The Baptism in the Holy Spirit： The Genuine and the Counterfeit — Zac Poonen

The Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the Need for Humility

So, dear brothers and sisters, we are going to talk about a very important subject, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the genuine and the counterfeit. And as I thought about it, I said, Lord, who is sufficient to speak about this glorious subject?

It is only Jesus who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. And he gives us the privilege and honor to speak about this amazing subject. So, I want to approach it in humility, recognizing that I don't know everything.

But it has pleased the Lord to fill me with the Holy Spirit, to see the evidence of it in my life and my ministry. And I long that, I can honestly say this, I long that every one of God's children will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Transformation from Defeat to Spirit-Empowered Life

Every one of you, my dear brothers and sisters. It made a world of difference in my life, and I'm not exaggerating, from just being an ordinary Christian to one being filled with the Holy Spirit. It changed my life, it changed my ministry.

When God met with me 46 years ago, I'd already been a Christian for 16 years before that. Born again, studying the Bible, I knew the Bible pretty well. And I was preaching, I was in full-time Christian work, but I was defeated.

Discouragement, anger, my thought life, motives. And, you know, in the old covenant, they could only clean up your external life. Don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't steal. But Jesus came to do something within.

And He cannot do anything within you or me without the Holy Spirit's power. Now, I know there's a lot of human programs. Psychology teaches a lot of human programs that can make you improve your conduct and your behavior.

And there are yogic exercises people teach to overcome anger and so many things like this. Yeah, but there's a lot of difference between that external being nice and good and self-controlled and having a changed heart within.

Jesus didn't just come to make us nice in our behavior. He came to change us from within where our hearts are devoted in a fire that cannot be quenched. Devoted to God, first of all, and so fervent in love for one another that any amount of cold water people throw upon us will not quench this fire of the Holy Spirit, will not move us out of love.

Do you want such a life? See, Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit in John chapter 7 and verse 37, On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

And then if he believes in me from his innermost being, not on the outside, from his innermost being, that means from deep within his thoughts, attitudes, motives, which nobody can see, from there will come gushing forth a spring which will be rivers of living water that flow in many directions to bless people.

That is God's will, not just for a select few, for every single one of God's children, but only those who are thirsty. That means those who are fed up with their dry life. I was fed up with my dry life.

That's why I began to seek God 47 years ago, along with others who were fed up with their dry lives. So if you're sort of satisfied with your Christian life, God's not really going to meet with you. It's like forgiveness of sins.

Why is it so many people in the world have no desire to seek God for the forgiveness of their sins? They don't realize how sick they are with sin. See, when a person is really aware of how serious his sickness is, you won't have to urge him to go to a doctor.

He'll go immediately. He'll go on his own. And it's the same way we seek for forgiveness of sins. When we realize how sin is ruining us and leading us on to an eternal hell, we'll go running to the Savior and say, Lord, save me, forgive me.

In the same way, when we realize that God has done so much for us through Christ dying on the cross, and there springs up within us a gratitude and say, Lord, how can I express my gratitude to you? That's how it came out with me.

I said, Lord, you've done so much for me. How shall I respond? Like we sing in that song, by and by, when we look on his face, I wish I had given him more. That's a song I sing many times to myself. By and by, when I look on his face, I wish I had given him more.

And I say, Lord, it's been like that in past years, but I don't want it to be like that in the future. I don't want to wish I'd given you more. I want to give you everything now so that when I see you face to face, I have no regret.

I believe all of you sincere children of God, you really don't want to have any regret when you meet the Lord face to face. I don't want to have any regret because I don't have a second chance to live this life.

There's only one chance to live this life. And I want to say this very plainly. If you don't want to have any regret when you meet the Lord face to face, which will happen very soon when Christ comes back, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit every day.

It's not a once for all experience. It begins and then it's like a river. It starts flowing and then it must keep on flowing every day. See, this is what made the apostles so different. It was not some new teaching that they got on the day of Pentecost.

So, you know, we, many of us listen to messages on YouTube and perhaps some of you have heard hundreds of messages on YouTube. Good. That instructs us. We've got the Bible in so many versions and we see what it says in this meaning and this translation and that translation.

But all of that is nothing compared to being filled with the Holy Spirit. If you really want to please the Lord, it's not enough to know the Bible. It's not enough to listen to hundreds of messages. That's all good.

You have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And until you see the desperate necessity of this, you're not going to thirst for it. I think the reason why many, many Christians are not filled with the Holy Spirit is they're not thirsty.

They're not desperately thirsty. They feel it's like a good thing. Yeah, if we get it, it'll be good. It's like you already have enough. For example, you're living in a nice house. Would you like a better house?

Yeah, if possible, it'll be with more conveniences, sure. But it's not so desperate because my present house is good enough. That's exactly how many believers are. Yeah, my present life is pretty good.

I mean, of course, I'd like it. I can have this fullness of the Spirit. Some people talk about it. It'll be great. I'm not desperate. It's not that urgent that I have to forsake everything and seek God for it.

No. I want to tell you, I mean, God may be merciful and fill you with the Holy Spirit, but I doubt it very much. Because Jesus is not inviting everybody. He's inviting those who thirst. It's like forgiveness of sins.

He's not inviting everybody. Those who are fed up with their defeated life, those who want forgiveness of sins. Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. Those are the ones he invited. What about those who are quite comfortable and sitting back and saying, we're okay?

He's not inviting them. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. Come to me, all who are thirsty for something more than you already have. Who reads the scriptures and finds that the apostles had something that you don't have.

And you read the testimonies of other godly people, or you hear the testimonies of other godly people, and you discover that something happened in their life that changed them after they were born again.

And you discover it is the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This is how it was with me. You know, after I was born again, I was in a church which did not preach the baptism of the Holy Spirit at all. But as I read the scriptures, I found there was a need for it.

And as I looked at my own life and I saw my powerlessness and lack of authority and fear of Satan, I wouldn't know what to do if a demon possessed person came in my way. And I was afraid to stand out and boldly proclaim Christ in the streets.

I said, Lord, I'm scared to be a witness. And then I read in the gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles how the disciples were just like me in the beginning. Not only in the beginning, after three and a half years of walking and talking with Jesus Christ.

Imagine, one would think that their lives would be completely changed after that. And that when the Lord said, go into all the world, they'd be ready to go, but they were not. We read even after they saw Jesus risen from the dead.

You read that in John chapter 20. They were in a closed door. And when the Lord appeared to them, they were locked up there out of fear. And seven days later, again, they were locked inside a door. They'd locked the door.

They were afraid to go out. And then Jesus appeared again. And even though they saw Jesus off and on for 40 days, now and then, they were still behind closed doors. But one day, when they were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they threw open the doors and nobody could shut it after that.

Then they didn't care who thought what about them, whether they were locked in prison or anywhere. They went out in the world and you know what happened. Those 12 disciples changed the world in such a way that the effect of it we see today 2000 years later.

What was it? Did those 12 disciples get a PhD in some biblical theology or something like that? No, thank God. They never went to a Bible school. That was their salvation. They didn't accumulate knowledge.

You don't need so much knowledge. Most of us, if you read the Bible, you got more knowledge than most of the apostles. So we have a written Bible with us. We can read all the time in so many versions.

They didn't have that. But what did they have that we don't have? The mighty power of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist is called the forerunner. One who came before Jesus to prepare the way. There's a sense in which the Holy Spirit does the work of John the Baptist and that's also preparing the way.

The Spirit Points to Christ and Prepares the Way

And he first, like John the Baptist in John 1 .29, pointed to Jesus and said, there is the one who, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John 1 .29. Remember, this is John the Baptist preparing the way for Christ.

And think of John the Baptist ministry now preparing the way for you and me to meet with the Lord. He first points to Jesus and says, John 1 .29, behold, that means look carefully. There, that Jesus, that is the Lamb of God who takes away your sin.

And we look carefully. And most of us have looked there and we saw him as the one who's taken away our sin on the cross. And we were free. What a difference that made when Christ came into your life. And the burden of sin was gone.

And we could say, he doesn't remember my sin anymore. I'm declared righteous now. I'm accepted before God. I don't come with fear that God may punish me. No, he's accepted me. I am his son. I can call him father.

All that happened in a moment. When we looked at the one who took away the sin of the world, John the Baptist pointed him out. Then the next thing after that, that John the Baptist said is also, this is the one he said, behold, one who takes away the sin of the world, John 1 .29.

But he said another thing. He is also the one, verse 33, who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. The two things he said, pointing at Jesus. There is the one who takes away the sin of the world. And there is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.

He says, don't come to me. I can't forgive your sin, John the Baptist says. And I say the same thing. Don't come to me for the forgiveness of sins. I can't forgive your sin. Go to him. He's the one who forgives.

And I say, John the Baptist said, don't come to me to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I'll baptize you in water, he said. But he's the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I say the same thing to people who say, will you come and lay hands on me to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

No, I can baptize you in water. He is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Jesus, go to him. I thank God I went to him. No man could baptize me in the Holy Spirit. A thousand godly men laying hands on my head would not baptize me in the Holy Spirit.

It's Jesus. There was a day in my life when Jesus laid his hand upon me and filled me with the Holy Spirit. Ask him to do that. If you have a thirst, if you have a longing because you find yourself defeated by sin.

The Apostles Needed Power, Not More Information

And what happened? These people spent three and a half years after that, listening to Jesus, these disciples. And they were still not ready. They had so much information. All the wonderful truths in the four Gospels.

Amazing truths. Think of Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7. Think of John 14, 15, 16, 17, those chapters. What amazing truths. The parables in Luke chapter 15. They heard it all. They were not ready. Did they have a desire?

Sure. Did they have a spirit of sacrifice? Sure. They had given up their jobs, their earthly jobs, in order to follow Jesus and proclaim the Gospel. They were not ready. You may know the Bible. You may be forgiven.

And you may have a great eagerness to preach the Gospel. You may have given up your job to serve the Lord. But you're not fit. There was one more thing they needed. That is vital. They were very eager to go out and preach.

And Jesus said, no. No, no, no, no, no. Wait. You've got zeal, you've got desire, all that is there. But you don't realize you're powerless. You'll go out and then you'll come back in fear after a little while.

Or something or the other will happen and you'll give up. But if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, nothing will stop. Till the day you die, you'll go on serving me. So the Lord said, wait. Acts 1 verse 8.

Wait. And that you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit. When he comes upon you. And then, not you should go out and witness for me. No. You will be. It'll drive you. The Holy Spirit will drive you to be my witness.

It's an inner pressure that comes through the Holy Spirit. Have you experienced that? That's God's desire. An inner pressure and burden to sacrifice, to give up everything for Jesus. To forsake the attachments to this world.

To proclaim the gospel to everyone possible. To lead people to Christ and to a godly life. You will receive power. To be witnesses unto me. And that will not only be with your words. He didn't say you will be, have power to bear witness to me.

You'll have power to be. To be means with your life first. And then with your words. And so they waited. And they didn't know when the Holy Spirit would come upon them. They waited, waited, waited. And it says here, on the day of Pentecost.

Suddenly, Acts 2 verse 2. There came a noise. It doesn't say there was a wind. It was a noise. Like the sound of a wind. And it filled the house. And the first thing that happened. Listen to this. Was not speaking in tongues.

If you read the scripture carefully. You will see that they did not first speak in tongues. It's very, very important to see that. And I've hardly heard any preacher point this out. But I keep pointing it out all the time.

The Holy Spirit came and. Tongues of fire. Verse 3. Rested on each one of them. There was a tongue of fire. On their heads. On all 120 of them. As it were, the Lord was saying. There's one part of your body.

From now on. That I'm going to set on fire primarily. That's your tongue. Not your hand or leg or eyes or anything. Your tongue. You're going to be my witnesses. And your tongue will be set on fire. By the Holy Spirit.

The Tongue of Fire and Spirit-Controlled Speech

So that not just when you preach. But all the time. Your speech will be controlled by the Holy Spirit. So let's stop there. Before we go into anything further. And ask ourselves. Do you want that? Do you want your tongue.

To be under the control of the fire of the Holy Spirit. Purifying everything that's unclean. And dishonest. And unloving. From your speech. Every day. 24 hours a day. Do you want that? I don't know. A lot of people would like to have.

The anointing of the Holy Spirit to preach God's Word. You hear some mighty anointed preacher and say. Wow. I'd like to preach like him. I'd like to be anointed the Holy Spirit to preach like him. Hang on.

What about the way you speak. To your neighbors and friends and people in your office. And your wife and your children. You want your tongue to be under the control of the Holy Spirit. Then. Well I'll tell you my own testimony.

I was defeated. With my tongue. In. General life. Anger. Discouragement. Words of discouragement. And etc. And I. My first prayer was not. I don't want to speak in tongues Lord. I never asked for speaking in tongues.

But I said Lord I want. My mother tongue. To be controlled by the Holy Spirit. In other words my ordinary speech. That's what I see in Acts chapter 2 verse 3. Tongues of fire. Your mother tongue will be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

And I said Lord. In my ordinary speech. I want to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. That's where. That's the thing that drove me to the Lord. I'm defeated. Discouragement in my heart. And an uncontrolled tongue.

Anger and other things. In my. In my tongue. I want that to come under the control of the Holy Spirit. So that's what I see in Acts chapter 2 verse 3. Do you want that in your life? If so. Seek the Lord.

Thirst for it. Say Lord. I do not want ever. To speak words. That dishonor you. See this verse for example. Take this verse as a challenge. I've done it myself. In Colossians in chapter. Four. Colossians.

After four. And verse six. Let your speech always. 24 hours of the day. Seven days of the week. That's the meaning of always. Let your speech always. Be with grace. You know it isn't. It isn't. With all of us.

That's how we start. It's not with grace. It's with rudeness. It's with anger. And it's with bitterness sometimes. And spite and. Trying to hit people and. Jealousy and strife and. Everything comes out through the tongue.

And here is the Lord holding up a standard before us. You said if you love me keep my commandments. Let your speech always. Be with grace. Not most of the time. I mean if you wanted just most of the time forget it.

This is not worth not for you. But if you want your speech always. To be with grace. So that you will know exactly how you should answer. Every single person you meet or who talks to you. It doesn't matter if they speak rudely or kindly to you.

You will know how to answer. That person. This is the meaning of having salt it says in this verse. In your speech. That adds taste to the food. That adds taste to the good taste. To our speech. And if you need to just take that one verse.

It will drive you to seek the power of the Holy Spirit. For the tongue of fire to be over you. And. I know I began to seek God for that. And that's what drove me and made me. Made the Lord meet with me.

And I'm very thankful. And it says here. That. Then they also had the gift of tongues. They began to speak in tongues as God gave them tongues. That's not a gift that God gives to everyone. It's very clear in 1 Corinthians.

Chapter 12. Are all prophets. Are all apostles. You see towards the end of 1 Corinthians 12. Do all speak in tongues. Do all interpret. Very clear. That all are not apostles. All are not prophets. You read the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

And you see that all do not speak in tongues. So don't think that being filled with the Holy Spirit will make you an apostle. Or a prophet. Or a teacher. Or make you speak in tongues. But it will give you the tongue of fire.

Control your mother tongue. And. It will give you boldness. To be a witness for Christ. You shall receive power. And. Not you should be. Acts 1 .8 is very clear. It doesn't say after you get power. You should be my witnesses.

You know we have a lot of preachers telling people in the churches. God you should be a witness for Christ man. You should be a witness for Christ. Right. We tell people you should be witnessing for Christ in your office.

In your office. And in your school. And everything. And college. That's not what Jesus said. He never said you should be my witnesses. I don't see that anywhere. You know the difference between somebody telling you.

You should be this. And you shall be this. Especially when Jesus says. You should be means. Okay. Lord. I see an obligation. I have to be your witness. And I try to be your witness. That's how I took it.

Until God filled me with the Holy Spirit. Then I became his witness. You see you don't have to push a river. You don't have to push a river saying. Come on. Flow. I remember in the early days of my life.

When I was seeking to be a witness. Or to preach for Christ. It's like these hand pumps. In India we have. In the villages. Where there's no running water in the houses. Hand pumps. That are in some streets.

They keep a hand pump. Where the women in the village. Will come with their buckets. And collect water. You've got to pump. And pump. And pump. And the water comes out little by little. That's how my Christian life was.

Pump. And pump. And pump. And pump. That's not a river. Nobody pumps a river. It just flows. How is it in your life? I praise God that. The fullness of the Holy Spirit. Changed my whole attitude towards.

Witnessing for Christ. Or. Wanting to love people. And to love God. It wasn't somebody had to push me. Come on. Love them. And come on. Love God. Come on. Read the Bible. Come on. Listen to God. No. It all went.

There was an inner urge. It was not pumping. Pumping. Pumping. And getting a few drops out. Even my preaching was like that those days. Pump. And pump. And pump. And pump. And pump. And a little water comes out.

But boy. When I was filled with the Holy Spirit. And I continued to live the fullness of the Spirit. There's a world of difference. I'm not saying you'll all have my gift. My gift is teaching. That's.

God gives different gifts. But whatever gift God gives you. He didn't say here you will all be teachers. You will all expound the word. No. You will be my witnesses. And there are different ways in which the Holy Spirit makes us witnesses.

But you will be a witness. Not you should witness. No. When the Holy Spirit fills you. You should be a witness. No. You will be a witness. There'll be that inner urge. That pushes something out. You can't stop it.

It's like a woman giving birth to a baby. Just pushed out. And like a river flowing. That's a better illustration. A river just flowing out. Flowing and flowing. Well, you can't stop it. That's how it is.

Love, Unity, and the True Evidence of the Spirit

It's like a fire that keeps burning. And there's a verse in the Song of Solomon that I love to think of in relation to this fire. Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit as the rivers of living water. John the Baptist called it a baptism of fire.

It says here that in Song of Solomon, the last chapter, chapter 8, verse 7. Many waters cannot quench the fire of love. Even rivers cannot quench it. Imagine such a fire. That you send a river through it.

And the fire just dries up the river and keeps on burning. Think of that picture in Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verse 7. What a picture that is of the fire of the Holy Spirit. That no opposition. Rivers of opposition.

Rivers of temptation. The fire keeps burning. Don't you want a life like that? That's what happened to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. You couldn't shut their mouths after that. You couldn't put fear into their hearts after that.

The rivers of fear and discouragement and all were wiped out with the fire of the Holy Spirit. That is a baptism of fire. Not only that, another thing happened was, you see, before that, even on the last day that they spent with Jesus at the table, at the last supper, they were not united.

They all wanted to be the leader. And they were all fighting with each other for leadership. But what a difference when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were united. Those 120 people became one.

See, it was individuals were set on fire. A fire that many rivers could not quench. But also, this fire burnt these 120 people and made them into one body. It's like 120 pieces of iron. All individual strong pieces of iron thrown into the furnace and come out as one piece.

You couldn't separate it. These 120 pieces of iron had become one. That's the other thing that happens through the, baptism means the immersion of the Holy Spirit. Baptism, baptizer is a Greek word that means immerse.

We immerse people in water, that's called baptism in water. Immersed in the Holy Spirit is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's like standing under a waterfall, you're immersed. The waterfall from heaven symbolizing the Holy Spirit.

And so when this, they experienced this, it says here, there's amazing words in Acts chapter 2. When Peter stood up to Peach, he was standing alone. Have you noticed this little expression? Acts 2 14, Peter took his stand with the 11.

The 11, the 12 had become one. Peter was just a spokesman. But they were one body. It's like the mouth speaks, but the whole body is cooperating in the mouth speaking. And Peter was just the mouth there.

It's amazing what the fullness of the Holy Spirit does. That's how our churches should be. That's what we need to emphasize in our churches. That everyone should be filled with the Holy Spirit. The sad thing is so many Christians are content with something much less than that.

They don't have it, they don't have a tongue of fire, their speech is all uncontrolled. But they're quite happy. They're quite happy as it is. And if you're happy, of course, you never make any progress.

I mean, it's like the man who's happy in a sinful life. He dies and goes to hell. You have to have a desire to turn away from sin to come to Christ and be saved. In the same way, you have to be fed up with your defeated life to be able to seek God for power.

Fed up with your lack of boldness. Fed up with your lack of control of your tongue and control of your thoughts. Fed up with the inability to love people. That's the other thing. Jesus said, all men will know you are my disciples when you love one another.

If you find an inability to forgive somebody who hurt you badly. Do you know what you need? Not 10 sermons on forgiveness. Being filled with the Holy Spirit. You read in Romans in chapter 5. I believe this is the primary mark.

Of being filled with the Holy Spirit. I know some Christians say it is speaking in tongues. It is not. Speaking in tongues is one of the gifts. God gives it to some people. It's a useful gift if God gives it.

God gave it to me 46 years ago. I didn't look for it. He just gave it to me. And I use it in my private devotion to the Lord. Never in public. But it is not the biggest thing in my life. Here is what is the biggest thing in my life.

Romans 5 and verse 5. When the Holy Spirit is poured into my heart it is the love of God that fills my heart. That is what I seek for. In heaven we are not going to speak in tongues. Which shows that it is only a temporary thing for here on this earth.

In heaven we are not going to prophesy or have teaching or healing or any such thing. Those are all temporary gifts of the Holy Spirit. But there is something that is eternal. And that is love. And it says here, the love of God is poured out through the Holy Spirit given to us.

That is the fire. The fire that burnt in Jesus' heart was a fervent love for his father and a fervent love for God's people. And for all people. And he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And this is the same spirit he gives to us.

He said, I am going to send you another helper. What does it mean to have the love of God poured in our hearts? I see it like this. First of all it is the assurance the Holy Spirit comes into my heart and says God is not angry with you.

You know the number of Christians who constantly feel God has got something against me all the time. He is such a strict demanding person. Who tells you that? The devil. And the devil has convinced so many believers who live in constant tension what is God angry with me?

Every morning get up and say what is God angry with me today? Well I tell you he is not angry with you. He loves you and he wants to assure you of his tremendous love. He who gave his only son for us how will he not with him also freely give us all things?

We read in Romans 8. That is the first part of the love of God which is the Holy Spirit. I remember in my life I lived with this tension of oh I am not pleasing the Lord he must be angry with me there must be something wrong with me he is looking at me he is not looking at me with a very loving way there is a frown on his face every time he looks at me and says ah you are not all that you should be.

I remember I had a dream once and in that dream I saw myself coming back from a meeting at which I had spoken coming back to the house in which I was staying somewhere in some distant place and I felt I had poured out my heart done my best to preach the word that day and as I came back I heard a voice behind me saying that was not good enough that was not good enough and I was so discouraged after having served the Lord so wholeheartedly to hear the Lord saying it was not good enough and I said Lord why are you saying that when I speak to you face to face you always encourage me when you speak from behind my back you say it is not good enough and the Lord said to me in my dream turn around and see who it is and I turned around in my dream and I saw it was a devil some black figure that ran away as soon as I turned around I learned something that day more than 45 years ago and I have never forgotten the voice that says that was not good enough is always always the devil.

You think it is the Holy Spirit trying to challenge you to a higher life. No that is the devil trying to discourage you. You parents who keep telling your children there is a devil coming through you whether you realize it or not.

God's voice is very different. He encourages us. Yes that was great. Well done. Of course he challenges us to do better next time. Sure. Just like you want your child to go from 2nd standard or 2nd grade to 3rd grade to 4th grade you want your child to go on from 1st standard to the higher.

So does God want. So the first thing that the Holy Spirit does is assure you God loves you perfectly. He loves you like he loved Jesus. That was the revelation that came to my heart from John 17 23. As the father loved Jesus he loves me.

And the Holy Spirit brought that it brought such rest into my heart and I want to live there. The second thing in which it says the love of God this is in me a fervent love for Jesus. And he's kept that fire going in my heart.

Now for 46 years to love Jesus more and more and more the flame becoming more and more and more. So that in your waking hours even in the middle of the night when you wake up you say Lord Jesus I love you.

And your heart is full of love for Christ. And you're willing to sacrifice anything in the world for him. He gave his son a sacrifice is one of the great marks of love. If you love Jesus you'll be willing to make any sacrifice for him.

And the Holy Spirit does that. When you think of the great saints and missionaries who made tremendous sacrifices for the sake of Christ to spread the gospel you say boy how did they do it. I'll tell you the Holy Spirit moved them within giving them a love for Christ.

And the Holy Spirit comes and fills our heart to love other people God's children and others. And that enables us to forgive those who hurt us. Like Jesus forgave people on the cross. See the worst sin that any human being has ever committed against another in the history of the world is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.