Joseph Prince - True Prosperity In Every Area

Today, the very day itself, this very day, is the hundredth day anniversary to the day itself of the Armistice being signed in 1980. Armistice was signed to end World War I, the very first world war, and that was signed at 11 o'clock. Listen, at 11 o'clock on the 11th, which is today, of the 11th month, all right? Thus, signifying and 11 months right after Allenby marched into Jerusalem with the British forces liberating Jerusalem, amen? And that was the beginning of the Jewish people coming back to their homeland, right to the day itself, 11 o'clock on the 11th of November, the 11th month. I believe we entered what Jesus calls the 11th hour and this is the generation.

You know, I think all these things, they're not coincidences. I think the world entered the 11th hour and the reason is 100 years is because of the long suffering of God that will want all man to turn to him, amen? And the 11th hour generation, we learned that not too long ago, I shared about the parable of the Lord of the vineyard who went out to hire laborers for his vineyard. Remember the 11th hour is the most favored generation, amen? It is the Benjamin generation. They receive five times more food than all the brothers, and they received five times more clothing than all the brothers and spiritually speaking, that is anointing. They walk in a greater anointing, amen, and five is a number of grace and they will have five times more nourishment and revelation from the Lord than all the Christian brothers down through church history.

This is the 11th hour generation, amen? You are the 11th hour generation. The Bible talks about the signs of the times, how in the end, knowledge shall increase, and we are seeing that happen at such great speed. Knowledge is increasing, amen? We have what we call the Internet that never existed like 50 years ago, amen? Now, we have it and knowledge shall increase and man will run to and fro. Now, we see people fly, amen, and it wasn't in existence. Even in 1918, this was just something, there were planes, but people don't travel the way they do now, amen? Planes has already been invented but people don't go to and fro the way we do now. Very soon many of you will be leaving for your holiday, right? Okay, poor thing, God bless them with holidays. Lord, grant them means.

You know, the fact that you take things for granted, you realize that you're in a different generation, however, the sad part is that the Bible says the world will get worse and worse, amen, while the church gets brighter and brighter. The world will get darker. So, when we see things happening and, you know, we see the world getting more and more into the moral degradation and all that, don't be shocked, don't be surprised. You know, I always say, don't be shocked when you see a drunkard, all right, a man under the influence of alcohol, he's been drinking. When he acts drunk, don't be surprised. When sinners sin, don't be surprised, amen, when sin increases.

So, the way to reach them is with the good news. We have forgotten that. The church has forgotten that. As a result, we try our best to either we make a stand against sin, or we publicly make a stand, or we try to influence them with legislation, or we try to influence political, the scenario and all that. But the only way to transform people inside out is by preaching the good news to them that Christ died for their sins, that God loves them, amen? God is not looking at their sin. God is looking at their need for him, amen. He's reaching out to them. He loves them. And it's time for us to go beyond all these barriers and reach out to them.

And it's time for even those Christians that have this attitude, or at least they project this, they may not be that, but they project this, that, "you know unless you're holy, don't come to God. Unless you're holy, don't come to church," and the people think that the church is only for people that are... you know, people tell me sometimes, "You know, I'm not a Christian," and all that. When I invite them to church, "I'm not a Christian". Usually I bump into them in Hawker Center and all that, but they'll say, "I'm not a Christian". I say that, "hey, the church is for all kinds of people," amen? The church is where you come and you receive from God. Praise the Lord. It is never a qualification at the door that unless you are holy, unless you're a Christian, then you can come in. Are you listening, people?

And I really don't believe, I really don't believe that, you know, God is looking for Christian nations, God wants a nation to become Christian. We have a few examples of that already and you still see the challenges and the problems. I think God wants individuals to be saved, amen, and for the transformation to be inside out. And what is a Christian who's saved? I mean, you know, instead of Christian, can be someone in name, a professor, not a possessor of eternal life, amen? They profess to be Christian, but they don't possess eternal life, and these are the ones that give a bad testimony usually because they are still sinners and they sin, amen.

And then people say, "He calls himself a Christian, look at his lifestyle". But there's no power to leave that lifestyle, that victorious, heavenly life, that life that tells people, "I'm hungering for more. I want what you got. You have a peace when things are going wrong, even in your life, I see that peace, I see that joy unspeakable. I want that". You know Jesus says you are the salt of the earth. You know what salt does? It makes you thirsty and it makes people thirsty for the water of life. We are supposed to make people thirsty, but if you have lost your saltiness when they are with you, they're not impacted. They're not longing for what you have, amen? What can you give to a millionaire?

And there are many millionaires today. Millionaires used to be a rare phenomenon, but now it's like in Singapore alone, you have so many millionaires. I'm talking to many of them also, I think, at least in terms of what they have, technically speaking, they are millionaires. But let me just tell you this, what you talk to a millionaire about? He has everything, at least he thinks he has everything. But you know what? One thing is that that peace that passes understanding, the more you have, the more you have the acceptability to drugs, for example, sleeping tablets, you know, to go to sleep and then starts the visual cycle of not being able to sleep. Then you need more sleeping tablets and then you go into a place where you're like zombie, you live your life like a zombie. That's not the life that God wants you to have, amen?

Or to have that find of thing where it can indulge your pleasures and your hedonistic pursuits, and all that, and your wife may not even know what you're doing because you travel so much and all that. But deep down, there's an emptiness when you wake up in the middle of the night and you feel empty. And now you have symptoms in your body and all that, and you know you cannot blame God for that because it's a consequence of the life that you've been living. But the thing is this, God loves you right where you are. Money is not the answer. I say, money is not the answer. The Bible says let not the multimillionaire, amen, let not the rich man glory or boast in his riches. Let not the strong man glory in his strength, the Bible says, but even the wise and the wise here is not the wisdom from God, but naturally intelligent people. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, but he that boasts, the Bible says, "Let him boast in this, that he knows me, that he knows me".

Sometimes I see what the world is running after, you know they run after things and they spend their life, you know, they spend their health, their strength, and their pursuits, and their energies, to get the wealth they want, and they spend like 40 years doing that, 30 years and their whole life has just become richer. And even after they are rich, they want to become richer, okay? And later on, they realize that they lost a lot of things along the way. They lost their health, and they spend the next 30 years, 20 years trying to get back the health, that they use their health to get the wealth, now they use the wealth to get back the health. And it's like, you know, I find that people get involved and their pursuits, for example, the world in their pursuits, they spend money. Of course, the big things are you can see on the media and all that, people are trying to find if there's life on Mars and all that.

Let me tell you this, believe the Bible and you'll save millions and millions of dollars, amen? They spend a lot of money and infinitesimal, infinitesimal small things, you know, things that don't really matter. I find the world learning more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing. So, let me tell you this, the greatest thing you can learn is to know the Lord Jesus, is to know God's love, and to know that you are not just an accident in this world, that God meant for you to be born. You have a call and you have a purpose in life, amen? And God has designed you in such a way that there's no two fingerprints in this world that's alike. They never was someone like you, and there'll never be anyone like you, amen? Your voiceprint, everything about you, you are unique, amen? There's only one of you, and we need you.

I know there are places that say, you know, we don't need you and all that, but let me tell you this, we need you, amen. You know why? Because only you can fulfill the call that God has for you. So, what I'm trying to say, money is important, all right, but money is not to be our idol, amen? We use money to serve the Lord. We use money and love people. We don't love money and use people. We love God. Let money come, amen? Let money come. If your name is money come, it just so happens, okay, praise the Lord. But you pursue the Lord and let money come after you, amen?

All right, Genesis 26, I better get into the Word. "There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham". So, just because famine happened in your environment, even though you're a blessed man, famine can happen. Famine will happen in the lives of people that are blessed, amen? Doesn't mean the famine happened because of you. Famine is dry circumstances where there's no provision it seem, where there seem to be no supply and yet, your trust is in God, amen?

So, the Bible says even Isaac, who's the blessed seed, the promised seed that is blessed, the promised seed of Abraham, and the Bible says yet, he experienced famine. And the Bible tells us that this famine was besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. So, even Abraham, the blessed man of God, the man that we bless ourselves by, we are blessed with the blessing of Abraham, amen? So, even he experienced famine. But let me just tell you this, famine is a time where you stop and assess your life, when you stop and say, "Why is this, why is there a famine? Why am I in an environment of famine"? It can be a famine of, you know, it seems like famine of favor, things are all going against you, instead of for you. One of the memory verses that my son is learning now is, "All things work together for good to them that love God".

And right after that, you know, things happen in his life, in his young life, that he wanted A but B happened, amen? And he remembered that all things may not be good, but all things will work together for good because God knows the future. God knows where and how we all should end up, you know, and he will disappoint us because he loves us. He will risk, amen, you being angry with him, you know, misunderstanding him, as long as he gets to love you and bring you to the place where he wants you to be, where he knows that... you see, you must understand that God is for you, for you, and not against you. Therefore, God is for your happiness and God knows the things that he tells us, you know, are things that are for our own good. It's not for his good.

Trust me, when God wrote this book, the Bible, all right, let me tell you this, God is successful already. He didn't write it to become more successful. It's like if you obey him, you know, he gets more successful, no. It's designed for you to be successful and the greatest success, I'm using a term that the world uses, but let me tell you this, in the Bible, the greatest success is to know him, amen? And then we make him known, praise the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, amen? So, that means what? People in the world, they don't have wisdom, they have knowledge. They can be scholarly, but wisdom cometh from the Lord. Wisdom don't come by age, wisdom comes from the Lord.

There is a wisdom that is from the Lord. We're gonna look at that. But there's a wisdom that God gave Solomon that's only uniquely from God, amen? It's a wisdom that surpasses all other wisdom. We learned from 1 Kings chapter 4, that Solomon was wiser than all the kings of the east. So, if you look at all the kings of the east at that time, you know, you talk about China, you talk about India, and there were wise men at that time. The Bible didn't say there were not wise men, but the Bible says that Solomon's wisdom excelled their wisdom, amen? That today we're even hear the story in different cultures of a wise king that could discern which baby belonged... who was the mother of the baby that was being disputed. You'll even find that in Chinese folklore, amen? All came from the story of Solomon, amen, amen. So, the Bible tells us that Isaac found himself in the days of famine and the Bible says this, "And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar".

Now, don't forget, even though there are enemies in the land, the land is given by God. This Gerar, it's in the land of promise, in the land flowing with milk and honey but sometimes you find that in the place where you're supposed to be in charge, to be the head and not the tail, you find that another person is the head. So, is it possible to be a believer and in your company and all that, you find that you're actually not the head, but the tail? But the Bible says in the blessing of Deuteronomy 28, that the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. Don't worry, with the blessing of God, you will end up as the head, amen. You will be the head and not the tail. But, some tests we go through is to show us in our heart and God knows what's in our heart, but God allows us to go through the tests so that we can see what's in our heart. We don't realize how proud we are until someone cuts in front of us in the ground, right?

And on the road, and you realize that even when someone says something, you realize you're doing fine and all that then you realize you still have that residue of pride or, you know, that kind of thing. And you need to assess yourself. And let me tell you this, God loves you. God loves you and he wants to strengthen you with all might unto patience and long suffering with joyfulness. You know, I love that verse that says that strengthen with all might unto patience, actually the word there is perseverance and longsuffering, which is patience. So, we think that we're strengthened for exploits, healing the sick, casting out demons. We pray and miracles happen. We think of that. That is fine. I mean, God has that for his people as well. But the Bible says you are strengthened unto all perseverance, perseverance and patience with joyfulness. You know how you can tell a strong believer? He has perseverance under adverse circumstances. Perseverance is for circumstances that are adverse.

Patience is for people that are odd, people that are funny people. So, the Bible says you're strengthened unto all perseverance and patience with joy, and you can still do it with joy, amen, amen? That's why you are being disappointed because God loves you. That's why things don't go your way and you say, "How come, you know, I claimed favor and this guy parked. I came here first but, you know, how come? How come I always find this kind of driver in front of me"? Because God is strengthening you unto all patience. You know what's gonna happen when patience have a work in you? The Bible says you'll be perfect and entire, complete, not sinless, perfect, but complete perfect, wanting nothing, James 1. So, things that happen is to train us to be patient, amen. So, even if you confess favor, you cannot stop some things from happening because you're still in the school of God.

Unless David had battled against the lion and then later on the bear, he was not ready for Goliath. 'Cause sometimes, the school of God is done in private, but then the success is in public as when he killed Goliath. So, many people that you see God using today, they went to the school of God. When I said school of God, this school is not easy, it's hard knocks but they learn, they learn to be patient, they learn to be humble. They learn to give glory to God so that God can prepare them for greater success. Some of you want more from God but if you God gives you more, we don't see you in church anymore. In fact, your wife might not see you anymore, amen? In fact, you might change wives. So, God prepares your character before he prepares your promotion to the next level.

Some people are not saved for the next level. Some people, some Christians still believe in using white lies. They can never be promoted. There's no white lie or purple lie or whatever lie, okay? A lie is a lie. If you can lie at this level, you can never be the level where God wants you to be. There can be no promotion, why? Because God knows down here you might end up in jail, down here, jail bro, and God loves you enough to prevent that, but some just push on and keep on lying or keep on cheating until they end up, you know, in a place where God doesn't want them to be. Oh man, this is good preaching, I love it. It's like the teacher took, oh, praise the Lord. Keep on preaching, okay.

All right, I'll come back to Genesis 26, okay. So, "Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. Then the Lord appeared to him and said: 'Do not go down to Egypt,'" I repeat, "Do not go down to Egypt," live in the land of which I shall tell you". So, even when things are going wrong, amen, keep on coming to church, keep on spending time in the Word of God. Read the daily devo, amen? Pray, even when things are going wrong, trust even there's famine, there's good coming, amen, good is coming in your future. Dwell in the land, don't go down to Egypt, the ways of the world. Do not say, ah, you know, for example, on Sunday, all right, one of the ways of the world is what? "Relax, take it easy, don't go to church. I need the time". But you know what? It seems like when you don't go to church and you try to take time for yourself, you end up sometimes with headache and unfilled day. You find that things don't go the way you want it to go and the following week it's not even blessed. Things go poorly the following week.

When you spend time with God, and you give God that time, the Lord knows it. It seems like he rewards you with quality time. The Bible says one of the benefits of wisdom is that length of days, long life, and peace. Obviously, length of days and long life are two different things oar else they won't be put in the same sentence. Length of days, long life, and peace. Long life is long life, but what is length of days? It seems like everyone has 24 hours. When God blesses your day, your day becomes like full. There are days that you wish is short, right? It's not a full day. I mean by that, it's not a full day. You wish this day is over. No, God will give you a day that you wish will not be over. You know those days where you wish will not be over, hmm? Walking hand in hand with the one you love, amen?

Windy, got no snow, nothing, no autumn so ours is windy, Labrador Park, Labrador dogs passing by, amen? It's such a nice environment, not hot, amen? You wish that this moment will never end. God can bless you with that, length of days. Length of days, long life, and peace, shalom. Shalom is more than just peace of mind, it is health, well-being, wholeness. So, God says, "Dwell in this land. "Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands". Next verse God says, "I'll make your descendants multiply the stars of heaven". Drop down, see what Isaac did. He obeyed God. Then Isaac sowed in that land.

Now, you don't sow in a year of famine. So, there are believers who say, "You know what? It seems like I've been giving to God, I've been tithing, I've been giving to God and yet, there seems to be nothing happening," famine. What do you do? Keep on persevering. You belong to Abraham's family and Abraham's family sows in the year of famine, all right? Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year of famine, in the same year a hundredfold. Obviously, this is the blessing of the Lord, amen? And the Lord blessed him. And the Bible says the man began to prosper. I call this the thirtyfold, sixty-fold, hundredfold blessing. But watch this, the man began to prosper. If you haven't begun yet, all right, don't forget, before they began is the sowing. Then he began to prosper. "He continued prospering," that's the sixty-fold, "and until he became very prosperous," that's the hundredfold, amen?

Now, here is where you can get criticized by people, "Oh, you're preaching the prosperity gospel," and all that. I got no problem for people like this, amen, because many a times there are a lot of hypocrites because, why do I say that? They have three, four cars, they have a big house, and then they are criticizing people for encouraging others that they can prosper. What I'm against is materialism. I'm against greed. I'm against people that, you know, they love money, avarice, you know they love money more than people, more than God. That is what I'm against. I'm against pastors that don't want their people to prosper. I think something is wrong. Now, something is wrong also if the pastor is living such a lavish lifestyle and, you know, just all about money and all that. Something is wrong but if the pastor is, you look at the church and the church is prospering, the church is growing as a whole, amen. The pastor is bringing the people into the land, amen? Are you listening? Amen, you want to be in a church like that.

So, don't be taken by people like, you know, oh, prosperity in the Bible is all about spiritual things. I agree, number one is to know God. Didn't I say that just now. I spent so much time saying that, isn't it? All right, so, you know, sometimes people like to take a statement out of context, but we got no time to just address all these people, amen? We just go on preaching the truth. So, in case you're taking this spiritual, look at the next line, "For he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him". Now, the Philistines are people who are the enemies of God, enemies of the people of the land, the Jewish people. Usually, they end up as enemies, okay? They're usually they're enemies. Goliath was a Philistine. Philistines are not spiritual people. They don't go by spiritual, you know, eyesight. Obviously, they're looking at palpable, visible, tangible blessings of God on Isaac, so much so, they envied, they're jealous of him.

Do you make the world jealous of the blessings of God that's on you? Do you know that one of the connotations of the Hebrew word "barak," which is blessing, all right, is actually the word "to be envied". And in the Amplified Bible it brings it out, "Blessed to be envied is the man who fears the Lord". Do you know that the way we get the Jewish people to see their Messiah is to provoke them to jealousy? And that's why when I go to Israel, all right, we teach our people. When they say, it has been said to us more than once, "How come your people are so happy, you people are so joyful". And they even say things like, "How come y'all always have like ability to buy things and all that"?

You know, what they are saying, you are prosperous. You know, they think that every Singaporean is like that. Everyone is a crazy rich Asian, you know? They don't realize we are not everyone is rich, right, just crazy. You know, but they are asking. And what's your answer? Especially when they say, "Y'all people are so happy, what is it"? Don't back away from that but don't say, "Oh, God blessed us, you know, God's blessing me". Tell them, "Your God blessed us". Say, "What do you mean our God blessed you"? And they are thinking in their mind, "If my God blessed you, then how come I'm like that"? You know what I'm saying or not? So, in other words, it's a great opportunity to bring Jesus into the whole conversation, and we have done it before. I've done that before. I've got people saved.

My, every time they post me a security guy, he gets saved. Every time, you know, by the end of the trip, he gets saved. So far, the record has been everyone who's been posted has been saved, right Lawrence? You know, and at the end, they themself testify that, you know, I've been watching the whole thing and all that and one of them was a soldier, one of the major in the Lebanese war, not too far back, and he had a guilt problem, huge guilt problem. He cut off from society and all that and all because of his soldiers that were captured at the Lebanese border. He felt guilty to the parents of those kids, of those soldiers. They were young soldiers. Imagine you're 18-year-old going to the army and then being captured. He felt so guilty. He cut off from everyone and at the end of the trip, he was my security guy. He was very quiet. He put up his hand.

Lawrence was there, "Can I share something"? He said that. He shared the entire story and how he cut off from society. And he says this, and just do what he knows what to do, get involved in security work. And he says that, "I've been watching you. I've been listening to all the sermons you preach," he said. "And I just know something," he said that, "I believe in Jesus". And I led him into prayer and he felt the whole weight of him, just the whole weight. Many of you heard his testimony because I got him to testify on the platform for the TBN TV program, and you hear how he shared that his life has been changed. See, our life, people, is to be a testimony, amen? If you just talk about, you know, "God bless us," I'm not a person who say God will bless you with money, God will bless you with money, God will bless you with money.

And how many times do we come here and talk about money? So, I'm against that. I'm not for that kind of thing, amen, I'm not. But you cannot stop people from saying prosperity gospel. You cannot stop that, amen? They will say what they want to say, but we keep on getting blessed and the answer is that the blessing of God. So, here we have, why would the Holy Spirit, you know, the Holy Spirit should not have put this verse 13 and 14 inside because it will invite criticism from people, right? And then why he say the Philistines envied him? Why he say that the blessings are so manifested, right? So, you know something? Don't apologize when God blesses you. Don't apologize, amen? But don't be proud either. Give the glory to God. But always include the people. Tell them, "No, I'm no special than you. You should see my life. I'm telling you, God blessed me and the same God can bless you".

And one of the greatest testimonies here in Singapore especially, right, our people are already, they have money. Money is not what they need, amen? It's that wonderful joy, that peace, amen, that family life that you have, amen, that is something that they observe. You might not know it, your colleagues are observing you. They want what you have. But if you're a salt that has lost its saltiness and you become worldly, no wonder they don't want what you have, amen? If you become like them, why should they be like you? "Preach it, Pastor Prince, hallelujah".

Okay so, let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 8 right now. The Bible says, "The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley". Now, this is the Canaan, this is land of Israel. This is the land that God is introducing to his people. It's a land, it's a good land, number one, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills. There's valley, there's hills.

So, in the Promised Land even in the Christian life, there are valleys and there are hills. God doesn't always let you be the valley. It will bring you to the mountaintop experience. Like, Jesus and his disciples had a mountaintop experience where he was transfigured and yet, you know, Peter wanted to camp there forever. "Let's make three booths," you know why? He want to camp there. "Let's stay here, the anointing is so wonderful," you know? Nobody wants to go back from Legacy Camp after the church camp, you know, in the youths, their church camp, nobody wants to leave, they want to live there forever. They don't want to go to school, nothing, amen, right?

That's a mountaintop experience because they experienced God every day, every moment actually. They experienced the joy of Christian fellowship, amen, how the church is a church together and how there's such joy, such love. They experience the presence of God and they don't want to leave the place. But even Jesus and his disciples Jesus says must go down, why? There's a demon-possessed boy. The devil is below. The suffering people are below, all right? So, God allows you to go through mountaintop experience but don't forget, he'll bring you to the valley. Hopefully not you are suffering, but to alleviate the suffering that you'll be sent as a messenger, amen? Praise the Lord.

So, the Bible says that, "A land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey". Recently not too long ago there was a man who passed away in Japan and it turned out that he's a Christian. He's a 104-year-old-man, a Christian. He's a doctor. You can find it online actually, 104 Japan, Japanese old man, doctor. He's a doctor and one of the things, one of the secrets he gave for his long life, he says he takes olive oil. Isn't that from the land, amen? So, I would recommend y'all take olive oil, amen? However you're gonna do it, do it sprinkle on your food, cook with it, whatever it is. People say all kinds of other oil, amen, let me tell you this, olive oil is mentioned, no other oil, okay? So, honey, honey is very good. I got two of them in my house, my wife and my daughter.

So, okay, praise God. Pomegranates is good, guys, pomegranates is very good. Now, they find that pomegranate is very good for men especially, very good for men, very good for men, all right? Drink it. And why is it so full of seeds? Why is it so full of seeds? Because, you know, yeah, yeah, what, to reproduce? That came from Matthew Kang, deacon Matthew Kang. He should know, amen, he has fruitfulness. In fact, in the Song of Songs, that's why when you understand all these terms, Bible says the Lord looks at his bride, you and I, and he says, "Thy head is like pomegranate. Now, if you do not know Bible language and you are natural, you're a girl you say, "My head like a pomegranate". You look at a pomegranate, it's like someone slapped you on the forehead and then after a few hours, you know, you see that pomegranate coming out and it's red color. No, no, that's why do not read the Bible in the natural. Go deeper, amen?

You know, the Bible yields its riches to people that are hungry for it, you know that? There was a man once who had an orchard, apple orchard, okay, in his house, and it's a large apple orchard and he'd been taking care the apples for the longest time. And one day he invited a friend of his to come over to have an apple feast, you know? He said, "It's the season for apples, and I just want to celebrate with you". And his friend says, "No, no, no". He says, "Come on, come on". Said, "No, no, no, I don't think so". Said, "What's wrong with you"? He said, "I'm giving it for free. I'm not gonna charge you for it". Say, "No, no, no, I don't want". Said, "Please tell me why, why? It's good apples". And he's known for his good apples. And he says, "Well, it's embarrassing for me to tell you this but a few days ago, I passed by your orchard garden and no one was looking, I was kind of hungry and, you know, I jumped over the fence".

Or, he was on the street somewhere, he thought he would take some extra apples. He jumped over the fence. "I'm so sorry," he said, "and I took the apples and they're the most sour apples I've ever tasted". Then the guy laughed, the guy says, "You know what I did? All right, I traveled about 80 miles to get this kind of special sour apples, so I plant my orchard. The first two rows all around the fence are all the most sour apples you can ever find so that the boys in the neighborhood, when they jump over for the apples, once they taste it, they will never be back". So, sometimes, you know, the Word of God, you know, God want to put away the hypocrites. God says, "Cast not your pearls before swine," amen. God wants his Word to be honored and respected.

So, there are people who try the use the wisdom of God. You see how the world uses, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he". The world uses that. You know, I mean people that are motivational speakers and people that are even in new age are using, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he". It's from the Bible. It's from the Book of Proverbs, the book of wisdom. How the world uses that and don't even give glory to God sometimes, amen? But the thing is this, God hides his truth from the hypocrites and from people that don't have a heart for him, and he puts the sour things and you look at your head is like, "Ah, I don't want to read the Bible. The Bible is, you know, well, my head is like pomegranate," you know? But when you realize the truth, you go deeper.

Always go deeper into the Word, always study more and you find all the riches, the sweetness and the best blessings are all there inside for his people, for his people. God lays up sound wisdom for the righteous, not from, but for the righteous, amen? And God hides his wisdom from the world. He doesn't want the world to use his wisdom to indulge in their own lusts and pursue their own independent ways, but God wants his people to have the wisdom, amen? So, what is the head like a pomegranate? So, when the Lord looks at your head, he says, "I see your thoughts". This is a wonderful revelation. "Your thoughts are fruitful thoughts. They're like pomegranate seeds, pomegranate full of seeds, and you know what, what color is it? The juice that washes the pomegranate seeds, my blood washes your thoughts so all I see are fruitful thoughts, positive thoughts, pure thoughts, wonderful thoughts, peace thoughts, amen, peace-bringing thoughts, amen, peace-inducing thoughts, relaxed thoughts".

And these are the thoughts that God say, "But Pastor Prince, I had a bad thought about you just now when you came out". Doesn't matter, the blood of Jesus just washed it, amen? And you must see your thoughts always under the blood. That's why it's red. Now, isn't that juicy? Isn't that precious truth? Isn't it wonderful when you go into God in prayer to realize that the blood of Jesus is always washing your thoughts? You see, you just look at the superficial thing, looks sour, head like a pomegranate. "Your head is like a pomegranate, ah, I didn't tell you, ah". Then your wife say, "Your head like a Dorian". "Oh, that's my spikey hair love, my spikey hair". All right, so a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity. Wow, you eat amen, bread without scarcity in which you will lack nothing. The Lord demonstrate that with the five loaves and two fish. "In which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you".

Now, go back to Isaac's story, verse 2, you find God told him what, the first thing? Do not go down. "The Lord appeared to him and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land which I shall tell you". Do not go down to Egypt. Notice the word "down". In Hebrew is one word, go down, yarad, where you get the word Jordan, River Jordan because it goes down. Whenever you go down to Egypt, Egypt is always going down, down, down, down, down. Let us go up. "Come let us go up to the mountain". Whenever you go to God, you are being elevated. You gain the ascendancy, but whenever you go down, notice the Book of Jonah, when God told Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach, amen, he refused because he hated the Ninevites for what they did to his people, the Jewish people. So, he went the other way. The Bible says he went down to Joppa, all right? From Joppa he went down.

Notice the word, down, down. He went down to the boat. Then later on, the boat was sailing and all that, what happened to him? He went down to the boat to sleep and then they realized the storm was because of him. They threw him down into the ocean, amen? Then after the ocean is not enough, he went down into the stomach of the huge fish, amen, whale. Whenever you leave the Lord, you're going down. Whenever you go towards the Lord, you are going up. Your life becomes, gains the ascendancy. So, God says do not go down to Egypt. But, what about Egypt? If you look at Egypt, by the way, Egypt in Hebrew is the word Mitsrayim, Mitsrayim. It's not the word Egypt, it's Mitsrayim. All right, whenever you got an -im, it's plural. It's double straightness, literally double distress or double straightness.

If you look at the land of Egypt, it's very flat. God says the land of Israel is hills and valleys, amen, out of the hills you will dig copper even. But here it says, "Do not go down to Egypt". Look at the picture, the map of Egypt. It is a flat land and on both sides of the land is actually it is sandwiched by desert, and the desert will blow its dry sands into the land of Egypt. The only sustenance for Egypt, Egypt hardly have rainfall, hardly, very little rainfall and the only sustenance is the River Nile. Can you see the blue River Nile? Okay, but they do not know its source. They do not know what is the source of the River Nile. They enjoy it but do not know the source. Isn't that like the world? When God says don't go down to Egypt, don't go down into a place of double pressure, double distress, double stress. Literally Mitsrayim means double distress or stress. God doesn't want you to go down into a place where you're be hemmed in on both sides.

So, the land of Egypt is hemmed in on both sides, you have Libya and you have Sudan. So, it's literally sandwiched by desert and the only sustenance that it has for its drinking water and washing and all that is the River Nile and they don't even know its source. Isn't it like the world? They enjoy, even the blessings on this earth, amen, is still from God, amen. Every good and perfect gift is from above, the Bible says, and from the Father of lights, but they do not know its source. You and I know its source. That's why we always worship, we acknowledge him, we thank him, we give him glory. We even tithe to show that he's the source of all our blessings. But the world doesn't know its source. It has the River Nile, it enjoys the River Nile, doesn't know its source.

Do you know for many, many, many years, in fact, for a number of millennials in history, Egypt, ancient Egypt does not know the source of the River Nile, and the world don't even know the source of the River Nile. In fact, it was only discovered in 1858 by a man explorer on an expedition called John Speak, his name and he says and today the accepted view is from him. He says in 1858, he found the source of the River Nile and it's from Lake Victoria in Uganda, and it flows into Egypt, which is Uganda is south eastern side of Africa. So, Egypt is sorry, north, north eastern side. So, it flows upwards, all right, or downwards. It flows downwards, excuse me, into Egypt, but they say the source is Lake Victoria. Recently, even "Top Gear," that show, "Top Gear," the guy claimed that he found the source of the River Nile.

So, today, they're still disputing. Some people say it's not Lake Victoria. Actually, before Lake Victoria, there's also some tributaries and all that. So, until now, there are people debating that whether the source is Lake Victoria. It's very ambiguous. You know why it's ambiguous? Because God wants to keep the type. The type is that no one knows the source. Egypt doesn't know the source of the River Nile. The world does not know the source of their blessings. Many of them, they're still blessed. I'll tell you something, okay, if Jesus had not died, his blood has not be shed, this world would be finished a long time ago. Disease will run rampant and kill off people. The fact that it's been stopped. Many a time it start somewhere, and God stops it. And many a times even the war, God causes wars to seize, the Bible says. The Bible says that. "He maketh wars to seize," amen? And God holds back, he restrains the wrath of man. And I'm telling you, we are the salt and the light. Once we are gone, you will see what life on earth will be like.

So, I believe that we owe it all to the blood of Jesus. Every blessing, every time you sit down at your meal, just remember had it not been for the death of this chicken, you'll not eat. Had not been for the death of the lamb, you won't have filet mignon. That is speaking right to Pastor Lawrence's heart. If not for the death of all this, you know, you'll just be back in Eden eating vegetables, fruits. Now, I'm not against those who believe in eating that, but God designed, we are in a fallen earth and God designed for us to get protein from animal food as well. Now, had the earth not fall, fallen, we'll be eating fruits and vegetables, amen?

You can't imagine that, I know, Singaporeans, especially Pastor Lawrence. But we are not in that... you know, God knows what our body needs. Now, I'm not against those who believe in eating vegetarian and all that, you know? It's okay, perhaps for medical reasons or perhaps your own conviction whatever. But the thing is that, you know, God designed for man to eat. God told Noah after the earth was tilted. The earth was once upon a time straight before it was tilted. When it's straight, it's 360 days and there are no four seasons. Four seasons happen because of the tilt. Science will tell you that, all right? And once it's tilted, the distance from the sun and all that is affected and God congealed the floods, the Noah's flood to the north and the south, the arctic, the South Pole, North Pole, right? So, if you melt those ice, the earth will be flooded again so God tilted the earth, and the canopy over the heaven was broken.

Now, anyway all this is found in my preaching on message on Noah. I think it's about time to show you all that again. I share a lot of this. But just think about it, the people of the world do not know the source of their blessings, the food they eat and all that and the fact that there's still peace, relative peace in the earth today. And yet, they want to blame God for every accident and all that. Why not you blame the minister of transport for an accident on the road, a child dies and all that? Do you go to him and blame him? Why do you watch where you're going? No, he puts the rules and all that so that there will not be such a thing, amen. People blame God for something that happened, but you know what? All these things will not happen had it not been for man's sin. And if God just destroys the first man, forget it, kaput. I'm God, you're not, gone. No Adam, no Eve. No need for all this argument, amen? But God is not like that. Aren't you glad God is not like me? And I'm glad God is not like you, don't laugh. God loves us, amen?

So, here we have Egypt, a picture of the world, a picture of natural man. All of us, naturally, are in Egypt before we knew the Lord, you know? And we do not know the source of our blessings. You know, we live our lives just we do not know the value of ups and downs. We just live our life, you know, in this dust environment. And Egypt, the main feature of Egypt that's kept until now, if you go to the British museum, until now it's kept. It's the image of death. Everything in Egypt is about death. Today, it's amazing that people glorify death, they put skull. Cool man, skull, skull, skull, until they become a skull it's no more funny. When, you know, it's the symbol of death. They glorify the symbol of death, you know? You want to wear a skull, whatever, help yourself. I'm not against that, okay, you're a tattoo of skull and all that, scarlet bro, no problem, okay? But I'm just saying to you, do not glorify, do not have a delight in the things of death. Death is not for you. Death is coming for you. Had it not been for the blood of Jesus, we'll all die prematurely. Who kept you all this while?

So, we owe so much and yet we do not know the source. So, that was our life before we knew Christ, right, amen? But now, we're no more in the land of Egypt. We're no more relating to death. Egypt wants their death, their dead people, to continue on so they embalm them. They embalm the dead. So much so that instead of perpetuating they believe that they'll be resurrected and all that but the thing is this, today we still see death. You go to the British museum, so many mummies, death. You know what's their number-one book in ancient Egypt? I'm talking about ancient Egypt, okay? I'm not talking about Egypt now. Ancient Egypt, you know what's their number-one book? "The Book of the Dead". It's called "The Book of the Dead," literally. They relate to death and that's why the movies and all that, the spirit of the world, has a lot death, death, death. Jesus is all about life. He killed death by dying. When he died, death died.

"Pastor Prince, Christians still die". No, the Bible says they fall asleep, they fall asleep. There's a difference and there's a generation that won't even fall asleep when Jesus comes, they'll be transformed in their new bodies, amen, in the twinkling of an eye. But all believers, even car crash, whatever it is, you know, they are taken long before. Anyway, their body, whether you're alive when Jesus comes, you won't be going in this body, not even in this body. You'll have a nicer one, Lawrence, amen? You have one like mine, amen? Glorified body, amen? There's hope for your looks brother, there's hope.

So, now we go back to Deuteronomy 11, Deuteronomy 11, "That you may prolong your days in the land". Now, does the Lord want you to prolong your days? Yes, even though sin came in, God hates death. I said God hates death. God never meant for man to die. "Then, why does man die, Pastor Prince"? Man die because of sin. The wages of sin is death and God warned man, God told Adam, "Don't eat from that tree. There's one tree, don't eat from it to show that you honor me, you respect me". Because if God gave man free choice, and there's nothing but good to choose from, free choice is not free choice because there's nothing to choose from, but everything is good. But God gave man free choice. There must be at least one tree that man can say, "I don't want your way, God, I want my way". "I'll do it my way". And man did that and God says, "Just let you know, the day you eat of it, you will surely die". And the Bible in Hebrew says, "Dying, you shall die".

You will die spiritually first on that day. Adam didn't die immediately. Dying you shall die physically. It's a result all men die. We don't like to talk about it, except for ancient Egypt, but people die. A hundred years from now, not a single person in this room will still be alive, right? We'll all be in heaven, amen? And hard for you to imagine, hard for you to imagine, amen, just like when you were in primary school, you can't imagine married life, "Eww, married life, I don't want to get married," amen? Now, you're happy in married life, at least most of you, lah. I'm talking about normal people. Okay, are you getting an idea of what I'm trying to say? What God is saying to you, people, do things God's way. So, don't go the way of Egypt. Acknowledge the Lord and you prolong your days, God brings you a land flowing with milk and honey.

Notice again it's not a land of milk and honey, it's a land flowing. Flowing is an idea of copiousness, plenteousness, abundance, amen, superfluousness, extravagant, flowing with milk and honey. "For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven". So, in Egypt, they get their water from below a river, all right, and they have to work it. I have an old ancient picture, not that ancient, but old picture of people watering, irrigating their field with their foot. If you look really close, those two are standing on pedals and what they do is they gotta work really hard, you know, amen? It's like running all the time. And they are constantly watering their fields with their foot. They get their water from the river, but the water needs to be channeled up, and they use the pedal. This is an old picture, an old photo, and let's go back to the verse again.

Notice that that's what Egypt does. Egypt, there's a lot of effort to get good stuff, a lot of effort, a lot of effort. Look at me, God can just bless you and you are blessed. The world, like I said, they spend so much of their health to get the wealth and then later on, they spend the next half of their life using their wealth to get back the health that they have lost. You know, it's like, when God blesses you, I mean, you're in a place where you love the Lord, you got time with your family, time to come to church, time to smell the flowers, time to enjoy your loved ones, time. To everything, there is a season, God gives you that and you enjoy the goodness of God. That's true prosperity, amen? And the blessing come from where in Israel? Drinks water from the rain of heaven.

Notice, the rain of heaven. Where is heaven? Up. So, our blessings is from there, amen, amen? Animals are designed to look down, that's why they're animals. The word "anthropos" come from the word which means man is upright, look up, face up. Man is designed to look to God. Man is designed to face God. Beasts of the earth face down, amen. We are meant to have a connection with God. God designed you to be loved, to be cared for, to be provided. So, we know our source is from God. God blesses you in one fell swoop and that's it. You have everything, like I said before, why do people buy "Law of Three" and why do they go to casinos and all that? They believed that in one fell swoop also they'll get that immediately it's the money they want, right? But actually it's what the money can get.

They believe a lie, a lie that tells them, "If you have this amount of money, you will have this life, yes, this house, these cars, it will make you happy," amen? "And then you can do whatever you want. You can go anywhere in the world you want, it will make you happy. Believe me, you go anywhere in the world, you'll be happy. And then you can do whatever you want, indulge in anything that you want, any lusts that you want, it will make you happy". And how many men have stood up, looked at themselves in the mirror, they don't even know who they slept with last night, they look in the mirror and they see empty sockets, they see emptiness. They don't tell you about it whereas you enjoying your children and your family and all that, amen, you are the ones they envy deep down.

Something out there, you know, like me last time when I was in New Zealand for ministry, I remember and we passed by a whole field, very green. You know how green the green is in New Zealand? It's so luscious, isn't it? Verdant, so inviting. So, I had to tell the driver do stop the car because I'm at least I've been seeing the green for so long, I need to step on it. So, I jumped over the fence and I start running around. "The hills are alive with the sound of music". Oh, why you always laugh when I sing, ah? You should do this... not laugh, amen? Too late. No, don't take my time, okay. Then I say, wah, you know, it's so great to be walking on the green. What's all this brown, brown stuff? Then when I look at it, the whole field had dried up brown poo of the lambs, and the sheep, and all that. Obviously, they've been there, but it's all around. It's not just pieces, all around. But from the road, you see green. But when you are there, you see the poo.

You don't realize, you think that person has a better lifestyle, better wife, better husband, that kind of thing, until you are there. Then you realize, "Hey, my problem is better, sorry, ah"? You want to go back. You don't realize until you are there. When you're here, you see the green. Down there, you see the poo. So, every time you start thinking about it, amen, man who think that that colleague will be a better wife, better partner, think twice. They say that, you're not willing to, "I'm trying of like trying to romance my wife and, you know, she doesn't respond". And one day, she will be that 'cause every woman needs romancing. Same effort you take for that must take for this. I don't mean this, I mean your wife. You still gotta put in effort. The Bible says, do the first works. If the feeling is gone, "If you have lost that loving feeling, loving feeling". Hey, y'all learn fast.

I love this church. I love this church, amen. Yeah, y'all can laugh if Pastor Lawrence flex his muscle, that's when it's time to laugh, amen? So, what does the Bible say? You have left your first love and what did Jesus say? Do the first works. I know that's the context of the Lord, but I'm talking about your wife. Do the first works. Start romancing her as if you're in love with her and then, you know what? The feelings will come. Love is not a feeling. Love is a decision. You decide, you decide to forgive, you decide to love, you decide to sacrifice, you decide to do things, amen, amen? Or else if you marry that turkey, it's the still the same, you know? It's still the same, you know? But after for a while, it's the same. You still need to put in the first works. Most men will just go from one, to one, to one only to find, to wake up one day, they are old and they are empty. They've lost all that, that intimate relationship that God designed for them to have. Players are to be pitied, not admired. I said, players are to be pitied, not admired. Get married, settle down, enjoy the blessings of God in that married life, amen?

All right, "The land which you cross over is a land of hills and valleys, that brings water from the rain of heaven". I want to bring this to a close, but before that, let me just say this, the wisdom from God, it's a different kind of wisdom. And just because you ask God for wisdom today doesn't mean you don't ask God for wisdom tomorrow, okay? There was a king by the name of Rehoboam, one of the kings of Judah. Who's son was he? Who can tell me, minus the first row? Who can tell me Rehoboam, who's that? Don't waste time, lah, not all the time, lah. Please, lah, huh? Must be real also, right? But I love it. Okay, never mind. Rehoboam, who's father is Rehoboam? Who is his father, rather? Solomon, don't waste already, took my time to tell you already.

All right, Solomon. Solomon is the father of Rehoboam, and Solomon is a wise king, right? Does it mean that a wise king will have a wise son? We've seen in the Bible a wise king might have a foolish son. In fact, in fact, Solomon doubted his own son. The Bible says that he said in Ecclesiastes that, "What do you know of your son after you? He might be foolish or he might be wise". It seems like to indicate that he knows, all right, the trajectory that Rehoboam's life was taking. And there are kings, however, who are foolish, and wicked even and their son are Godly kings, amen? So, listen to what I'm saying, you know, listen. It's not by osmosis. Wisdom is not imparted by osmosis. Just because you're the son of so-and-so doesn't mean that you become wise. You need to teach them the Word of God, teach them to memorize God's Word, that's more important than two times two is four.

I know parents are, you know, really gung ho about, you know, I can't understand parents who when they hear the news from the ministry of education that there'll be no exams the first two years for primary school, all right? "Oh, how can"? I can't understand parents like this. But really, you know, parents that just think that, an education, what is true education? It is spirit, soul, and body. It's holistic. The greatest education is to know the Lord. So, what's the point if you tell your son, he excels and all, magna cum laude or whatever and PhD, whatever it is, at the end he doesn't have the tools and skills for real life, he doesn't really know the Lord? Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. He's not even begun, only to destroy his life.

There are a lot of intellectual fools. Men professing, yeah, the Bible says that, you know, some saying that we boast in the fact that we know the Lord. Wisdom is something you ask. And his son Rehoboam, one time the people came to him, and Israel was one at that time and the leader was Jeroboam. This is a different kind of boam, okay? The king is Rehoboam, this is Jeroboam. So, Jeroboam represent all the people Israel from the north and they came over and says that, "Can you please lighten the taxes that your father put on us? You know, and we will serve you and all that". So, the king says, "Okay, give me three days, I'll discuss with my guys, okay"?

And the Bible says that, "King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, and he said, 'How do you advise me to answer these people?' And they spoke to him, saying, 'If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.' But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him". And these are the elders, go back again. These are the elders that stood before his father Solomon. They heard the wisdom of Solomon. "But he rejected their advice, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him. And he said, 'What advice do you give? And how should we answer when the people says, 'Lighten the yoke.'" Next verse, "The young men who had grown up says, 'Thus you should speak to this people, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us'".

That's what you say. I will say this to you. "'My little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist!'" So, do tough talk to them. So them who's king, man. And you know what he did? He talked tough to them, and Jeroboam told the people, "Forget it, guys. Let's go back to our own tribes". And from then on, the kingdom was split between two. Judah and Benjamin stayed with King Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and ten tribes followed king, Jeroboam became king later over them, and he was an evil king. The kingdom split because of an unwise decision, lack of humility. You know, the Bible says in the book of wisdom, Proverbs 22 tells us, "By humility and the fear of the Lord are," say it. Don't have to apologize, come on. The Bible says that our riches and, come on, and? Life, not sickness, life, not death, life, "By humility and the fear of the Lord".

How many people, when you tell them, advise them, to how to handle money, they don't want to listen? There goes the riches. Actually, humility is like wanting to learn from people how they excel, how they learn, what do they do, amen? Humility, teachableness, humility and the fear of the Lord, what does it bring? All these three things people seek after, amen, today in the world, right? Riches, honor, and life. They seek for esteem from their colleagues, from their fellow men. The Bible says honor, you have honor in life, amen? Proverbs 9 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding," the fear of the Lord.

Do you know the devil doesn't have wisdom? Now, let me qualify that. He has corrupted wisdom, because the Bible says fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, so he has not begun because he doesn't fear the Lord. For some people, they've not even begun. They have natural wisdom, they have knowledge, they are smart, many a times book smart, but they have no wisdom. I told you before, right, I've seen a doctor behind his clinic smoking. He has knowledge, amazing, astute man. I know him personally, astute man, but smoking, no wisdom. With all the knowledge that he has, he doesn't know how to use it. Wisdom is something that on the inside, you just see it. You see the big picture. You see the real nature of things, amen?

I shared with y'all last week, and I'll close with this, last week I told y'all that, you know, praying fervently is declaration. Does that mean there's no place to pray every day, pray persevering prayers? No, there is but notice what the Bible emphasizes. I'm gonna show you this real quick, and then we're gonna close. The Bible says, Ephesians 1, the very first thing you pray for, "Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, after I heard your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love for all the saints". Many a times when we hear people are doing well, they have faith in the Lord Jesus and they have love for all the saints, we stop praying. Paul is the opposite. "When I heard about it, I did not cease to give thanks for you". Do not cease. Say "Do not cease to give thanks for you making mention of you". "Do not cease to give thanks, and do not cease to make mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him".

The number-one prayer is that you keep on praying every day is to ask God for wisdom, the spirit of wisdom and revelation. The first place in the knowledge of him, to know him. When you see him, it's hard to unsee. No amount of temptation in the world can distract you anymore because you have seen him. It's a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Next verse say, the way it operates, "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened". You have eyes in your heart, your inner man. You can see things before your physical eyes see it. That's how the spirit of wisdom and revelation operates. You see God through the eyes of your heart, amen? And then, you see, notice that the prayer you pray every day is to ask God for wisdom. Colossians chapter 1, it says, "For this reason, we also since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you". Do not cease to pray for you.

So, there are prayers that you keep on praying, and what prayers are they? Prayers for wisdom. "Do not cease to pray for you," and to ask that you may be filled with what? "With the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God". The very first area is to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And that brings you to the 11th verse please. "Strengthened with all might according to his glories," I was sharing this just now, "for all perseverance". That word should be perseverance and long suffering with joy. You are strengthened so that you become a very, cool, calm, collected person, and you will fulfill the keep calm and carry on. You have to be truly calm, a person who is poised, and that's what the world needs.

Multimillionaires, they want to be that kind of person. You do not know the turmoil they go through. The blood pressure follows whatever whoever says. God wants you to be a person strengthened with all might. It takes strengthening with all might for you to be a patient person. It takes strengthening with all might to persevere, persevere in the midst of trials, adverse circumstances, amen? So, I close with this, the very first thing you ask God for is always wisdom. Christ has made unto us, first before righteousness even, wisdom, and then righteousness, and then holiness and redemption. Christ is all this to us, but he's first wisdom. Wisdom is the principal thing. Hebrew, reshit. Wisdom is the reshit thing. In the beginning God created. The first word, bereshit. Reshit is the very beginning. The very first thing you ask God for is wisdom, amen? The wisdom from above is first pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated. The wisdom from below is sensual, demonic, self-seeking.

Where there's envy and strife, there is confusion in every evil work. There is a wisdom from the world. It always makes you proud. It makes you self-seeking. It makes you sensual but the wisdom from above is like Jesus, pure, gentle, easy to be entreated, humble, good fruits. And that's what King Rehoboam lacked, the humility. Listen to the people. You're a servant king, you're not a king king. Without people, there's no king. That's a good statement. I want to take down notes for myself. That was a good statement, amen? Must never forget, leaders, whatever field of leadership you are in, remember this, you are there to serve. A King like Jesus, he was a King, and yet you see him by the shores of Galilee casting out demons, bringing relief to the oppressed, casting out the spirit of the depression, the spirit of intimidation, the spirit of that makes you sick, infirmity. You see him healing the sick. You see him cleansing the leper. This is a king, the king of Israel, and he uses his power, the powerful Word that he has to heal, to set free.

And Pontius Pilate said, "Shall I crucify your king"? And they said, "We have no king. We have no king," the leader says, "But Caesar is our king". And for 2,000 years, they've been serving Caesar after Caesar after Caesar; whereas, the King is waiting for them to say, "You are our King," bang, he's gonna return. You and I right now, we acknowledge him as King, and we definitely live in his kingdom where his kingly sway is over everything that we are over, our families, our jobs, our ministries, our career, our relationships. There's this kingly touch on all that. There's an authority that the world knows not of, amen? And that's what it means, seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Do his way of doing things, that righteousness, peace and joy may flow. Don't follow the ways of the world. Don't copy the world. I got no time.

People give me books, you know, business books or whatever. It's okay if you're a business person and read all that and all that, I got no time for that, why? I need time for even my own books, but I find that many a times when I study those books, I don't even have to study those books. I'm able to organize, I'm able to administrate, amen. I can talk to people that are more qualified than me and see the very areas they need to change or have revelation in. Now, I'm not saying that in a boastful way. I'm just saying I'm nobody but for the wisdom of God, and I still desperately need his wisdom, and so do you. So, make that our prayer every day, and make wisdom our number-one request, amen? Give praise to Jesus, everybody, hallelujah. Every head bowed, every eye closed all across this place. Thank you, Lord Jesus, amen, amen, amen, amen.

Just for a while, remember that there is no wisdom. Even Solomon failed. There is no wisdom apart from the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The moment Solomon departed from worshiping the Lord, from fearing the Lord, from being occupied with the Lord, and he turned because his wives turned his heart after idols, that very moment that wisdom was corrupted. Just because you have wisdom last year does not mean you have wisdom today. We need to ask God day by day, every day, "Give us this day, our daily bread". And that's not physical bread, that's wisdom, food from God that truly satisfies, food from God that even brings natural food. He's the source, people. He's the source. Do not be independent of God like Egypt, be dependent on God.

So, as you pray that prayer right now, wherever you are, you know, do some soul searching, some heart searching and say, "Do I really trust God? Do I really believe that he's for me? Do I really believe that I'll do things God's way? Am I depending on the ways of the world? Am I depending on drugs and medicine"? Now, I'm not saying give up your medicine. If the doctors give you medicine, the doctors give me medicine, I'll take it. I'm just saying, living a lifestyle where you purchase the medicine illegally, where you purchase the medicine, or you get medicine, or you are borrowing money, you borrow from A to pay to B, all these are the ways of Egypt, the ways of the world. God says, "Don't go down there. Trust me, sow, sow your way out of debt. Give your way out of lack. In the midst of famine sow, and you'll begin to prosper, and you'll become prosperous, and you'll be very prosperous," amen?

There are people today that are not happy with the advice we give people. There are people today, even you tell them about tithing, they get angry. They try to come up with the fact that today we don't have the tithe. And I leave it to them with God. I just want you to know that some have departed for the ways of the world, trusting their independence, but tithing keeps me dependent, amen? And tithing declares, you are the source of my blessings. You don't have to, you get to. Every head bowed, every eye closed across this place.

If you are here today and you say, "Pastor Prince, pray for me. I've never put my trust in Christ, and I believe that today, God is calling me. I feel that the entire message as you were preaching. God is inviting me into this realm. I'm not so sure what I'm entering yet, but I know that I want him. I want the Lord". If that is you, pray this prayer with me right now.

Heavenly Father, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe he died on the cross for my sins. I believe he rose again from the dead when I was justified, cleared from all my sins, from all my guilt. Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior. Thank you, Father, I'm saved, hallelujah. In Jesus's name, amen.

Stand to your feet, praise the Lord. You see, thank you so much, church. You're so well behaved. There's wisdom coming already. I didn't see anyone walking around. Let me tell you this, when salvation call is going forth, that's the most important to respect those who are praying. You remember what it was like when you prayed last time? It changed your life so a lot of people, many people are watching and then it's going to the broadcast as well all over the world, and we have testimonies of people whose lives have been transformed, amen? So, thank you for taking time. I think I pastor a very wise church, amen? I really do. I really, really do. Humble people, people who are humble and who knows their source, amen, of all their blessings. Lift up your hands all across this place.

Remember, this coming week, let's not take our lives for granted. Let's not be like ancient Egypt, not knowing the source of our blessings. And this week, we trust God as the source of our protection. God knows ahead of time, before we enter into the realm. He can make the crooked places straight. Let's pray for that right now.

Father, in Jesus's name, as we step into an entirely new week, Father, we pray, Lord, that you'll go ahead of us, Lord, as you have promised and make all the crooked places straight. Let every valley be exalted, every mountain proud, prideful things be brought low, Lord. I pray, Father, that you'll make the places straight for us and prosper our way, Father. Prosper everything that we touch. As you have promised, Lord, whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Father, we ask for true prosperity to know you more and more, Lord, we pray. And Father, in Jesus's name as we and our families step into this week, protect us from every danger, from every infection, and from all the powers of the darkness. In Jesus's name, we ask. Thank you, Father, for your favor is on us. Thank you, Father, we love you and we proclaim that you are the source of all our blessings, Lord, favor and good things, Lord, in our life. In Jesus's name, and all the people said? Amen.