Joseph Prince - Protect Your Thoughts, Protect Your Peace

TOPICS: Thoughts

The reason you can believe for a good in your future, for a confident expectation of good, for a happy anticipation of good in your future is because at the cross. Jesus bore all your sins and cancelled out all the effects of those sins and the harvest of those sins. There's no bad things that will come back to haunt you. Here is where we gotta watch it. The devil attacks you, and you know what he does, or not? He throws a thought in you, "I'm an addict". He use a personal pronoun. He doesn't use the second person, "you". He use the first person, "I," as if you are thinking those thoughts. When the evil thought comes, the blasphemous thought comes, don't own it. It does not define you.

God wants you to know his plan. He loves you. And all the people said amen. So, now that we are saved, all right, I'm speaking to people that have put their trust in Christ. Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead without our sins. He effectively put them all away through his blood, amen? And when he rose from the dead, from then on, your identity is now in him. So, Romans 5 tells us, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God," not trying to look for it, "through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have gained access by faith into this grace, into this favor, in which we now stand".

Folks, once you are justified by faith, you have access. So, we have access by faith into this grace. So, now we have access by faith into this favor. Grace can be favor. It's favor, this place of favor with God, favor, ground. We're both in the hope of the glory of God. That means hope is always future. Hope is a positive expectation of good. In fact, Vive defines hope. The Greek word for "hope", think of Elvis, okay, then you'll understand this. You can memorize this: elpis, say elpis. So, not Elvis; elpis. Shouldn't have mentioned Elvis, then. Instead of V, P, okay, elpis. Elpis is a positive expectation of good. Vine, this great scholar, he says that elpis is a favorable and confident expectation. He also said it's a happy expectation of good.

In fact, the most frequently used is the happy expectation of good. That's hope, amen, and the Bible says we boast, literally, the word is "boast" in positive expectation of good in our future, and this good is the glory of God, the glory of God manifested in our lives, amen, in our person. For "sin" is defined as coming short, or forfeiting the glory of God. We are back, amen, and the glory will manifest in your marriage, it will manifest in your body, it will manifest in your relationships, it will manifest in everything you touch, think, say, and do, amen? Praise God. So, next verse, it says not only that we glory or boast in anticipation of the glory of God, not only that. "We also boast in our sufferings". The Old King James says "tribulation," sufferings.

Now, this is, like, weird. It's like, if you think about it, "Wow, we boast in our sufferings"? Sufferings is not from God. Look at God's original plan. In the Garden of Eden, no one suffered. Everything was there in abundance, right? Suffering came because of sin. But it's just telling you when suffering happened, now God is gonna deal with the world as it is. Because of what Jesus did at the cross, now suffering will produce something in you if you know the plan of God. So, whatever suffering is, amen, it does not say you will stay in that suffering. It says that we'll boast in suffering, knowing this: "Suffering produces perseverance".

I told some pastors, you know, the other day that I don't think I'll be the pastor I am today had I not learned, in my teens, suffering, not learn. You don't learn. Don't go to a school to learn. I'm more or less forced into it, amen. I suffered, I suffered thinking that I committed the unpardonable sin. I suffered very young. Compared to my friend, I'm thinking to myself, "Why can't I have an enjoyable life"? I suffered having sleepless nights. I suffered feeling like demons talking to me at night, oppressing my sleep. I suffered thinking I've lost my salvation. I suffered all those things at a young age, 18, 19 years old.

You know, when I look back, it produced something in me: perseverance. But when I look back, now whatever people say, it doesn't matter. It's like there is something inside me already that I have perceived it through that, and now it's like chicken feet, water off a duck's back. It's just a little comment, amen, who said it? Oh, that person said it. Okay, fine, amen. It's no more, you know, I really don't, I'm not one of those that there are ten comments, one negative comment, you zero your mind on it, and you think about it, you're obsessed with it. I got no time. I don't even have time to look at my social media. I don't even know what's the latest following, amen.

So, I know many of you, you can't understand that kind of life, right, amen? You are looking all the time, right? Halfway I'm preaching, you're also looking, amen? You know what I call that? If your name is James, that's called James Bondage. I'm trying to say it nicely. It's bondage, it's bondage to have to look all the time to see how many are following, how many are, you know? And "But Pastor Prince, you got no one following you". Maybe, okay, maybe I, that's the reason why I don't want to look at it, all right, but really, that's not the life that God wants us to live. It goes up when someone comments well and it goes down when someone comments really bad.

To see who is following you or a fear of missing out, you know, like the FOMO syndrome, amen? Or I call it FOLO, all right, fear of losing out here in Singapore, amen? And you know, it's a bondage. It's really a bondage. Life should be happier than just that every time there's a thing, you gotta look at your phone. I think life gotta be, come on, life gotta be simpler than that, happier and peaceful. Can I have a good amen?

Now, I'm not knocking this phone and all that. I have a handphone and I carry it everywhere I go, okay? Not now, amen? But it's a function. It's a tool. I do not serve it. It serves me. When it calls, I don't kowtow and obey all the time and say, "Yes, master, here I am. What is thy message"? "Open the gate first"! "Yes, master". "Release me! Access code, your thumbprint or whatever". "Yes, master". You know, I'm sorry, I'm trying to make you feel, to see that the whole thing is bondage. Whether it's James Bondage or Jane Bondage, I mean, it's bondage.

"Pastor, you're so corny". I know. Perseverance will produce character; character, hope. See what produces hope? Positive expectation of good. Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. Then it will produce hope, hope for your future. And hope does not, listen carefully, hope does not put us to shame. When you have hope, it will not put you to shame. Today the world says what? Don't raise your... Can I tell you something? This is your pastor is talking to you. Don't raise your hopelessness. It's already there already. Don't raise it anymore. You don't need help to raise your hopelessness. Every time you look at the news, it's raised. Every time you hear someone say something, it's raised.

The world by default mode is negative, amen. You don't hear, you know, news does not thrive on good news. Today 3,500,345 planes landed safely, which is true. Maybe not three million, but I'm just rounding off figures somewhere from my head. I'm just saying that there are thousands and thousands of planes that landed safely, but they will not announce that. They announce the one that has engine trouble, right? That's how news work, but then what do you focus on? That one. So, you take the plane, guess what? "Maybe mine is the one". You are the one. Instead of being powered by one, you are being disempowered by that one bad news, huh? That's not hope. It's the opposite of hope. It's not positive expectation of good.

The Bible says God wants us to have hope, amen. God wants us to have hope, and this hope will not put you to shame, and the world says you raise your hope, you'll be disappointed. You raise your hope, you'll be disappointed, because once upon a time, when we were younger, without Christ, yes, we raised our hopes, we were people that.. young people are very optimistic. You know what I'm saying? They have a positive expectation of good. They believe they can become the president, they can become a doctor, they believe they can become an astronaut, you know? They have hope, but then without Christ, hope has no power, amen?

The reason you can believe for a good in your future, for a confident expectation of good, for a happy anticipation of good in your future is because at the cross, Jesus bore all your sins and canceled out all the effects of those sins and the harvest of those sins. There's no bad things that will come back to haunt you. All your harvests of wages of sin, the harvests of your sins have all been harvested at the cross, if I can say that, and those harvests is cut down, amen. When Jesus Christ finished, there's nothing waiting for you in the future except good. So, believers should raise their hope, elpis. Are you listening people?

And this hope, the Bible promised, will not put you to shame. If you are sick in your body, you should have hope that you will be well. If you are suffering addiction, you must have hope that you will get out of it and you'll be delivered from it and much better, much freer, much stronger than ever before, amen. If you are advancing in years, you must have hope that there are people who are young and strong, and you will feel stronger and younger than you were half your age. When you were half your age, amen, you were weaker, you were always tired. You'll be stronger than that age. You gotta have hope so when you hear people talking about hope, you don't get angry. Have you ever read this verse?

Hebrews 11, verse 1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for". Which one comes first? If English is your language, tell me now. Which one comes first? "Faith is the substance of things hoped for". Which one comes first? If there's no hope, faith has no substance, because faith is a substance of what? Things hoped for. You gotta have hope, hope your body will be well, and somebody thought, you know, your background, you are taught that you gotta have faith. Faith is what heals, not hope. I understand that, but listen carefully: without hope, there can be no faith. You gotta believe that your child will be well. You gotta have that hope. You gotta pray like, you know, thanking God for that, amen, then your faith will work because faith is a substance.

Who's supposed to stasis, which is "under," hupo. Stasis is stand. Faith is the thing that makes you stand in the things that you hope for. Faith undergirds you, amen, for the things that you hope for. So, faith is actually under your feet in this verse. Hupo, stasis, which is the Greek word, "substance". "Hope for" is in front of you, your goal, your destination. People cannot be in the now, because you know what? Fear and worry gotta do with nothing but... nothing to do with the now. Fear is something to do with the future, all right? Worry is the future; guilt, condemnation, regret, the past.

So, if you are in regret, you are worried, you are not living now. You can be in a very beautiful place. You are in Hawaii. "Aloha oe, aloha oe". And they are dancing in front of you, calling you "oe, oe, oe" so many times, and you are like... you are worried. You are living in the future, not living in Hawaii. I'm just giving an example that, you know, people don't live in the now. The Bible says, "Now faith is". Both now, between faith is now and is. Both are present tense. Live in the now and you live in the realm of faith. The Bible says the time of salvation is now. It's never in the future, amen. The time of salvation, the word "salvation" is so soteria, also for healing, wholeness, deliverance. It's now.

If you live in the now, the Bible says God is a very present help. He is a very present help, very present help in our time of need, amen? So, our minds are the ones being attacked. We are attacked like, you know, it's crazy. People cannot focus, because today especially the phone and our social media and the kind of culture that we live in is full of distractions. We are so afraid of missing out that we want to have every information that we can have, but that knowledge isn't... does it remind you of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? The tree that God didn't want man to eat from is not just a tree of evil. It's a tree of knowledge of good, of good even, and evil, amen. God wants man to live from the tree of life, amen.

So, knowing that knowledge, what has it done for your marriage? What has it done for your health? What has it done for your peace of mind? What has it done for you financially? What has it done for you, especially in your walk with God, amen, enjoying the kingdom life, amen, that God wants you to enjoy, the abundant life that Jesus came to give you? What has it done for you? You spend so much time, you should spend time... why? But Isaiah says it like this, and it's so relevant for our times, he says, "Why do you spend time for what is not bread, and for that which does not satisfy"?

Why do we spend so much time, amen? I'm not saying you don't throw away your phone or whatever. I didn't say that. I'm saying control it. Don't let it control you. The devil wants to attack this. Many times you think you are thinking those thoughts. You are not. When I was suffering those things, I said I suffered 18 years old, 19 years old, you know, it wasn't me thinking those thoughts, "What was your problem, Pastor"? Blasphemous thoughts. I was so sincere. I want to be so close to God. All of a sudden, bang, blasphemous thoughts kept coming in my mind, and I thought it was like this, from me... I never knew it was from outside in... I didn't know the devil can give you thoughts.

Like Peter told Ananias, "Why has Satan put in your heart"? Judas Iscariot, Satan put into his heart. Likewise, how does God speak to you? Nehemiah, "God has put in my heart". Men of God. God has placed in my heart a desire. It is God who works in you, not outside, in you. In fact, God works in you, the devil works from outside because God forbid the devil works from inside. "Oh, you don't want the devil to work from inside"? "What's your name"? "Legion". Today, "What's your name"? "Zombie".

And that's what a person who is a zombie is a person who is half dead, half alive, you know? The living dead, the walking dead. It's literally sinners without Christ. They are alive, their heart goes boop boop, boop boop, boop boop but they're dead, and they feed on flesh, only fleshly pursuits. You are not created for the dust. You are created for heavenly things, child of God, amen? Just like a little eaglet among the chickens. Somehow it was born among the chickens, but when it looks at an eagle scream high up there with that shriek, that cry, something inside the eaglet says, "I belong there," and all the chickens say, "No, no, no, no, no, it's not practical like you, not practical, lah. Wake up to reality, wake up, don't raise your hope so high, come on".

Next thing you know, "Hey, you heard Brother Cockadoodledo"? "Yeah, what happened"? "Yesterday, a snake came and gobbled him up". "Oh, but the other day, I saw that eagle with a snake in its mouth. He flew really high, then he dropped the snake among the rocks. Then I saw him fly down and eat the snake". They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. But before this verse, it says even the youths shall faint, and those who don't wait upon the Lord, they shall faint. Even the youths shall faint, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, regardless of age, amen?

They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Can I have a good amen? Here is where we gotta watch it: The devil attacks you, and you know what he does, or not? He throws a thought in you, "I'm an addict". He use the personal pronoun. He doesn't use the second person, "you". He use the first person, "I," as if you are thinking those thoughts. So many a times, I would have blasphemous thoughts, and I think it's from me against God. "Ah, oh no, oh no," and then he would, when I'm praying, bad thoughts about God, shoo, shoo, shoo. A lot of blasphemous thoughts.

Then I stopped praying, and slowly, slowly, I just left. I know he never leaves me, but I left the Lord, amen. It's just the blasphemous thoughts, and I own it, you know? Just like the saying "You can't stop birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from making a nest," you can, you know? You can stop them from making a nest. You're not, "Is he making a nest"? "I think so. Sure looks like a nest to me. I can't tell, because sometimes your hair is a nest, but I think there's a bird there. Oops, sorry, now there's an egg in the nest, on your nest". You can stop the bird from, you know, you can't stop thoughts from flying. Sometimes bad thoughts will come, amen? It happens to all of us.

Now, here's a word of deliverance: When a bad thought comes, listen carefully, when an evil thought comes, a blasphemous thought comes, don't own it. It's a bird flying, that's all. It does not define you. Yep, including the bad thought you had about me when I came out just now. It's not you. You love me. And I love you, amen? 1 Thessalonians 5, it says, "Now let us who are of the day be sober," all right. We don't belong to the night season, but we go through the night season. One day there will be no more night, the Bible tells us, but we are children of the day. We are children of the light. Let us put on the breastplate, "putting on the breastplate of faith and love".

So, the breastplate protects you, your heart. Your heart is where the accusation comes in. The devil accuses you on your heart. Your conscience is always this realm. Faith and love will protect your heart, and that's why, regardless of what you hear, a sermon, whatever it is, if you live with fear, if you live with an attitude of holier than thou, bitter towards other Christians and all that, you have not heard the Word of God, because the Word of God will always cause the breastplate of faith and love to be on your heart, on your conscience. Can I have a good amen?

And then it says, "And as a helmet the hope of salvation," the hope of soteria. "Salvation" is an all-encompassing word, all-inclusive word. It includes not just salvation from eternal destruction, salvation from hell, but salvation from sickness. Look it up. The word "salvation" is a noun, feminine noun, but the word soteria is a feminine noun, but it comes from the verb sozo, where Jesus told the woman, just now we talked about the woman who came behind and received healing, Jesus says, "Your faith has sozo you".

So, soteria is also healing 'cause sozo is in it. It's a verb form of soteria, amen? Healing, it's rescue, rescue from danger. Deliverance, protection. Wow, so when the angel was sent and said, "And you shall call his name Jesus," in the Greek it will be, "You will call his name soteria, salvation". His name, it is all-inclusive name, and he demonstrated his name everywhere he went. He set people free. The Legion, guy who was possessed with so many demons, he set him free. So much so that the man wants to be with Jesus, amen. He healed, everywhere he went, he healed all those who were oppressed of the devil. God was with him. Can I have a good amen? Amen. You're listening.

So, put on the breastplate. You know, as the young person, I was sharing with you that I read a book that says you can lose your salvation, and for some reason, I believed this author. I believed you can lose your salvation. The moment I did that, bang, all those blasphemous thoughts came. I can point to the very time when I started believing what I read. I don't fault the author, okay?

I believed it, okay, and I believed you can lose your salvation, which I know now you cannot, amen. It's called eternal security, praise God, and but I believed that, and the moment I believed that, that's when all those blasphemous thoughts came. You know why? There's no more helmet. There's no hope of salvation. Even though I was saved, I have salvation, there's no hope, because I believed I was lost. The moment the first thought came against the Holy Spirit, the blasphemous thoughts, bang, I said, "I committed the unpardonable sin," which it's not.

Praise, lah, lift your hands all across this place.

Father in heaven, this coming week, it's all the eagles gathered together, Lord. As they gather together in this wonderful nest, Lord, called the church, Father, they are releasing their faith for a wonderful future. Even the future of this week, Father, this coming week, we look at this week with hope. We ask in Jesus's name that they will run smack-dab in the middle, Lord, of a great blessing, a surprise blessing, that you have in store.

And I pray that when they experience that, they will remember this prayer that they prayed, Father, and throughout this week, in the name of Jesus, be thou their shield, be thou their defense, their protection from every evil, from every infection, from even the dainty mosquitoes, Lord, from all the powers of darkness. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, be thou their favor in their workplace, in their ministry, wherever they are. Be thou their favor with one another in their marriage and their family relationships, Lord.

Be thou their peace, wonderful peace, shalom peace, shalom well-being that they wake up every morning with a wonderful expectation of good for that day. Thank you, Father. Thank you for the discernment to know that evil thoughts flying through our heads, they may come, but they are not from us. Give us the gift of ignoring them. Give us the gift of knowing your thoughts, which are good for us and never evil. In Jesus's name all the people said amen.