God Protects Us Against Our Enemies — Zac Poonen

God’s Treatment Reflects How We Treat Others

If we can understand certain principles of how God deals with man, it will help us greatly in our life. I want to show you a verse in Psalm 18, verse 25. Psalm 18, verse 25, we read about God. With the kind, you show yourself kind.

With the blameless, you show yourself blameless. 26. With the pure, you show yourself pure. And with the crooked, you show yourself astute. So what do we learn from that? You know, when we are kind, it's to other people.

When we deal crookedly, it's with other people. In simple words, God treats you in the way you treat other people. That's basically what those words mean. We are below God, and there are people on earth who are below you.

Socially, economically. The way you treat people below you is the way God will treat you. It's a lesson I learned years ago in my life. And I learned thereafter to treat any servants I had in my home.

How? The way I wanted God to treat me. I said, I'll always be good and kind and generous to the servants in my home. Not miserly and tight-fisted. If you are, don't be surprised if God is miserly and tight-fisted with you.

With a miserly and tight-fisted, God will show himself miserly and tight-fisted. You are so exact in what you demand from your servants. God will be very exact in demanding from you. God wants us to obey him.

We want our servants to obey us. But there's a kindness in God that I want to experience. The way you treat people junior to you, inferior to you, who you think are inferior or lower. God will treat you like that.

Please remember this. It will make a tremendous difference in your life. Now, I believe that we should treat people kindly, even if we don't want anything from God. But that is a mature level. That I want to be kind to other people, not because God is going to be kind to me.

That's like doing business with God. It's a very low level to start with, but because we are all basically business-minded. You don't realize it. We're all business-minded. I will give something if I can get something in return.

So, okay, God, will you be kind to me if I'm kind to my servant? Okay, from tomorrow onwards I'm going to be kind to you. It's a business transaction. But start there. Until you come to the higher level where you say, Lord, I'll be kind to people and I expect nothing from you.

That's the highest level to be in because that's the nature of Jesus. Jesus was kind and merciful to people, not because he wanted anything from his father. It's just his nature. I mean, a cat doesn't expect a reward for keeping itself pure.

No, it's just his nature. I mean, if a pig says, okay, I'll keep myself pure from now on, you better give it a reward because that's not his nature. But if a cat is pure and licks itself clean, that's just his nature.

That's the highest level, but we all start as pigs. If God says, I'll reward you, I say, okay, I'm a pig, but I'll keep myself clean. But that's not the best. The best is to get divine nature where you are kind, expecting nothing in return.

So that's something we must remember. I'm just trying to teach you some principles, which will stand you in good stead as you go away from here. Here's another thing. Turn with me to Job chapter 36. Even though this is something that Elihu said, it was the truth.

At the end of chapter 42, the middle of chapter 42, God said what the other three preachers said was wrong, but he never said what Elihu said was wrong. Notice that there were four preachers that preached to Job.

And in Job 42, God said the other three spoke wrong about me, but not Elihu. Elihu spoke what was right. And one of the right things that Elihu said about God was in Job 36 and verse 5, God is mighty, or we can say almighty, but he does not despise anybody.

We despise people who don't do things the way we think they should do it. We have a certain standard. And in arrogance, we think that standard is perfect. And that person may be doing something which is not sin, but it's not up to our standard of civilization or culture, and we despise him.

We may not say it, but we despise him. And, you know, cultures view things differently. For example, you can look at an uncultured man who sits at your dining table and picks his nose. You say, what's he doing?

But he looks at this very cultured westerner who takes a hanky and blows his nose at the table with making such a loud noise, everybody hears it. And the uncultured man says, what type of culture is that, blowing your nose so loudly in the presence of everybody?

I'm just sitting quietly here picking my nose, not disturbing anybody. Nobody's disturbed. You're not disturbed if somebody sits there and picks his nose. But the whole room is disturbed when you blow your nose so loud.

But western culture teaches that is okay to blow your nose loudly and announce to the whole room, I'm blowing my nose, I've got a cold, fellas. But this fellow announces nothing. He just quietly sits there and picks his nose.

Which do you think is more disturbing to other people? This is the stupidity of thinking that your culture is better than other cultures. I'm just giving you one example. Do you want me to spend the whole meeting giving you examples?

No. I don't have time for that. But I've seen plenty in the world where people despise others. They don't say it. They're too cultured to say it. But they don't see how they themselves are crude to the other person.

You think that other person's crude. And very often you'll discover, like the example I gave you, that he's not disturbing anybody. You are. But you think that's culture. Because your civilization, your culture taught you that.

Like I told you earlier about eating with your hands or eating with a fork and a spoon. If you find there's something you despise in another, it's because you think you're superior. God is way above you.

He doesn't despise anybody. A second principle. God treats you as you treat other people. God doesn't despise anybody. When you despise somebody, God's going to despise you. Because you're despising somebody, God will treat you like the way you treat other people.

You can't blame him. Because, you see, he doesn't do the way I think he should do it. God says, you're not doing the way I think you should do it either. We can look at it like two extremes. God is here on one side despising nobody.

The devil is on the other side despising everybody. All of us are somewhere in between. I'm sure you don't despise everybody. There's one person you definitely don't despise, right? Who's that? Yourself.

And then there are a few others whom you like very much who you don't despise. So you're not at the level of the devil. You're a little more this side. I'm trying to encourage you to move more and more and more and more towards God who despises nobody.

I hope you'll get a little closer to there next year. I hope you'll get a little closer to that tomorrow. I have sought with all my heart to despise nobody. For their lack of culture, lack of education, lack of spirituality, lack of understanding the word of God.

I know times when I've tried to, in the early days, when I used to work with people more individually, I tried to get somebody to understand the truth of the new covenant and this and getting a bit fed up.

How long am I going to teach this guy to know the truth? And the Lord whispers in my ear, how long did it take you? And I'm immediately humbled. Lord, I'm sorry. It took me more than 16 years after I was born again to come to the truth of the new covenant.

I can be patient. Sure. I will not despise anyone, even if they are slow in grasping something. You know, that's what I always say is the difference between a father and a teacher. I told you that the one reason Jesus sat when he spoke was because he was not a teacher.

He was a father. The Old Testament prophets stood because they were proclaiming. Jesus sat because he said, this is a family. No father stands at the dining table. Teachers stand in the school. I'm not saying the physical position is important.

And even if you stand in the pulpit, I often stand in the pulpit. But I say when I stand in the pulpit, I want to have the spirit of a father, not the spirit of a teacher. Be careful, because we naturally tend towards becoming teachers, not fathers.

And teachers will shame others. This is the example I've often used. Here's a student, for example, who doing poorly, doing poorly in mathematics. And there's something the teacher has been explaining, explaining, explaining.

Everybody in the class has understood except one 10-year-old boy. Maybe this is third, fourth standard. And he says, teacher, I don't understand yet. And the teacher gets fed up. How long am I going to sit here trying to teach everybody?

You're keeping the class backward. Get out of this class. Go and join some other school. I don't want you to come here again. That's a teacher, because he's interested in the advancement of the class.

He gets a salary. And he wants to get good results. He doesn't want anybody to fail and get him a bad name. That poor boy goes crying home. And his father says, son, what happened? He says, daddy, I can't understand this.

I'm not being stubborn. I just can't understand. I'm not so intelligent what to do. And daddy says, what is it, son? And he explains the problem. Daddy says, I'll teach you. And he sits with him for one hour, personal tuition.

And the child says, daddy, I still can't understand. I'm sorry. Sorry to waste your time. And the father said, no worries, son. Tomorrow is another day. We'll start again tomorrow. Tomorrow comes. The child sits with him one hour.

Daddy, please be patient with me. I still can't understand. Son, I will not give up. If it takes me a whole year, you're going to learn this. And he sits with him. And a few days, one day, the boy's eyes brighten.

I got it. And the dad is thrilled and the boy is thrilled. This is a father. You see the difference between a father and a teacher? We don't want teachers in our churches. We want fathers and mothers.

We want you to be like that to your own children. Not fed up with them because they did something wrong for the thousandth time. Tell them, even if you do it wrong 10 ,000 times. My dear girl, my dear son, I love you.

I'm your father. I'm your mother. I'm determined that you will learn to do it right. God has appointed me as your parent to make you perfect before you leave my house and set up your own home. Do you have that attitude or do you just criticize and say, I don't know, I'm fed up with my son.

How long have I been trying? How long am I fed up with my daughter? She doesn't listen to me. I remember one mother once came to me. She used to be with us. The family has left CFC now. It is not in Bangalore.

Another place came to me and said, Brother Zach, please pray for this son of mine. He doesn't study properly. He doesn't get good marks. I said, sister, I'll pray for you. Because I think the problem is not with him.

Imagine humiliating a son like that in the presence of someone whom he respects and whom his opinion he values. I prayed for the mother. I never prayed for that son. I believe the problem very often is with parents.

Sure. We discourage our children so much because if they lack intelligence, brother, sister, it's because you lacked intelligence. They got your genes. Don't blame them. It's like one son who said, Do you know Pandit Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India?

Son, when he was your age, he came first in the class. The son said, Dad, when he was your age, he was Prime Minister of India. That was a smart son. So this business of comparing your children with other great people or other children, it's all foolish.

Don't despise anybody. Don't despise your children. Don't despise people in the church. Love them. Let them know that you love them. I've often told the story of a young brother. Not a young brother. He was a young man who used to come to CFC.

And he was not converted. And he was often falling into a drink with bad friends. This is many, many years ago. And he used to always come to me and say, Brother Zak, I've fallen again. My friends let me in.

I got drunk again. Then a day came when he was being transferred out of Bangalore and went to some other place. I didn't know when I'd see him again. This is the last word I spoke to him. I said, Son, one day when you hit rock bottom, when you really messed up your life, I tried my best to turn you, turn you, but you're still struggling.

One day when you hit rock bottom, remember two things. Remember that God still loves you. And remember that I love you too. And the doors of my house are always open to you. No matter what condition you're in, please come.

You'll be welcome. We are here to help you. I saw him years later, born again, converted, happily married. I praise the Lord. Encouragement does wonders where criticism and despising accomplishes nothing.

Fathers Rather Than Teachers in the Church

That's why Paul said you can have 10 ,000 teachers, 1 Corinthians in Chapter 4. 1 Corinthians in Chapter 4. It's not only for elders, but all of us are elders to somebody else. Aren't you that? I remember once in one meeting in CFC, I said, many of you have a great longing to be elders.

Okay, I hereby appoint all of you as elders to all those who are younger to you. Happy? Sisters also. Elders to all those who are younger to you. Be an example to them. Be a father to them. Be a mother to them.

1 Corinthians 4, he says, verse 14, I'm not writing these things to shame you. That is a teacher who shames, but to admonish you as my beloved children. You can have 10 ,000 teachers, but you don't have many fathers.

I'm your father through the gospel. Paul was not a teacher. He was a father who taught better than the teachers. The teachers work for a salary. Fathers don't get any salary. Fathers earn the salary to spend on their children.

Yeah, later on in 2 Corinthians 12, 14, he says fathers lay up for the children. Children don't pay their fathers. You pay a teacher. Every pastor who works for salary is a teacher. Paid worker. Father doesn't get salary.

Father's got a heart to serve and serve and serve. And, I mean, if he's in need, I'm sure his children will take care of him. That's another thing. But he doesn't work for that. And he says you can have 10 ,000 teachers, but you have not many fathers, which teaches me one thing.

You can do the maths on that. One father is better than 10 ,000 teachers. 10 ,000 people who got the spirit of a teacher, one father is better than all of them. I would rather have one father than 10 ,000 elders who are teachers.

I would rather have a family, a father and mother who got the spirit of a father than the spirit of a teacher towards their children. They'll accomplish 10 ,000 times more than the spirit of despising and criticizing and teaching.

I hope we will learn that. And God will treat you the way you treat others. Do you find sometimes God is hard on you? Ask yourself whether you're hard on somebody else. Whether you jump on somebody who did something wrong, you told them to do it, and they didn't do it right.

And you jump on them and punish them. I'm not saying that we should encourage inefficiency. I remember many years ago in a conference here, when they were serving food. This is the early days when we were in the other building, and I felt the way the food was being served was not very efficient.

It was taking a long time, and I said, hey, I can arrange this in a better efficient way, and the Lord said, keep your mouth shut. If you go and tell them to change the method now, you'll confuse everything, and out of their respect for you, they'll change it, and it'll be worse.

Keep your mouth shut. After the conference is over, you have a review meeting, then tell them to do it better next time. I say, Lord, what wisdom. It's good to listen to God. Sometimes we feel like going immediately and straightening out things.

It's not the wise way. Sometimes it's better to leave it and wait to say it a little later, not immediately correct it. I'll give you an example. When Peter was walking on the water, he turned and looked at the waves, and he began to sink.

What was his problem? Lack of faith. What did Jesus do? He did not rebuke him for his lack of faith first. He first held him, made him stand, then rebuked him for the lack of faith. That's the way. You solve the problem first, then say.

Supposing your kid has done something and messed it up. Don't start off by saying, I told you, you should not do it like this. No, no, no. You fix it, sort the problem, then tell him, Hey, listen, remember I told you this is not the way to do it.

But our tendency is to first say, I told you not to do it. I told you a thousand times. It's like the guy who said, I told you a thousand times not to exaggerate. We don't really, we have never said it a thousand times.

We ourselves are exaggerating when we say that. This is the craziness of some things we say. You know, if we are a little wiser, I believe we will not drive our children away so much from the Lord and from the church.

We want people who can encourage like a father. Encourage. Especially prodigal children. I've been to some homes where out of three or four children, three are wholehearted and fine and one is a bit wayward.

And the parents introduced me to the children. And I always say, every single time, I have more hope for this one you call wayward than for all the others. I have great hope for prodigal children. I've seen through the years that very often it's these prodigal children who rise to great heights.

Because they don't have high thoughts about themselves. They come home, they know they made a mess of their life, they know even the servants in the home know this boy made a mess of his life. He's got nothing to boast about.

But the other elder son in the story, he's the one I fear. Because he's never got a bad reputation. He's always been the good boy in the house. You know what that prodigal son story is? I call it the story of two sons.

Story goes like this in two sentences. Two sentences. In the beginning of the story, the elder son is inside the house and the younger son, spoiled boy, is outside the house. End of the story, the younger son is inside the house and the elder son, the good boy, is outside the house.

Remember that. The one who thinks he's so good. Do you despise some of your younger brothers? Because they are prodigals? Or some of your younger sisters who are not as spiritual as you are? God have mercy on you.

They will repent one day and turn out alright. When you despise, suppose you heard the message of victory over sin, and I've used this example also before. And you got victory over sin. And your wife, maybe she's unconverted or she doesn't have life.

And one day there's a dispute and she yells at you and screams at you and you sit there patiently, not opening your mouth because you got victory. And as the storm is over, think of yourself, Lord I thank you that I'm not like my wife.

I thank you that I have victory. I tell you there's more hope for your wife. Because Jesus told a story about a man who prayed like that. You remember that story? Lord I thank you that I'm not like other men or like this wife of mine standing there.

Well, it's not wife. Tax collector. It doesn't matter who that is. You can look at somebody and say, I'm not like that. It can be in your church. Lord I thank you that my church is not like other churches.

Look at that church down there. Or you can compare yourself with other CFC churches. Lord I thank you there are CFC churches so good compared to that CFC church over there. You be careful, brother. It may be true.

But if you have that spirit, you're a Pharisee. Phariseeism is so close to us. There can be a pride in our humility. Like the story of the Sunday school teacher who told the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

And at the end of the story she said, you know the Pharisee said, I thank God we're not like the tax collector. Children, thank God we're not like the Pharisee. You see the Phariseeism there? You don't see it.

It's there. The moment you say, I thank God I'm not like that person who's defeated. I'm not like that person who doesn't have as much light as me. I thank God I'm not like that other church that the sisters there don't wail their heads.

They wear ornaments. You despise them. Or those brothers in that church, they are pretty worldly. They listen to rock music once in a while. My brother, sister, you are on dangerous ground. Because I'll tell you something, spiritual pride is worse than rock music.

It's a million times worse than not wailing the head or wearing jewelry. Million times. Spiritual pride is so close to us. Do you have faith? The Bible says, have it before God. Not for you to compare yourself with anybody else.

There's a verse which I've always paraphrased like this. Those who compare themselves with others are spiritual idiots. 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 12. Very important verse. Those who compare themselves with others are spiritual idiots.

You get it? We are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of these others who praise themselves. But when they measure themselves among themselves, I got 60%, you got 55%. They compare themselves with themselves.

They are without understanding. That means they are spiritual idiots. The way to be a spiritual idiot, compare yourself with other people and be happy that you are better than them. Beware of that. God does not despise anybody.

Persecution, Spiritual Warfare, and the Church’s Authority

That's one thing very important for us to understand. Then I want to say another thing which relates to the times in which we live. The Bible says, all men will hate you for my name's sake. Jesus said that in the last days.

The book says in the book of Revelation, the devil is very angry because he knows he's got a very short time. That's a verse in the book of Revelation. Read particularly chapters 11 to 13. You'll see about that passage.

The devil knows he's got a very short time and he's very angry. I believe right now the devil knows because he knows prophecy better than God's people. He knows he's got a very short time before his reign of thousands of years.

He's ruled over man for 6 ,000 years, but he knows his time is up. The demons who are in this room listening, they know it. Demons come to the meetings by the way. Don't boast in the fact that you go to every meeting.

Demons go to more meetings than you do. Spirituality does not depend on how many meetings you go to. He knows his time is short and therefore it says his anger is great. That's what it says in Revelation.

He knows his time is short and so he's angry with those who have the testimony of Jesus and keep his commandments. Those are the people he's angry with. So I don't have time to show you all those verses.

Read Revelation chapters 11 to 13 and you can find it for yourself. Okay. Now there is an example in the Old Testament to comfort us in this time when so many people are against us. Maybe other Christians are against us.

People of other religions have turned against Christians maybe in India. How shall we face it? There is an answer in Scripture to everything and particularly for our time in India you find the answer in the book of Esther.

The book of Esther is the only book in the Bible where the word God or Lord never comes. God is never mentioned once in that book. But you can see behind the scenes he's acting all the time. Teaching us about a situation where like you may not God may not audibly speak to you but you find God working on your behalf.

Okay. In Esther, the basic story, I don't have time to go through all of it. There were a number of Jews who were a minority in the land of reigned by Ahasuerus. I think he was the king of Iran, Persia.

And by the way, it's the only place where India is mentioned in the Bible. Esther chapter 1 verse 1. In the days of Ahasuerus, he reigned from India to Ethiopia. So, it's relevant to us. And in there this ruler had a second in command like a prime minister.

The king was a ruler those days and the second in command was a man called Haman who hated these Jews or let's say Christians in our day, applying it to our day. This person who ruled over India hated the Christians.

And he had power. He was the ruler of the country. He ruled from India. And this second in command came up to the king one day and said, listen to this and apply it to Christians. Esther chapter 3 verse 8.

He says, O king, there is a certain type of people scattered and dispersed among the peoples. There are not many. The percentage is only about 2 or so. But they are scattered here and there and dispersed all over among the people of your kingdom in India.

And their laws are different from those of all the other people in our land. They won't do puja. They don't obey certain commandments we have in our religion. So, it is not in the king's interest to let these people survive here.

Get rid of them. See how relevant the Bible is to our time. It's really amazing. And if it is pleasing to the king, because you have all authority, you're in power, let it be decreed that they be destroyed.

Get rid of them. So that in this country we have only one religion and we have only one law everybody obeys. And I will pay you money. 10 ,000 talents is a lot of money. Into the hands of those who carry on this work to finish off these people.

And the king took his signet ring and gave it to him and said, go. The silver is yours. The people also. Do whatever you please. The king didn't want to do it himself. He didn't want to get a bad name.

That's very often what happens. The man at the top tries to give the impression I'm a gracious man. I'm a nice man. You're all my people. I love all of you. But he's allowed these other fellows underneath to go and allow these things and they do it.

The king knows about it, but he just pretends that he doesn't know and everything is okay. I tell you the Bible is so relevant to our time. And Haman went out and he discussed with his wife and decided, okay, we're going to finish these people off.

There was a man, a godly man called Mordecai. Chapter 4, verse 1. When Mordecai learned that this order had been given out, what did he do? Those days, this is the way they prayed. They tore their clothes, put cloth ashes and he went to the king's gate to try and plead, but no one was allowed to go.

Enter the king's gate, clothed in sackcloth. And then he had a sort of a niece called Esther who had become the queen. And Esther's maidens came and told her that Mordecai, your uncle is there in all sackcloth.

Verse 4, chapter 4. And Esther summoned Hetak and told him to go to Mordecai and give him some clothes. And Mordecai went out and told all that happened to him. And Hetak came back in verse 9 and told Esther what all has happened.

Esther didn't know. Esther said, I can't go to the king. There's no way to go and change this law. And Mordecai said, verse 14, if you remain silent at this time, then deliverance will come from another place.

But who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this. Now we apply that to the church. There is a church in India and God has given us authority. We don't have physical power. But we are the bride of Jesus Christ.

We have authority to pray. There are instances we had in Bangalore in the early days in the 1970s and 80s when we prayed concerning things of the government, things of the Bangalore state government and the central government and we saw things change because we said, Lord, we've got one quality that many other churches may not have.

We've got unity and we've got holiness. We emphasize holiness probably more than any other church in India. We emphasize unity more than any other church in India. Maybe we don't do evangelism so much as others, okay.

But we do discipleship more than others and we believe that evangelism must lead to discipleship. We preach holiness more than others. We preach discipleship more than others. We preach unity more than others.

The things that are near to God's heart and therefore, even though we are small in number, you don't care for numbers, we believe that you'll hear our prayer. And we prayed like that and some amazing things happened.

It actually happened. I'll give you one instance. I don't have time to tell all of them. Way back in 1977, I was up in the north of India. It was about the only time I had a vision in my life. I saw a lot of...

I saw a picture of one who was one of the cabinet ministers and I saw a number of faces of Indian people and I heard a voice which said, the power to free these people is in the church. I didn't know what it meant and I didn't know why I saw this man, face of this cabinet minister, but I knew I had to pray.

And whenever I don't know what to pray about, because I'm not a politician, I'm not on this side or that side, I don't pray against any party or for any party. I don't support the Congress. I don't support the BJP.

I support Jesus Christ. So I said, Lord, I'm not on this side or that side of this party. I don't know what to pray. So whenever I don't know what to pray, I pray in tongues. So I prayed in this unknown language God had given me concerning this man.

I said, I don't know what I'm supposed to pray. And the next day he got a heart attack. Oh, so maybe something happened. Then I shared it with the brothers in the church here. We were a small church meeting in my house.

And I said, brothers, I don't know what this is. That's why I don't know what to pray for. But because of that, that man a few days later resigned from the parliamentary party and from his ministership.

And I knew something was happening. And I said, brothers, I feel something's happening as a result of this prayer. I'm not praying against it. I'm praying in tongues. I'm not praying in English anything.

And I said the same thing. I can't tell you what to pray for. If you have the gift of tongues, pray like that. I don't know. I'm not praying against a party or for a party. I never do that even today.

And what happened? The prime minister and this minister became divided. There was a split in the governing team. And every now and then, it would come in the papers that people are trying to unite these two, the prime minister and this senior minister.

Again, the burden would come upon me to pray. When I would pray, then I knew I had to pray against this unity. It went on like that. It was around April. It went on like that until December, eight months later.

I think it was 1977 if I remember right. And in the end, in December, there was a man, a member of parliament, who got up to try and get parliament to pass a law for the whole of India that nobody should be permitted to be converted to Christianity.

And he wanted to pass it in the parliament. And because there was this division in the party, which started in April from the time he prayed, it never could be passed. They could not get a majority in the parliament.

These are facts. And from that day, today, 38 years later, till today, that law has never been passed in this country. In a few states, they have passed it later, but in the whole country, never. That's why we have freedom, according to the law of the land, to convert people to Christ.

Does God listen to the prayers of a few people? Other people were going on processions and all that. I remember one Christian newspaper interviewed me on this at that time. And they published, saying, while other people are going on processions, protesting against this law they are trying to pass in parliament, there's a small group in Bamilo that believes in prayer.

And they've seen things happen. You know, we don't realize what power we have. Two or three are gathered together in my name. There's authority there to bind satanic forces. We can't bind Satan. That Jesus will do in the future.

But the activities of Satan we can bind. If our hearts are clean and we are united. That's all. That's why I keep on stressing. Keep a good conscience and preserve fellowship. Always apologize quickly.