The Provision Is in the Promises

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This is Today With Derek Prince. The internationally recognized Bible teacher and author presents to you Keys To Successful Living.

Derek Prince, in yesterday’s message on ‘The Authority and Power of God’s Word,’ shared with us about the Holy Spirit’s authority behind Scripture both Old and New Testament, and how He will guide us into all truth. Listen now while Derek tells us from personal experience about his first lesson in learning that God’s provision is in His promises. And tune in at the end of today’s message for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

That’s an amazing statement. It says God’s divine, omnipotent power has already given to us everything we’re ever going to need! You might respond, ‘Well, God, I don’t seem to have it, where is it?’ And the next verse tells you:

“. . . by which has been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

So how has God given to us all things that we need for life and godliness? Where are they? They’re in the promises. I like this little sentence that I’ve coined, ‘The provision is in the promises.’ Would you say that with me? ‘The provision is in the promises.’ So, if you want to receive all that God has provided for you, you have to receive it through His promises because in them is everything you’re going to need.

But it also comes through the knowledge of Jesus because the Scripture reveals Jesus. And the amazing statement—if this weren’t so clearly written in the Bible I wouldn’t dare to say it—is that through partaking of the promises we can be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Now, we need to be very careful because there’s a kind of teaching which I won’t name but many of you would know the name of it, which is very fashionable today, which teaches that if you go on long enough and do the right things you can become a god. I’m sure some of you have encountered that teaching. In fact, let me tell you it’s called New Age. I used to use the phrase New Age, I said a new age is coming. Then they stole it from me and I had to think of something else! So I said the Kingdom of God is going to be established on earth. Jesus is going to establish His kingdom—and that they don’t like!

But anyhow, the New Age, incorporating a lot of Hindu philosophy and so on, teaches that if you go on long enough—and incidentally, the Mormons teach the same. They don’t say it publicly at first but it’s there, that you can become a god. I want to tell you, that is obviously false and I’ll tell you one basic reason. God is uncreated, we are created. And the created can never become uncreated. It’s a deception. But we can become partakers of the nature of God as we receive and apply the promises.

I always think of Jacob’s ladder. You probably remember the dream he had. He was out in the desert by himself and he went to sleep pillowed on a stone. How many of you would like to use a stone for a pillow? Most of you wouldn’t enjoy it. But Jacob was sleeping with his head on a stone. I heard somebody say once, ‘I’d be willing to sleep with my head on a stone if I could have what Jacob had after that!’ Because, he had a vision, a dream of a ladder reaching to heaven. The foot was on the earth, the top of the ladder was in heaven and the angels of God were ascending and descending. Jesus Himself was at the top of the ladder and He spoke.

But I think of the Bible, in a sense, like Jacob’s ladder. You see, every promise is one rung on the ladder. And every time you appropriate a new promise you go one step higher. And ultimately, it will take you to heaven. So, don’t ever neglect your Bible. It’s the key to your well being, the key to your success. It’s the most precious gift that God has ever given us. And let’s bear in mind as we have so many Bibles today and we discuss whether we’ll use this translation or that translation, or whether we want it illustrated or with notes, let’s remember that there are millions and millions and millions of people in the world today who have never once opened a Bible. They don’t have any choice. And let’s remember another thing, that in the past, in previous centuries, men and women laid down their lives in sacrifice to preserve the Bible for you and me. So let’s treat it with reverence. Let’s be respectful to the Bible because it is the way that God comes into our lives.

Now I want to deal in closing this particular section with something exciting which I only have a short while to deal with. That is the effects of God’s Word. Paul said to the Thessalonians it works effectively in you because you believe it. So I want to point out to you eight effects that God’s Word can have in your life. These are things that God’s Word will do for you and for me.

“We’ll turn, first of all, to Romans chapter 10 and verse 17.
So then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

Now, that is a wonderful Scripture because I lay in hospital for one year on end in the deserts of North Africa with a skin disease that the doctors couldn’t heal in that climate. They eventually called it chronic eczema. And actually, they don’t have a cure for that disease even today. I had just newly become a Christian and I kept saying to myself, ‘I know if I had faith God would heal me.’ But the next thing I always said was, ‘But I don’t have faith.’ And there I was in what John Bunyan calls the ‘slough of despond,’ the valley of despair. I don’t have faith.

“And then one day a brilliant ray of light shone into that dark valley and it came from Romans 10:17: So then, faith comes . . .”

If you don’t have it, you can get it. You don’t need to stay without it. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

And faith is coming to many of you even now while you’re hearing the Word of God. You know that

in the time of the New Testament the majority of the people who read, read out loud, even if they were to themselves. For instance, the Ethiopian eunuch was in his chariot reading the prophet Isaiah and Philip heard him read, although he was reading to himself. And there’s something to be said about reading out loud. Because when you hear yourself read, faith comes, you see?

“All right. That’s the number one product of the Scripture.”

Number two is it produces the new birth. It’s by the Word of God that we are born again. James chapter 1:18, speaking about God says:

“Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of Truth [that’s the Bible], that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”

Of His own will. You know why God did it? Because He decided to do it. We don’t get any further explanation than that. When you get back to the beginning of everything, it all starts with God’s decision. God decided to bring forth a people for Himself and He decided it would be brought forth by the Word of God, by the Scripture. And that’s what brought you and me to know God, to become a new creation, the people of God. It was by the Word of God.

“Then in 1 Peter He goes on in the same theme. 1 Peter chapter 2:22–23:
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren love one another fervently with a pure heart.”

Notice how you purify your soul? By obeying the truth. Not by hearing the truth but by obeying it. And what will be the result? The result will be sincere love.

“And then Peter goes on:
. . . having been born again . . .
Notice that ‘having been born again.’
. . . not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible.”

“What is the incorruptible seed?
. . . through the Word of God which lives and abides forever.”

So it’s the seed of God’s Word received into the heart by faith that produces the new birth. The seed is incorruptible, the life it produces is incorruptible. The nature of the seed determines the nature of the life that comes from it. If you plant an apple pit you don’t get an orange tree. The nature of the seed determines the nature of the life. The Word of God is incorruptible and the life it produces is incorruptible. It’s divine, it’s holy, it’s eternal.

And then once you’ve been born again what you need is nourishment. And the marvelous thing is that God’s Word has provided suitable nourishment for every stage of spiritual growth. When you’re just a little spiritual baby you need milk and that’s what Peter says in the next chapter of 1 Peter, in verse 2. 1 Peter chapter 2:2:

“As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby.”

So once you’re born again you should have a very healthy appetite for the Word of God. And there are many of us here tonight, I’m sure, that could testify when we were born again the one thing we wanted to do was read the Bible. We were born healthy infants with a healthy appetite for the one thing that could really nourish us.

But then as we grow up we need things like bread. We don’t need to turn there, Jesus said to Satan when he tempted Him to make bread out of stones:

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’
So, God’s Word is not only milk, it’s also bread.”

But as we grow up we need more solid food and this also is provided. In Hebrews chapter 5 the

writer of Hebrews is writing to Jewish people who had a knowledge of the Scripture from their background. He’s telling them what God might wish to say to some of us, ‘Because of all you know, you should be doing better than you are.’ He said, ‘You’ve got the knowledge of the Scripture but you’re not using it. I’ll just read these words in Hebrews chapter 5:12:

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you’ve come to need milk and not solid food.
What was the evidence? They couldn’t digest more than the very simplest, basic truths.”

Announcer:

On tomorrow’s Derek Prince in his teaching on ‘Authority and Power of God’s Word,’ will conclude his message by outline the effects of God’s Word in our lives producing everything we need for life and godliness.

This week’s message is available on audiocassette RC4161 and also on video. Our special offer this week is Derek’s book If You Want God’s Best, which gives us principles of success we can live by to receive from God His best for our lives. To receive your copy of ‘Authority and Power of God’s Word’ write today and include a contribution of $5.00 or more for the audio cassette RC4161 or $14.95 for the video teaching. Include a gift of any amount for the book If You Want God’s Best.

Derek Prince also welcomes your letters and your prayer requests. Our mailing address is Derek Prince Ministries, Box 19501, Charlotte, North Carolina 28219. That’s Derek Prince Ministries, Box 19501, Charlotte, North Carolina 28219. In Canada write to Derek Prince Ministries, Box 8354, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 5M1. The Canadian address again is Box 8354, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 5M1, and please give us the call letters of this station when you write.

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