• Jesus, Your City of Refuge
    Godly Living Posts / Quotes

    Jesus, Your City of Refuge

    February 9, 2025 - By 

    God wants us to not just be safe, but to approach him at any time regardless of our numerous mistakes. Did you we have his protection. Your City of Refuge is a blessing from God to us.

    Read how Pastor Joseph Prince elaborates on this old testatment practice and see how it relates with us now.

    Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

    Luke 23:34 KJV

    There is a teaching on the cities of refuge from the Old Testament that I believe will encourage you to take the Lord as your refuge and protector and run to Him.

    The Lord told Joshua that when the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan, they were to designate six cities of refuge. Back in those days, if someone unintentionally killed a person, the closest relative of the deceased had the legal right to avenge him.

    However, in His mercy, God appointed six cities and said, “Anyone who kills another person accidentally and unintentionally can run to one of these cities; they will be places of refuge from relatives seeking revenge for the person who was killed” (Josh. 20:3 NLT).

    The cities of refuge were designed for people who had committed unintentional manslaughter, not for those who had carried out premeditated homicide. Deuteronomy 19 explains this, stating: “If someone kills another person unintentionally, without previous hostility . . . the slayer may flee to one of the cities of refuge to live in safety” (vv. 4–5 NLT).

    The six cities of refuge are also a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus, hidden for us to unveil. They are shadows that point to the substance—our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, He is concealed. In the New Testament, He is revealed.

    How is Jesus, Your City of Refuge

    At the cross, our Lord Jesus put all our sins, including the sin of crucifying Him, under the category of “unintentional” when He prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34 KJV).

    He was not just referring to Israel or the Romans; all our sins nailed Jesus to the cross. He chose the nails and offered us complete forgiveness. Can you see how good and merciful our God is?

    Today, if you call upon the name of Jesus, you are qualified to run to Him and take Him as your city of refuge. Jesus is your city of refuge, and when you run to Him for refuge, the one seeking revenge (a picture of the devil) no longer has power over you.

    My friend, we were all sinners and the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Before the cross, the devil had the legal right to put a death sentence over your head. That was because of your sins. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus took that death sentence at the cross. Also, in Christ we can receive His forgiveness and His protection. Hallelujah!

    For more inspirational devotionals like this, please check my blog regularly.

  • Jesus on the cross
    Godly Living Posts / Quotes

    What did Jesus Christ do for us on the cross?

    November 23, 2024 - By 

    So when Jesus Christ had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

    John 19:30

    I see a new generation of God’s people emerging as the grace revolution sweeps the globe. The truth is that only grace, found in the person of Jesus Christ, can lead us into the promised land.

    Moses, who represents the law, is dead (Josh. 1:2). And only Joshua, a type of Christ, can bring us into the promised land.

    We can’t enter it based on the obsolete Mosaic covenant. Equally, we can’t inherit it based on our efforts to be justified through keeping perfectly the Ten Commandments. We can inherit it only through faith in the grace of our Lord Jesus. It is not by our works that we inherit God’s promises, but by Christ’s perfect, finished work.

    How did the wall of Jericho that stood between God’s people and the promised land come crashing down? Did God’s people have to use their own might to push down the wall? Did they have to fight an army? No, at just the blast of the rams’ horns and with a great shout, God caused the wall to crumble.

    The ram’s horn is a beautiful picture of the death of our Lord Jesus. The ram had to die for the horn to be obtained. The sounding of the ram’s horn is thus a proclamation of our Lord’s death and finished work. At the cross, when Jesus had paid fully for all our sins with His blood, He proclaimed, “It is finished!”

    What does the blood of Jesus Christ mean?

    It is the shed blood of Jesus that brings us out of captivity and into the promised land. What the ten plagues of Moses could not do, the blood of Jesus did. It was the blood of Christ, typified by the lambs’ blood applied to the lintels and doorposts of the Hebrew homes, that caused Pharaoh, a type of Satan, to finally release God’s people.

    God threw down His trump card—the blood of His Son! So it was His Son, the true Lamb of God, Who brought them out of Egypt, and it was also His Son Who brought them into the promised land. It is all Christ and Christ alone!

    Why couldn’t the miracles of Moses free God’s people? Because they were miracles of judgment. Judgment and condemnation will not free you, only the love and grace of our Lord Jesus, Who shed His blood at Calvary for you, can do that.

    My friend, are you hearing about the judgments of the law today, or are you hearing the ram’s horn being blown? One condemns and brings death, the other liberates and gives life. One causes you to remain in bondage to sin and live a defeated life, the other empowers you to break free and reign in life.

    Today, make sure you are hearing the true gospel that makes bondages and addictions crumble and fall away like the walls of Jericho did!

    Go here if you want read more devotionals from Pastor Joseph Prince everyday. Check out old posts about God here.

  • A man considered as Jesus
    Godly Living Posts / Quotes

    Does Jesus understand us?

    May 17, 2023 - By 

    Our Lord Jesus, is the only one who will completely understand us in every aspect. Isn’t that a bold sentence to make, yes it is. 

    God could have saved the world without physically coming down to it. He (God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit) created the whole world with just words. He could do it and we will all be spiritually free from sin and the consequences of death. 

    However, he decided to come and be a man.

    This decision to be a human was just to make us know that he can relate to us as a person.

    The Trinity didn’t want us to have a distant relationship with him where He is in heaven, and we are here alone on earth. He wants us to experience him by physically touching him and connecting with him in ways beyond handwriting on a tablet, like he did to the people in the Old Testament.

    What does the Bible say?

    Hebrew 2:18 (AMPC)

    For because He Himself [in His humanity] has suffered in being tempted (tested and tried), He is able [immediately] to run to the cry of (assist, relieve) those who are being tempted and tested and tried [and who therefore are being exposed to suffering].

    The New Testament is a reflection of God’s unconditional love for us. His coming on earth made him experience everything we now experience. Whether it is hatred, rejection or disrespect. Jesus suffered to bear our sins, though sinless. He took the weight of all our mistakes and carried the heavy wooden cross on our behaves so that we will not be indebted by Satan and his useless lies. 

    From the devil himself to other people, Jesus was tempted in several ways to dishonor God. He didn’t heed to the temptations, and he counted them with the word of God. This goes to say, we cannot prevent temptations. If God was tempted for the 33 and a half years he lived here on earth, we will always be drawn. Temptation is a medium to allow us to show our devotion to God. If we have invested ourselves in knowing the word of God, no type of temptation will make us heed to sin. We will be obedient to God regardless. 

    I have heard people say, if God is good, why does he allow us to be tempted? That is a vaque question. God doesn’t tempt us. We have the Bible as guide and the Holy Spirit to help us overcome anything contrary to the plan of God. 

    Why did Jesus become a man? 

    His profound love stands as the primary impetus for His earthly arrival.

    Yet, the verse above also signifies His purpose to stand by us during our most arduous trials. Trials, unceasing and diverse, provide the sole arena in which we can demonstrate our true identity as His children.

    For instance, consider the times He encountered rejection in His hometown.

    Even the Pharisees, who should have embraced Him, withheld their support. Just as He faced challenges from unexpected quarters, we too shall encounter our share of tribulations in manifold forms.

    How should we react?

    The optimal and exclusive approach is to find solace in rest. This involves unwinding and acknowledging our companionship.

    Even Jesus experienced such moments, and countless individuals worldwide are undergoing similar situations.

    Amidst our trials, it’s all too common to believe that no one truly comprehends our feelings. It’s valid that unless someone has encountered precisely the same circumstances (with identical facts), full understanding might elude them.

    Yet, in an extraordinary revelation, God, the all-knowing, affirms His understanding in this verse.

    What a comforting affirmation!

    Implicitly, this signifies that if we place our faith in God, anxiety can dissipate.

    Every temptation or trial faced by Jesus was transient.

    Likewise, all the Apostles and exemplary figures of faith in the Bible encountered their share of challenging times. Irrespective of your current predicament, rest assured that God is cognizant. He stands ready to guide you through it, provided you entrust yourself to Him.

    To entrust oneself to Him implies placing absolute confidence in His capabilities.

    Trust surpasses mere assumption of reliance; it entails complete surrender, firmly believing in our hearts that God can orchestrate positive outcomes even from seemingly adverse circumstances.

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