(Christian Leadership) Faith to Fulfill All of God's Will — Zac Poonen

Faith, Unbelief, and Pleasing God

Speak this morning about faith in my own life. This is something that I couldn't understand for many years in the earlier part of my life and even in the earlier part of my Christian life. I wanted to get an answer from the word of God because I saw this verse in Hebrews 11 and verse 6, which said, Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

So that verse taught me that whatever else I may do, however holy I may be, however loving, everything else, if I didn't have faith, I couldn't please God. That's something we need to think about seriously.

Many of us perhaps secretly congratulate ourselves that we are not living in sin, we are good, we are kind and loving, but without faith it is impossible to please God, whatever else you may have. I think I must have first asked Jesus to come into my heart when I was about 13.

I don't know. I don't know the date I was born again. It's not important. It's good if you know it. Some people know it. But it's not the test of whether we are spiritually alive or not. I say that for the encouragement of those who are not sure of their date of their new birth.

I say it's not by remembering your birthday that you determine whether you're alive or not. Well, if you remember your birthday, that's good. But if you don't, that still doesn't prove your death. We have lots and lots of people in our country who don't even know the year they were born, even physically.

But I would be, I was not sure. I asked Jesus to come to my heart. Did he come? I don't know. At the next meeting, I'd say again, Lord, come into my heart. And it wasn't just once or twice. Over the period of six years, I must have asked Jesus to come into my heart more than a hundred times.

And I was never sure. And I was like a plant tossed about in the wind. God had mercy on me. One day when I was around 19, I read this verse in John 6, 37. Him that cometh to me, I will never cast out.

I saw there were two parts in that verse. One, what I had to do, which is very simple, come to him. The other was his part, to receive me, not to cast me out. And in that moment, I saw what a terrible sin unbelief was.

I was saying, I have done my part. But Lord, you have not done your part. That is unbelief. Bible speaks of an evil heart of unbelief. Now we would think of an evil heart of adultery or an evil heart of murder or hatred or wickedness.

That's why I said in the beginning, we can congratulate ourselves if we don't commit these sins. But there are many, many Christians who don't commit these sins, who have an evil heart of unbelief. They don't believe that God keeps his word.

When we confess our sins, 1 John 1, 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There again, there is my part, there is God's part.

My part is to confess my sins. His part is to forgive me, cleanse me from all unrighteousness. And when I go and confess that sin again to God and say, well, Lord, I did that, and then I go a third time and a fourth time confessing the same sin, I have an evil heart of unbelief.

I don't believe that God did his part. I'm doing my part. I'm faithful. God is not faithful. That's why it's evil. Unbelief is insulting God, telling him to his face that he's a liar. I confessed my sin and you didn't forgive me.

I came to you and you didn't accept me. It's not true. That's why it's such an evil thing. When I murder somebody, I'm not saying God is a liar. If you commit adultery, you're not saying God is a liar.

You tell a lie, you steal, you're not saying God is a liar. But when you don't believe God's promises, you are saying God is a liar. And that's the greatest sin of all. And that's why Jesus rebuked his disciples seven times for unbelief.

I counted it once in the scriptures. I never see him rebuking them for anything, even when they were arguing at the Last Supper, who was to be the greatest. I mean, if I was there, and I was in Jesus' place, I'd say, oh, no, after three and a half years of teaching you, still you fellows are seeking who's to be the greatest.

He was gentle. He said, well, you know, in the Gentiles, they seek to be lorded over others, but it should not be so among you. He was so gentle for something which I would have reacted so strongly against.

But when they did not believe him, when there was a storm, or when he had given them authority to cast out demons in Jesus' name, and they encountered a man with a child demon-possessed, and they could not deliver him.

In times like that, he said, how long shall I be with you, you people of unbelief? Why is it you couldn't trust me? Do you know when Jesus reacted? Strongly. Whenever he saw unbelief, whenever he saw people calling God a liar, whenever he saw people who appeared to be so holy, so good, but they wouldn't trust God.

And there are lots of people sitting in Christian churches like that, congratulating themselves, they're so holy, they're so good, they don't steal, they don't do any harm to anyone. They're always very kind when they speak, but they don't trust God.

Can you believe that Jesus is rebuking you for unbelief perhaps this morning? Well, I thank God that day, when I read John 6 .37, I was around 19 and a half, and I said, Lord, I have come to you so many times.

Today, I'm going to believe you've accepted me. And I dropped an anchor that day, and my ship has never drifted for 41 years. And if any of you are sitting here confused, particularly children growing up in godly homes, many of you have probably asked Jesus to come into your heart many times.

I want you to drop an anchor today. If you've come to Jesus, he has not cast you out. There are no conditions. You're to come just as you are. That's the only way we can come. He doesn't ask us to improve ourselves before we come.

Just as you are. And the worse you are, the quicker you need to come. It's like if a man has an accident on the road. Say, let's take you to the hospital. He doesn't say, no, let me change my dress. Let me clean myself up a bit and then go.

No. Just as he is. And the worse he is, the sooner he needs to go to the hospital. Just as he is. That's how hospitals receive people. They don't wait there till they're dressed up and had a bath and things like that.

No. Just as they are. And that's how we come to Jesus. And it's his job to clean us up, to give us a new heart. But he can't do it if you won't trust him. If you won't believe what he says, him that cometh to me, I'll never cast out.

Seeking the Holy Spirit by Faith

And then years later, after I was born again, I started serving God. I felt the need for power. And I began to seek God for power. Now the Bible says, whatever things you pray, if it is according to the will of God, we have the assurance that he hears us.

And whatever things you pray, Jesus said, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Now there are many, many things concerning which we don't know the will of God. We cannot ask for them with certainty.

You're interested in marrying someone, you don't know whether that's God's will. You can't ask for certainty saying, God, give me that boy or that girl. You don't know whether it's God's will for you to buy something for your home or buy a house itself.

Many, many things we don't know God's will. But there are certain things we know God's will definitely. It is God's will that we should have our sins forgiven. There's no doubt about that. It is God's will that we should all be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That is God's will for every single child of God. It's not for some spiritual elite class of believers. It's for everyone. And one of the ways in which the devil prevents people from seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit and saying, you're not yet ready for that.

When will we be ready? We'll never be ready. Or you're not yet worthy. Do you think a day will come when you'll be worthy to receive the Holy Spirit? Impossible. You'll never be worthy to receive the Holy Spirit any more than you'll ever be worthy to receive the forgiveness of sins.

So I sought God to be filled with the Holy Spirit and I couldn't believe that God had answered my prayer. And I would pray again. And that went for a number of years like that. There are two conditions to have rivers of living water flowing from us.

Only two. John chapter 7, verse 37 and 38. Jesus, on the last day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if any man is thirsty, that's condition number one, let him come to me and drink. I can't come to Jesus if I'm not thirsty.

And there's a, there are different types of thirst. For example, I may say, well, I'd like to have a glass of water right now. Yeah. But if a glass of water costs $10 ,000, well, well, I don't think I'm that thirsty.

But supposing I've been traveling in a desert for a number of days without water and my body is drained out and I'm about to drop dead. And somebody offers me a glass of water for $10 ,000. I say, please give it to me.

I'm ready. Any price, all that I have. That's the type of thirst. Not the first type of thirst. The second type of thirst is what Jesus is speaking of here. That's the reason why many people are not filled with the Holy Spirit.

They're not willing to pay any price, do anything. They pray, yeah, Lord, that's a good thing. I'd like to have, I'd like to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's like saying, well, yeah, I wouldn't mind having that ice cream.

But if it's not given to me, never mind. I'm not going to die if I don't have it. And that's the way a lot of people pray. Well, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Nothing happens. Okay, I've got to get on with life.

It's not everything. God never answers prayers of such people because He sees they're not thirsty. They're not desperate. This is not the most important thing for them in life. Yeah, it's one of the extra things like the ice cream at the end of the meal.

You won't die if you don't have it. And when we treat the Holy Spirit like that, we never experience His fullness. Because God sees whether you value Him. Whether we value Him. So that's now condition number one.

We've got to thirst. And the second thing Jesus said here was, we must believe. Again, faith. He who believes in Me, verse 38, as the scripture has said, from His innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

In the Old Testament, they couldn't experience this from the innermost being. It says the Spirit of God judges 634, clothes Gideon. It was like a dress. You could take it off and put it on. It wasn't part of a person's being.

David was anointed, but he said, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. It was a dress that could be taken off. It was on the outside, clothed with the Spirit. But now something new was going to happen in the New Covenant.

This Spirit that clothed people for years in the Old Covenant would now come inside. And from the innermost being would flow rivers of living water. And this he spoke of the Spirit, which those who believed in Him were to receive.

For the Spirit was not yet given in this way. Because Jesus was not yet glorified. And then some years later, just like in my experience with being born again, a time came when I came to the point where I could believe.

And I said, Lord, I believe. You've heard my prayer all these years. I want to believe that You've granted my request. You've filled my heart with the Holy Spirit. And faith was born in my heart. And my life was never been the same thereafter.

And it's continuous. There is no once for all experience that guarantees that we're going to walk with God forever. That's a big mistake a lot of Christians have made. We need to take up the cross daily.

Luke 9 .23. In Proverbs chapter 8 it says, Blessed is the man who watches daily at my gates. We need to listen to the word of God. God, every word that God speaks to our heart every day. We need to be filled with the Spirit daily, continuously.

So therefore we need to have faith continuously. We are to live by faith. Just like we breathe continuously. One deep breath is not going to take care of me for the rest of my life. Well, it's good once in a while to have deep breathing exercises, but we still need to breathe regularly if we are to live.

Faith is like that. We live by faith just like we live by breathing. Moment by moment. And when I understood a little more about this, about 20 years ago, I began to see what faith really was. It was a confidence in God and a dependence on Him.

Total Surrender and Confidence in God

Two things. A confidence. I can trust Him. I can trust Him with my whole life. It's like putting money in a bank. There are banks that are not very secure. And if you know that a bank is going to crash, you wouldn't put your money there.

But if you have to put your money somewhere, you may put a little bit because you are not very sure whether that bank will survive. And you keep the rest with you. Lots of Christians give themselves to Jesus like that.

They are not sure whether this bank will crash. Do you see the insult there is there? Why is it that so many Christians do not give everything they have, they are, their time, their energy, their money, their ambitions, their plans, everything to God and say, Lord, You tell me how to live.

Tell me how to spend my money. Tell me what I must do with my life. Totally everything is Yours. Why is it the rich young ruler was not willing to give everything? He felt Jesus was a bank that might crash.

Now if I were to put it like that to you, you may say, Well, I don't believe Jesus is like a bank that crashes. Do you really believe He is a bank that will last for eternity? Then why haven't you given everything to Him?

Why haven't you put all your money at His feet? Have you done it? No one can be my disciple, Jesus said, who does not forsake all his possessions. I cannot possess anything if I want to be a disciple.

Now, I am not just giving a pep talk, my brothers and sisters. I believe this is the central thing in the Christian life. If you have missed this, you have missed everything. It is not a pep talk to just whip us up this morning to get us all stirred up and go home and say that was a good message.

I hope it will change the whole direction of your life. And if it has done that with some people, if it does that with some people this morning, I would say, Well, God has been able to accomplish what He wanted to say this morning.

And that is to get you to surrender every single thing in your life to Him. That is the way you prove that you have got faith. I can trust this bank. I can put every last penny into it and I know they will take care of it better than I can do it myself.

You know why we have so many fears, anxieties, worries? If I had $500 ,000 in cash with me and I had the option to put it in a bank or keep it at home in a town which is riddled with crime, and I am not very sure of this bank, so maybe I keep $50 ,000 there, I give my tithe to the bank, and you understand the application.

And I keep $450 ,000 by myself under my pillow at night. Do you think I will be able to sleep properly that night? Or any night? There is crime, there are robbers, thieves. I won't be able to leave my home.

I will be worried. I will be anxious because I couldn't trust the bank. But if I put everything there, I can sleep peacefully. Let the thieves come. Let them come when I am not at home. That is the secret.

That is the secret of a life of rest in God. We who believe enter into rest, we read in Hebrews 4. We who have put all our money into the bank, we are at rest. We who have given all our children to God, we are at rest concerning even our children.

God will take care of them. God will determine everything concerning them, when they are sick, when they are healthy, when things go wrong, when things go right, it doesn't matter. We are in the bank.

That is what faith means. In fact, what a wonderful offer it is, when the secure bank of heaven says, give everything to me, I will take care of it. Why do you want to try and safeguard it yourself, when we think we can plan our life better than God can plan it?

What does it mean? That means I don't have confidence in God. I don't believe that He can plan my life better than I can plan it myself. What fools we are. The unbelieving Christian is like that. He thinks he can make a better deal with his life than what God can.

He thinks he can find a better wife than God can for himself. He thinks she can find a better husband, she thinks, than God can. What a fool such a person is. Is it really true? Do you know everything about the future?

You don't even know what is going to happen this evening. Leave alone the future. And here is someone who knows the whole future. Every little trap the devil has laid out for you. Every little problem that can arise.

Everything that is going to happen from now till all eternity. And he says, let me plan your life for you. And we hold it back. What fools we are. What fools the vast majority of Christians are. You know, there are people who, nowadays, who invest people's money.

Investment experts. And there are people who have got a lot of money who don't know how to invest it in a way that will get good returns. They give it to these investment experts. And usually, if they are not very sure, they will just give a little bit and see how much he makes out of that.

But if they are confident, this man has done a good job for so many people. He is trustworthy. He will give everything. Now, can you give your whole future into God's hands like that? Can you put all your money in God's hands and say, Lord, You are the greatest investment expert I have ever known.

And all the money I have, all my property and all my savings and all my money, I want to lay it all at Your feet. Not 10%. That was old covenant. All that I have, I want You to tell me how to spend it.

How much should I spend for my home? How much should I spend for my family? How much should I spend on so many things I need? He is not going to make us starve. He is not going to make us live in a slum.

He knows. He has given us, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6 .17, He has given us richly all things to enjoy. God is not a spoilsport. God has given us many things to enjoy, but He will tell us to invest it in a wise way.

In a way that will bring returns for all eternity. The best way we can use the money God has given us on earth. I want to say a word here. You know the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6. We brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out.

Therefore, that's why everything belongs to God. There is a verse in 1 Corinthians 10 .26 which says, The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And the fullness thereof means everything that the earth contains.

Sometimes we don't understand that clearly. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. That means all the gold and silver in the world is the Lord's. All the money is the Lord's. It's not mine. When I came to the world, I brought nothing.

When I would go out, I can't take anything out. That's why the Lord doesn't allow us to take anything out when we leave this world. Because we brought nothing in when we came in. It's like if we go with our little children to somebody's house and those people in that house are kind enough to let my little boy play with all their toy cars and other toys over there.

And if one of my boys, as they're going out, puts a few of those toys in his pocket, well, if I'm a good father, we go out of the door, we'll check out the pockets before we leave. And I say, well, son, when we came to this house, we didn't bring anything in our pockets.

And when we leave, we've got to leave with empty pockets. These folks allowed us to play with these things while we were here, but now we've got to leave them behind. That's exactly what God says when every man dies.

When you came into this earth, your pockets were empty, you didn't have a thing, you didn't have a stitch of clothing on you. And now you're leaving, you've got to leave everything behind. What you can take with you, though, is your character.

What you've allowed the Holy Spirit to work in you during your lifetime. The goodness, the forgiving nature, the unselfishness, the mercy, the purity, that's yours. You can take it with you to eternity.

But all the other things were only a loan. I hope you remember that. That every single thing. You may think that's your property. No, it isn't. It's God's. He's loaned it to you. And he says, give it to me and I will make maximum use of it.

And if you trust him, you will give everything to him. Everything. Lord, my time, my energy, my money, even my body. Everything is yours. You can do what you like with it. That is faith. I remember hearing the story of a doctor here in the United States many years ago.

I think it was the early part of the century, perhaps, Dr. Walter Wilson. He was once in a meeting where he heard someone speaking about being filled with the Holy Spirit from Romans 12, verse 1. Now, that's not the usual verse people take when they talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Because Romans 12, verse 1 speaks about present your bodies a living sacrifice to God, which is your reasonable service or spiritual service of worship. And the preacher said in that meeting that, who is it who wants your body?

Not God the Father. He is in heaven. Not God the Son. He already has a body. It's the Holy Spirit who wants your body. Every part of your body. The Holy Spirit is in the world and he is looking for people's bodies.

So give your body to him. So this man went home, Dr. Wilson, and he laid on the floor, and I don't remember his exact words, but he said something like this. He said, Lord, I'm going to take you seriously.

He was already born again Christian. And he lay on the floor and said, from the crown of my head to the sole of my feet, I give myself to you. Every part of this body in a sacred transaction, I hand it over to you.

Eyes, ears, hands, legs, everything. Now Lord, you can do what you like with this. You can take this body and send it as a missionary to Tibet or lay it on a bed with cancer. It's not my body anymore.

You can send it to Greenland or blind the eyes. It's not my body. It's yours. I have no more right over this body. And he meant it. Now we can repeat the same words. It may not mean it, but he meant it.

And God filled him with the Holy Spirit and power. He never spoke in tongues or anything, but he was filled with the Holy Spirit and power. And his life was transformed from that day. He's written a book.

I think the title of it is The Romance of a Doctor's Visit. He was a medical practitioner. And God used him to lead many, many people to Christ. But that was how he received the Holy Spirit. But that was how he received the Holy Spirit.

Spirit-Filling, Self-Control, and Consecration

You know, the Holy Spirit, one of the things the Lord showed me about the Holy Spirit is that there's a difference between spirit-filling and demon-possession. The Spirit never possesses people. He fills people.

You never read about spirit-possessed people in the New Testament, spirit-filled people. And you never read about demon-filled people. You always read about demon-possessed people. And there's a difference between being filled with the Spirit and being possessed with a demon.

When a man's possessed with a demon, he has no control over himself. He does things which the demon's got total control of his body. And in a sense, the man's not even responsible for what he's doing.

He doesn't know what he's doing. He's saying things and doing things which are under the control of a demon. But not when the Holy Spirit fills a person. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. And you have more control over yourself when you're filled with the Spirit than you had before you were filled with the Spirit.

And that's a test I give to people. I say, well, whatever experience you had, if you found you couldn't control yourself, that probably wasn't the Holy Spirit. There are people who say, well, I began to blabber something, I couldn't stop.

Well, that was certainly not the Holy Spirit. Because if it was the Spirit, you could stop. You see, every gift of the Spirit is something over which we have control. The Spirit of God fills me and I begin to teach the Word of God.

I don't say, well, I don't know when I'm going to stop. I don't know, maybe three o 'clock this afternoon or six o 'clock tomorrow morning, I can't stop. It's not like that. The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets.

And I can stop when it's time to stop. It's not beyond my control. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. And a spiritful person will be the person who has maximum control over his tongue, control over his temper, control over his eyes, control over what he does with his hands and every part of his body.

But provided you've given your body to him. If you haven't given it, he won't control it. He's a, Holy Spirit's a gentleman. He's gracious. He says, I stand at the door and knock. If you open that area of your life to me, I'll take it.

And a lot of Christians are like people who have allowed Jesus to come into one part of their life. Our home is like a, our heart is like a one thousand room house. Have you seen these hotels at night, these huge hotels?

Many, many. And you know the rooms that are occupied at night. They've got lights. A lot of other rooms are empty. When we can look at our home, our heart like that, with a thousand rooms. And you ask Jesus to come into your heart.

And he's come into one room. That's all you allowed him to come into. Has he come in? Yes, he has. But has he got control over every room in your house? No, he hasn't. That's the fullness of the Spirit.

To let him into every room. Lord, every room. Can I come into your library and throw out some books? You may not want it. Can I come into your finances room and look over your accounts and your income and expenditure and your tax papers?

Can I look through all that? Well, he won't come in if you won't let him. You just want him to come and give you forgiveness and sins. You've got one little room lighted up in your house. Fine. Can I come and control your eating habits?

Can I come and control your sleeping habits? Can I come and control the clothes you're wearing? Can I look through your wardrobe and see what type of clothes you have? How many you have? And why you have these type of clothes?

Can I control you a little bit there? No, Lord. We'll treat you like an honored guest. Just stay in the guest room and we'll give you a good meal. Don't come poking your nose into all these other things.

Oh, do we respect him? Of course. We respect him like an honored guest to whom we'll give the best room in the house and the best food. But we don't want him to come poking his nose into these other areas of our life.

And we pray, Oh God, fill me with the Spirit. You won't be filled with the Spirit in a hundred years. Yes, you can go to some church where they'll give you a little experience and you'll think you've got something.

You've got nothing. Don't be fooled by all that. There's a lot of that type of deception going on in Christendom today. This is the way to get it. Confidence in God. I can trust Him. I can put all my money into that bank.

I can trust Him with every part of my body. Here is a verse which the Lord showed me. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 13, the last part, it says, The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord. And the Lord is for the body.

Did you get that statement? The body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body. If your body is totally for the Lord, the Lord will be totally for your body. That includes even healing and health. I'm not saying we'll never get sick and die.

I'm saying that as long as God wants me to live on earth, if my body is totally the Lord's, the Lord will take care of my body from sickness, accidents, cancers, everything. If the body is for the Lord, the Lord is for the body.

Otherwise scripture is not true. The problem is that a lot of people have not given their body completely to God. They want to use their eyes to look at and read what they want and they say, Lord, please be for my body.

No. If the body is for the Lord, the Lord is for the body. They want God to use their tongue when they get up to speak in the meeting, but they don't allow him to use the tongue the rest of the time. It's not possible.

If you want God to use your tongue in the pulpit, it's got to be his 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Then he'll be with you in the pulpit as well. The body is for the Lord and then the Lord is for the body.

Every part of us. He can take care of us. This body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, it says in verse 19. So that's what we need to do. You know, in the Old Testament, when they offered a burnt offering to God, there were many types of offerings, five of them, but the burnt offering was a picture of total sacrifice.

That was Romans 12 .1, what you read in Leviticus chapter 1, the burnt offering. And you couldn't take a bullock and put it on the altar like that. No. The Lord said, cut it up. Cut it into pieces and make sure every piece is on the altar and then the fire will fall.

That's how it was. I can't go to God and say, Lord, here's my body. Cut it up. Then you understand it. Say, Lord, here are my eyes. I never want again to read anything that you don't want me to read. I don't want to look at anything.

I never want to look at a picture for the rest of my life, which you will not want me to look at. Here are my ears, Lord. I don't want to listen to anything that you will not listen to. Here's my tongue.

I never want to say anything in future that you and I can't say together. Piece by piece, here are my hands. Laid on the altar. When the last piece is on the altar, the fire will fall. Sure. Sometimes we say, there are people who say, we are tearing.

Well, it's not you who is tearing. God is tearing for you to put that last piece on the altar. That's all. Because the moment the last piece is there, the fire falls. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.

It's confidence. It's based on confidence in God. I trust God. I can trust this bank one hundred percent. That will take better care of my body than I can take care of it myself. That will take better care of my finances than any investment banker or any investment expert in the world.

That can take better care of my future than even my own dad trying to plan my future. God can plan everything. I believe God's got a plan for our life. He's got a blueprint up there in heaven, but He doesn't show it to those who are not hungry and who've not given everything to Him.