How God Prepares Elders to Serve Him by Zac Poonen

[Music] our testimony is a great help to know each other better ballgame is customary three times and the Acts of the Apostles the Holy Spirit's recorded it I thought one would once would be enough but three times always has recorded this testimony which means testimony is important and every now and then in the episodes also fall right something about that I have written my testimony in a book called the day of small beginnings I would encourage you to read it because it there are lessons there that can help you the 24 chapters and that is about my life how God broke me and humbled me and the other 24 chapters are about the ministry so I don't want to repeat all that here if you are interested you can read it what I want to share is how God prepares us to be his servants we are called to minister to people to serve them and I mentioned you've heard me mentioned many times about Moses preparation for service how Moses had all that education and it was useless he had to be broken and God took him through circumstances I don't know what all he went through during those 40 years in the wilderness but that was his preparation for ministry to be the mightiest leader that Israel ever saw and he was trained in the wilderness to look after sheep suppose God trains us in the most unusual ways because his purpose is not to give us a lot of knowledge and information or to make us great preachers or scholars far from it that is the way of the religious world where they go to Bible College and taught theology and how to preach etc but in God's Way of training he has to Humble us and break us in such a way that we never lift up our head again and as long as that has not taken place in our life there'll always be some limitation in our ministry I started ministering when I was 23 years old I sought God for an anointing and from the ability to speak and God gave it to me said it's not natural because in school I never took part in public speaking I was very shy and withdrawn and short and you know very introverted and even when I was in the military I was not really I never took part in public speaking and even when I became a Christian I was very very shy but I prayed that God would fill me with the Holy Spirit give me boldness and I prayed specifically that I had the ability to preach God's Word prophesied and I received the gift and I continued exercising it in the inmates sphere of influence spread so wide in a very short time my time I was 32 years old I had 30 to 33 years old I had written six books and I had a radio program that was going all over Southeast Asia and I was going to various international conferences and I was thoroughly defeated I hadn't been prepared for the ministry it was only with a lot of knowledge in and I think the Lord was seeing whether I'd be happy with this they're seeing some external success I never built anything to just go and speak to a crowd of 5,000 people everybody started you don't know what happens after that you go away to some other crowd somewhere else and I could have gone on like that and I am absolutely sure my life would have been ruined because people didn't know what my inner life was like my external life I didn't under the running after women or cheating on money or insisting about my inner life I knew God wanted my inner life to be pure and I was desperate and he broke me through failure and I hit rock bottom I really thought I should give up the ministry at the time and my fame was at its peak I wanted to give it out because I just for one reason my inner life did not back up what I was speaking I had learned through that one thing that the most important requirement God has for us his honesty God loves honest people who would be absolutely honest before him and say Lord I am NOT what I'm pretending to be before people I've often been challenged by the what the Lord said about Nathaniel at a time when he was unconverted an unconverted man not only unconverted he despised the Nazareth where Jesus was born when philip found nathanael it says in john 145 and said we found the Messiah Messiah Nathaniel is was he from Nazareth ah that can never be the Messiah it's like speaking of some drug infested place or something like that today you can never get a godly man from there he says nothing good can ever come out of Nazareth verse 46 that was his opinion in the very next verse it says Jesus says there's a man who's not pretending he believes that about Nazareth and he says so there's a man in whom there is no guile he's not pretending he's not just being diplomatic saying things to please people if he's convinced the Nazareth is a rotten place you say that the Messiah cannot come from there and that's the type of person but Jesus took up made an apostle of his honesty so I've learned through my own life this is what God requires most of all baptism the Holy Spirit knowledge in scriptures yes all essential and I believe in it but honestly ruthless honesty so that at every single day of my life Jesus can look at me and say there is a person in whom there is no guile he is what he claims to be he doesn't claim to be more than what he is he doesn't pretend and it's not that he's we're satisfied with where we are we are pressing on to perfection but we are never claiming to be what we are not so you know when we hear of like German said he wrote saying that yes I'm defeated and I have a great delight in pricking balloons of false humility that's what I did anyway whenever I see false humility and someone using their words to act humble I like to prick that balloon and bring him down to earth I said okay then don't come you're not fit to be with us that's not what I believe I believe a man is genuinely broken and humbled and recognizes honest about his finger he's the right person being that's what I was fed up with his own life but there's a lot of difference between that in a false humility which is says oh I'm just a sinner and all that type of stuff and I see in scripture how that's how God prepared all of his servants even some of the examples in the Old Testament I think of Isaac and Jacob both had godly parents one was Abraham the other was Isaac but I see a lot of difference in the way they ended their life and I see one incident I mean you know the story so I don't have to point out the chapters to you Isaac when he came to the end of his life and he wanted her bless his children even though God had said at the time of birth Jacob is the one I've chosen but I think it's such a prejudice in favor of Esau that he was willing to modify what God had said and his prejudice in favor of Esau was just because he loved the meat that he saw cooked and and the day when he's going to give us blessing he says go and get some of that lovely venison and I'll give you the blessing against all that God had told him I've seen through the years that partiality is one of the unrecognized sins among many elders in India I have seen that we like somebody like Jacob lightly so sorry Isaac lamb like me so when then we overlook certain things he's my favorite so I can God sees that that if he loves honesty he did casts partiality and I want to I've made it a point in my life I love honesty and I'll detest partiality first of all my own family I will never make a difference between any of my children they're all the same I love honesty I've loved honesty with my fellow believers in the church and even with my own children I always encourage them to disagree with me they want it because they're honest it's fine and at the end of our long discussion where we disagree I tell my children it doesn't disturb me because I know ten years from now you'll agree with you so I can wait because I realize if a person is honest and continues to be honest about his own life he will come to the truth definitely jesus said this is the verse it's always been a great encouragement to me John 7:17 if anyone is eager to do the will of God he will know the teaching so when I see people not accepting the New Covenant and the truth of the New Covenant Church in the new wineskin I don't want to judge them but I say somewhere in their life they don't they're not really eager to do all of God's will they want a part of God so Jesus said if a man any man is willing to do God's will he will know of the teaching whether I'm speaking from God or I'm speaking from myself and Jesus was the first one who spoke about the new wineskin and I find lots of people will listen to me when I speak about the new wine this is the life of Jesus a lot of people want it a lot of conferences we find it lots and lots of people come they want the new wine but when it comes to the new wineskin in the New Covenant Church which is what Jesus spoke about - you're not willing to pay the price they don't want that means somewhere in their life they're not really really wanting all of God's will I see all of God's will as a circle and there are many segments in it new wine is the life of Christ is one part of it but the new common church is another part of it I can just color the part of the circle which I like and leave out the other which I don't like and we got to see in our own life whether we have been gripped by all of God's will do I want to do all of God's will or am I happy that I and my church a little better than most of the churches around me to me that type of logic is garbage our church is better than some other Church I am NOT interested we teach things that our churches don't teach I'm not bothered what is it like is it fulfilling all of God's will am i fulfilling all of God's will am i obeying all of God's commandments in my personal life am i teaching all of God's commandments whether it's popular or unpopular am i seeking for all of God's power or I'm happy with some experience which I call baptism the Holy Spirit sometime know what a tragedy will be if I stand before the Lord in the final day and discover that there's a lot more the Lord wanted me to do through me but I was not I lost the hunger somewhere along the way he lost to hunger because I had become a little better than somebody else or I got a little more victory than some other Christians or a church was a little better than somebody else others churches and the hunger was gone I want to the end of my life to be able to say as the deer pants for water so my heart hungers for you I'm not interested in the reputation of being a great preacher I want to know I want to have a hunger for God that never never gets quenched and I'm not interested in proclaiming new truths and bringing forth new revelations to impress people I'm happy to preach the same old thing for the next 25 years the Old Testament prophets were like that I want to know God more not new aspects of doctrine or new illustrations and all those are all impress soulish people I want to know God more how I love Jesus passionately more and more say now I want to encourage you to go that way so you see Jacob was very different when he came to the end of his life you see when I think of Isaac like I said the end of his life he's putting going to put his right hand he saw to bless him and God miraculously even though Jacob did extrude sheathing ends up with Isaac blessing Jacob without wanting it he was so blind he was physically blind but he is spiritually blind but Jacob he was also physically blind towards the end of his life and Joseph brings his two sons 'iframe is the oldest one and it puts him under Jacobs right hand you read that in the end of Genesis and he puts Jacobs left hand on Manasi oh sorry when I see and Nas he was the older one and 'iframe was the younger one so he puts Manasi near Jacobs right hand and Jacob this blind man he crosses his hand and he puts his right hand on key frame and Juke Josephson all you hadn't made mistake that no no I know I know he knew what is the difference between Jacob and Esau oh sorry not successfully between Jacob and Isaac that Isaac was so blind and Jacob knew even though he was blind home to bless prophetically because Isaac had a easy life he was born into the lap of luxury his father was a wealthy man he got all his revelation secondhand from his father his father said this is his this ISM and Isaac sat there listen listen listen he never had any problems in his life I think the maximum problem he had was once when one King almost wanted to take his wife or another time and the Philistines - one of the well a couple of wells he does nothing very serious an easy way through life without having opportunity to be broken etc whereas Jacob was different he had to first of all run for his life through his own mistake of course but he had to run for his life and his brother was after him to kill him and you can you know how that how you feel when somebody's after you to kill you only any of us have ever faced that but I can imagine what brokenness and cling to God that would ring and he tells Laban when he worked there for 20 years how he was sweating in the Sun and working hard sleeping out of the cold nights God used so many things to break him and he wants to marry one girl and he ends up marrying somebody else all these things it just broke Jacob thoroughly and still he was a strong man till God dislocated his tie and said now Jacob I've complete I succeeded in breaking you now I you become Israel it's because God took him through all those circumstances of humiliation and being broken and being cheated he tells LaVon you cheated me of my wages cheated me by giving the wrong daughter as my I said wife through all that he came to know God that is God's Way and those who have never gone through who never experienced failure and being broken really don't have a ministry don't be like Isaac I think is in heaven I'm sure but that's not what I want how am I going to end my life my good in my life is one who knows Garden can direct people prophetically or I just accumulated a lot of knowledge it's very easy you know when we listen to so many messages nothing wrong in that that we have information and knowledge that we can pass on to others it's good I encourage all our elders please listen to all my messages and you can preach any one of them you don't even caught me but don't let it be just some information you God let it break you I mean the truths I'd proclaimer broken me through the years through various circumstances and different different experiences have got it take me through opposition ridicule court cases people wanting to kill me I don't want to go into all that but God just takes care of us and all those circumstances those are the things that prepare you for a ministry disappointments broke you know problems in our physical problems within our own family that's what makes us like Jake were the same in the New Testament you know Peters preparation for the most effective ministry had a different cause was his denying the Lord three times that's what broke him nothing else could have broken him but throughout his life he would never forget I denied my Savior three times I let him down in the most important moment of when I needed to stand with him I let him down I can never have that opportunity again and it broke him and the Lord forgave him I was listening to a song by Don Francisco called he's alive so very moving song and I'd encourage you to listen to it where he his Peters experience you know he says he was in this room scared that the Roman soldiers would come and capture them because they've already captured Jesus and then he was thinking how even if I meet Jesus again it can never be the same it can never be the same like it was three-and-a-half years I was with him because I let him down so badly in the very moment when I should have stood for him and I boasted that I would stand and then he says how Jesus appeared in him in the room and that was love and compassion but flowed from him and he just fell down at his feet he'd been forgiven that's the thing that excited him I'm forgiven and he's alive it's a wonderful thing to know the Lord like that and to look back over I don't think Peter ever forgot that all his life he looked back to that time when the Lord wouldn't remind him anything about his past failure nothing never would you remind him that you denied me three times he was forgiven and in that rapture of the light he served the Lord for the rest of his life and if you had experiences like that I have recognizing how much God's forgiven me I can fully enter into Peters experience I didn't haven't seen the Lord physically but it is almost as good I'm forgiven and he's alive what will I not do for him I never want to forget that I want to live in that rapture of he's alive and I'm forgiven because that makes us compassionate in the way we minister to others we are dealing with broken people we live in a broken world most of the people who come to our church are struggling with something or the other in their lives life is not easy for many people certainly not in India even financially and many people have difficulties we have sisters who come of being forsaken by their husbands in people struggling to bring up their children we had to be strict but it must be with compassion that can only be if we live before the presence of the Lord like this that's what makes Jacob knew he had just he could never forget how he had disappointed the Lord how he cheated and got the birthright and how he cheated Laban and stole his sheep all the things and yet how God forgave him that's what made him a prophet and that's what made Peter he all his life till the end of his life he'd remember you know people praised him and said Wow what I went testing when I see you and he said no I remember what I was we need to be broken and remain broken a lot of people are broken for a while and then after some success in their ministry their brokenness disappears I never want that to happen in my life well I we now don't feel condemned about our past failure I never feel condemned I know your past is blotted out the Lord never reminds me of it but what it produces in me is a tremendous gratitude and worship for Jesus Christ and to the point where I say Lord I don't care if I never preach again you can take away my voice so that I can treat you can take away mind paralyze my hands I can never write anything again it won't make the slightest difference to me because I'm a worship not a preacher and I want to be a worship for all my life and who can stop me from that things if I'm paralyzed and lying in bed I'll be aware shipper okay never travel again fine we must not be so much in love with our ministry and the success we get that we stopped being worshipers the new revelations we get the freedom we have in some meeting to preach and all that don't get taken up with all that wo brothers be a worshiper live before Jesus rejoice in the fact that he's alive and you're forgiven it is Rachel I listen to that song every now and then he's alive and I'm forgiven I want to be excited about that more than I built a church here I got victory because that can be so personal I remember once the Lord told me don't ever say you got victory over sin said Jesus keeps me from falling same thing but it's got a different ring about it when I say I got victory to say Jesus keeps me from falling because he's a moment-by-moment thing it's not that I once got it in L have settled for life no Jesus keeps me from falling moment by moment that's how it is the Apostle Paul the same thing why did God allow that man to be such a total failure for so many years of his life to the point where he killed Christians can you imagine how you think he could ever forget that all his life towards the end of his life he says I God had mercy on me who persecuted his people he never forgets it never never never and that's what kept him broken for the Lord so as I was saying you see that in Jacob you see that in Peter you see that in Paul I'm sure David also God allowed him to be broken through that failure with Bathsheba that he never you know most of David's Psalms were written before he became King a lot of them you read that when he was chased by Saul and all that that means before he was thirty years old he was writing Scripture but there's one Psalm that he wrote when he was towards the end of his life which was nearing 70 I want you to have a look at it some 37 he says I'll tell you why this is written on is all because he says that in verse 25 I have been young and now I'm old so this is something written past 160 years of age and he says verse 23 the steps of a man are established by the Lord election see when he falls he will not be hurled headlong and I know what he was thinking of the Lord is the one who holds his hands he says I've never seen the righteous forsaken he was a broken man and he'd never forget his failure how he let down the Lord so badly so even when he preached and wrote sang songs as a element of compassion there because he looks as a past life and I know because of this is how the Lord dealt with me as well I wished from the time I was converted that I'd never slipped up or never had any dirty thoughts and slowly slowly slowly without a single dip press on to perfection but it is not like that with me and I feel sorry acts I tell you I feel sorry for those who've gone that way because there's a element of pride in them as they don't see themselves I've seen that in some wonderful brothers some elders as well there's an element of pride in them because they've never been a failure but you could never find a Peter or Paul or Jacob you could probably find it in Isaac and so when it is like that you find in such elders that they don't see their own soullessness or pride because people lived a wonderful life and and they entered into the new covenant and now they are leading a church here or there and I met many many elders in India and have some experience and there's something about a broken man standing by in the perfect the world of difference between that and one who knows all the doctrines one is anointed and one who is gifted and can speak well a lot of difference and a truly broken man will judge himself constantly because she's so he never wants to fail the Lord again he's desperate this is Lord I've let you down enough I don't want to let you down anymore and so he judges himself I found this is some of the results that came in my life that I could never despise a human being it's impossible for me to despise a sinner it's impossible for me to despise a backslider I mean I'm gonna speak strongly but don't live by rules and laws live by the leading of the Holy Spirit he may tell you one thing at one time another thing at another time proverbs 27 it says answer a fool according to his folly the next verses don't answer a fool according to his folly boy if you want contradiction in Scripture you have it right there in two verses and so proverbs 27 so some chap who's the intellectual type says here actually don't understand the way of the Spirit so if you ask me what shall I do then I said that's why you need the discernment of the Spirit to see is this full a or full bee that's not written there that you need the Holy Spirit and if it's full a you do this if it's will be you do this how'll I know that I should you gotta live by the spirit ultimately the holy spiritual guides and if we are broken and humbled God will give you that guidance the greatest need I find among Alice's discernment without judging there's a difference between judging and discernment we're not to judge turn to Matthew chapter 7 do not judge lest you be judged very clear it's an absolute statement I should not judge there's no it for but or anything in the way you judge you will be judged and he goes on right afterwards if I take the log out of your eye then you can see clearly and what's the very next verse don't give what is holy to the dogs how do you decide who's a dog you just told me not to judge and then he says you've got to decide who's a dog and who's the swine it don't give birth so swine it's almost as though he's contradicting what he said in the previous verses I mean here I see a bunch of believe people who claim to be believers and I have to decide who's a dog and who's a swine that's discernment and there I see like you see scripture if you read scripture without a favorite verses just paragraphs you'll find a balance in the very next verse judge don't judge but discern so I'm not going to call him a dog or a spine that would be judging I'm not going to tell him this is your faith no no no but I'm going to discern I'm not going to give him what is holy I'm not going to throw pearl before this person he no way but it's because I've discerned he's a swine that guy's a dog but I'll never tell him that I leave it to the Holy Spirit to tell him that if he judges himself if he wants to do the will of God gotta show him so the greatest need I find is discerning like the old soldiers would sharpen their swords for battle we must allow the holy spirit to sharpen our sense of discernment in our ministry very important one Peter for me read verse 17 so are my favorite verses which defines the house of God the family of God he says that those who judge themselves first is the opposite of Matthew chapter 7 don't judge others but time has come for judgment to begin in the household of God and who must begin with us first so as much as I'm not here to judge other people I must judge myself first and that is the mark that I am part of the family of God in the household of God judgment time has comfort to begin with us first and if I do that and I keep on doing that God will give me words for others every single time I've seen that in all these 42 years that we've had not only churches planted special meetings but maybe 200 conferences in different places the Lord has always had something for his people if you judge yourself first see there's no shortage in heaven of anointed words if God can find broken people I remember the Lord said to me if you love my people from your heart fill your heart with love for my people to whom you're speaking and fill your heart with my word and keep judging yourself I will always give you a word for my people I lean on that I don't try to be overconfident and say because the Lord gave it to me in the past he'll give it to me in the future no I want my heart to always be filled with love for the people I speak even though they may think I'm very hard love is hard sometimes we know that with our children our children don't always understand why we are so strict with them but it's because we love them for hearts are filled with love for God's people actually you're unfit to speak God's Word if you don't love the people you speak to it's going to do something else oh that day at least sit down and keep your mouth shut and say Lord I'm not fit to speak to people today because something unloving in my heart towards some of those people you'll be hitting people on their head then that happens also when somebody's got something some bean has bonnet about somebody sitting over there and he's unfit to speak that he should keep quiet if you are faithful in that God will be honest I remember once I went to a meeting in our church and they were expecting me to speak we had a time of Prayer usually before the time of before speaking usually just a few minutes but I had something that disturbed me that day it was not against anyone but something that had happened in the church which is not done and I always get very upset something not done that should have been done in readiness for the meeting or something I hadn't and it disturbed me and I don't remember whether I was disturbed by the person who should have done it but I was on my knees like everybody else was kneel down and pray and the prayer meeting was prolonged and went on and on and on and on everybody was wondering what is happening but I couldn't get up because there was no peace in my heart yet I hadn't come to rest and I said or I should get up and say I'm not speaking today but they were all expecting me this week so the only thing only alternative was to prolong the prayer meeting till I came to rest and it took a long time finally I came to rest then I could say all men okay now I'm ready to speak God's Word but I decided long ago that I will never never open my mouth either at home to speak to my wife or in a meeting to speak God's Word if there's any agitation in my heart about anything it may have nothing to do with my home situation or the church situation but is an agitation I'm not at rest and and not at peace Romans 8:6 says the mind of the Spirit is peace and life I will not have the mind of the Spirit if I don't have peace in life in my heart I follow that rule of course I can get up in a anytime with agitation in my heart and take a Bible study on Ephesians we've done it so many times that I can do it again but it won't be the word of the Lord and if it's not the word of the Lord is better not to speak at all there's no rule that we have to speak for so many minutes I found that also with some people that then sort of say where everybody speaks for so many minutes so I should speak for some as he will kill the meeting you say Lord I'm going to speak as long as you give me liberty and don't imitate someone who may be more mature who's got greater anointing or greater brokenness go let every man prophesy according to his own proportion of faith it says in Romans 12 and there's a vast difference it's like it's like signing a check if all of us were asked to sign a check right now we could sign up cutting to the limit of our bank accounts I can't sign beyond my bank account and you can't sign beyond yours and somebody may be able to sign a check for 10 times what you can do that's fine to be prophesying is like that that fellow can speak for 10 times the tine length of time I guess be fine well he's got a bigger bank account but if I imitate that person and write a check for the same amount he's going to be rejected by the bank it's not going to accomplish so if I judge myself always and love God's people and fill my heart with God's Word that's what the Lord said love at your heart be filled with love for my people and let it be filled with my word and keep judging yourself and I'll always give you a word for my people and the memory I have to say that the memory of my past failure never never never condemns me I look back over seventy seven and a half years of of never having sinned justified completely by my saviors blood that I can stand before God with such boldness and look at him and say father I've never sinned in seventy seven and a half years that's why I can look straight into your face that is my faith in the blood of Jesus Christ Romans 5:9 says justified by his blood but along with that is one of these paradoxes of the Christian life along with that there's that memory which I'll never lose of having let down the Lord so badly just like Paul and Peter and I'm not ashamed to speak about it I even spoke about it in that book of mine you can read it I don't want to pretend that it was all smooth sailing from day one because it was not I look in Scripture and I find greatest men of God or like that John the Apostle was the man who wanted to call fire down from heaven and destroy this Americans can you imagine how he felt all about that later on so I pray that God will prepare us for the coming days of ministry spray our Father make the rest of the day profitable thank you for watching that stuff so far and listening to one another's testimonies let's how first do the same [Music]

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Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Zac Poonen, elders, biblical elders, church leadership

Id: cBediQd9OsI

Length: 44min 55sec (2695 seconds)

Published: Wed May 31 2017