Seek Earnestly to be Filled with the Holy Spirit Continually — Zac Poonen

Entering God’s Rest While Pressing Toward Perfection

So I'd like to continue on what Bobby began about being filled with the Holy Spirit. Through many years I've come to this conclusion. You know the Bible speaks about entering into rest. Hebrews 4 .1 it says, let us fear lest there's a promise of entering into his rest and some of you come short of it.

Hebrews 4 .1. Is there a rest that God has promised us that I have not come into that I should fear lest I miss it? Something like and it's compared there to the entering the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan the way Joshua went in that is the spiritual life.

It's not a life where all the Giants are killed in one day. Not at all. But one by one the Giants are killed. There may be occasional failure like in where they compromised and they were defeated and I but basically it was a life of continuous victory.

That's the context in Hebrews 4 .1 it says entering into rest and it says later on there's a remains a rest for the people of God and compares it to the Sabbath in Hebrews 4 where Adam entered into the Sabbath as soon as he was made.

The sixth day, the seventh day was a Sabbath. So I have come to the conclusion that because it's we also see in Scripture it says we must press on to perfection. So we must be at rest and we must press on to perfection and so I've come to the conclusion after many years of studying and experience that the true Christian life is one of a continuous dissatisfied satisfaction.

Justification, Forgiveness, and a Clear Conscience

Now that looks like a contradiction. It's not. Complete satisfaction in the fact that my father has accepted me. I'm not an anymore. He has accepted me. All my past sins are blotted out. I don't live in condemnation over any one of them.

Not even one. Not even the grossest sin that any of you have committed in the past. The blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin. But not just that but justified. Justified means as if you just the word justified is from the word just or righteous.

Made righteous. Not just forgiven. I used to think it was just as if we had never sinned. That itself is a great thing if God looks at you just as if you have never sinned in your whole life. But it's more than that.

It's just as if you had been righteous all your life. Justified. A rest there. But yet along with that rest of complete assurance my sins are forgiven and also the assurance of Hebrews 8 12 that he will not remember your past anymore.

I want to say that to all of you my brothers and sisters. Many Christians struggle with this. The devil will remind you particularly of some terrible sin that you did long ago before you were converted even or before you really came to understand a life of victory.

He keeps on reminding you to harass you harass you and I know the devil harassed me so many things and to keep on confessing confessing confessing till I realized I'm insulting God by that. Don't I believe what he says if you confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We have to come to rest there and say my past has been forgiven. God does not remember my past anymore but because of the way I have dishonored God it brings in me a tremendous sorrow. I'm aware of how much I failed.

I mean Paul said towards the end of his life I'm I'm the chief of sinners. He wasn't thinking he wasn't committing any gross sin at that time but he was aware of the seriousness of sin. But yet in his life there was a rest because at the same time he could say I'm aware of nothing against myself.

That's what he said in 1 Corinthians 4. 1 Timothy 1 he says I'm the chief of sinners. 1 Corinthians 4 he says I'm not aware of anything in my my conscience is 100 clear. Here is dissatisfied satisfaction.

I my conscience is 100 clear but I'm the chief of sinners. Do you have that sense? Can you say that my conscience is a hundred percent clear. There's nobody on earth whom I'm not forgiven. There's nobody on earth who I have to ask forgiveness from.

There is no debt I owe to anybody. My conscience is clear. Every sin has been confessed. Every debt has been repaid. I can I'm ready to meet God face to face and let his holy light shine upon me yet I'm not satisfied because I've not become like Jesus.

I see areas in my life I need to constantly become more and more a dissatisfied satisfaction and that is why we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time and not just in our life. I believe that God wants every one of us to have a ministry not a ministry like somebody else.

Every Believer’s Ministry in the Body of Christ

When we think of ministry everybody thinks of preaching and then you think of the best preacher you have ever heard and say boy I'd like to be like that but God may not want you to be a preacher. He may not have called you to be a tongue.

He may have called you to be some internal organ in the body of Christ like the liver. Don't you think the liver is very important? I mean if I were given a choice of losing my heart or my tongue I say definitely tongue.

I can live without speaking but I can't live without my heart. There are internal organs which are never seen or visible and so also in the body of Christ but what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is that God has given this is the verse I want you to remember concerning the Holy Spirit.

There are many gifts 1 Corinthians 12 4 and there are many ministries 1 Corinthians 12 5 and there are many effects of the different ministries. There are many gifts from the Spirit. The various ways in which these gifts are expressed in ministry verse 5 and the effect of this ministry is also different in different cases.

Verse 6. So verse 4, 5, and 6 is a description of Christian ministry but to every single member in the body of Christ verse 7 is given some manifestation of the Spirit to bless everybody else. That's the verse I want to emphasize to all of you.

You say I'm so shy. Well if you're shy you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You say I don't have any gift. Well then you need to seek for the power of the Holy Spirit because it says here to every single person if you're not included in that you're not a member of the body of Christ.

If you're a member of the body of Christ to every single person there's some manifestation of the Spirit which is given not just for you to enjoy yourself but for the common good of the entire body of the at least the local body of Christ you belong to.

So there is no place for being shy and I'm not talking about speaking or teaching. I'm not even speaking about sharing in the Sunday or weekday meetings. Some of you sisters may never speak in your entire life in a weekday or a Sunday meeting because you're not gifted in speaking or you're shy.

Never mind. But do you ever speak to people during the week? You speak on the phone to somebody? Do you write emails to somebody? Do you write letters to someone? Doesn't matter who it is. There the Holy Spirit can use you to manifest some gift of the Spirit.

Earnestly Desiring Prophecy to Build Up Others

1 Corinthians 14 says we must all covet to prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1. Gift and fruit of the Spirit are combined here in this one verse. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace and so on. And here in 1 Corinthians 14 1 it says we must pursue.

This is the dissatisfied satisfaction of love. Lord I thank you. I don't hate anybody in my heart. I can stand before God and say I don't hate a single person. To the best of my ability and knowledge I love everybody.

I don't even love my enemies. But even though I'm satisfied there I'm dissatisfied that I don't love enough like Jesus. So I have to still pursue after love even though to the best of my knowledge my heart is filled with love.

To use an illustration, you know our capacity has to increase. We start off like a cup. Jesus spoke three times about water in the Gospels. You can look it up sometime. John 3, John 4, John 7. I don't have time to turn to it right now.

In John 3 he spoke about born of water. He told Nicodemus you must be born of water. That's being born again. That's like a cup and you can only fill so much in a cup. You're born again. The cup is a picture we know in the Psalms.

It says I lift up the cup of salvation unto the Lord. He forgives me. Gives me the Holy Spirit. The cup is full. But if we walk with the Lord from that day we are born again and take up the cross every day.

That's the secret. This cup will gradually become a well. There's a lot of difference between a cup being full and a well being full. You know there are wells that have never run dry for years and years and years?

Always full. That's John chapter 4 where Jesus said the water that I give him will spring up within him like a well or a spring that keeps on springing up forever. So it started with a cup of water in John 3 to Nicodemus.

It proceeded in John chapter 4. It's all referring to the Holy Spirit. Remember water is a picture of the Holy Spirit. To a well of water in John 4 and then it went on in John 7. The only place in the Bible where it says Jesus shouted out.

If you take some time and you read Matthew chapter 12 there's a verse which says Jesus would never raise his voice when he preached. That's why he never lost his voice because he's always speak softly.

All these preachers who shout and yell and scream they lose their voice pretty. Jesus didn't. It says in Matthew 12 he never shouted. But then in once he did the only time that it says he raised his voice and cried out if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.

So it started out with a cup became a well in John 4 and John 7. Rivers. So this is dissatisfied satisfaction. I got a cup. I'm satisfied. I'm born again. Every sin is forgiven. But I'm dissatisfied. I want more.

I want a life that meets every need of my and a well is something that's constantly you know if they supply water from the city we call it the corporation in India. The city service that supplies water to our house.

If they cut that off it doesn't disturb me if I've got a well in the house. In other words my life in God is not dependent on any supply from outside not even the opportunity to come to a Sunday meeting.

I mean if your spiritual life is dependent on going to two meetings a week. Well you need to work out your own salvation. Your life must be independent. I mean thank God for the weekday meetings but I must have a well that's not dependent on other people supplying it.

A well in my own house that springs up if somebody cuts off the supply from outside doesn't make a difference. I've got a well in my house and that springs up all the time satisfies me completely. That's the place we must come to.

You may start with a cup that other people fill but you must come to the place where you say Lord I want this well in me. Where I never thirst again for anything and from there go on to rivers. The difference between a well and a river is well is only for your own house needs but when a river flows through you it meets the needs of hundreds of people and do you know that God can use you like that to bless other people.

The Holy Spirit’s Power to Make Believers a Blessing

The blessing of Abraham you're told in Galatians 3 14 is for us through the Holy Spirit and that blessing is I will bless you and you will be a blessing to all the families that you meet. God's will is this is the meaning of the power of the Holy Spirit Galatians 3 14.

The blessing of Abraham is ours through the Holy Spirit. I will bless you that means your own life will be satisfied a cup and a well and then you will be a blessing I would say to every family that you meet.

You know like it says in some excuse me yeah like it says in the Psalms goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life wherever I go and the picture I have in my mind is I go visiting a home and I leave goodness and mercy behind there.

I go visit another home and I leave goodness and mercy because they are following me. I meet with a brother or a sister and I leave goodness and mercy behind with him or her as I've left. What a life it is.

Do you covet this that goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life that wherever you go you leave that behind you know like these highly perfumed women they sit down on a couch or something and the perfume is left behind there when they go.

It's something like that the aroma of Christ the that we leave that goodness and mercy behind this is God's will and any one of us can be like that you may not God may not take you around the world to preach the gospel but if you meet with people if you speak to them on a phone you can leave goodness and mercy behind.

It's a wonderful life. This is God's will and it says here in 1 Corinthians 14 1 we pursue after love but we must earnestly desire for the gift of prophecy especially earnestly desire spiritual gifts.

Pursue after love. I'm not going to get it if I don't pursue after it. You know sometimes in India we often travel by the bus from one place to another. Not many people have vehicles and I know many years I used to travel by bus too and sometimes you come to a bus station and you find the bus is just about to leave and many buses in India they don't have doors.

You can still run after it and it's open. You just catch it and jump onto it. I think of it like that that something is leaving and I must pursue it. I must run after it and get onto it before I leave.

Pursue after love. I don't want to lose it. I don't want to miss the bus. And I must earnestly desire spiritual gifts. So when we talk about the fullness of the spirit these are the two words you see 1 Corinthians 14 in verse 1 pursue pursue something you're going to miss.

If you sit back you'll miss it. And earnestly desire. And the gift of prophecy verse 3 is to build up people encourage them and challenge them. Edification exaltation consolation means to speak to people in a way that will encourage them challenge them build them up.

Any one of you can do that. You can do it with a human ability. Maybe it'll accomplish a little bit or you can ask God to give you that gift every one of you. If you're born again I want to encourage you.

Seeking the Gift of Prophecy Through Personal Experience

I tell you as a young person when I was 21 years old I got baptized and I read that verse and I said Lord I want to prophesy not like these Old Testament prophets will predict the future. I never was interested in that and I have never done it also.

I'm not an Old Testament prophet but 1 Corinthians 14 one type of earnestly desire that you may let me paraphrase it within relation to verse 3. Earnestly desire that you may speak to people to encourage them.

Earnestly desire that you may speak to people to challenge them. And earnestly desire that you may speak to people to build them up. And in the early days it was just two or three people. I remember the first time I started taking meetings was when I met a family was an nominally Christian and I said to them I was very young 22 years old or something.

And I said 23 I think. And I said can I come to your house and just half an hour once a week and share something of the Bible with you. Oh they said sure and that was in the naval base. I was working it and I used to go to their house.

I mean they knew nothing about the Bible nominal Christians. Why I knew more than them. I could share with them and little by little they got born again. And finally when the man retired he went into the ministry.

I was so thankful just a little thing and I knew almost nothing those days about the Bible. But I said Lord I want to do something for you. I want to ask you my brothers don't be satisfied just that you've accepted Christ and you're going to heaven.

So Lord I don't want to live a useless life. I have one life on this earth. I talked to so many people on the phone or I write emails and I encounter people in your place of work or somewhere. I must seek to be an encouragement to them even to worldly people.

I must challenge them to something higher and I must build them up with their Christians. That's why I want the gift of prophecy. And I prayed and I prayed and I prayed I'll tell you somebody said you must go to a Pentecostal Church.

So I went to a Pentecostal Church and the pastor there told me to keep saying hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah. And finally your tongue will trip and you'll speak in tongues. I said no thank you.

I don't believe in this type of rubbish coaching people to speak in tongues. This is exactly the garbage that goes on in so many so-called charismatic meetings. I'm not against charismatics. I'm not against any Christian.

I love Christians even in the Roman Catholic Church. I respect them but I disagree with this type of garbage. That's coaching people to have a soulish experience which fakes the genuine fullness of the Holy Spirit.

So I came home to my room and I said Lord I saw them yelling and screaming in that Sunday meetings and I said Lord I don't want that. I want a genuine experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit that changed those apostles on the day of Pentecost from people who are afraid.

The bold witnesses for Christ and God met with me. And then as I began to exercise my gifts I went through a period of backsliding in my life when I was in my 20s because you know when you don't have fellowship and you don't have others who are constantly challenging you living a lonely life that's what happens.

I never had a local church like you all have now and I was so defeated. I said Lord I need another fulling filling of the Holy Spirit. I need to be filled in the Holy Spirit. This is not the way and I began to seek God again and weep and pray and fast and God met with me another time that was 46 years ago and that's the time I found God really led me to this life of overcoming which I did not know before where the Holy Spirit showed me this wonderful truth that every single temptation to sin that you face Jesus faced before you every one of them and this tremendous message you can overcome from Revelation 3 21 he who overcomes exactly as I overcame.

You read that verse. Jesus says he who overcomes exactly as I overcame will sit with me on my throne as I'm sitting with my father on. I said Lord this is wonderful. Is it true that I can overcome as you accomplish for me the Holy Spirit I want to.

I had already begun prophesying but I wasn't living this overcoming life and I began to seek God and then the Lord led me into that. And from that that was the time the first CFC Church was born in Bangalore and God began to gather a few people who also wanted this overcoming life.

We wanted to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit and we have prayer meetings where we sought God to be filled to the Spirit and the Spirit of God would meet with us. I've discovered through the years the ideal way is to seek God on our own.

God met with me not in a public meeting. Both times God met with me and many other times when God has met me usually when I'm alone. That's the best way when we are with others we're so conscious of others.

When we pray we are conscious others are listening to what we're saying. And it's far better when you meet with God alone. I know different people in our own churches I was encouraged get alone with God and say Lord I'm not gonna leave you till you really meet with me and lead me into the Spirit filled life.

The Holy Spirit and the Difference Between Intellectual and Spiritual Life

You know I think of this verse in Acts 19 where it says Paul came to a place called Ephesus Acts 19 and he found some disciples there. They were disciples of Jesus and it says he must have been at a meeting there Acts 19 1 in Ephesus where he met with these disciples and when he sat with them in their meeting at the end of the meeting he said hey fellas this meeting is so dead.

Did you guys have the Holy Spirit by the way or do you just have an intellectual knowledge of truth. You know with an intellectual knowledge of Jesus you can you can have a meeting where clever people say very very clever things and intellectual people are stimulated and we can think that's a very spiritual meeting.

It's a garbage. It's soul. It's soul. It's soul. Soul power of the soul the power of the human mind. And Paul could sense something is missing here. Yeah these are we believe in Jesus and they're having a meeting together.

They meet regularly but something is missing in the meeting. The whole thing is dead. They didn't realize it was dead but this man of God came and said hey this is dead. I mean you've often heard me say that the opinion of men is worthless.

It's fit for the garbage bin but not the opinion of a man like Paul. If Paul said something I would take heed to it. It's the opinion of all the other carnal out worldly men whose opinion is fit for the trash.

But when Paul says hey something missing in you guys they took heed to it. He said that question he asks is if you guys got the Holy Spirit by the way have you. Do you value the Holy Spirit in your meeting.

Do you value the Holy Spirit in your life. I've been to meetings like that and I sat like Paul and I'm not like Paul but I sat the way he sat and I felt the same thing here. Something missing here. These guys are not filled with the Holy Spirit.

They're very clever. They're evangelical. 100 evangelical. There's no wrong doctrine there. But there's no life in this whole thing. It doesn't challenge me what I hear. It doesn't encourage me. It doesn't build me up just a lot of excitement.

A hundred hallelujahs. I'm not interested in all that or wonderful music that can also stimulate us. But it's all soul. We need to distinguish between soulish stimulation in a meeting and spiritual stimulation.

Very different. Soulish stimulation is very temporary. You get very excited during the meeting and you can go home and yell at your wife. Yeah. There are Pentecostals who speak in tongues on Sunday morning and shouted their wives.

I mean speak in other tongues in Sunday morning and shouted their wives with their mother tongue on Sunday afternoon. It's just deception. No it's it's that's the time. If you're stimulated only in a meeting I'll tell you what you need.

You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So I felt like this in some meetings. I Paul felt this is something missing here. Part of the Holy Spirit's missing. I've been in meetings which are so dead.

I know it's like the doctrines are all right and everything said is correct. There's no encouragement. There's no challenge. There's no building up. Why. Because these folks have thought my intellectual knowledge of the Bible is enough.

They have not earnestly sought for the gift of prophecy. If you love me keep my commandments. The Holy Spirit says in 1 Corinthians 14 1 earnestly desire the spirit of prophecy. God is my witness. I can say this before God today for more than 50 years again and again and again and again every week I have sought God for the gift of prophecy not to be an Old Testament prophet.

I'm not. I'm not interested in predicting the future. I have never predicted the future. But the gift of being able to encourage others. The gift of being able to challenge others and the gift of being able to build up others.

And I've said to the Lord Lord I cannot do it. I can teach people scripture correct doctrine. I can use my intellect and explain things to them. But I cannot build them up spiritually. I need the supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit.

A Spirit-Filled Word That Makes Hearts Burn

I want to say to you God has answered my prayer. My challenge is always Jesus walking on the road to Emmaus and explaining the Bible to those people. You heard me say this many times. And when they three hours it took them to walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

And he says all those three hours their heart was burning. You know when a spirit filled person is prophesying and that the anointing of the Holy Spirit people's hearts will burn. That was one challenge that came to me.

I said Lord whenever I speak I want people's hearts to burn not for their intellect to be stimulated and say yeah brother Zach I learned something today from you. I'm not interested in that. I'm not interested in their mind was stimulated.

I want their heart to burn. The other passage that would come to me was a great challenge that came to me from these are the things that made me seek for the power of the Holy Spirit in it says about Samuel in one Samuel that when Samuel began to speak not one word that he spoke fell to the ground.

That's a tremendous passage. He he would preach and the Lord was with him. One Corinthians I'm sorry one Samuel 3 verse 19 Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and did not allow any of his words. In the margin.

It says fall to the ground. Years ago that came to me. I said Lord how will I know when I speak that the Lord is with me that the Holy Spirit is with me. I'll tell you how that the words that come out of my mouth will not fall to the ground but will go straight to people's hearts.

That's the word that came to me Lord. You did it for Samuel in the Old Testament. You can do it for me. I believe we need to be bold when we go to the Lord and seek him Lord. I want my life to be a blessing to others.

Please help me. And I want to encourage all of you my dear brothers and sisters. You may never preach in a Sunday meeting or a weekday meeting. Never mind all that. If you speak to one person on the phone or you meet somebody or your children your husband your wife.

Don't you think can prophesy to one another. What I mean is not stand up like some prophet but say things that will encourage one another. Say things that will challenge one another to a higher life. Say things that will build up one another.

What do you think. All of all husbands and wives have spoken enough words to hurt one another and criticize one another and find fault. Let's finish with that and say Lord now I want to spend the rest of my life building up and encouraging not trying to show off how much of the Bible we know.

Oh detest that. Detest it wanting to show how much of the Bible we know as garbage. Seek instead to prophesy. Encourage obey the command which says earnestly desire to prophesy. Say Lord I'm not satisfied with a cup of water.

Becoming a River of Living Water for Others

I'm not even satisfied with the well that satisfies my need. I want not just one river a river that flows in many directions. To my unconverted relatives. When I speak to them many of you have got unconverted relatives.

You think you can convince them with your cleverness about Jesus Christ. No seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They may not get converted. Jesus did not convert everybody. But at least you'll be a flaming light before them.

That's all. I can't convert all my unconverted relatives. But I must I must. I had this burden. You know when I was in the Navy and different people would encounter me. I felt they must remember all their life that sometime in their life they met with a true Christian who proclaimed Christ.

They may not have accepted him. But they should never forget in their life that sometime in their life they met a man of God a Christian or a woman of God. So your relatives may or may not get converted.

But they must recognize that in their life they met one man one woman who was in touch with God. Earnestly decide that my brother sister. It doesn't matter how incapable you are how introverted and inward-looking your personality is.

I'm basically a introverted inward-looking person. You probably won't believe me when I say that I tell you if that was how I grew up a very shy person never willing to stand before anywhere. But when God filled me in the spirit my whole personality began to change.

Seek God. God wants to do wonderful things through every single one of you especially those who are very shy and reserved and withdrawn. You're not meant to be like that. You're meant to be like flaming light for Jesus.

And the only way to do it is to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The first promise in the New Testament is Matthew 121. He shall save you from your sin. Seek for that. The second promise in the New Testament is Matthew 311.

He shall immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire. Claim both of them two promises. Lord I want to be saved from my sin. Matthew 121. I want to be immersed in the Holy Spirit and fire. Matthew 311. I believe those who seek him with all their heart.

Faith That Diligently Seeks God’s Reward

He's a rewarder. I love that verse Hebrews 11. He's a rewarder of those who diligently seeking Hebrews 11. Let me read to you in close with this. Without faith Hebrews 11 6 it is impossible to please God.

So what is faith you when you come to God. This is faith. When you come to God Hebrews 11 6. First of all you must believe that he exists. You may say well of course I do exist. No. Sometimes you don't believe God exists.

You pray and you don't even know that he heard you. Then you don't believe that he exists. When you pray you believe God hears you. For example supposing you decide today you're gonna pray for the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Do you believe God hears it. You believe God really heard that this son of mine this daughter of mine wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you don't believe that he heard you you don't believe that he exists.

You believe that he just prayed into the air. First requirement for faith is believe that he exists as your father and hears you. And second that he will definitely reward those who diligently seek him.

That's faith. Lord I believe I've asked you for something. I want to be filled with love when Corinthians 14 1 both are there. The fruit and the gift of the Spirit pursue after love and earnestly desire to prophesy.

That is the fullness of the Holy Spirit in fruit and gifts. That is our inheritance. It's written in the will. The will that our father is written down for us with Jesus death. This is God's will for you.

And just like if your father left an inheritance for you you can claim it. Don't let them cheating lawyer or advocate cheat you of your inheritance. Don't let the devil cheat you of your inheritance. Your inheritance is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

To be a blessing to others and to be an overcomer. God bless you.