Joseph Prince - Don't Put Your Trust in Your Natural Strength
This is an excerpt from: Power To Renew Your Youth
If you are young and you start thinking, "Oh, this message for," you know, and your confidence is the fact that you are young and you have strength, "Well, only yesterday I ran how many miles, Pastor? I did this, I did that". Yeah, I'm gonna show you something in the Bible. It says that Isaiah, "He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might, He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, The young man shall utterly fall". You know utterly fall? Utterly fall in the Hebrew, it is repeated twice, fall fall, which means for intensity, which means utterly fall. Even the youths. So, if you are confident in your strength, it has an expiry date. Wait. Just wait.
So, just because you say, "This message is for older ones and it's not for me," your trust is in a shaky foundation. God wants us all, young and old, to do this. "Those who wait on the LORD, those who wait on the LORD". Just now, we waited on the Lord, right? "In your presence," that's waiting on the Lord. Every time you spend time before the Lord in his Word, that's waiting on the Lord. Call it quiet time, call it appointment with God, trysts with God, it is time with God, that's waiting upon the Lord. What happens? "Those who wait upon the LORD Shall renew their strength". Now, you want another revelation, a deeper revelation? The word renew is exchange their strength. It's actually this, it's not, I always had this mentality, this verse means I go to God, and, you know, he gives me strength for my weakness.
Actually, my problem is not my weakness. I know when I'm weak. My problem is that I don't know that I'm strong in myself. God says, "Give me your human strength, and I'll give you divine strength". And then you will understand what it means, the next one, "They shall mount up". They doesn't mean the young men. Those who wait upon the Lord. "They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint". Because the energy that imbues you, amen, the power that's now flowing through you is no more natural. It is supernatural, and it is measured not by the natural law of physics, it is measured by the riches of his grace, which is limitless.
Some gonna say, "Well, Pastor Prince, you know, all this is spiritual, you know? Spiritual strength, spiritual this". Then why did it say that "it ceased to be the manner of women for Sarah"? It's the natural. They're not asking for spiritual seeds, you know? "I want to have spiritual seeds". So, sometimes we spiritualize the Bible when we rob ourselves of that aspect that God wants us to enjoy and walk in. Don't anyhow spiritualize the Bible. He is very clear, "They mount up with wings like eagles". You know, there is a promise in Psalms, 103, God says, "Forget not all his benefits," right? Psalm 10, "Bless the LORD, And forget not all His benefits". Forget not how many benefits? Why do we just preach one or two? Amen.
Some people, you only preach one or two. They don't believe. "Oh, Pastor Prince, talk about renewal of youth and all that". You know, but God says, "Forget not all His benefits". Number one, "Forgives all your sins," number two, "Heals all your diseases," number three, "redeems your life from destruction, hallelujah". When you fly, you thank God for this benefit, amen. "Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies," amen. This is favor. Number five, forget not all, "Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagles". In case you are wondering, "Maybe it's spiritual youth, Pastor Prince," let me tell you this, okay? Like the eagles destroys the concept. Like the eagles.
Why did God say like the eagles? Because he know that people like you will says something, so God put "Like the eagles" there, amen? Just like today there are people, universalists who say that "Oh, lake of fire, just temporal. All right, the worms there are temporal, everything is temporal". Let me tell you this, Jesus says eternal. The same word eternal is used for God, the eternal God. And Jesus says, "Where the worm does not die, does not die". You pinch it, you pull it off, it does not die, it's still alive. "Hello, still here". All right, it's literal. Why do you use language like worm dies not and the fire is not quenched? It's literal. A loving Savior told us about a place like that. Are you with me so far?
God wants his people to walk in faith. He wants us to be a supernatural people. Yet at the same time not denying in the natural. So, if you step into the natural, bang, you are subject to the law, you are subject to what is natural, amen. You're subject to Moses. But if you have the revelation, you are too poor for anything. I resign myself to that. I'm too poor to even pray, to know how to pray. I come out, I don't even know the words to pray. I tell the Lord, I am too poor. I fall back into the hands of my high priest, my Lord Jesus, and the words come. It takes us a long, long experience of falling on our face before we learn that we are too poor. Go to your high priest first, man. Hmm? Are you with me so far?
Okay, bringing this to a close. Is that music to your ears? I got so much more to share and all, but... remember? You say that 60 years old is decline, but it's not true for Moses, it's not true for Abraham. By the way, after Sarah died, Sarah died about 100-over years, Abraham died 175. All right, after Sarah died, I think she died about 100, over 120 years if I'm not mistaken. But anyway, after Sarah died, what did Abraham do? He married some more. And then did he have children? Yes, yes. He married Keturah, and he had children, so something happened to his natural body, now dead, now dead. Something happened, why? He considered not his own body now dead, but trusted God, who says, "I have made you a father of many nations". And that faith so changed his body, all right?
While waiting for the glorified body, we can do something with this natural body, amen. But it comes through faith. Are you gonna believe the natural facts? It's true, all those things, we don't deny those things, people. We are saying, the moment you snap back under the law of Moses, all right, you snap back under what is natural, yes, you are subject to all that, the weakness and all that. But he moment you step into faith, you can be like these men. In Joshua 14 he says this in his old age. "Now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as He said". He's very conscious of God's Word. "These forty-five years, ever since the LORD spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day," how old? "Eighty-five years old".
Eighty-five years old. God kept him alive for how long? Forty-five years. So, how old was he when he went out to spy out the land? Huh? Forty years old. He stopped growing old. He forgot the formula of growing old. He didn't know how to grow old. Because he was a man of faith, he looks to God's Word alone, and then he says, "I'm as strong today as I was forty-five years ago when Moses sent me out," right? Joshua, "I'm as strong. Today I'm eighty-five years old," and watch this, "As yet I am as strong this day as the day Moses sent me; just as my", now, some of you say, "Well, Pastor Prince, that's spiritual strength, lah? How many times I tell you that"? Okay, I must tell you this now, lah. How many times must I tell you this now? All right, "As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war".
You know what's war, don't you? He's talking about the natural. Now, he's talking about the supernatural and natural in the natural. He says, "I'm strong to fight". You know what happened the following verses? He went into Hebron. In fact, drop down, he says this. "Therefore give me this mountain," and that's Hebron, mountain of Hebron. You know who was there? Giants, Anakims. And, by the way, science have found bodies of giants. These are the ones that built the Stonehenge and all that kind of thing. No human could have done it in the natural. These are giants in those days. That's another message altogether, the sons of God. The Bible talks about the fallen Nephilim and all that, okay? And he killed those giants at 85 years old. Don't play around with this old man. Old in age.
"I'm as strong this day as I was on the day Moses sent me". These are men of God, they don't tell lies, all right? And if Joshua really thinks, like, mention someone come to him, you know, with a stick and all that, "I'm 95 years old Joshua. Joshua, give me this mountain". "Hey bro, yeah. God bless you, amen. Of course you're strong, of course you're strong," all right? Mental posturing, "Of course you're strong," right? Joshua wouldn't tell him, but Joshua gave him... drop down, drop down. "Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb". And he had to go in there and fight. Caleb went in and fight with giants at 85 years old. He wasn't kidding, he was as strong for war as he was back then. You see, what's his secret? If you didn't notice just now, he kept on saying, "As God said, as he said, as God said to me, as he said". It is the Word of God.
That's why I'm telling you, we go by the Word of God. If God says, "Don't forget all his benefits," don't forget all. I better confess, "God satisfies my mouth with good things so that my youth is renewed like the eagles". My youth is being renewed like the eagles, amen. All my sins are forgiven, all my diseases are healed, and confess all your benefits. There are five benefits, the number of grace right there, and God says, "Forget not a single one. Forget not all his benefits".
So, the problem is that our mouth, lah? We're very quick to say, hmm, we are very quick to say, "Getting old," right? Getting old. Very fast, very quick. We watch dramas, and it comes to a certain age, "Oh this is a very oldie, oh, that one's very old". Consciousness. You watch the news, the consciousness. All the reports, it's all in the natural, and they're all facts. Don't misunderstand. Of course, there are some theories and all that, but many of... we're not denying the natural facts any more than Abraham denied his body is dead or the deadness of Sarah's womb. He considered God's Word above them all, 'cause if he didn't consider his own body now dead, he must consider something. He considered God's Word, amen.