(The Law of the Holy Spirit) the Spirit of Revelation — Zac Poonen

Paul’s Prayers and the Ephesian Church

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, there are two prayers he prays for the Ephesian Christians. Paul had stayed in Ephesus for three years and we read in Acts 20 that he had been preaching day and night.

As far as we know, every day those three years. Imagine sitting in a church where you had listened to 2 ,000 sermons by the Apostle Paul. That was certainly the most spiritual church in the early days.

It became backslidden by the time of the end of the century, as you read in Revelation 2. But when Paul wrote to this church in Ephesians, when we compare it with his letters to all the other churches, he could speak to them deeper things than he could speak to the others.

To the Corinthians he said, We determine not to know anything among you but Christ and Him crucified. Now some people take that verse and say, that's all I'm going to preach, Christ and Him crucified.

This is the problem with a lot of Christians who take one verse and don't read the context. It's a very bad habit I have found among Christians all over the world. They've got favorite verses. Imagine if you got a ten-page letter from your dad and you just read the tenth line on the fourth page.

You'd completely misunderstand it if you didn't read the whole paragraph. We never do that with letters. But we forget that all these were letters. And we take one sentence out of somewhere and produce a doctrine out of it, and that's how all the heresies and cults and Christendom have come forth.

Very often people have asked me this question, Brother Jack, what does this verse mean? I said, let me read it with you. And I read the whole paragraph and without my explanation they understand it. They didn't need to.

All they needed to do was read the whole paragraph instead of picking out one sentence from the middle. When Paul said to the Corinthians, I determine not to know anything among you but Christ and Him crucified, he goes on to say it's because you people are babies.

I can only give you milk. But he says among those who are more mature I can speak wisdom in the same chapter. I determine not to know anything among you but Christ and Him crucified, but, this is 1 Corinthians 2 verse 4, among those who are mature we speak wisdom.

And not the wisdom which this world speaks about but a wisdom from God. And he says those things are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Things which eye has not seen, 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9, which ear has not heard, which has not entered into the heart of man.

When you read a verse like that you think of heaven. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, which has not entered into the heart of man. But it's not speaking about heaven. Read the context again. God has revealed them.

Notice that word again, revelation to us through the Holy Spirit. Because this Spirit searches the deep things of God. And he goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 11, nobody knows our thoughts except we ourselves, but the Holy Spirit is the one who knows the thoughts of God.

And when he comes into us, fills us, he reveals to us the thoughts of God. This is one of the main ministries of the Holy Spirit. To reveal to me the thoughts of Almighty God. It speaks of intimacy. Who do you share your most intimate thoughts with?

You won't share it with a stranger. You won't even share it with your little children who are, if you're doing business, you can't share that with a four-year-old who can't understand. If you have a close relationship with your wife, you will share your thoughts with her.

That's the type of relationship Jesus Christ wants to have with us. And you cannot know his thoughts if you don't open yourself completely to the Holy Spirit. As I said the other day, our mind is so much influenced by thoughts from the world.

The Holy Spirit Reveals God’s Thoughts

We have the world's sense of values. We think money is great. We think sex is great. We think worldly honor is great. And that's how the devil fools us. He fools us by saying money is great. You got to have it.

Sex, that's a great thing. You can't live without that. And the honor of the world, the honor in the church, that's a great thing. And if Satan can convince you that these three things I mentioned are great, he's got you.

He doesn't care how many meetings you go to or how many conferences you go to. He has convinced you that money is the greatest thing, sex is the greatest thing, honor in the world is the greatest thing.

But if you can call the devil's lie and say that is not the greatest thing, those are servants God gives us. Sex is for marriage, money is for use in the world, honor, I'm not even interested in that.

It's only in the honor of God. Then you can overcome Satan. And that can only come as the Holy Spirit reveals to you the thoughts of God. That's called revelation. Now they could never have it in the Old Testament.

And if you come to the Scriptures with your cleverness and intelligence, you'll never understand the revelation of God. Like I said the other day, the Holy Spirit is a spirit of grace. God gives grace to the humble.

Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11, verse 25. I'm going to come to Ephesians in a moment. Matthew 11, 25. He says, I praise you, Father, that you have hidden these things. Have you ever thought that Jesus would thank God that certain things are hidden from certain men?

We think that we should make things clear to everybody, the wonderful truths of God. But Jesus praises God for hiding things from people. Once when His disciples asked Him, why do you always speak in parables?

Matthew 13, verse 10. He says, so that I speak in parables, Matthew 13, 13, so that these people will not see. Have you ever preached a sermon with the aim that some people should not understand? Jesus was a master at that.

And that's the reason why so many people read the Bible and can't understand it. It's written in a way that people don't understand. You think a great teacher is one who can explain things clearly. But Jesus spoke in a way that people could not understand.

Seeing, they will not see. And hearing, they will hear, but they won't understand. Try and figure out Matthew 13, verse 13. And see if you can preach like that. I speak to them in parables because while seeing, they do not see.

And hearing, they do not hear, and they won't understand. So don't think that Jesus came here to make things very plain and simple for everybody. It's only a certain category of person that Jesus is going to make things clear to.

It's only a certain category of person to whom the Holy Spirit will reveal the thoughts of Almighty God. The rest will imagine that they know the thoughts of God because they are clever to study the Bible, and they'll be completely deceived.

Recognizing Christ and the Holy Spirit

The Pharisees knew the Bible, but they couldn't recognize Jesus. The entire Old Testament spoke about the second person of the Trinity coming to earth, the seed of the woman, Genesis, the brazen serpent in Numbers, the smitten rock in Exodus, the sin offering in Leviticus, and the son of righteousness in Malachi, the suffering servant in Isaiah 53.

All the way through the Old Testament, it spoke about the second person of the Trinity, and when the second person of the Trinity came, these guys who had studied the Old Testament thoroughly thought it was the devil.

Got it? Let me repeat it. The entire Old Testament spoke about the second person of the Trinity from Genesis to Malachi, and yet when the second person of the Trinity came in their midst, they thought it was the devil.

Now we come to the New Testament. The entire New Testament speaks about the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit begins to move among God's people, people think it's the devil.

It's the same old story, and they were warned against Jesus, saying, oh, that's the devil, and they're warned against the Holy Spirit, that's the devil. It's the same thing. Why? Why is these clever Pharisees couldn't recognize the second person of the Trinity?

Why is it so many clever people can't recognize the third person of the Trinity today? Are there counterfeits? Oh, yes, plenty of them. But why does the devil counterfeit the ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit?

Have you ever heard of anybody counterfeiting brown paper or toilet paper or any such thing? You don't go to the market and wonder, is that genuine toilet paper or is it counterfeit? If you're going to buy gold or diamonds or $100 notes, you want to make sure that is genuine.

Only valuable things are counterfeited. Cheap things are never counterfeited. And if the Holy Spirit's ministry is counterfeited, you can be pretty sure it's valuable. If the gifts of the Holy Spirit are counterfeited, you can be pretty sure it's valuable.

That, in fact, the devil's counterfeit is what proves to me the thing must be valuable. Hey, I better seek for the real thing. I want to avoid the counterfeit. Sure. How? You know, people who buy gold, I don't know head or tail about gold.

I've never bought gold, but I think people who want to go and buy real gold will be very careful that they don't get cheated because there's a lot of corruption there. Things that look like gold and ordinary people like you and me who are not goldsmiths, we'll be fooled.

I know I'll be fooled because I can't make out what's real gold and what's counterfeit, what's just painted to look like gold. A lot of things painted to look like gold, they're not real gold. And a lot of things today that appear to be the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit.

Appear to be the gifts of the Holy Spirit is not the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And the only way to discern is if God gives us revelation. Now, Matthew 11, 25, Jesus says, I thank you, Father. You have hidden these things from the clever and the intelligent.

You know, just like, have you heard of people who have a handicap? They have Olympics for the handicapped. You know, people in wheelchairs. It's called Paralympics where people in wheelchairs have races.

And you feel sorry for people who are handicapped. You know, either they've got a lame, a withered arm or a lame leg. Now, I'll tell you what handicap is in the Christian life. Cleverness. Are you clever?

I feel sorry for you. You're the handicapped person. Are you intelligent? You're handicapped, brother. Sorry, sorry about it. What to do? Unfortunately, you feel sorry for the man who's limping. I feel sorry for you, clever, intelligent people.

You will never understand the things of God. Matthew 11, 25. Father, I thank you. You have hidden these things from the clever and the intelligent. Have you ever read that verse? That's why I say people who study the Bible in Bible schools go astray.

That's why Jesus never sent His disciples to a Bible school. The only apostle who went to a Bible school was the apostle Paul before he was converted. He spent three years studying under Gamaliel. And when he came to Jesus, Jesus said, I've got to send you to three years to the desert in Arabia to get all that chaff out of your head.

That's the unfortunate thing. If you spend three years in Bible school, you probably got to spend three years in the desert to get it all out of your head. So, why waste six years of your life? Best don't go to Bible school at all.

I thank God I never went a single day to a Bible school because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You can't understand by cleverness and intelligence what shall we handicapped people do.

I think there are a lot of handicapped people sitting here. Indians are particularly handicapped. I know that. I sought the Lord about this. I said, Lord, what shall I do? I'm intelligent. What shall I do?

I wish I were born dumb. I could have understood the scripture. And the Lord said, there's a way out of it. Acknowledge that with cleverness and intelligence you cannot understand the scriptures. I said, okay, I'll acknowledge that.

Come to the scriptures acknowledging that you know nothing. Use your intelligence in the world. Sure, if you're doing business, you better use your intelligence. If you're working in computers and things like that, use your intelligence.

But when it comes to this book, don't try to use your intelligence. You'll go astray. All the denominations and cults in Christendom have come because clever people have come to this book with their cleverness and the truth is hidden.

Then to whom does God reveal it? Jesus said it. Matthew 11, 25, I thank you, Father, you give revelation to babes. What does that mean? Jesus once took a little baby and said, Matthew 18, 4, whoever humbles himself like this child.

He was giving an illustration of humility. They asked him, who's the greatest in God's kingdom? He took a little baby and said, here's the greatest. What does he have? Any of you guys can fool a child.

You can fool any little baby, but you can't beat him in humility. No. None of us can beat a baby in humility. Think of the thoughts that go through your mind. I've often seen a little three-month-old child lying in a cradle.

The most beautiful thing on earth, and the eyes of a child are the closest to heaven that you can find on earth. I'll tell you that. Your eyes and our eyes have been corrupted by sin through so many years, polluted.

We look at that child, little one-month-old child, it's the closest thing to heaven you can see on earth. And does that child lie there in the cradle thinking, boy, I'm the closest thing to heaven on earth.

No. It's got no thoughts like that about itself. It has absolutely zero thoughts of pride. If somebody goes to that child and say, boy, how lovely you are, he doesn't get puffed up. Have you ever found somebody coming and appreciating something in you?

Boy, you have a battle with pride immediately, right? When they say something good about you, whether you're pretty or intelligent or good, or that was a great ministry you did, or whatever it is, the primary thing about little children is humility.

Humility, Brokenness, and Revelation

And so I learned from there that if I have this terrible handicap of being a clever, intelligent person, I can deny it when I come to Scripture and say, Lord, when it comes to this book, I'm absolutely dumb.

I want to come to this book not with my cleverness and my intelligence. I want to set it aside. I want to come with humility, recognizing that I know nothing unless you reveal it to me by the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, if you come to Scripture like that, you will see things in this which no clever, intelligent person can ever see or teach you. I'm telling you from my own experience from the time God filled me with the Holy Spirit, and as I continue to live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and walk in brokenness and humility before God, I have seen the most amazing things in Scripture that I've never read in a book or heard on a tape.

And yet it's in the same Bible, from the same verses, things which I've never seen before. And that can be for you. Paul writing to the Ephesians, as I said, he prayed two prayers. Those are good prayers for us to pray for ourselves.

Both concern the Holy Spirit. Both are distinctively New Covenant ministries of the Holy Spirit. See, this New Covenant and Old Covenant is another thing we are completely blind to unless you come with humility.

We may think we have understood the New Covenant, but we haven't. As long as you can't overcome sin in your life, you have not understood the New Covenant. The word in the New Covenant is grace. The word in the Old Covenant is law.

As long as your Christian life is lived by rules and regulations, you are under law. Whichever church you belong to, however modest your clothing is, you are under law because you lose your temper, because you get anxious, because you grumble, because you love money.

I don't care how many doctrines you know. You're under law, brother. You might as well acknowledge it. You'll never be free until you acknowledge, Lord, I'm under law because I love money, because I'm anxious, because I can't control my tongue.

I speak rudely to my husband. I'm under law. Even though I'm so modestly dressed, I am under law. I have not understood grace. Oh, God, will you please have mercy on a stupid, proud man or woman like me?

Please bring me under grace. I prayed like that. If you're humble, to acknowledge your sin and defeated life, but if you pretend, if you come to church pretending that you're spiritual, God will say, I didn't come for you healthy people.

I came for the sick, for the sinners. The Pharisees would come to the church because they had a reputation. They had been there so many years. How could they acknowledge that they were defeated? I remember having been a preacher for a number of years way back in 1974.

That's 37 years. I was defeated. My inner life did not correspond with my outer life. And I was preaching. I was preaching in this Baptist church every Sunday. I was traveling to different countries and preaching.

I was a hypocrite. And one day the Lord spoke to me. I remember that so clearly in January 1975. The Lord said, Are you willing to stand up in that church today and acknowledge before all those people who respect you so much that you're a hypocrite?

That your inner life does not correspond with what you preach? I was so desperate. I was in that place where I was going to quit the ministry. Just like those disciples were going to quit fishing. Because I had toiled and toiled and my life was frustrated and defeated like that empty boat of those disciples.

I said, Lord, I don't care. I'm willing to stand anywhere and tell people the truth. And I'm just going to quit preaching because I'm a hypocrite. If my inner life does not correspond with what I speak, I don't want to speak anymore.

That's the day God turned my life around. He filled me with the Holy Spirit once again. And began to give me revelation on His Word. I began to understand things almost from the very next day. Things I had never seen in Scripture before.

Even though I'd been reading the Bible for so many years. At least 15 years before that. I began to see things which I'd never seen before. I saw the glory of the New Covenant. If you had asked me in the first 16 years of my Christian life, what is the New Covenant?

I wouldn't have been able to explain it to you. I certainly didn't experience it. I was defeated. I was defeated with my tongue and the eyes. Oh yes. Like all people are. Christians. Then I began to get revelation.

Paul’s Prayer for the Spirit of Revelation

Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1 is this. I'm praying, he says. I thank God for all that you have. Ephesians 1 .15. You got faith in Jesus. Praise the Lord. You got love for all the saints. Now you think if somebody's got faith in Jesus and love for all the saints.

Boy, what more does that person need? You don't need to pray for anything for that person. You need to just tell him to go and encourage other people to come to that same life. Now what would you pray for someone who's got faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints?

There are very few people like that. You say, hey, you guys don't need any prayer. Just go and pray for other people. Paul says, I thank God for that. I don't deny that's a good thing that you got faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints.

Ephesians 1 .16. But now I'm praying for you something which you guys need. All of you who got faith in the Lord Jesus and love for your fellow believers, I'm praying for you that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Revelation. I pray that you will get revelation on things you haven't understood about God, that you will get into the mind of God and understand the thoughts of God. It's an amazing thing in the knowledge of Him.

And he says, I want the eyes of your heart to be enlightened. Now he's writing all this in Ephesians. Now, in today, many preachers would say, listen to my message again ten times and you may understand it.

Or read this letter of mine, hey fellas, read this letter of mine twenty times and you'll understand it. That is appealing to people's cleverness and intelligence. But Paul was saying, you can read it a hundred times and you won't understand it.

And that's why Christians read Ephesians a hundred times and they don't understand. Because what they need is revelation. And what they lack is humility. So Paul says, I'm praying that you guys will get the spirit of revelation, that the Holy Spirit will fill you and give you revelation.

And teach you things which your cleverness and intelligence will never teach you. That was what Jesus emphasized. You know that verse, I will, I say unto you, Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.

Our dear Roman Catholic friends will say Peter was the rock. He wasn't. Peter wasn't the Pope. He was not the rock. If he was the rock, it's a pretty unstable rock because four verses later Jesus called him Satan.

Same chapter, Matthew 16, 23. What type of rock is that? Who five seconds later becomes the voice of the devil. Matthew 16, when again, get out of this habit of reading a verse out of context. Read the whole paragraph.

Who do you say that I am? Jesus said, Matthew 16, 15. You're the Christ, Peter said, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, you're blessed, Simon. Let me paraphrase his words. Your cleverness did not teach you that.

You did not recognize me as the Christ, the son of God by your human cleverness, the cleverness of flesh and blood. If cleverness could have revealed me to you, those Pharisees who are ten times cleverer than you would have understood me, Peter.

No, it's not cleverness. My father in heaven has given you revelation and on this rock of revelation, I will build my church. That's the rock. A Christ revealed by the Holy Spirit. It's not Peter. It's not an intellectual understanding of Jesus.

It's a Christ revealed by the Holy Spirit as God Almighty, as a man who walked on this earth just like me. 100 God, 100 man. And because He is God, I live without fear of tomorrow. I live without anxiety.

I don't believe the devil can touch a hair on my body because Jesus Christ is God. I've seen who He is. If you've got anxiety, you need revelation. If you've got fear about the future, if you're afraid that you will die before God's time, you fear that you'll get some disease that will kill you before God's time, you need revelation on Jesus Christ as Almighty, as the one who says, I've got all authority in heaven and earth.

If you are afraid that you can't overcome sin, you need revelation that Jesus became a man just like you and was tempted. As I said yesterday when I understood that, two things happened. One, I had no more excuse for my sin because there was one man who walked on this earth with my flesh who never sinned in 33 years.

So then it's possible for me. Secondly, I had faith. If one man could do it, so can I. If he had done it as God, then I could not have faith. You cannot have faith for overcoming sin if Jesus Christ overcame sin as God.

Jacob’s Wrestling and the Need to Be Alone With God

But when I saw, when I got revelation, and it's very interesting that God began to meet with me when I was willing to publicly humble myself before people and acknowledge who I was, a hypocrite. Do you remember the time when Jacob became Israel?

There was one particular time when God met with Jacob. God had met with Jacob before that as well. He met with Jacob at Bethel. You must read these Old Testament stories, I tell you. And then he met with Jacob at another place called Peniel.

And when he met with Jacob, he met with him when he was alone. God usually meets with us when we are alone. That's why people ask me, do you have meetings, tarrying meetings for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

I say no. I tell people to meet with God alone. In a public meeting there can be so much emotion that you don't know whether what you got was emotional or from the Holy Spirit, whether it was a baptism of the soul or a baptism of the Holy Spirit.

God filled me with the Spirit more than once, but it was when I was alone. I don't go for meetings. I don't need to go for meetings. Jesus is everywhere. You can meet with him alone. I'm not against people praying publicly, that's fine if you want to do that, but I prefer to meet with God alone.

It says that in Genesis 32, verse 24, Jacob was left alone. That's when God met with him. And the other thing is when he met with God alone, I encourage people in our church, get alone in your room. I know numerous people in our churches who are filled with the Holy Spirit just meeting with God alone in their room.

And the second thing we see there is God tested him. Okay Jacob, are you happy? Let me go. Like he tests us. Your sins are forgiven, you're on your way to heaven, right? And you got a good testimony in your church.

And you're even an elder brother in your church. What more do you want? Let me go. Jacob said, no, nothing doing. I will not let you go unless you bless me. You know God will test you like that before he gives you power.

You remember when he went to Emmaus after his resurrection with two disciples? It's a beautiful verse. They reached the house where these two disciples were living. And you know what it says in Luke 24?

Jesus acted as though he wanted to go further. Is it right to act? Is it right to pretend? Jesus acted after his resurrection. There's nothing sinful about it if your motive is right. I mean, if I go to a home and I find that they're not particularly keen on giving me a meal, I'll act as though I'm not hungry.

Because I see these guys are not so keen on offering me a meal. So, I'm okay, brother. I'm quite okay. I'm not telling a lie. I'm just following Jesus who acted. Because I don't want to embarrass them.

Let me liberate you from thinking that sin is in the act. It's in the motive. His motive was, I want to see whether these guys are really keen on having me. That's the exact word in Luke 24. He acted as though he would go further.

And let me read that. Luke 24. It says here in Luke 24 and verse 28. He acted as though he would go further. And the next verse says they urged him. Now, urged is not they just invited him. Urged means they said, hey, Lord, come on, stay with us.

He said, no, no, no, I'm going. No, you've got to stay. No, I'm going. It was pretty good acting. And they said, no, you've got to stay. Okay, if you insist. He wanted to be with them because he wanted to bless them.

But he wanted to see whether they were eager. That's the way he tested Jacob. And Jacob, shall I go now? You've been blessed enough. You know, that's why many of you have missed the blessing of God for many years.

Because he said, are you happy? You say, yeah, Lord, I'm happy. I'm on my way to heaven. Okay, goodbye. He didn't want to go. He wanted to bless you further. But he saw that you are happy with what you got.

You remember how Elijah tested Elisha. Stay here in Bethel. The Lord sent me. Stay here in Gilgal. The Lord sent me to Bethel. Elisha said nothing to him. They went to Bethel. All that is in 2 Kings 2.

I hope you read the Old Testament. And Elijah told Elisha, stay here in Bethel. He said, no. I'm going to Jericho. Okay, I'm going to go to Jericho. He goes to Jericho and he tells Elisha, stay here. He said, no, I'm going to coming.

Imagine a prophet of God telling you not to come with me. And he says, no, I'm going to come with you. He was acting just like Jesus. He said, I'm going to come with you. You know, these are different stops along the way.

Gilgal is the place where our sins are forgiven. The reproach of Egypt was rolled away in Gilgal. Bethel is the house of God where you become part of a church. And Jericho is a place where you experience some power, manifestation of God.

Walls pulled down. Are you happy with all that? He says, no. Then they go to Jordan. Jordan is a picture of death to self. That's the final place. You go through Gilgal where the reproach of Egypt is rolled away.

You come to Bethel, the house of God. You come to Jericho where you experience some miracles from God, answers to prayer. And then you come to the place of death to self. You know, that's beyond everything.

And then Elijah says, well, what do you want? Why have you been following me so long? He said, what do you think I want? I don't want to be the elder of the group or director of the organization you started.

No, I'm not interested in all that. I want a double portion of your Holy Spirit, of the Spirit that's upon you. And you know what Elijah told him? He didn't say, oh, that's an easy thing. Just come here and I'll lay hands on you.

That's what charismatics say today. Elijah said, you asked for a hard thing. Only he can give it to you. That's what the Lord tested Jacob with. Let me go, Genesis 3, he says, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

Honesty Before God and the Blessing of Surrender

I want to tell you, my brothers and sisters, those who lay hold of God like that will be filled with the Holy Spirit continuously. Who will say, I will not let you go unless you bless me. Jacob had spent his life grabbing the birthright from his brother, grabbing Laban's daughter, and he wanted to grab one but he got two, and grabbing Laban's property.

He was grabbing money, women, birthright. Finally he let go all that and said, God, I'm grabbing hold of you now. That is the place where God is waiting for. Some of you are still grabbing money, women, position, honor, God says, go ahead.

You're satisfied with your Christian testimony, right? Everybody thinks you're a wonderful Christian, you go regularly to church, you're not an unbeliever, you're born again, but you're grabbing the wrong things.

The day, when that day comes in your life, when you let go all these other things and say, Lord, none of these things have satisfied me. I want you. I will not let you go unless you bless me. That day God will meet with you.

And one more thing, and that's the thing I was coming to, God asked him, what is your name? His name was Jacob. Jacob means deceiver. Many years earlier, Isaac, his father, had asked him, what is your name?

He said, my name is Esau. God asked him this time, tell me your name as if God didn't know his name. Lord, I'm a deceiver. And the day when God hears you say that, Lord, I'm a deceiver. I have fooled people in my church that I'm a very spiritual man.

Lord, my name is deceiver. That day, God met with him and said, you will not be called deceiver anymore, verse 29, but you will be called a prince of God, because now you have power. That's the day the Lord met with me.

I said, Lord, I'll stand before the whole church and say I'm a hypocrite. I've been a deceiver. The exact same day, within six hours of that, God met with me and turned my life around. It's never been the same since.

God loves honesty. When it says you've got to walk in the light, the first principle of walking in the light is being honest. Not pretending. We all love to pretend that we are more spiritual than we really are.

The world is full of pretenders, hypocrites, actors, those who act as though they are spiritual, talk high language, sing things which you don't mean. We like to be known as people with tremendous devotion to Jesus Christ when we don't have it.

The Lord says, I didn't come for you healthy people. I came for the sick. You're not among the sick, right? You fellows are all pretty spiritual. Go ahead. That's how the Pharisees missed the bus. And you'll miss it too if you don't say like the publican, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

You know when God met with Isaiah? In Isaiah chapter 5, he was going around saying, Isaiah 5, woe unto those who keep buying property. Isaiah 5, 8. Woe unto those, verse 11, who are always getting drunk.