The Divine Exchange:

This is only part of (Sermon # 176 Part 1 of 3) Why you can expect good things to happen to you, by Jo.seph Prin.ce:

“Today I want to share with you something that is a culmination of all that we have heard the past few months.  What is the attitude that we ought to have?  If God has made us righteous through Jesus’ blood, what is the attitude we ought to have?

What is our lot in life?  Since Adam fell, the consequences of the fall, the effects of Adam’s sin, has brought in all the D’s, you know, destruction, disease, death, depression…  It’s come upon men, now, man is you and I, the ground we stand on is called cursed ground, it’s like there is a cloud over your head and it’s raining all the time.  You know, everywhere he goes, the rain follows him…  It’s like he is always under depression.

What happened was that God loved us so much, that God could not leave us in this state, of death…  God sent His Son Jesus.  What was the purpose of sending Jesus?  No listen carefully, God sent Jesus to take our place – what does that mean?  That is actually half the gospel – Many places we are only hearing half the gospel.  In my previous church I heard for many years only half the gospel – how Jesus died for my sins, how Jesus came as my redeemer, as my saviour, but the Bible says that when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, God brought them out to bring them in.   God didn’t bring them out to wander in the wilderness.  God brought them out of bondage to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey.  Many believers are out but they are not in…They are wondering, wandering in the wilderness…  So, they are not here, nor there…

This is half the gospel – that Jesus took our place – the other half is this:  that God put everything that you deserve – now if we stop right now… There is no end to what you and I deserve, we can say that depression, failure, poverty, curse, everything…  Because of Adam’s sin and our sin, everything that you and I deserve, Jesus came to take.  The other half is – all that Jesus deserves – you take…

In a covenant it is called an exchange – where the two parties will take each other’s place.  This is what happens in a covenant, Jesus takes our place and we take Jesus’ place, now listen carefully, now you are no more on cursed ground.

This is what happened to Jesus at the cross:  All that you deserve, Jesus became, and God did not even spare His Son, because if He (Jesus) took our place He had to suffer like a sinner, He had to die and He never sinned – he never was a sinner.  So God gave Jesus everything that you deserve – did Jesus become sin because he sinned?  Did you become righteous because you did righteous deeds?  No!  How did Jesus become sin?  He received our sin – how did you and I become righteous?  We received His righteousness.

Christianity is not what you renounce or what you do, because all of this still speak of self… It is not what you renounce or what you do, Christianity is what you receive…   Salvation begins when you receive.  Christian life is continued by receiving.

Now, what happens is this:  Many Christians are on Jesus’ ground, favoured ground, grace ground, the light shines on you, while darkness fell on Jesus…  God turned His back on Jesus, so that God can face you and never leave you or forsake you, in the countenance of God is life and light forever more and His presence is joy.  The Bible tells us in the Old Testament that the back of God is the curse, in fact there is a verse that says sickness, and inflammation is behind Him, I think it tells you that in the book of Job.  So God turned His back and Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He cried this so that you and I know that he was forsaken at the time, and He called His Father for the first time, “My God.”   He never called Him, “My God,”  it was always, “My Father,”  so that you and I can call God, “Father…”

The divine exchange took place – this is how much God loves you and me.  God loves us so much that God gave Jesus to take everything that we have, but don’t forget that is half of it, so that we can take everything that He has and that He deserve.  Now because of what Jesus has done, listen carefully, you and I, we are on grace ground…  Are you supposed to bow your head, look depressed, look sad, and expect bad things to happen?  No!  If you still expect bad things to happen, if you are still depressed, if you still act like God doesn’t love you, doesn’t care for you, you are actually pushing away all that Jesus did for you.  You are still saying that, “I am the old person,” when actually the divine exchange took place, and this is where most Christians are missing it.  Most Christians miss it right here!  They look at Jesus and say, “O, Jesus you died for my sins, O, Jesus you are my saviour, O, Jesus you are so good, so lovely…”  But then they do not know what has happened to them.

They are standing on grace ground, where ever you go is favoured ground, you can be walking with a colleague, side by side at the workplace, but the guy is on cursed ground and you are on favoured ground, and the favour of God is with you everywhere you go.  So God told me to tell you this, He wants you to have this attitude towards life, even this coming week, there is a word that He is going to give you in a while’s time, but the main thing is this, He wants you to face life believing that everything that Jesus deserves, you will get.  It will be good for you to take time, today if you can, to take time to think, “If God really treats me the way that He treats Jesus, what can I expect to face this week?”  You know, you and I, we do not know what is going to happen, we can say, Pastor Prin.ce no one knows what is going to happen in the future.  Correct!  But I can tell you my future; I will get whatever Jesus deserves.  This week I will get whatever Jesus deserves…  “Are you saying that there will be no trouble in your life?”  No, even when trouble comes, because Jesus deserves deliverance from trouble, peace in the midst of trouble, I will get that.

“Pastor Prince, I don’t think you are that smart to receive this kind of success, this kind of church success and your career success…”  You know what, I agree 101% with you, but you know what?  It’s not what I deserve, it’s what Jesus deserves.  Do you think Jesus deserves this kind of success?  Well, he gives me what He deserves…

So once you think like that, once you focus like that, the devil has nothing on you.  The devil wants you to focus on what you deserve, do you understand?  You see this is the word God told me to give you, write it down somewhere, you know the things of God are simple but powerful, this is what God said;  “Tell the people, expect good things to them, not because they deserve it, but because I love them.”  Once again, “Expect good things to happen to you, not because you deserve it, but because God loves you.”

You see if you think you deserve it because today you are extra holy, allright, you gave money to the poor or you went to do some charitable work or you got involved with more work in church or whatever…  You think you are extra holy, you know something, the devil will find something wrong and he will pull that little string and the whole thing will unravel.  But…  You say that; “It’s not because I deserve it that I expect good thing to happen this week, it’s because Jesus loves me…  God loves me,” you know what?  The devil has nothing to pull, when it’s God’s love in your life.  Amen?  Praise the Lord!”

Read Full Post »

God Sees You As Righteous!

I said in my last post that there are some awesome messages that I want to share with you.  Here is the first one on righteousness by Jo.seph Prin.ce, sermon # 26 Enjoy Abraham’s Blessings in your life:

“The other day I was reading about the covenant that we are under – the New Covenant, in the book of Hebrews and I came to this particular verse that says; “A covenant is not enforced until the death of the testator,” the covenant victim, right?

You know your grandfather could be a multi millionaire, let’s say he puts something to your name in his will, you will receive nothing, even though your name is there, until he dies.  Right?  So the Bible says a covenant is in force, or we can say enforced in your life, only when there is a death.  So every time you partake of the Lord’s Supper, the Bible says you proclaim what?  The Lord’s death.  So in actuality you are saying to the powers that be that the covenant is in force in my life.  You are declaring to heaven as well, that the covenant is in force in my life.  So the covenant of God includes healing, wholeness, prosperity and well being for your entire family!  Praise the Lord!

We want to take off on where left off not too long ago when I preached on 2 Corinthians 5:17, so let’s look at this passage right now, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21:  “¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  Once you believe in Christ you are a brand new creation – smile to your neighbour and say; “New creation, are you?”  Look at somebody else on the other side and say; “I am a brand new creation, how about you?” Do you all still remember the sharing on the new creation? “¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,” Not condemnation.  “¹⁹ that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the Word of reconciliation.”

Do you know something; the world has not heard Christian preachers as a whole telling them; “God is not mad at you, God is not angry with you, God is not counting your sins against you!  God sent His Son to die for you.  It was while you were still a sinner that Christ died for you.  God loved you when He saw you at your worst – God sent His Son while you were still a sinner.  God is very clear – He has given us the ministry of reconciliation, not condemnation, and the word is this:  God is not imputing their trespasses to them.  God is not counting their sins against them.  Now they are not saved, your relatives are not saved, those that don’t believe in Christ, those that don’t know about  the wonderful gospel that we believe in, the wonderful good news from heaven, they do not know Jesus, they are not saved, but God is not counting their sins against them.  You know something; they need to hear us telling them, God is not counting your sins against you.  Come home, come home.  Why settle for pig food, swine food, when the father’s house have bread enough and to spare!  Amen?  Why settle for people who love you for what you can give them, the moment you have nothing to give them they also leave.  Come back to the Father’s house where his love is unconditional, He will hug you while you still smell like pigs.  He will embrace you; He will lavish you with all His goodness and grace because His love for you is unconditional.  Nothing you do can make God love you more; nothing you do can make God love you less!  God loves you unconditionally.  Hallelujah!  Amen?  And the word we have for the world is that God is not counting your sins against you!  Amen?  Yet, you hardly hear that, but it’s Bible!  “God is not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

“²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us:  we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”  God is not mad at you so why are you mad at God?  God is not holding anything against you, what are you holding against God?  Come home, the Father is waiting for you.  Praise the name of Jesus. It does not matter how much you have failed, you don’t know how much He still wants to give to you, how much He wants to lavish on you, how much He wants to pour His love on you.  God loves you folks!  We need to tell the people in the world; “look the good news is that God is not counting your sins against you, the death of His Son is a declaration that God loves you, instead of punishing you for your sins, God took your sins and put it on Jesus Christ and God punished His Son for your sins, so that God will never punish you for your sins, because sin cannot be punished twice.  The law of double jeopardy, any crime cannot be tried twice in a court of law, Amen?  Praise the Lord!

“²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  Now the next verse tells us something very powerful of when Jesus hung on the cross: “for God made Jesus who knew no sin…”  How many of you know that Jesus knew no sin, and not only that but Peter says He did no sin, John says in Him is no sin, so:  He knew no sin, He did no sin and in Him is no sin, but the Bible says that He who knew no sin, God made to be sin for us, where?  At the cross.  “… so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  Now, I want to tell you something about righteousness, when you see in the Bible Paul talks about justification by faith… those who are of faith…Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness… all this speaks off faith righteousness, not works righteousness.  Allright?  In the Old Testament you must obey God and obey God in everything, all the 10 Commandments, for you to be righteous.  Allright?  There is none who can do that!  They can’t do it outwardly, they can’t do it in their mind, mentally, or inwardly in their hearts.  Then in the New Covenant that Jesus established for us, you believe what Jesus has done and God counts you righteous.  God says you are holy; you are blameless in my eyes.  Under the Old Covenant, Old Testament prophets will call your sins to your remembrance, but in the New Covenant, the New Covenant prophets call your righteousness in Christ to remembrance.  Amen?  Under the law God says; “I will by no means forget your sins, I will visit your sins to the third and fourth generation,” but under the New Covenant because of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection there is a New Covenant, and God says; “I will by no means remember your sins…” Good news!

We are dealing with a God who is not holding our sins against us, let alone remember them.  Amen?  Somehow good news doesn’t sound like very good news nowadays; it’s very hard to hear good news – the good news of the gospel is this – That God counts you righteous in His eyes, counts you deserving of all His best blessings, counts you worthy off all that He has to give and the abundant life.  Amen?  I know you don’t consider yourself so- you ask yourself the question, but how can I be righteous Pastor Prince?  How can I be righteous if I haven’t done anything righteous?  So we go back to this verse once again – how did Jesus become sin?  Did He do sin to become sin?  No, He did no sin, so how did Jesus become sin?  He received sin at the cross, so how do you and I become righteous?  By doing righteousness?  No, we receive His righteousness.  Amen?  When Jesus received our sin, did God curse Him?  Yes, God did not say; “I know you are my son, you are just carrying their sins, I will not curse you.  No!  The Bible says that Jesus became a curse for us (Gal 3:13), so even though He was carrying our sins, He received our sins, God cursed Him.  By the same token, now that we have received His righteousness, will God bless us?  Or does God say; “Well this is my Son’s righteousness, it’s not your righteousness, I won’t bless you…”  No, no, no.  God will treat you as if you are what you have received.  As Christ was cursed, as sure as He was cursed, I am blessed.  You are blessed.  So we see the divine exchange at the cross is a glorious exchange.  Once you are right with God, then this “righteousness of God in Him,” is a gift, not a reward.  The bible says in Romans 5:17, “if you receive this gift of righteousness, you will reign in life!”  Over sin, over poverty, over disease, over death!  In life, not in death, you will reign in life!  You will be full of life, you will reign in life!  The amplified Bible says; “reign as kings in life.”  I love that.  Amen?  So righteousness is a gift, it’s not a reward for your good performance.  Learn to receive this gift.  How many of you believe you’ve received the gift righteousness?  How many of you are acting like you’ve received the gift of righteousness?

How many of you are acting, you know, when I pray God hears, because why?  I am the righteousness of God in Christ; I have received the gift of righteousness, amen?  When I’m sick, I expect to be healed.  When there is a problem I expect God to see me through.  Some people say, “why do you expect good things to happen to you, there are so many people in Singapore…”  I expect good things to happen to me!  I expect bad things not to happen to me, why?  I am the righteousness of God in Christ!  So it’s one thing to receive it, but do you act like it?  You ought to feel special child of God!  Because God has made you special!  You are not just an ordinary person walking down Orchard Road.  You are a child of God, washed by the blood of Jesus, made righteous in Him, all right?  Qualified to receive the inheritance and you are now a joint heir with Christ, enjoying all the promises and blessings of God.  Amen church?  Its one thing to know and say amen, but it’s another thing to act like it, to ask yourself do I really treat myself like that?  Like I am a righteous person in Christ, or am I still busy trying to make myself righteous?  Am I still trying to earn the blessings of God?

I want to share with you something that I think is very, very powerful because one thing that hinders our righteousness consciousness is sin consciousness.  It seems to me that in many places, one of the things that preachers think is good for the people is that if we can preach sin to the people and make them sin conscious.  People will realise their sin and then they will turn away from their sin.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  To preach sin to the people and to create sin consciousness is the very opposite of what the New Covenant is all about.  The New Covenant is for you to be conscious of your righteousness in Christ.  The apostle Paul to whom God revealed ¾ of the New Testament and the whole gospel of grace, the apostle Paul says I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, or the good news of Christ, for it is the power of God!  The, definite article, the one and only, THE POWER OF GOD unto your salvation, unto your wholeness, unto your prosperity, unto your wellness, unto your wellbeing.  Amen?  In the gospel.  But what is the gospel that Paul preached?  For in that Gospel is the righteousness of God revealed.  It is not the sinfulness of man revealed.  It is the righteousness of God revealed as a gift to you.  Are we hearing that?  We are not hearing the true gospel that Paul preached.

So what is the biggest problem in the body of Christ?  Sin consciousness.  The Bible says the law, let me show you this verse:  Hebrews 10:1-2 (KJV):  “¹  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,  can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.”  See the law is not the good thing to come; the law is a shadow of good things to come.  You know my wife; she loves the idea that I’m carrying her picture with me all the time.  I have a picture with me all the time.  (He takes a picture out of his wallet.)  I have two ladies, this is a beautiful picture of my wife and my daughter, but do you know something?  This is a shadow, this is a picture.  (He kisses the picture.)  Actually what I kiss is paper, right?  Nothing like the real thing.

You know the shadow can never really minister fulfilment to you.  If you are hungry and I put Ken.tucky Fr.ied Chic.ken in a barrel and the light hits the food and you see a shadow on the wall, and I say; ‘help yourself to the shadow while I eat this…”  Trust me, I’ll end up full and you will end up empty and still hungry, right?  So the law is a shadow of good things to come.  Jesus is the substance – so the law and the 10 Commandments are shadows, yet we are preaching the shadows when we actually should preach the substance.  “² For then would they not have ceased to be offered?  Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.”  Your New King James says; “…no more consciousness of sins.”  So what it is saying is this:  If the sacrifices of bulls and goats and lambs in the Old Testament, which typified Christ as the substance – these are just shadows – if these Old Testament sacrifices, if they had worked, the worshipers would not have had sin consciousness.  Now let me ask you – the final sacrifice has come – His name is Jesus Christ – did His sacrifice work?  Drop down to verse 11, same chapter, “¹¹ and every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:”  Every day they offer a sin offering, a goat, every day which can never take ways sins.  You know it’s one thing to hide sin, let me tell you this; if my shirt is dirty, if there is a spot on here, a ink blot or whatever, and I cover it with my jacket – that is called atonement, the Bible uses the word covering, the word atonement means covering.  Now in the Old Testament their sins were atoned by the blood of bulls and goats, but the blood of Jesus in the New has removed…  Nothing like the blood of Jesus and it’s free…  Hallelujah, praise the Lord!  It does not cover, it removes.  Can I have a good amen?  So the Bible says that all the sacrifices can never take away, it only covers…  Cover, cover, cover…  Until Jesus came to take away by His death at the cross.  “¹² But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God;”    But this Man – capital M – after He had offered – how many?  ONE sacrifice! For sins FOREVER!  Sat down at the right hand of God…  Now, why do you sit down?  Because your work is finished.  Now go back to the previous verse again; “…every priest stands daily…” Can you see standing daily?  Do you know why the Old Testament priests never sat down?  Their work is never finished.  They offer repeatedly – “…daily ministering and offering oftentimes…” or repeatedly, but Jesus “…offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down…”  His work is finished.

Now, according to Hebrews 10 verse 2; “For then would they not have ceased to be offered?  Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more consciousness of sins.”  So why is it that we are sin conscious?  Sin consciousness robs you of faith, it robs you of initiative, it robs you of feeling that you are favoured by God; it robs you of the good life that Jesus came to give you!  And yet there are many people that think that the purpose of preaching is to make people sin conscious.    No!  It is to make people Jesus conscious!  So where did this sin consciousness come from?  The gospel is the answer – unfortunately people are thinking of the gospel as a revelation of their sins.  No, no, no – Old Testament prophets call your sins to your remembrance – New Testament prophets calls your righteousness in Christ into your remembrance…  Into your consciousness if you would.  Good news?  Very good news!  We have to live like it, act like it child of God!  Expect when you go outside, that the sun is shining especially for you.  Because I’m telling you everything in the universe moves around the righteous man, the righteous woman.  It says clearly in the book of James that “the effectual and fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”  That is you, that is you!  Your prayers avail much.

So Jesus Himself, listen carefully, He came to be the sacrifice – He didn’t come to be a new law giver.  He came to die for our sins, that one sacrifice for sins forever.  Ok?  So when you’re sin conscious, let me tell you this, you are not where you are supposed to be.  Hello!  You are not where you are supposed to be in God!  God does not want you sin conscious, God wants you Jesus conscious.   God wants you righteousness conscious!”

Read Full Post »

The significance of the cross:

Two nights ago I struggled to get back to sleep after feeding baby G and my mind wandered and I suddenly felt compelled to write a post about the significance of the cross because so few people I know really know the full benefits of Jesus’ sacrifice and the significance of why He had to do it.

First of all I want to start with the basic principle which most Christians understand, but I want to write about it in any case just for those that might come upon this blog who might not be a Christian.

After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God had to make a plan so that their sins could be forgiven.  He already made a perfect plan but that plan could not yet come to pass, so in the mean time animals had to be sacrificed so that mankind’s sins could be forgiven.

Unfortunately they kept on sinning so it was a continuous process of sacrificing animals to pay for the sins.  If someone sinned and he did not sacrifice an animal and he did not repent God had to punish that person, because that is how God works.  God said that there is a punishment for sin, and God cannot go back on His word.  Numbers 23:19 (NIV): “¹⁹ God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?”  Someone had to pay the penalty for the sin –  either the sinner or the sacrificed animal.

Until Jesus came along – He was God’s perfect plan – He was sacrificed on the cross and He had to die, to pay for all the sins of all mankind. It was a perfect sacrifice and the price was paid in full.  So God does not want to punish us anymore, because His entire wrath was taken out on Jesus.  When we think God punishes us today, we actually make Jesus’ sacrifice void, because we are saying it was not good enough to pay for our sins.  We are then rejecting Jesus’ sacrifice and also rejecting Jesus.

Some people are not going to be happy with this, because it might sound like I’m saying that you can go ahead and sin now, since Jesus paid for all our sins (those that we’ve already committed and those that we will still commit) more than 2000 years ago.  I’m not saying that, because there is another consequence to sinning, and that is by giving in to temptation and sinning you are giving authority over to the devil, and by doing that you are allowing him to do things in your life, like for instance make you sick.  That is not the only way of giving authority to the devil – for instance fear, unforgiveness, or speaking negative things over yourself or other people are also ways to do that.

Genesis 15:4-21 (NIV):  “⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to him: This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir. ⁵ He took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars— if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.  ⁶ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. ⁷ He also said to him, I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.

 ⁸ But Abram said, O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I shall gain possession of it? ⁹ So the LORD said to him, Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. ¹⁰ Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. ¹¹ Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 

¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. ¹³ Then the LORD said to him, Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and ill-treated four hundred years. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶ In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. ¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking brazier with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 

¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, ephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

In the Old Testament God made a covenant with Abraham.  He did it so that Abraham could know that He would not break His word and that the promises he made to him would come true, and this way was the traditional custom of that day – I guess you can say the way they used to draw up a contract like we do today.  Usually the lesser person, eg the youngest would walk between the animal pieces, but here God was the one that moved between the pieces.  It signified that if one of the two parties would break the covenant then that person would be willing to be cut in half like these animals were.  So it was a seriously binding contract in those days.

When Jesus came and spilled His blood a New Covenant was made that overruled the covenant made to Abraham.  Here God Himself spilled His blood, and this time he not only paid for our sins, but he took the curse upon Himself, so that we didn’t have to be cursed.  Galatians 3:13 (NIV): “¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”  The tree here refers to the cross.

Galatians 3: 6-9 (NIV): “⁶ Consider Abraham: He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. ⁷ Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. ⁸ The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: All nations will be blessed through you. ⁹ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Paul says here that everybody that believes in God is a child of Abraham, and because we believe we will be blessed just like Abraham.

So by Jesus’ sacrifice not only are all the promises in the Bible applicable to all who has accepted Him as their saviour but all the curses in the Bible is not applicable anymore, because Jesus took the curse upon Him.  So once again if you think you are cursed, then you are rejecting Jesus.

Most people only know that Jesus died for our sins, but that is not the only thing He did for us.  Because of the stripes (the lashings He received before He was crucified) we don’t have to be sick, since He took that upon Himself too.  1 Peter 2:24 (NIV):  “²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” 

God also wants us to prosper, and not be poor.  2 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV):  “⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” 

The last thing that was also covered by Jesus’ sacrifice is deliverance from evil, demonic oppression and depression.  Galatians 1:4 (NIV):  “⁴ who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” 

We call these 4 things the atonement.  Jesus atoned for our sins, our health, our prosperity and deliverance from evil, with his sacrifice on the cross. The price was paid – once and that one time was enough.  It is a sufficient price and it doesn’t have to be paid again, so God doesn’t want us to be sick or poor or depressed for example, because Jesus paid the full price at Calvary.  So when we are suffering from the above, we are not living a victorious life, like God intended for us.  The sad thing is most Christians don’t know this and there is most of the time no discernable difference between a Christian and someone who hasn’t been saved.  Christians are just as sick as people who are not saved, or just as poor, or just as depressed.

Do you know what the implication is of Jesus’ atonement?  You don’t have to pray and ask for healing, because God made provision for it a long time ago.  Long before you were born, God already said, “You are healed.”  That is why the verse in 1 Peter 2:24 is past tense, “by His wounds you have been healed.”  We don’t have to wonder if it’s God’s will to be healed, because it is!  Jesus paid the price, whether you make use of it or not!

The last thing I want to say is that through Jesus’ resurrection He defeated the devil once and for all!  That also means that through Christ we can defeat the devil too!  Luke 10:19 (NIV):  “¹⁹I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”

Now isn’t that good news?  No better than good news, awesome news!  Now you know that God wants you to be a victorious Christian!

Read Full Post »

What a Wonderful, Glorious day!

Why is this a wonderful, glorious day?  To quote the angel who brought the message of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds:  Luke 2:10-14  (KJV):  “¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  ¹²And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who humbled Himself, gave up His Godliness so that we can participate in all the benefits of the atonement.  What are those benefits?

1.   Financial prosperity:  2 Corinthians 8:9 (KJV) says that, “⁹For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”
2.   Healing:  1 Peter 2:24 (KJV), it says, “²⁴Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” And Matthew 8:16 -17 (KJV) it says, “¹⁶When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: ¹⁷That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.”
3.   Deliverance from demonic oppression, depression and evil:  Galatians 1:4 (KJV) that says that Jesus “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world,”
4.  And last but not least, salvation and the forgiveness of our sins:  Romans 5:8-10 (KJV) “⁸But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  ⁹Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.  ¹⁰For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Please know that all of this was freely given by Jesus, we can accept it or reject it.  It is available already – the full price was paid a long time ago.  God loves us so much that He gave His only Son, so why don’t you accept what He has sacrificed Himself for?

All of this was done, because God loves us so much:  Romans 8:31-39 (KJV):  “³¹What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?  ³²He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  ³³Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.  ³⁴Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.  ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  ³⁶As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  ³⁷Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  ³⁸For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, ³⁹Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Merry Christmas to all, I wish all the blessings of God upon you over this Christmas time and for the new year of 2012!

With love from, Marion, DH, little baby, Shumi, KT and Nandi!

Read Full Post »