Transcription
God wants us to be people of hope. Can I have a good amen? That's amazing terminology to use the word "prisoners of hope" because we are so used to lying still in the middle of the night, tossing and turning, not being able to sleep because we are worried. We have pictures of hopelessness and helplessness. We see dark images, we see dark thoughts, and we don't know what it's like. We try our best to be optimistic; we try our best to look on the bright side, but invariably we do it for a few seconds or five minutes or whatever, and we come back again to those dark thoughts.
It's as if we are prisoners of hopelessness. But now God says, "Listen, you prisoners of hope! Where you were once a prisoner of hopelessness, I'm going to make you a prisoner of hope." Like you lie down there, trying your best to think bad, but you can't. You know, you only see good in your future. I don't know why, but I see a great future. Praise the Lord! I see myself well, amen, completely healed from this condition, amen. I see myself young again. In fact, I can do more things than I did when I was half my age. Come on, people, amen!
And I see myself with wonderful friends around me. I see myself married. If you're not married, I see myself, amen, walking down the aisle. Come on, hallelujah! Praise God! Come on, preach it, Pastor! Amen, amen!
Once upon a time, we were prisoners of sin. We were all born in sin. The moment we are born, we are born in sin. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. We are sinners according to the Bible because of Adam's sin. Adam's sin caused his blood to flow through our veins, amen. Down through history, we are all a product of Adam's blood, amen. And sin is in the blood; therefore, we are all sinners.
So once upon a time, when you were a slave of sin—this is Romans 6 terminology—you were a servant of sin. No matter what good you do, God still sees you as a sinner. You must be born again. Now that you're born again, Romans 6 again, you are now a servant of righteousness. In other words, no matter what you do, you are righteous in God's eyes.
Sometimes, after you're born again, you do lose your temper a bit, right? Here and there, amen. You do something wrong. Anyone ever did anything wrong after you're saved? You look so stunned, all of you, amen. You look so holy. All right, we have all done wrong. We have all sinned, am I right? But you know something? It doesn't change your status before God, your identity before God. You are still righteous in God's eyes.
The Greek word in the New Testament for hope, what is it? Elpis, right? Elpis is a positive or confident expectation of good in your future. Now, in the Hebrew, the word is Tikvah. Prisoners of Tikvah, Tikvah is hope, hope, amen. Hope! You know, Israel's national anthem, ours is "Hatikvah." There is the definite article, Tikvah is the hope.
You have heard it before, something like this [Music]. Very, very haunting, very beautiful. It's called "The Hope." What a beautiful title for a national song, right? Amen.
Um, Tikvah, hope, is from the idea of a rope. In fact, the noun is Tikvah, but the verb is the word kava. Kava is used when it says, "They that wait upon the Lord." The word "wait" there is kava—bind yourself with the Lord like a rope, amen—and find hope in the Lord. Find your hope, hope in the Lord. Because of Him, you can see a bright future. You can see a future where your dreams are being fulfilled, amen.
The world can only hope so, but deep down, they think that it might not be so. But you can hope so and know it will be so, amen! You will rise like wings of eagles, amen! You will run and not be weary; you will walk and not faint. Even young men shall fall and utterly faint, the Bible says. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, amen!
They will run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Nothing about the passage talks about age, except for young men shall fall. Even the youth shall faint and fall. But those that wait upon the Lord, ages, amen!
The Bible says God satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles, amen! Psalms 103, verse 5, excuse me, "Who satisfies your mouth with good things." Watch it—your mouth, what you say! What you say so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
But I feel in my heart for not only today, okay, for some time, I've been wanting to tell you: release your faith. For many of you, you are advancing in years, all right? And I'm concerned because you're giving yourself excuses. Every time you get tired, you say, "Ah, never mind, I'm tired already." You know, instead of going for your walk, you say, "Ah, not today, I'm tired." And excuses just get easier and easier and easier, amen.
Start saying, "I'm young again!" "Pastor Prince, it's obvious, you know we are not young." You know, we passed by the LA, you know, and another language that has been programmed by the devil is "old already." Every time there's a weakness, "old already." You forget something, "old already." You start saying it, you believe it. You start saying it, you believe it. You start saying it.
You must remember that there's one thing about this principle that we find in Numbers 13. Numbers 13 tells us that God sent the children of Israel out of Egypt. Then they were supposed to enter the promised land. They sent 12 spies; it was their idea, actually. Then they told him and said, "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is the fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there."
So, nevertheless, it's a problem. Some people say, "Pastor Prince, I believe all that; it's in God's word. I believe that." But you must be real. "But Pastor, you must see where the heart is." Nevertheless, it's a problem. Yeah, yeah, God promised us it's a land flowing with milk and honey. In fact, they brought back a cluster of grapes. You know, look, look, the fruit! This is the fruit of it; it's a land flowing with milk. But, but, but nevertheless, nevertheless killed them.
Not only that, look at, drop down to what Caleb said. He quieted the people before Moses and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession. We are well able to overcome it." The men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able."
So there is a spirit that says, "We are well able." What God said—God said, "Go in and take the land." Because God said it, "We are well able." He's releasing faith before it happens. The other one released fear.
How do you understand fear? The spirit of fear works the same way. You believe, and then you speak. "I do not know, and I'm feeling this pain and all that. You know, my grandfather died of this; my father died of this, and I fear." Stop it! Why don't you say, "Start meditating on God's words, on the scriptures: 'With long life will I satisfy him,' all the scriptures that we have given you."
And start saying, "I see myself well! I see myself!" You know, I don't know what happened to my grandfather, all right? I can't go back there and resurrect him now. But you know something? Thank God that I can do something in my own life.
Do you know something? The Bible says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things, all things from your father, even, are passed away. All things, all things are become new." Second Corinthians 5:17.
So they declared, they released. The spirit of fear is also released by believing fear and then speaking. Why does it say, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God"? God loves the spirit of faith. Why? Because fear is believing the words of the devil. Faith comes by hearing God's word; fear comes by believing.
So you must know one thing: whenever you are in fear, whatever it is, you are actually submitting and believing another than God. You can just say, "My problem is that I'm a very fearful person." No, somewhere along the way, that fear came in. You better know that is a devil, and fear is always the mother’s union of the devil.
You know, Jesus says something very, very profound in Matthew 8. "Go your way," He said to the centurion. "As you have believed," as you have believed, we'll underline it, okay, for this verse, "as you have believed, so let it be done for you."
There's a revelation, fresh revelation that God gave me during my time of study. I'm going to share this with you. God said to me, "For the lack of this revelation, my body, my body is sick." The body of Christ, the body is sick. He said this revelation is amazing, amazing. When God showed it to me, I never heard anyone preach this or read it anywhere.
First, I'm going to show you Isaiah 53, okay? Go to Isaiah 53. "He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, Christ, and by Jesus' stripes, we are healed."
All we like sheep, all we like what? So immediately after "by His stripes we are healed," He says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
So watch this comparative scripture now. Right after "by His stripes we are healed," He says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way." Now go to 1 Peter chapter 2. "Jesus Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed."
Right now, watch this: "For you were like sheep going astray," just like Isaiah 53, except for this difference: "But you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."
And the Lord said this to me: "The day the church sees Me as a Shepherd—not just know in their head, really experience Me as a Shepherd—their days of sickness are over."
Now, before you clap, don't take my time. Listen, of all the pictures of God in the Bible, in the Old Testament and New Testament both combined, both Old Testament and New Testament, God is personified as a rock, a place of refuge. God is personified as a fire. God is personified and depicted as a king.
Of all the pictures of God in the old and the new, the number one picture, the most frequently used, is Shepherd. We have now returned—now, now, some of you, I'm going to show you right now how we read the Bible. "We have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls" or overseer of our souls.
You know how we read it? "You see, Pastor Prince, you still must return to the Shepherd. You still must return to the Shepherd." It's still on you. You know, I'll show you right now that the Greek word "returned" is not active; it's not you doing it. It is you being returned. It's passive. The voice there in the Greek is passive. You have now been returned to the Shepherd.
You know who did it? The Holy Spirit. You see, when Jesus shed the parable of the lost sheep, a shepherd had 100 sheep. He lost one; he will leave the 99. No shepherd does that. Okay, let me tell you this: no shepherd leaves 99 and looks for the one that's lost, except for one Shepherd—the Good Shepherd. He leaves the 99 and looks for the one.
So who looks? The shepherd looks. We make it sound like we look for God. "You got to look for God; you got to search for God. Have you found God?" What is He, lost? Hello? You are lost; I am lost. Okay, come back here.
So "have now returned" is passive, not active. It's not you returning; you have been brought back. So the shepherd lost the sheep; the shepherd looked for the sheep; the shepherd found the sheep crying, cold, lonely, hungry. The shepherd took the sheep; the shepherd carried the sheep.
So the sheep is resting on his strength. The shepherd brought the sheep home. The shepherd said, "Celebrate with me." What did the sheep do? This is not my story, by the way; it's a parable from Jesus. The shepherd did everything. What do we do? We did one thing: we allowed ourselves to rest.
You see, salvation is nothing more than consent to be saved. It's consenting to be saved, consenting to be loved, living life loved, loved by Him. Do your work loved, rest loved. When you plan, plan knowing you are loved by your Good Shepherd. Can I have a good amen?
Do our best, but not in stress. Live life in rest. We have a good Shepherd. I say we have a good Shepherd. Are you listening? God is always in the business of, you know, always wanting to bless, always wanting to give, always wanting to dispense.
In fact, our posture today in the New Covenant is a posture of rest and belief, amen, because God wants to give so much. It is hard when you want to give and the other person wants to give. It's just like, you know, you're in a restaurant with a dear friend, and after that, it's time to pay the bills and all that, and you are fighting your friend.
Now, you probably, if a friend really loves you and wants to be a blessing to you, you are robbing the friend of that pleasure. That's what a lot of people are doing with God. God is the Eternal giver, and we want to take pride that we can be the giver, we can be the doer, we can be the worker. But God says, "No, no, let Me bless you. Let Me give to you."
Let me only, when we can receive from God, after we have received from God, can we gift. After we have received from God, can we perform or do, amen? The Bible uses words like this, amen: "According to the energy that works in me, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Amen! So when we receive from God, we become very active people. We become people—not lazy people—but people who really serve the Lord. But best of all, not stressed out, not burned out, not worn out, but actually in the rest of God. Amen! That's the heart of God.
One time, there was a widow. The Bible tells us a widow whose husband had died, and there was a huge debt that they owed. The creditors were coming to get her sons to sell them. There was a culture in those days: you can't pay, your sons will become slaves, and that's how you pay off your debt.
And she cried out to the man of God, Elisha. Elisha says, "What do you have in your house?" You know, the Lord is always asking, "All right, ask, what do you have in your house?" Whatever little you have, watch it. It's not that you have; it's My blessing on it.
God said to Moses, "What is that in your hand?" A shepherd's rod. And with a shepherd's rod, God used that rod to perform miracles, amen, even to bring the people out of the land, to bring them water out of the flinty rock, and all kinds of miracles just from a simple rod that is supposed to be lifeless, dead, cut off from its roots.
Amen! God can do miracles. God asks you, "What do you have in your house?" So the man of God, speaking on behalf of God, said, "What do you have in your house?" He says, "I only have a small bottle of oil, a vessel." And he says, "Go borrow from your neighbors bottles, empty bottles, empty vessels." Shouldn't be hard to find empty vessels, amen?
So go find, and she sent her sons to borrow all those empty vessels, amen. There's a lot of noise, amen, and they brought the empty vessels into the house. And she came on pouring, and when she poured the oil, she just kept on pouring. Because why? The oil never ceased, amen!
As long as she was pouring out, the oil never ceased. Now, there's a lesson here for us to learn. When we are favored by God, we are standing on favor ground, amen. Having peace with God, you know something? It is no more like the ordinary people, a child of Adam. We are not now a child of God. We're no more from the old stock, amen.
We've been born again. That old stock that we were in Adam all died and was finished off at the cross. We are cut off from its very roots, amen. And we are born again. When Jesus rose from the dead, we rose in Him. The Bible says that's reality, the way God sees it. We rose in Him.
Now watch this: the world, when they pour out, they get depleted; they get tired. But the more you serve the Lord, the more you give out, amen, the more you pour out, the more there is left behind, amen. The more you give, amen, even of your time, your energy, your efforts, your love, your attention, amen, even money, amen, it all comes back even more in you because you are on favor ground.
Praise the Lord! And the way to have more is to pour out. And she kept on pouring out the bottles of oil, and guess what? It just kept pouring. The oil was unceasing, amen! Just kept on pouring until she says, "Bring me another bottle." And one of the sons says, "That's the last one." And you know what happened? The oil ceased.
So the oil waited on the vessels; it wasn't the other way around. It wasn't, "There's a little oil in a little bottle, and there's not enough." There are so many bottles around. No, my friend, with God's supply, it is us. We limit the Holy One of Israel. We limit the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God wants us to keep on pouring, believing He's always equipping, He's always blessing, amen. The oil ceased when she stopped pouring. The oil ceased when she stopped pouring, amen!
I believe that even in the days to come, the Lord wants to unveil to you more and more the land of promise for you and for your family, which is the place of rest, amen. For the believer today, our promised land, the land that flows with milk and honey, is a place of rest.
And God wants us to enter that rest. In fact, the Bible says, "Let us labor therefore to enter that rest, lest any man should fall after the same example of unbelief," like the Israelites in the wilderness. The Bible says the gospel, the good news that was preached to them, did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
So God says, "Don't fall after that example of unbelief. Let us labor to enter the rest, lest we fall after the same example of unbelief." In other words, the opposite of unbelief is not faith; in this context, it is actually rest. Because rest is actually a posture of faith, praise the Lord!
When you are at rest, you're actually trusting God, amen. The Lord said to me to tell you all that He wants to heal you of one sickness in the days to come. He wants to cause this healing to manifest in your life. What healing is that? It is not a physical disease or physical sickness; it is actually hurry—the sickness of hurry, the disease of hurry.
God wants to heal you of that. You know, we must not hurry because hurrying is not faith, amen. We are a society that has accepted the norm of culture, which is busyness and hurriedness. And we think that it is a badge of honor and achievement to be known as someone who is busy.
It's a culture whereby we think that being busy is to be successful. The type A personality—you are an achiever. You got to be the first one there; you got to be, you know, successful and all that. And God knows, God knows that we are not in a job, okay, for us to be lazy. He wants us to produce fruits.
But remember what Jesus said: when you abide in Him, you will produce fruit. Only when you abide in Him will you produce fruit. The other days, you'll produce fruit, more fruit, and much fruit. Now, that applies to your Christian life as well as for your job, your assignment that you have in life, or whatever you're doing, amen.
If you want fruit in your life, you want fruit in your married life, you want good kind of fruit in your parenting, in your children, whatever area of harvest that you want to see good fruit in, God says, first of all, Jesus said, "Abide in Me."
Now notice, "abide" is the opposite of running around or hurried and trying to achieve this and achieve that, almost like you're in a rat race. And if you win a rat race, you are the number one rat, okay?
So listen, friend, we need to slow down and start to live. Slow down and live for the glory of God. Every day, there are things that would trouble our hearts. There are things that will tell us things, you know, "What if? What if? What if?"
Those who live in the past, it is these two words: "If only." "If only this had happened; if only I had that opportunity; if only I was born in this family; if only this; if only that." It's all in the past. You cannot change the past. Or you're worried about the future.
So in the past, it's more of regret, okay? But the future is more of worry and anxiety. And the two words are "What if?" What if? And you are living today worried about the future.
And the Lord promises us, "Give us this day our daily bread." He never says, "Give us this day our monthly bread." There's only grace, there's only provision, there's only favor, there's only supply that He will give you one day at a time. And He wants us to live in the now.
Now is the favorable time. When you live in the now instead of living in the future, where there's no favor, there's no debt, there's no favor there. Because now is the acceptable time. Now is the what? Deictos time, which means the favorable time.
If you live in the future by worrying, there is no favor there for you. But whatever areas of worry or concern you may have, the Lord today wants you to live now, amen, with Him. Amen! Today is the acceptable time, amen! The deictos time, the favorable time.