Benjamin Generation (4 page)

Only Joseph and Benjamin had the same father and mother. That means that though all Christians share the same Father, they don’t all share the same mother.

Let me explain that. We all know who our Father is, right? God, of course. So who are the mothers? They are Rachel and Leah. And what do the two mothers represent? Rachel represents grace, while Leah represents the law.

There are some Christians who believe that we are still under the Ten Commandments. These Christians have Leah as their mother. But we, the Benjamin Generation, believe that God found fault with the old covenant, found fault with the law and He has established the new covenant of grace. Therefore, we have Rachel as our mother.

Unfortunately, some of those Christians who don’t share the same mother as us, the Benjamin Generation, will persecute us. Remember that Ishmael, who was born of human performance, persecuted Isaac, who was born of promise. It is the same today. Those who insist on being under the law will persecute those who are under grace.

These same people accuse us of always preaching grace. They ask, “Why do you always talk about grace, grace, grace? Don’t you know that God demands obedience?” They say that God demands that we obey the law. They accuse us of preaching “cheap grace”. They think that if you don’t give people the law, they will go out and do crazy things.

They say that when we preach grace, we are giving people license to sin.

Because Jesus gave us the gift of no

condemnation, we have the power to

go and sin no more.

Let me say this again: When people experience God’s grace, sin will have no dominion over them. Just look at what happened to the woman who was caught in adultery and brought to Jesus by the Pharisees. What did Jesus tell that woman? Most people will say, “He told her to go and sin no more.” He did, but what did He say before that? He said, “Neither do I condemn you.” (John 8:11)

Before we have the power to go and sin no more, we need to know that He does not condemn us. Because Jesus gave this woman the gift of no condemnation, she had the power to go and sin no more.

Isn’t that beautiful? When we experience Jesus, we experience His grace that brings supernatural transformation. It is us, the Benjamin Generation, the ones who share the same Father and mother as Joseph, a type of Christ, who will experience His goodness that leads us to repentance. It is the Benjamin Generation who will experience this supernatural and lasting transformation.

Worshipping Our Heavenly Joseph
When we experience His goodness, our natural response is to worship Him. When we realize that Jesus is the reason for our blessing, our natural response should be to tell the Father all about Jesus’

goodness.

When Joseph revealed his true identity to his brothers and told them about God’s plan to bless them, he could not wait for them to tell his father Jacob about it. His command to them was, “… tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.” (Genesis 45:13) True worship is telling the Father of Jesus’ glory.

Whatever we hear preached to us, whatever we have seen in the Word, Jesus wants us to bring it back to the Father and say, “Oh, Father, the Lord Jesus is so beautiful! He is so full of grace, so full of mercy, so full of tender loving-kindness. How can I not love Him!”

True worship does not flow out of

emotions, but redemption.

When we talk like that, it is true worship. Worship is bringing Jesus to the Father. He is our burnt offering, our meal offering, our peace offering, our sin offering and our trespass offering. His work on the cross is so beautiful that it takes five offerings to represent what He did. And when you bring Jesus to the Father, when you extol His finished work on the cross, the Father is pleased. And He accepts you.

Don’t misunderstand me. We are not accepted by what we do. We are blessed and accepted only because of what Jesus has done. True worship points back to what He has done.

The Benjamin Generation will be a generation that offers true worship — worship that exalts Jesus’

finished work. And true worship does not flow out of emotions, but out of redemption.

The End-Time Blessings!

Get Ready To Receive

I know that God wants to unleash His blessings on us in these end times. I know this because God is releasing this truth about the Benjamin Generation.

So get ready to receive! When the 10 brothers first met Joseph in Egypt, they were imprisoned. But the moment Benjamin came to Egypt, there was no more jail-house talk. Grace was released and blessings followed!

Instead of prison food, they were welcomed into the palace for a feast. Their brother Joseph threw the feast for them. He had earlier declared that unless Benjamin came into his presence, he would not entertain them and there would be no bread.

(Genesis 43:3–5) So when the brothers brought his youngest brother to him, Joseph’s first instruction was “serve the bread”. (Genesis 43:31) Today, our heavenly Joseph is giving instructions to serve the bread. So Benjamin Generation, get ready for His end-time blessings! It’s time for the feast!

Blessings For Israel

These end-time blessings are not just for the church, they are also for the Jewish people. God has so much blessing, He is pouring it out on both the seeds of Abraham — the natural seed and the spiritual seed.

Joseph didn’t just bless Benjamin, he also blessed his 10 brothers. He gave instructions for the sacks of his 10 brothers to be filled with grain as well as the money which they had paid for the grain. These 10

brothers represent the Jewish people. Most Jews are still living under the old covenant, under the Ten Commandments. Yet, they are still blessed.

When Joseph’s brothers returned for more grain, they told the steward, “We do not know who put our money in our sacks.” (Genesis 43:22) Although the Jews are blessed, many of them don’t know who is blessing them. They are a minority race, yet their achievements are beyond that of any other race.

They have Nobel prize winners, key players in the movie industry, financial giants… the list is extensive and impressive.

Tithing will affect your future generations.

That is why Hitler opposed them. He was jealous because no matter where the Jews went, they would end up becoming rich. The natural seed of Abraham always seems to end up with money. And yet they don’t know who put the money in their sacks. But we know who is blessing them. It is Jesus, the heavenly Joseph. He is blessing them because of their father Abraham.

Now, Abraham was a tither. He gave a tenth of all he had to Melchizedek, who was the pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. This act affected his future generations. Paul said, “Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.” (Hebrews 7:9–10) When I read this, I wondered how this was possible. Levi was the great-grandson of Abraham. He was one of Benjamin’s brothers, so how could he have paid tithes through Abraham?

Then, the Lord told me, “Son, tithing will affect your future generations.” When Abraham tithed, God counted it as if his great-grandson Levi had tithed as well. And for that, Levi was blessed. Can you imagine, when I tithe, my little daughter Jessica gets blessed too!

Folks, please understand that this does not mean that you can buy the blessings of God. You cannot buy God’s blessings. You cannot bribe Him. God blesses you freely because He chooses to. When you tithe, when you give Him a tenth of what you have, you are just honouring Him. And when you honour Him, you are blessed. And more than that, when you tithe, God treats it as if your future generations have tithed.

And He blesses them as well!

Sadly, although the Jewish people are financially blessed by God, Israel as a nation has rejected their Saviour. God showed a picture of this rejection in the binding of Simeon. When Joseph told his brothers to bring Benjamin to Egypt, he bound Simeon and kept him imprisoned until Benjamin returned.

Of all the brothers, why did Joseph pick Simeon? It was strategic, it was a prophetic act. You see, Simeon means “hearing”. By that act, Joseph was prophesying that the hearing of the Jewish people would be bound for a while. And when Jesus was born, God wanted to release hearing to His people.

An old man by the name of Simeon came to the temple and prophesied over the baby Jesus. (Luke 2:25–35) But the Jewish people still refused to heed the prophecy pointing to Jesus as their Messiah. Even today, when you talk about Jesus, most of the Jewish people refuse to hear.

But do you know what? God’s heart is tender towards His people. When Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, fear gripped them. And so he spoke to them with tenderness:

Genesis 45:5,7–8

5But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life… 7And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

8So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Our heavenly Joseph will not condemn His people.

Although they have rejected Him, He responds to them with tenderness.

Blessings For The Church
If God blesses the natural seed of Abraham, even though they have rejected Him, how much more will He bless the church! The devil has tried to keep the church poor for a long time. He wants us to believe that holiness means having holes in our shoes! And he has succeeded for a period of time. That’s why we have the saying “as poor as a church mouse”. But no more! God wants the end-time church to be prosperous.

He wants the Benjamin Generation to experience both spiritual and financial blessings. Let me ask you this: If you see a five-dollar note and a hundred-dollar note on the floor, which one would you pick up? I once asked someone this and he looked at me uncertainly. I said, “You would pick up both, right?”

“Yyyyesss!” he stammered. He was afraid to say “Yes”

because he was an honest man and he wouldn’t want to take someone else’s money.

Of course, if you see money on the floor and it belongs to someone else, please return it to the person. I only use this illustration to prove a point.

And the point is that some Christians are wasting time arguing about whether God wants to bless us spiritually or materially. Well, the answer is both!

Take all the spiritual blessings and on top of that, God wants to give us material blessings as well. Who do you think placed all the sapphires, diamonds, rubies and other precious minerals in the earth? The devil? No, the devil cannot create a single thing! He can only pervert what God has created. It is your heavenly Father who is the creator of all these good things.

Joseph also gave his brothers clothing. Now, men, don’t be afraid to say it: “Wow! Clothing! Armani suits! Silk ties!” Joseph knew the value of quality clothes. His father had given him a coat of many colours when he was much younger. Now, here is something interesting — Benjamin received five times more than his brothers! He was also given 300

pieces of silver. And that was only for the journey home!

Joseph also sent back with them 10 donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt. Let’s be honest, folks, the good things of Egypt are not the good things of Canaan. The good things of Egypt are literally the good things of the world. They are not spiritual blessings, they are material possessions that the world desires. So God loads us even with these benefits. Now, I like that! That’s the only type of “fit”

I’d ever want — a benefit!

Blessings — A Key To Spiritual Revival
You will find that when God blesses us, the world takes notice and begins to realize that Jesus is alive.

This is what happened to Jacob.

Genesis 45:26–28, KJV

26And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob’s heart fainted, for he believed them not. 27And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived: 28And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.

When Jacob’s sons told him that Joseph was alive, at first, he didn’t believe them. It was only when he saw the wagons — the evidence of the blessings — that he believed. Like Jacob, the world needs to see God’s goodness in and through us. The evidence of God’s blessings in our lives helps them believe in a good God. And the Bible says that Jacob’s spirit was revived. There is a lesson here. How do you have a spiritual revival? By letting the world see God’s blessings in your life.

Some of you will say, “Pastor Prince, this is not talking of a spiritual revival.” But the Bible says Jacob’s spirit was revived when he saw the wagons.

Look at what happened to Jacob after his spirit was revived. The Holy Spirit changed his name to Israel.

Material blessings are an important

key to spiritual revival.

The name Jacob means “supplanter” or “deceiver”.

He received this name because during his birth, he held on to his brother’s heel and he tried to overtake his older twin. (Genesis 25:26) Later, he ended up cheating his brother Esau of his birthright and blessing. (Genesis 27:36) But after Jacob had an encounter with God, he was given the name Israel, which means “prince with God”. (Genesis 32:28) Then, in Genesis 45, after Jacob’s spirit was revived, the Holy Spirit purposely used the name Israel. Why would God suddenly start calling him Israel? The reason is that God wanted to show us that Jacob had become a believer again. He saw the wagons — the evidence of the blessings — and he believed. This tells me that material blessings are an important key to spiritual revival.