Transformed for Life

Derek Prince

Description

With a radio ministry that reaches more than half the globe, Derek Prince has influenced countless listeners and readers through his incisive wisdom on the Christian life. Trained at Cambridge, Prince has a knack for pulling simple kernels of truth from even the most difficult teachings of Scripture. His bold and unique exposition of the transforming power of God as Father, Deliverer, and Healer has remade many a floundering believer's life. In Transformed for Life, Prince combines six popular, powerful books from his ministry into one life-changing volume. In his straight-talking style, he offers potent biblical teaching on God's love and atonement, the identity and gifts of the Holy Spirit, the purpose of testing, and much more. The material included in this volume was first presented in radio programs and then transcribed into six booklets: Extravagant Love, The Divine Exchange, Who Is the Holy Spirit?, Life's Bitter Pool, Fatherhood, and From Curse to Blessing. As readers learn to walk in the promises of the Bible, they will experience renewed freedom and understanding of how to access divine provision. Christians seeking healing, deliverance, wholeness, and blessing will gain a new and powerful grasp of their birthright as God's children as they learn what it means to be Transformed for Life.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2002
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441210814
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Simply click here to get your copy. http://www.derekprince.org/articles/1000134303/dpm_us/radio/free_offer_pages.aspx

© 2002 by Derek Prince Ministries International

Published by Chosen Books 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438 chosenbooks.com

Chosen Books is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan. www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

Ebook edition created 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4412-1081-4
C ONTENTS

Cover
Special Offer
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface

P ART 1: E XTRAVAGANT L OVE
1. The Treasure in the Field
2. The Pearl of Great Value
3. Jesus Paid the Full Price
4. The Total Inheritance
5. Returning Extravagant Love

P ART 2: T HE D IVINE E XCHANGE
6. What Is the Divine Exchange?
7. Aspects of the Exchange
8. Responding to God’s Provision

P ART 3: W HO I S THE H OLY S PIRIT?
9. A Person—And Not a Person
10. Eternal, Omniscient, Omnipresent
11. Self-effacing Servant, Consuming Fire
12. The Spirit of Truth
13. The Gifts of the Spirit
14. The Fruit of the Spirit

P ART 4: L IFE’S B ITTER P OOL
15. Lessons from the Pool
16. The Purpose of Testing
17. The Healing Tree
18. The Lord Our Healer
19. Death Before Resurrection

P ART 5: F ATHERHOOD
20. The Fatherhood of God
21. The Father As a Priest
22. The Father As a Prophet
23. The Father As a King
24. When Fathers Fail

P ART 6: F ROM C URSE TO B LESSING
25. Christ Was Made a Curse
26. Nature of Blessings and Curses
27. How to Recognize a Curse
28. What Causes Blessings or Curses?
29. How to Pass from Curse to Blessing
30. The Process of Release
31. The Prayer of Release

Appendix 1: By This I Overcome the Devil
Appendix 2: Confession for Overcomers
Appendix 3: Declaration of Confidence in God’s Protection
Appendix 4: Proclamations on Behalf of Israel

Subject Index
Scripture Index
About the Author
Back Cover
P REFACE
S INCE MY CONVERSION some sixty years ago, I have pursued the practical application of truth both for myself and my fellow believers. I was trained at the highest levels of perhaps the best educational system of its time, Britain. Much of my training was in esoteric and theoretical areas, however, having little application to everyday living. I have found that God’s truth, by contrast, is very down to earth and practical. In fact, if something is not simple, I am usually somewhat suspicious of it!
The messages compiled in this volume are some of the most life-changing and practical that God has given me. Together they represent a powerful look at the transforming power of God as Father, Deliverer and Healer. The theme of transformation always brings to mind Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” ( NASB ). I know of nothing more powerful than a transformed mind that is enabled to lay hold of God’s perfect will!
I offer this book with the sincere prayer that multitudes will be transformed and conformed into the image of Jesus (see Romans 8:29).
Part 1
Extravagant Love
E XTRAVAGANT LOVE. It will bring you into a new dimension in appreciating God and responding to Him. Does the word extravagant surprise you? It is appropriate because it refers, first and foremost, to the love of God.
The very nature of God is love. God is so much bigger and greater than we can imagine, and this is true of His love as well. Our human love is often petty, stingy and self-centered, but God’s love is vast, boundless, extravagant!
This is a prayer Paul prayed for God’s people in Ephesians 3:14–19:
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
NIV
The central theme of Paul’s prayer for us: that we may know God’s love. But we cannot make room for Christ to dwell in our hearts until we are strengthened with power by the Spirit. Paul prayed that we may be established in His love and that we may be able to grasp how wide, how long, how high and how deep it is. Then he concluded by praying that we might “know this love that surpasses knowledge. . . .” This is a paradox. How can we know love that surpasses knowledge?
I believe there is an answer: We do not know it with our intellect but through the revelation of Scripture and of the Holy Spirit. It is a revelation that comes to our spirits rather than to our minds.
The purpose of this section is to share with you various passages of Scripture that provide us with standards by which to measure God’s love.
one

T HE T REASURE IN THE F IELD
T HE FIRST PASSAGE that provides us with a standard by which we can measure God’s love is the story found in Matthew 13:44. It is Jesus’ parable of the treasure hidden in the field.
A parable is a simple story about familiar, material, earthly things. The objects in Jesus’ parables were familiar to all His hearers. But the purpose of a parable is to reveal unseen, eternal and spiritual things. The familiar scene and the familiar story then become a mirror reflecting unseen, unfamiliar, spiritual things.
Jesus proceeds in the method of a good teacher, moving from the known to the unknown. He starts with items with which His hearers are familiar and leads them on to those that are not familiar. As we read a parable, then, we need to ask ourselves, What are the spiritual things that correspond to the material things in the parable?
Let’s look at this parable. Then I will give you my interpretation.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
NIV
What are the spiritual realities that this simple story reveals to us? I am not suggesting that there are no other interpretations, but according to my view (which is in line with the principles of Scripture), the man who found the treasure is Jesus. The field is the world. (This image runs through the seven parables found in this chapter, and it is stated in Matthew 13:38.) What about the treasure? It is God’s people in the world.
When the man discovered treasure in the field, he did something very wise: He did not immediately tell everybody. In fact, Scripture says he hid it. He knew that if people learned there was treasure in the field, there would be a lot of competition, so he hid the treasure again and decided to purchase the field.
Bear in mind that he really did not want the whole field; all he wanted was the treasure. But he was realistic enough to know that in order to get the treasure, he had to pay the price for the entire field. The price of the field for that man was high; it cost him all he had. But he did it with joy because he knew the value of the treasure.
Can you picture the surprise of the local residents? “Whatever does he want that field for? It’s not really good for anything. It has little market value. It’s not good for crops. All it produces is thorns and thistles. Why would he pay so much money for a field like that?” They did not know, you see, about the treasure. The only person who knew about the treasure was the man himself, who is Jesus. So He paid the price for the field (which is the whole world) in order to obtain the treasure that is in the field (which is God’s people).
Let’s look at another very familiar verse:

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son [Jesus], that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16, NIV
God loved the world and gave the life of His Son to redeem it. But what God receives out of the world is the whoever: “ whoever believes in him shall not perish.” That total company of whoevers is the treasure in the field that Jesus died to purchase. He redeemed the world for the sake of the whoever .
In Titus 2:14 we find the same truth. Paul speaks about Jesus Christ, “who gave himself for us to redeem us [buy us back] from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” ( NIV ).
There is that treasure again—a people who are His very own and who have been redeemed from the world, redeemed from wickedness, purified and made zealous to do what is good. The price was Jesus Himself—all He had, all He was. He laid down His life. He gave Himself to buy that field for the sake of the treasure, His redeemed people.
Let me offer one further thought about this treasure in the field. Jesus has bought the field, but He leaves it to His servants, the ministers of the Gospel, to recover the treasure. There is a lot of work involved. You must find where the treasure is, dig it up and take it out of the earth. It has lain there a long time and it is rusty, dirty, mildewed and corroded. It needs a lot of cleaning up. Again, Jesus does not do this work Himself. He has His servants in this world dig out His treasure with hard labor and clean it up.
Believe me, preaching the Gospel to people and bringing them to the Lord is hard work—just as hard as digging a tre