100 Days of Right Believing: Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing (22 page)
Read 100 Days of Right Believing: Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing Online
Authors: Joseph Prince
… being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
P
HILIPPIANS
1:6
S
everal years before my television ministry began broadcasting in America, I received a letter from Max, a United States (US) Navy personnel, who had passed through Singapore and had a life-transforming encounter with the gospel of grace. It contained a beautiful story best told in his own words:
Pastor Prince, I want to share what God has done in my life through my experience in Singapore. I cannot tell you how thankful I am to God that I was miraculously led to your church.
I have been a Christian for about three years, but for well over a year, I was in heavy bondage. Like you, I was convinced that I had committed the unpardonable sin. To me, grace was a bad thing. I knew that I deserved to go to hell under the Old Testament, and because Jesus had come and I still sinned, I felt that I deserved hell all the more. So in my heart, I wished that Jesus had never come. To make a long story short, I got desperate. I was willing to do anything to find peace with God.
Unfortunately, I did not realize that my focusing on doing more for God would only lead me further away from the peace that I so desperately desired. Before long, I became very judgmental. I cut myself off from my Christian friends and even convinced a few that they were on the road to hell with me. I cannot tell you the hopelessness and misery I felt that year. In a journal entry on April 18, 2001, I wrote, “What would I not pay for someone to show me the way to the Lord, not to a religion but to the living God.”
Well, I received orders to catch a submarine out to Singapore. The first four days after my arrival in Singapore were spent doing touristy
things. One night I went out with all of the officers to a bar. The bar was especially distasteful, and I left early. On my walk back to the hotel, I prayed to the Lord desperately for some fellowship. Then, to my amazement on the busy street, I heard a man ask me, “Are you looking for a church?” Of course I said yes to this man who turned out to be a member of your church. He gave me the directions to the church and told me there was a Bible study service the following day.
When I attended the Friday night Bible study service, I was still really judgmental and questioning everything, but the message was like nothing I had ever heard before. Then on Sunday, I attended your church service and even ordered thirteen of your tapes. I left that day on the submarine, and I listened to
Winning the Battle of Your Mind
about eight times in a row!
My life has never been the same after I caught my first glimpse of God’s grace. When I returned to the US after only three weeks on the sub, my mom could see a huge change in my attitude. Where there was once depression, there was joy. Where there was once a judgmental attitude, there was love. Returning to the Naval Academy, I gave the tapes to the friends whom I had convinced were going to hell with me. The next time I saw them, they were full of joy!
I pray that some day I will be able to visit Singapore and your church again. I know Marines are supposed to be tough, but my desire to fellowship with you and your church is so great that it almost brings me to tears. May God’s grace and peace be with you and your family.
Interestingly, two years after I received his email, one of the naval officers whom he had given my tapes to actually wrote us to tell us how his own life had also been amazingly changed by the messages. Robby also mentioned that Max had become a well-respected officer in jet pilot training. The love and grace of God had liberated and transformed him into someone who (in Robby’s words) “had so much of God’s love and joy in him that people just wanted to be around him.”
I believe with all my heart that you are next in line to join Max and Robby. Whatever you are in need of—a breakthrough, miracle, healing, restoration, or deliverance—is just around the corner. You may not even be conscious of it, but God has already begun a work in you and He will surely complete it in your life.
There are so many powerful truths in
Winning the Battle of Your Mind
. I would really like to bless you with this message. Books are powerful, but there
is something special about listening to the preached Word. If you are interested, please log on to josephprince.com/power to download the free audio message. I believe that this resource will help you to receive a fresh impartation of the Lord’s love and grace to win the battle for your mind.
Whatever I am in need of—a breakthrough, miracle, healing, restoration, or deliverance—is just around the corner.
Father, thank You that I have the assurance that the work You have started to do in my life will be brought to completion by Your love and power. By Your grace I will win the battle for my mind. I believe that You are working on my behalf, turning depression into joy, sickness into health, and lack into supply as I rest in Your grace. Amen.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2 P
ETER
3:9
T
he word “repentance” in the New Testament is the Greek word
metanoia
, which simply means “a change of mind.”
Meta
means “change” and
noia
refers to your mind. There are religious folks who have this idea that repentance means groveling in dirt and condemning themselves until they feel they have sufficiently earned God’s forgiveness.
My question is, how condemned and sorrowful do they need to be before they have genuinely “repented”? And after they have “repented,” should they fail again in the same area, does it mean that they did not really “repent” completely the first time? I do not doubt the sincerity of people who believe in “repentance” this way. However, you can be sincere in your intent but still be sincerely wrong when repentance is not based on right believing that leads to inward heart transformation.
It is possible to beat your breast sorrowfully, put on sackcloth and ashes, cry your eyeballs out, and remain unchanged. Sorrow doesn’t equal transformation. It is right believing that brings about true repentance (change of mind) and hence genuine transformation. It is impossible to truly repent the Bible way—to experience Jesus, His love, His grace, and His power and to allow Him to change your mind and your belief system—and still remain the same.
Can you see how man-centered teachings on contrition and repentance can sound so good, but in reality trap people in a permanent cycle of defeat and hypocrisy? The truth is, if you are a new creation in Christ, you already hate the sin and the wrongdoing. It vexes your soul, and you are looking for a way out of your bondage. The repentance you need—the change of mind you need—is to know that God has already forgiven you. Stop condemning yourself and walk in His righteous identity to new levels of victory over sin.
Now that you understand what Bible repentance is, let’s apply it to winning the battle for your mind. When wrong thoughts come into your head, the repentance or change of mind that you need is to know that those thoughts don’t belong to you. Repentance in this situation is not about beating yourself up over those thoughts. I used to do that and it only left me more oppressed and defeated. No, give them no room to flourish by ignoring them while you continue to be established and secure in your identity in Christ. Fill your mind with His thoughts, His living Word, His peace, His joy, and His love.
Right believing brings about true repentance (change of mind) and hence genuine transformation.