The late Derek Prince did not treat the Bible as religious decoration. He preached that God’s Word works, changes, heals, cleanses and exposes the heart of every believer who receives it by faith.
In his sermon “8 Effects God’s Word Can Have in Your Life,” Prince said, “Paul said to the Thessalonians it works effectively in you because you believe it.”
Then he laid out eight specific ways Scripture transforms our lives.
1. God’s Word produces faith
Prince began with Romans 10:17: “So, then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”
That truth became personal during a long illness.
“I kept saying to myself, I know if I had faith God would heal me,” Prince said. “But the next thing I always said was: But I don’t have faith.”
Then Romans 10:17 broke through.
“If you don’t have it, you can get it,” Prince said. “You don’t need to stay without it. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.”
2. God’s Word produces the new birth
Prince said believers are born again through Scripture.
“Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of Truth,” Prince said, quoting James 1:18.
He then pointed to 1 Peter, saying, “It’s the seed of God’s Word received into the heart by faith that produces the new birth.”
Prince said the seed determines the life it produces.
“The Word of God is incorruptible,” he said. “And the life it produces is incorruptible. It’s divine, it’s holy, it’s eternal.”
3. God’s Word provides spiritual nourishment
Prince said Scripture feeds every stage of spiritual growth.
“When you’re just a little spiritual baby, you need milk,” he said.
But we are not meant to remain babies.
“To mature, you have to exercise your senses,” Prince said. “You have to practice. You have to apply the Word of God.”
He warned that knowledge alone does not produce maturity.
“If you never really seriously apply the Word of God, if you don’t live by the Word of God you will never become mature,” Prince said.
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4. God’s Word brings mental illumination
Prince turned to Psalm 119:130: “The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.”
He made a sharp distinction between education and spiritual light.
“Education is not light,” Prince said. “You can be educated and totally in the dark. How do I know? Because I was.”
Only Scripture brings true illumination.
“It’s only the entrance of God’s Word that gives light,” Prince said.
5. God’s Word provides physical healing
Prince said God’s Word saves, heals and delivers.
“He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions,” Prince said, quoting Psalm 107:20.
He then told believers not to put their trust in a preacher instead of the Lord.
“Without any preacher, you can be healed if you’ll receive God’s Word,” Prince said.
Prince said Proverbs 4:20-22 became the Scripture that brought him out of the hospital.
“God says: His words are life to those that find them and health to all their flesh,” he said.
Prince said he took God’s Word “as my medicine three times daily after every meal,” and it brought “complete and permanent healing.”
6. God’s Word gives victory over sin and Satan
Prince pointed to Psalm 119:9 and 11, saying God’s Word makes purity possible.
“Your Word have I hidden, or stored up, in my heart that I might not sin against you,” he said.
He also reminded believers that Jesus defeated Satan with Scripture.
“You’ll remember that we looked in Matthew 4, when Jesus encountered Satan; He only met him with one weapon: It is written,” Prince said.
7. God’s Word cleanses and sanctifies believers
Prince said Jesus cleanses His church through the Word.
“How will Jesus provide Himself with a bride who is holy and without blemish?” Prince asked. “Through the washing of water by the Word of God.”
He said redemption and cleansing work together.
“By the blood of His sacrifice He redeems us, but by the water of His Word He cleanses and sanctifies us,” Prince said. “We need both. We’re redeemed by the blood that we might be cleansed by the Word.”
8. God’s Word is a spiritual mirror
Prince closed by pointing to James 1:23-25.
“The Bible is a spiritual mirror,” he said. “When you look into it, it doesn’t show you your physical appearance; it shows you what you’re really like inside.”
The right response is obedience.
“You act on what you see in the mirror,” Prince said. “You need to see your spiritual self in it and act on whatever it shows you that you need to do.”
Prince’s message is simple, direct and needed: God’s Word is not passive. It produces faith, brings the new birth, nourishes our souls, gives light, heals, delivers, cleanses and shows us who we really are before God.
For those of us who have yet to enter paradise, the challenge is not whether Scripture still has power. It does. The question is whether we will receive it, believe it, obey it and allow the Holy Spirit to use it to transform every part of our lives.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
