The Key to Faith

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2 NASB1995

As humans, not only do we have a propensity to zoom in on every little flaw in our physical and emotional makeup, but we also have a tendency to know, remember, and replay in our minds the sins, failings, and mistakes we have made. We condemn ourselves for even our smallest flaws instead of focusing on how God really sees us—perfect in Christ.

This is why it takes faith to believe that God sees you righteous. It takes faith to believe that He does not see you in your sins, that He does not observe sin or iniquity in you. It takes faith to believe that He means what He says when He says, “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb. 8:12). It takes faith to believe that God will not remember your failings and mistakes!

But Pastor Prince, my sins are staring right at me. How can I have faith to believe that God doesn’t see them?

My friend, the key to faith is found in looking to the source of faith—Jesus. As the Bible says, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith” (Heb. 12:2 NASB). Your faith to believe is found in Jesus! The Amplified Bible puts it this way: “Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection].”

In other words, turn your eyes away from your own flaws, imperfections, failings, and mistakes, and just fix your eyes on Jesus. The more you see Jesus and His finished work, the more faith arises in your heart to believe that all your sins are truly forgiven. You can start on a clean slate and have a brand-new beginning in Christ. The old is gone, and the new has come!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Right Believing—Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing. Joseph Prince

There Is Just Something Special About You

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

1 Peter 2:9

It is the Lord’s manifested presence, His glorious power working in your heart and through your hands that will cause everything you touch to prosper with the Jesus-kind of results. In fact, even your harshest critic will have to conclude that the Lord is with you and is prospering the work of your hands!

Beloved, stop looking at your outward circumstances or the position you are in. Whether your employer is a believer or not, Jesus can make ALL that you do prosper when you depend on His unmerited favor in your career!

And believe me, when that begins to happen, your employer will sit up and notice that there is something special about you. You will stand out in a crowd!

Remember that the same Lord who was with Joseph is with you today. His name is Jesus and because Jesus is with you, you can expect good success in everything that you do!

For example, when you are placed over a sales project, believe that your sales team will hit record levels of sales never achieved before in your organization. When you are overseeing the finances of a company, believe that you will find legal ways to help your company save on operating expenses and increase its cash flow like never before.

When you are placed in a business development role, believe that Jesus will cause doors that have always been closed to your company to be opened to you because of His unmerited favor upon your life.

Perhaps your company is just a small IT start-up in the Silicon Valley, but for some reason, all the big boys in the business like you. They can't put their finger on it, but there is just something special about you that makes them compete to find ways to collaborate with you, leaving you spoiled for choice!

Perhaps you are a homemaker. You can also expect Jesus’ presence in your life to give you favor with your children. Instead of constantly resisting and arguing with you, they will find you and your words irresistible. God can increase your influence over them.

My friend, that’s the unmerited favor of God in action. In the natural, you may be unqualified and inexperienced, but remember that all your disqualifications exist in the realm of the natural.

You, beloved, live and operate in the supernatural realm! The Lord Jesus is with you 100 percent. You are a successful person in the Lord’s eyes and as you depend on Him, He will cause everything that your hands touch to prosper.

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

Now comes the best part of this message. See, some people think, some teachers, they think that when Jesus talked about, “That generation shall not pass away,” He was talking about Israel. But I find it very odd. Why? Because He’s talking about a generation that is going to watch Israel. He doesn’t talk about the fig tree. He talks about the generation that will see the fig tree come back to life. Wow. So I believe it talks about the believers of that time. I believe that the most significant end time prophecy is the rebirth of Israel and the rebirth of the fig tree.

History is replete with world changing events. The American Revolution, the Industrial Age, the Great Depression, two World Wars, and even the Cold War would have a rightful place on our list of memories.

All, however, pale in comparison to the rebirth and regathering of the Jewish people back into their God-given homeland. Yet, in spite of this world-changing, incomparable event, many see no significance to the reconstitution of the Jews in Israel, and many even view it negatively.

Matthew 24:32-35
“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” 

Jesus had just been teaching about the Tribulation and the Second Coming, so His parable would be illustrating that same subject. The fig tree, as representative of national Israel (Joel 1:7; Hosea 9:10), tells us that Israel is back in the land and all the things recorded in the Olivet Discourse are about to take place.

We live in a time that could not only be added to the list of world-changing events, but which is firmly implanted at the top! We are soon going to experience the rapture of the church which must happen for the Tribulation to begin. The denial of the rapture and the rejection of the Israel of today as being Biblical Israel are also indications that summer is near. It is noteworthy that the fig trees in the Middle East bear fruit in the spring and late summer, and the latter of the two timeframes parallels when all Israel will believe in Yeshua as Messiah (Zechariah 12:10).

We live in a time when our Bible confidence should be at an all time high. We have seen more prophetic fulfillment than any generation before us.

This should put everything in its proper place by comparison, because the world is about to experience an unprecedented world-changing event. And for us, that change will quite literally be out of this world!

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus,

What About the Confession of Sins?

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

Ephesians 1:7

When I was a young believer, I was taught that unless I confessed all my sins, I would not be completely forgiven by God. I was even told that if someone dies without having confessed all his sins, he would end up in hell.

Well, that teaching put me in severe bondage. I really believed that I had to confess everything that I thought I had done wrong, including worries, fears, and doubts, because I knew that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23 KJV).

If you really believe that you need to confess all your sins to be completely forgiven by God, you will be confessing your sins all the time and everywhere you go! I tried that and it was impossible! It nearly drove me insane!

But Pastor Prince, are you saying that we don’t have to confess our sins? So what about 1 John 1:9, which states, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”?

Listen carefully: Christians have taken this single verse out of context and built a whole doctrine of confession of sins around it when actually, chapter 1 of 1 John was written to address the Gnostics and their heresies that had crept into the church.

The Gnostics were unbelievers who maintained that they had no sin (1 John 1:8). So John was saying that if they would confess that they had sin, and hence see their need for the Savior, God would be faithful and just to cleanse them from all unrighteousness.

Can you now see how this does not apply to the believer who has already acknowledged that he is a sinner and accepted Jesus? We are not to live from confession to confession, but from faith to faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work.

Also, our loving heavenly Father does not forgive us in installments depending on how diligently we confess our sins. Fellowship with Him is not broken because our forgiveness is not contingent on what we do. It is contingent on the finished work of Jesus.

Now, this does not mean that we can’t be honest with God and acknowledge the wrong we have done. It’s a relationship, after all.

But we don’t confess our sins in order to be forgiven. We confess our sins or speak openly to our gracious Father because we are already forgiven. I don’t go before Him begging for forgiveness.

No, I talk to Him because I know that I already have His forgiveness, as today’s scripture states. I know that I can come to Him freely—He is my God, my Daddy God.

So confession in the new covenant is just being honest about your failures and humanity and having an intimate relationship with God. It is the result of being forgiven and not something you do in order to be forgiven, to maintain your salvation, and be ultimately saved.

If confession of sins is vital for our forgiveness, then the apostle Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament epistles, has done us a great injustice because he did not mention it even once in any of his letters to the churches.

For example, when there were people in the Corinthian church living in sin that everyone in the church knew about, he did not say, “Go and confess your sins.” Instead, he reminded them of their righteousness, saying, “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” (1 Cor. 6:19). In spite of their sins, Paul still considered them temples of the Holy Spirit and he reminded them of this truth.

My friend, this is the assurance that you can have today: the day you acknowledged that you were a sinner and confessed Christ as your Lord and Savior, you “confessed all your sins” once and for all. And God was faithful and just to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

All the unrighteousness of your entire life was cleansed at that point, and through the gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus you were set up to reign in life!

This devotional is taken from the book Reign in Life—90 Powerful Inspirations for Extraordinary Breakthroughs. Joseph Prince

Presenting the Real God

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Matthew 8:1–3

There is so much wrong believing today about who Jesus is. I am asking you to throw out every idea, concept, and picture that you may have of a “religious” Jesus. Allow me to introduce the real Jesus to you, for this is where it all begins.

I’m not talking about the religious Jesus you may have heard about growing up, but the real Jesus who walked along the dusty streets of Jerusalem and upon the raging waters of the Galilee.

He was the one whom the sick, the poor, the sinful, the down and out, and the outcast instinctively gravitated to and felt at ease with. He was God in the flesh and He manifested God’s tangible love.

In His presence, those who were imperfect didn’t feel fearful of Him, or sense judgment or condemnation from Him. To those who sought Him for healing, restoration, and supply—no matter what their past or background—He always extended a loving, compassionate heart and hand to them and oversupplied their need.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, you don’t have to be “religious” to have access to God and His help. In fact, the less “religious” you are, the better. The real Jesus didn’t come to bring a new religion. He didn’t come to be served and waited upon. No, He came to serve, and serve He did.

The real Jesus created the universe with one command and orchestrated the paths of each planet so that none would collide. He had every right to demand service from those He created, yet He supplied service.

He bowed down and with His own hands washed the grime and filth from His disciples’ feet. Those same hands would later be pierced with coarse nails at the cross, and He would with His own blood wash us of the grime and filth of all our sins by taking them upon His own body. What a far cry from the condemning, judgmental, faultfinding God whom many have portrayed Him to be!

This is the true Jesus—totally unlike what many of us have been taught about God. He is willing and able to meet your need today and love you into wholeness.

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Right Believing—Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

One year.

Monday morning, 6:29 AM, October 7, everything here stopped as we remembered what took place 366 days ago. That was the moment that the terrorist-group Hamas began its barrage that eventually sent thousands of rockets toward Israel. At the same time that the projectiles were soaring toward the border, there were blood-thirsty men breaching the barrier with violence, lust, and murder in their eyes. Throughout the morning, thousands poured into Israel to carry out the worst sorts of brutality, assaults, tortures, kidnappings, and butchery that my people have experienced since the Holocaust.

It's been a hard, hard week. Emotional for me, for my family, for my nation. So many were lost on that day. So many have been lost since. Heartbreak is the legacy of evil acts. In Israel, we are drowning in heartbreak.

While we mourned, our enemies celebrated. Hamas did their best to rub it in our faces. It was interesting to note, however, that while last year’s attack contained just under 4000 rockets, Monday’s attack consisted of 14. That gives you a pretty good picture of how it was for Hamas then and how it is for them now. Over the past year, Hamas has been decimated. And, because of the way that the terrorist organization imbedded themselves within the civilian population, both above and under the ground, the region of Gaza has also been devastated. Hamas’s intentions were to destroy our country; instead, they destroyed their own.

It has taken me many months to be able to accept any positive aspects to October 7, but I can now recognize at least two good outcomes. First, it quashed the inner divisions within Israel that were tearing the country apart. At least, it did for a time. There are still elements within the political, judicial, and military structure that are toxic for the nation. An even more important outcome, however, was that the attack exposed the criminal neglect of the surrounding threat on our borders. How else could Hamas have poured in the way that they did? There were over 200 places along the fence line with Gaza that allowed the terrorists and Gazan citizens to rush in, brutalize and slaughter innocent civilians, then kidnap 250 Israelis back over the border. It never should have happened, and I’m appalled that our military let it occur.

But we are in a new phase of our nation. There are no ostriches in our citizenry hiding their heads in the sand to the surrounding threats of our genocidal enemies. We woke up to the echoes of gunfire and realized that the attackers were in our own backyards. That is what has held this nation together through the harshness of the war in Gaza. We’ve done more than any other country in history to try to protect the innocent civilians. But there, undoubtedly, have been many deaths due to Hamas’s soulless habit of using their own population as human shields. Still, our country has kept fighting.

Now, the fighting has focused on the north, and that war has been nothing short of miraculous. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that Hezbollah would be crippled in two-and-a-half weeks. Hezbollah was the terrorist group that I dreaded most. It was better funded, better armed, better trained, and was fully imbedded into Lebanese society and politics. Then came the beepers, and Hezbollah lost its balance. After that were the bombs that took out the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, along with a host of other terrorists and Iranians, and Hezbollah collapsed to the ground. In less than three weeks, 85% of their feared rocket launching capabilities were damaged or destroyed. This is not the power of Israel or the United States that has done this. It is the power of God.

And speaking of the power of God, how’re things going in Tehran right now? The largest ballistic missile attack in the history of planet earth, and Israel lost one Arab who was crushed by a blown-out missile husk while wandering around outside in Jericho. God said He would protect His people, and that is exactly what He did.

Now, Iran is in trouble. They are bracing for a response, as they spout off threats and even spread rumors of a nuclear test. And they are right to be scared. Israel is going to retaliate. But where? One option is to go after oil and gas facilities in a harsh economic attack. A second possibility is to hit missile and military bases. Third, we could assassinate key leaders, a skill for which we’ve shown a certain penchant. Or, four, we could wipe out Iran’s nuclear program. While I think it will likely be options one and, maybe, two, I wish it could be four. But with the current administration in the United States White House, it can’t happen. Biden and Harris are too afraid to make Iran mad, and we quite simply cannot destroy Tehran’s nuclear program without the help of the United States. The types of bombs needed, and the specific delivery systems are not part of our current arsenal.

So, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is kind of stuck between what he can do and what he knows really needs doing. Imagine what might have happened just this past week if Iran already had nukes. While Bibi mulls over his decision, the Biden White House is doing all it can to undermine him. The president invited Defense Minister and Netanyahu rival, Yoav Gallant, to the White House to discuss strategy. When word got to the prime minister, he put a kibosh on that trip. It is undermining U.S. actions like this that demonstrate why so many in Israel are anxiously watching November’s elections in America. The person in the White House matters greatly to us. I would suspect that if Donald Trump makes it back into the Oval Office, then by January 2025 Iran’s nuclear scientists better start scurrying from their underground bunkers.

One year in and we’re now fighting on direct fronts. We have the battle in the West Bank that keeps spilling over into individual terrorist attacks. Just yesterday in Hadera, a West Bank Arab went crazy with a knife and stabbed six people, two of them critically, before he was permanently put out of commission. In Gaza, the IDF is pushing the population through the humanitarian area to the south, in order to establish a northern Gaza buffer zone. There will no longer be any terrorists on our southern border.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah is finally interested in a ceasefire without connecting it to any ceasefire in Gaza. Israel, however, responded, “Not so fast. You want a ceasefire in Lebanon? Get our hostages back from Gaza.” This was brilliant, because when you take a step back you can see who is really on the spot. It’s Iran, the puppet master of the proxies. Truly a genius move!

God has given humanity free will. When people use that free will to do evil, God will step in and say, “Yeah, you’re going to pay dearly for that. However, in the meantime, I will use for good what you intended for bad.” That theological truth is on bold display in the Middle East. If the planned terror attacks had gone according to Iran’s timetable instead of Hamas’s inexplicable, attention-seeking premature start, the results could have been devastating for the entire nation of Israel. If the necessarily impossibly-precise interworking of Israel’s missile systems – Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow – hadn’t miraculously worked with such impossible precision during Iran’s April and September attacks, hundreds and maybe thousands of Israelis would have been killed or wounded. And, perhaps, most amazing of all, what might have happened if God hadn’t taken a mass of conscripted Gen-Z young adults and melded them into what might possibly be the most powerful fighting force our nation has ever seen? This is a generation of lions, of victors. They are truly incredible.

Bible believers should not be surprised at what they are seeing in the Middle East right now. It fits into God’s prophetic timeline hand-in-glove. Iran needs to be beaten down so that they won’t trust their proxies anymore. That is what will turn them to a stronger coalition made up of Russia, Turkey, and some African countries. United together, they will attack Israel. When they do, it will not be the IDF or the prime minister or America who will fight the battle. It will be the Lord of Hosts, and it will be a supernatural victory that God will win for us. The people of Israel will be astonished and will begin looking for the Messiah. That’s when a new leader will arise who will be strong and wise enough to work out a deal for a new temple. The Jewish people will flock to him and celebrate him, at least until he demands that he be worshipped as a God. Panic will arise among many, and a number of the Jews will flee to a place that God has prepared for them until the time of that antichrist is over. It is then they will see Jesus returning with His church. They will recognize Him as the one that their ancestors pierced, they will mourn for Him and what they did to Him, and they will repent and receive Him one by one as their Messiah. That, my dear friends, is what the Bible says is in store for Israel.

As we watch the events in the Middle East, what can the church do to help? Let me put it this way. If you take all the rockets that fell on Israel from the beginning of the war and all the ballistic missiles that flew from Iran – both times – and you accumulate all their power to kill, then you look at how many Israelis actually were killed, it doesn’t even make sense. Just like the birth of Israel doesn’t make sense to some people, so the survival of Israel doesn’t make sense to others. My only explanation is that the effective and fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much.

When you pray for Israel, you are carrying out the most powerful act possible. Stronger than the weapons from France or Britain or America or Germany, the prayers of the church are what will keep Israel together and safe. So, that’s what I’m asking of you. When two or three of you are gathered together in God’s name, pray for Israel. You will be amazed at the power your faith wields.


The Ministry

As I was writing Telegram posts about tunnels between Metula, Israel, and Kfarkela, Lebanon, I couldn’t help thinking about Nir and his squad using those very same tunnels in my upcoming thriller, The Sick Man’s Rage. This book is pulled right from the headlines, beginning with October 7 and moving on to what’s taking place in Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria today. The novel is a thrill ride that will have you gasping for breath. Preorder your copy today, so that we can ensure that this book and its Gospel message reach all the big box stores before Christmas!

Tomorrow night, October 11, begins Yom Kippur, the most solemn day on the Jewish calendar. Most people recognize the name but know little about its true meaning and how it will find its ultimate fulfillment when the Messiah returns and the Jewish people recognize Him for who He is. Learn more about this special day when you read, “The True Meaning of Yom Kippur.”

For those of you in the Toronto area, our Director of Behold Israel – Canada, Nick DiGiovanni, will be preaching at the Sunday Morning Service at Calvary Chapel Oakville at 10:30 AM. Come meet Nick and his amazing wife, Tina, and hear about what God is doing in and through Behold Israel around the world.

Prayer is a gift from God. It allows us to communicate with Him directly, without the need for an intermediate or a ritual. Thank you for using some of your prayer time to lift our ministry before the Lord. As we’ve already seen, God hears and He acts. Praise His name!

Awaiting His Return,

Without Jesus, We Cannot; Without Us, He Will Not.

"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

John 15:5

In more than two decades of ministry, I have learned this from the Lord: Without Him, we cannot. Without us, He will not. What this simply means is that we need to recognize the fact that if we do not depend on Jesus, there can be no real, long-lasting, and abiding success—without Him, we cannot.

The Bible tells us that unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain (Ps. 127:1). Believers who want to experience His success need to recognize this truth and begin to depend on Jesus and Jesus alone.

There are some believers who may not articulate it, but in their hearts, they believe that without Jesus, they can still succeed. By believing and acting on this, they fall from the high place of God’s grace (His unmerited favor) back into the law, back into trying to merit and deserve success by their own efforts.

God’s Word tells us, “For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace [unmerited favor]" (Gal. 5:4 NLT).

These are strong words of warning. Once you start depending on your own merits and efforts to deserve God’s favor, you are back under the system of the law. You are cut off from Christ and have fallen from the place of having His unmerited favor work in your life.

Don’t misunderstand me, Jesus is still with you (He will never leave you nor forsake you [Heb. 13:5]), but by depending on your self-efforts, you effectively cut off His unmerited favor in your life.

So what do I mean when I say, “Without us, He will not”? Well, Jesus is a gentleman. He will not force His unmerited favor and success down your throat.

He needs you to allow Him to work in your life. He waits patiently for you to trust Him. He waits patiently for you to depend on His unmerited favor, the way Joseph trusted and depended wholly on the Lord’s presence, until His manifested presence took over, and His glory radiated from everything that Joseph touched.

Beloved, let’s learn quickly that without Jesus, we cannot succeed, and if we choose not to respond to His unmerited favor, He will not force it on us.

God's unmerited favor is ever-flowing toward us and Jesus is waiting for us to come to the end of ourselves. He is waiting for you to stop struggling in your own attempts to somehow “deserve” His favor, and just depend on Him.

So in the areas that you are still depending on your own efforts to succeed, start resting in Jesus’ unmerited favor and begin experiencing His manifested presence and glory upon everything you touch!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor. Joseph Prince

Fully Restored

Jesus, our Passover Lamb, took upon Himself any condition that affects any part of your body and wants you healed of it. I want you to meditate on how He bore these infirmities so you can have perfect freedom from them (Matt. 8:17).

For instance, if you or a loved one has a neurological condition such as recurrent migraines, encephalitis, meningitis, dementia, or are suffering the effects of a stroke, see your Savior’s brain afflicted with the condition on the cross as you partake of the Lord’s Supper.

Let me share with you a powerful testimony of healing from Alzheimer’s disease that Paula from Texas sent to me:

My mother was ravaged by Alzheimer’s disease. She was debilitated to the point that she did not recognize her family members. My parents live with me so I could see the daily moment-to-moment struggles and hardship. It was a miserable existence for her as well as for those of us trying to care for her. There were times I just missed my mom and wished to see her well again.

Then one day, my sister shared a praise report with me after following your teaching on the holy Communion, so I immediately began to partake of the Communion with my mother. My mother went to bed on the third night after receiving the Communion and woke up the next day looking ten years younger. All the things she had forgotten how to do, she is doing again. She remembers who we all are now. She has stopped repeating herself, something she used to do from sun up to sun down, and is a complete joy to be around now. Jesus has healed her mind and set her free!

We are still rejoicing that she is back. I asked her about her experience and the best she could describe was that she was lost and trapped, but that’s all over now. Nothing is too big for the finished work of Christ Jesus, and I praise Him for it. It has freed my mother!

To God be all the glory and all the praise! As you advance in years, don’t accept the lie that you will become more forgetful.

When the psalmist wrote that God “restores my soul,” he used the word nephesh for soul. Nephesh includes your life, your emotions, and also your mind.

Even if you have experienced some degeneration in this area, the Lord can restore. And when the Lord restores, His restoration is always greater than the original in quality!

This devotional is taken from the book The Healing Power of the Holy Communion—A 90-Day Devotional. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

I did not even mention yet – and it’s not for this message – the rising number of earthquakes. Israel, in the last 12 hours, had two. The rising number of natural disasters, of eruption of volcanoes; there’s so many things that this world is going to go through. And I’m not saying that to scare you. I’m quoting the birth pangs that Jesus Himself talked about. 

“These things, I tell you. That in Me, you will have peace.” He says that in this world, you will have what? Tribulation. “But be of good cheer. I have overcome this world,” He said. He said, look, in this world, if the only thing you have is to rely on the things of this world, it’s getting worse and worse and worse. But the believers switched those serious long faces with the smiley ones. He said, “Be of good cheer for I have overcome this world.”

Something we don’t often think about is that when Adam fell, creation fell, too. It was never God’s desire that we live in a climate of fear of natural disasters, shifting tectonic plates, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.

Genesis 3:17-19
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Life in a fallen world is far different than life in the initial created world. Adam and Eve went from walking in the garden in the cool of the day with the Lord, to being barred from that very garden. An angel with a flaming sword guarded the way to the tree of life which was in the center of the garden, lest man’s fallen condition become eternal.

Romans 8:22
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

We live in a time when the travails of the earth are increasing in frequency and intensity in a labor-pain-like fashion. Earthquakes are increasing, weather phenomena are getting more intense, and plagues are sweeping the globe as it seems that another comes as soon as the previous one subsides.

How do we keep from being overwhelmed at such a time as this? Remember that Jesus has overcome the world and will someday create a new heaven and new earth in which righteousness dwells. No earthquakes or hurricanes, no famines or plagues. What man caused in the garden, Jesus cured on the cross!

Revelation 21:27
But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Revelation 22:1-5
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

In this life we will have the experiences that come with living in a fallen world. When Jesus reminds us in John 16:33 that He has overcome the world, He used the word “tribulation” which means “burdens, anguish, and afflictions.” He followed this by calling us to be of good cheer because He has overcome this world.

So as the world groans and travails as it awaits its deliverance from the curse, let’s remember that  same curse that came with the fall of man is going to lifted someday and what is in store for us in the next life is this:

Psalm 16:11
You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!

Secrets of Protection in the Names of God

In the first verse of Psalm 91, we find two names of God that bring comfort and strength to us when we feel afraid or weak. Each of the names of God has a divine attribute, and understanding and believing that He is each attribute will cause that attribute to flow into our lives.

The first name of God mentioned in Psalm 91 is “Most High” (Elyon), which means He is the Most High God and there is no one higher than Him. He is the possessor of heaven and earth (Gen. 14:19).

The verse goes on to refer to God as the “Almighty.” In Hebrew, it is Shaddai—the God who blesses you with more than enough, more than you can contain. Man has limitations but we have a God who is abundantly unlimited.

Now, the second verse of Psalm 91 contains another two names of God. Isn’t this so powerful?

When the psalmist declares, “I will say of the LORD,” he is referring to Yehovah or Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God. It is the holiest name of the Lord, the name Jewish scribes treat with great reverence.

Do you know that Jesus’ name in Hebrew, Yeshua, actually means “Yahweh saves”? It is not “Yahweh judges.” The name Jesus means “Yahweh SAVES.”

If you are broke, Yahweh saves. If you are sick, Yahweh saves. If you have enemies that are coming against you, Yahweh saves. Whatever saving you need, Jesus is the answer, for His name means “Yahweh saves.” Hallelujah!

The psalmist in verse 2 goes on to say, “My God, in Him I will trust.” Now, the word “God” here refers to Elohim, the God of power, the Creator. The God who created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). This is our God! He is the One we put our trust in.

In just two verses, you find four names of God mentioned. Knowing, believing, and saying He is all these to us gives us protection in our everyday situations. He will deliver and rescue the one who knows His name. Hallelujah!

This devotional is taken from the book The Prayer of Protection Devotional—Daily Strategies for Living Fearlessly in Dangerous Times. Joseph Prince

Perfect Sacrifice, Complete Forgiveness

You will never be sure that you have God’s unmerited favor if you are not sure if God has forgiven you of your sins. Beloved, I want you to know that your sins are forgiven not according to the riches of your good works, but according to the riches of God's grace (unmerited favor).

All your sins—past, present, and future—have been forgiven. Don’t draw a timeline of God’s forgiveness of your sins.

There are some Christians who believe that the forgiveness they received spans only from the day they were born to the day they became Christians. From that point onward, they think that they need to tread very carefully in case they lose their salvation.

This belief is simply unscriptural. Colossians 2:13 states clearly that we have been forgiven of all our sins.

Does “all” mean the same thing to you as it does to me? My Bible says that all our sins have been forgiven by Jesus' one sacrifice on the cross. We have been forgiven once and for all!

The high priests in the old covenant had to offer sacrifices for sins daily. But Jesus, our perfect new covenant High Priest, offered the complete, perfect sacrifice “once for all when He offered up Himself” (Heb. 7:27).

On the cross, He took upon Himself all the sins that you will commit in your lifetime, and once for all paid the full price for all your sins. Christ does not need to be crucified again for your future sins.

In fact, all your sins were in the future when He died on the cross. So when you received Jesus into your heart, ALL your sins were completely forgiven!

Now that you know that your sin debt has been completely cleared and settled by Jesus on your behalf, don’t expect God to deal with you according to your sins. When something negative happens, don’t imagine that God is coming after you because of what you did in the past.

Instead, take God at His Word and expect to enjoy the benefits of the price Jesus paid at the cross for you. And when we understand the heavy price He paid for our sins because of His love for us, sin loses its appeal and hold on our lives. Our Lord Jesus, His grace, and His glory become what we want to pursue and live for.

We will also understand that we sowed nothing good, but through Jesus, we have reaped every good blessing. That, my friend, is called unmerited favor. And you honor what He has done for you by thanking Him and expecting these blessings to manifest in your life every day.

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

Shalom from the mountains of the tribe of Judah! I’m here with my family enjoying some time together away from our home near Galilee where our lives are constantly being interrupted by sirens telling us to hide in our bomb shelters. Truly, it can get wearying sometimes. But it is Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of a new year, and we are very ready to begin what we anticipate being a much better tour around the sun. If you want to find out more about Rosh Hashanah, I’ve just recorded a new video at CONNECT that explains its history and its future significance. Check out “The True Meaning of Rosh Hashanah” for the full story.

When I posted last week’s newsletter, I remember thinking, “Surely next week will be a little calmer.” That’s what I get for forgetting that I’m living in the Middle East. The ground battle had already started last Thursday and the IDF was getting ready to cross the border into Lebanon. Hassan Nasrallah and his minions at Hezbollah were firing off rockets like they were on a clearance sale and making all sorts of threats.

Then came Friday, and everything quite literally blew up! The United Nations was meeting in New York, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to go to America to address that august body. Why waste time flying halfway across the world to talk to a bunch of sanctimonious politicians who will likely just walk out as soon as you start speaking? Keep reading; it’s quite possible that his departure was actually a coordinated distraction.

With Netanyahu gone, Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, held a meeting in his secret bunker located under a residential building in the Dahieh suburub of Beirut. Included in this gathering were many of Hezbollah’s leaders, as well as an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general. What was this its purpose? It was to hear via the Iranian general a special message from Iran’s supreme leader warning Nasrallah that Israel was preparing to kill him. The only hope the Hezbollah leader had was to hide in Iran. Whether or not the IRGC general had a chance to deliver this accurate warning, we’ll never know. Not long after Netanyahu stepped down from the podium at the UN, Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-15I fighter jets were racing into the skies above Beirut. When the planes reached Nasrallah’s hideout, they dropped their cargo – more than 80 bombs, including at least 15 one-ton bunker busters.

It was a fitting end for Nasrallah, a man with the blood of many Israelis and Americans on his hands. The secretary-general of Hezbollah wasn’t the only one to die. All of his commanders that he had brought in died with him. One major loss was Ali Karaki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, who was killed in the operation. Also eliminated was the IRGC general with the Supreme Leader’s message, Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and commander of Quds Force in Lebanon. In one incredible airstrike, the head of the monster was destroyed, along with its neck, shoulders, and upper torso. On Saturday, Hashem Safieddine, a cousin of Nasrallah, was named the new secretary-general of the battered terrorist organization. I’m guessing that’s what they call a “temp job”.

Even with Nasrallah gone, there is still enough left of Hezbollah to put up a fight. Rockets continue to fly over the border. Most are intercepted, but some reach the ground. So far in the most recent fighting, no human Israeli has been killed by a Hezbollah rocket. Some chickens, cows, and a horse haven’t been so lucky. Because the terrorists refuse to lay down their arms, Israel’s Operation Northern Arrows continues. Fighter jets are decimating weapons caches in Lebanon and Syria. Ground forces are tracking down and blowing up southern Lebanon’s tunnel system.

Even before the IDF moved across the border and into the towns, they revealed evidence they had found of just how heinous the original plan to attack Israel had been. As I’ve said many times before, this was supposed to be a simultaneous attack involving all of Iran’s proxies – Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and the other Syrian and Iraqi proxy militias. Of these attack forces, none was stronger or better trained than Hezbollah. For years, they had prepared their Radwan force for an invasion into Israel. They were fully ready to invade, brutalize, rape, torture, and murder like Hamas did, but they would do it with an organized plan and much better weapons. They had maps for Jewish towns, layouts for military sites, and strategies all prepared. But then Yahya Sinwar of Hamas couldn’t wait any long, and he launched early, which was truly a miraculous intervention by God. Now, instead of Hezbollah carrying out their well-planned invasion of Israel from Lebanon, Israel is invading Lebanon to track down and eliminate Hezbollah.

While the fighting intensified on the northern border of Israel, the Islamic regime in Iran was fuming and stewing. They were already embarrassed after the failure of Operation True Promise back in April 2024, when they fired 170 killer drones, 30-plus cruise missiles, and more than 120 ballistic missiles at Israel, resulting in the critical injury of a single Israeli-Bedouin. In the ensuing six months, not only had Israel killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the heart of Tehran, but now they had the audacity to wipe out Iran’s faithful toady Hassan Nasrallah and their own IRGC deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan in one shot. Iran had egg all over its face. Israel had to pay.

Thus, on Tuesday night, Israel received a warning – oddly enough, from the U.S. – that Iran was about to ballistic missile the heck out of them. Sure enough, 190 gigantic ballistic missiles left launchers in Iran bound for Israel in Operation True Promise 2, a name that feels like it desperately needs a subtitle, like “Back from the Dead” or “This Time its Personal”. The attack didn’t begin well. There were a number of missiles that went up and came right back down. Five Iranian soldiers lost their lives this way. But the rest soared toward Israel in the largest ballistic missile strike the world has ever seen. In Israel, we scrambled for our bomb shelters where we prayed for God’s intervention.

When we started hearing the booms, it was obvious that something incredible was taking place. Quite a few of us went back outside to video what was taking place in the skies. In Israel, we have three layers of missile protection. We have the Iron Dome for short-range rockets, David’s Sling for mid-range, and Arrow that targets ballistic missiles that can fly outside the earth’s atmosphere. What we saw in the skies, and what you can see in some of my Telegram videos, was absolutely miraculous. All three systems were working together, simultaneously bringing down rockets at different altitudes. The odds of all three functioning as they did in absolute unison is beyond computation.

But the miracles didn’t end there. Some of the missiles got through and hit the ground. But when they did, they completely missed every place people were hiding. If just one of those ballistic missiles hit an apartment building or a mall or a military base, hundreds would have died. However, it simply didn’t happen. God’s hand was over His people. A few buildings were struck, and some minor infrastructure was damaged, but not a single live rocket landed on anyone. It’s true that there was one Arab in Jericho who had the husk of a destroyed missile fall on him when was out walking instead of hunkering down in a shelter like he was supposed to, but that’s it for the deaths. Social media is filled with stories of Israelis reporting rockets falling all around them, but not one person was hurt. Most of the rockets that made it through the curtain of protection landed in open areas – in sand, in water, in empty spaces.

Most people don’t get the magnitude of what we witnessed Tuesday night. One of my news sources, Hillel Fuld, expressed it perfectly. He wrote, “What we witnessed last night was the equivalent of God splitting the sea right before our eyes.” That is not an exaggeration, despite the attempts of the media to downplay what occurred. Again, as Hillel put it, “Last night was an incredible display of the collaboration between two of the powers that protect the Jewish people: The IDF and Hashem.” Hashem in English means “the Name”. It is God Himself.

A common phrase we are beginning to hear around Israel is that we are living in biblical times. Even the most secular Israelis and agnostics are saying it. There is no other way to describe what has taken place. We can see in Ukraine and Russia the effects of ballistic missiles. It’s devastating. But neither of those sides ever faced 190 fired at the same time. And not only did we face them, but we came out smelling like a rose.

God is truly amazing. It is one hundred percent true that most of the population of Israel still has a veil over their hearts when it comes to the Messiah. But God promised that He would never abandon His people, even when they turned their backs on Him. He laid out a plan in the Bible that would eventually have them turning their hearts toward Him, and it fits exactly into what we are seeing taking place in Israel today.

After this attack, Israel now has the perfect excuse to launch an unprecedented strike on Iran’s gas and oil infrastructure, as well as its military bases. We’ll likely hold off on the nuclear sites until the time will hopefully come when the American political scene will be a bit more favorable to the necessary actions. But Iran is about to get shaken, possibly even before this newsletter is published. That is when they will realize that they’ve wasted their money on all their proxies and will turn to a coalition made up of Russia and Turkey that already has its eyes on Israel. Once again, this all fits perfectly into Ezekiel 38 and 39.

Israel’s battle is far from over. First, there is the international fight against the countries and collective national bodies that continue to criticize and condemn Israel for fighting against those who have not only sworn to destroy our country but have acted upon it. Yesterday, Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz took a bold step against the United Nations, declaring its secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, to be persona non grata in Israel and banning him from entering the country. He wrote on X, “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil.” Katz went on to condemn Guterres for refusing to denounce Hamas’s atrocities of October 7, saying that he will be “remembered as a stain on the history of the UN.”

But our fighting isn’t just in the political arena. Israel is still facing active fronts in Yemen, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Gaza. Most dangerous of all right now, however, are the terrorist attacks spilling out of the West Bank. Tuesday saw two Palestinians open fire on a light rail train, killing seven and injuring many more. They were both neutralized. One of those killed was a 33-year-old mother who was shielding her 9-month-old baby son. In that one brief moment, those two deranged terrorists killed more people with a gun and a knife than Iran could with 190 ballistic missiles.

Tonight, as I write this, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with his defense minister, the head of the Mossad, the head of Shin Bet, and his chief of staff. They already have the authorization to move forward as they best see fit. When I wake up tomorrow, it could be to a different Middle East or even a different world. But that is nothing new. It seems that waking up to a new world is becoming common place around these parts.


The Ministry
As I was writing Telegram posts about tunnels between Metula, Israel, and Kfarkela, Lebanon, I couldn’t help thinking about Nir and his squad using those very same tunnels in my upcoming thriller, The Sick Man’s Rage. This book is pulled right from the headlines, beginning with October 7 and moving on to what’s taking place in Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria today. The novel is a thrill ride that will have you gasping for breath. Preorder your copy today, so that we can ensure that this book and its Gospel message reach all the big box stores before Christmas!

On Monday, Pastor Barry Stagner and Pastor Mike Golay will join me for another edition of CONNECT Q&A. Join us at 10:00 AM PDT as we talk about what’s happening in the Middle East and answer your questions.

Make sure to take the time to visit our Behold Israel Shop to check out our most recent additions! We have even added a build-your-own-bundle feature in order to provide you with efficient pricing as you add more books to your cart. At the end of the day, our passion is to get resources into the hands of people everywhere. We have also added new accessories and apparel!

Please continue to pray for Israel. My family and I have spent more time in the bomb shelter this last week than we have in a very long time. But, as I mentioned earlier, we are living in biblical times, and we know that God is watching over His people.

Thank you for your prayers and your never-failing love and support of this ministry. I pray that God blesses you with the same peace and joy He uses to cover us.

Awaiting His Return,

How You Eat Matters

Don’t just skim through the book of Exodus and see it only as an ancient historical record. I love the little details the Holy Spirit recorded, and I believe when you take time to search out the Scriptures, the eyes of your understanding will be opened and you will see revelations of Jesus you had never seen before and experience healing and deliverance. I love seeing Jesus in the Passover.

For instance, look at God’s instructions in the verses above on how the Israelites were to eat the Passover lamb. They were told not to eat the Passover lamb raw. How does this apply to us?

When we partake of the holy Communion, we should not be focusing on our Lord Jesus’ life in raw form before He had been “burned” by the fire of God’s judgment on the cross. We should not be seeing Him as a baby in a manger or as He is recorded in the Gospels before the cross.

Yes, He is a great teacher and leader. Yes, He is God incarnate. He is Immanuel, God with us. And yes, He lived a perfect life, but it wasn’t His perfect life that saved us. It was His sacrifice and death on the cross.

In other words, we need to see Him “roasted in fire.” That’s what we need to meditate on when we partake of the Communion.

The children of Israel were also told not to eat the lamb “boiled at all with water.” I believe this means we should not water down or sanitize what Jesus did for us at the cross.

Because of the scourging and beatings He endured before He was led to Calvary, our Lord’s visage, or face, was beyond recognition at the cross. His form was marred more than that of any man (Isa. 52:14). Whenever you partake of the holy Communion, picture Jesus on the cross and remember how He suffered for your forgiveness and healing.

God also told the children of Israel to eat the lamb “roasted in fire.” That’s a picture of God unleashing the fire of His judgment on Christ.

Sin had to be punished, and as Jesus hung on the cross, He cried, “I thirst!” (John 19:28) because the fire of God’s holy vengeance and righteous indignation against our sins fell upon Him. He came under the judgment of God so you and I will never come under God’s judgment (Rom. 5:9–11 NLT).

Because our sins have been punished in the body of our substitute, it would be unrighteous for God to punish the same sins twice. Today God’s holiness and God’s righteousness are on our side, demanding our justification, demanding our forgiveness, demanding our healing, and demanding our deliverance.

The next time you partake of the Communion and hold the bread in your hand, see His body burnt and smitten with your sins and diseases on the cross, and begin to walk in the full benefits of all He accomplished for you at the cross.

This devotional is taken from the book The Healing Power of the Holy Communion—A 90-Day Devotional. Joseph Prince

A Brand-New Body at the Blast of a Trumpet!

All over the world, Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Occurring usually in the month of September, this feast is celebrated with the blowing of trumpets—the shofar or ram’s horn. That is why it is also called the Feast of Trumpets.

The Jews observe seven feasts: The Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles. The first four have been fulfilled literally by Jesus. He was the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), the bread of life (John 6:35) and the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Cor. 15:20). And when Pentecost had fully come after His ascension, He sent us the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1–4).

So the next feast that we are waiting for Jesus to fulfill literally is the Feast of Trumpets. Why is this feast significant to us? Because when Jesus fulfills it, it means that we are going up to meet Him in the clouds!

I am talking about the rapture of the church. When the trumpet sounds, “in the twinkling of an eye,” we who are alive will be changed. We will put on new bodies that will be like Jesus’! Those who are dead in Christ will rise and also receive new bodies. They will go up first followed by us who are alive, and we will all meet the Lord in the air (1 Cor. 15:51–55).

This means that there is a possibility that you might not see death! The Bible says, “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17). It is one thing to happen to be alive, but quite another to remain alive.

I believe that there is a generation of Christians who know the resurrection power of the Lord. They know how to walk in their inheritance and put off sickness and death until the coming of the Lord. My friend, may you be counted as one of them as you take the Lord Jesus and His finished work as your victory over sickness and death! Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

I believe that for the first time in history, God is using the church and Israel simultaneously. Because when Israel was in the land, the church did not exist, and when the church came to existence, Israel was spread all around the world. This is the first time ever the church exists and Israel is back in their land since 1948. And I believe it’s like the two trumpets that God gave Moses to make. “The Lord spoke to Moses, ‘Make two silver trumpets for yourself. You shall make them out of hammered work. You shall use them for calling the congregation, directing the movement of the camp. And when they blow both of them, all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.’”

Israel is the time clock. See, I believe that relates to Israel and the church. Simultaneously, God is using the church and Israel to tell the whole world, “I’m about to do something.” Israel is a time clock to the physical departure of the church. You may be here this evening and do not understand. The Scriptures are telling us that God is about to take His church out of here.

The Bible tells us repeatedly that there are things to look for which indicate a transition to the fulfillment of the 70th week of Daniel is near.

Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

“The Day” that is mentioned is the Day of the Lord. Hebrews makes it clear that it will be something we can see approaching. Jesus made the same kind of statement in the Olivet Discourse:

Matthew 24:32-34
“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.”

The fig tree becoming tender and putting forth leaves speaks of the rebirth, growth, and prosperity of the nation of Israel. It is a sign that the content of the Olivet Discourse is about to take place.

We are in a unique season of history as we watch world events unfold that indicate a change is near, even at the doors! That change is the transition from the church age to the 70th week of Daniel, which requires the removal of the church from the earth.

After all, the church was not present during any of the first 69 fulfilled weeks of the 70 determined for Daniel’s people and the Holy City (Daniel 9:24). That precedent implies the removal of the church before the 70th week can begin.

The last time the Jews had possession of Jerusalem at the same time the church existed was right after Jesus came the first time, while the church was still in its infancy. Now for the first time in history, not only are the Jews in possession of Jerusalem but the nation of Israel and the church exist simultaneously! Could it be that this unprecedented event has happened right before Jesus comes for His church, and then seven years later with His church at the second coming?

Of course this is purely speculation. But aren’t we supposed to live expecting Him to come for us at any moment?

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

With the world a delusional mess and the Middle East an exploding powder keg and much of the church not enduring sound doctrine, we should be expecting to hear the sound of the trumpet of God calling us to meet the dead in Christ and the Lord Himself in the air.

A wonderfully, comforting thought!

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus,

Why a Revelation of Your Forgiveness Is So Important

I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.

1 John 2:12

People have asked me from time to time, “Pastor Prince, why is an understanding of the complete forgiveness of my sins so important for me to walk in God’s unmerited favor?”

This is a good question. Let me share with you some of the implications involved. First, if you have no confidence that all your sins have been forgiven, then your eternal security and salvation will always hang in the balance.

Second, if you think that your sins were not fully dealt with at the cross, then you can never have the confidence to enjoy the Lord's presence because you can never be sure if He is on your side, or if He is waiting to punish you for your failures. You will constantly feel unworthy because of your assessment of your conduct, and you can never really have the boldness to ask God for big things, or believe that He will give you success in your life.

Third, if you do not believe that Jesus has already forgiven all your sins, it means that when you fail, you will believe that you are not “right” with God and that fellowship with Him has been cut off. And instead of depending on His unmerited favor to overcome your failure, you will feel that you need to confess your sin, be remorseful and make amends with God before you can restore fellowship with God and depend on Him again.

It comes down to this: When you don't have a clear sense of your complete forgiveness, you will constantly be on an emotional seesaw. Sometimes, you feel that things between you and God are all right, but at other times, you don't think that it is so. Sometimes, you feel confident that the Lord is with you to make you a success, but at other times, you feel like you blew it and the Lord will not help you until you confess your sin and make amends.

You will be in a constant cycle of feeling insecure, where you are always hopping in and out of God’s favor. All these feelings depend on how well you think you have performed, and ignore the cross of Jesus altogether. My friend, God does not evaluate you based on your behavior. He sees only Jesus’ perfect work. But because you do not believe that Jesus has indeed forgiven you of all your sins, you end up feeling like a total and complete hypocrite and failure.

I hope that you are beginning to see that understanding the complete forgiveness of your sins is not just for theologians. Thinking that your sins are not completely forgiven will fundamentally affect your relationship with Jesus. While He is all ready to bless you, give you favor and make you a success, unbelief in His finished work robs you of the ability to receive His goodness, His blessings, His unmerited favor, and His success in your life.

The cross of Jesus qualified you, but unbelief in the main clause of the new covenant disqualifies you. Meditate on what God says about your sins in the new covenant and free yourself to receive from Him today. The new covenant is based entirely on His unmerited favor. There is nothing for you to do, nothing for you to perform, nothing for you to accomplish. Your part in the new covenant is just to have faith in Jesus and to believe that you are totally forgiven and free to enjoy the new covenant blessings through His finished work!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor. Joseph Prince

Only Grace Brings Lasting Freedom

. . . as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:21

Beloved, even as there are so many who are freed by a revelation of God’s glorious grace, there are people who are twisting God’s Word today, saying that when people are under grace, it will cause them to sin without restraint. This is a lie from the pit of hell. You cannot be under grace and not be holy any more than you can be under water and not be wet! It is being under grace that gives you the power to live a victorious life. The Word of God clearly states:

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace
—Romans 6:14

When you are under grace and not under the law, sin shall NOT have dominion over you. The word “sin” here is a noun. It is the Greek word hamartia, meaning “a failing to hit the mark.” So you can say it this way: sicknesses, diseases, eating disorders, addictions, and any form of oppression or bondage (all examples of our missing God’s mark or standard for a glorious life) shall not have dominion over you. When? When you are not under the law but under grace!

Let me show you how being under grace enables you to overcome your challenges and live victoriously, with an amazing testimony from Anna of Iowa. Although she grew up in a godly environment, attended a charismatic church, spent daily time with God, and even taught in a Sunday school, Anna fell into bondage, but knew how to hide her addiction to cigarettes and marijuana well. She knew she was hurting the temple of God. She condemned herself for being a hypocrite, and felt absolutely worthless.

Throughout the sixteen years of bondage, I attempted so many times to quit my addictions, including the time I was pregnant with my two beautiful boys! I did quit for a while but as soon as I gave birth, I quickly picked up the habits again because the desires had never left my heart.

While my prayers for others have always been powerful and effective, I was very mad at God because my prayers for my own freedom seemed to go unheard, or at least unanswered.

Then, about a year and a half ago, I began to watch Joseph Prince’s television program daily. I also began ordering materials that the Holy Spirit led me to get, and I was in the word of grace for hours daily, even while under the influence of cigarettes and marijuana. Hope began to fill my heart—not hope that I would soon be free, but hope that no matter what my state was, my Father would NEVER be mad at me! His grace was enough for the apostle Paul, and His grace is enough for me!

For so long, I tried to earn the blessings, including the freedom of God. But after allowing the water of the Word to cleanse me daily, I was able to receive His love, grace, shalom, and all of His blessings, regardless of my behavior. Every time I used cigarettes or marijuana, I would say, “Thank You, Father, that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!” I quit trying to quit and decided that His grace was enough for me!

Today, I have been set free from both addictions! I didn’t try to quit; it just happened. My heavenly Father has completely taken the desires away from me. Even when I am in public and exposed to others who are smoking, I still have no desire to do the same! Even right now, thinking about this great freedom, I have to cry, and cry out, “My Father is SO faithful!”

Thank you so much for daring to speak the truth. I am so grateful that Christ, through your ministry, has set me free! It’s time for the captives to be set free in the name of Jesus!

Beloved, what willpower and self-effort couldn’t do, God did by the power of His glorious grace. Grace is the power over every addiction that is destroying you. Only grace can give you lasting freedom.

This devotional is taken from the book Glorious Grace—100 Daily Readings from Grace Revolution. Joseph Prince

Free from “Am I Doing Enough for God?”

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

Mark 2:22

Have you ever wondered what Jesus was referring to when He shared on the new wine and old wineskins? He was referring to the mixture of the two covenants.

The new wine represents the new covenant of grace, while the old wineskin represents the old covenant of law. Have you ever seen old wineskins? They are brittle, hard, and inflexible. That’s the law. It is inflexible. And when you pour the new wine of grace into the old wineskin of the law, you will lose both because the wineskin will be ruined and the wine will be spilled. The virtues of both the old and the new covenants will be cancelled out and lost.

I received a letter from Kirsten in Florida whose experience with mixing law and grace was similar to the Galatians. When she received her salvation at the age of seventeen, she experienced unconditional love for the first time in her life as God’s mercy and grace washed over her.

In the beginning, she said that church was a joy as they worshiped, shared, and prayed. But within a few years, she succumbed to a works mentality and began searching the Scriptures to discover what she needed to do. Having lost her joy and peace, she was tormented by thoughts of “not doing enough for God.”

Kirsten’s hope was reignited when she chanced upon one of my television broadcasts. She said, “That tiny spark of hope later burst into flames and set me free. Wow! God’s grace is real and it doesn’t depend on my ‘doing enough for Him.’

No more works that are motivated by guilt and shame that left me exhausted, overwhelmed, and drained. My peace and joy returned a hundred-fold, and I was able to relax and enjoy my relationship with God, my family, and my church.”

That wasn’t all. Her revelation of God’s grace put a newfound peace and rest in her heart such that when the economic downturn in 2008 wrecked America financially and affected her family, she chose to rest and believe that God would provide for her family.

“I prayed one morning for God to give us something that day based solely on His grace and not our efforts,” she said. “Less than thirty minutes later, my husband’s former employer called him and asked if he wanted his old job back! My husband now earns as much as he did in his best year prior to the downturn. God’s grace is amazing!”

Beloved, don’t allow a mixture of law and grace to invade your heart and mind. God hates mixture because it robs you of the freedom, peace, and joy that come from resting in His Son’s finished work. It robs you of the power to reign in life through the abundance of His grace!

You cannot put new wine into old wineskins. You will lose both. But if you just focus and meditate on His grace and goodness toward you and your family, like Kirsten, you will see His grace abundantly provide for you.

This devotional is taken from the book Reign in Life—90 Powerful Inspirations for Extraordinary Breakthroughs. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

It’s war!

I’m sorry that I cannot begin my newsletter as I usually do, but with war in the south, war in the West Bank, and now full-scale war in the north, there is no physical shalom in Israel. On Monday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Northern Arrows aimed at breaking the back of the terrorist organization, Hezbollah, in Lebanon and opening the door for the return of 800,000 northern Israelis to their homes. They had been forced to flee after hostilities began in the south with Hamas in Gaza following the October 7 massacre. Hezbollah had thought they’d do their terrorist brothers a solid by firing thousands of missiles over Israel’s northern border, sending Israelis in the area fleeing south. This they’ve continued to do in the months since.

For nearly twenty years, Hezbollah has been preparing for a major attack on Israel. They just needed to wait until they were strong enough, Israel was weak enough, and their Iranian masters gave them the go-ahead. In that long stretch of years, Hezbollah burrowed like moles into the Lebanese infrastructure. They built bunkers and tunnels. They established weapons caches and launch sites. They infiltrated the Lebanese society, essentially turning all of southern Lebanon into one big human shield. They accomplished their goals, becoming fully entrenched into the cities, towns, and fields.

Then a plan arose. Iran would unite the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, and their other proxy militias into one coordinated attack on Israel that would decimate the hated Jewish land. It was a good strategy and would have caused major pain to Israel. But it never happened, because Hamas got antsy and decided they’d launch everything early, choosing October 7, 2023, as their kickoff day. The rest of the terrorist organizations were taken completely off-guard. Why would Hamas take such a foolhardy, premature action? I believe it is partly due to divine intervention and partly due to Hamas never being the brightest bulbs in the terrorist chandelier.

When Israel set its sights on Gaza, Hezbollah knew that a clock began ticking for them. It was obvious that the Israeli people had had enough. They were done with the threats coming from the north and the south. In the beginning of the war, the existential threat was from the south. But head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and all his minions knew that when the Jews were done in Gaza, they’d turn their targets to the north.

The terrorists in Lebanon scrambled to get themselves prepared, all while firing a steady barrage of missiles over the border in order to dissuade Israel from coming their way. Unfortunately for Hezbollah, their hard work over the past two decades was no match for Israel’s technological advances in the military arena. The terrorists worked to hide their weapons. However, Israel has 3D models of every building in Lebanon, and they know where the bad stuff is hiding.

That is where we find ourselves now in the midst of Operation Northern Arrows. Several days before the operation actually began, Israel struck Beirut in a targeted action that took out all of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force commanders, including Ibrahim Aqil who had replaced Fuad Shukr as the terrorist organization’s military chief. They had unwisely gathered together in an underground apartment to strategize an October 7 type attack, when a massive blast ended their schemes and their lives. The military legs were suddenly knocked out from under Nasrallah.

Then, the IDF warned the people of southern Lebanon to flee, and many people listened. Over a half million ran, either going farther north in the country or running east toward Syria. Once enough time for escape had been given, the air attack began on Monday. And it was devastating. If you want to follow the details of the actions in the north, as well as the West Bank, Gaza, and the rest of the Middle East, be sure to follow me on my Telegram channel. You’ll know it’s mine because I was just recently verified. So, make sure you look for the checkmark.

It’s estimated that in just the first day of attacks, more than fifty percent of Hezbollah’s weaponry was destroyed. Immediately, people began complaining that the IDF was targeting people’s homes. However, if you watch the videos of those homes being hit, you’ll see multiple secondary explosions as munitions cook off. In some, you’ll even see errant rockets firing and plunging into hillsides or open fields. In southern Lebanon, it is estimated that two of every three houses are storing Hezbollah munitions of some kind. It’s not that these poor people wanted to stash weapons in their homes. It’s just what happens when the bandidos ride into town and become the law.

In the ensuing days, more than 3000 targets have been struck. Will airstrikes be enough to break the back of Hezbollah? Sadly, it likely won’t. That is why the IDF is preparing for a ground maneuver into southern Lebanon which might even have begun by the time you are reading this. While the military is confident about success in Lebanon and optimistic about a short timetable, they are still preparing for what could become another drawn-out battle as was faced in Gaza.

For all the success the IDF is having, Hezbollah is not taking this lying down. Massive rocket barrages have been fired into Israel from Lebanon with the targets being farther south than they’ve been since the Second Lebanon War in 2006. I’ve mentioned before that I live within a mile of the Ramat David Airbase, which is the northernmost base of the Israeli Air Force (IAF). My family and I have spent many hours lately in our bomb shelter. Several days ago, we had a rocket drop in my town. I worry little for myself when the missiles are falling. But as a husband and a father who is passionately committed to protecting my family? Please, pray for me and those around me.

Even with the rockets falling, we’re getting by. Earlier this week, I was able to record a Breaking News Update during which you can make out the sound of the interception of rockets in the background. Later, I managed to get video of when a rocket had fallen just across a dirt field from our CONNECT office. That’ll get the adrenaline flowing. Yesterday, I was able to record the first CONNECT Authors’ Corner with Steve Yohn, during which we talked about our upcoming thriller, The Sick Man’s Rage. It was very timely, because the book begins with the events of October 7, then works its way forward. All the time we recorded, I kept listening for the siren that would send me and my crew scurrying to the shelter. Then, this morning I recorded a new episode of Explore the Bible with Steve’s dad, Dr. Rick Yohn. I’ll keep you apprised of when each show will be released.

Despite Hassan Nasrallah’s efforts, he is becoming a lonely man. Of the 18 primary members of Hezbollah’s military chain of command who were below him, only two are still alive. And it is not just his dead staff that are disappearing, so are his live peers. Fellow clerics are urging him to stop Hezbollah’s madness in Lebanon. Mohammad Ali Al-Husseini, a Lebanese cleric, fellow Shi’ite scholar, head of the Islamic-Arab Council in Lebanon, and number two man in the Muslim World League issued a statement pleading with Nasrallah to pull out of Lebanon. He said, “Your [operations] in southern [Lebanon] can no longer be tolerated…. I swear, the war against Lebanon is only one step away, and only you can stop it and save our country from destruction and the people from perdition. Make a brave and historic decision to immediately stop the military operations.” The Sheikh told Nasrallah that he should hand southern Lebanon over to the Lebanese army and leave. We’ll see if that happens.

As always happens, because Israel is showing such dominance it is now receiving pressure from its “friends” for a ceasefire. The United States and France have been working on details that would lead to a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel’s benefit would be a severing of the connection between Hezbollah and Hamas, with fighting continuing in the south but not the north. Nasrallah and Hezbollah would gain a temporary respite, during which they could come out from their hidey-holes without fear of having missiles drop on their heads.

Why would Israel possibly agree to this, especially knowing that it is only temporary? Ultimately, there is no benefit. A non-defeated Nasrallah will never agree to eventually pull back beyond the Litani River and disarm. It will take a constant barrage on Hezbollah to finally break their backs so that they are ready to surrender. We must keep the pressure up, not give the terrorists breathing room. I can’t imagine the Israeli government agreeing to this, but I’ve been surprised before.

Even as it heats up in the north, the battles still rage in the West Bank and Gaza. Just because focus shifts, it doesn’t mean that the terrorists pack up and move on. The IDF has much work to do still, particularly in Judea and Samaria.

In news that is closely tied to Israel, but in a round-about way, former president Donald Trump was presented evidence by U.S. intelligence of “tangible and specific” threats of assassination by Iran. As he was reading that, Iran’s President Pezeshkian was enjoying a meeting in New York City with France’s President Emanuel Macron. This begs the question why a man whose country is threatening a former U.S. president is sitting comfortably and worry-free within the Big Apple?

While Iran’s president hobnobs in New York, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was apparently accidentally given access to his own X account on which he promptly posted, “Hezbollah is winning.” Interesting perspective there, Mr. Supreme Leader. He then went on to post about how he’s feeling good about the Carolina Panthers’ chances for the Super Bowl, how Southampton has a real shot to rocket up the table in the Premier League, and how he’s laying down money that the North Melbourne Kangaroos are going to take out the Richmond Tigers in next year’s Australian Footy Grand Final.


The Ministry

Join me this morning for a new show called “Let’s Connect”! I recently had the privilege of hosting three sisters who are dear friends of mine. We walked down memory lane together, then enjoyed some of their amazing messianic music. Tune in today at 10:00 AM PDT!

Join Jan Markell, Pastor Barry Stagner, Pastor Mike Golay, and me for another CONNECT Round Table on Monday at 10:00 AM PDT as we discuss why the rapture matters. As prophecy unfolds around the world, it seems that so much of the church is disregarding this crucial topic. We don’t want it to become irrelevant!

Make sure to take the time to visit our Behold Israel Shop to check out our most recent additions! We have even added a build-your-own-bundle feature in order to provide you with efficient pricing as you add more books to your cart. At the end of the day, our passion is to get resources into the hands of people everywhere. We have also added new accessories and apparel!

Next Wednesday evening begins Rosh Hashanah. While its name means “the head of the year”, it is not the beginning of the biblical calendar. Instead, it is a very significant day that has a whole lot to do with God’s prophetic plan. Be watching for a special video I will be releasing that will give you a lot of background surrounding this special time of year.

May God bless you for your continued prayers and financial support of Behold Israel. I have seen His hand in very special and practical ways over these past weeks as the northern fighting has ramped up. It is such an encouragement to me and the whole team at Connect to know that you are lifting us up before the Lord in prayer.

Awaiting His Return,

The Final Jigsaw Piece

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

Romans 5:20

It is so vital that you believe in God’s love for you. Because of His super-abundant grace, your past doesn’t have to determine your future.

In Christ, you have a new life, a new beginning, and a new future. Read this precious testimony I received from Daphne from the United Kingdom and see this truth reflected:

I am a recovered alcoholic who received Jesus Christ five years ago. At that time, even after being saved, I was still full of self-condemnation and found it hard to believe that Jesus really cared about me. I thought He was very angry with me and that I needed to try to be good. For us alcoholics who have been very ill with addiction, this self-condemnation and the belief that we are never going to be able to do what God expects of us often sends us back to drink, develop an addiction to drugs, and even die as a result of complications.

But when I heard Pastor Joseph Prince preach on television, suddenly, the final jigsaw piece fell into place. It was the first time I had heard about God’s grace. After that, I bought and read Pastor Prince’s books. Grace and truth in the person of Jesus came and made all the difference. The changes happened in me once I understood and believed that everything had already been done for me at the cross, and that Jesus wanted to heal me and pour His grace into my life.

Today, Daphne sponsors many alcoholic women through a twelve-step recovery program and even runs a retreat for them. But she runs the program “with God’s grace at the forefront so that it is not a legalistic program.” She says:

When I help the women begin their journey with the program, I give them my copies of Pastor Prince’s books to read. I also show them clips of Pastor Prince’s messages.

These women now have a much better chance at lasting freedom. Before receiving the message of grace, they had the same wrong beliefs I had. Like me, they believed that they could never live up to what an angry God of judgment expects of them. Without right believing about the true God and His grace, lasting sobriety is just not possible for any of us and we would all have gone back to drinking.

Since listening to the gospel of grace, I now believe that the Lord wants to help us all because He loves each one of us. I love seeing people recover from their addictions. It’s His grace alone that has given my friends and me true freedom. I have also been able to forgive others and myself.

My friend, condemnation kills! It is a dangerous and vicious trap that keeps you imprisoned. It eats at you from the inside out, and you can’t just will it away or just tell yourself to forget about the mistakes and bad choices you have made.

Our sins demand a resolution. The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Our conscience cries out against us and demands that punishment for our sins be meted out.

That is why you need to have an unshakable revelation of your righteous identity in Christ. At the cross Jesus took your place of punishment and condemnation and became the full payment for all your sins. And when you believed in Jesus, you were justified by faith!

The cross of Calvary has made all the difference and is the only answer that will satisfy your guilty conscience. This was what Daphne experienced, and what God did for Daphne, He can and wants to do for you too.

This devotional is taken from the book Glorious Grace—100 Daily Readings from Grace Revolution. Joseph Prince