Category: Joseph Prince

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!

-Joseph Prince

How much power is working in you right now? God’s Word says that there is “power that works in us.” It is a tremendous power that shakes the heavens and the earth because it comes from the throne of God, “who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”! The problem, however, is that many of us don’t release that power.

God wants us to release that power because there are things that will not happen on earth until we do so. Jesus said that “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). What Jesus is saying is that what you permit to happen, heaven will permit. What you disallow, heaven will disallow!

So how do we release God’s power in us? One way is to pray in tongues. When we allow His Spirit to make intercession for us (see Romans 8:26), miracles happen.

Some time ago, the aunt of a church member underwent surgery to remove a diseased kidney. In spite of the surgery, the prognosis was poor. At home, the church member and his wife were prompted by the Spirit to release the power that works in them by praying in tongues for their aunt.

Back at the hospital, the aunt underwent further observation. When an X-ray of her abdominal area was taken, the doctor was shocked to find two healthy kidneys. Five other doctors were consulted who subsequently examined the aunt. At first, they thought that the surgeon who had performed the operation had made a mistake and did not remove the diseased kidney. But further investigation showed that the kidney had indeed been removed. They could not explain what had happened.

But the church member and his wife needed no explanation because they knew that when they released the power that worked in them, God did exceedingly abundantly above all that they could ask or think—He gave their aunt a new kidney.

Beloved, He can do the same for you when you pray in the Spirit and release the power that works in you!

When you are faced with a big challenge, do you automatically look for the most powerful means to solve the problem? Well, my friend, that is not thinking the way God thinks. The Bible tells us that it pleases God to use what the world considers weak, foolish, base and despised to bring to nothing things which are mighty.

“What is that in your hand?” God asked.

“A rod,” Moses said. And with that rod, he performed miracles and confounded the might of Pharaoh.

“Five loaves and two fish,” a little boy said. And with that little boy’s lunch, Jesus fed 5,000 men, and his disciples gathered 12 baskets full of leftovers.

“The jawbone of an ass,” Samson said. And with that, he slew a thousand Philistines, who were the enemies of God’s people.

“Five stones and a sling,” said David the shepherd boy. And with one of his stones and the sling, he brought down Goliath, the mighty Philistine champion.

At a recent conference for Hokkien-speaking pastors, Pastor Mark, our Hokkien and Mandarin services pastor, realized how his spoken Hokkien pales in comparison to the refined and flawless Hokkien spoken by the other pastors there. Yet, it pleases God to use Pastor Mark’s colloquial Hokkien to lead many dialect-speaking folks, especially the elderly, to Christ.

Many of these elderly folks are testifying that for the first time in their lives, they are set free completely from fears of debilitating diseases, loneliness, deep-rooted superstitions, generational curses, the ravages of old age and even death.

My friend, don’t despise what seems weak and insignificant to the world. God can use them to bring down the giants in your life!

-Joseph Prince

Have you ever tried to break a bad habit on your own? You probably found that when you wanted to stop it by sheer willpower, you saw improvement for a while, and then bounced back to square one. Worse, you found yourself binging on the very thing that you were trying not to do. And your condition is worse than before you started your “I’m going to quit” program!

The changes were temporary because it was you doing it.

A church member who had been a chain-smoker used to believe that with willpower, he could quit smoking. He would tell himself, “If there is a will, there is a way!” But he discovered that with willpower, he could stop smoking for a week or two, and then he would succumb to the pull of nicotine again.

When he turned his life over to God and learned about God’s grace, he told God, “I realize that I cannot stop smoking. I cannot, but You can break my habit, Lord.” And every time he lit up, he would say, “Lord, I am trying to stop smoking, but I cannot. I am trusting You.” He would even say, “I am still righteous because of Jesus’ blood.”

Well, in the very same year, all his cravings to smoke vanished! When asked how he succeeded, he would say, “It is entirely God and none of me! It is all by His grace.” This man lost all the desire to smoke. That is a true transformation.

When you receive the grace of God to do for you what you cannot do, you will experience easy and permanent change on the inside, which in turn changes your actions on the outside. The Bible tells us that God works in us to give us both the will and ability to perform what He desires. It is God who removes the old want to’s and gives us new ones. And He even provides us with the power to carry them out!

Beloved, look to His grace to do what you cannot do. Say, “Lord, I cannot, but You can!” Then, what you experience will not merely be behavior modification, but real and lasting inward transformation!

Imagine the perfection of Jesus covering you from head to toe in the sight of God every moment of the day. Does that sound like a dream? My friend that is your reality today because Jesus became your burnt offering at the cross.

In the case of the burnt offering, when the offerer lays his hand on the animal sacrifice (see Leviticus 1:3–4), the perfection and beauty of the unblemished sacrifice are transferred to him, and God understands and accepts him in the perfection of the animal.

In Hebrew, the word “accepted” implies being treated with favor, delight, and acceptance. This means that you, for whom Jesus became a burnt offering, are treated by God with favor, delight, and acceptance because the beauty and perfection of Jesus have been transferred to you. As your burnt offering, Jesus has made atonement for you on your behalf.

Jesus is your atonement or covering for sin. How precious Jesus is to the Father is how precious you are to the Father because when the Father sees you, He sees Jesus, your atonement, your covering.

So every day, take Jesus as your burnt offering. Come to God and say, “Father, I thank You that Jesus is my burnt offering. He covers me from head to toe with His righteousness. I thank you, Father, that You see me without spot or wrinkle. You see me covered in all the value and perfection of the work of Your Son. What He is to You, I am. Who He is to You, I am. As He is now, so am I. I am in Him” (see 1 John 4:17)!

Jesus has you covered. You don’t appear before the Father with all your faults and shortcomings. Jesus proclaims to you what is right with you in spite of what is wrong with you because He has covered you with His perfection. Today, hear Him telling you, “Go, girl! I have you covered. There is nothing for you to worry about!” Hear Him saying to you, “Go for it, son! I am covering you. There is nothing for you to fear!”

-Joseph Prince