Joseph Prince - Take Communion With Revelation, Not Routine
Greetings, church. Love every one of you, amen. Are you ready for the Word? Now let’s go to the story of the meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek because God wants to emphasize something for us today. Are you ready? Abraham heard that his brother was taken captive. «He armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people». Now they are on their way back. So they are going back to Hebron, okay? And they have to go through Jerusalem because from Damascus down, you will pass by Jerusalem before you reach Hebron.
Okay, let’s look what happened. Verse 17, okay? So, «he went out to meet Abram at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him. Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High». Abraham was tired and Abraham had just been through a battle and now he refreshed Abraham with the bread and the wine. Not only that, this is the first occurrence of Melchizedek. Let’s look at the very first word from his mouth, the next verse. «And he blessed Abram and said, 'Blessed.'». First word, «blessed».
Don’t forget the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is all about blessings. And you cannot receive the communion with no sense of his favor. It’s his favors, his goodness in your life, because it’s called the eucharist. You know why? When the Bible says when Jesus gave thanks for the bread and wine, the word «give thanks» is the word «eucharisteo» in the Greek. Eu is good, charis is grace. Together they mean give thanks or be mindful. The number one definition of theo, all right, is be mindful of his favors. When you receive Communion, all right, be mindful of his favors. Don’t take it legalistically. Don’t take it like magic. Take it with spiritual intelligence. Take it with revelation. Can I have a good «Amen»?
Now let me just tell you something about the bread and the wine. The way you get bread is that you get the flour. The flour has been beaten from the wheat stalks, right? And after it’s beaten, you pour water on it, you think it’s finished beating, but no, all right, it’s not true. You still have to beat it, you still have to pound it. Literally, they used their fists in those days. They punched it. This is what happened to the Lord all the way when he was arrested from Gethsemane, he was beaten. To give us bread, to nourish us, he was beaten. He was pounded. He was turned, twisted, you know, so that he can be the bread of life. How do you get wine? Wine is the same. You can’t just get wine from the vine, right? From the vine tree. You just have to bring down the wine in those days and you have to step on it. They step on it. He was kicked, he was stepped upon, he was trodden on, so that he will become wine to us.
And to get wine, you must have fermentation process which is leaven. Where do you think leaven came from? He has no leaven. Leaven is a picture of evil and sin. But to get wine, grape juice must have leaven. It came from us. He did it for us. The moment he embraced us, his pure blood became wine. Because it’s to wash away our leaven. So both bread and wine is the process of crushing. It’s a picture of the cross. Or else there’s no drink, there is no food. Are you listening, people? And if you have ears to hear, let me just tell you this. Jesus, because this is a very difficult truth for many people to receive. Even during the time of Christ, after he multiplied the five loaves and two fish, he was in Capernaum.
Many of you have been there, the synagogue in Capernaum. I love to be there, all right? He was preaching this in the synagogue of Capernaum. The Bible tells us, «These things said he, teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum». And he told them, they said that «Moses gave our fathers bread, manna from heaven». Jesus said, «Your fathers ate bread and they died. I am the bread of life». And then Jesus says in John 6, look at this, «I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world».
Now notice here, he didn’t talk about the blood. He talked about the flesh, «which I will give for the life». The life here is zoe. It is not eternal life. In this verse, it’s not eternal life. He will be talking in this context about eternal life here and there. But in this verse, it’s not about eternal life. It’s about life. The same word is used in the Septuagint for Adam when God breathed into Adam, and Adam received the life, the zoe, to make him alive. The word «zoe,» if you put ionos, zoe ionos, it becomes eternal life. But if there’s ionos, it means life, health, wholeness. Because every part of you that’s diseased and maimed and weak and all that, feeble, is because that part, life is not flowing.
So every time you take the Lord’s body, here, «the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I will give for the health, the life, of the world». Okay, drop down. «For My flesh is food indeed, My blood is drink indeed». The word «indeed» literally means in actuality. Now listen, when you take the bread and the wine every time, please don’t think miraculously there’s a transubstantiation going on, it converts to literally the blood of Jesus and the flesh. No, it’s still symbolic. Are you listening, people? All right, but there’s power in receiving it with revelation. «This is my body, this is my blood,» the Lord said. When you partake it, all the virtues of that broken body is released in you. He gave it for the life of the world. Are you living?
Okay, so please look at what he says: «He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him». Now, early on he says that I am the living bread. If anyone feed of me, all right, he will not die. Now that feed is a different Greek word, «esthio,» which is something you can say, you know, generic term, esthio, you feed. We are feeding on Christ every day. I agree with that term. But many people missed it. They say that everything in this chapter is about esthio, which is feeding or feeding spiritually. It can be used as this. But over here, Jesus changed the word from the generic word which can be used spiritually to a word for crunching, biting. And the word is trogo. «He who eats,» trogo, «My flesh». To gnaw and to crunch.
If you look up this word, it means to crunch like an almond and nuts. There’s no way this is spiritual. I said there’s no way this is spiritual. In this same chapter, he used two words, esthio. He used esthio as a generic way. If you feed on me, you’ll have eternal life, all right? That’s esthio. But when it comes to this part, trogo, «he who eats,» he’s talking about Communion. Because a lot of evangelical teaching for this passage they say that it’s not Communion at all. It’s all about spiritually feeding on Christ, having eternal life. Now that is taught also in this passage. But Jesus actually used two words for different purposes. One is to talk about spiritually feeding which is receiving Jesus Christ. Many of you have eternal life because you have fed on him, you trusted in him, amen.
All right, so the same thing, all right, when he talks about, «He who eats,» gnaw, to crunch, «My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me». This is different now. «He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him». Now for the longest time, I always look at John where it says, «abide in me and I in you». That word «abide in me,» «Unless a branch abide in me, he can do nothing»? Remember, you read that often, right? You ask, «How can one abide»? That word «abide,» meno, is the same word here, «abides,» meno. Same word. And it’s telling us that when you take Communion, you abide and the tense there is inactive, which means you actually manifest him. He abides in you in a practical way and you in him in a most practical way. Are you listening, people?
The manifestation, hallelujah. «As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who,» chews on me, gnaw, trogo, crunch, «on Me will live because of Me». Wow, that puts Communion in a different light. Years ago, I remember that in 2003, we went for our Israel trip and it was one of those trips that we had many people from our church going, back to back. And what happened was this. I went with my leaders and the pastors, Pastor Lawrence and all the other pastors. We all went earlier and then during our trip, our journey somewhere, we receive a call that one of our flights just landed at Tel Aviv and there was an emergency. A girl who was at that time just married and she actually went unconscious, foaming at the mouth, which later on the doctors say she was suffering from deep vein thrombosis. You heard of that? Where, you know, there’s a clot, blood clot.
The Israeli paramedics were there at the airport and they brought her and actually she died. Her heart stopped. They resuscitated her, okay, and by then, when they took an x-ray of her chest and all that, they found that there was massive clots in her right ventricle of the heart and also massive clots in her lungs. And the doctor says, «She cannot survive». This was said: «She won’t be able to survive. Moreover, she has been too long without oxygen to her brain». So that’s what they told us. And I was like, miles away somewhere else, away from Tel Aviv. We were already having our tour, in the midst of our tour. So I told the pastors and the guys, I think, «Let’s go visit her». And we stopped over and Samuel Smadja, my Israeli friend, was there and he helped us get some Communion elements, okay?
So we went to the Tel Aviv hospital and when we were there, because of the way it was done and all that, okay, we were there and she’s been unconscious at that time for six days already, all right? We were somewhere else at that time when it happened and they prayed for her. They prayed for her a few days after that. The husband prayed. The leader that was involved in that group prayed, but there was no result. It was worse and worse. She was in a coma for 6 days, by the time we were at the hospital. Somewhere, fourth, fifth day, I felt the Lord telling me… usually, you know, you don’t need Pastor Prince. How many understand that? You don’t need the pastors. If we are somewhere else, there is a leader in every group and there are people who know how to pray. Sometimes I fear that you all think that in the name of Joseph Prince, it happened. It does not.
Look at me, look at me, come on. Seriously? All right? Look at Pastor Lawrence, come on. It’s in the name of?.. Yeah, and we have people in groups and all that led by pastors, led by deacons, led by leaders, led by care leaders, led by believers, who know how to pray in the name of Jesus. So when it came to the fifth day, I think, or the fifth day, I realized there’s no results, getting worse. So I felt the Lord telling me to have Communion over her. So we got some other Communion elements from my friend Samuel and we went to the hospital, a few of us, Pastor Lawrence was there. We stepped in and the sight was actually in the natural very discouraging. She looked bloated, she looked swollen, there are tubes almost coming out from different places of her face.
And Pastor Lawrence told me later on that, «I know the Bible says watch and pray, but I cannot watch,» he said. He had to close his eyes during prayer. So we all had Communion, plus the husband. We all had Communion around her. And we just declare that by the broken body of Jesus, life is released into her. That’s all we did. We had Communion, okay? We didn’t cast out devils, we didn’t do nothing, all right, of that sort. I’m not saying that that’s wrong. If the Lord leads you, go ahead. But we just had Communion over her. And then we continued our trip because she was unconscious for six days already. We heard the very next day, the very next day, she woke up. And then they tested her and they cannot find any trace of the clot.
Now, that’s in my book on the power of Holy Communion. Today she’s a happy mother in our church. A mother of two now. And you know what she did after that? The very next day, she woke up, all right. One of the things that she said, that she wants to continue her trip. So after she was dismissed from the hospital, after they did all the checks and all that, she was dismissed, she joined the next group and her first trip was over at the garden tomb, amen. Amazing lady. The next year, she went again for another trip, all right? So I wish that every case is as dramatic as this, but I’ll just tell you this. Many a times when you take Communion, you know, sometimes the pressure is on us to like, you know, Mark 11:24, «Believe you receive and from now on, don’t doubt, you know, you believe you have received». But sometimes that puts pressure on people who feel that their faith is not there altogether.
Thank God for Mark 11:24, but God has different delivery systems as well, all right? And one of them is that people can do this. Some people can go to surgery and believe God that God will bless the surgery to be a successful one. Some can take Communion and every time they take Communion, they believe they’re improving. They’re getting better. Now this, to me, is one of the most powerful ways of healing. In fact, John G. Lake, a healing evangelist, he said that this kind of healing is better. For some reason, he says, it’s better than the ones you get instantaneously. Many a times, this kind of healing causes people to have character, all right, built in them. Whereas the other one, when they receive instantly, they can go back to their worldly life.
So that’s what John G. Lake says. But for me, many of the healings that I’ve experienced in my life has not been instantaneous. Like some of you heard me share that I have a skin condition for the longest time on my back. You know, I have a world vision so there are mission places that I put behind my back. I got the world on my back, you know what I’m saying? And it looks bad and every time I sweat, when I exercise or play soccer, it will really aggravate me. And I can look at the mirror and there’s a map there. I don’t know if Singapore is there but there are some spots. I just begin taking Communion for it, okay?
Again, this is one great instance to illustrate this, that I didn’t know when I was healed. But one day as I was changing my clothes, all right, I heard a voice inside me. When you change, you don’t look behind your back, you know what I’m saying? Many of you do, lah, you know? You look behind, «Wow, I look good from the back also,» you know? But I usually look at the front. So I don’t know when it happened. But I heard a voice saying, «Look at your back». So I looked at my back and, man, the whole thing was gone. Now I have this affliction for years. For years. But the whole thing was gone. So I don’t know when it happened, you know? Was it the supplements I took? Was it this? But I just stopped myself. No, no, no, no. Wait a minute. You took Communion.
By the way, if you are on medication, please continue your medication. Your medication works so much better with the Communion. But the thing is that many people, they have more respect for medication. They have more respect for radiation. They have more respect for all these things than a piece of bread and a cup. And they say, «What can this do»? They don’t realize it is God’s ways of choosing weak things to put to naught things that are, like cancer or whatever. It’s God’s ways. Especially when it reminds God of his Son. In fact, Jesus says, «Do this in remembrance of me». I just want to say once again, all right, not every case is like this. But many a times, you may even have to persevere taking Communion. Take it like medicine, three times a day if you want.
If the case is acute, all right, it’s an intense case, whatever it is, all right, take Communion. If someone says you can only take Communion if a pastor does it, no, no, no, that’s tradition. You can do it. In fact, the Lord loves it because, «Do this in remembrance of me,» he said. When you think about Communion and the emphasis the Lord placed on it, in the synoptic Gospels, every one of the synoptic Gospels talk about Communion. Talk about the Lord’s Supper. And yet, Jesus thought it was so important to tell Paul directly: «For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.'».
You know how often can we remember the Lord? Think about that, all right? You say, «But Pastor Prince, if I do it every day, it becomes a ritual». Then don’t do it every day, okay, if it’s a ritual to you. But really, honestly, last week, I showed you all my boy, right? I never get tired of showing it. I know some of you get, «Oh no, Justin again,» you know. But for me, I just love looking at Justin. I see Justin every day. Almost every day I see him, all right? Unless I’m somewhere, you know, in the world. But I get to see him every day. Yet I love to look at his videos. I love to, you know, look at him again and again, especially someone you love. «Do this…»
So for you to say, you know, «Pastor, it becomes a ritual,» I wonder what you are doing it for. Are you doing it, you know, mindful of him, or are you conscious of your condition? You see, even Communion, don’t forget, the Lord said, «Drink from it». «He took the cup, gave thanks and said, 'Drink from it. This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.'» In other words, your consciousness must be, when you take the cup, it’s not to confess your sins, start digging for your sins. It’s not a time of sin consciousness. It’s a time of being conscious your sins are remitted. That is partaking worthily. Go back to 1 Corinthians 11, all right? Next verse, drop down. «In the same manner He also took the cup».
All right, you all know this cup, okay? Let’s drop to verse 26: «For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes». Every time someone kills a burnt offering, offers it on the altar, victory is accomplished. Favor is shown in the Old Testament. You know, the Philistines were coming really close. Israel cried out to prophet Samuel. He took a young suckling lamb, killed it, and God thundered from heaven and discomfited the Philistines. You are proclaiming the Lord’s death. Every time you proclaim the Lord’s death, amen, your enemies that is attacking you at that moment are defeated. «For as often as you eat this bread, you proclaim,» okay? Next, drop down. «He who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner,» it’s the manner. In other words, when you eat and drink, make sure you eat, knowing that it is his body that has borne away your diseases. That’s worthy of him.
When you drink the cup, you are conscious your sins are remitted. That’s worthy of him. But if you partake, conscious of your sickness, that’s not worthy of the bread. If you partake and you are conscious of sins all the time, confessing your sins, digging your heart for your sins, you’re not conscious. It’s remitted. Now you are guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Are you listening, people? All right? Now, all this is in my teaching, but look at this. «Not discerning the Lord’s body». «Not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep».
Again, I kind of wish that it’s not many, but many are weak, in the church. Many are weak, many are sick and many die before their time, all right? Many sleep. For what reason? For this reason: «Not discerning the Lord’s body». And the word «discerning» is diakrino which is make a difference. Make a difference between the cup and the bread. And don’t just lump them together. Okay, I’m speaking to other people. Most of you know the difference, all right, but make a difference. The body was broken for your health, for your healing, amen? The blood was shed for the remission, the forgiveness of your sins. Make a difference, amen? Have you been blessed?