Joseph Prince (January-31-2024) Daily Devotional: Be a Giant Slayer

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you.” - 1 Samuel 17:45–46

Beloved, start practicing God’s love for you and it will translate into victories in your daily life. I am sure you are familiar with the story of how a young shepherd boy named David came against an ugly bully of a giant named Goliath and defeated him. I want you to know that this can be your story and testimony too.

There are no insignificant details in the Bible. Even the names in the Bible carry secrets for our benefit. The name “Goliath” comes from the Hebrew root word, galah, which means “to exile.”

To be exiled is to be stripped of everything you are and everything you own. So Goliath’s name essentially means that he had been stripped of everything—an exile. What a name! Goliath is a picture of the devil as he really is—stripped of all his weapons against us because of the cross (Col. 2:15).

The name “David” on the other hand means “beloved.” The battle in the valley of Elah was thus a battle between a beloved of God and a stripped exile.

Now, catch this revelation: it takes someone who knows that he is the beloved of God to bring down a giant! This is the secret of becoming a giant slayer!

It doesn’t matter what your giant is today. It could be a marital problem or financial situation. Begin to see that you are God’s beloved and your giants will come tumbling down.

My friend, God loves you. You are His beloved child regardless of what you have or have not done. He loves you as you are because the truth is that you have been washed whiter than snow with the blood of Jesus.

Live every day by these words from your loving Father in heaven: “You are My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.” His favor is all over you, whether you are with your family, or in your workplace, and in everything that you do. You are a blessing everywhere you go.

If God did not withhold His Son from you, why would He withhold healing, financial provision, protection, peace of mind, and all the other blessings from you? When the Almighty God is your loving Father and you are His beloved child, what fears can you have?

Fear of the past, the present, and the future? Fear of not having enough? Fear of sickness? Fear of death? Fear of punishment?

Beloved, when you have a revelation of how much God loves you and that He sees you completely righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ, all your fears will dissipate, for if God is for you, who can be against you (Rom. 8:31)?

Are there giants in your life that need to be slain? Look away from your circumstances and call out without fear to your Father. He loves you and will never judge or condemn you! He loves you with an everlasting love.

It is not enough to know that God loves everyone. You need to know and believe that He loves you, and let that revelation warm and anchor your heart in His grace, especially when you fail.

And as you keep on feeding on His love for you, His love will start overflowing in you, and you will receive from Him exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think! With God on your side, nothing is impossible!

Joseph Prince (January-30-2024) Daily Devotional: The Best That Heaven Has

“Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” - Luke 12:32

Our Lord Jesus went into a synagogue on the Sabbath, and a man was there with a withered hand. The Pharisees were looking for opportunities to accuse Jesus of wrongdoing, so they challenged Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

Our Lord answered, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand,” and restored it as whole as the other (Matt. 12:9–13).

This is what I want you to know: when someone is sick, the Lord never faults and condemns the person. He sees the person as a sheep that has fallen into a pit and needs rescuing.

If you are dealing with a medical condition, don’t allow the accuser to disqualify you from receiving your healing by telling you things like, “You should have watched your diet” or “You should have exercised more.” Even if you were at fault, the Lord Jesus can heal you, and He is most willing to.

That doesn’t mean you neglect wisdom in taking care of your health. If you allow Him to, the Lord can lead you even in practical matters like what to eat and how to exercise. The key here is not to pay attention to the voice of shame, condemnation, and accusation. Listen instead to the voice of your Shepherd coming to rescue you!

Our Good Shepherd says He gives His life for the sheep (John 10:11). But do you know the context of this verse? Let me show you:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” —John 10:10–11

Even though He is our Shepherd, He laid down His life as the Lamb of God. Revelation 5:12 declares, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.”

Why does God use the picture of the Lamb and not the Shepherd in the sacrifice? Because God wants you to see that Jesus died in your place. He, the Good Shepherd, became the Lamb of God for you.

You can have life more abundantly not because you deserve it but because He gave His life for yours. He took your sicknesses and your pains and gave you His wholeness and His health.

Today hear your Lord Jesus saying to you, “Do not fear, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Whatever condition you might be faced with, you can believe you will see the full manifestation of your healing. Keep partaking of the Tree of Life through the holy Communion and allow His abundant life to flood your body each time you partake.

Joseph Prince (January-29-2024) Daily Devotional: Your Fears and Anxieties Dissipate in God’s Presence

The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD. - Psalm 97:5

No matter where you are, the Lord is with you. Even in the midst of your fears, while you are alone in your room, He is there with you.

The moment you begin to be aware of His presence and cultivate His presence, all your fears, anxieties, and worries will melt like butter on a hot day, or as the psalmist David puts it, “The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD.”

You cannot psych yourself out of fear nor can you psych yourself out of worry. You can’t just tell yourself, “Come on, stop worrying. There is nothing to worry about.”

It just doesn’t work. The debt will still be staring you in your face and your problems will still be as insurmountable as ever no matter how hard you try to psych yourself up. That is what the world is trying to do, but it does not work. It takes the presence of the Lord to keep you free from worry.

Jesus is not asking you to psych yourself up and live in a state of denial. No way! He is saying to you, “In the midst of your affliction, I am your shield. I am your defender. I am your fortress. I am your refuge. I am your supply. I am your healing. I am your provider. I am your peace. I am your joy. I am your wisdom. I am your strength. I am the glory and the lifter of your head!” (Psalm 3:3). Amen!

He is not asking you to pretend that the facts are not there. He wants you to realize that HE IS THERE WITH YOU!

When you know that He is with you and for you, and you put your problems in His mighty hands, you will begin to get a more accurate evaluation of just how “big” your problems are. When they were in your hands, the weight and burden of your problems may have crushed you. But when you involve Jesus, the once-monumental problems become microscopic against the largeness of His love and goodness toward you!

Today, as you consider all that you need to do and the expectations placed on you, see Jesus there with you. He is your supply, wisdom, peace, and strength.

Joseph Prince (January-28-2024) Daily Devotional: Worship the Lord

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Psalm 95:6–7

I am sure that you have heard a lot of teaching on fearing the Lord. I do believe in a reverential honor of the Lord. But I am not for any kind of teaching that promotes this idea that God wants you to be afraid of Him.

Instead, God delights in having us close to Him. He welcomes us to dwell in His secret place, to be so close to Him that we come under His shadow.

These are all pictures of intimacy. In any relationship, fear and intimacy cannot coexist. If you fear God today, you won’t be able to believe Him for His protection. That is why it is so important for you to be strong and established in His grace.

The author of the book of Hebrews says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). This is a picture of the ark of the covenant, God’s throne of grace.

Because our Lord’s blood has been shed on the mercy seat, today, we can come boldly into His presence without any sense of inferiority or shame, and receive His favor, His supply, His protection, and His help in our time of need.

Jesus defined the fear of the Lord as the worship of the Lord. In the wilderness temptation, Jesus responded to the devil by saying, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve” (Matt. 4:8–10). Our Lord was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:13, which says, “You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him.” Our Lord substituted the word “fear” with the word “worship.”

Jesus was showing us how to accurately understand the fear of the Lord. In the new covenant, it has nothing to do with being afraid of the Lord; it has everything to do with coming into His presence with boldness and worshiping Him.

Stop living in fear, my friend. Instead, follow our Lord wholly like Caleb did and worship His wonderful name. The prayer of protection is a psalm of worship.

When you worship Jesus, all your fears will fade away. When you worship Him, the angel of the Lord encamps around you like a shield of protection. When you worship your Savior, His Spirit of wisdom and counsel will lead and guide you with rivers of peace!

Joseph Prince (January-27-2024) Daily Devotional: Jesus Comes to You in Your Valley

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” Genesis 14:18–20

I don’t know what valley you are in right now, but I want to share a powerful picture in the Bible that I pray will encourage you.

Every time something is mentioned in the Bible for the first time, it is always significant. Do you know where you find the bread and the wine of the Communion mentioned together for the first time? It’s there in today’s scriptures.

Who is Melchizedek? The Bible tells us that our Lord Jesus is “a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 7:17). Many scholars believe he is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. But it is clear that Melchizedek is a type of Christ.

Melchizedek was the king of Salem, which means “peace.” But Salem means much more than peace. It also means “complete, safe, perfect, whole, and full.”

Melchizedek met Abram in the Valley of Shaveh, or the King’s Valley (Gen. 14:17). The King’s Valley is actually in the Kidron Valley. Kidron in Hebrew is from the word qadar, which means “darkness.”

Melchizedek wasn’t the only person present with Abram. Bera, the king of Sodom, went out to meet Abram before Melchizedek arrived (Gen. 14:2, 17). Bera’s name in Hebrew means “son of evil.”

I gave you all that background because I want you to see this: when you are in a place of darkness, your Lord Jesus comes to you, bearing bread and wine.

You might be asking, “Won’t the Communion become something legalistic that I have to do?” Not if you see yourself receiving the bread and the wine from the Lord Jesus Himself. The Communion is not something that you do; you receive the Communion just as Abram did.

In your time of darkness, don’t forget that the Lord has given you the Communion as a tangible, practical way of remembering all He has done for you and encountering His love. You don’t have to handle the situation all by yourself. The Lord is with you, and He wants you to bring Him every fear and every worry. Talk to Him.

Whenever I am afraid I like to sing the words from the psalms of David to strengthen myself in the Lord. May you be filled with His strength as you meditate on and worship Him with these words from the psalmist:

You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance . . . Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. —Psalm 32:7; 56:3

Joseph Prince (January-26-2024) Daily Devotional: Transformed from the Inside Out

Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 8:1–2 NASB

Today, let’s look at the Greek word for repentance—metanoia. Meta means “change,” while noia is from the word nous, which means “mind.” So metanoia or repentance means “a change of mind.”

Why is changing your mind important? Simply because right believing always leads to right living.

When you believe right about God’s grace, about your righteousness in Christ, and how you are called to be set apart for holiness, everything changes! His love touches you in the deepest recesses of your heart and you begin to experience transformation from the inside out.

That’s the grace revolution in action. You begin to live above defeat and experience lasting breakthroughs because the power to fight off any temptation is not from without, but from within. It is not contingent upon your willpower; it is contingent upon the power of the Holy Spirit living mightily and actively in you, bearing witness to the gospel truths you believe.

This precious testimony I received from Robert bears out this point poignantly:

I am a pastor in North Carolina who was preaching right living and trying to live right and do increasingly more to serve Jesus. But I also had a fifteen-year struggle with addiction to spit tobacco. I even stood on the pulpit one Sunday and confessed my addiction. I held up a can of tobacco and said that I, as David did to Goliath, would cut off its head and feed its carcass to the birds.

Full of remorse, I told the people I had resolved to put the addiction away, and many came to the altar that day to cast off their addictions too. However, I was back at mine within a week and feeling great condemnation. I fought and fought, quit and quit, over and over again.

Eventually a friend gave me some of Pastor Prince’s teaching materials. I was amazed at what I was hearing and reading, because I had never heard the gospel preached in this manner. I knew it was truth and it began to set me free. I heard Pastor Prince preach a sermon where he said that the solution was to quit trying to win on my own and to confess to the Lord, “Lord, I cannot, but You can.”

This became my motto and I quit trying to quit using tobacco. I no longer stayed buried under guilt and condemnation. I believed and confessed that even though I was struggling with this tobacco habit, God still loves me no less and that Jesus’ finished work still avails for me.

I can now testify that I have been tobacco-free for more than a year. Every time an urge pops up, I say to the Lord that I know His grace and what He has for me are much better than tobacco, and the urge leaves.

Praise God! This message of unmerited favor has changed my life and ministry. I am now preaching and teaching grace every time I step onto the pulpit! Thanks be to God and thank you, Pastor Prince.

My dear reader, no matter how long you may have struggled with a bad habit, I want you to know it is never too late to invite our Lord Jesus and His grace into your situation. It is never too late to return to His grace, the only power that can give you permanent inside-out transformation.

Joseph Prince (January-25-2024) Daily Devotional: When You Have No Faith

By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. -  Hebrews 11:11

Perhaps you are at a place where you feel like you can’t conjure up any more faith, let alone “not waver at the promise of God” like Abraham (Rom. 4:20). Maybe you are thinking, I have tried and tried to believe for so long. I have no more faith to carry on.

Let me show you what today’s verse says about Sarah. There was faith involved when Sarah conceived and bore a child. But if you think faith is awfully hard and that you simply have no faith, I pray this will encourage you.

How did Sarah receive her miracle after so long and when it seemed impossible in the natural? She “judged Him faithful who had promised.” It seems so simple, but therein lay her miracle.

The faith walk isn’t hard. It is easy and effortless. When your faith runs out, judge God faithful. When you do not know how to have faith anymore, reckon on His faithfulness. Remember that He is faithful. Lean on His faithfulness.

Don’t give up because you think you don’t have enough faith. Once God gives you a promise, it is not for you to conjure up faith. It is for you to rest in the One who promised, knowing that He is faithful.

There is a beautiful verse I want you to emblazon across your spirit that will steady you in the fight of faith when it seems like your answers are not forthcoming: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). Even when you are faithless, He remains faithful.

At the cross, as Jesus carried all our sins, God the Father had to turn away from His Son, and Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). He paid the price for you and me to have God’s constant presence, and because of that, God will never leave you nor forsake you (Heb. 13:5). He will never relax His hold on you.

When you feel faithless, know that you don’t have to try to hold on to Him—He is the One holding on to you. The Bible says the Lord your God holds your right hand, saying to you, “Fear not, I will help you” (Isa. 41:13).

When you have no more strength to even have faith in your battle with your sickness, may I encourage you to do this? Take time to go into the Lord’s presence and tell Him:

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your faithfulness to me. You are faithful in Your goodness to carry out Your promises in my life. You are faithful to heal me and to restore to me every bit of health and well-being I have lost through this sickness. Right now, because You are faithfully upholding me, I can let go and rest in You. It is Your faithfulness that will cause my healing to manifest. Amen.

Joseph Prince (January-24-2024) Daily Devotional: God Loves It When You Ask of Him

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:7–11

There was a man in the Bible by the name of Jabez. His name was rather unfortunate. It means “sorrow” because his mother “bore him in pain” (1 Chron. 4:9).

What a name to have! But Jabez cried out to God, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” (1 Chron. 4:10).

Some preachers claim that believers should not pray “selfish” prayers for themselves to be blessed. Jabez’s prayer would probably fall under their definition of a “selfish prayer” as it was all about him asking God to bless him, enlarge his territory, be with him, and protect him.

But God didn’t reprimand Jabez for asking Him for these blessings. Without any fanfare, the Bible in the very same verse simply records that “God granted him what he requested.”

That was all. No drama, no long list of what Jabez had to do or not do. It’s really that simple. God heard his prayer and granted his request! No rebuke, no instructions, no “Jabez, if you want Me to bless you, you must first do this.”

No, God honored the man’s faith and turned his sorrow into joy and his pain into blessings—all because he had an unshakable confidence in how good God is and asked big!

My friend, have a good opinion of God. He is not out to get you. He loves you and desires to unleash His favor into every area of your life. He loves it when you call upon Him. And He promised that He would answer when you do. Just see Him declaring to you Jeremiah 33:3: “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

Could it be that we are not seeing many breakthroughs because we have made asking God for big things a taboo with our religious and legalistic rhetoric? Could it be that we are just not seeing many blessings because we have not been asking God and seeking Him with a confident expectation of good?

My friend, it gives your heavenly Father great joy when you ask Him. It’s His good pleasure to bless you as well as your family (Luke 12:32). Stop being held back by erroneous beliefs about God, and start asking Him for whatever is on your heart today!

Joseph Prince (January-23-2024) Daily Devotional: Right Believing Always Leads to Right Living

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” Matthew 12:35

Most of us think that if we could just change our circumstances, we could have the lives we want. However, today’s scripture shows us that that is not what Jesus said. Do you see from His words that your life today is a reflection of what has been hidden and carried in your heart all this time?

If you don’t want your life to remain the same, the solution is not in changing your circumstances. It is in changing your heart, changing what you believe.

My friend, for every area of weakness, failure, or defeat that you may be experiencing right now, I assure you that there is some wrong believing in that area. Search the Scriptures for the truth. Your answer lies in right believing.

Now, commit this to memory: right believing always leads to right living!

Say it out loud for this is a powerful revelation you cannot afford to miss.

Let me share with you a powerful testimony of a precious brother in my church who struggled with a smoking habit. He had been smoking for many years and went through at least one pack of cigarettes a day. Besides feeling lousy every time he smoked, he felt condemned and constantly heard the voice of the accuser bombarding him with accusations:

How can you call yourself a Christian? Look at you—you are still a smoker! Give up, you hypocrite! You are not worthy to be a Christian.

The more he heard the accusations, the more he smoked. Though he tried to muster all his willpower to overcome this destructive habit, he just could not do it. He knew that his body was a temple of God, and he sincerely wanted to glorify the Lord, but there was no power to do so.

Then, he heard me preach on how the Holy Spirit is present in him to convict him of righteousness, and how the more he believed that he was righteous because of Jesus Christ, the more his behavior would line up with what he believed. So he began to confess this daily: “I am the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ,” even when he succumbed to the temptation and lit up. Every day, he would wake up, stare at himself in the mirror, and say, “I see a righteous man standing in front of me.”

This brother really believed that he was righteous, not because of what he did, but because of what Jesus has done. And the more he believed that he was the righteousness of God in Christ, the more his nicotine addiction faded.

He began to have a supernatural strength to cut down his daily tobacco intake within a short span of time. He began to replace the voice of the accuser that called him a hypocrite with the voice of the Holy Spirit that declared, “You are righteous in God’s eyes. God sees you as righteous as Jesus Christ today.”

The voice of the Holy Spirit became louder and louder until he finally heard only His voice, and one day he woke up and realized that the desire for cigarettes was no longer there! Hallelujah!

Can you see? Deliverance from destructive habits comes simply by believing the voice of the Holy Spirit and seeing yourself as the righteousness of God in Christ every day.

Just being faithful in believing and confessing, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ,” will cause a power to be released in your life that overcomes the bondage to cigarettes, pornography, alcohol, drugs, or gambling. Today is the day that the Lord will set you free from every lie, guilt, and condemnation that the accuser has been bombarding you with.

Please pray this prayer with me right now. My friend, let’s silence the voice of the accuser and allow Jesus to set you free to reign:

Lord Jesus, I thank You for the cross. I thank You that when You died for me, Your blood cleansed me from all my unrighteousness and the sins of my entire life. You are my Lord and Savior. I give You all my addictions (and/or bondages) today. I am sick and tired of being defeated and condemned by the accuser. Today, I confess that because of Your blood, I am right now the righteousness of God. By the supernatural strength and power of the Holy Spirit who is present to convict me of my righteousness, I will be reminded every day that I am the righteousness of God through You. Amen!

Joseph Prince (January-22-2024) Daily Devotional: No Condemnation

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned.” John 3:17–18

My friend, if you’ve been living in the abyss of fear for as long as you can remember, it is time for your liberty. You can begin on this journey of freedom today by believing that God’s heart is full of love, grace, and mercy toward you.

Listen to your Father’s heartbeat in today’s scripture. Do you believe in Jesus? There is no condemnation for anyone who calls upon the name of Jesus! All who call on Him and believe in Him are not condemned but saved. That is the good news of the gospel.

Unfortunately, many believers are still living under the heavy yoke of condemnation and fear because they hear the Mosaic covenant being proclaimed and put themselves under the Ten Commandments.

Look at how the apostle Paul describes the Ten Commandments in 2 Corinthians 3:7–9: “But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious . . . how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.”

Can you see the clear distinction that God makes in His Word? The Ten Commandments minister death and condemnation because no man was able to keep God’s perfect law.

Failure to keep the law at any point brings you under its curse, condemns you, and hangs a death sentence over your head. See how in contrast, the covenant of grace “exceeds much more in glory” because it ministers the spirit of liberty and the gift of God’s righteousness.

Now, please understand this: the Ten Commandments are glorious! The problem has never been the Ten Commandments or God’s perfect law. The problem has always been imperfect man’s ability to keep God’s perfect law. That is why our Lord Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it on our behalf (Matt. 5:17).

And the law was perfectly fulfilled at the cross when He cried out, “Finished!” (John 19:30). He met the demands of the first covenant, which is the Mosaic covenant of the Ten Commandments, in order to put the second, which is the new covenant of God’s grace, into effect (Heb. 10:9–10 NLT)!

Beloved, we are in the age of God’s grace. That is why we preach the gospel of grace! My friend, the cross of Jesus has made all the difference! You no longer have to live in condemnation and fear under the old covenant of the law. You are now under the new covenant of grace, where you are fully forgiven, justified, and made righteous by Jesus’ blood to reign in life.

When you realize you are justified by faith and not by your works in the new covenant of God’s grace, something liberating happens. You become free from the ministry of condemnation and the death it ministers—guilt, insecurity, dread, anxieties, and all sorts of debilitating fears.

Condemnation robs you of peace in your heart and of joy in your relationship with your Father. It robs you of faith and confidence in His love and ability to save you.

But when you know and believe you are not under the ministry of condemnation but the ministry of righteousness, you can come freely before your heavenly Father and cast every concern on your heart to Him. You will not be constantly fearful that your failures will cause Him to punish you or withhold His blessings and protection from you, because you know that Jesus bore the punishment meant for you upon Himself at the cross.

My friend, perhaps you know what it’s like to battle fear every day. Perhaps you’ve been plagued by fears of being unable to cope with certain changes in your circumstances. Maybe fearful thoughts of losing your health, your job, your children, or your very life keep you awake at night. Perhaps you suffer from severe anxiety attacks and the very thought of going anywhere outside of your home fills you with suffocating fear.

I want you to know that this is not the life God wants you to live. Through the sacrifice of His Son and the perfection of Christ’s finished work, He has made a way for you to live free from the captivity of fear. 

Joseph Prince (January-21-2024) Daily Devotional: Meditate on God’s Word

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Joshua 1:8

Look at the instructions that God gave Joshua when he was appointed as Moses’ successor: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

God told Joshua that to have good success, he had to meditate on the law day and night. Joshua lived under the old covenant, so how should we, who live under the new covenant, benefit from this scripture?

We need to read this portion of Scripture in view of Jesus’ finished work. That is why it is essential for you to be firmly established on the rock-solid foundation of the new covenant of grace. Now that you know that we are no longer under the law, what is the new covenant way to be blessed and to experience good success?

Joshua only had the law to meditate upon because the New Testament had not been written yet. For us, the secret to good success is found in meditating on God’s Word in the light of the new covenant of grace.

Before we can go into what it means to meditate on God’s Word, what exactly does it mean to “meditate”?

When the Bible talks about meditation, it’s not referring to a mental exercise. The Hebrew word for meditation in the Old Testament is the word hagah, which means to utter or mutter. So to hagah is to speak under your breath.

Notice that the Lord told Joshua, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth.” He did not say that it “shall not depart from your mind.” The key to meditating on God’s Word is not mental contemplation. It is in speaking God’s promises with your mouth!

“Pastor Prince, does this mean that I should keep repeating God’s Word? For instance, should I keep saying ‘by His stripes I am healed’ when I need healing?”

Meditating on God’s Word does not mean making vain repetitions of scriptures. It is much more and is something that first occurs deep in your heart. The psalmist David captured the essence of meditation most aptly when he said, “My heart was hot within me; while I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue” (Ps. 39:3).

As you are meditating on God’s Word, ask the Holy Spirit to give you a fresh revelation of Jesus. Let that scripture burn with revelation in your heart. And as you speak out of that burning revelation, God anoints the words that you speak. When you declare, “By His stripes I am healed,” and that declaration is uttered with a sense of revelation and faith in Jesus, there will be power in your declaration!

Joseph Prince (January-20-2024) Daily Devotional: No Smell of Smoke on You

So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke! Daniel 3:26–27 NLT

There is truly no other god who can rescue like our God. Whatever circumstances you might be thrown into, our Lord Jesus is the fourth man with you in the midst of the fire. Notice how He didn’t stand outside of the fire, but was in the fire together with the three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when they were thrown inside for defying King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

This brings a whole new meaning for us when we read the verse, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you” (Deut. 31:6).

Our Lord doesn’t deliver you from afar; He is with you in the midst of your adversity. Call upon Him and He will answer you. When Jesus is with you, nothing can harm you!

Don’t you just love how the Word of God describes the three friends when they came out of the furnace? They were in the fire, but it had absolutely no power over them. It did not even leave a trace of smoke on them! Now, that’s a beautiful picture of God’s divine protection!

Beloved, as you call upon the Lord in your day of trouble, my prayer for you is that the trial you are going through will have no power over you; it will not even leave a smell on you. Instead, I declare in Jesus’ name that you will walk out of that challenge in your life and the only smell on you will be the fragrance of the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 2:14)!

And as the people around you witness how the Lord delivers you, may they come to know His wonderful name and give Him praise. Instead of being negatively affected by whatever trial you might face, I pray that you will receive honor and promotion just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Amen!

Joseph Prince (January-19-2024) Daily Devotional: Knowing Your Value Makes a Difference

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us everlasting consolation and encouragement and well-founded hope through [His] grace (unmerited favor), comfort and encourage your hearts and strengthen them [make them steadfast and keep them unswerving] in every good work and word. 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 AMPC

It is the Father’s love for you that gives you the power to overcome every mistake, failure, and sin in your life. The Bible puts it this way: “Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace” (Rom. 6:14 NLT). Isn’t that beautiful?

Today you are living under the freedom of God’s amazing grace—His unmerited, undeserved, and unearned favor in your life. Grace gives you freedom. Freedom from lack, from fear, from addictions, from the torment of guilt, and from every curse and every sin! The more you experience the love and grace of your heavenly Father, the more you fall in love with Him and out of love with sin.

Did you know that the enemy has no hold over people who know their Father loves them? If Adam and Eve had believed in God’s love for them, the devil would not have been successful in tempting them. Unfortunately, they chose to believe the lie that the serpent had planted by portraying God as stingy and selfish, as if He was withholding something good from them.

That’s why I want you to be anchored in the Father’s love. You will be unshakable. You will have no desire to touch certain things, go to certain places, or be associated with certain people. You will keep away from negative influences because you trust your Father’s heart for you and believe that He only wants what’s best for you. You rest, knowing that He is watching out for you to protect you and insulate you from harm.

I’ve seen that children who are secure in their father’s love are able to say no to all kinds of temptations. This is because that vacuum in their lives is already filled. They don’t have to do things to win the approval of their friends when they can find absolute security, identity, and approval in their parents’ love for them and, most of all, in their heavenly Father’s love for them.

In the same way, when we trust in our Father’s love for us, we will have the power to say no to temptations. When you have an abiding revelation of just how valuable, precious, and righteous you are in Christ, it becomes increasingly easy to say no to sin.

The more righteousness-conscious you are and the more conscious of how valuable and precious you are in Christ, the more you will know that your righteous identity in Christ and sin don’t go together—and the more you will experience the power to say no to temptation.

Joseph Prince (January-18-2024) Daily Devotion: YOU ARE ALREADY BLESSED.

Joshua 24:13 - 'I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.'

God is more willing to bless you than you are willing to be blessed! In fact, He is so keen for you to enjoy His abundance that in His mind, giving you over and above what you need is a settled matter.

God has already promised: “I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.”

He did not say, “I may give,” which means that it may or may not happen, but He said, “I have given,” which means that it has already happened. It is only a matter of time before your revelation of what you have through the work of Christ brings forth the abundance that He has already blessed you with.

A brother in the United States wrote in to share how he needed to buy a car, but had only half the amount of money needed. He kept calculating and strategizing, but the sums just weren’t adding up. He finally quit trying to make it happen and just rested in the Lord’s love and ability to provide for him. Weeks later, he was able to buy a car that was two years newer than what he had wanted, at exactly the amount that he had!

My friend, expect divine provision in your life because you are already richly blessed in Christ. Jesus took your place of poverty at the cross—“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). In Him, you are poor no more.

So stop looking at the lack in your natural resources. Look to the cross and say, “Because of Jesus' finished work, I can expect to walk in all of His blessings!”

Joseph Prince (January-17-2024) Daily Devotional: Always Accepted in Christ

“You shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE LORD. . . . So it shall be on Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things . . . and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.” Exodus 28:36, 38

In the Old Testament, Aaron was the first high priest of Israel. The high priest of Israel is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our permanent High Priest today. God instructed that the golden plate of the miter (headdress), which has the Hebrew words Kadosh Le Yahweh (“Holiness to the Lord”) engraved on it, should always be on the forehead of the high priest so that all Israel would be accepted before God (see the illustration).

The high priest wears a gold plate
bearing the words, “Holiness to the Lord”
on his forehead.

What this means is that even when Israel failed in their thought life, they were still accepted by God because He judged the nation of Israel based on their high priest. If the high priest was accepted, the entire nation was accepted.

Today we have a perfect High Priest in Christ. It’s not your thoughts that qualify you to be accepted by God. Under the new covenant of grace, God is no longer judging you based on your thoughts. God judges you based on His Son.

If He is righteous, God sees you as righteous. If He is blessed, God sees you as blessed. If He is under God’s unclouded favor, God sees you as under His unclouded favor. If His thoughts are always perfect and filled with holiness unto God, God sees your thoughts as perfect in Christ!

Today when the devil comes to torment your mind, point him to Jesus. Jesus’ thoughts are always holy. Remember how the golden plate is always around the forehead of your High Priest and His thoughts are always filled with holiness to God.

Look at Exodus 28:38 again: “It shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.” Therefore, even when your thought life isn’t always perfect, know that Jesus’ thoughts are always perfect.

And it’s because of His perfection that you are always accepted in Him before God. God will never reject you because your thoughts are imperfect. He is looking at Jesus, and as long as His thoughts are holy, you are accepted!

Joseph Prince (January-16-2024) Daily Devotional: What Produces Peace in Your Heart?

. . . giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Colossians 1:12

Several years ago, I had the privilege of counseling one of my wife’s close friends. Wendy’s friend was a young Christian who attended another church. Over dinner, she shared that one of her spiritual leaders had told her that the Christian life was difficult, and that she had to suffer for the Lord and pay her dues. She was told that she had to work hard, pray hard, and make sure that she read the Bible every day so that God would be pleased with her.

Once she shared all that with us, I felt that it was my responsibility to tell her the good news. So I shared with her that we do not read the Bible because we want to qualify for God’s blessings. We read the Bible to find out about our blessings and inheritance in Christ.

See the difference? I told her that if I stopped reading the Bible for a few days, I should not be feeling guilty; I should be feeling hungry.

God is not pleased with us on the condition that we read the Bible, pray long prayers, and pay our dues. No, absolutely not! He is pleased with us because our trust is in Jesus, who qualified us.

The Bible never said that it is our works that qualify us. Today’s scripture says, “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”

It is the Father who has qualified us, and He qualified us by sending His Son to save us. He has qualified us to be partakers of His favor, healing, provision, love, joy, peace, and well-being. All these blessings are the inheritance of the saints, purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ. We partake of our inheritance by giving thanks to the Father for sending His Son.

I shared with this lady that she can wake up every day and say, “Father, I thank You that You have qualified me to walk in victory, healing, and supply.” I told her that she should not be racking her brains wondering what she must do to qualify for God’s goodness. His goodness is already hers!

There are too many teachings today telling believers what they must do to qualify for this and that. God’s way is for us to know that through Jesus, we are already qualified.

At the end of the dinner, I said, “Test whatever I have shared with you about the goodness of God, His grace, and Jesus’ work at the cross against what you have been taught. Which produces peace in your heart? Joy and peace are the trademarks of the kingdom of God. God is not the author of confusion.”

She reflected on what I had shared with her and said, “While I may not understand everything about Jesus because I am a baby Christian, I know that all you’ve shared has produced great peace and joy in my heart.”

Let me ask you the same question today: what produces more peace and joy in your heart—to know that God will never punish and condemn you again for your sins because Jesus has already been punished and condemned for you, or to hear that God is sometimes pleased but sometimes angry with you depending on how you perform?

Beloved, the answer is found in Jesus and His finished work. It is found in His grace, not in your own doing. By trying to qualify yourself today for God’s blessings with all your Bible reading, praying, and hard work, you are asking Him to assess and judge you according to your goodness and faithfulness.

Is that what you really want? If not, then begin to put your trust in the finished work of Christ today and enjoy peace, joy, and every blessing that flows from His unconditional love for you!

An Apology to Joyce Meyer

 

Joyce Meyer is a great teacher.

I learned a lot from her when I was a younger Christian. I watched her a great deal in my late 20's, for example. I even read her book The Battlefield of the Mind.

Her teachings on righteousness really helped me to see who I was in Christ. "I am the righteousness of God" was not some phrase I learned to claim over myself only when I started listening to Pastor Joseph Prince.

In 2008, I was learning so much about the Gift of Righteousness, and that God gives us all these blessings because of our righteous standing before God, in Christ! And I learned about this from Joyce.

I knew and believed, and spoke out the verses in 2 Corinthians 5:21, and the other verses that touch on our righteous standing in Christ.

Yet in 2008 and 2009, my life was still full of struggles. I found myself warring in my mind a great deal. Instead of feeling a sense of peace and carefree joy, I felt that I was all alone in the world. I wondered how I could live this life, and I didn't know whether God was really on my side or not.

One thing lead to another, and all the temporal blessings that I enjoyed in my life, I ended up throwing away. I was under so much stress, convinced that there was so much work that I had to do. There was no assurance of faith, and I was constantly plagued with worry about what would happen to me if I sinned, or took a wrong step, or did something amiss.

The world still centered around me, and I felt that everything depended on me.

When I was down and out in my life, during the 2009-2010 period, I became really bitter towards preachers like Joyce Meyer. My life had fallen apart, and I was writhing with guilt and shame because I could not overcome the bad habits, the harsh thoughts, the wrong believing in my life. I felt like I was in an abyss, a cycle of shame that I could not escape. What was all this talk about blessings and our righteous standing, if I was still struggling with all these problems?

Then I discovered the Gospel of Grace through Pastor Prince, I learned about the Old and New Covenants, and I realized that all our sins are forgiven--pass, present, future--because of Jesus and His Finished Work on the Cross.

At that point, I started making cutting, bitting, critical remarks against preachers and teachers of God's Word like Joyce Meyer. "She didn't teach me about this or that! She didn't explain to me about some things and others things! She's just another church lady!" And so on.

Entering into this new, grand year, fifteen years later! I have been seeing more of Jesus than I have ever seen before. Because I have been praying the Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 3 prayers at great length, Jesus has really revealed Himself to me.

And that's the whole point! I see Him more clearly, more fully, more completely as a Living Savior! All that time from 2008 to 2010, I was rooted in His love, but did not know it. All that time, I had already become the righteousness of God in Christ, but I was deceived, in bondage to the mixture of wrong believing and bad teaching of my parents and their traditions. I was still under law, struggling with the classical Galatian error.

The problem was not with what Joyce Meyer had been teaching. When she talked about the gift of righteousness, when she talked about all the blessings accorded to us because of our righteous standing in Christ, she was SPOT ON!

The problem was that I had all this junky, clunky, garbled wrong believing haunting me. That was never Joyce Meyer's fault! I was still holding onto this idea that I had to earn what God so freely gives. Huh? Yes, that was what I believed still. Sure, God had saved me, but I was on my own on this earth. Sure, I was heading for heaven, but I felt that I was still living hell on earth. How awful it is to be under mixture, under law and grace put together.

I do submit that more pastors, preachers, and teachers need to confront this fact: many Christians are hearing the Word of Christ, but they are not recognizing that they are trying to balance or mix the truth with wrong believing, the bad teachings of their past lives, or their former customs.

No wonder Paul writes:

"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;" (Ephesians 4:22)

We need to put off all the deceitful lusts, and those lusts are not just the desire to eat more food, or engaging in illicit sexual practices. There is also the lust for self-righteous preeminence, to make ourselves big and right in our own eyes because of our own works, i.e. "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life." (1 John 2:16)

The problem was that in the background, I still saw God all wrong. I was trying to merge what my parents, what all the religious traditions I had grown up with had told me about God with all the great truths in God's Word that people like Joyce Meyer--and later, Pastor Prince--were revealing to me.

It wasn't that Joyce Meyere was so much church-lady Pharisee. It was that I was the Pharisee!

I can write this post as an apology to Joyce Meyer, and I encourage her to keep preaching the Gospel of Grace and let everyone know the Gospel truth that in Christ, we have become the Righteousness of God, and that in Christ we are accorded all the blessings with Him! (Ephesians 1:3)