Listen Daily to God Who Has Planned Your Life by Zac Poonen

brothers and sisters because i had not been speaking anywhere for the last month or so a lot of people thought i was sick which i'm thankful for their concern but my wife and i have kept perfect health by god's goodness and we've got three sons here taking care of us so we've done very well we've been extremely healthy but i felt that i should you know up till about october i was very busy so many zoo meetings more than i've always done any year of my life so i felt i should take one month off and i've never done that for the last many many years i just wanted to spend one month not talking to anybody not hearing what the lord has to say to other people through me but what the lord has to say to me personally it's one of the great dangers of preachers particularly those who have the gift of preaching or especially those who have a lust for preaching that they're always even when they read the bible and they get something there they say ah that's something i can share with somebody get rid of that habit say that's something god's speaking to me you see the bible is like a two-edged sword and one edge has to cut me before i can use the other edge to help other people not the knife not the sort of knife of a murderer but the knife of a surgeon sometimes a preacher has to use a knife it is a knife of a surgeon so to hear what god has to say to me that is why i was off the air for one month and i'm sure many people who thought i was sick pray for me god knew that god heard their prayers and answered it by speaking to my heart in many ways i'm very very thankful for that and one of the first things that god spoke to me almost from day one was what god spoke to me way back when i began my christian life 61 years ago one of the things i developed from the time i was born again was to read i would start my day on my knees kneel by my bed i was in the navy and then i would sit at my table with a notebook and my bible and read and one of the first things that the lord spoke to me then was from luke chapter 10 and verse 39 39 to 42. this is a story you know the story of mary and martha jesus went to the house of mary and martha and it says here mary right from the beginning sat at the lord's feet verse 39 luke 10 39 listening to his word but martha being a really good housewife immediately oh jesus has come with the 12 disciples i have to make food for 13 people rushed into the kitchen and got everything can you imagine you housewives if you have suddenly 13 people land up without any warning and you have to rush into the kitchen to prepare you're a really hospitable woman and martha was really hospitable she was not serving herself she was sacrificially serving the lord and his people is there any greater ministry that you can do than sacrificially serving the lord and these people the answer is yes there is that's what i want to tell you sometimes we congratulate ourselves that we have sacrificed something for the lord or for his church or for his people and we pat ourselves on the back that we are not thinking of ourselves but we are thinking of others and we are caring for others martha was there and if you went into that home at that time and saw these two sisters not knowing what was happening and you see these 13 jesus and the 12 disciples sitting there and martha's slogging away in the kitchen perspiring and mary just sitting and listening you would have thought the same thing that martha thought what in the world is mary she's she's also a woman in this house what is she doing just sitting there listening when her sister is struggling there to make food for not for herself and she's the only other woman mary in the house why what is she doing sitting here i'm sure every one of us including me would have thought mary was wrong and martha's you can't blame martha for thinking like that but one good thing about martha you know a lot of people complain about martha that she was busy serving and they themselves are serving so much and they don't realize how wrong they are and she came to the lord you know one good thing we can see here what is the good thing you can see about martha here one good thing if you have read carefully when she had a complaint against her sister she did not talk about it to anybody else she went directly to the lord isn't that a good habit do you have a complaint against somebody some brother some sister who do you want to talk about it to learn from martha go to the lord and say lord the sister is like this or this brother is like this i wish we would all develop that habit from today one good habit i was going to speak about mary but i got to speak about martha first one good thing there let me repeat it whenever a thought comes into your hand into your mind in your heart this person is like this or this person is so thoughtless unconcerned look at all that i'm doing here slogging away for the church not for myself and look at this other person look what he's doing what look look at that family what do they do for the church and look what i'm doing maybe you're true you're right you're sacrificing a lot for nccf good but if you complain against others all that is wiped out before the lord because you did it in the wrong spirit if you have a complaint and the lord doesn't say you have to keep quiet about it go to him say lord here i'm doing this and the lord will give you an answer that will change the direction of your life because i'm sure martha received that rebuke from the lord and it changed her life it'll change your life i don't believe martha would ever again ever again complain about mary i don't have scripture to show it to you but i think that's true imagine if you got a rebuke directly from jesus do you think you'd ever be the same after that i mean you get a rebuke from a godly older brother that itself would help us but imagine if jesus himself appeared to you and gave you a rebuke you wouldn't forget it for the rest of your life i don't think i would and do you think martha would have forgotten that it changed her life one thing don't complain about your sisters and brothers come to me i know how to deal with them now if you have and if you're an elder or you're a father or a mother and you have responsibility or you're an officer in a factory and your responsibility over people your children or a church members then you have to deal with it but martha was not appointed as a head over mary i'm talking about where you're not appointed as an authority over someone you should not be complaining about him that's the first thing but when she came and said aren't you concerned lord that i'm serving alone please tell her to help me the lord's not going to listen to us and she he said it so gently he didn't yell at her and rebuke her he knew that she did it so sacrificially and i tell you when you serve the lord sacrificially even if the lord corrects you for a wrong attitude he'll correct you gently martha martha i can imagine the tone of voice with which jesus spoke martha martha you are concerned and bothered about so many things let me tell you something you probably never understood this with the old testament message that moses brought and that you heard in the synagogue all these 30 years of your life but i'm telling you something which is more important in the new covenant and that is what mary has chosen she got a revelation of what is more important you know any woman in a house the immediate reaction when guests come is to provide something especially if jesus came you'd think if jesus came into your house all of a sudden what would you do you'd immediately go get him a glass of water or give him some food to eat because they've come after a long journey and so it was a good attitude marta had to serve and mary also would have felt like that but why in the world did she not do it i think she was so gripped by the words she had heard from jesus in previous occasions in the marketplace or here and there and she said i want to hear that those few times that i've heard my lord speak to me have so changed my life that i want to hear more she wanted her life to be changed and she knew in the long run and she also she would become a better person for the glory of god and she knew what jesus longed for with his people it's a wonderful thing it's not just listening to his word but fellowship fellowship it's not good it's adam to be alone what did he give him fellowship what is the thing missing in many homes fellowship what did jesus want here fellowship and mary understood that and she sat and listened to jesus that's the word the lord spoke to me 61 years ago and i'm very very thankful that through the years he's helped me to that it was my daily habit in those days to begin my day with the word of god and to read it based on this verse one thing is needful verse 42. the first book that i ever wrote many years before cfc started in 1970 was a series of messages i gave to students and the first message was one thing is needful the first book is the supreme priorities that's the first book i wrote and the first chapter of that the first of the four things mentioned there is this one thing is needful supreme priorities number one sit at the lord's feet and hear his word because the holy spirit has come it's possible for us to do that even today and that's the thing that helped me when i was a young man i said lord i was seven years in the navy before after as a believer seven years as a believer in the navy before i left my job and all those seven years i spent studying the word of god and by the end of those seven years i really knew the scriptures well because it was what i read and meditated and studied every day in all my spare time i did my secular work no no commanding officer had any complaint about my work i would do that faithfully but my priority was god's word and that saved me from so many temptations between the ages of 19 and 26 you know years when young people can easily be tempted and god kept me from all types of things because every spare moment was spent studying the word and i would say that to all of you young people spend your spare time studying the word and because god urged me to have that foundation at that time i believe that's become the basis of my ministry today that i know the scriptures and when the lord wants to speak to me from one scripture or another he reminds me of things that i have read i believe that jesus what jesus did in the first 30 years of his life you know very often i have felt that jesus he when i spoke of the first 30 years of jesus life i always spoke about speak about yeah he obeyed his parents and he worked as a carpenter earned his living all those good things but one thing i forgot to mention those 30 years every day he spent listening to his father that continued always and that is how he knew what to do he knew when to step out of the ministry and they stepped out of his home rather into the ministry and it's because i had this habit myself that i also knew one day when the lord spoke to me to step out of my job it was ministry i want to say to all of you even if god never calls you to full-time work one thing is needful for every single believer let's look at that verse luke 10 42 and see what jesus says here mary has chosen the i would say the best part you know that saying the good is the enemy of the best the best is always better than the good to serve the lord and his people like martha did good but the best to sit at jesus feet and hear his word which will look as if you're not doing anything but in the long run i tell you in jesus name you will accomplish a lot more than if you just run around helter skelter in activity it's one of the things i discovered in in as we as the lord planted churches i've never planted a church one single church in my life god planted them all and i just went around to water the plant that he had planted that's all i've done in every place but i've discovered one thing you know i when i was a young man i thankfully discovered it in my early 30s i said lord i don't want to waste my life and come to the end of my life and discover that i did a lot of good things for the lord but not his plan i want to fulfill your plan you know like you if you get appointed in an office supposing you get a new job you got many of you got jobs and you reported for work on the first day what did you do did you go and start working go and sit at some table and start doing something for that office have thrown you out immediately the first thing you did was go to the boss and say sir what am i supposed to do and he gives you a job description and it doesn't matter if there are 10 000 needs in that office you fulfill your job description that's what you get paid for we all know that in our secular job and even if you're not in full-time christian work every child of god is a servant of the lord you have a task in the body this is the difference in the old covenant it was one high priest and some priests and some prophets and kings they had a ministry from the lord in the new testament it's a body somebody like me maybe the tongue there may be a number of tongues the body but some are hands and some are hidden ministries of prayer like the liver and the kidney and different internal organs and the nerves and veins and all which supply blood those are people who pray and do a lot of things in secret were never seen so everybody has a ministry in the body of christ but every member of this body has a connection with the head and that is what mary's part is to have a connection with the head where you're listening to what the head is saying we without realizing it ever we don't realize it but every part of our body from the day you were born was constantly listening to the brain what am i supposed to do for a baby it is crying crying for milk that's the brain prompting it you're hungry cry out from that time onwards uh we don't realize it it's all unconscious now but we are doing what our brain is prompting us to do when a mosquito comes and sits in a hand the brain prompts you to take it off and we're doing all this unconsciously but we're the parts of our body are listening to the brain that's the meaning of luke 10 42 one thing is needful sit and listen and you'll accomplish a lot more that way and as i looked around as a young man in my early 30s that's more than 50 years ago around 50 years ago i observed different people in doing christian work in india and i read about it in other places i hadn't traveled anywhere else and i saw one or two people that i admired who did a fantastic work for the lord they didn't waste their time they would go here and they'd plant a church and the lord would plant a church through them and then they wouldn't go anywhere here and there and there they wouldn't be just like wandering preachers waiting for an invitation and just going where get invitation and then get another invitation go over there no i was not impressed with that that way you become famous you make them a lot of money and you become a famous international uh deeper live preacher or something like that i did that for three four years it was very frustrating i mean you got a lot of honor you make money but inwardly you backslide but i saw these other people who would wait on the lord and the lord tell them go there sometime later there's a church there some years later the lord told me to go there and i said lord that's the way i want to serve i don't want to waste my life i have only one life and i don't want the end of another 50 years to be known as a great international preacher in fact as i was rising in the christian world's fear those days is getting more and more known the lord told me to give it up and i remember that time in 1975 when all over india people knew me as a well-known speaker he invited me here and there the lord said quit it martha you are distracted about many many things that's not what i want you to do my dear brothers let me give you my testimony 50 uh yeah it's 45 years ago the lord told me to quit that i left my job 54 54 years ago 1966 but after nine years of this type of becoming a international creature the lord said quit it it's what most people don't do when you're rising in fame most people say hey this is great i can now become world famous but somehow the lord told me quit and as i look back now boy am i thankful that i quit and meet with five or six people in my house that's how we started and people would come and go and in the eyes of others it was the most stupid thing to do like moses going into the wilderness okay and we also didn't know at that time where we were going to go but i tried to listen i would sit with my bible in the morning and hear what god is trying to say to me and this word kept coming back i remember one birthday of mine november 5th one one of those years i said lord you have a word for me and the lord said what i told you in the beginning one thing is needful and this is what now recently in this last one month i said lord have you got a word for me the lord said go back to what i told you 61 years ago one thing is needful i want to hear it more and more to sit at his feet and listen to his word if the one thing needful was preaching many of you would be incapable of doing it women would be at a handicap people are not good in language or limited would be in a handicap you can say oh brother lang and brother zach's got some gift of speaking no i don't have god gave it to me but maybe god doesn't give it to you what do you do then you envy somebody else in nccf who can preach well and better than you don't you want to envy somebody and be the man who hears god clearly and you will see that in a transformed life through the years that's what's helped me i've heard a lot of great preachers and i'll tell you honestly i do not envy any of them in my young immature days i wanted to preach like some of them i gave it up the lord said you are unique don't be like anybody else just listen to me and if you're a woman who made you a woman did you choose that god made you because he's got a specific ministry for you it was to a woman mary turns to a woman jesus said one thing is needful she was the one who sat at jesus feet it's a woman who taught me mary who taught me to sit at jesus feet so don't think your sisters have no ministry your example can bless others even mary was not a great preacher but look at that one word that example of hers has blessed me for 60 years example of a woman so don't your sisters think that you don't have any ministry listen to god listen to god here the one who hears god has got something to say i ask my wife sometimes what have you heard from god and i find that sometimes it's something significant that i have to hear which i haven't heard clearly myself so there's no difference in the body of christ god didn't make a mistake in making me a man he didn't make a mistake in making you a woman no one thing is needful essential very very very important sit at his feet be still in this sitting you know it's gotta if you expand on that it's a position of relaxed rest you're not in a panic you're not running around doing things you're not you know your mind is your mind must be also sitting very often we sit physically and read the bible that's happened to me also and the mind is running around mind is like martha and body is like mary it's more important for the mind to be like mary i mean you you can sympathize with me because you've experienced the same thing yourself i used to kneel down to pray and all types of things would come to my mind that i had to do and i wouldn't be able to pray and i almost started saying if you have forgotten things to do just kneel down to pray the devil will remind you of all the things you're supposed to do and i say lord i have to discipline myself here not let my mind wander when i'm supposed to be praying not that my mind wander when i'm supposed to be reading the word i say it's unimportant all those things are unimportant i mean if there's something urgent to be done i'd do it i'm not a fanatic that i have to read the bible in the morning if one of the children was sick early morning then i would forget about the bible reading and take the child to the hospital i don't live under any law my principle is i want to listen not the bible the 1400 years people never had a bible you know that the bible was first printed only in the 1400s so people didn't have bible they could listen the early apostles never had a bible the new testament wasn't even available for 60 70 years but they could listen listening to the word it's good to have a bible but to listen to god's word you can do as soon as you wake up in the morning you know the first i've often said this the first book that the lord taught me to study was interestingly enough song of solomon and i wasn't married so i wasn't thinking of a wife i was thinking of jesus and the song of solomon is a picture of a bride and bridegroom relationship and i saw it as a picture of my relationship with jesus christ i was on a ship those days in 1960 and 61 where and it was not a warship which was always busy active here and there it was interesting the warships would go to interesting places around the world exciting but the lord posted me on a survey ship the survey ship had to go around surveying the uncharted waters around india and the uncharted waters were always in the unheard of villages and where there was nothing no town no city there was nothing to go ashore for and so one year of boredom and i was on but i had a room because i was an officer i had a cabin on the ship and somehow at that time i didn't know anything about how to study the bible but i brought with me a commentary i didn't even know what it was it was something my dad had i took from his library and it was a commentary on the song of solomon small little booklet and that's the only thing i had so i said okay let me study the bible with this book and it was a sovereignty of god my first bible is full of notes on the song of solomon that i wrote and i really developed a relationship with jesus and i learned there that jesus loves me the most important thing for me to know as a new believer like listen to this uh song of solomon chapter 2 verse 14. imagine the lord saying to me as a new believer still struggling to overcome sin song of solomon 2 14 in the middle it says my dove boy what a comforting word i know in today's language would be my darling my my dear son let me see your face let me hear your voice here we long to hear the lord's voice and the lord is saying let me hear your voice your voice is sweet and you look so beautiful i mean look means not my physical looks but my heart and even though i was not far from perfect the lord was looking at my heart and saying in my eyes you're beautiful yeah you know a loving husband will tell his wife even if she's got a scarred face with injury or anything you're beautiful in my eyes that's how the lord is i don't know realize sometimes we are so burdened by our sin and our failure that we think oh the lord can't possibly look at me and think i'm beautiful i want to say to you in jesus name you are if you don't believe it spend the next month reading song of solomon and hear the lord speaking to you and learn to speak to the lord like the bride speaks to the lord here and when we feel condemned and feel unworthy let me give you a verse which is very misunderstood among christians it's a verse where the bride feels so unworthy and so small and nothing song of solomon chapter 2 verse 1. this is not the bridegroom speaking this is the bride speaking and let me paraphrase it to you the bride saying oh my dear bridegroom i am only an ordinary rose of sharon among the millions of roses there not special an ordinary rose of sharon in the midst of millions of roses there i'm just an ordinary lily of the valleys in the midst of millions of lilies and the lord replies oh yeah you may think you're a lily but you are a lily verse two among thorns you are my darling among all those thorns you are a lily i see so many thorns but you're a lily so don't deprecate yourself don't make yourself say to yourself i'm good for nothing i'm good for nothing the devil will keep telling you that don't repeat the devil's lie saying you're good for nothing you're precious in god's eyes even if you feel you're an ordinary person like an uh you're so ordinary you look at other people in nccf and you say they are oh they are so much ahead of me they are better than me they know the bible better they can share better okay okay okay fine you feel your ordinary and the lord will say to you my darling among the thorns you're a lily i don't compare you with others you know a good husband will never never compare his wife with anybody else the lord has shown me that a husband who compares his wife with some other woman is in his spirit an adulterer already now some people may not have that standard some people may say only if you're lust after a woman it's adultery good that's true but i've gone a little beyond that i feel that this lord showed me that if you compare your wife with somebody else and think she's better you're under you've got adultery in your mind already the little seed of it is there already and the lord doesn't do that he does not the lord is not an adulterer he does not compare you with somebody else he says you're precious let me hear your voice your form your your face is beautiful luke psalm 214 and song of solomon four verse one how beautiful you are my darling how beautiful you are and he describes her i praise god if i sit at the lord's feet like mary those are the words i will hear those are the words you will hear if you sit at the lord's feet like mary and i tell you i've been a believer 61 years let me give you my honest testimony i still want to hear it i still want to hear it i'm desperate to hear the lord's commendation you probably know so many people around the world commend me and thank me for this and thank me for that and i hear many appreciations i say i i mean i accept it i don't act super spiritual and say no no i'm not interested thank you brother i'm glad you were blessed i'm glad you were blessed i'm glad you were helped by something i shared but when once that's all over when the voices of the men and women have died down i come to the lord and say lord i want to hear you what do you think of me that's far more important all i believe these people are sincere in what they say their words of appreciation but lord i want to hear you i want to hear you and if there's something in me to be said right like that's also you read in song of solomon in chapter 2 take away the little foxes that are spoiling the wines it says here in uh if you don't know that verse that's a good verse to remember song of solomon and in chapter two in fact capital is a good chapter verse 15 catch the foxes the little foxes not the big ones the little dirty thoughts that come in the little thoughts of jealousy the little thoughts of comparing yourself as better than the other person maybe you've got some ability preaching ability musical ability or something and you're comparing yourself with the other person are you either jealous that he's better or you're proud that you're better both are foxes the jealousy is the little fox and the pride is the little fox catch it because they will ruin the song of solomon 215 they'll ruin the vineyard i want to hear that also it's not only appreciation it is a warning warning the little foxes coming into your mind that are ruining this vineyard my beloved darling the lord says catch them get rid of them and let me hear your voice song of solomon 4 7 you are all together beautiful my darling 4 7 there is no blemish in you is it possible for a woman to have no blemish at all in the eyes of her husband yes that depends on the extent of his love some of you husbands who do not value your wives enough who loved your wife once upon a time and thought much of her the day you married her but now you don't value her sufficiently go to jesus and learn how he appreciates his bride there is no fault in you song of psalm 4 7. is it possible that jesus looks at me and says there is no fault in me i can myself see so many thoughts with me i'll tell you why because i'm clothed in the righteousness of christ there is no fault in that many of us we've heard so much about judging ourselves and cleansing ourselves which is very important but i've always said that it must be based on the foundation of you are clothed in the righteousness of christ if you don't begin in that foundation don't build the building no don't build a building without a foundation it will collapse when judging yourself cleansing yourself examining yourself as part of the superstructure what is the foundation we are cleansed in the blood of christ christ is our righteousness i am accepted by god in the beloved have you got that foundation strong is that a rock or is it sort of moving sand i'm not so sure i'm not so sure whether christ is my righteousness i'm not sure whether god has accepted me i'm not so sure whether all my sins are forgiven i'm not so sure whether god still remembers all the evil things i did in the past brother then forget about building the superstructures concentrate on the foundation until it's solid i believe i have to say that word to many many believers nowadays they get all shaky they are trying to build a third floor fourth floor and that cracks in the wall the crack in the floor in the fourth floor is because of the fault in the foundation it's got nothing to do with the wall you're wondering what am i doing wrong here i'll tell you what you're doing wrong here you haven't got your foundation right you don't accept christ as your righteousness you're always trying to be good enough to be accepted by the lord you'll never be good enough i'll tell you that right now i'm not good enough to come before the lord how do i come before the lord today exactly the same basis as you youngest believer in nccf come before the lord with christ as my righteousness i am equal with you the youngest believer in nccf when it comes to acceptance before the lord and when we get to the gates of heaven what shall we say i am a sinner but jesus died for me his blood has cleansed me he is my righteousness i have no other passport to get into heaven just like you don't have my foundation is clear today but in the early days it was not the early days i used to think i could be good enough i could be good enough and always there were cracks coming in the building because i didn't get the foundation right i thank god that i woke up to that many years of my backsliding in those early years before cfc was formed was because i didn't have a spiritual father to teach me i didn't have a teacher who got me foundation right i was a unlearned construction person trying to build a structure without a proper foundation so anyway you guys are not in that position you've heard many times from me you must lay your foundation christ is your righteousness your righteousness when you were converted it was a filthy rag a hundred years from now if you live it will still be a filthy rag don't ever try to build on any other foundation don't make that your foundation at the beginning and then build somewhere else that's another thing i was doing yeah i knew the theory if you'd asked me to answer a question paper who is your righteousness i would get the right answer christ are you how are your sins forgiven one john 1 7. if i confess my sins 1 john 1 9. this would be i knew all the answers i got the correct answers but i was building on somewhere else not on that foundation and i believe many people are doing that listen to the lord yeah i have a lot more to say but i'll say one thing now here's a verse which i'd like you to think about can you read it god is always silently planning in love for you zephaniah 3 17 never forget this verse that passage in around zephaniah 3 17 is a passage which is a one passage in scripture which says god is singing in love for you he is singing thinking of you he is singing you know how you rejoice over some child of yours whose heart so much that you feel like singing well god is singing over you believe it or not is and it's around this verse that it comes god is always silently planning in love for you okay now you got the verse in your mind i want to tell you some things about it first of all the first word god start with that the first four words in the bible are in the beginning god you open your bible the first page in the beginning god that must be true of your life it must be true every day of your life in the beginning god think of the days when so many things went wrong in your life i'll tell you why because in the beginning it wasn't god you had some argument with your husband or your wife or something was wrong in the house or your children or this that in the beginning something else well you say we are in a busy world so many things have to do but when you wake up why don't you spend a few moments in the beginning god i've just developed that habit now before i get out of bed it doesn't have to be long even if it's one minute in the beginning god think of jesus love for you rejoice in that love that's the first thing god think of him that's the first thing and the next is the last word what's the last word there you god is silently planning in love for you so once you thought about god like the song of solomon is son of solomon this uh just the bright in the bright room there's nobody else there so it's just two people and think of that god and you lord i'm so precious in yours it's as if sometimes i think of myself as i'm the only human being in the world i was the only one who sinned and jesus came and died for me it's absolutely true that he concentrates on you in a way in which only god can do god can concentrate on each child of his with all the millions and millions of children there are as if that is the only one i want to think of that too that god concentrates on me as if i'm the only one then the other word god you've seen what god is and you see how precious you are in his eyes once you've got that clear if you haven't got that clear then don't proceed how precious you are to god you got to believe that and then planning god is silently planning planning you know what planning is we all make plans and the cleverer you are the better your plans right imagine the cleverest person in the universe god almighty making plans for me wonderful you know these people who inherit a fortune they have to go to these financial counselors how shall i invest the money i've got a whole life ahead of me count the number of minutes millions of minutes isn't it good to go to a counsellor say how to spend this life lord planning let me tell you something that the bible says about god's planning psalm 139 psalm 139 speaking about the time when we were in our mother's womb verse 13 when you were in your mother's womb when god was forming your inward parts at that time psalm 139 verse 16 lord your eyes have seen my unformed substance when you were a embryo before you even became a fetus and in your book that is in god's mind all the days of my life were already written down when i was not even born my first day on earth had not started but already my entire life was written down in god's mind that is planning that's what i mean by planning god is silently planning he doesn't advertise it so much he's planned i thank god for this to know this i never knew when i was converted 61 years ago that i live up to the age of 81. no how long do you think you'll live i don't know i'd like to live up to 100 not because i love this rotten old world but i say lord if you've got something for me to do i'm available i don't care if i'm weak and stumbling and whatever it is i'll serve you till my last day on earth i never retire my retirement days are in heaven and so i but i don't know how long god has planned and if god has planned only a certain period of time i don't want to live one day after that in jesus case it was only 33 and a half years i'm not saying a long life is a useful one no hezekiah lived 15 years longer than god planned for him and he messed up those 15 years you know that god told hezekiah at one time your time is over go he said oh lord please have mercy on me and god said okay you plead and ask for 15 more years and during those years his son manasseh was born who would never have been born if he had gone when god told him to go and that manasi became for 50 years the worst king that israel that judah had god weighs her best remember that when god tells me it's time to go i don't believe i will bless his work anymore if i stay one more day so i don't believe in long but he's planned my days he's planned your days already before you were born and if you bow and say lord that's all the plan i want in my life i don't want i cannot make a better plan i don't want a better plan but i want to finish your work like jesus said at the end of his life father i've finished the work you gave me to do like paul said i finished my course i run the race i want to say that too and i hope every one of you not you will accomplish great things on the earth my brother sister but that you will finish the work god planned for you before you were born and i don't mean christian word i mean just maybe raising a good family children who love the lord maybe spending time with your children being a good father being a good mother maybe that's what god wants you to concentrate on whatever it is being a blessing to the two three people who meet with you maybe you're in a small fellowship somewhere be a blessing to them god's got a plan it's a wonderful thing to be addressed i'm not in competition with anybody in the world i've never sought to compete i mean in my early days i was stupid and foolish i wanted to be a great preacher and try to prove myself but it's all gone i have no interest i can stand before god and say lord i have no interest in impressing anybody in the world with my sermons or my preaching or my books or or anything or my spirituality i have only one passion i want to finish the plan god made for me and walk in that plan every day of my life i want to sit at jesus feet like mary and say lord what do you want me to do you know what are the first words of jesus in his public ministry first words it is not man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of god matthew chapter four the very first words he spoke to the devil what are the first words same thing which he told mary man shall not live by bread alone but by every word every word that proceeds not proceeded from god's mark 1500 years ago or that proceeded from god's word through paul and john two thousand years ago no that proceeds present tense man shall live by every word that proceeds from god's mouth i have to read the bible and i have to hear what god is saying to me through it present tense present continuous prayer proceeds from god's mouth man shall live by that it's not meant to live by the bible man shall live by every word that proceeds from god's mouth through the bible or through another servant of his or whatever it is whatever comes to my heart i must hear it from god that's how i live anything less than that is not life life with a capital l is when i hear god speaking to me every day that's what mary had that's the one thing needful it's the first words of jesus spoken ministry and so here it says if i want to fulfill that plan i have to hear otherwise how do i know and it's not something that i hear i don't hear god's voice with these years no the devil would be able to fool me because he could say things but when i hear it in my heart and my heart is clear with a clear conscience and i'm willing to humble myself only two conditions i won't make ten conditions two conditions keep your conscience clear always immediately confess everything you know immediately apologize to anyone you hurt your wife or your husband anybody immediately and forgive everybody immediately don't wait i have the habit of forgiving people as soon as i heard that they said something or did something with me i never tried to read about it or anything i say i've already forgiven because i want to live in a constant state of forgiving others and being forgiven by god myself that is a clear conscience we all want to have god forgive us constantly forgive others constantly let there be not a single dot in your conscience of somebody you have not forgiven or something you are not forgiven yourself that will ensure that your spiritual years are clear to hear god you know all or whoever wrote hebrews told them in hebrews and chapter five you're deaf you're not able to hear you're not able to hear what god god is speaking john the apostle said on the island of patmos that god he heard god's voice like a trumpet but a deaf man can't hear a thing trumpet i didn't hear anything and john hears it like a trumpet there are people around you who are hearing god's voice like a trumpet and you say you can't hear it i'll tell you why you can't hear it let me tell you honestly lovingly something in your life you're not set right somebody you despise maybe another brother maybe your wife maybe your husband because he's so foolish compared to other men or your wife because she does some things in an awkward way or some brother or sister despise one of god's children don't do it he will not take it lightly if you despise one of god's children because they're not as smart as you or not so spiritual as you or some foolish thing like that value them if you keep those things clear in your conscience you will be able to hear god's plan for your life so that's the next word planning the other thing i want you to do is in love silently planning in love everything god plans for you is in love never forget that he never plans anything which is going to bring a calamity for you or create problems for you of course he'll allow you to go through trials yeah i remember when my children were going to school and some tough examination was coming up in the school in india the final examination is very important to get promoted to the next standard for the next grade as you call it here and um you know if they don't pass in their final examination they stay in the same class so even if they got a fever or a stomach ache or a headache i say go you got to finish that examination and that child of mine may think i'm being very hard on them i see i don't care just pass get on to the next class and but you can't avoid the examination and it doesn't matter if they thought i was hard when they get promoted to the next class and they go and they do well then they thank the daddy yeah god is like that he's not going to hold you back just because that trial is going to be tough he says i want you to face it because you're going to get a promotion remember every trial you face will give you a promotion it's the final examination in love his trials are sent in love his blessings are saying he doesn't keep on giving us trials you know in the in psalm 23 it says we go through the valley of the shadow of death but it also says he takes us by green pastures and by the still waters don't forget that green pastures still waters value of the shadow of death all necessary the lord is my shepherd and where does it finally lead you in psalm 23 i shall dwell in the house of the lord forever so he's silent everything is in love don't ever doubt it don't don't look back at anything in your life even i'll tell you something wonderful even your mistakes the blunders you made god can turn it for good i've seen that in my life nobody can go through life without making mistakes and blunders but i've got a father in heaven who turns those blunders and mistakes into something good think of the blunder and mistake adam and eve did you know that jesus would never have come if adam and eve had lived a perfect life and all his children lived perfect lives where would we have seen the love of god in calgary oh i wouldn't miss seeing the love of god in calvary for anything i say thank you adam and eve for sinning thank you for sinning because of that i see the love of god in a way i never have seen god that's the greatest proof that god turns the mistakes of men for his purposes for glory and he can do that what he did for adam and eve he'll do for you he's silently planning in love the other thing i want you to see is two more words silently you say i can't hear him no he's silent but he's speaking don't worry if you can't hear him silently he doesn't come with big thunder and shouting there's a wonderful verse in isaiah 45 which i love which says isaiah 45 and verse 15. please remember this all your life isaiah 45 15. oh god surely truly you are a god who hides yourself i love that because many a time i think god is not there and i've discovered afterwards he's there he's just hidden himself he's a god who hides himself when the sun rises god doesn't appear in the heavens and say hey fathers i am god no he allows the world to be full of atheists every morning to say there is no god because he has hidden himself but those who have eyes to see can see he is there in your house if you and your wife live together in humility with a good conscience jesus is there not because you hang a board on your wall saying christ is the head of this house that counts for nothing live in humility with each other with a good conscience in love and he will be there but he hides himself he's a god who hides himself so he silently all the work he does is silently you think he's not there afterwards he'll say who did that that was god haven't you had experiences in your life where you wonder how in the world did that happen because someone was silently planning for you how in the world did you get that wonderful wife when you could have messed up earlier on with somebody else ah that was god who silently held you back somewhere and pushed you forward somewhere and got you married to the right person that may not be the most perfect person in the world because you're not the most perfect person how can you get a perfect person just humble yourself and say god gave you the person who's most appropriate for you to make up for you he's silently you know very often when people come to me for marriage counselling before they're married i draw a diagram of an egg which i then i draw a diagram of the egg which i break with my hand and all those jagged edges on this side and you know how you break a eggshell with your hand it's full of jagged edges and i said both of you are like that full of jagged edges you can hurt each other try and poke your face with it you'll get hurt but now see i put those two halves together and all those jagged edges go into each other's gaps and it's a whole egg again that's how god is asking why you see all those jagged edges in your wife or your husband brother sister there are jagged edges in you but they are corresponding to the where there's a projection there there's a gap in you and that's how you fit together god silently planned that you didn't have to go searching all the world for it god silently planned it be thankful even if you've made blunders in the past god forgives it's amazing what he can do even break up blunder that adam and eve made and if you want more proof of that i'll tell you just to encourage you when god got silent planning turn with me to matthew chapter 1. matthew chapter 1 this is the genealogy of jesus christ and the one person who had the opportunity to plan his life before he came to earth with jesus you could not plan your ancestors you can go to the ancestor website and find out who your ancestors were but you could never plan them and if you find among your ancestors there were some prostitutes and thieves and gamblers you would not want anybody to go to that site and discover who your ancestors were right now let me show you the ancestral line of jesus christ which he chose from heaven he chose he watched right from adam onwards yet it's not listed from adam but from abraham and god remember this jesus is watching from heaven which line shall i be born in all the hundreds of thousands of i don't know millions of people on the earth and he's watching watching watching and he sees matthew 1 verse 3. paris and zira verse 3 born to tamar and judah was the father and by the way tamar was judah's daughter-in-law this is not his wife his son's wife he committed adultery with his son's wife incest we call it and they had twins and jesus says i'll choose that line and the angels say lord why that line because there are many people who will be born of incest i want to identify with them but i love them they should not think that they are outcasts no incest is a person born of incest is an outcast for jesus god so loved the world including them he chooses that line would you choose that line ask yourself if in your ancestral line yes discovered someone who was born of incest would you like to advertise it or you blocked the ancestral line at that point not jesus you see his humility there is the first page of the new testament he puts it right there we go down the line verse five oh rehab salman was born to rehab rehab the most well-known prostitute in jericho not even an israelite supposing in your line there was a well-known prostitute and you were born in that line you see i come from a state in india called kerala one significant thing about keralites is they are very proud of their ancestral line they put the name of their family even sometimes in their name such and such a house and they're proud of it and they call themselves christians i don't want to say anything more on that here's jesus ancestral line prostitute raha a child born okay let's go down ruth another non-israelite good girl but what was ruth's ancestral line she was a moabite you know who moab was moab was a boy born out of another incest lot when he ran away from sodom his two daughters got him drunk and committed adultery with their father and one of them got a child called moab incest again lord a second incest you need another one yes another ancestral first incest person in my in my ancestral line moab from that comes ruth and then in the official lineup all these were the ancestors of mary and joseph so jesus physical ancestral line and the official ancestral line includes one more name that is verse six batshiva haha how about having her name in your ancestral line somebody committed adultery with that woman murdered her husband married her fine i'll take that line and put it down in the first page of the new new testament four women all with a shameful past every one of them and they are the only four women mentioned here what about the other holy women not mentioned here why only four sinful women mentioned god is silently planning for you in love he planned jesus line and he planned yours my brother sister be thankful one last word always 24 7. he's still planning he's always silently planning for you in love that's the word the lord spoke to me as i sought to listen to him in this past one month it has rejoiced my heart and the lord said tell others about it i've told you god bless you all let's pray heavenly father i pray that everyone who heard my message today and everyone will hear it in the days to come will believe what you have said not what i have said but what you have said whatever of my words were your words will go to people's hearts and change their lives and prepare them for a wonderful glorious life at least from now onwards from the time they heard it in the coming days we can't do anything about the past but we thank god that you blot out our past with your precious blood and you clothe us with your righteousness so that we don't live in condemnation we listen to your voice who's saying let me hear your voice we want you to hear our voice every day lord and we want to hear your voice as well bless every one of these dear brothers and sisters you've raised a wonderful new covenant church here in san jose in california i pray that it will glorify your name for many years to come till the day you come back to receive them that you will add to their number those who should belong to them and bless many others through the world throughout the world through their ministry thank you for the leaders you've given them i pray you'll bless the three of them and all the brothers and sisters who make a part of this wonderful church we commit them to you in jesus name amen

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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

Id: P6MTs_O4Mp8

Length: 67min 24sec (4044 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020