Looking Into God's Heart (Tamil) — Zac Poonen

Hearing God's Voice Through His Word

Whenever we come into God's presence, we want to hear what God has to say to us. Do you remember what Jesus said about how men speak? Do you remember what Jesus said about how men speak? In Matthew 12, verse 34, it says, The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

So, if we really hear the voice of God, we will hear what is in God's heart. Because it is from the heart that we speak, it is from the heart that God speaks. And it says in verse 35, The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good.

And the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil. All of us have been corrupted by evil. And even after we are born again, that evil in our flesh still remains. So when we listen to men, some words are totally evil, but a lot of words are corrupted by evil.

So when we listen to men, some words are totally evil, but a lot of words are corrupted by evil. But when we listen to God, it is only good. And the more we listen to God, His word changes our inside.

There is a lot of difference between reading the Bible and listening to God. There is a lot of difference between reading the Bible and listening to God. A lot of people read the Bible, but they don't listen to God.

And the proof is that their life is not changed. I discovered this in the past. I discovered this in the past. Sometimes when I spent only 15 minutes talking to a godly man, I found my life was affected sometimes permanently for the rest of my life.

Sometimes when I spent only 15 minutes talking to a godly man, I found my life was affected sometimes permanently for the rest of my life. And whenever we hear a very powerful anointed sermon, it really affects our life.

But how is it that people can spend half an hour reading the Bible and their life is not changed? But how is it that people can spend half an hour reading the Bible and their life is not changed? The reason is that they are not listening to God.

The reason is that they are not listening to God. If you can listen to 15 minutes of what I speak and you find your life is blessed, If you can listen to 15 minutes of what I speak and you find your life is blessed, the messages you have heard in the past have really changed your life.

It is because of listening to a man. Imagine what will happen if you could actually listen to God Himself. But as I said, listening to God is more than reading the Bible. But as I said, listening to God is more than reading the Bible.

We must have a great longing to know what is in God's heart. We must have a great longing to know what is in God's heart. We must have a great longing to know what is in God's heart. For many years, this has been my great longing.

I read the Bible to understand what is in God's heart. Lord, what is in your heart towards me? Lord, what is in your heart towards me? When I read John 17, verse 23, I understood that God loves me as He loves Jesus.

Even though thousands of people read this verse, they did not notice it. I also read it for many years before I even noticed it. I had read the Bible but not heard God's voice. Until I had a great longing to know what is in God's heart towards me.

I found He only had love, nothing else. He would never be angry with me. He would be sad if I did something wrong. Some people are afraid that God will be angry with them. And they live their life in fear.

If I do this, God will punish me. I used to think like that. I don't think like that now. Because I have seen God's heart. I have seen that if I do that, I will make God sad. And I don't want to make Him sad.

He may not punish me because all my punishment was taken by Jesus on the cross. He may discipline me because He loves me. But that is not the same as punishment. There is no punishment for me. And if you are a child of God, there is no punishment for you.

But if God loves you, He will discipline you so that you don't go astray. So, my dear brothers and sisters, even if you are a new believer, I want you to pray, God help me to see what is in your heart.

I tell you, it will change your life like it changed mine. When you read the Bible, don't be in a hurry to read it. Read it slowly. And say, Lord, what is in your heart? I want to know what your real longing is.

And then once you see what is in God's heart for yourself, then your life becomes secure there. Then you can ask, Lord, what is in your heart for the other people around me? That is how we have to serve others.

There are so many people who are trying to preach the gospel and evangelizing without seeing what is in God's heart for other people. For example, they just go around giving tracts. Why do they give it?

All these people's blood is on my hands. I want to get rid of their blood from my hands. Can you imagine Jesus going around giving tracts like that, saying, their blood is on my hands, I better not leave it like that.

I've got to give it back. His whole ministry was moved by compassion. And let me tell you this. Any ministry that you do, which is not moved by compassion for other people, is a waste of time. God does everything in love.

So when you look into God's heart, you will see that everything He says and does is in love. And the more you see that in your life, you will understand the importance of this verse in 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 14.

1 Corinthians 16, verse 14. Here it says, let all that you do be done in love. I've had that verse hanging in my front room for more than 20 years. Let all that you do be done in love. And I want to tell you something.

Whatever is not done in love, will be burnt up one day. You're destroying yourself. It's like burning up little bits of your house. Supposing you take a fire and burn up and destroy part of your house.

And then tomorrow you burn up some more. And then the other day you burn up some more. When you do things without love, that's exactly what you're doing. If you do everything in love, it will be like building another floor on top of your house.

Imagine you start your life with a one story house and by the time you die, you've got 100 stories. It's a skyscraper. Because you did everything in love. You spoke in love. So, if you understand God's heart, if you really hear God's voice, Jesus said man shall live by every word that proceeds from God's mouth.

Every word that proceeds from God's mouth proceeds in love. And the more you hear it, the more it sinks into your heart. The more you hear it, the more it sinks into your heart. The more your words will also come out of love for people.

The Heart Must Change Before the Tongue

So many people ask, how can I control my tongue? You can't control your tongue. Ask God to change your heart, then the tongue will automatically be controlled. Ask God to change your heart, then the tongue will automatically be controlled.

The problem with many people is that they don't want to change their heart, but they want to change their tongue. Because of this tongue, they lose their testimony. Almost every believer I have met in my life tells me, Brother, I'm a slave to anger.

Oh, I've heard your messages so many times. But Brother Zach, I still can't get victory over anger in my home. And they're trying to control their tongue. You cannot control your tongue. Don't try. Ask God to change your heart.

Because it is from the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. If you try to change the mouth and the tongue, it won't work. It's like asking, why is this bad water coming out of this tap? You clean the water tank, and then the water will be clean.

If you keep on cleaning the tap, you still get dirty water. The tap is clean, Brother. Just clean the tank. If the heart is clean, the words will be good. Make it a rule in your life. All that I speak, I will speak in love.

All that I do, I will do in love. And for that, I have to think thoughts of love towards other people. To certain people, it's not difficult. Like your own children or people who are very close to you.

But very often, you can't think such thoughts towards somebody else whom you don't like. When you have thoughts of love towards your children, that is human love. Because even the atheist has got that type of thoughts towards his children.

That's not God's love. Because if it is God's love, then how does that atheist have it? All human beings love their children. They don't have to be godly. You know you have God's love when you can love somebody you don't like.

When you can pray for somebody you don't like. But when you see God's heart, His heart is like that. When we look at God's heart, we find that He has a great longing for us. You know it's like a person who is sometimes in the world you find you read stories of somebody who has a great longing to marry somebody.

Some young couple, they are in love with each other. We read love stories all over the world. That man has a great longing to marry that girl. That boy wants to marry that girl. But that girl doesn't want to marry that boy.

Or that girl's parents don't allow. This boy's longing is so great that he commits suicide. Can you imagine what a fantastic longing a man must have had for a girl to commit suicide that he couldn't marry her?

God's love is much greater than that. He has a great longing towards us. We must understand that. That's one of the great things that Jesus came to reveal. That your heavenly father has a great longing for you.

The Father's Compassion for the Prodigal

In the story of the prodigal son, you know how that boy had gone and spoiled his father's name. Wasted all that the father gave him. He didn't even look like he looked when he left home. I mean his hair has grown, it has become so thin, skin and bones.

So many years he had been away. He may have been away 10 -15 years. Because his father was a wealthy man and he spent all that money. Must have been 10 -15 years. He comes back, nobody can recognize him.

But Jesus said the father saw him at a long distance. And recognized him immediately. Now how did the father know the father's son was coming that day? The boy never sent any telegram or anything. How did the father know?

There is only one way. Every day in those 15 years, the father would look out of the window to see if his son was coming back. That's not written in the story but I can understand that by the fact that he saw him coming.

Every day he must have been looking. When I see that, I can see the heart of God towards me. And towards you. He is always looking every day to see will my son, my daughter come close to me today. I believe this morning the Lord is seeing the same thing.

He is looking at me. I am not a backslider. But the Lord is still looking to see if I will come closer to him today. You don't have to be a backslider. The Lord is looking at you to see if you will come closer to him today.

He is always looking to see if you will come closer to him today. He is looking every day. This is how I want to live. Dear brothers and sisters, When you look at someone who has come and you wish you could be like him.

I wish I had a house or a car like him. I wish I had a house or a car like him. I wish I could preach like him or do something spiritual like him. Don't let that be your longing. Don't let that be your longing.

Let your longing be this. God, you are seeing whether I will come closer to you today. I want to come closer to you. And you see, when the father saw that boy far away, it says, old man that he was, he tied his robe and he ran.

Even though he is an old man. It's the only place in the whole Bible where you see God running. And he is running towards someone who has dishonored his name and ruined his wealth. You must have this picture of God in your mind always.

He will not drag you back from the place of the pigs if you don't want to come back. That means if you are living in sin and you don't want to turn, he won't drag you back. But, if you turn, even if you turn a little bit, he will come running and take you back into his house.

He will help you to turn right back. That is how God's heart is. Many times, when I get up to speak to God's people, my question is this, Lord, what is in your heart for your people? If I don't understand what is in your heart, I will just take a Bible study, that's all.

Speaking God's Heart to His People

I don't want to be a teacher, I want to be a prophet. That means I want to speak what God wants me to speak. So, I pray many, many times, say, Lord, what is in your heart for your people? I know his heart is full of love.

So, that's the first thing I need for all of God's people. Many preachers do not have the word of God on their mouth because their heart is not full of love for God's people. Those of you who are elder brothers, you need to ask yourself.

When you get up to speak in the church, are you tempted to scold everybody sitting there? Why are you like this and why are you like that and why are you not like this? That's probably because you don't love them.

There's a verse in James 1, verse 5. If anybody lacks wisdom, let him ask God who will give to all men generously and without reproach and it will be given to him. See, we all lack wisdom. I am very aware that I lack a lot of wisdom.

I have been a believer for 50 years and I have got a little bit of wisdom in those 50 years. But when compared to God's wisdom, it's very little. I want to say to all of you, all of you also lack wisdom.

I want to say to all of you, all of you also lack wisdom. You may be very clever. You may know a lot of the Bible. But practical wisdom we all lack. And the humble person acknowledges, Lord, I lack wisdom.

That's like the disciple saying, we don't have fish, we didn't catch any. The boat is empty. And if you acknowledge that, it says Jesus filled the boat with fish. He would not have filled that boat with fish if they pretended, yeah, yeah, we had a good night fishing.

So, if you pretend that you have wisdom, you will remain without wisdom all your life. But if you say, Lord, we don't have any fish in our boat. I don't have any wisdom. The Lord will fill your boat with fish.

He will fill your heart with wisdom. And it says, if anybody lacks wisdom, you got to ask God. Lord, I need wisdom for my life. Lord, I need wisdom for my life. Lord, I don't know how to live with my wife.

Please give me wisdom how to live with this difficult wife. Lord, this unconverted husband, I need a lot of wisdom how to deal with him. Or I have a difficult son or daughter, please tell me, give me wisdom how to deal with it.

Or if you are an elder brother in the church, oh boy, what a lot of wisdom you need. I have found in the last 34 years that we have been planting churches. The churches are exactly like children. When they are small children, you have one type of problem.

When they are teenagers, 18, 19 years old, you have another type of problem. But is there any problem God cannot solve? No. Is there any situation on earth for which God does not have wisdom? Can you face any situation in your life where there is no answer from God?

See, one of the things that gives me confidence as I look back over 50 years of being a believer, I have never faced a situation where God did not have an answer. Sometimes he waited 10 years to give me the answer.

But finally he did it. We have to wait patiently. Abraham waited patiently to get a son. And faith without patience is useless. I find that faith and patience are like husband and wife. You can't have a child without both.

You can't have fruit in your family if you don't have both husband and wife. In the same way in our life, faith and patience are like that. If you have faith for something, you must be willing to wait.

God's Generosity and Patience in Giving Wisdom

If you ask God for wisdom, he will give it to you. But it says here also, he gives generously. In other words, if you ask for a little cup of wisdom, he will give you a bucket. That's how he does it. Lord, please, can you give me a little cup of wisdom for this situation?

Lord, can you give me a little cup of wisdom for this particular situation? And he gives a bucket. God is good. He is not always calculating. He asks for 5 rupees, so I will give him 5 rupees. No, no, no.

We ask him for 5 rupees, he will give us 500 rupees. That is how God is. God is not calculating like we are. God is not calculating like we are. We are so calculating. Oh, oh, oh. I must calculate, calculate.

Not 5 rupees, 4 rupees, 95 paise. That's it. We calculate towards God, we calculate towards people and that is why our life is so miserable. God is generous. God is generous. And the other thing it says in verse 5 is that he never scolds anybody.

Is that he never scolds anybody. I love that. I love that. In the one translation in English it says he never scolds when people ask him for something. He never scolds when people ask him for something.

He never scolds when people ask him for something. That means you go and ask God for wisdom in some situation. Lord, can you give me a little cup of wisdom He doesn't say, oh I told you 100 times why do you need to ask again.

That is all human beings talk like that. God never talks like that. God says, ok, I'll give it to you. I know you asked me many times and I told you and you have forgotten but I'll help you again. How good God is.

You know if we tell somebody to do something and he didn't do it that way and it messed it up then he asks me again second time after 4 or 5 times we'll get fed up. We'll say, how many times I have to tell you.

That is how mothers talk to their children that is how mothers talk to their children that is how many husbands talk to their wives but God never he never scolds otherwise I'd be afraid to go to him because I don't learn things after one word from God.

Sometimes I have to hear it 10 times before I do it right. Think of the messages you have heard so many times in conferences. Did you do it immediately as soon as you heard it? No. Sometimes you heard it 10 times before you finally did it.

But never did God say I got tired of telling you. He never scolds. All elder brothers let me give you a little word. Do you want to be like God? Do you want to be God's mouthpiece? Don't scold people.

Correct them. Oh God corrects but he doesn't scold. You know there is a lot of difference between a father telling his son like this How many times I taught you that? You still haven't learned it? That's one way of saying it.

The other way is Son, that's not the right way. No, if you do it like this you can do it right. Which do you think the son would like to hear? We know. The son can get fed up listening to a father who is scolding, scolding, scolding.

A daughter can get fed up listening to a mother who is always scolding, scolding, scolding. God is not like that. We have problems with our children because we are not behaving towards them like God behaves towards us.

So we need to change. That is why I say, pray this prayer. Lord, beyond the Bible let me hear your voice let me look into your heart. I want to see your heart. Elder brothers look at the people you speak to and see what is God's heart towards them.

Helping the Sin-Bound Rather Than Scolding Them

I'll tell you what God has told me. Many times, many times when I stand in a pulpit to speak the Lord says these are my children they should be kings and queens. Should be. But they are not. They are slaves.

They are slaves to sin they are slaves to wrong attitudes to other people they are slaves to bitterness. I want you to make them I want you to release them from their slavery and make them kings and queens again.

So, when I see that that is God's heart for His people I say you don't scold a slave who is tied up. Supposing your son has fallen into a pit don't scold him first pull him out of the pit first and then teach him to be careful not to go near the pit.

And then teach him to be careful not to go near the pit. When Peter was walking on the water for a little while he took his eyes away from Jesus and he looked at the winds and the waves he began to sink immediately and he said, Lord save me.

What did the Lord do? You read in Matthew 14 He didn't give Peter a big lecture saying, why didn't you look at me? He never said a word. He first held his hand that's a beautiful example just look at it in Matthew 14.

We read here in verse 28 Peter said, Lord if it is you tell me to come to you on the water. He said, come. It says here that Peter got out of the boat walked on the water and came to Jesus. When he saw the wind he became afraid and began to sink and said, Lord save me.

So you see two things in verse 31 First he held his hand and prevented him from sinking and then he opened his mouth and corrected him saying, hey you should have trusted me. Why did you doubt? I want you to see the order there.

We are not like that. When we see somebody do something wrong we first rebuke him, correct him then much later we may help him. That's how we correct our children and that's how we correct people around us.

That's the opposite of what God does. The Lord first solves our problem and then corrects us. These are little little things in the word of God that we must see. That's why we must read the bible slowly and say, Lord let me see your heart here.

When I look at Jesus' life I see the heart of God. In a little thing like this one verse I can learn a lesson for my life because that's not my natural tendency. My natural tendency is to rebuke and correct and then afterwards try and solve the problem.

That's how we deal with our wives that's how we deal with our children and that's how we deal with all the people around us. God is not like that. So one of the great things we need to do is to look into God's heart.

God's Grief Over Human Sin

Let me show you a verse that's spoken to me a number of times. It's in Genesis chapter 6. You can have a glimpse into God's heart here. It says in Genesis 6 and verse 6 The Lord was sorry that he made man on the earth and it grieved him in his heart.

Read slowly. First of all God was very sad in his heart. It doesn't say he was angry. He was grieved in his heart. Because he was grieved in his heart he speaks in human terms here he was sorry that he ever made man.

You may say didn't God know that man would behave like this? Of course God knows the future. But he is speaking in human terms now. I made man with such wonderful plan for him but look what he is doing.

Verse 5 The wickedness of man was great. His wickedness was great and all the thoughts of his heart was only evil. Outwardly he was wicked. Inside he was full of evil thoughts. God saw that. What a terrible situation man has come to.

Now I have thought of that verse 6 in relation to born again believers. I say Lord are you sorry about the way I live? Are you grieved in your heart about the way I run my family? Are you grieved in your heart by the way I get up and speak when I speak in the pulpit?

I am not bothered what people say about me because they don't know my heart. But Lord tell me what you think. It's a good prayer to pray. I feel that many of us are satisfied with the opinion that other believers in our church have about us.

I know that many people have a great respect for me. And if I get taken up with that I would have become a backslider long ago. Let me warn you brothers and sisters if you get taken up with a good opinion people have about you you will definitely become a backslider.

To save you only sometimes God allows you to hear some of the bad opinions people have about you. So be thankful when you hear somebody had a bad opinion about you. Don't get upset that fellow has saved you from backsliding than all your friends.

You will discover that. But all these opinions are unimportant. It is God grieved in his heart that's the important thing. So make this a goal in your life I want to look into your heart and see what you think about me.

I want to come so much into fellowship with your heart that I can begin to understand what you think about your people that I can help them. Gradually your heart can become so sensitive that God can lead you in supernatural ways to meet people in need.

Following the Father's Heart in Ministry

See we read in the Gospels once Jesus travelled about 40 -50 kms to a place called Tyre. He was in Galilee and he travelled all the way to Tyre about 40 kms at least. And 40 -50 kms would have taken him a whole day to walk and he took his disciples with him and that was outside Israel.

That's one of the few times in Jesus' life he ever went outside Israel. This is one of them. And there he met this woman who had a demon possessed daughter and she is the woman who said even the dogs will eat the crumbs that fall from the table.

And Jesus healed that woman's daughter and came back 50 kms the next day. Now have you ever thought why did he go to Tyre? We go when somebody invites us. Why did he go to Tyre? He didn't know anybody there.

He was so much in touch with his father's heart that he suddenly had a burden in his heart, I must go to Tyre. And when he went there he saw what the reason was. You know, I am challenged by that. I say Lord, if I live my life getting more and more in fellowship with your heart I can become so sensitive to what you are telling me to do.

Every day. And like that I can live the most useful life I can ever live on this earth. Do you realize this? I mean, if a business man could get some tips on how to make money in the future that if you go here you can make some money.

Or if you buy this share you can make some money in the future. And he finds it's always succeeding and he is becoming richer and richer. He will keep on listening to this man who is giving him business advice.

Now, we are not interested in making money. We realize we have only one life and we want to make full use of that life. Isn't it good to hear what God is in his heart for us? Now, I want to show you a verse in Exodus in chapter 25.

Building a Holy Place for God to Dwell

So, what I was saying was really an introduction to what I want to share in this conference. This is what is in God's heart. The Lord says to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt when the Israelites came out of Egypt He said to them I will make a holy place for me to dwell among them.

We read in Exodus 25. I will make a holy place. I will make a holy place for me to dwell. Think of this as an expression of God telling you what is in his heart. I want you to make a holy place for me to dwell in your heart in your home in your church three places a holy place for God to dwell in my heart your home must be a holy place for God to dwell.

God will not dwell in a home where there is fighting and quarreling. Your church may not be a big church but it must be a holy church. He never said to the people build a huge building for me to dwell.

The tabernacle was very small. In the tabernacle there was a small place called the most holy place where God dwelt. Do you know what the size of that room was? 15 feet by 15 feet. That is 5 meters by 5 meters.

It's a small room. God said that is my dwelling place. See Isaiah 66. When people say they want to build a house for God. The Lord says in Isaiah 66. Verse 1. What is the house you are going to build?

Heaven is my throne and the whole earth is only a place where I keep my feet. God says you are trying to build a house for me? You know today people say we want to build God's house. And God says what type of house will you build for me?

The whole heaven is my throne. If that is the throne where are you going to build the house for that heaven? And the whole earth is only a place where he keeps his feet. No, God is not looking for a huge church.

He says let them build a holy place for me to dwell. And how do we build that? Verse 2. The last part I will look at a person who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. So that's the type of person who can build God's house.

Who is humble. Who doesn't think much of himself. Who is broken in his spirit. Broken means he is easily. God can mold him into any shape. And whenever he reads a word which he has not obeyed he trembles.

You know he reads a word like put away all anger and he trembles. Oh God I have not put away all anger from my life. He reads Ephesians 4 .31. Now a lot of believers. They read Ephesians 4 .31. They put away all anger.

They read. They don't tremble. Let me go to the next verse. God says You are trying to build my house. You will never build my house in a thousand years. You can call your church CFC or whatever you like.

It won't be my house. I will build my house with those who tremble when they read a word which they have not obeyed. In everything give thanks. They tremble. Lord. I am not giving thanks in everything.

Dear brother and sister. You don't have to be very clever to build God's house. But you have to tremble at his word May God help us. Let's pray Heavenly Father. Help us to respond to what we have heard.

And to walk in humility and brokenness. We want to see what is in your heart. In Jesus name Amen.