How many want grace and peace multiplied to you? Hey, I like that kind of multiplication! Let's look at 2 Peter 1.
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:1-3).
Of course, we've always heard it said that grace precedes peace. No grace, no peace; know grace, know peace. Peace is the fruit of grace. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Grace and peace will be multiplied to us as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord. "His divine power," this is what we really want to focus on in verse 3, "has given." "Has given" is past tense, and His divine power has given to us "all things." I'm not going to focus too much on that because you know we talk a lot about "all things." All things include what? All things! If God has given you all things, is there anything that He's not given you?
Let that get in your spirit because there are those are waiting to get some things in order to do some things. And the Bible says that you already have the things you need in order to do the things. But you don't know that you have the things because you can't see the things. But that does not mean that they don't exist; they just exist in a realm that you don't see. Everything that you need, you already have.
Has He or has He not given us all things? This is the question that you have to settle in your heart. All things pertaining to what? Pertaining to life. Has God given us all things pertaining to life? Yes!
In other words, God has already made provision. The reason we walk in fear rather than faith is because we don't yet see it. And oftentimes, because we can't see it, we don't believe we have it. But the truth is that very few of us have ever seen Jesus. I haven't had a face-to-face encounter with Jesus. I've gotten close, and it has alarmed me. See, that's unbiblical; it shouldn't, but I start shaking and I begin to become undone (Isaiah 6). "Forget it, Lord, don't come any closer, that's as close as I can take. Stop." But I know He exists. How do you know?
We know that He is. We know that He exists. We know that He is who He says He is. How do we know that? By faith. Well, just as God has made Jesus available to us, His Son, He has also made available to us all things pertaining to life through Jesus His Son. And not only has He made available all things pertaining to life, but to godliness as well. You have everything you need to be godly.
There is something to be said for the writings of Paul. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." We're in the process of being sanctified. But everything that we need for our sanctification is available to us. We just have to seize the opportunity to be sanctified, to be consecrated holy unto God. Question: how does this happen? Answer: through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. So if I may take the liberty: by the knowledge of Him who called us by the glory and virtue we understand that all things that pertain to life and godliness have been given to us by His divine power.
But if we don't have "a knowledge" of Him, we don't realize that all things pertaining to life and godliness have been given to us. And the more our knowledge of Him increases, the more we understand that He has made available to us all things pertaining to life and godliness. The more real He becomes to us, the more our knowledge increases. The more knowledge we have of Him, the less we worry. Have you ever noticed that people who have an intimate relationship with God tend to worry less than people who are kind of mediocre or lukewarm in their faith? Why is that? Because the more you learn of Him, the more you understand He's made all things available to you.
God's been dealing with me about coming to Him as a child. And the Scripture that keeps coming to my mind is when Jesus said, "Up until now you haven't asked, but if you ask your heavenly father, He'll do anything that you ask." He didn't say, "tell." He said, "ask." He didn't say, "command," He said, "ask." He didn't say, "spit and stomp." He said, "ask." Ask and come as a child.
I was going to Wal-Mart yesterday, and my little boy said, "Daddy, can I go with you? I want to buy a toy." You're probably thinking that he wants Daddy to buy him a toy. I said, "Do you have any money?" He said, "Yes, I have my own money. Can I just go to Wal-Mart with you?" He loves Wal-Mart. Terrible, dangerous place. The point is that he asked me. He didn't say, "I'm going to Wal-Mart with you." He didn't beg me, he said, "Daddy, can I go with you?" I said, "Sure, come on, son." I like to hang with my boys. I like it when my boys like to hang with me. "Come on, let's go to Wal-Mart and look at man stuff." So he has his own money.
I proceed to make the purchase, and when we went home, I put the money back in his drawer. He hasn't found it yet, but he will, and he's going to wonder where it came from. He'll ask mommy or I where it came from, and I'll tell him that I put it back in your drawer because, "I just wanted to bless you, son." Now, here's the thing. He didn't have to beg. He just asked, "Can I go do this thing because there's something I'd like to have." When he was picking out the toy he asked, "Can I have this one, Daddy?" He wasn't saying, "Is this the one you'll buy for me?" He was so proud of having his own money. I had to tell him that he had to hide his money. You don't walk around Wal-Mart with your money in a plastic Ziploc bag where everyone can see your dollar bills. Gotta teach the boy about life at Wal-Mart.
All things have been provided. Here's the essence. Everything we need to live and succeed has already been made available to us. What we must do is grow in our knowledge of Him because that's where the revelation comes. God has certainly not called us to fail. He has called us to succeed. He has called us to prosper. And it is He who provides and enables, and who strengthens us to succeed. So what we have to do is learn to rest in Him and in the power of His might. This also requires the ability to trust and obey.
~ PG
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