Joseph Prince - The World Calls It Luck, But This Is What's REALLY Happening
It’s all about Jesus. The Bible is all about Jesus. It’s a photo book. When Jesus rose from the dead, praise God, all right? The two, Emmaus Road, I’m telling you, they got so much more opportunities than to rub, hob-nob, with celebrities today and all that. Man, I tell you, Jesus came finding them, not they went to find Jesus. Jesus, on the same day he rose from the dead, went to find them. And they were talking on the way back from Jerusalem and they were sad. And Jesus… isn’t it wonderful that even in heaven, he cares when you are sad, when you are disappointed. And they are talking to each other and he says, «What kind of conversation is this? You are both talking and you are sad». They said, «Have you not heard? Are you the only one? What is it? You just came out of a cave»? You know how Jewish people talk. «What’s wrong with you? You came out from a cave,» you know?
That’s how Jewish people talk. And then Jesus says, «What kind of things»? They said that how this man, Jesus of Nazareth, «we thought he’s going to redeem Israel». We thought he’s going to redeem Israel. We thought he’s going to redeem Israel. In other words, their vision is still, Jesus is supposed to… the main agenda is Israel, not Jesus. We thought he would redeem Israel. He would break off the Roman yoke and set us free. But unfortunately, he died. So a lot of people are disappointed because, at that time, because they thought that the Millennium would come. They didn’t see that the First Coming was for him to die on the cross to settle a deeper bondage: sin. And his First Coming is to die for our sins.
Second Coming, he will establish the rule. So they confused the two and then they were disappointed. And how did Jesus bring them back? The Bible says, beginning at Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament, all right, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and also the prophets, he began to expound in them things concerning himself. Which means in Genesis, there are pictures of Jesus. Now this is a story about the Holy Spirit in Genesis 24, looking for a bride for the beloved Son, and this is a story of where we are right now. So Genesis 24 starts off: «Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.
So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had». Oldest servant of his house, unnamed servant. Unnamed servant. Who is that? The Holy Spirit. All right, «who rules over all that he had». The Holy Spirit rules over all that God has, amen. Just now the Holy Spirit gave you a gift of healing, amen? Because he rules over all that God has. Praise the Lord. He says, «Please, put your hand under my thigh». That’s the expression in those days, when you put your hand under the master’s thigh, they are making a vow. Next verse. «And I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son, Isaac, from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac,» okay?
Now watch this. Let’s drop down. «And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water». So the servant went with ten camels. So he says at the well, he came to the well and he says, «Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham». Kindness there is grace, chesed. «Give me success this day». The first mention of this word «success» is qarah. Say, «qarah,» all right? Qarah, I expound on this in my book «The Prayer of Protection». A whole chapter on it. Qarah means right happening. The world talks about luck. God’s people talk about right happening. Right time, right place, all right? Great happenings. God-orchestrated happenings, God-inspired happenings. What is lucky? No, God can put us at the right place at the right time. So what he’s saying: «God, give me qarah».
Qarah is actually, give me a right happening. So he says, «I’m going to sit down here. God, give me success. And the woman that comes, all right, if I say, 'Please give me water to drink.'» I’m reminded right now of Jesus in John 4, sitting at the well and saying, «Give me water to drink». Love it. And he says, so the servant, the Holy Spirit says, «Give me water to drink. If that woman says, 'I’ll give you water to drink and I’ll give all your camels, '» ten camels, y’all! «'I’ll give your camels drink also, ' let her be the one for Isaac». So he’s out there on assignment for his master. He’s on assignment for the father that he loves. So she was very beautiful.
Drop down. «Then she quickly emptied a pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels». Wow, 300 gallons over. Drop down. «And the man, wondering at her, remained silent so as to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not». So the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead that is now on earth. And he’s looking, looking, looking for, you know, is this one going to respond, you know, to Christ and his love? Is this one going to respond? So he looked at the woman and is wondering whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous. I told you just now, there’s a lot of first mentions here in this chapter. There’s the first mention of the word tsalach, prosperous, in the Bible: prosperous. It’s the first mention.
Do you remember Joseph was a prosperous man? The word there is tsalach in Hebrew. And whatever he did, God made it to tsalach. God made it to prosper. Remember that? Remember that? So the very first thing you need to know about prosperous is, listen, the very first thing you need to know about prosperous is that it’s a journey. God doesn’t want just prosperity for something that you’re doing. He wants it to be a journey. Prosperous is a journey. Your journey in parenting, your journey in your career, your journey in your walk with God, whatever it is, until we see him face to face. God wants it to be a prosperous journey. Can I have a good amen?
So the Holy Spirit is the one that gives you Tsalach, amen? I’m not so smart. I have no smarts. I have no anointing. I have no capacity. I have no persuasion. I have no charisma. I have nothing of my own. But when I come onstage, I don’t come here alone. I come here with the Holy Spirit. And he is the one… I step back. My job, I do a good job, is to step aside and let him take over. Because he likes to talk about the Son, amen? So, prosperity has got to do with the Holy Spirit in the church. Another thing is that he was recounting the vow that he made with Abraham later on when Rebekah says, «Come to my house, my brother wants to see you and all that». He says, «Okay». He met up with the brother, the family. The father was dead already but the older brother, Laban, Rebekah’s brother, was in charge of the family and he talked to him for a while. He told him the story and he said this. He says that «the Lord, before whom I walk, will send His angel with you».
Abraham told me this, «God will send his angel with you and prosper your way,» you see that? This is number two appearance of the word Tsalach. God will send his angel. There’s something the world cannot have, you know? Look up here. When you go to work, God will send his angel to prosper your way. Those without Christ cannot ask for that. They cannot. They don’t have these angels, except for little children. All children have angels, all right? I can prove to you from the Bible. But when it comes to a certain age, that’s it. It’s your accountability. Death comes in. So God will send his angels and this angel here, singular, which is a messenger. And I believe it’s Jesus, all right, in the type here. Anyway, this is the second appearance. Third appearance.
Drop down. «And this day I come to the well and I said, 'O Lord God of my master Abraham, if You will now prosper the way in which I go, '» all right? Third appearance of the word «prosper». Prosperity comes by praying. He asks God to prosper his way, all right? «O Lord God of my Master Abraham». He prayed in the merits, you know, like we pray in the merits of Jesus, amen? He prayed, «You are the God of my Master Abraham, amen. I’m asking you, prosper my way». Tsalach, pray for it. People of the world don’t pray. You pray because you depend on God. They depend on luck. Hopefully, lah, lucky, lah. Hopefully it’ll happen. Hopefully… we don’t. Faithfully, he’ll do it, amen. And we don’t depend on luck.
«Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, 'Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink, '» all right, «She will say, 'Drink, and I’ll draw for your camels also…' let her be the one whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son,» he was talking to Laban. All right, now go back to the story again. Look at this. «So it was, when the camels had finished drinking, the man took a golden nose ring weighing half a shekel, and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels of gold,» y’all. These are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, «The man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord. 'Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and truth towards my master. As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.'»
I’m going to tell you real quick right now. This is the first mention of a man bowing his head and worshipping the Lord. First mention in the Bible of a man bowing his head and worshipping the Lord. This is the first mention in the Bible. And the first mention in the New Testament is Jesus bowing his head in worship at the cross. It was the last act Jesus did. He worshipped the Father before he gave his Spirit up. At the cross, John 19: «When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished! ' And bowing His head, He gave up His Spirit,» he bowed his head. The last thing he did was worship. He worshipped God. A lot of people, they die, then their head drop. Notice what happened first. He didn’t die yet. He bowed his head purposely as an act of worship. Then he gave his Spirit. I love to see these things.
Bible knowledge is not about accumulating knowledge. I know this, I know that, I know this, I know that. And the way you treat your wife, the way your bad temperedness is, the way you are treating other people. So what if you have Bible knowledge, if it doesn’t warm your heart, doesn’t make you, you know, melt, doesn’t transform you? It’s knowing Jesus, people. So it’s not a matter of, «I know all these things that Pastor Prince», yeah, I taught this before. It’s not a matter of accumulation of knowledge. It’s really having a heart for Christ. I tell you, that’s what God goes for. The Lord goes for that. You know Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus cast out 7 devils? She came to the tomb of Jesus on the Resurrection morning. Jesus has risen from the dead and she was crying.
Why was she crying? She expected to see his body. Hasn’t he been telling the disciples that he will rise on the third day? But she was looking for a body, but her affections, her love for Jesus, you cannot dispute. Then she saw whom she thought was a stranger. It was Jesus. She thought he was a gardener. And she said to him, you know, «Tell me where you have laid him. I will go and take him away». See, love doesn’t reason. She expects she herself alone can go and take his body away. That’s how love talks, you know? Love talks like that. We know that mothers, true stories of children that are pinned under the car and the car is so heavy that a mere person, a man even, cannot carry, but supernatural strength comes. Mother carries it to save the child.
So affection is amazing. But her doctrine was bad. She expected to see a body. So doctrinally, not so good. By the way, Mary of Bethany, Lazarus' sister, wasn’t there. You know why? Because she sat down and did the one thing needful. She knew that Jesus would die and later on, she brought the ointment to anoint Jesus for his burial. Remember that? And she heard from Jesus’s lips, «He will rise again». So she wasn’t there. But I’m just showing you that Bible knowledge comes to nothing if your heart don’t have love. Knowing his love for you first and then loving one another. All right, let’s go back to the story again. «And he said,» the servant said, «'Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and truth.'»
This is the first time in the entire Bible, hesed ve emet, grace and truth appears together, and in the context of the church, hallelujah. In Genesis 22, we see the Son dying, right? It’s a picture of Jesus’s death on the cross at Mount Moriah, Mount Calvary. Mount Calvary is a ridge of Mount Moriah, by the way. Same mountain range. And then, we see Jesus dying in chapter 22. But chapter 24, he’s now risen. Where is he? In the Father’s right hand. The Holy Spirit is here on a mission to prepare a bride. And after finding the bride, to prepare bridal affections, amen. To make sure that we have bridal affections, we have love, amen. Don’t see God as, «Oh, he’s God, he’s Almighty». That’s wonderful, but you must have a love of a bride for the bridegroom. The Bible says the Lord says, «So as the bridegroom rejoiced over the bride, so I rejoice over you,» in Isaiah, all right?
«As the bridegroom rejoiced,» I always thought of that, it’s amazing, you know? God didn’t say, «As a man who has been living with a wife for 40 years, do I love you. Usually, it’s not so…» You know, the fire is not so strong. But God says, «The way I rejoice over you is like a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride». It’s always fresh. It’s always brighter love. I love my job, praise God. His mercy and truth. Hesed ve emet. The Bible says the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. What is grace and truth? Hesed ve emet. Today, you go to Israel, you look at the Messianic believers, Jewish believers, you ask for the Bible, their New Testament is in Hebrew. You open up to that verse where the law was given by Moses, his Torah was given by Moshe, but hesed ve emet came by Jesus Christ.
And this is the first time it appears here. It’s a story of after the death of Jesus, after he’s risen, the Holy Spirit is here releasing grace and truth. Let’s drop down, because of time. Now we come to the end. I mean, okay, so «Rebekah and her maids arose, they rode on the camels,» so her maids followed her. «And they rode on the camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and departed,» God will make sure that along your journey, you’ll get plenty of help. You’ll have maids to help you, all right? This will be like angels helping you because as a woman, amen, running through the journey, all right, in the desert and all that, she had plenty of help and that’s why the ten camels were there for her as well.
Now, it’s quite a journey by the way. From Haran all the way down to where Isaac was, it’s a long journey. It took them a number of nights. So one of those nights, campfire with all her ladies. And she would say, «Tell me the story of Jesus. Tell me the story of Isaac. Tell me the story of the beloved Son». The Holy Spirit has a lot of stories he wants to tell us. So the Holy Spirit wants to talk to you about Jesus. So every night, she will say: «Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious. Sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus. Sang to welcome his birth. Glory to God in the highest. Peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story, most precious, sweetest that ever was heard».
So, it’s a long journey. So the servant to Rebekah. «Now Isaac came from the…» Ah, now we see Isaac. So all the while, we don’t see Isaac, right… so think about it. She loved him. She longed for him before she ever saw him. The Bible says, «Having not seen, we love». And how can we love? Because of the Holy Spirit. He tells us stories about Jesus. She loved him long before she saw him. But now she’s about to see him. And we are about to see him, amen? «Isaac came from the way of Beer…» I’m going to say it in Hebrew, okay? Beer Lahai Roi, all right? The well of the living one who sees me. «For he dwelt in the South. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening».
So ladies, if you’re looking for a partner, stay around the well. Guys, if you’re looking for a partner, meditate on God’s Word, amen? The one key of success: meditate, all right, and then, you know what’s going to happen when you meditate? «He went out to meditate in the field in the evening: and he lifted his eyes and looked, and there, the camels were coming». And one day as you’re meditating, you’ll see the camel is coming, amen? The camels are coming! I’ll announce to you by the Spirit. Many of you have been waiting for your camels to come in. Business people, your camels are coming. Your camels are coming, amen. And the camels were coming. And look at this.
«Then Rebekah lifted her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from her camel». Now this word here, «dismounted,» unfortunately, «nafal» in Hebrew, it’s not dismounted. It is the word «fall». She fell off the camel. This word «nafal,» you ask any Jewish rabbi, they will tell you nafal means to fall off. Rebekah fell off her camel when she saw Isaac. She was literally swept off her feet. She saw him. The Bible says «because she asked the servant, 'Who is this man walking in the field to meet us? ' The servant said, 'It is my master.' She took a veil and covered herself». Probably she reached out for the veil, and right into the arms of Isaac. He is going to sweep us off our feet. It’s called the Rapture. And I’ll close with this. Drop down. «And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done».
Isn’t it wonderful? The Holy Spirit ended up telling Jesus all that he has done, all right? The account of the bride. The journey has come to an end. We are still in that journey, amen? «Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her». Folks, take note. And I close with this. This is the second mention of love in the Bible. «And he was comforted after his mother’s death». What is that? Do you know Jesus today is comforted? Although he loves Israel, Israel rejected him. But during this time of rejection, he is comforted that he has a bride.
So friend, we are in this journey. Blessed are you to be part of the bride that God is preparing. God is putting jewelries of gold, silver, redemption, divinity, divine gifts on you. He is clothing you and the Holy Spirit is here to tell you the story of Jesus. He’s not here to call attention to himself, call attention to Jesus. The Bible is a picture, a photo album, about his Son. And you see how his Son, as a shepherd, as the King, the Son of David, all the titles he shares with you because you are joint heirs with him. The only thing that he doesn’t share is the fact that he is deity, 100% God, 100% man. Whereas for us, we are 100% men, partakers of the divine nature. But we will never become deity.
Why would he love you? Why would he love me? He could have let us rot and go to hell. And people can point their fingers and say, «God, we blame you»! One day, God could just throw them away. Why didn’t he just throw us like the way he’d throw even our old items, old clothes? I encourage you not to throw. You can give to Salvation Army, but many of us, we just throw them. But Jesus, a smoking flax, a bruised reed, he will not destroy. You lost your song, he will say, «Come to me,» amen? I know you love him. I know that today there’s an anointing even to love him again, amen? But remember that we love because he first loved us.