Derek Prince - God's Law Is Written On Your Heart
This excerpt is from: The Holy Spirit As Guide
Let’s look in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 for a moment. I’d like to read the first three verses. These verses always bless me and they always challenge me. Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, letters of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Paul says do we need to get somebody to write and tell you that our ministry is to be accepted? He says no, that’s not necessary. Do we need you to write and tell other people to accept our ministry? That’s not necessary. And then he makes this tremendous statement: You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men.
What Paul is saying is if anybody wants to know my theology, go to Corinth. Because, it’s written there not on paper but in the lives of men and women. Because when I went to Corinth no one had ever heard the gospel of Jesus. It was a city full of pimps and prostitutes and homosexuals and drunkards and extortioners and all sorts of wicked people. And now there are thousands of those people living pure Godly lives. That’s my letter. That’s the recommendation that I offer of my ministry. See, would to God, brothers and sisters, that we could say the same. You want to know what I believe? Go and look at the people I’ve ministered to. They’re my letter. There you’ll find out what I really believe.
And then Paul goes on in verse 3: You are manifestly a letter of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh; that is, of the heart. Paul says the law was written on tablets of stone, it was external And it didn’t do any good because the problem was inside the people. But he says by the Spirit I can write God’s laws on your heart and what’s on your heart will determine the way you live. When God’s law is on your heart you live God’s way. I quoted earlier, yesterday I think, Proverbs 4:23: Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
You see, I’m a preacher. And I tell you, preaching is a waste of time unless the Holy Spirit is there. Because I can’t write on your hearts, there’s no way I can make access to your hearts. But if I preach and the Holy Spirit honors what I say, He’ll write on your heart. And that’s what will change you. You could go out of this meeting this afternoon totally changed, some of you, If the Holy Spirit has written the message on your heart. What a blessed ministry! Being able to change people’s lives! I’m not interested in religion myself, I could care less about religion. The only thing that interests me is seeing people changed by the power of God. People who were miserable and depressed and hopeless suddenly filled with peace and joy and finding something to live for. That’s what keeps me going.
I’m 73, I’m not contemplating retiring because I enjoy what I do. It’s not a religious drudgery for me, it’s exciting. It’s exciting only because of the Holy Spirit. Every time I preach I say to the Holy Spirit if you’re not there and you don’t anoint, this is all going to be a waste of time. I’d just as well close the meeting before it begins. But where the Holy Spirit is, anything can happen. You’ve probably heard of C.T. Studd, the famous university graduate from my university, Cambridge. He played cricket for England and so on. He became a missionary and one time he prayed this. He said, Lord, give us seasons of glorious disorder. I say amen. Lord, I’m tired of this religious order that keeps on doing the same thing week after week and never changes anything or anyone. I don’t mind if people stand on their heads if they get changed. Mind you, it might change people, too.