When the Lord was teaching me how to walk in His shalom, He told me this: “Son, make it a game every day to cast your cares to Me.” This is how the “game” works: Each time the devil throws you a care, you throw it to Jesus as quickly as possible. You can’t hold on to it because it’s like poison.

The moment a worrisome thought comes, you cast it to the Lord. Whatever cares and worries come toward you, cast them to the One who cares for you with deepest affection, the One who laid down His life on the cross for you, and leave those cares and worries in His hands!

According to the Oxford Dictionary, cast means to “throw (something) forcefully in a specified direction.” Don’t take your time and allow that care to linger on your heart. Cast it to the Lord immediately. Quickly let it go to Him because He cares for you and you will become “undevourable”!

Live The Let-Go Life By Joseph Prince

The Lord also told me to quote this portion from John 14:27 whenever I felt troubled: “Let not your heart be troubled.” So that’s what I did. I found it so hard at first because there were so many issues that I felt were my responsibility to be troubled about. But the Lord told me, “Your only responsibility is to take care of your heart on the inside. Don’t let your heart be troubled. And I will take care of your outside.”

Try it for yourself. Every time you catch your heart being troubled, say, “Let not your heart be troubled,” and I believe you’ll find yourself walking in increasing health, provision, and peace. I believe there is such power when we memorize, meditate on, and quote the words of our Lord. So learn to speak those words to yourself each time your heart feels troubled. Your heart will obey the voice of our Lord Jesus as you declare His words: “Let not your heart be troubled”!


Live The Let-Go Life By Joseph Prince

Jesus gives you His shalom to set you up for success in this life. You cannot be a success in your marriage, family and career when you are crippled and paralyzed with fear. Today, as you are reading this, I believe with all my heart that Jesus has already begun a work in your heart to liberate you from all your fears, whatever they may be. They may be the fear of failure, the fear of success, the fear of people’s opinions of you or even the fear that God is not with you.

All the fears that you are experiencing in your life today began with an untruth, a lie that you have somehow believed. Perhaps you have believed that God is angry and displeased with you, and that His presence is far from you. That’s why the Bible says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

This scripture tells us that when you begin to have a revelation that God loves you perfectly (not because of what you have accomplished, but because of what Jesus has accomplished for you), that revelation of the unmerited favor of Jesus will cast out every fear, every lie, every anxiety, every doubt and every worry that God is against you. The more you have a revelation of Jesus and how He has made you perfect, the more you will free yourself to receive His complete shalom and succeed in life!

My friend, know that as a believer in Jesus Christ, you have absolute peace with God. The new covenant of grace is also known as the covenant of peace. Today, you stand upon the righteousness of Jesus and not your own. Today, because of Jesus, God says this to you: “I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke [condemn] you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed.” Isaiah 54:9-10.

Let me illustrate in essence what some believers are doing when they insist on remaining under the covenant of law. Imagine this: Your company has promoted you, giving you a substantial increment of several thousand dollars every month, plus a new car and a beautiful new home as additional benefits. To document this promotion, the human resource department prepares a new employment contract for you, stating all the new terms that your employers have agreed upon. Now, suppose you insist on being paid your old salary, driving your old car and living in your old apartment. Instead of rejoicing at the new employment terms being offered to you, you fight your bosses and demand that you be remunerated based entirely on your old employment agreement!

Sounds ridiculous?

Absolutely!

However, that is exactly what some believers are doing today. They have determined in their hearts that they will remain under the old covenant of law and depend on their own works to earn God’s blessings, approval and favor. They have negated the cross and forgotten that God has enacted a new covenant of His unmerited favor through Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice.

Now, let me give you some scriptures that deal specifically with comparing and contrasting the new covenant and the old covenant, so you know that I am not making this up.

You are under the new covenant of unmerited favor through Jesus’ finished work. The old covenant based on your works is now redundant. Look at what Hebrews 8:13 says:

By calling this covenant “new,” He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging willsoon disappear.
—Hebrews 8:13, NIV

God’s Word tells us in no uncertain terms that the covenant of Moses is antiquated and obsolete. It is no longer relevant for the new covenant believer who is in Christ today! So it is not me who found fault with the old covenant of the law. God Himself found fault with the old covenant of law.

Let’s look at another verse:

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
—Hebrews 8:7

The Living Bible captures the apostle Paul’s exasperation with the old covenant of law: “The old agreement didn’t even work. If it had, there would have been no need for another to replace it. But God himself found fault with the old one...” Hebrews 8:7-8, TLB

Think about this objectively for a moment. Just for a second, put aside all the traditional teachings that you have heard or read. Let’s reason together, not based on what man says, but based completely on what God has said in His Word. His Word is our only unshakable premise.

Based on this portion of the Scripture that we have just read together, if there was nothing wrong with the old covenant of law, why would God give up His one and only precious Son to be brutally crucified on the cross, so that He could cut a new covenant with us? Why would He be willing to pay such a heavy price, allowing Jesus to be publicly humiliated, and to suffer inhumane violence, if there wasn’t something fundamentally wrong with the old covenant of law?

That’s the amazing unconditional love that God has for you and me. He knew that no man could be justified and made righteous by the law. Only the blood of His Son would be able to justify us and make us righteous in Christ.

In all of Israel’s 1,500 years under the covenant of law, not a single person was made righteous by the law. Even the best of them, such as David, failed. The Bible describes him as a man after God’s own heart. (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22) But even he failed—he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed. What hope then do you and I have under the law?

Thank God that under the new covenant of His unmerited favor, even the worst of us can call upon the name of Jesus and receive Him as our personal Lord and Savior. In an instant, we can be made righteous by faith in Jesus’ mighty name! Under the law, even the best failed. Under grace, even the worst can be saved!

“But Pastor Prince, we should not be looking at benefits when we believe in Jesus.”

I am glad that you brought up this point. Let’s look at what the psalmist thinks about this: “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Psalm 103:1-5

Beloved, this is the heart of God. He wants you to remember all the benefits that Jesus has purchased for you with His blood! It is His heart to see you enjoying every single benefit, every single blessing and every single favor from Him in the new covenant of His grace. Forgiveness of sin is yours. Health is yours. Divine protection is yours. Favor is yours. Good things and the renewal of youth are yours!

These are all precious gifts from the Lord to you, and it brings Him unspeakable joy when He sees you enjoying these gifts and succeeding in life. But it is the lack of knowledge of what Jesus has accomplished at the cross that has robbed many believers of enjoying these good gifts and benefits.

What we need today are not more laws to govern believers. What we need is a greater revelation and appreciation of Jesus and everything that He has done for us! In Hosea 4:6, God lamented, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...” Let’s not be numbered among these people. Instead, let us be a people who are full of the knowledge of Jesus, His person, His love and His finished work. Don’t allow your ignorance to rob you any more. Find out all about your covenant rights in Christ today!

To fully appreciate the new covenant of grace, we must first begin to understand what a “covenant” is. Down through the history of humanity, God has related to man through His covenants. A covenant is not merely a contract or legal agreement. It is much more than that.

Also, in every covenant, blood is involved. That is why a marriage is not a contract. It is a covenant. In the act of consummating a marriage, there is supposed to be a shedding of blood. That shows you how serious a covenant is in God’s eyes. It is blood-based and inaugurated by blood.

The new covenant does not actually begin with the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as these books deal predominantly with the life of Jesus before the cross. In fact, the new covenant begins after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hence, the cross is our clearest marking point of where the new covenant begins

“Pastor Prince, isn’t this old and new covenants business just for Bible school students? How is this relevant to me?”

Hang on for a second here. Before you throw your hands up and give up, let me explain to you why understanding the division between the old and new covenants is of critical importance for every believer.

It is critical because a whole lot of misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the Bible that exists in the church today is a result of people reading, studying, interpreting and teaching the Bible without a clear understanding of how to rightly divide the old and new covenants! They merrily quote Old Testament passages without appropriating the cross of Jesus in their interpretations. They make it seem as though the cross made no difference!

So before you quote an Old Testament verse to show how God is angry with believers for their sins, don’t forget that it is in the context of the Old Testament, where Christ had not yet died on the cross. Am I saying that you should not read the Old Testament? No, you should read it, but with Jesus as the key to unlocking all the precious gems hidden in God’s Word. While Jesus is in the Old Testament concealed, He is in the New Testament revealed. The stronger your foundation in the new covenant, the more you will be able to see Jesus unveiled in the Old Testament.

Learn to rightly divide the covenants! God’s personal promise to you when you do that is that you will not be ashamed. Nobody would be able to pull the wool over your eyes by quoting chapters and verses from the Old Testament out of context to convince you that God is out to punish you for your sins, when you know with certainty that Jesus died once and for all for the full payment of all your sins. Hebrews 10:12-14

No one can hoodwink you into believing that sicknesses and diseases are sent by God to teach you character and humility, when you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jesus came to give you abundant life, and took upon His own body all your sicknesses, pains and infirmities at the cross. Matthew 8:16-17

Don’t let anyone tell you that if you don’t keep all the requirements of the law, God will not make you a success, because what the law could not do, God did by sending His Son, Jesus. Romans 8:3 Today, all the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in your life through Jesus!

Do you see how powerful this is? Don’t let anyone fool you with obscure passages from the Bible when Jesus has given you so many clear, explicit portions of Scripture that declare His favor and blessings over your life in the new covenant!

Just because someone calls himself a teacher, prophet or an apostle doesn’t mean that he has the authority to teach God’s Word. Stop disqualifying yourself with the lack of knowledge of Jesus and His new covenant. Don’t let anyone tell you that you need the law to make you righteous when you know that you are righteous today because of Jesus Christ!

So who is the law for? In 1 Timothy 1:8–10, Paul says, “But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers...”

My friend, are you getting this? The law is not for you the believer, who has been made righteous in Christ! The law is not applicable to someone who is under the new covenant of grace. The law is for unrighteous people—unbelievers who have not received Jesus as their Savior. Its purpose is to bring them to the end of themselves and to help them realize that they need the Lord.

Paul makes the purpose for the law very clear in the Book of Galatians when he says, “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” Galatians 3:24-25

That’s the role of the law—to show us that in and of ourselves, we will never be able to reach God’s perfect standards. Therefore, the law leads us to depend on Jesus, who justifies and makes us righteous through His finished work! I amfor the law, but only for the reason God gave the law. He gave the law to point us to Jesus. The law was never designed for man to keep and no man has, or will ever be able to keep it.

You see, my friend, the law demands from man, but grace (unmerited favor) imparts to man. The law condemns the sinner, but grace (unmerited favor) makes the sinner righteous. The law brings death, but grace (unmerited favor) brings abundant life.

The law is designed to expose all your deficiencies, but grace (unmerited favor) points you to your sufficiency in Christ. Under the law, God will leave when man fails. But under grace (unmerited favor), God will never leave you nor forsake you even when you fail. Hebrews 13:5

The law makes you sin-conscious, while grace (unmerited favor) makes you righteousness conscious. The law tells you that you have failed, but grace (unmerited favor) shows you how you are more than a conqueror in Christ.

The law is about what you must do, but grace (unmerited favor) is all about what Jesus has done. The law puts the burden on you to perform, while grace (unmerited favor) puts the burden on Christ’s performance. The law makes you self-conscious, but grace (unmerited favor) makes you Christ-conscious.

I trust that you are beginning to see that the new covenant of God’s unmerited favor, which God says is “established on better promises,” (Hebrews 8:6) is far more superior to the old covenant of law.

Be sure that you are receiving from a ministry that is established on the new covenant of grace, and not from a ministry that slips in and out of the two covenants. Failure to rightly divide God’s Word leads to confusion and God calls this “mixture.” He cannot bless mixture, which portrays Him as being angry with us sometimes because of our failure to keep the law, but wanting to bless us at other times because of His grace. Mixture teaches that God is happy with us sometimes, but at other times, our fellowship with God is broken because of our failures.

A believer can find no peace, no assurance and no confidence in mixture. You cannot put new wine into an old wineskin because you will lose both. Mark 2:22 The law will lose its convicting power to lead you to Christ if it is balanced with grace.

Grace will lose its essence of being unmerited, unearned and undeserved when people are told that they still need to depend on themselves and their works to deserve God’s presence and favor. It is an outright contradiction. What man calls “balance,” God calls “mixture.”

I encourage you to test everything you hear with God’s Word. I always tell my church to read the Bible for themselves instead of simply swallowing all that any preacher, including myself, says. Be wise and don’t just swallow everything— hook, line, sinker, fisherman and even his boots!

Be discerning when you hear something that does not sit well in your spirit, such as when a preacher tells you that “God gives you sicknesses to teach you a lesson.” Ask yourself, “Is this in line with the new covenant of God’s unmerited favor? Are there new covenant scriptures to back this teaching up?”

The answer is obvious once you align it with Jesus and what He has done on the cross for you! Why would God give you sicknesses when Jesus has taken every sickness and disease upon His own body at the cross? With full assurance in your heart that sickness is not from God, you can have faith to be healed! But what assurance can you have if you believe the lie that the condition is from God.

Now, instead of thinking that God is against you, you realize that He is on your side! Your confidence is restored, faith is renewed and His healing can flow unabated through every cell, tissue and organ in your body!

Let me just share with you the words of Miles Coverdale, who said, “It shall greatly help thee to understand scripture, if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom, and unto whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstance, considering what goeth before, and what followeth after.”

My friend, as we talk about God’s unmerited favor in your life, there is something I want you to know: God’s unmerited favor is not just something that you pray for at certain moments, such as when you are preparing for a job interview or about to deliver an important presentation. Of course, you can ask the Lord for His favor in such situations, but the reality is that His unmerited favor in your life is so much more!

God’s unmerited favor is a covenant. Why settle for just having momentary experiences of His favor in your life when you have full, constant access to the everlasting covenant of His favor?

Guys, get ready to be given the best seats in the house when you bring your date out for a romantic dinner. Get ready to receive special discounts “for no apparent reason.” Ladies, begin to see how relatively empty boutiques fill up with customers after you step in because you carry God’s unmerited favor everywhere you go. And when the presence of the Lord is with you, everything you touch becomes blessed. You are a blessing waiting to happen!

Various terms have been used to describe these two covenants. As discussed in the previous chapter, the old covenant is so called because it is old and has become obsolete. It is also known as the Mosaic covenant (because it was given through Moses), the Sinaitic covenant (because the Ten Commandments were given at Mount Sinai) and the covenant of law (because it is based on man’s keeping of the law).

On the other hand, the new covenant of Jesus, which is the covenant that we live by today, is also known as the covenant of grace (because it is based on God’s undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor) and the covenant of peace (because it expresses the shalom of Jesus).