So what do I mean when I say, “Without us, He will not”? Well, Jesus is a gentleman. He will not force His unmerited favor and success down your throat. He needs you to allow Him to work in your life. He waits patiently for you to trust Him. He waits patiently for you to depend on His unmerited favor, the way Joseph trusted and depended wholly on the Lord’s presence, until His manifested presence took over, and His glory radiated from everything that Joseph touched.

“But Pastor Prince, how can you say that God has no problem with us having money? Doesn’t the Bible say that money is the root of all evil?”

Hold on a minute, that’s not in the Bible. Let’s be scripturally accurate. What the Bible says is this: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil...” 1 Timothy 6:10 Can you see the difference? Having money does not make you evil. It is the obsession with and intense love of money that lead to all kinds of evil. Just because a person has no money in his pocket does not mean that he is holy. He may well be thinking, dreaming and lusting after money all day long. You don’t need to have a lot of money to have the love of money. If a person is always purchasing lottery tickets, going to the casinos and gambling in the stock market, this person clearly has a love for money. He is obsessed with getting more money.

“Oh, Pastor Prince, now I know that you are one of those health and wealth, prosperity gospel preachers!”

There is no such thing as a “prosperity gospel.” There is only one gospel and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through Jesus’ finished work on the cross, you can depend on Him for His resurrection life to pulsate and flow in your physical body from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet.

Sicknesses and diseases are not from God. On the cross, Jesus bore not just our sins, but also our sicknesses, diseases and infirmities, and “by His stripes we are healed”! Isaiah 53:5

That’s not all, my friend. On the cross, Jesus bore the curse of poverty! This is what the Word of God declares: “For you know the grace [unmerited favor] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9

Read 2 Corinthians 8 for yourself. The entire chapter is about money and being a blessing financially to those who are in need. So don’t let anyone tell you that the verse is referring to “spiritual” riches.

One of the things that I always remind my church is this: Always read a verse in its context because when you take the “text” out of its “context,” it becomes a con! Don’t let anyone con you out of God’s blessings in your life. Let me ask you again: How can you be a blessing to anyone when you are always sick and always borrowing from one person to repay another? My friend, it is the devil who wants you sick and poor, but the God I know has paid a heavy price to redeem you from the curse of sickness and poverty!

You know that as parents, we always seek the best things for our children. How much more would our Father in heaven want the best things for us, His precious children? In the same way that you want your children to be healthy, God wants you to enjoy His divine health. And in the same way that you want your children to always have more than enough, God wants you to enjoy His supernatural provision.

When He provides, get ready for a net-breaking, boat-sinking load. Luke 5:6-7 Get ready for 12 baskets full of leftovers! John 6:13 The Bible puts things in perspective most clearly in Matthew 7:11 —If you then, as imperfect parents “know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him”!

My friend, get this right: God abhors sickness and He loathes poverty. He gave everything He had to annihilate sickness and poverty when He gave us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us. He placed all of humanity’s sin, as well as the curse of sickness and poverty on the body of Jesus. Right now, humanity only has to respond to Jesus’ finished work, and their sins will be forgiven, their physical bodies will be healed and their poverty will indeed be history!

I'd love for you guys to watch a 5-minute video on YouTube showing the spiritual aspect of what Jesus Christ bore on the cross. It's not more than 27mb if u choose to download it. I believe this will bless you, and you'll see Jesus in a new, different and beautiful way!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFcBBXEVr5I

God wants you to be blessed spirit, soul and body. He is not against you having money and material things. But let me make it clear: He is against money and things having you. I often tell my church this: Use money and love people. Don’t love money and use people.

God wants you and your family completely blessed and having more than enough to be a blessing. But at the same time, He wants to be sure that success will not destroy you and cause your family to disintegrate. To be safe for success, keep your heart ablaze with passion for Jesus and His presence, rather than on empty materialistic things.

“Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. — Jeremiah 9:23–24, nas

Let us be a people who will not depend on our own wisdom, might and riches (in summary, our own merits), but rather, let our boasting (dependence) be in understanding and knowing Jesus. Know that He is gracious and full of unmerited favor toward us. Know that He executes justice against all injustices. Know that He Himself is righteousness and He clothes us with His robes of righteousness.

The more you focus on beholding Jesus in all His loveliness and the less you struggle to earn things by your own merits, the more you become safe for greater success in your life.

Now, this is really beautiful. People sometimes ask me, “Pastor Prince, if you don’t teach the Ten Commandments to your church, what is going to govern them?” My friend, the Lord Himself will govern them! Look at the life of Joseph. He lived many years before the Ten Commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Yet, he could look at Potiphar’s beautiful wife, who was throwing herself at him, and say, “How...can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

All this took place long before there was a commandment that said, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Exodus 20:14 KJV The question is, who taught Joseph? Who taught him that adultery was a great wickedness against God Think about it. He was a young, red-blooded man who was far away from home, and he knew that sleeping with Potiphar’s wife would have given him many other perks, if he wanted to depend on favoritism.

He could have been bitter with God and with his brothers, who had betrayed him. He could have chosen to take full advantage of the situation that was presenting itself to him, since it appeared as if he had been abandoned by the only people that he cared about. Nobody was around and nobody would know. But guess what? Joseph had a relationship with God. He had a relationship with the King of kings. He knew that the Lord was with him every step of the way and that the Lord had not forsaken him.

You see, we cannot have a relationship with the law, with two cold tablets of stone, but we can have a living relationship with Jesus, and He will put His laws upon our minds and write them on our hearts, Hebrews 8:10 causing us to walk in His ways that lead to life. Joseph had no Ten Commandments governing him. All he had was a living relationship with the Lord. He knew that Jesus was His success, and that made him safe for success!

If God is for us, who can be against us? —Romans 8:31

“But Pastor Prince, how did God come to be on our side? Even though I am a Christian today, I still fail and fall short of God’s holy standards. I still lose my temper on the road now and then, and from time to time, I still get angry with my wife and kids. Why should God be on my side when I fail? Don’t you know that God’s holy?”

Great question. Let me tell you why. The answer is found at the cross. The blood that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shed on the cross put God on your side. Today, God can be for you even when you fail because Jesus’ blood has washed you whiter than snow!

Have you seen Cecil DeMille’s movie, The Ten Commandments, or the animation, The Prince Of Egypt? Do you remember what happened on the night of the Passover? The children of Israel put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. What did the blood do? The blood put God on their side! None of the families who had applied blood on their doorposts had to fear the death of their firstborn children. Now, think about this for a moment. Were the firstborn children of Israel spared that night because of their perfect behavior and conduct, or were they spared because of the blood of the lamb? Of course, it was because of the blood of the lamb!

In the same way, God does not bless you, as a new covenant believer, based on your perfect behavior and conduct. He is for you today because of the blood of the perfect Lamb—Jesus Christ. That is why as believers today, we don’t have to fight for ourselves. I like to say it this way: “If God is for us, who can come successfully against us?” Always remember that God is on your side today because of Jesus’ blood.

His holiness and righteousness that men are afraid of are now on your side because of Jesus’ blood. His unmerited favor is on your side and all of heaven’s resources are yours because of Jesus’ blood! Now, who can come against you? No sickness, no disease, no creditor, no evil accusation, no gossip —no weapon formed against you, can come successfully against you! Isaiah 54:17

“Well, Pastor Prince, Jesus is with some people because they do a lot of good. I don’t do much good for God or for others, so how can Jesus be with me?”

Some people believe that doing a lot for charity or performing acts of kindness will put God on their side. Somehow, they have this idea that if they have donated significant amounts of money to the poor or volunteered their time to serve in church, all these doings will put them in favor with God and cause Him to be on their side. My friend, let us speak openly about this. God is not with you because of what you do or don’t do, or because of what you have done or not done. That kind of thinking still places the focus on you. God’s love for you is unconditional. He is about relationship, not rules.

On the other hand, legalism is all about rules you need to keep and how often you should do something. It is all about you, you, you doing or not doing something in order to earn God’s favor and get Him on your side. Christianity becomes a life of legalism for Christians who believe that if they spend a lot of time reading the Bible, praying, fasting or volunteering their time in church, they will gain increased favor with God. They think that all their works will cause God to be on their side and answer their prayers.

But do you really think that you can twist God’s arm with your good works? Let me ask you: Does God answer your prayers because of your merit or Jesus’ merit? Is He on your side because of your merit or Jesus’ merit? Come on, it’s important to get these foundational truths right and not slide in and out of trying to deserve God’s favor when He wants us to receive everything through His unmerited favor. Am I saying that you shouldn’t read the Bible, pray, fast or serve the Lord in church? No, a thousand times no!All that I amsaying is that when you do these things, do them from a heart that wants to, and not from a heart that has to because of legalistic obligations.

Think with me for a moment. Would you like your spouse to spend time with you because he or she wants to, or because he or she has to? Do you think that our loving God is any different? Jesus is not interested in works driven by a sense of legalism. He is interested in you wanting to spend quality time with Him in His Word, so that He can talk to you, encourage you and impart the necessary wisdom to you for the day. It is not about you fulfilling a daily Bible reading quota, accumulating sufficient prayer minutes or fasting long enough in order to qualify for Jesus’ blessings. Absolutely not.

If you do all that, it should be because you have an abiding revelation that Jesus’ presence is with you, an understanding that His unmerited favor is toward you and a certainty that He is on your side. And out of that overflowing abundance of appreciation for His love that you are undeserving of, you desire to hear His voice and seek His face.

You begin to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. You begin to acknowledge Him in all your ways and allow Him to direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 Isn’t it amazing how man, blinded by his self-efforts, can turn something so beautiful, like spending quality time with Jesus, into a work?

My friend, God is with you today because of His precious Son, Jesus. For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, and His name is Immanuel. God gave us Jesus. The presence of Jesus in your life is a free gift from God. There is no amount of good that you can do to earn the presence of Jesus. There is no number of good works that you can perform to merit His favor.

His presence in your life is a free gift. Now, because you did nothing to deserve His presence in your life, there is nothing you can do that will cause His presence to leave you. Once you have received Jesus into your heart, He will never leave you nor forsake you! Hebrews 13:5

“But Pastor Prince, when I fail, doesn’t Jesus leave me?”

No, Jesus is right by your side to encourage you and restore you to wholeness. You may say, “But I don’t deserve it!” That’s right. That’s what makes it His unmerited favor in your life. There is a beautiful psalm that says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.” Psalm 37:23-24

When you fail, Jesus is there to uphold you. Unlike some of your so-called “friends,” He does not just take off. You can count on Him. He is a faithful, dependable and trustworthy friend. Even when you have failed Him, He is right there with you, ready to pick you up and restore you to wholeness.Amen! The Bible talks about a friend who “sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24 That’s Jesus!

There was a time under the law in the Old Testament where God would be with you only when you were in complete obedience. But when you failed, He would leave you. Today, however, you and I are under a completely different covenant and God will never leave us. Why? Because of what Jesus did on the cross.

At the cross, He became our burnt offering. He bore our sins and carried our punishment. God’s judgment against our sins fell upon Jesus, who was forsaken at the cross by His Father so that today, we can have God’s constant, unceasing presence in our lives.

Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” so that you and I will know exactly what happened on the cross. Matthew 27:46 That is where the divine exchange took place. At the cross, Jesus took our sins and gave up the presence of God, while we took Jesus’ righteousness and received the presence of God that Jesus had. God’s presence is now ours for eternity. What a divine exchange!

Take a look with me at what the Bible says about our inheritance in Christ:“...For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” Hebrews 13:5-6 What confidence we can have today! Do you know what “never” here means? It means that when you are up, He is with you. When you are down, He is with you. When you are glad, He is with you. When you are sad, He is with you. When you are doing right, He is with you. Even when you have failed, He is still with you! That is what it means when Jesus said that He would never leave you nor forsake you!

I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] — Hebrews 13:5, amp

Wow, that is what Jesus has done for us! He has given us the constant presence of God! My friend, you need to settle it in your heart once and for all—God will never leave you! God will never forsake you! And if you hear anyone telling you that you can forfeit the presence of God, stop listening. Don’t let that person rob you of the certainty of God’s presence in your life. When God says “never ever,” He means “never ever,” and our God cannot lie!

Joseph has just refused the advances made by Potiphar’s wife, and as the common saying goes, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”! So she maliciously accused Joseph of attempting to rape her, brandishing as “evidence” the garments that Joseph had left in her hands when he fled from her. When Potiphar heard his wife telling her version of the story, his anger was aroused and he seized Joseph, stripped him from the place of authority he had given him and threw him into prison.

Just put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. What is happening here? Any average person would be bitter and angry with God! Most people would ask, “Where is God? Why had God brought him this far, only to abandon and forsake him? How could this happen? Where is the justice against this false accusation?”

But Joseph was literally no “average Joe”! He knew that the Lord would never leave him nor forsake him. Joseph considered not his circumstances, but kept his focus on the presence of the Lord.

And boy, did the Lord deliver him! I want you to read this for yourself to see what the Lord did for Joseph:

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper. —Genesis 39:21–23

When the unmerited favor of God is upon you wherever you are, like it was upon Joseph,
(1) you cannot help but find favor,
(2) everything that you do cannot help but prosper, and
(3) you cannot help but experience increase and promotion beyond your wildest imagination.

Can you see that this was the consistent pattern in Joseph’s life? It didn’t matter if he was a slave or prisoner. The same applies to you. When the unmerited favor of God is upon you, you are like a rubber ball in a pool of water. Natural circumstances can try to push you down and keep you suppressed under water, but the unmerited favor of God will always cause you to POP right up to the top!

Don’t be discouraged by your current circumstances. I know things may sometimes appear bleak, dismal and perhaps, even devastating, but it ain’t over, my friend.

There are many times where the lowest points in your life are actually the launching pads to God’s greatest promotion in your life. It was so for Joseph! Let’s rewind the tape and observe the fingerprints of the Lord through the ups and downs of Joseph’s life. If Joseph had not been betrayed by his brothers, he would not have been sold as a slave. If he had not been sold as a slave, he would not have been in Potiphar’s house. If he was not in Potiphar’s house, he would not have been thrown into an Egyptian prison meant specifically for the king’s prisoners.

If he was not in that specific prison, he would not have interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s officers. If he had not interpreted their dreams, he would not have been summoned to interpret Pharaoh’s dream two years later. If he had not interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, Pharaoh would not have promoted Joseph to become his prime minister over the entire Egyptian empire!

This is what Pharaoh said to Joseph: “Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you...See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” Genesis 41:39-41

When we look back, it is clear that the Lord had turned Joseph’s darkest hour into his finest hour! You have seen how God’s presence with Joseph and His unmerited favor caused Joseph to be promoted from the pit to the palace, from the dunghill to Capitol Hill, from the
outhouse to the White House. Stop looking at your circumstances and stop allowing them to discourage you. The same Lord who was with Joseph is with you right now. You cannot fail! You can expect to see success beyond your present circumstances!