Knowing Christ's Resurrection Power — Zac Poonen

Praise the Lord. We give all the glory to God. We have nothing that we have not received. If you remember that all your life, that you have nothing that you have not received from God, it'll keep you on your face in the dust before him.

And like John, when he was on his face in the dust before God, says the Lord laid his hand on him. I don't know whether you long for that. I want the Lord to lay his hand on me. And I see he does that if we keep our face in the dust.

Building a New Covenant Church Through God’s Presence

In order to do that, we have to constantly recognize that we have nothing that we have not received. The second thing we must realize, these are important principles to build a new covenant church. See, when we look at history, I'll tell you something honestly.

If you study Christian history, you'll find that there have been different movements in different countries, in different centuries, where God raised up usually a man. You know, Martin Luther, John Wesley, some of the Anabaptists, William Booth, different people to restore to the church something that had been neglected.

And they were usually called heretics and false teachers in their lifetime. But as time went on, and towards the end of their lives, whether it was John Wesley or William Booth, people began to recognize that God was with them.

But nobody could recognize at the beginning. Just like David, nobody recognized at the beginning that he was anointed. But towards the end of his life, people recognized God was with him. It's always been the history.

They rejected Moses when he first went to the Israelites. But later on, they recognized he was their leader. So, but what we see in all these attempts to restore a new covenant church was that things lasted during the lifetime of the founder.

And once the founder had died, every movement in history has just gone down. And I've tried to understand the reason for it. And I've come to this conclusion, that these movements in history, the founders knew God.

Their followers knew the doctrine. They followed the doctrine exactly. We can say the founders built the tabernacle with the fire of God, which is most important for them. The followers preserved the tabernacle in the pattern where the fire was missing.

And if the fire is missing, you might as well throw away the tabernacle. There's no difference between an old covenant church and a new covenant one, if the fire is not there. It's the presence of Jesus Christ in a church.

We said that at the beginning. That's the mark of a new covenant church. The mark of a new covenant home is the presence of Christ. It's not a particular pattern. And so what is the solution? The solution is that God in every generation seeks to lay hold of young people.

I think all these great men in history that we talk about, they were all laid hold of by God before they were 30. I mean, they may have come into their ministry a little later, but God laid hold of them, took them through a tremendous amount of misunderstanding, criticism, opposition, many trials to see whether they would stand.

And, you know, they were tested with women and money and many, many things. And if they survived it all, God could do something with them. And that's why we are seeking to encourage a younger generation not to follow a pattern, but to know God.

And if you find God speaking to some of you younger people, perhaps you're one of those whom God wants to use in the next generation. To use another illustration, see, in these movements in the past, the leader or founder was like an engine that pulled a train.

And they were going full speed, you know, compared to all the other churches around them, which were sluggish and stopped. And they were going full speed. And then the founder died. It was like the engine went off.

But because the engine had been pulling so hard, the engine was disconnected now, the momentum that the rest of the compartments of the train had, it went on going for quite a while. But you know what happens when the compartments of a train are moving without the engine, just on momentum, gradually it slows down.

And maybe 30, 40 years, it stops. That's what's happened. So God has to raise up young people in every generation, in every country, who've got that vision, who are like that engine under God's hand with the power of the Holy Spirit, who are not just trying to stay on the tracks.

I mean, the tracks are like the doctrine, very important. But you can have the tracks and a stationary train because there's no steam, there's no power. It needs power to move the train along the tracks, which is more important for a railway train, the tracks or the power?

You know the answer, I suppose. So I'm not saying we should neglect doctrine, but I say it's no use having doctrine if you don't have power. And if you, like I said, if you want God's hand to be upon you, you've got to recognize a couple of things.

One is that there's nothing that you have not received. That's 1 Corinthians in chapter 4 and verse 7. What have you got that you did not receive? And if you received it from God, why do you boast as though you hadn't received it, as though you produced it yourself?

And the people who recognize that, you know, when God brings fruit in their life, they're like a branch. You know, that's the second thing we need to learn. John 15, 5, without me, you can do nothing.

In both these verses, 1 Corinthians 4, 7 and John 15, 5, this word nothing comes. What have you got that you did not receive? Nothing. And without me, you can do nothing. There's nothing you got which you didn't receive, and there's nothing you can do without Christ.

It's like, and he used the example there of the branch in the tree, and every branch knows that. Even if you have 50 years of experience as a branch, you still can't produce anything without the tree.

The new branch produces fruit, and the 50-year-old branch produces fruit, all both on exactly the same principle. Dependence on the tree and the sap, which is the Holy Spirit, flows from the tree. And you know, when the sap stops flowing because a branch is cut or lost its connection, it dries up.

You've seen that in trees all around, dries up in no time at all. And we've seen that also. Good believers who started out so well, filled with the Holy Spirit, you see them some years later, and they've been cut.

The love of money, the love of some woman, some earthly pursuit, and the branch is cut. You know, it doesn't wither immediately, but it's just a matter of time, and you can see that the old zeal and love and fervency is gone.

The old anointing, which they had once, is gone. I've seen that with my own eyes in our churches and in some of the elders in some of our churches in different places. It's very sad. I seek to constantly exhort them.

What do I exhort them? If you look at an article I wrote in The Souvenir, there are three things I mentioned there. Always think of yourself as an ordinary man. Always. You're just a brother. And always keep your face in the dust.

No matter what happens, no matter how much God uses you or doesn't use you, keep your face in the dust. And third, think more of how much Jesus loves you. More than of how much you love Jesus. Because when you think of you love Jesus, you can be proud.

When you say like, John, I'm a disciple whom Jesus loved, you put yourself on the same level as everybody else, because Jesus loves everybody. It's very simple. It's like I say, the three secrets of the Christian life are humility, humility, humility.

And that is what a lot of young people need to learn. If you want to build a church, you cannot build it any other way than Jesus did it. And Jesus did it by humbling himself to the death. That's how he laid the foundation for the cross, for the church.

Jesus’ Humility and the Test of Obedience

And we need eyes to see that. And that's why we need revelation. To see the way Jesus, the first body of Christ, lived on this earth, never seeking honor. Seeking to obey every little thing that the Father told him.

Not just the big things. Every little thing. I see that right in the very first instance, when the devil told him to turn stones into bread to satisfy your hunger. Now, what is wrong with turning stones into bread, if you have the power for it, to satisfy your hunger?

I mean, is it gluttony to want to eat a little bread after 40 days of fasting? Nobody would call that gluttony. And you're not stealing anybody else's bread. You're not taking money from anyone. You're not making your need known to anyone.

And you're only using the power that God gave you, not satanic power, God's power to turn stones into bread to eat it. Why did Jesus say no? He said that can look like a legitimate need. All things are lawful, but I'm not permitted to do all things.

There are very few Christians who live at that level. I'll tell you. But that's the first test of leadership. The first test that Jesus had before he came out to build a new covenant church. Will you do everything lawful?

Of course, unlawful things is completely out of the question. But even among the multitude of lawful things, will you only select those things that God permits you? Jesus could have taken a holiday to Rome.

Is there a sin? After strenuous work for one hour, one year, morning till night, and every day for one year to take a one week holiday to Rome, there was enough money with Judas Iscariot to take a ticket on a ship to go to Rome just for a break.

Why didn't he do it? It wasn't sinful. He wouldn't have sinned in Rome. He wouldn't have sinned in any part of the earth. He lived in an entirely different principle that 99 of believers live by. A lot of believers do many things unlawful.

There are a few believers who are very careful never to do anything unlawful. And they think they are spiritual because they do only the things that are lawful. They're not spiritual. Many of them are soulish.

They don't know the difference between being soulish and spiritual. A spiritual man is one who walks like Jesus, who can find a thousand things that are lawful, but may do only 10 of those things because he's got permission from the Father only to do 10.

And going to Rome was lawful, but it was not in that small circle of 10 that the Father permitted. But Lord, aren't you exhausted? Yeah, God will give me strength. So God's looking for young people like that.

He uses men and women to build a church. But he's very strict and demanding in the type of person he uses. Christian organizations and missions will pick up anybody to serve the Lord. We see that all around India.

Just go through the Bible school, get your degree and your certificate and you're ready. 22 years old, you're ready to serve the Lord. The Lord doesn't pick people like that. Jesus knew the Bible at the age of 12 better than any Bible college student in the world today.

Better than any PhD or THD or whatever other D people get these days. He knew it better at the age of 12, but he wasn't ready because the Father said, knowledge of the Bible is not enough. You need another 18 years to be broken before you are fit to serve.

And during those 18 years, it's not just prayer and study. It is working hard and being misunderstood and ill-treated by your brothers and sisters and so many things. That was a training. And that's how we build a new covenant church.

God’s Method: Forming Faithful Men and Women

God needs men. Men are always looking for better methods, which is a better method, better scheme. God's looking for better men because like someone said, men are God's method. Did you know that? Men and women are God's method.

So while men look for better methods, God's looking for better men and women. How many of you will take that challenge and say, Lord, I want to pay the price. I'll tell you something. If you listen to me and listen to these words, when you come to the end of your life and you stand before the Lord, you will have no regret.

Take my word. You'll thank me at the judgment seat of Christ. But if you live the way most believers are living, you may not accomplish God's full purpose for your life. You may accomplish 10 or 15 percent.

Are you satisfied with that or you want to accomplish 100 percent of God's purpose for your life? That is my passion. Lord, before I leave the earth, there's some prayers I made like, Lord, before I leave the earth, I want to finish the work you gave me to do.

Number one, I want to obey every commandment there is in the Bible. Number two, I want to claim every promise there is in the Bible for me. Do you have a passion like that? Before I leave the earth, I want to obey every single commandment in the Bible.

That's why I study the Bible. How will I know every commandment if I don't study it? How will I know every commandment in the Bible if I spend my time watching television? Yeah, building a new covenant church is only for those who are serious, not just for those who go to so-called go to church and have a little ease their conscience on Sunday morning just singing a few songs and listening to a message and going home.

It's serious business because we are fighting the devil. It's a bigger war than any war that's ever been fought in the history of this world, greater than the first world war, second world war, any war, a war with the devil himself.

It's not a picnic. A lot of Christians who treat the Christian life like a picnic, they're never going to accomplish God's purposes because the Christian life is a battle. The Bible says we've got to fight the devil and stand.

We've got to have discernment about all his subtle schemes. We've got to have vision to recognize when he comes as an angel of light. You know the number of believers who see an angel and think it's an angel from heaven when it's the devil masquerading as an angel from heaven and using some heavenly name and fooling people and telling them all types of things and these stupid believers believe that.

Why is that? Because there's something in their life where the devil finds an affinity. Affinity means closeness and an attachment, something in their life, usually pride because the devil fell through pride.

And so that's why I say we must always recognize there's nothing we have not received. We can do nothing apart from Christ, John 15 .5, which means put the other way around that whatever you do apart from Christ will amount to zero finally.

That's a paraphrase of John 15 .5. If you can do something for the Lord in your own strength, it'll finally amount to zero because without me you can do nothing. So you try to do something without Christ, it'll amount to nothing finally.

You don't see it on the earth. It looks like a massive structure of wood, hay, and straw, but finally in the day the Lord returns and tests it with fire, you discover it's zero. I don't want to do that.

I don't want to spend 50 years building with wood, hay, and straw and have it all burnt up in the final day. Do you know that all of us are building with our thoughts and our words and our attitudes and actions?

We're building something with our motives. What are you building with? Every one of us can be a part of this new covenant church. Everyone. We're all called to be priests. In the old covenant, if you were not born in the tribe of Levi, you just missed it.

You can't be a priest no matter how much you fast and pray. But in the new covenant, we can all be priests. We are if we are born again. And all being priests means we can serve God. The priests taught people.

And you can teach people. People come to your house. You should be sharing God's word with them. You can pray for people like the priests in the Old Testament. You can offer your body as a sacrifice to God like the priests in the Old Testament did.

They offered animals. We offer our bodies. But everyone is a priest. But there's a law. And I want you to see that. And then we'll understand what Jesus meant when he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

The Melchizedek Priesthood and the Indestructible Life

In the book of Hebrews, we read in chapter seven. It's a beautiful verse. It's comparing this new covenant priesthood. The new covenant priests are the ones who build the new covenant church. And you got to understand how to become a new covenant priest.

Like in the old covenant, the only people who are allowed to go inside that center part of the tabernacle and do any work in the tabernacle, even in the outer court, killing the lambs and the oxen, there was only one group of people who are allowed to do any work in the tabernacle.

Those were the Levites. You had to be born of the tribe of Levi. Otherwise, no matter who you are, you could not serve in the tabernacle or in the temple later on. But here in the new covenant, the contrast here is in chapter seven is speaking about the priesthood of Melchizedek.

The last part of chapter six, verse 20, you know, it says in the verse 19, Jesus has entered through the veil and become a forerunner for us and a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Most believers do not know Jesus as a forerunner and do not know what it means to be a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Now, when you find a difficult passage in scripture, don't just skirt around it and go to the next verse. It's all right if you're a baby, but come back to it later. Otherwise, you'll be like a farmer plowing the grounds.

He's a big rock there and just ignores it and goes around. I mean, he's going to lose that part of ground completely, but here it's more serious. We need to understand what the priesthood of Melchizedek is.

In the Old Testament, we read that Melchizedek was a man who blessed Abraham. He came to him with physical food, a spiritual exhortation, a word of prophecy, and then disappeared. He didn't want Abraham to be attached to him.

That's the priesthood of Melchizedek. To bless people with a word from God and then disappear so that they are attached to Christ and not to them to the preacher. They're very rare to find people of the order of Melchizedek nowadays.

And we read here that Jesus is called a priest after the order of Melchizedek, a high priest, and we're the junior priest, according to that. And then he contrasts these two priesthoods in chapter 7 and verse 11.

There was no perfection through the Levitical priesthood. That's the difference. That in the New Covenant, we can press on to perfection in our life, which the Old Covenant priesthood could not lead to.

Then he says when there's a change in the priesthood, verse 12, there has to be a change in the law as well. And now this New Covenant priest, Jesus, did not come from the tribe of Levi. Verse 14, he came from the tribe of Judah.

Now don't just skip around these verses. There's a great lesson coming through in a moment. And Moses said nothing, chapter 7, verse 14, about the tribe of Judah having priests. Why wasn't Jesus born of the tribe of Levi?

Because there was a change of priesthood. And how did he become a priest? It says there is a reason why, you turn back to chapter 7 and verse 1, it says about Melchizedek, verse 3, without father or mother, without genealogy, and neither beginning of days nor...

That means why is there in a book like Genesis, where every man of God's genealogy is known, right from Adam to Joseph, who's the last man of God in Genesis, every man of God in the book of Genesis, you know their genealogy, except one person, Melchizedek.

You don't know his genealogy. He was born of the race of Adam, but you don't know who his father was. You don't know who his grandfather was, but you know that about every other man of God in the book of Genesis.

And that is to teach us a lesson that it's almost as though he was, there's no record of his father and mother. Therefore he's a picture of Jesus, who has no earthly father and who came from heaven, eternal, no beginning of, you know, neither beginning of days, verse 3, nor end of life.

So in that way, he's a picture of Jesus, and if, and now we come to verse 15, if another priest is arisen according to the likeness of Melchizedek, he did not become, this is the important verse now, verse 16, he did not become a priest on the basis of a law of physical requirement, that is to be born of the tribe of Levi, no.

But he did become a priest on the power of an indestructible life. Now that's the phrase I want you to remember. The priesthood of Levi was according to the physical requirement. The priesthood of Melchizedek is according to the power of an indestructible life, a life that cannot be destroyed.

All those who partake of that life can become priests according to the order of Melchizedek. It's not just studying some doctrine, attending CFC or some particular church. No, no, no, it's not that easy.

Any unbeliever can come and sit here and fool the elders and even become a member of CFC and partake in the breaking of bread. And there was a magician called Simon who fooled Philip, the evangelist, and even got baptism from him, but he wasn't even converted.

Till somebody else with greater discernment like Peter came and said, you're in the bondage of iniquity, you're not converted. Yeah, so it's not a question of people accepting you and thinking you're okay.

If you care for the opinions of men, you'll never be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. You better care only for the opinion of God. It's the only opinion that matters. What is the power of an indestructible life?

If you get into this, Satan will not be able to touch you. Jesus said in John 14, but remember this phrase, the power of an indestructible life. John 14, Jesus said in verse 30, the ruler of this world, that is Satan, is coming, but he has nothing in me.

He cannot find a single point in me in which there's an affinity between me and him. So if you look at Satan's character, and you find there's something in him which you have and which you nourish. Now we have a flesh, all of us have a flesh.

The most saintly man on earth has a flesh. Paul had one till the end of his life, which is in which dwelt nothing good. It was a sinful flesh. Jesus did not come in sinful flesh. It says in Romans 8 .3, he came in the likeness of sinful flesh.

But you and I and Paul have sinful flesh, in which dwells nothing good. Jesus had a will of his own, but he didn't have sinful flesh. Paul had sinful flesh, and therefore there are things in us which Satan has in our flesh.

There's pride there, there's selfishness there, particularly pride and selfishness. These are very difficult to discover. So we can't do anything about it if we have it. We inherited it from Adam. But the point is, do you nourish it?

When you see it, then you are in league with Satan. If you don't see it, you're not responsible. If there are snakes in your house, hidden somewhere under some cupboard, and you don't see it, you're not responsible.

But if you see a cobra sliding around the floor in your house, and you say, oh that's okay, you're probably in league with that cobra. You're agreeing with that cobra that it can go and sting your children or something like that.

It's like that. That means you're not responsible for the snake you don't see, but you are responsible for the snake you see. I mean, you would even kill a rat or a cockroach, or a cobra. A rat and a cockroach can do much less damage than a cobra.

Why do we get rid of them? Why are we so keen to get rid of cockroaches that never harm us or bite us? And we're not so keen on getting rid of little sins and even big sins. Doesn't it indicate a height of stupidity?

Or to use an illustration, a man's had a road accident, his body's all torn up, and his shirt is all torn up, and he says, take me to a tailor first, I want to get my shirt stitched. You really think the guy's a mental case?

Well, a lot of mental cases like that in the church. They've got serious problem with their soul, but they're more worried about cockroaches. Don't you think these are mental cases? Sure. There's serious problems in their soul.

What are they thinking of? Oh, I've got a little sickness here. I've got a little problem there. I want to go to Jesus for this, that. I want a little more money. I want a better house. You know, Jesus said, the prince of this world comes and he's got nothing in me.

There's not an atom of selfishness. There's not an atom of pride. Do you know what it means to want to be like Jesus? It means I'm pressing on to that life where there'll be not an atom of selfishness, not an atom of pride, not an atom of partiality in my dealing with believers.

I don't have any special friends among believers. All are the same. Because God doesn't have any special children. All are the same. You know, he treats us just like he treated Jesus when he was on earth.

Even Jesus wasn't his favorite son that he allowed him, protected him from serious temptations or protecting him from death. No, he allowed him to face everything that we face. God has no favorites. It's those who are not like God who have got favorites, favoritism.

Many fathers and mothers have got their favorite child. This one who's clever, or this one who's good looking, or this one is a boy and all the others are girls, or this one is a girl and all the others are boys.

Favorites. It's all a mark of people who don't know God. There are elders who have favorites. I've seen that in many, many churches. They show partiality to their own children or to their own friends.

They don't deal with them in the same way they deal with others. This is all, I mean, and if you're unconscious of it and you don't know it, okay, it's not a crime. It's like a snake hidden somewhere.

You don't know it. It's there, but if you see it and you don't do anything about it, it's pretty serious, or you're not asking God to give you light on that, you're not going with a torch under every cupboard to see whether there is a snake there.

If you're not serious about it, you're not serious about getting rid of these things from your life. I'll tell you this, my brothers and sisters, it's selfishness, pride, partiality. These are some of the terrible sins that hinder people from building a new covenant church.

You cannot do it. You got to, you know, I remember years ago seeing a picture of a automobile company in India where they had a board on one of the walls, we aim for zero defect. I said, boy, that's a great word for the church and for my life and for my home.

We aim for zero defect. Now, I don't think there's any car ever produced that has zero defect, but that particular company did pretty well because they aim for zero defect and became a lot better than all of the other Indian cars that were produced.

And I'll tell you this, if you make that your motto, that you aim for zero defect in your personal life, in your home life, in your church, you'll go a long way. And there's another thing from that which we got, which those car companies don't have, we are the opposite of that.

Their aim is we aim for zero defect, but we aim for maximum profit. But in the church, we say we aim for zero defect and we aim for zero profit, zero profit from our ministry or from anything we do, even our book ministry, internet ministry, CD ministry.

Our aim is at the end of the balance sheet when it's finally made, when the Lord comes, our profit is zero. Then we have achieved it. In other words, everything that came in goes 100 for the ministry.

Nobody's making money out of all this. We aim for zero defect, we aim for zero profit. Now that's not what the devil, the devil doesn't have such mottos. And people who don't have such mottos are in some way, a little bit in league with the devil.

They allow a little bit of defect, it's not serious. You know that little bit of defect can cause a car to crash, cause your life to crash, cause your home to crash. It happens. Why is it there are so many divorces?

It used to be only in Western lands and it's crept into India. How's that? It's crept in wherever Western influences come. It's because those families from day one never aim for zero defect. They live in selfishness and pride and then you always end up in divorce if you continue to live in selfishness and pride.

And in India where divorce is frowned upon, you may not end up in divorce, you just may end up with a house that is always fighting where people are fighting with each other. I agree it's better than divorce because the children don't suffer.

But that's not the place where you can say the prince of the world, the ruler of the world comes to my house and he finds nothing. How many of you can say Satan comes to examine your house and he doesn't find a filthy movie there?

He doesn't find any movie with corrupt sex scenes in any of the DVDs in your house? It's only five seconds. It's only five seconds of that dirty sex scene. But that's what the devil lays hold of. Burn it, get rid of it, don't sell it to somebody else and make him sin.

Do what the people in Ephesus did. They burnt all those things which had connections with the devil. Get rid of it, destroy it before you get rid of it. Can you say that the devil comes to your house and he can find nothing, no book, no pages in any book that dishonor Christ?

You want to build a church? You better start with your home. Go through it. I'm told that the Israelites on the day before the Passover would go with a lamp under the beds and everywhere to see if there was a little bit of leaven because they ate leavened bread on other days but on the day of the Passover and the next day the feast of unleavened bread there was not supposed to be a bit of leaven in the house and you know little babies or their children they could have dropped a bit of bread somewhere and they had to go searching.

I love that picture. I wish I could get a painting of that of these people looking under the beds for a bit of leaven. I wish Christians could have that picture in their mind looking in the corners of their heart for a little bit of selfishness or partiality.

Not just saying I'm waiting for God to reveal it to me. I'll tell you he'll never reveal it to you because you're not serious. Those Israelites didn't sit down in their easy chairs and say Lord show us if there's any leaven inside the house.

No, God was not going to do it. They had to take the lamp, climb, crawl under the beds to see if it was there. You got to do that. We're not half as wholehearted as those Israelites. Will you go with that lamp through your house and get rid of everything starting today and anything that dishonors God in your house so that you'll be able to say the prince of the world comes to my house and he finds nothing there.

Cleansing the Home and Removing the Devil’s Claims

You know Zacchaeus wanted to do it. It says in Luke 19 that when Jesus came to Zacchaeus's house he stood there before the gate and said Lord I'm just imagining what he said because it says he stopped.

Lord you can't come to this house. You're a holy man. This house has been built with black money, unjustly earned money. You can't come in here. I must first return to all the people I've stolen from, cheated as a tax collector, all the money that's given.

I want to make you that promise and Jesus said I believe you. The promise is as good as the action. You don't have to wait. It may take you 10 years to return it but your salvation has come to your house today.

I want to say I want Jesus to say it's the only place in the Gospels where Jesus said to somebody salvation has come to your house. Luke 19. Do you want Jesus to say to you salvation has come to your house today because you decided to get rid of everything over which the devil has a claim in your house?

Take it seriously. You'll become a man of God. You'll be a woman of God. You don't become a man of God just by studying the Bible. You don't become a man of God just by learning how to preach. You've got to have a life before Christ and so now we understand what Jesus said in Matthew 16 about building the church.

I will build my church verse 18 and the gates of hell which is the powers of spiritual darkness it says in the margin of my NASB. The powers of spiritual darkness will not be able to over the powers of spiritual death rather the powers of spiritual death will not be able to overpower it.