Grace Revolution2015 by Joseph Prince review by J. Tofflemire
Preface: Now is the time to lean your Full Weight on Jesus He is your answer, your hope, joy, peace, and security.Chap.1 Whatever adversity you may ave faced, Jesus is your answer. John 1:17 “ For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” Heb. 8:12 “For I will be merciful to their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins.” 8:10 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.” With grace you are made righteous when you believe right. Rom 6:14 “For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace.” Under law sin is contagious, under race righteousness is contagious. What will power and self-effort can’t do, God will do by the power of his grace. Chap. 2 He told and expanded story of Peter’s nets being filled with fish after catching nothing all night (Luke 5) and how amazed and overwhelmed Peter was. God’s blessing, favor and overflowing love will lead you to repentance. Whatever your struggle today, God is with you and knows how to help you. God loves you with all your imperfections, come to Him just as you are. The Hebrew word for repentance is teshuvah with 5 Hebrew letters; It means- Because of the cross of Jesus, return to Grace. In Greek the word is Metanoia, and means a change of mind. He told the story of a Pastor who for15 yrs was addicted to spit tobacco and tried by his own effort to overcome it, but could not. When he learned the grace lessons he, with the help of Jesus, overcame it. When God’s love touches you, you experience transformation. Chap. 3 He told the story of the healing of the leper in Mat 8:1-3 Right away a man with a serious skin disease came up and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Reaching out His hand He touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his disease was healed(cleansed) The leper likely heard the Sermon on the Mount in Matt. Chap. 5-7 and how God wanted to be a loving father to him and care for all his needs. This got him out of hiding and seeking Jesus, thinking God did not condemn him, but loved him. Mat. 7:7-8 “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened”. Jesus reached out and healed him. Like the leper, you could be hiding from God with a problem like an addiction or cycle of defeat you can’t get out from. You need to go to Jesus with the problem. To get your breakthrough, make sure you are hearing and believing right about God through the word of Christ. The bible doesn’t define God as wrath, but as a God of love in the new covenant. P38 Rom. 10:17 “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.” Col.3:16 “Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.” This is the message of grace that will build you up as in Act 20:32 He told the story of a lady who went to a bible college and had the legalistic teachings. She developed PTSD post-trumatic stress disorder and multiple personalities and was put in a psychiatric ward for many yrs. She was a also addicted to cigarettes. When she listened to pastor Prince ‘s TV lessons on grace and prayed she become completely healed with no addiction. Dan 11:32 :– but the people who know their God will be strong and take action.” 10:11 “He said to me, “Daniel, you are a man treasured by God. Understand the words that I’m saying to you.” Daniel interpreted dreams and was safe in a loin’s den. If you are confident in God’s love, you will take action and live with boldness. The same happened to Gideon in Judg. 6:12 He became a mighty warrior for God. 2 Peter 1:2 “May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” As you feel God’s love and grace you will experience peace, wisdom and strength. Chap. 4 For you to live above defeat and experience breakthroughs, it is vial that you have the assurance of forgiveness. If one questions if they are forgiven it leads insecurity and fears. It’s like in a marriage relationship one needs to feel secure. Then we will feel blessed as in Eph.2:4-9 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, 5 made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens,” The revelation of forgiveness does not detract from, right living. Instead it’s the fuel that make right living possible. Chap. 5 When you understand the power of Jesus ever-cleansing blood, fear and depression give way to peace and joy. A lady wrote 2 hymns ‘Like a river Glorious’ and ‘Take my Life and Let it be, after being inspired by 1John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Sin is destructive including adultery as in Prov. 7:25-27 “Don’t let your heart turn aside to her ways; –Her house is the road to hell.” The way to be liberated from sin’s dominion is to come under grace. The warning of Heb. 10:26-31 about the problem of remaining in sin, is for Jewish people who have heard Jesus message but reject it. Paul was not addressing genuine believers with this verse. Do we need to often confess our sins as in 1 John1:9? This verse was written to Gnostic unbelievers who believed they had no sin. The word confess in that verse means ‘to agree with’. It’s a salvation verse for nonbelievers. 1 john 2:1 is written to believers: “My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One.” Its OK to to confess your sins knowing and thankful that you are already forgiven. P. 84 Chap. 6 Jer. 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you” this is the Lord’s declaration”plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Grace doesn’t condone sin; it provides freedom form sin. The word Gospel in Greek means good tidings. Grace not the Law, it the truth that sets you free and transforms you. John 8:32 When temptation comes say- I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8:1 We are a new person in Jesus 2Corin. 5:17-20 Rom. 1:17 “The just shall live by faith” Chap 7. A life that is founded upon the gospel of Jesus Christ is unshakable. Rom. 1:16 Prov. 18:10 “The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are protected.” Right living comes by right believing. Rom. 1:17 “For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.” Your deliverance, your preservation, your answer is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Chap. 8 In Mark 2:5-11 Jesus heals a paralyzed man but first forgives his sins. Your past does not have to poison your future. God has good plans for you. In the OT the holy spirit(HS) would come and go. Now it resides in believers. P. 123 John 14:16-17 Prince gives testimonies of addicts breaking their addictions by hearing and accepting the grace message. In Christ you have a new life, a new beginning and future. The cross made all the difference. It satisfies your guilty conscience and can transform you. As you can’t touch water and not become wet, you can’t touch grace and not become holy. How to explain book of James on needing works to justify. James is referring to justification before men, not before God. As in Mat. 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine[a] before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Giving to the needy is done before men. We need to be patient and give people time to grow, pointing them to Jesus. Abraham developed his faith over time. 2 Peter 1:2 Chap. 9 Fear is a destructive bondage. That condition can’t be cured naturally. It can be fixed by a personal encounter with Jesus. 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.” A love that bore our sins and freed us from any bondage. John 3:16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus was always kind and loving towards sinners. That’s the nature of our heavenly father.p.141 Ps. 25:6 Zacchaeus was an example in Luke 19. The law demands, and results in fear, condemnation and guilt. God’s grace loves, forgives and heals. 2 Corin. 3:7-9. The mother of all fears is death and also falling sick. Belief in Jesus can free us from this, as in Heb. 2:14-15 When we sin, we may subconsciously fear judgment. What ever you fear is, belief in Jesus can free you of this. We need to feel his love. For me, meditating and affirming his love and asking to feel it helps. Chap. 10 Glorious Grace pg.173 2 Cor. 3:8-18 “how much greater is the glory that belongs to the activity of the Spirit! — Because we have this hope, we are very bold.–We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.” p156 When people hear the real gospel that tells them how right Jesus’ finished work has made them, their lives will never be the same again. The more you are established in your righteousness in Christ, the more you will want to live a holy life and and be open to Gods correction. 1 Cor. 6:19 “Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own” Rom 6:6-14 For we know that our old self[a] was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, – So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” A believer who is well rooted and established in the gospel of grace will bear fruit in due time. P.167