DESTINED TO REIGN WEBLOG

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

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 law courts.2 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 question of my own: Do you realize that most people believe that one needs to work hard to achieve success in life? The world’s system of success is built on the twin pillars of self-effort and diligence. There are always some “laws” that you have to abide by, and some “methods and techniques” that you have to keep on practicing before there can be any results. Most of the time, any result that you may get will start to fade once you cease to follow through with the prescribed methods and steps.

We have been taught to focus on achieving, on doing and on relying on our self-efforts. We are driven to “do, do, do”, forgetting that Christianity is actually “done, done, done”. The world tells you that the more you do, the harder you work, and the more hours you put in, the more success you will achieve. The world’s way is to nag you to work harder, to forget about attending church on Sundays, to spend less time with your wife and kids, and to spend more time in the office working through the nights, weekends and holidays. I’m sure that you’ve heard that you need to “pay the price”, after all, “no pain, no gain”, right?

       What believers do is that they take the system of the world and apply it to their Christian life. Instead of depending on God’s grace for His favor and blessings to flow, they depend on their self-efforts to try to deserve God’s favor and blessings.
       Yet, God’s way is not for us to be blessed by our own efforts. You cannot earn God’s blessings by your performance. God’s blessings are based entirely on His grace. His blessings over your life have to be undeserved, unearned and unmerited.
In other words, there is nothing that you can do to deserve His blessings, for they are based entirely on receiving Jesus, and through His finished work, the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.
       God wants us to stop trying to achieve, and to begin receiving the favor, blessings and healing that Jesus accomplished on the cross. When He hung on the cross some 2,000 years ago, He cried out with a loud voice, “It is finished!”3 Everything that you and I require to reign in life was accomplished at Calvary on our behalf. That’s why we call what Jesus did on the cross His “finished work”! He finished it. He completed it. It is DONE! The only thing that works is the finished work! Stop doing what’s already DONE! Stop doing
and start receiving what Jesus has DONE!

The Work Is Finished, Sit Down

I was fellowshipping recently with my dear friend, Brian Houston, and he shared with me that his pet peeve when it comes to worship songs are songs which try to plead for what Jesus has already accomplished for us on the cross. I agree with Brian completely, and I think we all agree that Brian is
someone who knows what he’s talking about when it comes to worship songs. Brian is the senior pastor of Hillsong Church, and God has truly anointed his church to write beautiful praise
and worship songs that have impacted a whole new generation of worshippers in these last days. In fact, some of my favorite worship songs are from Hillsong. In my own quiet moments before the Lord, as I give thanks to Him for paying the full price on the cross for all my sins, sicknesses and poverty, my heart overflows with gratitude and I worship Him:

You are magnificent, eternally
Wonderful, glorious
Jesus
No one ever will compare to You
Jesus4

       Oh, how I love it when the Lord responds by filling my whole study with His tangible presence, and my heart begins to burn in the presence of my lover! I remind my church that we don’t always have to feel His tangible presence, for that’s not
what we live by today. But when you do feel His presence, especially during times of deep intimate worship, enjoy Him, savor His love and allow His embrace to wash over you! Relish the times in His presence when He refreshes, restores and heals you. You don’t have to wait till Sunday to worship the
Lord. You don’t need a five-piece band and a worship leader to worship your Savior. Right where you are, without instruments, you can lift up your hands, your voice and your heart, and worship Him and give thanks for His finished work and His grace in your life.
       Hallelujah! He is so beautiful!
       I love worship songs that are full of the person of Jesus and His finished work. In my church, I have commissioned my music director to ensure that the songs we use in our church services are songs that testify of the finished work of Jesus. For example, under the new covenant, we don’t have to keep on asking the Lord in our songs for forgiveness because He has already forgiven us5. I want you to say this out loud with me:

“I am already forgiven!”
Jesus’ blood has cleansed us once and for all!

The Word of God declares this about the finished work of Jesus on the cross:

Hebrews 10:12–14
12But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God… 14For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

       His finished work on the cross was offered as one sacrifice FOREVER, and when you received Jesus Christ into your life, you were PERFECTED FOREVER! And how long is forever? I checked the original Greek word for “forever” in this verse and guess what? “Forever” means forever! You have been perfected forever by Jesus’ cleansing blood, not by the blood of animal sacrifices which can never take away sins!
       You may be surprised to find out that there are many believers today who do not believe that they have been perfected forever by the finished work of Jesus Christ. They are still depending on their self-efforts to qualify themselves. Perhaps you yourself are wondering, “How can I be fully assured that all my sins have already been forgiven?” Good
question! Notice that after Jesus offered His life as a sacrifice and payment for all our sins, He “sat down”!
       He sat down at the Father’s right hand. Do you realize that under the old covenant, “every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins”6? But the Bible goes on to say that Jesus, “after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down”.
       Jesus sat down to demonstrate to us that the work is in deed finished. Under the old covenant, the priest who served in the tabernacle of Moses never sat down, but “stands ministering daily” because his work could never be finished. The blood of bulls and goats could “never take away sins”. In fact, have you noticed that in the holy place of the tabernacle of Moses, there is not a single piece of furniture prepared for the priest to sit on? You will not find a single chair in the holy
place. You will find the altar of incense, the menorah and even a table of showbread, but interestingly, there are no chairs. This is because the work of the priest was never finished. Only
Jesus’ work is a finished work. And not only did He sit down at the Father’s right hand, He made us SIT WITH HIM!

Ephesians 2:4–6
4But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His
great love with which He loved us, 5even when
we were dead in trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ… and made us sit
together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Maybe you are wondering, “What is all this business about ‘chairs’ and ‘sitting down’?” Well, my friend, “sitting down” in the Bible is a picture of the believer resting in the finished and completed work of Jesus. He has finished all the work on the cross on your behalf and is now seated at the right
hand of God. As it has all been accomplished on your behalf, this means that you can stop depending on your self-efforts to earn and qualify for God’s blessings in your life. You can sit
down with Jesus at the Father’s right hand!

Stop depending on your self-efforts to earn and qualify for God’s blessings in your life.

       Now, listen carefully to what I am saying. I am not advocating a life of passiveness and laziness. You can take up courses, read books, do your work diligently and so on, but your trust must not be in these things. It must be in what Jesus has done for you. So if you are a student, for example, by all
means, study hard. Score straight As for the glory of God! But don’t trust in your intelligence or qualifications to bring you the blessings of God.
       God’s grace does not make you lazy and unproductive. On the contrary, it makes you labor more abundantly for His glory. Apostle Paul, a preacher of God’s grace and the finished work of Jesus, said that he “labored more abundantly than they all”7. In the new covenant, God’s way is to bless you first, and the knowledge of His blessing gives you the power to labor more abundantly. In other words, we do not labor to be blessed, but rather we have the power to labor because we are
already blessed. Can you see the different premise for laboring in the new covenant?
       Many believers are defeated today because they are struggling to qualify themselves for God’s blessings by their own works.
       Self-effort will rob you of reigning in life by His grace. You cannot earn your salvation, your healing or your financial breakthrough by your own efforts. If the greatest miracle —being saved from hell — comes by grace through faith, and not by your works, how much more the lesser miracles, such as healing, prosperity and restored marriages.
       My friend, Jesus has accomplished everything on the cross. Our part is to trust in His perfect work, receive with open arms the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, and begin to reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. Today, let it be your prayer that you will stop trying to earn God’s grace and righteousness. Let the Holy Spirit teach you to start depending on Jesus’ finished work and to start receiving by His grace. This is God’s effortless way to success, wholeness
and victorious living

DESTINED TO REIGN WEBLOG

Dedication

Chapter 3: Controversies Surrounding The Gospel Of Grace

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