Already Beloved, Already Qualified

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

1 John 3:1 NLT

I received an awesome testimony from twenty-five-year-old Nathan from New York, who grew up with no father figure in his life except a man whom his mother married and who beat him regularly from the time he was three. Nathan struggled with his identity, his addictions, and his anger. But his turning point came when he learned that his Daddy God loves him. He wrote:

I heard a sermon of yours about being God’s beloved. I had never heard someone speak about Jesus as someone who died for my sins because He loved me so much. I thought there was no way anyone would die for me if they knew what I’d done. But the love I felt as I listened was something I’d never experienced before.

I had to know more, so I bought your book Destined To Reign, and the Lord’s words through your book changed my life . . . I’ve dropped every bad habit—everything—in my past and have given myself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every day seems new to me, and I see life in a different light now. I know that I have a Father in heaven who loves and accepts me. I know that He hears my prayers and won’t be slow to answer them.

In the same way, I pray you will have a revelation that you are right now loved by the Father and close to His heart. That your Daddy God always hears your prayers and is more than able and willing to lift you out of every dark pit and set you in His love and light.

Right now, I want you to do something: close your eyes and just say, “Daddy.”

That’s a prayer right there. In fact, that’s the deepest, most intimate prayer you can pray. Call upon your Daddy God because He loves you and cares for you. You never did anything to make Him fall in love with you. And beloved, there is nothing you can do, nothing you could have done, that will ever take away His love for you.

I want you to know today that as a child of God, you don’t need to qualify for His love in any way. You are already His beloved. You may feel that you are far away from Him, but your Father sees you. He has been watching and waiting for you to come home, ready to sprint toward you to embrace you. He wants to lavish His love and kisses on you, over and over again.

You don’t need to earn your Daddy’s love. ALL that He has is already yours. He’s not asking you to serve Him in order to earn His blessings. ALL that He has, He has already freely and unconditionally given to you.

He gave up His only Son to die an agonizing death on the cross for the chance that you might one day accept His love. So come. Come to the Father. Come with all your failings, with all your brokenness, with all your inadequacies.

Come as you are. As you realize that you are the object of His love, I pray that whatever is negative or destructive will be flushed out from your life and you will experience breakthrough after breakthrough like never before.

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Right Believing—Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing.

Hold On to God’s Promises

“Behold, all those who were incensed against you shall be ashamed and disgraced; they shall be as nothing, and those who strive with you shall perish. You shall seek them and not find them—those who contended with you. Those who war against you shall be as nothing, as a nonexistent thing. For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’”

Isaiah 41:11–13

Let me share with you a testimony I believe will greatly encourage you. One of my leaders was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease when he suddenly suffered bouts of intense vertigo that completely incapacitated him for hours. Whenever a vertigo attack occurred, waves of nausea would overtake him, and he would find himself throwing up uncontrollably. He would also experience symptoms of tinnitus regularly, where every sound around him became magnified or distorted, and he could not hear what people were saying to him.

It was terrifying for him because the attacks were sudden and unpredictable, could happen while he was driving, and left him retching and vomiting until he was exhausted. It felt like he was trapped in the churning waters of a violent storm. His doctors told him that medication could help manage the symptoms, but there was no cure for his condition and the symptoms were, in fact, likely to get worse.

Then one day the Lord led him to the above passage from Isaiah 41. He said, “When God gave me that word, I kept meditating on it and kept it in my spirit. The words ‘shall be as a nonexistent thing’ kept jumping out at me, and I knew that I had it. I was healed.”

He did not see the full manifestation of his healing immediately, but he had faith he was already healed because of the word he received. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, “the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). So even before he saw the reality, he knew he was healed.

He continued to partake of the holy Communion regularly, but he no longer did so out of any sense of fear the symptoms would become increasingly debilitating. Instead, he partook knowing he was already healed, and after some time, he “stopped experiencing the symptoms altogether.” As I write this, he has been completely symptom-free for well over a year. All glory to our lovely Savior!

Isaiah 41:11–13 is such a powerful passage to meditate on if you are faced with the enemies of sickness and disease today. Doesn’t it remind you of what the Lord did for the children of Israel when He split open the Red Sea for them even though it appeared like all was lost?

The Lord is no respecter of persons. Put your trust in Him. He can make a way when there seems to be no way. If He did it for the children of Israel, and He did it for the brother in my church, He can do it for you too.

This devotional is taken from the book The Healing Power of the Holy Communion—A 90-Day Devotional.

You Are an Heir of the World!

God’s blessings are part of our inheritance in the new covenant of grace, which Jesus died to give us. God’s Word tells us that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us . . . that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

Isn't it interesting that the Lord is very specific in mentioning that Christ became a curse for us on the cross, so that we can experience and enjoy the blessing of Abraham? He does not want us to simply experience any kind of blessing. He wants us to experience the blessing of Abraham. I think it behooves us then to find out what “the blessing of Abraham” is and who can receive it.

The Bible tells us that “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). Are you Christ’s? Do you belong to Jesus? Then that makes you an heir according to the promise.

Every believer in Christ is an heir. Whenever you hear the word “heir,” it speaks of something good. It speaks of an inheritance that you don’t work for, an inheritance that is yours not because of what you do, but because of whose you are.

In this case, as a new covenant believer in Jesus, you belong to Jesus and you have a blood-bought inheritance in Christ as the seed of Abraham. You, beloved, are an heir according to THE promise!

Now, there are many promises in the Bible, but what is THE promise that God made to Abraham? We can’t claim this promise if we don’t know what it is. We need to go to the Word (use the Bible to interpret the Bible) to establish what the promise is. And we find the answer in Romans 4:13—“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.”

The promise to Abraham and his seed (you and I) is that he would be “the heir of the world”! In the original Greek text, the word “world” here is kosmos. Its meaning includes, “the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures.”

Now, that is what you are an heir to through Jesus' finished work! In Christ, you are an heir of the world—its goods, its endowments, its riches, its advantages, and its pleasures.

This is THE promise that God made to Abraham and his seed. Don’t apologize for it. It is your inheritance in Christ!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor.

The Power of Identity

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? . . . know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Corinthians 6:15, 19–20 KJV

I read the story of a businessman in New York City who was rushing to board a subway train on his way to work when he saw a beggar with a cup of pencils in his hands sitting on the platform. Without thinking too much about it, he quickly grabbed some money from his wallet and dropped the bills into the beggar’s collection plate before boarding the train.

Just before the train doors closed, the businessman jumped back out onto the platform and took several pencils from the beggar’s cup. He apologized to the beggar, explaining that in his haste, he had neglected to pick up the pencils he had purchased. “After all,” he said, “you are a businessman just like me. You have merchandise to sell and it’s fairly priced.” After that the businessman boarded the next train and went about his day.

At a social event several months later, a well-dressed salesman approached this businessman and introduced himself. “You probably don’t remember me and I don’t know your name,” he said, “but I will never forget you. You are the man who gave me back my self-respect. I was a ‘beggar’ selling pencils until you came along and told me that I was a businessman.”

I share this story to highlight to you the power of identity. The businessman gave this beggar a renewed sense of meaning and identity by simply speaking over him and calling forth a latent potential that was in him.

By calling this beggar a businessman, he awakened in him a renewed sense of worth, value, and importance. The words gave the beggar a new perspective. And they gave him a new belief and vision that propelled him to walk away from the lie that a beggar was all he could be.

We can draw many parallels in this story for believers of our Lord Jesus. I believe that many who are struggling with sin, addictions, and destructive bondages don’t have the revelation of their new covenant identity in Christ. When you see a believer struggling with sin, it is often a case of mistaken identity.

The best way to help him is to point him back to his righteousness in Christ, as the apostle Paul did to those in the Corinthian church who had fallen into sin. Paul didn’t point these believers back to the law of Moses. All he did was to remind them of who they truly were.

Reread today’s scripture. Paul knew that if they were reminded of their righteous identity in Christ, they would repent. They would return to grace and turn away from their sins when they were reminded of their value according to the heavy price Christ had paid on the cross to ransom them.

I encourage you to use Apostle Paul’s method to encourage and lift up believers whom you know are struggling with sin. Point them back to their identity in Christ. They probably do not know, or have forgotten, how they have been made the righteousness of God through Jesus’ blood.

Because of this, like the beggar in the story, they are living a life of defeat. They are living far below the high place God has called them to. Believers in Christ are called to be the head and not the tail, to be above and not beneath, to reign over sin and not be defeated by sin!

This devotional is taken from the book Glorious Grace—100 Daily Readings from Grace Revolution.

Message from Amir Tsarfati

The one thing I can get from this whole book about the Jews is failure. We fail God all the time, yet He’s still there and never, ever forsook His people. So it makes me humble to come as a Jew who comes from a nation that failed God for the most part, but yet is also a nation that God chose and used to bring forth so many amazing things. And it’s amazing to me to think about Paul 2,000 years ago, a zealous Orthodox Jew who wanted to kill Christians. He spread havoc – the Bible uses that word – I mean, people were afraid of him.

And one day Paul realized, “Everything I’ve learned, everything I thought I knew, everything I studied, all the great knowledge of the rabbis and the sages, everything is just like rubbish compared to knowing Christ. But as a Jew, he realized he needed first to take the message to the Jews because the Bible says to the Jew what? First. “Oh, I don’t like that.” That’s a verse in the Bible. Deal with that.

To the Jew first is the blessing and to the Jew first is the curse. In Romans 1, to the Jew first, it’s about the gospel, but in Roman 2 come the curses also. In other words, to the Jew first is not because they are better. It’s the order in which God is progressing. But God is not just the God of the Jews that cares only about the Jews and Israel. You must understand that. The Gentiles are not secondhand, they’re not second option, you’re not plan B. This has never been the case. It’s just that the Gentiles never thought that they needed to worship one God.

Romans 3:1-4
What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.”

Paul challenged the Jews in Romans 2 that since they see themselves as enlightened and teachers of those in the darkness, why do they not teach themselves? Earlier, he wrote:

Romans 2:23-24
You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

The rhetorical question arises, “What advantage then has the Jew?” Paul said, “Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles (sayings or scriptures) of God.” In other words, the Jews had the word of God before the rest of the world. Where they failed was by keeping it to themselves and seeing themselves as above others, instead of fulfilling their responsibility to share the word of God to the world.

It seems as though many Gentile Christians today want to become a part of the “to the Jew first” crowd by observing the Sabbath, keeping the feast days, etc. What they seem to overlook is the fact that if Gentile in the Old Testament means a non-Jew, then Adam was a Gentile when God called him, Enoch was Gentile, Noah was a Gentile, and even Abraham was a Gentile when God called him out of Ur of the Chaldees. So if you’re a Gentile, you’re in good company, too! 

There were no Jews until Jacob was renamed Israel. It was then that the oracles of God would be committed to the Jews. 

Philippians 3:3-8
For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

God gave His word to the Jew first. He called them His own special people first, because He wanted the world to see how knowing Him and following His word makes you distinct from the world, so that others may want know and follow Him, too.

The Jews have the advantage of having the word of God committed to them, but it is only an advantage to those who came to the knowledge of the One who is the Holy One of Israel.

Don’t make the mistake many Jews made by thinking that keeping the Sabbath, the Law, and feast days makes you acceptable to God. Paul said those things are rubbish in comparison to the work that Christ did for us on the cross!

Paul said this of his own life, and we would do well to do the same:

Galatians 2:20-21
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.

If you love Jesus, your ethnic background, gender, or status in life is of no consequence spiritually. For it is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in and through you. 

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus 

The Mountain Where God Dwells

For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place: “This is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.”

Psalm 132:13–16

My dear reader, I want to announce to you today that God has moved mountains. He is no more on Mount Sinai, which only breeds fear and insecurity in your relationship with Him and drives you deeper into destructive behaviors with no hope of freedom.

Because of the cross of Jesus, where God’s wrath for all our sins was poured out, He has moved to Mount Zion, the mountain of grace, the place of reconciliation, relationship, and closeness with His people. On this mountain you find yourself running to God to experience intimacy with Him that gives you strength and changes you from the inside out.

In the Psalms alone, you will find many scriptures about how God loves and has chosen Zion, and will bless those on Zion. Reread today’s scripture, for example, and then consider Psalm 125:1 KJV:

They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

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 true liberty and stability. Build your life on the mountain of grace and you will be like the man who built his house on the rock—unshakable and rock-solid in the face of adversities and life’s storms. If your blessings and breakthroughs come from Mount Zion, they will last!

My friend, because of Jesus’ finished work on Calvary, God has moved to Mount Zion. And today, Mount Zion—the place of His grace—is where He wants both your feet firmly planted.

He 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 in His glorious grace 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.

And I am believing with you that that health condition you have been trying to beat shall be no more. I pray for you to receive supernatural healing right now in your body.

I declare that by His stripes, you are completely healed in the name of Jesus. I am standing in faith with you that cancer and all terminal diseases have no hold over your body. 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 JosephPrince.org/Praise. I look forward to rejoicing and praising the Lord with you!

This devotional is taken from the book Glorious Grace—100 Daily Readings from Grace Revolution.

Jesus Shared His Father's Glory

 'Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.'

John 5:18

When the Jewish authorities heard Jesus call God 'my (own) Father', they immediately understood that Jesus claimed for Himself deity in the highest possible sense of that term. That claim was either blasphemy, to be punished by death, or else Jesus was who He claimed to be.

Jesus never associated Himself with His disciples by using the plural pronoun 'our' Father. Rather, He always used the singular 'my' Father, since His relationship was unique and eternal, whereas theirs was by grace and regeneration.

We should ponder carefully our Lord's own conception of who He was. He said 'I am from above' (Jn. 8:23); 'Before Abraham was, I AM' (Jn. 8:58); 'I and my Father are one' (Jn. 10:30); 'He that hath seen me hath seen the Father' (Jn. 14:9); and 'I am not of the world' (Jn. 17:16). He also declared His eternal pre-existence and that He shared the Father's glory (Jn. 6:62; 17:5).

We can't just honor Jesus, but we have to honor Him 'even as' (in like manner or the same way) we honor the Father. This is what separates true Christianity from the religions of the world. Most religions honor Jesus as a great man (examples: Islam, Unification Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.), but they are violently opposed to making Jesus equal with Almighty God (1 Jn. 2:23). The names and titles given to Jesus in John's gospel clearly present Jesus as being equal with God. He is all you need Him to be. Andrew Womack

Follow the Lord

Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb . . . because he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel.

Joshua 14:14

What are your eyes fixed on today? Are they focused on the darkness that is in the world? Or are they fixed on the Lord’s promises for your life?

My chief intention in this devotional is to turn your eyes away from the destruction you see every day, and to turn them to our beautiful Lord Jesus.

Do you know what Caleb’s secret to long life was? The passage above tells us that it was found in simply following the Lord.

Hebron was the name for one of the cities of refuge instituted by the Lord. In Hebrew, Hebron means fellowship or “association.” This speaks of intimacy, closeness, and connection with the Lord.

There is no formula to long life. The prayer of protection is not a mantra. What we need to note is the importance of having an intimate relationship with Jesus.

Our Lord Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Follow Him and find the path to a long and abundant life.

Don’t forget that everything Caleb experienced was under the old covenant. His renewal of youth and unabated strength and vigor were all experienced under the old covenant.

How much more should we be experiencing this renewal of youth, boundless energy, and length of days under the new covenant of grace that is established on better promises (Heb. 8:6)! Amen!

In a psalm that Moses wrote, it says, “The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years” (Ps. 90:10). Some people have used this to teach that our expected lifespan is therefore between seventy and eighty years.

But it is important we interpret this psalm in the context of the children of Israel being in the wilderness and under God’s wrath. We have also seen that even under the old covenant, Caleb transcended this lifespan and was still going strong at eighty-five years old.

So dear reader—you who are under the new covenant—I encourage you to aim high. Don’t settle for living till just seventy or eighty years old, when God has promised, “With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation” (Ps. 91:16).

Your satisfaction is the limit and according to your faith, be it unto you. I pray that as you stay close to our Lord Jesus, you will live long, live strong, and live under the protective covering of His wings.

This devotional is taken from the book The Prayer of Protection Devotional—Daily Strategies for Living Fearlessly in Dangerous Times.

Rest In His Love

 'And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the sabbath day.'

John 5:16

The Sabbath was first mentioned in Scripture in Exodus 16, when the Lord started miraculously providing the children of Israel with manna in the wilderness. The Israelites were commanded to gather twice as much manna on the sixth day because God would not provide any on the seventh day.

Shortly after this, the Lord commanded the observance of the Sabbath day in the ten commandments that were communicated to Moses on Mt. Sinai on the two tablets of stone (Ex. 20:8-11). In this command, God connected this Sabbath day with the rest that He took on the seventh day of creation.

As revealed in Colossians 2:16-17, the Sabbath was symbolic. According to Exodus 23:12, one of the purposes of the Sabbath was to give man and his animals one day of physical rest each week. Today's medical science has proven that our bodies need at least one day of rest each week to function at our peak. Deuteronomy 5:15, also clearly states that the Sabbath was to serve as a reminder to the Jews that they had been slaves in Egypt and were delivered from bondage, not by their own efforts, but by the supernatural power of God.

However, in the New Testament, there is an even clearer purpose of the Sabbath stated. In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul reveals that the Sabbath was only a shadow of things to come and is now fulfilled in Christ. Hebrews 4:1-11, talks about a Sabbath rest that is available to, but not necessarily functional in, all New Testament believers. This New Testament Sabbath rest is simply a relationship with God in which we have ceased from doing things by our own efforts and are letting God work through us (Gal. 2:20; Heb. 4:10).

The Sabbath is not a day, but rather a relationship with God through Jesus. Rest in His love and let Him use you today. Andrew Womack

Message from Amir Tsarfati

The Bible tells us that at the end of the thousand years, Jesus Himself will physically sit on the throne of David and He will reign from Jerusalem and every nation will have to come to Jerusalem every year to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. Zechariah 14 tells you about that. There will be probably different new airlines: Air Messiah, Messiah Airline, Jesus Airways. They’re all coming. And think about it. Every nation must come because the nation that will not be there will not be having the blessing from God. God will not pour rain upon that nation. So they all will come and they will see Him and they will know that He’s King and the world will be as close as possible to what it was before the curse of sin came. As close as possible because it’s never going to be that perfect. That’s why God will have to make all things new eventually.

But think about it. Perfect, almost perfect world, perfect righteousness coming out of Jerusalem to the whole world. All of us will have our glorified bodies. No diets. You will never be late anywhere. We will reign and judge with Him. You understand that? And you would think that by then the world is convinced. But what’s going to happen when the thousand years is going to expire? Satan, the Bible says in Revelation 20, will be released from the bottomless pit for a short time. And guess what’s going to happen when he’s released for a short time? Verse 7 of Chapter 20 says, “Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and he will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle whose number is of the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.”

The world that witnessed this wonderful righteousness coming out of Jerusalem is going to come and turn against it. All of this is going to happen, whether you like it or not. Through those verses I read from Ezekiel, who can you see controls the Middle East? God controls the Middle East. It’s not Russia and it’s not China and it’s not America and it’s not Iran and it’s certainly not Saudi Arabia. They know nothing. That is why Psalm 2 says, “Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together.” Eventually, what it is it? It’s against who? It’s against the Lord and against His anointed saying, what? “Let us break their bones in pieces and cast away their cords from us.” This is what the world wants. “We don’t want to live under God’s rules. We don’t want to live under God’s laws and amazing statues. We don’t. We want to do whatever we want to do. We are gods. We want to replace God.”

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?

Among the many scriptural and practical ways this is proven to be true, none make it more clear than the end of the Millennial Reign of Christ on earth. After a thousand years of Satan being bound, after a thousand years of perfect justice on the earth, after a thousand years of a near Eden-like condition on the earth, this happens:

Revelation 20:7-10
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

As we watch the world degrade further and further into delusion, these verses remind us that, apart from God, the human heart remains desperately wicked. We also need to remember that remaining apart from God is the choice of billions.

Romans 1:20-22
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.

Brothers and sisters, someday all of this foolishness and its impact on our lives will end. Someday we will live in a city whose builder and maker is God. We will walk streets of gold, we will meet saints from every age and corner of the earth, we will see angels and hear the mantra of the four living creatures. Someday we will see Jesus and when we do, we will be like Him (1 John 3:2).

Until that time, as we see the nations rage and the people plot vain things against the Lord, we need to remember this:

Philippians 4:6-7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Through Christ, our minds and hearts are guarded in a desperately wicked world. And in this season of history, as well any other, we can have the peace God. 

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!

God Will Never Be Angry with You

“For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has mercy on you.

Isaiah 54:9–10

A warning is issued in 1 Peter 5:8—“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” I know that a lion roars to intimidate and to bring fear, but I used to wonder what kind of fear the devil tries to instill in the believer.

We must let the Bible interpret the Bible. We can’t base our interpretations on our denominational backgrounds or our experiences.

One day, I was reading Proverbs 19 when I came across verse 12: “The king's wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.” Who is the king that this verse refers to? It is our Lord Jesus!

So when the devil goes about like a roaring lion, he is trying to impersonate the King. He is trying to make you feel as if God is angry with you.

Every time you hear preaching that leaves you with a sense that God is angry with you, guess what? You have just been roared at!

But know this, beloved: God will NEVER be angry with you ever again. He only has to tell us this, but He wanted us to be so sure that He swore in His Word that He would never be angry with us again.

Today’s verses are from Isaiah 54, which is right after the famous messianic chapter of the sufferings of Christ in Isaiah 53. Therefore, Isaiah 54 is spelling out the triumphs and spoils of His sufferings.

Do you know why God will never be angry with us again? It is because of what Christ has accomplished for us!

On the cross, God poured out all His anger on the body of His Son. Jesus exhausted all the fiery indignation of a holy God against all our sins, and when all of God’s judgment of our sins had been completely exhausted, He shouted, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

And because our sins have already been punished, God, who is a holy and just God, will not punish us today when we believe in what Christ has done. God’s holiness is now on your side. His righteousness is now for you, not against you. You are His beloved, in whom He is well pleased because of Jesus' finished work!

The next time the devil tries to rob you of your sense of being beloved by making you think that God is angry with you, just ignore him. Ignore him when he says, “How can you call yourself a Christian?”

You are a righteous, accepted, and beloved child of God! When you believe this, you will have the confidence to face every challenge with boldness, knowing that you have God’s unmerited favor on your side!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor.

Jesus, the True Bread of Life

“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.”

John 6:48–50

I trust that you are excited to see Jesus in the Scriptures, so I want to unveil Jesus to you in Old Testament scriptures through the use of typology. If you are not familiar with the use of typology in interpreting the scriptures, I hope the examples you will read here will give you a good understanding of it.

The Bible says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Prov. 25:2). God has hidden the mysteries of His beloved Son and His finished work throughout the Bible, and it is our glory as kings to search out all these things concerning Himself. Are you ready to see Jesus?

Let’s first look at the account of the children of Israel as they journeyed in the wilderness. The Bible tells us that “the soul of the people became very discouraged,” and they began to murmur and complain against God and His appointed leadership, Moses, saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread” (Num. 21:4–5).

Can you imagine this? God had delivered them from a life of slavery in Egypt with His mighty hand, protected them from Pharaoh’s army with a pillar of fire, and parted the Red Sea for them to pass through. Instead of being grateful, they complained and even referred to the manna from heaven as “worthless bread.”

According to the psalmist, the manna was “the bread of heaven . . . angels’ food” (Ps. 78:24–25). For forty years in the wilderness, God provided them with food for champions, food that kept them free from sicknesses and diseases, food that descended daily from heaven.

All they had to do each morning was to collect enough for their consumption. Yet, they despised the manna.

Jesus said in today’s scripture that the manna God gave them was a picture or type of Himself. The church today needs to be careful not to make the same mistake that the children of Israel made when they called the manna from God “worthless bread.”

In many places, there is an underemphasis on Jesus Christ and an overemphasis on all sorts of doctrines and principles that can be extracted from the Word. Churches must be careful not to consider Jesus as “worthless bread” by relegating Him to the periphery of their teachings.

Anybody who doesn’t focus on Jesus Christ and His finished work has neither the power nor the wisdom of God, because the Bible says that Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:23–24). He is the true bread from heaven and only He satisfies!

The devil is afraid of any church that preaches Jesus Christ on the cross because he knows that when people know how God sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross for them, they will see that they have a merciful God who loves them unconditionally. They will know the truth, and the truth will set them free (John 8:32)!

Let me add one more thing. Do you know that every morning, the children of Israel had to go out to collect fresh manna?

The manna could not be stored overnight for consumption the next day as it would turn stale and breed worms. Ever wondered why God didn’t just give them a week’s supply of manna?

Well, it is because God wants His people to open the Scriptures every day to collect fresh manna of Jesus and be satisfied with His grace. He doesn’t want us to live on past revelations of Jesus, for His mercies are new every morning. He delights to fill your heart with His grace, peace, wisdom, and joy every day. Hallelujah!

This devotional is taken from the book Reign in Life—90 Powerful Inspirations for Extraordinary Breakthroughs.

We Don’t Have All the Answers

“I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope.”

Hosea 2:15 NLT

Maybe you are going through a difficult valley. Maybe you are disappointed with God because you have lost a loved one or because you have been battling that medical condition year after year.

I want to encourage you not to ask, “Why?” Asking why will only lead you on a downward spiral into depression. Don’t ask, “Why did this happen to me?” Don’t ask, “Why is my child not healed even though I have trusted You for years?” or “Why is my loved one going through one tragedy after another?”

The fact is, in this fallen world, we don’t have all the answers. One day, we will receive our new bodies, where the corruptible will put on incorruption, and the mortal will put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53). But until then, I recognize that sometimes bad things happen and I don’t know why.

But what I do know is this: God is a good God. He loves us, and He is never behind any pain we go through. Our faith in Him is not based on our experiences; it is based on the unchanging, eternal Word of God, which cannot lie.

Even when things didn’t go the way you wanted them to, don’t remain in your disappointment. The devil wants you to get angry with God and to give up on His promises. But keep believing that God is for you and not against you.

Even if the enemy has destroyed something in your life, and even if years have been lost as you waited for the manifestation of your healing, or the days of your youth have been stolen from you, keep believing that God can restore to you what you have lost (Joel 2:25, Job 33:25).

My friend, “let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23). Keep on looking to the Lord for your breakthrough. And if you find that you are too tired to believe anymore, I pray that this promise will carry you through:

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

—Isaiah 40:31

This devotional is taken from the book The Healing Power of the Holy Communion—A 90-Day Devotional.

How to Increase in God’s Unmerited Favor

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:1–2

God’s word tells us that “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52).

This is a good verse to pray and speak over your children—that they first increase in favor with God and then in favor with man. Your “vertical relationship” with God should always be given priority over your “horizontal relationship” with the people around you.

Like Jesus, you can increase in wisdom and in God’s unmerited favor. How?

You have probably noticed that some believers seem to experience a lot more unmerited favor than others. I believe that this is because these believers understand the key to accessing God’s favor.

Romans 5:2 clearly spells out that “we have access by faith into this grace [unmerited favor] in which we stand.”

To gain access to your computer or your bank account, you need a password. To gain access to and increase in God’s unmerited favor, the “password” or key that we need to have is faith, faith to believe that YOU, _______________ (insert your name), are highly favored!

One of the things that I have taught my church members to do is to declare over themselves that they are greatly blessed, highly favored, and deeply loved.

“How do we know that we are greatly blessed, Pastor Prince?”

Read Hebrews 6:13–14 for yourself. God wanted us to be so anchored in the sure and steadfast knowledge that He will bless us, the seed of Abraham, that He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”

“How can we say that we are highly favored?”

Ephesians 1:6 tells us that by God's grace (unmerited favor), God “made us accepted in the Beloved.” In the original Greek text, the word “accepted” is the word charitoo, which means “highly favored.”

“And are we really deeply loved by God?”

God didn't just love us. John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” He demonstrated how He SO loved us when He sent Jesus to die on the cross for us.

I pray that the verses I have shown you here will help you believe that through Jesus, you are indeed greatly blessed, highly favored, and deeply loved. If these truths are still not established in your heart, start speaking them.

Look at yourself in the mirror every morning and declare boldly, “Because of Jesus’ perfect work on the cross, I am righteous by His blood, and I am greatly blessed, highly favored, and deeply loved! I expect good things to come my way. I expect good success and I have a confident expectation of good!”

Once you receive Christ, you are standing on favor ground. You are no longer on condemnation ground. God looks on you as His favorite child!

“But Pastor Prince, how can God have so many favorites?”

Hey, He is God. Don't try to limit an infinite God with your finite mind.

The Bible tells us that God counts the very hairs on each of our heads (Matt. 10:30). I love my daughter very much, but I have never counted the number of strands of hair on her head.

His love for each of us is intimate and deeply personal. In His eyes, we are all His favorites!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor.

“Abba, Father!”

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

Romans 8:15–16

I love it when I’m in Israel and I hear little children running around in playgrounds, calling out, “Abba! Abba!”, and jumping into their daddies’ embraces. To the Jews, Abba is the most intimate way in which you can address your father.

It’s a beautiful picture of the truth that through Jesus, you have received the Spirit of sonship by whom you cry out “Abba, Father.” Did you notice that the Holy Spirit refused to translate the original Aramaic word “Abba” into English?

In Abba’s arms, a child is most secure, protected, and loved. No enemy can pull a child out of his or her Abba’s strong arms.

That’s the image God wants us to have when we pray to Him and call Him “Abba.” Of course, you can call Him “Daddy” or “Papa,” or whatever term helps you to see God as a warm, loving, and caring Father.

Unless you can see Him as your Abba Father, you will continue to have a “spirit of bondage again to fear” (Rom. 8:15), referring to the Old Testament fear of God. It’s a slavish fear of judgment and punishment that brings you into bondage and makes you afraid of God.

But God doesn’t want you to fear Him. He wants you to have a Spirit of sonship! Too many believers are living with an orphan, fatherless spirit. If you are entangled with all kinds of fears, guilt, and worries today, what you need is a good heavenly dose of the Father’s love for you!

Something amazing happens in your spirit when you see God as your Father. If my daughter, Jessica, has a nightmare, all she has to do is cry out, “Daddy!” and Daddy is there!

Jessica doesn’t have to go, “O Father that liveth and inhabiteth the next room, I plead with thee to come to me at this time of peril, that thou mayest rescue me from this nightmare!” All she has to do is to cry out, “Daddy!” and I’m there.

Similarly, in your moments of weakness you don’t have to approach God with perfect prayers. You just cry out, “Daddy!” and your heavenly Father runs to you!

You are not coming before a judge. You are coming before your Father, your Daddy God, who embraces and loves you just the way you are.

Take time to come to your Abba Father today. Believe that He loves you unconditionally today. See Him welcoming you with a smile on His face and with outstretched arms. Run into His embrace, bask in His perfect love for you, and let it melt away every worry, fear, and insecurity.

When you believe and receive your Father’s love for you, it will put unshakable peace and strength in your heart!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Right Believing—Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing.

See What God Sees

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Romans 12:2

Learning to see what God sees is a powerful key in right believing. It involves replacing your wrong beliefs with right beliefs based on God’s Word.

When Jesus saw the man with the withered hand, He didn’t just see the withered hand, He saw that there was more than enough grace for that hand to be made completely whole. Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” The man did as told, and his hand was completely restored and made as whole as his other hand (Mark 3:1–5).

Now, you don’t say “stretch out your hand” to someone whose hand is obviously shriveled and disabled unless you see differently. Jesus sees differently from you and me.

That’s why we need to go back to God’s Word and learn to see what He sees. When Jesus sees a disease, a lack, or someone trapped in fear, guilt, addiction, and sin, He doesn’t just see the problem. He sees God’s healing, grace, and power superabounding in that area of weakness.

You too can change what you believe by seeing beyond what your natural eyes see. Press in to see what God sees. In your very area of lack, struggle, or challenge, see His superabounding grace all around your current situation.

Jesus says to you today, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Give all your weaknesses, failings, and mistakes to the Lord Jesus and see Him transform your weaknesses into strengths.

What you believe is powerful, so are you going by what you see or what God sees?

You may not be able to stop negative thoughts from passing through your mind or unhealthy emotions such as fear gripping your heart but you can definitely anchor your thoughts and emotions on the unshakable Word of God. You can certainly ensure that you believe right regarding what God says about you in His Word, which contains His precious promises to you.

The more you learn and believe right about His love and what His Word says about your situation and your life, the more your thoughts will line up with His thoughts about you. You’ll begin to develop thoughts of peace and not of evil, thoughts of hope and a bright future (Jer. 29:11). And you’ll be transformed!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Right Believing—Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing.

You Have God’s Presence and Favor Regardless of Your Circumstances

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.

Psalm 139:7–10

Hebrews 13:5 says that God’s presence in your life is a guaranteed constant. But I want you to know that you cannot evaluate God’s presence and His unmerited favor in your life based on your circumstances. To help you understand what this means, let’s look at the life of Joseph.

Joseph refused the advances made by Potiphar’s wife, and as the common saying goes, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”! She maliciously accused Joseph of attempting to rape her, brandishing as “evidence” the garments that Joseph had left in her hands when he fled from her. When Potiphar heard his wife telling her version of the story, his anger was aroused and he seized Joseph, stripped him from the place of authority he had given him and threw him into prison.

Just put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. What is happening here? It sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it? With the painful memory of his brothers casting him into the pit still fresh in his mind, here he is once again, cast into a dungeon even though he was innocent.

Any average person would be bitter and angry with God! Most people would ask, “Where is God? Why had God brought him this far, only to abandon and forsake him? How could this happen? Where is the justice against this false accusation?”

But Joseph was literally no “average Joe”! He knew that the Lord would never leave him nor forsake him. Joseph considered not his circumstances but kept his focus on the presence of the Lord. Regardless of whether he was a common slave, an overseer in Potiphar’s house, or now a prisoner facing the prospect of life imprisonment for a crime he did not even commit, Joseph did not evaluate God’s unmerited favor in his life based on his circumstances.

Instead of getting bitter, he kept his hope in the Lord. Instead of throwing in the towel and giving up on God and on life, he kept his confidence, knowing that all his success was wrapped up in the presence of the Lord.

And boy, did the Lord deliver him! I want you to read this for yourself to see what the Lord did for Joseph:

But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

—Genesis 39:21–23

What does this tell you? If you refuse to bow to your circumstances and continue to be conscious of the Lord’s presence, wherever you are placed, whatever your environment, you will rise to prominence. You will have favor with your bosses and they will promote you to man-in-charge. And whatever you do will prosper!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor.

Words from Amir Tsarfati

“I decide if I’m a male or a female. I decide what a family is all about. I decide if I want borders or I don’t want borders. I decide if my children will be male or female regardless of how they were born. I decide. It’s me. It’s all about me. I am God.” I mean, the world is changing. And it’s funny because it used to be individuals, then it became movements. Now it becomes government funded.

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. You think you know something? You know nothing. You don’t control anything. You barely control yourself. You don’t control anything. God says, “I’m in full control. I allow you to do all these things. I’m going to judge you for all these things.” And for the rest of us, why are we so concerned? Why? I remember the two disciples going down to Emmaus. Remember them? They were walking. Jesus rose from the dead, remember? They’re just walking.

Have you ever seen a Jew that is angry? He’s using his hands. You tie our hands behind our backs, we cannot talk. And they were talking and they were talking and they were talking. And the Bible says that they were talking, and Jesus appears and they look at Him and they were talking. Jesus is walking before them and they were talking and talking. And He says, “What are these things that you are talking about and why’re you’re so sad?” Jesus, the resurrected Lord, starts walking by them. They’re talking about the Lord. He’s walking right by them. They look at Him and they continue. And he said, “Are you the only stranger? You haven’t heard the things that happened?” And Jesus said, “What things?” I love that answer. “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty indeed. We were thinking that He was going to redeem Israel.”

And He’s like, “And?” “And now it’s the third day.” “And?” “Yeah, and two women from our group, they walked to the tomb and they found it empty, and they came and the men ran all the way back there and yet they saw that the women actually were right.” “And?” They just told Jesus that Jesus resurrected, and they still didn’t get it. 

You see, here we are looking at world events and instead of being so happy, what are we? We’re telling each other of all the bad things that are happening all around us as if we did not know that it’s going to happen. And you know what? Jesus did not rebuke the Pharisees or the Sadducees when He was walking on the road to Emmaus. Who did He rebuke? His disciples. And He said, “Oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe…” What? “That which the prophets have said.”

You’ve been going to the synagogues every Saturday. Every Saturday you hear the words of the prophets read to you about what Messiah’s all about, where He’s going to come to, where He’s born, by how He’s going to be born, the fact that He has to die, the fact that He has to resurrect, the fact that He’s coming back, ought not the Messiah to have suffered all these things. And then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them about Himself.

Wow. The Bible is really something we need to consider as serious. “Oh, can you stay with us and have dinner with us?” “I need to go.” “Please stay with us.” “All right.” And then He took the bread and blessed it and they must have seen some pierced hands there, and their eyes were opened and He was gone.

Psalm 2:1-5
Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure.

While it may seem odd to read of the Lord laughing at someone, imagine this scene: a mouse is wildly gesturing and squeaking all sorts of threats at a grizzly bear! Certainly our fictitious grizzly would laugh at the idea he was in any sort of danger.

This disparity of power is what is pictured in the passage above. When God created, He said there are two genders, male and female. When someone says there are 72 genders or whatever the current tally is at, He laughs at the idea.

To say to God, “We are going to break to bonds of truth and cast away the cords of Your word,” is like a mouse threatening a grizzly bear. He, God, will hold them in derision, a word which means “to mock, ridicule, laugh at, scorn.”

The two dejected disciples were heading home on the very day Jesus rose from the dead. They were discouraged, despite having already been told He was raised from the dead. Then Jesus showed up.

Luke 24:25-27
Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

Jesus was saying to the downcast pair, “Why didn’t you believe My word? How foolish it is not to.” The same is true today. With the preponderance of scriptural evidence regarding the regathering of the Jews to their national homeland, and with the abundance of verses that point to a major defection from truth both in the world and the church in these last days, how foolish is it to side with those who are saying, “Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.”

There is one more attitude that is prevalent and foolish in our day:

2 Peter 3:3-6
Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.

The word scoffer can also be translated as a false teacher or a mocker of God’s word. These people are in abundance today, which should tell us, along with the defection from truth and strong delusion we are seeing around us, Jesus is coming for us soon!

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus,

Faith Is Not a Struggle

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Romans 10:17 NASB

Have you ever felt like you needed more faith? Have you ever looked at yourself and told yourself that if you just had more faith, you would see your financial breakthrough or healing?

My friend, I have good news for you today: faith is not a struggle. The Scriptures show us that the hearing of faith and the works of the law are total opposites (Gal. 3:2, 5). And since the works of the law are about our self-efforts, there is no self-effort in faith.

For years, my own ministry was a ministry that disqualified people. I would tell my congregation, “There’s nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, so there must be something wrong with you!”

But one day, I heard the Lord speaking to me on the inside. He said, “Stop disqualifying My people! My blood has already qualified them. Stop disqualifying them!”

Now, I know that faith is the opposite of the law, and that the more people become self-conscious and the more they look at their self-efforts to receive from the Lord, the more faith is depleted from them.

So when the Lord opened my eyes to grace, I changed what I was preaching entirely and began to declare, “There’s nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, and guess what? Through the blood of Jesus, there’s nothing wrong with you! Receive your miracle!”

Hallelujah! Once I stopped pointing the people to what was wrong with them and pointed instead to what was right with them because of Jesus, faith was imparted, and we began to experience an explosion of healing miracles like never before. Cancers were healed, tumors were supernaturally removed, and lives were transformed.

That is what happens when believers know that they have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus. They begin to understand that they have the blood-bought right to be healed, to experience financial breakthroughs, and to enjoy restoration in their marriages!

When people begin to see more of Jesus, when they begin to become more and more conscious of Jesus having been crucified on their behalf, faith no longer is a barrier to receiving God’s promises.

Why? Because the more they see what Jesus has done for them, the more they see what Jesus has qualified them for, the more faith springs up within them and miracles break forth. Hallelujah!

Beloved, you don’t have to wish that you had more faith for whatever miracle you are asking God for right now. You don’t have to try to conjure up more faith.

Simply see Jesus on the cross for you and the faith you need to face any situation or challenge will come into your life. Just look to Jesus and His grace toward you! He is the author and finisher of faith (Heb. 12:2).

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. The more of Jesus and His love you hear, the more faith rises in your heart.

Get hold of teachings that preach all about Jesus and His finished work. Make it your priority to listen to the good news preached.

There is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ! Reach out and receive your miracle from your loving Savior today!

This devotional is taken from the book Reign in Life—90 Powerful Inspirations for Extraordinary Breakthroughs.

Only Good Gifts

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

Matthew 7:11

As a father, it always pains me to see my children unwell. My firstborn daughter, Jessica, is all grown up now, but I remember how it broke my heart to see her bawling when she was suffering from viral fever as a baby.

I remember cradling her in my arms and praying over her as I paced around her room the whole night. I sponged her feverish body over and over again. As long as she was sick, I could not rest.

I hated the fever that was causing my baby to convulse in pain. I would have done anything to alleviate her discomfort. If I could have taken her fever in my own body so she would not have to go through the pain, I would have gladly done so.

What I feel when my children are unwell is only a microcosmic reflection of what our heavenly Father feels for us when we are unwell. He wants us brimming with health and life. He hates sicknesses and diseases because of what they do to us.

But the difference is this: He was able to take our sicknesses, and He put them on Jesus’ own body as He hung on the cross, so that we would not have to suffer them. The Bible tells us: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses” (Matt. 8:17).

Why did our Lord Jesus do that? Because He loves us so much. He could not rest until He had secured our salvation, our health, and our wholeness. Finally, when He had borne every sin, every disease, and every infirmity upon His own body, He cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) and rested.

The Bible shows us this clearly: God is a good God. He is our loving heavenly Father. That is why I cannot understand why there are those who teach that God sometimes uses sickness to teach us a lesson or that we need to “pray hard” for His healing.

Can you imagine any earthly father inflicting suffering on his own child? Must you be persuaded to alleviate your child’s pain?

There are even some people who claim that it is sometimes God’s will for us to be sick. But when their own children fall sick, they do everything within their power to ensure their children recover. If it were really God’s will for us to be sick, seeking recovery would be deliberately trying to get out of God’s will!

My friend, reject anything that even remotely suggests that God uses sickness and suffering to teach us something. Our Father is full of grace and mercy and wants us to be healthy, provided for, and protected from every evil occurrence, sickness, and disease!

This devotional is taken from the book The Healing Power of the Holy Communion—A 90-Day Devotional.