In Our Inner Battle We Ought to Use Power (Norwegian) — Zac Poonen

The Old Covenant, the New Covenant, and the Two Trees

I want to repeat what I said, that there are very few who have understood the difference between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant. And I see the Old Covenant and the New Covenant like the two trees in the Garden of Eden.

The Old Covenant will only show you the difference between good and evil. And you can increase and increase and increase in the knowledge of good and evil. You can start in the kindergarten and know good and evil and get a PhD in knowing good and evil.

And that is all that many people get in many churches.

More knowledge of good and evil.

Ah, this is wrong and that is right. But when you talk to them, they don't seem to know God. There is not the spark of life there. The Pharisees were like that. They had a PhD in knowing good and evil.

How much to type.

How much to wash your hands. All the little, little, little laws.

We have to be careful that we don't go that way.

Right in the beginning of the Bible, God has said.

Knowledge of good and evil will bring death.

Have you understood that? It is right in the beginning of the Bible.

The knowledge of good and evil will bring death. But it will make you think that you are very spiritual. We can come to a meeting and we can say oh, we have become very sensitive to so many things we know as sin.

But it is life that we need. The tree of life.

That is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit that brings to us the life of Jesus. And for that we have to go under the sword and the fire.

And to get that, we have to go under the fire.

The Old Testament as Law, Mirror, and Instruction

We read in Hebrews chapter 11. Somebody once asked me this in India recently when we were having a Bible study that if the Old Covenant is abolished does it mean we don't have to read the Old Testament anymore?

I said no. There is no such word called Old Testament in the Bible. Man has given that name, Old Testament. But the Bible only says Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus it doesn't say this is all Old Testament.

But the Bible says 1st Book of Moses, 2nd Book of Moses. It is not the Bible itself that has given the Old Testament.

We need to understand that the Old Testament.

Is an Old Covenant that has been set by man.

The whole Bible is inspired by God. But it is an old covenant that God made with Israel and that is a way in which God dealt with man right up to the coming of Christ. Actually up to the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And that was by the law.

And the Bible says by the law is the knowledge of sin. The Bible calls the law a mirror.

When you have a mirror you can see your face.

People who don't have a mirror they can't see there is some dirt on their face. Or in today's language we could say an x-ray. Which shows me what is wrong inside my body. But I cannot clean my face with that mirror.

And that x-ray cannot heal me.

It can only show me. So with the law.

That was needed. We need the mirror even today. Even today the doctors will take x-ray and scan to see what is inside.

But that is only to see. The cure is somewhere else.

So there are many, many things written in the books from Genesis to Malachi which are good for us to learn. One of the things I have learned from the Old Testament is the mistakes that Israel made. Because those are the same mistakes people are making in the church today.

They are pursuing after the wrong things. So in Hebrews 11 you read about the examples of these great men. In the Old Testament period. And do you know what is the most important verse in Hebrews chapter 11?

That is the last verse. It says God has provided something better for us than all these people had.

I am really excited when I read that.

I can study about Abel and Enoch.

And Moses and Noah.

And God has provided something better for me. Better than the Old Covenant. Because they could not have what I have. Jesus said the greatest man under the Old Covenant was John the Baptist. But the least person who comes into God's kingdom will have more than him.

Faith, the Better Provision, and the Life of Jesus

So we can say that Hebrews 12 verses 1 -4 is actually the last four verses of Hebrews 11.

Then we understand it.

Because it starts in Hebrews 11 like this. Verse 4 and 5 by Abel and Enoch. And then Noah, Abraham, all these people. Joseph and Daniel. And then it comes saying, but God has given us something better than all these people.

After you read by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Joseph. Finally it says by faith Jesus.

Hebrews 12, 1 -4.

That is the last four verses of Hebrews 11. That today I follow Jesus, His faith. Not the faith of those people. Because all those people, their faith gave them something external. But the faith of Jesus brings me into the life of God.

Nobody could come to the tree of life in the old covenant. If you read in John 7, 38 and 39, the Holy Spirit was not given until Jesus was glorified. Do you young people realize that you have a greater privilege than Moses and Daniel and all these people?

I am excited that I can live a better life than John the Baptist. That's what Jesus said. He doesn't mean I will live that. That depends on my faith.

If I allow the Holy Spirit to show me the footsteps of Jesus and I walk in them, and you have a passionate desire to put away everything that's hindering you from following Jesus, then you can have a life better than even John the Baptist.

Because it says here, God has provided something better.

Than all these people had. Even though John the Baptist's name is not mentioned here, he was the greatest of all these people. See Matthew 11 and verse 11. Jesus said this. Among those born of women,.

Matthew 11, 11, there's not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist. But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. That means he has the potential to rise higher than John the Baptist.

It's like saying a rocket has got the potential to go faster than an aeroplane. If an aeroplane can go at maybe 2 ,000 km an hour, a rocket can go at 40 ,000 km an hour. But it cannot go 40 ,000 km an hour until it escapes from gravity.

There are a few hundred kilometers around the earth where gravity pulls you down. See, planes fly there, and so you can't go very fast. And this atmosphere also is thick for the plane to go through. So once the rocket is in that area, it is difficult.

But once it goes out of that area that is called space, there's no gravity. There is not this dense atmosphere. And suddenly its speed increases 40 ,000 km in one hour. You say, how is that possible? A hundred years ago, if you told anybody that man can travel at 40 ,000 km an hour, they'd say impossible.

And even when Jesus was on earth, if somebody had said, you can walk as Jesus walked, they'd say impossible.

Even today, people say impossible.

Almost all Christians will say,.

Can you walk as Jesus walked? Impossible.

It's just like people said a hundred years ago,.

You can't travel 40 ,000 km an hour. You can't go to the moon, impossible.

Why do they say it's impossible to walk as Jesus walked? Because their faith is based on their experience and not the Word of God. I want to say to all of you young people, you can choose either to base your faith on your experience, the experience of others around you, or on the Word of God.

Faith Based on God's Word Rather Than Experience

When we see something in God's Word, for example here,.

The greatest human being from the time of Adam was John the Baptist. That means greatest in God's eyes. Not in the world's eyes. In the world's eyes, some pharaoh or Caesar was great. But in God's eyes, the greatest human being was John the Baptist.

But if you come into the new covenant, you can go higher than that. How many Christians have you met in your life who believe that I can live a life better than John the Baptist?

That I can be more spiritual than John the Baptist.

I can be more free from the love of money than John the Baptist. I can have a purer thought life than John the Baptist. I can be more wholehearted than John the Baptist.

I can be a more fiery preacher than John the Baptist. Have you met many Christians like that? Why don't they believe it?

Only one reason. They don't read what Jesus said, they look at their own experience. They listen to all the preachers without faith around them. Or they listen to the preachers who say we can have faith to get money or faith to get healing.

For myself, I will tell you this. I am willing to be the poorest man in terms of money on the face of the earth. And the sickest man with diseases on the face of the earth. If I can live inwardly better than John the Baptist.

Can you say that? God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Those who will believe that God's word is true.

All the limitation among God's people is because they don't believe the word of God. They believe for all types of things which are not written in the scripture. Better house, better car. Things which are not written in the word of God.

But the thing that is promised in God's word that I can have a life like Jesus.

But it says here.

Who are the people who are going to possess this life?

Who are the people who are going to possess this life? Matthew 11, verse 12. Now there is someone who is forcing himself into the kingdom of heaven with power. And those who are forcing themselves are tearing it to themselves.

And that is something that all of you young people must learn. If you want to accomplish the most in your life. Then you must be a man and a woman who uses power. On the outside, you must be completely at peace.

But on the inside, you must be a violent man. That is the balance. But on the outside, no one should be in conflict with me.

Nobody can have a quarrel with me. If they come to fight, sorry, I am not going to fight. I use the example of hands. You need two hands to make a noise. If one hand refuses to cooperate, there is no noise.

I often tell husband and wife, can you be like that? If one person wants to fight or shout. If you refuse to fight. They can get as angry as they like.

Or it may be the wife. As much as they like. Or it may be the wife. Make a difference. One person must say, I do not want to participate in this. Then I will be completely at peace. The best is of course that it is a society where both refuse to fight.

But if you can not have a society, then at least there must be peace. Peace we can have with all people. Fellowship with very few people. Because for fellowship, the other person also got to die. Both have to die.

Peace, only one has to die. Please remember that. Externally,.

Spiritual Warfare and Peace with People

We must be people of peace. Even in arguments on doctrine.

So many people come to me to argue about doctrine.

I explain to them from Scripture. And very often I know the Scripture better than them. And then show them where they are wrong. And then they begin to get angry. Then I close the Bible. I say, let's talk about something else.

Maybe the war in Iraq. Or the war in Israel. We do not get into an argument. So we do not have arguments. We do not have quarrels. We do not have fights. One of the things we face in India is demon-possessed people in our villages.

You cannot build a church in the villages in India if you don't know how to cast out a demon. Because it's no use praying with a demon-possessed person. They won't listen. And the Lord told me once, if you want to have power over a demon,.

You must make one decision in your life.

That you will never again fight with human beings. You will never fight with your wife. You will never fight with your neighbors. You will never fight with other Christians.

You will fight with nobody. That is Ephesians 6, verse 12.

We do not fight with human beings, but we fight with demons.

Why is it so many Christians don't have authority over demons and the devil? I'll tell you. They fight with human beings all the time. They fight with their parents. They fight with their husband, wife.

Neighbor.

Other people in the church. Other people in other churches. There is no end.

They travel for a few hours in a bus or train and they are fighting with people there also. I see that happen so many times in India. Most of the people travel in India by train or bus. It's such a short journey.

Three, four hours. And they have to fight with the person sitting next to them. You have taken 10 of my seat or some silly thing like that. That is human nature.

It's a small thing. What is the use of that if you don't have authority over the devil?

If the devil wants to make you weak, all he's got to do is make you fight with your husband or wife.

Or make you get into an argument with some believer or something like that.

So outwardly we must determine.

I have decided I will be a man of peace.

If you decide that when you are young, what a blessed life you can have all through.

You can be a young person but Satan will be afraid of you.

I have never been interested.

In that people should be afraid of me but I want Satan to be afraid of me. Have you ever gone to the Lord.

And said, Lord, the devil must be afraid of me? I want to live my life in authority over Satan. I don't want to impress people. I want to impress the devil. So then I must be inwardly.

A man of violence. Outwardly a man of peace.

Taking the Kingdom by Force and Putting God First

So what does it mean. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent people take it by force? So what does it mean.

That the kingdom of heaven is taken by force and those who take it by force tear it down? When I seek for the best God I have.

There are so many human things.

That can come and hinder me. People and possessions and my own self-life. These are the three things. People my parents say, oh, please don't go into that type of life.

Seek a comfortable life and live somewhere near us so that we can also be Christians here. God calls you to be a missionary in the middle of Africa for the next 30 years. I'm sure your parents will start weeping.

Many people don't obey God because they watch the tears of their parents.

That's why Jesus said you've got to hate your father and mother if you want to be my disciple. We honor them.

We care for them. But we don't let them dictate how we should live.

Our example is Jesus who obeyed Mary.

For 30 years. One day when he left the house he told her, woman, what have I got to do with you? Don't try to run my life.

But he loved her. Even in the midst of that agonizing pain when he was hanging on the cross. He was thinking, who will care for my mother? And he said, John, please take care of her.

That is the balance in the Christian life that even in the midst of your pain you think of your parents, that you care for them. But you never allow them to run your life or your ministry. You honor them, but you don't allow them to determine how you should go.

So I have to do violence in my heart to that attachment I have to my parents.

If we don't break that you will not be able to follow Jesus. There are many people who are so attached to their parents.

That the Lord can never tell them to do anything. My father was the one who encouraged me to join the military, the navy in India. I was not a Christian. I was 15 years old and I joined the military academy.

My father was a believer and he said, I want you to be the admiral of the navy. I also wanted it. But one day Christ came into my life and after four or five years after that the Lord said, leave your job.

And I did not write to my father. I first put my resignation letter. Then I wrote to my father, I'm leaving. God is first. But I honored my father and mother. I took care of them until they died. But I didn't let them run my life or my ministry.

Or the way God was calling me. And even, you know, 34 years ago when we started meeting with 3 -4 people in our house. My father couldn't understand that. He said, you got such a gift. Why are you sitting with these 3 -4 people?

You should be traveling the world like Billy Graham or something. I said, no, you don't understand. I have seen in my life if you don't do violence in your heart to those attachments, you can never do the will of God.

So we must learn that balance. Honor and care for our parents but not to let them run our life. Or your wife. Or your children. You got to hate all of them. Don't let your wife run your life. For example, if you're married, you got to be the head of your home.

Eve's sin was that she disobeyed God and ate from the tree. Adam's sin. You read in Genesis 3. The Lord did not say to Adam, because you ate from the tree, I'm punishing you.

You know what God told Adam? Because you listened to your wife, I'm punishing you. You read it in Genesis 3. You have to be the head of your home, Adam.

I say to all of you who get married, be the head of your home. You know, Adam said, if I don't eat this, my wife will create a fight. So for the sake of peace in the home, let me do what she said.

You got to be a man of violence.

No, I'm not going to listen to my wife there. This is what God wants me to do. So, it may be husband, it may be wife, it may be father, mother, we have to put God first.

I've seen some people in our church in Bangalore.

They are so afraid to displease their wife.

They want to please their wife, and please their wife. So, you know what I tell them? I said you should veil your head and sit in the meeting, you brothers. Because you're not the head of your house. Then you brothers should sit in the covering.

Tell your wife to take off the head covering, and you put the head covering.

And I tell them, you have to tell your wife that she has to take off the head covering, and then you have to take off the head covering. These are little principles. These are principles. I will never allow anything to come between me and Christ.

Before I got married, I decided that Jesus would have the first place in my life,.

And however much I love my wife, after 41 years, she's still second in my life.

And here is the best part. I am second in her life, also. I wanted to be like that.

Otherwise, we will have fights. But if Jesus is in the middle,.

That is a glue that holds us together.

I must do violence to everything that comes between me and Jesus. And the other thing is possessions. It's people, particularly our loved ones, and maybe even brothers and sisters. Nobody must come between me and Christ.

Wealth, Possessions, and the Love of Christ

Then second is possessions. When you are young and you don't earn any money, it's very easy to think you love Jesus a lot. But then when you start earning money, then there are dangers. I heard when I read somebody preaching this, that in the old days, the devil said to God about Job.

Yeah, he is serving you because he has so much money. Everything is so well. All his children have got nice houses. He is so healthy and he is in a good position. You take it all away. Make him suffer.

Then let us see whether he serves you. And God said, okay, try. But this preacher was saying that today the devil says something else. All these Christians, they follow you because they have so many trials and difficulties.

That's why they follow you.

Satan says now to God that all these Christians, they follow you because they have so many trials and difficulties. But if you take away all those trials, give them a lot of money, give them big houses and many cars, then you will see if they still follow you.

And you can see what happened with many Christians who got so much of these world's properties.

So much money to throw away. So much money to just waste on unnecessary food and unnecessary things in life. We can say their money and their possessions.

Have come between them and Jesus Christ. Yeah, the devil is very clever.

He knows how to bring something between you and Christ. If it's not a person, it's maybe money. Maybe something which comes between you and the Lord. When I left my job in the Navy, all the eight years that I had earned, I gave all that money away for God's work and came out with nothing.

And I thought that I would have to live in some rented house all my life. But then my father was able to sell an old house of his and I could get a house for myself in Bangalore.

That was 37 years ago.

And I was afraid. I was really afraid. I said, Lord, I never in my life thought I would have a house. And here I have my own house. And I'm scared that this will come between me and you. That I will worship this house.

Instead of worshiping you. Please save me from that. I want to be a man of violence. And I used to pray like this. Lord, you can burn up this house.

Make some electrical short circuit or something and burn it up. I can go and live in some small house. It's okay. I don't want anything to come between me that I care for some earthly thing.

And for six months I thought any day that house would burn up. Because it was something big in the eyes of men. Oh, he's got a heart. I said, Lord, this is dangerous.

I don't want to be attached to it. But God never allowed it to be burned up. The church started in that house three years later. And I was never attached to it. Because I laid this Isaac on the altar and said, Lord, take it.

And the Lord didn't take it. He gave it back. It never became important for me. And we used to have the church started meeting in our house. And you know, in India people live in a very different level.

Poor people especially. So after the meetings we'll see children have practiced their ABC on the walls. And I come up to the meeting and see, oh, there's all these things written on the walls now. And I said, Lord, I will not worship my walls.

I worship Jesus Christ. Nothing will come between me and Jesus.

I remember another brother from the village came to our house.

And you know these little children in the villages, they don't wear any diapers or anything like that. So he come to the house and he climbs on top of my coffee table. Small boy. And he urinates right there.

But fortunately, I was not a worshipper of coffee tables also. I only worship Jesus Christ. No wall, no coffee table, no house, nothing. I say, Lord, it's a battle. It's a battle even today. Lord, I will never allow anything to come between me and you.

I have understood what it means to be a man of violence inside anything coming between me and Christ. I mean, just like many of you young lovers who love one another as husband and wife, you don't like anything to come between you, right?

That's how it must be between you and Christ. That is the person who can rise up to the new covenant life. And what God gives us is so wonderful. It can never be compared to houses or lands or anything.

If money means something to you, you will never have an anointed ministry from God. I remember, you know, many people say, Oh, Brother Zach, God has not given me a gift of ministry.

But have you ever asked why? It's like a child who tells me, some student in school, Oh, Brother Zach,.

I failed in the school again. I said, why did you fail? You didn't study hard for your examination? If you don't study, you will fail.

Even if you pray, you will fail. You have to study hard in order to pass an exam.

So why is it God doesn't give you a ministry? Is it because you don't spend time studying the Bible? You spend more time watching other things and reading other things? Naturally, you won't have a ministry.

Because God sees you don't have any interest in His Word. So what shall I tell you, young people? Before you get married, study the Word of God. I did that. For seven years, before I got married, I spent all my time studying the Bible.

I did not know that God.

Was going to give me a ministry. When God saw that, He gave me a ministry.

Studying Scripture and Rejecting Distractions

I believe there are many people whom God wants to give a ministry among young people, but He can't give it to them because they don't diligently study the Word of God. To study the Word of God, you have to cut out certain other things.

Because the devil will fill your daily life with so many good things. There is a proverb in English that says the good is the enemy of the best. The devil won't fill your life with evil every day.

Because he knows that you've got enough sense to avoid all that. But he can fill your life with so many good things that you miss the best.

You know, if you go to the internet,.

There are a lot of evil things. You avoid all those evil things. There are so many good things.

That you can spend 24 hours every day looking at those good things.

No evil. Only good things. Some information about this, and some information about that.

And at the end of the day, you have no time to study the Bible. Is the devil making a fool of you like that? What is the use of all this information finally when you stand before God? If you don't know God's Word.

What a clever thing the devil does.

To prevent people reading the one book God gave us. What did Jesus say? If you want to live, man shall live by.

Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And I don't find every word proceeding from the mouth of God on the internet. There is only one book, the Bible, in the whole world where every word proceeds from God's mouth.

So if I have to live, I must live by not one or two words,.

Every word that proceeds from God's mouth.

I will tell you my 50 years experience as a believer from this book. There is an answer in this book to every problem you can ever face in your life. Any problem. Any type of physical problem, sickness, monetary problem, anything.

What harm.

Other people do to you? Persecution? Anything is an answer in this book. But you've got to know where it is.

So you can never make the most of your life if you don't study this book. It's very, very important that when God is trying to tell you something, I think the devil will bring so many things to hinder you from being occupied with that.

And I know many Christians in India. Born again Christians.

They watch Christian television programs.

This preacher, that preacher, 90 of them are from America.

They are the only ones who got so much money to buy all this television time. So I decided to get.

Cable television for one year just to listen to all these preachers.

I don't have it now, but I watched all these preachers. To see, what are they preaching?

And I'll tell you, after watching all these preachers for one year, not one of them preached on victory over sin.

Not one of them preached on taking up the cross. Not one of them preached on an overcoming life. Not one of them preached on living in triumph. Not one of them preached on building the local church. Not one of them preached on the new covenant.

It was all psychology. How to be free from fear and to anxiety.

And how God values you so much. And that you are a very important person. And how to be successful in life.

And how to ask God to bless your business.

You listen to all that for one year. They will deceive you. And no time to read the Bible. Because you are listening to all these people. Then you get deceived. And you get deceived and you don't even know you're being deceived.

And I say this. If you neglect the word of God and listen to all these people, you deserve to be deceived. You deserve to be deceived.

So be careful when you're young. There's a lot of deception in Christian circles today. A lot of deception.

The only way to be protected.

Is knowing God's word. And the other advantage is that if you study God's word, God will one day give you a ministry.

Hearing God and Speaking a Word in Season

Let me share you one verse that challenged me many times in the last 30 -40 years. It's in Isaiah chapter 50. You know, I always... I had this burden. Lord, there are so many needy people.