These are notes on the sermon, Christ-Consciousness Brings Life, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince on Sunday, 18 July 2021, at The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore. We hope these sermon notes will be an encouragement to you!
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Pastor Prince reminds the congregation of the prayer in 3 John 2 (KJV), “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
It all starts with the soul. Our outward success is linked to our inward soul prosperity.
We are tripartite beings with a spirit, soul, and body. They all affect each other.
Just like your physical body, your spirit has eyes to see, and the Bible says in Ephesians 1:
“ . . . The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward . . . Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead . . . ”
— Ephesians 1:17–21 KJV
This prayer is a prayer that you can pray continuously throughout the year—that God will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, which is the greatest knowledge of all.
When the eyes of your understanding are enlightened, you will know these three things:
In this series of sermons, we will be expounding more on the third point: knowing the resurrection power of God that raised Jesus from the dead.
“And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.”
— Philippians 3:9–10 NKJV
“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection” — The rhema word from God for us in this season is to know this resurrection life of Christ that is in us. God wants us to know and experience His resurrection power in our spirit, soul, and body!
Today’s message is a continuation of last week’s sermon, Unleash His Resurrection Life. Last week, we talked about how God made Adam from the dust of the ground but God breathed into him and he became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).
Adam’s name is ‘adamah,’ which means “ground” in the Hebrew. A reason God could have chosen to create man from the dust of the ground and name him Adam (which means “ground”) is to remind man of the importance of humility. To remind him that God was his creator, God was his Father who would always watch over him, and God would supply all he needed and so he need not depend on himself.
When Adam sinned and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, death was the result. Death is the consequence of sin. We see this best expounded in the Hebrew:
“and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it — dying thou dost die.'”
— Genesis 2:17 YLT
“dying thou dost die” — Adam only died 930 years later. Although he did not experience immediate death in his physical body, death set in the very day he sinned, and his spirit man was deadened toward God. This death slowly affected his emotions and his body.
God made us tripartite beings—with a spirit, soul (our thoughts and emotions), and body.
Some think that when we are born again, we are born again in the spirit but the soul and body do not enjoy the benefits of redemption. However, we are learning that Jesus’ resurrection life can touch even our thoughts, emotions, and our physical bodies.
When Adam sinned, sin brought in disease, disaster, and death into the world. Sin has a destructive effect on our relationships, our health, our minds, and the way we relate to God.
Sin brings death, but the good news is that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:23 KJV).
“If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
— Romans 8:10 NASB
You are a spirit-being, you have a soul, and you live in a body. All three parts make up your entire being. Who you really are is your whole being, which encompasses your spirit, soul, and body.
When someone experiences physical death, their body returns to the dust where it came from. God never meant for man to die. God counts death an enemy, and the Bible says the last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Cor. 15:26).
The attitude of a believer is not to look forward to death but to look forward to the rapture, where our Lord Jesus will transform our lowly body into a glorious body like His own (Phil. 3:21).
The only part of us that we’re not possessing just yet is the redemption of our physical body. Our body is still subjected to sickness, decay, and death.
In this series of sermons, we are pressing into God’s Word to discover how we can experience the Lord’s resurrection life in our physical bodies even as we wait for the redemption of our bodies in the rapture.
As we wait for the redemption of our physical bodies which will happen in the rapture, God desires for us to live victoriously over sickness, disease, and decay.
“ . . . we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord . . . ”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:15 NKJV
“alive and remain” — To remain denotes strength and power. It is one thing to be alive because we are young but another to be alive and remain. To be alive and remain speaks of power, health, and long life. This is not about living forever in the body we have right now but the power to overcome disease and death until Jesus comes again.
The rapture generation is made out of believers who have learned how to remain alive. We are this generation.
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed — in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:51–54 NKJV
“we shall all be changed” — There is a belief that some of us believers will be left behind during the rapture but the Scriptures say that “we shall all be changed.”
From now until the rapture, there is a way we can walk in victory over every disease, depression, and destruction. God is revealing to us more and more how we can walk in the power to remain alive.
Wherever the revelation of righteousness goes, resurrection life flows.
When you are conscious of your righteous standing in Christ, God’s resurrection life flows from your spirit, to your soul (affecting your thoughts and emotions), and then to your body.
The key is understanding and embracing righteousness by faith.
As we learned in Philippians 3:9–10, righteousness by faith must be received, understood, and be in one’s consciousness. The more you receive, believe, and confess it, the more you will experience Jesus’ resurrection life in your soul and in your body.
“The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:56–57 NKJV
“The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law” — We know that sin results in death. But more importantly, we need to go deeper and understand that what gives sin its strength and dominion is the law.
“ . . . On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”
— Romans 7:6–9 NKJV
“opportunity” — In the Greek, this is the word ‘aphormé.’ According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, this is how the word is defined:
A base of operations is where attacks are launched from. Sin takes the law as a base of operations.
We can see this exemplified in the story of the children of Israel as they journeyed from Egypt to Mount Sinai, and how things changed after the law was given at Mount Sinai.
When Israel came out of Egypt, God brought them out with silver and gold and there was none feeble among them (Ps. 105:37). Even though they murmured and sinned, there was no record that God punished them for it. When they murmured, God provided. It seemed like every murmur brought forth a fresh supply of God’s grace. It was a period of complete dependence on God’s goodness and faithfulness, not theirs. God was so close to them. Their sin did not repel God away from them because He was not looking at their sin.
Yet when they reached Mount Sinai and they decided that they could do all that God commanded, everything changed. Once they decided to presume on their own strength, God gave them the law. Now, when Israel murmured, they died.
God never gave the law to make man holy. It was to reveal man’s sin and his inability to be righteous in and of his own efforts (Rom. 3:20).
The law is holy and righteous but it cannot make us holy and righteous.
“I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”
— Romans 7:9 NKJV
“sin revived and I died” — The devil knows that he cannot directly tempt a mature believer to commit sin, so he tries to use the law to bring evil desires into the life of that believer. When the law is introduced, sin is stirred up and revived.
“who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.”
— 2 Corinthians 3:6–9 NKJV
Under the old covenant, when God gave the law, 3,000 people died at the foot of Mount Sinai (Exod. 32:28). Under grace, on the day of Pentecost, God gave the Spirit, and 3,000 people were saved (Acts 2:41). This goes to show that the law kills, but the Spirit gives life.
God made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant (being under grace), not the old covenant (being under the law). The more we preach under the new covenant, there will be life, life, and more life to every part of our being!
“the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones . . . the ministry of condemnation” — The ministry of death and the ministry of condemnation both refer to the Ten Commandments (the law). This undoubtedly refers to the Ten Commandments because the rest of the laws and commandments were not written on stones but were written on parchments and the skins of animals. Only the Ten Commandments were written on stones and here, Paul makes it clear that the law is the ministry of death and condemnation.
If this ministry of death was glorious, how much more the ministry of the Spirit!
The devil’s tactic is to appear as a religious spirit telling you to keep the law. He tells you that the reason there is no revival is that the law is not being preached, that the people who are preaching grace are people promoting the license to sin.
But that cannot be further from the truth. The more the devil is able to make you think you are being more spiritual by keeping the law, the more he has you right where he wants you—under the law and not under grace. Because the law is the strength of sin.
If you are still experiencing bitterness, anger, or other negative emotions and bad habits, maybe somewhere along the way, you’ve allowed the law to come into your heart. You can tell you have come under the law when you have thoughts like, “I’m not a good parent,” or “I’m not a good breadwinner,” or “I have failed as a mother.” These are thoughts that make you feel demanded from, not supplied. The law makes you feel demanded from. Grace assures you that you are fully supplied by the Lord.
The law demands righteousness or good works from sinfully bankrupt man, but it does not lift a finger to help him. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17 KJV). Grace came personally to provide righteousness as a gift to the most undeserving. And today, our righteousness is found in the beautiful person of Jesus Christ.
The more you are conscious of your righteousness in Christ, the more life is ministered and released to your soul and body.
When Adam sinned in the garden of Eden, God said, “Dying you shall die.” But physical death did not happen immediately on that day. In fact, Adam only died 930 years later (Gen. 5:5). Likewise, for us, this discovery that you are the righteousness of God in Christ might not produce immediate results in your soul and body but it will manifest externally as life and health in the days to come.
The people who lived during Adam’s time lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. It was not the case that there was no sin because we know that sin entered when Adam ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So what is the difference between then and now? What has caused the deadly effects of sin to be of such great effect today?
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned — (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses . . . ”
— Romans 5:12–14 NKJV
The problem lies in the knowledge of sin.
The law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20). The people who lived before the law were not conscious of their sin because there was no law for them to base it on.
Also, since the time of Adam, God had introduced the sin offering. From the time of Adam to the time of Moses, man practiced giving sin offerings to God (in which an animal dies in the place of the sinner). God knew that sin brings forth death, and so ordained a way for man to prolong his life by offering these sacrifices.
“until the law” — The law was not yet given and until the law was given, sinful men lived long.
The law brings about the knowledge of sin. When you have that knowledge, it causes you to feel condemned, and it is condemnation that kills.
When sin-consciousness is removed from the believer, the believer has physical life extended to him!
Condemnation kills, so don’t allow it to come into your heart or your life. Don’t extend condemnation to your family. It seems like when people are under the law, they tend to have a condemning, fault-finding spirit just like the Pharisees did during Jesus’ time.
A ministry of grace is a ministry that is supply-conscious. It is a ministry that is conscious of the grace that is constantly being supplied by God.
Pastor Prince shares that personally, he makes it a point to be conscious of God’s supply even as he is preaching every week. It is not him speaking out of his own intellect but it is the Holy Spirit supplying the rhema word, the illustrations, and the revelations. He has found that the more he is conscious of God’s supply, the more he experiences how effortless God can speak in and through him. But when he is more conscious of the demand that is upon him, he finds that it results in stress, which is a form of death.
The Lord doesn’t want His people to experience any kind of death (e.g. stress, anxiety, depression, negative emotions, relationship breakdowns, etc.) in their lives. He also doesn’t want us to die before our time because of sin-consciousness.
Even though sin had come in since Adam’s time, the people from Adam to Moses lived long lives because they did not have the consciousness of sin (since the law had not yet been given).
Some people still preach the law today thinking that it will produce holiness. But it is through the knowledge of Christ that we become holy, set apart from the world. Our focus is on Jesus, not on our efforts.
Under the new covenant, Jesus only has one commandment for us and that is to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34). We are to be gracious and grace-minded as Jesus was. Not constantly fault-finding and pointing our fingers at others, but extending grace and the gift of no condemnation just as Jesus did with us.
We are called to reach the world with the glorious gospel of grace. The world needs to know that God is not looking at their sin and mess, but God is calling them to Himself.
Just like how you don’t clean yourself before taking a bath, you don’t have to get rid of all your sin before coming to Jesus. After accepting Him into your life, He will deal with your sins and wrong behavior and bring inside-out transformation by His grace alone. It is all about Jesus. The only answer to effectively deal with sin is Jesus Christ.
It is interesting to note that before the law was given, people lived very long lives. We see this in the story of the children of Israel before they asked for the law at Mount Sinai.
Before the law was given, none of the children of Israel died when they came out of Egypt. Despite all of their sin, murmuring, and complaining, not a single one of them died. They were living under God’s unmerited favor, under the Abrahamic covenant of grace. It was only after the law was given at Mount Sinai that when they murmured, they died as a consequence.
What is the difference? They were now put under the law, and their actions had to be judged according to the law. The result was death. Death comes with the law because of this. Paul says in Galatians:
“ . . . Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”
— Galatians 3:10 KJV
“continueth not in all things” — The law demands perfection. There is no leeway given to the one who breaks even one part of the law. You have to fulfill all of it and if you break just one, you are guilty of them all (James 2:10 KJV).
Under the law, our best efforts amount to nothing. That is why Christ had to pay the ultimate price to ransom and redeem us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us, for it is written that cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Gal. 3:13 KJV). Christ took the curse and the punishment for us at the cross so that we are no longer bound to the law and its effects.
Pastor Prince shares that he used to think Romans 1:17 was referring to faith as a way of life (for instance, when a person chooses to trust God for their finances, that is living by faith). However, in the Greek, the sentence structure of this verse places a different emphasis that can be seen in the New English Translation: “The righteous by faith will live.”
Those who have been made righteous by faith will live. We have been made righteous not by our actions or deeds, but through the finished work of Christ. The more you believe you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, the more you will live!
Likewise, when you condemn yourself, you put yourself under the law and its curse, and you are actually introducing death into your life. Similarly, be mindful not to extend condemnation to the people around you as well because condemnation kills.
The law was designed to bring death. Don’t put yourself under the law today because you are no longer living under the judgment of the law! That is not to say that we disregard holiness. In fact, when you are Christ-conscious, when you don’t put yourself under the law, you are able to behold Jesus in all His beauty, in all His glory and as you behold Him, you are transformed into the same image and you will live a holy life.
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory…”
— 2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV
True transformation happens not by your attempts to keep the law but by beholding the glory of the Lord.
Are you living with a sense of perpetual condemnation? Many times, people who experience depression or have thoughts of depression don’t realize that they have allowed condemnation to take root in their hearts and minds.
Doctors tell us that many of the sicknesses we suffer in our bodies are a result of mental or emotional stress that we have put ourselves under. Where there is stress, there is no rest and that causes a reaction in the body that results in “dis-ease” and sickness. But there is a deeper root to stress. All that medical science can reach is stress, but what runs deeper than stress exists in the spirit realm and it is condemnation.
Before there was poverty, sickness, and death in Adam’s life, there was stress. The moment Adam partook of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he was afraid and he hid from God (Gen. 3:10). The deeper root of stress is fear and that fear stemmed from condemnation in doing what God told him not to do.
It was God who sought Adam out, not Adam who sought God out. The first question in the Old Testament is God asking Adam: “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9) The first question in the New Testament provides the answer: “Where is He who is born King of the Jews?” (Matt. 2:2)
Jesus is the answer.
The first four words of the book of Genesis are: “In the beginning, God” (Gen. 1:1), and the last four words are: “a coffin in Egypt.” (Gen. 50:26) Egypt is a picture of the world that we live in and death is the best the world can offer us. The world can try to improve life as much as they can through medical science but they cannot eradicate death.
The deeper problem of sin cannot be handled by science. The root of sin is condemnation or sin-consciousness. It is what causes stress to take root in our lives, and stress causes sickness and death in our bodies.
As we have learned, sin does not operate without a base of operations and that is why it is important that we stop putting ourselves under the law, being demand-conscious and condemning ourselves for not measuring up. The key to getting out of it is to keep on hearing the message of grace.
Keep on hearing the truth of the gospel and be set free!
Pastor Prince prays for people with the following conditions and situations:
Pastor Prince closes the service by praying for those who have any existing diseases or conditions in their body, that they may prosper and be in health even as their souls are prospering.
Every healing can stand the test of medical science. Please go back to your doctor to verify your healing. Only stop taking your medicine when your healing has been confirmed by medical reports. Then write in to share your testimony!
“Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of Your son, the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank You that Christ died for my sins and rose from the dead when I was justified in Him. Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior. Thank You, Father, I'm forever saved. All my sins are forgiven and now I am the righteousness of God in Christ. Amen.”
“This coming week, the Lord bless you with the blessings of father Abraham and the blessings of Deuteronomy 28, even as you are blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. The Lord make His face to shine on you, be favorable to you and your loved ones throughout this week.
May you find many doors of favor opening to you this week. The Lord lift up His countenance on you and keep you and protect you from every danger and harm. And also God keep you and preserve you and your loved ones from the COVID-19 virus and all its variants. The Lord is your guardian and your keeper. The Lord make His face to shine on you, smile on you, be favorable to you, and grant to you shalom wholeness and peace in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Is there an area of difficulty in your life that makes you feel guilty or lousy about yourself? Is there a role or responsibility you have to fill that makes you feel pressurized, demanded from, or fearful that you’re not doing a good enough job?
Many of us have learned to live with these negative feelings and accept them as a normal part of life—whether they are feelings of guilt for being short-tempered with our loved ones, feelings of shame for being unable to break out of that bad habit, feelings of anxiety about our work performance, or feelings of inadequacy when it comes to being a good husband, wife, or parent.
Friend, did you know that our Lord Jesus doesn’t want you to go through life harboring these introspective and self-condemning thoughts and emotions? Condemnation kills (2 Cor. 3:6–9), and these self-accusatory thoughts and emotions often insidiously produce stress, sickness, and other harmful effects in your life.
Jesus delivered you from such a life of defeat when He died for you at the cross. He took upon Himself all your sin and condemnation so that you could be made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21) and live free from sin-consciousness (Heb. 10:22). Romans 8:1 tells us that there is “no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”!
Wherever this powerful revelation of “no condemnation” goes, resurrection life flows—eradicating stress, sickness, disease, and other forms of death you may be seeing in your life.
This week, will you actively receive the gift of “no condemnation” by believing that you are righteous in Christ? Instead of looking to yourself to do better or be better in life, look to Jesus. He is not condemning you or demanding from you. Instead, He is supplying you with all you need. In your struggle with negative emotions or bad habits, He is supplying you with victory and shalom-peace. In your work or career, He is supplying you with the wisdom, abilities, and opportunities you need to succeed. In your marriage or parenting, He is supplying you with the largeness of heart, the favor, and the wisdom you need to see your relationships flourish.
So this week, every time you feel demanded from or condemned, say this, “Thank You, Lord, for Your grace. Thank You that there is no condemnation in Christ. Because You have made me righteous, I can depend on You to supply all I need!”
The more you are Christ-conscious instead of sin-conscious, the more you will see the Lord’s abundant resurrection life flowing into every part of your being—spirit, soul, and body—and into every area of your life!
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 2021
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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