Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat (22 page)
Read Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat Online
Authors: Joseph Prince
Tags: #Religion / Christian Life / Personal Growth, #RELIGION / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth, #Religion / Christian Life / Inspirational
Many people in the world today know the value of real estate, the value of commodities, and the value of publicly traded companies in the stock market, but they don’t know the value of Jesus.
I am so glad that you appreciate the value of our Lord Jesus, which is why you are taking time to read this book that is all about the person of Jesus. The grace revolution is all about unveiling the value of Jesus. When you know the value of Jesus, Who He is, what He has done, and what He is still doing in your life today, you will experience a grace revolution in your life. You will begin to live above every defeat when you have a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus.
When you know the value of Jesus, Who He is and what He has done for you, you will begin to live above every defeat.
People can argue about doctrine, about law and grace, about the confession of sin, about your eternal security, and about different Bible interpretations. But at the end of the day, let me teach you how to test every doctrine, teaching, and scriptural interpretation.
Ask yourself—how is our Lord Jesus valued in this teaching? Does it make you want to worship, praise, and glorify the Lord Jesus with your life? Or does it put more value on you and what you have to perform? Does it cause you to be centered on and occupied with the person of Jesus? Or does it cause you to be centered on and occupied with yourself and whether you have failed or succeeded?
Pastor Prince, are you saying that performance is unimportant?
Absolutely not! I am sharing with you that the key to performance comes by the power of His love, grace, and unmerited favor in your life! You will be able to truly perform when you know you are perfectly loved.
Look at children who are bold, confident, and secure. They come from families that are full of love and affirmation. Families that free them to succeed. These children are not afraid to fail and they stand out in the crowd because they dare to be different for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. They dare to say no to the influences of the world. They are not ashamed when their peers mock their Christian values. At the same time, in an environment of love, grace, and affirmation, the child’s parents are also able to discipline, correct, and guide the child in learning to make good decisions for himself without crushing his spirit.
Some people have the erroneous idea that when you are under grace, there is no correction and every and anything goes. This cannot be further from the truth. Is there correction under grace?
Just ask any of my pastors and they will tell you, “Of course there is!” But the correction is always saturated with love, grace, and wisdom. Is there discipline under grace? Of course there is! All effective discipline and correction is communicated with an abundance of grace, patience, and love.
There are those who argue that if we are indeed always highly favored by the Lord, then there is be no need for Him to correct and to discipline us. My dear friend, let me help you understand it from the perspective of a parent. When my kids do something wrong, Wendy and I certainly correct and discipline them. But in our hearts they are always loved and favored by us even when they have failed and even while being corrected by us.
Why? Simply because they are our children! No matter how they perform, we will always love them and they will always be favored in our hearts. How highly favored they are to us is a matter of their identity, not their performance. It is based on
who
they are and
whose
they are, not what they have or have not done.
In the same way, our state of being loved and favored by our Father in heaven is a result of our identity as the sons and daughters of God through the finished work of Jesus Christ. We can call God our Father and God can call us His children because of what Jesus has done on the cross on our behalf!
As we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,
He will correct, discipline, and guide us. But it is vital for you to know that our Lord will
never
correct us with tragic accidents, sicknesses, and diseases. The Bible says, “For the L
ORD
corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights” (Prov. 3:12
NLT
). In other words, the Lord corrects those whom He highly favors, just as an earthly father would correct a child he loves.
Would a father correct a child in whom he delights by inflicting pain and suffering on that child? Of course not! In the same way, our heavenly Father corrects us not by inflicting pain and suffering but with His Word (see 2 Tim. 3:16). Correction may come through the preaching of His Word, or through godly leaders whom He surrounds you with in a local church, leaders who love you and who care enough to speak into your life.
The truth is, when people know that their heavenly Father loves them, they can receive correction and discipline with gratitude and humility. That is why it is so important for every child of God to experience the grace revolution—to become established in His perfect love and anchored in His unconditional grace toward them. Grace imparts to us the power to perform and to live a life above defeat. Grace is the key to holiness.
When people know that their heavenly Father loves them, they can receive correction and discipline with gratitude and humility.
It is vital that we keep on receiving teaching that is full of the abundance of God’s grace and the gift of righteousness. When you keep receiving teachings on the person of Jesus, you will end up reigning over every defeat, sin, addiction, fear, doubt, and challenge in your life! Value our Lord Jesus accurately in your life and you will be unstoppable.
Let’s go back to what Judas said when he saw Mary worshiping our Lord Jesus with the costly spikenard. He thought it was a waste and said that had the oil been sold, the money could have been used for the poor.
Does that sound familiar to you?
Have you ever been told that reading the Bible is a waste of time? That serving and being engaged in your local church is a waste of time? That bringing your tithes to your church is a waste of money? My dear reader, there will always be such accusatory voices in the world. Why? Because these voices do not understand the value of our Lord Jesus. Much like Judas.
Judas certainly did not understand the value of Jesus. Some time after he had berated Mary for wasting the perfume on Jesus instead of selling the oil and giving the proceeds to the poor, Judas went to the chief priests in Jerusalem and asked for a price for him to deliver Jesus to them. They offered him thirty pieces of silver and instantly he agreed without negotiating for more. Judas probably thought that the amount was more than fair and that it was a good deal for him. Just for a paltry sum of thirty pieces of silver, he was willing to betray Jesus to the priests. That tells us precisely how much Judas Iscariot valued our Lord Jesus.
Pastor Prince, how can you say that thirty pieces of silver is a paltry sum? It would be worth a lot of money at today’s trading prices.
Well, perhaps you might be able to buy many things today with thirty pieces of silver. But the person of our Lord Jesus?
Priceless.
Mary understood the value of our Lord implicitly. Because she
esteemed Jesus so greatly, anointing Him with her most valuable possession was simply an outward representation of just how much she loved, valued, and cherished our Lord Jesus inwardly. What Judas Iscariot saw as waste, Mary saw as worship.
Do you know what the last recorded words of Judas Iscariot were? He took the thirty pieces of silver, threw it at the chief priest, and cried out in despair, “I have betrayed innocent blood.” Then he went out and committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree. It was a very sad and tragic end for one who didn’t value the person of Jesus.
The truth is, Judas Iscariot did not have to hang himself on that tree; our Lord Jesus was on His way to hang on another tree (the cross) for the sins of the whole world, so that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)! Judas Iscariot didn’t believe in Jesus. He wasn’t born again and he certainly didn’t value the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He rejected the Lord and his guilt drove him to hang himself.
It is sad to see that there are so many people today who are punishing themselves for their own sins! They live in perpetual guilt and condemnation, punishing themselves and subjecting themselves to self-destructive behavior.
To anesthetize the voices of accusation in their own consciences, many become bound to alcohol, drugs, and all kinds of debilitating substance abuse. They end up living in a state of constant fear, anxiety attacks, sleeplessness, and psychosomatic illnesses.
My friend, that is not the abundant life that Jesus came to give us! He came that you might have life and have it more abundantly. I pray that as you read these pages, you will value our Lord Jesus and all that He has sacrificed on the cross for your forgiveness, your deliverance, your redemption, and your freedom!
You can stop punishing yourself today by receiving the truth that
Jesus took all your punishment when He stood in your place at the cross. Our Lord was punished on the cross so that today you can be healed and made completely whole, body, soul, and spirit!
You can stop punishing yourself today by receiving the truth that Jesus took all your punishment when He stood in your place at the cross.
Let me share with you a really precious testimony I received from Garrett, who lives in South Africa. Unable to find a way out of a downward spiral of addictions and despair, Garrett grew to hate himself to the point where he attempted suicide. Be blessed as you read how his encounter with Jesus and His amazing grace completely turned his life around:
I struggled with depression and despair for years, which led me down a path of self-destruction. During that time, I lost so much in my life—even the people I loved left me. Lost and confused, I moved from place to place, trying to make a better life for myself, but nothing ever worked out.
I married out of vanity, not for love, but out of the marriage came a son whom I love more than life itself. However, due to my unhappiness and bad decision-making, I found myself in a world of drug addiction and alcohol abuse. As a result I lost my job, my wife, and my beloved son.
I had to travel from Ireland to South Africa to see my son. I managed to find a job, but the drugs, alcohol, and despair were stronger than my ability to put things back together. I was a slave to my situation.
Living alone, feeling lonely, and hating what I had become, my mind turned to suicide, but I also failed in that attempt. Then I met a lady named Linda who helped me find my feet, and I slowly moved forward, enduring life and my addictions.
I would cry to God for help, but I didn’t really think that He would help me, or know if He even existed. Nonetheless, I kept looking up and asking.
My relationship with Linda went very badly and it seemed as if we were going to go our separate ways. I thought to myself, “There is no effect in believing in God.” So I asked again, “God, what do You want from me? What is it that I have to do? Where are You? Am I being punished for the way I am… do You really exist?”
I came home to an empty house that night. I sat on the couch, turned on the television to watch the news, but the volume was too high. I pressed a button to turn the volume down, but instead of changing the volume, the television stations started to scroll down, and I came to your TV broadcast. Now, I am not one for listening to Christian television, so I immediately tried to change the channel back to my news channel, but the channel got stuck.
Pastor Prince, at that very instant, you looked into the camera and said, “Perhaps there is somebody here in this service, or watching this on television. Your life is right now being tossed by certain winds. Maybe it is a wind of financial turbulence, maybe it is a storm of sickness that has come into your life. Whatever the winds are, whatever the storm is, I am here to tell you, in the midst of the storm, look out for Jesus.”
I felt like I was being hit by a freight train. I stopped in my tracks and I was freaked out because just a few minutes ago
I was screaming at God for answers. I was certain that God was pointing me somewhere that moment. My body started to tingle and the light in the room started to get brighter. Even though I am not one for having “religious” moments, I was positive that I was having a moment with Christ. That was how real it was, and totally unexpected.
Your sermon changed my world! I had no idea that God could love a person like me after all I had done. The next day, I went out and bought one of your books. I finished it in two days and after reading it, I felt a hunger that I never experienced before, an understanding that I had never grasped. My eyes were opened and I wanted more.
Through your teachings, I am now able to understand the Word of God like never before. I am applying the Word in my life. I am now free! Free to be loved by God because of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am free to hope, free to receive, and free to come to Jesus even when I fail.
Pastor Prince, as a result of the knowledge of Jesus and His amazing grace, I now have no drug addictions, no alcohol dependence, and my relationships are better than ever. My son from my first marriage is prospering. My life of unhappiness and despair is gone. My job is prospering. My heart has changed, my family has expanded (God has blessed Linda and myself with twins—a son and a daughter), and I know our future is secure in Jesus Christ, all because of the message of grace. Hallelujah!
God’s grace in my situation has even overflowed into the lives of my friends, who are now also saved and prospering, thanks to the amazing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and your grace-filled books. I am now full of the Holy Spirit and reigning in life.
Thank you, Pastor Prince! Thank You, Jesus!
What a beautiful testimony and testament to the love and mercy of our Lord Jesus! Garrett, thank you for sharing and encouraging so many with your testimony.
Beloved, perhaps, like Garrett, you’ve been bogged down in the mire of loneliness, discouragement, and self-destruction for what seems like forever. Don’t waste another day in this dark and self-destructive place. Instead worship the One—our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—Who gave up everything and allowed Himself to be spat at, utterly humiliated, brutally beaten, and pierced with heavy nails at the cross for your redemption.
Worship Him, and allow the fragrance of His love and His grace to flood every area of your life. Allow the perfume of His sacrifice to permeate and heal every hurt, every disappointment, and every insecurity. He has already paid the price for you to be whole. He has already paid the price for you to be restored. He has already paid the price for you to come boldly and freely before His throne of grace. Oh, how He loves you! He loves you! He loves you!