Grace = God Reliance

# 226 Today’s Living Word comes from Mark 1:12 And immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.”

One of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to take the church into the wilderness. In Revelation 12:14 we read, “But the woman, (figurative language for the church) was given two wings of a great eagle, (figurative language for the Holy Spirit) that she might fly into the wilderness to her place,”

Why? Why is the wilderness our place? Because it is a place of utter reliance upon God for survival. It is the perfect picture of salvation by grace. This is where the true church of Jesus Christ is to be found, we must learn to be reliant upon God and His grace for all things.

This is the first lesson that Christ in His humanity had to demonstrate and it’s the first thing we must learn as well, “for it is by grace (God-reliance) that we are saved through faith.” (Ephesians 2:8)

But not only are we saved by grace, but we must learn to live by grace. The Word of God is the chief “means of grace,” and Jesus made that clear when He responded to the devil's first temptation in the wilderness by saying, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God” This is where you and I need to be, and it’s the Spirit’s job to get us there....trust Him, and learn to live a God-reliant life.

I’m Duane Matz and that’s today’s Living Word.