Destined to Reign (8 page)

It was during this time that my family resolved to commit the whole thing to God, to trust and rely on Him entirely and pray for healing. We opted to go with taking medication. During this time, despite wanting to believe in God’s love and goodness toward me, I was constantly plagued with questions like, “Does God love me anymore?” “Does He even care?” “Is He punishing me for something wrong that I’ve done?” “Should I just grit my teeth and accept the situation?”

It was only when a fellow colleague and friend at my workplace started passing me your sermon CDs to listen to that I was reminded once again of my Savior’s love, grace and goodness toward me. And I believe that as I listened to the Word preached via the CDs, my body began healing.

Within a month of the medication, the level of prolactin in my blood decreased and the balance of chemicals in my body became stable. After two more months, the MRI scan showed that the tumor had shrunk to half its original size.

I was very encouraged, and most importantly, I felt confident and secure that my God was doing His work of healing in my body, that He loves and cares for me enough to know that I was hurting and to do something about it.

The best news came in early August when the MRI scan that I went for showed that the macro-tumor was GONE! The doctor was amazed and kept saying that in most cases, even when a tumor had shrunk by so much, there would still be remnants of tumor cells. But in my case, the tumor was completely GONE, with no trace of any tumor cells at all!

No words can describe how grateful and thankful I am to God. I know that it is God who has healed me. But what’s more important is the fact that I stand tall as a child of God, and I know that I am the righteousness of God because of what Jesus has done on the cross for me. This deep sense of knowing that I am deeply loved and cared for by God makes me so secure in my relationship with God. I want to give all the glory and praise to God. I am what I am today — healed, whole and at peace — only because of the preaching of the good news of the gospel of grace!

Connie Ang

Singapore

David’s Definition Of Blessedness

If this lady had continued to believe that God was punishing her for some sin, she would have just gritted her teeth, accepted her sickness as punishment and never sought God for healing. But praise God He brought light into her situation, and showed her how much He loved her!

“But Pastor Prince, didn’t God punish King David for his sin and he lost his child?”

Don’t forget that David, like Elijah,
lived before the cross of Jesus
. You will never find an example of God punishing a believer for his sins in the new covenant. Let’s study the Scriptures for ourselves and not just go by what people are saying.

When David sinned against God by committing adultery with Bathsheba and plotting the death of her husband, Uriah, sin was imputed to David and he was punished. Although the punishment was tempered with God’s mercy, David was punished nonetheless because he was under the covenant of law and not the covenant of grace.

Do you know who David was describing when he said, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin”?
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Since it’s clear that sin was imputed to David, he could not have been describing himself as some scholars claim. No, he was looking prophetically into the covenant of grace. He was describing you and me — a new generation of people who are under the covenant of grace!

What does “shall not impute sin” mean? Does it mean that you will never sin again? Did Jesus die on the cross to free us from committing sinful actions or harboring sinful thoughts? If He did, then allow me to conclude with reverence that He failed. You and I know fully well that we can still be tempted with sinful thoughts and tempted to commit sinful actions, and there will still be times when we fail. Can you show me a man who is free from all temptations and who never fails?

My friend, when David described the blessed man as one to whom the Lord will not impute sin, he meant that even when this man sins, God will not count his sin against him, nor punish him for his iniquity. Too good to be true? That is why David defined this man as a blessed man. And this blessed man is you and me! Today, you are blessed because the Lord no longer counts your sins against you. Because of the cross of Jesus, you will never be punished for your sins again. Your sins were imputed to Jesus, so that they would never be imputed to you. Under the new covenant of grace that was sealed with the blood of Jesus, God has already judged sin completely on the body of Jesus Christ. This means that even when you fall short of God’s holy standards, the punishment for sin will not fall on you. The wages of sin is death, but Jesus has already died on your behalf. Your sins have already been imputed to His account!

Today, you are blessed because the Lord no longer counts your sins against you. Because of the cross of Jesus, you will never be punished for your sins again.

Look at what John said: “
If anyone sins, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
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He did not say, “If anyone sins, he will be punished for his sins!” No, under the new covenant of grace, Jesus is today your Advocate. He represents you before God and as Jesus is, so are you
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!

Is Jesus righteous before God? Yes! Then so are you. Is He accepted before God? Yes! Then so are you. Is He well-pleasing before God? Yes! Then so are you.

Now, will the revelation of what Jesus has done for you cause you to go out and sin? Of course not! In fact, knowing that He has borne your punishment will cause you to fall in love with Him. It will give you the strength to break free from sin!

Not A Big Sinner?

“But Pastor Prince, I’ve never committed adultery or killed anyone. I haven’t really committed any major sins. I think that I have kept all of the laws of Moses.”

Well, have you ever lost your cool at somebody who cut into your lane without turning on his indicator lights? Have you ever blown your top at your spouse? If your answer to either of these questions is “yes”, then you are a murderer. And have you ever undressed a woman in your mind? If you have, then you are also an adulterer.

“How dare you call me a murderer and an adulterer?”

Calm down my friend, it is not me. It is our Lord Jesus. He said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment... You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
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Let’s be scriptural here and not go by our own standards when determining whether we have sinned or not. Let’s go by Jesus’ standards. Man brought the law of Moses down to a place where he thought that he was able to keep it. But Jesus came and brought it back to its full and righteous standard. Man can attempt to keep the law outwardly (like the Pharisees), but Jesus has demonstrated that it has to be kept inwardly as well. If you fail inwardly, you fail outwardly too. Jesus showed us that it was impossible for anyone to be justified by the law. Only He could fulfill the law on our behalf and justify us by His grace!

God doesn’t categorize sin. Whether it’s a “minor” or “major” sin, it’s still a sin. He does not grade on the curve — when you fail in one, you fail in all
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. There is no person on the face of this planet who does not need to depend entirely on the grace of God because there is no man who has not failed in his own efforts to keep the law! The Bible declares that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
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. By Jesus’ standard, we all fail! The good news is, even when you fail, God does not judge you for your failure. All our sins have been judged at the cross. Hallelujah! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

Chapter 6: The Evil Conspiracy

When I was growing up as a young Christian, I was taught many things about God which robbed me of any desire to build a more intimate relationship with Him. I was told that the more I knew, the more God would hold me accountable, and my punishment for falling short of His expectations would be more severe than someone who knew less.

When I got hold of this teaching, I knew exactly what not to do. I decided not to touch the Bible, since the more I knew, the more I would be punished by God. Come on, my mama didn’t raise no fool! I would rather be ignorant than to learn more about the Word and attract greater chastisement should I fail! So I left the Bible alone and refused to turn up for any Bible study classes. I simply stayed away from anything that could further “incriminate” me.

I was also taught that the closer I drew to God, the more trials and tribulations I would experience. Have you heard this one before? When I got hold of this teaching, again I thought to myself, “My mama didn’t raise no fool. I’m not about to allow trials to overwhelm me!” From that point on, I didn’t want to draw close to God.

Can you see how wrong teachings about God can rob you of all that He has for you?

As I grew in the Lord, He opened my eyes and I realized that the teachings that I had received were not true. Contrary to what I had been taught, I found that the closer I drew to God, the closer I was to the Answer to all my problems. I was drawing close to the miracle worker. I was drawing close to the healer. I was drawing close to the provider, my Jehovah Jireh!

As long as you continue to have a wrong perception of God and withdraw from Him, the devil can keep you bound in a life of defeat.

The more of God’s truth you know, the more the truth will set you free from erroneous beliefs that are not based on His Word. In fact, it is the devil who would love for you to fear God (in an unhealthy way), so that you would stay away from your only source of help. The devil would love for you to stay away from the Bible because it is the book of your inheritance, and it tells you what belongs to you through the blood of Jesus Christ. The devil would love for you not to find out the truth, so that he can keep you in bondage, sickness and poverty. As long as you continue to have a wrong perception of God and withdraw from Him, the devil can keep you bound in a life of defeat. He loves to pull the wool over the eyes of God’s sheep, and deprive them of a life of victory and liberty. There is an evil conspiracy to keep you defeated. The devil is using erroneous teachings about God to blind and confuse God’s people.

Does God Chastise Us With Sicknesses And Diseases?

One of the most evil teachings that I have heard is that God will chastise His own with sicknesses, diseases, accidents and tragedies. When I was a teenager, one of the youth leaders in my previous church was involved in a horrible accident that nearly killed him. A church leader gathered some of us youths to go visit that youth leader in the hospital and we all went in the church leader’s car. As he was driving, he began to lament, “Why did this happen to him? I don’t understand. Why would God’s chastening be so severe this time? What did he do to cause God to chasten him this way?”

As a young Christian listening to his church leader bemoaning God’s chastening, can you imagine how I felt when I “realized” that God was behind the accident? Honestly, it frightened the living daylights out of me to think that God would chastise a believer using such a severe method! I remember praying, “God, please don’t ever chasten me this way. Whatever it is, please, just tell me, all right? I will listen. I promise!” I became very afraid of God. I didn’t want to draw near to Him because I was afraid of Him, afraid that if I made a mistake, He would not hesitate to chastise me with accidents that could leave me crippled for life or even dead!

Do you know that this erroneous teaching is actually based on the old covenant and not the new covenant? In the book of Leviticus, God says to those who fail to obey His commandments, “I will chastise you seven times for your sins.”
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But guess what? You are no longer under the covenant of law. You are under the covenant of GRACE! Jesus has already borne all your chastisement and punishment on the cross. Read it for yourself in Isaiah 53:

Isaiah 53:4–5

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Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
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But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement for our peace was upon Him
, and by His stripes we are healed.

The prophet Isaiah saw a prophetic vision of our Lord Jesus on the cross, bearing the punishment for our transgressions. He declared that the “chastisement for our peace was upon Him”. Jesus has already been chastised on our behalf! When Mel Gibson’s
The Passion Of The Christ
was released, people complained that the movie was too graphic and violent. The truth is that what the movie portrayed is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what our Lord really suffered on our behalf.