Joseph Prince - The Secret to Renewing Your Youth
This is an excerpt from: Power To Renew Your Youth
God wants you strong and healthy and living in the supernatural. All this is natural. So, it's true, if you are natural, right, when you are one month to five, you are still weak, all right? When you are 20 to 60, they say that's the prime of your time. All that is natural, and it is true. And your body responds that way. It's true if we assess you based on the natural. Even medical science will tell you that. So, we're not denying that. It's true. From 60 onwards is decline, it is true. So, remember I said it's true, lah? All right, in the natural, okay? A few of us are knocking on 60, actually, so it's coming, right? And in the natural it's like this.
So, we're not denying the natural, we are not denying. In fact, this whole thing tells you, declares the natural. But God wants his people to live under grace, so is there anyone that defies it even in the Old Testament, which is actually that people were under law? Yes. Moses did in Deuteronomy when he died. The Bible says Moses was 120 years old when he died. "His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished". Hmm? Look at Abraham. Abraham, our father of faith, the Bible says Abraham is our father of faith. And look at what happened when, when the Lord visited him with two angels, right? "The LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day". Drop down, do you see what he did? "Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, 'Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.' And Abraham ran to the herd," Abraham ran to the herd, "and took a calf, tender and good". Abraham, what? Ran.
Now, from what I know, right, there's a certain age you don't run any more, leh? You walk. And then in the natural you don't walk, you glide. And then some of them, they don't walk or glide, they roll, they are rolled, okay? So, that's the natural, but here, this man, Abraham, ran to the herd. I was reading this one day when this word jumped out at me, ran, and I said, "Wow, it's there all the time. I didn't see it". Now, you might say, "Well, Pastor Prince, Abraham was still young at the time". This is chapter, what? 18, right? 18, right? Go to the one before this, Genesis 17, how old was Abraham? Read, "When Abraham was ninety-nine years old".
So, this next chapter is after he was 99 years old. Mm? Hello? "The LORD appeared to him and said, 'I am Almighty God,'" and Almighty God is El Shaddai, all right? Almighty God in Hebrew, I am El Shaddai. It's the first time the name El Shaddai appears, "I am El Shaddai," all right? "Walk before me and be blameless". Now, he didn't say, "Be blameless, then you can walk with me". Didn't say that. Read carefully. "If you walk before me". Walk before me, the word panim, God's face is there. "Live your life seeing my smile on you, not my back turned on you, my smile on you, my favor on you. When you walk before me conscious of my presence, you will be blameless," okay? Watch, are you with me so far?
So, how old was Abraham when he started running? I think it's, okay, I said started running. When you find him running? We don't know when he started running. So, hold old was he? He was nearly 100 years old. Now, you might say, "Pastor Prince, in those days, they grow old very slow, all right, in those days. And, women also, you know, like, you talk about Sarah being young at 90 years old and all that, but, you know, their body is still young in those days". Now, I agree when you talk about antediluvian, the flood people, before the flood. They lived long lives, yes, all right, but after the flood, Abram is after the flood. The earth is no more the right kind of condition, the canopy that protected from all the harmful, UV rays and all that, it's all destroyed.
There was a canopy, it's another message altogether, but the earth was tilted and all that. Abram lived post-flood. Life was shortened drastically already, and not only that, Abraham and Sarah didn't have special bodies. Let me show you from the same chapter, Genesis 18. It says, what? "Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years". Now, it didn't say old means you must be old, 'cause Abraham ran. Same chapter, the running chapter, chapter 18, later on it says, "Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah". That means, what? Menopause. All about the, you know, she's already menopause. Women have menopause, guys mental pause. You talk to them, all right, it takes, some time before they understand what you're trying to say, right? Like, you all laugh very fast. Some of them, oh, they just got it. Yeah, you know, mental pause, all right?
So, you don't find in Abraham these declining powers. But the body in the natural, in the natural, the body didn't say they had special bodies. No, their bodies are like ours. Sarah has gone through, like, what other women goes through at her age. She's ceased to be the manner of woman. She's 90 years old. When Abraham was about 100, she was 90 when she gave birth to Isaac, right? Abraham, was he okay in his body?
Let's look at Romans 4. Romans 4 tells us, okay, now drop down to verse 19, "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead". So, in the natural his body's dead. So, God is not saying walk by faith means now you deny all the natural facts, all right, all the natural, scientific facts and all that, you deny it. No, no, no, but God wants us to live by faith, even pertaining to our strength, our health, and remaining alive until the rapture. I'm teaching you this. Are you listening? And time is catching up, so I want to finish this as much, okay, so you help me, okay? All right, laugh faster. Try to unpause the pause button, okay? Are you with me so far?
All right, watch this. "Abraham, being not weak in faith, considered not his own body now dead". So, his body wasn't special, like, oh, at 100 years old, you know, those days, their body is still young. No, no, no, no, his body was like any other man, dead already, 100 years old, dead already. Dead. Okay? What did he do? Why was he not weak in faith? He considered not the natural fact. If he didn't consider the natural fact, what did he consider? Many of you, you're advancing in years, okay? You're advancing in years. Your years are the same. It will go higher and higher, because your age will always go up, go up, go up, am I right? That's called advancing in age. The Bible says Abraham advanced in age, but his body did not do so.
Now, listen, I must say, proper caveat that was after he walked in faith. Something happened. God is telling you, are you gonna consider your body today? Are you gonna consider your age? Are you gonna consider the fact that you are now 70 or 60 or 50, amen? 'Cause it says, "Abraham considered not his own body now dead". So, the fact, the natural fact is that his body is now dead. Okay? But what did he consider? Oh, and also he did not consider the deadness of Sara's womb. His wife's womb was dead. Okay, so these are facts. The Holy Spirit doesn't hide us from the facts, natural facts, but natural facts, right? So, today people are saying, "You gotta be realistic, lah, Pastor Prince. All this renewal of youth and strength and all that, you gotta be realistic". Realistic based on who's standards? Who sees reality more than God can? Huh?
You see, you see something you say is real, all right, but it was the spiritual realm that is unseen realm that brought forth the natural realm. You are greatly curtailed in your understanding if you just depend on your five senses, because you are a spirit being, and your spirit, everything fleshly, everything visible will all pass off, and that which is eternal, your spirit man, will live forever, but not live forever in the unseen realm. We will have bodies and all that. The city of Jerusalem is, you know, the heavenly city of God, heaven and all that, will be real, seen, touched, more real than the life on earth, because it was an unseen spirit that brought forth this physical realm.
So, God wants us to learn to live by faith, like Abraham. So, if Abraham considered not his own body now dead in the natural, neither yet the deadness of his wife's womb, what did he consider? "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; being fully persuaded that, what God had promised, he was able also to perform". What was he persuaded? He was persuaded, what God promised, God was able to perform. What did God tell him when he didn't have a son? "You'll be a father of many". In fact, let's look at the chapter before Genesis 18 where he ran. Let's look at the one where God says, "Abraham was 99 years old".
Okay, what did God do to him at that time? Look at Genesis 17, all right? This is the chapter that God says, "I am El Shaddai". Drop down. "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made," past tense, "I have made you a father of many nations" when he didn't even have a son through Sarah. And his body is dead, nearly 100 years old. His wife's womb is dead. These are the facts. And what did God say? "I want you to change the way you talk. I want you to change the way you talk about yourself especially. From now on, Abraham, your name is no more Abram". Abram actually a high father, a father who is exalted, but now you will be Abraham. Abraham means a father of multitudes. Wow.