Dear friends,
We are finally reaching to the end of the series "Destined To Reign". This final part is very important for all believers. I hope you have enjoyed reading the devotional/teaching and have recived blessings that will transfor your live forever.
I would like to thank you for taking the time to read them. I would appreciate any comments (hopefully postive ones).
Blessings.
Dedo Suwanda
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dear friends,
When people hear the good news that all their sins have been forgiven because of the cross of Jesus, something supernatural happens. This is what happened in the book of Acts. When Apostle Paul preached on forgiveness, healing miracles occurred as the people listened. The man who was lame from his mother’s womb leaped up and walked for the first time in his life. People in the church are looking for great power, but where is it found? The book of Acts declares that where there is great grace, there is great power! (Acts 4: 33) We need to be clear with our focus: If we focus on the grace, the power will naturally come.
The Gospel revolution is breaking out all over the world. Notice this: When more and more people hear the true gospel that is not mixed with man’s effort, you will hear more and more of these miracles and supernatural breakthroughs in the church. It has pleased God to heal, rescue, prosper, and deliver those who simply believe the gospel through the foolishness of preaching. So as His Word goes forth, when you believe that you are forgiven and righteous, you will be made whole!
Good Things Happen To Those Who Believe That God Loves Them
Some people ask, “What does forgiveness have to do with healing?” Let us read what the Word of God says in Psalm 103: 1-5: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Observe the way the Holy Spirit has ordered His benefits. Forgiveness of your iniquities comes before the healing of your diseases (and others, such as protection, provision and strength). In other words, once you know that you are forgiven of all your sins (past, present and future), the healing of all your diseases follows. There are many believers who are suffering from sicknesses and diseases because of guilt. Whether or not there is any real basis for their guilt and condemnation, the guilt and condemnation are still destructive. That is why the gospel is so powerful. It is the good news of God’s grace and forgiveness that frees the believers from every sense of feeling dirty and condemned. It gives the power to break free from the vicious circle of condemnation and sin.
Guilt and condemnation perpetuate the cycle of sin, whereas His grace, His blood, and His righteousness liberate and provide freedom from sin. Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8: 11). The power to overcome in is found in the gift of “no condemnation”, not in your own strength and ability. Don’t ever forget this benefit (forgiveness or no condemnation) as well as the other benefits (healing from diseases, redemption from destruction, provision, etc.) that the finished work of Jesus has bought for you. Bless the Lord for all His benefits and blessings toward you everyday!
Good things happen to people who believe that God loves them. Good things happening to you does not depend on who you are, what academic qualifications you hold, or what your profession is. Good things simply happen to you when you believe God loves you! He loves you all the time. Even when you fail, He still loves you! His love is not like our love. Our love is conditional, but His love is not contingent on our behavior. It is contingent entirely on His grace and the work of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Do you know what Paul prayed for the church of Ephesus? This one is one of the most spiritual church in his time, and he prayed that they may be able to comprehend “what is the width and length and depth and height” of “the love of Christ”. (Ephesians 3: 18-19) Can you see the picture of the cross of Jesus here? The width, length, depth, and height point to the four corners of the cross.
Notice Paul’s emphasis on the love of Christ. In other words, it is not about our love for Christ. Paul was praying for them to have a revelation of Jesus’ love for them and not their love for Jesus. Now, observe closely the result of them knowing His love for them: They would be filled with the fullness of God. I have heard many sermons saying that if you do this and do that, you will be filled with the fullness of God. But that’s not what the Bible says. It says that when you know the love of Christ, you will be filled with the fullness of God!
Paul does not stop there. He goes on to say, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask of think…” (Ephesians 3: 20). God becomes big in your life when you know His love. He will give you not just exceedingly, not just abundantly, but exceedingly abundantly above ALL you can ask or think. So when you know His love for you, you can ASK BIG and THINK BIG, and God will still exceed all that you can ask or think! Yet, there are people today who continue to boast in their love for God, believing that He would bless them in tandem with their good works. That’s wrong!
A Fresh Revelation Of His Love
In my (Joseph Prince’s) life, there have been some things that I had been believing God for, but for years, nothing happened until I realized just how much God loves me. When I realized how much He loves me, it was like all of a sudden, the floodgate of His blessings opened wide, and all kinds of good things started happening to me, in me and around me. Good things happen to those who know that God loves them,
I remember one incident in which God revealed His love for me so clearly. When my daughter, Jessica, was two years old, she suffered from a viral attack. The doctors could not find any reason or remedy for her illness. My heart ached to hear her crying all day and night. I tried everything. I was binding and loosing, I was confessing the Word of God, I was shouting, I was laying hands, ….all to no avail. When I could not take it any longer, I went to the Lord and started to weep in His presence. I cried, “Lord, You have to speak to me. What is happening? I have tried doing everything that I know.”
The Lord then took me to Genesis 22 where God told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering to Him. God said to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love …” Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, but He only recognized Isaac, who was born of the Spirit (a picture of grace). He did not recognize Ishmael, who was born of the flesh (a picture of a result of self-effort). As I read what God said to Abraham about Isaac being his son and his only son, I thought, God is really pushing it here. It must have been very difficult for Abraham to sacrifice his son, and God had to “rub it in” by emphasizing that Isaac was his only son, whom he loved – “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.”
Later on, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes in a flash. God is talking about Himself. He was the father who would give up His Son, His only Son, whom He loved – as a ransom for us. Until you know how much God loves Jesus, you will never know how much God loves you, because God gave up Jesus to save you.
As I read the passage, I realized just how much God loved me so much that He did not withhold His Son, His only Son, the Son whom He loved, for me. By this time I had begun to cry afresh, but these were no longer tears for my daughter. They were tears that came from a deep and intimate sense of God’s overwhelming love for me. At that moment, I felt His love all over me. And right there and then, my daughter stopped crying in the other room. From that point onward, she was completely healed! As I was experiencing a fresh revelation of His love for me, the miracle for my daughter happened. Beloved, good things happen to those who know that God loves them.
Religious Is A Heavy Burden
The reason people are full of bitterness, anger, and resentment is not that God does not love them. It is that they think they must earn God’s love by their conduct and doing good works. When Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11: 28), He was not talking to people who were tired from working in their jobs. He was talking to people who were under the burden (or yoke) of the law. He was talking to those who were laboring under the law to please God, those who were heavy laden with religion. He was telling them to cease from their self-efforts and to let Him give you rest. You see, the law demands, whereas grace imparts rest. The law says, “Do good get good. Do bad get beat.” Doesn’t every religion say that?
Sometimes, when I hear some preachers preach that you have to keep the law and be obedient to His commandments in order for you to be righteous and entitle to God’s blessings, I really wonder: “Has the cross changed anything?” The system of being blessed when you do good and being cursed when you fail was already in place before Jesus came. Why are they still teaching that we are still under that system today? Please, do not negate the cross of Jesus. The cross of Jesus changed everything. Jesus received all our “bad” and we took on all His “good”! That’s the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is based entirely on His grace!
You Are God’s Beloved
When Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, a voice from Heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3: 17). This is recorded in the Bible for your benefit. Today, God has accepted you in the Beloved (Jesus). Right now, He is well pleased with you only because you are in Christ, not for any other reasons. Today, the way in which Jesus is God’s beloved Son is the same way in which you are God’s beloved child. In fact, Jesus prayed to the Father that His disciples (that covers us too) would know the way in which His Father loves Him is the same way in which His Father loves them (us too). (John 17: 23)
Immediately after Jesus was baptized, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. What did the devil say to Jesus? He said, “If You are the Son of God, command these stones become bread.” (Matthew 4: 3) Notice that the devil craftily dropped the word “beloved”. God had audibly announced that Jesus was His “beloved Son”, but the devil made no mention of the word “beloved”. He deliberately do that when he came to tempt Jesus. The devil does the same thing to you today because he knows that if he reminds you that you are God’s beloved, all his plans, plots, and evil strategies to tempt you will be foiled. Once you know that you are God’s beloved, whatever the devil wants to bring against you will fail.
People give their lives to sin when they feel rejected and unwanted. But when they know that they are God’s beloved, no temptation can succeed against them. Let us look at Jesus’ reply to the devil’s first temptation, which was for Him to turn stones into bread. Is there any law in the Old Testament that says you cannot turn stones into bread? No. So what was the devil saying? When the devil said, “Command these STONES to become bread, “ he was, in fact telling Jesus to get His nourishment from the law that was written on STONES. Now look at Jesus’ reply, “Man shall not eat by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God.” Jesus was referring to the “rhema” word or “now word”. What did God just say to Jesus before He entered the wilderness? He had said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Friends, This is the word that we are to live by today as well!
You are God’s beloved through Jesus Christ. We are not to live by the Ten Commandments written and engraved on stones. There is no nourishment in the ministry of death and condemnation. Jesus died on the cross so that we can be in Him and so that we can live by the same word that proceeded from the mouth of God when He called Jesus His beloved. Today, God sees you in Christ. Hear Him say to you, “You are My beloved, in whom I am well pleased!”
People are afraid that if you do not keep the law, you will give people a license to sin. But you notice that people are already sinning without a license and that being under the law has not stopped sin? The answer to sin is found in grace. It is grace that will stop sin. My friend, knowing that you are made God’s beloved by His grace will give you dominion in life to overcome sinful habits and temptations. Temptation cannot succeed when you have a revelation that you are God’s beloved. When you know how precious and valuable you are to God, and the depth of your Abba’s love for you, why you want to waste your life engaging in sins that brings only destruction and death?
Be Occupied With His Love
People often ask, “How can I say I am still the beloved of God when I have failed?” You can, because His love for you is constant and unconditional! Are you loved by God because of what you have done? No, it is because of what Jesus has done on the cross. So God will not stop loving you because of what you have done. In fact, He loved you when you were still in your mother’s womb and will continue to love you when you see Him face-to-face.
Beloved, there is nothing you can do today to make God love you more, and there is nothing you can do to make Him love you any less. When you fail, that is the time you need to feed on His love for you. Begin to see yourself as “the disciples whom Jesus loves”. Personalize His love for you the way Apostle John did it. He referred to himself five times in his own gospel as “the disciples whom Jesus loved”. It is not enough to know that God loves everyone. You need to know that He loves you, and let that revelation burns in your heart, especially when you fail. As you keep feeding on His love for you, His love will start overflowing in you. When you are full of His love for you, all anger dissipates, all temptation will be overcome, and good things will start to happen in you.
From "Destined To Reign" by JosephPrince
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Destined To Reign – Part 15 – The Secret To Great Faith
Dear friends,
Have you ever felt like you needed more faith? Have you ever looked at yourself and told yourself that if you just had more faith, you would see financial breakthrough or healing? My friend, I have good news for you today: Faith is not a struggle! The hearing of faith and the works of the law are total opposites. And sine the law is about our self-efforts, there is no self effort in faith.
After many generations of faith teachings, there are people who have turned faith into a work. Have you heard people saying, “Oh, this thing happened to you because you don’t have enough faith,” or “Oh, you have to have great faith to see that breakthrough”? I don’t know how you feel when you hear things like that, but I always felt condemned for not having more faith.
The Ministry Of Disqualification
For years, my ministry was a ministry that disqualified people. I would preach, “The reason you are sick is that there is something wrong with you.” I would teach on “the seven reasons” why people were not getting healed, and the more I preached along those lines, the more I saw people not getting healed. I would tell the congregation, “There is nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, so there must be something wrong with you!” I thought that this was good preaching because it was what I heard other preachers preaching as well, But one day I heard the Lord speaking to me on the inside, “Stop disqualifying My people! My blood has already qualified them!”
Now, I know that faith is the opposite of the law, and the more they become self-conscious, and the more they look at their self-efforts, the more faith is depleted from them. After the Lord opened my eyes, I changed what I was preaching entirely, and I began to declare to people, “There’s nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, and guess what? Through the blood of Jesus, there is nothing wrong with you! Receive your miracle,” Hallelujah! Once I stopped pointing the people to what was wrong with them, and started pointing instead to what was right with them because of Jesus, faith was imparted and we began to experience an explosion of healing miracles like never before. Cancers were healed, tumors were supernaturally removed, and lives were being transformed. That is what happens when believers know that they have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus. They begin to understand that they have the “blood-bought” right to be healed, to experience financial breakthroughs, and to enjoy restoration in their marriages.
Faith no longer becomes a barrier to receiving God’s promises. People stop thinking that they are unable to receive breakthroughs because they do not have enough faith. No way! When believers catch the revelation that there is nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, and by His grace, nothing wrong with them, guess what? Something happens to their faith. They begin to see more of Jesus. They begin to become more and more conscious of Jesus having been crucified on their behalf. And the more they see what Jesus has done for them, the more they see what Jesus has QUALIFIED for them, the more faith springs up within them and miracles break forth. Hallelujah!
Beloved, you don’t have to wish that you had more faith for whatever miracle you are asking God for right now. See Jesus on the cross for you, and the faith you need to face any situation or challenge will come into your life. Just look to Jesus! He is the author and finisher of faith (Hebrew 12: 2). Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17). The more of Jesus you hear, the more faith rises in your heart. Get more teachings that preach all about Jesus and His finished work at the cross. There is no power in human philosophy or the tradition of man, but there is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ! When people hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, faith is imparted and healing flows.
The Secret To Receiving Your Miracle
There are teachings telling us all kind of things we have to do to work the miracles of God. For instance, some tell us that we have to pray long prayers. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that I don’t believe in praying. I love to go to Abba in prayer. I encourage you to pray, especially praying in tongues. But, is the secret to having miracles take place in your life found in praying?
I have also heard people saying that the key to miracles is found in fasting 40 days and 40 nights. They would say, “I would have you know that Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights!” Well, that was Jesus. The question we should be asking is, “Did Jesus tell us to fast?” Now, I know that when Jesus’ disciples were unable to cast out a certain spirit from a boy, the NKJV (as well as the KJV) Bible does record that Jesus, in reference to the spirit, said, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. (Mark 9: 29)” So people have read this one verse and concluded that the secret to spiritual power is fasting. But do you know that in the original Greek text, the word “fasting” does not appear in that verse? It was added by the translator! And if you look at the NASB, NIV and ESV translations, you won’t find the word “fasting” in that verse.
In 1 Corinthians 7: 5, Apostle Paul said that husbands and wives should not deprive each other of sexual relations “except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer.” Again, after reading this one verse from Paul, people have run off saying that the secret to spiritual power is to abstain from intimate relations with your spouse! Now, if you check the original Greek text (or the NASB, NIV and ESV translations), the word “fasting” does not appear here either. If you are curious about what Paul was really saying, then let me tell you what he was actually encouraging husbands and wives to have a healthy sex life and not to deprive each other or sexual pleasure. God wants you to enjoy your marriage, and when you do, the Word of God declares that the devil will have no room to tempt you. In the same verse (1 Corinthians 7: 5), Paul tells husbands and wives to “come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” Think of it this way: After a man has eaten at home, he wouldn’t be hungry anymore when he goes out with his friends.
Throughout the New Testament, Paul hardly spoke about fasting. Yet, the body of Christ has somehow managed to make man’s own work (like fasting) the main emphasis. Paul’s emphasis was the new covenant of grace, but instead of focusing on understanding the new covenant, people are obsessed with doing! They are saying, “forget about grace. Just tell me what to do.” Now, do I fast? Yes, I do, in the sense that many a time I am so preoccupied with the Lord in prayer or with studying His Word that I forget to eat. He opens my eyes to certain truth, one verse leads to another, and in my eagerness to read more of His Word, I unconsciously miss my regular meals, and I even find myself forgoing sleep to be in His presence. But, I do don’t consciously go on a fast, believing that fasting would get me my miracle.
Are You Twisting God’s Arm?
When you do not understand what it means to come under the law or to come under grace, you can end up trying to twist God’s arm with your efforts to convince God that you deserve a breakthrough or miracle from Him. Do you really think that because you have fasted 40 days and 40 nights, or prayed for 12 hours straight, that God has to answer your prayers? Are you trying to twist God’s arm with your works? Come on, the only reason that God answers our prayers today is the finished work of Jesus. Don’t be deceived any longer. God is a debtor to no man. Our efforts to pray long, hard prayers and our fasting do not impress Him. No man can deserve God’s blessing by his self-effort. It is not about our sacrifice. It is about His sacrifice! All God sees is the work of His Son on the cross; and by virtue of Jesus, all His blessings and His miracle-working power are already yours when you believe in His Son,
Look at all the people who received miracles from Jesus during His ministry on earth. Not a single one of them deserved it. They did nothing to earn their miracles. They simply received their miracles because of His grace. On the other hand, we don’t find any record of those who were trying to deserve blessings from God – The Pharisees – receiving anything from Jesus!
When You See Jesus In His Grace, He Sees You In Your Faith
The Lord said to Joseph Prince, “When My people see My grace, I see their faith”. Do you remember the woman with the issue of blood who had been bleeding for 12 years? She did not see Jesus only as being full of healing power, but she also saw Him as being full of grace. How do we know that? It is because she would have known full well that according to the Law of Moses, she was considered unclean because of her condition and was not supposed to touch anyone, let alone be found squeezing her way through a crowd. Yet, she believed that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, she would be healed. Instead of expecting punishment for breaking the law of Moses, she was expecting to be healed. She did not see Jesus as hard and condemning, but as a gracious Saviour overflowing with mercy and compassion. The moment she touched the hem of His garment, she felt in her body that she was healed. Was she ever conscious of her faith? No, she was conscious only of Jesus and His grace. When she saw His grace, He turned around and saw her faith. With great tenderness, He said to her, ”Daughter, your faith has made you well. (Mark 5: 34)”
You do not have to try to conjure up faith for healing or finances. Faith for any breakthrough or miracle in your life springs forth when you see His grace.
The Secret To Great Faith
Do you know that there were only two people in the Bible who Jesus said had “great faith’? The first was the Roman centurion (Matthew 8: 5-13). Jesus said, “I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel.” As I was reading these scriptures, the Lord asked me (Joseph Prince), “Why did that man have great faith?” I immediately replied that it was because he, being a Roman centurion, was a man of authority and thus understand the authority of Jesus Christ. I was very confident with my answer, having been taught that to have great faith, we need to understand the Lord’s authority and the authority that He has given to the believer. The Lord said to me, “Good! What about the other person who I said had great faith?” He was referring to the Syro-Phoenecian woman who had a demon-possessed daughter (Matthew 15: 21-28).” She had gone to Jesus and beseeched Him to cast the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Jesus was saying that it was not for Him to cast the bread meant for the Jews to a Gentile. But the woman replied, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” And Jesus said, “O Woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” That very hour, her daughter was healed.
The Lord continued, “Well, if the centurion had great faith because he understood authority, what about this woman? Son, look for the common denominator between these two people and you will discover the secret to great faith.” After some time, not able to find the common denominator, the Lord said again, “Both were Gentiles. They were not Jews, one was a Roman, and the other a Canaanite. Both of them were not under the law of Moses and therefore did not disqualify themselves. They were not under condemnation and so they could have great faith to receive from Me.” Wow, what a revelation! The law is indeed the opposite of faith!
Do you know that there is a verse in Galatians that says that “the law is not of faith” (Galatians 3: 12). In Romans, it also says, “For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is made of no effect. (Romans 4: 14”. So clearly, there is no way that we can give people the law and yet expect them to have faith. The law will disqualify them from receiving any blessing from the Lord. It is only faith in His grace that will qualify God’s people and cause them to have great faith to receive what they need from the Lord. This is the secret to having great faith for any situation in your life!
Amen!
Dedo Suwanda
Taken from "Destined To Reign" by Joseph Prince
Have you ever felt like you needed more faith? Have you ever looked at yourself and told yourself that if you just had more faith, you would see financial breakthrough or healing? My friend, I have good news for you today: Faith is not a struggle! The hearing of faith and the works of the law are total opposites. And sine the law is about our self-efforts, there is no self effort in faith.
After many generations of faith teachings, there are people who have turned faith into a work. Have you heard people saying, “Oh, this thing happened to you because you don’t have enough faith,” or “Oh, you have to have great faith to see that breakthrough”? I don’t know how you feel when you hear things like that, but I always felt condemned for not having more faith.
The Ministry Of Disqualification
For years, my ministry was a ministry that disqualified people. I would preach, “The reason you are sick is that there is something wrong with you.” I would teach on “the seven reasons” why people were not getting healed, and the more I preached along those lines, the more I saw people not getting healed. I would tell the congregation, “There is nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, so there must be something wrong with you!” I thought that this was good preaching because it was what I heard other preachers preaching as well, But one day I heard the Lord speaking to me on the inside, “Stop disqualifying My people! My blood has already qualified them!”
Now, I know that faith is the opposite of the law, and the more they become self-conscious, and the more they look at their self-efforts, the more faith is depleted from them. After the Lord opened my eyes, I changed what I was preaching entirely, and I began to declare to people, “There’s nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, and guess what? Through the blood of Jesus, there is nothing wrong with you! Receive your miracle,” Hallelujah! Once I stopped pointing the people to what was wrong with them, and started pointing instead to what was right with them because of Jesus, faith was imparted and we began to experience an explosion of healing miracles like never before. Cancers were healed, tumors were supernaturally removed, and lives were being transformed. That is what happens when believers know that they have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus. They begin to understand that they have the “blood-bought” right to be healed, to experience financial breakthroughs, and to enjoy restoration in their marriages.
Faith no longer becomes a barrier to receiving God’s promises. People stop thinking that they are unable to receive breakthroughs because they do not have enough faith. No way! When believers catch the revelation that there is nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, and by His grace, nothing wrong with them, guess what? Something happens to their faith. They begin to see more of Jesus. They begin to become more and more conscious of Jesus having been crucified on their behalf. And the more they see what Jesus has done for them, the more they see what Jesus has QUALIFIED for them, the more faith springs up within them and miracles break forth. Hallelujah!
Beloved, you don’t have to wish that you had more faith for whatever miracle you are asking God for right now. See Jesus on the cross for you, and the faith you need to face any situation or challenge will come into your life. Just look to Jesus! He is the author and finisher of faith (Hebrew 12: 2). Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17). The more of Jesus you hear, the more faith rises in your heart. Get more teachings that preach all about Jesus and His finished work at the cross. There is no power in human philosophy or the tradition of man, but there is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ! When people hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, faith is imparted and healing flows.
The Secret To Receiving Your Miracle
There are teachings telling us all kind of things we have to do to work the miracles of God. For instance, some tell us that we have to pray long prayers. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that I don’t believe in praying. I love to go to Abba in prayer. I encourage you to pray, especially praying in tongues. But, is the secret to having miracles take place in your life found in praying?
I have also heard people saying that the key to miracles is found in fasting 40 days and 40 nights. They would say, “I would have you know that Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights!” Well, that was Jesus. The question we should be asking is, “Did Jesus tell us to fast?” Now, I know that when Jesus’ disciples were unable to cast out a certain spirit from a boy, the NKJV (as well as the KJV) Bible does record that Jesus, in reference to the spirit, said, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. (Mark 9: 29)” So people have read this one verse and concluded that the secret to spiritual power is fasting. But do you know that in the original Greek text, the word “fasting” does not appear in that verse? It was added by the translator! And if you look at the NASB, NIV and ESV translations, you won’t find the word “fasting” in that verse.
In 1 Corinthians 7: 5, Apostle Paul said that husbands and wives should not deprive each other of sexual relations “except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer.” Again, after reading this one verse from Paul, people have run off saying that the secret to spiritual power is to abstain from intimate relations with your spouse! Now, if you check the original Greek text (or the NASB, NIV and ESV translations), the word “fasting” does not appear here either. If you are curious about what Paul was really saying, then let me tell you what he was actually encouraging husbands and wives to have a healthy sex life and not to deprive each other or sexual pleasure. God wants you to enjoy your marriage, and when you do, the Word of God declares that the devil will have no room to tempt you. In the same verse (1 Corinthians 7: 5), Paul tells husbands and wives to “come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” Think of it this way: After a man has eaten at home, he wouldn’t be hungry anymore when he goes out with his friends.
Throughout the New Testament, Paul hardly spoke about fasting. Yet, the body of Christ has somehow managed to make man’s own work (like fasting) the main emphasis. Paul’s emphasis was the new covenant of grace, but instead of focusing on understanding the new covenant, people are obsessed with doing! They are saying, “forget about grace. Just tell me what to do.” Now, do I fast? Yes, I do, in the sense that many a time I am so preoccupied with the Lord in prayer or with studying His Word that I forget to eat. He opens my eyes to certain truth, one verse leads to another, and in my eagerness to read more of His Word, I unconsciously miss my regular meals, and I even find myself forgoing sleep to be in His presence. But, I do don’t consciously go on a fast, believing that fasting would get me my miracle.
Are You Twisting God’s Arm?
When you do not understand what it means to come under the law or to come under grace, you can end up trying to twist God’s arm with your efforts to convince God that you deserve a breakthrough or miracle from Him. Do you really think that because you have fasted 40 days and 40 nights, or prayed for 12 hours straight, that God has to answer your prayers? Are you trying to twist God’s arm with your works? Come on, the only reason that God answers our prayers today is the finished work of Jesus. Don’t be deceived any longer. God is a debtor to no man. Our efforts to pray long, hard prayers and our fasting do not impress Him. No man can deserve God’s blessing by his self-effort. It is not about our sacrifice. It is about His sacrifice! All God sees is the work of His Son on the cross; and by virtue of Jesus, all His blessings and His miracle-working power are already yours when you believe in His Son,
Look at all the people who received miracles from Jesus during His ministry on earth. Not a single one of them deserved it. They did nothing to earn their miracles. They simply received their miracles because of His grace. On the other hand, we don’t find any record of those who were trying to deserve blessings from God – The Pharisees – receiving anything from Jesus!
When You See Jesus In His Grace, He Sees You In Your Faith
The Lord said to Joseph Prince, “When My people see My grace, I see their faith”. Do you remember the woman with the issue of blood who had been bleeding for 12 years? She did not see Jesus only as being full of healing power, but she also saw Him as being full of grace. How do we know that? It is because she would have known full well that according to the Law of Moses, she was considered unclean because of her condition and was not supposed to touch anyone, let alone be found squeezing her way through a crowd. Yet, she believed that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, she would be healed. Instead of expecting punishment for breaking the law of Moses, she was expecting to be healed. She did not see Jesus as hard and condemning, but as a gracious Saviour overflowing with mercy and compassion. The moment she touched the hem of His garment, she felt in her body that she was healed. Was she ever conscious of her faith? No, she was conscious only of Jesus and His grace. When she saw His grace, He turned around and saw her faith. With great tenderness, He said to her, ”Daughter, your faith has made you well. (Mark 5: 34)”
You do not have to try to conjure up faith for healing or finances. Faith for any breakthrough or miracle in your life springs forth when you see His grace.
The Secret To Great Faith
Do you know that there were only two people in the Bible who Jesus said had “great faith’? The first was the Roman centurion (Matthew 8: 5-13). Jesus said, “I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel.” As I was reading these scriptures, the Lord asked me (Joseph Prince), “Why did that man have great faith?” I immediately replied that it was because he, being a Roman centurion, was a man of authority and thus understand the authority of Jesus Christ. I was very confident with my answer, having been taught that to have great faith, we need to understand the Lord’s authority and the authority that He has given to the believer. The Lord said to me, “Good! What about the other person who I said had great faith?” He was referring to the Syro-Phoenecian woman who had a demon-possessed daughter (Matthew 15: 21-28).” She had gone to Jesus and beseeched Him to cast the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Jesus was saying that it was not for Him to cast the bread meant for the Jews to a Gentile. But the woman replied, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” And Jesus said, “O Woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” That very hour, her daughter was healed.
The Lord continued, “Well, if the centurion had great faith because he understood authority, what about this woman? Son, look for the common denominator between these two people and you will discover the secret to great faith.” After some time, not able to find the common denominator, the Lord said again, “Both were Gentiles. They were not Jews, one was a Roman, and the other a Canaanite. Both of them were not under the law of Moses and therefore did not disqualify themselves. They were not under condemnation and so they could have great faith to receive from Me.” Wow, what a revelation! The law is indeed the opposite of faith!
Do you know that there is a verse in Galatians that says that “the law is not of faith” (Galatians 3: 12). In Romans, it also says, “For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is made of no effect. (Romans 4: 14”. So clearly, there is no way that we can give people the law and yet expect them to have faith. The law will disqualify them from receiving any blessing from the Lord. It is only faith in His grace that will qualify God’s people and cause them to have great faith to receive what they need from the Lord. This is the secret to having great faith for any situation in your life!
Amen!
Dedo Suwanda
Taken from "Destined To Reign" by Joseph Prince
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)