Power That Gives Life Is In Our Heart

Our mortal bodies are subject to death. Apostle Paul was actually struggling in Roman chapter 7 and his struggle ended with him asking WHO would rescue him from this body of death not how or what he could do. He did not ask HOW but WHO. By asking WHO, the WHO, Who is always faithful, revealed to him that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  The Who did not revealed to him that he must repent… The Who revealed to him that there is now no condemnation. Who would have known that Paul condemned himself because of the tenth commandment which was nailing his innermost being? It was the dogs (his brain) barking at him... The 1st to the 9th commandments are of external behavior, while the 10th deals with the hearts of men.

From here, the Lord asked me to add the word “brain” in bracket after the flesh and the word “heart” in bracket after the Spirit.

In the Garden of Eden, the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened. Their minds were activated by the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When their minds were activated, they started to see their nakedness. They started to see their lack and fear came into them.

On the road to Emmaus, the couple by the name of Cleopas, ate the bread broken by the Lord and their eyes were opened too, but they see the Lord and their heart was burning. The Lord said "Shalom...!"

Romans  8:1 ~ There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh (our brains) , but according to the Spirit (our hearts).

The revelation from the Lord at this point of time becomes very clear and easy to understand. If we walk according to our flesh (using our brains) condemnation will come! Remember the Lord reminded us to beware of dogs? Our brains are the shadow of the two tablets of Stone and they bark at us when we fall short. If we walk according to the Spirit (using our heart), there will be no condemnation. It is so clear that under the dispensation of grace, we cannot use our brains anymore. To walk in flesh (to use our brains) is death; to walk in the Spirit (to use our hearts) is life. After all, when we put our faith in the Lord, we never invited Him into our brains but into our hearts.

Our whole body is death… there is no life. In this resurrected body, only our hearts are new and are from the Lord. But the hope is found in Romans 8 verse 11 where we can find the Trinity God appears together in one verse…

Romans 8:11 ~  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you (our heart), He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (our heart).

Oh Hallelujah! The power that gives life to our mortal bodies is in our hearts! He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in our heart. It is all by grace through faith, not of us; grace and faith are gifts from God not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

We can do nothing. We are human being not human doing. We don’t do good deed to become a believer but as a believer, we produce good deeds. The Lord did not ask us to do anything. He said He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in our heart. Being in Christ alone, is already doing our good work because we are His workmanship, created in Him to produce good work...!

Proverbs 4

20: My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.

21: Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;

22: For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.

23: Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

Proverbs 4

20: My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.

-             Romans 10:17 ~ Then faith is of hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.

We can only listen to the preaching of the Gospel of Grace. Let His living water washes our feet day in day out. This Gospel of Grace will point us to see Jesus and His finished work. We are then transformed from glory to glory by beholding our wonderful Lord Christ Jesus. We can do nothing but give attention to His words; incline our ear to His sayings. Let His living water washes our feet...; It is finished,,,!

21: Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;

-             On the road to Emmaus, Jesus expounded the Word from Moses to the Prophets things concerning Himself, He broke bread and their eyes were opened to see Jesus and their heart was burning.

When we read the Word be it Old and New Testaments, we must find out the Spirit of Jesus. Where the Spirit is, there is freedom.

22: For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.

-             Romans 8:11 ~ But if the Spirit of the One who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised up Christ from the dead shall also make your mortal bodies alive by His Spirit who dwells in you.

He has given us His own heart. That is the fountain of life, the abundant life that He has promised.

23: Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

-             Matthew 12:35 ~ A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings out good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings out evil things.

A verse before this is “Offspring of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” His definition of good and evil is : When you trust in His grace that is good. If you trust in your performance by abiding the law, He calls that evil. There is nothing good coming out from our performance through obeying the Ten Commandment because a man of sinful nature can never abide to the holy standard of the commandments.

Coma patients have non-functioning brains yet as long as they are still beating, the are considered alive.  Heart Attack patients are dead because their hearts stopped beating... Patients suffering from Heart Attack are certified dead once their hearts have stopped beating...and Heart Attack is caused by stress and the root of that lethal stress is from our mind...

Matthew 6:34 ~ Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow shall be anxious for its own things. Sufficient to the day is the evil of it. 

He Had Given Us His Heart

This post is the continuation of my previous post entitled  His Heart ~ The Way of Grace. In respect of the revelation on our hearts that He has given me, the Lord used the Chinese’s writing character of LOVE （爱） to show me how He has given us His own heart.

In the old way (I see it as Old Covenant) of writing this character of LOVE (愛), there is a heart （心）in it… But in the new way (I see it as New Covenant) of writing LOVE（爱), it is without a heart （心). This is the question I have been asking the Lord for a long time; and He answered my question with a revelation of His heart.

   Old Way of Writing "LOVE"            

New Way Of Writing "LOVE"

Matthew 22:37 ~  Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

In respect of the Old Covenant writing on LOVE (愛), The Lord said we have to use our own heart to love God… that is why there is a heart（心）in the old writing. But for the New, He said He had already help us to love God with all His heart and with all His soul, and with all His mind. We cannot find the heart in the new way of writing (New Covenant) because He has given us His own heart.

Ezekiel 11:19 ~ I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 

Our heart that is now beating is the heart from our Lord. By the grace of God, He has given us His own heart for us to believe in Him. It was this heart that healed the sick. It was this heart that casted out demons.  It was this heart that feed the multitudes. It was this heart that sympathized our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. It was this heart that accomplished all the written code of the Ten Commandments. It was this willing heart that sent Him to the cross. 

It is this heart that understands the grace of God. It is this heart that understands the will of God. It is this heart that is full of love and compassion. It is this heart that Jesus has given us. He has given us a new heart…. In this mortal body of ours, only our hearts are new and living. With this statement from the Lord, He led me to a deeper understanding on what the Bible meant by "Do not walk in flesh but walk in the Spirit".

..... to be continue

His Heart For You Is Revealed In Joseph's Story

Pastor Joseph Prince

His Heart ~ The Way Of Grace

I have been wondering and asking the Lord why is that some believers who have tasted His grace and still shy away from Him after a short period of time… With this question, He is not slow in revealing the answer to me. To my surprise, His answer has become a series of my preaching in 3 separate sessions.

Ever since He started to reveal His answer, He has been showing me the biblical truth in respect of our mind and our heart.

Way back in the Garden of Eden, we could find the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. In the wilderness, we could see the Israelites asking for the two tablets of Stones even though they had the leading of the Lord. Even in this dispensation of grace ever since the resurrection of our Lord, we, the believer, the temple of the Holy Spirit, have been using our mind instead of our heart.

The Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, two tablets of Stone and our mind have the same characteristic, whereas the Tree of Life, the Lord’s leading and our heart are of the same characteristic. With the help from the structure of the tabernacle, we can actually see the picture of the two Trees at the outer court, the two tablets of Stone and God’s leading at the inner court and our mind and heart as the Holy of Holies.

In the outer court, Adam and Eve had chosen the wrong Tree and were driven out of the Garden. In the wilderness, the Israelites had chosen the two Tablets and they took forty years to complete an eleven days journey. My oh my… in this dispensation of grace, believers are using their mind, intellect, and their head knowledge to walk with the Lord. These three eras shared the same consequences which gave birth to human religions…

2 Timothy 1:9 -10 ~ who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

It is NOT only those who preach GRACE is under GRACE... GRACE is not for Christians only, but as long as you are a human being, you are under His GRACE. As long as you are born after the death of Christ, you are under this Grace Dispensation! Believers of Christ are no more under law but under grace. Believer did not invite Moses into their heart to be their Saviour... Believer has invited Jesus into their heart, and Jesus is their Saviour.

From the picture of the tabernacle, we could understand that Jesus’ death had already positioned us in the Holy of Holies where we can freely commune with Father God. The problem with many believers is that, we are using our mind, intellect, and our head knowledge to dwell in the Holy of Holies. As a result, we are moving the furniture that is supposed to be in the inner court into the Holy of Holies. We are practising the ritual of the inner court in the Holy of Holies. We are still abiding to the law even though we are now in the dispensation of grace.

Because of these reasons, the Lord pointed me to a verse in Philippians chapter 3 and reminded me to watch out for dogs. Yes..., He meant dogs… dogs that bark, and there are two dogs!

Philippians 3:2 ~ Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.

Although the Lord had used this verse to speak to me before and warn me to be aware of those who used the Law to bind believers, but He regards that incident as in the outer court when I was still in “Babylon”. He wanted me to look at this verse from a different point of view from the Holy of Holies.

I then realized that He was referring these dogs as our brain. Our brain has the shape of the two tablets of Stone brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai. Our brain is the storehouse of our memories, rules and regulation, our intellect and etc… Our desire to work and to abide the law is from our brain. Our brain is also our religion stronghold. Our brain barks at us whenever we made mistake… and we might consider this as self checking. Our brain pushes us to do well… Accuse us of our failures… condemn us of our pass mistakes, sins, failures… and even condemn others! Our brain is actually the shadow of the two tablets of Stones. Our brain is also the shadow of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

If we associate our intellect with what Apostle Paul called flesh, we will have a better understanding on what Paul meant by living according to the sinful nature and according to Spirit.

Romans 8:1 ~ There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh (using their intellect), but according to the Spirit (using their heart).

We are under the dispensation of GRACE. We are already in the Holy of Holies. We cannot use our intellect anymore; we have to use our heart…Or else, we can never walk in His grace and we can never walk with Him. Grace is not in line with our logical mind. We need the Holy Spirit to reveal His grace to us. Can you still remember the moment when you decided to put your faith in Our Lord Jesus, you invited Him into your heart...!? From that moment onwards, He has given you His own heart and His heart is the way of grace.

I will continue to share this revelation in respect of our heart in my next post....

Are You Fighting Against The Grace That Saved You?

Apostle Paul, a people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.  But in his pursuit of the grace of God, he realized whatever was to his profit then, he considered loss for the sake of Christ. He resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified; this was a stumbling block to those of the religious group and foolishness to the people of this world. 

For the foolishness of God is wiser the man’s wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. That is why Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. The Good News is the power of God… The message of God’s grace is the Good News from Heaven and the message of grace is the power of God…

Through Jesus’ Finished Work on the Cross, Father God had turned the facts of this world into the truth in Christ! This triumphal process of divine exchange at the Cross took God more in creating the universal. He only had to speak in creation, while in His pursuit of redeeming mankind; He had to offer up His One and only begotten Son at the cross. 

But thanks be to God, Who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For those who are enlightened by His grace, are to God the aroma of Christ, among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

Here is the Good News, and the power of God… Father God had saved the world two thousand and ten years ago! He had already lavished His grace into this fallen world. For He so loved the world that He had already given His begotten Son two thousand and ten years ago, that whoever, whenever believed in Him will not perish but have eternal life! 

We are actually living in an already saved, already delivered, already healed but an ignorant and unbelief world…! Even the body of Christ is ignorant and full of unbelief because they are still fighting against the Grace that saved them. God’s grace is not only for those who preach grace. God’s grace is not only for Christian. God’s grace is for this fallen world! As long as you call yourself a human being, God’s grace is for you…! Believers have forgotten that they were saved by His grace through faith, and majority of the sincere believers are fighting against the GRACE that had saved them…!!!!

Galatians 1:6 ~ I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, ...

While we were STILL DEAD in our sins, He made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up together with Christ and seated us together with Christ in heavenly places…! 

We all know that 5 is a number for grace… The following 5 stages of the declaration made by Father God in John Chapter 3 verse 16 says it all…

• 1. For God so loved the world (He loves us)
• 2. That he gave His begotten Son   (He gave Heaven best)
• 3. Whoever believe (Not work, no string attached)
• 4. Shall not perish (A Promise not a reward)
• 5. Have eternal life (A blood made covenant)

Is this not grace? Is it this grace that you are after or against?

Target Ball

Pool, also known as pocket billiards, is the general term for a family of cue sports played on a pool table with six receptacles called pockets along the rails, into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play.

To get the target ball into the pocket, we need to focus at the target ball (coloured balls) instead of the white ball. If we focus on the white ball, we can never get the target ball into the pocket. Once we know how to hit the target ball correctly, we are sending the target ball into the pockets.

Image taken by Iphone 4

Image courtesy of Norman Hiu Photography

Image taken by Iphone 3GS

So in the case of our everyday living as born again, Spirit filled believer, when we are facing problems, we need to focus on Jesus (the Target Ball), instead of on ourselves (the white ball). We can never get rid of our problems if we keep focusing on ourselves. Once we  focus on Jesus, we will know how much He loves us and whatever problems we are  facing will soon  be dropping into the pockets…

Remember what Jesus had said at the Cross..? He cried out: "It is Finished!"

Do you get the revelation?

We Ain't Heavy, He Is Our Brother!

Pastor Joseph Prince

It is not a question of "Are you worthy?"... It is a question of "Is He worthy"...!?

PASSWORD

I sent my home modem to the authorized dealer for servicing this afternoon … and when I reached my office, I got a call from the Technician informing me that this modem needed to be reprogrammed. He was asking for my Streamyx (Broadband Service Provider) password…. and my oh my… how could I remember this password? This password was used only in installation and I was not familiar with it... I started to scan my memories, trying to recall this password… then I realized that for the pass twenty years, I have “owned” for myself quite a number of passwords…

Have you ever think of this question…?

How many passwords do you have?

As for me, I have three passwords in my work place. One for my PC, one for my Lotus Note and the other one for SAP system. I have been bucking by these three systems regularly to change my passwords every now and then. At times, I find myself running out of password to use...

Apart from my workplace, I have passwords for my mobile phone, my iTune account, bank accounts, internet banking accounts, e mail accounts, Streamyx (Broadband Service Provider) account, facebook account, Podbean account, Blog accounts，home WiFi access and the security system in my house!

When I was thinking “hard” for this long forgotten password, my office mail suddenly popped up…! “PASSWORD!”... It was a mail from my IT Department asking for my passwords to my PC and Lotus Note so that they can configure my new PC…! Wow… PASSWORD again…! What a "God incidence" moment…! Yahoo… New computer for me? At the most undeserved moment? (Actually I was in the midst of my flustration... struggling to recover that password... Can somebody tell me... is this not GRACE?)

In a flick of a second, I was prompted by the Spirit to realize that our Lord Jesus through His perfect work at the cross had torn down every single password that had been set up by religions for man to reach God. Because of His love, He lavished His grace, the unearned, undeserved and unmerited favour to us at the cross… and whoever believe in His Son shall not perish but have eternal life. The password to this salvation is to “BELIEVE”! To BELIEVE in the One He had sent...

In today’s IT world, whenever we clock in to our office for work, we must first log in to our PC with our password... So, are you serious to work for God? If you are really serious, you must also log in with your password too… The password to His work is also to “BELIEVE”!

John 6:28 ~ Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

John 6:29 ~ Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to BELIEVE in the one he has sent."

With this revelation, my heart was warm, and suddenly came with an understanding knowledge of this long forgotten password… I rang up the Technician, tell him the password and the rest is history! With this modem being installed back to my home PC, and here I am, publishing this yet another "God incidence" post!

Thank you Jesus!

Whoever Has, More Will Be Given!

If we need to use our intellect to understand everything about what the cross has accomplished for us before we can believe in Him, I can tell you that you can never believe because our intellect can never understand the wisdom of God. But when we choose to believe in our heart and we confess in our mouth that Jesus is Lord, the mystery of the cross started to reveal in our heart. This revelation is given by the Holy Spirit whom the world does not process. The work of Jesus at the cross is the wisdom of God and you need the Holy Spirit to reveal to you this spiritual truth. Thus, to walk with our Lord, we need to use our heart instead of our mind simply because from the beginning, we invited the Holy Spirit to dwell in our heart...!

Therefore, if we are unable to comprehend what His death is for, we can never understand what His resurrection is for. If we cannot comprehend what He had taken away from our life at the Cross, we will never understand what He has given us in our resurrected life. With the help of the Holy Spirit in our heart, we can start to comprehend the purposes of His death and the power of His resurrection because this is the duty (so called) of the Holy Spirit to reveal things concerning Jesus, and to glory Him.

At the cross, Jesus was righteous and holy, and without sin. He chose to identified Himself with sinful man like us by laying down His garments and seamless tunic and bore all our sufferings, curses, sicknesses, depressions, bondages… Through His perfect work at the cross, a divine exchange of status occurred. He had totally taken away all the "bad"  from us and had given us His Shalom peace, blessings, health, freedom, prosperity... Through the cross, He had taken away our SINNER status and had given us His RIGHTEOUS status. We are saved by grace through faith. This faith is now available to each and everyone of us because of His finished work at the cross. Because of His RIGHTEOUS work, we can now have our RIGHTEOUS walk in Him.

Indeed, our Father God is very pleased and proud of what His Son had done for us at the Cross. Our Father God is also very satisfied with what He had taken away from us. If not, Jesus would not have shouted: "It is finished!"

NOW... Father God is also very pleased and proud to see His redeemed one identifying themselves with Christ and acknowledging what He has given them. Most of all, personalizing all these blessings and counting these blessings that He has given us as OURS! For the Bibles says:"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through Him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God."  We are glorying God when we say amen. Is this not an act of acknowledging and receiving His abundant provision of grace and the gift of His righteousness?

We know deep down inside our heart that we have nothing good if not because of the grace of God... and we are not being self righteous when we humbly acknowledging His grace... When we acknowledge this truth and start receiving His grace and the gift of righteousness, we reign in life and He is glorified… Wow… What a way to live our abundant life and at the same time, glorying Him and boasting in Him!

Mark 4:25 ~ For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

In the context of this passage, our Lord was talking about the sowing of the Word. Therefore, find out what kind of word are you listening to... Are you listening to the Word of God or the Word of Christ? The word of Christ is the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ.

The Word of Christ always points you to His Finished Work. His Word always tells you who you are in Christ, what you have in Christ, how secure you are in Christ. When you know what you have in Christ, more will be given. On the other hand, if you do not know what you have, the evil one comes and take away what you are actually have without your knowledge... You are already in Christ... As He is so are you in this world!

Therefore, to acknowledge and personalize His promises and blessings are not pride but humility... It is written: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Father God is glorify when we acknowledge and personalize the promises and the blessings, for whoever has, to him more will be given!