A Fresh Revelation Of The Communion Brings Healing
Sunday, 13 January 2019
These are notes on the sermon, A Fresh Revelation Of The Communion Brings Healing, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince on Sunday, 13 January 2019, at The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore. We hope these sermon notes will be an encouragement to you!
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In this year of the latter rain, God wants you to receive your harvest of healing! As Pastor Prince teaches on sowing and reaping, you’ll learn how to “sow” by partaking of the Holy Communion and “reap” your complete healing.
We hope these notes will help you understand:
Beloved, we hope these notes will reveal to you a God who loves you deeply, wants you healthy, and has provided a way for you to walk in divine health all the days of your life.
Pastor Prince tells us to stand to our feet and begins the service with a time of ministry.
We are in the presence of a giving God.
God is all grace and all love toward us believers.
While He is a God of holiness, righteousness, and justice, He does not impute our sins to us because of the blood of Christ that has removed our sins.
Today, we can stand in the presence of a God who is always supplying, always giving to us.
The faith that pleases God is the faith that believes that God is a justifying God. He has justified us by the blood of Jesus.
His desire for the world who have not received the redeeming work of Jesus is for them to receive it and come home.
There’s not one trace of judgment or anger towards you.
To the world, He is “God.” To us, He is “Father.”
Pastor Prince leads us in a time of worship and ministry.
In the presence of Jesus is the power to set you free from every bondage. The power to set you free from depression and any mental oppression.
God is raining showers of blessings on us.
There is healing power flowing in Jesus' name.
Pastor Prince prays for people with:
God is raining healing on His people.
Pastor Prince tells those whom he prayed for to check their bodies for their pains and conditions, and wave if they know they’ve been healed.
You shall look for your enemies and you will find them no more (see Isa. 41:12).
We are in the presence of a God who always wants to supply to us everything we need.
God is not looking out for your sins.
To understand sound doctrine, you must understand this: We have been made the righteousness of God in Christ by Jesus’ finished work, but there is still sin in the flesh.
Sin in the flesh is the part of you that gets angry and bitter toward people. The part of you that doesn’t feel like coming to church. The part of you that you don’t like but keeps rising up in you every now and then.
Know that the sin you see in your flesh has been judged on the cross of Jesus Christ.
If you’re born again, you don’t like it when sin in the flesh acts up. Because sin is not your nature anymore.
What we should do when we see sin in the flesh rise up is to judge it.
Pastor Prince gives examples of how he does it for himself: “Joseph Prince, that temper is not good. Joseph, you are being critical.”
You can judge your bad habits and sins when you realize that God does not impute them to you.
Because of Jesus’ blood, God does not see sin ON us even though there’s still sin IN us. Sin will be in us until we receive our new glorious body when the rapture happens.
Just because there’s sin in us doesn’t mean that we have to act on it.
We can choose to observe sin in the flesh like a spectator. We don’t have to follow or act on our impulses. We don’t have to follow sinful trains of thought.
For example, you might have lustful thoughts. The apostle Paul struggled with this in Romans 7. The answer is found in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Know that God doesn’t impute that sin of lust to you. Now, knowing that there is no condemnation, you can judge that sin. Judge it. Don’t entertain it. Say, “No, I don’t want this.” And choose to walk in the Spirit.
When you get into a heated argument with your spouse and you notice your words becoming angry and hurtful, stop them and judge yourself. Recognize that sin trying to rise up. But know that you’re still the righteousness of God in Christ, and God does not impute that sin to you.
Accurate doctrine is this: We are the righteousness of God in Christ because of Jesus’ finished work. There is still sin in us, but we can judge it in ourselves without feeling condemned.
If you understand this, you understand the gospel. You understand grace. And your life will be a good testimony.
The gift of righteousness, the gift of no condemnation, gives us freedom in His presence.
Always remember that God loves you. Focus on His love for you, not your love for Him.
The sum total of the law is this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matt. 22:37). Jesus said this when He was asked by a Pharisee, a teacher of the law, what the greatest commandment was.
No man can love God like that. Except Jesus.
Today, we love because He first loved us (see 1 John 4:19).
The Christian walk is all about focusing on God’s love for us.
Depression is about looking to yourself. It’s about focusing on yourself and your shortcomings. It’s about focusing on what people say about you. It’s about living life horizontally, with regards to other people, instead of living life vertically, with regards to God.
Friend, you don’t need the approval of fallen men. You only need God’s approval.
Knowing this will bless your marriage. Don’t keep looking to yourself to love your spouse better. Look to the Lord and see His constant supply of love. Receive it for yourself. Then you will love your spouse.
We might come from different walks of life. We have difference careers, we serve in different ministries. But we all have challenges in our marriages and family life at times.
2019 being the year of the latter rain doesn’t mean that we won’t quarrel with our spouse. We all need a third party in our marriage, and His name is Jesus.
This is the year of the latter rain!
The latter rain does not fall at a random time. There’s a specific time for it to fall.
This year, God has been confirming to us that 2019 really is the year and the season of the latter rain for us.
An article came out in the Times of Israel a few days ago (see slide 16) reporting on heavy winter rains that ended the 5-year drought in Israel.
When the nation of Israel gets blessed, the church is next. First natural Israel, then spiritual Israel.
We are “spiritual Israel” because we are the seed of Abraham (see Gal. 3:29).
Pastor shares how down through history, every time Israel saw a significant breakthrough, the church also experienced a spiritual breakthrough soon after.
Israel just received heavy rainfall that ended their 5-year drought. It’s our turn to receive an outpouring of the latter rain!
Pastor Prince shows the video of the theme of the year.
“Ask the LORD for rain
In the time of the latter rain.
The LORD will make flashing clouds;
He will give them showers of rain,
Grass in the field for everyone.”
— Zechariah 10:1 NKJV
Pastor Prince tells us that he’s been asking God for rain over our congregation. Earlier in the service during the time of healing ministry—that was God raining down on us.
Many blessings of the latter rain are received corporately, when we come together to be in the presence of God.
God’s presence is unrestricted in church. There’s no telling what miracle you’re going to receive when you come to church.
Notice how when people stop coming to church, blessings seem to dissipate. People find themselves in dry seasons. You can tell that they’re trying hard to make things work, but it’s not easy.
Why? Because they haven’t been coming to church and receiving the “oil” that’s being poured out every week. The oil is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that makes everything you do smooth and easy. It makes parenting effortless. It makes your marriage effortlessly wonderful.
When life is difficult and frustrating, when you are bad tempered and angry most of the time, you need the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
That’s why God said that this year, He will give us grain, wine, and oil—the anointing (see Deut. 11:14). And you will find all the things you set your hand to becoming smooth, easy, and effortless.
What is the importance of rain?
Words for rain in Hebrew: “Yoreh” — means “to shoot.” “Moreh” — a derivative of “yoreh,” which means “teacher” or “teaching.”
“After my words they did not speak again,
And my speech settled on them as dew.
They waited for me as for the rain,
And they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.”
— Job 29:22–23 NKJV
Good teaching is like rain upon the grass. Rain that refreshes, heals, and revives.
Bad teaching causes dryness. The enemy enjoys dryness (see Matt. 12:43).
May you always come to church and leave having received the rain of God’s Word. May you always leave feeling refreshed.
“Latter rain” — In Hebrew, latter rain is “malqosh,” which comes from the root word “laqash,” meaning “to gather everything.”
The latter rain, also known as the spring rain, falls in the months of March and April and brings the harvest. These rains are for harvesting and gathering.
The former rains in October and November are for planting and sowing.
We will gather all that He sowed in His sacrifice for us.
The gathering of the harvest is a process. It’s a process of growth—just like a baby is born, grows into a toddler, then a child, then a teenager, then an adult.
Many things in life come with growth. In the process of growth, timing is important.
For example, Esther observed good timing when she presented her case to save her people before the king (see Est. 7).
“A man has joy by the answer of his mouth,And a word spoken in due season, how good it is!”
— Proverbs 15:23 NKJV
What’s important is not just doing the right thing.
We need to do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.
Even a revelation from the Word shared at the wrong time might have a bad result, e.g. people don’t understand it, they are not ready to receive it, they don’t know how to apply it.
“Let my teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.”
— Deuteronomy 32:2 NKJV
Even a tender herb is not hurt by the rain.
If the rain fell all at once, even our cars and buildings would be damaged. But God is a tender and loving God, and He gives us rain in the best way we can receive it.
God in all His wisdom is too great for us. So He sends His Word like rain—good teaching that restores, revitalizes, heals.
Rain is a picture of good teaching.
In this year of the latter rain, we are going to have an abundance of good teaching from the Holy Spirit.
Once you know that it’s coming, avail yourself to it! Come to church and stand under the showers of God’s Word.
This teaching will cause us to gather everything—all the good, all the blessings, all the promises that God has for us.
The firstborn blessing:
“Therefore may God give you
Of the dew of heaven,
Of the fatness of the earth,
And plenty of grain and wine.”
— Genesis 27:28 NKJV
The firstborn blessing includes “plenty of grain and wine.” And so does the harvest that comes with the former and latter rains:
“Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And rejoice in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the former rain faithfully,
And He will cause the rain to come down for you—
The former rain,
And the latter rain in the first month.
The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,
And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.”
— Joel 2:23–24 NKJV
“He has given you the former rain faithfully” — In last week’s sermon, we saw that “the former rain faithfully” in Hebrew is “moreh tzedakah,” which can also be translated to “the teacher of righteousness.” This refers to Jesus. Because of Jesus, we will receive the former rain and the latter rain, and “the threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.”
There are 2 layers to every prophecy in the Bible:
The 1st layer of the prophecy applies to Israel. But the 2nd layer applies to us spiritually. There’s a deeper revelation for us to understand.
In these verses, there are spiritual blessings for us to receive.
All the promises of God in Jesus are Yes and Amen (see 2 Cor. 1:20).
Don’t push God’s promises and blessings to the future. The only blessing that we cannot receive now is the promise of a glorified body that we’ll only get when we are raptured.
Some people are like Martha, who could only see God’s miracle-working power effective in the past and in the future—anywhere but in the present.
When her brother Lazarus died, she told Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” In saying this, she put Jesus in the past.
When Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again,” and responded with, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” She put Jesus in the future.
Jesus gently rebuked her saying, “I AM the resurrection and the life.”
“I AM” means that He is present. Right here, right now.
We can receive healing from Him right now.
Right now, Jesus is at the point of your need.
How do you see Him? As a demanding God or a supplying God?
The life we have is all about being at home in His presence. With you, He is all love.
When you see someone who is full of the Holy Spirit, that person is enjoying God’s love for Him.
These are people who are not perfect (they still sin because sin is in the flesh), but they are perfect in love. They are more conscious of God’s love for them than their love for God.
Comparing Jacob’s firstborn blessing with Esau’s blessing:
*See slide 6
Esau’s blessing is the “remainder” blessing, after the firstborn blessing had been taken.
Jacob’s firstborn blessing
“Therefore may God give you
Of the dew of heaven,
Of the fatness of the earth,
And plenty of grain and wine.”
— Genesis 27:28 NKJV
Esau’s blessing
“Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:
'Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth,
And of the dew of heaven from above.'”
— Genesis 27:39 NKJV
There are 2 main differences
1. The firstborn blessing prioritizes “the dew of heaven,” while the lesser blessing prioritizes “the fatness of the earth.”
The dew of heaven represents God’s favor. The firstborn blessing prioritizes God’s favor over what the world can offer.
“In the light of the king’s face is life,
And his favor is like a cloud of the latter rain.”
— Proverbs 16:15 NKJV
2. The firstborn blessing includes “plenty of grain and wine.” The lesser blessing doesn’t.
At that time, all of Isaac’s neighbors, everyone who lived with them in the desert, all farmed and harvested grain and wine. Everyone had it. So this blessing sounds ordinary—unless there’s a deeper meaning to it. A spiritual meaning.
This blessing of much grain and wine must be a special thing, if not it wouldn’t be included in the firstborn blessing.
If it’s not just about the natural harvest, then what is it about?
The grain and wine represent the Holy Communion.
The grain (bread) is a symbol of the body of Jesus.
The wine is a symbol of the blood of Jesus.
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. … As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.”
— John 6:51, 57 NKJV
The kind of life Jesus is speaking about here is not eternal life (even though He did come to give us eternal life), but it is zoe life for your natural body. This is referring to your health!
The firstborn blessing includes “plenty of grain and wine” (Gen. 27:28). Your revelation of the Holy Communion will be plenty.
“... the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.”
— Joel 2:24 NKJV
Pastor Prince shares a testimony of a woman who was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer and partook of the Holy Communion daily. 8 months later, her surgeon called to tell her that there was no trace of cancer found in her biopsy!
“It shall come to pass in that day
That I will answer,” says the Lord;
“I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.
The earth shall answer
With grain,
With new wine,
And with oil;
They shall answer Jezreel.”
— Hosea 2:21–22 NKJV
“Jezreel” — Jezreel means “God sows.”
What does this verse mean?
So the grain, the new wine, and oil are a response to God’s sowing.
The Holy Communion (the grain and the wine) is a response to God’s sowing.
God’s sowing here refers to the the first rain or the former rain. This rain is meant for sowing.
Every time we partake of the Holy Communion as a response to God’s former rain, we are sowing to reap a harvest of healing and health.
Now, all that you have sowed will come back to you in a great harvest.
“For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
— Isaiah 53:2–6 NKJV
Jesus suffered for us more than we can imagine.
He was lacerated. He was beaten on the head after the soldiers had put a crown of thorns on Him.
Why? Why did He have to go through so much suffering?
Jesus was the fulfillment of the levitical offerings in the Old Testament. But the sacrificial animals back then were never tortured. They were killed in a humane way.
But Jesus was tortured.
Why?
Because:
“Surely our sicknesses he hath borne,
And our pains—he hath carried them,
And we—we have esteemed him plagued,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.”
— Isaiah 53:4 YLT
“But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.”
— Isaiah 53:5 NKJV
“The chastisement for our peace was upon Him” — This means that the punishment with the view of our well-being and our health, fell upon Him.
“by His stripes we are healed” — the word “stripes” tells us how much He suffered. It tells us how brutal the punishment for our sins and the payment for our healing was.
This verse is quoted in the New Testament:
“who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.”
— 1 Peter 2:24 NKJV
The word “stripes” in Hebrew is “chabburah” (Isa. 53:5) and in Greek is “molopi” (1 Pet. 2:24).
“Molopi” refers to a single stripe. This means that Jesus' back was lacerated so badly that his entire back was ONE STRIPE.
He was beaten until no skin was left.
His body is the bread that we eat when we partake of the Holy Communion.
How is bread made?
It’s crushed. It’s sieved, pounded, and burned. All of this speaks of suffering. The same suffering that Jesus went through.
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger…”
— John 6:35 NKJV
How is wine made?
The grapes are crushed. Stepped on. Left in the dark to ferment.
All of this happened to Jesus as well—even the part about being left in the dark (when He was dead for 3 days).
All this—so that He could become wine for us.
Some people question whether they need to specifically drink wine as the blood. But it’s not about whether you drink wine or something else—it’s about what it stands for.
The harvest of healing and health is in the revelation you have of Jesus’ broken body and blood as you partake.
“For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.”
— Isaiah 53:2 NKJV
Some people think this verse means that Jesus was born ugly.
But this verse is referring to Jesus at the cross, suffering for our sins.
Jesus cannot have been born ugly because He was born without a trace of sin. Without a trace of disease or deformity. He was born beautiful. He was born perfect. Not a trace of sin—not even a tiny pimple.
So this verse must speak about His suffering. He became so marred, so horrible-looking, that people could not look at Him.
He was marred and disfigured so terribly so you could be beautiful.
“Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently;
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
Just as many were astonished at you,
So His visage was marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men;”
— Isaiah 52:13–14 NKJV
“He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high” — This line includes 3 descriptions used for the cross.
“His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men” — No movie can portray how Jesus really looked on the cross. No one can even fathom it.
Think of what He went through for you when you partake of the Holy Communion. Meditate on His love for you.
When you partake of the Holy Communion, don’t partake of it as a ritual. Don’t partake of it because you heard at church that you’re supposed to. That’s partaking of it in a meagerly fashion.
We are given “plenty of grain and wine.” (see Gen. 27:28). Plenty = great revelation.
The Psalms speak about Jesus.
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus expounded to the 2 disciples “in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” and He said to them, “all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” (Luke 24:27–28, 44).
One of the Psalms that speak of Jesus is Psalm 129:
“The plowers plowed on my back; They made their furrows long.”
— Psalms 129:3 NKJV
Back in Jesus’ day, there were mainly 2 kinds of whips that the Roman soldiers used on prisoners. One had multiple whips but was short. The other was long and meant to wrap around a person’s body, embed itself in their flesh, and pull out their flesh as they were whipped.
Psalm 129:3 tells us that Jesus was whipped with the long whips that wrapped around his body and created “furrows.” *See slide 15 for a picture of furrows.
The language used in Psalm 129:3 is the language of farming. There’s a reason that God chose to describe Jesus’ suffering using farming language instead of describe it literally.
He could have said, “They hit My back, they scourged My back.” But He didn’t. He said, “They made furrows.”
Why?
Because when the whips created furrows in Jesus’ back, God was sowing. He was sowing seeds of healing.
He was sowing seeds of healing for your heart condition. Seeds of healing for your back pain. Seeds of healing for your child’s eczema.
Whatever healing you need—the seed for it was sown in Jesus’ back.
When will you reap the harvest?
This year—the year of the latter rain!
Before the harvest, the latter rain will come.
The latter rain can come now because Jesus has died for us on the cross.
The blessing of rain can only come after judgment. After justice has been satisfied.
Before Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain,” God’s fiery judgment had to come down and consume the offering on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20–46).
Even Ahab, the evil king who didn’t deserve any blessings, was told that rain would fall on him and his land.
Pastor Prince shares a testimony of a lady who had Alzheimer’s disease. It got to the point where she forgot her loved ones and kept repeating herself from sunup to sundown. Her daughter partook of the Holy Communion with her, and 3 days later, she woke up looking 10 years younger and doing all the things she had forgotten. She also remembered all of her family members and stopped repeating herself!
Jesus’ face and body became so marred and grotesque because He bore all our sicknesses.
Every tumor, every kind of cancer, He bore it until He no longer looked like a human being.
The way we partake of the Holy Communion today is to have plenty of grain and wine—plenty of revelation.
The early church did it every day, from house to house (see Acts 2:46).
The Holy Communion works on the principle of sowing and reaping. It allows you to incrementally receive your healing.
Sometimes, verses like Mark 11:24, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them,” put pressure on people to “have enough faith” to believe for instantaneous healing.
We believe in instantaneous healing, and we have seen it happen in our services, but God also heals incrementally through the Holy Communion.
When you partake of the Holy Communion, you can believe that you’re getting better each time. If you don’t see your full healing immediately, don’t be discouraged. Keep partaking.
Rejoice—it’s the year of the latter rain that brings the harvest!
“This coming week, the Lord bless you and all of you at Grace Revolution Church. The Lord bless you and the Lord keep you. The Lord make His face to shine on you and be favorable to you. The Lord lift up His countenance on all of you and grant to you and yours His shalom peace, well-being, and wholeness. In Jesus’ name, and all the people say? Amen.”
We hope these sermon notes blessed you! If they did, we encourage you to get the sermon and allow the Lord to speak to you personally as you watch or listen to it.
© Copyright JosephPrince.com 2019
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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