All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked “KJV” are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. Scripture quotations marked “NIV” are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked “NASB” are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Destined To Reign The secret to effortless success, wholeness and victorious living ISBN 978-981-08-8371-3 © Copyright Joseph Prince, 2011 Joseph Prince Teaching Resources www.josephprinceonline.com All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of the publisher. Dedication This book is lovingly dedicated to: The glory of my Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed me beyond anything I could ever have imagined and who has loved me beyond my comprehension. Wendy My darling wife, whose support and love for me never fails to lift me above the clouds of defeat and mediocrity. “Who can find a virtuous woman?” I did! Jessica My precious beloved daughter whose life, though still young, has yielded wonderful portrayals of grace that have impacted multitudes. When she is in Daddy’s arms, he is the richest man in the whole world. And the loving community of New Creation Church, whose unfailing support for and loyalty to their pastor are definitely written in the annals of heaven’s book of remembrance. They are a blessed joy to their pastor! Contents Dedication Contents Foreword Chapter 1: Destined To Reign Chapter 2: The Law Has Been Fulfilled Chapter 3: Controversies Surrounding The Gospel Of Grace Chapter 4: We Have Been Robbed! Chapter 5: Is God Judging America? Chapter 6: The Evil Conspiracy Chapter 7: The Gospel That Paul Preached Chapter 8: The Main Clause Of The New Covenant Chapter 9: The Waterfall Of Forgiveness Chapter 10: The Ministry Of Death Chapter 11: Unearthing The Deepest Root Chapter 12: Condemnation Kills Chapter 13: The Gift Of No Condemnation Chapter 14: No More Consciousness Of Sin Chapter 15: The Road To Emmaus Chapter 16: The Secret Of David Chapter 17: Picture Of Pure Grace Chapter 18: One Thing You Lack Chapter 19: The Key To Effortless Victorious Living Chapter 20: The Problem With Mixture Chapter 21: The Secret To Great Faith Chapter 22: Good Things Happen Closing Words Notes Foreword It all began in 1997, when I was on vacation with my wife Wendy. She was asleep in the passenger seat, breathing softly next to me as I drove through the dramatic landscapes of the Swiss Alps. Then, I distinctly heard the voice of the Lord on the inside. It wasn’t a witness of the Spirit. It was a voice, and I heard God say this clearly to me: “Son, you are not preaching grace.” I said, “What do you mean, Lord? That’s a low blow. That’s a real low blow!” I added, “I’m a preacher of grace. I have been a grace preacher for years, and like most preachers, I preach that we are saved by grace!” He said, “No. Every time you preach grace, you preach it with a mixture of law. You attempt to balance grace with the law like many other preachers, and the moment you balance grace, you neutralize it. You cannot put new wine into old wineskins. You cannot put grace and law together.” He went on to say, “Son, a lot of preachers are not preaching grace the way Apostle Paul preached grace.” He then ended emphatically with this statement that revolutionized my ministry: “If you don’t preach grace radically, people’s lives will never be radically blessed and radically transformed.” That powerful word from the Lord jolted me, and I realized for the first time that I had indeed been preaching a grace message that was tempered with the law. I returned to my church with a strong mandate from the Lord and I began to preach grace radically. At that time, our congregation had reached a plateau of about 2,000 people. However, soon after my encounter with the Lord in the Swiss Alps, we began to experience explosive growth in the church year after year, and by the grace of our Lord, more than 15,000 people attended our services on the first Sunday of 2007. The Lord has validated His word not only in our growing congregation, but also in the awesome transformation of thousands of precious lives exposed to the radical preaching of grace. Over the years, I have had the privilege of witnessing the restoration of marriages, the supernatural cancellation of debts, miraculous healings, and of feeling the joy of seeing God’s children liberated from destructive addictions. In recent years, the Lord has also opened doors for me to preach the gospel of grace in Norway, Holland, London, Canada, Australia, Thailand and Indonesia. We have also begun broadcasting in America, Canada, Australia and Uganda. The response to what I call the Gospel Revolution has been tremendous. I have received testimony after testimony of how individuals have been set free from the bondage of the law, and are today living and enjoying the new covenant truths and promises that Jesus purchased with His own blood. You can imagine how this book has been brewing in my heart for many years now. If there is one book that I want to write on this side of heaven, this would be it, and I am so glad that you are now holding it in your hands. I believe that this book will touch you and transform you. What the Lord said to me some 10 years ago about how lives will never be radically blessed and radically transformed without the radical preaching of grace is still reverberating strongly in my heart. This book is therefore about being radically transformed by His grace and His grace alone. In this book, you will discover the secret of God’s way to reigning effortlessly in life! Man has developed many strategies, methodologies, techniques and tactics for achieving personal success. Just look in the bookstores today. In fact, you may be standing in one right now. If you are, take some time to look around. What do you see? You will probably find a large selection of self-help books. Let me declare to you that there is a higher way than relying on your own efforts to achieve success in life. The Bible says in the very first verse of Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.” Hence, while there is some “counsel” in “ungodly” resources, there is a higher way for the believer! Why rely on self-help when you can have direct access to God’s help? The name of Jesus in Hebrew, Yeshua, simply means Savior. Let’s call upon Him to save us, rather than depend on our own abilities to save ourselves. Unfortunately, there are believers today who do not call upon their Savior because they believe the lie that they have no right to do so. There are believers who think that their mistakes have disqualified them from calling out to God. Some may even believe that they are undeserving of the Lord’s help because they have not attended church regularly, read the Bible sufficiently or prayed enough. My friend, when you are drowning, you don’t need a teacher to teach you the right steps to take in order to swim and save yourself. You don’t need a list of do’s and don’ts. You need a Savior who is willing to plunge fearlessly into the water to save you regardless of what you know or do not know, what you have done or not done! You cannot earn by your own works His desire to save you. It is by His grace! Let’s begin to acknowledge that in and of ourselves, we cannot and do not have the ability and resources to save ourselves. In essence, we owed a debt that we could not pay, but Jesus on the cross paid with His own life, a debt that He did not owe. It is entirely His effort and His doing. Our part is to believe on Him and receive all that He has accomplished on our behalf. Sounds ridiculously simple, one-sided and unfair? Well, my friend, that is exactly what makes grace, grace! Grace is only grace when it is undeserved, unearned and unmerited. Are you ready to be tremendously blessed and transformed by His grace, and to give up on your own efforts to have success, wholeness and a victorious life? I believe that once you begin to take this journey of discovering His radical grace, your life will never be the same again. My friend, you are destined to reign! Chapter 1: Destined To Reign You are destined to reign in life. You are called by the Lord to be a success, to enjoy wealth, to enjoy health and to enjoy a life of victory. It is not the Lord’s desire that you live a life of defeat, poverty and failure. He has called you to be the head and not the tail. If you are a businessman, God wants you to have a prosperous business. If you are a homemaker, you are anointed to bring up wonderful children in the Lord. If you are a student, God wants you to excel in all your examinations. And if you are trusting the Lord for a new career, He doesn’t just want you to have a job, He wants you to have a position of influence, so that you can be a blessing and an asset to your organization! Whatever your vocation is, you are destined to reign in life because Jesus is Lord of your life. When you reign in life, you reign over sin, you reign over the powers of darkness, and you reign over depression, over poverty, over every curse, and over every sickness and disease. You REIGN over the devil and all his devices! The power to reign does not depend on your family background, your educational qualifications, how you look or how much savings you have in your bank account. The power to reign is based entirely on Jesus and Him alone. My friend, this is not a cliché from some self-help book on positive thinking. The declaration you will reign is based on a promise that has been recorded for all eternity in the Word of God: Romans 5:17 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. ` The word "reign" used in Romans 5:17 is the Greek word basileuo where you get the English word “basilica”. In ancient Rome, basilicas were used 2 law courts. So it refers to a kingly, judicial rule. In other words, to reign here is to reign in life as a king, to have kingly rule and to possess kingly dominion. The secret of reigning in life lies with receiving everything that Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross. If you are living a life of defeat, of being defeated by sin, by perpetual guilt and condemnation, by sicknesses, by anxiety attacks, by financial lack and by broken relationships, you are not living the life that God intended for you. Based on the authority of God’s Word, you are destined to "reign in life" as a king, to have kingly dominion over all your challenges and circumstances. You are called to be above them all and not be trampled by them. The time has come for you to stop abdicating your right to reign in life! Today, instead of seeing ourselves reigning in life, we see more evidence of death reigning in the world. The Bible tells us that it was because of “one man’s offense” — Adam’s sin in the garden of Eden — that death began to reign. It is important that you realize that our lives are wrapped up in those of our ancestors. You wouldn’t exist if there hadn’t been your grandpa. So we are sinners not because we sin, but because of Adam’s sin. Many believers still think that they became sinners by committing sin, but that is not what the Word of God says. What it says is that we are sinners because of Adam’s sin. By the same token, we are made righteous in the new covenant not because we do righteous deeds, but because of one Man’s (Jesus) obedience on the cross. The secret of reigning in life lies therefore with receiving everything that Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross. Receiving Versus Achieving The Bible states very clearly that we are to reign in life through Jesus Christ just by receiving two things from Him: The abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. God’s ways are contrary to man’s ways. Man thinks that for God to bless him, he needs to deserve, earn and merit God’s favor and blessings by his own efforts. Man thinks that God’s blessings are based on his performance and good works. However, this is not God’s way. His way is not about achieving, but about receiving. He promised that when we receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, we will reign in life. He did not say that when we achieve grace and our own righteousness, we will reign in life. But for some reason, many Christians continue to live based on a system of achievement! “Pastor Prince, if it’s really that easy, why aren’t more Christians reigning in life?” I’m glad that you asked that question. In answer, let me first pose you a