Receive Two Gifts To Reign Over Addictions (Part 2/3)

Tired of living a defeated life where you are bound to addictions, depression, lack, condemnation, and guilt? God wants you to reign in life through two gifts that Jesus has freely given to you—grace and righteousness. Join Joseph Prince in this three-part series and be set free from whatever bondage you are struggling with.

It’s Not About Doing But Receiving

Pastor Prince, I’ve been trying my best to get rid of an addiction that I have had for the past 20 years. I really want to be free.

My friend, I understand your frustration. No one likes to be in bondage to anything. Like you, I want you to be free of your addiction. I want you to reign over it. In fact, I want you to reign in every area of your life. When you reign in life, your addiction doesn’t. When you reign in life, disease and depression don’t. When you reign in life, poverty and lack are things of the past. When you reign in life, the devil is under your feet!

The key to reigning in life is RECEIVING the abundance of God’s grace and His gift of righteousness.

What you need to realize, however, is that reigning in life is not about doing—“I’ve been trying my best”. It is not achieved through your self-effort, willpower or discipline, as you would have noticed from the testimonies I shared earlier. It is simply received.

Let me explain this powerful truth using one of my favorite scriptures:

For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

—Romans 5:17

In this verse, the apostle Paul gives us the key to reigning in life. It is RECEIVING the abundance of God’s grace and His gift of righteousness. Paul didn’t say that you will reign in life when you exercise more effort, willpower, and discipline. No, he said that when you simply receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, you will reign in life. That’s why I say that reigning in life is not achieved but received.

My friend, the good news is that the Lord’s abundant grace and gift of righteousness are always being supplied to you because of His finished work at Calvary. This means that the power to break free from that bad habit, disease, or depression is always there for you to take hold of to experience victory.

And when you simply receive the abundance of grace and gift of righteousness, the floodgates of His rich provision will open wide in your life. Stress, fears, and insecurities will lose their footholds, and peace and joy will reign in your heart and mind. Indeed, you will reign over anything that hinders you from receiving all that He died to give you!

Receive Two Gifts Every Day

This is the reason I love to preach on the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. I want God’s people to be free of bondages to sin and negative thoughts and to reign in all areas of life.

Unfortunately, many believers are not reigning in life today because they are trying to earn the gifts of grace and righteousness, which God wants them to freely receive.

You see, grace is God’s undeserved, unmerited favor toward us. It’s a gift. We cannot earn or achieve it. We can only receive it. It is the same with the gift of righteousness. Righteousness, which is right standing before God, is not a reward for our good conduct. It is also a gift that is received, not achieved.

We don’t become more or less righteous depending on our behavior. We are either 100 percent righteous by the blood of Christ or we are not. The truth is that the day we were born again, we were made 100 percent righteous—as righteous as Christ Himself for all eternity, because it is His very own righteousness given to us as a gift!

The other reason many believers are not reigning in life is that they are not receiving these two gifts every day.

But Pastor Prince, didn’t I already receive God’s gifts of abundant grace and righteousness when I got born again? Why do I still need to receive them every day?

My friend, it’s true that when you were born again you received God’s gifts of abundant grace and righteousness. But this receiving is not just a one-time affair.

Let me explain. The Greek word for “receive” in Romans 5:17 is in the present active participle tense. This simply means that the receiving here refers to an ongoing, continual action. It’s not something that is done once and forgotten. No, it’s something that needs to be done continually.

This means that every single day, you need to receive the abundance of grace and gift of righteousness—especially when you’ve blown it!

Everlasting Righteousness In Christ

It is especially when you’ve missed it that you need to receive the two gifts. If you want to see victory in your area of struggle, you must realize that true and lasting change always starts with what you believe and receive into your heart.

So the crux of the matter is this: do you believe that you are still righteous in God’s sight and that His grace is still available to you in abundant measure despite your imperfect behavior, emotions, and thoughts? Or do you wallow in guilt and condemnation and say, “I’m a hopeless sinner,” and believe that God has distanced Himself from you?

You never obtained righteousness by your works, so you can never lose it by your works.

Beloved, when you miss it, your response should be, “I am still the righteousness of God in Christ! I choose to receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness and I will reign in life!” Believing this is right believing that will lead to right living—the victorious, reigning kind of life!

But Pastor Prince, how can I be righteous when I’ve failed?

My friend, let me say this: no matter what you have done, you cannot lose your righteousness! Why? Because it’s a gift. You never obtained it by your works, so you can never lose it by your works. If you can lose it by your works, then it was never a gift to begin with!

Look at Romans 5:19:

For as by one man’s [Adam’s] disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s [Jesus’] obedience many will be made righteous.

You were made a sinner not because you sinned, but because of another’s sin—Adam’s disobedience. In the same manner, you were made righteous not because you did righteous deeds, but because of another’s righteous deed—Christ’s obedience at the cross.

Do you see it? When you were a sinner, your good works could not cause you to lose your “sinnerhood.” Likewise, now that you are righteous, your bad deeds cannot cause you to lose your righteousness. If it were possible, then what the first Adam did was more powerful than what the last Adam, Jesus, did! But the opposite is true—Romans 5 is all about how the work of Christ is “much more” than the work of Adam!

Just as Christ was made sin at the cross despite having done no wrong, you were made righteous in Christ despite having done no right.

So it is the obedience of Christ that has made you righteous. It has nothing to do with your obedience (good works). Just as Christ was made sin at the cross despite having done no wrong, you were made righteous in Christ despite having done no right. That’s why you cannot lose your righteousness even when you have failed. You have an “everlasting righteousness” (Dan. 9:24). If it’s everlasting, you cannot lose it!

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