Joseph Prince - Blessings Flow When You Follow Jesus

TOPICS: Blessing

You know how the Gospel of John ends? All the four gospels, because Jesus is the King of the Jews, he ends off by giving them, "Go into all the world and observe all my commandments". Those are commandments of the New Covenant, loving one another and preaching the gospel and believing on his name, right? You find, "Lo, I'm with you always even to the end of the world".

That's how Matthew ends. How does Mark end? The Lord working with them, still in heaven working. Luke ends with Jesus going all the way to Bethany, blessed his disciples and went up to heaven. So there's ascension. You know how John ends? No ascension, resurrection but no ascension. You still see Jesus on earth. Why is that so? Because he's God in the Gospel of John, he's everywhere. Joshua and Caleb went into the promised land to spy out the land with all the other leaders of the tribes. And they are the only two ones that came back and said, "The land that God gave us," in the English Bible, "Is an exceeding good land," in the Hebrew, literally, a repeat, "It's a very, very good land".

I don't care how many spies say it's a difficult land, a land that devours its inhabitants, there are giants in the land. I don't care about all these evil reports. As far as I'm concerned, if God gives the land to me, God loves me. And it's a very, very good land because it's from God. Your inheritance, child of God, is very, very good. Very, very good. People who kept you alive, they are those who have gone but you are alive. Who kept you alive? You keep yourself alive? Your doctor kept you alive? The Lord kept you alive.

Unless the Lord built the house, we labor in vain. Unless the Lord is involved in that surgery, the surgery is in vain. The Lord kept you alive. Don't you ever forget that. The Lord kept me alive and Caleb knew it. The Lord kept me alive. Sometimes when I look at other preachers and what they are doing and things happening, right, I ask myself: am I doing enough? Am I doing, you know, and I feel the Lord telling me, "Son, what is that to you? Whatever they are doing, what is that to you? You follow me". And those are times when I lose that consciousness that the Lord loves me, I start comparing. But when I know the Lord loves me, I don't have to worry about what people do.

The word I hear in my spirit is that there's so much land yet to be possessed. There is so much land yet to be possessed. And we are not possessing our possessions. There's something very interesting, years ago, I used to study things and I used to study, you know, I asked questions nobody asked and I studied things that people don't bother about. Many years after that, I find that the questions I asked and I found the answers to, God is bringing it up at the right time, you know, and when questions are asked.

One of the things is this, Joshua and Caleb, we see these two types being compared all the time. By the way, in Hebrews, you all saw the order, Gideon and Barak, right? And all the... how come it's not chronologically correct? Amen, and the Holy Spirit put it on purpose. I won't be sharing that today. But I just let you know that there are two types of Christians. There are two types of Christians. Number one, you have Abraham, a man of faith, you have Lot. And you know the Bible calls Lot, even Lot, L-O-T, his nephew Lot, who is a lot of trouble, you know, God calls him righteous. Say righteous.

Not just Abraham is righteous, all right, both of them are righteous by faith. Even Lot is righteous, the Bible says that righteous man who vexed his righteous soul. God calls him righteous. He's righteous by faith, definitely by faith, amen. And so is Abraham. Abraham is righteous by faith. But one was defeated, one was victorious. So one of the questions I was asking is this, I read this in Joshua 11. Look at Joshua 11, "So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance," say inheritance, "To Israel according to the divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war".

The land rested from war. Say it again. One more time. The land rested from war, so keep that in mind. No more war, right? The land rested from war. But then, this is chapter 11, look at chapter 13. "Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the Lord said to Joshua: 'You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed.'" Joshua, you are old... by the way, Joshua died at 110. When God said this to him, he was 92 years old. And God said to him, you are old, advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.

So is this a contradiction? The Bible says the land rested from war. Joshua took the land. The land rested from war. And yet, there's very much land yet to be possessed. Very simple, look up here. It's one thing to do warfare. It's another thing to get what you fought for but never possessing it. You fought for it but you don't possess it. There's a verse I remember in Proverbs that says, the slothful or the lazy man does not roast what he takes in hunting. He hunts for it, he plans for it, he finds the deer, he shoots the arrow, the deer falls, he goes to the deer, he cuts in pieces for his family to eat, takes the coat to wear and things like that, but did he do all that, did he cook for his family, did he cut off the coat and all that, no. He took it, brought it back to his barn and let it rot.

Why, too lazy. Let's come back to this again. "So there remains very much land to be possessed". So it's one thing about conquering and conquering. Joshua's job was to conquer and conquer and conquer and conquer. But finally, he has conquered everything, right? And that was in Joshua 11. From Joshua 11, it says the land rested. You don't find from from Joshua 11, you don't find Joshua conquering anymore. That was the last in the book of Joshua. No, no more conquering, okay? Yet, in this chapter, 3 chapters after, God says, "There remains very much land to be possessed".

Now what is God saying? He's not saying conquer to get more land, he's saying, right now, you're not possessing what you have conquered. Now I'm going to give something, a revelation, are you ready for this? Now this revelation is going to... if it's okay with you, some of you, you look very, very young. Even though I know your age. So this revelation is going to make you look younger and feel younger. Are you okay with that, okay? And this is the thing, Joshua, verse 1 again, back to verse 1, same chapter. "Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the Lord said to him: 'You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed.'"

However, there is someone who is very close to Joshua. Actually he's also advanced in years, but he never grew old. Who is that? Who is that? Caleb. Remember Joshua and Caleb? Joshua and Caleb went into the promised land to spy out the land with all the other leaders of the tribes. And they are the only two ones that came back and said, "The land that God gives us," in the English Bible, "is an exceeding good land", in the Hebrew, literally, is a repeat, "It's a very, very good land". I don't care how many spies say it's a difficult land, a land that devours its inhabitants, there are giants in the land. I don't care about all these evil reports.

As far as I'm concerned, if God gives the land to me, God loves me. And it's a very, very good land because it's from God. Your inheritance, child of God, is very, very good, very, very good, amen. So Caleb, on the other hand, he was a contemporary of Joshua. They were both very close, about the same age, amen. Seven years apart. They are both, you will say in today's vernacular, they are aged men, right? Old men, and yet Joshua is growing old. In other words, something about, I'm going to give you a secret right now, if your life is always fighting and fighting and stress, being stressed out, being stressed out, and fighting and fighting and being stressed out, being stressed out, instead of the rest of faith, you will wear out real fast.

So what's the secret of Caleb? Let's find his secret, shall we? This is chapter 13, right? Now God won't just discourage you with chapter 13, he's going to show you a secret in chapter 14. Chapter 14 is where Caleb says to Joshua, "Today I'm 85 years old and I'm as strong today as I was 45 years ago". Would you like to see it? And let's see his secret, okay? Okay, let's go to Joshua 14, "Then the children of Judah," Caleb is from Judah, Jesus came from the tribe of Judah. "Came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him," And Caleb spoke these words to Joshua. "You know the word which the Lord said", stop.

The very first word that came out of Caleb's mouth is this. You know the word which God spoke. You know the word which the Lord said. You know the word which the Lord said. Many children of God do not know what the Lord said. They know what Pastor Prince says, they know what this speaker says, and we are safe as long as we are teaching the Word of God in its context. But you must know yourself what the Lord said. Said about what, Pastor Prince? Now this is crucial, about what? If you go back to the Old Testament, if you are at Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments, well, those are not the things to meditate on. Because we are no longer under the law, we are under grace. We are studying how come Joshua grew old, but Caleb did not.

We always have two, two, two to compare. Two righteous men: Abraham and Lot, one victorious, one defeated; why? Because although they are righteous by faith, one chose to walk with God. One ate with the Lord, one had fellowship with God, one even, you know, almost like argued with the Lord in intercession. Okay, "I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart".

This is very important, that's why I had it underlined so you will see it. He brought back word, they all spy out the land, they all saw the big giant walls, they all saw the tall Anakims, the enemies. They saw the land, okay? And they saw the obstacles, they saw the insurmountable walls, but when they came back, the rest of the spies talked about what they saw, the problems they saw. But Caleb and Joshua, Caleb said, "I shared what I saw in my heart". See that, "I brought back word to him as it was in my heart". And you know what he said to them if you look back, "It's a very, very good land". He treasured the Lord's words in his heart. I don't go by what I see, I go by what is in my heart. What God said to me, I treasure that, amen.

How do I know that, because drop down, "Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but..." Let me stop here and just tell you this, okay? The inheritance was in Caleb, long before Caleb was in the inheritance. Long before you are enjoying it outwardly, you gotta see it inwardly. It was in his heart. Now I'm not talking about New Age visualization here, I'm not talking about that kind of thing. I'm talking about God's Word being in your heart. And seeing what God sees for your future, or even in your present. Like God sees you highly favored, what do you say?

When you look into the mirror, are you going by what you see? Are you going by what other people see about you? Or are you going by what's in your heart? You are highly favored in the beloved. The word that God said about you and me, amen, then he says this, my other brethren made the people's heart melt, it's all about the heart. "But I wholly followed the Lord my God". I wholly followed the Lord my God. "So Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land where your food is trodden shall be your inheritance.'" It's all about inheritance, people. "And your children's forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God". There you have it again.

Now look up here, Caleb isn't talking so much about fighting for a new land. He's talking about possessing. Later, you hear him talk about his strength for war. But still, it's all about possessing. He's saying, if I need to fight, I got strength to fight, even 85. Watch this, go on, "And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive," who kept you alive? People who kept you alive. There are those who have gone, but you are alive. Who kept you alive? You keep yourself alive? Your doctor kept you alive? The Lord kept you alive. Unless the Lord built the house, we labor in vain. Unless the Lord is involved in that surgery, the surgery is in vain, the Lord kept you alive.

Don't you ever forget that. The Lord kept me alive. And Caleb knew it. The Lord kept me alive. As he said again, pointing to 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, eighty-five years old". Now, what is this, "Since the Lord spoke this word to Moses". What word is that? We just read it people, look at the verse before this, verse 9. Go back to verse 9, this is the word. "Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land,'" and it's from God, "'surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever.'"

When he heard that, he stopped growing old. It's about inheritance. Say, Lord, let me live long enough to possess all my possessions. Are you listening people? It's about inheritance. God says, the land that you went to spy out, you will step on it. It will belong to you and your children. Now go down to verse 10, okay, "Now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old". Look at this people. "As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me". Now he's not using poetic language. Because if he's lying, he's a liar. These are people who have received the Ten Commandments, they don't lie, these are leaders of God. He's as strong, "I'm as strong this day as I was the day Moses sent me," that means what, when I was 40 years old, my strength? Same strength.

And in case you're wondering, spiritual strength, pastor. He goes on to say, "Just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in". This is the daily life for war. You can't say this is just spiritual, the source is spiritual, but it manifests. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Even the youths shall faint and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Verse 12, "Now therefore," he told Joshua, "give me this mountain". I love it, that can be the title of a book, "Give me this mountain".

85 years old, still strong, still young. His contemporary was advancing and getting old. God never said to Caleb, "Caleb, you are now old". Never, because Caleb always kept God's Word in his mind. You see, I'm showing you different types of Christians. I just want to entice you to go for the best. There are those defeated righteous men, victorious righteous men, Abraham and Lot. And now we have two great men, two great men, Joshua and Caleb. But one fought a lot until the time came to him, by the way, he died at a good age, 110 years old.

Caleb, there's no record. He says, "Give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said," in the Hebrew, it's more like... not if, "Since the Lord is with me". That's the idea. That he knows the Lord has been with him all this while. I'll drive them out, "And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance". Hebron, Hebron. Eighty-five, he possessed his possessions. Eighty-five, he possessed his possessions.

How many of you want to have the best? Among the 12, there were actually 70 disciples following Jesus. At least at one time, you will see 70. And from 70, you know, we see 12 who are closer to him. Then among the 12, we see there's 3. There were witnesses to his transfiguration and raising of Lazarus's daughter from the dead. Then out of the three, you have one very close. In fact, he calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. It appears only in his own gospel. He practiced that.

And you know how the Gospel of John ends? All the four gospels, because Jesus is the King of the Jews, he ends off by giving them, go into all the world and observe all my commandments. Those are commandments of the New Covenant, loving one another and preaching the gospel and believing on his name, right? You find, "Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world". That's how Matthew ends. How does Mark end? The Lord working with them, still in heaven working, amen. How does Luke end? Luke ends with Jesus going all the way to Bethany, blessed his disciples and went up to heaven. So there's ascension, right? You know how John ends? No ascension, resurrection, but no ascension. You still see Jesus on earth. Why is that so? Because he's God in the Gospel of John, he's everywhere.

And you know how the Gospel of John ends? I love it, I love it, I love it! I must tell you this, okay? Gospel of John ends like this. "This Jesus spoke, signifying by what death, Peter, would glorify God. When He had spoken this, He said to Peter, 'Follow me.' Peter turned around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved," who is that, John, "Following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, 'Lord, who is the one who betrays You?' Peter, seeing John, said to Jesus, 'But Lord, what about this man?' Jesus said to him, 'If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.'"

Okay, let me just finish with this. Two, two again, comparison. All right, one disciple says, "I will go to the end of the earth for you, I will go to prison for you, I'm the one who loves you," that's Peter. The other one says, "Lord, I want to thank you for your love for me. You love me, I'm the disciple whom you love". One boasts of his love for Jesus. The other one boasts of Jesus's love for him. Now we see that the disciple who boasts of his love, Peter, was being told by the Lord, "You follow me".

Go back into the earlier verse. "Follow me," Jesus told him. But John don't have to be told to follow. You know why? Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following already. So the secret of Caleb in wholly following the Lord, is actually just being absorbed by the Lord's love for him. If the Lord gives me the land, it's a very, very good land. If the Lord gives me this partner, it's a very, very good partner. If the Lord gives me these children, they are very, very good children because I love the Lord, I know the Lord gives in love, the Lord loves me. That's why I love him. That's the secret. And when you love the Lord, you are not even conscious you are following.

But those who boast of their love for the Lord, they have to be told, "You follow me". And sometimes when I look at other preachers and what they are doing and things happening, I ask myself, am I doing enough, am I doing, you know? And I feel the Lord telling me, "Son, what is that to you? Whatever they are doing, what is that to you? You follow me". And those are the times when I lose that consciousness that the Lord loves me. I start comparing. But when I know the Lord loves me, I don't have to worry about what people do. I'm not even conscious, I'm following him. And that will be your legacy and inheritance as well. And all the people said, amen, God bless you.

Stand to your feet, children of God. So the more we address each other as children of God, we are helping each other inherit. The more we have the Spirit of sonship, the more we inherit. The more we call God, Father, the more we inherit. And inheritance will be unconscious many a times, amen. Lift your hands all across this place.

I see family blessings, I'm going to pronounce this over you right now. You love the Lord because the Lord first loved you. You honor him, you reverence him, he is your God. Therefore, happy shall you be and you shall eat the labor of your hands. Your wife shall be a fruitful vine in your house. Fruitful vine, God renews her youth and attractiveness like the intoxicating vine. Your children, they are like olive plants because they are anointed, anointed to break off the yokes of immorality and filth that this world is engulfed with.

The anointing is on them, it's on their minds, to keep their minds, they are like olive plants. Anointed to serve, anointed to make an impact in the kingdom of God. And I thank you, Lord, that you preserve every one of them here under the sound of my voice. Everyone that's watching Lord, right now. Everyone in Grace Revolution Church in Dallas, everyone that's watching this by way of broadcast, thank you, Lord, for preserving us from all evil, in Jesus's name, and for keeping us alive by your grace. In Jesus's name, and all the people said... amen, amen.