Finishing the Course - 03 the Ministry of the Holy Spirit — Zac Poonen

Growing Up Into Christ and Finishing the Course

Our theme these days has been what we have back up there, growing up in all aspects into Christ and filling up that which is lacking in our own life, finishing our course and staying within our boundaries.

And I'm sure there are many, many things which we haven't looked at yet fully, which you can think of as the Holy Spirit shows you, particularly those of you who are elders in churches, you have a responsibility to make sure that as your church is exposed to the whole truth of God, you can thereby lead people to maturity.

Because remember, it says we have to grow up. That's a very important word, growing up. Sometimes parents tell their young sons and daughters, when are you going to grow up? What they mean is, when are you going to behave like a grown-up?

That's what they mean. And very often in the church also, a lot of, when I look at the behavior of people who've been in the church for so many years, I feel like asking the same question, when are you going to grow up?

When are you going to behave like a grown-up and not like a baby? When are you going to be mature and patient? That if somebody insults you, you don't get offended. You don't nurse that grudge for days or weeks, not even for an hour.

That's a grown-up person. A grown-up person ignores insults and he knows that the only person whose opinion matters is God. I've often asked people this question, if 10 ,000 people call you a prophet, will you become a prophet?

What about if one million people call you a prophet? What about if all the people in the world say you're a prophet? Will that make you a prophet? Six billion people consider you to be a prophet? You know, if that happens, it's very easy for you to also imagine that you're a prophet.

That is how much we have become slaves to the opinion of people. Why six billion? Hundred people in a church think you're a great man of God and you imagine that you're a great man of God. That is the stupidity of the children of Adam.

I want to tell you something, brothers and sisters, please listen to me. Even if all, not only your little church of hundred people, if all six billion people in the world feel that you're a great man of God or a great woman of God, I want to tell you the sad news that you will not become a great man of God or a woman of God that way.

Equally, if 10 people call you a devil, you don't become a devil. If one million people call you a devil, you don't become a devil. And if six billion people in the world say you're definitely a devil, I'm still not a devil.

Do you believe that? Then you will never be discouraged at what people say about you and you will never be puffed up when people think you're a wonderful person because none of these six billion people are going to sit in the judgment seat on the final day to evaluate you.

If I'm writing an examination and all the other fellow students say, I think you've done really well and I know I haven't done well. And all the people sitting in the classroom know, Zack, you've done really well.

I'm sure you're going to get at least 95 percent and I think I'll get about 10. Is their opinion worth anything? Because the one who's going to evaluate my paper is none of these people. None of the children sitting in the classroom is going to evaluate my question paper.

Somebody else evaluates my paper and says, you thought you were going to get 10, you actually got about two. So it's good to get the opinion of the one who's finally going to evaluate us, not the opinion of all our fellow students.

We're all like students sitting in an examination. Me also, I'm not the evaluator. I hope none of you got the crazy idea that I'm going to sit on the throne in the final day to evaluate you. Why do you care about what brother Zack thinks?

You think it has got any worth? You think I'm even a junior evaluator? Sorry, I'm not. I'm a student sitting there, writing my examination paper just like you. I'm just encouraging you. To do it better.

You see, in the Lord's examination room, there's one difference. We are allowed to help one another. That's not cheating. In other examinations, you're not allowed to help one another. But here we are allowed to help one another.

We are allowed to open our books, you know, see the answers. And it's a wonderful examination. You can open the books and you can see the answers. You can go to your neighbor and say, hey, what's the answer to this one?

Yeah, that's right. You must never judge anybody. That's right. You got the answers and you still write the wrong answer. You go and judge people. Isn't that terrible? What a wonderful examination this is.

You can even go and ask the teacher. What a wonderful examination this is. And at the end of all that, if you get two percent, I don't know what to say. Imagine that. At the end of it all, you get two percent.

Open book examination. Ask anybody. Ask the teacher himself. And the teacher is always available. That's a wonderful thing. Always ask him any question on any, even the tough ones, small ones. One word answers.

Lord, what's the answer? Don't do it. Yes. No. One word answers. You know, there's multiple choice. Shall I watch that particular movie? No. It's finished. That's it. That's it. You know, it's so simple.

Freedom From Human Opinion and the Holy Spirit’s Influence

So, it's good for us to be free from the opinions of men. Because the more free we are from the to the most important influence that all of us should be open to. And that's what I want to speak about this morning.

And that is the influence of the Holy Spirit. You know, if you went to an Old Testament person, a Jewish person, and asked him, what is the most important thing that characterizes, that makes you Jewish people special?

You know what he would say? He would say, the law. The law. The law distinguishes us from all the people of the world. God gave his law only to us. And they were right. The other people finally got their ideas from the Ten Commandments.

All the countries in the world have got their teachings basically from the Ten Commandments. If non-Christian people teach their children to honor father and mother, you got to go back 3 ,500 years. They got it from the Ten Commandments.

If there are laws in this country against murder, adultery, giving a false witness in court called perjury, these are all serious crimes. Theft. It all came from 3 ,500 years ago when only Israel had it, the law.

But the sad thing was that Israel thought, this is only for us. God never gives anything only for one person or one group of people, because he himself is not like that. God is love. And one of the primary marks of love is, we give.

You know those whom you love, don't you give gifts to them? God is like that. He was the first giver. God so loved that he gave. What did he give to Israel? He gave the law. In Deuteronomy 33 verse 2 and 3 it says, God gave a fiery law to Israel that proves that he loves the people.

What a verse. A lot of people in Israel thought, ooh, this terrible law. No, that proves that he loves the people. Just like you parents know that when you give certain rules to your children, it's because you love them.

You tell little children, don't go switch on the gas. Why do you tell them not to switch on the gas? A five-year-old can burn himself if he turns on the gas stove. And little commandments you give like that to your children, aren't they all out of love?

Israel never understood that. And so God wanted Israel to receive this law and then bless others with it. But they didn't do that. They just kept it to themselves. So God said, I'm going to set you aside.

I'm going to start a new group of people called the church, the body of Jesus Christ. And I'm going to give them something better than the law. I'm going to give them my Holy Spirit. So today, what is it that distinguishes the church from all the rest of the people in the world?

What distinguished Israel, the law? What distinguishes us is the Holy Spirit. I want to say, my brothers and sisters, never forget this, that the thing, I mean, I don't want to use the word thing. The Holy Spirit is a person.

The distinctive feature of the church compared to everyone else should be that we have the Holy Spirit. And I wish in 2000 years that Christians had at least placed an emphasis on that word Holy Spirit.

Because some people, their trinity is father, son and noisy spirit. Noisy spirit? You know, why do I say that? Because some people have come to our meetings and said, there's not enough noise here. Holy Spirit can't be here.

I say, no, no, no. You mean noisy spirit is not here. Holy Spirit is here. They confuse. Either they don't know the difference between holy and noisy. Maybe an English problem. I don't know. But they say there's not enough noise here, so you don't have the Holy Spirit.

That doesn't fit. If they had said there's not enough noise here, so you don't have a noisy spirit, I can understand. Or if they had said there's not enough holiness in your midst, though you don't have the Holy Spirit, then I can understand.

But how can you say there's not enough noise here, and so you don't have a Holy Spirit? Something is mixed up there. That's so obvious. I mean, even your child can understand that. It's not father, son, and emotional spirit.

It's not father, son, and clever spirit. Some people think because they are clever, know the Bible, they've got the Holy Spirit. No, no, no. The thing that should distinguish us was that God has given us His Holy Spirit.

Holiness as Love and Goodness Toward All People

And I want to say another thing. Holiness is not primarily paying our taxes, not getting angry, or not getting into debt, or not lusting after women. That's not primary. Those are all aspects of holiness.

That's the fruit. What is the root of all this? Holiness is love. Please remember that all your life. Holiness is love. If you don't have love, you don't have holiness, whatever else you may think. Because I've seen a lot of people in the world who preach victory over sin and high standards of holiness, and they don't love others.

They love people in their own group. I mean, the communists may also love people in their own group, the Naxalites love people in their own group, and the fundamentalist people of religions love people in their own group, but they hate everybody else outside that group.

I mean, look at all the chaos going on in the world today with fundamentalist groups attacking people outside that group. But within that, they'll never attack anybody in their own group. No. They work together to attack people outside.

And if the people in a church just love all the people in their group and hate people in some other denomination and hate people who think differently from them, actually they are no different from these fundamentalist groups.

God is not like that. God's love is not something you can switch on, switch off. You look at this person, off. You look at this person, on. That's not God's love. That's human love. When you meet somebody here, on.

You meet another person, off. What's that? Brother, sister, you need the Holy Spirit, without a doubt. You really need the Holy Spirit. If you can switch on, switch off, I guarantee that is human love.

Whatever you may call it, it may be noisy and all that, emotional and all that, and even clever, but it is human love. Something you switch on, switch off. Switch on, switch off. But a lot of, I fear, that number of people sitting here have got that type of what you call love.

On, off, on, off. That's not God's love. God said he'll make you like the sun, which shines on good people, bad people. God doesn't approve of what people do. That's another thing. God exposes sin, but his love is to all people.

You know, I've seen so many evidences of that in the world. Why is it that God allows unconverted atheists to be healthy? Why does he allow people who are fighting against Christians to live long lives?

Why does he allow people who are persecuting Christians to win elections? Why does he allow people who are crooks to make a lot of money? You know, there's a worldly expression that marriages are made in heaven.

And people say, oh, if somebody gets married, God bless them. Well, look at all the non-Christian people, and crooks, and godless people who get married, and they have healthy children. You think it's only God-fearing people who have healthy children?

Some people think if you get a pretty wife, God's blessed you. Oh, then these film stars are the ones who are blessed the most. What all, I'm talking about Christians, Christians who got all these crazy ideas in their head.

They think they're wholehearted brothers. They are not at all wholehearted. They're probably five percent. That's about it. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't marry a pretty girl. That's not my saying.

I'm saying don't bring God into it. You see, I like that. Fine. That's okay. But when you bring God and all your, try to sanctify your desires with all those things, I see something's wrong. God blesses, I'm saying God blesses all people because of his goodness.

He makes the sun to rise on the good and the evil. He sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. He's a good God, and he wants to make us like that. His nature is something that is basically good to all people, and when the Holy Spirit fills your life, one mark of it will be that you'll be good to all people, not just something you can switch on and switch off and switch on and switch off, good to certain people.

And I'm not saying that we can help all people equally. No, no. We're not like God with such a big ability and heart to take care of six billion people in the world. My heart and my ability is very small.

I can't create worlds by speaking a word. No. And because my heart and my ability is small, it doesn't mean I hate other people, but the number of people I can care for becomes limited. My children, that's your primary responsibility, is your children.

Obviously, you cannot even care for somebody else's children in the church as much as you care for your own. Naturally, that's natural. That's not because you're evil, it's because your capacity is small.

So don't feel guilty. I remember, I never forget how when we started 27 years ago, there was a brother, a very legalistic person who was in our church. He left long ago, thank God. I remember he got up in a meeting once.

You know, this is how legalistic people are. They put burdens on people. He said, when your child is sick, you're burdened about it. Why aren't you equally burdened when somebody else's child is sick?

What is the purpose of that message that is only to bring people under condemnation? I refuse to get condemned with such preachers. I have an answer when he asked me that question. Why are you not as burdened when somebody else's child is sick?

I say, brother, because that person is not my child. I mean, that may sound unspiritual, but that's honesty. I say, we want honest people in the church, not these super spiritual humbugs who tell lies.

Because my capacity is small. That's why. There's no human being in the world, unless he's insane or something like that, who can have as much concern for somebody else's child as his own child. And you need never feel condemned about it.

That doesn't mean you're unloving. It means your capacity is small. That's all. Maybe your capacity is a teaspoon. God is like an ocean, but it's the same water in the ocean, which is in your teaspoon.

The quality is the same. Quantity is less. That's all. God can love all six billion. I can love only a few. But the quality of my love is the same as God's love. It should be. Even though amount is less.

Why is it as an elder, I can only care for a certain number of people. I can't care for all the believers in the whole world. That's impossible. It's not that I hate them. I love the brothers in South America and Korea and Australia and Japan and everywhere.

I don't have the same responsibility as I have for those who seek to accept me as their elder. That's a very small number. That doesn't mean it's not God's love. It means I've got only a little cup. But it's the same water in the cup, which is in the ocean, which is in God's heart.

And another brother who's grown more than you, can handle more people than you. But our love must be the same quality as God's. And the Holy Spirit has come to shed abroad. See Romans 5 .5. The Holy Spirit has come to shed abroad in our hearts the love of God.

The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit has primarily come to do. Don't get your doctrine of the Holy Spirit from the Acts of the Apostles.

Get it from the Epistles. Some people go to the Acts of the Apostles, Rome Acts 2 .4 and say they all spoke in tongues. And they force people to speak in tongues today and 90 is counterfeit in all their churches.

Why? Because they force people to do something which God may not want to give them. I'll tell you what God wants to give everybody, what is taught in the Epistles. Supposing I say the Holy Spirit filled Paul and he shaved his head.

I'll show you that in scripture. Acts 9, the Holy Spirit came upon Paul. Later on in Acts 21 or 22, he shaved his head. So all of you who are filled with the Holy Spirit, sisters also, you know what you're supposed to do?

Got it? What doctrine is that? I get it from Acts of the Apostles. That's what a spirit-filled man did. Don't get your doctrines from Acts of the Apostles. It's a history book. It doesn't tell us doctrine, it tells us what happened.

Paul when he was converted, fell down from the horse to the ground and became blind for three days. I can find out now who's really converted. Did you fall down to the ground and were you blind for three days?

What all strange doctrines you can get from the Acts of the Apostles. It was never meant for doctrine. It was meant as a history book. If you want doctrine, go to the Epistles, go to the teaching of Jesus.

You follow the simple rule and you'll never go wrong. Where in the Epistles or in the teaching of Jesus does it say that every believer should speak in tongues? Nowhere. But I'll tell you where it says that every believer should have the love of God in his heart when he's filled to the Holy Spirit, Romans 5 .5.

And I tell you, if Christendom had this, had gone to Romans 5 .5 instead of Acts 2 .4, we would have had a different type of Christianity among those who claim to be filled to the Holy Spirit. The love of God.

But when the love of God fills my heart, it depends on my capacity. It may be a cup, it may be a bucket, it may be a tub. That depends on the capacity of my heart. In Paul's case, it was like a river.

Paul said, my heart is enlarged towards you, fellows. Your heart is so narrow, he told the Corinthians. My heart is enlarged, so when God fills me, I have so much of his love. Well, you fellows, you go to God with a little wee teeny cup and say, God fill me.

Okay, God fills you with the Holy Spirit. How much have you got? You got so little. Capacity. So the quality must be the same. Even if capacity grows as we grow older, to fill our hearts with the love of God must be our goal in the coming days.

Spiritual Gifts and Their Purpose in the Church

And it is from love that the gifts are exercised. We have mentioned in the past that one of the things we have lacked in the church is perhaps the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Right. But you know what Paul said about the gifts of the Holy Spirit?

I wish all of Christendom had understood this. Do you know where Paul speaks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit? 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, he speaks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

He says there are gifts of the word of wisdom. Verse 8, 1 Corinthians 12, 8. Word of wisdom means to know the right word to give to help a brother or sister solve a complicated problem that he's having in his family or his life.

A word of wisdom. You know God can give us that sometimes if we are open to the Holy Spirit. A word of knowledge. And that is, I know if any of you have read Pentecostal charismatic books, every single Pentecostal charismatic book I've read in the world on this subject says word of knowledge is to supernaturally know what somebody is hidden.

Knowledge is never used like that in the New Testament. A word of knowledge is to know the scriptures. It's a supernatural gift to be able to impart biblical knowledge, the knowledge of God through the Bible to other people.

That's what the word of knowledge is. And I'll tell you this, you will not find that written in any book in the whole world as far as I know. Because everybody follows what somebody else said. And particularly Indians are great people at imitating Americans and what the Westerners write we just repeat the same old thing.

I find that I've hardly met in my life even one or two Indians who have an original knowledge of God that goes completely against what the Western peoples teach on any doctrine. Maybe there are a few in our churches coming up now.

But outside everybody is a blind imitator. When you go to the scriptures, you've got to get rid of all your preconceived concepts if you want to know God. I'll tell you that. If you come to the scriptures with preconceived concepts which you read in books and magazines, I can give it to you in writing, you'll get everything wrong in your understanding of God's word.

Okay, then the faith. And that is not the fruit of faith, it's the gift of faith. Gift of faith means the ability to trust God for, you know, like George Muller could trust God for 2 ,000 orphans without reporting his needs to anybody.

If there was no breakfast one morning, he would just put all the plates on the table and say, let's sit down and give thanks and there's no milk, no bread and say, let's give thanks and by the time he finishes thanks, one milk van will break down outside his gate and the driver doesn't know what to do with all the milk that'll get spoiled and he'll say, okay, let's give this to George Muller's home and says, by the time he's opened his eyes, the milk has arrived.

That's the gift of faith. Not everybody has it, some people have it. Because it's for a ministry. That's different from faith to believe that sin shall not have dominion over you. That's the fruit of faith.

You know, promises in his word which are related to life. This faith is for ministry. You know, to move a mountain which is standing in the way. You may not have faith for that because that's not your ministry.

Faith to cast out a demon. You may not have faith for that because that's not your ministry. That's a gift of faith. So don't get condemned if you can't do what George Muller did or what somebody else does casting out demons.

That's a ministry. You must have the fruit of faith which is for the promises in his word. The gift of faith we must have in the church, at least with some people, but everybody doesn't have to have it.

Everybody doesn't have to have the word of knowledge or the word of wisdom. A few people is enough, but we should have these gifts. Gift of healing. Now healing is different from miracles in the sense that healing is praying for the sick.

And you know, it's like the difference between making a scooter and repairing a scooter. You know, to make a scooter from raw material is one thing. To repair a scooter that's defective is another thing.

Healing is repair. Miracle is making something. So that's healing and that's miracles. I want to also say these gifts are very rare today, particularly healing and miracles. Don't be fooled by all these fellows who say they are doing healing crusades.

I'll tell you what I believe. I believe 99 .99 of what goes on in these big healing crusades is absolute deception without a doubt. That's my conviction. You don't have to agree with me, but I'll tell you where healing in the name of Jesus is taking place today.

Even miracles and perhaps even raising of the dead. In villages where people have never heard the gospel, even in India, remote villages, there are supernatural healings and miracles taking place right now.

When you read the accent, why? Because that is a gift specially given for those who reach out to unreached areas. These fellows who conduct healing crusades who come from western countries, they never go to these unreached areas.

Have you ever heard a healing crusade in some remote village in North India? Nobody has that. They always come to reached areas and that's why 99 .99 of it is all hoax and humbug. The only blind stupid Christians who go and sit there and pay their money and open their mouths and believe all that.

There are lots of, you know there was an American man who was one of the first people who started the circus industry in America. His name was P .T. Barnum and he had all types of funny things in his circus like bearded women and short people and I don't remember, there were some amazing things he had like that and it's not a woman with a beard, it's just stuck on you know like and he used to collect money from people who wanted to come into this tent to see this bearded woman and there'd be a woman sitting there with lipstick and all of the beard and they'd pay their money and go out.

All types of deception like this and somebody asked him, how is this you're able to, he became very rich and he said, a sucker is born every minute into this world, we might as well collect his money.

What he meant by sucker was one who can be easily fooled. He says every minute there's a sucker born into the world, I just collect his money that's all. He comes to see a bearded woman and he pays his money and goes away and he comes to see some I don't know toothless tiger or something like that and goes pays his money and goes away.

All types of things and today's a lot of these evangelists who stood up, stand up in the on these huge stages have realized that there are a lot of suckers in Christianity also, you can collect their money easily.

Just fool them with somebody falling down and laughing or just collect them. Nobody becomes holy, nobody becomes godly, none of these fellows want to go out and preach the gospel in difficult places, they just fall down and laugh and get up and go running after making money and they go and give the money to this evangelist.

A sucker is born every minute in Christendom in the 21st century. I hope there are none in our CFC circles. I remember once there was a sister here in CFC, she wasn't really, I don't even know whether she was saved but she came along and she went one day to one of these big healing meetings that was in some stadium here in Bangalore.

So I asked her after she came back and I said, what did this man preach there? She said, Brother Zak, the same thing that we hear in the church. Oh really? Okay. You know, I thank God for these healing preachers because that person showed me where this lady stood.

Till then I thought she was really a believer. Now I knew that her discernment was zero because she said that that man was preaching the same thing that we were preaching in the church. That was the first time I knew that her discernment was zero.

She had absolutely no understanding of God or his word. How did I know that? Through that preacher who came to Bangalore. Shouldn't I be thankful for such people? Of course. That's why we never stop anyone from going to these meetings because when they come back from the meeting I can find out how much discernment they have.

What did you hear there brother? Oh same thing we heard in the church. Okay, good. You don't need much discernment after that to know where such people stand. It's not only these meetings. They go to some other emotionally charged meeting and they get some type of experience.

What did you get there? Oh brother, the Holy Spirit came. Oh I see. Okay. You get some understanding where these fellows who you thought were so spiritual sitting in your church, you find that they just nod their heads in the meeting.

Their discernment is absolutely zero and that shows that they don't have integrity in their life. They are challenged by emotions. They are challenged by noisy praise and worship meetings and false teachings of grace that allow them to live defeated by sin day after day after day after day in their personal life, in their family life.

They talk about grace. Oh brother, we heard about grace finally. If you really heard about grace, sin will not have dominion over you. If you really heard about grace, you will not get angry in your home.

Then I know you got grace. Otherwise it's all cheap counterfeits with which you're being deceived. The gifts of the spirit, distinguishing of spirits, it says in verse 10. Prophecy, preaching the word prophetically, distinguishing of spirits, tongues to communicate to God burdens that we cannot express with our mother tongue, an interpretation of tongues whenever the tongue is used in public.

Enlightenment, Encouragement, and Empowerment

I want to share three things I believe particularly that the Holy Spirit would seek to do in our lives and I want to use three words for that. Enlightenment, encouragement, empowerment. Easy words to remember.

Enlightenment, encouragement, empowerment. The Holy Spirit fills us, comes upon us to enlighten us, to encourage us, to empower us and when the Holy Spirit fills us, His purpose is that we go around enlightening other people, encouraging other people, empowering or strengthening weak people around us.

And I believe this is one of the greatest needs in our midst, in our churches. To be those who are enlightened and enlighten others, to those who are encouraged continuously and who can encourage others, those who are empowered continually so that they can strengthen others.

So let me look at these three things. First of all, enlightenment. We cannot get enlightenment without God's word. Second Corinthians 3 .18 it says, we behold with an unveiled face. I want to paraphrase verse 18 today in a way that you'll never, never misunderstand it or in a way perhaps that you've never seen before.

Now I want to go slowly in 2 Corinthians 3 .18. I believe this is one of the most wonderful verses about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the entire New Testament. So I want to explain each phrase. First of all, with an unveiled face.

It says here that even today, verse 15, when people read the Bible, when they say Moses, that means that was their Bible those days. When they read the Bible, a veil lies over their heart. Supposing I have frosted glasses like frosted windows, and I try to read the Bible.

Lord, I can't understand anything here. Naturally, that's the meaning of that. There's a veil over their heart, like cataract. You know, when people have cataract in their eyes, can't see and they can't read the Bible.

They don't understand it. What is this veil? Listen, it's the law. It's a legalistic attitude. The more legalistic your attitude is, the less you will understand the scriptures. Legalism is like cataract.

It blinds your eyes. You'll see things in the Bible which are not there. And we've had a lot of examples like that in our church, in our churches. And they get up, and if they are elders, oh, then it's terrible, because they put this legalism on a whole lot of people in their church.

And a lot of people in their church suffer, because that's what this fellow saw in the scriptures. But he saw it through this frosted lens called the law, legalism. And when such a person sits in a meeting, even in a conference like this, he can hear a wonderful message of liberty and freedom in the spirit, but he's got this legalistic lens, and he understands it all in a different way, and he goes back to his church and preaches it in a completely different way and brings everybody into bondage.

He can listen to the most liberating message in a conference and go and preach it in a legalistic way back home. If he can do that with the Bible, why can't he do it with Brother Zach's message? If they can do it with Moses and Paul, why can't they do it with us?

Sure. Where did these legalistic fellows get all their legalism from? By reading Paul and Peter and John, but they got it all crooked in their minds. The problem is not with Paul, Peter and John, the problem is with the veil over their heart.

How to get rid of this veil? There's this very simple way to get rid of this cataract. No operation, no charges. How? Next verse. When a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Till then he was looking at the letter.

Who is the Lord? Next verse. The Holy Spirit. It's the one place in the Bible where the Holy Spirit is called the Lord. Now the Lord is not talking about Jesus now. He's talking about the Holy Spirit.