Destined to Reign (23 page)

In expounding the Scriptures to the two disciples, I believe that Jesus showed us
how
we are to study the Bible. He does not want us to read the Bible to find out what to do and what not to do. He wants us to study the Bible to see
Him
and all the things in the Scriptures concerning
Himself
.

We don’t have to wish that Jesus would appear to us —His way is for us to see Him in the Scriptures!

And you know something? Ever since our church experienced the Gospel Revolution, studying the Word has been so exciting! I’ve found myself preaching even from the book of Leviticus on a Sunday morning. Can you believe that? For most believers, the pages of Leviticus are usually still stuck together even after their Bibles have been in use for a few years!

When you begin to see Jesus in every page of the Bible, it all comes alive. In our church, we go deep into the Word of God to search out all the hidden gems and truths about Jesus from Genesis to Maps! We have fun in the Word, for when the person of Jesus comes forth in the Word, Bible study is no longer dry and academic, but alive and
exciting
, and we love it!

Our Hearts Burn Within Us

Jesus’ solution for those who are “foolish” and “slow of heart to believe” is for them to study the Bible to see more of Him. At the end of the disciples’ journey, the Bible says that they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
3
My friend, when Jesus is unveiled in the Scriptures, our hearts will
burn
within us. In fact, the root word for “Emmaus” in Hebrew means “warm baths” or “warm springs”
4
. When Jesus expounded on the Scriptures, the disciples’ hearts experienced “warm baths”. Their hearts were strangely warmed and comforted.

On one of our trips to Israel, I took a group of my leaders on this journey to Emmaus. During the walk, our Israeli guide shared with us that during Jesus’ time, there was actually a natural hot spring along the road to Emmaus
5
, and people used to take advantage of its medicinal qualities while enjoying a warm bath.

Immediately after our guide shared that, I was really excited because I got this revelation from the Lord: He showed me that when you are sitting under anointed ministries that unveil Jesus in the Scriptures, not only will your heart be bathed in the warmth of His love, but even your physical body will be healed and restored! There are medicinal qualities and healing virtues in seeing Jesus in the Scriptures, as His words are truly “life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh”
6
.

The Bible says that Emmaus is seven miles from Jerusalem
7
. This means that the disciples studied the Bible with Jesus for several hours! The Bible also says that when the disciples realized that it was Jesus talking to them after they had arrived in Emmaus, they “rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem”
8
. This means that the disciples walked for seven miles all the way to Emmaus and then walked another seven miles to get back to Jerusalem!

I believe that something supernatural must have happened to their bodies. The disciples got filled with so much life that they could walk all the way back — 14 miles in all, back to back. When I saw that several years ago, the Lord spoke to me saying, “Son, when you sit under anointed teaching of the Scriptures about Me, your body responds, life comes, and profound and boundless energy flows.” No wonder David said, “Quicken me according to Your Word,”
9
which means, “Give me life through Your Word.”

When you see Jesus unveiled and hear Him preached to you, it is no wonder your body receives healing, because the divine resurrection life of Jesus is imparted to you. That’s what happened to the man at Lystra who was lame from birth. All he did was to hear Paul preach about Jesus and his legs became infused with so much life that when Paul commanded him, he leaped and walked
10
!

Ministry Of A New Covenant Preacher

This is the true ministry of any new covenant Bible teacher or preacher — he seeks to unveil Jesus to you and qualify you by the blood of Jesus. He does not come to unveil your faults or bring your sins to remembrance to disqualify you from entering God’s presence and enjoying His blessings. That is what an old covenant preacher does. In the Old Testament, the widow of Zarephath said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance…?”
11

Every which way you turn yourself, you will find faults. But every which way you turn Jesus, you will find that like a precious diamond, there is brilliance, beauty and perfection. The accuser wants you to be conscious of yourself, and keeps telling you to look at your every wrong deed and thought. Even when you have done something “right”, like spending time in the Word and praying every day, he will say to you, “It is not enough! You only read five chapters a day. Do you know that so-and-so reads 10 chapters a day? And you only pray for one hour a day! So-and-so wakes up early every morning and prays for four hours!”

The devil wants you self-conscious, but God wants you Jesus-conscious.

My friend, don’t play his game. Turn away from his accusations and from yourself, and see Jesus. God is not judging you today based on you. He has placed you
in Christ
, and He sees the excellence, beauty and perfection of Jesus when He looks at you. The devil wants you self-conscious. God wants you Jesus-conscious. It is in your best interest to find out as much as you can about Jesus — who He is, His titles, His official glories, all that He possesses — because all that He is, God has set to your account. You are a joint heir to all that He has and all the inheritance that is due to Jesus is yours as well
12
!

Unfortunately, instead of looking at Jesus, many Christians fall into the trap of thinking that God looks at them based on who they are and what they have done. The moment you think like that, you have come under the law. You see, the law, with its focus on your doing or not doing, makes you self-conscious. You may not even realize that the moment you focus on yourself and your performance, you have just placed yourself under the law. The moment you feel condemned for not doing more, for not doing better or for not doing anything at all, you have placed yourself under the law. Instead of looking toward what Jesus has done, you are looking at what
you
have done.

It Is All About Seeing Jesus

The
law
is all about you looking at
yourself.
The new covenant of
grace
is all about you
seeing Jesus
. The Pharisees committed large portions of the Word of God to memory and yet they could not see the Word of God in the flesh, standing before them. We should not be interested in just accumulating Bible knowledge. We should be opening the Scriptures to see more of Jesus. Some people think that if they knew Hebrew and Greek, they would understand the Bible better. Well, the Pharisees knew Hebrew and that did nothing for them. What we need is for the Holy Spirit to unveil to us revelations and hidden gems about Jesus and His finished work. I like what Smith Wigglesworth said:

“Some people read their Bible in Hebrew, some in Greek. I like to read mine in the Holy Ghost.”

Beloved, it is all about seeing Jesus because from Him comes every supply and provision. Even as I preach, I look to Jesus. I look to Him for the Word. I look to Him for direction. I look to Him all the time. As long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he could walk on water. But once he looked away from Jesus, and looked instead at the storm, the challenges and the stressful circumstances, he started to sink.

Once people look away from Jesus, they will stop attending church, and start looking to themselves and their own resources to make things happen. They think to themselves, “I need more time. I need to work harder. I have to put in more overtime work and work on Sundays as well.” Why don’t you enjoy your Sundays in church and with your family, and trust the Lord to see you through? God can accomplish much more in you through the anointed preaching of Jesus than what you can accomplish through your own strength and your working overtime. Let’s come together more to see more of Jesus!

Typologies Of Jesus In The Bible

Now that you are all excited to see Jesus in the Scriptures, let’s look at some Old Testament scriptures and unveil Jesus. If you are not familiar with the use of typology in interpreting the Scriptures, let me assure you that it is biblical and that Jesus Himself used typology in His teachings. The first time He used typology in the book of John, He said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
13

“Pastor Prince, are you comparing Jesus to ‘the serpent in the wilderness’?”

Well, you read it yourself. Jesus Himself drew that comparison and that is what we call a “typology”. The Old Testament is filled with typologies. The Bible says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
14
God has hidden the mysteries of His beloved Son and His finished work throughout the Bible, and it is our glory to search out all these things concerning Himself. Are you ready?

Jesus, The True Bread Of Life

Let’s go to Numbers chapter 21 and see what Jesus is typified as here. The Bible tells us that as the children of Israel journeyed in the wilderness, “the soul of the people became very discouraged”, and they began to murmur and complain against God and His appointed leadership, Moses, saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.”
15

Can you imagine this? God delivered them from a life of slavery in Egypt with His mighty hand, protected them from Pharaoh’s army with a pillar of fire and parted the Red Sea for them to pass through. And instead of being grateful, they complained and even referred to the manna from heaven as “worthless bread”. In the King James Version, it says “light bread”, implying that they saw the manna as something which was of little value and which did not satisfy.

According to the psalmist David, the manna was “angels’ food”
16
. It was so good that when the children of Israel ate this food for 40 years in the wilderness, their feet did not swell and there was not one feeble among them. God provided them with food for champions, food that kept them free from sicknesses and diseases, food that descended daily from heaven. All they had to do each morning was to collect enough for their consumption. Yet, they despised the manna.

The church today needs to be careful not to make the same mistake that the children of Israel made when they called the manna from God “worthless bread”. The manna that He gave them was a picture (or type) of Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.”
17

We should be careful not to consider Jesus as “worthless bread” by relegating Him to the periphery of our teachings.

In many places, there is an under-emphasis on Jesus Christ, and an over-emphasis on all sorts of doctrines and principles that can be extracted from the Word. I am not saying that churches should not be using the Word to teach on financial principles, keys to wisdom, leadership and so on. I teach all these in my church as well. What I am saying is that churches must be careful not to consider Jesus as “worthless bread” by relegating Him to the periphery of their teachings.

Anybody who doesn’t focus on Jesus Christ and His finished work has neither the wisdom of God nor the power of God, because the Bible says that Christ crucified is the wisdom of God and the power of God
18
. He is the true bread from heaven and only He satisfies! The devil is afraid of any church that preaches Jesus Christ on the cross because he knows that when people know how God sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross for them, they will see that they have a merciful God who loves them unconditionally. They will know the Truth and the Truth will set them free!

Let me add one more thing. Do you know that every morning, the children of Israel had to go out to collect fresh manna? The manna could not be stored overnight as it would turn stale and breed worms. Ever wondered why God didn’t just give them a week’s supply of manna? Well, that is because God wants us to open the Scriptures every day to collect fresh manna of Jesus. He doesn’t want us to live on past and stale revelations of Jesus, for His mercies are new every morning. Hallelujah!

Jesus, The Bronze Serpent In The Wilderness

Let’s continue with what happened after the children of Israel murmured and complained. In your Bible, it says that “the Lord sent fiery serpents”
19
, and they bit the people and many of the Israelites died. Now, it is important to recognize that the serpents were always there in the wilderness. All God did was that He lifted His protection when they murmured against Moses. Remember this happened under the old covenant of law! Praise the Lord that in the new covenant of grace that you and I are under, God WILL NEVER lift His protection over us. Always bear that in mind when you read the Old Testament. It is necessary to
rightly divide the Word
.

The people then came to Moses and he prayed for them. Then, the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.”
20
So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, and “if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived”
21
.