Joseph Prince - Faith Does Not Have to be a Struggle
This is an excerpt from: Be Healed By The Washing Of The Word
You can always receive by faith. I said you can receive by faith. That nobleman, when Jesus told him, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Go your way. Your son lives," he believed what the Lord said for him to stay back in Cana. He didn't immediately rush to look at his son's condition. He believed the Word of Jesus. So many of you will say, "Well, I wish Jesus can come down here right now because I am in terrible shape and I want Him to touch me," you don't have to do that. The Word of God is nigh you, the Word of faith. You don't have to say, "Who will go up to heaven and bring Christ down that He might trust me"? You don't need that. You have the Word of faith. And you gotta learn to confess and speak the Word of faith because the Spirit of faith is manifested like this: "I believe and therefore have I spoken".
So thank God for the healing as the Spirit wills, but we don't depend on that. We depend on faith. The just shall live by faith. God wants His righteous by faith people to live by faith. Just like you got saved by faith, everything that's provided for you through the cross of Jesus Christ, through His death, burial, and resurrection is all provided for you to be received by faith. And faith is not hard. And you know something? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. So your constant hearing, and that's the reason why these past few weeks the Lord has been emphasizing to us the importance of hearing the Word of Christ. Your faith comes by hearing, amen? So you know, just when you feel like that faith inside you has gone weak, you find that there is such a thing as little faith.
Jesus says, "Oh you of little faith". And yet, God, how much more will He clothe you? Clothe who, those with strong faith? No, how much more will He clothe you, oh you of little faith? So little faith people can be clothed better than Solomon. And then He says, "How is it that you have no faith"? Remember that? When there was a storm, no faith. Paul writes about your exceedingly growing faith. I pray that all of you, your faith grows exceedingly, amen? So don't depend on emotions. Don't depend on feelings. Don't depend even on the, "I want God to move, and supernaturally like I heard this testimony, that testimony. God did it for them". Yes, God can do it for you, yes. And let's pray for more of the gifts of healings to flow, the gifts of working of miracles, the gift of faith. All these are gifts of the Spirit, amen? But you can receive through the faith.
Now, I mentioned the gift of faith just now. That is a supernatural gift when it comes and operates in you, and I've been there before. You just know that you know that you know. You can point in public and that person is not healed yet, and you point to the person, the person stands up, and the person gets healed completely. Many of you have seen this happen in this church, all right? Now, if you are not sure, you're still wavering, you won't point to a specific person, isn't it? I have pulled people out of their wheelchair in public and I just know that I know at that time. Tomorrow, I mean, the next day after that, I woke up and said, "What did I do? That was a fearful thing". Now the gift of faith is no more operating. So it's a gift. When the gift of faith operates, it just, there's just a strong knowing. There's no doubt whatever. I'm talking about our faith to receive by, that we live by, the faith that can grow. That one all of us have. I said all of us have that. God has dealt to every man the measure of faith, amen?
And one of the reasons why you keep on hearing the Word is so that your faith will grow. You don't wait for crisis to happen. You don't wait for things to happen where you say that, "I need to use my faith now". So don't forget, all provisions are given to you but it's received by faith. By grace through faith. It's always like this. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. Grace and faith goes together. It's not just enough to say, "Well, you know, by grace, one day God will save me. By grace, one day God will heal me. By grace, one day God..." No, no, no, one day is gone. Now is the time. In fact, you look carefully at the Scriptures, it says, "Now is the day of salvation. Now is the time". Now is the accept timed. It's "kairos". It's in the now.
There is a kairos of receiving these moments, I mean, these gifts, and that very kairos moment is actually now. It's never, "One day, God will heal me". You are too late, amen? Start confessing, "I believe by Jesus' stripes I'm healed". You take Communion, amen, say, "Lord, I thank You, You bore all these diseases when You hung on that cross, and by Your stripe I'm healed". Oh, by the way, that day when I had that pain, I took Communion, man. I don't care it's not on Sunday yet, Pastor. I receive for myself. I discern His body. He knew that I'll be injured like this 2,000 years ago because God is sovereign. That's why a healing service, right, that's done last week, for example, can still heal people in America when they listen. When they listen, sometimes a number of weeks have passed.
Now we're make more available faster, but of course it's got nothing to do with that because I just demonstrated to you from the two miracles in Cana that the Lord is the Lord of time and space. And just because in the first service there's healing or whatever I confess and I proclaim, right, about something that's happening, it's happening also in the second service, in the third service, in the online service. And then in future when America, and the world, and Europe, and all over the world watch this program, amen, they can still receive the miracle. And we've had so many testimonies, "I've felt the warmth while I'm watching and the cancer is no more, the growth is no more. Went back to the doctor, no more trace of that disease".
Now, all this shows that when it comes to motivational preach, talking and all that, sense and time rules. It's confined to that because there's no power of the Holy Spirit. It's just man's spirit, man's talents, man's eloquence. But when it comes to preaching the Word of God, you are not on your own. It's by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit knows the future. And sometimes I'm preaching and I'm talking about someone's condition that that person will be watching, amen, two, three weeks from now, or even three years from now. Are you listening, amen? I could be describing someone going through something, a depression or something like that, and I could describe. While I preaching, I'm illustrating, but the illustration is actually illustrating that person's life. And that person hears it, or he could be in prison, and then he gets healed.
I thank God for all the prison ministries in America that let them watch Christian television, and I'm on, and we have many testimonies. One touching testimony is a man whose life was transformed, completely transformed. He was on death row and he said this. He said that, "Pastor Prince, you know, I never forgave myself all these years, and I murdered someone, but your ministry has changed my life. The grace of God has transformed me," amen. We know it's the Lord. Only the Lord can transform someone, but it's the gospel of grace. And he said that, "I'm in prison because I killed my son, and I could never forgive myself for that". He didn't say whether it was an accident or whatever. I don't think it was because he was on death row at that time when he wrote, but he said, "My life is changed. I'm full of joy, love, and peace. I know God has forgiven me". To God be the glory, amen? Amen.
So something like this can happen within the time. So we look at whatever date it is, and with God date doesn't even matter. As far as God is concerned, Jesus just died just now. And when you take Communion, you must think, when you receive Communion, don't think that He died 2,000 years ago and confine yourself with that kind of thought. The Bible says in the law of the peace offerings, when you receive the... when the offerer offers the lamb to be sacrificed for his sins, right, there's an offering called peace offering and he partakes of the breast meat. So he partakes of the love of Jesus, because it is the breast of the victim, not his breast. He's not thinking about his love for Jesus, he is partaking of the Lord's love for him. It's food for you when you stop and think, "The Lord loves me. This same Jesus who's altogether lovely, He loves me". It's food for you, amen?
And then when you partake, it says this, "Do not partake the peace offering, that meat, more than three days," okay? You cannot keep it more than three days. It must be fresh. So then I was... you partake the Lord's Supper, you partake as if He just died just now, as if He just took your diseases just now. So with God, a thousand years is like one day, all right? With God, a thousand years is like one day. That's why the Bible said, "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee". The first miracle, on the third day. The first four words, "On the third day". And there's no insignificant details in the Bible. With God, a thousand years is like one day and one day is a thousand years, so as far as God is concerned, right, we are people of the third day. Because 2,000 years ago Jesus died, but as far as God is concerned two days has passed.
In fact, He doesn't even think of two days, but for our sake, let us understand a thousand years is like one day, amen? When did Jesus rise from the dead? When was He raised from the dead? On the third day. And the Bible says in Hosea, there's a prophecy, after two days He will revive us. On the third day, He will raise us up and we will live in His sight. We will be in His presence. That's the Rapture. So first of all, after two days, what will happen? He will revive us. There'll be a great revival, and then on the third day He will raise us up. We are looking for that to happen. Meanwhile, there'll be mockers around. The Bible talks about that in Peter. Peter wrote about it in the New Testament, that in the last days there'll come scoffers and mockers, saying, "Where is the sign of His coming? Where is this coming? Where is His coming? As far as we know, since our fathers slept, things have gone on as normal".
One thing they do not know. That's when Peter explained with the Lord a thousand years is like one day and one day is a thousand years. The reason why God is... God is not slack concerning His promise, but He's longsuffering. He is patient towards these sinners even. He's not willing that any should perish. So the reason God delays, if there's a delay and it's, you know, there's a delay, isn't it? You can see it's a delay. It's because God is waiting for people to repent. He's waiting for people to put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, their only provision out of their sin, out of guilt and condemnation, out of eternal death. And all the people said... Okay, that was a good introduction, hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. That was important, I feel, amen. When you don't feel anything, just say, "Lord, I thank You that by His stripes I'm healed. I thank You I'm healed".
If the Lord tells you, you know, to partake of the Lord's Supper, I wanna encourage you, if you are sick and you have not received your healing, partake of the Lord's Supper like you take medicine. Three times a day even if you want, if you're desperate enough, amen? But don't do it out of ritual, do it out of revelation. Or pray in the Spirit. At the same time, "Holy Spirit, I do not know how to pray for my condition, but You do. So Holy Spirit, I yield to You. Pray through me". Even all day long, you can be working and still be speaking undertones. Hagah, the Hebrew calls it hagah, speaking undertones, amen. And all the people said...