Destined to Reign (14 page)

Let me tell you a story about a little boy who used to play in the woods just a short distance away from the dilapidated hut that he lived in. His parents were too poor to buy him any toys, so he had to make do with whatever he could find. One day, he chanced upon a stone that was unlike any that he had ever seen. The polished surface of the stone glistened in his hands and winked at him each time he turned it around in the sunlight. It was his very own treasure and he loved it. The boy did not dare bring it back to his home as there was nowhere in the hut he could hide it. He decided to dig a deep hole under some bushes and hide his precious possession there.

The next day, the boy couldn’t wait to retrieve his stone and ran to its hiding place as soon as the sun arose. But when his fingers finally found the stone in its muddy hideaway, it was all grubby and stained, without any of the luster that he loved so much. The boy took the stone to the stream and carefully dipped it in, allowing the dirt to be washed away. Finally, it was clean again and the boy’s heart swelled with pride at his coveted find. But all too soon, the time came for the boy to head home and he had to return the stone to its hiding place.

Every day, the boy would rush to the spot where he had hidden the stone. And every day, he would find its shiny surface smeared with mud and he would trek to the river some distance away to wash it. This happened for a while before he decided to solve the problem. That day, when it was almost time for him to head home, the little boy took his stone to a small waterfall and wedged it carefully between two rocks, right in the middle of the steady flow of the waterfall. That night, the stone experienced a continual washing. And that little boy never had to wash the stone again. Every time he retrieved it, it gleamed in his hands, completely cleansed.

What the little boy did with the stone initially can be likened to what happens under the old covenant. Each time you sinned, you had to be cleansed. But before you knew it, you would sin again, and you would have to bring your sin offering of either a bullock or lamb to the priests to be cleansed again. Some believers still think that this is our covenant today, but let me declare to you that Jesus’ blood is far greater than the blood of bulls and goats. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bought us eternal forgiveness
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. The blood of bulls and goats in the old covenant could only offer temporal forgiveness, and that’s why the children of Israel had to keep bringing animal sacrifices to the priests over and over again, every time they failed.

Jesus, however, died on the cross once and for all
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. When you were born again, you became a living stone and God placed you right under the waterfall of His Son’s blood. Hence, every thought you have that is amiss, every feeling that is not right, every action that is not correct, is washed away! You are always kept clean and forgiven because of the continuous cleansing of Jesus’ blood!

Understanding The Holy Communion

“Pastor Prince, what about the times we partake of the Holy Communion? Aren’t we expected to confess all our sins so that we don’t partake of it unworthily?”

Let’s read what Paul actually said about partaking of the Holy Communion:

1 Corinthians 11:27–30

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Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner
will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29
For he who eats and drinks in an
unworthy manner
eats and drinks judgment to himself,
not discerning the Lord’s body
.
30
For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

Down through the years, the body of Christ has mistakenly believed that to partake of the Holy Communion in an “unworthy manner” is to partake with sin in your life. So we are told not to partake of the Communion when we deem ourselves “not right with God”, lest we become weak, sickly and die before our time. But we have turned what was meant as a blessing into a curse. When I received this erroneous teaching as a teenager, I would always let the Communion elements pass me by, thinking, “My mama didn’t raise no fool!” I was always concerned that I would be partaking unworthily. Now, by doing so and being “safe”, I did not realize that I was robbing myself of the blessings and benefits of Jesus’ broken body and His shed blood.

I now know that this is
not
what the Bible teaches. To partake unworthily does not refer to you partaking as an unworthy person because of your sins. Come on, Jesus died for unworthy people! What the verse really refers to is the
manner
in which you partake. To partake unworthily is to fail to discern that the bread which you hold in your hands is the body of Jesus Christ that was beaten for you, so that your body may be healed and whole. This was what was happening in the early church. There were believers who were just eating the bread because they were hungry, or taking the bread as a ritual without discerning the Lord’s body and releasing faith.

Therefore, to partake in an unworthy manner is not about you failing to examine yourself and confess all your sins to make sure that you are worthy to partake. It is not about the one partaking. It is about the act or manner in which one partakes. It is about discerning the Lord’s body and releasing faith to see the bread as His body, striped for your healing. It is about seeing the wine as the blood that was shed for the forgiveness of all your sins. Therein is the secret to God’s divine health and wholeness. Many fail to discern the body of Jesus and see for themselves how He has suffered in His body on their behalf. This is the reason “many are weak and sick”. So it is not about looking at yourself and confessing your sins. It is about looking to Jesus and seeing what He has accomplished on the cross for you!

In our church, we partake of the Holy Communion every week. And by teaching the people to discern the Lord’s body, we have experienced one amazing healing miracle after another. There was a lady in our church who suffered from deep vein thrombosis while on her way to Israel with one of our church groups. (We organize regular tours to Israel for our church members.) She had fallen asleep on the flight after taking some medication, and did not move around enough to allow her blood to circulate freely and sufficiently throughout the long flight. As a result, she went into a coma upon arrival in Israel and had to be hospitalized immediately.

I happened to be in Israel at that time with my pastoral team. We visited her in the hospital and partook of the Holy Communion by her bed, proclaiming the finished work of Jesus over her. Miraculously, after a couple of days, she awoke from the coma and from what medical practitioners considered a potentially fatal condition! Praise be to God, she was completely healed. She was so full of the resurrection life of Jesus that she joined the next group that had just arrived in Israel. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

If you are interested to learn more about the Holy Communion, get hold of my book titled,
Health And Wholeness Through The Holy Communion
. There are more testimonies in the book and the book will liberate you to partake of all the benefits of the Holy Communion. Remember, it is not about examining yourself for sin and making yourself worthy to partake. It is all about discerning the Lord’s body! It is all about Jesus and nothing about man’s own efforts.

Consciousness Of Jesus’ Blood Brings Victory

Perhaps you are going through some challenges right now and you are wondering, “How can the blood of Jesus bring me healing, prosperity and victory in my marriage?”

My friend, all you need to know is that you are being constantly cleansed of all your sins. Once you believe that all your sins are indeed forgiven and that God does not hold anything against you, faith will spring forth. Faith will be there for healing. Faith will be there for prosperity. Faith will be there for restoration in your marriage and family. The continuous washing of Jesus’ blood qualifies you for
any
miracle that you need in your life right now. Jesus said to the paralytic man, “Son, your sins are forgiven you,” before He said, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
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Why? Because Jesus knew that unless the man had the assurance that all his sins had been forgiven, he would not have faith to be healed. This is what people need to hear. This is what we need to teach in the church!

The devil’s strategy is to make you feel like you are not qualified to enter God’s presence. He will bombard you with thoughts of condemnation, accusing you of being unworthy for having wrong thoughts or saying harsh words against someone. He will give you a thousand and one reasons why you don’t qualify for God’s blessings. But the truth is that whatever wrong feelings you had or whatever bad habit you had succumbed to, the blood of Jesus keeps you clean. The blood of Jesus qualifies you to have constant access to the Most High God. Because you are under this waterfall of forgiveness, every prayer that you make avails much.

The blood of Jesus qualifies you to have constant access to the Most High God.

We overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb. When Monday comes and Tuesday rolls by, and your pastor is not there to preach to you, do you know what you need to remind yourself of? 1 John 1:7 — “… the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” His blood keeps on keeping on cleansing you from every sin. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, His blood is cleansing you. And any time and every time you pray, your prayer hits the mark.

My friend, cease from depending on your own efforts to maintain your forgiveness and begin to enjoy the extravagant waterfall of God’s forgiveness every moment of the day. You’ll find peace for your soul and the faith to reign in life will well up on the inside of you. You’ll see miracles begin to unfold in your life!

Chapter 10: The Ministry Of Death

I didn’t write this book to tell you what is so wrong about you and to point out where you have fallen short. On the contrary, I wrote this book to declare to you what is so right about you (in spite of all your weaknesses) because of Jesus Christ. This book is about the good news of Jesus Christ. He did not come to condemn you. He came to take your condemnation upon Himself, so that you will never be condemned again.

Has Jesus died on the cross for us?

Has His blood been shed for our forgiveness?

Then, why is it that so many believers are still living in condemnation even though He has already been punished for their sins?

Did the cross make a difference or not?

Jesus Christ has already delivered all believers from the covenant of law which condemns. But there are believers who choose to continue living under its condemnation instead of receiving the grace that has been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Rather than put their trust in the unmerited goodness of God through Jesus Christ, they have chosen to put their trust in their ability to abide by the Ten Commandments. Simply put, they have chosen the ministry of death.

“Sacrilegious! I would have you know that the Ten Commandments are God’s holy laws. How dare you call them the ministry of death!”

Take it easy, my friend. I’m not the one who came up with that. The Bible states it very clearly:

2 Corinthians 3:7–9

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But if the
ministry of death, written and engraved on stones
, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,
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how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
9
For if the
ministry of condemnation
had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.

It is the Bible that describes the Ten Commandments, which were written and engraved on stones, as the “ministry of death”! Some have argued that the “ministry of death” refers exclusively to the “ceremonial laws” of Moses, such as those pertaining to animal sacrifices. Therefore, they say that while we may no longer be bound by the ceremonial laws, we are still under the “moral laws” or Ten Commandments. However, this cannot be true because the ceremonial laws were never “written and engraved on stones”. They were written on parchment. Only the Ten Commandments were written and engraved on stones, and the Bible calls them the “ministry of death”. That’s why the Bible also says in the preceding verse that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life”
1
. The covenant of law kills, but the covenant of grace gives life!

The Covenant Of Grace Is Much More Glorious

I used to think that Moses put a veil over his face because his face shone so bright that he did not want to frighten the people. Actually, the Bible says that Moses put on the veil because he did not want the people to know that the glory was departing or “passing away”
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.