Joseph Prince (May-20-2026) Daily Devotional: Depend on the Lord for Right Timing

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11

Beloved, never forget that “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong . . . but time and chance happen to them all.” God wants you to have the right timing—His timing, and nothing is left to chance because you are God's child.

Psalm 37:23 says, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD.” You are that “good man” because you are the righteousness of God in Christ.

Now, look at the word “happen.” In the original Hebrew text, it is the word qarah, which means “to encounter, to meet (without pre-arrangement), to chance to be present." In a nutshell, it means “right happening.”

My friend, you can depend on God to cause you to be at the right place at the right time, to have right happenings happen in your life! I am sure that you would agree that being at the right place at the right time is a tremendous blessing. You certainly don’t want to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. That can lead to disastrous results.

But even if you think that you are at the wrong place at the wrong time, such as when you are caught in a traffic jam or when you miss your train, don’t be too agitated. A delay can turn out to be God’s protection from an accident ahead. Sometimes, a delay of just a few seconds can mean the difference between life and death!

In 2001, a brother in my church wrote in to share that his son's office was in the twin towers in New York. On one particular morning, his son’s alarm clock did not go off and he ended up missing his regular train to work and was late arriving at work. Had he been on time that morning, he would have been in his office when the planes plowed into the building during the devastating terrorist attacks on September 11.

In 2003, another brother from my church was in Jakarta, Indonesia, for a business trip. He was staying at the Marriott Hotel and he was in the lobby when a bomb went off just outside the hotel. The bomb tore through the lobby and he saw a body flying past him as the deafening blast reverberated all around him.

After the dust had settled, he found blood spattered on him and debris strewn all around, but amazingly, he was completely unhurt. At the very moment when the bomb exploded, he happened to walk behind a pillar and it protected him from the impact of the blast. Just think what would have happened to him if he had reached that pillar just a few seconds before or after the bomb went off!

No matter how intelligent you are, how fat your savings account is, or how prestigious your family name may be, there is no way you can know beforehand when to position yourself behind a pillar just as a bomb that you are unaware of explodes near you.

Only God can put you at the right place at the right time. It was the Lord who placed this brother behind the pillar at the precise moment. His steps were literally ordered by the Lord. All glory to Him! Jesus is our true pillar of protection!

God’s faithfulness in protecting His beloved by putting them at the right place at the right time was demonstrated even more recently. Two massive explosions rocked Jakarta, Indonesia, again on the morning of July 17, 2009, and this time both the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels were the targets of terrorist attacks.

A lady from our church was in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton when one of the bombs was detonated in the nearby restaurant where guests were having breakfast. The force of the explosion sent glass shards flying past her, ripping into the flesh of other guests who were standing in front of her. Amazingly, she was completely unharmed!

She shared that she had initially planned to have breakfast at that very restaurant at the time the bomb exploded. That would certainly have put her at the wrong place at the wrong time. If she had done so, she could have been killed by the blast in the restaurant.

However, she shared that the reason she missed her usual breakfast time that morning was that she was caught up in reading a few devotional entries from my Destined to Reign Devotional and spending time with the Lord in her hotel room. The “delay” she experienced in reading my book kept her away from the restaurant and saved her life! Praise Jesus!

My friend, nothing happens by chance—the Lord knows how to place you at the right place and the right time! You can depend on Jesus for right happenings. They all come by His unmerited favor.

In the new covenant of grace, the Bible says that the Lord Himself writes His laws on your heart (Heb. 8:10). He can speak to you and guide you in everything that you do. Allow Him to lead you supernaturally!

Joseph Prince (May-19-2026) Daily Devotion: Moved by the Spirit, Not By Human Honey

Leviticus 2:11 - No grain offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering to the Lord made by fire.

Imagine yourself walking past the prodigal son sitting in the pigpen (see Luke 15:11–24). You look at him and see him salivating for the pigs’ food. Believing that it is good to show kindness, you give him money to buy food for himself.

That is human kindness which says, “I am a Christian. I should be kind, good and forgiving.” Such human sweetness or kindness may be likened to honey. Interestingly, while we elevate it, God tells His people not to bring Him a grain offering with honey in it.

The grain offering speaks of Jesus’ life on earth. Not mixing honey in the grain offering speaks of how the compassion and goodness we see in Jesus during His earthly ministry were all divine. There was no “honey” of human goodness, which is inevitably tainted with human weakness.

In retrospect, the worst thing one could do for the prodigal son was to give him money when he was in the pigpen. Not only would he not have gone home, but what the Lord was doing in his heart would also have been spoiled. This is what happens when we go by the goodness of our human hearts instead of the goodness of God in our hearts, which is directed by His love, wisdom and perfect timing.

My friend, God does not want you to be moved by what you see but by His Spirit. There were many needy folks surrounding Jesus during His time on earth. But He did not heal every sick person around Him, feed every hungry stomach he passed or raise all who were dead. Isaiah 11:2–3 tells us that the Lord was not moved by what He saw or heard. He was moved only by the Spirit.

You too have the Spirit in you (see 1 Corinthians 3:16). Be moved by Him. Follow the peace that He puts within your spirit to do or refrain from doing something. That peace is the peace of God. Acting on that peace will cause God to be exalted, and His divine goodness and kindness to really be a blessing to you and others!

Joseph Prince (May-18-2026) Daily Devotional: Feed on Christ

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” - John 6:35

In John 11:53, we see an unexpected response toward Jesus when He performed the astounding miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. From that day on, it says the chief priests and the Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus—the One Who opened blind eyes, unstopped deaf ears, cleansed those with leprosy, and raised the dead!

Why? And what does this tell you about what was in their hearts?

In order to be a chief priest or a Pharisee, one needed to be a student of the Word of God from a young age, and to know the Torah from front to back. Yet the religious leaders, who were zealous for the law and knew all about the Torah, were the very people who plotted to kill Jesus.

Now lean in and listen closely to what I am about to say. They had head knowledge but they did not have a heart for the person of Jesus. They had all this Bible knowledge, but they did not have the Author of the Bible in their hearts.

They would constantly quote from the Old Testament to condemn and to crush those who have failed instead of saving them. Remember how they wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery by quoting from the law of Moses, but Jesus saved her by inviting the one who had no sin to cast the first stone.

Beloved, it is possible for people today to accumulate a lot of head knowledge on this theology and that theology, and yet not have any heart knowledge that burns with love and passion for our Lord Jesus Christ. It is possible to enrich your mind or to study about this interpretation and that interpretation of the Scriptures, and still have a heart that is stone-cold when it comes to an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus.

Now don’t misunderstand me—I am not saying that you should not acquire Bible knowledge. I am saying that we need to study the Bible not simply to accumulate head knowledge, but to have a revelation of Jesus. To have a heart of love for Jesus, you must know the Bible.

In fact, true scriptural knowledge about Jesus will lead you to have a heart for Jesus. Don’t be like the Pharisees, who had Bible knowledge, but no love for our Lord Jesus. Don’t miss the Author when you are reading His Word.

When you study the Bible, study to feed on the person of Jesus. Feed on His beauty, His grace, His majesty, and His immense and sacrificial love for you. We read the Word to feed on Christ.

Oh, how I love the phrase, “to feed on Christ.” He is the bread of life and the more you feed on Him in the Word, the more you will be strengthened and nourished with His health, life, and wisdom for every area of your life.

When you see Jesus in the Word, you will know how to esteem and value Him. Jesus becomes real food for your soul and He gives you strength for your service.

Real holiness comes from beholding Jesus. As you behold our Lord, you are transformed from the inside out from glory to glory.

When you value Jesus, your heart’s desire is just to glorify Him in everything that you think, say, and do. When you have a heart for Jesus, everything in your life—whether it is your marriage, your parenting, or your career—will fall into place as you receive His finished work!

Joseph Prince (May-17-2026) Daily Devotional: Speak the Word

And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak. - 2 Corinthians 4:13

Beloved, it is not enough for you to merely know the Word in your heart. You must say it. That’s when latent power becomes actual power. When our Lord Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He did not merely think about Scripture. He spoke it out loud.

You can memorize thousands of scriptures but if you don’t learn to say, “It is written,” and release the Word, there will be no power. God’s power is there, but it is all lying dormant inside you.

The moment you speak it out, it is as if God is speaking. God’s Word in your mouth is like God speaking. Amen!

Fear is not something you can reason or analyze away. Fear is irrational. There are some fears that come into your life and you can think to yourself, Come on, what are the chances of that happening? or It’s so silly to fear this.

But have you noticed that those fears still hang around? We are in a war, my friend, and the only way to defeat fear is to speak the Word of God to whatever fear you have by saying, “It is written.”

It is written—“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).

I want you to memorize that. It’s a powerful verse of Scripture.

Now, I want you to say this out loud: It is written—“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Do you feel the power that comes with saying this aloud?

This is the truth: God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. I don’t care what kind of fears you are battling with—fear of growing old, fear of contracting this or that disease, fear of losing your job, fear of failure. Whatever the fear that has come against you, declare, “It is written.”

What if the fear comes back? Then say it again! Sometimes, I speak Scriptures over my situation in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. Whenever the fear comes back, I speak the Word of God.

If the devil wants a fight, give him one! Give him the sword of the Spirit and he will get the point every time. There are many scriptures you can memorize. Write down the scriptures that cover the areas of your need and arm yourself with them!