Seeking God for the Spirit's Power (Kannada) — Zac Poonen

Calling Upon the Lord in Faith

Let's turn to Psalm 91. We were looking at verses 14 to 16. And we saw three conditions there. The first is that we love the Lord. Second, that we know His name. And we already saw those two. The third thing mentioned is, He will call upon me.

And let me repeat, there are some wonderful promises here. Let me repeat them. I will deliver Him. I will set Him on high. I will answer Him. I will be with Him in trouble. I will rescue Him. I will honor Him.

I will satisfy Him with a long life. And I will let Him see my salvation. This is in line with what we have been considering since yesterday that God honors those who honor Him. These are various ways in which God honors those who honor Him.

So, we want to look at this third condition. He will call upon me. One of the things that the Bible teaches is that if we do not ask, we do not have. See this verse. In James 4 verse 2, the last part, you do not have because you do not ask.

In the next verse, you ask and still do not receive because you ask with wrong motives. So, there are two reasons why we do not get what God wants us to have mentioned here. One is because we do not ask.

And the other is because we ask with wrong motives. In the earlier chapter of James chapter 1, he gives us a third reason. And that is, if you ask, it says in James 1 verse 6, that when you ask, you must ask in faith.

And if you do not ask in faith, verse 7, then again you get nothing. So, there are three reasons James mentions why we do not get from the Lord. One, we do not ask. Two, we ask with wrong motives. Or third, when we ask, we do not believe that God will give it to us.

Just think of these three reasons. Is it possible that God wanted to give you something, but you never got it because you never asked Him for it? And is it possible that even when you asked, you still did not get because God saw your motive was wrong?

That means your motive was to promote yourself and to get something important for yourself. Whereas if you had sought the glory of God, you may have got it. And thirdly, do you think there could be a number of things that you did not get from God because when you asked, you did not believe that He would give it to you?

Pentecost and the Birth of the Church

In the Acts of the Apostles, what is the first thing we find that the Apostles are seeking God for? They gathered together to pray for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Today we talk about the church. We say the church in Hubli.

The first church was in Jerusalem. And do you know how that church started? That was not a very big church. There were only 120 people in it. And I think that is a good size for a church where there are 120 adults and perhaps a number of children.

And when it becomes more than that, it is good to make it two churches. But the most important thing, how did that church in Jerusalem start? It was not because they believed in some doctrine. Yeah, they believed in many good doctrines.

But they believed in those doctrines even before the church started. I mean if you ask them, they were praying there for 10 days. They were calling upon the Lord like we read in Psalm 91. For 10 days.

And if you had asked them before the 10 days, check all the doctrines they believed. Do you believe you are a sinner? Yes. Do you believe Christ died for your sins? Yes. Do you believe that Christ rose up from the dead?

Yes. Do you believe He ascended to heaven? Yes. Do you believe He is coming back to judge people? Yes. Do you believe God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Do you believe God cleanses every sin in the blood of Christ?

Every doctrine that we check with people when they come to our church, they already believed. But they were still not a church. You know when they became a church? When they were baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Not 5 or 10 of them. All 120. Boy, what a church that was. I would have loved to be in a church like that where all 120 have got the real baptism in the Holy Spirit. They didn't come together to listen to some great preacher from America who has come to preach to them.

Nobody went around laying hands on. Nobody laid hands on anybody. There was no music to make people feel emotional. There was no preacher coaching them how to speak in tongues. It was 100 the work of the Holy Spirit.

And they had such tremendous power. Peter got up and preached for about 10 -15 minutes and 3000 people got converted. It says in the end of that chapter, Acts chapter 2, the last sentence in verse 47, and the Lord added to their number every day those who were being saved.

You know, they didn't go around trying to grab people from the Jewish synagogues saying, come and join us. They stood there as a church on fire for God and those who wanted to come came. The Lord brought them.

So, the first thing they prayed for and called upon the Lord for was for the power of the Holy Spirit. That's how the church was born. So, I believe that is how we must pray also. I don't know whether all of you pray to God that you might always be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Seeking the Spirit for God's Glory

You don't have because you don't ask. Or you ask and you don't get, secondly, because you ask with wrong motives. I think a lot of people are praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the wrong motive.

They want to become some great preacher or they want to get some excitement they can testify about. They are not praying saying, Lord, you are not being glorified in my life. I want you to be glorified in my life.

If that was their prayer, maybe they would have received long ago. I want to encourage you to pray like that. Say, Lord, I don't want to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit because I want to testify to other people.

I don't care what other people think. I want a fire in my life which I don't have. See, that's what these people prayed for. They said, Lord, we need power in our life. See, going back to this verse, those who honor me, I will honor.

If you have discovered in these days that you are not honoring God in your life, you are not honoring God in your thoughts or your words or in your home. Will you say, Lord, I have only one desire, that I might honor you in my life.

I don't want any honor for myself. I want to honor you in my life. In everything, my thoughts, which nobody sees but you, must honor you. The words I speak at home, in the office, in the bus, when things go wrong, the words I speak must always honor you.

Even when things go wrong in my life, the words I speak must honor you. But they are not honoring you right now, Lord. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit because I want to live a life that honors you.

Do you think God will answer you? Do you believe that he loves you as much as he loved Peter and James and John who were praying there in Acts chapter 1? Do you believe that God will honor you as much as he loved Peter, James, John and John who were praying there in Acts chapter 1?

He does. He loves you just as much. Why won't he do for you what he did for Peter? If I call upon him and I'm praying with the right motive that I want to honor him, what is the third thing? I pray with faith.

I believe that he will answer me. I remember when I started praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a young man of 23 years old. I didn't know much about it. I didn't have a single person who was like a spiritual father to correct me or instruct me.

I had to seek God on my own. When I said, Lord, I don't want any counterfeit in my life. I want a genuine baptism in the Holy Spirit. If it takes 10 years, I'll wait 10 years. I don't want to just believe I got something when I didn't really get anything.

I'm willing to believe. I'm not asking for any feelings. I didn't have any feelings when I was sure my sins were forgiven. I'm not seeking for any feelings now. But I want a real genuine experience. If you pray like that, I can tell you, your life will be changed.

Because it changed my life. I want to tell you something else. There were older people praying here for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, like Mary, who was probably 50 -55 years old. Mother of Jesus. She was between 50 -55 years by then.

And there were young people, like John, who was 30 years old. The oldest of the apostles was Peter, 33. None of the apostles were older than 33. They were all young people praying. There were young sisters there.

Young brothers. I'm sure there were a lot of young people there, 25, 27, 28 years old. Just like many of you. I don't believe there were many old people there. There may have been a few like Mary's age, but not many.

Most of the people who followed Jesus were younger people. The older people just despised him and wanted to kill him. So, that's a great encouragement to young people like you. That the first church on the day of Pentecost was mostly comprised of young people.

I wouldn't be surprised if 100 out of 120 people were below the age of 35. There may have been about 20 people older than that. They were young people who were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they shook Jerusalem.

The Spirit's Power Rather Than Money and Music

They didn't have influence. They didn't have money. They didn't have great musicians. They didn't have money to hire big stadiums to have meetings. But they shook Jerusalem and shook the world. Not because they were large in number.

You can look at all the big, big Christian meetings today and say, well, we can't do all that. We don't have the money to hire a stadium. And all the lakhs of rupees it costs to do the advertisement. And we don't have great musicians and choir and all those things.

We don't have any rich people to finance all these expenses. Well, then you must be just like those apostles on the day of Pentecost. You are just like them. They didn't have any of these things. No musicians, no money.

And not only that, the whole city was against them. Imagine if the whole city was against you. And they wanted to kill you because they've already killed your leader. These were the people who were praying.

And that's how the church was born. The church was born in the midst of opposition. The church was not born with a lot of Christian television programs. The church was not born with a lot of people asking people to give money, money, money for God's work.

Personally, I am absolutely convinced that money and music have replaced the power of the Holy Spirit in today's Christianity. That's why I decided long ago in my life, I will never depend on money, I will never depend on music.

I am never bothered whether the music is good or bad. I am never bothered whether we have money or no money. Because I see in Acts chapter 2, they didn't have money, they didn't have music. We have to change our way of thinking, otherwise the way of thinking of this Christian world will change our way of thinking.

I find many people in our churches are influenced by what is happening in Christianity around them. I have watched Christianity for 47 years, which is much longer than all of you. But I have refused to be influenced by all these things I see around me.

I keep going back to the word of God and I see only one thing, they had the power of the Holy Spirit. But they were not at all interested in money. If they had music, they would use it. If they didn't have music, they couldn't care less for that.

Bold Prayer in the Face of Opposition

But they prayed and prayed for the power of the Holy Spirit. They were locked up, beaten. See this example in Acts chapter 4. We read here that the apostles we read here were locked up in prison in Acts chapter 4, verse 3.

And then they brought them out to ask them a question in verse 18. And they said, you have to stop preaching in the name of Jesus. And they said, we can't stop. We have to speak what we have heard, verse 20.

You think we should listen to you, verse 19, or listen to God? They were ready to go to jail. In fact, they went to jail many times. And when they were released, verse 23, what did they do? They went to the church.

And they said, see these people are threatening us again. What shall we do? Shall we contact Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea? They helped us last time. Shall we use their influence? Because they were influential people.

No, we are not bothered about Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea. We are not trying to see if there are some Christians who are in big offices who can help us. They said, we will pray. Like it says in Psalm 91, he will call upon me and I will honor him.

You know, when you are in a difficult situation, who you turn to shows where your faith is. In the old testament, there were times in Israel, they had a difficult situation, they would go to some idol.

And God would make fun of them through his prophets. Ok, go to your idol, let's see how much he can help you. In the same way, we can have idols in our life, where we depend on our resources or on some human being.

And God says, ok, you are depending on that, go ahead. But God is so honored when, like these apostles, we turn to him and say, Lord, you help us. I want you young people to learn from a very young age.

When we are in trouble, call upon the Lord. That's what they did here. Together they prayed with unity to the Lord. With one accord, it says in verse 24. Wherever God finds people in unity, praying together for his help, he always answers.

And what did God answer? How did God answer? Verse 31, he filled them with the Holy Spirit all over again. So that is always God's way of answering. See, they didn't pray, Lord protect us, don't let us go into jail again.

No, we are ready to go to jail, that's no problem. But Lord, please, verse 29, help us to speak your word with all boldness. And do signs and wonders, verse 30, in the name of Jesus. And God filled them with the Holy Spirit.

And I believe we need to pray such a prayer in our time also. I don't mean all these fake, counterfeit signs and wonders that are being done on platforms today by all types of preachers. I'm talking about real manifestation of God's power, where people recognize Jesus Christ as Lord.

These type of things, you can fool a few people. There are people who pray to these Roman Catholic shrines also. You see that in the newspapers that come, I prayed to the statue of Mary and I got a miracle.

I prayed to this infant Jesus statue and I got a miracle. Somebody says I prayed to Tirupati and I got a miracle from there. Somebody says I turned to Mecca and I prayed there and I got a miracle from there.

Which religion doesn't say that? All religions say all this. So, I'm not fooled by all these things. Christians say it and other religions people also say it. These people, there was such a genuine manifestation of power, it was not a counterfeit.

Pandita Ramabai and Revival in India

And I believe that India really needs to see it. We haven't seen it yet. Here and there, sometimes God has moved in great power. It's been my prayer that God would show that power once again in India.

I was reading about a very godly lady in Maharashtra called Pandita Ramabai. She was a Hindu convert who accepted the Lord. She had a little orphanage in a place near Pune called Kedgaon, where she cared for these helpless women, young girls.

You know, young girls who had child marriages and the boy died and she became a widow at the age of six. So, these child widows, these who were all rejected by society, people who were illiterate and poor and all these Marathi speaking people in that area, she gathered these poor girls together and prayed for the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

This is way back, about hundred years ago. And God mightily answered. Pandita Ramabai was a highly educated lady. She knew English and Hebrew and Greek and all that. But these were all poor Marathi speaking girls.

But one day the fire of God fell upon them. And she heard some of these people speaking in tongues, in English, good English. And in Hebrew, which she understood. And I heard one girl, they thought she was actually on fire.

They tried to pour water to quench the fire. Those simple women, they really were a flaming light for Jesus Christ. See, God doesn't choose. If there was no music, there was no money there, they had the power of the Holy Spirit.

See, those are the type of things I look for. I am not looking for all these big platforms with American preachers with big lights and lot of money. It's all more like the film stars. The preacher comes in a helicopter.

I am not interested in that. These type of things which you just heard, that's the real thing. If you want that, you got to shut your ears and eyes to what you see in Christendom today. And come back to what we see in the Acts of the Apostles.

Guarding the Church's Spiritual Life

Lord, I want the genuine power of God in my life. And we need to gather together people who are seeking for power. You know how the devil seeks to neutralize a church and spoil it? There are many ways.

One of the ways is by getting people to join the church who are not really interested in the fire of the Holy Spirit. And if the elders in a church are not very watchful, all types of half-hearted people will come and influence everybody.

And ultimately the whole church is corrupt. Two, three women will come who are just gossipers and backbiters sent by the devil to destroy the church. And they will come and gossip, gossip, backbite, gossip, gossip, and corrupt all the women and send a few half-hearted brothers into the church.

Or people come who only want money. All they want is to ask people to give them loans and money. And there will be stupid believers who will give them money. I'll tell you, there will be no revival there.

Because all these people come in, they're not interested in God. They're not interested in the power of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, their doctrine is all correct, they come for the conferences. But you've got to discern.

How many of these people are really interested in living a holy life? How many of these people are interested in being separated from the world and living for God? Those are the only people we want in the church.

The rest can go. I have said that for 30 years. I have so many denominations, why don't you go and sit there? Why waste our time? If they had 1 ,000 people there on the day of Pentecost, half-hearted people sitting around before the day of Pentecost for those 10 days, they wouldn't have prayed.

They would have sat and discussed and argued and discussed and argued and nothing would have happened even in a hundred days. But they were very careful. People like Peter and all didn't just allow any Tom, Dick and Harry to come and sit there.

It was not a social service club there. Social service clubs, there are so many other places they can go there. They came to seek for the power of God so that they can influence their city for God. They came together to seek God for power.

John the Baptist had said, when Jesus comes, he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. No, they wanted that. And they came together to pray for that. They knew it's not easy. They knew that God would test them to sift out all the people who are not interested.

Elisha's Perseverance and the Double Portion

God is always testing people. You take this example in 2 Kings chapter 2. We read there about Elijah and Elisha. And we read here that Elijah told Elisha in verse 2, You stay here in Gilgal, because I am going to Bethel.

They were in a place called Gilgal, verse 1. Elijah told Elisha, you stay here. I am going to Bethel. Elisha said, sorry, I am not going to listen to you. Imagine telling a senior prophet, I am not going to listen to you.

I am not going to leave you. I am going to come with you. So they came to Bethel. And there Elijah told Elisha, you stay here, verse 4. I am going to Jericho. No. Elisha said, sorry, I am not going to stay here.

I am going to come with you. Then they came to Jericho. Elijah told him in verse 6, you stay here. I am going to Jordan. He said, no, I am not going to stay. I am going to come with you. Elisha said, no, I am not going to stay.

I am going to come with you. They went through the river Jordan. Elijah divided the waters, verse 8, and the waters parted and he walked across just like the Egyptians, just like Israel came out of Egypt.

And then they came to the other side of the river. Then Elijah asked Elisha, why are you sticking to me like this? See, Elijah had already told Elisha, the Lord has told me I am going up today. So Elisha knew his master is going away.

What do you think Elisha wanted? See here, when some missionaries go away from some mission compound, you know that's how it's been everywhere in India. The missionaries will come and they will set up like the Basil mission compound, they will set up a mission compound in different places.

And then the time comes for them to go. Some people will cling close to them. They say, what do you want? Please make me the director when you go. Or give me your bungalow, your house when you go. Those are the things many people in India wanted when the missionaries left.

And they got it. A lot of Indian people have made a lot of money in the name of Jesus Christ, just like the money changers in the temple. I have seen that all across India. But Elisha did not ask for all that.

I don't want any of those things Elijah. I want a double portion, verse 9, of your spirit to be upon me. Elijah, I know the secret of your life was not money or music. You had no money and you couldn't sing.

But I saw the secret of your life. You had a power in your life. I want double of that in my life. What did Elijah say? If he was one of today's American preachers or Indian preachers, he would have said, I will lay hands on you, it's easy.

And they would place their empty hands on the fellow's empty head and they think they will get something. Nothing happens. But that's not what Elijah said. Elijah said, that's a very hard thing you have asked.

I don't know whether you will get it. I can't give it to you. Verse 10, it's a very hard thing you have asked. I am not just going to lay my empty hands on your head and say you got it. If God gives it to you, you will get it.

It has to come from heaven. Jesus is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist told people, I can baptize you in water. That's no problem, I can do that. But baptism in the Holy Spirit, I can't do that.

You have to go to Jesus. And I say that to you also. You want baptism in water? I can do that for you. But baptism in the Holy Spirit, go to the baptizer. Jesus, he is the only one whom God the Father has appointed to baptize people in the Holy Spirit and fire.

I went to him and I got it from him. My wife went to him and got it from him. She didn't get it from me. You have to go to him. And if you see me when I am gone, you will get it, otherwise you won't get it.

Jesus, I can't say. And that's what I say to people. I don't know whether you will get it or not. You can. You can get a double portion of my Spirit. But whether you will get it or not, I don't know. That depends on your heart.

What God sees in your heart. What your motives are. Whether you love him with all your heart. Whether you are willing to forsake everything to serve him and live for him. Whether you care for the opinions of men or the opinions of God.

And whether you will seek him with all your heart, then you will find him. I say the same thing that Elijah said. I don't know. It's a very hard thing. But you can get it. If God gives it to you and he sees your heart, he will give it to you.

And you know what happened? He got it. And if you study the life of Elisha, you see he did double the miracles that Elijah did. Exactly what he asked, he got. If Elijah raised one man from the dead, Elisha raised two people from the dead.

You know, it teaches us one thing. God honors those who ask in faith. You know, Elisha was not interested in money. Once Naaman came and gave him money. He said, I don't want it. Go away from here. He only wanted to glorify God.

And I'll tell you this, if your only desire is to glorify God, he will give you a double portion of his Holy Spirit. It's all a question of whether you are ready to receive. People sometimes ask me, why do you have to wait?

Emptying Ourselves to Receive the Spirit

We don't have to wait like those apostles on the day, for the day of Pentecost, because they had to wait because the day of Pentecost had not yet come. But now we don't have to wait. But still people have to wait for one reason.

They are not ready. That means, God says, I want to give it to you. You are not ready. It's like supposing a little child comes to the mother with a dirty cup full of muck. Say a glass full of rubbish and stones and all that.

He says, mummy, give me some milk. Mum says, sure, go and clean your glass and bring it here. And she throws away one or two stones and says, still there is a lot of muck there, give me some milk. Mum says, throw away the rubbish and then come.

And the child throws away one more stone and says, give me. Why does the child have to wait and wait and wait and wait? Is it because the mother is not willing to give milk? No, the cup is not clean. It's not empty.

That's why you have to wait. God says, I am more eager to fill you with the Holy Spirit than you are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I believe this with all my heart. After hearing this message, how many of you are eager to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

I will tell you, God is a hundred times more eager than you to fill you with the Holy Spirit. That is faith. Let me define faith for you. Faith is to believe that God is more eager to bless me than I am to be blessed.

If you don't believe that, you can't have faith. I believe God is more eager to bless me than I am to be blessed. If you don't believe that, don't waste your time praying. You won't get anything. You must believe.

God is more eager to fill you with the Holy Spirit than you are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But you have to empty your cup. Wrong desires, wrong motives, areas where you have not humbled yourself, things you have to set right, things you are still attached to, earthly ambitions, goals, what a lot of muck there is there.

Please give me some milk, give me some milk. Mommy says, no, go, go, empty the glass, empty the glass, empty the glass. Give me some milk, give me some milk. But mommy says, you have to empty it, set it right and clean it.

Elisha was testing you. Are you happy with this much? Elisha said, no. A little more. Are you happy with this much? No! I still want more. Go further. Are you happy with this much? No! One more point.

Are you happy with this much? No! And that's what the Lord is asking you. Are you happy with what you have got in your Christian life? Your sins are all forgiven. You are going to heaven. You are in a good church.

You have good conferences. Many people say, Lord, that's enough. That's all you will get. People like Elisha said, no. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, I want a double portion. All these things are good, but I am not satisfied.

Those are the ones who get God's best. Let's pray. I want to encourage you young people to believe God will meet with you. Don't be deceived by the Christendom you see around you. Don't follow after all those things they are following after.

Every single one of you, there is one thing you need, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire. Don't come to me because I can't give it to you. Go to Jesus, the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. I did not go to any man, I went to Jesus.

Oh my brother, sister, don't waste your life. Look at the things on earth that you pursue. Pursue the baptism in the Holy Spirit with much greater zeal and earnestness. That's how the church was born on the day of Pentecost.

Not with doctrine or preaching or music or money. It was the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's seek God for that. Especially young people, that's what you need. You need to be like a bush that is set on fire by God.

Prayer for a Spirit-Filled Witness

Heavenly Father, let your power be upon us. As we cry to you, we pray that you will pour out your Spirit upon us. Change our lives. Let there be a burning light for you in this city. Do it Lord. Even if it's only a few people, that you will raise up such a band of brothers and sisters.

Those who are on fire for God, they will never lose that fire. Till the day you come, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.