MARK 11:23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
God says that we will have whatever we say. So whatever we want to have, we can say it and have it. Unfortunately, we often say what we don’t want to have. For example, we say, “I don’t know why I go through my money so fast every month. Even when my boss gives me an increment, there never seems to be enough money.” And true enough, we see a lack of money at the end of every month. You see, you will have whatever you say, good or bad. So why not change what you have been saying to, “From now on, I will have more than enough because Jesus became poor at the cross, so that I might be financially supplied—2 Corinthians 8:9. So lack, be gone in Jesus’ name!” Whatever mountain of difficulty you have, be it a mountain of debt or serious health condition, Jesus says, “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” Jesus highlights the importance of saying by mentioning the word “say” thrice, but the word “believe” only once. Our problem today is that there is more preaching on believing than saying. So the reason people find it hard to walk in faith is that they are not saying enough of the Word. But if we would focus more on saying God’s Word, faith will come. That is how God quickened Abraham’s faith. He changed Abraham’s saying when He changed his name from Abram to Abraham, which means “father of many nations”. (Genesis 17:5) From then on, whenever Abraham introduced himself, he would say, “Hi, my name is Father Of Many Nations." Beloved, declare your abundance, saying, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1) Speak forth your healing, saying, “By Jesus’ stripes I am healed!” (Isaiah 53:5) And you will have whatever you say! PHILIPPIANS 2:10 …at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
Whatever is troubling you, if it has a name, it must bow to the name of Jesus! Cancer must bow to the name of Jesus. Poverty must bow. Shame must bow. The Bible tells us that God has highly exalted Jesus and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee must bow! That is exactly what happened when a severely demon-possessed man saw Jesus. The demons in him—called Legion for there were many of them—not only begged Jesus not to torment them, but they also fled when Jesus commanded them to go. The man was left whole, healed and in his right mind. (Luke 8:26–35) My late father was similarly delivered from his drinking addiction of many years. I remember how he was in a drunken stupor one day. I prayed over him in Jesus’ name for him to be loosed from his addiction to alcohol. He threw up violently soon after that and from that moment on, he never touched the bottle again! Beloved, if your child is sick, lay hands on him and say, “In Jesus’ name, cough, stop. Fever, go in Jesus’ name. Health flows in your body in Jesus’ name!” If there is strife and confusion at home, deal with it the same way. I have used the name of Jesus as I prayed for a couple who were quarrelling in a food center. It was amazing. All the strife between them seemed to melt away and they started to talk calmly after that. That is the power of the name of Jesus because that is the name of the one who died for you, who rose again and today is at the right hand of God, for you! That is the name which is above every name, and at which every knee must and will bow! RUTH 3:18 Then she said, “Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out; for the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day.”
God does not want you to “sweat”. Sweat here does not refer to your body’s perspiration, but your self-reliance or self-effort. God does not want you to believe that if you don’t do anything, nothing will happen. That may be true for someone without God in his life, but it is not true for you because you have God. And when He is in the picture, the God-factor changes everything! When you are resting in God, He works for you. In fact, when He works, you end up with more. He is the one who is giving to you. It is not about you trying to give to yourself. This was what happened to Ruth in the Old Testament. After laboring in the barley fields from morning to evening, she was able to glean one ephah of barley (Ruth 2:17), which was equivalent to a 10-day supply of barley. Certainly, this amount was a blessing to her. But when she rested at the feet of Boaz, her kinsman-redeemer, and did not labor, she received six ephahs of barley (Ruth 3:15), which was equivalent to a 60-day supply! When Ruth sought her own blessing, she obtained only one ephah. But when she sought the blesser, she received much more. Ruth’s blessings did not stop there. While Ruth rested and sat stillas her mother-in-law Naomi had instructed, Boaz, who was the owner of the barley field, went to work, initiating actions, executing them and speaking on Ruth’s behalf. Right through it all, Ruth sat still andrested. Eventually, Boaz, the barley man himself, married Ruth. (Ruth 4) That meant no more measured wealth of six ephahs, but the yield of the whole barley field in total! Boaz is a picture of Jesus, our heavenly kinsman-redeemer. When we rest in the Lord, He will not rest. He will work on our behalf. What do we do then? We just trust in and enjoy His love for us. Beloved, stop striving and be at rest. If salvation, the greatest work, comes to us by resting in Jesus’ finished work, how much more will all the other blessings? 2 CORINTHIANS 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. When we think of God, we think of the most powerful and richest being in the whole universe. But do you know that our Lord Jesus was actually born into a poor family? We know this from the offering His mother Mary brought to the temple after Jesus was born, according to the Law for purification. (Luke 2:22–24) She brought a pair of turtledoves or young pigeons, which was the only type of offering the poor could afford. (Leviticus 12:2, 8) But with Jesus in their lives, Mary and her husband Joseph didn’t remain poor. Wise men came to Jesus with treasures—“And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” (Matthew 2:11) Jesus’ presence brought gold, frankincense and myrrh—two of the most expensive spices—to His family. The wise men must have come with quite an entourage for the Bible records how all Jerusalem was fearful when the wise men came to the city. (Matthew 2:3) Can you imagine the amount of gold, frankincense and myrrh which accompanied that entourage, and which was given to Jesus’ parents? My friend, the moment you are born again, you have Jesus in your life. And when you have Him in your life, get ready for His abundant supply to come your way! But don’t look for the blessings, look to Jesus—He is the power to get wealth. (Deuteronomy 8:18) The presence of the Son of the living God in your life attracts good things. Because of His grace toward us, Jesus, though He was rich, was made poor at the cross for your sake so that “you through His poverty might become rich”. Beloved, when you have Jesus in your life and when you know that He has paid the price for your abundance, you can boldly declare, “Jesus was made poor at the cross for my sake so that through His poverty, I am made rich in all things!” ACTS 3:20–21 …that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things...
As a believer, you have a right to expect restoration of the things that the devil has stolen from you. It may be your health, marriage or finances, but payback time is definitely coming! Acts 3:20–21 tells us that before Jesus comes back for His church, we will experience “the times of restoration of all things”. What a hope that gives us, knowing that God will restore to us all things before Jesus returns! My friend, if the devil is attacking you in any area, tell God, “Father, I will not allow the devil to rob me of my health, marriage, children or finances. These blessings are blood-bought and paid for by Your Son!” Claim your restoration in Christ and heaven will hear you. There will be such times of restoration of all things to the body of Christ that His people will only get better, stronger, healthier, and more successful and glorious! When God restores, even under the old covenant, His people always received much more than what they had originally lost, in terms of quality and/or quantity. How much more will our restoration be under the new covenant because of the shed blood of the Lamb of God! A divorcee with a teenage son came to our church and accepted the Lord in May 2003. She began to pray for the restoration of her marriage and the reunion of her family. She knew that the chances of this happening were close to zero since she had not met nor spoken with her ex-husband since their divorce 10 years ago. She did not even know if he had remarried. But God caused their paths to cross at a wedding at the end of 2003. Today, their relationship is healed, and together with their son, they worship as a family in church. Even though what happened for that sister may not happen for every divorced person (God can give you a better spouse and marriage), I believe that God wants you to know that your times of restoration are here. Heaven is waiting to hear you stake your claim for restoration! DEUTERONOMY 28:6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
In the Jewish community, the promise, “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out”, refers to being blessed in the affairs of one’s daily life, whether in or outside one’s home. So here, God is saying that you are blessed in your everyday life. Do you believe it? Do you believe that every day, your family and work life are blessed? Or do you think that you are blessed only during Christmas when you receive your gifts and year-end bonus, or when you get that promotion you have been wanting? Perhaps you think that the blessed life only begins when you meet the man or woman of your dreams! No, my friend, you are blessed every day and you have God’s Word for it. Psalm 68:19 says, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!” And because God’s Word says so, believe that every day of your life is loaded with benefits. Every morning, when you get up, believe that it is a day that the Lord has made, and rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24) Start the day expecting it to be loaded with the benefits that God has prepared just for you. At night, when it is time to sleep, know that you will be blessed when you get up in the morning because there will be another load of benefits from your heavenly Father, who so loves you unconditionally, waiting for you! You can’t make your blessings happen. But if you will just believe what God has said in His Word and act like it is so, the blessings will manifest in your life. In fact, God wants to bless you more than you want to be blessed! His Word declares it: “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out…Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!” Beloved, believe God’s Word. Believe Him for the blessings and you will find yourself loaded with His daily benefits! DEUTERONOMY 28:12 The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
In the Bible, rain usually speaks of blessings. Even today, Israelis thank God when it rains because they know that when He gives them rain, their blessings will be plentiful. Their cattle will feed in large green pastures and eat cured, winnowed fodder. And when they see rivers and streams of water flowing from their mountains and hills (Isaiah 30:23–25), they know that times of refreshing have come. Likewise, you can expect God to rain His blessings on you and bless the work of your hands. Then, you will come to a place where you will “lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow”. In fact, Jesus wants you to know that this is a blessing which He died to give you because when He died, He did not even have a tomb of His own. He was laid in a borrowed tomb, so that you can have the power to lend. Indeed, our church bears testimony to this blessing. When I first joined the church full-time, it was very small—about 100-odd members. The Lord has, however, rained His blessings on us and blessed the work of our hands. Today, we have a congregation of more than 30,000 members and we are still growing. In fact, our church is lending its support to many ministries, both locally and overseas. We continue to see God pouring His blessings of provision and increase on us, and we thank Him for all the good things that are happening to us. My friend, there is nothing you can do about the rain but to let it fall. So just expect God to rain His blessings on you! Let them fall! And you will be blessed with more than enough, so that with your needs and your family’s needs more than met, you can be a blessing to others too! HEBREWS 2:17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. In the Old Testament, the Israelites’ standing as a nation before God was wrapped up in the standing of their high priest. What the high priest was before God, so was the entire nation before God. If the high priest sinned, he brought guilt on his nation, and God would reject the entire nation no matter how law-abiding the people were or how faithful they were in bringing their sacrifices. Conversely, if their high priest was without fault and acceptable to God, God would accept the whole nation even if the people were sinful. Unfortunately, the high priests of Israel often failed because like any human being, they were imperfect. Thank God that today, you and I have Jesus as our High Priest, who is 100 per cent Man and 100 per cent God. As our High Priest, His standing before God is always right. Jesus is always acceptable and pleasing to the Father. Therefore, we can never lose our acceptance with God because as our High Priest, Jesus only brings righteousness on His people. In heaven right now, Jesus our High Priest is seated at the right hand of God the Father. (Romans 8:34) This means that God does not look at you. He looks at Jesus. If Jesus is good, you are good. If Jesus is accepted, you are accepted. If God sees Jesus perfect, then He sees you perfect. If Jesus is righteous, then you are righteous. And we know that Jesus our High Priest is good, accepted, perfect and righteous, which means that that is how God sees us! My friend, you cannot lose your right standing because Jesus Christis your High Priest. To lose your standing, Jesus has to lose His standing first. But we know that we have in Jesus a High Priest who is perfect and who cannot fail. So you need never be afraid or conscious of your faults when you come before God. Because your standing is completely wrapped up in Jesus your High Priest, you can come to God boldly and receive all that you need from Him! GALATIANS 1:15 God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace,
Beloved, you are not an accident with no destiny. God has called you from your mother’s womb. You have a special calling and a destiny in Christ, and it is all by His grace! There are Christians who are called by God to be doctors. But I believe that among them are those separated from their mothers’ wombs for the healing ministry. They are passionate about seeking cures to alleviate the sufferings of humanity. Likewise, I think that there are Christians who are called by God to be teachers in secular schools. But among them are those separated from their mothers’ wombs to be Bible teachers. What gives them tremendous fulfillment is seeing lives saved and transformed under their teaching. What about those famous magicians you see performing tricks on television? They have a love for the mystical and supernatural. If they were to become Christians, they might just become prophets with ministries marked by the miraculous! The apostle Paul knew that he was called from his mother’s womb. He had a misguided passion for God though, as he was persecuting the church, until he had his encounter with Jesus. (Acts 8:3, 9:1–6) If Paul, a terrorist to the early church, could be touched by Christ to become an apostle of grace, what about today’s terrorists who blow up people in the name of their god? For all you know, if they receive Christ, they might just become trailblazers in the kingdom of God! Now, don’t think that your calling has to do with your qualifications, abilities, achievements or even your walk with God. You were called from your mother’s womb by His grace. As a fetus in your mother’s womb, there was not much you could do—good or bad. That is why your calling is all by His grace. And since He has given you a calling, ask the Holy Spirit to help you discern the desires that He has placed in your heart, the passions that drive you in life, and fulfill your calling and destiny in Christ! 1 CORINTHIANS 14:14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
God has given us a powerful prayer gift—praying in tongues, which is not limited by distance, time or head knowledge. When you pray in tongues, you could be praying for your future or even a loved one overseas. You won’t know what you are praying unless God tells you. This is because your “understanding is unfruitful”—your mind is not involved. “But Pastor Prince, I must know what I am praying!” Sometimes, it is better not to know what you are praying. In 1993, I had a long season of praying in the Spirit. If I had known then everything that I was praying in tongues, I would have freaked out! For example, I would have been afraid if I had known that the Holy Spirit was saying, “Father God, in the year 2002, anoint Joseph Prince to preach six messages every week to more than 10,000 people.” That has come to pass. But back in 1993, one service was enough to tire me out! So I thank God that I don’t know what I am praying when I pray in tongues. I simply trust His goodness and pray in tongues for everything that He has planned for me to come to pass in His perfect timing. Beloved, don’t stop praying in tongues just because you don’t know what you are praying. You could be praying for the safety of a loved one in a life and death situation. Especially when you feel an urge to pray because you sense danger, pray! Pray until you sense a release as the burden is lifted. The Holy Spirit will know exactly what is going on, who is in danger and how to pray for deliverance. (Romans 8:27) You may say, “Well, I can just pray in English.” You can, but your prayer will be very limited because you don’t know everything. It is better to pray in tongues because the Spirit knows all things. My friend, you don’t belong to the natural, limited realm. You belong to God who is unlimited! So pray in tongues, and see great things happening for you and through you. |
Ana & Andre Schoonbee God uses us to motivate and encourage the body. Authors
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