Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Rest And Find God’s Grace By Joseph Prince





Rest And Find God’s Grace
By Joseph Prince

Luke 2:40
40And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

The verse says that the grace of God was upon Jesus. The Bible also says that where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. (Romans 5:20) And when you put the two together, you may find yourself asking, “If the grace of God was upon Jesus, does it mean that He sinned?”

No, Jesus did not sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21) So there must be another explanation as to why God’s grace was upon Jesus. There must be another explanation as to why someone can abound in God’s grace even when he has not sinned.

Let’s look at the word “grace” when it is first mentioned in the Bible. Genesis 6:8 says that “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord”. Noah’s name means “rest”. So the verse is telling us that rest found grace. In other words, when you rest, you find grace!

So grace was upon Jesus because His life was a life of rest and trust in His Father. He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself. He can do only what He sees His Father doing.” (John 5:19)

Likewise, grace comes upon you when you rest and trust God. If you have a wayward child, stop nagging at him and trust God to handle the problem. Say, “Jesus, I commit this boy into Your hands. I cannot control him. You can.” If you have a persistent pain in your body, bring it to the Lord. Say, “Jesus, I hand all my worries about this pain to You. You work on the pain.”

“Pastor Prince, what if nothing happens?”

Honestly, if after you have given the matter to Jesus and nothing happens, what can you do? If Jesus Himself can’t do anything about it, do you think you can? But praise God, once the problem is handed over to Jesus, He can and will do a perfect work of taking care of it for you!

So live a life of rest. Have this attitude and tell the Lord, “I can do nothing of myself. I just rest in You Lord and I trust You.” Beloved, what you will see is the grace of God upon you in every situation of your life!

Friday, June 24, 2016

Jesus Gives You Rest By Joseph Prince





Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28, NLT

Jesus Gives You Rest
By Joseph Prince

You don’t need to be a Bible scholar or theologian to understand rest. You just need to be someone who knows Jesus, because it is Jesus who gives you rest!

My friend, perhaps you’re dealing with a challenging physical condition in your body today. And if you are weary, confused and tired because of all your efforts to get healed, just go to Him right now and tell Him, “Jesus, I’m so tired and confused. I’m scared too. Please hold me in Your arms and give me rest.”

You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. You can just cry in His presence. Beloved, He already knows all that you are going through. And the One who bottles your tears will surely rest you and give you peace. He will lift you up and strengthen you until you are full of His shalom-peace—inside and out!


Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Condemnation Is The Root Cause By Joseph Prince





Condemnation Is The Root Cause
By Joseph Prince

Romans 8:1, NASB
1Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

When you have a plant with sickly leaves, it would be foolish to just treat the leaves without knowing the root cause of the problem. Similarly, when “leaves” of sickness, poverty and destructive habits start sprouting in your life, you need to know what the root cause is.

Experts will tell you that it is stress. They may go a little deeper and say that it is fear — fear of the future, of rejection, of loss, of death and so on. But is fear really the root? Or is there something deeper than fear?

The Bible shows us that the most fundamental cause of problems in our lives is condemnation. With condemnation comes fear. Fear then induces stress which brings about the symptoms of the curse.

This is what happened to Adam. Long before he faced poverty, sickness and eventually death, he had stress. Because of his sin, God told him, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.” (Genesis 3:19) Sweat speaks of stress. But before there was stress, there was fear because Adam told God, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:10)

But what made Adam fearful? Adam only feared when, seeing his nakedness, he realized that he had sinned against God. He felt so ashamed and condemned that he hid himself. God then asked him, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11) There was no one else in the garden other than Adam and Eve, so we know that it was probably the devil who told Adam that he was naked.

My friend, condemnation is the root cause of the symptoms of the curse manifesting in your life. That is why you need to know that at the cross, God took all your sins, put them on Jesus and unleashed the full fury of His wrath against them until Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”

All your sins have been completely punished in the body of Christ who was condemned for you. The root cause of all your problems has been dealt with. This means that the devil cannot enforce the curse in your life apart from your receiving condemnation. So come to the place of no condemnation and no sick leaves will sprout in your life!



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