Joseph Prince - Lay Hold Of God's Word And See Good Success
This excerpt is from: Be Occupied With The Word Not The Enemy, preached on Oct 16, 2022.
God even told Joshua at the commencement of his ministry or his career as the captain of God's people to bring them into the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, Moses just died. Joshua took over. But the very first thing that God told Joshua is this, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night". What's the result? "You will make your way prosperous and you will have good success".
Good success will never take you away from your family. Good success is not looking at the chart day and night, amen, until your eyes are swollen. That's not good success. Good success is not having, like... No, good success will always give you time to serve the Lord, to come to church even on Sunday, amen, to serve the Lord, amen. And it seems like money is working for you, not you working for money. That's good success. You will make your way prosperous and you shall have good success. "But Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate".
In other words, people, listen. There was an enemy out there. In the promised land, there were enemies. The same, 40 years ago, remember, they saw Anakims down there. They were still there. The same enemies were still there. If anything, they are more established now, more entrenched in their fortified strongholds. And we know the walls of Jericho are thick. So the enemy is there. The hurdles, what seems insurmountable hurdle, even more so at that time, at that season because the River Jordan is now overflowing its banks during the time of harvest. Talk about the time to cross. It's the worst of times to cross the River Jordan. So you have a natural obstacle, but you know something? Whatever is in front of you, whatever obstacle, whatever enemy, "You are not to be engrossed with the enemy, Joshua. You are to be occupied with My Word".
What an instruction to a leader. From the very start, "Don't be occupied with the enemy. Don't be occupied with the troubles and the obstacles. Be occupied with My Word and you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success," amen. You know, there is a law, I think it's in Deuteronomy, that says that when a king ascends the throne, his father passed on or whatever, he ascends the throne, the very first thing he must do is, with his own hand, write the law, the book of the law, which is the first five books of Moses. He need to write it with his own hand that he may learn to fear the Lord all the days of his life. Listen, that's number one. That he may fear the Lord, that he may humble himself and not lift up himself above his brethren. He's king.
He is king, and yet writing and being familiar with the Word of God, amen, I'm not asking you to write the entire Bible, all right? It's already written for you, amen. But instead of asking and passing that responsibility to a scribe, the king himself is supposed to write. And then the next result, like I said, is that he will humble himself. He will not be lifted above his brethren. And the third one is amazing. The third one says that he and his children, the king and his children, will live long. His career will be extended. He and his children will live long. All the result of the Word of God.
Be occupied with the Word. And many of us, because we're not occupied with the Word, amen, we're not meditating on God's Word, we are meditating on things that we see, you know, on TV, right? And now especially with Netflix so abundant everywhere, available and all, people are just occupied with evil. A lot of stories are evil because evil draws the flesh, amen. Before we know it, we are occupied with evil. We are occupied with negative things. We're occupied with scandals and things like that, and the bad stuff, and gossipy spirit, and before we know it, we are occupied with this. And the Bible says we are transformed by beholding the glory of the Lord. Where do you find that? In His Word. We are not occupied by looking at the gory.
So I'm not saying don't spend time, you know, watching or things and like, I'm just saying make sure. Occupation is your main state, what are you doing most of the time. Do not neglect the Word of God, amen. And of course, one of the best ways is that, you know, the Bible says God give gifts to the church. When Jesus ascended, He gave gifts to the church, amen. And one of the gifts are pastors and teachers. Why are they there? To teach the Word of God. So it doesn't mean that God teach me direct, I get revelation direct, I don't need anybody. No, no, no, that's an attitude of pride. It's not teachable. God raised them. God raised pastors and teachers, and they face the same problem that you face, and they have some experience that God allowed them to go through so that they will have the riches within them to dispense to you.
So not only the Word of God, but the Word of God worked through a life already. So especially those older men, and I consider myself, one of those with advanced age. I have many years of experience behind me, amen. But when you look, when you see older people and they are teaching the Word of God, and you can see the anointing of God in them to teach and to impart revelation that transforms lives, and it's proven, there's a proven track record, cling onto it, amen. Not for the person's sake, but for that ministry, that gift, amen. That gift is from Jesus, the ascended Christ. He gave gifts to man as He was ascending. He gave gifts to man, some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. Some put pastors and teachers together because a pastor is usually a pastor and a teacher, all right, but there are also teachers who are not pastors. So they are there to teach. So when you say, "I got my own revelation," no, humble yourself. Listen to the teaching of God's Word, amen. Be near. Be near any spout, like a pipe coming out. If here is a trickle, don't have to worry about that. Go to the places, be under the spout where the glory comes out and park yourself there, amen? Praise the Lord, hallelujah.
So one of the key principles I wanna leave behind with you also is to remember that the things that we are teaching as a church, right, in this church in particular, we believe we are majoring on what is major in the Bible. Now, some might want to, like, study certain things that are more specific and all that. Every Word of God is profitable, because every Word of God is God-breathed, amen? It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof. Reproof, no one likes to hear reproof. Correction, there you have it. No one likes to hear that, right? But we never learn from our people complimenting. The compliments never help us grow. They make us feel good. It's when people correct us. And many times it's people who love you who correct you.
I'm not talking about those, you know, people who are taking cheap shots, all right, through social media. I'm not talking about that. Those are not people who are...they are always looking out for, you know, things to say. People are not happy because the grass is always greener, somebody's marriage always looks nicer, always looks better. And social media now is pushing this agenda, amen, so that you will be in a place of depression, you'll be in a place of, you know, having mental health issues. Everyone's life is good except mine. Cut off, don't spend, I'm not saying cut off completely. I'm just saying that don't spend too much time. Don't be a slave to that. Your life is more important than to get involved with who is who, and who is the present girlfriend of this guy, and who is like... No, your life is more important. Your life is important. Time is precious. It's passing you by. It's fleeting by.
When I was in New Zealand with some of the brethren. We were there for ministry and I told them, "Stop the car," because it was so green, so beautiful. And I jumped across the fence and I ran, "The hills are alive", I literally ran. It was so, I love nature and it was so green, green like you can never imagine. It was so green! Literally, the grass is greener. So we were traveling on the road, I told them to stop, and I jumped over, ran across the green, and then I stopped. And the nearer, once you're on the other side, you see some things. I look around, there's this brown, brown stuff all around me. Brown, brown everywhere, not a drop to spare. Ugh, anyway, it's like some are dried, some are fresh. And I look at my shoe, my nice shoe, and it's like, "Oh no, what has got", I mean, I didn't see it from there. All I saw is green. Then I realized that the grass is greener on the other side, but you don't see it from where you are, amen?