💡 What Makes Life Worth Living? - Derek Prince

now let me try to give you in a brief form my life story and since I've lived over 70 years that's quite a challenging task you wouldn't know it by looking at me but I was born in India every single male relative that I've ever known in my life has been an officer in the British Army I was educated here in England at the age of 13 I was entered for a competitive examination for boys of that age from all over England and I was awarded a scholarship to Eton College I was a college er at Eton for five years took another competitive examination and was ooh and became the senior scholar of the year to Kings College Cambridge now joining my early years I went through the various forms and procedures of the Anglican Church I did everything that I was expected to do and I sort of felt somehow someway I'm going to get something that will make me the kind of person I ought to be at Eton when I was 15 a decree went out through the college all the boys at 15 will be confirmed in the Anglican Church well by that time I was beginning to be somewhat skeptical about the whole business of Christianity so I wrote to my father who was still serving with the Army in India and I said I don't see like being confirmed my my father's answer surprised me because he he rarely went more than twice a year to church once at Easter and once at Christmas but he wrote back and said all the boys of your age are being confirmed so that settled them well now many of you know in order to be confirmed in the Anglican Church you have to go through a sort of procedure of preparation and you have to learn the answers to certain questions I don't have problem learning things by heart then the first question is easy to answer it is what is your name and I got that one right and completed the questions and qualified to be confirmed well strangely enough as I went through this procedure for preparation for confirmation I somehow became aware that I wasn't nearly as good as I ought to be I can't exactly define it but I had a vague sense of being unclean so I changed my attitude toward confirmation and I said well really two confirmations come at just the right time it's what I need I'm going to be confirmed and I'm going to be a whole lot better than I've been for a long while well I once confirmed but the results for me personally were very disappointing I'm not suggesting this would be true of others but it's my personal experience instead of getting better I got worse and the harder I tried to be good the quicker I got banned so I struggled this with this for about six months and then I said to myself this thing doesn't work it may work for some people but I'm not one of them I could be a lot less bad if I didn't try to be good one of the things we used to say in the Anglican Church every Sunday morning once pardon us miserable offenders and after a while I said to myself well I could be an offender without religion and lot less miserable so I really decided Christianity was not for me as long as I was at Eaton I had to go to Chapel once every week Dave twice on Sundays that's eight times a week which is a lot of church-going when I went to the University I said to myself at a sigh of relief know I've done all the church going I'm going to do in the early years of my life thank god that's over but I had in me and always had from before I was a teenager I always had a deep sense that somehow there must be a meaning and a purpose to life there must be something that was worth living for I wasn't really interested in finding the easiest way through life or getting the highest paid job I wanted something that were making meaning out of life I concluded Christianity didn't have the answer so I thought the logical place to look is philosophy so at Cambridge I studied philosophy for about seven years I was academically extremely successful took the classical trial process with first-class honours in both parts became the senior research student of the University for two years in classical philosophy I also studied what was then contemporary philosophy which was essentially linguistic philosophy those of you who have any familiarity with philosophy I was actually a student of Vidkun Stein who is regarded as the father of linguistic philosophy I also delved pretty deeply into yoga because I felt maybe oriental what would I say oriental philosophies have the answer which I haven't found in Christianity in 1940 at the early age of 24 I was elected into a fellowship in King's College Cambridge so academically I had arrived but my quest was still unsuccessful I hadn't resolved the problem what is the meaning of life what is the way to live then I was called up to the British Army like all the other people of my age group when I went into the army I had one major decision to make up to that time I've had some of the best libraries in Europe available to me I knew that in the army I would have to carry edited everything in one long round black bag which is called a kit bang and books are somewhat heavy so what was I going to take with me to read I mean it was a major decision so I said to myself here you are you're supposed to be a teacher of philosophy but there's one book of philosophy in the world which is more widely read and more influential than any other book and has had a greater place in the history of the human race than any other book especially in the history of Britain and I said to myself you don't know much about what's in that book you know the book I had in mind there is only one book that answers to that description it's the Bible what I'm saying about it is objectively true there's no challenge in it so when I went into the army I bought myself a nice new blank Bible I couldn't receive of the Bible being any color but black and took it with me then I said to myself how do you study the Bible and I said just like any other book I declined to give it any special classification I don't accept that it's divinely inspired or whatever people claim so I'll treat it like any other book I'll begin at the beginning and read it through to the end so my first night in the Army the 12th of September 1940 in boys barracks crew CIM which I was visited just the other day that's why it's fresh in my mind i sat down in the barrack room with 24 other new recruits open my Bible at Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 and started to read 1 I didn't realize in advance was that to be seen regularly reading the bundle in the army makes you very conspicuous and I still remember the kind of uneasy hush that descended on the barrack room when this people saw that I was reading the Bible but the thing was when I was reading the Bible I didn't live the least bit like people who regularly read the Bible I don't need to catalogue all my sins but some of them were very obvious I was a heavy drinker of whiskey and I was also I say it would deep regret a confirmed habitual blasphemer I was bad when I went into the army and six months in the Army made me awful if ever you want to meet a great a group of blasphemous men anywhere in the world try the British Army so there I was reading my Bible drinking my whiskey blaspheming baffled and baffling everybody and I'd have to say I just mentioned this in the whole course of five and a half years in the Army when I was regularly reading the Bible every day no British chaplain ever came to me and offered to interpret the Bible to me the reason was they didn't understand it themselves well after about nine months our unit was moved to Scarborough in Yorkshire and I learned met one other soldier who was in any way interested in the Bible he wasn't a committed Christian but he was studying it because he was a student of prophecy and he had the feeling that he could find out what was going to happen in the war if he could understand the Bible well one day he came to me with a rather apologetic demeanour and he said I wonder if you'd like to come with me to a place I found next Sunday afternoon well because he was apologetic and because he spoke about Sunday afternoon I knew it must be a church so I said to him what I want to tell you I don't believe in religion but I've got nothing to do on Sunday afternoon so I'll come just as a sightseer now why I said that I don't know because the version of religion that I was familiar with there are no sites to see so there we arrived at this very small church and it seemed to me the great majority of the congregants were ladies mostly elderly because most of the men had been called up anyhow it was totally unlike anything that I have ever experienced they sang from read him books they sang hymns with choruses they clapped their hands they repeated the verses I mean it was extremely embarrassing me to me to be there particularly because I was conspicuous as being only one of only two persons in uniform however I my real determination was to know if the preacher really knew what he was talking about that was the only thing that really impressed me I was informed casually that the preacher had been a taxi driver before he became a preacher well he took his text from the 6th chapter of Isaiah a vision the Lord hand of the a vision Isaiah head of the Lord in which he said I saw the Lord High and lifted up and then he said woe is me for I am done for a man I am a man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean lips and mine eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts well when I heard that phrase a man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean lips I said to myself no one ever describes you more accurately the name so he had my attention well then in the vision a seraph flew to the altar took a live coal from the altar laid it on his lips and said lo this is touch thy lips the iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged well I somehow felt that he was going to explain what happened to Isaiah but he wasn't that kind of preacher he didn't stay to any particular period or book of the Bible for any length of time and sooner or later he was in the period of King Saul and the Shepherd my daily and he was one of these people who believed in making it vivid and he was emphatic that King Saul was head and shoulders taller than the rest of the people so when he was speaking he conducted an imaginary dialogue between Saul and David when he was speaking in the character of David he stood on the ground on the platform and when he was speaking in the character of King Saul he stood on a bench on the platform and looked down at where he'd been when he was David well I was following this with great interest and in the middle of a speech as King Saul the bench collapse and he fell to the floor with a loud thud now if you had arranged something to impress a professional philosopher you would have left that part out but the thing is not because of what happened but in spite of everything that happened I knew he knew what he was talking about and I also knew that I didn't I had no idea what it wants well they got to the end of the sermon and then he did something that shocked me and angered me he said every head bowed every eye closed now if you want this put your hand up well I was indignant that I found myself in a church where people would ask me to do something so embarrassing was to put my hand up and I had no idea what it was that we were asked to put our hand up for the only thing I could think of was what had happened to Isaiah well they didn't have any background music there was nothing to soften the impact in those days and we sent there in this stony silence and through my mind were going to thoughts one was if you put your hand up in front of these old ladies you're going to look very silly the other was if this is something good why shouldn't you had it and I was paralyzed I couldn't respond to either thought and I had no idea what was going to happen and the silence dragged on and then a minute miracle took place and it happened to me quite unexpected I saw my own right arm go right up in the air and I knew I had not raised it I was extremely frightened I thought how did I get into a place where someone else could raise my arm thing well the moment I did that there was a sigh of relief and they went on with the service that's all they'd been waiting for was me to raise my arm mmm-hmm strangely enough the preacher didn't talk to me at all and together with my father soldier we were ready to lead the church when an elderly couple came up to us and invited us home for supper and I said to myself this is going to involve some more religion but a good supper is worth a little religion so the couple were probably in the early 60s and as we walked through the streets the the lady was sharing her experience with me she was a rather slight little woman but very active and she explained that her husband had had tuberculosis and had been exempted from military service in World War one well I knew that to get an exemption it had to be a valid medical diagnosis then she said something that took my breath away I'll never forget she said I prayed every day for 10 years for God to heal my husband and I couldn't conceive of anybody praying every day for 10 years about anything then she said in the tenth year I was kneeling in the parlour alone my husband was in bed in the bedroom propped up on the pillows coughing up blood and she said as I was praying an audible voice sent to me claim it and I answered I clean it now and at that point her husband in the bedroom was instantly and completely healed of tuberculosis when he went back to the doctor the doctor said the lung that had been affected was stronger than the lung that had not been affected now when I heard that I thought to myself is this what I've been looking for all my life well we had supper and there were about seven people around the oval table and they prayed before the meal which was something I'd never encountered before but I can understand that's part of this whole thing the meal was excellent and I was just really congratulating myself on having made a wise decision and they started to pray again without any warning or explanation and I quickly perceived that they were praying by turns around the table and that my turn was coming now I had never prayed out loud spontaneously anywhere in my life and I was acutely embarrassed my turn came and I opened my mouth without having any idea of what I was going to say and I heard myself say Lord I believe help my unbelief and I shut my mouth like a trap and that was all I could say because those words were in the gospel but I hadn't got as far as the gospel at that time nothing happened but in this strange language that they used they said on Tuesday night this was Sunday that I'm Tuesday night there's going to be a revival in the Assemblies of God well I didn't know what a revival was and I had never heard of the Assemblies of God but I thought this is part of this deal so I'll go there Tuesday night it was a different church the same sort of congregation and a different speaker but the same sort of speaker this one took his text from I think the fifth or the sixth chapter of Genesis the fifth chapter where it says Enoch was not because the Lord took him he was one of those preachers that believed making things up to date and vivid and so he transferred it to the present time and pictured the disappearance of Enoch and the human crime that went on and how they called in the CID who came with their tracking dogs and they could follow the scent so far and the scent just ended there was no more scent so they concluded that he'd gone up well my particular field of study was logic so I could see that was logical I couldn't argue with that then he preached the same kind of sermon and it had very little to do with Enoch as far as I could understand gone to the end and I braced myself because I knew what was going to happen next every head bowed every eye closed if you want this put your hand up well I thought to myself last time somebody else put my hand up for me but I couldn't expect that to happen twice so this time I put my hand up myself and this time the preacher came looked at me and he asked me two questions which I have never forgotten the first one Arndt was do you believe you're a sinner well my specialty was definitions so I quickly went through every definition of a sinner and they all fitted me exactly so I said yes I believe I'm a sinner then he said do you believe that Christ died for your sins and I remember I looked at him and I said to tell you the truth I can't understand what the death of Jesus Christ 19th centuries ago could have to do with the sins that I've committed in my lifetime and I could not see any relevant connection so I walked out of the church but I had the strange sensation that I do that I'd stepped out of one life but I hadn't stepped into another I was like somebody suspended between two worlds and inwardly I mean I saw things much more clearly and I would willingly admit and I said to myself now if I get involved with this what will happen to my university career what will my friends say and worst of all what will my family say and for two or three days I just internally debated these questions then about Thursday or Friday that week I don't remember exactly which I made a decision I said I don't care what happens to my career I don't care what my friends say I don't care what my family says whatever this thing is I wanted so I made up my mind that that night I would pray until something happened I had no idea what would happen we were billeted in a hotel on the South Bay in Scarborough the top floor and I shared a room with one of the soldier who was a friend of mine we had no furniture in the room except two straw mattresses on the floor no pajamas to sleep in simply our underwear when I got back to the room my friend was just getting lying down on the mattress preparing to go to sleep so I said to myself I'll wait till he's asleep and then I'm going to pray we had picked up a small folding canvas stool without a back to it which was the only piece of furniture in the room when my friend was asleep I placed the stool in front of the window which was right out over the sea sat on the stool place my elbows on the windowsill and said no I'm going to pray and when I got to that point I could not pray I didn't know whom I was praying to I didn't know what to say I was absolutely incapable of any kind of crane and I sent there I would think an hour simply trying to start to pray and then I became aware of a strange power that was willing to move me and it would move my arms up in the air and I realized was the same power that arranged my arm in the first chair and my arms went up over my head with the palms towards the ceiling and there was part of me that was analyzing everything that was happening and this part of me said now why with the palms upwards and I got an answer back in Egypt a power from on high and I realized for the first time in my life I was in contact with power that came from above I also realized that many times I've been in contact with power that came from a below and then I was somehow aware of a person I did not see the person I did not I need you to know who the person warrants but I found myself speaking to this person with words I did not choose and I said this unless you bless me I will not let you go and when I got to that I could not stop saying I will not let you go and when this began to happen not only about my arms going up in the air my whole body was going upwards and backwards and then when I was saying changed and again I found myself saying words I did not choose and words which were totally out of character with me and my background because I was brought up in the old British tradition the stiff upper lip the old school tie keep the flag flying and never show emotion I would have been embarrassed to kiss my mother in public but I began to say to this person make me love you more and more and when I got to the words more and more I couldn't stop saying more and more and more more and more and then my whole body wind up backwards for a moment I checked I was afraid of what would happen then I said to myself I've come this far now if I stop now and I never get this stone again and this power lifted me off the stool and deposited me on my back on the floor and then something broke loose right inside me and I began to Psalm with tremendous convulsive sobbing but I had no idea what I was sobbing about but it was like a river well so released inside me and flowing out through me and this lasted maybe I don't know something like an hour and then it changed I was not in charge of what was happening I was simply a kind of vehicle for what was happening and I began to laugh and yet I wasn't laughing but laughter was forming inside me and flowing on through me and at first it was very soft but it grew louder and louder and louder now this was after midnight and my mind was saying to me what will happen if people wake up and come in and find me in my underwear on my back on the floor laughing well the only person who woke up was the other soldier thank God he was a friend of mine also thank God he was not religious and I could see him over the top of my head getting out of them under the blanket walking slowly toward me keeping a safe distance walking around me and saying I don't know what to do with you I suppose it would do no good throwing water over you and something inside me said even water wouldn't put this up but an amazing thing was I knew things without any process of reasoning and they came to me men must not blaspheme a the Holy Ghost and I knew that what was in Li was the Holy Ghost it was not my idea but how the girls and I thought let me not make difficulties for him let me not cause him to say anything wrong so with great difficulty I got on my hands and knees crawled to the mattress got onto it pulled the blanket over me and went to sleep laughing to myself when I woke up next morning I said to myself was that a dream or did it really happen but I didn't have time to speculate because I had all sorts of military duties which demanded my attention about midday I stopped and took stock and I said to myself I am a totally different person first of all I could never have gone six hours in the army dealing with very awkward soldiers without swearing at them and I suddenly realized I hadn't sworn for six hours it wasn't that I've given it up I hadn't made any resolution it simply wasn't there then the previous night I found it extremely difficult to pray the next morning I could not stop praying praying was as natural to me as breathing even when I went to get to attempt to get a glass of water I couldn't drink the water without first thanking God for I thought of myself that's that's that's really not necessary when evening came I took my usual trip down to the pub to get my whiskey when I got to the door of the pub my feet locked they would not walk through that door I stood there on top of my legs trying to convince them to go through the door but they wouldn't go and I suddenly realized I wasn't interested in what was in Santa Pam so I turned around and walked on I hadn't given anything up I just lost interest in something so I went back to the billet when I was alone picked up my Bible and started to was looking for the place where I had left off somewhere in the book of Job but I opened at Psalm 122 which says when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion then we were like those that dream then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing and I said to myself that's precisely what happened to me my mouth was filled with laughter I wasn't really laughing but I was being filled with it and my first thought was why did I go to church all those years and no one ever told me that these things are in the Bible but the most dramatic change was this the previous day when I tried to read the Bible it was a remote dreary baffling book the next day the moment I picked it up and started to read it was the voice of God speaking personally to me it was as if there were only two persons in the universe God and me and the Bible was gone speaking to me this was not the result of any intellectual search or any intellectual decision it was a total change in me it took me months to evaluate all that had happened to me in that encounter about one week later approximately I was lying on my mattress again the other soldier was out of the dance and I felt a strange burning inside me I thought of myself whatever is going to happen now and I really didn't feel I could take any more but the phrase formed in my mind speaking with other tongues I knew that was in the New Testament someone so I said what does this got the with speaking with undertones I could see no connection but the phrase remained in my mind and the fire remained inside me so eventually I said out loud to guard in that empty room God have you wanted to speak with tongues I'm ready to do it the moment I said that this fire started to move up inside me I could feel it moving into my chest and then into my throat and then something started to bounce about against the back of my mouth and I couldn't understand what it was I suddenly realized it was my own tongue but I was not moving I opened my mouth and strange sounds started to come out after a little while as I relaxed they became a clear articulate language which I had never heard it sounded me something like Chinese or Japanese so I lay there speaking this new language and then I heard steps in the corridor on sign and I realized my friend was coming back from the dance so I thought to myself he already thinks me strange and if he comes in and finds me speaking this new language here thinking his stranger still so I determined I'll give him a brief explanation of what had happened when he came in I gave him the explanation but it was in the new language I pretty couldn't speak English so sure enough he thought me stranger but thank God he was a free thinker he wasn't a religious person so his theory was everybody's got a right to do his own thing that this is his thing let him do it yeah well I see our time is passing away I've described in some detail how I became directly a believer in Jesus out of that experience I emerged with two conclusions which were absolutely fixed in my mind they were this number one Jesus Christ is alone number 2 the Bible is true and I have never changed so I decided if the Bible is the book with the answer and I've searched all these years in philosophy and not found the answer why should I waste more time in philosophy I'm going to study the Bible and I made that decision and I've gone through with it within a few weeks the army sent our unit overseas and I spent the next three years in the deserts of North Africa there I became sick with a skin condition which the doctors were not able to heal in that climate I was in hospital in Egypt for a year on end as I lay there I said to myself I know God could heal me by a miracle but no miracle happened then I said I know if I had faith God would heal me but then I said I don't have faith and then in the midst of what was a period of tremendous darkness a brilliant ray of light shone in from Romans chapter 10 verse 18 so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and I laid hold of that one statement faith cometh if you don't have it you can get it and I said it comes by hearing so I made one of my personal decisions I said I'm going to find out what the Bible has to say about healing the Bible was the only book I had with me at the time so I am myself with a blue pencil and I said I never read through the whole Bible and underlined in blue everything that has to do with healing health physical strength and long life took me maybe three or four months you know what I had at the end a blue Bible nothing could have ever convinced me so totally that the healing is a message of the bundle but I was still sick however in the midst of that search I came across three verses in the book of Proverbs which I want to commend to all of you my son attend to my words incline thine ear unto my sayings let them not depart from thine eyes keep them in the midst of thine heart for they are life to those that find them and health to all their flesh and the marginal alternative reading for health was medicine I said to myself that's what I need I need medicine I'm sick so I said I'm going to take the Bible as my medicine I went to the doctor in charge of my case thanked him for they care that he'd given but I said in this climate it doesn't seem to me that the treatment is healing and I'd rather not have any further medical treatment I narrowly escaped being sent to a psychiatric hospital and I was discharged at my own risk as I set out to take the Bible as my medicine God spoke to me and said if the doctor gives you medicine the directions are on the bottle this is my bottle and the directions are on it you better read them so I went back and I saw their four directions attend to my words incline by the air and my sense that they're not depart from their eyes keep them in the midst of them and those are the directions for taking the Bible as medicine I happen to be a medical orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps so I said to myself how do people take their medicine the answer is normally three times daily after means I said that's how I'll take the Bible three times daily after me the army transferred me to the Sudan which one of the worst climates in the world for that condition and after every main meal three times a day I went apart open my Bible said Lord you said these words will be medicine to all my flesh I'm taking them as my medicine now in the name of Jesus within two or three months I was permanently and perfectly healed I didn't ever experience any miracle but I received total healing and I think I got a little measure of long life too which was just thrown in I think still today I am in a move in a sense enjoying the physical benefits of taking the Word of God as my medicine that's why I mentioned this little book God's medicine bottle because it describes how you can take his word as your medicine a lot of people come for miracles and don't receive them I thank God I've seen countless people received miracles of healing but God is sovereign he chooses how to heal you if your heels are taking his word as medicine I tell you you get a lot more than physical healing you'll be renewed in your mind you'll think differently from then onwards later the Army Center Palestine I spent my last year-and-a-half in military service in Palestine and in 1944 when I was still in the army I was worshipping God in a small medical Depot in a little place called kiryat motzkin north of Haifa and Dawn spoke to me and I want to commend these words to you and I want to tell you God does speak specifically clearly and precisely and this is what he said to me in 1944 that is what 44 years ago he said I've called thee to be a teacher of the script in truth and faith and love which are in Christ Jesus for many I could never have envisaged 44 years ago how that would develop but my response today is what Paul said faithful is he who calls you and he also will bring it because I do not have time to go any further but I just want to tell you to the glory of God but in substantiation of the reality what I'm telling you that our ministry today which is most of the globe with the clear simple teaching of the word of God my radio ministry is now in 8 languages reaches most of the major cities of the United States I have two programs in four Chinese languages that reach Communist China seven times every 24 hours my program is in Russian and reaches nearly all the Soviet Union three times every 24 hours from three different directions it's in Spanish and reaches virtually the whole of Central and South America in the English version from the Seychelles reaches most of India it covers the whole of New Zealand parts of Australia the islands of the Caribbean the islands of the Pacific and that's not a total list it also reaches the Middle East from South Lebanon if you were to count the total potential audience it is well over two billion people who could ever believe that in 1944 that such a thing would be possible I tell you that not to parade my achievements but simply I want to know that when you deal with God on the basis of his word his word is absolutely true absolutely reliable and he stands behind now it's time for me to close up the tension you've given me rather late in the evening I realized some of you have had a busy day and some of you are looking to another busy day tomorrow but I do not want to close this message without giving you an opportunity to respond personally I don't know what your inner reactions have been at this point but I do know from personal experience it is possible to know God in a very real way revealed in Jesus Christ and in the Bible and to me that is by far the most exciting experience and the most valuable that I've ever had in my whole life and it's one that endures and becomes more and more precious as the days go by so if you are here tonight and you feel that in some way we here could help you at least a start on the road to meet Jesus or maybe tanita here to know and you would like prayer and counsel before we close this meeting I want to ask you if you would like that and you would like to speak to me or the brothers here and the platform would like pray would you just stand up so that we may know anyone here tonight he say you have feel free to stand right up don't be embarrassed you want what's coming what I've been describing to you tonight you want a real personal encounter with Jesus Christ you want them know God in a way that is unshakable in a very shaky world if we can help you we would like to thank you I appreciate it others here that would like to stand up just to indicate thank you I see those people standing don't sit down any others here this evening you would really like to God bless you you would really like to have a direct personal knowledge of God we're not asking you to leave a church or join a church we're talking about something very individual and personal and encounter with God those of you that have stood up would you just walk forward quickly and stand in front of me here I would like to lead you in a simple prayer don't be embarrassed just walk forward quickly and there are others if you want to come please join them please follow with these there are a number of others some of you are still kind of uncertain as to what could be the significance of this I just want to say we have nothing in mind but your best interest so if you would like to have this encounter with the Lord would you just come and stand there's plenty of room along in front just move forward and spread out a little one way or the other thank you are there others here tonight that would like to be included you would like a personal encounter with God thank you I appreciate that those of you that are already know the Lord just be pleased silent they're praying and be patient a moment or two because this could be the most important moment in the lives of these people I just want to tell you it is possible to know God I never knew that I didn't know how to know him I was totally lost but in his wonderful grace and mercy Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit revealed himself to me and radically and permanently changed me and I want you to know I didn't give up anything I was delivered from everything in me that was evil and destructive Christianity is not giving up it's receiving the scripture says as many as received him Jesus to them he gave the power to become the children of God and Jesus says elsewhere in the New Testament behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in he's never broken a promise so if you have heard his voice tonight and you want to invite him into your life and you will open your life to him he will come in he will come in just as he did to me by His Holy Spirit and you will know him in a real impersonal way the basis of this is the thing that Jesus on the cross took our guilt and our condemnation died in our place and rose again the third day from the dead now if you can believe that and commit your life to him receiving into your heart he will never leave you and never forsake you you will have something that is eternal so I'm going to invite you now to follow me in a brief simple prayer you will not be praying to brother Prince I will give you the words but you'll be saying them to Jesus when you finish the prayer just accept the fact that he's heard it and begin to thank him in your own heart quietly just seal it between you and him by thanking him all right would you say these words after me Lord Jesus Christ I believe that you are the son of God and the only way to God that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead I'm sorry for my sins I turn from my sins I turn to You Lord Jesus for mercy and for forgiveness and I believe you do forgive me now and receive me as your child and by simple faith I open my heart to you and invite you to come in right now be my Savior and my lord from this night forward in Jesus name Amen now just quietly thank you just to take time to think do you have conference well yes well can you tell me loose and you get your counselors okay now shall we all that I believe assume you just give thanks to down to these people and pray god's richest blessing upon them now in the name of jesus thank you lord why don't you lift up your hand and just release scons blessing from these people thank you Father in Jesus name we thank you Lord for what you've done here tonight we commend to your grace and mercy Lord Jesus every one of these people who's praying we thank you for your faithfulness that you never break a promise you said I will come in and you have come make that very real to each one of them we pray in Jesus name Amen now there are representatives of the Full Gospel businessman here who would like to have a little further talk with you and give you some helpful literature so will you lead the way put your hand up and tell them follow him will you it won't be long just a few moments can you follow - thank you just a few moments it'll be it'll make it much easier for you to move on in your Christian or Thank You law no where's our leader I mean I'm not responsible for what happens next so well I'll tell you what my idea is some of you may want to go home and I don't blame you for them there may be others of you that would like ministry for healing so why don't we close this part of the service and release those who want to go home with God's blessing without any sense of embarrassment if there are those of you that want to remain for further ministry you do that and then we will try and work out how to minister to you so why don't we all stand to our feet and let me pray a prayer blessing on those that are leaving and those of you that want to remain just stay where you are and we'll work out what to do next don't forget the book table on over there as you go out father we want to thank you for your presence with us here tonight we want to thank you for your faithfulness we want to thank you for your love and we want to commit to you in Jesus name everyone that's been in this meeting and those who are going to be leading now we pray that you'll keep your hand of protection and blessing upon them and that the word that has gone forth will continue to work in every part and life here tonight in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Derek Prince

Views: 190,871

Rating: 4.8314295 out of 5

Keywords: Gods plan for your life sermon, derek prince sermons, bible teaching, faithful bible teaching, what is the aim of life, life with purpose, hillson church uk, joseph prince church, bible study for women, women in the bible, a chosen people, foundations of the christian faith, foundations of the church, foundations of the faith, gods plan for man, power of praying woman, you are valuable bible verses, you are valuable in gods eyes, you are valuable to god scripture, you are valuable to god sermon

Id: mB5H-umGaVc

Length: 55min 32sec (3332 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 10 2015