen the saved and save the lost. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” I had forgotten about that prayer.

I believed that I was to provide something that nursing homes didn’t normally get. I was to provide a service, just like when the residents used to go to church. There would be singing, special music, a message, and an altar call. This was going to be their church. Those who were confined to a nursing home would have a church they could call their own.

The church that I was attending at the time was in Warner, OK. So, I thought I would go to the nursing home in Warner first. I asked them if I could come on a regular basis and minister to their people. (I have learned that the activities director is generally the person to talk to.) We set a meeting date for the next Sunday at 2pm. Now there were some other things to consider. I knew that I wanted music. My wife, Ann, had always played the piano for me wherever I’d gone to sing. This time that wouldn’t work. She was already working full-time. Now what do I do? We decided we would record her playing the piano and use that. I felt very strong about the idea of using the old hymns. Those are the songs that most of the people in the nursing homes would know and to which they would relate. Then I needed some way to play the music. We began to look for a little sound system that I could take with me. I wanted it to be totally portable – something that I could set up anywhere, even if I didn’t have any electricity. That meant it had to be battery powered. I also needed a microphone and it needed to be wireless. (I didn’t want a cord around all those wheelchairs.) We found exactly what I needed online and ordered it. Within a few days, it was at our doorstep and I was ready. On Sunday, Nov. 1st, 2009, I ministered my first service in Warner. I only had one nursing home scheduled, but I knew it was just a matter of time and I would have 20.

I considered myself full-time. The Lord had given me a plan of 20 nursing homes in a 50-mile radius, going to each one twice a month. So I began to pray and ask God WHERE He wanted me to go next. I printed off a map of eastern Oklahoma and drew a 50-mile radius with our home in the center. Then I created a list of the towns in that circle and began to pray about each one. The Lord began to reveal to me, one at a time, where to go. He also said there would be many individuals, Life Senders, who would step up financially to help send the Word into the nursing homes.

Jesus said in John 10:10, I am come that they might have life. So, I am ministering life to “Strengthen The Saved and Save The Lost.”

After that first service in November of 2009, I continued to add nursing homes from December into March of 2010. On March the 10th, I acquired my 20th facility. The nursing home mix has changed a little since the beginning, but I have maintained from 19 to 21 facilities.

I am now into my fifth year. I have traveled thousands of miles, seen many salvations, healings, performed funerals, communions, and have been requested to preside over two weddings. I have made many, many friends and the Lord has changed lives all over eastern Oklahoma.

That is what I do and why I do it, but there is so much more. The things that I have learned and seen have been amazing. Now I understand why James was so concerned about the church taking care of the widows and orphans.

James 1:27
Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles. . .(NLT)

The church has an amazing opportunity, something that I don’t think we have ever seen or latched onto before. We’re pretty good at foreign missions. And we’re pretty good at ministry within the local church. But we could be better at home   missions. Not many have caught the vision of nursing home ministry. Jesus said in Luke 15:4, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? I am finding lost sheep in the nursing homes. I’m also finding sheep that are lonely, depressed, sick, without family, and needing love. Let me share two stories:

One day in Spiro, I saw an older gentleman in the service who I hadn’t seen before. He was causing quite a commotion. There are not as many men in nursing homes as there are women, so when a man comes in it’s a big deal. He was probably in his 80s and the women were making sure he was comfortable. After the service, one of the workers came to me and explained, “When he came into the facility he had nothing but a few clothes.” They were trying to round up some furniture for him. I went over to him to say “hi” and introduce myself. Some had said he was not a Christian.

We talked a little bit and then I asked him if he had ever accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He began to cry and said, “No, I’ve been rebellious for many years. Whatever my mom and dad said, I would do the opposite. They were Christians, so I told myself I would never do that.” I explained to him it’s not too late and it’s something he needed to do. He sat quietly for a moment and then said, “If I accept Jesus, will I see my mommy and daddy again?” I lost it. We cried together for a moment and then I told him he would see his mom and dad again and they would be so proud of him. He accepted Christ that day and within the month went home to be with the Lord. We need to be there.

In Muskogee, I saw a young gal come into the service in a wheelchair. She looked very depressed, stayed for maybe 10 minutes and left. She looked very young and out of place. I wondered why she was there. What was her story? After the service I found her in the hall. I said “hi” and introduced myself. I discovered that 3 to 4 years earlier she was high on drugs and jumped off a 75-foot cliff, attempting to commit suicide. She fell to rocks below, breaking just about every bone in her body including her neck and back. Today she is paralyzed from her waist down. Her mother is in the penitentiary and her dad doesn’t come around much.

That was several months ago. I began ministering to her and now she is on fire for God and in every service. She never graduated from high school, so she wants to get her GED. I am helping her with that. She wants to be a witness for the Lord. We are believing for a physical miracle. She is 19 years old.

I never expected to see young people in nursing homes. These facilities become long-term care, whatever their age might be. These stories, and many more like them, were eye-openers for me. We need to be there.

James 1:27
Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles. . .(NLT)

How Do We Do This?

Gal 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. . .(KJV)

There are no cookie-cutter answers. Every circumstance is unique, every situation different. The more I have relied on my own abilities, the more frustrated I have become. But when I rely on the fruit of the Spirit, that’s where I find the answers.

The church has a real opportunity here. There are lost and hurting sheep in the nursing homes. This is home missions. These people are our mothers and fathers, our grandmas and grandpas, our neighbors and our friends. They could even be our sons and daughters.

Not everyone will be called into full-time nursing home ministry. Not everyone will even preach. But if you go into the nursing homes with the fruit of the Spirit, there will be ministry and you will reach the heart of the people. Whether you go or whether you send. We need to be there.

Your Story: Easter & Beyond
Stephen Marshall

Stephen Marshall is the Music & Media Minister at Mount Hope Church in Lansing, MI. He is married to Pam Thum. Stephen is an international recording artist, author and speaker. Founder of Live It To Lead It worship conferences and author of A Little Boy’s Prayer the Christmas musical, Stephen is an avid supporter of and coach to leaders in ministry, specializing in those assigned to the creative arts. You can read more about Stephen on his website www.stephenmarshall.net. Also visit www.alittleboysprayer.com and www.yourstoryisamazing.com.

There are two times a year that a person who rarely attends church gets a notion to visit a local house of worship. Christmas and Easter are those occasions when the calendar can actually help call the lost. Whether it’s for the sake of tradition, a vow to a dying mother or some sense of accomplishing penance, visitors who don’t have a habit of coming to God’s house show up on these dates. This is an opportunity we need to capitalize on.     

I became a part of the Mount Hope Church team (www.mounthopechurch.org) in January of 2011. Being a large organization, plans for church wide events need to be scheduled well ahead of time. My position as the new Music & Media minister meant that productions were my responsibility and Easter was coming up fast.

I had written a Christmas production called A Little Boy’s Prayer the year before and had seen how a story could dramatically touch tens of thousands of people drawn to the local church. The combination of the season and an anointed production can make for a beautiful opportunity to reach the community. At this point my predominant experience had been as a Christian recording artist.   Ministering for years in that role, I had experience with special events but never from the perspective of being a pastor and overseeing all the aspects of a church-wide collaboration.

Shutting the door to my office, I got down on my knees and said, "Help Lord!"  I’ve seen many great things done with little to no lasting fruit. I’ve seen simple things done that seemed to leave little impression at the moment, but the Kingdom outcome was significant and lasting. We know God is glorified when we are fruitful (John 15:8). Capturing the essence of what that means and not measuring a spiritual mandate with a carnal ruler is the key. When you and I trust God enough to let Him define success, it makes the next step much easier. There are times He will lead us to do something outside the box of what’s usual or even traditional.

The Holy Spirit is always so good to me and He is a creative genius. When I asked Him for help that day He dropped a title and a concept into my heart that seemed overly simple. The title I believe the Lord gave me was Your Story – an Easter event. The blueprint was basically this, act out a story of Jesus from the Gospel in its period 2,000 years ago and then forward to a parallel real story today of someone’s testimony. So for example we had actors play out the scene of Jesus healing the blind man, the man would sing an excited song of praise, and then a video would come up on the screen of a precious older woman in our church who was legally blind and now could see without any glasses.

Simple. Tell stories from 2,000 years ago and tell stories from today; mix it together with familiar hymns and new spiritual songs, and take the audience on a journey that leads ultimately to the the Lord’s death and resurrection. In the space of an hour and a half the audience heard twenty plus real life stories told by the individual them self. They were stories of healing, deliverance, salvation, family and joy. All the stories were people from our church, from 2 years old to 80, all nationalities, all backgrounds, with the most important thing in common – born again of the Seed of God!

Once I said ‘yes’ to what I believe was an idea inspired by God, I felt like the Lord began to show me His strategy within it’s simplicity. First of all it has the DNA of God’s overcoming formula taken from Revelation 12:11. "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." When people begin celebrating openly what God has done for them, it translates as praise and glory to God. Father is honored in a generation that has lost all bearing on what true honor is, and who deserves it.

When you incorporate individual stories into a church wide event the family takes ownership, and that is critical to effective ministry and marketing. It becomes more than just another function or outreach, but a reminder of spiritual identity that says, "This is who we are in Christ." 

Easter is the celebration of the blood of the Lamb so all of our portrayals of Jesus 2,000 years ago establish his perfection, obedience and sacrifice on the cross. The audience hears the Gospel of Jesus over and over from Bible days, to modern day, through songs, acting, through tears and laughter. The world tends to sit on their couch and flip their channel selector over and over from one show to another. At a performance of Your Story, we do that for the audience.

Part of the marketing genius is this, it breaks from a lot of the static of typical words associated with Easter. Not that there’s anything wrong with those words but we sometimes make the mistake of trying to speak the language of Christianity to a world that doesn’t have a clue what we’re really talking about. When you say the word ‘passion’ to a room full of believers they most likely will think Easter thoughts. When you say it to those outside the covenant of Christ, some may associate the word with Hollywood’s raunchy perversion of the term.

The title Your Story is a call to all people. It’s a call to consider your own life, your legacy, your future and the innate revelation for most that it’s presently being written. We have tried to give a Savior to a people who don’t need one. If a person doesn’t believe they have a story or that their life is worth living, why would they need a Savior? The title was not only a marketing device for us as a church but a call to action as a church. Believers became inspired and interested in each other’s story. The question around the church became, "What’s your story?" The greatest marketing agents we have are our people.

This production did some exciting things right in our home camp. It reminded our family of what God has already done for us and made us thankful. It pulled people in our church into an activity that they regularly considered "someone else’s thing." If a church is going to seriously take on the task of winning the lost in their community, the whole family goes to war or don’t bother. That means all the great extensions of a church like youth groups, men’s groups, ladies’ tea groups, Saturday morning Pilates with Jane – all the other groups get on board and make war. Hell does not want to let go of these
human slaves.

As soon as I got approval from the pastor on doing Your Story, I put together what I call a ‘Prayer Sheet’. In the world of public relations a ‘One Sheet’ is a refined statement about the product, speaker or release you want the media outlets to show interest in. A ‘Prayer Sheet’ is an accurate page of petitions that focus on the success of the goal you’re pursuing. With every specific request I would put a biblical references so that all intercessors, pastors, and members could pray accurately in unison with authority. I don’t subscribe to random, thoughtless words that end up conjuring up more confusion and misdirection. Success requires focus and intention. A divided house can not stand.

In 2011 we saw an average of 19% of the audience respond to an invitation to come to Christ each night. This year that average was 12%. The exciting thing about this year is that some of the tools we created over this last year are being utilized beyond the Easter celebration now. We put together a DVD collection of all the testimonies and a devotional guide under the same name of Your Story. Already we are getting reports of people sharing these tools with others and they’re coming to Christ, getting healed, and transforming the environment of their home with these anointed works.

It’s exciting to see people discover the saving power of Jesus for the first time, and still something else is going on. There is the thrill of seeing sons and daughters reclaim their first love again. Sometimes an event like this can refocus a person’s heart onto the bigger Kingdom venture. There are seasons when family events such as an Easter production stretch people and make them needy of the anointing and each other. It’s in those moments that something critical takes place within the family of God; we are knit together knowing that we are submitted to the Lord.

Productions are a lot of work for a small church or a big one. I’m always looking for the multiplication factor. Here’s what I mean by that: if the Lord is directing us to do something, there is a way for that anointed work to live on and on. After all, what’s born of the Spirit is spirit. When the Lord gave us Your Story, the consideration from the beginning was that other churches around the world would be able to use it. That’s why we professionally recorded all the music and tracks and made them available on iTunes. We also put together the script, director’s notes, and stage blocking so it was simple and could be accomplished in a small auditorium. Jesus supplies the modern day stories of life in each church. With technology today a simple smart phone can capture the video and piece those segments together.

What started out as an Easter celebration has become the catalyst launching the Your Story movement (www.yourstoryisamazing.com). We are constantly developing the social media of this idea so that the beauty of what Jesus has done for us ripples far past a once-a-year nod on the calendar. You have access to the overcoming anointing of the living God. The bondages over your community, town, city, must yield to the power of God and the formula is already in your possession. The blood of the lamb and Your Story. The enemy is already defeated and you have the keys to the city.

You can view testimonies from “Your Story” at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/THEMOUNTHOPECHURCH?feature=watch