Joseph Prince - Hear the Preached Word and See Breakthroughs
Praise the Lord. Turn to your neighbor, smile at your neighbor, at least two or three persons and say, "I'm just too blessed to be stressed, how about you? Just too blessed to be stressed". Today, the message that I think, I would put this message today as one of the most important message that I would preach, all right, because one of the most important message because this message is a message that keeps on giving. In the days to come, it's gonna help you in your married life. It's gonna help you in your parenting. It's gonna help you in your health. It's gonna help you in your business. Is gonna help you in your finances. It's gonna help you in terms of freedom and peace from stress, from distresses, and from all kind of thing that depresses, amen.
God's gonna empower, and leaven, and enlighten you in this message. He's gonna help you, he's gonna build you, and it's one of the most important messages that I believe you can ever hear. Okay, it's very simple. It's very simple from the Lord. In fact, the cue from this message is last Sunday, I ended up my sermon talking about Solomon, and Solomon's requests for wisdom. Remember that? And of all the things that I talked about Solomon, I could actually break down his wealth, which I've done before in my studies. I could have talked about the Book of Proverbs. I could talk about a lot of aspects about wisdom of Solomon, how he excelled the wisdom of Ethan, Heman, and Jeduthun, the sons of Mahol and all that, I could approach in many areas, but the very thing that I talked about Solomon was that he asked God for a hearing heart, a heart that listens, a hearing heart. Faith comes by hearing.
Romans 10:17, "So then faith comes". You say, "I want to have the same faith that Joshua had, that Caleb had that says give me this mountain". At the age of 85, that man was still full of faith, amen. God says of Caleb, he has a different spirit, amen. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God or the Word of Christ. How does faith come? By hearing and hearing. The fact that it's repeated means it's hearing, and hearing, and hearing, and hearing, and hearing, I-N-G, continuous tense. It's not faith, it doesn't come by having heard any more than those of you who ate chicken rice last month, I guarantee you you'll be eating chicken rice soon. You cannot just live on the memory of what you ate. You can't just live on the memory of, "I know what chicken rice tastes like". No, all right, enjoyment comes by eating and eating and eating.
So, faith comes by food, strength for your faith comes by hearing and hearing, not by having heard. But this faith that comes is hearing what? How? Three verses before this, it says this, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed"? Your colleagues, your relatives, your friends, you don't talk to them about Jesus, how can they ever believe in him? How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And then it says, "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard"? And then this question, "And how shall they hear without a preacher"? Just three verses before, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God", it tells you how shall they hear, how? How shall they hear without a preacher?
But we in the charismatic move, we say that, "God speaks to me, God speaks to me, and God speaks to me". It's not talking about God speaking to you directly in your heart where faith comes by hearing. This faith that comes by hearing in the context is hearing through a preacher. The greatest posture you can have towards God is listen, listen, listen. But you say, "Pastor Prince, just by listening, I can get miracles"? Exactly. Watch this, 1 Corinthians 1, it says this that, "it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe". It pleased God.
God's method of delivery of all of heaven's goods and blessings and God's miracles is by the foolishness of preaching. You know, not the foolishness of preachers, thank God. The methodology sounds foolish. A man stands up, he talks and God delivers, God heals, God prospers. You know, the words "to save" is from the Greek word "sozo". It's not just saved hell, thank God for that. But it's more than that. Every time someone gets healed in the New Testament, physical healing is the word, "sozo". So, by the foolishness of preaching, it has pleased God by this system to heal, to save, to preserve, to protect, to prosper. All that is the word "sozo", amen.
So, by the foolishness of preaching, and the thing is that we learn that faith is imparted when we hear a preacher. So what do you do? You follow the preacher. In those days, they followed the preacher. They followed Jesus everywhere to get the Word. "No, pastor, they went to follow him just to be healed". No, read carefully. In Luke 5, watch this in Luke 5, "However, the report went around concerning Jesus all the more, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed". Say, "To hear and then be healed". Jesus would always preach first. Bible says, "And Jesus went about preaching, and teaching, and healing". It's always preaching, and teaching, and healing. When he is preaching, people are hearing. When people are hearing, they get healing.
And watch this delivery system in Galatians chapter 3. Galatians are believers, but they came under law; they were bewitched. And Paul says, "This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Holy Spirit"? Now, how many of you received the Holy Spirit? Say, "Amen". All right, did you receive the Holy Spirit by the works of the law, by keeping the Ten Commandments? Did you say, "Pastor, wait for a while before you pray for me to receive the Holy Spirit? I need to get my life right. I need to get my life right. I need to get my life right". We'll wait forever.
Did you receive the Holy Spirit by the works of the law, by your obedience, by works, by your efforts, by your merit, or by the hearing of faith? Which is it? The hearing of faith, of course. Just by hearing, you're filled with the Holy Spirit. What about miracles? You say, "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit". That means by faith, by grace through faith. "Are you not being made perfect by the flesh"? That means by effort. Now, what about miracles? Okay, drop down. Verse 5, Therefore God who supplies the Holy Spirit to you, God who supplies the Holy Spirit, and this word "supplies" is a word for the guy in charge of the choir. He supplies them, he clothes them, he feeds them. In those days traveling choir in Paul's time.
All right, he used the same analogy. The word "supply" is someone who is in charge of everything, the choreographer as well. In fact, the word, Greek word sounds like choreographer, okay? So, he who supplies the Holy Spirit to you, and the word "supply" is present continuous tense, he who is constantly supplying you the Holy Spirit. And then again, he who is constantly working miracles, miracles, miracles, and works there is present continuous tense as well. He who is constantly supplying you the Holy Spirit. How many want God to constantly supply you the Holy Spirit? Amen. That you don't worry about whether you're leaking or not, you know? God, God is constant supplying you the Spirit and not only that, God is constantly working miracles among you. How many want that? Amen.
Now, does God do it? Does he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Not having heard, hearing. As you are listening, God is supplying. As you are listening, God is working miracles. This is a million, amen, billion dollar, no price can be put on it, on this verse. It tells you how God works miracles, how God supplies the Spirit. You would have thought that this is the center Scripture for every healing conference, every revival meetings and all that because it really tells you it is not by works of the law, it's by the hearing of faith, and we have lost it. We've lost it. I want you blessed. Can I have a good amen?
Acts 14, look at this. This man, and Paul and Barnabas were preaching the gospel there and in Lystra. By the way, I've been to Lystra. It is now in Turkey, amen. I was there a few years ago and a very interesting place. "A certain man was without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, a cripple from his mother's womb". Now, which doctor wants to undertake that? Not many, all right? A cripple sounds like he needs from his mother's womb, a miracle. He was sitting there who had never walked, not even as a child, from his mother's womb.
Okay, how do you solve a problem like that? Some will say, "We just have to accept it". Well, you know what this guy did? Paul and Barnabas were preaching the gospel, this man heard Paul speaking. This man heard Paul speaking. By the way, the word "heard" in the Greek is in the present continuous, sorry, imperfect tense. Imperfect means, he kept on hearing. Perfect means once and for all, but imperfect means he kept on, kept on, kept on hearing and hearing and hearing. He kept on hearing Paul speaking. "Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, 'Stand up straight on your feet!' And he leaped and walked".
Never walked before, crippled from his mother's womb, and in one blow, one swipe, he jumped and walked, okay? So, the miracle, how did the miracle happen? He had faith to be healed. How come he had faith to be healed? He kept on hearing, all right? What did he hear? Next question, all right, go back again. They were preach, Paul and Barnabas were preaching the gospel there. Now, here is where some people say, "Well, we also preach the gospel". Not everyone that says they preach the gospel is preaching the gospel, all right? Would you like to know what's the gospel? I'm gonna tell you anyway? This is verse 7, right, Acts 14, verse 7, just four verses before this it tells you what they were preaching.
Go back four verses. "Therefore Paul and Barnabas stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands". What was the gospel that Paul preached? The Word of his grace. What did God do to the Word of his grace? God was bearing witness, granting signs and wonders to what? The Word of his grace. When grace is preached, make sure the sermon you are hearing. And I know this house, I think, is full of grace. "Well, well, Pastor Prince, I just don't believe the kind of grace that you teach". Well, what's the kind of grace I teach? "You tell people that their sins are forgiven without telling them to repent". Okay? "And you tell them that they're no longer under law, and yet, they are righteous in Christ".
Okay, now you accuse me of all that I must answer, right? Okay, this is Acts 14, right? So, what kind of Word of his grace did Paul and Barnabas preach? I'm so glad this is Acts 14, the chapter before this is Acts 13, and in Acts 13 we have a whole word for word, documentation of what Paul preached. Would you like to see it? And let's see what Paul preached. We cannot see the whole thing, we just have to see the climax, the final part. Paul was in synagogue, and Paul said this, "Therefore", to all the people in the synagogue, "Let it be known to you that through this man Jesus Christ is preached to you the forgiveness of sins".
So, is your pastor kind of in line with Paul? How about the next one? Paul says to them, "And by him, by Jesus Christ by Christ, everyone". Say, "everyone". Everyone who believes is justified, made righteous from how many things? From all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. So, let's put them all together. Paul preached the Word of his grace, which is very much like what Pastor Prince preaches. Full unqualified, does it mean everybody is saved in the world? No, you must believe, but full proclamation, full proclamation will produce the result of repentance, revelation, and then people receive. Then not only that, Paul also preached that we are not justified by the law of Moses.
When we believe on Jesus, we are justified from all things, right? That's the gospel he preached, and that's the gospel, the crippled man heard, and that's the gospel that he received his miracle. So, guess what's gonna happen when you keep on hearing like the cripple? You might be crippled in your relationship. You might be crippled in your communication. Maybe you are shy, very shy. maybe you're crippled emotionally, yeah, even from your mother's womb, but there's a miracle for you with your name on it and it comes to you when you're hearing, not when you're working. Will this help you, amen?
Now, I want to give you two more verse then we close. People, listen, look up here, sometimes what I'm preaching is not even relating to what you're going through. The phenomena of God's Word is this in your light, Psalms says, Psalms 46, with you is the fountain of life. In your light, we see light. In other words, all you need is when you're hearing God's Word, all of a sudden, you get enlightened. When you're enlightened, let's say for example I lost my pen. I love my pen, this pen particularly a lot, and I lost my pen in a room, okay, and the room is very dark. I don't know, the room is very cluttered with a lot of boxes and things like that, but I don't know, I was in this room early on, and my pen probably dropped somewhere.
Now, if I grope in the dark, all right, I will grope for a long time. But what if I switch on the light? In the light, I see my pen and not only my pen, all of a sudden, I see a book that I have lost for some time. In the light we see light. Even though the sermon is not about maybe you are in need in terms of your parenting, you know, skills or whatever it is, but all of a sudden, I'm preaching on the Rapture and all of a sudden the light that comes on helps you see this is where I'm missing it. God begins to speak, in his light, we see light. Have you had that experience before? You sit down there all of a sudden like, or just a perspective, "Hey, I'm not worried about that anymore already". It seems so small and yet, I'm not preaching about it. In his light, you know how the light comes?
Psalms 119 it says, "The entrance of your words gives light, it gives understanding to the simple". Don't be simple, be people of understanding that comes from God. You know what gives light? The entrance and the Greek, and the Hebrew word there is pethach, pethach means open, the opening of God's Word, the expounding of God's Word. That's what I'm doing right now, I'm expounding God's Word. Imagine you're hearing all day. You're driving your car, you're listening the exposition of God's Word. You know what's happening? Light is coming, light is coming, light is coming.
When your boss ask you for something, all of a sudden you have the idea, why? In his light, you see light. You see other things in the room that you don't even realize was lost. Doesn't really matter what the subject is. The subject may be on prayer but when you listen to it, you receive light for your relationship for your teenage boy. All of a sudden, you know what to do. You see the problem. In his light, we see light, amen, and it's light comes by the expounding of God, the entrance of God's Word gives light.
Last passage, I'm gonna close. Have you ever met someone that they are prophetic? Like whatever you're going through, they seem to like a brother or sister, they seem to give you the right Word, or when they text you, right timing, or they give you exactly the right word. Have you met people like that? You met people like that? Well, I want you to be people like that, amen? And the way, the secret of it is this, I'll close with this message, Isaiah 50.
Now, Isaiah 50 says, "The Lord God has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned". That's why he has the tongue of the learned, and he knows how to speak. He knows how to speak a Word in season. Blessed is the marriage when the wife knows how to speak a Word in season to the husband, and the husband know how the speak a Word in season to the wife. Blessed is that family that the parents know how the speak a Word in season to their teenage boy, their teenage daughter.
How blessed the company is to have a man there like Joseph and Daniel with the wisdom of God who know how to speak a Word in season into a situation in their company, a word in season. How can we find people who can speak a Word in season? Well, these people are people who wakes up morning by morning and they awaken, God awakens their ear to hear. When you are hearing, you will be speaking and when you are speaking, it will be the right word at the right time. By the way, this is talking about Jesus, messianic, all right. This is an example of our Lord Jesus. As a man, he depended on God. As a man, he lived to show us the example. As a man, he wakes morning by morning.
How do I know this is referring to Jesus? Because just dropped down to verse 6, "I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting". So obviously, that's a messianic, messianic passage. "For the Lord God will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed". Now, you and I, we won't have our beard plucked out. Number one we don't have beard. Number two, only Matthews have beard. No, I'm just teasing but the thing, whatever assignment, Jesus's assignment is to die for us, to suffer for us. But whatever your assignment and calling is in life, whether it's a businessman, a teacher, a student, whatever it is, you'll be successful if you keep on listening.
And then, go back to the first verse again. God will give you the tongue of the learned that you will know how, you will know how to speak a Word in season. And today, there's a great demand for people who know how to speak a Word in season. It's very rare to find someone who can say a Word in season. Your wife is going through something, all right, you don't even know but you give her a Word in season and it refreshes her, or she to you. And married life is wonderful, and your relationship with your children, you give a Word in season and all of a sudden, it holds them back from something that's tempting them.
Friend, we need this. We need a Word in season. How do you have it? "He awakens me morning by morning, awakens my ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away". May his example motivate us, inspire us, to also every day, our first priority, morning means what? Our first priority is to listen to the Word.
One of the first things you do is you brush your teeth, beep, put on speaker, put on what kind of, your Android, your phone whatever, switch it on and let the word come forth early in the morning as you brush your teeth. Down here also, "Wake Up To Hope And Grace". All right, by the way, if you listen to the, "Wake Up To Hope and Grace", it's nighttime. In America, their morning is your night. So, you know, but you can listen, you can listen by storing up. It's not enough just once a week, but keep on hearing. The Lord bless you. Praise the Lord.