Joseph Prince - Stay Under the Washing and Be Healed
This is an excerpt from: Be Healed By The Washing Of The Word
I just wanna close real quick to show you something that, you know, you read it many times, you read it many times, you read it many times, and you don't realize that it's there. In fact, I just mentioned this miracle just now, and I'll close with this. Look up here in John 2, "On the third day there was a wedding". Okay, drop down. Okay, and I'm gonna show you the story first. You know what happened, right? He was in Cana. This is the first miracle of Jesus I shared just now.
Thank God I shared so you understand the story, for those who have never heard the story. So Jesus was invited, the mother of Jesus was there, Mary was there, and Jesus and His disciples came. Now, in a wedding, what do people do? They eat. They don't fast on a wedding, they eat. They celebrate, all right? In this case, they drink wine. And then the wine ran out. Now, in that day and age, in that culture, the Jewish culture, for the wine to run out, that means you didn't do enough preparation. It reflects bad on you. It's a bad sign for your marriage. It's just bad. They didn't prepare for this, or something happened. The wine ran out.
So the mother of Jesus came to Jesus, all right, and said that they have no wine, and again, to show you that now He's a man already, there are men still receiving instruction from their mother. Even after they marry, they still receive instruction from their mother. Even when it contradicts sometimes what the wife is saying, they still receive instruction. Now, the mothers not happy with me. No, I'm not referring to you. You're a New Creation mother, amen, new covenant mother. You know, Bible says, "For this cause," when you get married, "a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave". You cannot cleave until you leave. Now, that doesn't mean you don't respect them. It just means, right, you are now your man. You gotta make your own decisions and all that. You'll always honor them. Make sure you provide for them. Make sure you honor them all the days of their lives, but they don't treat you like a child anymore, amen. You have a new life with your wife now.
Notice that the wife never leaves the father and mother. It doesn't say wife leave. The man leaves. For some reason, there's a revelation around that. So if you live with your in-laws, all right, woman, and the husband is listening to you know, and there's strife and all that, pray. Pray for God's pattern to come in, amen? And if you are an in-law yourself, just know the tendency to want to advise your son against the wife. Watch out for that. Some parts you must let go, especially when it comes to the grandchildren. Let go and let God. Love them and send them back. It's the best thing to do. Love the children, make joy, I mean, have fun with them, you know, and after that send them back. It's something you get to do as grandparents.
Last time, parents, right, you got no choice. You gotta stay with them, clean them up, make sure they are bathed, you know, and they are well fed, but this one, you just come, make them love you, give them candies, give them whatever you want, you know, let 'em celebrate, enjoy them, bring them to arcades, you know, and play games, and all that. When they really love you, send them back wanting more, amen? But don't put pressure on your son or the marriage, amen? Preach it, Pastor Prince. Okay, so I said you can read a passage so many times, so many times, and yet you miss something. I missed this. Remember the six waterpots of stone there, right? Look at this, "Now there were set there six waterpots of stone".
And I used to think at one time it was waterpots of stone, of clay. Most waterpots are clay. Even in our house, you know, remember you bathed with a clay waterpot? Remember last time? Your neighbor can hear, "Dung, pshhh, dung, pshhh, dung, pshhh". Everyone knows in that block that you are having your bath, right? I'm talking about those of you... that's how I... and I would sing. I would, you know, at one time we would have no warm water. I remember growing up with that big vessel thing, "Dung, pshhh, dung, pshhh". Just do it fast and you won't feel the chill. And I would sing, and the neighbor would knock on the door and say, "Can you please tell your son it's a bit late to be singing?" all right? Where do you think you get the voice from, man? Come on, practice, all right? No money to buy amplifier and all that. That's the amplifier. The best place to sing is in the bathroom, amen?
So Jesus, notice, "There were set there six waterpots," of what? Stone. Now, one thing about stone vessel, it purifies. Even in the natural, purifies, okay? But notice, "According to the manner of purification of the Jews". Hmm, there is this detail by the Holy Spirit, "According to the manner of the purification of the Jews". Could this be the water containing the ashes of the red heifer? Something sad, it says, "Containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece". The word "containing," one translation says it doesn't mean the water is there. IT's empty. One translation says, "Each could hold 20 to 30 gallons". Each could hold means the potential is there, but it's empty. If it's not empty, how do you explain Jesus saying, "Fill the waterpots with water"? It's empty. There's no provision there.
"What does this gotta do with no wine? Pastor, how about you preach? I'm thinking I'm sick, you know, and you give me ashes. You give me a cow. Why do you give me a cow"? It's all gotta do even with your needs being met. So here, notice the provision. The mother thought they have no wine, but Jesus pointed out the six waterpots of water. The fact that He pointed out to them to do something with them tells us something. Israel came to a place where they don't see their need for the ashes of the red heifer. God forbid that, the first miracle of Jesus.
God is bringing us back to the first miracle because it's the basis first mention of miracles, sets the tone of every other miracle. It tells us the importance of being under the washing of the water of the Word. And the water of the Word must contain what? Not just any sermon about the Bible. It must contain the finished work of Jesus. You can preach anything on marriage and all that, but it's gotta come back to the cross of Jesus Christ. Are you with me so far?
"Jesus said to them, 'Fill the waterpots with water.' And they filled them up to the brim". So we know that from this point here, they filled the six waterpots of stone with water up to the brim. That's like filling yourself full of the Word. And what happens after that? You can only fill yourself up full of the Word. The rest is up to the Lord to turn that water into wine. In this case, that water was turned to wine. So even all the ashes of the red heifer in the past is only pointing to the substance, the reality. You know, the first miracle of Moses, the law, first miracle was to turn water into blood, resulting in death. The first miracle of grace, our Lord Jesus, is to turn water into wine. Wine is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Wine is a picture of joy. It's always used in these types in the Bible for joy or for the power of the Holy Spirit.
God's gonna transform what is cold and what is plain in the old covenant, and that is contained under the law, into the power of the Holy Spirit and the anointing of God in our lives. How many waterpots of stone are there? Six, number of man. So man is just a cold, cold, cold stone, and stone speaks of the law. It's a provision of the law and it's cold. It cannot really cleanse you. We all know that ashes of red heifer is just a picture. It cannot cleanse you.
In fact, the Bible says in Hebrews 13, if we look at Hebrews 9, excuse me, "For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer," there you go. Now you understand. Back then, "Sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh". Wow, back then even it can purify the flesh. Does that mean that it helps people with skin problems even back then? "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God"?
So today, the reality of the ashes of the red heifer for us is preaching that cleanses your conscience, amen? It's the blood of Christ that does it. Preaching about the blood of Christ that cleanses, and the result must be your conscience is cleansed from dead works to serve the living God. What is dead works? It's not necessarily sin, okay? Dead works primarily is about things that you do to become righteous before God, things that you do to make God accept you even more, because your idea is that Jesus' work is not enough, I must do. So the preaching has gotta be, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God"?
You see the Holy Trinity here. Very seldom you see the Holy Trinity. You see the blood of Christ who offered through what? The Holy, the eternal Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Offered Himself to who? God. The Trinity. You better listen when the Trinity is in one verse, the Triune God. The blood of Christ has cleansed your conscience. The whole topic here is about your conscience being cleansed. And actually I just got started. Ahhh, oh man, but I gotta close, okay, so that you can fetch your children. If you are experiencing symptoms of death in your life, whether it is starting to lose your memory, death has started in the area of your mind, or always having dark thoughts in your mind, you don't know how to break free from it, or symptoms of sickness or weakness in your body, amen, these are signs of death. Death begun, and finally the heart stops. That's death.
And the Bible says there's victory over that when Jesus comes again. We'll have a brand new body that will never die. But meanwhile, we're surrounded by death. Would you agree? Every movie you watch, it might not be a bad movie, or unclean movie, or rated RA or whatever, but it can be elements of death here and there. We do not know. What I'm saying is that we do not know when we touch death, we come in contact with death, but the provision is there. What happens if you keep yourself under that flow all the time? And that's why those who meditate on the Word day and night, they are under the constant washing. Under constant washing. No wonder whatever they do prospers, because their hands are no more in touch, no more defiled with death. Whatever they do prospers. You keep yourself under the washing. Keep on hearing the Word, amen? Amen?
Keep on hearing the Word. I have thousands of sermons down through the years, all right? You ask yourself, "What are you going through now"? You need healing, there are a lot of teachings on healing. You need some parenting advice, what better advice than from God's Word, amen? We'll teach all down through the years, amen? Get ready for the Grace Academy. We're gonna have excerpts of my sermon. For example, how to parent your child, how to do parenting God's way, we'll take excerpts, amen, and we'll put it there. So you have everything from different sermons of one topic, amen? But keep yourself... what is this? Washing yourself with the water of the Word, amen? Praise the Lord, hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus, amen? Amen, amen, amen.