⏰ As the year draws to a close, we invite you to join us in a countdown of the top 10 most-watched sermon highlights by Joseph Prince in 2023! 🚀 In this 2-hour video compilation, be blessed by faith-building and powerful excerpts taken from sermons preached by Joseph Prince over the year. Our prayer is that these videos will be a source of encouragement and a timely word for you in whatever challenge you may be going through. 🔥 Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to our BRAND-NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL! (@GospelPartnerOfficial) We upload practical and inspiring bite-size clips, just like the ones in this compilation, from our latest sermons and more every single week! Click HERE to subscribe: 
/ @gospelpartnerofficial Top 10 Sermon Highlights Of 2023 0:00 No. 10 Your Best Days Are Still Ahead 08:50 No. 9 The Real Reason You’re Unsatisfied 25:07 No. 8 Choose Your Focus 36:44 No. 7 Finding Your True Calling 52:08 No. 6 Live No Lies 01:02:01 No. 5 Find Strength To Hope Again 01:17:17 INTRODUCING THE NEW JOSEPH PRINCE APP 01:19:29 No. 4 Break Your Scarcity Mindset 01:29:30 No. 3 Hear Your Way Out Of Every Trouble 01:40:26 No. 2 Prayer Is Simpler Than You Think 01:53:34 No. 1 Why Does God Allow Delays? Which sermon highlight spoke to you the most in this video? We’d love to hear about it! Share it with us in the comments below! ⬇️ We look forward to bringing you more awesome and uplifting content in 2024!
Now, I want you
to see this verse.
It says, “As thy days,”
Let’s all say it.
“As thy days, so shall
thy strength be.”
Say it again to each other.
“As thy days, so
shall thy strength be.”
Now, this goes opposite
of the way the world tells us.
You know, when you go
to a doctor and you tell them.
Have you noticed recently
when you go to a doctor,
alright, they will tell you,
“Oh, this problem, never mind.”
“You know, it’s part of aging.”
Don’t put up your hands.
Anyone?
Right?
And anything, you know,
you say, “It’s part of aging.”
“It’s part of aging.”
So it’s very normal, Amen.
The world, for the world,
it’s normal.
As you progress in your days,
so shall your infirmities be more.
As your days increase,
they also increase.
That’s the norm of the world.
But this promise in the Bible,
and that’s why it’s a promise.
And God wants us
to lay hold of it.
“As your days increase,”
notice the word “days,” plural.
“As your days increase,
so shall your strength be.”
You got to repent.
You got to change your mind
about the way you think.
Your best days are yet ahead.
I don’t care how old you are,
your best days are still ahead, Amen.
Your best days are still ahead.
Praise the Lord.
So shall your strength be.
So shall your strength be.
There is a Japanese man
by the name of Shigeaki
Hanohara-ra-ra, something ra.
I’m sorry, but the last one
is Hanohara, something like that, ok?
And the first part is
Shigeaki, okay?
Anyway, he’s a doctor
and his father is a Christian.
He’s a Methodist pastor.
He just passed away a few
years ago at the age of 105.
So when asked, alright,
about his secret, he says,
“Every morning, olive oil.”
Before I heard about him,
our pastors, we learned this
in Israel, was it 1990s?
We learned about it already,
olive oil, okay?
He says olive oil.
He swears by olive oil.
Another thing, use your stairs.
We all use lift, right?
He says go up the stairs.
Even in his old age,
he go up the stairs.
He says he go up the
stairs two steps at one time.
Try one first, ok?
Amen, Amen.
And if you read online
and all that,
they won’t tell you that
he will tell you it’s his faith.
But it is faith in God’s Word,
reading God’s Word every day
that gives this man his health.
He’s a Christian.
They won’t even tell you
he’s a Christian.
And that’s the main part
that’s not being shared out there
in the world because
the world don’t want to
acknowledge that.
Hmm?
I have a Korean friend who just
went back to South Korea,
and before he went
he told me his mother,
his grandmother is nearing,
I think 800, 100.
And still reading the Bible,
still going to church,
always telling him,
“Make sure you go to church.”
So I told him,
“Next time you go back,
you ask her that I asked”
“what’s her secret.”
He said, “Ok.”
So he came back after
the holidays and he says,
“My grandmother says read the Bible
and drink plenty of water.”
You know, this lady, he said that
her mind, her wits,
and all that is very sharp.
No Alzheimer’s, nothing.
You know, they say it’s very
normal for your, right, guys,
they say that your prostate enlarges,
your brain shrinks.
Don’t accept it.
Amen.
I said don’t accept it.
Amen.
“As your days, so shall
your strength be.”
Amen.
So this is an amazing promise,
but let’s look at the context.
I believe in context.
Maybe we can
learn some things.
So God wants your
spiritual strength to increase.
God wants your physical
strength to increase.
Amen.
God wants your moral strength,
that you are a person
that people look at,
they want to be like you.
Amen?
Not just your physical
health and strength.
Come on.
Amen?
More importantly is the
beauty of the inside.
You look at some ladies, right,
they are a certain age,
maybe in 70s, and there’s
a beauty that goes beyond age,
goes beyond makeup.
And that’s the thing that can
never grow old,
that part, if you continue
to grow in Christ.
Amen?
And it’s true.
Everything the Bible says
don’t do, if you do,
you’ll grow old faster.
You get angry, always get angry,
you’ll grow old faster.
Amen.
You are happy, happy,
merry heart, you’ll stay young.
“A merry heart does good, like
medicine.”
Amen.
The Bible says in Proverbs 17:22,
“A merry heart does good,
like medicine.”
The word “medicine” there
is the word “marpe.”
“They shall be life and health
to all their flesh,”
God’s Word.
That word there, “life and health,”
is “marpe.”
Health to all their flesh, marpe.
It’s medicine, medicine to,
and it’s good medicine.
Notice, “But a broken spirit,”
causes osteoporosis.
Now, you won’t find that
in the scientific world,
but I’ll tell you this,
this is the wisdom of God.
A merry heart does good like
medicine.
So be happy.
And you know,
best of all, where you
try to make yourself
happy all the time,
find every excuse to
be happy, joke, laugh,
smile at home.
Find things to laugh about.
Remember when you
dated your wife,
you made her laugh so much.
Amen.
And then you got her, ok,
and then she cry all the rest.
Then not, ok.
You made her cry.
“No, Pastor Prince, no girl, no cry.”
Ok.
That’s a song, huh?
So, by the way, I’m reminded of a
man called Norman Cousins, alright?
Like Cousins, like cousins.
Or his name is Cousins
with an ’s’, Norman Cousins.
You can find it in Wikipedia, not now!
Ok, this Norman Cousins
in some time back, 1964,
he was diagnosed.
He’s a professor,
who later on became
an author to write about,
you know, the method
by which he obtained
healing, alright?
But what he said was this.
He was diagnosed with a
crippling connective tissue
disease, which gets worse
and worse until you die.
And they call it ankylosing spondylitis.
I’m trying my best.
You know what he did,
this professor?
He checked himself into
a place where he has a lot
of funny videos, back then they
used videos.
And he has tapings of it.
And all humour, and
he has a lot,
he took a lot of vitamin C,
and laugh and laugh every day.
The, by the way, you can
see this on his Wikipedia,
on Norman Cousins,
the doctors gave him
1 in 500 chance to live.
He took a lot of vitamin C, and
laugh, and laugh, and laugh,
and laugh his way right
into healing.
Right into healing.
Amen.
That’s the world.
We have something better.
“Rejoice in the Lord,” it says.
Paul writes like this.
Paul says in Philippians chapter 3,
“Finally, my brethren, rejoice in”
“the Lord.
For me to write the
same things to you is not tedious,”
“but for you it is safe.”
You know, when a pastor,
your pastors stand up here
and preach to you, and you say,
“Well, I’ve heard it before.”
For them it’s not tedious,
but for you it is safe.
It’s for you, you know?
It’s not for them, you know?
For them sometimes
it feels tedious,
“I’m sure they have heard
of this before.”
But I’ll say, it’s not tedious.
Why?
I love you.
God loves you.
And for you
it is safe, Amen?
Jeremiah 15:16, this is what it
says: “Thy words were found and I
did eat them and thy word was unto
me the joy and rejoicing of my
heart.”
The first thing, your first
assignment is not to look at the
Word of God and say: “What must I
do?”
Alright, that’s the law
mentality.
The first thing you do
with God’s Word is you eat it!
It
is for eating, it is for eating!
If
you ask the Lord, alright: “Why is
it that people are rebellious,
people are bound by addictions,
people are enslaved to certain
habits, and they can’t break free?
Why are people depressed?
Why are
so many people depressed today?”
Right?
Do you know what the Lord
will say?
“They are hungry.”
So
many of you are hungry, but you’re
not feeding yourself with true
bread.
So you pass by, you think
you need something from the fridge.
You open up the fridge.
You feel
like you need to eat something, you
feel hungry.
You don’t realise that
it is a spiritual hunger because
you’ve not been feeding on the
Word.
So you take out something to
eat.
Now, after a while, you still
feel hungry.
So you eat somemore.
Or “I will watch TV.
Yes, I think
this is good.
I will watch this
drama.
I will watch this movie, I
will watch this…Alright, it will
feed me.”
For a while, your mind is
stimulated, no doubt.
Right?
You
are stimulated but after you finish
everything, you still feel like
there’s an emptiness.
Like: “What
is it I really want?
I think I need
to watch somemore.”
You know, it’s
not the answer!
The next day, you have raccoon
eyes, you know, or panda eyes, and
things like that.
Because it
doesn’t feed.
So the Bible says in
Isaiah: “Why spend your labor for
that which does not satisfy?”
Now,
all these things, eating and all
that and watching, you know, I
mean, it all has its’ place.
I’m
not knocking them.
They are not
sins.
It’s not a sin to eat.
I’m
just saying realise that you are
hungry.
And you might say: “Pastor
Prince, I think I’m hungry for more
of social media.
I feel that the
more I read, I think I feel
better.”
No you won’t.
You’ll feel
empty.
You’ll feel more depressed.
You’re hungry, and you’re hungry
for true bread.
You’re hungry.
The
Bible says in Isaiah: “Why labor
for that which does not satisfy?”
Amen, so you’re hungry!
You’re not
depressed, you’re hungry!
You’re
not, you’re not actually a
rebellious person, amen.
You are
fighting something because you are
hungry.
Have you noticed that
people who are hungry physically
can be very bad-tempered?
Wives,
have you noticed that?
Sometimes
your husband is not angry with you.
He’s not angry.
He is hungry.
Ah,
look at your husband, smile and
say: “Amen.”
Have you experienced
that?
Or it’s just me?
It’s just
me.
Come on.
I see Pastor Lawrence
putting up his hand.
One honest
man, that’s one honest man.
The
Lord loves it.
The Lord loves
honesty.
Amen.
Amen.
So many of you
need to repent.
Amen.
So a hungry man can be a very angry
man.
Right?
But the anger is not
actually his problem.
His problem
is a deeper problem.
He’s hungry.
The enemy always attacks your food.
The Bible says when Gideon was
threshing wheat, he was threshing
wheat in a place called the vine
press.
Now that’s not the usual
place that you thresh wheat.
Threshing wheat is like studying
the Word of God, the Word of God is
wheat, right?
Bread of life.
So
it’s threshing wheat to eat.
Right?
But he was doing it at night to
hide from who?
The Midianites, the
Midianites have come in.
And
everytime there’s a harvest, the
Jewish people have a harvest, they
will come and rob them of their
harvest.
So they’re staying in the
mountains and whenever the harvest
is there, they come and rob them of
the harvest.
So Gideon does it
quietly so that he has a secret
harvest, and a secret threshing,
and a secret reaping, right?
That
he wants to have secret eating as
well, but God called him forth.
God
calls those who are studying the
Word, amen, to feed others.
Some of David’s mighty men became
mighty men.
They marked themselves
as mighty men when they refused to
let the enemy take their harvest.
They would stand in the middle of a
patch of a field of harvest like
lentils, alright?
And they will
stand there with a sword and they
are outnumbered by their enemies.
But the Bible says: “The sword will
cleave to their hand.”
And the
sword is a picture of God’s Word.
And they will fight.
They said:
“This is my harvest.
You ain’t
taking it.”
Alright, there’s no
way.
I sowed it.
Alright, I grew
it.
I watered it.
And where were
you?
You want to come and take the
food?
No way.
I’m gonna stand here
and stand my ground.
And the Bible
says: “Stand therefore.
Stand for
your food.”
Amen.
Don’t let
anything rob you of that time that
you spend in the Word of God.
Amen.
Whether in the morning, you’re
sitting on the toilet bowl or—like
I told you, it’s a good time.
Some
of you: “Oh, you know, I feel so
irreverent.”
No, you’re just being
religious.
Because I’d rather you
do that than not do that and spend
the whole day not in the Word.
So
if you have a Bible there, Bible
everywhere.
Amen.
Commercial time.
Look at the Bible.
Spend time in
the Word, even a little piece of
it, like a little crumb can bring
healing.
Can I have a good amen?
So, here God says: “There’s food,
not just drink.”
There is food.
Right?
By the way, Jeremiah was
saying that the first thing you do
is to eat and what happens you’re
what was to me the joy, you always
were found in I ate them.
That’s
your first response for eat the
Word of God.
And number two, it
becomes a joy and rejoicing of your
heart.
So eat it until there’s a
joy and rejoicing springing up.
And
there’s a joy!
I’m telling you, it
is like—that joy heals by the way,
that joy heals your body.
The joy
of the Lord is my strength.
It is
not just spiritual strength there.
If you read it carefully, it’s
strength, spirit, soul and body.
So
the joy of the Lord.
So how do you
get the joy of the Lord?
Thy words
were found, and what do I do?
I ate
them.
When Jesus says: “I’m the
bread of life.”
What do you do with
bread?
You eat it.
You don’t just
admire it or else He will say: “I’m
the portrait of life.”
Right?
But
He says bread.
He says He’s the
water of life—a fountain.
Amen.
He
is the bread of life.
What do you
do with bread?
You eat!
And because it is called: “I am the
bread of life.”
You receive life.
You see, everyday we leak, we leak
life.
You know the things that we
do, the things that we watch, the
things that we hear, causes us to
leak life.
You know, I thought our
life is intact.
Once you get life,
you get life.
No, everyday you’re
losing life.
Ask the doctors.
They
will tell you, it is shown by—death
has set in, that means what?
Where there’s no life, that part
there is death.
So different parts
of your body when you leak life,
right?
Death comes in.
They call it
ageing, they call it whatever which
means reduction of life, but you
can receive more life.
Jesus says:
“I am come that you might have life
and have it more abundantly!”
Can I
have a good amen?
So praise the
Lord, give Him praise!
Amen.
It’s
true.
He wants you to have this
life more abundant.
And if you
look, there’s also food in the
land.
Remember I shared about the land
and the Bible?
It is a land of
wheat, barley, vines, fig trees,
pomegranates, olive oil, and honey.
In my last sermon, I broke this
down to show you the Word of God
and how rich it is a land wherein
you shall eat bread without
scarceness.
You shall not lack
anything in it.
A land whose stones
are iron and out of whose hills you
may dig brass or copper here, in
the Hebrew, alright?
So it’s a rich
land.
Amen.
It’s a rich land.
It
has different vistas, different
facets, and every part of it is a
blessing.
So sometimes you go—for
the Lord your God brings you.
So
it’s a land that you go into.
So
there are times you take a verse,
you meditate on it until it gives
you it’s iron and it’s precious
metals.
Amen.
Gold, silver is there
as well.
The Bible says: “More to
be desired is the Word of God than
gold.”
Amen.
But as you study God’s
Word, you find that there are times
you are eating pomegranate, there
are times you’re eating figs.
God
has variety.
God is a God of
variety, the many-fold grace of
God.
Even grace has many folds.
You know, God gave you a tongue.
You will never know the different
tastes.
If God gives you one tongue
with one taste, you won’t complain.
You don’t know.
You don’t know!
You
only have one taste!
Imagine rice
is the same.
Alright?
You eat beef
and it is the same.
Right?
You have
your pickles, it is the same.
All
the taste is just one taste.
But
God gave us a tongue with many
tastes.
And recently they discovered
there’s even one more taste called
“umami” hidden somewhere.
Amen.
Umami.
Right?
I’m sure there’s
somewhere else.
I prophesy to you
if they study somemore, there’ll be
another one called “Udaddy.”
Oh
that one is—Pastor Prince, you’re
so corny.
Amen.
If there’s an
Umami, they must be an Udaddy
somewhere, you know?
Alright.
So
there are things that, and they say
that our brains, we only use 10% of
our brains.
Right?
Amen.
Have you
met people that you don’t even
think is 10%.
Don’t look at your
neighbour now.
Amen.
Alright.
I
mean, scientists tell us that we
only use 10% of our brain.
So I
believe that the other 9, right?
Where is it missing?
The Bible
promises the gifts of the Holy
Spirit.
Exactly 9.
Amen.
It comes
when you are filled with the Holy
Spirit.
It can maximize your mind.
So it is, it covers every area and
figs is for certain—by the way do
you know figs are very sweet right?
Just want to let you know something
about figs.
Figs are very sweet but
it does not spike your blood sugar.
It does not!
In fact, it is said
that even people with high blood
sugar and all that, they can
actually eat figs!
Amen, don’t
google it now.
Go home and you
know, and so it’s amazing the land,
whatever God promised down there is
good for the taste as well as for
health.
Amen.
If you’re a man, and
you want to be fruitful, “He that
has ears to hear…”
Alright, the
pomegranate is very good for you.
That’s why it has a lot of seeds.
Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself
already.
Okay, that’s just free.
Okay, that’s free.
Amen.
Look at
the pomegranate and ask yourself,
why is it full of seeds and all
that.
I believe it is going to be
helping you.
That’s all I can say.
“He that has ears to hear, let him
hear.”
Amen.
Okay, so that’s a promise.
Now that
is microscopic.
Sometimes we study
the Bible, we study the Bible up
close.
Alright, like a microscope.
And sometimes we study the Bible
like a telescope.
Here we look at Moses.
His last
stand on Mount Nebo, just before he
passed on to be with the Lord.
Right?
He’s standing at Mount Nebo
and he looks into the promised
land.
In Deuteronomy 34.
Then Moses
went up from the plains of Moab to
Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah.
Many of you had been there.
Let me
see your hands up if you have been
there.
In Jordan, where Moses last
stand was, let me see your hands.
Yeah, you bless you, man.
You saw
that the view?
You are seeing the
same view where Moses was.
Somewhere there he stood at Pisgah,
Mount Nebo.
And then he looked into
Israel.
So today, of course, it is
on the side of Jordan.
Okay, the
country of Jordan.
But at one time,
it is all one.
Right?
And they
looked down, he looked down into
the promised land.
And here, it
says that: “And the Lord showed him
all the land of Gilead, as far as
Dan.”
So he looked far, he looked
like this, okay?
I’m looking at the
promised land.
This is Jordan.
I’m
looking at the promised land.
So he
started like this.
He looked at
Dan.
As far as Dan, then he looked
at Neftali, which is the area of
Galilee, the Sea of Galilee.
Right?
Now he could have looked straight
away, upfront.
Do you know what is
upfront?
Jericho, the nearest.
The
city of Jericho, the area of the
Jordan Valley.
But he didn’t.
He
looked far.
Alright?
So this is a
picture of the overview of the
land.
Sometimes when you read the
Bible, you read the Bible.
You
don’t feel like reading like
microscopic or meditating on one
verse, alright?
You want to just do
general reading.
Like you read the book of Ruth, it
can be done in one sitting.
It is a
very romantic book.
Amen.
It is a
beautiful story of a young bride.
In fact, not only a young bride,
usually a woman who has been
married before, it’s not so much,
it does not stand as much an
opportunity as someone who has not
been married before.
She’s been
married before.
And in that day and
age, when your husband dies before
you and all that, they could have
seen you as a person who brings a
curse.
Right?
But then she followed
her mother-in-law, to a land that
is foreign to her, and ended up
marrying the most eligible
bachelor.
And together they became the great
grandfather of David.
And from
David came our Lord Jesus.
Imagine
if they didn’t meet.
And she
doesn’t belong there actually, like
the Syrophoenician woman of Tyre.
She’s a Gentile.
But she was
included in the genealogy of our
Lord Jesus.
Isn’t that a beautiful
story?
Amen.
You can read in one
sitting.
So it’s like a panoramic
view, amen, a panoramic view.
Sometimes you just feel like
reading.
And what the panoramic
view does is that it washes you.
Alright you say: “Well, Pastor
Prince, when I read the Bible, I
really don’t understand a lot of
things.”
Keep on reading and
enjoying it.
And I tell you this—a
lot of people who start reading
novels, even children, when they
start reading books and all that,
there are parts they don’t
understand.
But just enjoy what you
do understand.
Alright?
There was a man who was a devout
Christian, and he wanted his son to
learn about the importance of
studying the Bible, reading the
Bible.
He was a farmer.
He told his
son, and they had a stream nearby
their farm.
He told his son to take
a basket, alright a basket, and go
collect some water.
The son looked
at him kind of strange, right?
He
was about, the son was about seven,
eight years old.
And he was trying
to impress on his son because his
son told him: “When I read the
Bible, I don’t understand.
I don’t
understand.”
So he said: “Tell you
what, go get the water.”
So the son
went, scooped the water, came
back…”
Of course, the water
dripped out.
I mean, it came out of
the ratten basket.
Then the son
said: “Dad, it’s all gone.”
“Go get
some more water.”
He went and came
back again and the water all left,
you know and there was nothing
left.
He said: “Dad, it is
useless!”
You cannot take water in
this.
“You see, son, how clean that
basket is right now.
Even though it
cannot hold water, you don’t
understand the Bible, nevermind.
Keep on reading because it washes
you.”
It washes you.
It has a washing,
purifying effect.
It has a healing
effect.
Same thing.
If you’re
honest.
You say: “I don’t want to
read anything I don’t understand.”
If you’re honest, because we talked
about reading as eating God’s Word?
Apply that to your eating.
Do you
understand every food in its’
components that you eat every day?
Oh yes, over here we have Vitamin E
in this little bean here.
And this
chicken rice here, alright, has
this—you know, do you go down all
that or do you just enjoy?
When you
approach God’s Word, have the same
approach.
Don’t try to understand
its’ components and all that.
Just
enjoy.
And many a times, God will
speak to you directly from
something that happened in the
past.
Are you with me so far?
Is
this helping you?
God even told Joshua at the
commencement of his ministry or
his career as a – the captain of
God’s people to bring them into
the promised land, the land
flowing with milk and honey –
Moses just died.
Joshua took over.
But the very first thing that God
told Joshua was this, “This Book
of the Law shall not depart from
your mouth, but you shall
meditate in it day and night.”
What’s the result?
“You will make
your way prosperous and you will
have good success.”
Good success
will never take you away from
your family.
Good success is not
looking at the chart day and
night, Amen, until your eyes are
swollen.
That’s not good success.
Good success is not having, like –
No, good success will always give
you time to serve the Lord, to
come to church even on Sunday,
Amen, to serve the Lord, Amen.
And it seems like money is
working for you, not you working
for money.
That’s good success.
you you’ll make your way prosperous
and you shall have good success
You will make your way prosperous
and you shall have good success.
“But Joshua, this book of the law
shall not depart out of your
mouth, but you shall meditate.”
In other words, people, listen.
There was an enemy out there.
In
the promised land, there were
enemies.
The same – 40 years ago,
remember, they saw Anakims down
there.
They were still there.
The
same enemies were still there.
If anything, they are more
established now, more entrenched
in their fortified strongholds.
And we know the walls of Jericho
are thick.
So the enemy is
there.
The hurdles, what seems
insurmountable hurdle, even more
so at that time, at that season
because the River Jordan is now
overflowing its banks during the
time of harvest.
Talk about the
time to cross.
It’s the worst of
times to cross the River Jordan.
So you have a natural obstacle,
but you know something?
Whatever
is in front of you, whatever
obstacle, whatever enemy, “You
are not to be engrossed with the
enemy, Joshua.
You are to be
occupied with My Word.”
What an
instruction to a leader.
From the very start, “Don’t be
occupied with the enemy.
Don’t be
occupied with the troubles and
the obstacles.
Be occupied with
My Word and you will make your
way prosperous and you will have
good success,” Amen.
You know,
there is a law, I think it’s in
Deuteronomy, that says that when
a king ascends the throne, his
father passed on or whatever, he
ascends the throne, the very
first thing he must do is, with
his own hand, write the law, the
book of the law, which is the
first five books of Moses.
He
need to write it with his own
hand that he may learn to fear
the Lord all the days of his
life.
Listen, that’s number one.
That
he may fear the Lord, that he
may humble himself and not lift
up himself above his brethren.
He’s king.
He is king, and yet
writing and being familiar with
the Word of God, Amen – I’m not
asking you to write the entire
Bible, all right?
It’s already
written for you, Amen.
But
instead of asking and passing
that responsibility to a scribe,
the king himself is supposed to
write.
And then the next result,
like I said, is that he will
humble himself.
He will not be
lifted above his brethren.
And
the third one is amazing.
The
third one says that he and his
children, the king and his
children, will live long.
His
career will be extended.
He and
his children will live long.
All
the result of the Word of God.
Be occupied with the Word.
And
many of us, because we’re not
occupied with the Word, Amen,
we’re not meditating on God’s
Word, we are meditating on things
that we see, you know, on TV,
right?
And now especially with
Netflix so abundant everywhere,
available and all, people are
just occupied with evil.
A lot
of stories are evil because evil
draws the flesh, Amen.
Before we
know it, we are occupied with
evil.
We are occupied with
negative things.
We’re occupied
with scandals and things like
that, and the bad stuff, and
gossipy spirit, and before we
know it, we are occupied with
this.
And the Bible says we are
transformed by beholding the
glory of the Lord.
Where do you find that?
In His
Word.
We are not occupied by
looking at the gory.
So, I’m not
saying don’t spend time you know,
watching or things like, I’m
just saying make sure occupation
is your main state, what are you
doing most of the time.
Do not
neglect the Word of God, Amen.
And of course, one of the best
ways is that you know, the Bible
says God give gifts to the
church.
When Jesus ascended, He
gave gifts to the church, Amen.
And one of the gifts are pastors
and teachers.
Why are they
there?
To teach the Word of God.
So it doesn’t mean that God teach
me direct, I get revelation
direct, I don’t need anybody.
No,
no, no, that’s an attitude of
pride.
It’s not teachable.
God
raised them.
God raised pastors
and teachers.
And they face the same problem
that you face, and they have
some experience that God allowed
them to go through so that they
will have the riches within them
to dispense to you.
So not only
the Word of God, but the Word of
God worked through a life
already.
So especially those
older men, and I consider myself,
one of those with advanced age.
I have many years of experience
behind me, Amen.
But when you see older people
and they are teaching the Word
of God, and you can see the
anointing of God in them to
teach and to impart revelation
that transforms lives, and it’s
proven, there’s a proven track
record, cling onto it, Amen.
Not
for the person’s sake, but for
that ministry, that gift, Amen.
That gift is from Jesus, the
ascended Christ.
He gave gifts to
man as He was ascending.
He gave
gifts to man, some apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors,
teachers.
Some put pastors and
teachers together because a pastor
is usually a pastor and a teacher
right, but there are also
teachers who are not pastors.
So, they are there to teach.
So, when you say, “I got my own
revelation,” no, humble yourself.
Listen to the teaching of God’s
Word, Amen.
Be near.
Be near any
spout, like a pipe coming out.
If
here is a trickle, don’t have to
worry about that.
Go to the
places where the, be under the
spout where the glory comes out
and park yourself there, Amen?
Praise the Lord, hallelujah.
So, one of the key principles I
wanna leave behind with you also
is to remember that the things
that we are teaching as a church
right, in this church in
particular, we believe we are
majoring on what is major in the
Bible.
Now, some might want to
like, study certain things that
are more specific and all that.
Every Word of God is profitable,
because every Word of God is
God-breathed, Amen?
It’s
profitable for doctrine, for
reproof.
Reproof, no one likes to hear
reproof.
Correction, there you
have it.
No one likes to hear
that right?
But we never learn
from our people complimenting,
the compliments never help us
grow.
They make us feel good.
It’s when people correct us.
And
many a times it’s people who love
you who correct you.
I’m not
talking about those you know,
people who are taking cheap
shots, all right, through social
media.
I’m not talking about
that.
Those are not people who
are, they are always looking out
for you know, things to say.
People are not happy because
the grass is always greener.
Somebody’s marriage always looks
nicer, always looks better.
And
social media now is pushing this
agenda Amen, so that you will be
in a place of depression, you’ll
be in a place of you know,
having mental health issues.
Everyone’s life is good except
mine.
Cut off the, don’t spend,
I’m not saying cut off completely.
I’m just saying that don’t spend
too much time.
Don’t be a slave
to that.
Your life is more
important than to get involved
with who is who, and who is the
present girlfriend of this guy,
and who is like, no, eh your life
is more important.
Your life is
important.
Time is precious.
It’s
passing you by.
It’s fleeting by,
Amen.
When I was in Switzerland, ah
sorry, New Zealand with some of
the brethren.
We were there for
ministry and I told them, “Stop
the car,” because it was so
green, so beautiful.
And I
jumped across the fence and I
ran, [singing] “The hills are
alive…”
I literally ran.
It was
so, I love nature and it was so
green, green like you can never
imagine.
It was so green!
Literally,
the grass is greener.
So, we were travelling on the
road, I told them to stop, and I
jumped over, ran across the
green, and then I stopped.
And
the nearer, once you’re on the
other side, you see some things.
I look around, there’s this
brown, brown stuff all around
me.
Brown, brown everywhere, not
a drop to spare.
Ugh, anyway,
it’s like some are dried, some
are fresh.
And I look at my shoe,
my nice shoe, and it’s like, “Oh
no, what has got…”
I mean, I
didn’t see it from there.
All I
saw is green.
And I realized that the grass is
greener on the other side but you
don’t see it from where you are.
Amen.
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Do you want to live a life of
purpose?
A life fulfilling that destiny
for which you are called?
Or do you just want to make money?
“I want to make money.”
“I don’t care how my health
suffers and all that.”
“Alright, I want to make money.”
“I don’t sleep well, nevermind.”
“Money, money, money.”
Or “I just want to live for pleasure,
pleasure, pleasure.”
Each one of you, you
were birthed into this world
with a purpose and a calling.
I want to really impress
that on you, because
I want you to not find your purpose
and calling later in life.
It will be too late.
Yes, God can restore the years.
But you missed out on what could have
been.
You know, there’s a saying
that you climb the ladder of
success.
Make sure that the ladder
of success that you climb to the
top is on the right building.
No point climbing a long, tall ladder
all the way up, it’s a long way up,
and then finally you find yourself
on top, but at the wrong building.
Amen.
And the years have passed.
And I feel that you need to know
your calling.
You need to know your
purpose.
And the calling is given,
like the Apostle Paul says: “God
separated me in my mother’s womb to”
“reveal His Son in me.”
And yet the
Apostle Paul, you find him chasing
down believers, thinking that he’s
doing God’s service by killing
Christians or bringing them,
throwing them into the dungeons,
into the prisons.
And he’s thinking
that he’s doing God’s service.
“Because this grace people, they
are just advocating lawlessness.”
Amen?
“We keep the law.
And we need
to stop these people.”
And he doesn’t realise that he was coming
against the Lord.
And when the Lord
appeared to him, the Lord says:
“It’s hard for you to kick against”
“the goads.”
The goads are the
instruments that they use to prod a
bullock from moving on the field.
So he started pursuing, the Apostle
Paul, who was then Saul, thinking
that he’s doing God’s service, but
you can see that all the giftings
are already showing up in the wrong
direction.
Amen.
He grew up at the
feet of Gamaliel, the best Rabbi at
that time, and he wanted to learn
about the Word of God.
Why?
Because
there is a teacher, there’s an
apostle in the making.
Right, but
he was, his ladder was on the wrong
building.
Amen.
He didn’t believe
Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior of
the world, and God had to deal with
him.
So when the Lord met him, the
Lord says: “It’s hard for you to”
“kick against the goads.”
Try your
best, something sharp, a knife,
kick against it.
You will only hurt
yourself.
So a lot of people think
that you know, they hurt the cause
of Christ, they hurt Christ, they
blaspheme and all that.
Or they use
the name of Jesus in vain.
You only
hurt yourself.
The Lord cannot be
hurt.
He can touch a leper, and he
doesn’t catch what the leper has.
The leper catches His healing.
He
cannot be affected or be defiled.
Amen.
So you use the Lord’s name in
vain you see your friends doing
whatever, they are hurting
themselves.
Amen.
Because angels,
they revere that name.
They honour
that name.
So just like the Apostle
Paul, there are people, who are,
they love like, you know, they love
ministering to the kids.
They might
be studying psychology, for kids in
school, right?
Mental health and
things like psychiatry, psychiatric
studies, is because there’s a
calling to join Rock Kids.
Amen.
And you will find your fulfillment
in life, in your calling, in that
purpose for which God birthed you
into this world.
And you know what,
it will not be a struggle, because
if God calls you into the area, God
has equipped you with all the
gifts, the anointings with all the
charismatas that go with it.
Those
who say: “Actually, I don’t want to
serve, you know, as an usher.”
“I don’t like meeting people.”
Listen,
that’s not your calling.
You don’t
have a joy for it.
It’s not easy
for you.
It’s a burden for you.
Some people don’t feel it is a
burden.
Some people are like:
“Welcome to church!
It’s so good to
see all of you!”
That one is
called.
We just need to restrain
him.
We just need to pull him back.
And then we need to pull him back a
bit.
Are y’all with me so far?
But
if you got no joy, whatever it is,
there will be a joy, there will be
a flow.
Amen.
But in the natural,
it might seem the opposite.
But
sometimes your weakness is an
indication of your calling.
Like
for example, I had a stammering,
stuttering problem for the longest
time in school, both elementary as
well as high school, speaking for
our friends overseas.
Alright?
And
as a teenager, do you know how
embarrassing it is in front of the
all the girls and all that.
But
when God called me, and I gave Him
my tongue, my voice, my vocal
cords, and I told Him to use it.
I
was, I was appalled.
I was amazed,
it shocked me that when I stood up,
there wasn’t that stuttering
anymore.
So some of it will come,
some of it is an indication that
you are called for that.
So don’t
just shun it.
As you go along.
But
there must be—if you say: “I got a
voice to sing.”
How many of you
believe they have a voice to sing.
Right?
And they insist on singing
in the pulpit, but the thing is
when they sing, they have a
ministry of clearing the church.
And they really think people have
gone to their corners to pray, no,
they have gone home.
So if God
calls you to be—Amen.
He’ll give
you the voice.
Take my advice.
There’s a book called Ecclesiastes.
And it starts off by saying, the
son of David, King of Jerusalem,
who is that?
Solomon?
So why is
that book there?
That book, when
you read the book, you can get
depressed.
If you don’t know the
purpose for that book, you will get
depressed because it starts off by
saying, I remember when you study
the Bible, the key to the book of
the Bible, what the Bible that book
is all about whether it’s
Ephesians, whether it’s Genesis,
the key is always at the door.
The
first few lines, the first chapter,
the key is there.
Like Genesis,
what is it all about?
“In the
beginning, God created.”
So it’s
all about the book of
Genesis—beginnings, the beginnings,
amen.
So, likewise for
Ecclesiastes, in Hebrew, Kohelet,
which is preacher, a preacher.
But
then it starts off by saying, the
key is “vanity of vanities, all is
vanity.”
What an opening.
That
means in Hebrew “hevel” is vanity.
Empty, empty.
Take it from someone,
this book is there for a purpose.
It is showing you if ever there was
a man who has achieved everything,
whose cup of the world, pleasures,
worldly pleasures, and anything
that you can enjoy in this earth,
this side of heaven.
And he has the
ability because of his position and
he was the most powerful king at
that time.
And his domain was such
that he extended the furthest ever
for Israel, all the way to River
Euphrates in Babylon, and all the
way to Israel.
And his domain, his
power was so vast and his wisdom
was so admired.
People came from
the Far East to come all the way
there.
And then the Bible says that
even the kings of the East look up
to him.
His wisdom was far
exceeding the kings of the East and
the wise men of the East.
Think
about all the wise men of China at
that time, of names that y’all can
just quote, you know, we still read
some of their books and all that.
And even in history, we know about
them.
The wisdom of Solomon exceeds
all that because he asked God for
wisdom.
So think about it.
A man
who has wisdom, who musters all the
languages and in Ecclesiastes, he
says that I tried singing, I tried
music to find fulfilment, there.
Right.
He said that it gave me
nothing.
Vanity.
It is empty.
I
tried—now in terms of fulfilment,
right?
God gives all music and
things like this for us in our
lives to enjoy.
Amen, but not to
find fulfilment in.
So it starts by
saying: “Vanity of vanities.”
Another phrase that appears often
besides vanity of vanities is
“under the sun.”
“Under the sun.”
So remember this, the next book is
Song of Songs, is about the One who
is above the sun.
Once your eyes
and focus, and priorities in life
is on the One, the Son of God who
is above the sun, amen, you will be
fulfilled.
He tried everything.
He
is a man.
You know, he wants
something he says, he says that in
Ecclesiastes, he wants something he
get it.
Amen.
He has 700 wives and
300 concubines that’s 1000 women.
One year, work out the math.
Imagine the number of
mother-in-laws he has.
That power
isn’t the wisdom of God operating.
So he has the wisdom, you will see
that at the same time.
There’s a
there’s a natural wisdom.
And then
he says that as a man.
There’s
never been a man who can try
anything and everything.
He was the
most powerful.
He made his own law.
Even the richest man today is bound
by the laws of the land.
He can’t
just go and you know,
but he had everything and anything.
He tried everything.
He said he
tried horticulture.
He tried
buildings.
Everything came to
emptiness, he said.
So the book is
there for all of us to learn.
Because sometimes, as you know, as
a guy, we start thinking, you know,
I want to achieve this, then I’ll
be fulfilled.
If I make X amount of
dollars in my life, this is my
financial statement, then I’ll
rest, I’ll be happy.
And the Bible
says Jesus shared a parable about
such a person who built—and then
Jesus says.
But that night, He
said: “I will build greater barns.”
He is planning without God in his
mind.
And the Lord says that God
appeared to him and says: “Thou
fool, this night your soul shall be
required of you.”
Ecclesiastes is
basically telling us: “What does it
profit a man if he gains the whole
world, but he loses his soul?”
Amen.
But when he looks at the One,
he says everything is a vexation of
spirit.
But then he’s looking
within himself, he’s looking at all
the earthly pleasures, and don’t
misunderstand many of these earthly
pleasures like food and all that,
all that’s given by God.
Amen.
But
he had access to all of them.
He
looks for fulfilment in them, and
he came up by saying, it’s all
empty.
But in the next book, is the
Song of Songs.
Why is it a Song of
Songs?
Song of Songs means a song
beyond any other song.
All your
love songs that you sing, boy girl
songs.
romantic songs, is not at
that level.
This song is sung above
all songs.
Amen.
Why?
Because this
song about the Son of God, a man
and his love for you.
It is a
romantic and lovely song.
Amen.
It
starts with: “Let him kiss me with
the kisses of his mouth.”
Amen.
So
it is like let me experience His
love, His personal love.
That’s
when you find fulfilment in life.
So don’t make the same mistake.
You
know, by the time you arrive to 60
years old, 60 plus, you say: “Well,
I got my financial statement there
already.”
Amen.
“I can rest.”
And
then you find that your got other
battles, maybe health wise, and now
you’re trying to use all the money
you made to get back the health you
lost.
Vanity of vanities.
Amen.
Enjoy the Lord.
Now!
Amen.
Find out
more about Him.
Now.
He’s the only
one who comes to us saying that: “I
am the water of life.”
He told the
woman at the well: “If you drink
this water, you’ll thirst again.”
And by that, she knew what he meant
because she was looking for love in
all the wrong places.
Amen.
But the
God gave us relationships.
Yes, in
the beginning, the Bible says God
made male and female.
Amen.
And a
man shall leave his father and
mother and the two shall become one
flesh.
God ordained marriage.
So
marriage is of God, right.
But God
is telling us even in your
marriage, and it’s the key to
having a successful marriage is
actually not to look to your
spouse, to fulfill your innermost
desires.
Yes, there are other
desires, you have other ones and
all that.
But look to the Lord, for
only what the Lord can give.
Amen.
Don’t make your your spouse your
God.
I pity those who don’t have
the Lord, because they look at
their spouse, and they draw from
their spouse and the spouse also
draws back from them.
So when they
can’t get it, they hammer them
verbally.
And then they can’t get
it, they hammer back, you know,
because they are drawing, they’re
looking to each other.
Why they can
be so hurt by each other is because
they are looking to each other, for
the fulfilment and when he’s
thwarted that they don’t receive
what they want to receive, they
transfer that to their spouse.
It
is because of her.
I need a new
spouse.
Get a new spouse, guess
what?
The problem is still there.
Amen.
Because you are still there.
Give us the preaching, start
preaching, Pastor.
Wait, let me
mess up first.
I’m standing on your
foot.
I just want to stand there
for a while.
I just want to tell
you.
It’s for your—Church, this is
what studying the Word of God is
all about.
Don’t pursue things just
to make money.
Are you sure that if
you will have the extra million,
okay, another 5 million, now a
million is nothing.
Oh, I want a
billion.
You sure you’d be happy?
You sure?
I mean, that’s a guy who
is more, who is worth more than a
billion to date.
He is probably a
trillionaire.
But maybe more than
that based on, you know, inflation
and all that.
You look at Solomon.
He’s the richest man in history.
If
he’s here today, he’s richer than
Elon Musk.
Plus no restriction.
He
was king, absolute sovereign on the
throne.
By his word, a man can die.
By his word, a man can be saved.
In
those days like Nebuchadnezzar,
sovereign!
You think about it,
people.
The purpose, the calling,
the destiny that God has for you is
a beautiful destiny.
Flow in it.
Can I have a good Amen?
Amen.
Praise the Lord!
So God has given us an armor.
I want to impress upon you
how vitally important—
how it is of utmost importance
that you understand
and have this armor on,
especially when you’re
going through tough times.
You know, bad seasons…
where everything
seems to go wrong,
and I mean physical things as well.
Put on righteousness
as a breastplate.
Show them the breastplate.
Now, the breastplate,
when you put it on,
it protects your vitals,
your heart especially.
And that’s what the devil
attacks all the time.
You know, even when you
do something wrong, right,
it’s obvious.
He attacks you.
He accuses you.
“Look at what you did.”
“Call yourself a Christian…”
Right?
“You’re no use compared
to your friend.”
“Look at so-and-so,
same age as you,”
“but this person is well off.”
“Look at you.
You’re no good.”
“You’re just this and all that.”
And this self-condemnation,
he’s attacking what part of you?
Your heart.
That’s where the conscience is.
He will accuse.
Even when you don’t
do wrong,
he’ll find something to
accuse you of.
‘You haven’t done this enough.”
“Haven’t prayed enough.
Haven’t read your Bible enough.”
Okay, now reading
the Bible is good,
but you see, I like to say
it like this.
People ask me:
“Is reading the Bible
important, Pastor Prince?”
I say: “Yes.”
But you know, you say:
“Isn’t reading the Bible enough?”
You know, no, no.
What I’m trying to say is:
Reading the Bible should
Not make you feel guilty.
It should make you feel hungry.
It’s like: “I’ve been
void of wisdom.”
“All of a sudden, the
things I knew,”
“it’s all blanked out.”
“I need to get back
into the Word.”
“This is my source of wisdom.”
This is truth,
objective truth,
in a world where people,
man, whose breath is
in his nostrils, are trying
to come up with their truth.
Sorry, man.
You are too small,
too young, too short-lived
for me to trust.
It’s not proven yet.
God’s Word is forever,
and the One who wrote it
is all wisdom.
Amen.
So, when your truth
contradicts this truth,
who do you think you are to
sit in judgment of His truth?
The wisest man, when he was
a boy of 12 years old,
where was he found?
Physical attendance.
In the church.
He didn’t stay at home.
The parents didn’t say:
“He’s too young for the Bible.”
“He’s too young.”
The devil doesn’t think
he’s too young for porn.
The devil doesn’t think
he’s too young to smoke.
The devil doesn’t think
he’s too young to be
exposed to the things
of the world.
The devil lets him have it
because he knows,
the younger they get hooked,
you’ve got him hooked for life.
Now, we’ve covered
the breastplate.
Why is that an important weapon?
I’ll show you a prophecy,
by the way.
How many know that
it’s not our righteousness.
The devil will say:
“Are you sure you’ve
done that right?”
“Are you sure?”
Or you remember something that
you did wrong.
That’s it.
Your heart
is no more protected.
No.
It is that gift
of righteousness
because the whole thing
is His armor.
It’s His righteousness.
Therefore, it’s not subjective,
which is “what I do for God.”
It is objective.
“What God has done for me.”
It is all about the finished work
of Jesus Christ.
That’s what the gospel is.
It is the gospel truth.
It is based on an
accomplished fact, fait accompli.
That’s French.
Accomplished fact.
It’s a finished work.
It’s a done deal.
Okay?
So, the breastplate.
Go to Isaiah 54.
Let me show you this.
It says, “In righteousness,
you shall be established.”
Now, I’m going to ask you
one question, okay?
You have been hearing
pastors standing down here
preaching to you that
you are the
righteousness of God
in Christ, right?
I mean, come on.
You’re in this church.
You’re bound to hear that.
Alright?
Am I right?
Now, do you think that God
gave you this gift
just for you to be
glad that you are
righteous before God with
His righteousness?
Do you think so?
Do you think that’s what
God wants for you?
Or do you think that
God wants you to use it
every day, especially when
you fail?
You’ve done something wrong.
You feel so lousy.
And before the devil
attacks your heart
and your conscience,
just remind yourself:
“Thank you, Father.
I am
not my own righteousness.”
“I’m the righteousness of God
in Christ.”
Oh, man.
That’s the time.
That is the time.
Martin Luther says that the
time to really believe that
you are justified by faith
is also the hardest.
In his commentary on Galatians,
he talks about
how it’s the hardest.
Why?
Because when you’re being
tempted, he says
it’s very hard to believe that
you are justified by faith.
To him, he says, it’s very hard.
And yet it is the truth.
Because we are so used to it.
You know, you do wrong,
you are wrong.
We understand.
You do good, then you get good.
We understand.
But you tell us: even though
you’re in the midst of something
that you’re struggling with
on the inside,
some hidden anger, hidden lust,
or whatever it is
that’s coming out, and
you must say:
“I’m the righteousness of God
in Christ.”
“Pastor, I don’t feel it.
I’m not it, Pastor.”
That’s the problem.
You need to study.
You need to pursue righteousness.
Pursue means not try to
become righteous,
but study the gospel-righteousness,
which is a gift.
Okay?
So, let me ask you this.
I didn’t ask:
“Do you know righteousness?”
I’m going to ask you now.
Do you enjoy being
justified by faith every day?
Every single day?
When you fail in your
relationships,
do you enjoy the fact that
you are justified by faith?
Amen.
Everybody is looking for
this, you know?
They might not be able to say it,
but they’re looking for
righteousness, deep down.
That’s why they
don’t want to see God
or hear about God.
Because they want to
convince themselves,
God doesn’t exist or whatever,
because they know that if
there is a God…
“my life is a mess compared to
His standards.”
Because instinctively, they
all know God’s standards,
the Ten Commandments
is written on their conscience.
The Book of Romans tells us
they know they don’t measure up.
But what they don’t really
know is that God
loved them and
God sent His Son
to die on that cross,
so that it is not based
on what they do, it’s based on
what He has done.
Isaiah 32: “The work of
righteousness will be peace.”
Some translations,
like ESV, NIV, says:
“The result of righteousness.”
So, the work of righteousness
means what?
The effects, the result of
righteousness, we want peace.
And what is peace?
It’s not just shalom.
Shalom is not just mental peace.
It is also wholeness,
nothing lacking,
nothing deficient,
complete in every area.
It’s a very beautiful word.
Jesus is the Prince of Shalom,
Sar Shalom.
So, the result of righteousness
will be peace, and
the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever.
If anything, we need in this
life, I’m telling you,
with all that’s going on
in the world and all that’s
going on in our individual world,
in our family world, and all that,
it’s so good to be able to
walk in the midst of
all this peace, quietness,
and assurance.
I think people like this, right,
will not fit the category of
type A temperament.
The doctor says it’s more prone
to heart attack.
I think people like this, right,
peace, quietness, and
assurance forever,
even when things go wrong,
they’re not prone to stress,
the bad kind of stress,
chronic stress, that causes
your BP to go up.
And I think it promotes health.
And today,
even doctors are telling us
there’s a body-mind connection.
They found out that women
with breast cancer,
some of them who
experience a terrible
divorce, alright, and
usually quite a number of
them develop breast cancer.
Now that has, that’s a study
that’s been done already,
And it’s still being done.
I tell you this:
Don’t ever allow anyone
to rob you of your peace.
And that can only happen
if you forgive that man,
you forgive that woman.
Don’t have any bitterness
in your heart.
It’s a hindrance to your
peace,
and your peace
is your health.
Why should you let anyone
take your health away?
They don’t deserve it.
But you deserve it.
Let him go, and you
let yourself go.
And Jesus says, “Go into
peace.”
In other words, this is how
you keep your healing
and become healthier,
even from now on.
Stay in peace.
So, church, be established.
I didn’t ask you whether you
know it.
I said, are you established in it.
During warfare, when things
happen and the devil says:
“You’re just a hypocrite.
Call yourself a Christian.”
That’s the time to say:
“I’m the righteousness of
God in Christ.”
When you feel like some
mere human being,
mere mortal, whose
breath is in his nostrils,
I don’t care his position
at work or whatever…
if he says something against you
and you feel crushed
and all that, just stop and say:
“I’m the righteousness of God.
I’m the child of God.”
“I’m the righteousness
of God in Christ.”
Who is he?
What then does his words
matter compared to the One?
Let me show you what hope,
Bible hope is like.
Bible hope is not like:
“I hope so…
I hope
it will happen.”
“I really really hope it
will happen.”
No, when you have
Bible hope, it will happen!
And God wants you to
raise your hopes.
Bible hope is the word “elpis”
in Greek for hope.
Just remember Elvis,
remove the “v”,
replace it with “p” and
you get “elpis.”
Alright.
Amen.
And it rocks.
And I tell you this:
you will never roll.
Amen.
Your burdens will roll but
you will never roll.
Amen.
Sometimes you shake.
Shake, rattle, and roll.
You can shake but the rock
you are on—never shakes.
Make sure you are planted on
Christ, the solid Rock.
Amen.
So it says, in the definition of “elpis”,
it is the positive, confident,
joyful expectation of
good in your future.
That’s how we are to live.
We are to live life with a joyful,
confident expectation of good.
Now right now, I wonder what’s your
disposition, your mental disposition?
Are you having thoughts of like:
It is going to be a good future.
I see good in my future.
Or are you filled with what
the media is saying?
And what the world—
and some of it is based on
what is happening—there is negative
news around the world.
Are those thoughts
dominating your mind?
Because this is what it looks
like with the absence of hope.
If there is no “elpis”, amen,
you wake up every day depressed.
Alright, you feel morose.
You don’t look forward to your work.
You feel more tired than usual.
Amen.
You look at your marriage,
you look at your family
and you feel tired,
you feel a sense of despondency.
In other words, depressed.
You are depressed.
Depression has different forms,
but it is the lack of hope.
Maybe if you still have a bit of
hope, you have a bit of depression.
No hope?
Complete depression.
At night, you can’t sleep.
You wake
up in between your sleep and then
you start thinking all kinds of
thoughts.
“What’s going to happen tomorrow?”
“What’s gonna happen to
this and that?”
“My children and this and that…”
“I’m now at this age, you know,
what’s going to happen now?”
You know.
“What happens if something
happens to me?”
Or “why do I have this pain?”
“Why is this pain continuing?”
That kind of thing.
So you see bleakness
in your future.
You see all kinds of
darkness in your future.
That’s not good.
There’s an absence of hope.
Where do I find hope,
Pastor Prince?
Here in Romans 15:4.
“Whatever things were written
before were written for our learning,”
“that we through the
patience and comfort of”
“the Scriptures might have” what?
“Hope.”
Every time I read the Bible,
people, I always
leave the Bible feeling
like life is good.
You see, either sin will
keep you from God’s Word
or God’s Word will
keep you from sin.
The same thing, if you find that
you are more depressed,
you are very morose.
When you think about the future,
you are dejected.
You know, it’s only darkness
you see and all that?
Most likely you’re not
spending time in the Word.
Sunday sermon is good,
but it alone is not enough.
Man does not live by
bread alone.
How often do you eat
bread or rice?
Or ramen?
Alright, or chapati?
Every day.
You don’t just come
once a week, right,
and eat your bread.
So Jesus Himself says:
“There’s no way you can live
just by bread alone,”
“but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.”
And all the people said?
Amen.
Okay, let’s talk about
the recession.
Whether you know it or
not, the world is
going into a recession.
Okay?
How do you find hope?
You find hope—
wherever you find that the
Bible says there’s famine—
the Bible talks a
lot about famine.
We are blessed with the
blessing of Abraham.
Because you’re blessed
with the blessing of Abraham.
You see, Abraham,
definitely the person,
the original person we get
the blessing of Abraham from
is the story of Abraham.
If you’re Abraham’s seed,
then are you blessed!
You’re blessed with the
blessing of Abraham because
you are Abraham’s seed.
You are Abraham’s seed in the
sense that Christ came
from the lineage of Abraham
and God says:
“In Christ shall all
the nations be blessed.”
And if you are in Christ,
you are Abraham’s seed.
So look at Abraham.
Did he go through famine?
Yes.
Just because he is blessed
did not not mean
he will be exempted from famine.
No, he went through it!
In fact, God wants us
to go through it
to show the world what He is like!
So that the world can see
that we are not exempted,
but we thrive!
We flourish!
So every time you read
about Abraham and his son, Isaac—
Isaac is even more amazing!
The Bible says: “In the year of
famine, he sowed”
“and he reaped a hundredfold.”
So much so that the
Philistines around him,
the unbelievers envied him!
They were jealous of him!
He had a very healthy marriage.
He was in love with his wife.
Amen.
And all their wives.
Abraham’s wife—Sarah,
Isaac’s wife— Rebecca,
they were all beautiful!
Amen.
If you say: “Oh, that doesn’t
really matter…”
Then why does the Bible
tell us that?
Amen.
In other words, we got
to see our wives as beautiful,
as part of the blessing of Abraham,
amen, enjoying ourselves in Christ!
Praise the Lord.
“God has given us richly
all things to enjoy.”
Praise God.
Amen.
So you see, you find hope.
In looking at
all these patriarchs
and how they lived during famine.
What they did during famine,
seeing that the Lord blessed them.
And you are the seed of Abraham.
You have hope!
And I’ve shared this with you
that the very first way
of studying the Bible is
to see Jesus.
Right?
See who?
Jesus.
Many a times, we look into
the Bible
and I did that, you know,
in my early years, to find myself.
But you can’t find yourself.
Yes, you can find yourself
in the sense that
it’s in a corporate way.
But when you find Jesus,
you find yourself.
Why?
Today you are in Him.
Once you are born again,
you are in Him.
And all that He is righteous,
you are righteous.
That’s why it says:
“Christ is made unto us.”
It is in our benefit to know
who Christ is,
what He has,
what He possesses.
Praise the Lord.
Amen.
We are joint heirs with Christ.
He is made unto us for our profit, you
can say it that way.
He is made unto us
wisdom, righteousness,
holiness, even holiness.
Christ is our holiness.
Joseph Prince is not his own holiness.
Christ is my holiness.
And when I believe that,
it manifests!
In my actions, in my life,
without me being aware of it.
So once you see this, you want to
see Jesus more and more.
You want to see Jesus
more and more, right?
And He is all throughout the Bible.
Like when God told Abraham:
“Take your son, your only son,
the son that you love.”
But wait a minute.
Abraham has two sons
at that time by then.
The older one was Ishmael
through a slave girl.
Right?
And the other one is
his true wife, Sarah.
Isaac.
Now God is saying:
“Take your son, your only son.”
So one thing is God’s eyes
does not recognise
what is born of the flesh.
Only what is born of the Spirit?
Number two, God was
referring to another son.
Only son sounds like
only begotten Son.
“For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son.”
Amen.
So when you read that, ahh,
and you see Jesus.
Right?
Or you can read that and say:
“Wow, God wants me to
give up my Isaac.”
“What’s my Isaac?”
“Your Isaac is that you spend
too much time watching Netflix.”
“Lay your Netflix on the
altar.”
Amen.
“Your Isaac is golf.”
“You are fixated with golf!”
“You watch everything there is
and you try your best”
“to play all the time.”
Amen.
“You neglect your family.
Put it on the altar!”
Now all these are things
that I’m not saying
it’s not things we can learn from,
but they are not
the primary purpose of
that Scripture.
It is to unveil Christ.
So God said to Abraham:
“Take your son,”
“your only son, the son that
you love, and offer him”
“on one of the mountains
I will show you of.”
And it so happens that the mountain
was where Jesus was crucified.
Jerusalem—Mount Moriah.
Do you know what’s the
highest peak of Mount Moriah?
Calvary.
And that’s why just before
Abraham plunged the knife,
God stopped him.
God didn’t want a human sacrifice anyway!
Isaac’s blood is tainted with sin,
as every man is.
God wanted to see whether
He was obedient.
So God stopped him.
God says: “Now I know
that you fear Me or love Me.”
Now I know that you worship Me.”
How?
“Because you have not withheld your
son, your only son.”
And then God
showed him a ram behind.
I believe
Abraham had a vision.
How do I know?
Because Jesus later on says
to the Pharisees:
“Abraham rejoiced to see my day.”
When was that?
Then the Pharisees said:
“You are not yet”
“50 years old and you saw
Abraham?”
They missed the point.
They said: “You saw Abraham?”
The lesser always sees the greater.
No, He says: “Abraham saw Me.”
“Abraham rejoiced to see My day.”
Then He said this:
“Before Abraham was, I AM.”
“Before Abraham was, I AM.”
Amen.
So I believe Abraham turned
and he saw Jesus on the cross.
Now, I’m gonna tell you something
about the ram caught in the thicket.
Why must the ram be caught
by the horns in a thicket?
Number one—it is a mature ram,
it is not a lamb.
It is a mature ram, male lamb.
It was caught by its’ horns
in a thicket.
Why?
Why is that important?
Because to offer God a
sacrificial lamb,
the lamb must be without blemish.
Are you listening?
If the ram is caught by it’s fur,
it will be lacerated.
It will be blemished.
But that lamb was caught
by his horns.
No ram gets caught by his horns.
They are mature.
He doesn’t just plunge
into the thicket.
He did it on purpose.
He wants to be caught.
Jesus laid down His life
voluntarily, without blemish.
The offering was without blemish.
Amen.
So when you read the whole story—
I remember years ago,
when Jessica was about
nearly two years old.
She had a viral infection
many years ago.
When I went back, I cried
because the doctors
gave her an injection, you know,
in the children’s hospital and all that,
and we brought her back
and the doctor said:
“We must bring back
for another test.”
And I say: “I don’t know
what’s the problem.”
I prayed and I did everything
I knew how.
Then God brought me—then
I went to my room,
I needed hope.
And sometimes I would just
open the Bible at random.
So it’s okay to open
your Bible at random,
at certain times.
Just know that, you know,
if you keep on opening it
and it says, you know:
“Judas hung himself.”
And then you open another
one and it says:
“Go and do thou likewise…”
Right, don’t do it.
Okay?
But it’s desperate times.
Desperate times call for
desperate measures.
“God, talk to me.”
And I opened up and it
fell on Genesis 22—
the offering of Abraham.
And I read that.
All of a sudden, I saw how much
God loved His Son.
God was saying:
“I’m going to give up my Son,”
“my only Son, the Son that I
love for you.”
Amen.
And that’s why we can say
to God today:
“Because while there was
a hand that stayed”
“Abraham from killing his son,
there was no hand that”
“stopped God that day.”
“God gave up His Son for you.”
Right?
You will never know
how much God loves you
until you know how much
God loves His Son,
because He gave up
His Son for you.
So I read that, I saw how much
God loves His son
and then all of a sudden,
I was lost in that love story.
In the whole passage and I forgot—
Jessica was still crying next door,
and I forgot about
Jessica’s affliction and all.
I went there to pray and
to search for an answer.
But I got lost in the
story of the Bible.
Now I’m going to show you
how practically seeing Jesus
can bring you practical
results in your life, even healing.
Healing that I’ve been wanting
for my daughter.
So when I saw how much
God loves me and how much
God loves His Son,
He gave up His Son.
Now we can say to God:
“Now I know that you love me,”
“because you have not withheld your
son, your only son from me.”
Amen.
Just like God said to Abraham:
“Now I know that you love Me,”
“you worship Me, because you have not
withheld your son, your only son.”
As far as God is concerned,
it was done.
Amen.
So when I saw that,
I started crying.
The love is so beautiful.
No love drama you watch
can come close.
Amen.
You see, the reason you’re married
is to demonstrate Jesus loving His Church.
“I speak a mystery.”
It’s about Christ and the
Church.
That’s why God gave you
marriage.
“Oh, marriage is like our—Jesus and
the Church is like our marriage.”
No, your marriage is like that.
You came after.
So Abraham’s story is about Father
and Son.
The first love and the word “love”
was first mentioned in the Bible
there in Genesis 22.
It is the Father’s love for the Son.
Second time is two chapters
after Genesis, chapter 22.
It is chapter 24.
It is the story of the bride
and the husband.
The bride and the husband, right,
and the word “love” is used.
That’s Jesus and His bride.
Romance.
That’s man and woman love.
Amen.
So Chapter 24 is about the Holy
Spirit, the unnamed servant
looking for a bride for the Master’s son.
And this has happened for
2000 years already.
The Holy Spirit is still
forming a bride for the Son
who is soon going to come
and take His bride home.
Amen.
It is like the Jewish custom.
The Jewish custom
didn’t come after God.
God instituted the Jewish
custom to demonstrate
His style of doing things.
In those days, once you are
betrothed, you are engaged,
you go build your house
while waiting for the time.
The Father will decide
when you get married.
That means you’re about to
get married but you don’t know when.
If the Father says:
“Today is the day, go get your bride.”
The guy will go and get his bride.
The bride might not be ready
but the bride might roughly know
it is around this time,
but she’s not ready
but she’s ready every night.
Amen.
And that’s what we are
doing right now.
We are waiting for that
to happen.
Very much like a Jewish wedding.
Anytime He will call for us.
Amen.
Whoo!
And it’s just the introduction.
So as I wept, Jessica
stopped crying next door.
And she was completely healed.
She fell asleep the next day,
she was completely well!
Just seeing Jesus.
Instead of being engrossed
in my daughter.
I was very concerned for her.
I was now pleasantly
distracted by the Lord,
to be Christ occupied,
focused on Christ.
And all of a sudden,
she got healed!
The very thing I’m focused on—
praying, demanding, commanding
healing and all that came
supernaturally natural
when I focus on Jesus.
I don’t care how bad it gets.
God will take care of you.
Just because you are His own.
Can I have a good Amen?
Introducing the new
Joseph Prince app.
We’ve designed the new app
with one thought in mind:
to make connecting
with the Lord daily,
simple and easy for you.
Through the guided
daily experience,
spend time in His presence
and build a habit of
starting your day right
with the word of God.
“Let’s pray this short
prayer together.”
“Heavenly Father, thank you”
“for your deep love
and detailed care for me.”
“I’m grateful that you
value me so much”
“and that you know
even before I ask,”
“what I really need.”
“Help me to remember
that no problem or need”
“is too small for you
to handle.”
“I bring all my cares to you”
“knowing that you are
attentive to”
“every little detail
of my life.”
“In Jesus’ name, amen.”
“Today everyone is
looking to”
“amuse themselves.”
“They are engaged
in social media”
“because there’s a
constant craving”
“to be amused.”
“Musing is opposite
from amusement.”
“Amuse means you are
silently contemplating,”
“meditating.”
“So shut down
everything else”
“that will distract you.”
“Spend time, bring up
that Word of Scripture,”
“meditate on it and
the Word of God”
“will release health, life,
prosperity into your life.”
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Perhaps right now you are
facing a time where
whatever you’re doing
is not working anymore.
In your work life or
in your profession,
or wherever you are!
In your studies.
It’s like, you know, it’s like
you’re not productive
it always comes up empty.
If you’re in that place,
like the disciples toiling
all night catching nothing.
Experienced.
They know where to be at.
They know the seasons
of that year.
Alright?
And they know where
the best fishes are.
I mean, it’s not a big lake,
actually, if you think about it,
compared to Lake Geneva and all that.
And yet, all night,
they caught nothing.
And Jesus came on the scene.
Jesus said: “Cast your net
on the right side.”
Does it matter if all night
they catch nothing, whether
you cast on the right side,
or the left side.
But because Jesus said it,
they did it.
“Whatever He says to you, do it.”
And in the wedding,
the water turned into wine.
And over here, they caught
so much fish that—
John was the first one.
The disciple whom Jesus loved.
He practiced Jesus’ love
for him always.
And he says.
So when you practice
Jesus’ love for you,
you are the one with
quick discernment.
And he says: “It is the Lord!”
Then Peter jumped into
the water to go to Jesus.
Amen.
You see?
You see the priority?
Jesus first, not the fishes.
Not the profitability in
your company.
Amen.
But was there profitability?
Was there success?
Earthly success?
There was!
Jesus didn’t come by and say:
“Guys, you all didn’t catch anything?”
“No?
Good.
Now you all
learn the lesson, right?”
“Sometimes, you know, you
go through emptiness.”
No!
They all knew, you know
the Jewish people back then,
the Bible is very clear.
They know what is a blessing.
They know what is not a blessing.
When God says: “I will bless
your grain, wine, and oil.”
They knew that is blessing.
Today, if we preach that, they
will say: “prosperity gospel.”
When God blesses your
grain, wine, and oil.
Now I’m against, like I said,
materialism and loving money.
But I think the truth is somewhere
in between where people
need to know that
God wants to supply them.
Amen.
And supply them with
more than enough
so that they can be a blessing.
Amen.
I don’t believe in people that
talk about giving to them.
And then “give to me and then
God will multiply things to you.”
I mean, that’s a bit uh.
These are things that turn people off.
But don’t throw away the baby
with the dirty bathwater!
Discern that there’s a truth.
Amen.
If you don’t believe in prosperity,
that God prospers His people…
It’s not a priority.
But even in blessing this,
Jesus gave them a net.
And this time round, it didn’t break,
but a net full of fishes!
The Bible says large fishes.
And this time, the net didn’t break.
The first instance, Jesus introduced
Himself right to the fisherman,
the net broke because He says:
“Drop down your NETS.”
He wanted them to believe big,
expect more!
He says, Jesus said:
“Let down your NETS.”
NETS is plural!
Peter says: “I’ll let down the net.”
No wonder it broke.
There’s more supply than your need!
There is more health and
healing than there is sickness!
There is more forgiveness of sins and grace
than there is sin in your life.
Now preaching like that,
where you put your faith in God
and you boast about God,
and who He is, brings accusation.
This is the gospel of grace,
where you have more faith
in the grace of God than in sin.
I’m not saying it doesn’t exist.
I’m not saying needs don’t exist.
I’m not saying poverty doesn’t exist.
I’m saying we look at God and
we look at His supply and His fullness.
The land you come from,
the resources that you have,
is the means by which you can
bless the country that you’re in.
If you are sent as an ambassador
to a country, you don’t
live off the riches of that country.
You don’t live off the resources
of that country.
The country can be poor, but
you can be well supplied,
because you are not sponsored
by that country.
You are sponsored by the
country that sends you.
Amen.
And you are there to do good.
Amen.
Supposed to.
Amen.
But the doing good is authorised,
not by the country that you’re in,
but by the country that
authorised you, that sent you.
Can I have a good amen?
So knowing that, we go into
a world that is crying, sighing,
dying, you know, sick, lonely, and
we bring the supply of heaven.
Amen.
And that’s why Jesus
says things like,
when He appears on the scene,
He says: “The kingdom of God is here.”
“And the sick are healed,
the blind see, the dumb speak,”
“and those who are lame jump up
for joy, leaping and praising God.”
Amen.
The kingdom of God is here.
So Jesus, His feet was planted
in Galilee, or in Jerusalem
at that time when He said that.
But He’s in heaven.
Wherever he is, heaven is there.
And if you have Christ,
heaven is all around you.
Amen.
Let me show you this verse.
It says, In John Chapter one,
“and of His fullness”
“we’ve all received,
and grace for grace.”
Just to let you know that
His here is our Lord Jesus.
“Of His fullness.”
“Of His fullness.”
“Out of his fullness.”
“In His fullness, we have
received, and grace for grace.”
And the word “for” is “anti.”
Alright?
“grace for grace,
grace upon grace”
“upon grace upon grace.”
Because “anti” can also be
“in place of.”
In place of grace that
has been used,
another grace comes.
When the grace has been used,
another grace comes.
I was meditating on this
many years ago,
and God gave me this
illustration of this wave.
Amen.
Grace.
Once that grace is used,
another grace comes.
Grace upon grace,
upon grace.
And you know where you are?
You are where Pastor Matthews is.
By the way, do you see
Pastor Matthews down there.
He looks like Elijah the prophet.
Amen.
He is contemplating whether to
open up the sea or not.
Amen, he’s contemplating really hard.
And I missed the illustration
I was gonna tell you.
Anyway, what, where you are
when the wave was coming in,
do you know where you are?
You are there, right under it.
So one grace is used, comes on you,
God doesn’t run short.
Amen.
He is not impoverished,
another grace comes.
That’s what it means:
“Of His fullness have we all
received and grace for grace.”
There’s a grace for everything.
Maybe you don’t feel it now.
You say: “I don’t think I want
to have kids and all that.”
“My friends and all that,
they cannot go on holidays”
“as freely as they want to.
I don’t want to have kids.”
Listen.
God will give you the grace.
What you don’t have right now,
God will give you the grace.
Amen.
“I don’t feel like getting married.”
God will give you the grace
in every stage of your life.
Grace will come.
Now all of a sudden, after
you enjoyed that grace:
“I wish I had kids earlier.
I wish I had married earlier.”
Amen.
“I wish I had learned
about grace earlier.”
You look back, there will be grace
for every level of your life,
every stage of your life.
Are you with me so far?
Now watch this.
The next verse says:
“For the law was given
through Moses but”
“grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ.”
Now I always say that
this one of my favorite
verses in the Bible.
“The law was given.”
And you can give from a?
(Distance)
You all know me, y’all
must preach after me already.
The law was given.
And given can be what?
“I give you a message.”
You will receive it!
I can give you, but it can be
from a distance.
But grace and truth came.
At this point, I must step down.
One step.
Grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ.
Grace and truth came.
“Came” means what?
It’s personal, amen.
What is interesting is that ever since
I started preaching this,
there are people who will
try to dispute this.
And instead of one side
the law was given by Moses,
the other side is grace
and truth by Jesus Christ.
They say that: “Oh, you see
grace and truth is not just grace.”
“It is truth.”
They divide grace and truth.
My friend what God
has joined together,
let no man put asunder.
Amen.
Grace and Truth is on one side,
it came through Jesus Christ.
Alright, the law was given by Moses.
The division is not between
grace and truth.
It is between the law on one side,
and grace and truth.
The law says: “Do do do.”
Grace says:
“Done, accomplished.”
Find out about it, walk in it,
flow in it.
Even salvation is done.
Amen.
Learn about it.
Receive it.
Amen.
And that goes for many
other blessings.
In fact, people who receive
and receive are the ones
who do so much!
Like “such as I have
I give you.”
“In the name of Jesus Christ,
rise up and walk.”
Unless you have received,
you got nothing to give.
This is what abiding means.
Except you are abiding
in the vine, right,
you can do nothing.
The branch cannot produce.
Worst, if the branch struggles
and struggles and struggles?
A little grape comes out.
I don’t even think so.
The more you struggle,
the sap is squeezed.
You relax.
You’re not the supplier.
You’re not the source.
Jesus is.
The more you rest,
the more He flows.
The supply flows.
We are asking the mysteries
of how the golden calf came
about, because if you know
this–listen, if you know
this, you will find the
answer to your health, to
your healing, to whatever
you want to receive from
God.
Exodus 32.
“When the people
saw that Moses delayed
coming down from the
mountain–” What was he up
the mountain for?
To take
the–to bring down the Ten
Commandments.
Am I right?
Right?
On the two tablets of
stone, right?
Moses went up
and said, “God, the people
are sick.”
God says, “Take
these two tablets,” okay?
So, “The people gathered
together to Aaron, and said
to Aaron, ‘Come, make us
gods that shall go before
us; for as for this Moses,
the man who brought us up
out of the land of Egypt, we
do not know what has become
of him.'”
“And Aaron said to them,
‘Break off the golden
earrings which are in the
ears of your wives, your
sons, and your daughters,
and bring them to me.’
So
all the people broke off the
golden earrings which were
in their ears, and brought
them to Aaron.”
Now, in
those days they wear golden
earrings, okay?
Remember
Rebecca, the story of
Rebecca I shared?
All right,
the moment after she watered
all the camels of Abraham’s
servant, Abraham’s servant
brought out a golden
earring.
Now, your Bible in
the New King James–we all
use the New King James here
in our church, and it says
golden nose ring.
So it can
either be a nose ring or it
can be an earring, all
right?
It can be both, all
right?
So, but I tend to
incline more towards
earring.
And for sure, this one is
earring in the ear, why?
Because it says, “Break off
the golden earring which are
in the ears,” all right?
So
it cannot be a nose ring.
So, and anyway, in
Genesis–and the next one,
it says, “So all the people
broke off the golden
earrings which were in their
ears,” emphasis, right?
“Break off the golden
earring.”
So the next
verse says, verse 4, drop
down, “And he received the
gold from their hand, and he
fashioned it with an
engraving tool, and made a
molded calf.
They said,
‘This is your god, O Israel,
that brought you out of the
land of Egypt!'”
So the
golden calf, we think about,
oh, it’s an idol.
It’s an
idol, okay?
It’s a golden
idol.
It’s more than that.
What does it mean today?
What is a golden calf today?
What is a golden calf?
Does that mean you cannot be
creative with art and all
that?
No, now observe, they
made a golden– “He received
from their hand.”
In
Stephen, the martyr’s
accounts, Stephen the
martyr, when he preached his
famous sermon, look at it,
he says this, “Saying to
Aaron, ‘Make us god–‘”
Okay, referring to the same
incident, “And they made a
calf in those days, offered
sacrifices to the idol, and
rejoiced in,” what?
“In the
works of their own hands.”
They rejoiced in the works
of their own hands.
That is the problem.
Today,
that’s the same problem.
Men
rejoice in their effort,
their strength, their
smarts, their qualification.
I’m a self-made millionaire,
all right?
Instead of
trusting God, giving God the
glory, looking at God as the
strength, you know, of their
life, they’re looking at
their own self as the
strength.
If it’s your
strength, it has an expiry
date.
You will fall flat on
your face.
Even a young
man, that’s why they
compare, “The young man
shall fall.
Young men shall
run and they will fall.
Those that wait upon the
Lord, they shall run and not
be weary.”
So God is saying
don’t trust your own
strength.
So the law is all
about what is natural and
what is naturally strong for
man.
You shall not, you
shall not.
Use your own
strength.
And the very
strength leads you to sin.
Nothing wrong with the law,
but combined with your
flesh, it brings you to sin.
Read all about it in Romans
7, all right?
Paul had this
experience.
So let’s go back to it
again.
So if that is so, if
that is so–we’re talking
about the key to receiving
even healing and health.
If
that is so, what is this
golden earring the devil
wants them to be free from?
Take away the golden
earring.
Remove the golden
earring.
“Earring” sounds
like what?
Very good.
This
church is so smart, Amen?
“Earring” sounds like.
Children?
“Hearing.”
Golden
star.
Golden earring.
The
word “gold” is divine, so
something divine there.
Are
you listening, people?
So
they sacrificed their golden
earring for the works of
their hands.
Now, watch this.
Go back to
the story.
I’m gonna show
you the interlinear now,
okay?
Look at the golden
earring one more time.
“They
break off all the people.”
Now, this is the form
that–reading from right to
left, Hebrew.
“They broke
off all the people the
earrings of gold which were
in their ears, and brought
them unto Aaron.”
Okay,
that’s how it reads.
Notice
that before the earrings is
the word “Aleph-Tav”.
For
those who know, it’s
referring to Jesus Christ.
That’s why the devil doesn’t
want them to have the golden
earring.
It’s the hearing of
the Word of Christ.
It’s not
just hearing any word, it’s
hearing the Word of Christ.
So back to Galatians 3.
How
many want the Holy Spirit?
And here it says, “Did you
receive the Spirit by the
works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith?”
Is it by
your effort, by doing this
religious work, or by doing
that work, or even good
work?
No, you don’t receive
the Holy Spirit like that.
You receive the Holy Spirit
by the hearing of faith, and
the hearing of faith is
hearing about Jesus Christ,
okay?
Hello?
Romans 10:17, real quick.
Romans 10:17, “Faith comes
from hearing, and hearing
through the word of Christ.”
Now, some people say the
Word of Christ means when
Christ speaks to you.
Yeah,
of course faith will come
when Christ speaks to you,
and Christ still speaks to
us today, Amen, but this is
not what it’s referring to.
It’s referring to–the
context there refers to a
preacher, preaching about
Christ.
NIV brings it out.
“So the message that is
heard, and the message is
heard through the word about
Christ.”
That’s how faith
comes.
You make sure that whoever
you’re listening to,
whatever message you are
listening to, the social
media today is full of
sermons as well, make sure
it’s about Christ, the
centrality of Christ.
That’s
how you have the hearing of
faith operating in your
life.
And when the hearing
of faith is there, what’s
gonna happen?
You will
receive the Holy Spirit.
Then he asks this question,
“Have you suffered so many
things in vain– if indeed
it was in vain?”
Next verse,
“Therefore He,” God, “who
supplies the Spirit.”
And
the word there is constant
supplying.
“God who supplies
the Spirit to you and works
miracles.”
And the word
“works” is also constant,
constantly working miracles.
You want God to constantly
work miracles in your
family, in your life, in
your workplace, in your
church?
Okay, that’s what
it’s all about.
Why are we
missing this?
Because it
tells you, “Does God do it
by the works of the law,” by
the work of our labour, our
effort at law-keeping?
Even
though it appears so nice to
people outside, all right,
but it’s all a mirage
because you know it’s gonna
lead you into sin.
“Or by
the hearing of faith?”
Which
one?
I submit to you that’s the
reason you don’t see
miracles often in people’s
lives, in churches, and all
that.
It’s because of this.
They are still under the
law.
But they will say,
“We’re not purely under the
law.”
I agree.
They’re under
the same Galatianism
problem, all right?
They
embrace grace but they still
keep the law.
It’s worse.
You have enough grace to
deceive yourself to think
that you are under grace,
but you put in the law to
nullify the effect because
now you bring in grace and
you put it in the old
wineskin.
You will lose both
Jesus said.
This is Jesus’ ministry, and
I’ll close with this verse.
“Jesus went about all
Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues, preaching.”
Preaching, say, “Preaching”.
“The gospel of the kingdom,
and healing.”
Say,
“Healing”.
“All kinds of
sickness and all kinds of
disease among the people.”
So the people came to hear,
so Jesus preached.
They came
to hear and to be healed.
Remember this.
Always
remember this.
the norm for the believer is
to hear first, and then
faith comes, and then you
receive.
If you’re not
receiving, ask yourself, are
you hearing the Word of
Christ?
Make sure it’s the
Word about Christ.
That
woman with the issue of
blood, when she heard about
Jesus, she came in the press
behind, Amen?
I’m gonna read
to you a real quick
testimony and then I will
dismiss you, okay?
All
right?
All right, a sister
from Singapore.
This just
came a few days ago.
“I was
born with a defective left
eye, with scars across my
retina.
Hence for 55 years,
I could only rely on my
right eye to see.
My only
good eye, however–my only
good eye, however, is highly
myopic and I had also
suffered from acute glaucoma
in that same eye once.”
My
eye is seeing something
else, okay.
“Same eye
once.
My eye doctor fears
that over time, due to
severe myopia, my retina
which has become stretched
and thin will develop scars
too, turn myopic
degeneration, which could
lead to blindness.
I work in
an international
construction company and my
job requires me to do
close-up work on the
computer and read
construction drawings.
Recently, I suddenly could
not see clearly with my
right eye.
There was a
diagonal patch across my
visual field and my vision
became so bad that I could
not read text on my phone
and laptop, and I could not
walk down the stairs because
I could not see well.
I had to inform two of my
colleagues of my situation
so they could help me, as I
was seeing very little and
my eye was in pain.
During
this very tough season, I
was listening.”
I was
listening.
I was listening.
Are you listening?
“During
this very tough season, I
was listening to Pastor
Prince’s various sermons on
Gospel Partner.
In one of
his sermons in 2002, he
mentioned the higher way is
to believe–” the higher way
to healing, “is to believe
what God said in His Word,
just like the centurion who
approached Jesus for the
healing of his servant.
God also led me to meditate
on His promises.
Faith arose
in my heart as I kept
hearing and hearing the Word
of Christ.”
You see, I saw
this testimony only last
night.
I prepared my sermon
already, but you see how it
comes together?
Even the
Word of Christ.
“Faith arose
in my heart as I kept
hearing and hearing the Word
of Christ.
A couple of weeks
later during one of the
Sunday services, Pastor
Prince prayed for people
with eye conditions and I
received the healing for
myself.
The next day, I
realised the diagonal patch
across my visual field was
gone.
I could–” Listen,
hold your claps.
This is the
last one already.
“I could
read the text on my devices
and even type out this
testimony to testify of the
amazing miracle of God in my
life.
May all praise and
glory be to our Heavenly
Father.”
Praise the Lord!
I just wanna drop one thing
in your heart about kairos,
okay, about right time,
right place this year.
The
thing that He wants us to
do, and this is what He said
to me very strongly, He
says, “My people need to
learn to pray and get more
into prayer.”
Now, the
moment I say that, some of
you are saying, “Well, you
know, it’s very hard.
I
don’t have the time,” and
all that because you have
this religious idea about
prayer.
Your idea of prayer
is that one hour of prayer
or two hours prayer like you
hear some men of God, they
kneel down there, they pray
for one, two hours, and
three hours, or whatever it
is.
“And there’s no way I
can do that, Pastor Prince.”
No, I’m talking about
communication with God.
One
of the most outstanding
things that the disciples
saw about Jesus is that at
any time, He will talk to
God.
One time, they were
persecuting Him and all
the–He was talking about
the cities that rejected
Him: Chorazin, Bethsaida,
Capernaum, and all that.
At
that moment, He lifted up
His eyes and He says,
“Father, I thank You that
You’ve hidden these things
from the wise and the
prudent of the world, but
You have revealed them unto
babes.”
He praised His
Father.
Then He turned to
His disciples and said,
“Come unto Me, all you that
labour and are heavy-laden.”
While He was being
persecuted, while He was
being rejected by all these
towns and villages, Amen, He
was rejoicing, talking to
the Father, and then looking
at the disciples and says,
“Come unto Me, all you that
labour.”
Ooh, the beauty of
the man, Amen?
Amen?
Some of
us would be crushed.
I’ll
pray to you another time,
Lord.
Now I’m just crushed.
Right?
And there’s so–very
freely He can talk to God
anytime, even when you are
driving.
But Pastor, I must
close my eyes.
Don’t!
So all
these religious ideas come
into your mind, Amen, and I
wanna say this.
Okay, listen
carefully, especially for
this church and those that
are following this ministry.
Do you know that you can
even allow the knowledge of
grace to stop you from
praying, because you will
say, “It’s by grace, lah.
Grace will happen.
Grace–”
you know?
No, no, no.
Grace
is the idea you cannot, but
the Lord can.
It is actually
conscious weakness.
You will
always–your place of
strength before God.
Your
place of power before God is
conscious weakness, but
don’t stop there.
If you go,
“Oh, I’m so weak.
I’m so
weak.
I’m so weak,” no,
don’t stop there, but you
need to know or else you’ll
be going around the mountain
to learn the lesson that you
are weak.
You will find that
you’ll fall, and fall, and
fall until you learn that
you are weak.
People think
they are weak but they’re
not weak enough.
That’s why
you cannot save a drowning
person too fast.
You cannot
jump into the water too
fast, why?
As long as he
still has strength, he will
pull you down.
You must wait
until he’s weak, he cannot
help himself, he cannot save
himself.
Then you can save
him.
We are still quite
strong.
We think we are
weak, but we are not.
But
we’re actually weak.
That’s
why all these daily
irritations, God allows them
to come in so that you want
to be more like Jesus.
One
of the best things you can
do when you’re arguing with
your spouse and you’re
impatient, and all you can
think is, “It’s her fault,
his fault, her fault, his
fault, her fault, his
fault,” is to stop and judge
that irritability in you and
tell yourself, “I judge that
irritableness.
Joseph
Prince, why are you so
irritable?”
Don’t talk about
the rightness of the
situation.
Leave that for
awhile.
Why are you so
irritated?
Why are you so
vexed?
Why are you so angry?
I don’t want that in me.
I
judge that.
And then you
realise that has been taken
at the cross, Amen.
So
conscious weakness on one
hand and then dependence on
God, on Christ.
These are
the twin, these are, it’s a
power twin for victory in
your life.
So we see the
first occurrence of right
time, right place, Genesis
24, is this, when the
servant at the well.
He
prayed this prayer, “Then he
said, ‘O Lord God of my
master Abraham, please give
me success this day, and
show kindness to my master
Abraham.'”
So we all know
the story, right?
You heard
the story for the past few
messages that we have
shared.
The servant doesn’t
know which girl.
The village
has a lot of young girls and
they’re all coming out at
the same time to take water.
It was the responsibility of
these young girls to take
water for the family, okay?
Usually they have two
timings: early in the
morning and in the evening,
all right, when it’s less
hot, and they will all come.
So at the time in the
evening, the Bible says,
Abraham’s servant who was
sent on an assignment by
Abraham to look for a bride
for Isaac, all right, he sat
at the well.
He doesn’t know
which girl, right?
So he
prayed, “O God, give me
success.”
So the word there
is, the word there in the
Hebrew is “qarah.”
Qarah,
all right, which is right
happening.
Right happening,
good happening, fortunate
happening.
The world calls
it serendipity, all right?
You happen to chance upon a
favourable opportunity,
Amen?
That is what God,
qarah is all about, right
time, right place.
That’s
qarah happening to you.
So
he prayed for qarah, “Give
me a right time.”
Do you
know God actually stopped,
for some reason, God
actually stopped all the
young ladies from coming
out?
That while he was
praying, he didn’t finish
his prayer yet, he told God,
“The woman that will come
and offer me water, the
young woman that come and
offer me water”.
He thought
that there’ll be many, many
women, lah, come to draw
water, “but the one that
comes, Lord, the one that
comes and offer me water,
and not only me water, but
all my ten camels.”
And one
camel, 30 gallons minimum
water.
Can you imagine?
“She
will also give them water.
She is the one that you have
appointed.”
He made it hard.
But while he was still
speaking, before he finished
speaking, the Bible says,
before he finished speaking,
show them verse 15, “And it
happened, before he had
finished speaking, that
behold, Rebekah, appeared.”
So I want you to know
something.
We learned that
prayer is mentioned with
qarah.
Prayer is mentioned.
And it’s not a long prayer.
If you count the length of
the prayer, some of the most
powerful prayer is a short
prayer.
Yes, we have
instances of Jesus praying
through the night, Amen.
We
have instances of certain
protracted prayer in the
disciples lives.
We have
corporate prayer, they all
pray together.
But most of
the prayers you see are
short prayers.
You consider
the prayer that Jesus taught
His disciples, “Our Father
who art in heaven.”
You
count with a stopwatch, it’s
fast.
But this idea,
religious idea, you gotta
spend hours in prayer is not
from God.
At one time, we
made a law out of one-hour
prayer.
I still remember
that.
I tell you, I put a
clock there.
I started
praying.
And I thought,
“Whoa, one hour already.”
I
look at my clock, ten
minutes.
But when you don’t
do that, when we’re talking
to our good friend, you
know, in a cafe, we sit down
there, and then we always
say what?
“Whoa, the hour
just fly.”
How do you think
God feels, right?
You know,
it’s the, prayer is
conversation with God, Amen.
So you don’t just dream, “By
grace, I’ll have success,
lah.
You know, by grace,
I’ll have success.”
Did you
pray?
I said, “Did you
pray?”
All right, I’m gonna
talk to my son afterwards.
You know, he did something
just now.
Did you pray that
God would give you wisdom,
favour with him, that your
words will go deep?
Did you
pray?
It’s a small thing to
pray.
God is telling us this
is conscious weakness, that
“I cannot convince him, but
You, only You can.”
This is
conscious weakness and
dependence on God,
dependence through Christ,
that you will get through to
him, Amen.
Oh yeah, I gotta
make an important decision,
you know?
In fact, I
confronted with a number of
important decisions to make,
you know, for someone else
even.
I gotta ask God, “God,
give me wisdom.”
But if I
think that I’m smart, “Oh
yeah, let’s look at the pros
and the cons, and the pros
and the cons.”
All the pros
and cons cannot put you at
the right time at the right
place.
We need to depend on
the Lord.
So the amazing
thing is that before he had
finished speaking, Rebekah
appeared.
So even when you
are praying, God has
answered.
So God is outside
the time zone.
He sends the
answer that you’re gonna
pray later on, on this
earth.
He sends the answer
before you pray because He
knows you will pray.
What do
you think?
Rebekah was
cooking, “Yeah, put in some
turmeric, put in some chili
powder.
Wow, it’s a very
spicy food.”
All right,
she’s cooking and all that,
“Ah” no watch.
“I have to go
in ten minutes time.”
Look
at the sun dial.
“Ten
minutes time, I have to go
and take water and all
that.”
Poof, she
disappeared.
Then poof, she
appeared in front of the
well and that elderly man is
down there praying.
Do you
think it happened like that?
No, God already sent the
answer, put the desire in
her heart, all right, and
put the desires in all the
other women, young women’s
heart, all right, “No, I
have to do other things.
I’m
very busy.
I cannot go to
the well today.
My brother
can go to the well.”
You
know, something like that
happened, so God was
answering prayer before it
was prayed.
So the prayer
that He put in your heart to
pray, you think you are
praying, but actually He put
it in your heart to pray the
prayer that He wants you to
pray, and the answer is on
the way.
There’s a beautiful
promise here in Isaiah 65,
“It shall come to pass that
before they call, I will
answer; while they are still
speaking.”
And that’s what
happened to Abraham’s
servant.
“While they are
still speaking, I will
answer.”
You know what Jesus
said when He taught on
prayer?
“Whatever things you
desire when you pray,
believe that you receive
them and you shall have
them.”
Wait, wait, wait,
when do you believe you
receive them?
When you see
it happen?
When you touch
it, you can feel it in your
body, you can see it
outside?
When the
manifestation comes?
When?
“When you stand praying,”
Mark 11, verse 24.
“When you
stand praying, believe”
“What things so ever you
desire when you pray,
believe you receive them and
you shall have them.”
So
when do you believe you
receive?
While you’re
praying.
It’s this, “While
they are still speaking, I
will answer.”
I believe
that when I pray, God
answers.
You gotta have that
posture, that you know, you
are redeemed by the blood of
Jesus.
Again, all these
religious thoughts and all
that, you know, you gotta
find out your sin before you
can talk to God, before God
can hear you and all that,
you know, and your
unconfessed sin and all
that.
That’s why I’m telling
you this kind of
consciousness can rob you of
a prayer life.
You gotta
know that you’re forgiven of
all your sins, Amen, and
thank God for that.
True
confession is homologia, to
say the same thing with God
about our sins.
What did God
say about our sins in the
new covenant?
They are all
forgiven by Jesus’ blood.
Confess that.
The more you
believe that, you won’t fall
into sin, I’m telling you,
because you won’t be
sin-conscious.
Before you
fall into sin, you are
sin-conscious, okay?
Pray,
God hears your prayer.
You’re a child of God, pray.
Every situation, pray.
Be
like every day, it’s not so
much hours of prayer, it is
like the whole day, any
situation comes up, you are
praying.
You find you are
lacking or something, pray.
“That pain I felt in my
body, Pastor Prince, can you
pray for me?”
Did you pray?
“I fell late this morning,
got no time to pray.”
You
got no time to pray?
You got
time to eat or not?
You got
time to go toilet or not?
When you feel the urge, you
do it, right?
Right?
Prayer
is so simple.
God is so
close.
Another thing that,
you gotta demolish all these
religious thoughts, “You
must get close to God.
You
must get close to God.”
You
are so close already.
You
are in Christ.
You know
where are you or not?
Seated
in Christ at the Father’s
right hand.
So sometimes in
times past when I pray,
“Father,” like God is so far
away, “Father!
Father in
heaven!” and I’m trying to
psych myself into a place
where I think that I’m close
to God, it never works.
The
more I try to be close to
God, the more further I am,
because why?
It’s a negation
of the truth, and the Spirit
of truth cannot bear witness
with a lie when He has, when
He has, let me put it this
way.
When I’m already in
Christ, I’m so close to God,
the Holy Spirit bears
witness with that truth.
If I act like I’m so far
away, Amen, there’s nothing
for the Holy Spirit to bear
witness.
It’s a lie.
So when
you act like God doesn’t
hear your prayer, God is so
far away, or I didn’t go to
church for a few days or
whatever, Amen, then repent
of that and just come back.
And thank God that he’s
forgiven you of that sin of
not attending physically.
Okay, I’m just joking, all
right?
Ha ha ha, you know I
gotta slide it in all the
time, okay?
I just don’t
want you to miss the
corporate anointing.
Amen,
people?
Pray, Amen, and
know that while you are
praying, not after, while
you are praying, God is
hearing.
Today, I want to share
with you about delay.
If you are asking:
“Pastor, I have been praying,”
“I’ve been praying for this,
and I know God wants me”
“to have this,
it’s in His Word.”
“You have preached on it Pastor,
and I’ve seen it in the Word,”
“but where is the manifestation?”
David sometimes says:
“Has God forgotten His mercies?”
“Why is He so slow?
Have You forgotten me?”
Well Abraham felt
that way too, isn’t it?
Abraham, when God called
Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans,
which is the present day
Babylon, Iraq.
When God called him out.
“I’ll show you a land.”
God says: “And I’ll
make of you,” What?
“A great nation.”
How can you have a nation
without posterity, right?
So God promised him,
from that day,
God promised him that
God will make him a great nation
when he didn’t even
have a baby,
and Sarah had always been
barren, even in her young age.
And now she is 65,
at that time,
and he was 75 when he departed
to go to the land of Canaan.
Well, the Lord told him—
he wasn’t perfect, was he?
But God called him.
And think about it.
If you were in Abraham’s shoes,
you waited year after year
for your manifestation.
God Almighty appeared to you!
In fact, Stephen, in his address
in Acts 7, in the book of Acts,
he said this: “The God of glory.”
I like that.
“The God of glory appeared
to our father Abraham.”
When God appeared,
God appeared to Abraham
as the God of glory.
I’m sure there was an amazing
light infusing out of Him,
His being, His presence,
when God said:
“I’ll make of you a great nation”.
And yet, month after month,
Sarah would cry.
Weeks became months,
months became years,
years became a decade.
Even a decade passed and
all these things going on.
Please, I’m talking about you
and you believing God,
and you asking
the question: “Why?”
Because you are special.
Because Abraham was special.
Abraham was special.
He looked around, He looked
at the Philistines,
Philistines’ wives
walking around,
another one walking
with a wheelbarrow.
He looked around, everywhere
he went, every city he went.
He went to Egypt, alright?
Egyptian women walking around,
being carried, left and right
by servants or slaves
because they were so pregnant.
Some of them with triplets,
quadruplets, sextuplets,
and they are just so full.
And these are heathens,
and Abraham saw all these
and Abraham says:
“The God of glory appeared to me.”
And it’s not recorded for us
how many times
Sarah would tell him:
“What’s happening, Abraham?”
“Are we missing God?”
Now, I want to tell you
something about the devil.
The devil will turn your
times of delay, alright,
of non-manifestation into
times of questioning God.
If your faith is such that
you say: “I know my God.”
“Though He slay me like Job,
yet will I trust Him.”
Alright?
If your faith is like that, then
he will do the other approach.
“Something wrong with you then.
There must be some sin in your life.”
“There must be something
you did, maybe in the past…”
Alright?
“That is now haunting you,
that is now affecting this whole thing.”
“You know that there’s nothing
wrong with God, right?”
“There’s something
wrong with you.”
“There’s something wrong
with your wife.”
“There’s something wrong
with your parents.”
I mean, he will accuse
you at the drop of a hat!
Every time something
happens like this,
he will do his very best
to make sure you
come under condemnation,
because condemnation is
something that will cause you
to repeat that behaviour.
Is it because of the
wrong decisions that
the baby was delayed?
No.
God was going to give him
a revelation of Himself that
all the heathen woman
who walked around pregnant
will never know.
I find that.
Ladies, who are believing
God for a baby,
let me tell you this.
I find that in the Bible,
ladies who are barren,
when they believe God,
and some of them
long delays before
they conceived.
They always bring
forth champions.
They always bring
forth champions.
Sarah brought forth Isaac.
Amen.
Manoah brought forth Samson,
in their old age.
Amen.
Zechariah, his wife Elizabeth,
the first two names you find
in the New Testament.
Zechariah or “Zakar-yah.”
“Zakar” means “Remember.”
God, Yahweh remembers.
“Elizabeth” or “Eli-she-va.”
Means God’s promise.
God remembers His promise
and brought forth
“Grace” or “John”
in their old age.
When the child is born
out of faith, now,
the rest of them, they just
get together, boom.
Imagine a Philistine passing by:
“Why don’t you call upon your God?”
“Pray to your God,
pray to your God, huh?”
How do you think Abraham felt?
Abraham looked around
and Abraham is wondering:
“They are getting manifestations,
or are they?”
“Abraham, you do not know,
you don’t see their hearts.”
“Yes, they have the
physical thing but”
“that child is not a champion.”
“Your child will be.”
I said: “Your child will be!”
When the child comes, wow,
what a champion!
Amen!
You know how long
Abraham waited?
You know how long
Abraham waited until
finally Isaac came?
And during this time,
do you know what he did?
He did his best,
he listened to his wife.
The wife says:
“Looks like God doesn’t
want me to bear anymore,”
I mean she literally said:
“God has restrained me
from bearing,”
“so why not go
to my servant girl?”
Abraham says: “Okay.”
Abraham went to the servant girl
and then got Ishmael
from the servant girl.
After that you know,
Sarah came complaining
because now Hagar is proud.
The maiden girl who got
pregnant by her master Abraham
is proud, looking at her
mistress, saying: “Mmhmm.”
Alright and now Sarah came
to Abraham and said:
“It’s your fault, my
wrong be on you.”
And Abraham said:
“Now you blame me!”
Imagine all the quarrel
they went through,
all the while Abraham is
Saying:
“Where is Your promise, God?”
“Where is Your promise?”
“What happened
to Your promise, Lord?”
Are you in that place?
You know how long he waited?
24 years.
24 years!
“24 years, just waiting
for a chance, to tell her”
“how I love her and maybe
get a second glance,”
“but now I got to get used
to not living next door to Alice.”
“24 years…”
That’s an
old song by the way.
You all wouldn’t know,
this generation, alright,
I sound so young,
praise God.
Anyway, 24 years, that’s
how long he waited.
Poor old Abe.
But when the boy came,
hallelujah, he was a champ!
And during this time, just
before the boy came,
you know what God did?
You all know the story.
He went down to this place
in a Philistine area,
and the Abimelech, which is
the title of the Philistine king,
saw Sarah, and this time
Sarah was about 90 years old.
In other words, if God
makes you wait, God will,
God is a God Who restores.
If God makes you wait,
God will keep you young.
If God makes you wait,
God will do something
to your body, that other
women do not have.
Because when she was
90 years old,
something happened
to Sarah’s body.
She was beautiful, that
even a heathen king,
and don’t forget heathen kings
go by their eyesight.
They have no spiritual discernment.
So God literally, changed
the physical beauty of Sarah,
make her young again.
Amen.
And there was something else
that the devil accused them of.
Look, Abraham prayed for what?
For God to heal Abimelech
in which area?
“For the Lord had closed up
all the wombs of the”
“house of Abimelech.”
He’s praying for open wombs
when his wife is not even pregnant.
For years.
So, the devil will try to make
you feel like a hypocrite.
But therein lies God’s wisdom.
When you don’t have
the manifestation,
find somewhere and
bless someone else with it.
Pray for someone else,
pray for a blessing on someone.
See what happened in
the next verse, the next chapter.
I put it down there because
it’s all one continuous flow.
The next chapter says:
“And the Lord visited Sarah
as He had said,”
“and the Lord did for Sarah
as He had spoken.”
And why is it that
this verse comes right
after he prayed for the
open wombs?
Pray tell me.
Why do you
think that is so?
God wants you to know.
Do not stop praying for the sick,
even when you are sick.
Do not stop ministering to
people even when
you don’t have that
manifestation.
The devil will tell you:
“How can you?
You’re a hypocrite.”
Are you listening, people?
24 years.
He started praying.
I do not know whether God
used him to pray for anybody else,
but it’s amazing, maybe
he was under accusation,
I do not know.
But one thing I do know,
when he started praying
for open wombs,
his wife’s womb opened.
Sometimes we are so
self-absorbed.
My healing, my healing,
my manifestation,
my child’s manifestation,
my, my, my family, my family,
that God wants you to
break out of that self-occupation,
and start getting involved
in praying for other people.
If you are in a clinic, start
praying for people that
you see around you.
Pray for that child,
pray for that lady,
pray for that man,
start praying, amen?
And all of a sudden, you’ll
find your own stress level,
your worry level,
anxiety level just drops.
Start praying for others.
And God turned the captivity of Job
when he prayed for his friends.
What the devil wants
to tell you is that:
“It’s your fault!”
“Something is happening
because of this delay.”
“It’s your fault.”
No, my friend.
Listen.
In the Old Testament even,
alright, like Abraham’s story,
it wasn’t because
of Abraham’s sin.
Are you listening?
God waited until
Abraham could not,
and then when Isaac came,
all the glory goes to God.
God waited until Abraham
could not, but the thing is this,
there was a lesson.
When Abraham finally
received his manifestation, listen.
God told him, “I’ll multiply your
seed as the stars of the heaven,”
“and as the sand
on the seashore.”
And today, when
you look around,
Look!
All these are the
seed of Abraham!
Abraham has more seeds
than all those Egyptian women
walking around.
Amen.
All the Philistine women
walking around pregnant.
Today, we are called
sons of Abraham!
Best of all, Abraham started
learning about who God is,
His wonderful person,
that all these other people,
never got to know.
Sometimes, in the delay
is a revelation.
And because He loves you,
He delays, so that
you’ll have a revelation
that others don’t have.
Those heathen never
knew the revelation
that Abraham had.
Isn’t that wonderful?
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