An Unshakable Life in the New Year Zac Poonen — Zac Poonen

An Annual Examination of Our Lives

I was seeking the Lord for a word for the coming year. There's nothing sacred about December 31st or January the 1st because calendars were made by man but it was God who determined many thousands of years ago that the earth should go around the Sun once in 365 and a quarter days.

That was not determined by man. So whatever date you choose, whether it's your birthday or December 31st or whatever it is, it's good once in a year to have a checkup on our lives. It doesn't have to be December 31st.

Well that's a convenient date because everybody is emotionally ready to hear what God has to say. One of the things that the Lord says in Hebrews chapter 12, and I believe that this is something that will be more and more true in the coming year, Jesus said in the world you'll have tribulation but in me you will have peace.

The Unshakable Kingdom of God

Tribulation is like, you know, earthquakes and peace is like stability. In the world you shall have tribulation he said but in me you have peace. John 16 33 and Hebrews 12 we read in verse 26 God's voice shook the earth.

That's going back to the time when the law was given on Mount Sinai. The earth shook but now he has promised yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven and this expression yet once more denotes, I want you to listen to this carefully, the removing of everything that can be shaken as of created things so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

So the coming year is going to be a year of shaking. The things which can be shaken will be shaken and things which cannot be shaken will remain. Since we are receiving a kingdom, verse 28, that cannot be shaken, if you have planted both your feet firmly in the kingdom of God, not one foot there and one foot in the kingdom of earth as it is with most believers, but if you have planted your feet firmly, both feet in the kingdom of God, then we have a kingdom which cannot be shaken.

Then let us show gratitude. That's how we serve God. It says here, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. In the Old Testament they offered service to God out of fear.

The wrong type of fear, fear of judgment. If I don't do it, God will punish me. If I don't pay my tithe, God will curse me. If I don't give the stipulated offerings, I may suffer, my children may suffer.

But in the New Covenant it says here, we offer acceptable service, how? By gratitude. Do you see that word? Verse 28, gratitude. That's not something that comes naturally. It's something we have to, it comes only when we meditate on how much God has done for us.

We are basically such selfish creatures that we don't think of expressing gratitude easily. We think God owes us a living, everybody around us owes us a living, and we think we're such great people that we don't think of even giving thanks when people have done something for us.

It's a very rare thing that I have seen when people are really grateful. Gratitude is not a thing that you find commonly. I mean, we know the civilization teaches us to be courteous and to say thank you and sorry and all, but gratitude is more than just saying thank you.

It's a deep attitude in the heart where I'm deeply thankful to God for what he's done for me and only then can I offer an acceptable service to him. If my service does not arise out of gratitude, it's worthless.

If it arises because I want to get some reward in heaven or because I want to show others how spiritual I am or get some position in the church or some rubbish like that, it's not acceptable. It says acceptable service must come out of gratitude and it must be offered with deep reverence for God.

That's what it says here. If our service for God does not come out of deep reverence for him, it's not acceptable. Unfortunately, we have a lot of approaching God today and you see that in some of the choruses that are, I don't mean the ones we sing here, but a lot of others that are sung in some churches where Jesus is like a buddy.

A buddy you put your arm around and say hi. There's very little reverence and that's why their lives are shaky. If you don't have gratitude and you don't have reverence, I can assure you your whole life is going to shake in the coming year.

Building on Christ's Words

And let's turn to a passage where Jesus spoke about something that can shake and something that cannot shake in Matthew chapter 7. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We want to be both feet in that kingdom in the coming year.

Do you want to go through 365 days in the coming year without being shaken? I can think of many things that I faced in my life and ministry, particularly in the ministry, in what's it 364 days of this year and we've got two more days left to complete the leap year.

But as far as I can think, I can't remember a single day when I was shaken. Even when some terrible things happen, it's fine. God is on the throne and I believe we can live a life where 365 days of the year we will not be shaken no matter what happens in our life, in our home, and in our church.

It's only God who can do that. It says everything created can be shaken if you depend on your created abilities. That's what he read in Hebrews 12, that everything created will be shaken. Even the heavens will be shaken.

Where are we going to stand? But if we have what the Bible calls an indestructible life in us. Yeah, maybe I should show you that verse before you go to Hebrews 7, Mark, Matthew 7. If you're not familiar with that verse, it's a lovely verse in Hebrews and chapter 7 where it speaks about an indestructible life in verse 16.

He says the Old Testament priests became priests because they belonged to the tribe of Levi, a physical requirement. No matter how zealous you were, you couldn't be a in the Old Testament if you didn't belong to the tribe of Levi.

But in the New Testament he says priesthood is not according to any physical requirement that you must belong to a particular community or nothing physical. It's nothing created. Created will all shake, but to the power of an indestructible life, something that cannot be destroyed, that's the type of life God gives us.

That's what he gives us through the Holy Spirit. I'll tell you something, a lot of people who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit are not filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't be fooled by it. The Holy Spirit, it's an absolute insult to say a man's filled with the Holy Spirit, for a person to claim he's filled with the Holy Spirit and then lose his temper or love money or get bitter or be unforgiving or be anxious.

What type of Holy Spirit is that? It's absolute insult to the Holy Spirit to say I'm filled with the Holy Spirit and to lust after women and watch internet pornography and all the other wretched things that a lot of people who speak in tongues, they say they speak in tongues and do all these other things as well.

It's not the Holy Spirit. If you have the Holy Spirit, he'll give you an indestructible life, a joy that nobody can take away from you, a peace that passes understanding. These are scriptural verses and a love that passes knowledge.

So there's an indestructible life that the Holy Spirit gives us. So in everything I'm going to say, please remember, it's the Holy Spirit who's going to make this real in your life and the Holy Spirit will fill you if you yield every area of your life to him.

He's waiting to fill you. A lot of people think that I'm more eager to be filled with the Holy Spirit than God is eager to fill me. That's not true. I formed a definition of faith which has helped me a lot.

It's based on scripture but I can't find it in one particular verse. It's the overall truth of New Testament. One definition of faith, there are many definitions, but one of them that I found helpful is this, to believe that God is more eager to bless me than I am to be blessed.

You got it? God is more eager to fill me with the Holy Spirit than I am to be filled with the Holy Spirit. God is more eager to make me holy than I am to be holy. God is more eager to cleanse me of all my sin than I am to be cleansed of all my sin.

God is more eager to help me to live according to the standard in the New Testament than I am eager to live according to that standard. That's faith. If any of you got the crazy idea that you are more eager for something and God is reluctant and you got to twist his arm and force him and pray and fast and you're not happy.

You don't have faith. You don't have faith at all. No wonder you don't get anything. You can pray all night. You won't get anything. It's not the length of hours we pray. The prophets of Baal prayed for hours.

They got nothing. Elijah prayed for half a minute and look what he got. The fire from heaven. It's faith and not the type of faith that you read of in books in the Christian bookshops. It's this type of faith that gives us an indestructible life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

A life that cannot be destroyed. Where people throw cold water on you and the fire still burns. That's indestructible fire. That's the power of the Holy Spirit and if you haven't got that I want to tell you ask God for it and believe.

Believe means believe that he is more eager to give it to you than you are to receive it. The sunlight is more eager to come into your room than you are eager. You pull a curtain. That's why the sunlight doesn't come in.

So if you pull a curtain or pull the blinds down and say oh sunlight come in come in it's not going to come in and that's exactly how a lot of people are praying for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. You can pray for a hundred years the sunlight won't come in.

If you pull the blinds down, pull the curtains, where's the sunlight going to come in? It's exactly like that. I want to urge you don't waste your time praying for the Holy Spirit like that. Just see if there are areas in your life that you're completely shut off to God.

Rooms in your heart that you don't want Christ to enter and cleanse and get rid of things in your home. Do you remember in the in Ephesus when Paul preached there was a revival people brought files of books worth hundreds of thousands of rupees and burned it all up.

Think of a day comes in your life when you get rid of everything in your life that's dishonoring to God. Books and DVDs of movies and music and all that Jesus Christ would never want to hear and you don't give it to the junk man who'll sell it to somebody else but you'll destroy them.

When you're serious I tell you you'll get filled with the Holy Spirit pretty soon. When you say Lord take care of my finances I'm going to give you everything area of my life I'm going to return everything I took wrongfully and even if people have forgotten the debts they owed me I'm going to repay it and you open up every single area of your life and you're quick to acknowledge your fault especially in your relationship as husband and wife.

I'll tell you something it's very easy to acknowledge your fault to a stranger but let me see whether you can acknowledge your fault quickly to your wife or to your husband that is where you decide whether you are willing to open that door of humility in your life.

If you're not quick to do that if you have to hesitate and think about it and all that brother sister I have to warn you you'll be shaken in the coming year. You will be shaken and don't wonder why there's an area of your life you refuse to yield to God to give you that indestructible life.

The Wise and Foolish Builders

So let me turn you to Matthew chapter 7. You know the story very well of the two builders. One man built on the rock that was unshakable verse 24 and 25 Matthew 7 24 25 the rain fell the floods came the winds blew and slammed against that house.

What a word slammed against that house and it did not fall unshakable but the foolish man the rain fell and the verse 27 the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell and great was its fall.

What was the difference. Jesus said the difference is just this both of them verse 24 and 26 they heard my words in that area. They were both alike. There was one similarity with both these people. They both heard the words of Jesus.

In other words they both came for the Sunday services. How can they hear the words of Jesus if they didn't come for the Sunday meetings. You know those days there was nobody had a Bible. I don't know whether you know that these printed Bibles have been available only the last 500 years.

In the days of Jesus nobody had a Bible in their home. If you wanted to hear the Bible you had to go to the synagogue. And in the early days of the Christian church if somebody had a copy one copy for the church they were lucky you got to go to church Sunday morning to listen to the words of God.

So let me read it like this. These two people were people who went to Sunday services regularly. They never missed a Sunday. And yet one lamb. One man's life shook and the other man's was unshakable. There's going to be a line drawn here in our midst between those whose lives will shake in the coming year and those whose lives will not shake in the coming year.

And it all depends on whether you just listen or like the wise man listen and obey. That was the only difference. One man decided I'm going to obey. And that obedience was costly. Because he had to dig until he hit rock.

He had to spend more money spend more time. He had to blast the rock. They didn't have dynamite those days. I don't know how long it took to for him to just lay the foundation. But because he took time to make sure that there was a deep foundation.

And remember the foundation is the hidden area of our this building got a foundation. None of you have ever seen it. I saw it when it was being built. Otherwise I wouldn't see it either. But that is what gives strength to this building the hidden part.

And there's a hidden area in your life which determines whether when the wind slams and the floods come you will shake or not. It's not the visible part which everybody can see. It's that hidden part.

Every building that you see is that foundation that determines whether it will shake or not. And Jesus was talking here not about the beauty of the building not how many floors it had. The wise man the foolish man could have had many floors.

That's not the point. May I put beautiful paint on it. It's not the point. The important thing is what's the foundation. Like the wise man's house may have been a small one but it lasted. So don't be impressed by the externals in the Christians you see around.

You don't be taken up with the externals in churches. Look for the hidden life. What you are when you're alone before God. That's what you really are. The rest is all public. Show what you are when you're alone before God.

That's what you really are. So in that area of our life which nobody can see there's something you can do with the help of the Holy Spirit that can make your life unshakable 365 days of the coming year.

Now there are many things. You know Jesus was saying these words of mine that means particularly referring to the Sermon on the Mount. And that's why through all these 37 years of this church we have kept on preaching frequently on the Sermon on the Mount.

Why. Because that's the only way to build an unshakable life. That's the only way to build an unshakable family life and home. And that's the only way to build an unshakable church. That's the only way to put our children on an unshakable foundation.

Because if you follow what's written in these three chapters Jesus guaranteed that the storm and the winds and the waves and everything will not shake you at all. I believe his word. I've experienced a little bit of it.

Prayer in Secret

So I don't have time to go through the all of Matthew 5 6 7. But there's one particular part of it which I wanted to share with you is just about seven or eight verses. And that's relating to prayer.

Jesus said in verse 6 when you pray go into your inner room. Matthew 6. Verse 6. Sorry. Matthew 6 6 when you pray go into your inner room close your door and pray to your father in secret. Your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

That reward will be that you will not shake. But there's got something you have to have in secret. And you know it's not that we cannot pray in public. Very often we have prayer meetings. We are praying and other people are listening.

He was not saying that every single time you pray you must pray in secret because Jesus often prayed in public too. But there's a principle here and that's the thing we need to understand. He was contrasting it with people who like to pray.

Verse 5. Don't be like the hypocrites who pray in the synagogues to be seen by men. That's the point. The point is not how you pray or where you pray. But do you pray to be heard by people or to your father who sees in secret.

That's the contrast to be heard by people or to your father who hears in secret. And if you were to examine your own life the times whenever you have prayed in public even if it's three or four people in your home and you pray if you're honest.

And it's sometimes very difficult to be honest. But those are the people who really get blessed. If you're honest you will acknowledge that much that you pray in public is not for God to hear. It's just a formality.

Other people are listening sometimes it is to impress them. But certainly you're very conscious of the people who are listening and you got to make sure that the prayer is according to their will be accepted by them.

So this business of closing the door is something we can do even when we are in public. You know it's something I've tried for years to train myself to do that. When I pray in public as I shut my eyes I want to close the door to everybody around me and be conscious only of the father and pray to him.

It's not easy but if you work at it work at it it'll become easy. It's like learning how to swim or learning how to type. I mean in the beginning it's difficult but over a period of time it'll become easy if you train.

If you don't train yourself. I mean if you never practice typing you'll never learn how to type. If you never practice swimming you don't learn how to swim. And if you never practice this shutting the door even when you're praying in public even after 50 years you'll be praying seeking honor.

But if you work at it and say Lord I want to shut the door and I want to focus on you. That's the main thing to focus on God. There's no verse in the Bible which says you must shut your eyes when you pray you can keep your eyes open.

Jesus sometimes opened his eyes and prayed looking up. But the point the reason to shut our eyes so we don't get distracted. We want to focus on God. We want to focus on God. And and it says here that's how it says in this other paraphrase.

The focus will then shift from you to God. And it says here the world is full of so-called prayer warriors. Do you like the phrase prayer warrior. It's a very common phrase nowadays in Christian circles never found in the Bible.

But a lot of people like to imagine that they are prayer warriors. And they like to talk about being prayer warriors. It says here they are prayer ignorant. I agree. What a lot of things people do to get honor.

I'm a prayer warrior. Wow what a wonderful person there are. So world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer ignorant. I'm reading the message paraphrase. They are full of formulas and programs and advice peddling their techniques.

That means they sell their books for money. How to become a prayer warrior. Peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. You're dealing with a father in heaven.

He knows better than you what you need. And with a God like this loving you you can pray very simply. I like that. And the focus shifts from you to God. True prayer is when the focus shifts from you to God.

Ask yourself when you pray has your focus shifted from you to God. No even when we pray we're asking for ourselves. It's not on God. I'm not saying we shouldn't ask for ourselves but question is where is our focus.

And that is the secret of the Christian life. An unshakable life is one where our focus has shifted from ourselves to God not only in prayer but in everything. It's God's name and God's honor and God's kingdom that concern us more than us.

And what I'm going to get and how other people are treating me and expecting things from other people. I was telling somebody the other day that if you want to live a happy life you got to die spiritually inwardly.

And one characteristic of dead people is they have no expectations. You walk through any graveyard. Nobody there is expecting anything from you. Expectations zero. That's the mark of a dead man. You want a happy married life.

Have zero expectations. You want a miserable married life. Have plenty of expectations. My wife must do this and my husband must do this. The more expectations you have the more miserable your married life is going to be.

No matter what denomination of Christianity you claim to belong to or whatever experiences you say you have had or whatever doctrine you believe. If you haven't died with Christ you're not gonna have a happy life.

So expectations when the focus shifts from you to God and that hasn't shifted with many Christians. That's why their life is shaky. That's why they fight and quarrel. That's why there's so much of shaking in their homes.

That's why Christians divorce nowadays. They get fed up. They've got expectations. They claim to be Christians but they haven't died with Christ. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus without dying with Christ.

We have this false gospel that's being preached today saying come and Christ will give you this and Christ will give you that. Christ will give you the other thing whereas Jesus would say come and die.

That's the message we need to preach. That's what we preached in this church. Come and die. Who wants it. You don't like that message. Brother sister there are hundreds of other churches that'll give you whatever you want.

Please go there. We don't preach that message. Here we preach the truth of Scripture come and die. Because that's what Jesus said. If you want to come after me take up your cross. Which is another way of saying die daily and follow me.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 I died daily. And he says even more than that in 2nd Corinthians 410 always bearing in my body the dying of Jesus. So that's what it means to shift our focus from ourselves to God.

Dying to Self and Manifesting Christ's Life

Let me show you that verse in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. It's a verse that we have often quoted in our church in the olden days. What we haven't quoted it recently I notice 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 10.

This is the secret of having the life of Jesus manifested in our body. If I were to ask you how many of you want the life of Jesus Christ to be manifested in your body through your eyes and through your tongue and through your hands and through your personality.

We would all say yes. Now my question is are you willing to pay the price. You know you go to some shop and you find a wonderful gadget which will really help you in your home. You see I'd like to have that.

And the shopkeeper says are you willing to pay the price. You have the money but you don't want to pay the price. You can't have it. So do you want to pay the price. Here it is always carrying in our body the dying of Jesus.

That's the price. Always means 24 7 24 7. I die with Christ to this world to my self-life to focusing on myself. I die. But because Christ lives in me I'm not dead. I mean if I died and Christ didn't live with me I'd be in the grave.

But if I die the Bible says if we die with him we live with him. And inwardly if I choose to die Christ will live. That's what it says here. If I die always the life of Jesus will be manifested always.

If I choose to die one minute a day the life of Jesus will be manifested me one minute in a day the rest of the 24 hours it'll be my old Adamic life. That's manifested. That's my choice. So and there's no partiality with God.

The price is the same for everybody. And who are the people who think. This is a very hard message I'll tell you. Listen those who think their own life is better than the life of Jesus I don't want the life of Jesus.

My own life is pretty good. Okay brother keep it. Those who think that the life they inherited from Adam is much better than the life of Jesus they won't die to it. I've often compared this to you know if someone were to come to you and say if you give me a bucket of garbage I'll give you an equal bucket of gold.

You say let me pray about it and see whether I want that or not. Can you imagine anybody so crazy. I mean you think it's a joke. I mean can it be possible who in the world will exchange a bucket of garbage.

I want to get rid of this garbage. In any case I don't want anything in exchange. The guy's willing to give me a bucket of gold. This is exactly what it is. How many of you believe that this Adamic life.

Aren't you sick and tired of it. Everything that's come forth from it that's made your home life unhappy. That's made your relationship with other people unhappy. That's made you miserable. That makes you and not get proper sleep at night and causes all types of problems.

Don't you are. You haven't you. Aren't you convinced that it is garbage. Are you sick and tired of it enough to get rid of it. And why are you hesitant to die and say Lord give me your life. It's exactly like that illustration a bucket of garbage for a bucket of gold.

And I decided years ago sure Lord even if you give me nothing I want to get rid of this garbage. Leave alone. On top of that you're gonna give me gold. That's great always bearing in my body the dying of Jesus.

Why did Jesus come in our flesh so that he could die to the self-will that he had all the way to Gethsemane. He was saying not my will but thine oh father. That's why he lived such a perfect life. He had no expectations from anybody.

No zero. He never got upset when people left him. He didn't have an expectation that they should always be with him. Give him some sense of security. And we read in John 6 so many people left him. And he was just with 11 12 people.

And he said do you also want to go. And Peter said no. We got the words of eternal life. He said yeah you can say that. But one of you is still a devil. One of you will leave. And then later on in John 16 verse 32 he says all of you will leave.

Yeah you'll hang around me now. But when the Roman soldiers come and get something you'll all run away fearing for your own life. But I'm not alone. I'm not insecure because you're all gonna leave me.

My father's with me. How many of you would feel insecure if everybody left you. Your family turned against you. And all the brothers all all the brothers and sisters in the church turned against you. And you're sitting alone at home.

Nobody to visit you anymore. Would you be happy. I'll be happy. That's the Lord. You can all they can all go. I got my father. I got my father. He's with me all the time. And like one old brother said there are so many angels in the house that I got to push my way around to go from one room to the other.

That's how I live. It's a wonderful way to live. It's real. It's real if you if heaven becomes real in your home it's like that you're missing something brother sister when you don't die to that Adamic life.

When your focus is on yourself how other people are treating you what they are speaking about you behind your back and what you can do with your life. Are you willing to die to all that. What about the ambitions you have for yourself.

Are you willing to die to that. You think you can make a better plan for your life than God can make for you. You got to be crazy. You really got to be crazy to think that you can make a better plan for your life than God can make for you.

It's like a beggar thinking that he can invest his money better than some expert banker. It's crazy. All your ambitions. Are you willing to die to them. Habits hobbies everything. I had a lot of habits and hobbies and ambitions.

I said Lord you can do something better with all that. That if I give them all up. But we can be so strong I'll give up everything except this. You'll never be filled with the Holy Spirit even if you pray for a hundred years.

Because there's one thing you won't give up. And that's why we remain in bondage. I remember hearing a story of a little small little girl who put her hand inside a flower was and it got stuck and she couldn't pull it out.

And mommy said straighten your fingers and pull out your hand. She said if I straighten my fingers I lose that coin that I'm holding on to. Well then of course you never get free. That's it. There's something you're holding on to and you're wanting Liberty.

You'll never get free. Examine your life. Is there something you're holding on to. I'll give up everything except that I prophesy you'll never be free. You'll never be filled with the Holy Spirit. You'll get some counterfeit experience in some Pentecostal charismatic church to satisfy you.

But it'll never bring you this indestructible life of Jesus. For that you have to die. Stop focusing on yourself and let your focus be on God. And that was what he was saying here to shut out the world.

Persevering in Prayer and Dependence on God

And you know when you're alone before God then you pray thinking of God not of others. And then he told us how we should pray. He's not a question of many words. He said in verse 7 the Gentiles think that if they pray a long time they'll be heard.

You know you read these biographies of people who prayed for two hours a day and four hours a day. I don't know how long Peter prayed and Paul prayed. The Bible always says pray always. Luke 18 1 men should pray always.

1 Thessalonians 5 verse 17 18 pray without seizing. Every place that I read in the New Testament it never says pray for half an hour or 10 minutes or two hours or four hours. It's pray without seizing.

So some people come to me and say Zack I've heard that some great man of God prayed for four hours. Some prayed for two hours. And brother Zack how long do you pray. I said 24 hours. It's like breathing for me.

You're asking me how often do you breathe. I say well not two hours a day. I'd die if I pray for breathe for two hours a day. I say I follow scripture in Luke 18 verse 1 pray always. 1 Thessalonians 5 17 18 pray always.

It's like breathing all the time. It's life of dependence upon God all the time. Don't be fooled by biographies. Read the Bible. Don't be impressed by biographies. Read the Bible and see if it is there.

Follow scripture. The follow the words of Jesus make his words your guide. And he said when you pray pray like this verse 9. If you don't want to be shaken listen to these words of Jesus and obey them.

There's nothing wrong in saying Oh Lord Oh God. You know the Apostles also sometimes prayed like that you read in Acts chapter 4. But your attitude should be you must recognize that you're praying to a father.

So I prefer when I pray to pray to a father just like Jesus said. And if that has not become a habit in your life try and develop it. In my younger days I used to whenever I prayed I said Oh God. There's nothing wrong in that.

Because we are praying to God provided at the back of your mind. You recognize that he's also your dad. But if that is a problem then you should discipline yourself to pray father. Father dad. That's the way we're supposed to pray.