Destined To Reign – Part 16 (Final) – Good Things Happen

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

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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