The Spirit of Grace
and Power
Zac Poonen:
I want to speak today
on grace and power in the Holy Spirit. I want to begin with the first promise
in the New Testament.
Yesterday I
mentioned, that when we come to the Word of God, if we don’t come with an open
mind, we may not see new truths.
We’ll see the old truths again and again, and
perhaps new illustrations to explain the old truths.
But
if I come to God’s Word thinking that I’ve already understood everything God
has to show me, I can miss something new God has for me. And one of the things
I decided many years ago was that I’d always let God change my thinking if
there was something I had not understood properly, that He would correct it and
lead me into that, which was correct; that He’d help me to understand His ways,
even if it brought me into conflict with a lot
of, what is known as Christianity. Now you’ve got to be willing to pay that
price….if God sees in any of our hearts, the desire to find security in people
around us and not in Him alone, He won’t lead us on. If He sees in us a slight
desire to please someone……do you know what the Word of God says? "If I
seek to please men, I cannot be the servant of Christ." So I want to invite you, to
open your minds, as you hear and say, "Lord, show me,
is this your Word or not? Correct my thinking. Lead me, in the path which is
right." And let God convince you. Very often when I speak to people, they
say, "Yes, I’m gripped…." And I say, "Hang on.
You’re convinced
because I said it. And you’ve got some respect for me. Take that before God.
You got it second-hand from me. Take it before God and make it first-hand.
Let Him convince you from His Word. And then
you’ll never shake."
Okay, the first
promise in the New Testament is found in Matthew 1, in verse 21.
The very first promise in the New Testament,
where the angel told Joseph that this little baby that is going to be born to
Mary, "His name shall be called Jesus," because, "He will save
His people from their sins." That’s the first promise in the New Testament.
"He will save His people from their sins." And that’s why His name is
Jesus. Many people who use the name Jesus don’t know why He is called Jesus.
Here the angel explains it. "His name shall be called Jesus because He
will save His people from their sins." Now we use the word
"save" very frequently. And very often, we equate being
"saved" with being forgiven. Now that’s not true. And that’s the
distinction I want to make here. This is a new covenant. As soon as you come to this, the previous
page says, New Testament. It’s a new covenant. This is something new, which
they didn’t have in the Old Testament.
They had forgiveness
in Old Testament. Psalm 103, a thousand years before Christ was born, David
said, "Bless the Lord, Oh my soul and forget not all His benefits; One who
forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who crowns your life
with good things…." That’s
material blessing. They had forgiveness from sins, healing from sickness, material
blessing, in the Old Testament. What they didn’t have, was being saved from
sin. That’s why the New Testament begins, with this as the very first promise.
This is the
distinctive feature of the New Covenant! David could not say, "Bless the
Lord, Oh my soul, who saves me from sin in my life…." No…He could only say
"God forgives me."
What is the difference of me being forgiven
and being saved from sin?
Now very often when
we talk about being saved, we talk about being saved from the wrath of God.
That’s in a moment, when we accept Jesus as our Saviour, without any work…
"Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling…" That’s the
only way to be saved from the wrath of God. That is salvation from the penalty
of sin. But now there is another salvation, from the power of sin. And that’s
what it’s speaking of here. One day in the future, we’ll be saved from the
presence of sin, altogether. That’s future. But right now, in between the time
I was born-again, and the time Jesus comes again, I am to be saved from the
power of sin. That’s what’s being spoken of here.
To use a illustration – If my little five-year
old son was going outside the house, and I said, "Son, be careful, they’re
digging up the road there, they made a big, huge eight-foot pit there and don’t
go anywhere near it." And like little boys are, they disobey. And he falls
into the pit and says, "Daddy!" And I come running and I say,
"What’s the matter son?" And he says, "Well Daddy, I’m sorry, I
disobeyed you." He’s there in the pit… And I say, "Okay son, you’re
forgiven, goodbye." I want to ask you a question. Have I forgiven him?
Have I saved him? That’s the difference. That’s the difference between the Old
Covenant and the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, they were forgiven, but
they will still in the pit. They had to keep offering sacrifices everyday. But
now with One Sacrifice, it says, it’s all over.
We cannot only be
forgiven, we can be saved. "You shall call His name, "Jesus", because,
it’s not He will forgive their sins, but "He will save His people, from their
sins." He will save His people from their dirty thoughts, and lustful
thinking, and from their anger and from their bitterness against their wives
and husbands and from jealousy and strife and every other form of evil. That’s
why we call Him, Jesus! That’s the message of the New Covenant! And if you
haven’t experienced it, it’s because the god of this world, the devil, has
blinded our eyes, to the full gospel. See, this is an expression that is used a
lot in the world today, "Full Gospel". People say we’re a "Full
Gospel" Church. But what’s the full gospel? It’s being saved from our
sins. It’s no use saying we’re a "Full Gospel" Church if people
living inside there are still defeated by sin. Whatever gift of the Spirit they
may have. Jesus came to save us from sin. That is the Full Good News. That I’m
not only saved from the wrath of God, but I can be saved from this, wretched,
sinful flesh of mine that has kept pulling me down, down, down, for so many
years.
You know, I have
heard of a particular lunatic asylum, where they give a little test to see whether a man has
come back to his senses or not. They put him in a room with a tap open, a
faucet open, and the water flowing, and they give him a bucket and a mop to dry
the floor. And if he tries to dry the floor without first closing the tap, they
know he still needs to stay there a little longer. It’ll never end! He’ll be mopping
the floor all his life! But you know, that’s what Christians do with the Blood
of Jesus Christ. It never ends! We’re mopping, and mopping , and mopping…..
well, that’s at least good news that we’ve got a mop and a bucket, but I want
to say, the gospel is even better to use than that. God can do something about
that "tap". Otherwise, it really wouldn’t be "Good News"!
If all that God could say to me was, "Well, you’re going to be forgiven,
but you’re going to be defeated by the same old lusts, all your life." I’d
say, "Well, thank you Lord, but I’d hoped it would be better than
that." And it is better than that. "You shall call His name,
"Jesus", because He shall save His people from their sins." The
very first promise, as soon as you turn, to the pages of the New Testament. But
we missed it! We thought it was all genealogy. "Somebody begat so and so,
and somebody begat so and so….." And you didn’t come to this verse. And
you turned over, and rushed through. But this is the very first promise in the
New Testament. Salvation from sin.
I want to turn to
Hebrews in chapter 4, we read verse 15 and 16; "We don’t have a High
Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,…" In other words, to put
it in a positive way, "We have a High Priest, who can sympathize with our
weaknesses. Why? "…because He was tempted in all points, as we are, yet
without sin."
Now I’m sure that God
can sympathize with us, even without having become a man, because He’s God.
But, you know, we’d always feel, "Well you don’t really understand what
I’m going through." You know it’s like a really wealthy man, goes to a
slum and says, "Well, I really feel sorry for you folks, and here’s a
little money."
They’ll never feel
that he understands what they’re going through. "He lives in his palace up
there; he’s a multi-millionaire…what does he know about living in the
slums?" He may be a sincere person. Very affectionate, very compassionate.
But those people in the slums will never feel that he understands them. And that’s
why God became a man. He came into this slum. That’s the Good News. He loved us
so much. That He came into this filthy slum, and lived here, and….. Wonder of
Wonders; "He was tempted in all points," as you and I are.
I remember the first time my eyes were open to
this truth. And interestingly enough, it was about fifteen years after I was
born again. You know, Jesus once spoke about the ladder that Jacob saw. Jacob
once had a dream where he saw a ladder going up to Heaven and the angels of God
descending and ascending upon that ladder, and in John chapter 1 when Jesus spoke
to Nathaniel, He said that that ladder was Himself. He said, "I say unto
you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of Man." And I always thought that that ladder,
which came all the way from Heaven, stopped a little short, of down at my
level. I thought, "Jesus couldn’t possibly have come right down to my
level, to be like me…" And the day my eyes were open to that glorious
truth, that, like it says in Hebrews 2:17, "He had to be made like His brothers,
in all things." He became like me. I wept tears of joy. I said,
"Lord, I never knew you loved me so much. I never knew, that you loved me,
to become exactly like me, to lift me from the pit in which I was. That last
rung of the ladder came all the way down to earth. It didn’t stop, some ten
feet above me. Now many people can’t think of that; that Jesus could become
just like me. That He could be tempted just like me. They feel it robs Him of
some of His glory. It’s not true. I live in a country that’s had a lot of Godly
missionaries that have come from Western countries, including the United
States, and I praise God for Godly men and women who’ve come there, and who’ve
sacrificed and suffered for people in my country. And I’ve said to people in our
land, I said, "Supposing a missionary from the United States where they
live in such great comfort, comes to our land and lives in a
five-star hotel, and visits the slum everyday, and preaches the gospel…well,
that still would be a sacrifice. But think of another missionary who comes from
a similar wealthy background and comes and lives in that slum. Whom would you
admire more? Would you despise this person because he lived in the slum?
No."
The glory of Jesus
became greater, when I saw that He became just like me. And that He was tempted
like me, on every single point…..I wouldn’t believe it, if it were not written
in scripture, and He didn’t sin. Now I don’t want to try and analyze that. I
just want to find the comfort I get from that. That when I’m tempted, I could
now say, "Lord Jesus, sometime in your walk in Nazareth, in those thirty
years you were tempted just like I am being tempted right now.
Give me the grace to
react and resist this temptation the way you did, when you walked in Nazareth." You know
in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant/New Covenant differences, the many
differences, one of them is this: The Old Covenant was full of commandments,
"Thou shalt….Thou shalt not….. Thou shalt…. Thou shalt not…." And so
on. That was good. But in the New Covenant, God gave us an example, who said,
"Follow Me.." Now supposing, none of you knew how to swim. And here I
wanted to teach you how to swim, and there are two ways to teach you. One is to
draw diagrams on the blackboard – how to move your hands and legs, and then
say, "Okay fellows, go jump in the river now and remember what you saw on
the blackboard……"
That was the Old Covenant. Absolutely accurate – those diagrams were perfect!
How to move our hands and how breathe in and out and everything….Wouldn’t it be
better, the second method, where I say, "Come along with me to the
river," and I jump in and say, "Follow me". That’s the New
Covenant. That’s why Hebrews says the New Covenant is better than the Old
Covenant. Jesus never gave us a lot of commandments like Moses, He said,
"Follow Me…I’ve been tempted like you…" There’s not a single
temptation any of us can ever face, which He
hasn’t faced, and He overcame; He never sinned! Now, we’ve got to read
scripture carefully– It doesn’t say He faced all the circumstances we face;
no…. He didn’t have a drunken father….He didn’t have a nagging wife….He didn’t
have difficult children…. He didn’t face the temptations to impatience we face,
with other drivers on the road. It’s the same in Nigeria by the way – it’s
actually worse. We have cows and dogs and everyone on the road – and we’ve got
a lot more patience then you all over here. He didn’t face our circumstances.
The Bible doesn’t say; it’s not necessary. But the temptations that come in
those circumstances– He faced them. You don’t have to face the same
circumstances.
The temptation to be
irritated, the temptation to be impatient, the temptation to be angry;
He faced them all,
and He overcame. And He says, "Follow Me…..Look at my example". And I
want to say , in my personal testimony, in the last twenty-five years, since I saw
this truth; And I’m sorry that it took me fifteen years after I was born again
to see it; is when I am tempted,
I say, "Lord, you were tempted like this,
exactly like this….." Maybe a temptation to compromise, maybe a temptation
to please some man; it may be a temptation to lust, it may be a temptation to
get angry, it may be a temptation to anything…..I go to Hebrews 4, "You
were tempted like me and you didn’t sin. I want to do the same thing. I want to
see your footsteps. And I want to plant my feet in your footsteps the way you
walked in Nazareth." And I want to tell you, it works.
Now I want to go to
the next verse, Hebrews 4, verse 16, because it goes on from there. He says,
"Therefore, "And like someone said, whenever you see a therefore in
scripture, see what it is there for. What’s a therefore? Why does it say
therefore? Because it’s connected to the previous verse. "Therefore, let
us, (because we have a high priest, who can sympathize with us,)" who has
walked this way, who was tempted like us, who became like us in everything, and
who understands the struggle, who understands the need to resist sin unto
blood, like it says in Hebrews 12:3,
who faced such a great contradiction of sinners against Himself, Hebrews 12:3,
4. Let’s look unto Him and run this race. "Let us therefore draw near with
great boldness, to the Throne of Grace, that we may receive mercy, and that we
may find grace."
We need two things:
Mercy and Grace.
Mercy is an Old
Covenant word. You don’t find grace in the Old Covenant. Even in the one or two
places where it says, "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" What
it means is he found favour. It’s not speaking about that grace which only came
through Jesus Christ, according to John 1:17. There was no grace in the Old
Testament.
There are people who
say grace means the "undeserved favour of God". Now I beg to disagree
with that definition, because everyone in the Old Testament got the undeserved
favour of God. Nobody gets favour that they deserve. Every human being, right
from Abel’s time, got undeserved favour. Grace means more than that.
Mercy, that’s an Old
Covenant word, it refers to forgiveness. Jesus never needed mercy. We need
mercy.
Because we’ve all
sinned. The best of us have sinned, and we will probably sin until Jesus comes
again, in one way or another – we could slip up anytime. We don’t have to, but
we might and we often do. We need mercy; that’s the first thing we need when we
come to God – mercy – that deals with our past. But we now need something that
deals with our future, and that’s grace. Now for many years, I never knew the
difference between mercy and grace; I thought these were just interchangeable
words. I’ve discovered, they’re not interchangeable words.
Mercy is Old
Covenant and grace is New Covenant. We have mercy and grace in the New
Covenant. And so, mercy, first of all, to blot out my past, so that the guilt
of my past doesn’t hang over my head, mercy that justifies me , and
justification is another word, which is more than forgiveness! I never
understood the meaning of that for a long time. To be forgiven, that was
wonderful, but to be justified…..And this is how the Lord showed that to me.
It’s like I’m standing in a court, accused of thousands of wrongs, and crimes
that I’ve committed, and the judge listens to all that the prosecutor has to
say against me – the Law of God is the prosecutor. And I’m
guilty of all of them. And the judge has mercy on me and says, "Okay,
you’re forgiven." I walk out, happy. But as I walk out, and as I see the
crowd outside the courthouse, I walk out happy, but with my head hanging down,
because I’m a criminal. I’m a murderer, an adulterer, a thief. That’s
forgiveness, I’m forgiven, I’m free. I don’t have to go to jail. Now, consider
another scenario. Here I am, standing before the judge, and he examines
carefully, all the charges, he examines all the witnesses, and says,
"These are all false charges! There’s
nothing wrong with this person, he never did any of these things! He can go
free." This time I walk out of the court hall with my head lifted up.
That’s the meaning of justification. It’s unbelievable! That God Almighty,
against whom I’ve committed so many sins, could not only forgive me, but
declare me righteous.
Look upon me as
though I’ve never sinned in all my life. It’s unbelievable, but it’s true! And
if you believe it, you will say, "My glory and the lifter of my
head!" That’s what God is! He lifts up our head. There’s no need for a single
sinner forgiven by Jesus to walk with his head hanging down, no. We’re not only
forgiven, we’re justified.
And never forget that,
brother and sister. Today God delights over us with shouts of joy! We’re
forgiven, justified. But there’s more….. what about this flesh of mine? That’s
always dragging me down, and down, and down. Is there an answer for that? There
certainly is. God offers us grace. I want to go back for a moment to Matthew’s
gospel again. We looked at the first promise in the New Testament. Do you know
what the second promise in the New Testament is? That’s also interesting. The
first promise is "He will save His people from their sins." The
second, Matthew 3:11, " He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
fire."
Do you know that the New
Testament begins with two promises? The very first two promises of the New
Covenant – don’t miss either of them. 1. "He will save His people from
their sins." And 2. "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
fire."
And the devil has
made sure he’s got people scared of both. If somebody talks about being saved
from sin, "Oh – holiness, this is dangerous teaching, perfection".
Baptism of the Holy Spirit, "Oh – those are those fanatics who go do crazy
things". And what’s the result? He’s killed two birds with one stone. He’s
got some people off on a fanatic extreme, and he’s got other people reacting to
that, and not wanting this truth at all. I remember what God said to me once
concerning different doctrines. What the Lord said to me was, "Don’t let
your understanding of a doctrine, ever be a reaction to the extremes you see in
certain Christians." Get your understanding from God’s Word. Forget the
extremes and the fanaticism that you see in others. Because I got turned off
from the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, because I saw a lot of fanaticism. I’m not
a Pentecostal, I’m not a Charismatic, I never have been, I’ve never belonged to
those churches. I always wanted to be a Christian, experiencing everything the
New Testament offers. I remember once, when I was seeking God for this, I said,
"Lord, I don’t want what I see around here. I want what Peter, James and
John got on the day of Pentecost. I want that."
That’s the second promise of the New Testament. It’s for me. Let a million
people go to the fanatic extremes; I’m not bothered! I get what God’s Word
promises me, what Peter, James and John got on the Day of Pentecost, which transformed
their lives and I said, "I want that. I want power." And do you know
the Holy Spirit is called a Spirit of Grace, in Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 29,
He’s called a Spirit of Grace. And that is, grace comes to us through the Holy
Spirit. What is baptism? Baptism is immersion, to be immersed in the Spirit of Grace.
Why should anyone be afraid of that? That’s the very thing we need! I need an
immersion!
A drenching of the
Spirit of Grace! There are two ways we can be immersed: One is, you go into a
river, and the other is, a flood of water, falling down from Heaven. If I stand
under a river flowing down, I can be drenched. And that’s what the Holy Spirit
is….. The River of God, flows down from Heaven and I stand under it, and I get
drenched, and it’s grace, all the way. Grace, Grace, Grace. And grace is not
"Undeserved favor". Grace is power . Now I want to show you that from
scripture. I don’t want you to ever believe what I say if I cannot show it to
you from scripture! 2
Corinthians , chapter 12. Paul says about a time in his life when God allowed
him to suffer a thorn in the flesh. And he asked the Lord to take it away from
him, and the Lord said to him, 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient
for you. For my power is perfected in weakness." What is my grace? It’s my
power. It’s the same thing. "My grace is enough for you because my grace,
or in other words, my power, is made perfect in your weakness." And Paul
understood that. He says, "Well, then I’m okay. I’m alright because the
power of Christ is going to rest on me." That’s what grace is. And when
God says , "My grace is sufficient for you," what it means is,
"My grace is sufficient to handle anything that you’ll ever face in your
life." If I send my son to the shop to buy something worth five hundred
naira, I give him five hundred naira. But If I send him to the shop to buy
something worth a thousand naira, he can’t buy it with five hundred naira, he
needs a thousand naira. So I give him a thousand.
That’s what it means
when it says, "My grace is sufficient for you." Exactly according to
what your need is. Is the pressure very great? Grace is going to be very great.
Is it a thousand naira you need? You’ll get that. My grace is sufficient for
you. I praise God for this, that there will never be a situation, I ever face
in life, where the Lord won’t give me enough to pay the bill. Praise the Lord
for this! This is the Good News! There is no temptation that’s going to be too
strong for me. There’s no giant in Canaan’s land, that’s not going to come under
my feet. Not one. Sin shall not have dominion over you, because you are not
under law, but are under grace! You’re not
under the Old Covenant, you’re under the New Covenant. You’re not just one
receiving mercy, but you’re receiving grace. I want to show you another verse.
It’s not so well known, unfortunately, as, "My grace is sufficient for
you." "My grace is sufficient for you" has been popularized
throughout the world. It’s a very famous verse on grace. But I’ve discovered
another verse, which is a much fuller statement on grace, and I think it’s the
most wonderful statement on grace in the whole Bible. I don’t know how many of
you have noticed it, in 2 Corinthians 9:8, it says here that "God is able
to make all grace abound to you, that always, having all sufficiency, in
everything, you may have abundance for every good deed."
Here are seven times,
you get a picture of totality, do you notice that? All grace, abound, always,
all sufficiency, everything, abundance, every good deed. I’ve never seen a
verse like this in the whole Bible. Seven times! All grace, is going to abound
to you! Always, not just sufficiency, but all-sufficiency. Not just in most
things, in everything. And, for every good deed, He’s going to
give me two-million dollars, when I need only a hundred. An abundance! This is
the Gospel! That’s why a Christian is to be an over comer, in every situation.
You know, how
Ephesians 6 describes the Christian? Beautiful! Ephesians 6:13, it says,
"Having overcome everything, you’ll be able to resist in the evil day,
having overcome everything, to stand firm." No matter what the situation –
sister, are all your six children sick at the same time? "God is able to
make all grace abound towards you, that always, having all sufficiency in everything,
you may have an abundance for every good deed" for all those six children,
and still be able to greet your husband with a happy face when he comes home from
work. That’s grace. Is it possible? No? Well, according to your faith, be it
unto you. But if you say, "YES!"
According to your
faith, be it unto you. The answer is the same. I think of that story, where two
blind men went to Jesus, and Jesus asked them, you know the story, in Matthew
chapter 9, "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, and they
said, "We want our eyes to be open." And then he asked them a
question, "Do you believe, that I am able to do this for you?"
He didn’t ask them, "Do you believe that
if you just try a little harder, you could see a little bit?" That’s not
what He asked them. "Do you believe that if you just try a little harder,
you could overcome that
sin?" That’s not what He’s asking! That’s like asking a blind man,
"Can you just try, try opening one eye just a little bit, see if you can
see a little?" That’s not the gospel. Do you believe that Jesus said that,
"I am able to do this for you?" It’s got nothing to do with your
ability. It’s got to do with whether you are willing to let Jesus do a work in
your life or not. And I’ve thought, one blind man goes first into the room and
he says, "Well, Lord, I mean, I’ll be happy if you’ll open just one eye.
That will be enough for me, I could see the road, And I could walk around and I believe that you
can open one eye." And the Lord says to him, "According to
your faith, be it unto you." And he goes out with one eye open, and he’s
so happy! Now the other blind man goes in, and the Lord asks him, "Do you
believe I can do this for you?" He says, "Sure! I want both eyes
open!" And He says, "According to your faith, be it unto you."
And He goes out with two eyes open. Now you have these two blind men. And now
this first man says, "Hey, this is heresy! Jesus opens only one eye…..how
in the world did you get two eyes open?" Does Jesus give forgiveness and
victory? No! Only one eye. And he starts the One Eye Denomination. And he gets
a whole lot of people who have faith that Jesus can open one eye, in that
church. And here’s this other one, it’s usually smaller, of a few people,
who’ve got both eyes open, and they are dubbed as heretics and false teachers,
because they preach that Jesus opens two eyes. This is what’s happened for two
thousand years.
Now I want to say to
you, brothers and sisters, you can have your choice – which one you want to
join.
According to your
faith; not only according to Jesus’ ability, No….. If it were only according to
Jesus’ ability, we’d all have both eyes open! But it’s according to your faith
also, be it unto you. For years, I belonged to the One Eye Denomination; after
I was born-again, I was on my way to heaven, my sins were all forgiven. But
that was about all. I had the mop, I had the bucket, and the tap was always
open. ‘Till God had mercy on me. You know, I’ve discovered one thing; you don’t
understand scripture, you don’t get new revelations on scripture by study. You get
new revelation of Jesus, when you have a new need in your life! It’s not by
sitting and studying Greek, and Hebrew……I don’t know Greek and Hebrew, but I
have needs in my life. And I said, "Lord, is there an answer to this need
in my life?" And without any knowledge in Greek and Hebrew, He showed me
that, "Sin need not have dominion over me." And I want to say to you,
my brothers and sisters, I don’t care what sin it is in your life; Jesus can deliver you
from it. It doesn’t matter which it is. I just told you yesterday , how as a
young man I struggled with lustful thoughts, and nobody ever told me what I
could do about that, and as I told you yesterday, I thought everybody preaching
up there had no problems with lustful thoughts, and I thought it was only me.
That’s what I thought! I thought, "Oh my, why me? Why am I always
struggling with these thoughts? Is it because I’m a maniac?" It’s because
I didn’t know the way. I was forgiven. The tap was open, and I was
mopping, mopping,
mopping, mopping…….’til I found something better. That Jesus could not only
forgive me, He could deliver me from the power of sin. When I was too weak to
deliver myself. Through the Holy Spirit! And I thought of this, you know, this
verse came to me at that time; God delivers only people who seek for victory like
this; I want you to read this verse, in Exodus, Chapter 2, in verse 23, in the
middle of that verse, it says, "The sons of Israel sighed, because of
their , and they cried out. And their cry for help, because of their , rose up
to God." I want to ask you, my brothers and sisters, how many of you have
sighed, because you were defeated by sin? Wept
at night and said, "Oh Lord……there I lost my temper again. Lord! There I
lusted with my eyes again." Who sighed! There are a lot people who don’t
sigh! No wonder they don’t get delivered! The children of Israel sighed. You
know sighing is more than crying; it’s crying and saying, "Oh……when will I
ever be free from this ?" "And their cry for help, rose up to
God". And it rises up, even today. And it says, "And God heard their
groaning," and He hears the groaning even today. Here and there…..not
among many of his people.
Most believers are
content in their defeated position. But here and there He hears some……crying
out for an immersion, a baptism in the Holy Spirit of Grace and Power. Verse
24, "And God remembered His covenant, in that day with Abraham," and
today, through Jesus. Through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant. God remembers
that. "And He saw the Sons of Israel, and He took notice of them, and He
delivered them." And He’s the same today. But He waits……for us to sigh,
and cry.
Now I want to turn
back to Hebrews, in chapter 4, where we saw, "that we may receive
mercy," That’s what He does for us, first of all, and then, "that we
may find grace to help us in our time of need." And our time of need is,
in the context of verse 15, when we are tempted! My need is not for more money,
to get a better car, or better house….. These are the stupid things being
preached, in Christendom today, unfortunately. My need is to be delivered from
this wretched nature I inherited from Adam, from sin. And when I’m delivered
from that, all the other things will fall into their proper place. So,
"Help in time of need," is when I’m tempted! Now, imagine, a mountain
climber. Someone, who feels he’s an expert at climbing mountains, and at one
particular place, he slips, and he’s hanging on by his fingers, over the
cliff….but he’s too proud to ask for help, because, "I’m an expert."
And he falls to the bottom. Then he has to ask for help, and the ambulance
comes along and picks him up. That’s forgiveness of sins. We fall, we say,
"Oh Lord, please forgive me." And the ambulance is always there,
Mercy. Takes me, fixes me up, and I go mountain climbing again. And again, I ‘m
hanging by my fingers one day, I’m still too proud to ask for help, and I fall
again. And the ambulance comes. And this is the cycle.
That so many
Christians live in – always the ambulance. Thank God for the ambulance. Isn’t
it good news that there’s an ambulance
when you’ve fallen? Mercy is available, forgiveness…… But think, if this
person, the next time he’s about to fall, is a little humbler. And says,
"I’m not such an expert." Please, help me now. Then he will find
grace, lifting him up in his time of need, and making him stand. Now which is
his time of need? I agree, his time of need is there when he’s fallen and
broken his bones. But there was another time of need prior to that.
Before he fell. Now
what I want to ask you, brothers and sisters, is when do you want God to help
you, after you’ve fallen, or before? That’s the question. When is our real time
of need. When are we going to break out of the cycle of always falling and
getting the ambulance and falling and getting the ambulance? Are you sighing?
Is there a sigh
because, "Lord, I’m sick and tired of this. I want a better life."
There is a better life. You know, not everyone can come to Jesus. Jesus said,
"come to me, all those who are weary and heavy laden." Those who are
sick and tired of their defeated lives, "come to me….." In another
place He said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me." That means,
if anyone’s thirsty for a better life than he already has….If anyone acknowledges
that there is a dryness in
his life, a deadness in his life, and he’s thirsty, let him come to me……and
drink! There’s plenty of water there. And not only to satisfy you, it can flow
out from you in rivers of living water to bless other people. This He spoke
about the Holy Spirit. But you’ve got to thirst….. That means you’ve got to
have a longing for something more than you have right now, and it’s got nothing
to do with how many years you’ve been a believer. You may have been born again
yesterday, and you can have a thirst and God can fill you with His Holy Spirit. But if you
don’t have a thirst, even after twenty-five years, you’ll just be in the same
old condition. You’ll be going around with the mop and the bucket, ‘til Jesus
comes. But all I’m saying is, there’s a better way. I’m not forcing you, I’m
just saying, "Come up higher, brother." You’re invited, it’s free,
but it’s up to you. If you’re satisfied down at those low levels, you can stay
there. But Jesus invites you higher. So that’s our time of need.
When we are about to
slip and fall, and He can keep us. (Editor’s note, see Jude verse 24).
Now if you don’t believe this, I can give you
a little homework. The next time, you are tempted, think of the area where you
are falling most of the time, where the ambulance has had to come and pick you
up, and what particular area…. You know how it speaks about in Hebrews 12,
about "the sin, that so easily besets us." And that may be different
in different ones. Okay, what’s the one in your case, is it anger? Is it
sexually, lustful thoughts? Whatever it is, think of it now. The
next time, that could be tonight, it could be tomorrow morning, you won’t have
to wait long for that, for "the sin that so easily besets us." But
the next time you find yourself tempted in that area, when you’re about to
fall, try this…. Come boldly to the Throne of Grace, humble yourself, you’re
not such an expert mountain climber, just humble yourself and say, " Well,
Lord, I’m just a failure. Now Lord, show me that this really works! Give me
grace! "Let’s come boldly to the Throne of Grace, to receive mercy for my
past failures," Okay, we’ve got that,
but to find grace now, to help me in this particular moment, in my time of
need." And you know what’ll happen? After a few moments you’ll find,
"Hey, I didn’t lose my temper! Hey, I could resist that evil thought!"
This is the Gospel. It’s a message of deliverance. Jesus came to set the
captives free! He came to open prison doors. He came that we might walk as free
people, no longer as slaves to sin. Never again in our life. And that’s why he
gives us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Grace! People ask me this question,
"What is the mark of the baptism
of the Holy Spirit? What’s the sign, of being filled with the Spirit?" I
say the same thing that Jesus said, I can’t say it better than Him; Acts 1:8,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you shall receive power…."
Power! What’s the evidence? Nothing else! That is the evidence. If you don’t
have that, whatever else you’ve got, you’ve missed it. You need power. Power,
to be a witness for me, Jesus said. Not just to bear witness. I hope you know
the difference between being a witness and bearing witness. Bearing a witness
is included in being a
witness, but being a witness is more than bearing witness. "You shall
receive power, and you shall be…."Not you shall "do", "you
shall be." There’s a lot of emphasis in the Christian world today on "doing."
"What are you doing for the Lord, brother?" I’m being; and from
being, I’m doing. You can "do" without "being". But I want
to "Be" first and then "do". "You shall be witnesses,
unto me, in every part of the earth."
America, India,
everywhere…..God needs people who are witnesses and I need power for that! I
need power, I need grace, this grace which is power. This which comes through
the immersion in the Holy Spirit. Praise God for such a wonderful Gospel! And
that can take care of all my needs. You remember that Old Testament story? I think
it’s in 2 Kings, chapter 6, where this widow came to Elisha and said, "The
creditor has come. I’m in debt and the creditor has come to take my sons away
captive" I don’t have time to turn to it, you can read it sometime. And
Elisha asked her a question, "What do you have in your house?" And
she says, "Your servant has nothing, except, a vessel of oil." It’s
like saying, "We have nothing, except the Holy Spirit." And Elisha
said, "What do you mean nothing? That’s the answer to all your debt!
That’s the answer to all your problems! Go and get as many vessels as you can
and keep pouring." And it says, she got vessels from all around her
neighbors, and she kept pouring
and it never finished. That’s a picture of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
They couldn’t experience it in the Old Covenant. We heard about our debt the
other day; our debt of love. Every person we meet, we’ve got to
recognize, "I owe this man something. I owe him something." Even if
it’s a stranger. I owe him something.
Perhaps, just a smile, okay? But I’ve got to clear a debt. And how do I clear
this debt? That was exactly the question
this widow asked Elisha! How can I clear this debt, I’m in terrific debt! Do
you recognize that you’re in debt?
Most of us don’t….most of us don’t recognize that God, because He loved us so
much, has permanently placed us
in debt, to every single human being we meet on the face of this earth. That
was the crime of the Levite
and the Priest, when they saw that man laying on the ground and didn’t do
anything to help.
That’s the answer.
And we say, we’ve got nothing. You think you’re going to clear the debt by
going to one more meeting?
Listening to one more message? Reading another book? No brother, you need to be
filled with the Holy Spirit. The
answer is there. Ask God to fill your heart with the Holy Spirit. And like it
says in Ephesians 5:18, "Be
continually filled with the Holy Spirit." That’s the answer. And God wants
to give that to every single one of us. That’s the
second promise in the New Testament! "He will save His people from their
sins, He will immerse you in the
Holy Spirit and with Fire." But, like everything else, we’ve got to
acknowledge our need. I couldn’t get
forgiveness of sins, ‘til I confessed I was a sinner. Why is it the Pharisees
couldn’t get forgiveness of sins? Because they
pretended that they were not sinners. And Jesus said, "Well then I didn’t
come for you, you fellows are
healthy. I came for these poor, sick people." I’ll apply the same logic of
the same steps, to being filled with the Holy
Spirit. Here, Jesus comes offering, what is the first thing? Forgiveness of
sins. And here are a bunch of people who
say, "We’re okay." The Lord says, " Okay, I didn’t come for
you." Here are some people who say, "Lord,
we really need this, we’re sinners." Okay, they get it, forgiveness of
sins. And now He comes in the fullness of the
Spirit, and here are a whole bunch of Christians who say, "Ah, we got it,
we got it when we
were saved," and
they were convinced doctrinally about something or the other. The Lord says,
"Fine, you’re okay, I’ll leave you
alone." But here are these other, thirsty, hungry Christians, who say,
"LORD, I DON’T CARE WHAT DOCTRINE, I’M
DRY! I’M DEAD! I DON’T NEED A DOCTRINE, I NEED POWER! They get it! You know why you haven’t got it so
far? Because someone convinced you about a doctrine. I know there’s a lot of
doctrinal disputing about
Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I don’t get into this at all. I remember when I
was born-again, and I was in a
brethren assembly where they didn’t preach about being filled with the Holy
Spirit. They told me I got everything when I
got converted. But I said, "Lord, I don’t know what it is, but I
certainly, to be honest, I can’t say that Rivers
of Living Water are flowing out from me." No! My experience is more like a
hand-pump.
You know, in India,
we have some hand-pumps. You pump and pump and pump and pump and a few trickles
of water come out. And
then when you’ve recovered a little bit, you pump some more, you pump some more
and a few trickles come
out. Yeah, a little bit comes out. A little bit was coming out of my life, but
it was certainly not a river, certainly not
many rivers. And Jesus said, "He who believes from his innermost being
shall flow rivers of living water." I
just had to be honest. I said, "Lord that is not true in my life."
And I don’t want anyone to convince me
doctrinally about something, which is going to make me miss the most important
thing in the Christian life, and
discover at the judgment seat of Christ, that I missed something God had for
me. I don’t want that tragedy.
"So I seek you Lord, I don’t care about terminology, call it what you
like, it doesn’t matter to me, I want Rivers of Living
Water flowing out of my life." That’s how I began to seek God. And I want
to say, God met with me. He changed
my life. He changed my ministry. My ministry was such a strain before that.
Oooh, a struggle, struggle,
struggle. A few drops would come out. I said, "Lord, that’s not how it’s
meant to be, that’s not how Jesus
ministered. That’s not how the apostles ministered. I want my ministry to be
Rivers of Living
Water! Flowing in
many directions!" Now if you knew what I was, when I was converted, a shy,
fearful, timid, introverted, reserved
type of person, who wouldn’t like to stand anywhere, I know God changed me. And
I believe that He can
change anyone. But it’s according to your faith, be it unto you. If you
continue to believe that Jesus opens only
one eye, that’s all you’ll have ‘til the end of your life. "According to
your faith, be it unto you." I’m not
asking you to have faith for better cars and better houses and things God has
not promised. I’d like to have hair on
my head, but I don’t try to trust God for that. I’ll get it one day when Jesus
comes again. But there are other
things. You know, all the books on faith you’ll find on Christian bookshelves,
are the type of books which tell you
how you can get hair on your head, and new teeth, where your teeth have fallen
off, better cars and better
houses. I tell l you, I ‘m not interested. What’s the use of getting a better
house, or a better car if I’m defeated by anger
in my life? What’s the use of that? What’s the use, of even speaking in other
tongues, if I lose my temper in my
mother tongue. That’s no use. You mean, the Holy Spirit can only control other
tongues and He cannot control
the mother tongue? Well, that must be another spirit. I say if the Holy Spirit
cannot control my mother
tongue, I don’t want other tongues! Let me deal with my mother tongue first.
And let Him
teach me how to have
the law of kindness in my mouth, when I speak to my wife. If that isn’t there……
I got sick and tired of these
believers who would praise God in other tongues on Sunday morning and shout at
their wives in their mother
tongue Sunday afternoon. This is not the Holy Spirit! And I said, "Lord, I
want that tongue of fire that was on
top of those believers, that made the Holy Spirit control my speech,
twenty-four hours a day.
Control my tongue.
That is what we need! Victory over sin! Along with other gifts God wants to
give us! I
believe that the
devil has done a tremendous work in confusing people in this area, because he
knows this is a very vital area in
the Christian life. He’s made a lot of people go to one extreme, and he’s made
a whole lot of other people fall
over the cliff on the other side, going to the other extreme. And it doesn’t
matter to the devil which side of the
cliff you fall over, so long as you reach the bottom.
Dear brother and
sister, let’s shame the devil, and let’s say, "Lord, I’m going to seek you
for what you’ve
promised; I’m not
going to seek you for things which are not promised in the Word, which are not
going to help me in eternity, and
which are not going to help me to be a more effective witness for you here on
earth! But I do want to trust you,
for that which I need to make me a more effective witness for you, here on this
earth." I want you to turn to Luke,
chapter 11, "The disciples once came to Jesus and said, "Lord, teach
us to pray." And do you know the answer
to that? Now you ask most questions, what answer did Jesus give when they asked this question –
"teach us to pray…" They only say the Lord’s prayer. Well, they asked
Him to teach them to pray, and He said,
"When you pray, say verse two, Father, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom
come, and so on……" But did it
stop with that? No! He went on and that’s what I want to show you today. He
taught them to pray like that and
then He said, He’s still answering the same question, "Lord, teach us to
pray." And He told them what to pray
for, and He says, in verse 5, "Supposing one of you has a friend, and goes
to him at midnight, and says,
"Friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has come, and I’ve got
nothing to set before him", and
from inside he answers and said, "Don’t bother me, the door is shut, my
children are in bed and I can’t get
up." "I tell you, even though he’ll not get up, and give him anything
because he’s a friend, yet because of his
persistence, He’s still answering that question, "Teach us how to
pray," "With persistence He will get up and give
him as much as he needs. And I say to you, ask like this, and it will be given
you. Seek, like
this man sought, and
you will find. Knock, like this man knocked, and it will be opened to you; for
everyone who asks like this,
receives, and he who seeks like this, finds. And he who knocks like this, it’ll
be opened. Because supposing, one of you
fathers, your son asks for fish, will he give him a snake? No, never. If he
asks for an egg, will he give him a
scorpion? And now we come to the final point, "How much more, will your
heavenly father give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask." If you don’t ask….. How should we ask? Like this!
That’s the point, it’s all the answer to that
first question, "Lord, teach us to pray…" What do you need to pray
for? This is what we need to pray for. What is
the meaning of this man going to his neighbor, saying, "Give me three
loaves…." Jesus said, "Ask the Father
for the Holy Spirit, for the power of the Holy Spirit, for grace, ask."
And how shall I ask? Supposing I don’t get
it immediately? Keep knocking. Keep seeking. Keep asking. "Lord, I’m not
going to give up till you give me
power." There’s one more thing, which is very, very important, which I
want to mention here.
See here, He’s
primarily speaking about our ministry. And He’s talking about somebody whose
come to us in need. I told you
about clearing the debt. Here is a man who has come to me in need, and I’m
surrounded by people with need, in
this world. And when I see their need, I can do one of two things. You know
when this fellow came, this
chap comes to my house at night, just imagine I’m the person here; he comes to
my house at night and I ask him, "Well, have you eaten?" He says,
"No, I’m hungry." "Well, I’m sorry brother, refrigerator is empty
right now, we already had our meal. Let’s just praise the Lord, and go to bed,
and we’ll see how it is in the morning." That’s not what he did. He felt,
"He’s hungry. I must meet his need. I must do something about it!"
That’s where it
begins, that’s where a real seeking after God for the power of the Holy Spirit
begins, when I see the need of another person, and I’m trying to help him, and
I don’t have it within me, what it takes to help. Then what do I do? I can
ignore and say, well I can’t help everybody in the world, I’m okay myself. I’ve
eaten my meal and I’m alright. That’s how most Christians live. That’s why they
never experience the genuine power of the Holy Spirit.
And a lot of people
who are so called, "seeking" for the power of the Holy Spirit today,
you know what they’re seeking for? They’re not seeking for power to help
others, oh, no! They’re seeking, because someone got up and gave a testimony,
that they got tickled down their spine when the Spirit came upon them, or they
got thrown into some corner, or they began to mutter something…..They’re
seeking for some experience like that other testimony they heard in that
meeting. They’re seeking for something for themselves; they’ve not got one
single thought about somebody else in need! Whereas, Jesus said, "When the
Holy Spirit has come upon you, you’ll be my witnesses to all those needy
people, in the outermost parts of the earth!" And if people had sought God
with this parable in mind, for the power of the Holy Spirit, like He said,
they’d have gotten the genuine experience, and they’d have gotten the genuine
Power. And it would have made the church like an army, terrible with banners;
like it says in the Song of Solomon. But it isn’t. Why is the church so weak?
You know, when we
sing that song, "Hold the fort for I am coming….." I tell you, I have
little bit of a reservation about that. It’s a picture of a beleaguered church,
struggling and the devil somehow – "Oh Lord, please come, we’re about to
be defeated!" That’s not it. That ‘s not the church, an army, terrible
with banners….. There is no "Hold the Fort, for I am coming,"
anywhere in the New Testament. Jesus said, "I will build my church, and
the gates of Hell," See, we’re attacking the gates of Hell! They’re the
fellows that are going to cry out for help! "The gates of Hell, will not
prevail against this church!" Don’t reverse it and say, that "The
gates of the church will somehow survive, when the forces of Hell are attacking
it!" I am not holding any fort. We go full steam against the devil with
the promises, the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church! The church
is triumphant.
Satan will not be
able to make inroads into our church and destroy people. He will not be able to
get into that family and destroy those children. Because we’re going to stand
and deliver that family, from the power of the devil! That’s what we’re here
for. That’s what God’s servants are here for. We’re not here just to preach messages.
Anybody can preach a message….. Just go read some books, listen to some
messages and you’ve got material to preach for next Sunday. That’s not a
servant of God. A servant of God is called to do what Jesus did; it says,
"He went about doing good and delivering people who were oppressed by the
devil. And we are surrounded
by them. There are needy people in our churches whose families are suffering,
the devil has got inroads into those families. Are the gates of Hell going to
triumph or not? No! The church must go against them! We’ve got to bind the
Strongman, and spoil his goods! Deliver people who are under the captivity of Satan.
For that, we need the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why we need the power of
the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "I give you authority over all the power of
the enemy. Nothing shall be able to stand before you. Over serpents, scorpions,
over all the power of the enemy." This is how we should be, brothers and
sisters! But, here we are, praying, "Heal my backache, and I want a better
car, and I want a better house," and all these stupid things that
believers are praying. I say, forget whether my backache is healed or not, I’m
going to chase the devil out of that home.
I believe we need to
have our vision lifted. We need to see what the Lord is calling us to in these
Last Days. I want to encourage you my brothers and sisters, forget doctrinal
differences. Forget terminology – call it what you like – But ask God to set
you on fire! And if you don’t like the term, "Baptism of the Holy
Spirit", okay, drop it. Ask God for Rivers of Living Water, to flow out
from you! Ask God to set you on fire! Is there anything wrong with that?
Anything doctrinally wrong with that? And if you don’t like tongues, drop it,
that’s not the most
important thing. Ask
God to set you so much on fire, that you’ll be able to deliver people who are
oppressed by the devil around you. That’s the most important thing. And if He
gives you other gifts, take them, but don’t go seeking after them. Seek for
that power which will help you to deliver other people around you who are in
need.
I know, for
thirty-five years, consistently, I have prayed one prayer. I have earnestly
coveted to prophesy.
Because the Bible
says so. Earnestly desire the gifts of the Spirit. Why have I coveted to
prophesy? There’s hardly a meeting, that I come to, where I don’t see God
before, and say , "Oh God, I want to prophesy. I want to give a word, that
will go straight to the hearts of people. And I don’t have it within me. I
don’t have the loaves.
My refrigerator is
empty. There are people in need. I come to you, Lord, give me that, which I can
give to them." And then it becomes easy. You remember the way the five
thousand were fed? The disciples didn’t have to produce the loaves, Praise the
Lord. I always say, I’m only in the distribution business, I’m not in the
production business. I can’t produce! I can’t produce a message! But I can
distribute if the Lord gives it to me. And when my basket is empty, I just go
back to the Lord and say, "Lord, there are a few more people hungry out
there, you got some more?" "PLENTY. PLENTY FOR EVERYONE!" It’s
distribution we’re called to, not production. Don’t waste your time, cramming
your head, trying to produce something. And you fill your head with knowledge, that’s
what happens in a lot of pulpits. People are busy preparing on Saturday, for
what they’re going to give on Sunday. It’s like getting a lot of things in and
vomiting it all out on Sunday. That’s not what people need. They need food. And
you cannot produce it. That’s the first thing you’ve got to recognize. In my
younger days, I
thought I could
produce it. Gave out, what I would call vomit. What I had taken in, digested
and vomited out. But I found a better way; I began to seek God, like this man
here, for prophesy, for words, that would exhort, edify, comfort, build up,
God’s people. And I want to encourage you to seek God a little more. I’m not
saying intellectual preparation is wrong, but all I’m saying is spiritual
preparation is much more important. That’s all I’m saying. You’ve got to walk
with a clear conscience before God. You’ve got to walk in humility, and God gives
his grace on ly to the humble. Keep your face in the dust before God and say,
"Lord, I’m empty. Help me to deliver people who are in need." I
believe our churches are full of such people. They need help. They need to be
delivered. And we need to give that which will set them free. I want to
encourage you to seek God, to set you on fire. There is no respecter of persons
with God. What He’s done for one, He’ll do for another. But He wants us to have
faith. Faith, that He will, "Give us grace to help us in our time of
need", so that we don’t fall in to sin; Faith, that He’ll give us that
power, those loaves…..to feed that needy person, who has come to us in his
need.
Let’s pray.
"Fill my cup
Lord, I lift it up Lord. Come and quench this, thirsting of my soul. Lord, we
want to come to you with open hearts. With hungry hearts; seeking you for that,
which only you can give. We don’t want to be satisfied with experiences and
thrills. We want Rivers of Living Waters to flow out from us, in these Last
Days.
To quench the thirst
of needy people all around us. Help us Lord we pray. Help us to honor You, that
we might be a church, like you want us to be, an army against which the gates
of Hell will never prevail, in our local church situations. Give us grace we
pray, as we cry out to you, there are needy hungry people here.
Thirsty. I pray,
Lord, you’ll satisfy the longing of their soul. In Jesus’ name. Amen
