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Two Gifts To Reign Over Addictions Many people aren t sure what God wants for them.

But it s really quite simple: God w ants us healthy, whole, well provided for and enjoying life to the fullest! That s why He wants us free from any kind of bondage. Bondages, be they paralysing anx ieties, depression or addictions, only rob us from enjoying all that He has in s tore for us. My friend, God so wants you to live a life of freedom and victory that it moved Him to send His beloved Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for you so that you may live an abundant life. Today, if you are not experiencing this abundant life bec ause you are in bondage to something, I want you to know that Jesus is your answ er. His gifts of abundant grace and righteousness are what you need to empower y ou to break free from whatever is holding you captive! I have received many testimonies from people from various parts of the o eventually found true freedom from their bondages through the Lord s ace and gift of righteousness. Some of them were bound by addictions phy, alcohol, nicotine and drugs while many were simply defeated and y depression, fears, guilt and condemnation. world, wh abundant gr to pornogra paralysed b

What they shared with me about their struggles and pains confirmed what I have a lways believed: No Christian likes to sin, let alone be hopelessly chained to on e. The Lord calls us His sheep, and no sheep even a lost one likes to wallow in mud. Also, every one, Christian or not, longs to live free from defeatist though ts that hold them back from living a purposeful and powerful life. The Pain Of Addiction Frustrated, yet unable to help themselves, these people told me how they were bo und for 10, 20, 30 years, some practically their whole lives, before they were s et free. The shame and condemnation they felt were often so overwhelming that ma ny of them became depressed and suicidal. Some even started to develop sicknesse s and marital problems as years of substance abuse and self-condemnation took a toll on their bodies and marriages. These folks also told me how they hated living in such captivity and seeing what it was doing to themselves and their loved ones. It was only when they discover ed and leaned on the grace of God to deliver them that they found lasting freedo m. As these precious people heard and kept hearing about God s abundant grace and the gift of righteousness that was theirs through Christ s finished work, their ad dictions supernaturally fell away, and a welcome sense of wholeness and joy repl aced the emptiness, frustration and shame. Finally Free Let me share with you a few of the testimonies that I have received in the last 12 months alone (I have left their names out to protect their privacy). A brother from California in the United States (US) wrote, My marriage was not go ing well. I was in bondage to pornography and had gotten into Internet affairs w ithout my wife s knowledge. We quarrelled a lot several times a day about almost e verything But when I heard you ministering on what Jesus did at the cross for me, I felt a heaviness inside me just leave. Not long after that, my wife said that I looked different and talked differently. I have not had a desire to watch por n ever since My wife and I have had a 180-degree turnaround in our relationship w e now enjoy great conversations and have had very few disagreements since the re lease. We have been married for 41 years, yet it feels like we just got married yesterday.

A sister from Virginia in the US shared, in college, I began to have a losing bat tle with depression. I was under therapy and medication, but the medication only provided temporary relief and had to be constantly increased. I ended up gainin g weight and feeling more miserable. I fought this losing battle for seven years I couldn t even get up in the mornings because I was so tormented in my mind. Then , my mum gave me your book, Destined To Reign. After reading it and accepting Go d s love for me, and trusting Jesus and His finished work, I was totally and mirac ulously healed. After reading the book I would just say, God, I am not even going to try today You live the victorious life for me. I know that I cannot overcome these thoughts on my own, but I can rest in You. I now live a life of joy and pea ce that I never imagined was possible for me! Here is yet another testimony from a brother in Australia: I have just given up s moking by following what you ve taught in your books and DVDs (about being conscio us of and confessing my righteousness in Christ) whenever I was tempted to smoke . I have also been set free from 20 years of drug and alcohol abuse, and am free of paranoid thoughts. I couldn t give them up through my own efforts, but through Christ I have. The Power Of His Grace To Jesus be all the glory! What many years or even decades of self-effort could not do, the Lord s abundant supply of grace and His gift of righteousness did, som etimes in an instant, sometimes over a period of time. I believe that this is where the church has missed it. Instead of preaching grac e and the gifts of righteousness and no condemnation in Christ to set these peop le free, it has been preaching the law to them, dousing them in even more sin-co nsciousness, guilt and condemnation. In our desire to see believers overcome sin and addictions, we have failed to realise that the biblical key to reigning ove r sin is not in preaching the law but in preaching grace for sin shall not have d ominion over us when we are not under the law but under grace (Romans 6:14). Belo ved, it is grace, not the law, that empowers us to overcome every sin, and trans forms us beautifully from the inside out! What I really love about all these testimonies is how these folks have experienc ed true change. They are no longer smoking, abusing drugs or watching pornograph y not because they have to, but because they don t want to the desires or urges ar e not even there anymore. It s one thing to not do it because of a rule or law, bu t it s quite another thing to not do it because you don t have any desire to, even w hen nobody is looking! That s true heart transformation. That s the power of grace! Reign Through Receiving Pastor Prince, I ve been trying my best to get rid of an addiction that I have had for the past 20 years. I really want to be free. My friend, I understand your frustration. No one likes to be in bondage to anyth ing. Like you, I want you to be free of your addiction. I want you to reign over it. In fact, I want you to reign in every area of your life. When you reign in life, your addiction doesn t. When you reign in life, disease and depression don t. When you reign in life, poverty and lack are things of the past. When you reign in life, the devil is under your feet! What you need to realise, however, is that reigning in life is not about doing I ve been trying my best . It is not achieved through your self-efforts, willpower or discipline, as you would have noticed from the testimonies I shared earlier. It is simply received. Let me explain this powerful truth using one of my favourite scriptures:

Romans 5:17 17For if by the one man s offense death reigned through the one, much more tho se who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. In this verse, the apostle Paul gives us the key to reigning in life. It is RECE IVING the abundance of God s grace and His gift of righteousness. Paul didn t say th at you will reign in life when you exercise more effort, willpower and disciplin e. No, he said that when you simply receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, you will reign in life. That s why I say that reigning in life i s not achieved but received. My friend, the good news is that the Lord s abundant grace and gift of righteousne ss are always being supplied to you because of His finished work at Calvary. Thi s means that the power to break free from that bad habit, disease or depression is always there for you to take hold of to experience victory. And when you simp ly receive the abundance of grace and gift of righteousness, the floodgates of H is rich provision will open wide in your life. Stress, fears and insecurities wi ll lose their footholds, and peace and joy will reign in your heart and mind. In deed, you will reign over anything that hinders you from receiving all that He d ied to give you! Receive Two Gifts Every Day This is the reason I love to preach on the abundance of grace and the gift of ri ghteousness. I want God s people to be free of bondages to sin and negative though ts and to reign in all areas of life. Unfortunately, many believers are not reigning in life today because they are tr ying to earn the gifts of grace and righteousness, which God wants them to freel y receive. You see, grace is God s undeserved, unmerited favour toward us. It s a gi ft. We cannot earn or achieve it. We can only receive it. It is the same with th e gift of righteousness. Righteousness, which is right standing before God, is n ot a reward for our good conduct. It is also a gift that is received, not achiev ed. We don t become more or less righteous depending on our behaviour. We are eith er 100 per cent righteous by the blood of Christ or we are not. The truth is tha t the day we were born again, we were made 100 per cent righteous as righteous a s Christ Himself for all eternity, because it is His very own righteousness give n to us as a gift! The other reason many believers are not reigning in life is that they are not re ceiving these two gifts every day. But Pastor Prince, didn t I already receive God s gifts of abundant grace and righteo usness when I got born again? Why do I still need to receive them every day? My friend, it s true that when you were born again you received God s gifts of abund ant grace and righteousness. But this receiving is not just a one-time affair. Let me explain. The Greek word for receive in Romans 5:17 is in the present active participle tense. This simply means that the receiving here refers to an ongoin g, continual action. It s not something that is done once and forgotten. No, it s so mething that needs to be done continually. This means that every single day, you need to receive the abundance of grace and gift of righteousness especially whe n you ve blown it! Your Everlasting Righteousness in Christ It is especially when you ve missed it that you need to receive the two gifts. If

you want to see victory in your area of struggle, you must realise that true and lasting change always starts with what you believe and receive into your heart. So the crux of the matter is this: Do you believe that you are still righteous i n God s sight and that His grace is still available to you in abundant measure des pite your imperfect behaviour, emotions and thoughts? Or do you wallow in guilt and condemnation and say, I m a hopeless sinner, and believe that God has distanced Himself from you? Beloved, when you miss it, your response should be, I am still the righteousness of God in Christ! I choose to receive the abundance of grace a nd the gift of righteousness and I will reign in life! Believing this is right be lieving that will lead to right living the victorious, reigning kind of life! But Pastor Prince, how can I be righteous when I ve failed? My friend, let me say this: No matter what you have done, you cannot lose your r ighteousness! Why? Because it s a gift. You never obtained it by your works, so yo u can never lose it by your works. If you can lose it by your works, then it was never a gift to begin with! Look at Romans 5:19: 19For as by one man s [Adam s] disobedience many were made sinners, so also by o ne Man s [Jesus ] obedience many will be made righteous. You were made a sinner not because you sinned, but because of another s sin Adam s d isobedience. In the same manner, you were made righteous not because you did rig hteous deeds, but because of another s righteous deed Christ s obedience at the cros s. Do you see it? When you were a sinner, your good works could not cause you to lo se your sinnerhood . Likewise, now that you are righteous, your bad deeds cannot ca use you to lose your righteousness. If it were possible, then what the first Ada m did was more powerful than what the last Adam, Jesus, did! But the opposite is true Romans chapter 5 is all about how the work of Christ is much more than the w ork of Adam! So it is the obedience of Christ that has made you righteous. It has nothing to do with your obedience (good works). Just as Christ was made sin at the cross de spite having done no wrong, you were made righteous in Christ despite having don e no right. That s why you cannot lose your righteousness even when you have faile d. You have an everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24). If it s everlasting, you can not lose it! Receiving The Power To Break Free So how do you apply this powerful truth of your everlasting righteousness in Chr ist practically? Suppose you are struggling with an addiction and you want to br eak free. Instead of trying by your self-efforts and willpower to kick the habit , only to fail time and again, make this confession: I am the righteousness of Go d in Christ. In the midst of your struggle, even if you give in to the temptation , believe and say, I am the righteousness of God in Christ I am the righteousness of God in Christ The Bible says that the righteousness of faith speaks (Romans 10:6) . So declare and receive your righteousness in Christ by faith, and receive the abundance of grace for your situation. When you do this, you are silencing the d evil and reminding yourself that God does not see you in your sin because of the blood of Christ. He sees you in Christ, and in Christ you are righteous, holy a nd blameless! Now, please understand that I do not say this to encourage you to sin. I am NOT saying go ahead and smoke or abuse drugs and just confess that you are still rig

hteous in Christ. As a pastor, I have seen how sin destroys the body, destroys r elationships, breaks up families and robs you of the peace and joy with which Go d wants you to live life. Being bound to sin is a painful, horrible thing. It is so horrible that it caused God to send His Son to die on the cross so that you may find freedom and victory over it. He doesn t want you being ruled by any sin. He wants all sin to be under your feet! But how do you come to this place where sin has no dominion over you? As we saw earlier in Romans 6:14, it is when you are under grace and not under the condemn ation of the law that sin shall not have dominion over you . In other words, the mo re you are conscious of God s gift of righteousness to you, the more you put yours elf under His abundant grace and allow it to operate in your area of struggle an d give you victory. It may not happen overnight, but it will happen. You see, wh en you believe and confess that you are still the righteousness of God in Christ in the face of your failings, you are not making light of your failings or of s in. Rather, you are making much of Jesus and the perfection of His finished work . And when you do this, you cannot help but experience His power to set you free from your bondage! On the other hand, if you don t focus on your righteousness in Christ when you blo w it and simply allow the devil to heap condemnation, guilt and shame on you, th ere is no power at all to break free. Unknowingly, you will also strengthen and perpetuate the dominion of sin in your life. No Longer Bound By Nicotine I have received many testimonies from people who were able to quit smoking effor tlessly simply by leaning on the grace (undeserved favour) of God and confessing their righteousness in Christ right in between puffs. One lady from South Carol ina in the US wrote to me, excited because she had discovered that real change th rough grace is truly effortless . She described how as a believer, she had grown u p under the law and later became addicted to cigarettes. Every time she felt con demned by the law, she would try to quit but ended up smoking even more. One day, after listening to me preach on grace, she prayed and asked God to show her some fruits from grace to prove that the message she had heard was true. In t he meantime, according to what I had preached, she kept confessing the truth tha t she was the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, even as she reached for her cigarettes. A few days later, she noticed that amazingly, she had actually forgotten to smoke . It was not until the following night that she realised that she had not smoked for two whole days without even being conscious of it. And I have not smoked sinc e, she happily testified. Beloved, what Jesus did for this lady, He can do for you too, whatever your addi ction, however long it has been! When you simply like this lady believe and decl are that you always have Jesus undeserved favour and His gift of righteousness ri ght in the midst of your struggle, you can t help but see the grace and power of G od totally transform that area of your life! Receive A Robust Revelation Of Your Righteousness Now, I need to make it clear that confessing your righteousness in Christ in the midst of your sin is NOT some magic formula. It s NOT a quick fix to your addicti on. And it s certainly NOT a license to continue in your sin. If you are going to use it as an excuse to continue in your sin, go back and reread what I said abou t sin and its consequences sin destroys lives! What I really want is for you to reign over sin and in all areas of your life by

receiving a robust revelation of your righteousness in Christ. I want you to be so conscious every day of God s supply of His grace and righteousness towards you . The Bible tells us that blessings crown the head of the righteous (Proverbs 10 :6), so the larger the revelation of your righteousness in Christ, the more you will see the blessings of God manifest in your life. Let me put it in another wa y: See the robe of righteousness that God has already clothed you with having po ckets labelled favour , healing , deliverance , provision , wisdom , family blessings The more conscious you are of this robe on you, the more you will enjoy the bles sings that come with it! I believe that this is why the Bible tells us that God, in knowing the things we need daily, tells us not to worry about them, but to seek first His (Jesus ) righ teousness, and all these things that we need will simply be added to us (Matthew 6:33). So take some time to get this revelation of your righteousness in Christ deep in to your spirit. Meditate on it and declare it every day. It will put courage in your heart and bring an unshakable peace to your soul no matter what your situat ion. It will energise your faith when you pray and give you a confident expectat ion to receive only good from your heavenly Father. When you know that your righ t standing with God always puts Him on your side, every fear will melt away like butter on a hot day. Bondage to fear will be a thing of the past for if God is for you, who or what can successfully prevail against you (Romans 8:31)? Jesus At The Centre Of It All My friend, let me say again that it is not by focusing on your sin and self-effo rts to be free that you reign in life. When you do this, you become sin-consciou s and self-occupied, and that only leads to distress, defeat and despair. But wh en you focus on the abundance of the Lord s grace and His gift of righteousness, y ou are focusing on Jesus Himself, who is grace and righteousness personified (Jo hn 1:17, 1 Corinthians 1:30), and every addiction, every demon, has to bow to Hi s name! So when you receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness wheneve r you fail, you are really receiving and releasing Christ into your situation. Y our focus turns from yourself to Christ, and when He is your focus and in the mi dst of your situation, that situation will surely turn around (Acts 2:28, 2 Cori nthians 3:17)! Beloved, whatever your addiction, whatever your need, put Jesus in the centre of it all. Receive His gifts of abundant grace and righteousness every day, in eve ry situation, and begin to reign in every area of your life! Copyright Joseph Prince, 2011. All rights reserved. Recommended CD messages: The Holy Spirit Convicts Us Of Righteousness, 7 August 2011 Breaking Porn Addiction Through Grace, 29 May 2011 To obtain the CD messages, visit the Media Resource Counters on service days, Ro ck Gifts & Book Centre (6333 8856).

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