27/06/27

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

Today’s Scripture
How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?
Psalm 137:4, NIV

The Songs of Zion
When the Israelites were conquered and taken into captivity by the Babylonians, it was a season of suffering and great loss. It was one of those times when the pressure is so great, the loss so heavy, the disappointment so discouraging, we don’t think we can go on. They could not sing the songs of Zion. They were in a season of weeping, which we all go through. God made us to feel things. Something breaks your heart, and it feels too much to carry. Weeping is not a lack of faith. It doesn’t mean you’re not tough enough. It means that your heart is working, that you care deeply.

When you go through a season of weeping, remember that God says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” As He did for the Israelites, eventually freeing them to return to their homes, He’s already set the time to end your heartache, to turn around what’s causing your tears. God is going to bring you out better through the suffering, and your mourning will turn into dancing.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY
“Father, thank You that You have the power to change what looks as though it will never change. Thank You that the morning comes, and You turn mourning into dancing and sorrow into joy. I believe that You will always restore me to sing the songs of Zion. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

SECTION TWO

How were you first impacted by Jesus? Was it through the law or was it His grace in your life that touched your heart?

We all began our relationship with the Lord because we were impacted by His love and grace. Let us then continue in that grace.

Paul warned the Galatians against turning back to the law after beginning in grace. He said, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace [unmerited favor] of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:6–7).

Paul takes this very seriously. He calls any gospel apart from the gospel of grace (God’s unmerited favor) a perversion. Attempting to be justified by the works of the Ten Commandments is a perversion of the gospel of Christ.

Paul asked the church in Galatia point-blank, “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh [self-effort]?” (Gal. 3:2–3).

Paul was saying to them, “You began by believing in His grace, why are you now depending on your works? That is foolishness! You should be continuing in His unmerited favor!”

These are strong words by Paul. Don’t start with grace and end up with the law. Don’t start with the new covenant, only to turn back to the old covenant!

There are those who say that they are not justified by the law, but believe that they should keep the law for sanctification. My friend, both justification and sanctification come by our faith in Jesus’ finished work alone.

When you are established in the new covenant of grace, you will experience a tremendous sense of confidence and security in Christ. When your confidence is in His unmerited favor and not your performance, you will not feel as if you are constantly jumping in and out of His favor and acceptance.

It is unfortunate that some believers have put themselves back under the old covenant without realizing it. Sometimes, they feel that God is on their side, but at other times, they feel that God is far away from them. Sometimes, they feel that God is satisfied with them, but at other times, they feel that God is angry with them.

All these feelings are based predominantly on their own evaluation of how they have performed, how they feel about themselves, and not how God sees them. Because there is no new covenant scriptural basis for such evaluations, they end up arbitrarily deciding if they are deserving of God’s blessings and favor in their lives or not, when in fact, they actually have access to His blessings all the time, simply because of Jesus and His finished work at the cross.

Today, think, talk, and act knowing that it is not about you or your works—it is about Jesus and Him alone, and step out into His blessings for you!

26/06/24

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

Today’s Scripture
Remember the wonders he has performed, his miracles, and the rulings he has given.
1 Chronicles 16:12, NLT

***Switch the Channel**

Emotional wounds are a powerful force in our lives and hold the potential to hinder our growth. If you’re always reliving your hurts and watching your bad breaks on the movie screen of your mind—talking about them and telling your friends—that’s just reopening the wound. You may be in pain today, but don’t sit around nursing your wounds. Don’t let bitterness and discouragement set the tone for your life. As long as you’re replaying the negative, you will never fully heal.

You have to change the channel. When you look back over your life, can you remember one time where you know it was the hand of God promoting and protecting you? Make the decision to switch over to that channel. Get your mind going in a new direction. Start remembering your victories, your successes, and the hard times you overcame. Today can be a turning point in your life. Drop any emotional baggage you’re dragging and step toward an abundant life. Trust God and step into the great future He has for you.

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You that You have the power to heal the emotional wounds in my life. Thank You that I can stop reliving the negative things that play and replay in my mind. I declare that I am dropping the baggage and stepping forward into the abundant life You have for me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen

SECTION TWO

As someone who preaches strongly on the gospel of grace, one of the most common questions I get asked is this:

Pastor Prince, are you saying that everything is just by grace and we can live any way we want with total disregard for God? Are you saying that we don’t have to serve Him?

Well, ask yourself this: When someone genuinely encounters the Father’s love, favor, and blessings in a way that is totally undeserving, how do you think he or she will live?

Take a moment to put yourself in the shoes of the prodigal son in Luke 15. After all the wrongs you have committed against your father, he gives you a lavish reception filled with hugs and kisses.

You just went from starving to being clothed with a fresh, clean robe and wearing the ring of your father, authorizing you to make payments in his name. And as if that is not enough, your father has invited all the neighbors, killed a choice calf, and they are having a homecoming barbecue party with music and dancing in your honor.

Now, does this make you want to rebel against your father again by leaving home and going back to the filthy pigpen, wallowing in the mud and feeding on things that will never satisfy you? Of course not!

There is a great misunderstanding that believers who struggle with and indulge in sin, and who are still in love with the world, do so because they don’t love God enough. Believers are told to love God more, thinking that if people love God more, they would love sin and the world less.

But God opened my eyes one day to the real reason believers are still entangled with sin and the world. I’ve never heard anyone preach this before, so this is fresh from heaven. The apostle John tells us, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

Notice that it is the love of the Father, not the love for the Father. So people who love the world and are trapped by worldly pursuits are actually people who don’t know or don’t believe in their hearts the love of the Father for them.

Rather than messages of “You’ve got to love God more!” what we really need is more preaching that is all about the love of the Father. It will never be about our love for Him, but His love for us.

Beloved, when people come to truly know and believe the Father’s love for them and have it burning in their hearts, they will no longer want to go out and live like the devil. There is just something powerfully transformative about grace.

That’s what right believing in the Father’s love brings. If you’ve tasted and savored grace from your heavenly Father, you never want to live in the wilderness of sin, away from the Father’s embrace, ever again.

25/06/24

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

Today’s Scripture
Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!”
Acts 5:29, NIV

NOT MOVED
There will be times when you have to decide, as the apostles did: “Am I going to stick with my convictions, am I going to be who God made me to be, or am I going to let the opinions and approval of other people determine what I do or who I become?” If you suffer from approval addiction, if you’re not confident in who you are and you need people to validate you, you’ll shrink back and let them control your future. But it’s going to take boldness to receive what God has for you. He’s going to take you where no one in your family has gone. He’s going to make you a pioneer, a trendsetter. Not everyone will understand why you won’t compromise with them. Not everyone will approve you if you don’t conform to their way of thinking. People who were once for you may become critics and try to discredit you. Now they’re finding fault. That’s when you have to dig your heels in and say, “I’m not moved by who’s not for me. I’m living to please God.”

A Prayer for Today

“Father, thank You that You are the true and living God and You reward those who honor and obey You. Thank You for calling me to follow You and to not shrink back when others want me to let go of my convictions. I believe that as I am doing the right thing You will reward me with favor. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

SECTION TWO

Today’s scripture reading, Ephesians 1:6–7, tells us that we are accepted in Christ, the Beloved. And because we are in Christ, we are well pleasing to God!

But Pastor Prince, I have done nothing to make myself well pleasing to God!

Neither did Jesus. In Mark 1: 9–11, God called Jesus His beloved and said that He was well pleasing before He had even performed one miracle or act of service for Him.

You see, Jesus is well pleasing to His Father not because of what He has done, but because of who He is. Did you get that? If not, please read the last sentence again.

Jesus didn’t have to do anything or accomplish anything before He was considered beloved and pleasing to the Father. The good news for you and me today is that our Father in heaven has “made us accepted in the Beloved,” and “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:6–7).

This is true for any believer of Jesus. The moment you received Him into your life, God the Father made you accepted in the Beloved.

We know that the word “Beloved” here is in reference to Jesus. So why didn’t God just say “accepted in Jesus Christ

That is because God wants you to be conscious that you are now part of the family and you are beloved to Him the same way that Jesus is. Furthermore, the word “accepted” in the original Greek is a word far richer in meaning than the English translation can convey. It’s the word charitoo, and it means “highly favored.” This word is used only one other time in the Bible, when angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored [charitoo] one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28).

So you and I are not just accepted in the Beloved, which is already fantastic, but we are more precisely highly favored in the Beloved, Jesus Christ. In fact, the Greek scholar Thayer says that charitoo also means we are surrounded by favor.

That’s why in my church we like to proclaim and declare that we are highly favored, greatly blessed, and deeply loved. It’s a powerful declaration and an important reminder that you are not alone and left to fend for yourself in life. You have a Father in heaven who loves you, favors you, protects you, and watches over you and all your loved ones.

24/06/24

In preaching grace over the years, some people have asked me this: “Don’t you think that our performance is important?” I tell them that our performance is important, absolutely. But I also tell them that our performance as husbands, wives, parents, students, employees, and children of God is a result of believing that we are righteous by faith.

I say this over and over again, and I will never grow tired of saying it: Right living is a result of right believing.

There are a lot of people preaching and focusing on right living. For them, right living is always about becoming more holy, fearing God more, doing more, praying more, reading the Bible more, serving in church more or giving more money to help the needy. But my friend, when you focus on external behavior alone, you are only dealing with superficial elements.

While strong preaching on holiness may have a temporal effect on people’s behavior, it will not bring about lasting and permanent change. Christianity is not about behavior modification. It is about inward heart transformation.

Get hold of good teachings that are full of Jesus and righteousness by faith in Him. When you are anchored on these unshakable foundations, your outward behavior will come in line with His Word and you will begin to produce the fruits of righteousness!

Just in case there is any misunderstanding, let me state this clearly in black and white: I, Joseph Prince, hate sin and wrong living. As a pastor of a local church for more than two decades now, I have witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of sin. It destroys marriages, breaks up families, brings diseases, and basically tears a person apart from the inside out.

I am on the same side as those who preach against sin and teach on the need to live right. However, where I differ is that I believe that the solution to stopping sin is not found in focusing on right living. It is found in right believing.

Did you know that the Bible tells us why believers lack qualities of right living like self-control, perseverance, and brotherly kindness? It says in 2 Peter 1:5–9, “For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”

Wow! This verse is essentially telling us that the reason someone does not manifest these qualities of right living is that he has forgotten that all his sins have been forgiven and that he is righteous by faith in Jesus. It isn’t something he believes and is conscious of, and it affects his behavior.

So start believing right, and you will live right! If you don’t see right living in a particular area of your life—perhaps you are struggling with a secret addiction—check what you believe in that area. Somewhere along the way, you have believed a lie.

But here’s the good news: When you start seeing and believing that you are righteous in Christ, when you start confessing your righteousness through Jesus in that area, your breakthrough is just around the corner.

22/06/24

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
Today’s Word

Today’s Scripture
“This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.”
Zechariah 4:6, NKJV

BY THE SPIRIT
You weren’t created to struggle through life, to be restricted by negative thinking, by a bad temper, insecurity, or lack. Those are bondages the enemy uses to try to keep you from your destiny. The good news is that God is the chain breaker, the burden remover, the yoke destroyer. Jesus came to set you free from a spirit of worry, from always seeing the negative, from a hot temper, bitterness, holding grudges. Perhaps you’ve tried to forgive, but you couldn’t let it go. God is about to breathe in your direction. There’s going to be strength to do what you couldn’t do before. You’re going to be free from guilt, free from living in regret, free from not thinking you deserve to be blessed.

You may feel you’re powerless to change it, but it’s going to happen by the Spirit of the Most High God. Ask Him to free you from every bondage and restriction. You’re about to step into a new level of freedom, peace, productivity, and fulfillment. Now, you have to do your part and get an agreement with God’s promise.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY
“Father, thank You for the power of the Holy Spirit in my life that is so much greater than all of my might and power. Thank You that You are coming to set me free from everything that is trying to hold me back. I believe in the promise of Your Spirit to do it. In Jesus’ Name,

After I had preached a message on the Father’s love in my church, a young man who had been involved in many gang fights and had been in and out of prison numerous times came forward to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He looked straight at the youth pastor and asked him somberly, “Can God forgive me for all the mistakes I’ve made?”

The youth pastor affirmed him, saying, “The moment you came forward to receive Jesus into your life, your Father in heaven forgave you of all your sins and made you His child. Right now, that’s who you are—His beloved child.”

My friend, no matter how many times you have failed, how many mistakes you have made, and how terrible you think your sins are, the cleansing power and blood of your Savior, Jesus Christ, is greater than them all.

God made this promise to you in His Word: “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool” (Isa. 1:18 NLT).

That’s the power of the cross in your life. The moment you believe in Christ, all your sins are washed away once and for all and you are made as white as snow.

Have you seen how snow dazzles in the sunlight? That’s how your Father in heaven sees you right now, clothed with the gleaming robe of righteousness.

But Pastor Prince, what have I done to deserve this robe of righteousness?

Consider the prodigal son. What did the son do to deserve the father’s embrace or the best robe that the father commanded his hired servants to bring for him (Luke 15:22)? Absolutely nothing.

The “best robe” is a picture of the robe of righteousness that your heavenly Father clothed you with when you received Jesus. This robe of righteousness is a free gift. You cannot earn it, work for it, or merit it. That is why everything we hear about what the father did to welcome his son home is a picture ofour heavenly Father’s amazing and unconditional grace.

Our part is to just believe in His goodness and wholeheartedly receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness from Him to reign victoriously over every area of defeat in our lives.

21/06/24

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
TODAY’S WORD

Today’s Scripture
And as long as Moses held up the rod in his hands, Israel was winning; but whenever he rested his arms at his sides, the soldiers of Amalek were winning.
Exodus 17:11, TLB

HANDS LIFTED UP
Exodus 17 tells the story of Joshua and the people of Israel who were in the midst of a great battle. Moses was on a hill overlooking the battlefield, holding up a staff of God in the air, interceding for them. What Joshua didn’t realize in the midst of the battle was that the only reason he was winning was because Moses was holding up his hands with the help of two others.

Without Moses doing his part, the Israelites would have been defeated. Your challenge is to live in such a way as to cause others to win. With every right decision you make, with every step of faith you take, you are holding up your hands. Every time you resist temptation, you are winning for your children. Every time you are kind and respectful, every time you help someone in need, every time you serve someone and give, every time you pray for someone and encourage them, you are planting seeds of blessing through your faith. Your life of excellence will be rewarded and will help them live a life of victory.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY
“Father, thank You that You bring people across my path so I can be a blessing to them and help them win. Thank You that I can speak a kind word, lift them up when they’re hurting, and encourage them to follow You. Help me to be aware of other people’s battles and intercede for them. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

SECTION TWO

God is interested in your success. Even if you are not the swiftest, strongest, wisest, most knowledgeable, and most skillful in the natural, God can still bless you with good success when you depend on His grace.

God’s way is completely opposite from the world’s way. According to 1 Corinthians 1:26, “not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” Isn’t it fascinating to discover that while the world looks favorably upon the wise, mighty, and noble, God does not?

Let’s see in the next verse what God chooses instead: “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” In His hands of grace, the foolish and weak things become even wiser and mightier than the wise and mighty things of the world!

This is something I have experienced personally. In high school, I was a stutterer. I watched the other kids talking and reading aloud in class effortlessly while I had serious trouble getting words out of my mouth.

Honestly, if you had told me then that I would be preaching to thousands of people every week, I would have run for cover under the table and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” If there was an area anyone who knew me back then believed I would fail in, it would have to be public speaking. But God looked down and said, “I am going to make a preacher out of this boy.”

One day, when I was tired of being miserable, I told the Lord, “Lord, I don’t have much to give You, but whatever I have I give You.” I remember how my voice was the thing that embarrassed me the most, so I said, “Lord, I give You my voice.” When I said that, I pitied Him for getting someone like me who had so many weaknesses.

To cut a long story short, after I gave all my weaknesses to the Lord, something supernatural happened. I stopped being conscious of my stuttering and it supernaturally disappeared. In the area of my weakness, God supplied His strength.

About two years ago, one of the teachers from my high school days came to my church and sat in one of the services I was preaching in. After the service, she wrote me a note that said, “I see a miracle. This must be God!”

Why does the Lord choose foolish and weak things to confound the wise and mighty things of this world? It’s so that “no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Cor. 1:29). God chooses the things that are weak in the natural so that no man can boast of his own ability—all glory redounds to the Lord.

My friend, it is those who are proud and who depend on their human strength that God cannot use. So when you look at yourself and see only weaknesses, depend on God’s unmerited favor and know that God can and will use you!