True Spirituality - Living by the Power of God — Zac Poonen

Building by the Power and Will of God

Today we were considering what it means to build with gold, silver and precious stones. Let's go to that verse we saw in 1 Corinthians in chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. We saw that after we have laid a foundation on the Lord Jesus Christ, we can build with either wood, hay and straw or with gold, silver and precious stones.

We considered from Romans 11 .36 that this means to live a life where I seek to do the will of God and not my own will. I seek to live my life in dependence on the power of God and not in human strength and power.

And I seek to live for the glory of God and not for my own honor. Yesterday we were considering the importance of doing the will of God in our daily life. Jesus said, if anyone wants to be my disciple, he's got to take up his cross every day.

It's impossible to follow the Lord Jesus Christ without denying ourselves every day. I believe if we don't understand this right at the outset, we're not going to progress into the other things we want to consider.

Seeking God's Power for God's Will

We want to consider what it means to live by the power of God. Now around the world, Christians are very eager to seek the power of God for wrong reasons. And that's why they either get some counterfeit experience, abuse whatever power they receive, or selfish ends.

We need to begin with saying, Lord, I want to deny myself my will to do your will. I want your will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven. And that's why I want your power. If we seek God's power with that motive, God will never deny it.

Many people wait and wait and wait for the power of God and they never receive it because God's not going to give them His power for their own selfish ends. So subtle, so cunning as to make us feel that our life will be miserable if we give ourselves completely to do the will of God.

You see, the devil right through history, right from the beginning of the creation of man, has always sought to portray God as someone who is out to take away the joy from your life, never let you have his best.

You know, that's how the devil succeeded with making Eve sin. He somehow convinced her that God is withholding something from you. Look at this lovely tree, this lovely fruit. Why is God withholding it from you?

And a little doubt entered into Eve's heart concerning the perfect love of God for her. And she felt that that which God had must be something good for her. In other words, she felt that God's will was not the best for her.

And she chose for herself. And I think if we were to examine our lives, many of us are afraid to surrender totally. Say, Lord, I want your will in every area of my life, to live all of my life doing your will.

I want to spend my money the way you want me to spend it. Every day of my life, I want to do your will. If you believe that God's got a plan for your life, the Bible says in Ephesians 2 .10 that prepared certain works, we were created in a certain plan that God made for us before the worlds were created.

Now think of this. Supposing you could have planned your earthly life a thousand years before you came to this earth. Supposing God gave you the privilege before you came to this earth. That you could plan your earthly life.

Where you were going to be born, which set of parents, country you would be a citizen of, who you would marry, the job you would take, every detail of your life. If God said, before you were born as a baby, God gave you a chance to plan your whole life.

And showing you the entire future, all the pitfalls and all the dangers and everything. And you planned your life. Do you think you could make a better plan than the one God has made for you? Even if you had that opportunity?

How many of you really believe that? That you could make a better plan for your life than the one God can make. Who knows every single factor affecting you. Everything that the devil seeks to do to trip you up and to deceive you.

Everything concerning the future. You got to be crazy to think that you can make a better plan than God's. You just have to believe that one fact to surrender totally to the will of God. And when you don't surrender totally to do God's will, when you don't deny your own will to do God's will, you are actually saying, Lord if you would allow me I could make a better plan for my life than you are making.

It's the same mistake that Eve made in Eden. And that's why our lives are deprived of the joy and the power of the Holy Spirit. I say this from experience. Once I was convinced of just one fact, let me repeat it.

That God could make a better plan for my life and has made a better plan for my life than I could ever make. I had a thousand years to make it. I was convinced of that. It was no problem. Surrendering and saying, Lord in no area do I want my will.

I want to choose the profession I like. I want to choose the profession you want. To be a citizen of a country you never chose for me. In any place outside of your perfect will. In safe places and unsafe places.

The safest place in all the world is the center of God's perfect will for your life. There's absolutely nothing safer than that. That's the best place for you to live. That's the best way for you to live your earthly life.

I find in spite of emphasizing this, one should think this should be so crystal clear to anyone who believes that there is a God. You've got to be an atheist to think that you can make a better plan than God can.

You've got to believe that God is either ignorant or foolish or does not have as much wisdom as you have or hates you. You've got to believe something like that to think that you can make a better plan for your life than God can.

You see how crazy so many believers are. When they get an opportunity which they think, oh this is a wonderful opportunity for me to advance myself. And they think if they pray, God will say no. They feel God is out to spoil their life, make their life miserable.

Jesus' Example of Doing the Father's Will

Who told them that? Tell me. Why was the life of Jesus the happiest, the most triumphant, the most perfect life the world ever saw? Only for one reason, he sought his father's will. He said he came down from heaven not to do his own will.

All the misery on earth has been caused by man doing his own will. If you could only understand that. But six thousand years of man's history has gone by and we still haven't learned it. We still do our own will.

Think that the restrictions in God's word are not good for us. We can violate those restrictions, make something good of our life. We've got to be crazy. Let me turn you to a verse in John's Gospel chapter 5.

Jesus said here in John 5, he said, I can do nothing in initiative. Verse 19 he said, I can do nothing of myself unless it is something I see the Father doing. What does that mean? He never initiated something.

He always waited on the Father. He said, Father, do something, but what's your will? And he waited on the Father. Have you ever wondered why Jesus needed to pray? He never had to confess his sin. Why did he sometimes get up early in the morning, go off into the wilderness and wait on the Father?

What was he seeking? He was seeking to know the will of his Father. As a man on earth, that was the secret of his life. Verse in the book of Proverbs which says, Blessed is the man who waits daily outside my gates, waiting to hear my voice, who recognizes that my plan for his life is far better than anything he can make.

That's the man who will make the best use of his earthly life. At the end of Jesus' life, he could say in John chapter 17, verse 4. John 17, verse 4, he said, I have glorified you on earth, Father, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do.

There was a particular plan the Father had for Jesus. He finished it. He never wanted to stay on this earth any longer. He said, I've finished the work you gave me to do. I'm ready to go. You know, there are very, very few believers who will be able to say that when they come to the end of their life.

You can't say that if you've spent most of your life seeking your own will and your own advancements and your own profit and your own gain. You won't be able to say that. You may be able to say, I made a lot of money and I got a lot of education and I did this for my children and the other for my children.

But you won't be able to say what Jesus said. You had a plan for my life. I fulfilled it. You can't do anything about the past. But I want to say to all of you sitting here this evening, you can do something about the future.

You can't do something about yesterday, but you can do something about tomorrow. You can say, Lord, of the years that are left to me, I give them to your hand, at least from now. If I've missed your will somewhere, bring me back in line.

So that at least for the rest of my life, I can live in wisdom, doing your will. And it is when we seek to do the will of God that we have a right to ask God for his power. And then we receive it easily.

Power for Healing and Overcoming Sin

If you are seeking for the power of the Holy Spirit because you want a thrill, you want an excitement, you want an electric shock down your body like you've heard somebody testify, you want some type of experience, you're seeking something for yourself.

Jesus taught us to seek for the power of God so that we can do the will of God. Sometimes when I've been asked to pray for someone who's sick, sometimes an unbeliever, take me to their home and say, well, you pray for this man who's sick.

And then I go and talk to them. I say, why do you want to be healthy? Do you want to be healthy so that you can go and stand in the cinema queue once more? Because you're too weak now? Do you want to be healthy so that you can go out and live out there in the world for yourself?

Shall we pray, Lord, raise him up so that he can be healthy enough to go and stand in the cinema queue and live for himself and commit sin? Is that what we're going to pray for? Heal him, manifest your power so that he can get up and do the will of God.

He would have such a prayer being answered. When you pray for healing, why do you want healing, brother? So that you can be more fit to serve God? I hope so. Or is it, Lord, I can't make as much money with the sickness?

We have to first dedicate ourselves to say, Lord, I never want to do my own will anymore on earth in anything. I don't want this body to do my will. It's done my will enough, number of years. See it for itself, calling itself a believer, for so many years.

And it's made a mess of the rest of my life. I want this body to do your will. Lord, give me power. There is no partiality with him. What he does for others, he'll do for you. But you've got to have the same longing like those others who served God.

Why was it that the Holy Spirit says about Jesus, God gave his spirit without measure unto his Son? Because Jesus had no other ambition on earth but to do the will of his Father. The more we align ourselves with that sort of passion and desire, the quicker God's power will come upon us.

The more effective we will be. When we find, for example, that there are areas in our life where we are dishonoring God, we are losing our temper. I've traveled different places to see that there are very, very few believers when they lose their temper.

They take it so lightly, their bad temper. It's something like someone saying, you know, I murdered somebody yesterday. I might murder somebody tomorrow too. It's my weakness. He created anger with murder, you know.

He said, the old covenant said, you shall not murder. I say to you, you shall not be angry. He said, that's the source from which murder comes. Why should we take it so lightly? Every sin in your life that you take lightly, you'll never overcome.

It's no use asking God for power before you want to do his will. So many young people, young men come to me and say, how can I overcome the lust of the eyes and dirty thoughts that come into my mind? It's not just young people.

A lot of old people have that problem too. Foolproof way, if you take me seriously. When you fall in this area, nobody knows about it. You just slipped up in your thoughts. Go before God. Go before God and mourn and say, Lord, I've dishonored you.

I've done my own will again. I've not done your will. I've not kept this body pure for your glory. Give me power next time. Give me grace to be an overcomer. Every time, if you fall 25 times a day, weep and mourn 25 times before God.

And I guarantee, you'll get victory pretty soon. It's because you take it so lightly, that victory never comes. And it won't come in the next 25 years either. You'll be an old 80-year-old man, lusting after women.

I guarantee that, calling yourself a believer. Brothers, sisters, the world is full of believers who live in sin and never mourn about it. After experiences that tickle their body, they can speak in tongues, but they don't have power to overcome sin.

Because they're not desperate. They don't seek God in desperation. If you could pray for victory over sin like you pray when your child is sick and the doctors have given up hope, how would you pray to God then?

Think if you could pray for overcoming sin like that. Boy, you'd have got victory long ago. It's that earnestness that's lacking. The Lord says, you'll seek me and you'll find me when you search for me with all your heart.

There's no partiality with that. Jesus once told a story in Luke chapter 18. He spoke a parable there about a widow, her enemy, who was oppressing her. The enemy is Satan. The widow. Jesus pictured his church and his disciples like a helpless widow.

Someone with no male member in the house to fight for her has to take care of herself and helpless. That's the way God has made us. So that we depend on him. And here was this enemy oppressing her day and night.

He'd go to the judge and the judge would say, don't disturb me. She'd again go and knock at the judge's door and say, get away from there. She'd come next morning, 5 o 'clock in the morning, bang at the judge's door and he'd drive her away.

She'd keep coming, keep coming, keep coming, till finally Jesus said, this unrighteous judge, said, okay, she's bothering me, she's wearing me out, what do you want? He said, give me legal protection from my enemy.

And he granted it. And Jesus said, listen to these words in Luke chapter 18 verse 7. If an unrighteous judge could do that, do you think a righteous God won't speak to him like that? Cry to him day? Do you think the Lord will delay long for people who cry day and night?

No. Do you think he won't give them that power to overcome that enemy who's oppressing them? Way back in the garden of Eden, God said to Adam and Eve, the seed of the woman will crush the serpent. And he was crushed on Calvary.

Satan was defeated 2 ,000 years ago. There's no need for him to sit on our heads. There's no need for him to overcome us. His place is under our feet. Romans 16, 20 says, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.

Satan's got to be scared to come to me because if he comes, he's going to be under my feet. He can come, but he'll be under my feet. That's the place God has ordained for the devil. He's never going to sit on my head.

He's never going to pull me down because he's been defeated on Calvary. Do you think God will not bring that victory into the life of whom? The one who cries day and night. Help me to win that lottery or buy this extra thing or get that better house.

These other things will be added. Not lotteries, but other things that are necessary. Our primary request. Lord, deliver me from my enemy who is bringing me down, defeating me with this habit. Making me dishonor your name with this habit.

The other habit. Give me power. Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall receive power. That's what we need. We need to live by the power of God. There is not a single command in the New Testament that cannot be obeyed.

Do you believe that? Many people read portions of scripture and they think, well, that's impossible. Nobody can live like that. And there are some people who say, well, that's not for us. That's for the Jews in the Millennium.

That's a very convenient way of escaping out of our obligation. New Testament. They've got a little waste paper basket called the Jewish waste paper basket. And any command which is a little difficult, particularly the ones in Matthew 5, 6 and 7.

That's not for us. It's for the Millennium. That's the way waste paper basket. And then all these other promises, you know, I'll never leave you, not forsake you. And all these wonderful things. Those are all for us.

All the difficult commands are for the Jews. I tell you, there are people like this. There are believers like this. Now, if you read God's Word and you say, these are the commands of a father. I want to ask those of you who are fathers and mothers here.

Will you ever ask your children to do something that they cannot do? Will you ask your child to carry a 5 ton weight on his head and then punish it when it doesn't do it? Do you think your Heavenly Father will ask us to do anything that is impossible?

You've got to begin there. That's what it means to have faith. First of all, faith is not just believing Jesus died for me. Even the devils believe that. But faith is to believe that everything. Faith is much more than that.

It is that, but something more. That is that everything God has commanded is possible for me to obey. Otherwise He wouldn't have written it here. This book is not for angels. This book is not for the millennium.

This book is for me now. He's given me commands to obey now. And if I don't start from there, I will find some excuse or the other not to do something here. And never feel that I've dishonored the Lord when I haven't kept the command.

Because I find so many other people around me are in that condition. If the married life of most believers is miserable and unhappy, I think that's okay. My married life is also like that. But that's not God's will.

I mean, if you were looking at God's will, how your married life would be, it would be quite a different thing. And we'd grieve and mourn if our married life is not like that. But when we compare ourselves with believers around us, and we say, Well, they're also like that, so it doesn't matter.

That's why we find a contentment in a defeated, substandard level. But if we can say, this is God's will, and I'm not coming up to it, we will seek Him for power, and we will get it. You wouldn't ask your child to go and buy something from a shop without giving him the money.

You may ask him to go and get something, but do you expect him to produce the money? Do you expect him to go and work and earn some money and go and get it? No, you say, Son, here's the money, go and get it.

In the same way, when God gives us a command, He gives us the power to keep it. And just like a child says, Dad, give me the cash, I'll go and get it. We can ask God for power to keep every single commandment He has commanded in the New Testament.

Every single one. And that will make our lives full of the joy of the Lord. The Kingdom of God is righteousness with joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. And then, be able to complete our course and finish the plan which God has for our life.

Weakness, Grace, and God's Power

So we see here, this widow kept on going, and she got what she wanted. Even Jesus needed that power. The Bible says, let us come boldly to the throne of grace, so that we can receive grace to help us in our time of need.

Grace is another word for God's power. I believe that before God can give us His power, He has to let us see our own inability and our weakness. And there are many examples of this in the Old Testament.

Jacob, for example, there was a time in Jacob's life when God met with Jacob and said, You are no longer going to be Jacob. Your name is Israel because you got power with God now. But when did he get it?

He got it after God spent 20 years breaking him of his self-sufficiency and his self-confidence. And when he came to the place where he felt he was helpless, God even crippled him so that he couldn't, he became lame.

God said, Now you can have my power. You take the example of Moses. When he was 40 years old, capable, powerful, educated, God said, You are not fit to lead my people. God took him out of the wilderness, broke him for 40 years, took out all that self-sufficiency, all that self-confidence, till he came to the place where he said, Lord, I am not the man.

Please send somebody else. I am totally unfit to serve you. God said, Now you are ready. That's God's way. Before God can use any of us, He has to reduce us to zero. That's the meaning of the cross. You see, the cross reduces a man to zero.

It puts him to death. That's why Jesus said, Take up the cross. That's why He tells us to take up the cross. Humble yourself, He says. Recognize your insufficiency, your inability to do my will, to serve me.

Then you will seek me for power. When we feel capable of serving God, that we don't seek the power of the Holy Spirit. You know, when those early apostles were waiting on the day of Pentecost, waiting for the day of Pentecost, they really felt incapable of doing what the Lord told them to do.

They were so scared, they locked the doors and they stayed inside. They said, Lord, we can never do this job. So Jesus said, Don't go. You are not ready. Wait. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power.

And then you won't be the same. And I believe that the Lord allows us to wait to help us realize that insufficiency. I want to turn to another parable, Luke chapter 11. I don't know whether you noticed that Jesus taught only two parables on prayer.

One was this one on the widow. And the other one is this one here in Luke 11. And both these parables teach exactly the same lesson. You have to come to a place of helplessness. That's the first thing.

And from that place of helplessness, insufficiency, emptiness, a zero point, seek God. And then you will get all the power you need. That's how the widow came to the judge. She was helpless. She had nobody to help her.

Absolutely weak, helpless and she kept on seeking and she got. Jesus said, Pray like that and you will also get. Now in Luke chapter 11, now that's the difference between these two parables. In Luke chapter 18, the widow was seeking for something for herself.

Give me power over my enemy. So we can say that's the parable of when we seek for victory over Satan in our life. That he is not able to knock us down in the moment of temptation. In Luke chapter 11, we are thinking here of power to serve the Lord.

You see, we need power for two things. One, power to overcome sin in our life. And second, power to be able to serve God and bring the blessing of God to other people. Luke chapter 18 deals with the first one.

And Luke chapter 11 deals with the second one. And that is when the disciples came to Jesus one day and said, Lord, teach us to pray. He said, Okay, this is how you must pray. And he said this parable of a man who had a visitor at midnight, verse 5.

Burden for Others and Prayer for the Holy Spirit

And he didn't have any food to give him. See this picture clearly. The man himself had already eaten. He was full. He had no lack himself. Now he was thinking of the need of another visitor who had come.

A need which he could not meet. And so he goes to his neighbor's house. And bangs away there at the door until he gets the food that he wants for whom? Not for himself. For his visitor. For his friend.

And Jesus said pray like that. Ask like that. See what he said after this. And he said that this man will get up and give him as much as he needs. And then he said in verse 9, I say to you, ask. Ask like that.

For your neighbor. For the one who comes to you with a spiritual need which you cannot meet. Do you have a desire to help the people around you? This parable and this type of praying is only for those people who have a desire to help the people around them.

I mean if you are perfectly satisfied because your stomach is full. And the Lord has met your need. Your sins are forgiven. And you are filled with the Holy Spirit. You got victory over sin. Then you are like a man who has a visitor coming to his house and say, well, sorry brother, I don't have any food.

Let's go to bed. We will see something about it in the morning. If you are like that, this parable is not for you. No. This parable is for those who when they are full and satisfied and see another person not having the victory and the power and the blessing which they have, have a burden.

And go to God and say, Lord, you have blessed me Lord. I am not asking for myself now. I am asking you to give me something to bless this brother. To bless this person. To help this person. There are very few people praying to God like that.

Ask like that and it will be given you. Seek like that for power. And then at the conclusion of the parable he explained what he was referring to. He said, in verse 13, if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit?

He is talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit. To those who ask him. The gifts of the Holy Spirit. You know there is one thing I have discovered about the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit is for myself. The gifts of the Spirit are all for others. It blesses me. If I have the gift of prophecy, who is blessed? Somebody else. If I have the gift of healing, or the word of wisdom, or the word of knowledge, even the gift of tongues.

To bless others. It is always to bless others. He who speaks in the tongue edifies himself so that he can be fresh. To bless others. That is how it is. Think of this passage in Luke chapter 4. It is very important for us to understand it because I believe that many of our problems concerning the anointing of the Holy Spirit, concerning which there is so much confusion in the world today, will be solved when we understand this principle and ask God with the right motive.

You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with the wrong motive, that you may spend it on yourselves. Luke chapter 4. Jesus said in verse 18, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

He is speaking here about the anointing of the Holy Spirit for service. And he says, The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to do what? Now I want you to notice the results of the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

First of all, to preach the good news to the poor. It is the poor who are blessed. Secondly, to proclaim release to the captives. It is the captives who are blessed. Recovery of sight to the blind. It is the blind people who are blessed.

To set free those who are downtrodden. The downtrodden are blessed. To open the prison doors for those who are in prison. It is the prisoners who are blessed. Everything is for others. That is the purpose of the anointing of the Lord.

Counterfeit Spiritual Experiences and Testing the Spirits

Now, unfortunately, today, many people who wait in tarrying meetings and go to various places, hoping that somehow one day the Spirit of the Lord will hit them, they are not seeking to bless others. They are not banging at God's door because they are burdened about some needy person who needs to be helped.

No! They are seeking a thrill for themselves. And the devil is ready to give you whatever type of thrill you want. To satisfy you. With the thrill you looked for. And you go away thinking you got some blessing of the Spirit.

You are deceived, brother. Jesus was anointed to bless others. The man went seeking in his neighbor's house at midnight because he wanted food for someone else. And when you come to God like that, say, Lord, I don't want to live this selfish life where I only think of my blessing.

You know that verse where Jesus said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Let me turn you to Proverbs chapter 11. In that connection. Proverbs 11. It's a wonderful verse. Last part of verse 25.

Proverbs 11 .25 it says, He who waters others will be watered himself. In other words, God will pour water on you if your desire is to pour water on others. It's a very simple principle. This man who was so burdened to give food to his friend went to his neighbor, asked for it and got it.

And gave it all to his friend. If he got three loaves from his neighbor, he didn't need even one himself. He gave it all to his neighbor. He said, this is for you. It's for you. And I want to say to every single one here.

You seek God like that. Say, Lord, I want my life to count for you. I think of people around me who are in need. And I am not able to help them. There are two things we require there. One is a burden for the people around us.

And the second is an awareness that in myself I just don't have what it takes to give them a heavenly blessing. I need God's power. That's all. First of all, a burden for those around us who are in some type of need.

And secondly, an awareness that in myself I just don't have what it takes to bless that person. That will drive me to God. If I don't have either of these, if I don't have a burden, of course, I won't seek God.

Like I said, I'll be like that man, say, well, sorry, I don't have any food. Or like James says, be warmed and blessed, pray to the Lord, brother, go and seek God, I can't help you. Most believers are like that.

And that's why even if they get some type of so-called experience, it's a counterfeit. The real anointing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus described as rivers of living water flowing out of our innermost being.

Now, you know, in the gospel of John, Jesus spoke about water three times. And it's a progression. First of all, in John chapter 3, he spoke about being born of water. Being born of the Holy Spirit. It's like getting a little cup of water.

Cup of salvation. That's the first ministry of the Holy Spirit to bring us salvation. It's like getting a little cup of water. After being in the desert for so many years. And then in John chapter 4, when Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman, he said, the water that I give will become like a spring or a well of water.

That's the next stage. And this is a little better than a cup. You see, one advantage of having a well in your own house, in India anyway, is if the corporation water supply is turned off like it often is in many cities, you're not dry.

You've got your own well. Nobody outside can turn off your water supply. And that's the second stage of life in the Holy Spirit. Nobody outside can switch off your joy, your peace, your victory, your freshness.

You've got a well within you. It's not dependent on other people being nice to you or saying nice things. It's got nothing to do with other people. Nobody can turn off that supply. You've got the well within you.

You can always be full of joy and peace and victory. But that's only stage 2. Then in John chapter 7, verse 37 and 38, Jesus spoke about rivers. Now when a river starts flowing out of a person, that's not to bless him.