GOD JUSTIFIES THE UNGODLY

Boldness is what God wants you to have when you come to Him. He does not want you to be afraid to come to Him, feeling unworthy because of your sins. He wants you to come boldly to Him, knowing that the death, burial and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ has justified you and qualified you to boldly receive from Him.

This was the kind of boldness that the woman with the issue of blood had when she touched Jesus (see Mark 5:25–34). Now, by touching Jesus, she knew that she was breaking a Levitical law which states that anyone with a bodily discharge is unclean, and should not appear in public, let alone touch another person (see Leviticus 15).

But she refused to feel condemned by the law. She believed what she had heard about Jesus, and was confident that there would only be love and compassion, not condemnation, from Him. She believed that Jesus would justify her and qualify her to receive the miracle she needed. That was why she boldly pressed her way into the crowd to touch Jesus, who indeed said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well” (Mark 5:34).

What was it about her faith that made her well? Romans 4:5 talks about faith that believes God justifies the ungodly. When you believe that God justifies the ungodly, it will give you boldness to come to God, even when you feel unclean because you have just blown it.

When you fail, don’t run away from God. Run boldly to Him, knowing that you are justified by the blood of Christ and not by your good behavior.

The devil may say to you, “How can you do that? Who do you think you are?” Don’t listen to him. Pick yourself up and thank God for the blood and the gift of no condemnation (see Romans 8:1). If God justifies the ungodly, how much more you, His beloved child!  (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries used with kind permission).

WISDOM IS THE PRINCIPAL THING

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.  Proverbs 4:7

There is a difference between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge puffs up (1 Corinthians 8:1). It can make one proud and arrogant. But wisdom will make you humble and teachable. You can read extensively and accumulate a lot of knowledge, but still lack wisdom. You also don’t become wise just by growing older and having more experience in life. Wisdom is not natural. It does not matter if you are young or old, experienced or inexperienced, highly educated or not. Wisdom comes by God’s unmerited favor.

Listen to what God’s Word says about the importance of wisdom: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; she will bring you honor, when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace [unmerited favor]; a crown of glory she will deliver to you” (Proverbs 4:7–9). You see, promotion and honor all come as a result of receiving wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says that Christ is made unto us wisdom first, then righteousness, holiness and redemption. Wisdom comes first!

I remember how the key thing that I would pray for every day in the early days of our church was for the wisdom of God to guide us in everything that we did. That was my focus. I did not want to manage the church with my own knowledge. I wanted to depend on Jesus’ wisdom. In fact, it was during this time of believing for God’s wisdom that the Lord opened my eyes to the gospel of grace—the gospel of grace that is unadulterated by the law and man’s works, and based entirely on the finished work of Jesus!

When my eyes were opened to the gospel of Jesus’ unmerited favor, lives began to be wonderfully changed and transformed, and from just a few hundred people in the mid-nineties, our highest attendance for our Sunday services to date was more than 22,000 precious people. Whenever I am asked to explain how we grew the church, my answer is plain and simple—it was and is entirely by the unmerited favor of Jesus. I know that it is grace and grace alone that caused our church to experience such explosive growth.

Today, the same gospel of grace that we preach every Sunday in our church is being broadcast into millions of homes across America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region. We started as a little church in Singapore that nobody had heard of, but God’s unmerited favor has blessed us to become an international ministry that is impacting the world with the good news of His unmerited favor. We take no credit for it because this wisdom is from Jesus, and our boast is in Him and Him alone. Beloved, let His wisdom lead you to supernatural success!  (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries used with kind permission).