The Spirit of Reality — Zac Poonen

I've come a little further back so I can walk in the light. That's the main reason. Yesterday we were looking at this verse in Hebrews in chapter 7. It's really a very wonderful verse. It describes what the New Covenant is all about.

The New Covenant and the Indestructible Life

It describes what Jesus came to give us. And I would say it describes what most Christians have missed completely in their life. It's amazing how man has a tendency to gravitate towards law rather than grace.

And if he does seek grace, he misunderstands it for a cheap grace that allows him to perpetually be defeated in sin and perpetually be forgiven. That's not grace. There is a life that God wants us to have which is way beyond what we have seen the average Christian around us have.

And probably way beyond what we have experienced ourselves. If we are satisfied with what we have spiritually, we'll never come to that life. I believe that the Christian life must be one of perfect contentment with earthly things.

Perfect contentment. That means I don't desire anything more than what God has given me. When it comes to material things, earthly things, if you desire more than what God has been pleased to give you, then you will fall a prey to this false gospel that is being proclaimed everywhere that Jesus has come to make you rich.

Who are the people who fall for that gospel? Those who have not learned to be content with what God has determined the earthly circle to be. It's very important to understand that. There's a circle God has drawn around us financially, materially, that determines our salary, our wealth, everything.

It's God who has determined it. Once you realize it's God who has determined it, you'll never feel jealous of anybody else. You'll never compete with anybody else. And God may increase it. I remember when my wife and I got married, that circle was so small.

We were extremely poor. We lived in a little ten foot by ten foot room. But we were content. God was testing us for three years. And when we were content and we had learned contentment with little, and we decided we'd never get into debt, God slowly increased that circle.

This is very important. If you want to partake of this indestructible life that God has provided for all his children, one of the first things he tests us in is material things. In Luke chapter 16, it says in verse 11, Luke 16, 11, if you have not been faithful with unrighteous mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you?

We need to recognize that everything that this world calls wealth is not really wealth. It's false. When Jesus speaks about true wealth, it obviously means that mammon, which refers to money and material things, is a false wealth.

And this is one of the great deceptions of Satan, making you spend all your life pursuing after false wealth and missing out the true one. What are we supposed to do with the earthly wealth God gives us?

Be faithful. Faithful is more than being righteous. To be righteous with earthly money and wealth means that I don't steal. If I've cheated anybody, I give it back at the earliest opportunity, even if it's little by little.

It's the heart that God sees. And it means that I try my best not to borrow unless it's an emergency. And if I do borrow, I seek to give it back as soon as possible. And I'm content with what God has given me.

And if that's being righteous, being faithful is more than that. I don't waste money on myself. That even if God increases the size of my circle, I don't feel oh well, now I can live in grand style. Jesus is still my example.

So faithfulness is more than righteousness. There are many, many, many believers who are righteous with money matters, but they're not faithful. And here it says, if you're not faithful with what God has given you of earthly things, how in the world will God give you the true riches?

You know what the true riches are? This indestructible life that nothing can destroy. So it's very important. So the Christian life begins with a perfect contentment with the things God has given us. And a perpetual discontentment with where I am spiritually.

That means I'm always longing for more. Paul said in Philippians 3, I haven't attained all that God laid hold of me for, but there's one thing I do. I keep pressing on. I never give up. I'm never satisfied with how far I've come.

When Paul says in Philippians 3, I forget the things that are behind and I'm pressing forward to the things that are ahead. Many people use that verse to apply to their past failures. I want to forget all my past failures.

It's true. We got to forget our past failures. But Paul was speaking more about forgetting his past successes. He wasn't just saying, I messed up my life. I want to forget that. True. But he was thinking of, I've raised the dead.

I want to forget that. I've written scripture. I want to forget that. I've healed lots of people. I want to forget that. I've planted churches. I want to forget that. He was thinking of his successes.

I've been taken up to third heaven and seen visions. I want to forget that. That's the way he made progress. He didn't sit and meditate on his accomplishments or how much Christ-like he had become already.

He was dissatisfied. So I see that the Christian life is one of dissatisfied satisfaction. There are many paradoxes in the Christian life and this is one of them. So if you are like that, perfectly content with whatever God has chosen to give you of earthly things, never comparing yourself with anybody in the world, never wishing that you had what somebody else had.

You know the last commandment in the law was don't covet your neighbor's wife or your neighbor's house or anything that is your neighbor's. It's a commandment. And nobody could fulfill it in the Old Testament but now we can.

And that means, he's talking about earthly things. Don't covet anything that anybody else has. Be perfectly content because God is the one who determines the size of your circle. Your financial material circle is not determined by anybody other than God.

And you know he could make it huge if he wants. One reason he doesn't make it huge is to destroy you. He doesn't make it so small that we starve. No. He makes it the right circle that we can handle. And if I'm content there, I'm thereby saying God is righteous and he's good.

He knows exactly what's right for me. If he's given somebody else a larger circle, well maybe he can handle it. God sees I can't handle it. I'd destroy myself with that much so God's determined my circle.

I'm so thankful for that. I'm so thankful in my life that God never expanded my circle till he saw that that extra financially wouldn't destroy me. God is so good in that. But a perpetual dissatisfaction with where we are spiritually.

Lord, I want to be more like Jesus. Our prayers must mostly be centered around the destination God has determined for us. And that is to become Christ-like. What is the thing that encourages us to believe that every one of us can partake of this indestructible life?

This indestructible life is the life of Jesus. And it's proved to be indestructible by the resurrection. You know, death is what destroys everything in this world. But Jesus conquered death to prove that the life that he had could not be destroyed.

It is indestructible. And what God communicates to us through the Holy Spirit is this indestructible life. Many, many Christians, their Christianity is just an improvement of their old life. That's not Christianity.

Law, Grace, and Participation in the Divine Nature

That's a life under the law. When God gave a law to the Israelites, you know what it did? It made their life better than the lives of all the other nations around them. What did the Ten Commandments do for Israel?

It didn't give them a life inside. No. It made their external life better than the lives of the Assyrians and the Romans and all the other nations around them. And that is life under the law. It makes our external life better.

But that was not God's ultimate purpose. It was only a temporary step towards God's ultimate purpose for man which was that we might partake of the divine nature. We must see this. I mean this is so elementary in one sense.

But yet I found in my Christian life I never came into this life even after many, many years of being born again. Every message I heard was to improve my way of living. And if you come to church and you hear a lot of good things about, you know, our speech must be more gracious and we must be kinder and etc. etc.

We can do all that. And it hasn't brought us to this indestructible life. It just made our external life better. In the worldly corporations they have what they call management seminars where they get these specialists who come and tell people how to behave better with their customers and how to behave better with their employees etc. to improve production, to get better results.

That's not Christianity. There may be a lot of Christian principles they use there. But it's only with a very selfish end in view. Whereas this indestructible life is an altogether different quality. It's not in order to improve my life so that other people can think I'm a better Christian.

It's got absolutely nothing to do with what other people think about me. I mean, the life that God has, He doesn't have it because He's concerned what other people think about Him. He's not bothered what other people think about Him.

It's a life. And that's the thing we must long for. We must never be satisfied with an external Christianity. I remember it was this external Christianity that made me a backslider after some years of being a Christian.

And I became so desperate at that time that I said, Lord, I'm crying out to You for just one thing in my life that You will make my inner life correspond with my outer life. I want to ask You, how many of you will pray that prayer sincerely?

Freedom from Human Approval and Religious Performance

Lord, I don't want to give people a wrong impression about myself anymore. I've finished with it. I want my inner life to be exactly like other people see me on the outside. If I'm gracious and humble and good and loving on the outside, that must be what I am on the inside.

It must come out from inside. It must not be an external whitewash. This is so important. I believe that people never come into this indestructible life because they're satisfied with that external covering of goodness that's got them a reputation as good Christians.

We've got to hate the reputation we have before men. It says about Jesus, He made Himself of no reputation. That's a wonderful translation, the King James Version. No reputation before men. He was despised and rejected by men, it says in Isaiah 53.

So what? So what if people think you're useless and good for nothing and it doesn't make one difference. Their opinion is fit for the trash can. The only thing that matters is what does God think about your inner life?

This is so important, brothers and sisters. So important. To be free from the opinions of men is almost the first step to a godly life. To be free from the opinions of men is almost the first step to a godly life.

And if you don't get past this barrier. You know when Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 11 and verse 12 Now let me read verse 11 and 12 together. He said that among all the human beings ever born since Adam's time, the greatest was John the Baptist.

Verse 11. That he was absolute greatest. Greater than Moses, greater than Elijah, greater than his mother Mary, greater than everyone was John the Baptist. And then he said but the one who enters God's kingdom the kingdom of heaven, this new covenant life that I'm talking about will be way ahead of him.

Why? Because John the Baptist despite all his greatness could not have this inner life. That's something reserved for people after the day of Pentecost. The great difference that happened on the day of Pentecost was that the Holy Spirit who was with people came in people.

The Holy Spirit was with people in the Old Testament. When it says they were filled with the Spirit, even John the Baptist filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb. The Spirit was not within John the Baptist.

He was with him. It is the difference between Jesus being with us and in us. That's why he told his disciples before he went. He said it's good for you that I go away because if I don't go away I'll only be with you.

And if I'm with you here I can't be with the people in other countries. And I can't even help you because I've been here with you all these years and I've not been able to change you on the inside. You're still fighting for leadership as to who's the greatest.

But it's good for you that I go away because when I go away I will come in the power of my Holy Spirit and then I'll be able to come inside you and then you won't be fighting for leadership. We need to understand that.

That's a big difference that took place on the day of Pentecost. It wasn't speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues was like an added bonus. But the main thing which I feel so grieved that Christendom has missed this.

How the devil has led Christendom off onto a tangent. Onto minor things and everywhere we find Christians majoring on minors. The main thing is this. This indestructible life that the Holy Spirit came to give within us.

Indestructible. A joy that nothing can destroy. Jesus said that. I'll give you a joy that no one can take away from you. Have you got that? Have you got a joy that no human being can ever take away from you?

That no circumstance can take away from you? That no demon in hell can take away from you? That's indestructible joy. A peace that nothing on earth can disturb. A rest. An inward rest that never gets affected by circumstances.

I mean if you see the glory of this life I can't imagine how anybody won't want it with all their heart. I mean I began to see it. I said Lord I want this with all my heart. I want this more than anything else.

What's the useless opinions of men worth? This is what I want. So here he says the least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than John the Baptist and then he says in verse 12 this is the verse I wanted to point out to you.

Matthew 11 verse 12. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force. So this violence. Do you know that Christians have to be men and women of violence?

Not externally. Externally we are men of peace. We don't fight even with those who come to fight with us. That's a mark of a true Christian. Jesus said that in one pilot. My kingdom is not of this world he said.

If my kingdom were of this world my servants would fight. Every Christian who fights with another human being is thereby shouting out my kingdom is of this world. Every husband and wife who fight with each other.

What are they usually fighting about? Some earthly thing something somebody forgot to do or something somebody didn't do according to the standards of the other spouse. They fight about it. They are actually proclaiming my kingdom is not of heaven.

My kingdom is of this world. Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world. So I won't fight. My servants their kingdom is not of this world. They do not fight. The mark of the servants of Jesus Christ is they do not fight for earthly things.

And Paul repeats that in Ephesians 6 and verse 12. We wrestle not with flesh and blood. It's another decision you got to make in your life. That I will never never never never in my life fight with human beings.

I decided that many years ago. It changed my life completely. That's the time when God began to give me authority over demons. And delivered me from all fear of the devil. And told me that the devil would be afraid of me.

Just like I was afraid of the devil in the olden days. You know when? When I made a decision before God I will never again fight with human beings. I will never fight with my wife. I'll never fight with my neighbors.

I'll never fight with my brothers. I'll never fight with anybody concerning anything. Not even concerning doctrine. I will stand up for the truth of God. But I won't fight with anybody. We wrestle not with flesh and blood.

But we wrestle with principalities and powers. And that's what the Lord said to me from that verse. If you want to wrestle with demons and have authority and power over them make sure that you stop fighting with human beings.

People will come to fight with you. The world is full of people who want to fight with you. But you can decide that you're not going to fight with them. Like the illustration I often use. You need two hands to make a sound.

You can't make a sound with one hand. It's impossible. You can't have a fight if one person refuses to cooperate. If there's a fight in your home it's because both people are cooperating for that fight.

If there's a fight in a church it's because somebody else also wants to cooperate in that fighting. You should make such a decision in your life that you should be able to challenge people. Say try and have a fight with me.

It's impossible. Try and pick up a quarrel with me. You'll find it impossible. You won't even be able to get into an argument with me over doctrine because I'll explain my position and when I see you getting hot under the collar I'll change the subject.

I'm not interested in winning an argument. I'm interested in overcoming Satan. It's very important. These simple little principles can radically change your life. So externally we are men of peace. We don't fight with people.

Violence Against the Desire to Impress

But exactly the opposite inwardly. Inwardly it says here I've got to be a man of violence. And I want to be a man of violence inwardly as much as I'm a man of peace externally. A man of violence to what?

A man of violence to the opinions of men. You know we are all born from childhood. We have this tremendous longing to be accepted and approved by other human beings. You see that in a little child. How much it longs for other children to accept it.

That's how these our young boys and girls who go to school get into drugs and all types of habits. That's how a lot of young girls lose their virginity because they want to be accepted. Oh if I don't yield I won't be accepted by this person.

Well who cares whether that person accepts you or not. We got to teach our children. It's not important that the other boys and girls in school accept you. It doesn't matter if they reject you. We have to be free ourselves from the opinions of men.

That's why we got to do violence inside because I see I'm a human being like anybody else. I want to be accepted and I found that it's such a battle. I remember when I started preaching as a young man.

You know how it is when we are young and everybody else is older than us and we get up to preach. And I had this tremendous desire to impress people with what I was saying. When I prayed in public I wanted to impress people with my prayer.

I wanted to make sure that people were impressed by my prayer. I wasn't praying to God at all. I was putting on a performance like a drama. That's what I was doing. I remember once the Lord said to me, do you want to impress people or do you want to help them?

I said Lord I want to help them. And he said stop trying to impress them. I said Lord help me. It didn't disappear overnight but I battled it. I decided to be a man of violence in my heart to the desire to impress people.

That's what freed me. It took years let me tell you it doesn't disappear overnight because we have grown up from childhood wanting to impress people. But if you battle it it'll disappear one day. And you'll get up and pray in public and you won't even be concerned what anybody thought about your prayer.

You'll be praying directly to heaven, to almighty God. And when you say our Father in heaven, our Father who art in heaven is the only one you'll be conscious of when you pray in public. And your praying in public will become exactly like your praying when you're all by yourself on your knees alone in your room.

That must be your goal. But it's not like that in the beginning. We're so desirous to impress people in everything in your home you want to impress people when people come to your home that you're a wonderful family, your home is so neat and tidy.

It's good to have a neat and tidy home but not to impress people. We have to do violence to this because if I don't do violence to this I will never come to this inner life that God wants me to have in the new covenant.

I can never never be the servant of Christ. We read in Galatians chapter 1 Galatians in chapter 1 and verse 10 Galatians 1 .10 it says here Am I seeking the favor of men or of God? Am I trying to please men?

Am I striving to please men? You and I know how much in our life we have striven to please men. We long that other people will have a good impression about us spiritually. Maybe we want them to think that we are radical Christians.

You know that can also be a temptation. I'm surrounded by people who talk about being radical and I don't want them to think that I'm a little less radical so I begin to talk like a radical Christian.

What for? Whom are you trying to impress that you're a radical Christian? Those other people in your church. Some other people who imagine that they're radical they're trying to impress you as well don't forget.

We got to do violence to all this in our heart and say Lord I want to be radical before you I don't care whether people think I'm a compromiser. I couldn't care less for their opinion. I don't care whether people think I'm too gentle when I should be hard.

You know there's a lot of hard preaching today which is not of the Holy Spirit. It's hard because the preacher wants to impress others sitting there I'm a radical preacher. If you're a spiritual man you can sense it.

But since most people are not spiritual they're not able to discern that. There's so much of honor seeking. Seeking to impress people. The type of people we are with. You know the number of people who imitate and produce speaking in tongues on their own because they want to be accepted in some church which I call a club where the mark is you got to speak in tongues.

In other churches you got to be radical to be a part of this. So I'm going to act radical, speak radical, behave radical because that's the way I'll be accepted. We are such slaves to the opinions of men.

Where will I come to this indestructible life? That's why I say brothers and sisters we got to be men of violence in our heart. I'm not here to impress you that I'm a radical person. I don't want to be accepted in any club which says membership is speaking in tongues.

I'm not interested in a club. I want to live before God's face. I don't want to impress you by always talking about revival, revival, revival. Then you'll think I'm a spiritual man. I couldn't care less what you think about me.

I want to live before God. I want to live in continuous revival before God in my heart. This is so important because I discovered I'm telling you from my own experience. I'm not throwing stones at anybody.

I'm not qualified to throw stones because I have sinned like that myself. How can I throw stones when I'm a sinner? I sought honor of men myself. I'm just telling you from my own experience. I had to break free from it.

I had to fight it and say Lord help me to do violence to this wretched thing that hinders me from coming into your life. Then I became free. So I would encourage you to in that pursuit of that battle inside and I'll tell you you won't win the victory in one day.

You got to fight it and fight it and fight it because it's so deep rooted. So he says here, am I seeking the favor of men or of God? Am I trying to please men? Ask yourself these questions. Am I striving to please men?

Striving to impress men that I'm a spiritual man? Striving to impress men that I'm a humble person? Striving to impress person that I don't love money? Striving to impress people that I'm not worldly?

Stop striving. Come to rest brother. It's like the multitudes of people in the world who strive to get forgiveness of sins. You know there are many religions in the world all false religions teach people to strive and strive and strive to get forgiveness of sins.

They can't believe it's free and we know that you never get there. The Jews it says they strove for righteousness it says in Romans and they never attained it. But those who didn't strive for it entered in because it's not by striving.

There is a right striving and there is a wrong type of striving that's what I mean. If you are striving to please men you won't get it. So am I striving to please men? And now listen to this. This is the verse I was coming to.

Galatians 1 .10 the last part. If I am still trying to please men I would not be a servant of Christ. Paul says I can never be a servant of Christ as long as I am trying to please men. And I knew how much of that was in me.

This trying to please men and I wanted desperately to be a servant of Christ and more than 30 years ago I wrote this verse on a little wooden plaque and I hung it up in my front room so that I'd see it regularly every day.

Every day in my sitting room I'd see it. If I seek to please men I cannot be a servant of Christ. I needed to remind myself you know how in the Old Testament it said you must write these verses and hang it up in front of you.

The Lord told the Israelites. So I wrote it and hung it up in front of me so that I'd be constantly reminded if you seek to please men you cannot be a servant of Christ. And gradually it sunk in. We need to be reminded of it again and again and again and again.

If I seek to please men I will not be a servant of Christ. You will not be a third class servant of Christ. You will not be a servant of Christ at all. And then when I come to this desire to have this inner life that only wants to impress God then I will come to this indestructible life.

God will show me how I can partake of this indestructible life. The whole Old Testament law as I said only produced a type of life that appeared nice before others. It wasn't inward. John chapter 14 when Jesus the first time he spoke about the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ Teaching on the Holy Spirit

One of the great needs in Christendom. One of the great needs is to understand what the real ministry of the Holy Spirit is. There's more confusion concerning that ministry than any other ministry than any other doctrine in the Bible today.

And I'm not surprised because the devil is smart. I tell you the devil is smart. He's clever. God himself recognizes that in Ezekiel 28. I think it's the third verse or so. He says you are wiser than Daniel.

And just by the way in God's opinion Solomon was not the wisest man. It was Daniel. He didn't say to the devil you are wiser than Solomon. He said in Ezekiel 28 you are wiser than Daniel. And Daniel was a young 20 year old man.

And Ezekiel said that. Don't forget that. It's one of the things that I admire about Daniel. That when the guy was a 20 year old young man. This prophet Ezekiel could say God says to the devil you're wiser than Daniel.

And Daniel hears that and he remains the same humble brother he was. You see how he endures up to the age of 90 in the end of that book. Boy what an example. A man who was not affected by the fact that a prophet praised him publicly.

Called him the wisest man that ever lived. Imagine telling a 20 year old today God says you're the wisest man that ever lives. And it doesn't go to his head. He just remains the same humble brother he was.

And there's another time where God said through Ezekiel even if Noah Daniel and Job in Ezekiel 14 were alive only they would save themselves only by their own righteousness. Noah and Job were long dead and gone.

They couldn't be puffed up with that. But Daniel was there a young 20 year old man listening to that. Classified. I mean put in the same classes Noah and Job. Didn't affect him. We know it didn't affect him because he endured right through the 70 years of captivity and the age of 87 he's still praying and being thrown into the lion's den faithful till the end.

One of the great examples in the Old Testament of a man who was unaffected by the praise of prophets. I'm greatly challenged by that. You know how how much I mean if some ordinary guy in the street praises us it doesn't mean much to us.

But if a prophet somebody you recognize as a prophet of God says something good about you boy you tend never to forget it all your life. It just swells your head like anything. And there's where Daniel's a great example.

Great example. And if a man in the Old Testament could live like that and unaffected by the praise of prophets and to live before God's face why can't we? John chapter 14 the first time that Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit very first time and I want you to see the context in which he speaks about it.

Verse 12. He who believes in me the works that I do shall he do also. The works of Jesus were works of obedience to the Father. That's all. Don't. Everything was obedience to the Father. Raising the dead.

Dying on the cross. Obeying Joseph and Mary at home. All of it. Works of obedience to the Father. The works that I do shall he do also. Greater works than these shall he do which is building the church which Jesus could never do as long as he was on earth because the people whom he preached to didn't have the Holy Spirit.

That's why you can't build the church if the people you speak to don't have the Holy Spirit. It's another thing you must remember. If there was ever a person who could have built the church without people having the Holy Spirit in his congregation it was Jesus and he couldn't do it.

He worked with his disciples for three and a half years and at the end of it they were all arguing as to who's going to take over the leadership when Jesus dies. Can you imagine? They couldn't even get eliminated.

They could never become one with each other. They were always competing. James and John wanted to sit on the right and left hand of Jesus in eternity. There was such jealousy and competition among those eleven people.

Why? Because they didn't have the Holy Spirit within them. And so Jesus could not make them one and the church is something where people have become one. If in your church people have not become one it's not the church of Jesus Christ.

Where two or three have become one with each other there Jesus says I'm in the midst. Not just where two or three people come together in the name of Jesus and start singing songs. But where two or three have become one.

So that's the greater work that would happen after the day of Pentecost which he says here in verse 12 even I cannot do right now but you will do it. Why? Because something is going to happen. I'm going to ask the Father before that verse 15.

If you love me you will keep my commandments. Okay. Let me paraphrase his words a little bit. The works that I did were the works of obedience to my Father. I want you fellas to do the works that I did.

That's works of total obedience to the Father doing the will of God in every little thing. But that's tough. You can't do it. All of Israel tried to do it for 1500 years they couldn't do it. But if you love me you'll keep my commandments and in order to help you to keep my commandments verse 16 I will ask the Father to give you a helper.

You see the context in which he spoke about it? A helper to help me keep all the commandments of God. That's the reason why Jesus asked the Father to send me a helper. Read it in its context. If you love me you'll keep my commandments.

I know that stuff. That's why I'm going to ask the Father to give you a helper. And if you have received the helper how can you say that you cannot keep the commandments anymore? Maybe you haven't received the helper.