Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat (20 page)

Let me encourage you with one such testimony from Javier, a precious brother who lives in Illinois:

My dear reader, whatever you may be facing today, I want to encourage you to heed the words the Father spoke on the Mount of
Transfiguration: “
This is My beloved Son. Hear Him.
” He is no longer demanding from you. Christ has come. He has fulfilled all that the law commands and all that the prophets have spoken (see Matt. 5:17).
Grace has come! Hear HIM.

Take time today to hear the Lord Jesus through anointed preaching and teaching that point you to His finished work that makes you perfectly righteous before the Father. Hear Him reveal His perfect love for you through His Word. As you hear Him and let His words of grace go deep into your heart, you can’t help but be transformed from the inside out to walk in lasting breakthroughs and liberty.

T
he grace revolution is all about Jesus. There is no revolution of grace without the cross. What our beloved Lord Jesus accomplished at Calvary has made all the difference. The cross put an end to the old covenant and kick-started the new covenant of grace. What began on a hill in Jerusalem is now a revolution that has spread to the ends of the earth. Today the gospel of grace is preached with power, boldness, and authority like never before.

It’s been almost two decades since the Lord first spoke to me about preaching the gospel of grace. He said to me, “If you don’t preach grace radically, lives will not be radically blessed and radically transformed.” These words He spoke to me while I was on vacation with Wendy in the Swiss Alps are forever etched in my heart.

They have defined my life, my ministry, and my church. As the Lord has promised, we are seeing so many precious lives gloriously transformed by the bold preaching of the gospel of grace. Instead of running away from God, people are falling in love with Jesus all over again. Instead of living in the bondage of sin, precious people are being liberated from the chains of addiction. And instead of living
with perpetual guilt, condemnation, and judgment, people are living with greater joy, peace, and assurance of their righteousness in Christ.

This is what the grace revolution is all about! It is a revolution of God’s amazing love. A revolution of favor, a revolution of restoration, and a revolution of people’s lives transformed by a powerful encounter with our Lord Jesus.

The grace revolution is a revolution of relationship. The old covenant of law was about rules, religion, and regulations. The new covenant of grace is all about relationship. The old covenant of law created separation between God and His people; the new covenant of grace brings intimacy between God and His children.

Let me take you to see what really happened when the law was given at the foot of Mount Sinai. Before God’s people had even heard the Ten Commandments, they proclaimed, “All that the L
ORD
has spoken we will do” (Exod. 19:8). This statement reflects man’s pride and self-confidence. This is not an indictment against the children of Israel, but against all men who boast they can keep all of God’s laws. When people say that they can keep God’s laws even before they have heard what those laws are, that is putting confidence in the flesh. That is pride.

So at the foot of Mount Sinai, when man boasted in his own self-sufficiency that he would keep God’s laws, God’s tone immediately changed. The Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, “You shall set bounds for the people around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live’” (Exod. 19:12–13).

My dear friend, that’s the law of the old covenant. Just take a moment and imagine you are at the foot of Mount Sinai. See it as it is described in the Word of God: “Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the L
ORD
descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly” (Exod. 19:18). This is the setting where the Ten Commandments were given.

It was a terrifying place to be at. Don’t take my word for it; read for yourself. This is all documented for us in the book of Exodus. “Now all the people witnessed the thundering, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, ‘You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die’” (Exod. 20:18–19).

The old covenant of the law was a covenant that was void of relationship. It was a covenant of distance and separation from God. The people, seized by fear, didn’t want God to speak to them. That was (and still is) the effect of the law.

When God’s people presumed on their own righteousness (reflecting the pride in every person’s heart, making them believe they can actually do all that God demands), God unleashed upon them His righteous standards and immediately a division and distance came
between perfectly righteous God and hopelessly sinful man. The law certainly wasn’t God’s best for His people. But since they boasted that they could keep it, God gave it to them for 1,500 years (until Christ came) to show them that they couldn’t and that a covenant based on grace was superior.

From that point on, God’s people grew afraid of Him and pulled away from any relationship with Him, asking Moses to communicate with Him on their behalf. That’s the context of the giving of the old covenant of the law. It was not founded upon a relationship but on separation from God.

Unfortunately, there are people today who believe that we are still under the old covenant and that man is made righteous by the keeping of the Ten Commandments. They preach from Mount Sinai and their preaching is full of the thundering, lightning flashes, smoke, fire, and rumblings of Mount Sinai. Have you heard them before? I believe many of them are sincere, well-intentioned, and honest people. But one can be sincere, well-intentioned, and honest but still sincerely wrong.

I believe our teaching of God’s Word cannot be evaluated purely by virtue of sincerity; it needs to be evaluated on the basis of our treatment of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. I believe with all my heart that God honors you according to how you honor His Son.

Exalt the name of Jesus and you will be exalted. Promote the person
of Jesus and you will be promoted. Elevate the work of Jesus and you will be elevated. Preaching that man is made righteous by his keeping of the Ten Commandments in reality negates and shows we do not value, or have no understanding of, what our Lord Jesus’ sacrifice accomplished for us at Calvary.

The Word of God tells us that “if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace” (Gal. 5:4
NLT
). In another translation it says, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (
KJV
).

I don’t know about you, but as for me, my family, and my church, we don’t want Christ to become of no effect to us. When our loved ones are sick, we want all of Christ’s healing power to be of effect to us! Amen.

Don’t fall from grace and attempt to make yourself right with God by the law. Stop rejecting, fighting, and shoving away God’s grace. I pray that even as you are reading this, you are allowing His love, grace, and power to lift you up from every defeat you are experiencing.

My friend, God loves you more deeply than you realize. He values, treasures, and loves you. It is time to let go of your own works and allow the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to completely revolutionize your life from the inside out.

When Christ is of full effect in your life, that breakthrough you have been believing for shall come to pass swiftly in the name of Jesus.
That destructive addiction you have been battling for years will come crumbling down and no longer have a grip on your life. That health condition you have been trying to beat shall be no more, and I pray for you that you receive supernatural healing right now in your body.

I declare that by His stripes, you are completely healed in the name of Jesus. Cancer and all terminal diseases have no hold over the body of the person reading this right now. I speak health, healing, longevity, and wholeness in Jesus’ mighty name. May your youth be renewed like the eagle’s, and may you be satisfied with the promise of long life and good days in Jesus’ name. Amen and Amen!

As I was writing this, God’s spirit of faith to believe with you for your healing and health just arose in me. We have a miracle-working God and He can go above and beyond anything the doctors might have said about your condition, so let’s lean in to His love, His grace, and His peace. May His healing power be of full effect in your body, in Jesus’ name!

I can’t wait to hear from you about what God has done in you, so be sure to write to me at www.josephprince.com/testimony. I look forward to rejoicing and praising the Lord with you.

If you want true liberty and stability in life, it’s important you build your life on the right foundation. Everything proceeds from the right foundation. Build your life on the wrong foundation and you will find yourself easily shaken when the storms of life hit. But build your life on the right foundation and you will be like the man who built his house on the rock—unshakable and rock-solid in the face of adversities.

If you build your foundation on Mount Sinai, you are building
on a foundation that breeds fear and insecurity in your relationship with God. In the end you are building on a foundation that feeds your sense of separation from God. How then are you going to find the confidence to go to Him and expect to find the hope and help you need from Him?

There are many still camped on the old mountain of Sinai, preaching the law and thinking that this is what will bring people closer to God and give them confidence in their Christian walk. Unfortunately, the opposite happens. The children of Israel were filled with fear at the smoke, the darkness, the quaking, and the lightning when the law was given at Mount Sinai, and couldn’t wait to flee from God. The same thing happens in the hearts of people when they hear about and see only a God of condemnation, judgment, and wrath. Instead of running
to
God, they run
from
Him. Instead of experiencing intimacy with the Lord that gives them strength and changes them from the inside out, they experience separation and distance that drive them deeper into destructive behaviors with no hope of freedom.

My dear reader, I want to announce to you today that God has moved mountains. He is no more on Mount Sinai. Because of the cross of Jesus, where His wrath for all our sins was poured out, God has moved to Mount Zion, the mountain of grace, the place of reconciliation, relationship, and closeness with His people.

In the Psalms alone, you will find many Scriptures about how God loves and has chosen Zion, and will bless those on Zion:

Look at the last Scripture. It is Mount Zion, and not Mount Sinai, that cannot be removed. It remains forever! What does this mean? If you establish your life on Mount Zion, you will enjoy stability. If your blessings and breakthroughs come from Mount Zion, they will last!

In the New Testament, it is clear which mountain we are supposed to have both feet planted firmly on:

According to this Scripture, Mount Sinai is a place of “blackness and darkness and tempest.” In contrast, what do you find on Mount Zion? You find the city of the living God, an innumerable company of angels, and the church. The living God sits enthroned on Mount Zion, not Mount Sinai.

Do you want angels to watch over you and your family? Come to Mount Zion, where you’ll find an uncountable number of angels! Do
you want to experience what church life is supposed to be like? Then come to Mount Zion, where God as “the Judge of all” judges you righteous and perfect in Christ our Lord!

Why can God judge us righteous and perfect on Mount Zion? It is only because of the sacrifice and finished work of His Son, Jesus. The Hebrew word for Zion is
Tsiyown
, which means “parched place.”
¹
A parched place is a place that has been made dry or burned by intense heat. Can you see how Mount Zion speaks of Mount Calvary, the place where Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God, was burned by God’s fiery indignation against all our sins? Mount Zion typifies the finished work of our Lord Jesus at the cross.

The thunder and lightning—tangible symbols of God’s judgment—at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai fell on our Lord Jesus at the cross. A divine exchange took place there. He was burned and parched so that we can have the well of living waters in us, springing up into everlasting life (see John 4:14). He was punished so that we can be blessed (see Gal. 3:13–14). He was made sin so that we can be made righteous (see 2 Cor. 5:21). He was made poor so that we can be abundantly provided for (see 2 Cor. 8:9). Beloved, the reason you and I can stand righteous before God on Mount Zion and enjoy every blessing of redemption is that we are standing in the finished work of Christ! Hallelujah!