Joseph Prince - God Can Turn Curses Into Blessings For You
Last week I touched on how all of us are in a prison called righteousness, okay? Now, the thing is that outside - actually it's bondage. Outside is slavery. Outside is all kinds of terrible curses that has befallen mankind ever since Adam fell. It's a fallen earth all because of Adam's sin. When God looks down, God grieves, all right? God never meant for the earth to be like that. You cannot ask the question, why is there suffering? Why are there tragedies? Why are there tsunamis? Why are there volcanoes? Why are there earthquakes? Without asking the question, the earth is groaning. But praise be to God, Jesus Christ is returning, and he's gonna set right what the first Adam made wrong. All right, and the earth, under his rule, will never suffer poverty.
Bono will be out of job, all right? There'll be no need to eradicate poverty. There'll be no need to eradicate disease. There's no need for hospitals, why? Because Jesus Christ, the last Adam, will set everything right. And then you will see what the earth is like when God really have his way. So until then, the Bible tells us, we can pray and affect situations. We can pray, all right, for impending disasters and we can avert it. All right, we can pray that God will protect the nation that we are in, because I'm telling you, church, you have influence and power with God because God hears your prayers, amen, why? Because you are the righteousness of God in Christ.
Look up here in Romans 4, we'll continue from last week, and here it says, but to him who does not work, does not perform, does not perform to be accepted by God, does not perform to score points with God. Does not perform to be right, okay? He does not perform because he knows that no amount of performance can ever attain the holiness that God is at. When God says, "Be holy for I am holy", what man, what woman can reach that standard? If you say you can reach that standard, you have a very lowly concept of God's holiness, amen? If you don't have a lowly concept, you will say, "My goodness, who can reach God's perfect holiness", right? So, but the Bible says don't try even. But instead of trying, what do you do? You don't work for it, don't perform for it, but believes on God who justifies the ungodly. His faith, that kind of faith, is counted by God for righteousness.
God says, "When I find this faith, I will treat that man like he is righteous, I will treat that woman like he is righteous". What kind of faith does God accounts for righteousness? To him who does not perform or work but believes on God who justifies the ungodly. Now, many of us think God justifies, or make righteous, the godly. Now, you don't need faith for that. You need faith to believe God justifies the ungodly. But how can a holy God, an inflexibly righteous and holy God, justify the ungodly? How can God do that? How can God make righteous the ungodly? There is and there must be a proper and righteous foundation, and the foundation is the cross. Because at the cross, a holy God took all your sins and my sins, laid it on Jesus.
His inflexible righteousness and his unbending holiness unleashed all his righteous wrath and holy vengeance against all our sins, but he sent his Son so that his Son will bear all our sins. And because all our sins have been punished, all our sins have been judged, the holiness of God today, listen to what I'm saying, cannot punish you, because if God punishes you for your same sins that he punished Jesus who bore your sins, that'll be unrighteous, because that's like saying you can try the same crime twice, the law of double jeopardy. The same sin cannot be tried twice. And all the people said? Once in my substitute's body at Calvary and then in my body, God cannot do that.
So, for all those who believe in Jesus, God says, "I am righteous based on what Christ has done, never to see you in your sins because I've seen your sins in the body of my Son. So, today my holy eyes sees only the loveliness and the perfection of my beloved Son". You better know how God sees you, church, because I'm telling you, this is the essence of the gospel. Hallelujah, amen? See, many a times we talk about righteousness by faith and still people don't have a concept. I thank God for David. David describes the righteousness without performance, without works. Would you like to see it? In Romans 4 David says here, verse 6, "Just as David also describes". Say describes. What is describe? That means what? You go into detail, all right, you elucidate, all right? You mention the different parts and components of the blessedness. David also describes the blessedness.
By the way, this word blessedness here in the Greek is in plural. Blessednesses, okay? God didn't just bless you, God gave you blessednesses, amen, not blessed nurses. Okay, if you're a nurse, receive that. Just as David also describes the blessednesses of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from performance, apart from works. Would you like to hear how he describes this man whom God imputes righteousness apart from works? By the way, God imputes to us, you and I, talking about us, we are this man. You are this man, okay? God imputes to you righteousness apart from your works. You know why? Because God imputed to Jesus our sins apart from his sinful works. So, God can impute to you righteousness without your righteous works. I repeat, the reason Jesus became sin at the cross is because God imputed, set to his account, your sins. But apart from his sinful works, he never sinned. By the same token, God imputes Jesus's righteousness to us apart from our righteous performance, apart from our righteous works. Can I have a good amen? Are you with me?
All right, so now he's about to describe. Look at the description. Verse 7, "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven And whose sins are covered". Do you know you are blessed because your sins are forgiven? Past, present, and future, amen? "Well, Pastor Prince, if you preach like this". No, you see, church, don't try to be God's policeman. Don't try to say, "Well, you preach like this, people will sin". That's what you think with your carnal mind. You know what Jesus said? "Whoever's forgiven much, if they know they are forgiven much, they will love me much", Jesus said. It's because we have not preached the truth there's been no response of the truth. Are you with me?
All right, Jesus said, or the Bible says, "We are blessed because all our sins are forgiven". Number two, don't forget it's blessedness is more than one blessed. Number two, "Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin". All right, these words shall not is from the Greek, two Greek words, ou me. Now, actually, you use one, it's enough which means no, not. But you use both, it strengthens the denial. It's a double negative. It's a strong negative which means blessed is the man who believe in Jesus, blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall never in any case impute sin. Are you with me? God will never impute sin to you.
Now, this only means something when you sin or you don't sin? You see, I know it's a deep thought, all right, we all want to be philosophical before we answer. We learned from our school life last time that if you answer too fast, all right, it's a trick question, you look foolish. But it's no trick question. Let me ask you, when does this verse mean anything, when you sin or when you don't sin? Of course, it's when you fail, when you sin, because when you don't sin, why should God impute sin to you? Duh, right? It is when you fail, when you sin, you are blessed, because God does not count that sin against you, why? Has God gone soft? I remind you again, it is precisely because God has already imputed that sin to Jesus and punished that sin. So, your part is to always go back to the cross. Remind yourself of what happened at the cross. Will this produce a licentious lifestyle? No way. Right believing will always produce right living, and all the people said? Amen.
You see, the thing is this, if we don't understand this, we cannot live the Christian life. The Christian life is the high life. It's the heavenly life. A lot of people, they talk about imperatives, exhortations, commands. "You know, Pastor Prince, you need to tell people about the imperatives, the commands and all that". But they don't understand that the positional truths, the indicatives, all right, who you are in Christ, your wealth in Christ, all right, all that God has given to you in Christ. That one must always come first. You find in all of Paul's letters, he always talks about your wealth in Christ for the first few chapters, and then he talks about your walk in Christ. And then he talks about your warfare last, but we have put warfare first, walk second, and our wealth last, okay? You must know who you are before you can do what you are, all right? You need to know who you are. You are righteous, holy, and blameless in Christ. Your performance does not change who you are in Christ.
One of the biggest dangers, one of the biggest errors, I should say, in Christianity today is to measure our practice, listen, all right, I should say it like this, measure our standing. Now, our standing is who we are in Christ. Once the standing is settled in our hearts, we are righteous, we are holy, we are blameless. That must be absolutely settled. Do you know why? Because in God's heart, it's absolutely settled. If that is not settled in your heart, you will always measure your standing by your performance. That's a dangerous game. God wants you to measure your performance by your standing. Are you listening? Your standing says you are righteous, holy, and blameless, amen?
Now, if I am wealthy, if I know I'm wealthy, okay, when I write checks, I can write freely. I can write with a spirit of generosity, amen? But if I do not know how wealthy I am, I'll be impeded. I'll be restrained in the way I write my checks. In fact, I'm not too sure whether my savings, all right, has this available balance. I always have that hesitation before I write something. But if you know you are wealthy, all right, how many understand in Christ, we are all wealthy? And I'm not referring to money now, I'm talking about in Christ, all of us are wealthy with all the blessings and the inheritance of God. Unless you know who you are in Christ, you cannot walk out what you are. You must know who you are, your wealth, before you can walk it out. And that's why you have phrases like this in the Bible, "If you then be risen with Christ", notice, your position, "then you can mortify your deeds on the earth". Are you with me?
Watch Jesus. The Bible says Jesus knowing he came from the father, knowing he's going to the Father John 13 tells us, Jesus knowing. Say knowing. The Father had given what? How many things? And that he had come from God. He was going to God. He knew where he came. He knew where he was going. He knew what he had. He rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and served and washed the disciples' feet. The key to service, the key to being a servant is to know how rich you are. Only those who know how wealthy they are in Christ can afford to stoop. Are you listening? Insecure people are proud. Secure people who know who they are, what they have in Christ can serve. And they won't serve their ego. They won't serve money. They will serve the Lord. Amen, church?
The Bible tells us there was a man called Balak, okay? Balak was the king of Moab, present day in the area of Jordan, the land of Jordan. And Balak was afraid of the children of Israel when he need not be, actually. What happened is that the children of Israel came out of Egypt, all right, and God brought them out by the long way, okay, because God didn't want them to be discouraged by the short way, a lot of enemies. So, God brought them out by the longer way, via Jordan. All right, many of you have gone to visit Israel via Jordan. And now Israel is in the land of Moab just before they crossed by. And the king of Moab is so dumb, the best thing is just let them cross. They're not crossing into your land. They're crossing into the Promised Land. In a matter of days, they'll be in the land. But see what he said. Numbers 22, "Then the children of Israel moved, and camped in the plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan across from Jericho".
Now, I want to show you where they were camped because later on, you'll see why. We'll come back do this verse again, plains of Moab. Where were they? Plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan across from Jericho, just before they crossed the river Jordan, all right? Later on we'll see why this phrase, this location is important. "Now Balak the son of Zippor", The king of Moab, "saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites". When I was reading this, the Lord says, "That's the problem with this king, he saw all that Israel had done. He never saw what God had done for Israel", amen? So, the problem with this Balak was that he saw all that Israel had done, instead of what the Lord had done in Israel, okay? "And Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel".
So, you know what he did? He hired a professional wizard, his name was Balaam. Balak the king says, "Let me hire you. I'll give you gold and silver, all right, to come and curse these people because I know those that you curse is cursed". But don't forget these people are God's people, and they are people whom God has blessed. Obviously, he didn't love God. He loved the gold and silver that the king was offering him. So, he was on his way to curse God's people. Anyway, God finally allowed him to go, but God says, "I'll put my words in your mouth. You can't curse them". And then he stood up on the mountain, and he's about to curse Israel below. I love this part. He used the phrase, "From the top of the rocks I see him", collective whole, him, Israel.
And then he says he was about to curse, and God turned his curse into a blessing. And God says, out of his mouth came these words from Balaam's mouth, "How can I curse those that God has not cursed"? Because you're a blessed people, amen. And then he looked down, he says that Israel shall dwell alone and not reckon with the nations. You know until now it's so true? Israel, as a nation, is a nation that is so misunderstood. This coming Thursday, 9 September, is the new year Rosh Hashanah. As a nation, no matter even they try to go away from their land, try to, you know, get themselves assimilated in the nations, yet something will happen, persecution or whatever, they cannot be reckoned among the nations.
Yet I'm here to tell you these people, these Jewish people, they are a minority race. Yet, many people inventions, many breakthroughs in science, many beautiful music, many beautiful creative ideas have sprung up from this minority nation because God has blessed them. Yes, their eyes are blinded to Jesus Christ momentary. One day their heavenly Joseph will return to the brothers and says, "I am he whom you sold", and their eyes will open. The only difference is that Joseph went to look out for the welfare of the brothers, not knowing they would sell him. "Come to me, we'll sell you". Their threat was really true, all right? Whereas Jesus came to earth knowing. Joseph went not knowing. Jesus came knowing he'll be spat upon, he'll be scourged, his beard will be plucked, he'll be beaten, he'll be crucified, yet he came because he loves you. He loved me, amen?
And one day the love affair that God has with Israel, we'll see the fullness of it because God promised two seed in the... capital seed, all right? God promised Abraham, "I'll multiply your seed like the stars of the heaven". Those are all of us, spiritual Israel. We are like the stars of the heavens, heavenly. "And I'll multiply your seed like the sand", natural. That's natural Israel. And from these two seed of Abraham in the one seed, Christ, has come all kinds of blessings in this world, amen. Wherever God's people have gone, women are respected, chivalry is birthed, educational schools are built. It's always for the betterment and upgrading of mankind, wherever God's people have gone. Yet we have people speaking against us. We got people, we don't see them. they're hiding among the rocks, all right, saying things about you. They might be your colleagues, all right, and they are jealous of you or they just don't like you because you're a believer.
What happens then? Can they hire professional wizards to curse you, witches to hold the stick and hit on the ground and the Nanny McPhee will scatter all the, you know? Okay, nothing wrong with Nanny McPhee, okay? Sorry, sorry, I touched your precious Nanny McPhee, sorry. Jessica loved that story, Nanny McPhee. But you know by some magical thing, can all these so-called witches and their sorcery prevail against God's people? Let's see what happened. When Balak saw, instead of cursing God's people, all right, he ended up blessing God's people by saying, "How can I curse those that God has not cursed"? So, he brought, you know, Balak brought prophet, so-called prophet, Balaam, to another place.
Now, this place many of you have been in Jordan. It is the last stand of Moses at Mount Nebo, all right? And the top of it is called Pisgah, okay? And the Bible says this is where they went. "He brought him to the field of Zophim", which means watches. All right, very interesting 'cause from there you can watch the entire land of Israel, plus Jordan as well. And to the top of Pisgah, which means survey in Hebrew, and built seven altars. So, he said, "Maybe from this angle, you can curse them better", okay? You can't curse them from here, maybe you can curse them from here. You see, the world is full of ideas that location plays a part. But my Bible says when God blesses you, you are blessed whether you are in the country or in the city. Some people think, "Well, I hear this testimony. This guy was in this profession and he got blessed by God. I want to change profession as well". It's not the profession. It is the blessing. Are you with me?
So, he went up, he brought Balaam to this place, top of Pisgah. I want to show you Pisgah right now, the picture of Pisgah. All right, this is Pisgah. We're actually standing on Pisgah, Mount Nebo, and this is the last stop of Moses, by the way. Moses saw this and then there on this mountain, Moses died. If you look far away, you will see Israel, the land of Israel, all right? So, this is where Balaam was brought by Balak. And one of our video girls took this. All right, watch this. We are looking, panning from the north. We are going towards the center where you face Israel on the west. All right, you're looking down from Pisgah and somewhere down here, at that time, the children of Israel were camping somewhere here, all right, down there they can see the dead sea coming up. And then you pan towards the south.
Now, look up here, from this place, he looked down, and this is what he said. Would you like to see what he said? All right, he says this, "He took up his oracle and said". God, again, put his words in Balaam's mouth. And he said this, "Rise up, Balak". He told the king. And hear, "Listen to me, son of Zippor! 'God is not a man that He should lie Nor a son of man that He should repent", or change his mind. "Has God said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good"? You know so many times people quote this verse in a negative way. For example, when you sin, they will say, "Well, if God doesn't judge that sin, all right, God is not a man that he should repent". God says the soul that sins, it shall die. Instead of reminding you that Jesus died that death, they use this verse always for judgment.
"If God doesn't judge America, God will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah". You heard that before? All right, "Because God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent", amen? That's called the preaching anointing, all right? But the thing is that the context of this verse comes next, verse 20, "Behold", Balaam says, "I have received a command to bless. God has blessed, and I cannot reverse it". God has blessed you, and no one can reverse it! God is not going to bless, God has blessed. Turn to your neighbor and say, "I am blessed. I am blessed". And tell them, "It is irreversible". Hopelessly irreversible.
Now, listen, God has blessed. Balaam represents Satan, doesn't he? And Satan says God has blessed you and I cannot reverse it. Satan cannot. Your self-appointed enemies cannot. Bloggers that come against you cannot. They cannot reverse the blessing. And God will not. You are irreversibly blessed. Who asked you to receive Christ? Say, "I am blessed, and no one can reverse it". Let me just tell you something about people speaking things against you, all right? It would help you a lot to know this, okay? From someone who understands. When people start speaking against you, whether it's envy or jealousy or just wanna, you know, assassinate your character, all right, make sure it's not for a real reason, okay? But it is come against you because your light is shining, okay? Whether it's in your workplace or even your relatives might be criticizing you or whatever, just remember this. It is God who gives influence to words, all right, or God can cause words to fall to the ground.
Do you know the Bible says when Prophet Samuel was being raised by God, God allowed none of his words to fall to the ground. I prayed that for my ministry years ago, that God would let none of my words fall to the ground. Regardless what people write, what people say, all right? Unless God anoints it, unless God puts his favor on it, you can write a million words, it will all have no effect on the reader. And they may feel something at the moment, but it won't stick. But when God anoints even a few words, all right, it will stick. You'll remember it for life. You'll remember it. It will rescue you when you need help, amen. You see, it's not a matter of speaking words. It's a matter of do your words hold weight? Does God give you the weight? I mean, not the weight; God gives you the weight. In your words. Can I have a good amen?
All right, are you with me, okay? And this is so beautiful. Like I said, the problem with us is that we don't describe the blessedness. Many of us, you know, like we have five children. We put them to bed, we say, "I bless you, I bless you, I bless you, I bless you, and I bless you. Okay, good night". And the kids don't understand, all right, what is the blessing all about. You should go to one kid and say, all right, "You are a very witty child. You make Daddy and Mommy laugh, all right? You have the joy of the Lord and you will cause many people to be rejoicing because you have the joy of the Lord". Now, you might not use the word "bless", but you've just blessed the child. Are you listening, people, amen? Because in the New Testament the word "bless" means this.
By the way, you know the Greek word for bless in the New Testament? Eulogeia. Eulogeia. Say "eulogeia". From where we get our English word, "eulogy". Unfortunately, eulogy is used for dead people, all right? Maybe the idea is that we can speak eulogeia, blessings, because Jesus's death has brought us everything, amen? So eulogeia means what? "Speak well". Say it. So you might not use the word "bless", but when you speak well, all right, about someone, you have blessed the person. When you speak well about your body, you have blessed your body. Instead of saying, "You know, this back, always, you know, just when we're about to go for holiday, it acts up. Forever it's like that", all right? You have just cursed your body because the word for curse in the Greek is this word, "katara", which means speak down. Kata is down, ara is to proclaim, all right?
Now, like, for example, there is therefore now no katakrima, no condemnation in Christ. From the word "krima" for judge, all right? But kata means condemn. So it's, you know, down. You speak down. Now, do you remember Jesus, when he came to the fig tree? He was hungry. The Bible says he came to the fig tree. Actually, Jesus knew what he was about to do and Jesus looked at the fig tree. It has an appearance of fruitfulness, but there was no fruit, all right? So Jesus cursed the fig tree. Jesus says, "No man eat fruit from you hereafter forever".
You know, people say, "Well, Pastor Prince, I don't talk to trees". Yeah, you know this? You don't even talk to your headache. You don't even talk to your tumor. That's why it's growing. That's why, you know, I'd rather be like Jesus and get results than to be "sound", quote, unquote, like you and have no results. He spoke to dead people and they were raised from the dead. He spoke to demons and they left, amen. He spoke to the storm and it was calmed, amen. We've got to learn to operate, and the whole purpose for Jesus cursing the fig tree was that the very next day, Jesus would teach his disciples how to use the faith of God that comes by speaking.
You see, you must understand one thing. You can curse your situation without using the word "curse". Jesus never used the word, "I curse you, fig tree. Naughty fig tree, I curse you", all right? He didn't use that. He said what? "No man eat fruit from you hereafter forever". Negative words. He spoke down. And the next day, the fig tree was dried up from the roots, and Peter, who else? Peter says, "Lord, the fig tree you cursed is withered away". Then Jesus taught them, "Whenever you speak and you believe what you speak will happen, it will happen", okay? So, he says what? "No man eat fruit from you hereafter forever". We look at our children, we look at report card. "Why, you are forever one. Always fail your Chinese. Always fail your mathematics". You just cursed them. "No, I didn't curse them. I didn't say, 'I curse you, child'. I will never say that". You just cursed them. You spoke down. "I don't know why, you know, this elbow always, always causing me pain". You just cursed your body. Are you with me?
So we don't even know we are operating. That's why it's important to describe the blessing. You need to speak well. You don't go to a child who does beautiful artwork and you say, "Wow, I bless you. Wow, I praise you. I praise you. Wow, I praise you. I praise you". You don't do that. "Pastor Prince, we praise the Lord". But you must understand, even in the Bible: "Praise the Lord for he is good. For his mercy endures forever". You praise someone for something. You don't say, "Praise you, praise you, praise you". You look across the table, a candlelit table, and you see Pastor Leanne there. You smile at her and you say, "You are lovely", right? What have you done? You've just blessed her, amen? Amen?
I'm looking around to see who will say amen. You don't go and look at her and say, "Leanne, I love you, all right? And I praise you. I praise you and I repraise you". Even blessing, we don't describe the blessing, and people don't understand. They say, you know, "I bless you. Bless you". You say, someone sneezes, "Bless you. I bless you". No, there is a description. Speaking well is blessing. Speaking negative is cursing. Are you with me? See, because we are all made in God's image, all right? Animals were not made in God's image. We are made in God's image. How did Jesus heal the sick? You know, when he touched the woman who was bowed down, that old lady, for 18 years. When he touched her, nothing happened. Only when he says, "Woman, you are loosed", she was set free. When Jesus touched the leper, nothing happened. But when he says, "Be clean", straightaway, the leprosy left. It is the power of the words.
If you take the Communion in your hand and say, "Lord, I thank you for your broken body. By your stripes I'm healed". That's why we lead you to speak. Everybody, learn to speak yourself. Don't speak negative. Speak positive. "Oh, Pastor Prince, if something is there, it is there". You see, we are made in God's image. When God saw darkness in the beginning, the Bible says, God didn't say, "Wow, so dark". You know, God didn't do that, you know? If God did that, it would be very dark, you know? If God is like you, thank God God is not like you, but we are made in God's image. God saw darkness, but God did not call it as it is. God called forth what he wants. That is power. I said God called forth what he wants. He doesn't look at his savings account and say, "Wha! So terrible. Available balance: 15 cents", you know? Don't call what is as it is. If you call what is as it is, it is no more than what is.
The Bible says God has a nature where he call those things that are not as though they are. When Abraham and his wife could not have a child, God called him father of multitudes. God called his wife princess of many. You know, God taught them to speak what they see by faith and they became what they speak. Jesus met Peter for the first time and says, "Your name is Simon, all right? From now on, you'll be called Peter". Petra in Greek means rock, amen? And his name, actually, original name means reed, all right? Simon which means, you know, a reed that flows in the wind. And Jesus says, "You'll be known as Petra, rock". So at times, "Lord Jesus, there's a storm. What shall I do"? Step aside, Rocky. They call him rock, amen. When he denied knowing Jesus three times, the morning Jesus was crucified, Jesus kept on calling him Peter, Rocky, Rocky, hey, Rocky, and, you know, finally, he became a rock. Became the pillar of the church, amen. He became what Jesus saw him as. So when I look at you, you are blessed.
The more you say, "I'm blessed, and my blessing is irreversible", and you face this coming week like that. Wake up in the morning and say, "I'm blessed, praise God". Lightning, thunder, hurricane outside, but you say, "Praise God, the blessing of God coming through. Excuse me", amen, amen. I'm telling you, when you step into a boutique, I have seen it happen. When you step into a boutique, no one is there, mark my words, after for a while, people will come to the boutique. You are a blessing to the boutique. You are a blessing going somewhere to happen, amen. Praise the Lord. Don't wake up and say, "Oh, man, Monday". "Oh, man, jam. Always jam". "Always flooded".
You know, church, we really have to understand blessing is not just saying "blessing". We don't describe the blessing, it's as good as not a blessing. Unless you talk to your wife and tell her all the good things about herself. "But she knows". No, tell it to her. Say to her. I look at the Song of Solomon, all right, and the description, "You have dove's eyes. Your hair is like a flock of goats. Your tower like the tower of David". Now, for you, it's not romantic, but if you are from Israeli background, all this means something beautiful, all right? When you say, "Your hair is black. Your neck is nice. Your eyes are quite nice", that's Singapore talk, you know? We are not descriptive. We gotta learn to bless, amen?
So go back again to the pronouncement again. Are you all learning this? All right, learn to speak well over your children. Children are very precious. You know, a study is done on kids that are abused. You know, they found out that when they grow up, they also abuse their own kids and the cycle goes on. So they tried to find out why is it that kids grow up, you know, who grow up abused, abuse their own kids. It's like a curse, keep on going on, all right? Because they are put down, put down by words and also physical action says you're no value. Then, as they grow up, all right, they pass it on and they found that the reason why it stuck with the kids is because when they are young, kids are so precious, that even when their parents are wrong, they blame themselves for their parents' wrong.
When the parent says something to the kids, even though the parent is wrong, all right, the kids blame themself. Even when parents are divorced, kids blame themself. Kids have this natural thing to blame themself for everything that goes wrong. That's why it's important we offset those things. You might say, "Well, Pastor Prince, my child, I must humble him a bit". No, no, no, no. Trust me, the friends in school will humble him. Trust me, circumstances will humble him. Sometimes, teachers will help to humble him. Events, circumstances, will help to humble him. What the world needs is some speaking well. "I won't say that to my husband, you know, after he become very proud, Pastor Prince, you know"? No, no, trust me. His boss will humble him, all right? His job might humble him. On the way back to see you, he's humble already, on the roads, you know?
I mean, I'm telling you there's a lot of things that's negative in life. What they need is speaking well. They need some speaking well. Are you with me? All right, church? There's one blessing. And finally, he goes on: "God has not observed iniquity in Jacob. Nor has he seen wickedness in Israel". What an amazing statement. Hey, church, notice the whole context from verse 19: "God is not a man that he should lie". The context is that God says he is blessed, he does not lie. When God says he will do it, he will perform it. That's the context of God is not a man that he should lie. The context is always blessing, blessing, blessing, amen? And notice he's gonna describe the blessing now, see? It's not enough just to say God has blessed. He's gonna describe to you the blessedness. "God has not observed iniquity in Jacob". Observed, not observed.
Now, is there iniquity in Israel, in Jacob? Is there? Yes, they were murmuring. You know what they were doing in the tents below? They were complaining, they were murmuring. They were looking at other people's wives. They were coveting other people's donkeys. There are all kinds of mess in terms of breaking the law going on down there. But God does not see it. God did not say, "It's not there in my people". God did not say, "There's no sin in you". God says, "I don't see it". Whoa, whoa, how come a holy God, an unbendingly holy God, cannot see sin on you? You know why? Because those same holy eyes saw all our sins punished in the body of Jesus Christ into non-existence. So his holy eyes cannot see sin in two places. It'll be unrighteous. That's why he cannot see sin in you, whew.
Now, I didn't say your wife cannot see it. Sometimes, your relatives see it and they remind you of something that happened ten years ago. Sometimes, family do that. But again, church, it's not important how you view yourself. It's not important how the devil views you or his people. It's not important even how you view each other. What is important is how God views you. And many people out there think that God is viewing them in all their sins, waiting to pounce on them. You see, a lot of people, and this is where I differ from some preachers. Some preachers think that, you know, the world think God is love, God is love, he's weak, he's love, and they think of love in a weak way. That's what they think. My belief is that the world doesn't think of God that way. Majority of the people think of God as someone waiting to pounce, to hit, to judge, quick to find fault. That's how they see, that's why the world is in the mess it is. Wrong believing produce wrong living. Are you with me?
Okay, so because of time, let's go look at one final parable. There are four parables that Balaam pronounced over God's people, but we only have time for one more, okay? So one more. He said, "Okay, all right, I bring you here, you bless them. I bring you here, you bless them. I pay you to curse them. What's so difficult about cursing God's people", all right? So again, he... oh, by the way, I didn't finish. "Nor has God seen wickedness in Israel". Isn't that beautiful? God does not see it. God did not say there's none. God did not say there's no sin in you. And I never say there's no sin in you. I'm just saying God does not see it. Why? Because he's holy. And that's how we love one another, all right? When we love one another, don't live on this earthly plane and see each other with our faults and all that. Come higher. See each other the way God sees you. See our brothers and sisters without their blemishes because, honestly, there is no such creature as a perfect person.
You say, "Well, Pastor Prince, I'm leaving this church because I really find this church not perfect". Well, praise God. Finally, you realize, then you're leaving. All right, since you're so perfect, make sure you don't attend any other church because the moment you step into that perfect church, it becomes imperfect because you are there. No, the church is, in the natural, we are all imperfect. Imperfect actions, imperfect thoughts. But you know something? God sees us perfectly righteous. Awesome, because he sees you in his beloved Son. And unless we know this, we cannot measure our practice because we must always measure our practice based on our standing, and not the other way around. Unless we come higher, we cannot have a high walk in Christ, okay, all right? Okay, the next parable like I said just now. "Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times, to seek to use sorcery, but he set his face toward the wilderness".
All right, I was reading this one day, and I saw this and God just warmed my heart when I saw this. "Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel", underline that. I saw it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, and I underlined that in my Bible. I said, my goodness, God didn't just bless Israel, he had a good time doing it. It pleased God to bless you. Do you know it pleases God to bless you? You know, I've seen people bless their children in a way that's not, you know, you don't feel like the child can and receive pleasure, always buy toys, always buy toys, and the child will still take the money and buy the toy, all right? But in the child's head, the child will never see you as a joyful giver, why? Because the style of giving is important. God's style of gifting is important.
You know the Bible says words like, "He frankly forgave them". Used words like, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son", all right? It shows the intensity, it shows the love that God has. You know, and for example this verse here, right? It says that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel. And you know what? Israel's enemies saw that. Many a times, we don't even see it, and our enemy sees that it pleases God to bless you. God has a good time blessing you. It gives him a thrill to bless you, amen. "And Balaam raised his eyes, and saw Israel encamped according to their tribes". Wow, something is happening here because the Spirit of God came upon him. He saw Israel camped according to their tribes. What does that mean, camped according to their tribes?
Now, I'm gonna show you what that means because whatever he saw made him realize. He saw something, then the Holy Spirit came on him. Now, the Holy Spirit didn't fill Balaam, all right? He remained unrighteous until his dying day, all right? The Holy Spirit just came upon him to put words in his mouth that's blessing God's people, and then the Holy Spirit lifts, okay? But what did he see that caused him to be so blessed? He saw Israel camped according to their tribes. Would you like to see it? Now, this is what he saw. He saw Israel camped according to their tribes. Now, this is exactly how they camped. This is not made up by me, all right, this is how they camped. You can read about their camping, all right, facing the tabernacle, north, east and west, all right, north, east and west about the same number of people, all right, tree tribes each. But the east facing, yours is the south here. East, the bottom part here on the screen, actually, it's east, has the largest number Judah with Moses's family and the Levites.
So, it's longer than the top three. What do you see? In the cross, God does not see your sin. You are in the cross. You are in Christ. And this is what Balaam saw. Balaam saw from God's perspective. Unfortunately, what was going on inside, there was murmuring, there was complaining. The people never saw themselves the way God saw them. They didn't have a New Creation Church at the time. They didn't see how God saw them. So, let's go nearer, okay? From here, let's go down to where they lived from the earthly plain. All right, we are living God's perspective from the top of the rocks where the air is fresh, all right, stop. Okay, now this brother is walking away from this brother. They just fought. Okay, then that sister is not happy with her husband, so she stands outside.
All right, this guy claims that donkey over there, his donkey, but he says no, his donkey died, that one is his donkey. All right, a lot of murmuring, a lot of complaining. Someone says, manna, manna, manna, every day manna, every day the same bread. And they're all dreaming of this thing, and some of them are really coming against Moses's scheming. "Who made Moses boss? Why must we follow Moses? I don't remember electing him". All this is going on in the camp, and this earthly plain where we live. If I don't preach your position, this is where all of you will live, all right? But many a times we go to church, all right, thank God we see each other from the top of the rocks, from God's heavenly perspective like this. And all you see is the beauty and the perfection of Jesus Christ. And you see God's love for you at the cross. God sees you blameless.
You see, even before Jesus performed one miracle, even before Jesus conquered the devil, when Jesus came out of the waters of the River Jordan at his baptism, the Father opened the heavens and says, "You are my beloved Son. In you, I am well pleased". And with those words that spoke well of Jesus or the Father's affirmation over his life. Jesus went into the wilderness, and he defeated the devil. Every child deserves that from the father. Every child must have the father say, "You know, in my eyes, you are so pleasing to me. I really enjoy being with you". With those words, your child will study successfully, will live life responsibly because they will have a sense, "My father loves me". When someone says something bad about them, "It's okay, my father says I am great. I bring pleasure to him. He says that if he can choose a million dollars and me"... That's how you bless your child, "If I have a million dollars here, and I have you, you know who I'll choose? I'll choose you". All of a sudden your child thinks, "Daddy is not so busy at work because of money. He's told me I'm more important than him".
So, God told me as I was brushing my teeth, "Isn't it sad, my people never saw even what their enemies saw because Moses was faithful in all his house to represent the law and to point out their faults". Now, to Moses's credit, there was a time later on in the Book of Deuteronomy, he made one allusion in one verse only because in Deuteronomy, he must rehearse all the Ten Commandments, the laws, the commandments, and then Israel's history. Of course, he will come to the place where he talked about Balaam. By the way, when he rehearsed the law in Deuteronomy chapter 1, look at this, where was he doing it? It was in the 40th year in the 11th month. They were just about to enter the Promised Land. And notice after he had killed Sihon and Og, the departmental king. Saw that? Don't forget, the story of Balaam happened when? After this also, remember that?
And look at this, this is the clincher, verse 5. On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, remember that? Moses began to explain this law. I told you just now to remember the first verse we showed, Numbers 22 again. Where was Israel when the story of the blessing of Balaam happened? They were in the plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan across from Jericho. Where did Moses start rehearsing their history and the law? Deuteronomy 1, "This side Jordan in the land of Moab", after the defeat of the two kings, which means all this was happening at the same time. And Moses was telling them, "You stiff-necked people. You come short here, you come short there". And they never saw the grace perspective.
Now later on, some days pass as he rehearsed the law and their history. He did come to the place where he did tell them in one statement, Deuteronomy 23, all right, "Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you". That's all he said about Balaam, but notice, this is the kind of preaching that doesn't really instill a sense of preciousness and value before God because it's too general. He did not describe the blessing. He didn't tell them what was going on the way I did it just now, right? He didn't. He just tell them, God turned the curse into a blessing because God loves you.
Now, we appreciate him saying that, but that's all he said about Balaam. You see, because you must understand, the law does not give you the grace perspective. He just told them generally. Remember I told you, you cannot just talk about general blessings. You must tell people what the blessing is all about. Describe the blessings. You are blessed because God will never impute sin to you. Even when you fail, you just lost your temper, you're gotta stop and say, "Thank God I'm still blessed", amen. I'm teaching you that to get out of temper. The way to get out of temper is not to say, "Oh, my goodness, I confess my... Pastor Prince, you don't believe in 1 John 1:9"? I got no time to cover 1 John 1:9, okay? Just buy my book. "Oh, you're just promoting your book". Yes, guilty, amen. Very good book. Why not? Amen.
But in that book, one of the chapters I explained 1 John 1:9. Isn't it amazing that Paul never mentioned, Paul had wrote three-fourths of the New Testament, he never mentioned one time 1 John 1:9. If 1 John 1:9 is as important, confessing your sins, is as important as the way we today, evangelical Christians make it, somewhere in Paul's writings who wrote three-fourths, he must have mentioned it, but he did not. It's based on John's letter, 1 John 1:9. And if you read the book, it gives you a deeper explanation, exegesis of that verse, okay? Okay, praise God. Get the book. It's a good book. Whether you buy the book, you don't buy the book, the book is blessed and I cannot reverse it. All over the world, they are buying the book, amen. And I know that it's blessing a lot of pastors and ministers as well.
Look at this, I want to close with this, the word "curse", turn the curse is kelala into a barakah, blessing barakah. These are Hebrew words. We are no more talking about eulogia Greek in the New Testament, or katara, curse, in the New Testament. We'll now close and I'll close with this, you're about to get blessed. Are you ready? I hope you brought tight-fitting socks because this will bless you out of your socks, all right? Are you ready? Are you ready? All right, the word curse is kelala, not kerela, all right? And the word blessing is barakah, okay? Watch this, I'll close with this. Look at the Hebrew word for barak, blessing, barak, all right, barak. Reading from right to left, that's how Hebrew reads, bet, resh, kaf, like inverted C, kaf, all right? Bet resh kaf spells barak, the name of President Obama, right? His name is Barack and he always tells the Jewish people, you know, that his name means blessing. It means blessing, but more, it means blessed, not blessing.
The word "blessed" is used earlier part of Genesis, and the word "blessing" never was used, only bless, bless. But when Abraham came on the scene, it became blessing with an additional hei, all right, hei. Now, y'all been here for some time, y'all know that every letter in the Hebrew carries a picture, and the picture is consistent. Anywhere around the world you meet a Jewish person, they will tell you A is for apple, they will tell you shin is the teeth, or Shaddai the name of God. Kaf is an open hand. They will tell you yud and they tell you hei is grace or window. They do not know grace. They'll say window, a picture of something. All right, you can look out into something. We know it's grace, hei. Number is five. All right, hei carries the number five.
Now, watch this. Reading from right to left, bet resh kaf, bet resh, the first two letters spell bar. Bar means what? Son. Remember Jesus told Peter, "Blessed are you Simon bar Jonah, Simon son of Jonah". All right, so the first few letters bar, all right, son. Kaf, open hand, all right? Hei is grace. So, before Abraham came because to Abraham was given the covenant of grace. It was all blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. It's son with an open hand. The top one blessed is son with an open hand, but you do not know what he's blessing you with, right? But when Abraham came, the word, I will bless you and you shall be a blessing has the hei there, which is the son.
See the picture now? The son, his hand is open in blessing, and he blesses you with grace, favor, charisma in your job, in your studies. This coming week, he'll give you a favor. Your kids will not suffer disease. No H1N1, no HFMD, in Jesus's name, receive that. When you encounter his hand of grace, your eyes open, leprosy is cleansed, uncleanness go away. He makes you whole, gives you the abundant life. He prospers you. He makes you healthy, all right? So, that's blessing.
Now, I'll close with the curse, kelala, in case you're interested. Come, we'll help you in this church, you'll be interested, all right? Kaf is... not kaf, sorry. Qof, this is qof. Now, the letter qof is the back of the head. Every Jewish person will tell you that, qof is the back of the head, even looks like the back of the head. This guy is looking on the right side, can you see that? All right, then the word, the letters in between, two letters there lamed, lamed, the letter lamed like when you spell Israel, the letter L is lamed, all right? It's the final letter of Israel. Lamed means teaching or learning. You know what they say in Hebrew for learning? Lamet from this letter lamed. Okay, it's learning, double learning. Can you see that? Learning what? Hei, grace.
So, back of the head mean someone who turns away persistently, more than one time from learning grace. That makes up the word kelala, cursed. See, aren't y'all glad you are facing me every venue or you're facing God's grace, amen? God's grace is flowing from the teaching ministry. Aren't you glad you're facing the bar with open hand every Sunday? Hallelujah. And we close with this verse, Galatians 3:13. That's why I'm telling you church, do not turn your head away. Do not turn away from learning grace. You persistently don't learn grace, you will fall under the curse. That's the only way to fall under the curse. And Galatians 3:13 says, let's all read together, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law". Now, read verse 14, "That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles".
Stop. What's the curse? The curse is what? Kelala, everything you, you know, it's like you are redeemed from all the evil sentences your kindergarten teacher spoke, your primary school teacher spoke. You know, teachers ought to speak well, especially over kids that need encouragement and thank God, we have a whole new generation of them, all right? Relatives, friends, parents must be the ones to speak well, but some kids until today they still remember they are called all kinds of names in school. Some of you, you're now 50 years old, 60 years old, you still remember what your friend called you in school.
All right, that's how words, they curse. But thanks be to God, I'm telling you something, church, Christ has redeemed you from the curse, which includes every curse from God's law. God's law can never curse you anymore, why? It's paid. Redeemed means it's paid. Redeemed means it's paid. Redeemed means it's paid. The coupon has been redeemed, it's paid, it's paid, all right? So, why did he redeem us from the curse? So that the blessing, the barakah of Abraham. What is the blessing, definitely article? Righteousness. When you have righteousness, your sins are forgiven. When you have righteousness, God will never, ever impute sin to you. And people, you are blessed, and the devil cannot reverse it. Give Jesus the praise, hallelujah, amen.
Every head bowed, every eye closed all across this place and also the overflow rooms. At this time, I want to give you this opportunity to be part of what Christ has done for your life. You see, God is an awesome respecter of your free choice, but the result of your choice remains the same. You can choose to believe, or you can choose to remain in unbelief, but God's eternal facts remain. Jesus said if you believe that he has borne your sins, God's judgment would never fall on you, but his favor, his grace comes upon you. You will never live a life of the curse, but you will live a life of the blessing where you're empowered by God for success in every dimension of your life. It is not the job, it's not the marriage, it is the blessing that makes the difference. Receive forgiveness of sins now, in Jesus's name, pray this prayer with me right now. Say this from your heart to God.
Heavenly Father, I thank you, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for all my sins. His precious blood washes me clean from every sin. And I thank you in your eyes, which is reality, you see me blameless, righteous, accepted, blessed. Thank you, Father, for loving me. I love you in Jesus's name and I confess Jesus Christ is my Lord. You've raised him from the dead. He is alive today, and he has blessed me. And no one, nothing can reverse it. In Jesus's name.