female announcer: Today
with Joseph Prince. Joseph Prince: The entire
Bible is profitable, amen, for correction, for instruction
and righteousness, for doctrine, for reproof. It's all there. It's God breathed. Every part of the Bible,
every word is God breathed. It's important. We have to learn to posture
ourself, amen, where we really are in God's eyes, amen. Spiritually, we are in
Christ seated at the father's right hand. The moment you are born again,
you are in the heavenly places, why? Because you are in Christ,
and God wants us to live there. This is the place where
miracles happen. [music] Joseph Prince: Welcome
back, church. The year of time and space, wow. How the year has just flown by
just like that. Do you feel the same way? The people of God has been
preserved, and God has kept his people during this time. He has protected many of you
even from the unseen arrows that flies by day and the perilous
pestilence, amen. He has protected you
from all of that. And here you are, praise the
name of Jesus, you are healthy and strong, blessed and ready
to take on another year, amen. And what the Lord has
for us this coming year is very exciting, amen. When the Lord gave this to me
for this coming year, the year of, amen, hallelujah,
yes, the year of amen. And I just felt like, you know,
it's about time, amen, that something like this happens
to the year. Now, when I talk about the
coming year, I'm talking about in terms of what God is doing
for his people, for his church, amen. You know, the world will get
darker and darker, we know that. And there'll be more and more
earthquakes and famines. And there'll be even
financial famines. And there'll be a lot of,
you know, strife and turmoil in the world. But for God's people, he's
gonna keep them in his pavilion, amen, in a special place of
protection. The Bible says the sun shall not
smite you by day nor the moon by night. Even all the, all the things
that he has created will start working for God's people, amen. As creation is groaning and
travailing for the manifestation of the sons of God, we
are indeed in the last days, the days that the Bible prophesies
before Jesus soon return, amen. He's gonna come back for us. And the Bible says,
"Lift up your heads. When all the signs are coming,
amen, and we are seeing them happen, full and fast, amen. And we are seeing them culminate
in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
for the church, amen, for his people, and that day
is soon, amen. The King is coming for us. He is the King of kings
and the Lord of lords, amen. He has redeemed us by his blood
from the curse of the law. He has redeemed us
out of every tongue, every nation of the world. And here we are as a church
of Jesus Christ, we are standing tall in the last days. And it can only get better
for the church. The Bible says the path of
the righteous shines brighter and brighter, while the world
gets darker and darker, amen. Now, the Word that I have today
actually goes together with the theme of this coming year. When the Lord gave me
this message, he gave it to me together with a theme
of the year. And he said to me about
this message that how many, the truths that God has hidden
in this story, and how this entire story has got to do also
with the coming year. The whole event there has
meaning in it hidden for a time such as this that we are in. Praise the Lord. Are you ready for
the Word of God, amen? Let's look at the theme
of the past year first before we look at what God has for us. And look at this picture
of the Temple of Solomon. You know, we started the year
with the theme for the year. I believe that every year God
has a special emphasis on what he is doing, and how the year
will be, will be ruled by in terms of what he wants done
and accomplished. And this past year, 2020,
is the year of time and space, amen. And who would have thought that
we are living in that place where everything, you know, is
not normal bound by time, amen. It's no more confined by space,
especially when we are on Zoom, online, and even as I'm
preaching right now, I'm online. But we are transcending space. We see how the Lord has taken
advantage of this faceless reach of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and we have more and more people tuning in. So really, we are reaching more
people than we can if we are meeting physically, and that's
not to say that meeting physically is not something
that God would never bring us back to. But it is something that we need
to understand what God is doing for the Church of Jesus Christ,
amen, in sending for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the year of time and space
illustrates that. Praise God. And look at
the Temple of Solomon. At the side, you can see
this protruding building, which is the three levels,
the three chambers. As you go in the first one,
we saw that when I preached this early in the year, I never
thought that we're going to go through it sequentially. But the Lord started telling me
that, and I shared that in the next sermon, that we're
gonna cover this whole year per chamber in three parts of this
coming year of, when I said that, for this past year. And we look back now. And let's take a look
at the first part of the year where the grain
and the wine and the oil is stored in this first chamber. And the year before that, 2019. has been an emphasis on
the grain, the wine, and the oil that the year the latter rain
has brought forth. Because latter rain is actually
for the harvest of the grain, the wine, and the oil. And we know this is illustrative
of the Lord's Supper, the Holy Communion,
where regardless of the diseases that are impossible
for man to cure, the things that are impossible with man, through
God, nothing is impossible, amen. And he has given us this means,
the bread and the wine, that these are weapons against
every disease, every sickness, every plague, hallelujah. Praise the Lord. And he brought us into this. He prepared us with the grain,
the wine, and the oil, the anointing oil. And then we--the next part of
the year, we were actually in a lockdown, or we are in a circuit
breaker here in Singapore. And all over the world, it seems
like everyone is going into a lockdown. But specifically, this is in
reference, not to the world, I don't want you to see these
three chambers as for the world. Again I emphasize, when God says
something or God gives us a theme for the year, it is what
he's gonna do for his church, for his people in that year. So, keep that in mind. Now, it may have a reflection
of the times that we are in and the world around us, but
it's primarily for his church, praise God. So, the next part about,
we were all resting at home with our families. Remember that? And the next chamber is
the place where the priests would rest. And when I first preached this,
who would have thought that the next part of the year would
be a time of lockdown, a time where we are hunkered down
with our loved ones. And these are some of the most
beautiful days for me, amen. And the last part of the year
that we have stepped into is the third chamber, and they
will go up higher and higher through the winding stairs. And the truth of the winding
stairs is maximum height in a small amount of space. And then we come to the third
chamber, the upper room. The Bible calls it
the upper room. It is used as the upper room. That word "upper room"
for the three-floor house, as well as the temple here. And right in the upper room is
where the gold is kept. And the Bible says it's even
paved with gold, the upper chamber, and it gets wider
and wider as you go upwards. And we are now in that place,
spiritually speaking, amen. This is also reflective of
the heavenly places in Christ. Remember when Paul was caught up
to heaven? The Bible says he was caught up
to the third heaven. So, the first heaven is
the atmospheric heaven that you see around you, all right,
where you are, you know, you can experience the heat and
the cold, and the four seasons. This is actually the realm
of the first heaven. Then we come to the universe. The universe is the realm
of the second heaven. And the third heaven,
we cannot see it, right? It is beyond the the galaxies,
amen, beyond this universe. It is the place where God
dwells, amen. And the third heaven is
our--where we're gonna be forever with the Lord, amen? But it does not mean that we
have to wait. The traditional idea that you
have to wait and then you pass it on and then you'll be
in the third heaven, that's not true for the believer. The moment you are born again,
you are in the heavenly places, why? Because you are in Christ,
and God wants us to live there. This is the place where
miracles happen. This is the place where you are
being led by the Spirit. It's a spirit realm, and it is
the third heaven. Paul was caught up to
the third heaven where he received revelations. He received revelations. He says that he's not allowed to
utter all the revelations, amen, that he was--that was
revealed to him. So, it's the third heaven where
God's presence is and where we are seated with Christ
in heavenly places. We have to learn to posture
ourself, amen, where we really are in God's eyes, amen. Spiritually, we are in Christ
seated at the Father's right hand, amen. And far above all principality
and power and might and dominion, and every name that is
named, COVID-19 is a name. And we are far above COVID-19,
above every name that is named, not only in this world, but
also in that which is to come. So, it is the place of
the highest place that we have. Remember in the Old Testament,
God says that before the blessings come on you
in Deuteronomy 28, the very first thing,
the very first verse, God says this is gonna happen first,
he told the nation of Israel. Back then it's through
the nation of Israel, and this is what he says. "The Lord your God will set you
high above all nations of the earth." High above all nations
of the earth. So, notice that God sets
the nation of Israel high above all nations of the earth. It is a picture of where we are
right now, spiritually speaking, amen. We are all in the third heaven. We are all in Christ, amen,
where God sets us high above all, amen. And position before blessings,
position before blessings. Here it says God will set you
high above all nations, and all these blessings shall
come upon you and overtake you. So, we want the blessings
to come on us, but are you in that place? Are you in that place where God
says you are set high above? So, God sets the nation
of Israel high above, and then all these blessings
will come on you. So, this is a picture of
Ephesians 1 where it says, "Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." Here you have it,
the heavenly places, that's the third heaven,
in heavenly places in Christ. We are blessed. There is the place of blessing. So, stop living earthbound. Stop living as if you are
limited to the scarce resources of this earth, amen. You are not, you are not being
supplied based on what you have in the bank, amen. You are not supplied based on
what your boss will decide to give you, amen,
for this coming year. You're not limited by that,
amen. God promised he'll supply
all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,
according to his riches, not even out of. According means all the riches
he has is yours according to his riches in glory like what the
Father said to the other son in Luke 15, the parable of
the prodigal son, he said to him, "Son, you are always
with me, and all--" Say, "all." "All that I have is yours." So, live in that realm where you
are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. The word "every"
there in the Greek is pas, which means all types. It's not just every of the same
type, but every variety, amen, of spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places in Christ. It goes on to tell us in verse 6
that we are, we are highly favored in the Beloved. It goes on to say in verse 7
that all our sins are forgiven, again, according, not out of,
according to the riches of his grace, amen. It tells about how God
predestined us, amen, to be holy and without blame before him,
amen. All these blessings and even
blessings that manifest outside because of the inward blessings,
amen, will all come on us when we are in that place. Remember what the Word says? When you positioned before all
the blessings come and overtake you. We want them to overtake us this
coming year in 2021, amen. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. I think I just preached myself
happy. Hallelujah. So if you go to God's Word in
Acts chapter 9, the passage that God gave it to me, and God said
to me, "You know, I want you to study this passage because there
are nuggets of gold I'm gonna give you in this upper chamber." I later realized that there is
that word "chamber." I was studying from my
King James Bible, and the King James Bible
that I was studying actually unveiled the word
"chamber" in this story. And God is saying, "That's where
you are, and that's where you're gonna stay. Tell the people, stay in that
place of the upper chamber, the third floor. Stay there where all the
blessings are, where miracles happen, where the Spirit of God
can lead you, amen, where the angels of God, an innumerable
company of angels. You will need this, amen,
in these last day. And the Lord says that stay in
that realm, stay in the Spirit. That's the spirit realm, the
heavenly places in Christ, amen. Position-wise, we are in Christ. Experiential-wise, we are
in the Spirit on earth here. And every time you are in
the Spirit, every time you touch the Spirit, every time you allow
yourself be led by the Spirit, you're actually effectively
and practically living in the third heaven
in the heavenly places in that upper chamber, amen? So, let's look at
the story here. "At Joppa there was a certain
disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas." Whenever the Bible emphasize
things like her name is Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas,
Tabitha is Aramaic, Dorcas is Greek, same name. God wants us to pay attention
to names in this story, okay? So, this lady is called Tabitha,
which is the name means gazelle in Aramaic, in Hebrew as well. It is sabia, which is actually
the word used in Song of Songs more than one time,
and Dorcas in the Greek. "This woman was full of good
works and charitable deeds which she did. But it happened in those days
that she became sick and died. When they had washed her,
they laid her in an upper room." This word "upper room," when God
first gave me this story, I know about the story. I've read it before, but I
didn't--it didn't register with me that there was an upper room. In fact, in all my sharing about
the upper room this year, I never even mentioned this
story, but she was laid in an upper room. And according to
Strong's Concordance, right, the Greek word here,
huperoon, which is for the upper room, actually
refers to an apartment in the third story. That's what Strong says, amen. Strong is a Greek scholar. So, this is on the third floor. Now, that that's not usually
normal because usually, they will not bring the body
to the third floor, and there's a reason for this. And so, by the way, in verse 36
at Joppa, Joppa there was a certain disciple. Notice Joppa which is
present-day Jaffa, near Tel-Aviv. Jaffa or Joppa, where Jonah took
the boat, amen, to go away from what God was directing him
to do. And at Joppa, Joppa or Yafa,
Yafo, all right, in Hebrew is the word "beautiful." Today when they talk about
someone who is beautiful, they will say, yafo or yafa, all
depends on whether it's handsome or beautiful, but it's the word
"beautiful," amen. Yafo, yafo is beautiful. So, in a place of beauty,
there came death. Something bad happened,
something that is not meant to be. Just like what God has ordained
for all of us when he made man, God put man in a beautiful
place, amen, Eden, delight, paradise, amen. God wanted man to enjoy
all the good things he has, and that's God's dream for man. God never wanted man to suffer
any pain, any sickness, or even die. In fact, God calls death
an enemy in the Scriptures, amen? So God's dream for us is to live
in this place of beauty. But what happened was that man
sinned against God, and death came in. The wages of sin is death. So, in the place of beauty,
there came death in the story, and death with someone that we
esteem not deserving of death. Yet, we know even today ever
since Adam sinned, death has spread down. All men, the Bible says,
die, amen. All men die except for
the generation that will see Jesus come for them. But the Christian posture,
the Bible tells us, that we don't look to the grave. We look to the heavens. We look for the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, looking for the return of his Son. And the Bible says that
in more than one place in the New Testament, to look
for Jesus's return for us. We don't look to the grave. We don't keep on saying things
like, you know, stop saying things like one day
we're all gonna die. We're all--no, no, we, in fact,
that that's not a Christian posture. The Christian, Christian posture
is that we are looking for the coming of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, amen. Keep on looking up,
not looking down, okay? So, but in the place of beauty,
there came death. And when God gave me this
passage, this is what I heard him say how to have beautiful
days in this coming year, okay? He's gonna show us how to have
beautiful days. Now, I don't like to give titles
to my sermons, you know? I'm not one of those that give
titles to the sermons, but this is what I heard, How To Have
Beautiful Days This Coming Year, amen. Is it the year of
beautiful days? No. But God, you must say everyday
is gonna be beautiful days or good days. He says that many good days. You know how he gave that to me? As I read this passage, right
at the last part of the passage, in fact, this verse here
finishes the entire chapter 9. And it ends with this verse. It says, "So it was that he,
Simon Peter, stayed many days in Joppa with Simon, a tanner." It was that he stayed many days
in Joppa, so many beautiful days God said. Don't forget, this whole passage
here, God gave us an inkling to study the names, right? Tabitha, who is also named
Dorcas, God wants us to study this because there are also
types in the New Testament. For example,
in the Book of Acts, another place Paul was sailing,
and there was a storm. And then finally they refused to
listen to Paul, and there was a shipwreck. And where did they ended up in? What island, what's the name
of the island? Malta, Malta means honey,
so the land of milk and honey. How to reach there? So, Christendom, the ship is
the ship of Christendom. Doesn't mean Christendom,
doesn't mean that everyone is true born-again believer. It means that once you call
yourself a Christian, you are part of Christendom, okay? That ship did not listen to
Paul, Paul's preaching. As a result, they were
shipwrecked. They should have listened to
Paul and Paul finally stood up and says, "Sirs, you should have
hearkened unto me, okay, and not suffered this loss." But nonetheless,
they will all saved. Those that listen to Paul,
they were all saved. And they ended up in an island
called Malta, the land of milk and honey, amen. And praise the Lord. So, that's a picture
of the church. So, even stories in
the Book of Acts can be types. You know, Paul says in
Philippians 3, verse 17 that you have us as a pattern. He says that, "As you have us
for a pattern." The word "pattern" there is
tupos or types, amen. In other words, Paul and Simon
Peter and the disciples and all that, and their life,
actually are also types. We think of types as only
from the Old Testament. We think of the story of Joseph
as a type of our Lord Jesus, and rightly so. We think of Ruth as the church,
a Gentile church, right, made out of Jews and Gentiles. But actually, she's more
representative of the Gentile because she was a Gentile. And then Boaz, in him is
strength, his name means in him is strength, and he is
the redeemer, our Lord Jesus. And Naomi, who is Naomi? And she's older. Israel. And it was because of Ruth that
she was able to redeem the land, amen. Not her, but her marriage to
Boaz and Boaz is the great redeemer. But Ruth learned a lot of
the ways of God from Naomi, just like the church is learning
from Israel, amen. Even in all the the Bible,
customs and teachings and all that, that is predominantly
Israelite, amen, Israeli in nature, and we learn
from our Naomi. So, these are types, but are
there types in the New Testament? Yes, there is. And it talks about how one time
in Acts 20, they will all gathered in the upper room. Look at this, Acts 20
on the first day of the week. And this is Acts 20. When they were--the disciples
came together to break bread. Notice, they came together
on the first day of the week, which is a Sunday. They came together to
break bread. You know, they come to church
for the sole motive, their primary reason is
to break bread, amen. And Paul was the--Paul, you
would agreed that Paul, at that time, was the greatest preacher,
yet they did not come together on Sunday to hear Paul. Even Paul was there. They came together to break
bread, and the church has forgotten this. Okay, let's go on. "And Paul was ready to depart
the next day and Paul spoke to them and continued his
message until midnight." So, they were listening to Paul. There were many lamps
in the upper room. This word "upper room" again is
the same word huperoon, which is in reference to the upper room
where they laid Tabitha after she died. They laid her, same, same Greek
word, right, the upper room. And it is on the third floor
because later on we find out that Eutychus fell off
from the third loft, from the third story. And they were all in this
upper room on the third floor, and the Bible says
there were many lamps. This word "many lamps" means
there were many luminaries. There were many men of God, men
of God that God has anointed. It's a great place to be in. You know, when they're all
gathered together, amen, was like there was such a light
in that place, many lamps in the upper room. "And in the window sat a certain
man named Eutychus," his name means good fortune. And I shared this message
before, how the church has lost her good fortune because she is
no longer listening. She's falling asleep at Paul's
teaching, Paul's preaching. And church, the entire Bible is
profitable, amen, for correction, for instruction,
righteousness, for doctrine, for reproof, it's all there. It's God breathed. Every part of the Bible,
every word is God breathed. It's important, amen. But some parts are written
for us, for our benefit, but some are written to us. Now, when it comes to
Paul's--it's not Paul's gospel, actually, but Paul calls it
"my gospel." But we all know that his gospel
came from the ascended Christ, amen. Some people say, "I just read
the Jesus words in red." You know, number one, originally
it was not in red, okay? And Jesus words go beyond
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is the words, Paul's words
that Paul writes, even in Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians,
right, these are not words of Paul. These are the words of
the ascended Christ, amen. So, they should all be in red
actually, right? But we need to be listening to
Paul's doctrine because Paul, Paul's doctrine, and that's not
to say that we don't listen to John or Peter or the rest
and all that. And but Paul's doctrine will
give you the foundation and the key to interpret the rest
of the Scriptures, amen, but be they in the Old Testament
or in the New Testament. So, they--so what happened is
that the church lost her good fortune because she stopped
listening to Paul's preaching, and then she fell off. She fell asleep, all right,
that's how she stopped listening. She fell asleep and she fell off
the--her high position from the third floor. The Bible says he fell down from
the third story and was taken up dead. And Paul says, "Don't trouble
yourself, his life is in him." Paul went down, embraced him. When he had come out,
he had broken bread and eaten. You see, after raised the boy
from the dead, Paul still went--went up to the third floor
and broke bread. We would have said like wow,
what a great thing to happened, the raising of the dead. And then we'd all, you know,
probably sing a song or whatever and go home, right? Paul still went up there
and broke bread, amen. The priority is still there. And talked again a long while
even till daybreak. We gotta preach the gospel of
Jesus Christ, amen, the way Paul preached it, until daybreak. [music] announcer: Next on
Joseph Prince. Joseph Prince: Amen. I'm gonna say this prophetically
to many of you that are watching right now, I know the situation
looks bleak and dark, it shall be well for you, amen. This coming year, you will see
wellness, you will see wholeness, you will see shalom
in every area of your life. We need to know what God is
doing at this time and flow with him. God is accomplishing something. It's beyond our human
understanding, amen, or comprehension, but God is doing
something good for his people. Joseph Prince: Dear friends, thank
you for watching. Be sure to hit subscribe if
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