The Love That The Holy Spirit Puts In Our Heart — Zac Poonen

God's Love as the Foundation of Christian Fellowship

The most important thing that Jesus said is in John 17. Our relationship with him and our relationship with each other. This is how we know that our heart is pure. Blessed are the pure in heart. A person who is pure in heart knows first of all that God loves me intensely.

Love Rather Than Money or Service

That's number one. There are three things I want to say. First, that God loves us very very much. And when somebody loves us, what he wants back from us is not money, not service, but love. So it's like if a man is married and he loves his wife, what does he want from his wife?

Not that she should cook for him in the kitchen, that's not primary. Or she should go to work and earn some money. No, my wife must love me. Even if she is paralyzed in bed and can't cook anything. Or she is uneducated and can't earn any money.

She can still be a wonderful wife if she loves her husband. So, we are the bride of Jesus Christ. And as a good husband, he does not want our money first. He doesn't want money at all. If a husband is only interested in his wife's money, that's not a good marriage.

That's why in CFC, we are 100 against dowry system. Money is not a factor in a good marriage. So remember, God is not interested in your money. Because so many churches are speaking about money, I want to say a few words about it.

Tithing and the Support of the Levites

Why did God say in the Old Testament that you must give 10 in the temple? It's very important to know why. In India, there is a thing called income tax. All you are working, you know income tax. If you earn more than two and a half lakhs rupees in a year, you have to pay 10 income tax.

In that, you have to pay 10 income tax. If you are earning more than 3 lakhs rupees, you have to pay 10 income tax. Why does the government pay 10 of the income tax? From richer people, they will take 20%, 30%.

What does the government do with all this money? They have to pay all the government officers who are looking after the country. All the government hospitals, the roads and all they have to repair. They have to repair all the roads and hospitals.

They have to pay all the government departments. They have to pay all the people who are protecting the country. How to pay them? So, income tax is a way to pay those who are serving the country. Now let me explain something to you, which most Christians will not tell you.

In Israel, there were 12 tribes. They are sons of Jacob. When they came to the land of Canaan, God said, distribute the land among 11 tribes only. One tribe of Levi will get no property. Why? Because they have to serve 24 hours in the temple.

They are full time workers for the temple. Because in those days there was a temple and they had to sacrifice and keep so many services there. They needed one full tribe of people to look after that work.

They needed one full tribe of people to look after that work. Because they had to look after the temple and do the sacrifices. The children of Levi will look after that work. Do you know what God said in the chapter 18?

Do you know what God said in the chapter 18? The Lord said to Aaron in verse 20, The Lord said to Aaron who was the chief priest among those tribes, You shall have no inheritance in their land. And no portion.

I am your portion. So, they have no land. Those days people did not work in offices or do business. All of them were farmers and shepherds. Their income came from the fields and from the flock. And that's how they fed their family and took care of their needs.

What about the Levites? They could not be shepherds or farmers. They had no land. So, God said to the other 11 tribes, These people are serving you. And they are not having land. How will their families live?

All of you take 10 of your grain, 10 of your flock, sheep and all that, goats and all, give it to them. Not money. Give 10 of your wheat and rice. And 10 of the vegetables you grow. And 10 of the sheep you have.

Give it to them. So, if all the 11 tribes gave 10 to the Levites, That will be 100%. And a little more. That is how the Levites lived. So, if somebody did not give the tithe, the Levites have to starve.

That is a crime. It is like you employing a servant and you don't pay that servant. Isn't that a crime if you employ a servant and you don't pay your servant? That is why God said in the Old Testament, when you don't pay your tithe, it's a crime.

The correct word for tithe is income tax. For these servants of the temple. So, today if you don't pay the income tax, the government says it's a crime. Then we can't pay our government servants. So, that is how they lived in the Old Testament.

Offering the Body to God

But now Jesus says, you are my bride. Is there any husband here who collects income tax from his wife? No. And Jesus does not want income tax or tithe from anybody. We are the only church that preaches that.

That is why the pastors hate me. But I say I am quoting the Bible. I say God wants something much more important than money. He wants your body. Like husband and wife become one flesh. Jesus says, I want your body.

I want your eyes. That you will never sin with your eyes. I want your tongue. That you never get angry, never sin with your tongue. I want your hands. That you never do anything wrong with your hands.

I want your legs. That you never go anywhere which I don't want you to go. I want your heart. That you don't love anything which is impure. That you don't love anything which is impure. Which is easier, to give your body or to give 10

Definitely 10 is easier. That is easier, far easier than saying I will never lust with my eyes for 365 days. I will never speak a bad word for 365 days. I will never do anything wrong with my hands.

People say, Lord don't ask for all that, here is your 10%. Let me use my body as I like. That is what happens in every church. They collect 10%, they don't tell them how to keep their body for God. They collect 10%, they don't tell them how to keep their body for God.

Now we will read what the Bible says. Hebrews 10 verse 5. When Jesus comes into the world, What does he say? You don't want anything. You don't want any offerings from me. You don't want any tithes from me.

What you want is my body, a body you have prepared for me, that is what you want. That is what I am telling you just now. What I said just now is Hebrews 10 verse 5. What I said just now is Hebrews 10 verse 5.

Jesus did not give tithe to his father. He gave his body. You don't want any offerings from me. But you want my body. I will give you my eyes, I will give you my hands, I will give you my legs, I will give you my ears, I will give you every part of my body, my heart, all my energy and strength.

Everything will be for you. I will use this body to work as a carpenter for 12 years. Maybe 15 years after Joseph died. And I will earn money to support my family, my mother and children. And my mother and my brothers and sisters.

You don't want that money, you want my body. And he kept his body pure for 33 years. And I want to tell you in Jesus name, that is what we preach in CFC. Exactly verse 5. God does not want your offerings.

Then we say, why do we put an offering box? Because we have to hire a hall to have a conference to reach people for the gospel. And we have to provide food for all these visitors who come from different places.

It's not for the elders, they are not taking. I have never taken one rupee for 45 years. All the money that comes to CFC Bangalore is used for God's work, that's all. God does not want money. He wants your body.

And if you don't give him your body, Even if you put 20 in the box, God says, I don't want it. What should you do with your body? That's also written here. Verse 7. In this body, I have come, like it is written in the Bible, to do your will, O God.

I want to do your will, verse 7, as it is written in your book. That is why we don't preach about money in CFC. But we keep on preaching about giving our body to God. We keep on preaching about doing God's will.

But you see, this is about when Jesus comes into the world. Verse 5. Yeah, but we have to follow Jesus. So we are doing what he did. He said, follow me. And so we also say, Lord, this is what you did, we also do this.

And we say to the father, as Jesus said, You don't want a body. You don't want money. You don't want an offering. But here's my body. That is the offering I give. See Romans 12. This is not only in Hebrews, it's in Romans also.

Presenting Ourselves as Living Sacrifices

In Romans, the first 11 chapters, He's explaining the wonderful gospel that Christ purchased for us. So when somebody has done so much for you, Dying for you, Forgiving your sins, Justifying you, declaring you righteous, Romans 5.

Giving you grace to overcome sin, Romans 6. Freeing you from the legalistic way of life, Romans 7. And giving you his Holy Spirit, Romans 8. And showing you his sovereign rule over your life, Romans 9.

And his righteousness, Romans 10. And his faithfulness, Romans 11. In view of all this, what should we give in return? Romans 12. In view of all these mercies of God that I have explained in the first 11 chapters, God doesn't want your money.

He says, give your body as a sacrifice, verse 1. That is how you worship God. True worship of God is not just with words and songs. That is good. But beyond words and songs, it says, give your body. Place your eyes and your tongue and every part of your body and say, God, this is my offering to you.

Place your eyes and your tongue and every part of your body and say, God, this is my offering to you. And give your mind, verse 2. Love God, verse 2, to change your mind to begin to think like he thinks.

So that you can do his will. So that is the best way you can respond to the message of the gospel. You know, people say, Jesus died for you, how much money are you going to give to him? I say zero. But I'm going to give him my body and I'm going to give him my mind.

That's what it says in Romans 12, 1 and 2. And CFC is almost the only church that is preaching this. Do you know the number of people who come to CFC Bangalore? I say, why have you come here, brother?

There are so many churches in Bangalore. And they all say this. They are all asking for money. That's all. We get fed up listening to give money, give your money, give your money every Sunday. And we come to CFC, we never hear a word about money.

We hear about holiness. Pure eyes. Pure heart. That is what God wants. I wish thousands of more churches will preach the same thing. But I hardly find many churches preaching that. It's very sad. That is why we have to have a CFC Hubli, which is different from other churches.

The True Bride of Christ and Spiritual Warfare

You know, we started Christian Fellowship Church in Bangalore in 1975. 45 years ago. But in many places people took that name, Christian Fellowship Church. In Kerala also a couple of people called it.

I come to Hubli and I find here also somebody is taking that name. Okay, what to do? We don't fight with anybody. Okay, let anybody take our name. Supposing somebody else there calls himself Mrs. Zakpoonan.

He can call that but she is not my wife. There is only one person who is my wife. So even if 10 people call themselves Mrs. Zakpoonan, so what? Many people say we are the bride of Christ. Who is the real bride of Christ?

Those who give their body and their mind to Him. So we don't say we are better than this church or better than that church. I say we are not in competition with anybody. Many years ago when the Lord said to me from Ephesians 6.

Please remember this. Verse 12. We do not fight with flesh and blood but we fight with these evil forces of darkness. That is the evil forces of the devil. And the Lord said to me, If you want to fight the devil in your life, make one decision today that for the rest of your life you will never fight with human beings.

You will never fight with your wife. You will never fight with your brother-in-law, sister-in-law, nobody. You will never fight with people who criticize you. You will never fight with other churches.

You will never fight with the people of other religions. You will never fight with human beings. Then you will be strong to fight the devil. I can say before God, all those years now I have not fought with human beings.

They can call me whatever they like, I will not fight back. Because I am concentrating everything against fighting the devil in my life. I don't want people to be afraid of me, I want the devil to be afraid of me.

If Satan is afraid of me, that's enough. Satan was scared of Jesus Christ. And if Jesus Christ is living in me, Satan will be scared of me. In the beginning I was afraid of Satan. But the Lord said to me, as you were afraid of Satan once, now Satan will be afraid of you.

That's how all of us can be. If you love Jesus Christ and you fear God, and you give your body and your mind to Him, I tell you, Satan will be afraid of you. No, we live in the love of God, that's the number one thing.

The Holy Spirit Pours God's Love into the Heart

And we respond in love to Him. And then we must love one another. First of all, we are founded in the fact that God loves us. And we show you Romans 5 verse 5. The Holy Spirit sheds the love of God in our hearts.

How do you know you are filled with the Holy Spirit? Romans 5 verse 5, the love of God will be filling your heart. That means three things. One, God loves me perfectly. He fills my heart with the assurance, God loves you perfectly.

No doubt about it. I don't doubt, oh, does he love me or not? Oh, is he angry with me? No, believe, God loves you with all your heart. Believe, God loves you. That's number one. If you don't start there, you don't have a foundation.

The foundation of your life is God loves me perfectly. There will not even be any corner of your heart where you have a doubt of that. God loves me. Whatever may happen, I may get what I want, not get what I want, God loves me.

God may answer my prayer, not answer my prayer, God loves me. I may be healthy, I may be sick, no, it doesn't matter, God loves me. Makes no difference. That is being absolutely sure God loves me. Second, the love of God in my heart is the Holy Spirit makes me a heart full of love for Jesus.

That's the second love, a fervent love for Jesus Christ. Where I love Jesus more than money, I love Jesus more than I love my wife, I love Jesus more than I love my father, mother, brother, sister, everybody.

Otherwise, you can't be a disciple. So many people, they love their family members more than they love Christ. You cannot be a disciple then. All my heart is to love Jesus Christ. And then, I will be able to love my wife better than if I love her directly.

I will tell you, if you love Jesus Christ first and then your wife, you will never get angry with her, never. And you love your children, after you love Jesus Christ, your children will come up, grow up perfectly.

The problem comes when many husbands love their wife more than they love Christ. Then they fight with their wives. When they love their children more than they love Christ, their children grow up wayward and worldly.

They love their job more than they love Christ. No. The second thing is love Christ with all our heart. And the third love is that we love one another. The Holy Spirit makes us love people who are not good to us.

They hurt us, we forgive them. Not my ability, the Holy Spirit does that. I picture the Holy Spirit like electricity. Lord, this room is dark. Can you put on the switch? Lord, I can't love this man. This brother is so bad, I can't love him.

This sister is so bad, I can't love her. Then your heart is all dark. You can't love somebody, that part of your heart is dark. You are not harming him, you are harming yourself. Love is light. When you don't love, it's darkness.

Say Lord, put the Holy Spirit there. Let the Holy Spirit fill that part. It's like the light switched on and suddenly you love that person. You can't do it alone. You cannot produce electricity to make these bulbs burn.

Electricity comes from outside, you put it on, it burns. Like that, the Holy Spirit fills our heart with love for Christ and love for others. So, what is the mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit?

Prayer as the Heart's Fervent Desire

You must all pray, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you another thing about prayer. Prayer is not what you say with your lips. Because God looks at the heart. Prayer is the fervent desire of your heart.

I don't pray every day, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. I don't keep praying that 25 times a day. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit every day, all the time. But if I keep praying that, I won't be able to do anything else.

There is a desire in my heart to be filled with the Holy Spirit every moment of every day. A fervent desire. That is my prayer even though I don't speak with my mouth. Because God doesn't listen to my mouth, he listens to my heart.

If you have a fervent desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit every day, that is like you are praying all the time to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But some people just say with their lips, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit, nothing happens.

Because they don't have that fervent desire in their heart. God looks at the heart, not what we say with our words. See what Jesus said in Mark chapter 7 about certain people. Mark 7 verse 6. In the middle there.

These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. Did you read that? They say things with their lips, but their heart is not at all in it. The opposite of that is, the heart is longing after me, but they don't say much with their lips.

So, my prayer is what is in my heart. And if God sees in my heart a fervent desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit, even if I don't say those words even once in a week, I will be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time.

See, I have a fervent desire when I get up to speak, Lord, I want to be anointed when I preach the word of God. But I don't have to pray every time I get into the pulpit, Lord anoint me now. I say that sometimes, but in the heart it is there all the time.

See what is the prayer in your heart all the time. Lord, I want to love you all the time with all my heart. More than I love my family members, more than I love my job, more than I love my possessions, more than everything, if you don't say it with your lips, if it is in your heart, God hears it.

And then you say, Lord, I want to love everybody in the church also. Lord, there are some difficult people. You can't have much fellowship with them, but let me love them. I can have fellowship only with those who love the Lord with all their hearts.

But not everybody in the church is like that. Some of them are half-hearted. They are interested in other things. I can't have fellowship with them. But I can love them. And if they are in need, I am ready to help them.

So, that way I can have love in three directions. One, the foundation. God loves me tremendously. On that, I love Jesus with all my heart. On that, the next floor, I love people. That is true Christianity.

Living by God's Word

If you have that, even if you don't know much of the Bible, it doesn't matter. But you should still read the Bible, because God speaks to us through his word. And Jesus said, man will live by every word that God speaks.

Prayer for Faithful and Godly Shepherds

So, it's very important to read God's word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for what you have done in all these churches around Hubli and Hulgi. I pray every one of these churches will be strong in the Lord.

And all the brothers who lead these churches will be humble servants willing to wash the feet of the others. And who want to serve and seek nothing for themselves. Raise up godly shepherds like that everywhere.

Thank you Lord for what you have taken the church in Hubli through and brought them through to a resurrection from the death they experienced. I pray you will lead this church forward to greater heights.

I pray in Jesus name. Amen.