Category: Joseph Prince

Before Jesus went back to heaven, He told His disciples to “wait for the Promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4). There are thousands of promises in the Bible, so which promise was He referring to?

The early church knew which promise Jesus was referring to because He had told His disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the Promise of the Father, which you have heard Me speak. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:4–5). Jesus was referring to the baptism in the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues (see Acts 2:1–4).

Jesus wants you to know the value of the Promise of the Father because He said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me…” He did not say, “You shall do witnessing,” but “You shall be witnesses.” In other words, your very person will be a witness to Him!

This is because the power you receive when you are baptized in the Holy Spirit is the same power that so anointed Peter that the sick were laid on the streets for his shadow to fall on them and heal them (see Acts 5:15). Even handkerchiefs and aprons from Paul’s body were so saturated with the anointing of the Spirit that when they touched the sick, people witnessed diseases and evil spirits leaving the sick (see Acts 19:12)!

That same power caused a Holy Spirit-baptized church member, who prayed in tongues, to experience God’s healing power when he laid hands on his mother, who was in an advanced stage of cancer. And because she was healed, she became a witness of the love and power of God to her friends and unbelieving relatives.

Beloved, when you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, you will be a witness to others that no problem, trial, disease, or sickness is a match for the power of the Spirit in you!

-Joseph Prince

God promised Abraham that he would be the heir of the world. Now, don’t be too quick to say, “Well, that promise was made only to Abraham and not me.” The verse says, “For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” So the promise was not just made to Abraham, but to “his seed” as well, that is, you and I who belong to Christ—“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).

Notice that God did not say that you would be the heir of the country you are living in, but heir of the world! The Greek word for “world” here is kosmos, which means the universe as well as the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments, advantages and pleasures. All these are yours to inherit through the righteousness of faith in Jesus and His finished work at the cross. This righteousness is given to you as a gift from God, so you don’t have to earn it through good works.

For God to fulfill His promise, He has to prosper you. You can’t be the heir of the world and be in lack or in debt! Not only that, He must keep you healthy because you can’t inherit the world when you are sick and always flat on your back.

Don’t listen to people who tell you that you will only get to enjoy these blessings when you get to heaven one fine day. Why would you need riches in heaven? There, even the streets are made of pure gold (see Revelation 21:21). And why would you need healing in heaven? There is no sickness there. So you need the health and provision in the here and now!

Beloved, God wants you to be the heir of the world today. So lay hold of your rich inheritance today. Jesus paid for it with His blood. Don’t push it all to the sweet by and by!

-Joseph Prince

In Israel, Jews greet each other with the words “shalom, shalom.” Unlike the English word “peace,” “shalom” does not just mean peace of mind, but also wholeness for your entire being—spirit, soul, and body. It means having a sense of completeness and soundness. In other words, shalom encompasses your provision, health, and total well-being.

When Jesus spoke to His disciples in John 14:27, He did not use the English word “peace.” He would have used the Hebrew word “shalom,” saying, “Shalom I leave with you, My shalom I give to you…” Interestingly, the word “leave” here actually means “bequeath,” the way a rich man bequeaths his estate to his beneficiary.

The disciples must have been excited when they heard that Jesus was bequeathing them His shalom. They must have known that to receive His shalom was to have His health because they had never seen Him sick. To have His shalom also meant never being in lack because He was never broke. Whenever He needed money, money was there. Once, money to pay the temple tax came in the mouth of a fish (see Matthew 17:24–27)!

The disciples also understood that having Jesus’ shalom meant having His abundance because they had seen Him meeting the needs of thousands with plenty of leftovers. They saw him feeding 5,000 men (not counting the women and children) with 12 baskets full of leftovers (see Mark 6:34–44)!

Jesus wanted His disciples to know that His peace was different from the peace that the world offers. His peace would change whatever trying circumstances that beset them. Even if it were a mega-storm, it would have to bow to His peace. The Prince of Peace merely spoke, “Peace, be still!” and the winds and the sea obeyed Him (see Mark 4:39). His peace changed the mega-storm into a perfect calm.

Beloved that is the kind of peace that Jesus has bequeathed to you. Therefore, believe that His shalom which He has left with you will change all your difficult situations, bringing you from sickness, lack, and mental anguish to health, provision, and total wellness!

-Joseph Prince

Most of us are familiar with the healing of the leper in Matthew 8. It is a beautiful account of God’s willingness to touch and heal the sick, no matter how unclean they may be. Whenever we doubt God’s desire to heal us, we should listen to the words of Jesus again: “I am willing; be cleansed.” He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Since the Bible is clear about God’s willingness to heal, why do we still have problems with our health? Why do we still experience symptoms in our bodies?

I believe that the answer is found in what Jesus told the leper to do next. He told him to go and show himself to the priest (see Matthew 8:4). This was the law than for lepers who were healed (see Leviticus 14:2–3). And he was to hear the priest pronounce the word “clean” over him (see Leviticus 14:7).

You see, as believers, when we received Jesus, His blood cleansed us from sin as well as sickness (see Isaiah 53:4–5). But we keep hearing people pronounce sin, sickness, poverty, and death over us. We keep hearing people tell us that we are unclean, undeserving, poor, weak and that it is only natural that we grow old and sickly and die.

God is waiting for a priesthood that will rise and pronounce His people clean!

“But Pastor Prince, where can I find such priests?”

Who are the priests today? You and I! We have more authority to pronounce good things than the Levitical priests of the Old Testament. They were just priests. But we are king-priests by the blood of Jesus (see Revelation 1:5–6)! Where the word of the king is, there is power (see Ecclesiastes 8:4). And by the word of a priest, every controversy and every assault shall be settled (see Deuteronomy 21:5).

Beloved, God has cleansed you, so pronounce yourself clean! Right now, put your hand on your heart and declare good things over yourself. Say, “I pronounce myself clean, righteous, healed, whole, and abundantly supplied by the blood of Jesus!” By your word as a king-priest, every assault against you shall be settled!

-Joseph Prince

Sometimes, we think that the increase or success which we enjoy is the result of our own efforts or hard work. Now, I am not advocating laziness, but the truth is that God is the one behind our increase.

We see this truth when we read the story of Ruth, a young widow from Moab, who worked as a gleaner in a barley field from morning till evening. Now, we could attribute the entire ephah—a substantial 10-day supply—of barley she collected at the end of the day to her hard work. After all, she did work all day in the field.

But when we read about how Boaz, the owner of the field, had secretly told his reapers to “let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean” (Ruth 2:16), we know that it was because of Boaz’s intervention that Ruth ended up with so much.

I believe that Jesus, our heavenly Boaz, does the same thing for us today. He causes people to favor us and “drop” blessings on us because He loves us. Then, He causes us to “pick up” these blessings. Often, it happens so seemingly naturally we forget that it is the Lord who has blessed us with the increases.

A church member who runs a florist business shared that once, God caused someone who needed a lot of flowers to “drop” a huge order with her. She also shared that she was hardly making any money even though she had been working hard for many years. But when she became a Christian after coming to our church, she began to confess every day that God’s favor was on her. Within a few weeks, that big order worth S$14,000 came in. Only God could have given her such a supernatural increase.

My friend, your hard work is not behind your increase. The Bible tells us that it is “God who gives the increase.” He is the one who is behind your increase, and He delights in blessing you because He loves you!

-Joseph Prince

What laws was God referring to when He said, “I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts”? He was certainly not referring to the Ten Commandments, known as the laws of the old covenant since He said that He found fault with that covenant and declared it obsolete (see Hebrews 8:7–9, 13).

The laws that God puts in our minds and writes on our hearts refer to the royal law of love (see Matthew 22:37–40), the perfect law of liberty (see James 1:25), and the law of faith (see Romans 3:27). These are the laws of the new covenant.

You live according to the laws of the new covenant when you are conscious of how much God loves you. And the more you are conscious of His love for you; the more your heart is filled with love. When that happens, you will love God and the people around you supernaturally and effortlessly. That is God writing on your heart the royal law of love—that we love because He first loved us (see 1 John 4:19).

Secondly, when you know that you are perfectly accepted by God because of Jesus’ sacrifice, you can have the courage and liberty as a child of God to come boldly into the presence of your heavenly Father. And in His presence, He can write on your heart new desires. You will find yourself wanting to do the right thing at the right time. You will live life victoriously from the inside out. This is the perfect law of liberty operating in your life.

Thirdly, when you sense what God is writing on your heart and putting in your mind, and as your faith is activated causing you to trust Him and His love for you, He calls it obeying the law of faith. When that happens, whatever you believe, you receive it!

My friend, God, has made it easy—and you will find that it is exciting—to live life under the new covenant!

-Joseph Prince

I don’t know about you, but I am not satisfied with just knowing that I am righteous by faith. I also want to get to know the One who made me righteous. I want to have an intimate relationship with my Savior!

Abraham was such a man. He was righteous by faith, but he also had a close walk with God and was blessed by God in all things (see Genesis 24:1). His nephew Lot, on the other hand, although righteous too (see 2 Peter 2:7–8), had no heart for God. He ended up losing a lot when Sodom, the city he dwelt in, was destroyed along with Gomorrah. He was saved by the skin of his teeth!

My friend, do you want to be a Christian like Lot, righteous but always finding yourself in trouble, or do you want to be a righteous-and-blessed Christian like Abraham? Then, like Abraham, have a heart for God.

From place to place, Abraham would build an altar to the Lord. And in between altars, he grew very rich (see Genesis 13:2)! There is no biblical record, however, of Lot ever building an altar to the Lord.

What is an “altar” in today’s context? It is a place where you know that you have a close relationship with God. For example, when my late father was in the hospital, I was worried and did not know what to do. I remember driving down the road and crying. After a while, I just threw my cares to the Lord. When I reached the hospital, I just laid my hands on my father and said, “Be healed in Jesus’ name.” And he was healed!

Till today, I can remember the place where I had cast my cares to the Lord and leaned on His love for me. That is my “altar.” And it is not the only one.

We have got to have this kind of relationship with God, one full of “altars” that remind us of His love, goodness, and faithfulness. Let’s not live the Christian life like Lot, saved by the skin of our teeth. Let’s walk closely with God as Abraham did, and be richly blessed in every area of our lives!

-Joseph Prince

God wants us to walk as wise men and women, and not as fools (see Ephesians 5:15). Now, He will not tell us to walk in wisdom without showing us how. That is why His Word goes on to say, “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

So what is the will of God? The next two verses tell us how to identify it: “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord ” (Ephesians 5:18–19).

As you allow yourself to be filled with the Spirit by lifting songs of praise to the Lord, singing or speaking (God knows some of us can’t sing!) psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and making melody in your heart to the Lord, God promises that you will know what His will is for your situation. You will then have the wisdom to decide wisely what to do next.

I have found this to be true in my own life. Whenever I face a difficult situation, the more I think about it, the more confused I get. The more I try my best to come up with a smart solution, the further the answer seems to get from me. But when I turn away from my problem and turn to God, singing in the Spirit and praising Him, I get a clearer perspective of the problem when I come back to it later. I also find an inner prompting to make certain decisions which in the end, turn out to be better than anything I could have come up with on my own.

So my friend, lift up songs of praise to the Lord, whether times are good or bad. For when you fill your mouth with praises to God, He will lead you and guide you in all the affairs of your life. Even if you are stuck with a problem, He will show you the way to go or make a way out for you. Either way, you will get the wisdom and help that you need!

-Joseph Prince