Joseph Prince - Are You Tired Of Not Seeing Results?
This excerpt is from: Now Is The Time Of Favor (26 Sep 2021)
The other day, I was playing badminton with my wife. And she's very good at badminton, I'll tell you that. I'm not too bad, but you know, she'll make me run left and right. And you know, we play well together, but just the other day, I was thinking about the church and things about, matters that I needed to look into, also about the sermon that I’ll preach and all that. And as I was playing with her, I noticed that my performance was dropping. I was not present. I was not in the now. And it affected my performance. I know it's a small thing, but in all the affairs of life... by the way, I got myself back and said: "I'm going to enjoy this moment with my wife, playing this game. I won't think about tomorrow, tomorrow will take care of itself. I'm going to enjoy this time with her". And my performance improved.
Jesus said: "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own". The Message Bible. I love this one. "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now. Don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things that come up when the time comes". I love it! Do you see that? "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now. Don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things that come up when the time comes". So you say that: "Well, I need to worry about the future because I need to be prepared. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. I need to be prepared". But friend, your mentality is out of fear because you're saying: "Unless I prepare myself, I will fail when the time comes". Not if you're worried. You can plan without worry. Okay?
I'm not talking about planning things that are legitimate. Okay? I'm talking about things that you are just projecting, you’re trying to over-prepare yourself, overthinking the future. Then you are worried about the future. but you need to know this: That when the future comes, there will be grace for your future. God always gives grace for your rest. God gives you grace. Just like Israel, God gave them manna every day. And they cannot keep the manna for the next day. It spoils. The manna will spoil. They must eat the manna for the day. On the next day, they must trust God for fresh manna. And the next day, they'll trust God for fresh manna. However, on the sixth day, before the day of rest. On the seventh day, which is their day of rest, their Sabbath, God gives them double manna. Why? Because God wants them to have confidence that they can rest. The supply is there. God wants them so much to rest. Now, back then it was physical rest. Now for you, it may involve physical rest for some of you, but basically in essence, what I'm saying about, sharing about is resting on the inside. Resting on the inside. Amen.
When you live in the now, when you find that you live in the now, your mind becomes mentally sound. Amen. What the psychiatrist will call a person who is whole, integrated. Amen. You find all the kinks in your personality starts dissipating and you find that wholeness comes in. Mentally, and then even physically because many of it is caused by stress. Many of this is caused by... disease is caused by dis-ease. When you're not at ease. So live in the now! Praise the Lord! Now I want to finish off by just looking at the entire passage before this. Jesus says: "If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers, most of which are never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving". Now that's grace! Grace is God giving. Grace is God's supply. So you can respond to God's supply. Amen.
"People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing" What? When? "...right now". What God is doing right now. In your relationships, when you're talking to your spouse, pay attention to what God is doing right now. Maybe it's coming through your spouse's mouth. Amen. Maybe God wants you to pay attention on something that's happening right now. So you just be in the now and you will find that all the help you need in that relationship will be there. All the favor you need in that relationship will be there. Amen. Not just in your relationships, any area of your life. Be present, be in the now!
You'll find that even in sports, they'll say things like this: "That guy was in the flow yesterday. Usually, when he plays, he's not like that. He's in the flow". They call it the flow. But before that, there was a time, a few decades ago, they'll call it: "In the zone". You know? In the zone. Not they call it: "In the flow. That guy is in the flow. In the zone". It used to be in the zone Before it was "in the zone", do you know what they call it? Literally, many years ago, they call it: "A state of grace". A state of grace. Literally: "a state of grace". Child of God, you are not under law. That's why sin has no dominion over you. You're not under law. Under you performing, under you working for God, right? But you're under grace. God is working for you. It's the flow. Amen.
And the only way to get out of grace is to try to put in effort. When you put in effort, you frustrate the grace of God. The grace of God is for you to have. God is supplying me right now. Law is demand oriented, right? "Thou shall not, thou shall not thou shall not". And we are trying our best not to, okay? And the more we try not to, the more we fall into sin because the strength of sin is the law. But here, grace is actually supply-minded. Supply! God is supplying! God is working in my life, God is working in me right now. God is walking through me right now and God is working for me and I participate in it. Amen. Even my prayer is to see the flow of what the Spirit of God is doing and I participate in that flow. Hallelujah! So you're under grace, a state of grace. Hallelujah! Perpetually! Always you're under the state of grace.
Whether in sports, whether it's tennis or whatever it is and you'll find that a guy who is seasoned, he has won all the slams and finally, at the final one, he cannot make it. Why? Usually it's because of pressure. He wants so much to win that particular one that he overthinks it and he steps out of the zone, okay? Out of the flow and loses the game. It applies to every area of your life, whether you have a big presentation this coming week or even like you need to talk to someone some things that are a bit sensitive to talk about, right? If you overthink it, if you try to labor over it so much you'll find that you step out of the state of grace. You step out of the flow, you step out of the zone. When you enjoy what you're doing, it's the flow. Amen. And the Bible says: "God has given us richly all things to enjoy". Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
And you operate in a sense of fullness. Amen. Before you step into a presentation or you're doing marketing or you're trying to sell something in your line of work and all that, if you are anxious for the result, usually you end up with nothing. Okay? But if you're not anxious for the result, the results are there. The anointing is the flow, right? That's why the anointing is represented by the oil in the Old Testament. Oil gives you flow. When you touch oil, it's a flow, right? If the door is creaking, what do you do? You anoint the hinges with oil and what happens? Now there’s a flow. Amen. We grunt, we make a lot of noise, we've been putting a lot of effort. Why? There's no oil. Amen. When there's oil, things become flowing. Praise God! Amen. I don't want to hear a dry preacher! I want to hear an oily preacher. "I shall be anointed with fresh oil". Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Thank you Jesus. Hallelujah. Don't worry about the future, don't even postpone your enjoyment today, your happiness today, your joy today for a future event. Enjoy it now!