Read The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction Online
Authors: Joseph Prince
Tags: #Religion / Christian Life - Spiritual Growth, #Religion / Christian Life - Personal Growth
The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction (25 page)
That’s the gospel that I am not ashamed of. That’s why what I do every Sunday, and in every place where I speak, is preach messages that unveil Jesus. I know that when He is central in people’s lives, their fears, guilt, and addictions will no longer be central. When the righteousness of God (not their own righteousness) is revealed, they will live from faith to faith. They will live from one level of right believing to the next level of right believing, and from one level of breakthroughs to the next level of breakthroughs.
Romans 1:17 says that the righteous shall live
by faith
. It doesn’t say that the righteous shall live by their own works. The essence of the Christian faith is founded upon this verse. It was this verse that launched the Reformation. Martin Luther received the revelation that a believer is righteous by faith and not by the works of the law.
In other words, the righteous shall live by believing right in everything that Jesus has accomplished for them at Calvary and not by their own accomplishments. In fact, faith is all about believing that you are righteous through the finished work of Jesus! The centrality of the gospel is based on right believing, not right doing. The truth is that when you believe right, you will end up living right. Right believing always leads to right living.
When you believe right that your righteousness comes from Jesus, God’s Word says, “The path of the [uncompromisingly] just and righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines more and more (brighter and clearer) until [it reaches its full strength and glory in] the perfect day [to be prepared]” (Prov. 4:18
AMP
).
We know that only Jesus is uncompromisingly just and righteous. What hope do you and I have if the brightness of our paths is based on our own righteousness? But because we have been made righteous through His finished work, God guarantees that our paths will shine brighter and brighter as we are transformed from glory to glory.
In Christ, your future is blessed. It’s full of His favor and full of all the right open doors, opportunities, and promotions. In Him, you can expect good, victory, favor, and success. Take comfort today knowing that your best breakthroughs are not behind you, but ahead of you. Jesus is taking you to a place so good that it’s beyond what you can even ask, think, or imagine.
In Christ, your future is blessed. It’s full of His favor and full of all the right open doors, opportunities, and promotions.
How to See Jesus in the Word
The Bible from Genesis to Revelation points to the person of Jesus. As Jesus walked with the two disciples, I’m sure that He would have camped at Genesis chapter 22. This is where God told Abraham to offer up his son, his only son, the son whom he loved.
Think about this story for a moment. It’s a story of a son carrying wood up Mount Moriah on his way to be sacrificed. Many people don’t understand this story. Why would God ask for Abraham’s son to be sacrificed? The entire passage in Genesis chapter 22 is really the gospel story. God Himself would send His Son, His only Son, the Son whom He loved. His Son would carry a heavy wooden cross up the same mountain range. But He would go all the way to the highest peak, known as Mount Calvary, and sacrifice Himself as payment for the sins of all humanity.
It’s a beautiful picture of Jesus! Can you see it?
Now imagine being in Abraham’s position: You are going up the mountain with your son, Isaac. When you arrive at the place of the sacrifice, your boy turns to you with his big, beautiful eyes and innocently asks, “Papa, I see the fire and I see the wood, but where is the lamb?”
I am sure that question must have rent Abraham’s heart. Holding back his emotions, he looked the boy in the eyes and said, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb.” Abraham spoke those words by faith, and it was a prophetic word of what God would do.
Now just as Abraham was about to slay his son, God said,
“Withhold your hand and look.” Abraham looked behind him, and he saw a ram caught in a thicket by its horns (see Gen. 22:12–13). I believe that when Abraham turned around and looked, not only did he see the ram caught in a thicket, but he also saw a prophetic vision of the true Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, with a crown of thorns (not unlike the thicket the ram’s horns were caught in) surrounding His brow. He saw the Lamb fastened with coarse nails to the cross.
How do I know that? Because Jesus told the Pharisees, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day.” And they mocked Him, saying, “You are not even fifty years old, and You claim to have seen Abraham?” He replied emphatically, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (see John 8:56–58).
What did Abraham rejoice at? That day on Mount Moriah, Abraham saw a prophetic picture of Jesus on the cross, and he rejoiced to see His day! He saw that God would indeed provide Himself as the sacrificial Lamb, and so he called the place
Yehovah Yireh
(
Jehovah Jireh
), which means “Jehovah will see (to it)”
4
or “The-Lord-Will-Provide” (Gen. 22:14). My friend, God saw our desperate need for an offering, and He provided His own beloved Son as
the
sacrifice for all men.
God told Abraham, “Now I know that you love Me because you have not withheld your son, your only son, the son whom you love, from Me” (see Gen. 22:12). Do you know why He said that? It’s so that today we can believe and say with assurance in our hearts, “Dear God, now I know that You love me because You have not withheld Your Son, Your only Son, the Son whom You love so dearly, but gave Him up at the cross for me.”
Immerse Yourself in His Love and Grace
My friend, you will never know how much God loves you unless you understand how much God loved Jesus and yet gave Him up to rescue you. God didn’t have to send His Son to suffer the cross, but He chose to do it because of His infinite love for you.
You will never know how much God loves you unless you understand how much God loved Jesus and yet gave Him up to rescue you.
Don’t forget that in Abraham’s case, God stopped him from sacrificing Isaac. In Jesus’ case, no one stopped the sacrifice. No one spared God’s heart. No one assuaged the Father’s grief. It was a heavy sacrifice made with a heart of love.
The entire story of Abraham offering Isaac is about the immensity of God’s love for us. The story reveals to us the anguish, pain, and heartache that God Himself would go through. As the Father, He offered His own precious and beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from our sins. God doesn’t treat sin lightly. The only way to save us was to allow the punishment for sin to fall completely upon His own Son. Jesus is the “ram” that allowed Himself to be caught in a “thicket” as the payment for all our transgressions.
When you see Jesus unveiled in the Scriptures, when you see His love, suffering, and sacrifice revealed in the Scriptures like this, your heart will burn with the warmth of His love, as did the hearts of the two disciples who heard Him expound from the Scriptures
all the things concerning Himself. Unconsciously discouragement, worries, and all your apprehensions will melt away as His unconditional love ignites hope and faith in your heart.
God wants you to be occupied with Jesus, to be free from self-occupation, through seeing His Son in the Word. Fill your mind with His love and power, and your heart will find rest in His lavish love for you. I pray that you will experience your own Emmaus Road journey as you open up the Scriptures and allow His Word to bathe your heart in the warmth of His loving grace and tender mercies. It’s truly all about Jesus!
A
s we continue learning how we can be set free from self-occupation, let me share with you the journey taken by a lady, Barbara, from Texas, who found that Jesus was the answer to her struggles.
Dear Pastor Prince,
I was saved as a young child, but because of sins—committed by me and to me—I never felt worthy. Anxiety attacks, migraines, and other physical symptoms continued to plague me for years, becoming worse over time. I recently hit rock bottom when the lies of the accuser made me go from fearing every time I left my house, to having full-blown anxiety attacks even in my own home. I would wake from sleep having these attacks. I knew something needed to change, but didn’t know where to start.
I fought against taking medication that the doctor prescribed. I would pray and had my mother pray, but something was missing. I was determined to get well, so I bought self-help books, including a “Christian” book. I believed that God was willing to heal me and that Jesus
died for my healing, but I had to “do my part” if my healing was going to manifest. I read the “Christian” book to be set free, to get spiritual, mental, and physical healing, but it only caused me to relive and recount my entire past and put me in greater mental torment.
The accuser began to attack me even more. I felt worse than ever as he tormented me with things that had happened twenty years ago and beyond. I actually thought that I had a taste of what hell might be like, being tormented day and night. I even thought that this was what I had to go through to get my healing. By my own failing efforts, I worked hard for redemption, trying to be good and to do right for the last several years. But my efforts only worked for small periods of time before the anxiety and fear would return with a vengeance.
But praise God I have a praying mother and I got hold of your books and teachings and received the revelation of grace and of the gift of righteousness. The earlier resources required my self-efforts, which only made things worse, but thankfully, they brought me to the end of myself.
Through the truth of your messages and books on grace and the person of Jesus, I am whole. I have stopped looking at myself and started looking unto Him. Each day, I draw from the living waters of Jesus. Day by day, I become more like Him because “as He is, so am I in this world.”
I thank God for the revelations that I have had and continue to receive through your ministry. For the first time, I realize what it really means to be the righteousness
of God through Christ Jesus and understand the real, true power of Jesus’ blood and His finished work on the cross.
I’m excited about having a real relationship with my heavenly Daddy. I look forward to living the rest of my life enjoying the blessings of God through His unearned, unmerited favor. I asked for healing, but He has given me so much more!
All praise and glory to Jesus! Isn’t it amazing to see what happens when people simply turn their eyes away from themselves and occupy themselves with Jesus?
I love how Barbara describes the way she practices the presence of Jesus daily in her life: “I have stopped looking at myself and started looking unto Him. Each day, I draw from the living waters of Jesus. Day by day, I become more like Him because ‘as He is, so am I in this world.’ ”
All she did was look away from herself and look to Jesus. And as she drew daily from His living waters, she found herself becoming more and more like Him—whole, stable, and sound in mind and body.
The One-Week Challenge
Can I encourage you to start doing what Barbara did? Every time you feel defeated, practice being conscious of Jesus in your life. Despite what you’re feeling, see Him loving you, being with you, holding your hand, and guiding you out of your fear, pain, doubt,
and adversity. Don’t be slow of heart to believe; be quick to believe that Jesus is with you.
Be quick to believe that Jesus is with you.
Before you give up and decide that things are never going to change in your life, I have an assignment for you. Would you try practicing the presence of Jesus for just one week? That’s all I am asking—one week of your time. Throughout this week, the moment you think thoughts of failure, guilt, fear, anxiety, and defeat,
immediately
occupy your mind with positive thoughts of your Savior, Jesus Christ! The key word here is
immediately
. This is about being quick to believe, so it needs to happen fast! Immediately, see Jesus in your situation. Immediately, occupy your mind with thoughts of His love, His peace, His loving hand over your life, and His finished work.
At the end of this one week, write to me at [email protected] and share with me what you have experienced. I sincerely hope that you will take on this challenge, and I look forward to hearing from you.
How to Be Occupied with Jesus
Have you noticed that when you are experiencing pain in your body, it’s extremely difficult to think about anything else? For example, if you have a bad toothache, you won’t be thinking about the starving children in the world and their needs. No, you’ll be consumed with the pain in your own mouth and nothing else really matters. The pain is all you feel, and it’s all you can think about.
In the same way, when we are going through a difficult time or dealing with a heavy burden of stress, anxiety, fear, or condemnation, it’s extremely challenging to make the shift from self-occupation to Christ-occupation because we are preoccupied with our own troubles. Like the bad toothache, our problems are all that we can think about. Self-occupation is like that. It is painful, and it keeps your attention on self.