Joseph Prince - Pray For Good Success Today
The year of kairos, the kairos year of right time, right place, amen. And the verse we're gonna start off with for today's Word from God is Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11. "He has made everything beautiful in His time". He has made everything beautiful. Everything is everything. In the Hebrew, "kol," the word "kol," everything. He has made everything beautiful in His time. And this word "time" in the Hebrew over here is the word "eth," which I mentioned before. And the counterpart in the Greek, the Septuagint version, the Greek version for "time" is "kairos". He has made everything beautiful in His kairos. So we're learning from the Lord that God gives times of refreshing, and literally that's kairos.
God gives you kairos of refreshing. There are seasons of refreshing. We just, even like specifically, we just went through that just now, a time of refreshing, reviving, reinvigorating our entire beings, spirit, soul, and body. Do you know that right now you are stronger, you are healthier, you are more energized, amen, for having been in the presence of the Lord? You're experiencing something that the people, the Galileans, the people who followed Jesus, the multitudes that flocked to Him when He was here on earth, they sensed, they sensed the presence of the Lord, the majesty of the man. They sensed the princeliness of that carpenter, by all outward appearances a lowly man, and yet there's such a dignity. The Bible says, "Excellent as the cedars of Lebanon".
There's meekness and yet majesty. I just love looking at Jesus in the Bible. And to be like Him, you need to understand why we wanna be like Him, because there's no one as lovely as Him. He has no characteristic that preponderates one is greater than the other, you know? His meekness is not at the expense of His majesty. He has it all in beautiful balance in the holy sanctuary. When He's kind, He's not soft. I've said before, amen? When He's zealous, He's not fanatical. For us, we go into extremes and we are all known for a certain characteristic. You look at Solomon, he's known for his wisdom. You look at Paul, he's known for his revelation of the church, of the mysteries of the New Testament. You look at Peter, you see a person who is very zealous for the Jewish things, for his nation Israel. Different ones have different characteristics.
All of us like that, but Jesus has all of them altogether lovely. The Bible says, "Altogether lovely," that verse in the Bible. And I see many times that He's not vexed. He's not easily vexed. Look at you and I. We are so easily vexed. Look at Him every time, you know, the people interrupt Him. And these are people who are anti-Him, all right? These are not friendly people. These are people who have animosity in their hearts towards Him, and yet He's never vexed. He's never frustrated, amen. Sometimes He will speak sternly, especially the Pharisees, but He never speaks sternly in that way to the tax collectors, or the prostitutes, or the sinners, the common sinners of the day. It's only those who are blind that Jesus used strong words, and yet such a beauty even in His words, even in His strong words. That gives us revelation. And man, He's a real man's man, a man who single-handedly drove out all the money changers from the temple.
Now, you know, right, money changer and their money, no one can separate them, amen? He did it single-handedly. He spoke two words, "Follow Me," and strong fisherman who have worked for years in the industry look at Him. And He's not a fisherman, but two words, "Follow Me," that the Marines have copied. The US Marines have copied down through the years. "Follow Me," and they left everything and followed Him. What man is this? That's exactly what the disciples says when He was sleeping at the end of the boat and there was a storm, and He was still sleeping. What calm, what majesty, what beauty, what peace that you and I can have looking at this man. When He rose from the dead, He's still the same Jesus, amen. And that's why He asked them for broiled fish and honeycomb. Why did He eat in their presence? To show, "Hey, I'm not a ghost. I have a body you can touch and feel, except now I can appear and reappear".
There's no coming and going anymore, it's an appearing and reappearing, a vanishing and appearing. Vanishing to physical sight. That's our new body next time. So if you look at Jesus, even when they came to arrest Him, His mind is on His flock, His disciples. "You have found Me, let these go," amen? As He's carrying the cross, on His back that's so brutally lacerated by the stripes, and they put the cross, no wonder they had to ask Simon the Cyrene to help Him carry that cross to Calvary, because His back was so badly lacerated. Your thoughts would be all about your pain, yourself, amen? You and I, mere you and I, we who boast so much that we can do this, we accomplish this, right? Look at that man as He falls and He carries that cross. And then His thoughts is not about Himself. He looked at the women crying, He paused, and He tells them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for Me. Do not cry for Me, but cry for yourselves and your children," amen?
At the cross, who was He thinking of? The criminals on His side, right? They were actually, both of them started off, you know, persecuting Him, insulting Him. And He said to one who turned to Him, later on he repented when He saw the way Jesus says, "Father, forgive them. Forgive them all, for they don't know what they are doing". I believe that one of them repented and looked at Jesus, says, "Lord, remember me". In fact, the other one was still sort of, like, persecuting Jesus, mocking Him from the cross, and the other one corrected and rebuked the other one. You see, we got what we deserved. This man has done nothing amiss. The centurion, when the centurion saw how Jesus died, the centurion, the strong, you know, heathen centurion who doesn't believe in God said that certainly this was the Son of God, seeing the way He died.
Even the one who betrayed Him, Judas, threw the money down and says, "I have betrayed innocent blood". Even the... again, a governor that governed the land, whom everyone is afraid of because he represents Caesar, all right, and doesn't worship any god except Caesar, what did he say? He says that, "I find no fault in this man". You are looking at a man that even the world, the enemies will say there's no fault in Him, amen. But when we look at Him, we see Him deeper. We see Him altogether lovely. To be like Him. I said, "To be like Him". I look at myself sometimes, you know, I still have that shortness of temper. I still have that irritableness. I still have that being easily vexed. I look at Jesus, He's not irritable. He's not easily vexed, amen? He moves among people, but He's independent of them. They don't control Him just by saying, "If I say this, you will jump. You'll get angry at me. See, I say this, you respond".
You see, we are all people who respond. We react. He doesn't react. To be like Him, amen. To have peace. When they woke Him up, all right, it wasn't the cry of the storm, all right, the ferocious storm that stirred up the Sea of Galilee. It was the cry of His own disciples. It's like a mother, you know, sleeping through the storm, you know? The moment her baby cries a bit, she gets up. The storm never woke her up. It's like her hearing got prejudiced, you know? Right? The Lord hears your cry. In the midst of the loud storm, when they said, "Lord," He got up. He rebuked the storm and there was a perfect calm. And they said the same thing I said just now, "what kind of man is this"? What kind of man is this? Then He turned around.
Now that He has rebuked and quieted the outside storm, He quieted the storm in their hearts by saying, "Peace. Why is it you have no faith"? Why is it, amen? And the word used there is "mega-storm" in the Greek. I don't have to define for you what's mega. And the word that says there was a great calm. Have you noticed that, right, in your English Bible? "There was a great calm". The word "great" is mega-calm. You might be going through a mega-storm, but He can, in one word, give you mega-calm. To be like Jesus. Now, do you wanna be like Jesus? All right, the simple man, amen? And I wanna say something else. He's humble. He will say things like, you know, "I don't do these things. It's the Father within Me," amen? "I don't do things out of My own initiative, but the Father speaks to Me and I do, and I obey Him". And look at us, we're so disobedient, amen?
We do things our own way, and yet the humility. And the humility is not like something, you know, you look at a person who is like, there is no standing, that's completely poor, and he's a sorry sight, you know, when you look at him. It's not that kind of humility. It's a humility that has dignity. When He is humble, no one takes advantage of Him. They tried, but they couldn't. Even the disciples who lived in and out with Him, you know, they say you are not a hero to your own valet. You know what that means, right? It's an old saying from ancient times. No one is a hero to his valet. So the guy goes into battle. He's dressed, he's clad in his shiny armor. He wins the battle. He comes back. The whole town, the whole village, the whole place, the whole country praises him, right? He's the hero, but to his valet, he's never a hero. So no one is a hero to his valet, to his armor-bearer. You know why? Because they see the inside and out. They see all the temper that you have lost. They see all your irritability. "Now put it on properly, lah".
Now, they see all that. And we are all like this, right? But Jesus is never like that because when He's with His disciples, and remember this, they go through all kinds of situations. They sleep in every, you know, most of the time they sleep outside, right? Where you must go together to wash, and bathe, and all that, and they are together in and out. And yet the Bible says towards the end of the journey, they were discussing who'd be the greatest, and the Bible says, "None of them dare ask Him". There was that dignity of the Lord that they dare not even. Definitely He's not a hero to His valet in that sense. He is truly the Lord Jesus to them, amen? Okay, Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11. I just wanna let you know when the Bible says that we are all to be conformed to the image of Jesus, amen, you need to know what's the image of Jesus. What kind of man is He? A man who speaks and it's done. You must include that as well. To be conformed to the image of Jesus is someone who speaks and it's done, amen.
And I see that parents, we need this in our lives, not force our will upon our children, not to make them obedient by threats and bribing them or blackmail, but we speak and it's done. The effect goes right into their hearts. I wanna speak more on this awhile on, okay? But let's go to Ecclesiastes 3:11. He's made everything beautiful in His kairos, in His eth, in His favorable time. What is kairos again? The opportune time, a time of favor, amen? So God has declared for us, amen, in this church, in this ministry, and those who follow this ministry, amen, the year, the kairos year of right time, right place. The testimonies you heard just now are just a few of them that we have received of right time, right place. I'm still receiving it and I'm sure that many of you have experienced this. You bump into people, and you know, now I see it. Whoever I bump into, by the way, outside, and I go out a lot, okay, if I bump into them, I know that God has something for them. I know we are supposed to meet.
You know, I bump into more than one person that watches online? So you know what I say, right? "Join us, come on! This is a personal invitation. The Lord sent me to you. Of all the people I could have met, I met you, you know"? Right? We could have been, Singapore is small, but hey, it's not that small. We can get lost. Even if you try to meet someone, it's hard, right? Sometimes you give a location, you can still lose each other. And to bump into one another, come on, it's a sign to you. Ha ha, amen? So whatever happens in our lives as believers, this is not true for the world. That's why the kairos year and all that, please don't start projecting this into the world, into the world's situation, and the politics of the world, and the happenings of the world. These are, God is talking about His people in His kingdom, amen, the church.
And the church...again, when I say, "The church," always learn to replace that not with a building, but with the many-membered saved souls out of every nation, out of every race, amen, out of every part of the world, amen. This is the church of Jesus Christ, the greatest organization, the dream of the Father's heart. The Father and His family, amen. Amen? So this is something that I want you to know is in God's heart. And for you, this is your inheritance. Every kairos moment, He will make things beautiful in your life. Not only that, we reap. We've been sowing, we've been doing a lot of things, but we see that there's no harvest it seems, amen? We do it for Him nonetheless, right, but we want the harvest as well because harvest meets our needs with plenty left over to meet the needs of others. Am I right? But when will we reap? The Bible tells us in Galatians 6 very clearly that, "Let us not be weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart". We don't lose heart.
Now, notice, when will we reap? In due season. Do you know, "In due season" is one word in the Greek? "Kairos". Kairos. When will we reap? In kairos. When will God make things beautiful in your life? In His kairos, amen. We wanna live in that kairos place. I said we wanna live in that kairos place, amen, as much as possible, amen. You know, the Bible talks about good days and evil days, right? Right? Am I right? Like for example, Ephesians 6, he says, "Put on the armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day". In the evil day. "The," definite article, "evil day," day is singular. I love it because the Bible says in more than one place, Old Testament and New Testament that quotes that Old Testament, saying, "For he that would love life and see good days," plural. So good days are plural for God's people. Evil day, good days, evil day.
So we all go through an evil day or an evil season even, but whatever afflictions you go through, it is only for a season. People talk about Job's sufferings and all that, it's only, it's about nine months scholars tells us. About nine months, less than a year, amen, and God gave him double all that he lost, right? Good days are upon you. But you say, "But every time I look at the news and all that, you know, like evil days, pastor". Again, you are projecting into the world. And not only that, worse, you are taking from the world and putting it into your life. Now, I'm not against people watching all these things, but if you don't watch the Word and you are watching, you're not reading the Word or spending time in the Word and you are looking at all these things, no wonder you are depressed. No wonder you are fearful. No wonder you no longer have the helmet of salvation, hope of salvation, because hope means a positive expectation of good in your future.
Watch your mind. Watch your thoughts. And then when you are depressed, then you are very easily irritated. You don't mean to be irritated with your spouse, but you are irritated because you are worried. Your spouse doesn't know that, so your spouse responds to your irritation and then you get more irritated because he doesn't understand, then he doesn't understand why you don't understand that he's trying to be understanding, then you get irritated. All the while the problem goes free because the problem is actually your worry and your care. See, all these things that the Bible teaches us makes for a successful, beautiful, wonderful life. He makes things beautiful in His time, amen. If you are a person who is not easily irritated, for example, and the Bible says, "Pray this prayer".
Paul prays this prayer, listen. You know what prayer he prays? He says that, to be strengthened, "I pray for you all that you'll be strengthened with all might by your spirit". Wow, that sounds like there must be something, a purpose for this. There must be something powerful that you'll be able to accomplish, maybe performing signs, and wonders, and miracles in the lives of people. Maybe that's it, but no. Why strengthen with all might, with all might by God's Spirit? You pray that prayer, it says, "Strengthen with all might by His Spirit unto all endurance". This is adverse circumstances. And not only that, "And patience with joy". Patience is towards people. With joy! Wow, that part, I've been praying this prayer, you know? Some parts I get. The joy part I haven't got. Still working on it. Sometimes I'm joyful, sometimes I'm not. That means what? Endurance towards adverse circumstances and patience towards difficult people with joy. It can only happen when the Holy Spirit strengthens you with all might, amen?
Me and Pastor Mark have problem on the roads still. We both have confessed to you our sins. Have you confessed yours, amen? Especially on the road. I don't know why. Everyone else is driving wrong except me, right? We have this attitude. And one good way the Lord has taught me also, perhaps it's a manifestation of that prayer. I pray this prayer every day, you know? And the more I pray this prayer, the more I encounter these people on the road. So isn't it a safe way for the Lord to train us, every time there's, you know, a moment to be irritated? So He wants you to be a cool person. He wants you to be a peaceful person. He wants you to live long. Because now science will tell you that if you are someone who is highly stressed and always very hurried, the... what? Type A, you know, temperament, and most likely you might end up with a heart attack. It's proven now that these are the type of people that end up with heart attacks, with disease, heart disease and all kinds of cardiovascular problems. It's proven. The ones who are slow, amen, Jesus' speed is always like slow and slower, amen.
Imagine, someone's daughter has died. He turned to the father on the way there and He stopped because a woman touched the hem of His garment and got healed, right? So He talked to the woman on the way to raise Jairus' daughter who was dying. He got time to stop and turn around. You know what I'll do? Excuse us, sorry. Another time, another place, okay? Wrong time, wrong place, all right? I'll go around there. You know what I'm saying? You all don't laugh, lah. You'd all be the same, right? Amen? But Jesus, there is, like, He knows the Father will make everything beautiful in His time. He follows the timing of God, the tempo of grace, amen? He just follows. And He stopped and talked to the woman, "Daughter". She's the first woman in the Bible, in the Gospels, Jesus calls "daughter". He did refer to the daughter of Abraham who was loosed, but the daughter of Abraham, but here it says, "Daughter," He calls her. Why? She needed to know that this is a family blessing.
When He says "daughter," He's not treating her like He's a patron, a benefactor, right? A patron and benefactor rather, all right? You know what I'm saying? You know what's patron and benefactor? I'll give you this gift, but I'm high and mighty. You are down there. No, no, family, "Daughter, be of good comfort. Your faith made you well". I love Jesus, amen. Then someone came from the house, Jairus' house, whispered to Jairus, "Your daughter is dead. Don't trouble the Master anymore". And immediately when Jesus knew what the guy said, He told Jairus, "Don't be afraid. Fear not, only believe and she shall be made whole". Put yourself in that situation. When you hear this, what's your response? Laugh in mockery? He will put you out. You won't be able to join Jairus, He only brought Peter, and James, and John into the house, amen?
Peter, James, and John. Peter means "stone"; James, supplanter, replace; John is God's grace. The stone has been replaced by God's grace. The law has been replaced by God's grace. If it's the law, none of them can go in, into the place of the dead. If it's by law, that woman with the issue of blood cannot tough His garment. Cannot even be seen in public. It's not law, it's grace. Grace came down. Grace became a person, amen? Praise the Lord. And then He raised Jairus' daughter from the dead. Yeah, hallelujah, amen! Praise the Lord. This is our Lord Jesus. I tell you, all the heroes in the world, Marvel can come out with their latest heroes, lah, I must mention DC also, right? Balance. DC can come out with their own, you know, hero and all kind. And even the old-old heroes all change-change to present heroes now, all right? The old hero don't... already, okay? No more, all the modern heroes.
I'm not knocking any of them, but I'm saying all them are fictitious. Don't hero worship them. I'm talking to the young people now especially. There's one you can really worship and He's real. And the hero, okay, at the most, right, even if you wanna take a picture with them, they will have their hand... You know? That kind of attitude. Yeah, but you know, they have faults. They have failures. This one comes near you. He draws near you. He wants to hear your voice, amen. He wants to see your face. He wants you to draw near to Him. And the nearer you draw, you cannot find fault with Him. Celebrities are afraid, you come near, you'll find fault with them, so they put a distance because it's easier to be put on a pedestal and no one see your fault. But Jesus is not like this. He lived day in and day out with His disciples. The more you come near, the more you see the perfections and the beauty of the man. Hallelujah, mmm. Praise the name of Jesus.
Are you all excited or not? Okay, so, Pastor, is there anything the Lord is telling us about kairos? Yes, I just wanna drop one thing in your heart about kairos, okay, about right time, right place this year. The thing that He want us to do, and this is what He said to me very strongly, He says, "My people need to learn to pray and get more into prayer". Now, the moment I say that, some of you are saying, "Well, you know, it's very hard. I don't have the time," and all that because you have this religious idea about prayer. Your idea of prayer is that one hour of prayer or two hours prayer like you hear some men of God, they kneel down there, they pray for one, two hours, and three hours, or whatever it is. "And there's no way I can do that, Pastor Prince". No, I'm talking about communication with God.
One of the most outstanding things that the disciples saw about Jesus is that at any time, He will talk to God. One time, they were persecuting Him and all He was talking about the cities that rejected Him: Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and all that. At that moment, He lifted up His eyes and He says, "Father, I thank You that You've hidden these things from the wise and the prudent of the world, but You have revealed them unto babes". He praised His Father, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You've hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes". Then He turned to His disciples and said, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden". While He was being persecuted, while He was being rejected by all these towns and villages, amen, He was rejoicing, talking to the Father, and then looking at the disciples and says, "Come unto Me, all you that labor". Ooh, the beauty of the man, amen? Amen? Some of us would be crushed. I'll pray to you another time, Lord.
Now I'm just crushed. Right? And there's so, very freely He can talk to God anytime, even when you are driving. But Pastor, I must close my eyes. Don't! So all these religious ideas come into your mind, amen, and I wanna say this. Okay, listen carefully, especially for this church and those that are following this ministry. Do you know that you can even allow the knowledge of grace to stop you from praying, because you will say, "It's by grace, lah. Grace will happen. Grace", you know? No, no, no. Grace is the idea you cannot, but the Lord can. It is actually conscious weakness. You will always, your place of strength before God. Your place of power before God is conscious weakness, but don't stop there. If you go, "Oh, I'm so weak. I'm so weak. I'm so weak," no, don't stop there, but you need to know or else you'll be going around the mountain to learn the lesson that you are weak. You will find that you'll fall, and fall, and fall until you learn that you are weak.
People think they are weak but they're not weak enough. That's why you cannot save a drowning person too fast. You cannot jump into the water too fast, why? As long as he still has strength, he will pull you down. You must wait until he's weak, he cannot help himself, he cannot save himself. Then you can save him. We are still quite strong. We think we are weak, but we are not. But we're actually weak. That's why all these daily irritations, God allows them to come in so that you want to be more like Jesus. One of the best things you can do when you're arguing with your spouse and you're impatient, and all you can think is, "It's her fault, his fault, her fault, his fault, her fault, his fault," is to stop and judge that irritability in you and tell yourself, "I judge that irritableness. Joseph Prince, why are you so irritable"? Don't talk about the rightness of the situation. Leave that for awhile.
Why are you so irritated? Why are you so vexed? Why are you so angry? I don't want that in me. I judge that. And then you realize that has been taken at the cross, amen. So conscious weakness on one hand and then dependence on God, on Christ. These are the twin, it's a power twin for victory in your life. So we see the first occurrence of right time, right place, Genesis 24, is this, the servant at the well. He prayed this prayer, "Then he said, 'O LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham.'" So we all know the story, right? You heard the story for the past few messages that we have shared. The servant doesn't know which girl. The village has a lot of young girls and they're all coming out at the same time to take water. It was the responsibility of these young girls to take water for the family, okay? Usually they have two timings: early in the morning and in the evening, all right, when it's less hot, and they will all come.
So at the time in the evening, the Bible says, Abraham's servant who was sent on an assignment by Abraham to look for a bride for Isaac, all right, he sat at the well. He doesn't know which girl, right? So he prayed, "O God, give me success". So the word there in the Hebrew is "qarah". Qarah, all right, which is right happening. Right happening, good happening, fortunate happening. The world calls it serendipity, all right? You happen to chance upon a favorable opportunity, amen? A surprise, but a pleasant surprise. You didn't plan for this. That is what qarah is all about, right time, right place. That's qarah happening to you. So he prayed for qarah, "Give me a right time".
Do you know God actually stopped, for some reason, God actually stopped all the young ladies from coming out. That while he was praying, he didn't finish his prayer yet, he told God, "The woman that will come and offer me water, the young woman that come and offer me water," he thought that there'll be many, many woman, lah, come to draw water, "but the one that comes, Lord, the one that comes and offer me water, and not only me water, but all my ten camels". And one camel, 30 gallons minimum water. Can you imagine? "She will also give them water. She is the one that you have appointed". He made it hard. But while he was still speaking, before he finished speaking, the Bible says, before he finished speaking, show them verse 15, "And it happened, before he had finished speaking, that behold, Rebekah, appeared".
So I want you to know something. We learned that prayer is mentioned with qarah. Prayer is mentioned. And it's not a long prayer. If you count the length of the prayer, sometimes the most powerful prayer is a short prayer. Yes, we have instances of Jesus praying through the night, amen. We have instances of certain protracted prayer in the disciples lives. We have corporate prayer, they operate together. But most of the prayers you see are short prayers. You consider the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, "Our Father who art in heaven". You count with a stopwatch, it's fast. But this idea, religious idea, you gotta spend hours in prayer is not from God. And one time, we made a law out of one-hour prayer. I still remember that. I tell you, I put a clock there. I started praying. And I thought, "Oh, one hour already".
I look at my clock, ten minutes. But when you don't do that, when we're talking to our good friend, you know, in a cafe, we sit down there, and then we always say what? "Whoa, the hour just fly". How do you think God feels, right? You know, prayer is conversation with God, amen. So you don't just dream, "By grace, I'll have success, lah. You know, by grace, I'll have success". Did you pray? I said, "Did you pray"? All right, I'm gonna talk to my son afterwards. You know, he did something just now. Did you pray that God would give you wisdom, favor with him, that your words will go deep? Did you pray? It's a small things to pray. God is telling us this is conscious weakness, that "I cannot convince him, but only You can". This is conscious weakness and dependence on God, dependence through Christ, that you will get through to him, amen. Oh yeah, I gotta make an important decision, you know?
In fact, I confronted with a number of important decisions to make, you know, for someone else even. I gotta ask God, "God, give me wisdom". But if I think that I'm smart, "Oh yeah, you know, let's look at the pros and the cons, and the pros and the cons". No, all the pros and cons cannot put you at the right time at the right place. We shared that before, even stopping accidents. Smart people die, professors die, doctors die, amen, in an accident that's not even their fault. Other people's fault. Wrong time, wrong place. It's not their fault. I'm just telling you, church, we need to depend on the Lord. So the amazing thing is that before he had finished speaking, Rebekah appeared. So even when you are praying, God has answered.
So God is outside the time zone. He sends the answer that you're gonna pray later on, on this earth. He sends the answer before you pray because He knows you will pray. What do you think? Rebekah was cooking, "Yeah, put in some turmeric, put in some chili powder. Wow, it's a very spicy food". All right, as she's cooking and all that, "Ah", no watch. "I have to go in ten minutes time". Look at the sun dial. "Ten minutes time, I have to go and take water and all that". Poof, she disappeared. Then poof, she appeared in front of the well and that elderly man is down there praying. Do you think it happened like that? No, God already sent the answer, put the desire in her heart, all right, and put the desires in all the other young women's heart, all right, "No, I have to do other things. I'm very busy. I cannot go to the well today. My brother can go to the well".
You know, something like that happened, so God was answering prayer before it was prayed. So the prayer that He put in your heart to pray, you think you are praying, but actually He put it in your heart to pray the prayer that He wants you to pray, and the answer is on the way. There's a beautiful promise here in Isaiah 65, "It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking". And that's what happened to Abraham's servant. "While they are still speaking, I will answer". You know what Jesus said when He taught on prayer? "Whatever things you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them". Wait, wait, wait, when do you believe you receive them? When you see it happen? When you touch it, you can feel it in your body, you can see it outside? When the manifestation comes? When? "When you stand praying," Mark 11, verse 24. "When you stand praying, believe", sorry, one more time. "What things so ever you desire when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them".
So when do you believe you receive? While you're praying. It's this, "While they are still speaking, I will answer". I believe that when I pray, God answers. You gotta have that posture, you know, you are redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Again, all these religious thoughts and all that, you know, you gotta find out your sin before you can talk to God, before God can hear you and all that, you know, and your unconfessed sin and all that. That's why I'm telling you this kind of consciousness can rob you of a prayer life. You gotta know that you're forgiven of all your sins, amen, and thank God for that. True confession is homologia, to say the same thing with God about our sins.
What did God say about our sins in the new covenant? They are all forgiven by Jesus' blood. Confess that. The more you believe that, you won't fall into sin, I'm telling you, because you won't be sin-conscious. Before you fall into sin, you are sin-conscious, okay? Pray, God hears your prayer. You're a child of God, pray. Every situation, pray. Be like every day, it's not so much hours of prayer, it is like the whole day, all right, any situation comes up, you are praying. You find you are lacking or something, pray. "That pain I felt in my body, Pastor Prince, can you pray for me"? Did you pray? "I fell late this morning, got no time to pray". You got no time to pray? You got time to eat or not? You got time to go toilet or not? When you feel the urge, you do it, right? Right? Prayer is so simple. God is so close. Another thing that, you know, you gotta demolish all these religious thoughts, "You must get close to God. You must get close to God". You are so close already. You are in Christ. You know where are you or not? Seated in Christ at the Father's right hand.
So sometimes in times past when I pray, "Father," like God is so far away, "Father! Father in heaven"! and I'm trying to psych myself into a place where I think that I'm close to God, it never works. The more I try to be close to God, the more further I am, because why? It's a negation of the truth, and the Spirit of truth cannot bear witness with a lie when he has, let me put it this way. When I'm already in Christ, I'm so close to God. The Holy Spirit bears witness with that truth. If I act like I'm so far away, amen, there's nothing for the Holy Spirit to bear witness. It's a lie. So when you act like God doesn't hear your prayer, God is so far away, or I didn't go to church for a few days or whatever, amen, then repent of that and just come back. And thank God that he's forgiven you of that sin of not attending physically.
Okay, I'm just joking, all right? Ha ha ha, you know I gotta slide it in all the time, okay? I just don't want you to miss the corporate anointing. Amen, people? Pray, amen, and know that while you are praying, not after, while you are praying, God is hearing. God is already sending the answer already. And sometimes just like Abraham's servant, poof, it appears right before you. So another thing I want you to see is this. While he was praying, what did he pray? "Give me qarah," in the Hebrew. In your English Bible, it says "success," right? So listen, pray for success. The amazing thing is that, you know 3 John 1:2, right? It says... what 3 John 1:2 says what? "Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health".
Now, that's the King James version. You know what's the word there, "I wish"? It's actually, "I pray". It's used in other places for prayer. Do you know you can pray, I pray for my children, I pray for my spouse, I pray for my church, and I pray this for you also. I pray that you prosper and be in health, even as your souls prosper. You see, the Bible says, "You have not because you ask not". And this mentality, "You know, God knows my needs. You know, God knows my needs". Exactly, but if you live like that in a marriage, you are heading towards a divorce. There's no way your wife will tolerate. Somewhere along the way it's gonna be breakdown, breakdown, breakdown until the end. If you don't talk to your wife about your concerns, your needs, and all, there's no communication. "She knows, lah. She knows me, lah. She knows me, lah. She knows me, lah. She knows me, lah. Then one day she left. I don't know her". And it's too late.
Communication is the lifeblood of the relationship. You know, if you have a concern, tell your wife, amen? When she has a concern, she'll tell you. And listen, guys, she want your shoulder or your hearing ear. Remember this when she talks. Not so much your mouth talking back to her, giving solutions. Sometimes women are like that. They talk, talk, then they feel better, all right? Don't give solution. We guys are different. You see, the thing you must do is this. We come with solution too fast and she haven't finished talking. Ladies, am I right? I'm a guy, guys. I know from experience. I have a solution. Look, look, look, look, Wendy. Thank God for you, Wendy. You got Pastor Prince to counsel you. Okay, so what you do, right, there are three things you must do, okay?
Come on, baby. Baby, listen, there are three things you must do. She haven't finished talking yet. All she want is to pour out and I'm giving her my mouth instead of my shoulder or, what is it, my hearing ear, right? Listen, "Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm". Then she'll say, "Okay, I think I got the answer already". I didn't say anything, but she got the answer. Sometimes these things happen, right, that they got the answer as they are talking through. Your teenage son, your daughter, and all that, it's the same. They know they talk to you, they get lecture. They call it lecture, all right? Surprise them. From today, surprise them. When they talk, listen. And the urge will rise up. "Ooh, ooh, he's doing something that I've done before and I know the answer". Shut up, and you will make things beautiful in his time, amen? Pray. Conscious weakness.
If you are truly, if you're living by grace, grace is all about, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble," amen? God resists the proud, gives grace to the humble. What does that mean? Who is the humble? Those who are conscious of their weakness. Actually, the place of your weakness is the place of your strength. Do you hear what I'm saying? The very area that you are frustrated about, "When I am weak," not before or after, "when I am weak, then I'm strong". But you don't realize you are strong at that point. So the world glorifies your strength, so we show our strength. We don't show our weakness. We show our strength. We build our strength. We cover up our weakness. In the kingdom of God, it's the opposite. Show God your weakness and His strength manifest in that area.
I'm gonna show you something else. If someone argues, "Well, Pastor Prince, 'qarah' and all that, and success, it's not success and all that," okay, if you argue it that way, all right, later on the same servant would rehearse, he would narrate the story to Laban, amen, about what happened earlier at the well. And this is what he said to Laban, look below. "And this day," he's talking to Laban, "I came to the well and I said, 'O LORD God of my master Abraham.'" This is Laban, Rebekah's brother. He says, "I cam and I prayed". See what he said? "I came to the well and I said, 'O LORD God of my master Abraham, if You will now prosper the way which I go.'" Now he used the word "prosper," not "qarah". And the word in the Hebrew is not "qarah," but "tsalach," prosper. So you must understand, in the Hebrew mind, "qarah," right time, right place, is synonymous with "prosper," whatever area. Prosper in your relationship with your children, amen. Don't think of prosperity as making money, making money, making money.
In fact, I find that people who are hasty to be rich, especially hasty to be rich, there's a generation coming up, they don't wanna work. They don't want to have, you know, the discipline of work life. They want to make money fast. At home, at the touch of their fingertips, make money fast, amen. I'm not saying this is wrong, all right? If the Lord leads you, there'll be a lot of fingerprints to show that. It won't hurt many people. It won't cause them to lose money and just you make. That's not the nature of God. God starts companies and all that that profits many people, not just the one starting. And we will not allow that also if we see that happening. So listen carefully. Prosperity's not about becoming rich. If your only thought is to become rich, become rich, become rich, become rich, you will never be content with what you have. You will never enjoy your journey on your way to your goal. Does God want to give us with more than enough? Yeah, and not just enough, more than enough so that we can be a blessing. Those who have just enough, me, myself, and little Jimmy, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, all right, they cannot be a blessing, amen. So you gotta be blessed with more than enough.
When Jesus blessed the multitudes, the 5,000, with a feeding, right, 12 basketful leftover. After they were full, there were 12 basketfuls leftover, right? Ruth ate at Boaz's table during lunchtime, after gleaning. The Bible says she ate and she was sufficed, she had enough, and leftover which she brought back to her mother-in-law. She tabao. There's more than enough. Not only that, she went back to gleaning again, and before the evening was over, they had to put on her back an ephah, which is ten days' supply, because Boaz told the man drop handfuls of purposely put down on the ground, right, purposely for her, until it was ten days' supply. That's the way God provides, so you have plenty left. But if your target is to become rich financially, rich, one more million, ten more million, after that, I aim for half a billion, you know, you'll never be happy if that's your only goal in life. "Pastor, get on preaching. This is not right time to say this kind of thing". Yes, it is! It is right time, right place, amen.
So then the mind is prospered. God wants us, when I say prosper, it's always prosper in every dimension in life. If you study the Bible, God wants you to prosper in every dimension of your life. Why cut off this short-temperedness and all that? Because it will cause you to prosper in your relationship, correct? Think about it. When you have no more that kind of thing, you are someone, people will love to flock to you, be around you, amen? If you're an unhurried person, you're a calm person, people who are stressed and depressed like to hang around you because it rubs off on them. And you think people like this, when it comes to, you know, the boss's estimation of the workers and all that. They have a good attitude. They are working. They don't come late, you know? They work even if I am not around, I find out they are working hard. And they're always thinking and they're going one step ahead. Who will I promote? And he has integrity, he has honesty, or she has integrity, all right? She's well-loved, and yet she doesn't deceive, manipulate her way. She's not selfish. Who will I promote? The problem with us is we are proud.
You see, if I say that...again, stop there. Don't judge me, judge ourself. When I think of pride, I judge myself. Joseph Prince, do you still have pride? What is it? That's my seat. She took my seat. Why do you say that? Pride. No, it's her problem. No, it's your pride. You gotta kill, you know, and God is exposing this. Wonderful, when God exposes it, you can kill it. It's sad when I see in the body of Christ people not talking to each other because of pride. I wanna talk about, notice, why did he pray? Because he has conscious weakness. There's no way. I'm a very experienced man. I'm an old man. I should know what kind of girl and all that, all right? I'm experienced. I can look at, you know, a gold-digger, whatever it is. I can see. But he doesn't depend on that. Doesn't depend on his experience. He depended on the Lord. That's prayer. Don't allow the knowledge of grace to rob you of prayer. Knowledge of grace should lead you to prayer because it's a life of dependence. It means what? I cannot, I depend on Him. Nothing is too small to pray about. Can I have a good amen?
I mean, it's surprising when you ask people, "Have you prayed about this"? Yeah, yeah, I'm getting to it. Huh? Okay, I'm gonna show you this in closing. Look at this guy, Shamgar in Judges. "After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad; he also delivered Israel". Now, before we talk about him, this is chapter 3. In chapter 3, you find God, the life of the judges is after Joshua died. God didn't raise kings in Israel. God didn't raise, you know, like those people that would rule in terms of prophets. You know, later on Samuel came, but no prophet. They were called judges. God sent, every time the enemies came into, first of all, Israel sinned and then God allowed the enemies to come in, all right? So you wanna live for the enemy, this is what the enemy is like. All right, the enemies come in, then they cry to the Lord. And God is always merciful. God raised a judge, okay, and the judge will accomplish the victory that God gives to Israel through that judge.
Okay, so the first chapter 3 here, it's been about nearly 400 years, and the last one being of course Samson, the last judge. Actually, after that it's the story of Samuel, the young boy, with Eli and all that, who became a prophet. He's also a judge. But technically it ended with Samson. Okay, so here we go. "After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed six hundred men of the Philistines with a," what? "Ox goad". You know what's an ox goad or no? It's a sharp thing that you goad the ox. I don't know if we use the expression like that. You goad. You goad him, all right? And actually it's like, it's not very sharp. It's a bit blunt at the end, but he gets the point. Ha ha ha ha, all right? So if you are plowing, you are plowing, and the goat refused to move, you just take the ox goad and you just, you know, give him a little goad. You goad him on, then he moves, okay? So it's just a blunt instrument. It's not very sharp. It's definitely not sharp on the sides either, okay? So it's an instrument used for plowing, okay?
Now, the Bible says, "Shamgar, he killed six hundred Philistines with ox goad; and he also delivered Israel". When you think about it, chapter 3 starts off with a very, very, very fat king that represents the flesh. King Eglon, okay? A king, this king, his people have dominated the people of Israel and he was so fat. And God raised a judge name Ehud who was a left-handed man. Now, in those days, many people are right-handed, all right? Neither were they ambidextrous. Most of them right-handed. But if left hand, that means it's a weak hand. It's known as the weak hand. And he's from the tribe of Benjamin. It's a weak hand. The Bible purposely say, "A left-handed man".
God used a left-handed man and he could go into the presence of the king with one gift in one hand, in his right hand holding a gift. But most people will check for your scabbard, before the king, right, check down here because you are right-handed and you'll pull like this... But because his is on this side, they didn't check, and he was holding a gift. And this guy was so lustful for the gift, I mean, he was just like, "Come in, come in. Bring the present here," all right? And when he was near, with his left hand, he took it out and he stabbed him dead. Israel was liberated. So again, God used weakness, right? Shamgar, ox goad, 600 Philistines died, amen. And then we have, after that, the next chapter, we have God raised a lady called Deborah. Deborah became a judge, amen, and a prophetess. And she encouraged Barak to be a leader of Israel. At that time, the King Jabin was attacking them, and they were numerous their armies. They were conquering and conquering all the way until Deborah arose and encouraged a man to do it. Now, you must understand one thing. In the Bible, the Bible says clearly women, in terms of the physical, is a weaker vessel.
Now, today there's a lot of argument out there. I'm just telling you what the Bible says, weaker vessel. So the man in warfare, women do the supportive role, not so much of the fighting role. I know you see a lot in Marvel comics and all that, all right? Just know that you know that you know that you know, okay? All right, just go by the Bible. We care. That's why chivalry is there, because of the Christian values. We take care of the woman in our lives, amen. God used Deborah in leadership. And before the chapter is over, one of the commanders of King Jabin fled and went into a tent. He pretended to be a runaway and he just asked for water. And there's a lady there called Jael, and he gave him milk. You know that milk puts you to sleep instead of water. Water revives you. He asked for water, give him milk, he was sleeping. Jael took her peg, an iron peg, which is a giant nail and a hammer. While he was sleeping, put it on his head, bang, he's dead. Killed by a woman.
How embarrassing is it back home in their country to hear. What happened to our commander? Yeah, yeah, how can I say? Yeah, hmm, a woman killed him. What? Right, you know what I'm saying? Don't mess around with the women of Israel. Now, this is true strength. True strength is using weak things, conscious, and God will use whatever weakness that you have. Because Jael, she is the one that built up the tents for her family. And to build tents, you must have the nail and the hammer. Notice she didn't use an ox goad like Shamgar did because her job is not with the goats and the oxen. It's with the tent. She's used to that. God asked Moses, "What's that in your hand"? Amen, you can go on and on. Gideon, when the angel came to him, he says, "Don't you know"? The angel says, "Hey, you valiant man". He says, "Don't you know that I'm the weakest, the least in my family, and my family is the poorest in Manasseh"?
See how God chooses people? You all, disqualifications is the manifestation, a chance for him to manifest His strength and His grace. You'll be sad about a situation. All right, we are so strong, we want to solve it ourself. That's the problem, and then we get more into that kind of situation. No, friend, depend on prayer. Prayer is conscious weakness. I depend on God. That's grace, hallelujah, amen? Then Gideon was afraid, right, to attack the Midianites. There were so many of them, what did God do? God sent, "Gideon, if you are afraid, go down by stealth at night near the camp of the Midianites and listen to their conversation". He listened to the conversation. One guy said, "Hey, I had a dream last night". "What was your dream"? "Oh, I dreamt, oh man, I'm telling you, there was these barley loaves falling, rolling down all the way, and hit the giant tent," all right?
The poor people eat barley bread in Israel. The rich eat wheat bread, all right? More commonly found is barley bread. A simple barley bread rolling into the enemy's tent can destroy the tent. It encouraged Gideon. He had his men. From 32,000, God dwindled them to 300. What's God saying? If 32,000 win, you might say by the strength of the numbers. God says Israel will be proud. But 300 men against thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands, that's something else. And finally, the men fought with what? Sword? No, they mentioned the sword of the Lord in Gideon, but it was earthen vessel. All of them held earthen vessel. Inside was the light, all right, the earthen light vessel, and then they used the trumpet. Not a sword, a trumpet. They will break it and all the camp of Midianites will see lights all around. And this is a picture of all of us. We have this treasure in our earthen vessel, Paul says.
And the next verse talks about we are cast down, but we are not cast, we are brought down but not brought out, okay? We are knocked down, not knocked out. In different versions, that's how it says it. In other words, problems will come, but there's something inside us that will rise up. That's the treasure in the earthen vessel. The falling down, the discouragement, the bad-temperedness is all our earthen vessel, but there's a treasure inside, amen. God allows us to go through these things to break that earthen vessel so the light can shine forth. Can I have a good amen? Let me finish with this, last one. Shamgar probably saw 600 Philistines come, all right? And he's probably in the field. How do I know? Because ox goad is used in the field. He's threshing, threshing. He look at them coming his way, the path, and he's thinking, "Oh no, it's them again. I know what they are after. They're after the harvest. If I don't fight them, my children will have to. If I don't fight them, the future generation will suffer. They'll be no harvest for them. It's now or never".
What do you have in your hand, Shamgar? "Ox goad". Go. It's a picture of conscious weakness. He charged towards them with an ox goad. They were laughing, "What is this guy doing? Look at this guy. What's happening"? Amen? "He's coming to us". Pow, one whack, died immediately. Pow, poom, 600 men fell before an ox goad. We all know it's not the ox goad, it is the Lord. Imagine the report. They go back, right, to their king. King go, "What happened to all of you"? Six hundred died, the rest all wounded. "What? What kind of army is this? I told you all to do some intelligent work before you go down, spy or whatever. This mighty army", it's not a mighty army. "You mean what? What kind of army is it? It's Israel, right"? Yeah, it is Israel but it's not an army. "Not an army? What is it"? It's a man. It's a man. "It's what"? It's a man. "Soldier? A mighty soldier". Farmer. "You must learn what kind of weapon he's using. Must be a machine gun"! Uh, ox, "Huh"? Ox, "Huh"? Ox goad. "Yeah, I know he's the greatest of all time, GOAT. What"? Ox goad. "You mean the thing they use for plowing"? Mmm-hmm. "I tell you what, listen. If one man with an ox goad can defeat all of us, let's not bother them anymore".
Do you know how long they didn't bother Israel? Philistines never came against Israel until the time of Samson, which is about a few hundred years. Don't mess around. The Philistines said, "Leave them alone. One guy, a farmer, can defeat 600 men. Leave them alone". The Midianites came, the Moabites came, the king of Canaan, Ahasuerus King came, but not the Philistines until later one. Probably this generation passed on or whatever, another one. But the lesson for us is this. What are the ox goad today for us? The Bible says in Ecclesiastes, "The words of the wise are like goads". Look up here, look up here, look up here. When you talk to your children, you need to correct them. Please correct them, all right? But you say, "Pastor Prince, they don't listen to me".
That's what you believe, but your words are like goads. Even a word of encouragement, a word of warning, a word of exhortation, they all will go deep. But you believe that your words cannot carry weight. You believe their friends' words, the social media words will carry weight. No, God has given you something they don't have. "Greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world". Depend on the Lord and just a little word of exhortation, and little word of admonition, a little word of warning, a little word of correct, even comfort and love spoken in their heart will stay there. The Bible says David had a son who exalted himself and David never corrected him. Eli had two sons that rebelled against him, lived a licentious lifestyle, and they died early. And you know what it says? Eli never corrected them. Why? They will not listen to me. I think...no, lah. They will, I don't wanna trouble them. You don't trouble them today with some corrective words, they will trouble you big time in the future.
All right, so listen, my friend. Shamgar ox goad is like simple word. We say our words are not important. No, your words have kavod. You know what's kavod? Weightiness. Kavod comes from God. God gives you glory in your words. Simple words, say it. The devil will say, "There's no power in your words, lah. Don't say it, lah. He won't listen one. He won't say", correct him, "Son, this is not the right thing to do. Son, don't follow the values of the world. Son, they want to influence you with this. Son, this is God's way". And after that, you know what? Doesn't look interested, doesn't look like he's listening, back off. Say, "Lord, I thank you the words are like goads. Thank you, Lord, it sunk in".
Believe that. Believe as you are praying, all right, God is answering. Believe as you are speaking, the words are entering. Believe, amen. And most importantly, before you talk to them, I'm using an example. It can be married life, between husband and wife. It can be your boss, and you, and all that. But please pray before you do it, unless you are confident I can handle him. I know what to say to him. No, you end up in your temper. Pray, and you'll be amazed how the grace will be there. And pray for favor with him as well, amen? Have you been blessed? Okay, praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Amen, took some time to flow in the Spirit to make sure that the needs of the people are met as the Spirit of God has led me. I just want you to know that the Lord loves you very much and He's watching over this church, amen. Praise the Lord. He's watching over this church. Praise the Lord.
Friend, if you have never, never come to a place where you see that you are a sinner and all that you do is all stained with sin. Even the good things you do will never reach the height of God's standard. And the Bible says we are all sinners. For all of us are like sheep that have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. But God didn't leave us in our sins. God sent His Son Jesus Christ, who died on that cross for our sins. And my friend, today you can be saved. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved and your house. Pray this prayer with me. Say:
Heavenly Father, I thank You that although I'm a sinner, Christ died for sinners. I thank You, Father God, that You raised Him from the dead. Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior forever. I thank You, Father, all my sins are put away. I'm now greatly blessed, highly favored. Thank You, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.
Praise the Lord. Let's all stand to our feet. Lift your hands all across this place.
The Lord bless you with the blessings of Abraham throughout this week. May the manifestation of qarah and kairos happen to you and yours this week. And the Lord keep you, preserve you from harm, danger, sickness, and from all the powers of darkness, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord favors you everywhere you go. Be conscious the favor of God is on you and every word in your mouth carries the kavod of God, in Jesus' name. And all the people said... God bless you. We'll see you again.