(Atlanta 2013) 3. Question Answer — Zac Poonen

Okay, first question. Did Jesus sit or stand when he spoke? Okay, that's from me. He did both. If you read the gospels. When he sat, he was more informal with his disciples as a family. So, I don't know whether you have ever tried to cut a birthday cake into a hundred pieces.

It's not easy, but that's what I'm going to do now. 100 questions in the short time we have. So, everybody's going to get a very thin slice, whoever asked a question. But that's because everybody's got to get a slice.

That's the reason. Is law and grace rival systems? As Christians, are we not to fulfill the law as well? Matthew 5 17 to 20. Okay, I'm going to make sure the slices are equal size. Jesus took the external law and made it inward.

He didn't abolish it in that sense. He took it at a deeper level. One way, illustrations, I like to read the Bible in pictures in my mind, because Jesus so often used pictures and I find it becomes clearer.

See, if you have a sickness which gives you sores in your body, and you take an ointment and rub it and takes care of it, and then it comes in the other hand, you rub it there, then goes away, comes in your leg, rub it there.

It keeps coming up, but because you've got this ointment, you are able to take care of it. The law is something like that. It brought an ordered society because you had laws against murders, adultery, stealing.

In fact, the Ten Commandments, almost the basis for most of the laws in the world. But Jesus came with grace. That's like, supposing after many years of using the ointment, you hear one day, somebody has discovered an antibiotic, and that you don't apply, you put it inside, and it hits the root of the problem inside, and then you don't get the source.

So, you don't need the ointment. Why? Because the problem has been dealt with at a deeper level. So that is what freedom from the law means. It says in Galatians chapter 5, that if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not under the law.

Galatians in chapter 5 in verse 18. That's like saying, if you have taken the antibiotic, then you don't need the ointment. But if you don't take the antibiotic, then you certainly need the ointment. If you don't allow the Holy Spirit to lead you, then you certainly need the law.

Okay, what is the assurance of salvation? That means, basically, that you are sure that Christ, when you talk about salvation, unfortunately, that's not really understood the way the Bible speaks about, because the Bible speaks about being saved from sin.

But as the way we normally use it, it's almost as though we are saved from hell. So, I would say, what is the assurance that you become a child of God? When we repent of our sins, turn, repent means turn around, it doesn't mean I've overcome sin, but I've changed my attitude to sin, and I've trusted that Christ died for all my sins, and I've received Him as my Lord and Savior, I'm forgiven, I've become a child of God.

And that assurance is the Holy Spirit within us. In Romans 8, it says the Holy Spirit witnesses within us that we are the children of God, crying out, Abba, or Daddy, to heaven. So that's assurance. It comes through two sources.

One is God's Word and the Holy Spirit. This is the double witness concerning anything. How do you know your sins are forgiven? The witness of the Holy Spirit and the promise in God's Word. How do you know you're a child of God?

How do you know you're filled with the Spirit? Always God's Spirit witnessing within you, and God's, the promise in God's Word. For example, you being evil, if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

We ask and we surrender everything, we believe, and we have a witness in our heart by the Holy Spirit. That's how every assurance comes in any level. Okay, why does it say in Acts 5, Satan filled their hearts?

What type of person was Ananias and Peter addressed in? Whenever we tell a lie, the devil is the father of lies. But you know a father alone cannot produce a child. A father needs a mother. A man needs a woman.

So if the devil is the father, you got to be the mother to produce a lie. He can't do it himself. So when you yield yourself to him, that's how a lie comes. And as I said, lying can be even without opening our mouth when you give a false impression.

Okay, it says in 2 Thessalonians 2 .11, we'll be deceived if we don't love the truth. God sends a deluding spirit. What is it, it says in 1 Timothy 4, where those who are evil fell away. In the earlier verse, it talks about truly behaving in the house of God.

I think the question is very vague, but I think there is a protection for us if we accept the truth mentioned in the previous verses in 1 Timothy 3. In 1 Timothy 3 .16, before it speaks about deception, it says the truth of godliness is in Christ who came in the flesh.

The humanity of Christ, the fact that he lived on earth as a man and not only died for our sins, but gave us an example how we are to live. If we follow that example, then 1 Timothy 4 .1, we will not be deceived.

In the secular walk of life, I've often found myself raising the bar when confronted with competition. I sense there's something wrong, seriously wrong, with how to perform in a secular life. I believe in our secular jobs, we must do the very best we possibly can.

It's a good witness for Christ if you're a very efficient worker. Efficient worker means according to the level of your ability and intelligence, etc. I worked in the Navy. I was converted when I was in the Indian Navy as an officer, and I was a naval officer for seven years before the Lord called me out to leave my job.

And I felt that as a Christian, my witness must be that in every single ship I worked on, my senior officers would find nothing wrong with my work, that all my work was perfect, better than anybody else's, not for any award or reward.

I remember one commanding officer called me once and said, Lieutenant Poonen, I can find nothing wrong with your work, but you're a very unsociable character. You don't come for the drinking parties and the card games and the dancing sessions and things like that.

Of course, I said, I'm a Christian. But I told him, Sir, I don't work really to please you. I fear God and I do my work to the best of my ability, whether you see me or not, or whatever confidential report you write about me.

And I'm very thankful to say that all the years I was in the Navy, no senior officer ever could find anything wrong with the work I did. But I was not trying to show I was better than somebody else. I was just trying to do the best of my ability.

And so I believe that should be, we're not here to compete with others. We must do our best and leave it to God. Psalm 75 says, promotion comes from God. So we trust him to promote us when he feels it's right.

For those whose sleep is affected by anxiety, what advice do you give besides don't be anxious? Is it all right to take medication for sleep, depression, anxiety? See, we are not only spirit and soul, we are body.

So a lot of things in our body affect our behavior and conduct. So, if there are, I mean, doctors know about it. There are tablets that can help us to calm us if some people are overexcited, etc. There's nothing wrong in taking any type of medication.

Because remember, all these things which we call tablets and medicines are basically chemicals which God has created on earth or herbs or plants and things taken out from things which God has created.

And God has put these medicinal values in all these minerals and vitamin C and oranges and things like that. Because it's part of, it's an act of God's mercy on a earth that is cursed by sin, which produces sickness.

So we got to thank God for that mercy. And whether you take it as a vitamin C tablet or an orange juice, it's all really the same, whether you take it in different forms in the actual raw state or whether somebody conveniently puts it into a tablet.

Medicine is, I believe, something God has ordained. There's nothing wrong in taking it. It's a means by which God can heal us. So if those things help us to calm our nerves, that's perfectly okay. There's no contradiction in scripture with medicine.

Second Thessalonians 2 .7, it speaks about something restraining the man of lawlessness till he be taken away. It's the influences of God on earth through his working and circumstances and other things through the Holy Spirit.

And those restraining influences are removed. And it's not that the church goes away or the Holy Spirit goes away. The Holy Spirit will always be here till Christ returns. But God restrains something up to a certain point and then removes that restraint.

And then a flood of evil comes in. So that is God's power that's restraining. Being baptized with the Holy Spirit will give you power. Can you explain the power? Is it abstract? Does it mean ability? Jesus did not say just power.

Acts 1 .8, he said, you shall receive power to be my witnesses. It's not just power. Acts 1 .8 is the clearest verse I have seen to describe the evidence of the fulfilling of the Holy Spirit and what the power is for.

The power is to be, B-E, which is different from bear, B-E-A-R. To bear witness means just my lips. To be a witness means my life and my lips. So the Holy Spirit will give me power to be a witness for Christ by the way I live, by the way I conduct myself, and by the words I speak.

For myself, I was a very shy person. You wouldn't believe that now, but it is true. I never took part in public debates in school or college or anywhere, and not even in the military academy. I was very reserved and shy, but when I became a Christian, I knew that I had to be a witness for Christ.

And I was so scared to stand before people or to stand in the streets and preach. And I said, Lord, I've got to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's the only way. And the Bible said to seek for the gift of prophecy, which is the ability to preach God's Word in a way that will convict and encourage and comfort and challenge.

That's specifically written in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 1. Pursue love and earnestly desire to prophesy. And the prophesying is described in verse 3. So I did that. I began to seek God and say, Lord, I want to prophesy.

I want to be able to share, prophesy not in the Old Testament sense of predicting, but encouraging and speaking. So as I began to seek God for that, I found that God gave me that ability, and I keep seeking for it even now so that it can be sharper and more effective.

There's hardly ever that I preach a sermon where I don't go home finally at the end of the day and judge myself. And I say, Lord, could I have done that better? Imagine a housewife who's so intent on making perfect meals that every dish she cooks, she evaluates and checks whether she could do it better.

And I think over a period of years, she'd be a first-class chef. So I find that a lot of preachers don't judge themselves and examine themselves. I often, I'll tell you, I often listen to my own messages on the internet or on a tape to see, Lord, how did I come across there?

Was that, could I do it better? Because it's just like, it's like serving a meal. I want to do it better. I mean, I want to be the best possible cook there is, spiritually speaking. So if we seek God and say, Lord, give me the Spirit's power to do that.

Now that's my calling. Now another person's calling may not be to preach, it may be something else. But we need power. It's like every part of this body, we can say has two things. One is blood. Blood flows into every part of this body, symbolizing the blood of Christ that cleanses every member of the body of Christ.

But the other thing that every member in this body has is power. For example, if this hand is paralyzed, it's still a member of my body, but it doesn't have power. It's useless. In fact, it becomes a burden on the rest of the body.

So you can be a member of the body with the blood flowing, the blood of Christ, but no power. What you need is power. And if this hand gets power, it will not become a tongue, it'll become a powerful hand.

So some people, when they seek God for power, they say, Oh, I'd like to preach like that brother. If power would make me preach like that brother. Remember, if God's called you to be a hand, you will never be a tongue.

When you get power, you'll be a good hand. If you're, if you're a mother of five or six children, you'll be a spiritual mother, not a spiritual missionary traveling the world. So each calling is different.

You need to recognize you have a particular calling in the body of Christ, and power is to fulfill that calling. And that calling will become more and more clear to you as you seek to do whatever, whatever your hand finds to do, do it.

It's as an ecclesiastes. And as you do it, I think I took about 15, 20 years before I realized what my calling in the body of Christ was. But until then, I kept doing what I could. And as I did, I found, for example, in the early days, I did a lot of evangelism, and I found that God had called me to be a teacher.

I just want to say a word about evangelism, because a lot of people think that our emphasis, we are against evangelism. It's not true. In our churches, we are against evangelism that does not lead people to become disciples, and that does not lead them to maturity.

Because I find a lot of evangelism today is just bring a person to Christ and just leave them, go and bring somebody else to Christ. That's like a mother who gives birth to a baby and says, okay, now I've got to get another baby, dump that baby on the street and go and get another baby, and then dump that one on the street and go and get another baby.

What do you think of such a mother? I think you're a very irresponsible mother. If you've got a baby, you must bring that baby up to maturity. That's what Paul did. When he brought people to Christ, he brought them into a place together.

He'd visit them, write letters to them, encourage them, and I think if he was living today, he'd call them up on the telephone or do a Skype meeting with them, and that's what I do. When I bring people to Christ in the area, bring them together, encourage them, lead them on, because I don't want to leave them babies.

None of you parents want to leave your children babies. So producing evangelism is like producing children. Great. But bring them up to maturity. Make them disciples and teach them to obey all that we have commanded you.

So we're not against evangelism. We started off with four or five families and we have 50 churches today. Obviously, we have done evangelism with hundreds and hundreds of people from all religions. But we don't believe in leaving them babies.

That's sometimes people misunderstand what we stand for. Deception, like lying, is it a sin? If I dye my hair and buy my hair into an unnatural color, is that deception? No, there's no deception there.

I don't believe we should look shabby, with hair just flying around and not properly clothed. I think there's something Christ-like about being neat and tidy. I don't mean showy in a grand way that you make other people feel small or display your wealth or something with your clothing.

I don't mean that. But to look pleasant and approachable, comb your hair and probably use oil in your hair or whatever it is. And I'm not against people looking attractive. And I believe that's right as far as possible.

I don't dye my hair because I think there's a value in gray hair. But I've got no problem with somebody who does. I don't think there's anything wrong in it. Because Christianity is not whether you dye your hair or you don't dye your hair.

The deception I'm speaking about is related to spiritual things. You see, for example, a person who's working among young people, I can presume that he probably wouldn't want to dye his hair so that they approach him more easily because he doesn't look so old or something like that.

I feel that the motive is always what God sees. Remember this, whenever you're in doubt about something, ask yourself, what is my motive? And to look pleasant and nice, there's nothing wrong in that. But are you planning, are you trying to deceive somebody about your spiritual state?

So I was primarily talking about our spiritual condition. Ananias would not have died if he had dyed his hair. He died because he was trying to deceive people in that church that he was spiritual when he was not.

And that is not something that God approves of. God wants us to be ourselves. He doesn't want us to pretend that we are more mature than we really are or any type of that type of deception. See, we've got to be careful that we don't become fanatics in the matter of, you know, being pleasant in our appearance and things like that.

I mean, there may be some sisters who feel they must wear jewelry. My wife and I don't believe in it, but we don't judge others who do because that's a personal choice. I'm not here to judge for other people.

The important thing is, are you Christ-like in your conduct and behavior? I once, you know, a lot of people are against ladies wearing jeans and lipstick and mascara and all that other stuff. And in our church, we believe that sisters should wail their heads.

But I once said, I shocked my church once by saying, give me a sister who wears jeans and doesn't wail her head and cut her hair very short and wears mascara and lipstick and all the other things. I don't know all the other things people use, but whatever you do.

And really good looking, but never gossips, never backbites, submits to her husband, is very kind and helpful and thoughtful and always out to maybe cook a meal for somebody who's sick. Oh, give me a hundred sisters like that.

Then these sisters who, you know, wail their heads and look very holy and wear white clothes and don't wear any jewelry, but go home and don't submit to their husbands and fight and quarrel and yell and scream.

And I said, no, that's hypocrisy. So I'm not much for this. I believe we should be modest in our apparel, but it's the inner character that's far, far more important. And if there's one without the other, then I'd say inner character is more important.

Okay. I made a promise to the Lord and I could not keep it. And every time I remember, I feel condemned. What should I do? Will you forgive me? Of course the Lord will forgive you. I'll tell you a true story.

It happened in one of our villages where there was a non-Christian man who got converted. And you see, he had from his non-Christian religion, the idea that if I have committed some sin due to something, then I must make some type of sacrifice.

You know, he couldn't believe that somebody else's death took care of everything, that Christ's death. He felt that he must also do something. And he was a milkman who would always, like most milkmen in India, add a lot of water to the milk when they sell it to make money.

So he did it also. And he said, as an act of repentance, I'll kill my cow so that I'll show God I really repent of it. So he made a vow to God. And then he suddenly realized, I got only one cow, then how will I live if I kill it?

He didn't know. He was in a real predicament. And fortunately, there was a conference a few days later and he met me. He said, what do I do? I made a vow to God. I said, well, I said, sometimes a three-year-old walks up to his dad and says, I'm not going to live in this house anymore.

I'm going to walk out. Did the dad keep that three-year-old to the word? You said, you're going to walk out of the house. Now walk out of the house. Don't stay here. No. You see, that's a silly three-year-old saying something.

And I said, remember, God's a father. You're like a silly little kid who said something to God and God overlooks it. Forget it. Don't worry about it. He was so relieved that he didn't have to kill his cow.

So remember, God's a father. And sometimes we say silly, stupid things because we are two years old spiritually. He ignores them. Don't worry. I've heard you say we shouldn't look inside, but look at Jesus.

Can you explain? I'll tell you what, you know, psychology says, look inside, see if you've done something wrong. Look back to the time when you were in your mother's womb. Possibly your mother rejected you.

All types of stupid things. You get into bondage like this. I say, look at Jesus. There's something glorious about it. You see the perfect character. And as you see his perfect character, you see your own selfishness and pride and you can repent of it.

That's the way. And then you see something more and you see yourself and the Holy Spirit comes to help you to get rid of that. That way, I don't get depressed because 2 Corinthians 3, 18 says, the Holy Spirit shows me the glory of Jesus and then conforms me to that likeness.

If he only showed me the glory of Jesus, I'd be depressed. But he goes the second step and changes me into that likeness. I think I'm keeping time. Okay. What do you say to a young person, a young man who's struggling with sexual sin, pornography and other sexual sins in private other than adultery?

Well, I would say that first of all, you've got to see that it is serious. Now there are some people who, some say certain sexual sins are not so serious because you're not harming anybody else. I agree.

If you commit adultery, that's more serious because you harm somebody else. But private sexual sins that you do on your own, like pornography, are not harming anybody. But you are in another sense harming yourself.

You know, it's like if you take a blade and you cut your hand, you can say, I'm not harming anybody, so shall I do it? Well, in the Bible, there was a madman in a place called Gadara who cut himself with stones and Jesus had to deliver him.

So you don't do that. You don't harm yourself. And what you don't realize is that the more you watch pornography or practice these sexual sins, you're harming yourself in a way that you don't see. For example, if a person constantly smoking cigarettes, if he could see every time he smoked a cigarette, how is the beautiful pink lung that he got as a baby become blacker and blacker and getting worse and worse and worse and one day will kill him with lung cancer.

If he could see that, the thing is, he doesn't see it after 20 years when he gets his cancer. But if he could see progressively how it's getting worse and worse and worse, he'd give up his cigarettes in no time.

Or a person who's drinking alcohol, if he could progressively see each day how his liver is getting worse and worse and worse and worse, he'd give up alcohol immediately. But we don't see it. If you cut your hand, you can see it.

And that's why we don't do such stupid things. But we do a lot of things that harm us inwardly, which are actually more serious. And for example, if you keep on speaking evil about others, or you keep on losing your temper, there's damage that you're doing to your soul, which is, I mean, you can ask forgiveness and get forgiven, but there'll be a scar.

Supposing I cut my hand and I say it'll heal, of course it'll heal. There'll be a scar. Then I cut another one. Then I cut another time. See, it'll all heal, of course. Ultimately, my whole hand will be full of scars, because I say every wound will heal.

And that's what happens to people's souls. We don't see it. We sin and ask God for forgiveness. You're forgiven, there's a scar. And then you sin again, because you say forgiveness is cheap. I asked the Lord to forgive me.

He forgives you, but there's another scar. And then you sin again, and you ask the Lord to forgive you, your soul is full of scars. And it's not as healthy as, you know, if your hand is full of scars, and the soles of your feet are full of scars, you're going to have a tough time doing many things in life.

And that's what happens, that forgiveness is, there's a tremendous price. It's free for you, but there's a tremendous price that Christ paid for it. So therefore, we should ask ourselves in relation to these sins, Jesus was tempted like us.

One of the great verses in the Bible is Hebrews 4 .15. Jesus was tempted exactly like us. And I remember when I was a young man, and I was struggling with these sexual sins, just like anybody else. I used to say, Lord Jesus, when you were in Nazareth, you were also tempted like me.

Because the Bible says that. And how did you face those temptations in Nazareth as a young man with all the passions I have in my body? I want to follow you. So my singing, follow, follow, I will follow anywhere, everywhere, I will follow him became real.

And not just on Sunday, as I said, but on Monday and Tuesday, where I had to actually do exactly what Jesus did in Nazareth when he was tempted like me. That's the thing that helped me the most. And 1 Timothy 3 .16 says, that is the secret of godliness to see that Jesus came in the flesh, was tempted like me, and overcame.

So when I look at Jesus as an example, and ask the Holy Spirit to give me power, God can help us to overcome. Don't get discouraged. If it takes time, if you've been a slave to any type of sin, anger, pornography, anything for many years, it may take time for you to get over it.

But fight it, fight it. I sometimes use this example for young people. Here are two men, two young men. And they're invited to wrestle with a giant of a man. And one of them looks at the giant and says, boy, I can never fight with him.

I don't even try. I might as well give up. He gets into the bout and the giant knocks him down. He says, I'll be defeated. The other guy, he looks at his giant and he says, okay, I can't defeat him, but I'm going to fight.

I'm going to struggle and fight with him. And after a great struggle, he falls down. The next day again, he struggles and falls down. Next day, he again, he struggles. And five years, he keeps fighting with his giant every day.

And every day he loses. This other guy, five years, just gives up. Both were defeated. But how is it this other person's muscles became stronger? Because he fought. Even though he lost, he fought. And the very fact of struggling with a stronger person developed his muscles.

And one day he'd be strong enough to overcome him. But this other guy will never overcome him because he gives up the battle straight away. So what I tell young people is, think of sex as a sexual sin.

Temptation as a massive giant, much stronger than you. If you look at it and say, oh, I'm just going to give in. You'll never overcome it. But you say, I'm going to fight this. Okay, I'm defeated. I'm defeated.

But you find that you got a little more strength that you don't give in so easily after a year or so. And a day will come when you'll knock that giant down. So all I say is, don't give up. Keep fighting.

That's the thing that God looks for. Do you hate it? The Bible says in Hebrews 1 .9 that Jesus hated sin. And, okay, you can't overcome sin. Do you hate it? Keep hating it. Keep hating it. Keep fighting it.

And ask for the power of the Holy Spirit and God will give you the victory. And see, sin is, sexual sin is just one little segment of a huge circle called sin. So if I want victory only in this one segment, it may be difficult.

But if I look at sin as a whole, the Bible says sin shall not have dominion over you, not just one little segment. Very often we are looking for victory in one segment of anger or one segment of sexual sin.

But if I look at sin as a whole and say, Lord, I want to overcome sin in its totality, you'll find that as you overcome in areas like selfishness or pride, things which are a little more easier than overcoming pornography and sexual sin, to be a little considerate to others, to ask forgiveness when you have hurt somebody, little, little things like this.

If you do, or to fast a little, maybe to overcome your love of food or your gluttony, you'll find that the strength you get in those areas through the power of the Holy Spirit enables you to help in these other little segments where you want victory.

So always look at sin as a whole and say, Lord, I want to overcome sin in its totality. I'm a very selfish person, not at all generous, very stingy and miserly, and I'm not worried about that. I want to overcome sexual sin.

Well, tackle these things that are easy first. You know, for example, laziness to get up a little earlier in the morning just to read the scriptures. Have you heard of the story of the man who went to a godly preacher and said, will you pray that I will get up in the morning to read the Bible?

So this wise preacher said, if you promise to put one leg outside your bed in the morning, I'll pray that God will help you to put the other leg outside also. But if you expect me to pray that God will lift you up out of the bed and make you stand, it's not going to happen.

It's a cooperation with God. If I want to fast and pray, what are all the points I should keep in mind? I've had many preach, but I don't have a clear idea. See, I think in fasting, there's the discipline of fasting, which we can do as a discipline, maybe once a week or something.

But then we also fast sometimes when we have a burden to pray for something, some particular need in our life. And don't start with fasting for two or three days. Maybe you should begin with fasting for just one meal and then make it two meals and make it three meals.

Go at it gradually. And I think a number of things will happen. I find, for example, you begin to understand, first of all, what hunger feels like. See, most Christians have never known what hunger feels like because they've never fasted for one single day.

So when you think of people who are hungry in the world without food, you have a greater compassion for them if you yourself have missed a meal for just two days or even one day. And then another thing is, it's one of the things by which we can overcome gluttony.

Basically, we're all great lovers of food and gluttons, and we need to overcome that, where our stomach should not be our guide. And then the third is, I think it's an expression of the intensity of our desire as we seek God for some particular reason.

So that's the way I would say you should go about it. And then as a discipline, I think it's a very good thing if you're a young, fit person to fast at least once a day. And even if you're older, at least skip a few meals a week just so that you don't become a slave to food.

How can you be sure if God has chosen, who God has chosen as your life partner? How can you tell the difference between God's choice and your choice? Well, first of all, we must make sure that we find someone who is of equal, the Bible says, don't be unequally yoked.

In the Old Testament, there was a law, don't put an ox and a donkey together under the same yoke, because an ox and a donkey don't work together easily, put two oxen together. And so in the New Testament, it says, don't be unequally yoked with someone who is not a believer, someone who is not born again.

That's the first thing you must check. Is that person a child of God? Because the Bible says that children of God and children of the devil. And if you marry someone who is a child of the devil, your father-in-law is likely to visit your home quite often.

And you can't stop that. He'll have problems. So better not to marry someone who's a child of the devil. But even among children of God, there are different levels. So if you marry someone who is not really the same temperature spiritually, not as wholehearted as you are, you'll find you'll have to drag him or her when you want to follow the Lord.

So I say look for someone who's the same temperature approximately, who's got the same desire and passion, you can grow together. And how to know whether it's God's will? I believe primarily by a peace in our heart as we put spiritual values first.

Now the thing is, the Bible doesn't give us much guidelines on this, except don't be unequally yoked in 2 Corinthians 6 .14. So I feel that the principle applies not only that we don't get unequally yoked with unbelievers, but also a fair amount of equality in other areas.

You know, we are spirit, soul, and body. We're not angels. We are spirit, soul, and body. So we look for the spiritual values first, and then the values of the soul, which is intellectual, social, economic, all those things, and then body as well.

The question is how much proportion importance, proportionate importance we give to each of these. So as a general guideline, this is not scripture, this is my opinion. I'd say when you consider a girl or a boy as a possible life partner, give out of 100 marks, give 50 marks for spiritual values, 30 marks for intellectual, social, economic level, education, communication ability, etc., and 20 marks for physical attractiveness, which is also important.

Don't give zero for physical attractiveness to try and be super spiritual. That's crazy because remember you've got to look at her face every morning. Or his face. But that's not primary, and so that's a rough guideline I give to people.

And then as you pray about it, Romans 8 .6 says, the mind of the spirit is peace. So if you're thinking of the mind of the spirit, how do I know the mind of the Holy Spirit? I'll have a peace in my heart, Romans 8 .6.