The Utter Importance of Humility — Zac Poonen

God's desire is to bring us to the place where rivers of living water flow out from us, every single one. Let's turn to that verse in John chapter 7. It's the one time in the Bible where we read that Jesus shouted.

I think most of the time Jesus spoke very softly, gently. I think the whole Sermon on the Mount was like that. But here it says in John 7 .37, He stood. Most of the time Jesus sat and preached. If you look through the Gospels, almost every time Jesus preached, He was sitting down.

Even when He was in a boat or in the mountainside, He sat down. In the temple He sat. But here He stood. One of those rare occasions where Jesus stood and preached. And He cried out saying, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

And that is the type of thirst which is not like, Oh, well, I'd like a glass of water right now. It's not that. But I'm willing to pay any price for water. You know, like a man who's wandered in the desert for many days and is dying of thirst.

He'd be willing to give his whole fortune for water. See, many people don't seek for the power of the Holy Spirit like that. They seek for the power of the Holy Spirit and say, Yeah, I wouldn't mind a glass of water right now.

You're not going to get it. But if you thirst like this, where you're willing to pay any price, then you can come to Him and drink. And He who believes, and if you can believe in Him, if you trust Him, that He keeps His word.

As the Scripture has said, From His innermost being will flow rivers of living water. And this He spoke of the Holy Spirit, which those who believed in Him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

And yet the Spirit was upon Moses, David, all the Old Testament prophets. But here it says, He was not given in this way. In which way? Where He would work, verse 38, from the innermost being. That's the difference in the New Covenant.

In the Old Covenant, it was like this. There was a lid on top of man's heart. The Spirit could not come inside. So when the Spirit was poured out upon all these Old Testament prophets, the rivers of living water came from over.

It never went inside. It came upon them and flowed and blessed millions. Imagine, two million people got water through Moses, smiting the rock. But Moses' heart was not changed. He sinned by disobeying God.

When God told him to speak to the rock, he hit the rock. But the water still flowed, because it flowed from over him. God could use Samson as a mighty judge, but inside, inside, the Spirit could not go to clean him up, the adultery inside his heart.

But in the New Covenant, the veil was rent, and the way into the most holy place was open. And the Holy Spirit could now come to the innermost being and then overflow from the heart to bless millions.

Seeking God's Will Rather Than Spectacular Ministry

That's God's willful. How many people? Verse 38, He who believes in me. If you really believe and lean upon the Lord and say, Lord, I want this life, it can happen for you, but it has to begin from within.

It's not an external thing. There are a lot of people seeking for a ministry. Lord, give me ability to preach, give me ability to heal. You can be like Samson, full of adultery, even if God gives you a gift.

There will be people like that. The Bible says in the last days, many will come in the last day, many will come before the Lord and say, Lord, Lord, we did miracles in your name. We healed the sick. And Jesus said, right, but get away from me.

I don't know you. Go to hell. Imagine people who healed the sick in Jesus' name being sent to hell by the Lord. You read that in Matthew 7, verse 22, 23. So I'm not so keen on healing the sick. I mean, I have compassion for the sick, and I pray for any sick person.

But that's not my goal in life. My goal in life is to fulfill the ministry God planned for me. If it includes raising the dead, I'll raise the dead. But if it includes no miracles, like John the Baptist, who never did a single miracle in his whole life, so be it.

I want to fulfill God's plan for my life, not those spectacular things which I would like to do. Don't seek God for spectacular things. Don't seek God for a spectacular ministry. The greatest thing you can do on earth is to do the will of God.

And if the will of God is to be hidden away somewhere, unknown and unheard of by men all your life because you've got a quiet, hidden ministry in the body of Christ, something like the kidneys in our body.

You know, the kidneys are very essential, but who sees them? But the day your kidneys pack up, you pack up too. And there are many gifts like that in the body of Christ which are hidden. We don't value them so much.

One day we'll discover when Christ comes again how important they were. Are you satisfied with the ministry that God wants you to have? Or do you want a public ministry that's spectacular, that people will talk about, appreciate you, particularly when you hear a very gifted preacher.

You say, wow, I wish I could speak like that. Don't ever wish that. Never, never, never. In my young foolish days, I wished like that till God opened my eyes and said, no, if you want to follow somebody, follow a godly man and say, I wish I could live like him.

That's okay. Not I wish I could have his ministry. That is honor seeking. That is pride. It'll destroy you. Never, never seek to have a ministry like somebody else. Seek to live like somebody else. The Apostle Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.

Jesus said, follow me. Where do we have to follow him? On walking on the water? Turning water into wine? Raising the dead? Who can do that? How many people have you met in your life who have done any of these things?

There's never a man in the history of Christianity who walked on the water or who turned water into wine. But he said anyone can follow him. So what did he mean? Follow him in his life. That's not so spectacular, isn't it?

To serve the poor, to care for the needy, to do a hidden ministry that nobody knows. Think of all the wonderful things Jesus did in 30 years in Nazareth. It's not even written down. Do you know what all he did in the 30 years in Nazareth?

It says that in one little sentence in John chapter 21, verse 25. There were many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, the whole world, I suppose, would not be able to contain the books that are written.

You want to know what all he did in those 30 years? What's written in the Gospel is only the three and a half years. The way he served people, blessed people without supernatural gifts. He didn't have any supernatural gifts for 30 years.

He never cast out a demon or healed the sick or preached powerful sermons in those 30 years. But I'm sure he comforted many widows and picked up little children and encouraged them and occasionally made some furniture for some poor person and gave it as a gift.

And so many little, little things that if he saw somebody discouraged, he'd go up and cheer him up. You want to follow him in that ministry? Or do you only want the spectacular things? That's why you get nothing.

Say, Lord, I want to follow you in your life. When Paul said, follow me, he wasn't asking you to be apostles. He's asking you to live as he lived. Then rivers of living water will flow from our innermost being.

Following the Shepherd Into Overflowing Life

You know, there's a verse in the Old Testament in Psalm 23, which says when the Lord is our shepherd, when we allow him to lead us as our shepherd, he leads us to green pastures, that is, into the Word of God.

He brings quietness in our heart and restores my corrupt soul back into the likeness of God. Psalm 23. I'm reading it in the New Covenant version of it. I shall lack nothing because the Lord is the one who leads me.

I only want to follow him like a sheep who does not know the way. He leads me, and I seek his guidance. I don't wander off on my own. I'm a sheep. The Lord is my shepherd, and every day I follow the shepherd, go where he wants to lead me, and he leads me beside the pastures of his Word that he speaks to me through the Scriptures.

He leads me beside quiet waters of peacefulness, and he restores my soul, which is that soul that was spoiled ever since Adam disobeyed God, and guides me always in the paths of righteousness. He never allows me to go outside that straight and narrow path of righteousness in every area.

And he does that all not for my glory. He does it for his name's sake. And so, even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it could be spiritual death, physical death, any type of thing, attacks of Satan, I will fear no evil because I've got somebody with me.

Not somebody with me alone, but in me. And your rod and your staff, they comfort me. That is to protect, you know, the sheep from wild animals. God protects us. Also, he uses his rod to discipline us.

So, to protect us and discipline us. Are you willing for that? Then, even if your enemies are there, you won't have to worry about them. You don't have to go fight for them. You can sit and have breakfast while the enemies are there.

They can't touch you. You eat with the Lord at his table. And then he anoints my head with oil. It's all a new covenant. And my cup overflows rivers of living water. There it is in the Old Testament. And it will overflow in goodness and loving kindness in front of me and behind me all of the days of my life.

When it says goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life, what it means is, if I go into a home, when I've left that home, I've left some of God's goodness and loving kindness there behind me.

I speak to a brother or a sister or a family. And when I leave, I've left the fragrance of God's goodness and loving kindness behind me. What a way to live. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord. To me, that is the church.

I will all my life be a part of the church forever, now and for all eternity. It's not talking about heaven. Heaven is not my home. Church is my home. I will dwell in the church forever. I will never be an individualistic Christian living by myself.

With all the blessings of the Lord, I find my home in the house of the Lord forever. It's the only place I want to be. I don't want to be in a church where I'm just someone warming the seats, sitting there every Sunday and going away.

I want to be an integral part. I am part of that house. David could really say, I'll be in the house of the Lord today. I say, I'm part of that house of the Lord forever. But the way he leads us to this place of overflowing.

You know, when I was studying the Bible with a concordance once, I discovered that the word, my cup overflows, is a Hebrew word called Reviah, which is used only in one other place. I don't know Hebrew.

I found it in a concordance. It's used only in one other place in the entire Old Testament. That word overflows. And that is in Psalm 66. And there in Psalm 66, it is not translated as cup overflowing.

It's translated with a slightly different word. In Psalm 66 verse 12, the last part, You brought us into a place of abundance. Same word. You brought me to the place where my cup overflows. So when I took that translation from Psalm 23 and put it here into Psalm 66, 12, You brought me to the place where my cup overflows.

Refinement Through Trials and Restrictive Circumstances

And how did you bring me there? Begins in verse 10. First of all, verse 9. You don't allow my feet to slip. Thank God. But you have tried me, tested me. We are going to the place where rivers of water are going to flow out from us, right?

And how does He do it? By testing us. Refining us like silver is refined. You know, silver is refined by being put in the fire. There is no other way to refine silver. Soap and water won't do it. He puts us in the fire.

What's His ultimate goal? That rivers of living water may flow out from us. That our cups will overflow. And then He brings us into the net. That speaks of restrictive circumstances where I can't move.

I'm in a net. The Lord brings me into some circumstances where I'm tied down. Maybe I'm sick and I can't get up and go. Or the circumstances of my life are such. Some sister tied down with a number of children at home.

Her freedom is restricted. You think that she's wasting her life. God's preparing her for living waters to flow out from us. Brought into a net. Or the circumstances of my life, a very busy life. Perhaps I don't have much freedom.

And then finally, He laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. Burdens which come to us which we feel are too much for me to bear. And yet He'll give us grace because He'll never allow us to be tested beyond our ability.

And on top of that, He allows men to ride over our heads. Which means accuse us falsely, suppress us, push us down, kick us out, lose our job. All types of things. He allows men to ride over our heads in so many ways.

And then He puts us into the fire. As if all that you've gone through is not enough. Remember, He's got a goal. He's making a man of God. He's making a woman of God. It has to be put into the fire. When they test aluminum for airplanes, they put it into the fire and then immediately after that it says, He put me into water.

He puts me from the fire into icy cold water. Then into the fire again, into the icy cold water. And if the aluminum cracks, say, you can't use it for an airplane. You can use it for children's toys. What do you want to be used for?

If you crack when you're put into the fire, then into the icy cold water and back into the fire, into the icy cold water. Have you had any experiences like that? He's preparing you to bring you to the place of abundance.

Where the cup overflows. That's God's will and God uses all this. Why does He use all this? He doesn't have any delight in it. But that's the only way He can break down the pride there is that we've all received from Adam and which he got from the fallen angel.

Pride as the Root of Sin

The head of the angels. In the King James Version, he's called Lucifer. That's not his name. We don't know his name. His name is never mentioned anywhere in the Bible. Lucifer is just a Latin word which has got something to do with Morning Star or something like that.

But let's call him Lucifer since that's the word used and many refer it to the one who became Satan. How did he become Satan? The first sin in this universe, in a perfect universe, was not some of the horrible sins we think of.

Adultery, murder. You know, we'd be horrified if you heard that some brother committed a murder and came and sat in the church. Or a brother was regularly committing adultery and coming and sitting in the church.

But the first sin committed in the universe was pride. Would you be horrified if a brother was proud and sat in the church? Proud of some accomplishment of his or proud of his wealth or proud of his good looks, perhaps?

Looks into the mirror and says, I thank God I'm not like other men. Would you be horrified if such a man sat in the church? No. And yet that was the origin of all sin. Never forget it. See Ezekiel in chapter 28.

Very important to understand. Where the Lord speaks to, verse 12, to the king of Tyre. The king of Tyre was Satan. He lived inside, verse 2, the leader of Tyre. And he tells Satan, you had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

That was not a human being. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Do you know there was an Eden before Adam was there? In the original earth that was created in Genesis 1, verse 1, there was an Eden. That was destroyed and became corrupt, Genesis 1, verse 2, but God remade it and the Eden was there again.

And when Adam came to Eden, Lucifer was jealous. This guy has come to replace me in this garden. I'm determined to get him out and he succeeded. He was in Eden, the garden of God, the head of the angels.

He was full of wisdom. Who gave it to him? God gave him that cleverness, that brilliance and he was beautiful, perfect in beauty. And it says here in verse 13, the last part, about the margin of my Bible says, your tambourines and flutes, the workmanship of your tambourines and flutes.

He was a musical person. Music was there. That's how even today, the devil controls a lot of the music in the world. It was there in the beginning. People are proud of their wisdom, verse 12, proud of their beauty, proud of their position, the head of the angels in the garden of God and proud of their musical ability.

All types of things people are proud of. It all began there. You are the anointed, proud of the anointing. He was anointed by God and God placed him there and he was blameless, verse 15, until unrighteousness was found in you.

Verse 17, your heart was lifted up Pride began in the heart. Pride is not an external thing. There are people who act proud externally. That's a different thing. That's what comes out, what is inside, but it begins in the heart.

Your heart was lifted up. What is he proud of? His beauty? His good looks? You can be proud of your good looks. God created every human being and some people have good features, people say, and some people's features are not so good in human eyes.

I think God created them. God created people of different shades of color in their skin. You can be proud of the color of your skin. You're pretty close to Lucifer. You can be proud of your good looks when you look into the mirror.

You don't realize Lucifer was the first one who did that. Be careful. You can be proud of your wisdom, your knowledge, your intelligence. Lucifer was the one who was first proud of his intelligence. It's not wrong to be beautiful.

It's not wrong to be handsome or good looking or intelligent or anything. It's wrong to be proud of it. It's not wrong to be wealthy. It's wrong to be proud of it. When Jesus said, how difficult it is for rich people to enter the kingdom of God, you mean all the poor people will enter and we've got millions of beggars in India.

They don't go into the kingdom of God. It's not poverty that takes a person into God's kingdom. What is it in wealth that hinders them from going through that narrow eye of a needle that Jesus spoke about?

It's pride. That's all. There are people who have a lot more money than you have who are humble. But you can get a little bit and be proud of it. Then you don't fit through the eye of the needle. The eye of the needle is so small.

You've got to be small to go through it and that's humility. What is it that prevents a lot of good looking actors and actresses from getting God's kingdom? They're proud of their looks. They're making money through their looks.

It's pride. It's not the good looks. It's not intelligence. Why did Jesus say in Matthew 11, 25, I thank you Father, you have hidden these things from the clever and the intelligent and revealed them to babes.

What can we do if we are clever and intelligent? Do we have to act dumb in order to understand scripture? No, that would be hypocrisy. We're not supposed to act. If I am clever and intelligent, I can't do anything about it.

I was born with it. It's the color of my skin. I can't do anything about it. I was born with it. Intelligence and cleverness is something we are born with. You can't be proud of it. But people are proud of it.

And then God hides his truth from them. I've seen some brilliant, clever, born-again believers. They don't have revelation on God's ways. Not because they're clever and intelligent. Because they are proud of their cleverness.

They're proud of their intelligence. They're proud of the college from which they graduated. Not some cheap, ordinary college. You know where I graduated from. That's their attitude. There will be zero revelation in such a man.

Zero. When I say zero, I mean zero. Because they are proud of the wrong things. Proud of things which God gave them. But it's revealed to babes, Jesus said in Matthew 11 .25. It's a great verse. If you don't know it, look at it.

Matthew 11 .25. Very important verse for us to remember. When we seek to be men after God's own heart, this is a very important thing. It's not enough to study the scriptures. We need revelation on the scriptures.

In the Old Testament, they studied and studied and studied and God called them scribes. In the New Testament, we get revelation and the scribe becomes a disciple. So here, he says, you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and not taught them.

Teaching is an Old Testament word. Revealed them. That's a New Testament word. Revelation. Revelation does not come through intelligence. It comes through humility. Because it says it's revealed to infants.

What is it that infants have? Think of it. What is it that infants have that clever, intelligent people do not have? Or let's say most clever, intelligent people don't have. Humility. Humility is inward.

It's in the thoughts. If you could look inside the thoughts of some very clever, intelligent people, you'd see a lot of pride there. I mean, they act humble because it's disgraceful to act proud. So they act humble and do all the external things, but any person with discernment can see that's just an act.

The guy's not really humble because humility is something that comes forth from within. It's like body odor. Pride is like that. You know, you can stink and yet you yourself may not smell it. We don't realize what comes forth from us.

For example, when you get old, you don't have much control over your mouth and the odors that come out of your mouth. You lose control of it and there are bad odors that you can't control, but you don't know it yourself.

But other people smell it. Pride is like that. Very often we don't smell it. We think we are quite humble, but other people with discernment can smell anything. People with a sensitive nose can pick up smell a long distance away.

But you look into the mind of a baby lying in a cradle, a one-month-old baby lying in a cradle, think, what was that baby thinking of? Or a three-month-old baby lying in a cradle. People go there and admire and say, oh, what a beautiful child.

It doesn't disturb that child one bit. It doesn't get puffed up for one second. It doesn't say, oh, look at the number of people admiring me. Humility, that's the one thing. Jesus picked up a child and said, if you are humble like this, you'll enter God's kingdom.

We need to meditate on that. We need to meditate since we can't physically see Jesus. We know that Jesus is the humblest person who walked on the earth, but he also said children are humble, so we can learn from children because we can see children.

How does a child react to somebody who hurts it? I mean a three-month-old. You go and pinch it in a naughty way and hurt it. It cries because it really pains it. Tomorrow you go and see him, he'll smile at you.

He doesn't even remember that you're the guy who pinched him and hurt him yesterday. Imagine, that's humility. It's humility that can make you look at someone who hurt you so badly yesterday and you don't even realize it.

You say, well, it's okay. You see how difficult it is to be humble? You can't manufacture it. You can try and act like that, but in your thoughts you say, this is the guy who hurt me. I'll never forget it.

But the child doesn't think like that. Humility is a deep-rooted thing. You cannot produce it by acting. I've seen a lot of acting of humility. I can see through it now. See, I've been a Christian 60 years.

I've dealt with people of all types in all types of countries. And it's pretty easy now to discern pride when the person doesn't see it at all in him. I'll tell you this. You will not get revelation on God's ways if you're not humble.

You can understand a lot. You can become a Bible scholar, get a PhD from some Bible seminary, but you won't have a clue about God's ways. God's ways and his thoughts are revealed to those who are humble.

See, most of us are clever and intelligent, but we can still be humble if we meditate on how Jesus was and how a child was. Then we will get revelation. And not only revelation. The Bible says twice in James 4 and 1 Peter 5 that God gives his grace to the humble.

It's written twice. James chapter 4, verse 7. It says he gives more grace, gives greater grace, verse 6, but to whom? He gives it to the humble. James 4, verse 6. You know why many people resist the devil's attacks in their life and the devil does not leave them?

The answer is here. James 4, verse 6 says God gives grace to the humble, so submit to God. Then resist the devil and the devil will be scared of you. You know the devil's scared only of humble people?

He's not scared of people who wave the Bible at him or who preach well. He's not scared of all these people who know the Bible well and quote verses and all that and who say in Jesus' name I resist you.

No. But there's one thing Satan is scared of and it's the people who have a quality that he doesn't have at all. Humility. It is pride that made him the devil and it's pride that sent him to hell and pride will send people to hell even today.

The big gulf between heaven and hell is pride. That's what sends people there. You know the devil wants to harm every Christian. He wants to harm us, hinder us from God's purposes, mess up our life, mess up our married life.

But he knows he cannot attack you because he's a defeated person. He can tempt you externally but he can't really harm you. So he says, he's clever, he says if I can't push him down let me make God push him down and for that all I have to do is puff him up a little bit because it says here God resists the proud.

He's opposed to the proud, James 4, 6. God is against proud people. He's opposed to them but he gives grace to the humble. The way I pictured it is if I'm really humble, if I've learned from a little child to be humble God will get behind me and push me forward continuously.

But the moment I become proud of anything, intellectual, physical good looks, spiritual development, what I've done for the Lord, ministry, whatever it is, God comes in front of me and pushes me back.

He opposes me. I've got the devil opposing me, I've got the world opposing me, I've got some hypocritical Christians opposing me, I've got my flesh opposing me. On top of all that, if God also opposes me I'm finished.

And if you don't know it, the devil knows it. So all he's got to do is make a Christian proud of something. Proud of his good looks or proud of his intelligence or proud of his achievements or proud of how smart he is or proud of his Bible knowledge perhaps or proud of his preaching or proud of how he led somebody to Christ or proud of perhaps he prayed for someone and the chap accidentally got healed and oh, can be proud of a thing like that.

I mean he was recovering in any case but you thought it was you. You thought it was you. It was just natural healing that was taking place. That's enough. That's enough to make God push you back. Have you seen it brothers?

Act like men. You can't be the man of God God wants you to be if you haven't understood this fundamental truth. And I've seen in the 60 years I've been a Christian the number of proud preachers God has allowed them to fall into adultery because of pride.

God opposed them. You think you can keep yourself from adultery? Maybe you can. But if God opposes you there's not much hope. If you don't fall into adultery it may be in some other way. And the devil knows that.

God will oppose anyone who's proud. It's like a law of gravity. It's a law. It's a spiritual law. God opposes the proud. The law of gravity pulls everything down. There's a power from the center of the earth pulling things down at 32 feet per second.

And if you jump off the roof the law of gravity is not going to check up whether you're a Christian or whether you're wholehearted. No, it just takes over. It doesn't matter. You can be the worst criminal or the most wholehearted Christian.

The law of gravity will take over. This law is like that. You become proud. It doesn't matter whether you're a criminal or whether you're a wholehearted Christian. The law takes over. God resists the proud.

It's exactly like the law of gravity. It'll push you back because God cannot go against His nature. And there is zero pride in God. Do you remember when Jesus... Oh, by the way, the other verse you know is it's repeated in James...

It's repeated also in case you didn't know. In 1 Peter in chapter 5 and verse 5, God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Repeated twice, James 4, 7 and 1 Peter 5. Why is it repeated?

Just in case you skipped, missed it the first time, God says, I want to remind you. It's there two pages later. So, God is opposed to the proud and gives grace to the humble and that's why Satan was pushed down from heaven because God's opposed to the proud and he was the perfect angel, sinless.

The moment he became proud, he was pushed down. Never, never forget that. God wants to support us. He wants to use us to build His church. But the moment we get puffed up, God has to... You know, it's like sin.

God can't look at sin. It doesn't matter who it is in. If it is in His favorite child, if sin is there, He will turn His face away. And the clearest proof of it is Jesus hanging on the cross. There was no sin in Him.

Yet, when our sin was placed on Him, the Father forsook Him. That is the greatest proof that there are no favorites with God. If God had a favorite, it must be His son. But when sin, not His, our sin, is on Him, God turned His face away.

You know, it says in 2 Corinthians 5, that... On our behalf. You know what happened on the cross? He who knew no sin was made sin. It's a very strong word. To be made sin. I don't know what it means. All the sin of the entire human race of 6 ,000 years, all the billions of people concentrated and put on Him, God turned His face away.

God's nature never changes. He hates sin. If He hated it, when it was put on Christ, He'll definitely hate it when it's found in you. If He resists the proud, it doesn't matter who it is, you can be like the perfect angel and can imagine what a favorite that angel was of God that God put Him in that position.

And as soon as pride came, He was rejected immediately. It's very important for us to understand that. Let's turn to Philippians 2. Verse 3. Do nothing from selfishness. How many things am I supposed to do with selfishness?

Nothing. Do you know that you can live with that word and work on it for the rest of your life? Because we are so saturated in selfishness. And I have to work towards the goal of doing nothing with selfishness.

And, or empty conceit. Do nothing from pride. Don't ever say a word which comes out of pride. But with humility of mind, teaching us that humility is in the mind. It's not in the way you act, put your head down or the type of clothes you wear or any of that rubbish.

It's in the mind. Humility is in the mind. If you don't have it there, you don't have it. It's the way you think. It's the way you think about yourself in your spare moments. When you've got nothing else to think about and you sit down and think of your accomplishments.

Humility is in the mind. With humility of mind, regard one another, not as more spiritual than yourself, that's impossible, as more important than yourself. I am supposed to regard every human being as more important than myself.