THE WATERFALL OF GRACE

John 10:10 NASB "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.  Ted Turner, the founder of the CNN TV network, tells how he turned against Christianity because of bitterness against God in his younger days. After the death of a family member, the preacher told him that "God took them," and he became bitter over it. Ted Turner is not alone.  Millions of people are mad at God because they believe He has done something wrong -- which He has not! God is not going around killing people, or stealing from them, or destroying their lives. That is the work of the devil. God is not guilty! The greatest deception in history has been the devil convincing people that the things he does are done by God. The devil wants us to believe that God acts like the devil. But it is a lie! Of course, to pull this deception off, the devil had to get preachers to spread his lies. No one would believe it if the d...

John 10:7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. Jesus said that He is the “door of the sheep”. What did He mean? Well, a sheepfold during Jesus’ time had no door which could be opened and closed. The door of the sheepfold was just an opening. In this kind of sheepfold, after the sheep had entered it, the shepherd would sleep at the entrance. The shepherd became, effectively, the “door” of the sheepfold. When Jesus told His disciples, “I am the good shepherd,” (John 10:11) He also assured them emphatically that He was the “door of the sheep”. He was telling them and us, “Inside My sheepfold, My sheep are always safe, completely protected and kept close under My watchful eyes. And since I am just at the entrance of the sheepfold, nothing, not even the muffled bleat of one of My own, can escape My ears. Also, nothing evil outside the sheepfold can enter and touch My sheep without first coming through Me for I am the door of My ...

MARK 11:23 NKJ  "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be removed ....  Too many people think of the Bible only as a Holy book to be revered. So they put it up on a shelf and make sure no one mistreats it. But the Bible is a message from God. It gives us instruction for our benefit -- practical advice. It's time to take the Bible down off the pedestal, read it, and act on its instructions. Here is one seldom acted upon: talk to things. The devil wants you to think it would be crazy to talk to things. But it's not. Jesus did it. He talked to sickness. He talked to the storm and told it to be still. He talked to dead bodies and commanded them to get up. He talked to trees. And He talked to the devil and told him to get behind him. Jesus talked to things. You should too. You should talk to fear and worry. You should talk to confusion. You should talk to lack. You should talk to sickness. You should talk to the devil. Tell them to leave. Te...

EPHESIANS 4:31-32  Do not be bitter or angry or mad. Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others. Never do anything evil. 32 Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ.  As a human who has been hurt, you may find it impossible to forgive and walk in love. But as a child of God, with God helping you, you can do it. God freely forgave you. Now, with His love placed in your heart, you are to act like Him and forgive others.  EPHESIANS 5:1-2 NIV 1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Putting others first is the essence of walking in love. Selfishness is the opposite of walking in divine love.  COLOSSIANS 3:12-13 NIV 12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear wit...

Luke 10:42 …Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”  If Jesus comes to your home, what would you do? Would you ask Him to sit down and then start serving Him? Or would you sit down and start drawing from Him? Would you let Him serve you and fill you up? Jesus walked into the home of two sisters, Martha and Mary. (Luke 10:38) Martha saw His weariness. She knew that Jesus had been walking for miles, going about doing good, healing the sick and meeting the people’s needs. Obviously, He must be tired, she thought, so she saw Him as someone she had to care for.  Mary, however, saw beyond Jesus’ external weariness into His divinity. She saw that He was someone she needed to draw from. And by doing that, she made Him feel like God—the Savior who had come to serve her and not to be served by her.  (Matthew 20:28) Jesus even commended her for choosing the better portion! Our human minds just find that hard to believe. Some people tell me,...

HEBREWS 10:23 NKJ  . . . He who promised is faithful.  The devil is trying to get you to doubt God and His Word. The devil wants you to give up on God, to not trust Him, to not expect Him to do what He said in His Word.  Do not give up! God can be trusted.  Someone who loves you enough to die in your place can be trusted. Someone who created all that you see, and all that you don't see, can be trusted to handle whatever you face.  TITUS 1:2 NASB  in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, God is not a liar. Whatever He says comes to pass!  1 THESSALONIANS 5:24 NIV The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. God is trustworthy. Don't be moved by the circumstances. God will not fail you.  SAY THIS: God is worthy of my trust. I trust Him with my past, present, and future.

Luke 13:12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.”  When you have a need, do you pray or do you plead? Do you begin your prayers with words like, “Please God, please! God, I beg You to have mercy!” Prayers that plead and beg imply that your heavenly Father is not willing to do it. Yet, He is far more gracious and willing to give to you than you are willing to ask, think or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20) He desires above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. (3 John 1:2) In fact, long before you have a need, God has already met that need. Long before you knew you needed a Savior, He sent His Son to be your Savior. This is your God! He is a good God. So when you beg Him for something, you are actually saying that He is reluctant to give and needs to be persuaded strongly before He will move. Yet, He is not like that. Jesus knew the heart of the Father. When He saw the woman ...

 1 John 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.  In the movie, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, the people who tried to look inside the ark were struck dead. What was inside the ark that brought judgment to those who looked into it? The Bible tells us that the ark held the two tablets of the Ten Commandments, the pot of manna and Aaron’s rod. (Hebrews 9:4) These items were tokens of man’s rebellion. The two tablets of the Ten Commandments represented man’s rejection of God’s standards. The manna represented man’s rejection of God’s provision, and Aaron’s rod, man’s rejection of God’s appointed priesthood.  God did not want to look at these tokens of rebellion. He wanted to be merciful to His people, so He instructed them to place the items in the ark and to cover the ark with its mercy seat, which is also the place where the blood of the animal sacrifices was sprinkled. Once a year on the Day of Atonement...

Romans 4:17 …God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; “Pastor Prince, I feel the pain in my body. How can I go around saying that Christ has redeemed me from this sickness? How can I say that by His stripes I am healed?”  Well, God’s way is to call those things that are not as though they are. And because you are made in God’s image, you can also call those things that are not as though they are! When God wanted to make Abraham a father of many nations, what did He do? He changed the way Abraham talked. At that time, Abraham did not even have a single child from Sarah because she was barren. So how could he become a father of many nations?  God changed the way he talked. How? By changing his name from Abram to Abraham, which means “father of many nations”. (Genesis 17:5) Just imagine: From then on, every time he met someone, he would say, “Hi, my name is Father Of Many Nations.” Every time dinner was ready, Sarah ...

1 CORINTHIANS 1:9 NIV  God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.  You need to stop and think about this. God wants to have fellowship with you.  We are not talking about some lower level person. Not just a leader of a country. Not just a billionaire. God! Stop and think about God, all His knowledge, all His wealth, all His power -- the ruler of the Universe, and all that He could choose to do.  Why would God desire your company? Honestly, I don't know. All I can say is that He does, according to the Bible. But what an opportunity! What a privilege! To fellowship with GOD!  What does fellowship mean? The word used in 1 Corinthians 1:9 is the Greek word "koinonia" (koy-nohn-ee'-ah). Some meanings are fellowship, association, communion, participation, intimacy, partnership, and a having in common.  That is what God wants with you. Koinonia. The same word is used in the following verse. Notice ho...

Psalm 107:20 He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.  Your Bible will do you no good if you leave it on your bedside table, gathering dust. It will do you no good if you hold it like a teddy bear when you are facing your “giants”. But God’s Word will do you a lot of good when you receive it as truth and speak it as truth! Then, you will see your healing and deliverance from every evil condition that has been sent to destroy you!  The Bible says that “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions”. Now, when God wants to heal you, what does He do? He sends His Word. Before God delivers you from your destruction, He sends His Word. Are you still waiting to experience the blessing of healing that Jesus died on the cross to give you? Don’t feel condemned. Your Father in heaven loves you and wants you well. But how does your healing come? By you receiving His Word on healing that He has already sent you. ...

REVELATION 12:11 NKJ  "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.  Words are more important than most people realize. All authority is exercised through words. When it comes to overcoming the enemy of our souls, and all his tactics, we must speak words of faith in line with the Bible. What Jesus did for you is enough. He defeated the devil for you. However, you must enforce that defeat by speaking and standing in agreement with God. Only then will you see Jesus' victory manifest in your life.  EPHESIANS 6:17 NKJ  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; A sword is a weapon. God's Word is not a weapon when laying on your coffee table. It only becomes a spiritual weapon when you speak it in faith. You must take it. Your spiritual weapon is speaking the Word of God. You must take the Word and speak it -- just like Jesus did....

Hebrews 8:11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.  As a parent or someone serving in Sunday school, you may think that the children under your care are too young to know the Lord. And you wonder if you are wasting your time reading Bible stories and singing hymns to them.  Even for a young child like my daughter Jessica, when she was one year old, she would spontaneously raise her hands whenever she heard Christian songs, but not secular ones. My wife Wendy and I had never taught her how to recognize Christian songs. The only explanation we have is that Jessica was taught by the Lord Himself. (Isaiah 54:13) When Jessica turned two, she surprised us again. Wendy was tucking her in bed one night when Jessica looked at her and said, “Jesus died for Jessica because Jesus loves Jessica.” No one taught her to say that. But I remember looking at her when she ...

John 11:40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” God, who parted the Red Sea, rained manna from heaven, caused the walls of Jericho to fall, shut the lions’ mouths, healed the sick, raised the dead and calmed the sea, still performs miracles today. However, some Christians doubt that God wants to work a miracle for them today. They believe that there were miracles when Jesus walked the earth, but they think that the day of miracles is over. And they talk about how everything will be perfect one day in the sweet by and by. But God wants us to know that He is still the God of miracles today. Martha was like one of those Christians. She wondered if Jesus could perform a miracle when her brother Lazarus died. By the time Jesus arrived on the scene, Lazarus had already been dead for four days. So she thought that Jesus was four days too late. That is why she said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have...

1 JOHN 4:4 My dear children, you belong to God. So you have defeated them because God's Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world.  This message is simple and has two parts: God is greater than anything, and because you're a believer in Jesus Christ, He lives in you. How can anyone argue with the fact that God is greater than any problem? God, the Creator, is above ALL. Nothing is too difficult for Him. Most people believe this. The second part is more difficult to believe: God is in you. Yet, that is the message of the Bible to believers.  JOHN 14:16-17 NKJ  "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- 17 "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  1 CORINTHIANS 6:19 NKJ  Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in ...

JOHN 13:34-35 NKJ "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."  Instead of being known for love, Christians are more likely to be known for disagreements and fighting with other Christians. Why? Those who fight are displaying their immaturity. Children can be expected to squabble over insignificant things, but adults should not.  Yet even Christian leaders often fight with other Christian leaders. It is the devil's strategy to get believers in strife because it opens the door to him. Do you really want to open the door to the devil?  JAMES 3:16 KJV 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. God allows us to face the temptation of strife so we can overcome and learn to walk in love. We are continually given the opportunity to walk in love. God's primary concern ...

  Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. When you say, “I can manage this problem by myself, Lord,” God says, “Okay, you do it then.” But when you say, “Help me, Lord! I need You. I cannot do this on my own,” God says, “Good, I have been waiting for you to say that. You cannot, but I can. Now, watch Me!” That is how God is—He loves it when you depend on Him. You see, when you think that you are strong and don’t need God, He cannot help you. But when you need Him and look to Him, He will not leave you weak and helpless. He comes and becomes the strength of your life. He becomes the breakthrough that you need. A church member with a smoking habit came to me one day and said, “Pastor Prince, please pray that God will help me. I want to stop my smoking habit.” I told him simply, “You cannot, but God can.” He replied, “Yes, I know that I can’t. But with God’s help, I will discipline myself and try my best to quit the habit....

MATTHEW 4:4 NKJ  But He answered and said, "It is written, `Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" When Jesus faced the devil's temptations as recorded in Matthew chapter four, His first response was to quote Deuteronomy 8:3. God wants you to learn the same lesson that Jesus knew: Nothing is more important than God's Word. Without the Word, your life will be less than God intends. The Word of God is vital! DEUTERONOMY 8:2-3 NKJ  "And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Th...

 Hebrews 10:2 ...For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. What are you more conscious of today? Your sins or the fact that you have been forgiven? My friend, don’t be conscious of your sins. Be conscious instead of Jesus and His finished work. The Lamb of God has taken away all your sins at the cross, so count on the fact that you are a forgiven child of God! No matter what has happened or what you have done, God wants you to know that because of His Son’s finished work, He will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins and lawless deeds He will remember no more. (Hebrews 8:12) That is why you should not be conscious of your sins. In fact, when you are sin-conscious, the devil brings in condemnation, and the more you receive it and condemn yourself, the more you will find yourself unforgiving toward yourself and even others.  I was told by a pastor friend that when a lady, who had cancer on her face, asked for prayer...

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  If you want a glimpse of some real-life celestial drama, picture this: God the Father sits as Judge of the universe with Jesus Christ at His right hand, who is not only your High Priest, but also your Advocate. When your accuser, the devil, comes along and says, “You have done this wrong and you have not done that right,” Jesus says, “Father, the devil is right, but My blood has paid for what the devil is accusing him of.” Then the devil adds, “You have also not been reading the Bible or praying enough. And this morning, you told a lie.” Again, Jesus will say, “Father, the devil has indeed reported correctly, but My blood has paid for all these failures.” God the Father will then slam the gavel on the sound block and say, “Case dismissed! Next!” You need to understand that God can justly declare you ...

 ROMANS 12:21 NIV  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  There seems to be no lack of evil. That gives us an opportunity to overcome. We will be tempted to respond in kind -- to strike back at those who hurt us. But that is a bad choice. All it leads to is more pain and misery for more people -- including ourselves. The answer is divine love. With God's love inside us, and God helping us, we can return good for evil done to us. That breaks the vicious downward cycle and also breaks the power of evil to affect us.  Don't tell me this won't work in your case. I have personally heard the victorious testimony of a believer who was tortured by his communist captors yet walked in love and overcame the evil situation. It will work! Love is stronger than hate. Good is more powerful than evil. You can walk in victory no matter what anyone does to you.   ROMANS 5:5 NIV  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out h...

Matthew 14:27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” Are you going through a dark, difficult moment in your life? Perhaps the storm just rages on with no let-up and you are trembling in fear. You feel that any time now, you may just cave in and go under because you cannot beat this storm. Be comforted that Jesus sees what you are going through and He always comes to where you are in your darkest hour. He did that for His disciples one stormy night on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus came, walking on the stormy waters, walking on top of the problem that was threatening to overwhelm them. He is indeed the King and Lord over the storms!  When your eyes are on Christ, even though the storms are raging and the winds are blowing, you will know that you are above your troubles and circumstances. When people ask you how you are doing under the circumstances, tell them, “I am not under the circumstances. I am on top of them because my G...

 MATTHEW 11:28-30 NIV "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Are you struggling? Do you feel like you are barely keeping your head above water? If you feel like you are struggling and striving just to make it -- you need to turn to Jesus. He will give you rest. If you say that you have turned to Jesus and you think His yoke is hard and His burden is heavy -- you are deceived. You need to cast your care on the Lord and learn of Him. So many people are striving and struggling to get God to love them when He already loves them and accepts them. Living a successful Christian life is not done by our own strength or willpower. It is the result of depending on the Lord. Only He can do it. Quit trusting in your plans and abilities and efforts, and trust in Jesus instead....

JOHN 16:13 NKJ  "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you.... This article is directed to believers in Jesus Christ to remind you there are many scriptures indicating that God IS guiding you. Too often we feel like we are just on our own, drifting aimlessly, with no help or guidance from God. Just because you are not aware of God's guidance does not mean He is not guiding you. This is part of God's genius: to be able to do things unnoticed. When we don't understand God's method of operation, we easily fall prey to the temptation to doubt God is guiding us, or even hearing our prayers. This often leads to begging God for help, which is not faith, and will not produce good results. We must believe what God says in His Word concerning this subject of guidance, if we desire to please God. It is always wise to talk with God before making any decision. But just because you don't hear God's audible voice answering you, does not m...

 1 Corinthians 1:30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—  When the devil accuses us of having done wrong and tells us that we don’t deserve God’s blessings, what should we do? Well, the Lord showed me one day what we are to do. We are to point everything back to Jesus, who qualifies us for all of God’s blessings.  So when the devil says, “You are not righteous enough,” just look to Jesus and declare, “He is my righteousness!” When the devil says, “You are not holy enough,” just look to Jesus and declare, “He is my sanctification!” When the devil says, “You don’t deserve to be healed,” just look to Jesus and declare, “By His stripes I am healed!” When the devil says, “You don’t qualify for the blessing,” just look to Jesus and declare, “He is my qualification!”  Each time you point everything back to Jesus, the devil has nothing to say because Jesus qualifies you for all of...

2 CORINTHIANS 8:9 LB You know how full of love and kindness our Lord Jesus was: though he was so very rich, yet to help you he became so very poor, so that by being poor he could make you rich.  Many Christians consider being poor the will of God. Scripture actually gives a quite opposite picture. Although there are many warnings in Scripture against the love of money and its misuse, the fact remains that financial prosperity is considered a blessing from God in the Bible.  PSALM 35:27 NKJ 27 Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, "Let the Lord be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant." (Certainly there are dangers in being prosperous. With more money you can make more choices, and buy more trouble. However, money itself is not evil. The person using money determines whether it will be a force for good or a force for evil.)  You do not have to convince God to prosper you. No arm-twis...

Exodus 3:14 And God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”… Whatever your challenge is today, whether it is physical, emotional, financial or marital, the great I Am declares to you: “I am to you what you need Me to be.” Do you need healing? He says, “I am the Lord who heals you. (Exodus 15:26) And as you believe Me, you will see your healing manifest thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”   Are you groping in the dark, not knowing what to do? He says, “I am the light of the world. (John 8:12) When you walk in Me, you will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Are you looking for a way out of a bad situation? He says, “I am your deliverer. I will reach down from on high, take hold of your hand and draw you out of the deep waters.” (Psalm 18:2, 16) Are you wondering if there is more to life than merely existing from day to day? He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. (John 11:25) I came to give you life. And where there is life, there cannot be dea...