God Wants to Fill You with His Holy Spirit — Zac Poonen

The New Testament’s First Promise: Salvation from Sin

Brothers and sisters, I'd like to turn you to the first two promises in the New Testament. When you finish with the pages of the Old Testament and turn to the Gospel of Matthew, it begins with two promises, and it's important for us to look at those promises because that's how the New Testament begins.

And both of these promises are very controversial subjects in Christendom today. My own conviction is that very few believers experience in their life the first two promises in the New Testament. There are many promises in the Old Testament that God will make you wealthy, He'll heal your sicknesses, and He will defeat your enemies, and He'll do many wonderful things on earth for you.

No promises about heaven or about a change of your character. And the sad thing is the vast majority of believers, when they accept Christ, they are more taken up with these Old Testament promises. And even many who claim to be in a new covenant church are still occupied with the old covenant promises of blessing and healing and earthly needs, and they rejoice in God providing their earthly needs, etc.

So let's turn seriously to the promises in the New Testament. Number one, Matthew 1 verse 21, the last part, it says, you shall, this is what the angel told Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus. And here is the promise.

He will save, not forgive, he will save his people from their sins. Of course, he'll forgive. But forgiveness is an Old Testament promise from Psalm 103. A thousand years before Jesus came, David said, bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives all your sins.

So that's not something new. But the new thing is here that after forgiving our sins, He will save us from our sins. There's a lot of difference between being forgiven of something we have done and being saved from doing that same thing again.

That's how the New Testament begins. And, you know, in a couple of pages, the New Testament goes into the Sermon on the Mount, where it says we should not be angry. We should not lust after women. We should not love money.

And boy, how in the world can we keep it? Most believers don't even attempt to keep it. But if you start with this promise that He will save you from your sins, you don't have to try and save yourself from all those things.

Many people are trying to save themselves from anger, save themselves from lusting after women and save themselves from anxiety and save themselves from many forbidden things, save themselves from murmuring and complaining.

You'll never do it. You won't do it in 100 years. Even if you do it, it'd be like an external cleansing. But when Jesus saves, He saves from within. He will save you from your sins. So that's the first thing we need to remember, that Jesus primarily came to save us from every single wretched sin that our flesh makes us commit.

The Second Promise: Baptism with the Holy Spirit and Fire

And now the next promise is how is He going to do it? The first is a promise that He will do it. And the second promise is how He's going to do it. Again, it's not a question of what we do. In the old covenant, it was what man does.

You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not cheat. You must not covet after your neighbor. And I'm sorry to say many, many Christians, even in our new covenant churches, CFC churches, when they listen to a command in the New Testament, do all things without murmuring and complaining.

Be anxious for nothing. Rejoice in the Lord always. They take these commands in the same spirit as the old covenant commandments, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not steal. And they seek with their own strength and strife to try and keep it.

And the honest believer will acknowledge that he miserably fails. He cannot keep them. He may keep one or two here and there, but more than 90 of them he cannot keep. Or if he does keep them, it's just a little externally before the eyes of men.

They don't keep it in their heart. Now, if you're fed up with that type of hypocritical life, where you are only doing these things on the outside and getting a good reputation before men. If you're fed up with that and say, Lord, I'm fed up with getting a reputation before men for being a holy new covenant Christian.

I want reality inside. Then the Lord will show you that he came to save you from your sins. And here is how you'll do it. The second promise in the New Testament is Matthew chapter 3, verse 11. This is so simple.

And some of you children listening, I hope you will listen also because Jesus came for children too. This is not just for grownups. The last part of Matthew 3, 11, John the Baptist says, Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

That's the second promise in the New Testament. Baptize is a word which is not understood by many. It's a Greek word, which means immerse. In 2000 years ago, if a Greek person spoke about dipping his hand in water, he'd say, I baptize my hand in water.

It's a Greek word, which means I immerse my hand in water. He will immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire. Just like water baptism, you're immersed completely in the water and taken out. Jesus will immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire.

And here the Holy Spirit is pictured like fire. John the Baptist said, I can't do that. I'm only a man. I can baptize you in water. Jesus will immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire. There are people who come to me, Brother Zach, will you lay hands on me so that I can be filled with the Holy Spirit?

I say, like John the Baptist, no, I can baptize you with water, but only Jesus can baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. Go to him. He'll do it. So these are the first two promises. And when you read them, you know, like everything else in the New Testament, when the Lord promises something, if you earnestly seek for it, the Lord will show you how you can have it.

If you're careless, you read a promise like that and say, oh, well, OK, if he wants to do it, let him do it. You'll never experience anything. There's a, there is a law in the Bible, which is mentioned in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

And I never get tired of repeating it. And that applies to being saved from sin and being immersed in the Holy Spirit's fire. And that law is Jeremiah 29, 13. The Lord says, you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

The way people seek with all their hearts to make money, the way people seek with all their hearts to be healed from cancer, the way people seek with all their hearts if their child is seriously sick, go from one hospital, one doctor to another to get that child healed.

They're not doing half-heartedly. And immigrants, when they want to come to the United States, oh, how hard they seek with all their hearts to get an immigrant visa. They'll never give up. These are all examples of people who seek for earthly things.

It is possible for a man to seek wholeheartedly for something earthly. Unfortunately, Christians do not seek to be saved from sin with the same eagerness with which they sought for many earthly things in their life.

They don't seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit with the same earnestness with which they seek for other things in their life, for healing, for money, et cetera. Well, no wonder they never get saved from sin and they never get filled with the Holy Spirit except with some cheap counterfeit, which is good for nothing.

Earnestly Seeking God’s Promises

And the New Testament says similar words in Hebrews in chapter 11 and verse 6, that there it says in Hebrews 11, that when you come to God, you must first of all believe that he exists. That's easy. But then Hebrews 11, 6, it says, if you come to God, you must believe another thing, that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

That's the meaning of that word in the King James Version. It says that who diligently seek him. So when you come to God, you must believe that he rewards only those who diligently seek him, those who seek him with all their hearts.

No wonder many Christians have never experienced being saved from sin or being immersed in the fire of the Holy Spirit, being set on fire by God. Because they are not seeking him earnestly. They're seeking many things on earth earnestly, but they're not seeking God earnestly.

The Holy Spirit as Water: New Birth, Inner Satisfaction, and Overflowing Blessing

When Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit, I want you to see three verses in John's Gospel. The Holy Spirit is pictured like water. And Jesus used three pictures of water in the Gospel of John. I want to point them out to you.

The first is John Chapter 3, where he's speaking about being born again. That's the first step in the Christian life, where you enter into God's kingdom by being born again, or born from above, like it says here, or it's also called here, born of the Holy Spirit.

That's the first step. John Chapter 3, verse 5, you've got to be born of water and the Holy Spirit. Instead of and, you can translate that as even the Holy Spirit, born of water, even the Holy Spirit.

Because Jesus used the Holy Spirit, water, as a picture of the Holy Spirit. And this is like, you know, the Psalmist said in Psalm 116 and verse, Psalm 116 and verse 13, I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

A heart is pictured like a cup that I lift up to the Lord. And the Lord fills that cup with water, with the Holy Spirit. That's the first step. I'm born of the Spirit. The Spirit takes over whatever part of my life I yield to him.

Then Jesus, when this is to be born of the Spirit, we're a cup of salvation. Then in John Chapter 4, he goes to a second stage, and that is, Jesus said, we're a cup of water. He said to the woman of Samaria at the well, whoever drinks of this, John 4, 14, the water that I give to him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life, like a spring of water.

So the first was a cup of water, it's very little. And the second stage is a spring or a well of water springing up and giving us more and more of God's eternal life. So the first stage, the Holy Spirit brings us to new birth, it's like a cup.

But then he leads us to the next stage where the cup becomes like a well, which satisfies all my needs. A cup can only satisfy my need for a little while, but a well is endless. People use, if they have a well in their house, they can keep on drawing from that well for 100 years.

It satisfies every need of water in that house. Water is used for many things, and everything is from the well. This is how it was in the olden days. So this is stage two, where the Holy Spirit comes in, satisfies every need I have in my life, need to overcome whatever is pulling me down in my life, helping me to overcome the spring of water springing up.

And the third picture Jesus used is in John chapter 7, where he said, he who believes in me, verse 37, John 7, 37, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. You see the same principle again.

You've got to be thirsty, otherwise don't come. Whom did Jesus invite to come to him? If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me. Or in Matthew 11, 28, he said, come to me, those who labor and are heavy laden.

Or I could paraphrase it as, come to me, those who are sick and tired of their defeated life, who are fed up with that defeated life, come to me. The same thing here. Thirsty, fed up with their defeated life.

Do you fall in that category? Fed up with a life that looks nice on the outside, but inwardly defeated in the thoughts in the hearts. Are you fed up with that? There are very few people, most Christians, as I said, are satisfied with a good external testimony, and they don't realize.

They're just being hypocrites because man looks on the outward appearance and God looks in the heart and they see corruption in their heart, which all the people in that church don't see. And they're satisfied.

Do you think God will ever meet with such a person? Not in 100 years. Because they are satisfied with this double life, one before God and the other before men. And they're happy that men think highly of them.

There's no thirst in them for this inner life of being saved from sin within. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and from his innermost being, rivers of living water will flow. So it started with a cup, then a water, then a well, and then a river and then many rivers.

So cup is just for my salvation. Well, it's just to satisfy my own needs of the Holy Spirit ministering to me. But a river is where God makes me a blessing to hundreds of people. And that river can flow from you.

It says here one river will become many rivers. How many believers experience this? How many believers even come to stage two of having the Holy Spirit satisfying every need in their inner life? They don't even get there.

And very few get beyond that to rivers flowing in many directions, blessing people. Is this for some special type of believer? Is this only for preachers and those called to full time Christian work? No, it says it is for those who believe he who believes in me.

Are you one of those who believe in Jesus Christ? Then this verse 38 is for you, my brother, my sister, my dear young boy, young girl. If you believe in Jesus Christ, it's for you. He who believes in me can be a little child.

You believe in him and you say, Lord Jesus, I want a life where my life is a blessing, not to one or two people, but to many people, not with my own effort. A river is not pumped. Nobody pumps a river.

It flows by the work of God. It's not by my struggling, struggling, struggling. It's a life flowing out from us, my dear brothers and sisters. This is the fullness of the Holy Spirit promised to every believer.

He who believes in me. It was not possible in the Old Testament. It says here this verse 39, John 7. The spirit was not given in this way until Jesus was glorified. In the old covenant, the spirit only came upon people, anointing them for a service, never came within to flow out from the innermost being.

The River of the Spirit and the Need to Meditate on Scripture

Now, the other thing I want to show you is about this river. Do you know that the Bible begins with the river and ends with the river? It says in Genesis 3 in Eden, there were four rivers. And in Revelation 22, when you come to the end of the Bible, it says there's a river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God.

So river is a picture of the Holy Spirit right from beginning till the end of the Bible. And this particular, it says here, as the scripture has said, John 7, 38. I want to ask you, brothers and sisters, a little question.

If you have been a believer for more than three or four years and you've been reading the Bible, I want to ask you. Whether you meditate on the scriptures or you just read, ease your conscience, read 10 verses or one chapter, close the Bible and go.

Well, you'll never make progress in your Christian life that way because the Bible says it's only Psalm 1. It's only the one who meditates on God's word whose life will prosper. So others will not prosper.

It's one of the first things God taught me. I was converted 61 years ago. And one of the first things that happened to me, I got a hunger for God's word. You know, that's the mark of a healthy baby. When a baby is born, it cries and it's crying for milk.

And 1 Peter 2, it says, we must desire the sincere milk of the word of God like newborn babies. And if you hear or go to a house and see a newborn baby crying, you know, definitely it's crying for milk.

It's not crying for anything else. And if it doesn't cry, there's something wrong with that child. And that's one mark of a really good new birth. There's a cry for the milk of the word of God. It came to me.

Nobody taught me to read God's word. I found when I was born again, Christ came into my life. I had a hunger to read the Bible and read and read and understand it and cry out. It was exactly like a baby crying for milk.

And I wasn't a preacher. I wasn't reading it to preach anywhere because I didn't get any opportunity to preach. I was reading it for my feeding my own soul. And if that has not happened to you, my dear brother, sister, go to God again and surrender your whole life to him and say, Lord, give me a genuine new birth where I will be born again and really cry out like a healthy baby.

Maybe you are born again, but maybe you're like these premature babies born when they are six months in the womb and they can't speak. They can't cry. They're to be kept in an incubator. Lots of believers are like babies who should be kept in an incubator, not for two or three months, but for 20 years because there's no hunger, no thirst for the word of God.

I'm not saying they're not born again, but they are born again. Babies should be in incubators and they should have got out of it 20 years ago, but they're still there. Well, it's not too late to rectify the situation.

Cry out to God now and say, Lord, give me a hunger and a thirst for God's word, not to ease your conscience. Oh, I read my Bible today. That's not why a baby. That's not the way a baby asks for milk. It's not to ease its conscience.

Oh, I cried for milk today. No, that's a tremendous need in that baby. I want milk. I want milk. How many times a day? So that is when. And so when I was what I was saying is that when you read a verse like this, as the scripture says from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water, I want to challenge all of you, my dear brothers and sisters who are listening to me.

I'm sure many of you have read that verse many times or heard it. Can you tell me, because it says here, Jesus said, as the scripture said, you know where the scripture says that? Jesus was quoting the Old Testament.

So when you read a word, verse, verse like that. Do you have a desire to find out where does it say that in the Old Testament? The mark of a serious Christian studying God's word and say, I want to find out where it says that.

The mark of a lazy Christian is OK. All right, let me go to the next verse. It must be saying it somewhere in the Old Testament. Yeah, you know, God doesn't reward such people. God told Adam by the sweat of your brow, you will earn your bread.

You got to perspire to earn bread from the farm and you got to perspire studying God's word to earn bread from God's word. That's God's law. Let me tell you where it is. That scripture is in Ezekiel 47, where Jesus speaks about this river flowing out from.

From the innermost being and here the human being is pictured like the temple of God, you know, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And here it says in Ezekiel 47 about a temple and from that underneath the door of that temple, a trickle of water comes out.

I don't have time to pause here. You just read it in your own time. The first 12 verses, it begins like a trickle and then the water is reaching up to the ankles and then up to the up to the knees and then up to his hip.

And finally, it became a river in which he could swim. That's for the fullness of the spirit. And you know what happens when a person swims in the water, his feet are removed from the earth. Up to that point, his feet were touching the earth, up to the ankles, up to the knees and up to the hip.

But a time came when the feet were removed from the earth, detached from earthly attachments, detached from earthly things, detached from earthly loves carried by the Holy Spirit in the direction the Holy Spirit wants you to go.

That's the picture of rivers of living water here. That's what God wants to do in your life. In every life, every one of you listening to me, if you're born again, I want to tell you that is God's will for you.

Every boy, every girl, every man or woman who surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I want to say to you in Jesus name, Jesus wants to fill you with the Holy Spirit. That's not a special privilege for some people.

It's for every single believer. And let me now turn to John's Gospel, where Jesus, just before he went to the cross in John 14, he spoke to his disciples some of the most important things that he wanted to say.

The Holy Spirit as Helper and the End of Orphan-like Insecurity

John's Gospel, chapter 14, he said in verse 15, John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. One sentence, but before we go to the next verse, think of what those commandments are. Don't get angry.

Don't ever get angry. Anger is in the heart. Ecclesiastes chapter seven says, anger is in the heart of a fool. Anyone who's got anger in his heart, the Bible calls him a fool, not me. The Bible calls him a fool.

And when it comes out of his mouth, Jesus said in Matthew five, verse 22 onwards, that the man is in danger of going to hell. That's one commandment. The other commandment is you must not lust with your eyes after any woman.

That's another sin that can take you to hell. Jesus said, you must love your enemies. Other commandments like that, those commandments are so difficult. And so immediately the question comes within us when Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments.

You say, Lord, I love you, but I can't keep your commandments. I want to. Do you want to? Well, then the Lord goes to the next verse. I will ask the father and he will give you a helper. A helper for what?

The previous verse, a helper to help you keep the commandments. I love that. When Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit to his disciples at the Last Supper, he spoke about the Holy Spirit as one was going to help them to keep his commandments.

That's why I wanted the Holy Spirit. And that's why you should seek the Holy Spirit to to help you keep God's commandments, which you can't keep without his power. And that is, he said in verse 17, the spirit of truth.

And the next thing the Holy Spirit does is make us children who have a father. It says in verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans. Without the Holy Spirit, we are like orphans. Christians who are not filled, not filled with the Holy Spirit act like orphans.

Will this need of mine be met? What about that need of mine? What when there's a pandemic going on? Will I get hit? Am I going to be the next person going to be hit with this sickness, anxiety and fear?

Do you think Jesus ever lived with that type of anxiety and fear? You think if Jesus walked on this earth today, he would live with that type of anxiety and fear? Oh, will this hit me? Will this touch me?

I'm sure he'll be cautious. He won't tempt God because we read once where when the when the Pharisees are trying to kill him, John chapter seven, verse one, he didn't go there. There's no virtue in going to a place where people are trying to kill you.

Jesus wasn't trying to show his bravery in some way. When the devil told him to jump off the roof of the temple, saying the angels will protect you, Jesus said, I'm not going to tempt God like that. But we must be careful in avoiding sickness that I agree, but we're not to live in fear and anxiety.

Definitely not. No, it's perfectly all right to wear masks and to keep a social distance and all, but not to have fear or anxiety. Not at all. It's because people are orphans. They don't they don't have a father in reality.

Or if they do have a father, he's in some distant country. Imagine a person, a young boy who's got a father living in some other country, 10 ,000 miles away. You ask him, his son, have you got a father?

Yeah, I got a father. Do you ever see him? No, I don't see him. But he sends me letters now and then. But when you're in need, is he there to help you? No, he's 10 ,000 miles away. That's how a lot of God's children are.

You ask him, have you got a father? Yeah, I got a father. Where is he? He's in millions of miles away in heaven. He sends me letters in the Bible, but if I have a need, oh, I sent a message to him, but I don't know whether he'll come to help me.

These are orphans. Jesus said, I will not leave you as orphans. We're not supposed to be orphans. We have to behave and live as children of an almighty father who runs this universe and who loves us so much that he gave his only son to die for our sins.

So there you see Jesus spoke about the importance of the Holy Spirit right there. Then I want to show you another passage. You know, I'm convinced that almost all sins that we commit come out of insecurity.

Insecurity, insecure, orphans are insecure. Why do orphans fight back so quickly? Why do they get angry and fight back? I've seen with orphans. They're like that. You can't blame them because they never had the love of a father or mother.

And I find a lot of insecurity in Christians. And that's what makes them sin so easily. That's what makes them criticize, backbite, speak evil of others, try to show that they are better than others, all because of insecurity.

And insecurity is the characteristic of an orphan. And to all such Christians, I say, brother, sister, I say this to you lovingly. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's what Jesus said to his disciples.

Being Continuously Filled with the Spirit

Here's another passage, Ephesians 5 and verse 18. Ephesians 5, 18, it says, be being filled with the spirit. That's the one verse which says that we must continuously be filled with the spirit. That's the meaning here is the present continuous sentence, be being filled with the spirit.

And when you are filled with the spirit, one of the results will be in verse 20, you will always give thanks for everything, for everything that happens in your life. You will give thanks because you know that your heavenly father is controlling everything.

If you're not giving thanks for everything that comes across your life, believing that God is working it for your good, I'll tell you what you need, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And going on from there, you will learn to be subject to one another.

Verse 21, you will not try to boss over people. Any Christian who tries to rule over others, he hasn't understood the spirit of Christ. It says, giving thanks for everything, be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

The picture is here of a body. You know, the Christians are members of a body of which Christ is the head. And do you know that in this body, every member is subject to the others? For example, if my stomach wants some food, it can't take that food from the plate.

It is dependent on the hand taking it. And the hand is dependent on the mouth, opening and swallowing it and the digestive system taking over. And that's what supplies food to the whole body. And then the body needs legs to go from here to the table where the food is.

Every part of the body needs the other. It needs the eyes to see what you're eating. We need ears to hear what people are saying. We need a tongue to speak. Every part of this body is dependent on another.

Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. When you have understood the body of Christ, when you recognize that you're not the head, you are one part of a body. One part of a body. I often say, Lord, maybe I'm like a little finger.

But or like a nail on this finger. Okay, I'm quite happy to be that one nail on the little finger. That is Zach Coonan. I'm quite happy to be that. I can fulfill one ministry. When somebody feels scratchy, I can scratch them, save them from getting itched.

And to me, that is the ministry of the word of God, encouraging them. Yeah, that's it. Nails can do that. Every part of this body can fulfill a ministry. But it's subject to the others. But I cannot be a nail cannot live by itself.

It's subject to the others. And when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you will very easily be subject to others who have a ministry that you don't have. And you won't be trying to show off that your ministry is more powerful than others.

Or you can preach better than others. These are all orphans. Orphans are always trying to show I prayed better than that person in the church. Do you ever do that? When you ask to pray in public, you try to pray better than somebody else.

When you're asked to share something, are you competing with somebody else to show? Oh, you can share better than another person. Are you disturbed when people quote somebody else's message, but not yours?

Ah, orphan, orphan, orphan. Ask God to deliver you from being an orphan and to be secure in your father's love. So when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we're subject to one another. And then our family life is transformed as well.

Ephesians 5 verse 22 onwards. Where wives are subject to their husbands and husbands loving their wives. You know how difficult it is to have that type of a family relationship. Husband and wife doing exactly what it says in Ephesians 5 verse 22 to 33.

Read Ephesians 5, 22 to 33. Very, very few Christian families can testify to that. What does it prove? They're not filled with the Holy Spirit. If they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they would be able to live that life.

And fathers bringing up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Again, result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 6 and verse 4. Or resisting the devil and resisting him and standing against him and overcoming him.

Ephesians 6 verse 10 onwards. Again, the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. So many things in scripture in the New Testament are dependent on this spirit filled life. I want to turn now to Matthew chapter 5.

The Sermon on the Mount and Dependence on the Spirit

I'm just trying to show you where how this comes up in all of Jesus teachings. Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, 6 and 7, you know, are the Sermon on the Mount. The chapters which are the Sermon on the Mount.

And you know, this is perhaps the most difficult commandments that Jesus spoke. Anywhere in the Gospels. In fact, anywhere in the New Testament. What a high standard. He said in Matthew 5 that the righteousness of the Pharisees, Matthew 5, 20 was the law.

But yours must go way beyond that. 1 John chapter 2, verse 6 says, if you say you abide in Christ, you must walk as Jesus walked. With the same values that he had. The same relationship that he had with the father.

When you read a command like that in 1 John chapter 2, verse 6. What is your immediate reaction? It could be, ah, that's impossible. Forget it. Or, yeah, these are all idealistic verses. Nobody can ever reach there.

You have that approach to God's word. You will never, never fulfill God's will for your life. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Don't say the Bible is the word of God. If you're not willing to take it seriously.

I tell people, if you think some command in the Bible is impossible for you to obey. Be honest. Take a pen and scratch it out. And you'll find a lot of verses you have to scratch out of the New Testament.

I would not scratch out even one of them. I'd say, Lord, wherever I've not achieved it, I'm aiming for it. One day I'll climb that mountain. But I'm not going to sit back and say that's a mistake. Don't be a hypocrite.

Don't say the Bible is the word of God and then not take it seriously. Would you believe that there's a law in this country? For example, you drive cars in the United States and you drive on the right side of the road.

Well, you don't drive on the left side of the road saying, I can do what I feel like. We submit to the law in the country. Why don't we come to God's word like that and say, Lord, this is your word. I want to take it just as seriously as the laws of the country.