Joseph Prince - Wake Up Expecting Heaven on Earth (01/27/2026)
Leprosy in Leviticus pictures sin's isolation and decay, but cleansing comes by being brought to the Priest (Jesus), touched by Him, and anointed with blood and oil—showing grace superabounding where sin increased. Growth is increasing dependence on Christ; the Holy Spirit imparts life, power, and discernment as we live conscious of cleansing blood, leading to perceiving by the Spirit over reasoning, for abundant life and restoration.
Leprosy as a Picture of Sin – Cleansing Through the Priest
You know, the Bible tells us that... Let's put up Leviticus 14, yes, verse 1 to 4. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, this shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing. Now stop. When you read things like this and God devotes an entire chapter, in fact, more than one chapter on leprosy in the book of Leviticus, you know that he's not just referring to leprosy because many people don't suffer leprosy today. There are still people suffering leprosy. And everything in the Old Testament is a type. It's a shadow of a substance.
So what is leprosy? Leprosy is something that in those days, if they contract leprosy, right, they are cut off from their families. Amen. They leave isolated. I mean, it's a very... It's almost like a life sentence. Amen. Where most of the cases, they don't get cleansed. Many of them, they literally sort of degenerate and their body parts rot away. But it's more than just the physical thing the Lord is talking about. It's our sin. Amen. Growth in Christ is not... It's not getting stronger and stronger. Amen. In every way, you feel that you are stronger. Alright? You can overcome this, overcome that. Actually, you feel weaker and weaker. In and of yourself. But then, there's a greater and greater dependence on Christ. That, my friend, is spiritual growth.
So notice, it says, This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest. Notice the passive voice. He shall be brought. How many know that if we were not brought by the Holy Spirit to Jesus, we'll never be saved?
The Leper at the Sermon on the Mount – Jesus Comes to Him
When I was in Israel, a number of years ago, I took some time out from my group, which are all my pastors. Alright? And the pastors still remember this. I took some time to walk to the other side. So I went to the other side of the sermon. Many of you have been there. The Mount of Beatitudes is still so beautiful. And the place where Jesus was preaching, Amen? You can tell where most likely He is. It's not such a big space. He must be around there somewhere on the hill. Amen? The people are down there. But I went this way. Because why this way? This way goes straight to the town of Capernaum. And right after the Sermon on the Mount, the Bible says Jesus headed to Capernaum, where He proceeded to heal the centurion servant in Capernaum. And the rest of the account in Capernaum.
So to go to Capernaum, you don't go down to where the crowd is. That is going towards Tiberius area. Amen? He would have not gone down this way. He went down this way. To further confirm this, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the Bible says, And He went down the mountain, and great multitudes followed Him. If He went down to where the multitudes were, they don't have to follow Him. So obviously He went this way. The multitudes followed Him. They were saying, Where is He going?
Now, it's very beautiful. And this revelation came to me. Never heard anyone preach this. But this came to me when I was there. There was a leper hiding somewhere there. I say he's hiding because when I went down there, I saw a lot of volcanic rocks that, that, you know, the whole area is strewn. The whole area by the Lake of Galilee is strewn with volcanic rocks. Okay? And there was a lot of rocks that tumbled and all that. And all of a sudden, it's like I had a vision of that leper hiding in one of those rocks. He cannot be appearing among the crowd because they would stone Him to death. And I just imagined that He was, He was eavesdropping. He was listening to the Lord saying, and when He spoke from that mountaintop, and we have tested it, His voice carried through the valley. Amen? And it's a natural acoustic, all right, up on the hill. And He could hear Jesus saying, don't worry about your life, what you shall eat, what you shall eat, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Isn't your life more than food? Isn't your body more important than your clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They sow not, neither do they reap, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?
And the leper was listening and he was crying. Perhaps even a bird would come fleeting unto a rock near Him. And you look at the bird, God cares for the bird. How much... Jesus is saying, how much better are you than the bird? And here is Jesus walking towards your direction. Jesus walking towards Him. Isn't the Lord wonderful? So, Jesus went all the way there, right? To where the guy was. And the man came up to Jesus. And the Bible says in this story, Matthew 8, when it finished the sermon, he went down the mountain. There's no way that leper was among the multitude. I never thought of that. That's why we need to meditate on the Word. So, when I was there, you know, in Mount of Beatitude, I walked towards that direction. I could just imagine. I walk by myself and look at all the slaps of stone and all that. One of these probably hid the leper. He cannot be seen in public.
So, Jesus walked to where he was and he appeared before Jesus and said, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. If you are willing. Not if you can. If you are willing. He knew Jesus could. If you are willing. But he doubted whether Jesus was willing to use His power for Him. And how many know that? That's the reason why Jesus walked towards that direction. And Jesus touched him. Oh, how he had... A leper has never been touched by anybody. And how he has not been touched. That human touch that makes a person feel like a human. Jesus touched him first before He cleansed him. And Jesus says, I will. I feel like God is anointing people and right now healing people in different places. Listen carefully.
The Cleansing Ritual – Blood and Oil for Restoration
The blood. Whenever you talk about the blood of Jesus, amen, the Holy Spirit responds. I'm going to tell you why. Okay? One bird is killed. The blood of the trespass offering is put on the poor leper on his right thumb. Now, say trespass offering. Remember, trespass offering means that you get much more than what you have lost. Are you listening? Trespass offering means if you have been cheated, someone sinned against you or whatever, amen, you will get much more than before you lost that item or object or animal or whatever. Alright? This is the trespass offering. So, it's a picture of where sin increased, grace superabounds. In the very area of your weakness, God's grace will triumph.
So, let's say your problem is pornography. Amen? Well, that's the very area that God's grace will triumph. If you allow it to, it will triumph in that area. Let's say your area is bad-temperedness. Well, in the very area of your bad-temperedness, people will look at you and say, what a tender-hearted man. What a loving man. Amen? Amen. I'm telling you, church, this is what the gospel, the power of the gospel is all about. Praise the Lord. Can I have a good amen?
So, they put the blood of the trespass offering on the right thumb of the leper. Okay? Say right thumb. This is for the things that you do, the things that you touch. And then, the blood of the trespass offering is put on the right lobe of the ear and also on the right big toe. Okay? That's the thing. Right lobe of the ear, which means the things you hear will be from now on anointed and cleansed. Amen? The things that you do will be touched and cleansed. So, whatever you do prospers. Like Joseph, whatever he touched, the Lord made it to prosper. And then, the right big toe, wherever you walk, you're a blessing. Wherever you walk, amen, it's going to be blessed for you as well. Amen? Amen? God will put you at the right place at the right time. The blood will take care of you So that the blood will protect you from all the evil. Praise God.
So, right ear, right thumb, right big toe for the feet. Now watch this. Before the chapter ends, it says that, now put the oil, the priest will put the oil on the right lobe where the blood is. So where the blood is, the oil comes on the blood. And then the right thumb, where the blood of the trespass offering was, the oil comes on the blood. Amen? And then the right big toe, the oil comes on the blood. What's the other representation of? The Holy Spirit. The anointing of God. I'm telling you, church, the very, wherever the blood touches, the Holy Spirit answers. Amen. When the blood is honoured, the Holy Spirit responds. Amen. The Holy Spirit, you don't have to be conscious all the time, the Holy Spirit is in me, the Holy Spirit is in me. You just have to be conscious that you are being cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
1 John 1:7 says that if we walk in the light as He is in the light, it's not a matter of how you walk, it's a matter of where you walk. Once you are saved, you are in the light. You are walking in the light. And the Bible says when you're in the light doesn't mean you are perfectly free from sin, but the blood of Jesus Christ, present tense, continuously cleanses you from every sin. Every item, my sin, you are cleansed from it. And you must live in that consciousness. The Bible says you are righteous by the blood of Jesus. So what are you more conscious of today? Your sins, your failures thus far, or the blood that ever cleanses you. Right now, you're in a wash cycle. The blood keeps you clean. The monkey is off your back to try to be forgiven, to try to be kept clean. It's not your responsibility anymore. Your part is to believe that the blood cleanses you all the time. And the Spirit answers to the blood. When you are conscious of that, man, you are anointed because the Spirit comes on you. Whenever you're conscious of blood, the Spirit comes on you. Where the blood is, the Spirit comes.
Now, this leper has become a gainer. He has something now that even an average Jew in ancient ancient Israel at that time don't have. Because only kings are anointed with the oil. Only priests are anointed. Only three groups. Alright? Prophet, priest, and king are anointed. But now, this lowly, this poor leper who has been cleansed gets the oil. He joins the category of the kings, the prophets, and the priests. What an honour! And that tells us that whatever you have lost by sin, God's grace super abounds.
You know, I get criticized for preaching this. Amen? But it's the Bible. It's the Bible, people. Instead of despairing that you have sinned, okay, you have sinned. This is not to encourage you to sin. Alright? In fact, Paul preached like this so strong that people say, Paul is saying, let us sin more that grace may abound. But if you look at the verses before Paul brought up the question, you'll find it says, where sin increased, pleonazo in Greek, increase means you can count it. Alright? Grace, huperperisseuo. It's not pleonazo. Alright? It does not say in your King James, you use both words the same. But actually, it says, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. But in the Greek, where sin increased, grace super abounded. Which means you cannot measure it. The word huper, hyper, perisseuo, beyond its banks, and much more on top of that.
So, instead of despairing that you have sinned, realize this. Now, because of this sin, because the devil tempted you or whatever it is, and because of this sin, amen, now there's more abundant grace, super abounding grace in this very area. So, it wasn't God's will that David had Bathsheba for his wife. But, of all the wives that David had, it was through Bathsheba, of all the sons that he had, it was the son through Bathsheba that God raised as King to succeed David. Now, that's not to say, alright, commit adultery. We're not saying, let us sin more that grace may abound. But where there is sin already, you're not in despair because of the blood. Amen. In the very area, if you respond to God, there'll be much more grace.
Now, your problem is that you fell into this sin that you're saying, the devil comes to you and says, now, what can you expect? You can expect bad health, alright? And you know what's going to happen? Your kids will be in trouble because of your sin just now, and because of this and that. There's a fearful expectation of evil as mentioned in Hebrews 10. There is this fearful expectation of judgment. And that's what the devil wants to bring. But this preaching of grace, where sin increased, grace super abounds, will set you free from that. It will tell you, because of this sin, alright, my children will be doubly blessed. Amen. My future is doubly bright. Amen.
The Promise of the Father – Power from on High
In the entire Old Testament, we have many promises of God. But there is the promise. Can I be good? Amen. Say the promise. So what is the promise? It's one definite promise that is alluded to, that is an emphasis that all the prophets talk about in the Old Testament. Amen. Or at least, they allude to it. But what is the promise? Amen. It's the promise that you'll be endowed with power from on high. What is this endowment with power from on high? Alright. Let's look at Acts. Being assembled together with them, now Jesus is about to ascend to heaven. Jesus commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. Say the promise. What is the promise of the Father? Definite article. One and only promise. The promise of the Father. It's the promise of the Father that brings all the other promises into fulfillment in your life. Amen.
Wait for the promise of the Father which Jesus said, you have heard from me. Amen. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Amen. So 10 more days after 40 days is the day of Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, God sent the Holy Spirit. Amen. And it says like this very, give them Acts 2, the first part, when the day of Pentecost had fully come. There came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind. Why does it say when the day of Pentecost was fully come? Because the first Pentecost in the Old Testament was the giving of the law. God gave the law. Okay. That was the first Pentecost. And the result was 3,000 people died at the foot of the mountain.
But when the day of Pentecost in the New Testament a new covenant had come because Jesus has died. He has paid for our sins. The blood has been shed. Now the Spirit answers to the blood. Are you listening, people? When the day of Pentecost had fully come, alright, the Holy Spirit came. So obviously, the day of Pentecost for the Jew even today is only on this side here. It's very sad because the law demands but never imparts. The law is holy but it cannot impart holiness. The law is righteous but it cannot give you the gift of righteousness. The law, but what the law demands, the Spirit supplies. The Spirit imparts. The Spirit gives. Can I be good? Amen. Alright, the law demands righteousness. The Spirit of God imparts righteousness to you. Amen. Gives you the gift of righteousness. So whatever we need today, the Holy Spirit imparts to us. He's not there to demand. Whenever you think of the Holy Spirit as demanding, you have put the Holy Spirit in the place where He does not belong. He's there to impart. He's there to help. Can I be good? Amen.
So on the day of Pentecost, the first Pentecost, the law was given, 3,000 died. The New Covenant, Pentecost, this day, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, the Spirit was given, and 3,000 people were saved in that day. And Peter, in that sermon, before 3,000 got saved, he preached a sermon that got the 3,000 people saved. Peter actually said, when he stood up, alright, give them an Acts 2 drop down, this Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God. He's telling them what happened to Jesus after He Rose from the dead. He was just, He just saw Jesus go up to heaven 10 days ago, and now He tells them, being exalted to the right hand of God. Hallelujah. The one who was crowned with thorns is now crowned with glory and honour. Hallelujah. Every crown, crown Him with many crowns. Hallelujah. Amen. He's worthy of it. And having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this, which you now see and hear.
So it's like Jesus in heaven saying, hey, now you have the, the gift of the Holy Spirit, I paid for it. Now you have it. And it's a dream of all the Jew, the Jewish people in, in the Old Testament to have this promise, but they cannot have it in the Old Covenant, because Christ has not yet died. Amen. But it's like, Peter is saying here, he has received from the Father this, the promise of the Holy Spirit. Now He is pouring it out, which you now see and hear. They were praying in tongues, the Bible says. And when the Holy Spirit filled them, they were all speaking in tongues. And it's something that people can see and hear. Amen.
This idea that you are saved, and then you are baptized in the Holy Spirit immediately, it's not, it's not scriptural. Now you have the Holy Spirit once you are saved. Don't doubt that, you have the Holy Spirit. But it's one thing to have the Holy Spirit, it's another thing for the Holy Spirit to have you. I can drink water, water is now inside me. And by if I jump into it, I dive into the swimming pool, I'm now in the water. Baptism of the Holy Spirit is you diving into the pool. Amen! So I want to close with this. We touched on this a little bit, but let me just tell this. The life of the Holy Spirit is a wonderful life. Many a times, you know, if you, you'll pray in the Spirit, you'll pray in tongues. Amen. You will sensitize your Spirit to the Holy Spirit. And you will live by perceiving instead of reasoning.
Why people are defeated is because they reason a lot instead of perceiving. God told Adam and Eve, before Eve came, God told Adam, of all the trees in the garden, you may freely eat. Akal tekal in Hebrew. The word akal, akal appears twice. Eat, eat. That means freely eat. Like even in, you know, in Singlish, right? We say, eat, eat, eat. We are very close to the Hebrew. So, literally in the Hebrew, freely eat. God says freely eat. So, look at the generosity of God. People say, well, God forbid them the tree. Why? How come you focus on that one? You know how many trees there are that God says you can freely eat? But to show you honour me and my Lordship. To show that you acknowledge me as God. That's what the tithe is all about. Alright? You don't have to tithe. You get to. Alright? It's for people of revelation. So, acknowledge. Don't eat from this tree. But it's a tree that God gave. God planted. But it's meant to, for men to, always not eat from it to show God's ownership. God's man is a steward. Amen? Are you listening?
But if we go deeper, what's the nature of the tree? What's the name of the tree called? Knowledge of good and evil. So, what is wrong with the knowledge of good? It's as deadly as the knowledge of evil. The day that you eat of it, God told Adam. Dying in the Hebrew. Dying, you die slowly. You die spiritually. And you die slowly. Dying, you shall die physically one day. Dying, you shall die in the Hebrew. In our English, thou shalt surely die. So, today, men is still eating from the tree of knowledge of good. They ask themselves, is this good or evil? That's not the question. Is this what the Spirit is saying to do? Are you listening?
Mark 2, real quick. Alright, when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven you. Drop down. And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts. Where were they reasoning? Reasoning. The Greek is dialogismos. Dialogue, your English word from, logic, logic, dialogismos. Alright, it's the Greek word here. They are reasoning. Reasoning, reasoning. When you live by reasoning, you cannot live the abundant life. We live by the Spirit. The Spirit is faster than the mind. You know things before your mind can logic it out. In fact, it takes mind sometimes even days before we come to the conclusion, but the Spirit can get it real fast.
I'm coming to something very exciting here, and it's almost time. Alright? So I, I, I, I think we gotta have a conference, amen? A whole day conference. Why does this man, the Pharisees, the scribe says, why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Alright, logismos, logic out. Okay? And they are right. Only God can forgive sins and the man is God. But immediately when Jesus perceived in His Spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, why do you reason about these things in your heart? Jesus perceived in His Spirit that they reason. Jesus said to them, why do you reason about these things in your heart? Jesus perceived in His Spirit. You know, many of you, sometimes you know things before your mind can play catch up. You're about to sign a deal. You're about to go somewhere. You just feel like, oh, someone talks to you and He's very nice. He compliments you. He flatters you more than compliments. But inside, you know, ladies, you have met those kind of guys before. Amen? Something is scratchy inside here. You don't feel good. But whatever He's saying is all good. Whatever He's saying is all nice. Have you been there before where your Spirit... Have you been in places... Okay, let's use this illustration. Have you been in a situation whereby you say, actually, I knew it. I knew it. I don't know why I didn't do it. I knew it. When you look back, you say, actually, something told me not to go there. In fact, something told me not to enter into a contract with this person or into a partnership with this person. Something is like, No, thank God I obeyed. Have y'all been there before? You'll say, I knew it. That's the Spirit. Never mind. Don't condemn yourself. Go ahead. The blood's cleansed. Move on. Amen. Learn from now on.
I just want to share with you this. The Spirit bears witness with your spirit. It will never violate the gospel, but it will always lead you in paths of peace and rest. And it will bring you into plenty, into a large land.