Seek To Be Filled With The Holy Spirit - Zac Poonen

one of the things that I mean speaking about recently is when there are so many churches in the world why do we start another one why not just go and join one of the existing churches I mean there are different churches with different doctrines no church is perfect our church is certainly not perfect that's a very important question as to why all of you have decided to be associated with a CFC Church if it's just a matter of convenience well that's not good enough because when we look at the Gospels we see that Jesus drove away many people most of the time he was never interested in a big crowd it's very important to understand that and so today many people think that large numbers is a sign of an effective church but jesus never had that you know you would have to say that Jesus life was a failure if you go by numbers because at the end of three and a half years of the most powerful miraculous ministry that any person ever had he's only able to collect 11 disciples and even with that after after people saw him on the resurrection only a hundred and twenty waited on the day of Pentecost for what he promised to be filled with the Holy Spirit that is to be filled with God himself man in the Lord is saying to people the day is coming soon when you can be filled with God himself and let me show you a verse in 1 Corinthians 15 this just to show you how many people saw Jesus after his resurrection please turn in your Bibles with me 1 Corinthians chapter 15 I hope you all have your Bibles with you 1 Corinthians 15 we read in 1 Corinthians 15 about the people who saw Jesus after his resurrection it says here in verse 6 firstly appeared verse 5 to Cephas that's Peter then to the twelve then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time all at one time you know that Jesus never appeared to any unbeliever very important for us to understand that I mean humanly speaking we would have had a great lust to go and stand before Caiaphas and Pilate and Herod and you know Jesus could have showed himself to them and say hey you fellows thought you got rid of me Here I am resurrected from the dead that's a carnal satisfaction and you know we could have thought that would definitely make them believe no the physical appearance of Jesus after the resurrection would not make Herod or Caiaphas or pilant believe because they would not want to follow Jesus if they don't want to give up their sin so sooner or later and they'll find some excuse not to follow the Lord but here it says there were five hundred believers Jesus only appeared to believers after his resurrection very important to understand this and he appeared to 500 of them together so there's no doubt in anybody's mind is this a vision or is a real person they could touch him they could ask one another are you sure this is the real person he said yes and out of the 500 we read in Acts chapter 2 well earlier on in Acts chapter 1 it says here in verse 15 hundred and twenty people gathered in the upper room five hundred people saw him and he told them the Holy Spirit is coming and you'll have power to be my witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth you ask yourself supposing you were one of the five hundred would you travel all the way to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit when you saw Jesus you saw him crucified buried and now you see him risen from the dead you think definitely I go but these people were believers five hundred believers it says out of them only a hundred and twenty that is one-fourth twenty-five percent of those who saw him took the trouble to go and wait for the Holy Spirit's power and then they are Pentecost I'm sure everybody wanted it just like a lot of believers one of the power the Holy Spirit today but I think one percent of believers who have seen the actual power because they're not willing to pay the price and here is the first evidence of that that five hundred people saw him and only 120 rent to wait for the Holy Spirit's power on the day of Pentecost I have met people in every country who said brother Jack I want to be filling the Holy Spirit I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit and I say do you know that God is more eager to fill you with the Holy Spirit then you are eager to be filled with the Holy Spirit and I'll prove that to you from Scripture a very simple thing listen to what I say if you're a child of God God is more eager to fill you with His Holy Spirit then you are eager to be filled with holy spirit and let me show you that in Scripture so did you get it from Jesus own mom turn with me to Luke chapter 11 in Luke chapter 11 11 Luke 11 verse 11 [Music] supposing one of you fathers many of your fathers or even if you're not a father you know how her father behaves he's asked by his son for a fish when you give him a snake instead of a fish young you know the answer definitely not if he asks for an egg will him a scorpion no in fact before a child asks for breakfast the father and mother give them breakfast they don't have to ask how many children keep going to their mother say give me in breakfast give me Elijah is the parents who are eager to feed their children and then he says if you were stirred in being evil you mean evil means the best father on earth is evil compared to the goodness of God and many fathers on earth are excellent fathers very good care for their children but you take the best of the lot some of you are very good fathers and mothers and you take the best of the lot and compared to God's goodness the best of the Lord is evil not even the sense he did value to back to your children but your standard of love your level of love for your child is way below the level of God's love for his children that's the point of that you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him so the only differences we get food to the children even without their asking but God says you receive the Holy Spirit on me if you ask and I'll tell you why doesn't give us gifts to those who don't value it for example forgiveness of sins which the first step to being filled with the Holy Spirit forgiveness of sins is the most essential requirement for every human being the Bible says God does not want anybody to perish in second Peter 3 1 Timothy 2:4 says God wants all human beings to be saved then why doesn't he forgive all their sins because God does not trust things upon people which they don't want he expects them to ask for it but if our hands are full of other things we cannot receive the gifts the father has for us and that is the main reason why many children do not receive what the father wants to give them their hands are full of other things they are holding on to other things very tightly and they are saying give me this give me that and that's why they've all liberated I heard a story of a a small child who put his hand inside a flower box a very narrow opening but the little child put his finger inside him he says money I can't take it out and the mother said straighten your fingers my little boy straighten your fingers and then it'll come out and the boy says if I freaked straighten my fingers I lose those coins that I'm holding onto inside the bus he's only onto some money inside and then the fist is closed around the money and and the egg is stuck inside the bars inside the Flores that's a perfect picture of a lot of people for whom money is more important than the Holy Spirit of course they'd like to have the Holy Spirit the hands are clutching something which they don't want to give up they say Lord free me Lord says straight Lord your hands loosen your grip on those earthly things and you be released pretty quickly but they don't want to mm-hmm they say can I have it while holding onto these things no you see that Luke chapter 11 earlier on he's speaking about this asking how should we ask he says here in verse 13 we must ask for the Holy Spirit the reason why I began with this is because this is what changed those hundred and twenty people from ordinary people into fiery witnesses for Jesus Christ and change the direction of their life and they will have no regret in eternity and they stand before the Lord because they responded to God's call so let me show you the illustration Jesus used as to how we should ask it's not just a casual asking it's a fervent asking and he used another illustration to illustrate that the picture of a father giving food to a child who asks is one picture showing God's love for us He loves you so much more than a father why won't he give you the Holy Spirit that's one aspect of the truth then he loves us but there's another illustration to show us how we should ask fervently a child does not have to us fervently for food hmm once is enough sometimes it doesn't even a to ask but there are two aspects to this one is where God was Jesus wants to show us how much the Father loves us and is eager to give us that is to generate faith in our hearts then whoever you are your heavenly Father is interested in filling you with the Holy Spirit I hope all of you will believe that and tell you that's the thing that changed those hundred and twenty people on the day of Pentecost and that's the thing just changed my life completely not some cheap Pentecostal experience no a genuine infilling with the Holy Spirit and here I'll be how you should ask Luke 11 verse 5 hmm he said to them supposing one of you goes to a friend and says to him friend lend me three loaves because a friend of mine has come from a journey and I have nothing to set before him now what do you see here you see here a person who loves this friend who visited his house at midnight now usually if somebody comes to your house at midnight and you don't have any food in the house you will not ask him have you eaten because he may say yes and then you'll be stuck so but this man asked he was so he loved him so much that he said have you eaten and that man said no I haven't ok I don't have any food here well I'll go get you some and he goes to his neighbor's house and locks there and says give me three loaves and listen to this from inside his neighbor's house the neighbor says in verse seven Luke 11 7 don't bother me the door is shut and my children and I are in bed I cannot get up and give you anything see we ourselves will be embarrassed to go seemed a friendly neighbor to wake him up at midnight and especially if he says don't disturb me my children but please go away we quietly go away but here it says this man says he wouldn't go hmm that's a very rare type of person who will not go because he loves his friends so much you see he's I gotta feed him and so he keeps on bothering and this man says Merson don't bother me but he says he keeps on knocking until he gets what he wants and he says in verse 8 even if that neighbor does not give him what he wants because he's his friend yet because of his persistence did you see that word in your Bible read it will be Griff were state persistence he will get up and give him listen to this word as much as he needs that means whatever you need us as much as he needs to me that's a wonderful word it's referring to asking for the Holy Spirit remember there's some things I learned from this story you know God has made this world in such a way the human race that none of us are supposed to live for ourselves the fundamental problem with man is everybody wants to live for himself I me and my family that's it hmm now as long as you live by this principle of I me and my family I think you might as well forget about being a Christian yeah it's you might as well join another religion because Christianity is not I me and my family it's God first and he calls us he blesses us you know really what he told Abraham I will bless you and you will be a blessing to others in another place Jesus said hmm if you thirst and come to me and drink what laughing John 7:37 when you drink rivers of living water will flow out from you so it's not just to satisfy your thirst but your life will be a rivers means what rivers up to bless other people and we see the same thing here and here as a man was concerned about blessing his neighbor until you when I began to see God earnestly for the fullness of the Holy Spirit and prayed and fasted and praying with other people my main reason was not just to overcome sin in my life when I said Lord I want to be in a witness for you by my life and my words you know Jesus said when the Holy Spirit is come upon you acts 1:8 you shall be my witnesses to the ends of the earth be my witnesses not bear witness which is what works be my witness so I said that's what I want I don't seem to have that power to be a witness I'm sort of shy withdrawn it's very difficult for me to share the word with others and even though I've been a Christian for so long I know what I need I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and you said rivers of living order will come out to me but when I looked at my life and that time is about 44 years ago or 45 years ago there were no rivers coming out of me and there's just a trickle of water and that also with great effort you know there are some places where there's no running water you go to the village some villages in India and the hand pump there'd be one or two hand pumps in the village and the women in the village go there and pump and pump and pump and get a bucket of water I found my Christian life was somewhat like that mm-hmm the Lord of struggle and a few drops of water would come out I said this is not the Christian life you said about rivers of living water flowing that not only keeps me fresh it makes other people eye contact fresh as well do you know that's God's will for you my brother's sister he's not God's will that you should live a boring discouraged life never God wants to bless you in such a way the blessing will overflow from your life doesn't matter who you are even a young boy or girl to other people and that's what we see in this parable of asking for the Holy Spirit this man went to his neighbor's house to get bread not for himself did he get that he did not ask for anything for himself he said I Mac I'm concerned about a friend who came to my house he's hungry I was concerned about people around me who were unsaved but people around me who didn't know the Lord or believers who were living in sin and I said Lord how can I help them now if you don't have a concern for people around you my brother sister forget about asking for the Holy Spirit go and do something else that's what we see here in connection with asking with the Holy Spirit am i living a self-centered life and just selfish selfish myself myself my family that's it well then you don't need the Holy Spirit you just need some money and a job and hear me okay but here's a man who's concerned about someone around him who's in need and he's concerned enough to go in as a picture of man going and asking God Lord knocking at God's door saying lord I don't have what it takes to help this man see that's the second thing we need to be aware of not only a concern for the people around us but also an awareness that you don't have what it takes and to meet that need I was very aware of that I said lord I don't have what it takes I'm not able to share it powerfully to help these people so you got to do something for me and I knocked enough for untell you for a few years but I was determined I think God was seeing whether I'd give up after some time and run off up to something else what I didn't and I'm glad I didn't because I changed my life completely and I wish every believer would see God like that and that's the path thing me see here now if you turn to John's Gospel there are three places where Jesus spoke about water I want you to have a look at that John chapter 3 John 3 and verse 5 mmm he told Nicodemus you must be born of water even the spirit that's the meaning of that word if you want to enter into God's kingdom so the Holy Spirit is pictured like water and all I have it when I come to Christ initially is a cup and I take the cup and say fill my cup Lord I lift it up and God gives me His Holy Spirit the moment I'm born again his spirit comes in and I'm born of God my initial need is met my sins are forgiven but then I'm living a very dissatisfied life defeated very often and so God has to eat me further to meet that lack in my life and so in John chapter 4 you go to the next step step to where the Lord told the Samaritan woman in John 4 and was 14 he was sitting at a well and he told the Samaritan woman if you drink water from this value no thirst again here to come back here again and again but if you drink of the water that I'm giving you and we saw from John 3:5 that's the Holy Spirit it'll become in you a well or a spring a water always springing up to eternal life eternal life is the life of God the nature of God it's not just living forever please know eternal life is not living forever because people who go to hell also live forever and they don't have eternal life eternal life is the quality of life not quantity of life it's referring to the life of God springing up within me and you know it's like if you have a well in your house even if the water supply in the city is cut off it doesn't make a difference to you because your water supply does not come from any external source you've got a well right in your house and that's a picture of how the Holy Spirit satisfies us we don't need any external stimulus we don't need any external help in order to rejoice or to overcome or to be free from discouragement we have this well in our own house inside our heart and he said it'd be a well so the cup has now become a well initially the cup of water was just I was born again moved out of the devil's kingdom into God's kingdom but now that water has become a well satisfying my personal need and then that's not enough now my need is completely satisfied I can be perfectly happy but now I go to stage 3 where I'm concerned like this this man had a concern for his friend who visited him now I'm concerned about other people around me and my will is only enough to satisfy me what should I do for all the other people around me who might want to bless so jesus speaks about water again a third time in John chapter 7 and verse 37 where he says if anyone is thirsty let him come to me a drink from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water this is not a cup this is one river and many rivers in many directions what's the purpose of a river I mean if I'm only interested my own need a well is it up but if I am interested in blessing other people around me then I need not only one river but many rivers going in many directions and that's the purpose of the Holy Spirit and I believe that anyone who's seeking to be true the Holy Spirit if he's really eager for the part of the Holy Spirit to bless other people around him he's more likely to be filled sooner than otherwise turn with me the galatians chapter 3 and verse 40 galatians 3 who was 14 first of all was 13 it says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law became a curse for us it's amazing what the Bible says about what all Jesus became on the cross and second Corinthians 5:21 and says he became sin not only he took our sin second Corinthians 5:21 says he became sin for us on the cross all the sin of the universe of the world in all generations was saturated and put upon Christ but not only that he became a curse because it says curse today he who hangs on a tree he was crucified there was a curse to show that the curse which had come upon us for disobeying God's law is taken away and we are not left empty the curse is replaced with a blessing why did God Jesus remove the curse verse 14 so that the blessing of Abraham might come to us Gentiles mean non-jews so that all through the promise of the Holy Spirit through faith so the Holy Spirit has come to bring to us the blessing of Abraham so if you turn back to Genesis in chapter 12 whenever you see something like listen scripture don't just ignore it if you're a careless Bible student you will just ignore it if you're a serious math student and you want to know what God is trying to say you will go back to the Old Testament and check what is the blessing of Abraham I want to ask you a little question I don't want to embarrass you now I'm not asking you to show your hands I'm sure all of you have read Galatians 3:14 sometime or the other did you ever ask yourself what is this blessing of Abraham did you ever think of going back to Genesis to see what is the blessing of Abraham that was my way and I believe the Lord is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him most Christians are very lazy in the way they seek God's when God does not reward them that's why the vast majority of Christians live defeated shallow empty lines never filled with the Holy Spirit even though they go for meetings conferences and attends so many things they have never filled with the Holy Spirit so hmm I believe it's important for us to understand this Genesis chapter 12 I will bless you verse 2 and I will make you a blessing that is the blessing of Abraham I will bless you and I will make you a blessing so that is rivers of living water coming out of us so that's the thing that we need to ask ourselves do I want this blessing of Abraham and first of all God blesses me with power the cup overflows and become the well and then it makes me I'm blessing to others that's the blessing of Abraham it says in Galatians three forty meters red comes to us through the Holy Spirit so the whole New Covenant like New Testament life is based on being filled with the Holy Spirit if you're not filling the Holy Spirit we can understand so many theories and everything else and we'll never come into that life and that is the reason let me tell you my dear brothers and sisters why the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is perhaps the most controversial doctrine in Christianity today and why there are more counterfeits of the gifts of the Holy Spirit than any other thing in Christendom why because only valuable things are counterfeit did nobody count of it's brown paper they got a big old diamonds so there are counterfeit gifts to the Holy Spirit counterfeit manifestations of the Holy Spirit you can be pretty sure the original voice really valuable so I want to encourage you all to seek for that part of the Holy Spirit earnestly that's the most important thing in fact we can say the whole purpose of Jesus coming to earth was not just to forgive our sins that's just cleaning the cup I mean cleaning the cup and giving it giving an empty cup to a child is no use he wants to clean up our heart fill us through the Holy Spirit so that our own life becomes an overflowing life for ourselves like a well and then overflowing and blessing to others now you must believe this is God's will for you so what I see there you remember the word of Jesus if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him and my definition of faith is from that verse please listen faith is to believe that God is more eager to fill me with the Holy Spirit then I am eager to be filled with the Holy Spirit did you get that you know some of you have been praying perhaps and saying well God's not filling me with the Holy Spirit and I've prayed many times you you give people the impression that you are very eager to be filled with the Holy Spirit but somehow God is very reluctant that is unbelief no wonder you never get filled in the Holy Spirit because it's completely contrary to what Jesus says you give the impression even if you don't say that to others you feel that way oh I mean praying I'm earnest but like that little child whose hand was in the vows stuck holding on to some money then maybe something you haven't given up and you think God is reluctant and God is not reluctant at all how much more he said when your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him so faith is to believe then God is more in this connection to believe that God is more eager to fill you with the Holy Spirit then any of you are to be filled with the Holy Spirit if you believe that then you ask yourself why are you not filled with the Holy Spirit all the time hmm because you're not either you think you are or you're not willing to give up something I remember hearing the story of a pasta in an American city in the ninth end of the 19th century and he was preaching in his church but he heard there about deal Moody the great American evangelist who testified to a baptism in the Holy Spirit that changed his ministry completely and he began to pray lord I want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit his name was Samuel Rangel in the end of the 19th century in the United States and he surrendered everything he said Lord you can have everything I have and he really did give everything another habit he was not clearly the Holy Spirit then he said Lord show me is there anything I'm not yielded and the Lord said yes you want to be a great preacher like deal movie that's why you want to be true to the Holy Spirit give up that desire ha and he realized he was a pastor of a church and he wanted to be a very effective pastor and he was seeking for the part of the Holy Spirit to become a great preacher and that is a selfish reason God will never give us something from him to glorify ourselves but totally to glorify Christ and when he yielded that God can let me the Holy Spirit immediately and then God told him now quit this church and go to England and join the Salvation Army under William boots on Salvation Army those days was about the most firing Christian movement of that time not like what it is today more than a hundred years later d Tucson became but in those days under William Booth there was a mighty move of God that brought so many prostitutes drunkards and others to Christ so this guy left the United States and came to mm-hmm England to join William Booth Salvation Army and William Booth had no respect of persons whether you're a raw convert from the street or a famous pastor from England if you came to join the Salvation Army your first job was to spend one year in the basement polishing everybody's shoes so they sent he sent this great pastor down to the basement and say you spend the next year polishing the shoes in them he said that thing he is this why God filled me with the Holy Spirit and the Lord said yes that's why I figured the Holy Spirit and you know he started there humbled himself and over the years grew up to be one of the mightiest men of God in the Salvation Army bringing many people not only to Christ but to a holy life when God succeeds in breaking a man and taking away all his selfish desires and that takes time to go in all of us there's a great desire for honor acceptance by others with so many other things like this subtly hidden here in there and we think we are seeking the glory of God we're not we're seeking glory for ourselves when we pray for the fullness the Holy Spirit God has to wait so I've never forgotten that story you remember when jesus healed the sick you read that sometimes after that in Luke chapter 5 you read it he would go along and pray many people pray before that meaning Jesus would pray after the meeting you know one because he wanted to give all the glory to God hundreds and thousands were healings go along the wilderness and say father come on attach that glory it's all yours very few people do that it's one of the things that largely in teaching me after you've served me come along with me and give all the glory to me don't touch it you will lose the anointing if you touch any of God's glory for yourself I really that's happened to many preachers and you may not be a great preacher but you see God for power and he does something through you and you take the credit for it no Holy Spirit departs because the Holy Spirit has come to glorify Christ not to glorify you and me and that's the main reason why many people are not filled with the Holy Spirit they are seeking something for themselves so I hope that we'll start off this conference on a good note that we want to pray that God will really fill us with the Holy Spirit we can understand so many doctrines and understand so many truths in these days well I'll tell you this I mean in numerous conferences and I've seen a lot of people go away from the conference just the way they came I said why did you come then well we had a good time together well I'm not interested in the conference where we just have a good time together God wants to meet our need and fill us in the Holy Spirit and change the direction of our lives and change our lives completely before we go away

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Id: 9xOMa5GPqas

Length: 39min 13sec (2353 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2019