Manifesting God's Wisdom to the Angels and Demons — Zac Poonen

The Discipline of Daily Bible Reading

Well, first of all, I want to encourage all of you to read the Bible regularly, every day at home. Even if it's only 15 minutes and to try and study it, I want to show you a picture of my first Bible, one page in it, to show you how I studied it.

This is how I studied my Bible. Now, those of you who feel you can study the Bible on your phone, I challenge you to do something like this on your phone. It's a deception to think, it's all right, I use my phone when I don't have my Bible with me.

And especially if I want to look up any other place in the Bible where that verse comes. But I would never have known the Bible if I had not systematically studied verse by verse and seen those lines that you see are connecting one verse with another.

And you see the link, and I have references there, there's a middle column which has got cross-references to other parts of the Bible, and I would look that up. And then if I found something else which is not written there, I would write it on the side.

And then something else I discovered in that passage, I would write there. And this is just one page, you know, Hebrews chapter 12, which is a very important chapter. And so I want to encourage you to, you don't have to do it to this extent.

I mean, this is over a period of years, it's not something in one year that I did this, but little by little. And this is the first Bible I had, which is a King James Version, I use a NASB now. But I want to tell you, my dear brothers and sisters, your life will change, your relationship with your husband and wife will change, you will overcome sin, if the word of God, you respect the word of God.

The Word of God Above Every Name

So thank you, you can turn it off now. I want to show you a verse in Psalm 138, Psalm 138 and verse 2. The last part, it says, you have magnified your word above all your name, or together with all your name.

Now, if you respect the name of Jesus, I hope you do. God's word has been magnified to that extent. To neglect the word of God, it's like saying, I don't care for the name of Jesus. Really? You don't care for the name of Jesus?

That's what you're saying, when you neglect the word of God someday. I don't want to live a single day in my life without the name of Jesus. I know that's that name by which Satan trembles, and by which I can get answers to prayer.

And so, if the Lord has magnified his word, according to all his name, or above all his name, wow, it's quite an insult to God if I don't read it every day. Think of the Bible as a letter written by someone who loves you very much, to you.

What would you do if you got such a letter one day? If you just ignored it and tossed it aside and said, well, I'll read it some other time. I would say, without a doubt, I don't know who wrote that letter to you, but you certainly don't love that person.

That's pretty clear, crystal clear. I don't need to know who wrote it or what is in it. But if you get a letter from someone who you claim to love, and you don't read it, it's a clear indication that you don't really love them.

The world is full of Christians who say, I love Jesus. But here's one proof of it. I want to hear what he has to say to me. And there's not any other book in the whole world from which I can hear what he has to say to me, other than the Bible.

Reading Scripture for Direction and Transformation

It's one of the first things I was converted in 1959, July, when I was 19 and a half. And I had not read the whole Bible until then, even though I grew up in a Christian family and went to Sunday school regularly.

But I decided, even if I don't understand it, I'm going to read the whole Bible. And in six months, if I remember right, definitely not more than seven months, within about six or seven months, I read from the Genesis all the way to Revelation.

Did I understand at all? No, a lot of it I didn't understand, but I read through it. And I said, Lord, I have become your child now. And I want to show you that I want to respect the one letter you wrote to man, the one book you have given to man.

I'm your child now, and I want to show you by reading it from cover to cover, even if I don't understand most of it, that I respect it and I believe your love for me. And after that, I would read it systematically, large sections of the Old Testament, as and when I had time.

And the New Testament, you know, every day, large sections of the Old Testament and a New Testament, a small portion which I would meditate on. And like that, I went through the Bible again and again and again, through many years.

And I can tell you, it has changed my life. It has given me direction, because through the Bible that I got clear direction as to what God's will for my life was. And if I had not read the Bible, I would not have got a clear call from God to leave my job.

I would still be sitting in the Navy and or retired from there and not done what God wanted me to do. It was from the Bible that I got direction to whom I was to marry and many, many, many other things.

And when I was tempted, it was from the Bible that I got to know how I could overcome. And when I faced trials, it was from the Bible I came to know that God would stand by me through those trials. I mean, we hear all these things.

But when you read them again and again, it gets deeply imprinted in our minds. Just like the Lord wrote his commandments on a rock. He writes his law in our hearts and in our minds. And he'll never do it if he sees, let me say it plainly, that you insult God by neglecting his word.

You know what you do by neglecting God's word? You are insulting Almighty God. You're insulting Jesus Christ. He took all that trouble to write this book through so many different people over a number of years.

And there are people who have laid down their life for this book, who would long to get one copy of it. There are many people in my country who do not have one page of this book translated in their language.

There are a number of them which have. I remember once I was preaching in one part of the country and some years ago and somebody was translating for me and I said, let's turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 61.

And he said to me, brother, we don't have the Old Testament translated in our language. I said, wow. I cannot quote a single verse in the Old Testament in that particular part of the country. I came home deeply appreciating, first of all, that I could read English and that the Bible had been translated into English.

It's when you see somebody else not having what you have. When people get plenty of food, they don't value it. Where people are so rich that they can have such a spread on their table, they can have a choice whether to eat this or that, what to spread on my bread, etc.

They don't appreciate what in some other countries, they don't have anything to spread on their bread. They'll eat whatever they are given because they are so poor and I've been to such homes myself. It's when we see what people lack that we appreciate what we have.

And I want to say to all of you sitting here among the, I don't know who, the poorest person sitting here, whoever it is, I want to tell you, you have 10 times more than what many people in our country have.

Really, learn to appreciate the things that you have, the food that you have, the clothes that you have, the house that you live in. Many, many people don't have it. And above all, learn to appreciate the fact that you know English and that you have the Bible in your own language.

Christian Books and Applying Scripture

Please read it and read other Christian books as well. I used to have the habit in my younger days to read one Christian book in a month. I would go to the Bible bookshop and buy one book and I would read it.

I would be selective. I'd look through and it was not, I mean, if I found the, I'd skim through it in the bookshop and if I found it was all intellectual, just speaking to my head, I wouldn't buy that.

But if I found it was a testimony of a man, a biography, I would get it. Or if it was speaking to my heart, I would turn a few pages and see if it was speaking to my heart, I would pick up that. I would put aside all the books.

That's why most commentaries are all speaking to the head by full Bible commentaries. I never read any of them. That's why I decided to write a commentary myself through the Bible, which you have here.

If you don't have a copy, you must pick up one and study it because there I have tried to explain the meaning of the Bible in relation to the new covenant that we preach. It's very important, dear brothers and sisters, Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Matthew chapter four, I want you to turn to this verse, Matthew's gospel chapter four and verse four, man shall not live on bread alone. But on some of the words, no. How shall man shall live? On every single word that's proceeded from the mouth of God.

Do you really believe that? If you live, let me use an example. If you are living financially through the salary that you get from your employer, would you collect every single dollar of that salary? Or would you just pick a little bit of that and put it in your bank?

You would pick every single dollar of that salary? Or would you be happy with 75 or 50 of it? What does it say here? We shall live by every single word that proceeds from the mouth of God. If your employer paid you a certain amount and you took only 25 of that and went home, you'd be struggling, your children would be starving.

They've got you to blame for not taking every single dollar that your employer gave you. And if you find your life shallow, defeated often, frequently getting angry with each other at home, unable to guide your children aright, and gradually as the children grow up that they go wayward in wrong ways and you don't realize it, some of you, your children are very small, you think it'll all be okay, it will not be okay.

I will tell you right now, I have seen in my church back home, people to whom I said the same thing, which I'm saying now, 40 years ago. And their children, they're just newborn babies, and they did not take it seriously.

I see those children now in their 30s gone astray. God's word is true. If you don't teach your children every word of God little by little in your home, and if you don't use all that, we have tremendous facilities explaining the word.

You go to cfcindia .com, our church website. There are so many Bible studies there, even if you spend half an hour every day, it'll take you three years to complete all those studies. And if you do them, it'll be like you'd have gone through a Bible college, and you need only half an hour a day.

Is that too much? To spend half an hour a day for a Christ who gave his life for you, so that your life can be more useful for him, so that you can be more effective in your service? My dear brothers and sisters, we are living in a day and a time when people don't know God's word, they neglect God's word.

They come to church and that's all about all that they hear. You will never grow spiritually. I hope you're not one of those Christians who says, if I just go to heaven, that's enough. Just scrape in there, and in that day when you stand before the Lord and you see how much he did for you, I'll tell you, you'll feel ashamed if you did not live your life totally for Christ.

Hearing God Through Scripture and Obeying His Light

There are parts of my life way back in the past, nearly half a century ago, when I was not a serious Christian, which I'm ashamed of today. But I thank God that from the time I took the Christian life really seriously and God filled me with the Holy Spirit, I don't regret the way I've lived.

I don't regret that I put God's word first. So I'm telling you from my own experience, every one of you, you're all younger than me, many of you are very young. I started when I was 19, I wish I started earlier.

And I worked so hard from the time I was 19 that by the time I was 23, I was preaching God's word in the meetings. You can do that, even if it is just five minutes. Can you share something for five minutes from God's word?

If you're asked spontaneously somewhere, tell me something from God's word. If you are reading it every day, you'll always be available with a word to people who are in need. Let me show you another verse in Isaiah chapter 50.

Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 4. Isaiah 50 verse 4. In the middle of that verse, God wakes me up every morning. Look at it like that, that when you wake up in the morning, God has woken you up and he wants to waken your ear, your inner ear.

There's a ear in your body and there's a ear in your heart. He wants to waken the ear in your heart to listen to something he has to say to you. As a disciple means one who wants to follow what he tells you.

And if you allow, verse 5, the Lord to open your ear and you're not disobedient, then you'll come to a triumphant life. Verse 7, the Lord God will help you. You will never be disgraced in any situation.

And verse 7, you will never be ashamed in any situation. Again, it says the Lord will help you. In verse 9, think of the rest of those verses. I don't have time to go through it. Read it sometime. Isaiah chapter 50, if you allow the Lord to waken you up and waken your ear every morning, now please, don't just do that for the next one week because you heard it today.

If you're married, praise God, you gotta help her. Husband and wife, please remind each other with a simple question. Did you hear something from God today? Did you hear something from God today? After you read the Bible a number of times, you will hear, even without opening the Bible, God will speak to you.

Because so much of scripture will be in your mind, and that will help you in the time of temptation. Even Jesus, he did not overcome temptation except by quoting scripture. And the devil tempted him, Jesus said, it is written.

At the time the devil said, it is written, Jesus said, it is also written. He knew a verse to counter that. And the third temptation again, Jesus said, it is written. That's the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

Don't say you want to follow Jesus if you don't know what is written in his word. And Jesus learned the Bible when he didn't have a physical Bible like this at home. There was only a Bible in the synagogue.

He had to go as a little boy every day to the rabbi and say, sir, can you please read something for me? Okay, stop, that's all I can take today, I'll come back tomorrow. Come back the next day and say, sir, can you please read from where you stopped yesterday?

Imagine what a hunger he had as a young boy so that by the time he was 12 years old, he could even confront the scholars. Take that as a challenge, every one of you, encourage your children to read the Bible every day.

I guarantee you will not regret it. Your life will change. One year from now, you will see the difference it has made in your life. The difference it's made in your family life. The difference it's made in your business.

God bless you. So, there are a couple of hymns that I want to read to you today. One is Search Me, O God. I want you to follow these words. First of all, this reference in Psalm 139 and verse 23 and 24.

Searching the Heart for Hidden Sin

If you can turn in your Bible, Psalm 139 and verse 23 and 24. Here in the NASB it says, search me, O God, know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. But here is how it is. Can you put the reference there that comes before that, the verse?

In the living Bible, it says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Test my thoughts. Now, this is the point I want to show to you especially. Point out anything you find in me that makes you sad. I remember years ago, I printed that out in a card and gave it to everybody in my church.

I said, keep this card with you. Keep it in a place on your table where you'll see it every morning. Lord, put the word Lord before it. Lord, point out anything you find in me, not that makes you angry.

No, no, no. God's not angry, but that makes you sad. Lord, point out anything you find in me that makes you sad. Maybe something I said to someone, something I'm thinking, which I should not be thinking, something I'm doing.

Imagine if you went through life with this prayer in your heart. Lord, point out anything. Maybe I don't see it myself. You're not angry with me. You're never angry with me, but you're sad sometimes. Don't your parents know sometimes you look at your children and you're disappointed with the way they have conducted themselves or the way they have done something?

That's how the father looks at you with love. Make this a prayer and lead me along. The next part of it, it says, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. That's the only way you can be led along the path of everlasting life.

You want to walk the way of everlasting life, the way is narrow that leads to life. Every step along that way, say, Lord, point out to me anything that makes you sad. It's a prayer that you can pray many times a day in your heart.

Lord, point out to me anything that makes you sad. And then you come to the end of the day, you can ask the Lord before you go to bed or in bed. Lord, was there anything in my life today that made you sad?

Now, I know you'll forget it. If you repeat it to yourself, you won't forget it. It'll come back to your mind. The Holy Spirit will remind you again and again to pray that prayer. God bless you. Now I want to go to this hymn, which is a very beautiful hymn.

The Search Me, O God Hymn and Genuine Repentance

I'll go verse by verse through it. It says, search me, O God, my actions try. And let my life appear as seen by thine all-searching eye. To me, my ways make clear. Because some things we don't see in ourselves.

God's all-searching eye make my ways clear to me. Something I did with a wrong motive. Make it clear, Lord. Let my life appear not in my eyes, but in thy eyes. Okay, the next verse. Search all my sense, my feelings, and know my heart.

Because you're the only one who can make known what is in the deep, the hidden part. Please show it to me fully. I don't want any part of my heart to be hidden. Supposing there were a few snakes that had crawled into your house.

You were living in a place where snakes were infested. Wouldn't you want to clear out every part of your house? Lord, is there something hidden under some cupboard on some corner? Something under a box somewhere?

I want to clear it all out. Well, the flesh and its lusts are worse than snakes. How careful we are to clean even the dust from our tables and tidy up our house. Some of you are very careful to keep your house tidy.

Very good habit. Much more, I want to encourage you. The deep, the hidden part, Lord, show it to me fully. Okay, the next verse. Throw light into the darkened cells where passion reigns within. We have a lot of passions in our flesh, which make us angry.

Which make us women, men, lust after women. Which make us covet something which God hasn't given us. Passion, a passion to have money beyond our needs, it's a passion. And it destroys our relationship with God, because we begin to pursue things which God doesn't want us to pursue.

He certainly wants us to work hard and earn our living. And earn as much as you can, John Wesley used to say that. Earn as much as you can, and save as much as you can. And he said, don't waste it, and then give as much as you can.

So it says here, quicken my conscience till it feels the loathsome. Loathsomeness is a word, it's an old word which says the filthiness. The filthiness of anger, the filthiness of gossiping about somebody else.

The filthiness of dirty thoughts. Let me see, Lord, how filthy it is, like an unflushed toilet. The best way I can describe the lusts in our flesh is like an unflushed toilet. Imagine having a toilet in your restroom, which has not been flushed for days, and it keeps accumulating.

The flush system is not working. What would you do about it? Would you ignore it? I want to tell you, my dear brothers and sisters, our flesh is like that. And if you allow that flesh to get into your heart when you sin, and you leave it unconfessed, you don't ask the Lord to cleanse it.

Your heart also becomes like an unflushed toilet, and you may not smell it, but the angels in heaven may turn away from that. Do you want the angels in heaven to turn away from you? I want the angels to come near me.

And the Lord is grieved. Okay, the next verse, search all my thoughts, the secret springs, the motives that control my thoughts, which nobody knows, not even your wife or your husband. And there are secret springs from which, you know what a spring is, from down below something comes up and springs up.

Those are the motives deep down in your heart. Beyond the thoughts are motives with which you seek to do something which looks good, but the motive is bad. Show me, Lord, the motives that are controlling my words.

Why do you say something to somebody? It may sound so nice, but there could be another motive behind it. Words that hurt, meant to hurt, motives that control your actions. The reason why you go and visit some place, the motives that control.

And those chambers in our heart where polluted things, old empire means control my soul. Deep down there are rooms in my heart where filthy things are hanging around there, which nobody can see. People think you're a saint.

Are you serious about holiness? There are things that are controlling. Old empire over the soul means they are ruling. Christ is not Lord. You may say Jesus Christ is Lord with your lips, but something else is ruling in your soul, okay, is the next verse.

Search more, Lord, till your fiery glance. God's glance is a fiery means it's full of the fire, it brings light. One of the wonderful things about fire is not only it reveals something, but it burns up the rubbish.

So I want God's fiery glance to shed its holy light through every part of my heart. Expose everything. And when I see it, and I'm not afraid of this God because he's calling me in kindness and by God's grace, I fall before his face and say, Lord, like Isaiah.

Who thought he was the holiest man in Israel, Isaiah. But when the light of God shone in him, he said, Lord, I'm a filthy man. Have you ever felt like that? I felt like that numerous times when the light of God has shone into my heart.

I wasn't committing any outward sin, none. I had control over my words. And yet the Lord began to show me motives, attitudes towards people. Particularly motives and attitudes towards people, thoughts.

These three areas that even we don't see unless God shows us. Thoughts, attitudes towards people, motives with which I do some good things, the motive is bad. Honor seeking, seeking to exalt myself, seeking to appear before others as a holy guy or as a great saint or some rubbish like that.

That holy light shines through on, I say, Lord, what a sinner I am. And I fall like Isaiah before the Lord and say, Lord, have mercy on me. The next verse is the last verse. And thus prostrate means I've fallen before God on my face.

Even if you don't do that physically, sometimes I have done it physically too. Flat before God, you can do that flat on your bed or flat on the floor. But even if you don't do that physically, inwardly, prostrate, what will I learn?

This is the important verse, got to conclude with this. What you will learn is not God's holiness, but his love. His love, which wants you to be like Christ. That's why he exposes all that. His love, which wants you to be pure.

His love, which wants you, because he knows that sin is like a sickness. It's like a mother who's got a baby and taking the baby to the doctor. And the doctor says, your baby's got about 10 or 20 sicknesses, serious sicknesses.

And how that mother will pray, oh, God, please heal mine one by one as you pray. As she sees that baby healed one by one, is delighted, oh, that sickness is gone, that other sickness is gone. It's the love of a mother that wants that baby to be healed of all sickness.

It's the love of that mother that takes that baby for injections that are painful. That gives bitter medicine into the mouth of that baby, because the mother wants it to be completely healed. I want to tell you, my brother, sister, sin is exactly like sickness.

And when your heavenly father looks at you, it's not in anger. You think a mother looks in anger at her baby that is sick? No, she's weeping. My baby's got this sickness and that sickness and the other sickness.

That's how God looks at you. Please look at yourself like, remember God looks at you just like a mother looking at a sick child. And supposing that you go, the mother goes to the doctor and says, well, 90 of the sicknesses are gone, wonderful.

Does the mother go home happy? No. Because the doctor said there are still two or three sicknesses in your child. And she's determined that every last sickness in that child must go. You've got to be a mother to understand the love of a mother for a child.

The Father’s Provision and the Mother’s Compassion

You know, when God wanted to speak about his love for us, he spoke about a father as one who provides. If you being evil know how to give good gifts, like you'll give an egg or a fish. That's what he said.

A father will give to a child. But when he wanted to speak about the depth of his love for us, he spoke about a mother. See Isaiah 49. He speaks of himself as a father who makes provision for us. If you being evil know how to give good things to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give good things to those who ask him?

So that's a father's job. And God does that. He gives us many, many, many good things. But when it comes to love, Isaiah 49, 15, he says, I love you like a mother, not just caring for her children, caring for her nursing baby.

A baby that cannot live, cannot eat anything, cannot eat ordinary food, is dependent on the mother giving it milk. There's nothing else the baby can have in its early days. It's a nursing mother. And when that baby cries, can you imagine the compassion in the mother's mind?

There are some mothers who don't have enough milk in their body. They go looking for it. It's because they have compassion on their child. All of them may forget, the Lord says. Even that mother may forget, but I will not forget you.

Please remember that last verse, last part of that verse. The Lord says, I will not forget you. Can you remember those five words? I will not forget you. Wonderful words. Remember it all your life in your time when you're tempted and you feel God's forsaken you.

Remember Isaiah 49, 15. Even a mother may forget her nursing baby, but I will not forget you. Okay, I want to show you another hymn now. It's a very familiar one. It's called Just As I Am. When we come to the Lord, we don't have to come with anything to offer him.

Coming to Christ Just As We Are

This is a beautiful hymn. Both these hymns that I've mentioned this morning, I would encourage you to learn them by heart and sing them. As I was thinking this morning, as to what I should share, it's these words of this hymn came to my mind.

Because I read them a long, I mean, I sang them long ago and I sing them to myself sometimes. Just as I am without one plea means I've got nothing to recommend myself. There's nothing in me that I can recommend that God should accept me.

Except one thing, Jesus shed his blood for me, that's all. Why have you come, God says, Christ shed his blood for me. Not even, Lord, I have repented, not even that. Yeah, I need to repent, but that's not some credit I'm claiming for myself.

The blood of Christ was shed for me. And the second thing is, you invite me to come, that's why I come. I don't deserve to come, Lord. I'm a filthy sinner, but you invite me to come. O Lamb of God, the one who sacrificed yourself as a lamb, I come.

The next verse, just as I am and waiting not. I don't want to wait a single moment to rid my soul of any little blot there. Every single thing that spots on my soul, I wanna get rid of it all. I know it's only your blood that can cleanse all those spots.

O Lamb of God, I come. The next verse, just as I am, though tossed about, that often happens in our daily life also, with many conflicts, sometimes doubts, comes to us, it comes to me. Fightings and fears, outside there are fightings and fears.

Things that happen in the world that bring fear and inside also, there are struggles and fears inside. If you're honest, we'll admit it. You turn to 2 Corinthians 7 sometime, Paul himself said, there are fightings and fears, fightings within and fears without.

Fears within, fightings without. Fightings and fears within, without. O Lamb of God, I come. Just as we are, with all these things going on inside and outside, where shall I go? I shall only turn to Him.

And the last verse, just as I am, now we'll go on from this. Thou wilt receive. You will receive me, Lord, just as I am. You will welcome me, pardon me, cleanse me, relieve me. Relieve me because no more guilt in my life, and only one condition.

I believe your promise. Isn't that wonderful? I believe your promise. And the fact that I've come to him indicates that I've repented. I want to be cleansed. Remember all that I said, I want to rid my soul of every blot.

We saw in the second verse. That shows I've repented. I haven't come without repentance. Waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot. And I believe your promise. There are other verses in it. I just selected these four.

These are two good hymns I would encourage you to memorize and remember. And sing it to yourself a number of times. I'd like to show you one more verse in Psalm 119. Psalm 119, verse nine. I remember reading this as a young man.

Keeping the Way Pure Through God’s Word

How can a young man or a young woman keep his way pure? By keeping his way according to your word. And so, I with all my heart, verse ten, I've sought you. Don't let me wander, Lord, from your commandments.

I seek you with all my heart. Your word, I have treasured in my heart. Not just I've kept in my heart. Supposing you have a very valuable thing in your house. You won't just leave it lying around the table.

You'll probably lock it up in the cupboard. Some, something, the most expensive thing you have in your house. It says, thy word I have treasured in my heart so that I might never sin against you. Verse 11, so that I might never, never sin against you.

I keep your word treasured in my heart. That's how I can keep it treasured. Let me show you a couple of more verses. The whole psalm is wonderful. 105, verse 105, Psalm 119 and verse 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

And the best way I can illustrate is like a torchlight. When you're walking through a dark forest full of snakes and thorns and pitfalls, that's how the world is. There are snakes, there are ditches, there are pitfalls, spiritual ones in the world.

God's word is like a torchlight. Torchlight does not light up the whole road in front of me. No, it's not a street light, it's a torchlight. I can see about ten feet in front of me. If I wanna see more, I obey the light I have, I'll see some more.

If God shows you ten feet in front of you, you'll never see any more until you obey that which he's shown you already. That's a principle. You get more light when you obey the light you already have. If you wanna see further along the road of God's way, move forward and then the torchlight will show you some more.

And then you move forward and he'll show you some more. This is how I have grown in my Christian life in the last 63 years. It's not suddenly, little by little by little as I kept the torch in front of me, I got more light and more light.