Joseph Prince - How To Live Free From The Curse
Are you ready for the Word? All right, look at this verse in Isaiah 49, "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered"? Notice that phrase, "lawful captive". There's a reason why the devil has some people, in fact, not just some, all, in his power and they're legally there. Let me explain, the devil is not all powerful, but the devil capitalizes on man's sin. When man sins, it's a way of saying like they're rolling the red carpet to the devil. You know, when God made Adam and Eve, God gave them everything good and they were the only ones, you know? God is a God of goodness. God is a God of abundance. God is a generous God, is a loving God, amen. God made Adam and Eve to enjoy all his goodness. Love is such that love wants to pour out everything good. Love cannot stand to see the loved ones' suffering needs.
So, God, who is love, defined as love, wants to pour out his love on someone so God made man. So, man was created to be the beneficiary, to enjoy all of God's goodness, all right? And the thing is this, man sinned against God. You say, "Well Pastor Prince, it's just a sin". Let me tell you what sin is, God gave man a choice. Now, you need to understand because of this when you look at the world you say, "Well, how come God didn't take control of the tsunami there? How come God didn't stop this hurricane, or cyclone, or typhoon from happening? How come God allowed this three-year-old child to die? How come God, how come God, how come God"? You need to understand one thing, this earth is fallen. This earth is not what God wants it to be. Open your eyes, all right, and realize we are in a fallen world, okay? I'm explaining to you why the earth is fallen and why God seems not to be doing anything about it until his kingdom come, which is coming.
I need to tell you first because God gave this earth to man. God wanted to pour his love on someone. God made man to enjoy his love, but God made man not as a robot or like a Pinocchio. If God made man as a robot, we will never be in a fallen earth because man will always obey God. But God didn't want a robot. God didn't want a Pinocchio. God wanted a man with a free choice but to have free choice means, what? It entails risk. So, when God made man, God surrounded man with everything good in the garden, all right, everything good except for one tree. Don't forget, God made that tree and the tree is called the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but it was not good for man.
So, God said to man, "Just to show by your free choice that you love me, that you honor me," It's like the tithing principle, God says, "Do not eat from this tree. Every tree in this earth, you can eat, it's all yours, but exercise your free choice". You see, there must be a choice because if God surrounded man with everything good, how can your free choice have expression, okay? So, God gave man one choice, only one tree not to eat from. And the devil tempted man and man bowed his knee to Satan and ate from that tree. Now, why didn't God come in and stop man? His hand was going to touch, God, mmm, zap, mmm. Then God put his hand like that and with great velocity, God... if I was God, I would do that but the thing is this, God didn't do that because if God did that, then it was not of free choice in the first place. It was all a farce.
God say free choice but then when man used his free choice in the wrong way, God came in his power. That is not just. That is not righteous of God to do that. Do you understand? So, God really is an awesome respecter of man's free choice. If man choose to listen to the devil, God will allow that but don't say it was God that brought all diseases on this earth, poverty and death. God never meant for man to die. Hey, God never even meant for man to grow old, not to be diseased in any part of his body, or to be wheeled around in a wheelchair, and then finally breathe his last at an old age. God never meant for man to experience any of these things but sin brought all these things in this earth. Do you understand that, friend, okay?
Now, you say that sin is, "Pastor Prince, I mean why such a big deal"? It's big because sin in essence is saying, "God, I don't believe you. I don't trust you and what you say. I trust Satan and what he says. God, I think you are holding back from me. I think Satan wants me to have the good things". But Satan hates you and you saw what happened when he gave Adam a cheese, there was a trap waiting because Satan hates man. Like a woman spurned, all right, she cannot get back at her boyfriend, her lover, all right, she cancel off all his, you know, his photos. "Kill, kill, kill," you know? You are made in God's image. The devil cannot get to God directly, but you are made in God's image. The devil hates you, God loves you. Are you listening?
But God is not through, God has, you know, the devil will not have one up on God. God sent his Son and this is the wonder of our Lord Jesus that he who existed with God always, the Son, not two Gods or three Gods, one God but triune God three in one. Well, the Son came in the form of a baby, okay? This is God's plan. And he came as the last Adam to get back all that the first Adam lost, all that the first Adam has forfeited, the last Adam would get back and more, okay? So, Jesus was born and it's a mystery, God is a mystery and I thank God that I don't understand everything about God because if my puny brain can understand God, I cannot worship him. If I can understand him completely, amen, I cannot worship him.
I thank God that I don't understand everything about God and that's why what I don't understand, I can worship. I cannot understand how the God of eternity became a baby of time. I cannot understand how the God, everything, all creation and all the worlds depend on him. He is now dependent on his mother in her bosom. I cannot understand how a God who is so powerful becomes such a helpless baby, but he did all that because he is love. He was born so that he's got flesh and blood, blood to shed for the forgiveness of all our sins, amen? Praise the Lord. Now, the thing is this, ignorance is no excuse and that's why we need to come and hear the Word of God because God's Word is God's emancipation of liberty, all right, for all his people. He wants to set us free, okay? God says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge".
Do you know that ignorance cannot stop, I mean, cannot stop. Just because you say, "I didn't know about it," all right, the whole place was full of diseased germs or whatever, that won't stop your body from catching it. So, good motives alone are not enough. People are saying, "Well, this person had good motives". It's not enough. It's important you have accurate information. Are you listening, people? So, as such, whenever all of us sin, okay, sin gives the devil a right. Sin is saying to the devil, "I don't believe God's ways, I believe you, all right? I don't bow to God, I bow to you". Even though you say, "Well, I never say that to the devil," but when you sin, that's what you are saying, okay? But the problem is this, all of us sin. All of us have sin.
So, in other words, this question needs to be asked, how can the lawful captive be delivered? By the way in the Hebrew, the word tsadaq, which is righteous is there. The Amplified bears that out. The Amplified says, "How can the lawful captives of the just of the righteous be delivered"? How can believers whose sons or daughters are in captivity to drugs, to bulimia, to addictions, to fears, to depression, whatever it is? These are the captives of the righteous. These are people of God, yet they are lawful captives. So, thank God for the story of Christmas. God sent his Son to take away from the devil every legal right he has even though we have sinned. Are you listening? So, I want to introduce you to this Greek word, it's called exa-, all right, exagorazo. Ready? Say it, exagorazo. That's the word up there, all right? It means the word redeemed. Exagorazo is the word redeemed, that's what Christ came to do. And this word, have you noticed, by the way, the center word is called agora, agora.
Many of you travel and you go for holidays in Israel or in Greek, in Greece, all right, in Greece, and they will tell you the guide, the Greek guide will tell you, "By the way, this is the agora. Agora means, what? The marketplace, this is the marketplace. Now, during the times of the Bible, the marketplace, the Roman marketplace, or even the Greek marketplace, is a place not only to sell animals, they sell humans. They sell, it's human slavery, all right? So, human trafficking was rampant back then. They will sell them on the market block. Are you listening? So, exa, notice the word agora in the center. Exagorazo means, ex means to buy out from the market by a price.
So, to redeem means by payment of a price to recover from the power of another. In other words, how can the lawful captive be delivered? By a price. Who will pay the price? Can you pay for the price for me? No, you can't because you have sinned. Can I pray the price for you? No, I can't, I have sinned. Can any of the pastors pay the price for you? No, they have sinned. So, none of us can pay the price so Jesus came. He knew no sin, he did no sin, in him is no sin and he came to redeem. To redeem means to buy you out from the marketplace of sin, sickness, and death, hallelujah, by paying the price. And what was his price? His blood, his blood. He shed his blood. Now, you cannot shed your blood for me. I cannot shed my blood for you because our blood is sin, sin stained. It is tainted with sin. It is sinful blood but Jesus's blood came all the way from the Father and that's why he must be born of a virgin.
So, in essence, the cross where Jesus shed his blood was the place where the love of God paid a ransom to the justice of God. Do you understand, all right? Some people say that Jesus paid the devil, no, he didn't pay the devil, the devil has nothing to do with all these things. He's just, you know, the devil is just a thorn in the flesh. He's just like a, you know, a noisy dog barking all the time, okay? He takes advantage of the fact that you have sinned and when he comes to you, he brings to you God's laws and he tells you, "Look, you broke this law. Look, you broke this law, you broke this law". He's an accuser but when Jesus died, he didn't pay the devil. Jesus does not owe the devil, you understand? We owe God. We owe God a debt we cannot pay. Jesus paid a debt for us he never owed. What a wonderful redeemer. So, the cross is the love of God paying ransom to the justice of God.
How many know that God is a just God? Where there is sin, there must be punishment, amen? But because God is also love, God didn't want to punish you even though you have sin but then God has to be righteous, so how can God be righteous and yet loving? The answer is the cross. The cross is the love of God paying to the justice of God. So, God now all the claims that he has on our lives in terms of holiness, have all been fully met! God has been glorified in the sacrifice of Christ. All that I have robbed God of in terms of his praise, worship, and glory, all that you and your families have robbed God of in terms of his glory, his praise, Christ became our substitute and he paid it back to God what man has robbed God of, and he paid to God much more, 120% more than what God had been robbed of.
Today, God has reaped a richer harvest of praise, worship, and glory from the fields of redemption then God ever received from the fields of his creation. The death of Christ has glorified God in the very place of sin. I said, the death of Christ has glorified God in the very place of sin. So, then when it comes to God, you need not be afraid of his holiness, his righteousness because both his holiness and righteousness is now on your side because of the death of Christ. Do you understand that? The thing is this, the Bible says this word is used to redeem, which means by payment of a price to recover from the power of another.
It is used in Galatians 3:13, Christ has redeemed, exagorazo, exagorazo. He has redeemed from the curse of the law. Christ has redeemed us from, what? The curse of the law. "Having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree')". Christ has redeemed from the curse of the law. Do you know what is the curse of the law? Have you obeyed all the Ten Commandments? "Well, Pastor Prince, I do my best". Doing your best cannot, cursed. 'Cause the law says, if you don't do one, you're guilty of all. James chapter 2, verse 10 tell you that. If you break one law, you're guilty of all. So, have you ever committed adultery? "No, Pastor Prince, I've never committed adultery bodily". Yeah, but if you look at a woman to lust, Jesus says you have committed adultery, okay? You are cursed. You cannot say, "I did my best". The law doesn't recognize doing your best. The law demands perfection.
Now, Jesus did something. In other words, all of us are lawful captive to the curse but Jesus shed his blood to redeem us by paying a price, and what did he redeem from? The curse of the law. Just to give you a sampling of the curse of the law, just in case you do not know, I want to give you a sampling of the curse of the law, okay? Are you ready? You know, years ago, I shared this before and I never heard anyone preach this. I look at Deuteronomy 28, all the lists of the blessings from Deuteronomy 8, verse 1 all the way to verse 13, lists all the blessings, right? Then from verse 14 onwards lists all the curses. But, you know, the list of the curses is numerous and detailed. It's longer than the blessings. The blessings from verse 1 to 13, Deuteronomy 28, the curses from verse 14 to verse 68! Don't you think that's a lot?
So, I asked the Lord, never heard anyone preach this. I said, "Lord, tell me why don't you list more abundantly the blessings? Why do you list in detail the curses"? Would you like to know what he said to me? He said to me, "Son, my people don't have to be told about the blessings. They know when the blessings come, but they don't know when they're under the curse". Some of them are saying, "A sickness is a blessing from me". You know, there are people, evangelicals who teach that that when you are sick, you are bringing glory to God, huh? It's important you are in the right church because some places they'll teach you that not all sickness is bad. Some sickness God wants you to have to bring glory to his name. "So, this man's cancer, we do not know but it brings glory to God in some mysterious way, it brings glory to God". I feel like asking him, "Can I pray for your son that his life will bring more glory to God"? "What do you mean, Pastor Prince"? "Well, if you say that cancer brings glory to God, can I pray for your boy that his life will bring glory to God"?
This guy doesn't know the ramifications of what he's saying. People dare not even give their life to God saying, "God, take my life and make it a life that glorifies you". They are afraid that God will cause them to suffer. This is from the pit of hell, amen? These same people, and some of them are preachers, they will tell you that God may want you to be sick because it is his will. And then when they have sickness, first thing they do, they go to the doctor to try to get well from the sickness that is supposed to bring glory to God. Why are you trying to get out of God's will? No friend, listen, sickness is not from God but if you fall sick, it's not a sin. Do you hear what I'm saying? All right, Jesus sees sickness when he set in the synagogue. How many of you Pharisees, when you have a sheep that falls into a pit, will you not rescue it immediately?
So, Jesus sees sick people, not as something purposely wanting to be sick or whatever. He see them as falling into a pit, they didn't see the pit. The answer, get them out. Don't sit down there and say, "Hey, search your heart and find out why you are there". All right, search your heart. All right, how many sins have you not confessed? Don't try to find the reason, get them out. That's Jesus's approach. Can I have a good amen? Don't you just love him? He's the same, yesterday, today, and forever, amen, church? All right, so the details of the curse is given to us so that we can identify, so that we will know that, "Okay, I see this now. Christ redeemed me from this. I see this now, Christ redeemed".
Do you know that fear is one of the lists of the curses? Some people think fear is acceptable but the Bible says Christ redeemed us exagorazo, all right, all of us from the curse of fear. So, let me give you a list, this is by no means exhaustive. I want to give you a few samplings. Okay, are you ready? All right, the first one, God says, if you don't obey his voice, then all these curses will come on you and overtake you. Now, we are no longer under the law. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. In other words, we don't have to fulfill the commandments anymore. Christ fulfilled them all. So today, all the blessings come on us, not because we obey all the Ten Commandments, but because Christ fulfilled them all.
Okay, are you with me? But back in those days if you disobey, all right, you become a lawful captive to all these things. The first area, cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country. Some people say, "You know, city life no use. I mean it's very bad. It's for your health and all that. I'll go to the country". And they fall even sicker. It's not city or country, it is if the blessing is with you, the blessing is with you wherever you are. Now, the curse is not in the location, all right? When you are cursed, whether you go to the city or the country, you are cursed. So, I'm giving you a few samplings so you'll know what Christ redeemed us from. Say, "Christ redeemed me from this curse, therefore I'm blessed in the city and in the country".
Let me give you another sampling. Drop down, this is verse 29 now so it dropped a lot. I'm not gonna read the rest. I'm picking a few that you can identify with. "And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; You shall not prosper in your ways". Now, how many know prosperity, it's a blessing? Because here it say you shall not prosper, it's a curse, amen? God made man to live in abundance. God doesn't want you to run after money, God wants money to run after you. You run for the Lord and after him. Amen, church? All right, now I don't believe prosperity's the gospel. The gospel produces property, but it is not the gospel, okay? So, the curse is what? You shall not prosper in your ways. You shall be only oppressed. Depression, oppression, all right, it's a curse. It's not a blessing. If you're oppressed, depressed, you must be on a tranquilizers all the time, it is not a blessing, it is a curse, all right? And Christ redeemed you from that by paying a price. Hey, don't let his price go to waste.
Come on, church. Just say, "Lord, if you paid for this, I release myself from it in Jesus's name". Every time you take communion say, "It's paid for. I reject this pain in my body. Pain, leave, in Jesus's name". There must some inside you a fierceness, a holy violence. I said, how can this thing remain in my life when my Lord and Savior bled and died to pay for me to be redeemed from this? Amen, church? I'm a gentle guy, okay? I don't know why I'm shouting but, I feel the anointing. Man, I'm telling you, all right? So, drop down another one, "Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people. Your eyes will look and fail with longing for them all day long, and there shall be no strength in your hand".
It's like these are your kids, but they are more influenced by other people, by other groups, by other parents. They are your kids, they don't listen to you, they listen to others. They're your kids, you have no influence with them, they're influenced by others. They're into drugs. They're into promiscuous sex, all right? They are given to another, but you brought them forth, not another. You brought them forth, but another has influence over them. It's a curse. I said, it's a curse, and Christ redeemed us from this curse. Can I have a good amen? Now, the patient for a while. Later I'm gonna show you how to get it. All right, if you're still a believer and you find yourself having some symptoms of the curse, there is a way out. First, you need to see all this. Drop down, another curse, "Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed".
Now, if you say, "Pastor Prince, my sickness, the doctor says it's a modern sickness, so it's not there in the Bible. So, Jesus cannot redeem me from it because it wasn't back there". No, this one is for you. "Every sickness and every plague, which is not, it's included and Jesus exagorazo you from it. Hallelujah, amen! You are redeemed from every curse of sickness and disease. Can I have a good amen? And by the way, when you find that it says the Lord will bring on you, the Lord will bring, the Lord will bring, Young's a Hebrew scholar said the all the tenses here, all right, when it says, "God will bring," is in the not the causative tense, but in the permissive tense. That means God allows it. He doesn't actively bring it, he allows it 'cause man has disobeyed him. But we're no longer under obedience and disobedience, blessing and cursing. We are now under blessing only because Christ has fulfilled the law. Christ has bought us out from the curse of the law. He never bought us out from the blessing of the law. The blessing keeps on keeping on y'all, amen?
Okay, drop down. Now fear, I told you about fear just now. Fear is a curse. "Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. In the morning you shall say, 'I wish it was evening!' In the evening you will say, 'I wish it was morning!'" You know, that kind of life is a terrible life, amen? You rather go to sleep, but you cannot sleep. So, I'm here to tell you, church, that Christ has bought you out of this curse by paying a price, amen? Now, because of all this, I'm gonna show you something. The entire curse list ends in verse 68. You know what's the last six words, the very last words of the list of curses? It says that you'll be sold as a slave, this is the ultimate insult, no one will buy you. See, the last six words, "But no one will buy you". These are the last words of the list of the curses.
One day I read this and the Lord said to me, "What's the last six words"? I said, "That no one will buy you". And God says, "My son did. My son did". Come on, church, give him praise. Nobody cared, he cared. Nobody could buy, he bought, amen? He bought, praise the Lord. Now, church, I want to tell you something. Why is it some believers are under the curse, lawful captives of the righteous, why? When it come to this right now in Galatians chapter 3. Now, all that I said was to lay the foundation, now you're gonna get blessed, come on. Galatians 3, look at Galatians 3. "Therefore God who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith"?
When God supplies the spirit to you, Paul is writing here, and God works miracles in your family, miracles in your church, miracles in your life, does God do it because you have kept the Ten Commandments? Does God do it by your works of the law? Or does God do it because you've been hearing the sermons of righteousness by faith, which one? Which one? Hearing of faith, and that's why, church, whenever you are diagnosed with something like a curse, the first thing you do go back to hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing. That disease is attacking your body day and night. You need to hear day and night. The Bible says when you are hearing, present tense, God is working miracles.
The word "work" there is in the present tense in the Greek. God is working miracles as you are hearing. It is not how good you have kept the Ten Commandments. It's not whether you have obeyed all the laws. Of course, we have not. The people that Jesus healed during his time, none of them obeyed all the Ten Commandments fully, and yet God healed them. He healed prostitutes, he healed tax collectors, hallelujah. They were hearing when Jesus was preaching, and that's why the miracles that we hear of people sharing, of people who come to church regularly and they are hearing, and they are hearing, and they are hearing. Let me share with you a testimony that just came in very recently. This lady wrote. This came in last month. "Dearest Pastor Prince, I just want to tell you how much God has used you in our lives over the past two years. Back then, my two-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia".
Now, I got a young boy, Justin, and I can imagine the torment, the pain that this family is going through, a two-year-old boy diagnosed with leukemia. It shook me to the core as a parent, and they went through this for two years, for the past two years. "As a parent, I want to take his place. I was overwhelmed by my circumstances and wondered why the Lord had allowed us to go through this trial. During that time, my husband started watching your broadcast. I have to admit, I was skeptical at first, but the change in him was undeniable," Hallelujah. "Subsequently, I found myself researching everything you had preached, and the Scriptures began to open to me like never before. When my husband heard that you were coming to New Jersey, he immediately bought eight front row tickets. He had been looking forward to that service. Finally, the day arrived and my husband was so excited. However, when they got to the Prudential Center, we realized that seats were filled on first come, first serve basis. I really felt bad for my..".
By the way, I'm not in charge of this, okay? I'm only in charge of the preaching. "I really felt bad for my husband, who was extremely disappointed. In the end, we were seat high up in the theater where we got a bird's eye view of the surroundings. Somehow, I knew that God had reserved those seats for us. I felt such a presence of God in that place. The Word preached that night was beautifully anointed. I woke up crying the next morning because I could still feel the strong presence of the Lord". At that moment, I felt God asking me why I had limited him when he was so out to bless me. Since then, I just couldn't contain the overwhelming love and grace he had for me. Somehow, I knew that the service was a celebration of the end of my son's trial. Sure enough, a few weeks later," only a few weeks later, "my son, little Anthony, when for his bone marrow biopsy and everything came back clear," hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. "Thank you, Pastor Prince, for teaching me the love of the Father and always pointing me to Christ".
Now, what did she do, all right? Her husband started listening to the Word, amen? She started listening to the Word, amen? When I went there, they came up, you know, in full force. They wanted to hear the Word, and they felt the presence of God, and they knew in their hearts that God had touched. You know, in those events, we had communion. We had a long time of ministering in worship, and then we had the preaching of the Word, and many miracles happened. And the miracles happened, not because people keep the law perfectly. It happened because they heard. Okay, are you listening? So, let's keep on reading. "Just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness". Next, now go back to verse 6 again. Abraham believed God, it was counted to him for righteousness.
Now, Abraham was not a perfect man. Abraham lied about his wife twice, okay? When two things at different times wanted his wife, he says, "Your my sister," all right? And he has a very spiritual reason, to save his own skin. Today, if I lie about my wife, I don't have to be afraid of the king, I have to be afraid of her. She will finish me off. No, Wendy is a very, very kindhearted, gentle, loving wife. All right, she gets violent with me only once in a while, you know? Now, I'm just teasing. Look at that face. Can that face be violent? Do you know Abraham lived before the Ten Commandments was given, more than 400 over years? So, how come God called him my friend? There was no Ten Commandments for him to keep, right? I'll tell you what, he believed the same gospel you and I believed. Do you know what happened one night? God brought him out, and I preached the sermon many years ago, okay?
Again, I never heard anyone preach this, but one day I was reading the Word God says, "Number the stars at night". And the word "number" is actually in the Hebrew caphar, which means, cepher is a book in Hebrew, caphar is tell the story. Tell the story of the stars, Abraham. And back in those days, it's not astrology. Astrology is evil, all right? This is astronomy. God put 12 constellations in the sky before the Bible was written in printed form to tell the story of the gospel. After Adam sinned, God says the woman's seed will crush the serpent's head. He'll be the dragon slayer. God prophesied that his Son would come to destroy Satan, amen, to save mankind. And God put it in the stars above.
So, Abraham looked up and God says, "Tell the story of the stars," and he read the story of the gospel story. He believed the same gospel you and I believe, and he believed in Jesus Christ. Not by keeping the law he's justified, but by believing in Christ, he is justified. And Abraham believed God. It was counted to him for righteousness. Drop down verse 7, "Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham". Faith means what? You believe you are justified, not by keeping the commandments, but by faith in Jesus Christ. God makes you right as a gift. God doesn't say, "You must earn this, earn that. You must keep all the laws, then I'll give you righteousness". God says, "If if you believe my Son, I give you the gift of righteousness, okay? "Those who are of faith as sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith".
The subject here is justification by faith. God preached the gospel to Abraham. See, I told you, God preached the gospel in Abraham's time already through the stars, and God says, "In you, all the nations shall be blessed". In verse 9, "So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham". Those who are of, what? Now, this faith here is not healing faith, not prosperity faith, it's justification by faith. If you believe that you are right with God, by faith, you are blessed. You don't have to struggle to be blessed. In fact, the word "blessed" in the Greek here is in the passive voice, not active, which means the moment you believe you are righteous, actively believe you are righteous by faith, you are the beneficiary of all the blessings with Abraham, and Abraham was blessed. I said, Abraham was blessed.
I challenge any of you, find a passage where God's scolded Abraham, where God rebuked Abraham, you cannot find it. You cannot compare our Christian life today with people who are under law in the Old Testament. You must compare them with Abraham. Even though Abraham's sinned, God still taught Abraham, God never left him. Abraham's life is our life. We are blessed, not with David, we are blessed, not with Elijah, we are blessed with Abraham. Are you listening, people? Okay now, we're not saying go on lying. Abraham did not go on lying. He lied twice yes, but the goodness of God slowly led him to repentance and that's what I believe. I believe that you give people long, you leave people long enough under grace, they will change, amen? Drop down verse 10. Now, watch this. Verse 9 says, what? "Those who are of faith are blessed". Verse 10, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.'"
Now, if you forget anything else, don't forget this, I'm about to tell you why even some Christians can come under the curse. Are you ready? It says, "For as many, Jew, Gentile, as many. Cursed is everyone, believer or unbeliever. Listen carefully, the moment you go back to the law, the moment you try to be, trying to keep the law. Like you say, "Well, from now on, I'm gonna observe the Shabbat. From now on, I'm gonna have a prayer shawl when I pray. From now on, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that". The moment you come under the law, bang, you come under all the curse. Are you listening? I read this verse one time, "For as many as are the works of the law are under the curse". And God says, "Stop". God asked me, "What does this verse say"? I says that, "It says if anyone breaks your law, they're under the curse". God says, read again".
So, I read, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse". God asked me, "What does it say"? I said that if anyone disobeys you, break your law, they're under the curse. God says, "Read again". So, I read, "For as many as are of the works". Wait a minute, doesn't say break. They are doing their best with good intention to try to do the law. Straightaway they come under the curse because even though they can keep 25 of the commandments, if they fail that the 26th, it's enough to bring the entire curse. Do you understand why I'm so passionate about this, people? It says, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things, which are written". You can just say, "I keep what I can and the rest God understands". No such thing. There's no such thing. With the law, it's perfection.
That's why the law will send, see, those who fight for the law, it's not because they are so well intentioned. Many of them, they're trying to keep the law to show how good they are, when the law was given to show how bad they are. It's a form of self-righteousness and that's why I'm so passionate about this because I don't want God's people to be under the curse. Do you understand what I'm saying or not? I want you blessed. This verse doesn't say, "Those who sin are under the curse". Does that make us want to sin? No, but what it says, "For as many as are of the works". The moment you go under law, bang, the curse comes on you. So, what is blessed for the believer today? Verse 9 again, "As many". Those who are of faith are blessed". What does that mean? Every day I get up I say, "Father, I thank you. You have made me righteous by faith. Father, I thank you. I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I am blessed".
That day blessing is coming after me. It says, it will overtake me. I can't run fast enough. The blessings will overtake me. Are you listening? Those who are of faith are blessed. Those who are of works of the law under the curse. All right, those who are of faith are? Those who are works of the law are? Faith, believe. Works, do. Those who are of faith believe I'm righteous even though my body, my emotions, my thoughts may tell me otherwise, I must believe by faith. Those who are of faith are blessed but those who try their best to think straight, talk straight, become straight, bang, come under the curse. Are you with me so far? "But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for 'the just shall live by faith.' Yet the law is not of faith".
Do you realize you cannot live in both? If you are believing, you cannot be doing. If you are doing, doing, doing, you cannot be believing. You know what negates faith? The law. I never find in the Bible where sin negates faith. In fact, during Jesus's time when he walked on earth, sinners can touch him and receive. We have preached an erroneous message to people telling them, "If you have sin, you cannot receive healing". We have lied to them. Whereas in Jesus's time, and he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Sinners can touch him and receive. Pharisees cannot receive. They're of the works of the law. Praise God. I gotta run, man.
Tell you another story. Want to hear another testimony? This lady, who was taken to the hospital where she was admitted immediately, the doctors found that her kidneys were shutting down due to an overwhelming presence of calcium. Further tests revealed that she had multiple myeloma, a cancer were malignant plasma cells were overpopulated and pushing calcium out of the bones. The husband writing, "I quickly returned home". Now, he's obviously a preacher. He was preaching somewhere. "I quickly returned home after receiving the news. I was preaching at a church the day before I had received her diagnosis. The message I preached in that church was from Pastor Prince's teachings on the serpent tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden.
In his sermon, Pastor Prince highlighted that the serpent's purpose was to separate the believer from God and His tactic was to have the believer doubt God's kindness. Through this process, the Lord led me to see that Jesus is the antidote for the bite of the serpent, which is today sickness and disease. So, while medical professionals played their part in battling my wife's cancer, I knew that Jesus was the ultimate cure. Since then, Pastor Prince's messages became our daily companion," hearing of faith, hearing of faith. "Pastor Prince's message became our daily companion. My wife and I began partaking of the holy communion and reading daily devotions from the 'Destined To Reign' devotional book".
You know, I have a "Destined To Reign" devotional book, which is from January every single day all the way to December, okay? And many a times, the testimony that come back is that "Pastor Prince, it's amazing how that word for that day is the word I needed to have for that day," okay? So, she took communion, they keep on watching me, keep one hearing the Word, and read the daily devo. "Seven months later, the doctor said my wife is in total remission from stage 4 multiple myeloma. We thank Jesus for making her cancer free". Hallelujah, amen, amen? She's healed. "In August this year, all her tests came back, remained normal. We continue receiving our daily Word and giving thanks that thought the grace message, we could receive the finished work of Jesus Christ. My wife is now cancer free, and she has stronger bones and thicker hair than before. We believe we can receive all that Jesus wants for us without restriction. If God is for us, who can be against us"? amen.
Again, now I want to share with you. Go back to the same verse. By the way, drop down. The law is not of faith. Before this verse, verse 12. "The law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them". In other words, there are people today who are saying, all right, "Pastor Prince, you're preaching grace all the time. You must tell people what to do". But is says the law and faith is different. The law says the man who does them, shall live by them. Keep on doing it, and you will live in that realm, instead of the realm of faith. If you believe you are righteous by faith, your faith will operate. Then this verse goes on to the next verse, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law". Are you with me so far?
Now, let's go back to the earlier verse. Therefore God who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does God do it by the works of the law, by you keeping all the commandments, by you crossing your T's and dotting all your I's, or does God do it by you hearing of faith? If you've been diagnosed with something, keep on hearing the Word, all right? On your way to work, on your way back from work, hear the Word. Don't listen to, you know, the GDT growth, this one, the typhoon, the haze, this case, that case, no case, some case, you know, this basket case, this case, you know? It will not help you. By the time you are home, you are burdened. Hear the Word, hear the Word, amen? You wake up at night, "Okay devil, if you wake me up like this, I can't sleep anymore, I'll listen to the Word," amen. Let my voice sooth you to sleep, hallelujah, amen. Praise God.
Okay now, I'm gonna share with you a revolution. Can I share with you two verses and them we close? All right, these are two revelations I had. These are fresh revelations, all right, from the Lord. This year, a few months ago, I received one of them a few weeks ago. Matthew 10, Matthew 10 Jesus said these words, "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give". Now, notice what Jesus said, "Freely you have received, freely give". One day I was reading this, all right, and all sudden the Lord caused these words to jump out at me, "Freely you have received, freely give". All of a sudden, I realized well, the context is heal the sick, cleanse the lepers. I don't see us going around cleansing lepers, healing the sick. We don't freely give, you know why? Because we don't think we have freely received. Whenever we read, "Heal the sick".
By the way, the word, "freely" there in the Greek is freely is the word "dorean," which is the name of some European people, all right, they call themself, Dorean, all right? So, dorean is, the meaning there is freely, undeservedly, gratuitously. That means it's given as a gift. Freely you have received, received what? Received what? Look at the context, heal the sick. Healing is received freely. I said, healing is received freely. When Jesus walked on this earth, if we had preached the truth, we will see more healings in the body of Christ, but what happened is that we have placed a lot of standards, a lot of obstacle for people to conquer and overcome, then they have healing. We preachers are responsible for that but when I read the Bible, it says, "Freely you receive, now freely give".
I realized people are not freely giving healing because they don't think they have freely received. But when Jesus walked this earth, when he came down the mountain, he never said, "Now, I'm gonna heal the sick," all right? Those of you, you are out of sorts with your spouse, you've been quarreling, you are not talking to each other, all of you stand in this corner right over here, stand over here, okay? Y'all get right with your spouse, forgive each other before I pray for y'all. All right, those down here, those of you, how many have confessed all your sins, all your sins? No, you confess down there, under that tree down there, okay? All of you, all of you haven't confessed, all of you join them, okay? Finish off confessing, then I'll heal you, okay?
All right, some of you in the center down there, I noticed that you have not been fasting, I just notice. Okay, all of you, come back three days later because you see, you got no discipline, how can you receive healing? How many here have unforgiveness in your heart? You have forgiven your mother-in-law's also. Anyone here? Not sure? Y'all join at the bottom of the mountain down there, okay? Y'all pray until you have forgiven everyone before I pray for you, okay? At the end Jesus says, "Now, who wants prayer"? Freely you have received, freely give. Are we missing something here? Is that the reason why the body of Christ is suffering so much? Not because God is not dispensing, people are not hearing the truth. No, the Bible says, "And everyone came to him and touched. And as many as touched him, they were make whole". It is not them, it is him. It is not how bad they were, it is how good he is.
The Bible says, "As many as touched him". Those who stayed at home, of course, they're not healed, they didn't come. Like many people who probably might be here should be here are not here. I can't stay for this crowd 'cause y'all took up their seats, so but the thing is that people, everyone came to Jesus, not a single one left without their needs met. But how have we preached this verse? Heal the sick, okay y'all must understand one thing about healing the sick, it comes with a price. You gotta pay for the price of this anointing, okay? It's not for free, you know? Have you heard that preached before? Then, that's the first stage. Cleanse the lepers. I tell you, you must be in a special class like Pastor Henry before you cleanse the lepers because you're not ready you touch the leper, what they have will come on you.
All right, so you make sure that you are in the place of God where you know that you are completely holy, and you are sin free, then you can cleanse the lepers, okay? Don't play around with this, you know, okay? Don't go to listen to this Jesus kind of preachers about grace and all that, okay? Y'all listen, special realm. Then the third stage is raise the dead. Must I tell you, before you can raise the dead, huh, you must have a certain kind of, you know, I don't want encourage y'all to go to Bible school for nothing, and all that, but you must have at least a diploma. And then not only that, you must sit under Pastor Henry, okay? It's only for people like Pastor Henry who have prayed many hours and they pray in tongues, okay? And Pastor Henry, how many years he has been praying for the sick until his head is all white now, you know?
So, you think about it. Don't anyhow attempt to cleanse the lepers or even raise the dead, okay? The funeral service, people will scold you, the family will kill you, all right? So, make sure you think about it. Then cast out demons. What can I say? What can I tell you all, okay? You talk to the demons, the demons talk back, ah. They tell you that day, that evening you went down there. You think, I don't know. My other demons tell me that you were in this street, all right? You were doing this thing. You better know your life is clean before you try to cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. So, y'all freely give, lah. No wonder people are not freely giving because all these things, think about it.
If you got time to meditate, I read the whole thing and I think I read the Bible for so long until a few weeks ago, I read this and God is telling me, "Son, What has the church been preaching"? Healing is a gift, it does not focus on the sick, it focus on the physician. It's how good he is, not how bad the sick person is. We have taken people's eyes off him, and put people's eyes on themselves. All of a sudden you realize, people, people you are trying so hard. Stop, stop, stop, it's a gift. It's a gift. When you pray for people they say, you gotta pray hard". Why? "Cancer, headache, never mind, okay, all right"? Cancer, gotta pray hard". How to pray hard? Press harder. Where is the cancer? Over here. "Ahh! You stupid or what? Why you press so hard"? "You said pray hard". What is pray hard? Can you give me a chapter and verse, pray hard? It is not your prayer, it is who you are praying to.
Some of the most powerful prayers I pray is very short, very soft. The healing is his. In fact, the more simpler you pray, the more you are demonstrating to the Lord, "It's you, Lord". If someone with cancer comes to you and say, you know, they have cancer or whatever, okay, you just say, "Lord, easy for you. Be healed in Jesus's name". When people meet you in the marketplace, in the agora of Orchard Road and they say, "Hey, I saw you in church the other day. Can you pray for me or whatever? Oh, you must understand one thing, the atmosphere is not right. It's just not the kind of atmosphere. It gotta a praise and worship atmosphere. You gotta hallelujah, you know? Then I pray for you". No, you won't say all that. It's a gift, brother. The only thing you want the person to know, don't try to... some people who are being prayed, you know, how they receive prayer...?
So, who is trying hard? Hey, why don't you go home, you struggle as much as you can and be healed. If you're struggling can heal you, why not you struggle as much as you can before you came to church? You know, I'm trying to help you here, you understand? I'm just showing us how we all are deceived, including myself for many years. And God is opening our eyes. That's why there are so many healings in this ministry. I can only read to you, in fact, I have so many testimonies, I can't even share them all. I'm just sharing with you a few. And one last verse I told you, then we'll close, okay? This verse is from Proverbs and it says this, "As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come".
Now, when you say the curse causeless means, what? Without cause it will not come. What does that tell you? That tells you that every curse that comes, there must be a reason for it. But now Jesus, through his blood, has removed every reason for us not to be under the curse, right? "What's the revelation, Pastor Prince"? I want to tell you something about the Hebrew, all right? I love studying Hebrew. And you know the word causeless here is from the Hebrew word "chen". You know the word chen? Chen is the word for grace like hesed is grace, chen is favor. Yet, grace and favor is almost akin, right? Chen is God's grace. For example, in your Bible when it says, "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord," the word there is chen, grace. When it says Zechariah says, "Speak to your mountain, whether it's a mountain of lack, a mountain of sickness, speak to it and say, "Grace, grace, the Hebrew chen, chen, all right? You gotta say it with guttural sound, ch, chen. All right, don't say now or else your neighbor in front who don't have hair will be like, "It's raining or what," you know?
Okay, so look up here. Listen to what I'm saying. That's the word used here for causeless. Literally, it's the word chen. What does that mean? Unmerited. The curse undeserved will not come. The curse unmerited will not come but it's the word unmerited, it's the word grace. So, we can say it like this, and I'll close with this, the curse by grace will never come. When you are living under grace, in the realm of grace, where you are looking to the Lord Jesus, not to yourself. It's not how good you are, it's how good he is. It's not how faithful you are, it's how faithful he is. You won't even know you're changing. When you see his faithfulness, you become faithful. But stop, don't look at yourself. Look to Jesus, amen? When you live in that realm of grace, the curse cannot come. I don't know why they translate it without cause. It's the word "unmerited, unearned". It's the word "grace". The curse by grace shall not come, okay?
Remember how we opened the service, Isaiah 49? It says what? Will the lawful captive be delivered? Look at God's answer. Next verse, "Thus says the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered". God says, "I'll contend with him, the devil that contends with you, and I will save your children this year, this year," amen? Give Jesus the praise. Come on, church, hallelujah, hallelujah. Every head bowed, every eye closed. In a while's time, I'm gonna pray for your three requests, all right? Every year we do this at the end of the year. The last Sunday we'll pray for the three requests. God told me to do this a number of years ago, and we have seen great fulfillment of the three requests. It was during a time like this, one of my three requests was for a son.
Before we pray for that, there are people watching me today, we welcome all of you and those are here, if you've never made Jesus your Savior and Lord, you have never allowed him to redeem you, will you accept him today as your Redeemer? Will you allow Jesus to be your Redeemer? Perhaps you're suffering some symptom of the curse, but more than anything else, you must embrace this gift of God, Jesus Christ. When you embrace him as your personal Savior, your personal Redeemer, that's when he exagorazo. He redeems you by a price that he has, his blood and you become his own. If that is you, wherever you are that's watching this right now, pray this prayer from your heart. Are you ready? Say this from your heart, and God who searches the hearts and the minds, he will hear your prayer and Jesus will be Redeemer to you from today.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ, whom you sent to be my Redeemer, to be my Savior who died on that cross. I can never keep your law perfectly. I'm a sinner, but Christ died for sinners. And I thank you, Father, his blood is the price, the payment, for my liberation. Jesus Christ is my Savior, my Redeemer, my God. Thank you, Father, that you raised him from the dead as a proclamation that you are satisfied with what Christ has done on my behalf. So, much so, that you raised him from the dead. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. In Jesus's name, amen.
Praise the Lord, are y'all ready? Lift your hand up as an act of faith, just one hand before the Lord. Now, imagine all the three request is in that hand. This is something that God takes seriously. The Bible says that there are some prayers that are held as a memorial before God. In other words, they are like the sweet incense of the tabernacle of Moses. They always remind God of what you prayed. We're gonna pray that you will see the manifestations of these three requests. Don't ask for small, ask for big things. Your God is a big God, and God will not just answer your prayer, he will over answer your prayer. Get ready for that. Are you ready? I'm gonna pray and then there's a point where I'll pause, and you bring your request before God one by one.
Heavenly Father, we stand together as your people here in this blessed nation of Singapore, your church, Lord. We come together as one before your throne of grace. We see a rainbow around the throne reminding us that never again will you ever be angry with us because of what Christ has done. You are our Father, we are your sons. And Father, as we see the world getting darker and darker in these days, we pray, Father, your church will get brighter and brighter, that your church will be a living testimony, Father, to a lost, dying, crying, sighing world that's looking for the light, looking for the life, looking for hope. Let your people be so blessed, Father, that people will want to want to know you, the blesser. And now, Father, we bring to you our three requests. we bring this first request to you. Just tell the Lord quietly. And now bring the second request to God. And your third. Father, we thank you you've heard our prayers and right now, Father, in this point in time, that prayer is now in your hands, Father. Let it be held as a memorial before you always, Father, that this year, Father, we will see the manifestation of these three requests, we'll see the tangible results, we'll see the outworking this year. Father, I pray in Jesus's name that everyone who see this manifestation, Lord, be it our relatives, our friends, our children, they'll want to know you more, Lord. Thank You, Father. And let these people know, that they're in the world, but they are not of the world, they're of your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen.
Now, say this, "I'm righteous by faith in Christ Jesus. I'm not of works, I'm of faith, of faith. I live by believing, not by doing, not works, but faith. This year will be a great year for me and my family, in Jesus's name.