Joseph Prince - A Message For Your Discouraging Days
This is an excerpt from: Where Is God In The Midst Of Your Trouble?
I want to share with you how when, you know, when things go wrong in your life and you are wondering, "Where is God, where is God in all this? Where are all those things that Pastor Prince preached about"? Maybe you have had a bad diagnosis from the doctor, maybe, you know, you have a problem in your family and things seems to be like, "Where is the blessing that God promised us? Where is that breakthrough I prayed for"? I want to tell you something, even when things don't seem to be working in our favor, God is working behind the scenes and sometimes God will position things in place and then bang, at the right time.
You see, God did not deliver Israel before the Red Sea, right? As they were going towards the Red Sea, God did not deliver them. God waited until they were in front of the Red Sea. They see the problem, they cry out to the Lord, the enemies are marauding from behind about to attack them, kill them, annihilate them, and then God opened up the Red Sea. So, sometimes you see the thing about us is that we take things for granted. Many of you, you don't even know that God protected you from an accident maybe yesterday. Maybe the devil planned for you to die before this year last year. Maybe he sent a disease along your way that was cut short by an angel of the Lord, and the Lord delivered you. But many a times, we don't give him praise and thanks for the things we do not know about.
If God protected Israel all the way, you know, we talk about protection and I wrote a book on protection, so I believe in divine protection but many a times, we don't call upon the Lord or we don't thank him for a protection, or a deliverance, or a help rendered. We only give thanks for those that we know. So, in the story here today, you will find how God works behind the scene. We're gonna look at the story of Esther. Are y'all ready for Esther?
Okay, how many of you read the Book of Esther? The story happened in 483 B.C. and the man that she married, the king of the story, many of you know the story so I know that you know story so I just let you know the historical background. The man that the married is a very famous man in history, all right, who failed in the battle against the Grecians, against the Greeks. And he is Xerxes, Xerxes the great, X-E-R-X-E-S right, from history, and he's otherwise known by in the Hebrew as Ahasuerus. And he's the one that had the beauty contest, and y'all know the story that God used Esther's beauty, or rather the Bible says that she obtained favor.
So, she is beautiful but there are many other beautiful woman in the land but what you want is favor and tonight you're gonna get favor from God, amen? I want to tell you something about the Word of God. Every time you hear the Word, and I just want to say a Word to all the young people. I learned something when I was young, all right, younger. I learned something when I was younger. I learned this that there was a man who actually failed his grades and what happened is that he was challenged by a leader to memorize the entire Book of Proverbs and he took it up. You know what happened to him? From failing grades, he got straight A's. Now, does the Bible tell you about geometry, about science, about geography, about history, about law, or whatever you're studying?
Now no, you know, it may cover all these things but many a times it tells us stories, it talks about the Lord and what the Lord can do and all that. And yet, it has a bearing on your life. Whatever profession you are, whether you're a student, whether you are taking care of children, amen, whether you are a teacher, whether you are a lawyer, a doctor, whatever you are, the Word of God, when you touch God's Word, you touch the power to prosper you. There's something about reading God's Word and spending time in the Bible studying the Bible that prospers your way. Time and time again, God told Joshua when he had a big pair of shoes to fill, Moses just died, and God told him, "Meditate on my Word. You'll make your way prosperous," tselach in Hebrew. You'll make your way prosperous, and you will have good success, not just success, good success. There are success that take you away from your family, success that, you know, cost another area of your life, but good success.
And the Bible says in Psalms 1 that those who meditate on God's Word day and night, whatever he doeth shall prosper, whatever. So, touch God's Word, you touch prosperity. I'm not referring to money, all right? It may involve money because when you prosper in all your ways, you will create wealth in your life, amen. Are you listening, people? But not just that, those who meditate on God's Word, his leaf will not wither. Leaf will always be green. That talks about your health. That talks about renewal of youth like the eagle, amen? As thy dies, the Bible says, "As thy days so shall thy strength be".
Well, the signs of the world tells us that the older you are, more days behind, behind you than in front of you, they say that you decay. You get old, but that's what happens when you believe that, and you're exposed to that, and you've not been spending time in God's Word. The flavor, the touch, the substance is not being imparted because you have lost touch with the Word of God. You're listening to the news, you're watching the news, you're listening to what people are saying. You're listening to experts saying that and you have to say what they say because it's based on their five senses. It's based on their knowledge. It's based on their upbringing of their studies, amen, they background.
But the thing is this, with you when you spend time in God's Word, you have a different vision because like the Bible says, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be". More days, you have more days in front of you, some you are 20 years old, right? You have 20 years in front of you. God says, as your days increase, then 40, now double. "As your days increase, so shall your strength". It's opposite from the world, it's opposite from the world. And Caleb is always a minority compared to even believers. Like you have the 12 tribes, you have the 12 leaders, but only one of them believe God that, "my strength is as strong as I was the day Moses sent me," and now he's 85. So, you think about it. You know, the Word of God will change, cleanse your mind so you don't accept things from the world so easily. Are you listening, people?