Avoiding The Cross is like Worshipping Satan — Zac Poonen

The Father’s Love and the Image We Form of God

We believe that our Heavenly Father is looking down upon us. What is your image or what is the picture you have of God as he looks upon you? I don't mean right now, but most of the time, when you look up to him, how do you feel he looks at you?

Do you feel he's looking at you with a frown because there are so many things wrong in your life? I want to show you a verse in Psalm 135. Many years ago, the Lord spoke to me through this passage. Psalm 135, it says in verse 15, the idols of the nations are silver and gold.

The work of man's hands, they have mouths, they don't speak, they have eyes, they don't see, they have ears. They don't hear their breath. No, the breath is not in their mouths. And this is the verse I want you to notice.

Idols, false gods. Verse 18, those who make them will be like them. So if you always think that God is frowning upon you, you'll be like that. You'll frown at other people. You'll frown at your wife, you'll frown at your children.

And there are people who are like that, who are always very solemn and serious and never happy. Frowning on people because something's wrong everywhere. And that's because they have become like the God they worship.

It says here, those who make them, they make like them, and that God is an idol. That's not our Heavenly Father. If you believe that God sent Jesus on Earth because he loved the world so much, he loved you and me so much, that it's a Heavenly Father who loves, and even when he sees something wrong, he loves and wants to cleanse us.

But it's not a frown. If God looks at me with a frown, I'd get scared. I wouldn't want to go near him. You look at your children with a frown, they won't want to come near you. So, I'm not just talking about our expression on our face.

I'm not saying that we should be always going around smiling. People who are a little off their heads will go around smiling all the time. But I'm talking about a happiness that should radiate from us, whether we smile or not, that people who come in touch with us should meet a happy person because our sins are forgiven.

And because we have a Father who loves us so immensely, greatly, that we cannot even explain it. For many years, my favorite verse, which is a favorite verse of most Christians in the initial stages of their Christian life is John 3, 16.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But when the Lord baptized me in the Holy Spirit, about 50 years ago, that's many years after I was born again, my favorite verse after that became John 17 and verse 23, which is not such a well-known verse.

But it changed my life completely when I realized the truth of it in my own life. Now, it's not for everybody. I can't go and tell the whole world this verse. For the whole world, it is John 3, 16. God so loved the world.

It applies to every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the whole world. But here, Jesus said in John 17, verse nine, this is a prayer of Jesus. I ask on their behalf, these people who had forsaken everything to follow the Lord, those disciples.

I'm not asking on behalf of the world or on behalf of worldly Christians, no. But on those you have given me, those who wanted to be his followers, those who are his disciples. And if you have a sincere desire, none of us are perfect.

Those disciples were not perfect either. But if you have a sincere desire to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, then this is for you, John 17, 23. He prayed in the middle of that verse to the Father, that the world may know that you sent me and loved these disciples of mine, even as you loved me.

That, as far as I know, is the only verse in the Bible which tells me that God loves me as much as he loved Jesus. Now, that's a vast and immense thing to think about. But just think of it. Can you try and think of how the Father loved Jesus?

Because everything the Lord did was just to please the Father. The Father could say, I'm well pleased with you. And these disciples who were here, this is at the Last Supper, they were not doing everything perfectly.

None of them did everything perfectly even till the end of their lives, just like all of us. But they had a sincere desire to follow the Lord. And the Father accepted that and loved them as much as he loved Jesus.

And I've claimed that as something that I find comfort in, that I find encouragement in, and that gives me faith in time of trial and testing. That I have a Father in heaven who's not frowning at me, but who loves me as much as he loved Jesus.

So in different situations of my life, if my conscience is clear, it's a tremendous encouragement to know my Father loves me as he loved Jesus. And even if I slip up, if I'm quick to come back to him, he continues to love me.

And that will make a difference in the way I look at my fellow believers in my church. Maybe when they slip up or fall, it'll make a difference in the way I look at my wife and the way I look at my children.

Those we become like the God we worship. And it's a great truth that helped me many years ago that my understanding of what my Heavenly Father is like is gonna make me my character. So the theme for this conference, as you probably have seen, is to be unshakable, firm, like a rock that cannot be moved.

So we wanna think about that, how our life can be unshakable in a world where everything is shaking. And I wanna begin with a verse in Ephesians in chapter three. Ephesians chapter three, there are two prayers that Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians.

And this is the second of those two prayers. I'll just, maybe I should show you the first one. Let's go to the first one is in Ephesians one and verse 16. He says, I don't cease giving thanks for you and make mention of you in my prayer.

And my prayer is that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians one, 17, the Father of glory will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. That's the first thing we need, the spirit of revelation, showing you what Jesus is really like so that the eyes of our heart, verse eight, will be enlightened and so on.

But then the second prayer is, once the Lord has shown us the glory of Christ in our heart, the second prayer in Ephesians is in Ephesians three and verse 14, I bow my knees. And verse 16, that he will grant you, this time it's not prayer for revelation.

It is that you'll be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit in your inner man that Christ may dwell in your heart. Now we need to understand that we received Christ into our heart when we were born again.

The meaning there is like in some translations that Christ may feel at home in your heart. You know, you visit some homes and they make you feel at home, right? From the moment you enter. You can never do anything wrong because it's a loving home and they accept you just as you are.

And there are other homes where you go. Yeah, they welcome you, but you feel a little awkward and you're always wondering whether you're doing the right thing or saying the right thing. You don't feel quite at home and you all know that.

We all know what it is to be in a home where they make you feel completely at home. Or if you're visiting a home for a day or two, people who make you feel completely at home and other places where they're nice to you, but you feel a little awkward.

So here it says that Christ may feel completely at home in our heart. We make him feel completely at home. And he says, through the Holy Spirit, I'm praying that you'll be so strengthened in your inner man that when Christ comes in, he'll feel completely at home.

You know, like Jesus went to the home of Mary and Martha and Bethany. He felt so completely at home there. And that can happen if, last part of verse 17, you allow the Holy Spirit to root you and ground you in love.

That's the home where, that's the heart where Christ feels completely at home. Rooted, grounded, a firm foundation of love, you know, like a foundation. For example, people lay a foundation and every part of the building is on that foundation.

However high you may go, it's on that foundation. They don't put even a bit of that building outside, even if it sticks out in the upper floors, it's still on that foundation. So that's the meaning here, that my life must be rooted in the love of Christ.

That must be the firm foundation of my life. And one of the results of that will be that I myself will be rooted in love. That everything that comes out of me will be rooted and grounded in love. In other words, if you think of your life like a structure you're building, the words you speak, the things you do, the letters you write, your conversations, everything will be on the foundation of God loves me and that love is spread abroad in my heart towards everyone.

And when you are like that, it says then you'll be able to understand the breadth, verse 18, and length and height and depth. This is four dimensions. We think of three dimensions, but here are four dimensions of the breadth and length and height and depth.

Breadth, length, height, depth of the love of Christ, which cannot be explained with knowledge. It's not something you can explain. So surpasses knowledge means it's not something you can explain. You can explain mathematical theorems and you can explain scientific problems, but this is not something that can be explained by the human mind.

It's got to be experienced, not explained. And so he says it's beyond knowledge. You can hear so many messages about the love of Christ. The world has heard so many messages. There are so many Christians who've heard so much about the love of Christ, but it's only in their knowledge.

If they experienced it, it would make them loving people. It would make them love and forgive people. It'll make them forgive people in such a way that they don't even remember the harm that somebody did to them.

It's an amazing thing when the Holy Spirit, you see, this is Paul's prayer. In chapter one, he prayed that the Holy Spirit give you revelation as to who Christ is and what he's done for you. And then here he says, I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will now work in you and fulfill all that he died for.

And that is to make you rooted and grounded in love, in the perfect assurance that God loves you as he loved Jesus. If we can allow the Holy Spirit to make that real to us, it'll make all the difference in the world.

That is the only way to be firmly founded in the fact that whatever we do, God's love does not change. He doesn't frown upon us. He'll correct us. God's love is one that can rebuke us. You know, for example, when the Bible says that Jesus, when he came to earth, revealed the Father, one of the things that Jesus did, as you read in John chapter one and verse 18, was he explained the Father, it says in my translation.

No one has seen God at any time. But the only begotten God, Jesus, when he came, he explained the Father. So one of the ministries of Jesus, by his life, was to explain what the Father is like. You remember at the Last Supper, he washed the disciples' feet.

And have you noticed he said something after that, after he washed the disciples' feet? He told Philip, Philip came to him and said, in John 14, verse eight, this is at the Last Supper, Lord, show us the Father.

I don't know what the Father is like. And Jesus said, the last part of verse nine, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And what did they see Jesus doing there? Washing the feet. God the Father is like a servant.

He doesn't have this false dignity that human beings have, who stand on their rights and their position and all that. No, he has a spirit of service. If you have seen, after washing the feet of his disciples, he said, if you have seen me, you've seen what the Father is like.

I'm not scared of such a Father. I want to run to him. If I slip up, I want to run to him and apologize. I can run to him with any problem. I can run to him with dirty feet, because I've seen in Jesus what the Father is like.

He washes our feet. He's very slow to correct us, and do it when it's necessary, and even rebuke us if necessary. You know, Jesus' love was manifested sometimes in giving his disciples tremendous revelations and also rebuke.

Grace and Truth in Christ’s Discipline

Let me show you one example of that. You know, we look at Jesus in order to see what the Father is like, and that's how we can be rooted and grounded in that love. That's how our own life becomes solid and firm.

Turn with me, please, to Matthew 17. It's one of the most amazing things that Jesus did for his three disciples. He didn't give that privilege to everybody. He took Peter and James and John, Matthew 17, Matthew 17 and verse one, to the top of a mountain, and he was transfigured there.

His whole face shone like the sun. Can you imagine that? The sun is something we can't even look at, and when Jesus' face shone like the sun, they could not see it. So bright, his garments became white as light, and they were seeing a little foretaste of the glory that Jesus had in heaven.

And immediately after that, when they came down, we read, they came down the mountain. There was a man who came to him and said, verse 15, after this tremendous vision, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he's a lunatic, and I brought him to your disciples, verse 16, but they could not cure him.

Now, the same Jesus, who very lovingly took these disciples up to the mountain to show them his tremendous glory, and how much they have been so taken up with his love there, when he comes down, he says to them, to the disciples, verse 17, you unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you?

How long shall I put up with you? He's telling his disciples. Does one who love others speak like that? See, this is the balance. There's not only grace in Jesus, but truth. The glory of God was seen in Jesus Christ full of grace and truth.

If you want to have a balanced picture of the love of God, it's grace and truth. That's where the glory is seen. So he could show them his great love over there, and in the previous chapter, he even told Jesus, he even told Peter, blessed are you, Simon, because my heavenly father has revealed to you who I am, how encouraged he must have been.

And many other wonderful things he told his disciples, but then he also turns around and tells them, how long am I gonna put up with you fellows? And then you understand what Jesus said in Revelation chapter three to one of his churches.

That is something which many people don't understand. Revelation chapter three, verse 19. Those whom I love, I rebuke and I discipline. That is a mark of love which many people don't think of. He loved us enough to give his life for us on the cross, but his love is not something that will allow us to live in our sin.

He will not allow us to have that cancer spread throughout your body. Sin is like cancer. It's worse than cancer. And just like a loving father would do anything to get cancer out of his child's body, he even wished that it come upon me.

The Lord hates sin like he hates cancer. And the Lord rebukes in order to make us take that cancer of sin seriously. And he says, those whom I love, I rebuke and I discipline because we see that the same Peter to whom the Lord said, blessed are you because flesh and blood is not revealed as to you.

Two minutes later, when he said, I've got to go to the cross and I'll be crucified. Peter said, no, no, no, I'm not gonna allow that. To the same Peter, Jesus said, get behind me, Satan. You know, in Jesus' earthly life, as far as we know, only twice he used those words, get behind me, Satan.

One was to the devil himself at the temptation when the devil said, fall down and worship me and I'll give you the whole world. And Jesus said, get behind me, Satan. And the second time was when Peter said, don't go to the cross.

He said, get behind me, Satan. Only twice Jesus said those words, to fall down and worship Satan. Such a terrible sin. And he said, get behind me, Satan. I wanna show you that passage so that it'll be rooted in your mind forever.

Avoiding the Cross as Worshipping Satan

Turn to Matthew chapter four. We need to understand the love of God in its balance of grace and truth. Matthew chapter four, verse nine, Satan said to Jesus, all these things I'll give you, the whole world and its glory.

Verse eight, if you fall down and worship me. Fall down and worship me, Jesus said, get away, Satan. The second time he said it was Matthew chapter 16, verse 21, Jesus began to show his disciples is to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed and raised up.

And Peter said, no, Lord. He said, no to the cross. This will never happen to you. And Jesus said, get behind me, Satan. Put those two passages together, what do you understand? Avoiding the cross in your life is equal to worshiping Satan.

Got it? I don't know whether you got it. You come to a situation in your life where you know you have to die to yourself, take up the cross and follow Jesus, and you turn away, you're worshiping Satan.

That's what I get when I put these two passages together. If you're gripped by that, you'll say, Lord, I'll never worship Satan in my life. In other words, what you're saying is, I'll never avoid the way of the cross.

Any situation, somebody insults me, the Lord says, die. And you don't, you just stand up for your rights. At that moment, you don't realize you're worshiping Satan. If you're just gripped by this one thing today, I guarantee, even if you understand nothing else in this conference, it will change your life.

The Way of the Cross and the Holy Spirit’s Anointing

Many years ago, I was converted 64 years ago. It's gonna be 65 in a few months. And I saw the need after a while to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And I did not know where to go. I was attending a brethren assembly.

They never spoke anything about being filled with the Holy Spirit. Somebody told me to go to the Pentecostals. And at Pentecostals, they'd asked me to keep on saying hallelujah, and said that I would be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And I said, that's not what happened on the day of Pentecost. So I turned away from both groups, from the brethren and the Pentecostals. These folks never spoke about it, and what they offered me was a fake.

So I went to the Lord. I said, Lord, how can I be? I want a genuine fullness. I don't want to babble something and call it tongues and say I'm filled with the Spirit. No, no, no, I'm not trying to impress people.

I want you to fill me with the Holy Spirit, and my life will be changed if I'm really filled with the Holy Spirit. And I remember so vividly the Lord gave me a revelation. I was only about 23 years old, which I'll never forget, and I haven't forgotten it till today.

What I saw in the scripture was, when was Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit? It says he went to the river to be baptized, and John pushed him under the water, John the Baptist, and lifted him up, and the Holy Spirit came upon him.

And I got a revelation there that if you choose to go the way Jesus went, that is to be put to death by circumstances, by other people, or whatever it is, the Father will raise me up. But if I choose that way of death to self, that's what baptism really symbolizes.

The Spirit of God will be upon me. And I remember till today, the Lord speaking to my heart at that time. That the day you leave that way of the cross, you will lose the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit.

I was desperate. I said, Lord, I wanna serve you, and I don't wanna get up and preach boring sermons that don't change anybody's life. I want an anointing as long as I live. I want the anointing to be upon me, and it must become greater and stronger as I grow older.

I don't wanna decline, I must go up. The Lord said then, choose the way of the cross always, in every situation. In every situation, when you're tempted, die to yourself. When you're tempted to lust, die.

When you're tempted to get angry, die. Dead men don't get angry. Die to yourself. Dead men don't keep an offense when somebody hurts them in some way. There are many things, I began to meditate on what dead men do and don't do.

And I got revelation on what it means to walk the way of the cross. Much later, I understood from these passages that avoiding the way of the cross is equal to worshiping Satan. And I never want to worship Satan in my life.

The thing is, we do it unconsciously. We don't realize the two are the same. If you're not dripped by that, take just these two passages, which I showed you now. The Lord telling the devil, when the devil told him to worship him, he said, get away, Satan.

And when Peter told Jesus, don't go to the cross, get away, Satan. Then Jesus went on to say in Matthew 16, it's not only me, he said, you must take up your cross and follow me too. So you see, it connects the two.

And that is the thing that has changed the direction of my life and ministry. About 60 years ago, I didn't understand and experience it fully until I had a more fuller experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

But that's been the theme of my life. And it's been the basis on which we have built all our churches in every place. The way of the cross is the way of life. It's not just accepting the Lord. All of Christendom says, you must accept Christ to go to heaven.

I'll tell you honestly, I stand before God and say this, I'm not interested in going to heaven. A lot of believers want an interest to go to heaven. I'm not. I'm interested in being with Jesus. There's a lot of difference between the two.

Heaven means you think of the golden streets and Jesus said there are mansions and so many other things. Heaven will be empty if Jesus is not there. What is the thing that attracts you about eternity?

I once told the Lord, Lord, I'd be happy to go to hell if you're there. No problem. I don't care if the fires won't bother me if you're there because that place with all the fires will be heaven for me if Jesus is there.

True Christianity is where the presence of Jesus is your heaven. And that can begin on earth. And for me, it has begun on earth already. You know, we sing heaven came down. I'll tell you when it really comes down.

When Christ becomes everything to you in your life. And there's no way that can happen unless I choose the way of death to self because self is the main thing that prevents Christ from occupying the throne in my heart.

That's why it's so important. And that's why Jesus said no one can follow me unless he takes up the cross every day. So when we come to Ephesians in chapter three, the passage we started with, I'm praying that the Lord will strengthen you with power in the inner man, Ephesians 3, 16, so that you'll be rooted and grounded in love.

Rooted and grounded in the fact that God loves you. And it is out of love that he asks you to choose the way of death. Here is another verse I want to share with you. When Jesus was speaking to his disciples at the Last Supper, he went through his last sermon, John 14, and he says, verse 30, John 14, 30, the devil, the ruler of the world is coming and he's got nothing in me so that the world may know.

Look at the verse 31, John 14, 31. So that the world may know that I love the Father. I'm gonna do now what the Father commanded me to do. That is go to the cross, get up, let's go from here. He went to the cross.

And that was to show the world that I love the Father. Jesus said the world should know. I mean, we see the cross as the place where the world sees that God loved us. Jesus loved me. How do you know that?

He died on the cross for me. Yeah, that's true. But he says, when I die on the cross, I prove to the world that I love the Father. So when Jesus hung on the cross, he was proving I love my Father. It's painful, but I'll obey because I know the Father's appointed this for me.

It's my good. Now I apply that to my life. How shall I prove that I love the Father? By going to the cross. I say the same words. So that the world may know that I love the Father. I go to the cross too.

Unshakable Love in Daily Life

I wish I could show you, words fail me, but I wish I could show you the glory of this way of the cross. You know that song which says, there is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of God.

The world is a place of full of unrest. Homes are full of unrest. So many homes, there's turmoil and husband or wife, somebody in a bad mood. Bad moods, bad moods. One of the prayers I prayed is, Lord, I never want to be in a bad mood.

Why should I be in a bad mood? I have a Father in heaven who loves me. But it's only if I do what the Father tells me to do. I go to the cross, because that's what the Father's told me to do. And I'll tell you this, if you hang on the cross, you'll never be in a bad mood.

Every bad mood that you've ever had in your life as a Christian is because you refuse to die. Dead people don't have bad moods. Think of the change that will come in your home from today if you decide I'm gonna die with Jesus on the cross and dead people don't get bad moods.

And you hold that consistently. You work in an office, say, I'm gonna choose the way of the cross. I'm not gonna worship Satan. I'm gonna choose the way of the cross. I'm gonna be rooted and grounded knowing my Father loves me.

And it is in love that he asks me to go to the cross. That is how my life will be unshakable. See, when you get into a bad mood, the devil has shaken you. It's not an unshakable rock. He's made you sway like the wind.

Waves the leaves on the tree. That's a leaves on the tree and the branches of the tree are not unshakable. We're not meant to be like that. God wants us to be like Jesus. Here's an example of how unshakable he was.

It's another thing that the Lord showed me. Just give you another example of how unshakable he was in love. Matthew chapter 12. I want to encourage all of you to read the Gospels many times. I read the Gospels.

It's my favorite four books in the Bible are the four Gospels. And I read them to see how Jesus reacted, how he lived, how he spoke, how he preached. It's my passion. My passion is to follow my Savior.

He said, follow me. So I discovered many things when I read this. Here's one example. Matthew chapter 12. They brought a demon possessed person who was blind and mute. Matthew 12, 22. And Jesus healed him in one moment.

And the crowds were so excited. They said, this is the son of David. This is the Messiah. The Pharisees were jealous because their popularity was going. And they got angry and they said, no, this is not the Messiah.

This is the devil himself. The name they gave the devil was verse 24, Beelzebul, the ruler of demons. Who's the ruler of demons? Satan. We know him as Satan. They called him Beelzebul. This is Beelzebul.

You know, when in the Old Testament, when Moses' sister, Miriam, once you read that in Numbers 12, said, Moses, why did you marry that Ethiopian woman? God said, you dare to criticize my servant? You get leprosy.

And she got leprosy on the spot. Why? Just because she criticized a servant of God. It's a serious thing. Particularly if he's an anointed servant like Moses. Moses pleaded with God and said, please spare her.

Jesus said, put her out for a few days and then let her repent and then come back. There's another instance in the Old Testament where we read about some young men in 2 Kings. They made fun of Elisha, of his bald head.

And said, you bald man, go up like Elijah. They made fun of him. And it says, bears came out of the woods and ate up those men because they criticized a servant of God. Now here's the greatest servant of God.

They said something much worse to him than what those people said to Elisha or to Moses. They called him the devil himself. If Moses, if Miriam got leprosy, and those young men who criticized Elisha got eaten up by bears, what should these people get?

You know what they got? Forgiveness. That's the difference between Jesus and Moses. Between Jesus and Elisha. That's the difference between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant. You see that in verse 32.

He's replying to these Pharisees who called him the devil. He says, have you spoken a word against me? It's forgiven. I say, Lord, make me like that. And when people call me the devil, I say, forgiven.

Or whatever they do, forgiven. Because I choose to die with Christ on the cross. That's why I seek to live a life where at no time, at no time is there any unforgiveness in my heart towards any human being in the world.

I can honestly say that's been true in my life for quite some time now, since I understood this great truth. I sleep peacefully at night because there's nobody I've not forgiven. I can speak freely to God because I've forgiven everyone.

You cannot speak freely to God if there's someone you have not forgiven. And if you cannot forgive somebody, it's because you're unwilling to die. Or in other words, you're worshiping the devil. Then you won't forgive your wife.

You know how sometimes marriage partners, they remember the things they did 10 years ago and 12 years ago, and you did this, and some of them even remember the date. Darling, you remember on that, they call him darling, but do you remember that date, what you did that day?

What a memory. And they call themselves Christians. They haven't seen Jesus at all. They're worshiping the devil in their homes. And they wonder, why are our children not serious Christians? I'll tell you why.

Because the parents are worshiping the devil. You want your children to be wholehearted Christians, stop worshiping the devil. Take up the cross and die, morning till night. You'll get plenty of opportunities, I'll tell you.

This world is such a place, you get plenty of opportunities to die. There's something more here that the Lord showed me. He didn't just forgive them. See what it says in verse 32. Always read the Bible exactly.

Whoever, not just you Pharisees who call me the devil, but whoever in the whole wide world, not whoever has spoken a word, whoever speaks a word against me, that means for the next 2000 years. That's the meaning of that verse.

Whoever, let me expand it. Whoever speaks a word against me for the next 2000 years, he's forgiven right now. That's called future forgiveness. That's what Jesus proclaimed there. And the Lord said to me, follow me.

And I decided to follow him. So I've said the same thing. Whoever speaks a word against Zach Poonen or does something against Zach Poonen is forgiven right now. Even if he does it next year. So when somebody comes to me, say one month from now and say, brother Zach, you know what that fellow was saying against you some evil things?

I say, oh, I forgave him one month ago. Oh, or I forgave him last year. They can't understand that. Read the scripture carefully. It's the most wonderful book in the world. You can't understand it with your intelligence, but if you are willing to walk the way of the cross, you'll get amazing revelations from this book.