Joseph Prince - Grace Is Your Unfair Advantage from God (02/01/2026)
In Genesis 12, God promises Abram blessing, making him a great nation and a blessing to all families of the earth. The Hebrew "barak" means enduing with power for success, prosperity, and life, sourced only in God through grace and the cross, so we confess righteousness in Christ for deliverance and strength.
God's Promise of Blessing to Abraham
Say, "Bless". Say, "Blessing". Genesis 12, God said this to Abram. Back then he was Abram. He wasn't Abraham yet. God says, "I'll make you a great nation". And we all know this nation is Israel today. "I'll make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing". You see, God's purpose in blessing is that all of you will be a blessing. You are always a blessing going somewhere to happen, and that's why if someone retrenches you or asks you to leave your company, whatever, the blessing just walked out. "There goes his only salvation. There goes his everything".
Okay, there's an old hymn. "I'll bless you". You know, I think all the younger ones don't know what's the... anyway, praise God. "I'll bless those who bless you, and I'll curse him who curses you. I'll bless those who bless you, and I'll curse him who curses you. And in you, Abram, all the families of the earth shall be blessed". So it's all about blessing, blessing.
What Does "Barak" Really Mean?
What is blessing? Now, I don't wanna give you what I know, but I wanna give you a professor of Old Testament and ancient Semitic languages. His name is John Oswalt, and this is what John Oswalt said. And these are his own words. Blessing, barak... say, "Barak". That's the Hebrew word, barak. All right, barak means to confer abundant and effective life upon something or someone. To bless in the Old Testament means to endue with power for success, prosperity, fecundity, longevity, et cetera. Fecundity means fruitfulness in childbearing. Amen?
This part here, go ask Pastor Matthews. He has the blessing of fecundity, longevity. How many want all this? Amen. That's what blessing does. Blessing produces it. Now, blessing is not these things, but blessing is the enduement with power. When God blesses you, he endues you with power for all these things to manifest or to be produced in your life.
John Oswalt also says that, "Whatever may have been the ancient, near eastern conception of the source of blessing, the Old Testament sees God as the only source". God is the only source. It's not some man of God; some special prophet who prays for you, who blesses you. No. When we bless you or even the prophets in the Old Testament when they blessed the people, they always stand as a representative leader for God's voice. They're actually executing God's voice. Can I have a good amen?
And that's why they have to invoke God's name because all blessing has its source only and only... I repeat that. Only in God, and all the people said amen.
Blessing vs. Curse – The True Source
And, of course, we can talk about if this is blessing, then what is the curse? Curse is, of course, the enduement with power for failure. Everything that you see here, you put the opposite, okay, and it's all part of the curse. Now, we live in a world where we see a lot of curses. We see a lot of things that are not working right.
One day in heaven, like the Lord taught us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," all your loved ones, if you have lost loved ones... I hate to use the word lost and yet it is a human word for understanding the grief that people are going through. So we can still use that word, but actually it's a gain for them. The Word of God says, "For me to live is Christ. To die is gain".
They are immediately in a much better place. In fact, they feel like praying for us. Amen? They are in a place of perfect bliss, pure bliss, wonderful joy, great happiness. They will never be sick again. They will never grow old. They will never die ever again. Amen. They behold the face of Jesus; for you by faith, for me by faith, for them face to face.
They listen to the angels singing, you know, like tunes and melodies you have never heard of. They behold vibrant, lush, brightest colors that you have never even fathomed this side of heaven. Pure joy, pure happiness. If you think... don't forget all the senses of your tongue, for example, God gave you all those senses. God is the source of all the pleasures of food, for example. Imagine, this is one area. Everything in heaven cannot be lesser than earth. Everything is enhanced. Everything is greater. So those who have gone on before, the Bible says they have gain.
The Hebrew Picture in "Barak" – Son and Open Hand
So the word barak... say, "Barak". Word for blessing... bless is this Hebrew word, okay? Barak. Reading from right to left again, bet... say, "Bet". Say, "Resh". Say, "Kaph". Barak. So three letters that spell barak. Amen? So this is the word barak. Reading from right to left, barak.
The first two letters... straight away I tell you this. Hebrew and Aramaic are very close together. In fact, Jesus most likely spoke Aramaic, and probably about 60, 70% of their language there are similar. It's the pronunciation and all that that could be different, but it's still Semitic in its roots, okay? So Hebrew and Aramaic, many a times they share the same word.
But here this word barak, the first two letters is bar, which is son. Now, in Hebrew it's ben, right? But here it is bar, which is son. Do you all remember Jesus telling Peter when Peter says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". Jesus says, "Blessed are you, Bar-Jonah," right? Simon Bar-Jonah. "Blessed are you, Simon Peter, son of Jonah," Bar-Jonah. Amen?
I look at some of you and your name is Lim, Lawrence Lim, Lawrence Bar-Lim. All right, some of you are Lee, James Bar-Lee. All right? Or Tok, Joseph Bar-Tok. Interesting, huh? All right, so that's what it means. You all got it. So the first word is son.
Isn't it interesting the word blessing God designed it to be a son? And the word kaph... the last letter there kaph is the word open hand. Say, "Open hand". Put them together, you have the son with the open hand. Blessing always involves Jesus. The Father always has this in mind.
Even in the formation of the Hebrew language, all right, he formed it in such a way that it is Jesus's spoken language, the Aramaic, and then it is kaph barak. And then you see the word, a picture of a man stretching his hand, we have a picture of it, all right? A man stretching his hand and blessing the sick. That's what he did with the leper. The leper says, "If you are willing, you can make me clean". Say, "Barak".
From Verb to Noun – Blessing Through Grace
So in Genesis 12 God says, "I'll bless you, and you shall be a blessing". When God says, "I'll bless you, and you shall be a blessing," there's a first mention in the Bible of the word blessing as a noun. From the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1, God says, "I'll bless them, man and woman, and make them great". All right? "I'll bless them. Be fruitful and multiply". God bless them. God bless the animals. So the word bless is already there, but it's always in verb form.
But when Abraham came on the scene, God chose Abraham and God says, "I'll bless you, and you shall be a blessing". All right? "I'll bless you and you shall be a blessing, all of you". Amen. All 60 kgs of you, you're a blessing going somewhere to happen. Look at your neighbor and say, "I'm a blessing going somewhere to happen". Look at the person on the other side now and say, "You are seated by a blessing". Amen.
So blessing came in for the first time in the story of Abraham. When God chose Abraham... and this word blessing, from blessed, a verb become blessing. A noun, you just add one letter. Just now we have barak. Now we have barakah, a hey. You put a hey there and you have blessing.
When you have grace in your life, when you know that it's the grace of God, you believe in the grace of God... hey we all know is grace, the breath of God. The picture is a window, and the picture here is the Son. His hand is always the hand of grace. It's never a hand to punish.
You never find in the gospel that Jesus punished someone. "Oh, you are too fair-skinned. You are too bright. You are too radiant. Come here. You need to learn about patience. Here, receive some leprosy. Okay, you are too full. You have too much provision and all that. Come, come. All right, pass your food to Judas. Let him eat". No, he never takes away. He always adds. He always blesses. He always repairs. He always restores. He's always mending. He's always healing. He's always doing good; going about doing good, the Bible says. All right? God wants you to be a blessing.
Justified by Faith – Abraham's Example in Romans 4
Okay, real quick Romans 4. Romans 4, "What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works," by what he did, "he has something to boast about, but not before God. What does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.'"
What is this belief? Drop down. "Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but debt". If you work for it, God doesn't give it to you based on what he owes you, rather grace. If you work for something, God cannot give it to you by grace: unearned, undeserved favor. He has to give it to you based on debt, and God will be a debtor to no man.
"So to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly". Work to be right with God, not having a profession, okay? I hope you understand that. But to him who does not work, that means what? Work to get into God's favor. Work to be right with God.
To him who does not work but believes like Abraham did on God who justifies not the godly but the ungodly, now, that faith, his faith is counted for righteousness.
So how can a thrice holy God justify the ungodly? God who said, "I'll by no means pass by the transgression of people". All right, God's eyes, Habakkuk says, are purer eyes than to behold evil. How can a holy God bypass all that, man's sin, and then justify the ungodly? And God says, "If you believe that I will justify the ungodly, I will justify you," amen, "your faith is counted for righteousness".
Now, that means, "I'll treat you from then on as a righteous man". How can God do that? Only on one basis alone, the cross of Jesus Christ. Because at the cross, his Son died as our substitute. At the cross, Jesus bore your sins. At the cross, Jesus was judged in your place. So God's judgment fell on Jesus, and at the cross Jesus gave us his righteousness. Divine exchange. He took our sins. We take his righteousness before God.
So now on that basis, the thrice holy God who cannot pass by one sin put all our sins on Jesus Christ at the cross; and he was judged, condemned, and cursed at the cross on our behalf, the Bible tells us, so that we now receive his righteousness and we get what we don't deserve. Jesus got what he didn't deserve. Now we get what we don't deserve: favor, blessings, prosperity, fecundity, longevity, the power for well-being in every area of our life.
And this is hard for some people to take because people are always trying to get some glory for themself. They always wanna do something. They always wanna do something. Friend, even if you think that the work of Jesus is 98%, yours is 2%, you still cannot give him the glory because your 2% will always make you feel like you have a part to play. No. It's worthy is the Lamb, not worthy is the Lamb and me. So, friend, hallelujah, this is the good news.
The Power of Confessing Righteousness
Now, therefore we confess, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ". A few weeks ago I shared about the man who was watching pornography always in his car. That's how he hides from his wife and all that. Of course, later on the wife found out about it, but he was still watching pornography and all that. And how did he find victory? By confessing, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ".
And he shared it was very hard for him to do that, but he started confessing. While watching, he was confessing, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ". Then one day he found that just from inside, true deliverance is always supernatural. If you change yourself, by the way, a woman can never change a man. You all know that, right? Even Esther's story, God used her, but she didn't change the king. God changed the king's heart, right? The only time a woman successfully changes a man is when he's a baby. Change diapers, lah. Okay.
So we have this picture of faith, believing right; and this person, he was believing right. "I am the righteousness of God in Christ". Even though he was actually sinning. He was in bondage. He didn't know how to stop. Many people are in this position. Guess what? One day he just had this desire no more to watch it. It just fell off.
By the time the wife shared the story, I think it was about 6 years. It's been 6 years, then she starts sharing the story of her husband. Her husband and her are now serving in church, not this church. It was in Texas this story happened, and they are rejoicing. True deliverance when you confess, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ".
Recently, the Lord spoke to me and the Lord says to me, "You know, son..." He was encouraging me. I was quite not discouraged, but it's like myself, you know, people are thinking that, "Pastor Prince, you like to preach a lot on righteousness; the righteousness of God by faith or I'm the righteousness of God by faith. I'm the righteousness of God by faith. Everything I hear is righteousness". It's almost like it's true.
You know, I don't hear many people emphasizing the gospel, what's the gospel? Justification by faith. Abraham heard that from God first. Amen? Then God gave it to Paul. We are justified by faith, not by our works. And then I got a bit down because, you know, "I need confirmation, Lord". And the Lord gave me a fresh confirmation with that. Would you like me to share with you? And with that, we'll close, okay?
Psalm 71 – Deliverance Through Confessing Righteousness
Supposing you're in trouble, whether it's a disease attacking you. Today, our enemies are no more physical. But whether it's a disease attacking you, sickness, or whether it is lack, financial lack. Whatever it is, you're being attacked. In those days, for David it's a real enemy.
So in Psalm 71, he says this: "In You, O Lord, I put my trust; Let me never be put to shame. Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; Incline Your ear to me, and save me". Now, how does God deliver him in righteousness? Now, this is the psalm that God gave me. I'm sure I've read this psalm before, but I was needing some encouragement.
"Lord, you know, is this the path? Because I don't hear too many preachers preaching on righteousness by faith". There's an army now, praise God, all over the world preaching the gospel of grace, but still I find that sometimes it's a lone voice. And this is what he brought me to.
"How did I bring David out of his trouble"? How did he escape? What caused him to escape? He cried out, "Deliver me in your righteousness". "But how? How, Pastor Prince"? Same psalm, drop down. "My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day".
The word my mouth shall tell is saphar. "My mouth will tell the story of your righteousness. My mouth will narrate, will recount your righteousness". Not man's righteousness, your righteousness that comes to man as a gift. The Bible says today righteousness is a gift to be received.
So God showed me this. "My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day". And God says, "This is what's happening with your people. All day long, they talk about, 'I'm the righteousness of God in Christ.' And they talk about..." Your salvation here is who? In Hebrew, salvation is Jesus's name, Yeshua.
Isn't this our story? If it's not, it should be. All day if you're in trouble, some sort of trouble, like I said just now you want to escape, you want God to deliver you, all day long confess, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ". Let your mouth relate that. Let your mouth narrate that. Let your mouth tell of his righteousness, not yours.
"My mouth shall speak of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day. I do not know their limits". I love the NIV. NIV says, "I can't even begin to describe it". Words cannot even describe it, okay?
Then you know what's gonna happen when you confess God's righteousness in your mouth, like when you say, "I'm the righteousness of God in Christ"? Watch this. The next thing that happen, "I will go in the strength of the Lord God". You become strong physically. You become strong physically.
There was a time I was feeling fatigued and tired and all that, you know, for a few days and I said, "This is not something good". You know, I wanted God to give me strength. He gave me this verse. It was a time of seeking the Lord, and God says, "If you wanna go in my strength..." By the way, the strength here is plural in Hebrew. It's great strength.
I will go in the strength. How many wanna go in the strength of the Lord? Well, make mention of his righteousness all day long and his salvation is Jesus all day long and you will go in the strength of the Lord.
Again, he says, "I'll make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only". It was like God is saying, "You think you are the one emphasizing it? David did that a long time ago". What an encouragement.
You know how this entire psalm ends? I'm gonna end my message with this. Such joy when they hear I'm ending it. You know how this entire psalm ends? Like this. This is the last verse. "My tongue..." Let's all read together. "My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long".
What happened to all your enemies, to your diseases, to your financial lack, to your depression that comes against you? "They are confounded. They are brought to shame who seek my hurt". All the powers of darkness, they all flee. They are confounded when all day long you confess, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ".
It was like a voice from heaven encouraging me, "Son, don't think you're the only one. The man after my heart, David, he confessed my righteousness all day long. And when you do it, your enemies will be confounded". Hallelujah.