Three Stages of Spiritual Growth - Part 2 — Zac Poonen

The Glory of the New Covenant

I can't understand. Well, I can understand. The devil's blinded people's eyes, that's all. Only our eyes were open to see the glory of the New Covenant. That's what I feel my main calling in life is to proclaim the glory of the New Covenant.

There's no doubt about it. It's changed my life to understand what Jesus did for me. We talk about New Testament. What is New Testament? It's a new covenant, a new agreement that God has made with man.

The New Covenant Blesses the Nations

I will bless you and you will be a blessing. And all the families of the earth, verse 3, will be blessed through you. Means that every single human being I meet, it's not all literally all the families of the earth because I don't meet them.

But all the ones I meet, all the ones I contact through some means of communication. And nowadays there are so many means of communication. The old days it was just speech and then it became letter and then it became telegram and then it became telephone.

And now we have the internet, which you reach the whole world and you don't even know whom you're blessing. Imagine that we can be like that. Bless the whole world. It's really true. All the families of the earth who want to be blessed can be blessed through you, if we have faith for it.

Complete Surrender to God's Blessing

I believe that. I don't believe in it's got to do with how much money we have or how many contacts we have. It's got nothing to do with that. It's only got to do with one thing. Do you allow, listen to this, you only got to do one thing.

Will you allow God to bless you? Will you say, Lord, I don't close any door in my life to you. Every door in every part of area of my life is open. You knock, I'll open immediately. I don't have to think about it.

I'll open. Whatever you say, give up, I give up. I don't have to think about it even for a second. You tell me to do something, I'll do it. Tell me give up something, I'll give it out. I give you my word Lord, I love you more than I love my children, love my parents, love my family members, love my job, love anybody in the whole universe.

You're going to be first. That's the meaning of worship. Whom have I in heaven but thee, there's nothing on earth I desire beside thee. Yeah, that's worship. When you do that, you worship God. And if you can say that, Lord, really, I'll tell you this.

Faith as Continual Drinking from Christ

There is absolutely no limit to the rivers that will flow through you because Jesus said that. He who thirsts comes to me and drinks, keeps on drinking and believes in me. And I get a very good definition of faith there.

Faith is like drinking water. Is there anything easier than drinking? It's the first thing that a baby learns before it learns to talk or walk or do anything on its own. There's one thing a baby learns to do on its own without even being taught, that's to drink.

And Jesus took that, the first thing a baby does without even being taught. That's the thing Jesus said, come to me and drink. That's faith. In other words, faith is the first and the most easiest thing that a believer can have.

It's just like drinking. It's coming to God. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to produce. The baby doesn't have to produce the milk, it just drinks. And so we come to the Lord and we keep on drinking.

And what happens finally, it not only satisfies us, but makes us a blessing to the world. So I want to turn to a New Testament example, New Testament passage that relates to this in 1 John chapter 2, verse 12 onwards.

The Three Levels of Christian Life

See verse 12 to 14, he talks about three levels of the Christian life. And if you really go all the way with God, and I'm saying that to every single person here, you don't have to be a full-time worker, you don't have to be a man, you don't have to be a grown-up person.

In other words, you can be in a secular job all your life, you can be a woman and you can be a child. This is for you. Three levels of the Christian life and God wants us to complete, come to the last level before we leave the earth.

We better hurry up. What are those three levels? Number one, we're like children. That's where we all begin, like babes. I'm writing to you little children. Then I'm writing to you fathers. I'm writing to you young men.

In verse 14, I've written to you fathers, I've written to you young men. And the last part of verse 13, again children. Twice he repeats three levels, children, young men and fathers. You know, the Bible is not like a book of mathematics, that's why it doesn't go one, two, three, one, two, three.

I like it, it deliberately mixes up the order sometimes so that these mathematical, logical people get a bit confused. Good. It's written for babes. But here's the three levels to think more clearly. Children, young men, fathers.

You know, that's how we are. It's an illustration from normal life. Somebody is born a child and becomes a young man and he becomes a father. Now spiritually, that is used as an illustration of how it should be with us.

Spiritual Childhood and the Need to Grow

And you can be a child spiritually even though you're 80 years old physically. Now a lot of people I met like that, 80 year old philically and they're like babies spiritually. Why do I say they're like babies?

Because they're always complaining, grumbling, murmuring, making demands on others and dirtying their diapers. By that I mean committing sin. They still don't know how to keep themselves clean. They get upset and angry.

You know that when bad words come out of your mouth, it's just like baby dirtying a diaper. I hope you keep that picture all your life. Oh, I dirtied my diaper again now. Oh, again, five times a day dirtied my diaper.

Look at the words that came out of my mouth. Babies. You don't get angry with a baby. You just hope it'll grow up. That's all. It's sad when they're 20 years old and still wearing diapers. I tell you it's sad.

You'd feel sad if your son was like that. God is sad when you're like that. When the words that come out of my mouth come out of your mouth, I like the filth that comes out of diapers. You think it's clean?

Is it something you're proud of? You think babies are proud of what comes out of, into the diapers? Are you proud of the words that come out of your mouth sometimes? That's babies. You need to grow up.

Spiritual Strength and Victory Over Satan

From there we come to young men. You know young men are folks, and that includes young women too, who are strong and zealous and full of fire. And then we go to fathers who are mature. So we can say, it says here about children, two things about each of them really.

Little children, first of all, verse 12, your sins are forgiven. The second thing it says about children is, in the last part of verse 13, you know the father. Okay. What it says about young men, it's almost similar in both the statements.

In the middle of verse 13, I've written to you young men because you overcome Satan. And then towards the end of verse 14, I've written to you young men because you're strong. The word of God abides in you and you have overcome Satan.

Spiritual Fatherhood and Knowing God

What does it say to fathers? Fathers, verse 13, I'm writing to you fathers because you know him who has been from the beginning. That is the father, but the father from all eternity. And again in verse 14, it really says the same thing.

I've written to your fathers because you've known him who has been from the beginning. So I see here, children, they know the father just like a little child, you know, a two year old knows his father.

And the fathers are those who patterned their life after the heavenly father.