One of the best ways to sum up the biblical motivation for what we do through our worldwide outreaches can be found in this extract from Derek Prince’s teaching titled Do You Realise How Valuable You Are?
In this teaching Derek focuses on The Parable of the Hidden Treasure as found in Matthew 13:44–46 and this is what he said:
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
If you think in terms of the history of the Middle East, how do you imagine that treasure got hidden in the field? Well, probably an invading army marched through at some time. A man who was afraid of losing his possessions went quickly into his field and buried his treasure. But who knows what might have happened next? War may have swept into the region and carried him away forever. He never got back, and the treasure lay buried in the field.
Years later, another man comes along and discovers the treasure. Let’s say that this man is very crafty. He does not tell anybody about it. He hides it. He covers it up. And then he goes and buys the field as though it is just an ordinary piece of property. Maybe he even pays a slightly excessive price. People marvel, “Why would he buy that field? There’s nothing in that field. It’s not worth what he paid for it.” But once he owns the field, he digs up the treasure, you see. And then people understand why he bought it.
And I want to say that man is Jesus. I know there are different ways of interpreting parables, but I want to interpret it this way.
That man is Jesus. The field the parables tell us is the world. Jesus died for the whole world. He paid the price for the whole world, but it isn’t the world He wants. It’s the treasure in the field.
What is the treasure? – It is God’s people.
Jesus was willing to pay the price for an apparently worthless field in order to get the treasure which is you and me. That’s how much He cares for you and me. That’s how much He thinks of us. That’s how much we mean to Him. We are not unimportant, we are not insignificant, we’re not worthless. We’re extremely valuable.
So valuable that Jesus gave His life to purchase us. God has no second-class children. You are important. You are very, very valuable to God. You’re special. Drop that cringing attitude. Drop that sense of worthlessness. You don’t have to apologise for being you.
It’s you that God wanted. He wanted you the way you are. But He won’t leave you that way. You’re not glorifying God by being so humble, because it’s not humility. Its an act of unbelief. You are a child of God if you’ve received Jesus by faith. You’re part of the treasure.
I think the ministry of the gospel is digging the treasure out. If Jesus bought the field, He leaves it to us to dig the treasure out. And when treasure has been under the earth for a long while it’s often corrupted and tarnished and that’s part of the ministry too, is to polish it up and clean it up.
Derek Prince believed that this is the ministry God had given him – to polish up the treasure that has been long underground.
From preaching sermons in a local church, to writing books, speaking at large gatherings of believers and airing on Christian radio and TV stations around the world, God used Derek Prince’s anointed and clear Bible teachings to aid the spiritual growth of millions of Christians around the globe.
Today, Derek’s ministry of digging out and polishing treasures that have been underground is being carried out by hundreds of our Outreach workers, volunteers and Derek Prince Ministries supporters like you who continue to make the legacy of Derek’s teaching available to spiritually hungry believers in over 147 countries.
Thank you for being a treasured partner in our ministry of reaching the unreached and teaching the untaught.
