I want to turn, first of all, to
Genesis chapter 1.
Genesis 1.
You have often heard me say that the
first chapter of the Bible is, in a
nutshell, the message of the whole Bible.
And that is a world that was created
perfect by God and something happened between verse
1 and 2.
Sin came into the world through the angels
and resulting in the earth becoming shapeless, empty,
and dark.
And then, immediately, we read the Holy Spirit
begins to move.
Now, it's very important to notice that.
The Holy Spirit begins to move on the
surface of the waters, beginning to bring restoration.
And verse 3, we read, God's Word went
forth.
So, the joint operation of the Holy Spirit
and the Word of God that continued throughout
all those days, first day, second day, third
day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day, it
was a joint operation of the Holy Spirit
and the Word of God every day.
See, God could have, you know, in a
moment, rectified everything.
But He didn't.
He did it over a period of time.
And then, at the end, by the way,
every day, He examined the work.
He says He looked at it.
Was it good?
Good.
And then, in the last day, when everything
was done, He looked at it.
And there was man in His image.
And God looked at everything and said it
was very good.
So, that's the message of the Bible.
That God created man perfect.
And the devil came and made him fall
into sin.
And the result was, like it says in
verse 2, his life became shapeless.
That means he lost the image of God.
Empty.
And when man is empty, he tries to
find...
Empty means God had gone out.
Now, when man becomes empty of God, whom
he's supposed to reflect, he begins to search
for satisfaction for that emptiness.
It's like a vacuum inside which he's trying
to fill with the pleasures of sex or
with money and possessions and getting power in
the world or position or getting power in
a church.
All this fighting that goes on in the
world where people pursue after sex and internet
pornography and politicians fighting for power and businessmen
trying to cut down one another and believers
trying to cut down one another to promote
themselves in the churches, all because there's a
vacuum in the heart.
And if you find yourself doing that, you
can be pretty sure the vacuum is still
there.
There's an emptiness.
When that emptiness is filled with God, you
don't seek after these things.
You can't get rid of your love for
the world by fighting it, fighting it, because
something has to fill that vacuum.
You remember what Jesus said?
You cast out a demon and keep that
heart like an empty vacuum.
There's a proverb in the world which says
nature hates or abhors a vacuum.
You know, anywhere there's a vacuum, something will
rush in.
It doesn't take time.
You know, if you have a bottle where
vacuum, as soon as you open the cork,
air rushes in.
It's like that.
There's a vacuum in our heart and if
you don't fill it with God, I assure
you, you'll spend all your life trying to
battle this sin and that sin and the
other sin.
It's all trying to get in.
There's no way to keep it out.
So, man became empty and he became dark.
There was darkness.
There was no light.
That means he couldn't see the proper way,
even though he may have been very intelligent.
Man was very intelligent, but darkness came in
and that's what happens to clever people, intelligent
people.
They're dark in their spirit.
So, that's a description of man and then
God doesn't leave man like that.
He immediately begins to work with the Holy
Spirit and that's so important to see that.
The Holy Spirit moving gently.
You know, the Spirit of God moving over
the surface of the waters in the New
Testament, you see the Holy Spirit coming like
a dove upon Jesus.
There's a gentleness about the Holy Spirit.
Anything rough is not of God.
It's of the devil.
Whenever you hear of people who deal with
you roughly, you can be pretty sure they're
inspired by the devil.
The Holy Spirit is very gentle.
He doesn't yell and scream and shout at
you.
It's the devils who do that.
Demon possessed people yell and scream and shout.
Jesus was not like that.
He may have raised his voice to emphasize
a point, but yelling and screaming and shouting
that you hear a lot of preachers, I'll
tell you they're not inspired by the Holy
Spirit.
I mean, if you want a little guideline
to protect yourself from deceivers.
The Holy Spirit moves gently always.
That's why we don't have to be afraid
of him.
He's like a dove and moved upon the
waters.
I don't know why people are afraid of
the Holy Spirit.
It's so gentle.
Should be more afraid of the devil.
And the next thing is God's word comes
to man and God's purpose in giving his
word to man like he's doing right now
and the Holy Spirit moving like he's also
doing right now is to change you.
To change man not in a moment.
He could do it.
He could change us in a moment.
He could have changed the world in a
moment.
Made it perfect in one second.
Why did he do it day by day
by day by day?
There's something God accomplishes in his great wisdom.
He's decided that transformation in our life is
going to come gradually.
In our case through years.
But the ultimate goal is not heaven.
Because at the end of chapter Genesis 1
what you see is not heaven.
At the end of Genesis 1 you see
a man in the image of God.
And that's what God's ultimate goal is.
It says in Romans 8 29 he's predestined
us written a destination for us already on
our tickets to become like Jesus Christ.
So that's Genesis 1 31 2 that we
become completely like Jesus Christ in the image
of God.
And only then will God say very good.
In between he encourages us day by day
by saying good.
Good.
You know God never says not good enough.
Foolish fathers foolish teachers say that.
God never.
If you're a foolish father or mother you'll
say that to your children.
Not good enough.
God will say good.
But tomorrow will be better.
That's how it was.
The first day was good.
The second day was better.
The third day was even better.
And like that came the final day and
said excellent.
Very good.
Try that method with your children.
You'll see a lot more results.
And that's how God is.
You know there are a lot of things
we can learn from God in the Bible.
How he behaves.
And the first impression that our children have
of God and authority is in their parents.
And as soon as they are born and
soon after I think from about less than
a year onwards they start picking up impressions
even before they can speak or understand.
There are impressions they get from their parents
and that affects their character.
So it's very important that from early in
life we give our children an impression of
what God is like.
That's very, very important.
I believe parents are failing their children because
they have not even Christian parents they haven't
recognized that the first knowledge of God that
our children have is from us.
From their parents.
And then they go on to see as
they grow up what the Lord himself is
like.
And the same in a church.
The great tragedy in Christendom today is that
Christian leaders are not like Jesus Christ in
their behavior in their conduct in the way
they talk to people in their attitude to
money in their approachability humility everything.
I mean, I'll tell you in my younger
days I hardly found anyone whom I could
look up to as saying, there's a man
I'd really like to be like.
I think I met about one in the
whole country of India in my younger days.
Imagine with so many millions of Christians that
it's so difficult to find a man or
a woman that other Christians can say there's
somebody I'd like to be like.
Not in his wealth or cleverness or even
in his gift but in his character in
the way he conducts himself the way he
speaks in the way his attitude to everything
in the earth his godliness.
You know, you can be like that.
So don't get discouraged if everything doesn't happen
in a day and don't get discouraged if
in one year you haven't suddenly become like
Christ.
But God's will is that the second day
should be better than the first.
There's no backsliding in Genesis 1.
It's not that the second day became worse
and the third day became better and the
fourth day became worse.
You know, that's this up and down type
of experience that a lot of Christians have.
The first chapter of the Bible says that
is not the will of God.
And if that is your experience just write
across it that is not God's will.
Start there.
Don't get discouraged by that.
But just say to yourself that's not God's
will.
And I remember saying that because my life
was exactly like that up and down.
And if I had said oh well that's
normal I would be like that today.
But I kept saying to myself for years
that is not the way God wants me
to be.
And that's what changed me.
If you accept that as normal you'll remain
like that forever.
It's not normal.
Every day was better till finally it became
very good.
It was like a like the Bible says
the path of the righteous Proverbs 4.18
is like the shining light that shines brighter
and brighter and brighter till the perfect day.
So the first day, second day, third day,
fourth day and the perfect day on sixth
day very good.
Then God could rest.
That's wonderful.
God is not going to rest until we
have become totally like Christ.
And He's going to do if you cooperate
with Him He's going to do everything possible
to make you like Christ.
If it requires trial financial difficulty sickness thorn
in the flesh He'll do anything to make
you like Christ if you submit.
But the principle in which God deals with
us is always I stand at the door
and knock.
There's one difference here between the way God
deals with us and what we see in
Genesis 1 and that is free will.
When God said let there be light there
was no resistance in nature saying no I'm
not going to respond to that.
Immediately the light came.
Or when God said let the earth sprout
vegetation the earth didn't resist and say hang
on I want to think about that.
No.
There's the difference between inanimate creation and man.
When God says something to man and man
says let me think about it.
Or yeah that's not so serious.
I've seen so many believers who read something
in scripture and say I mean that's not
the main thing.
The trees should bring forth fruit.
Yeah that's not the main thing.
The earth didn't say that.
If God said the trees should bring forth
fruit it brings forth fruit.
See that was the difference and all of
us can learn something from the response of
earth and heaven to God's word in Genesis
1.
There was never any delay I'll think about
it I'll pray about it or that's not
important or you know some people read some
part of the New Testament and say that
was for that culture 20 centuries ago.
We are in a more advanced and you
know civilized culture.
Yeah you can say all that.
You'll remain in darkness emptiness and shapelessness.
You'll remain in Genesis 1 verse 2 all
your life and I've seen believers like that.
They're so clever they think they know so
much of the Bible but look at their
lives shapeless unlike Christ the way they lose
their temper the way all their dirty thoughts
that go on in their mind what darkness
what is the reason they have begun to
argue with the word of God.
God says something and they say oh that
was for that culture it's not for us
or this particular thing that's not the main
thing brother learn something from it that the
earth responded immediately no delay and I'll tell
you something you know how we can pick
up habits you can pick up good habits
like brushing your teeth so that after a
while you don't even have to think automatically
you get up in the morning and brush
your teeth.
The same thing with bad habits you can
pick up some bad habits and they carry
on your life you know where you just
don't hang up your clothes probably just throw
it around you do that all your life.
There are good habits we can pick up
and bad habits and I noticed one thing
that when Christians begin their life and they
are reluctant in obeying something God has said
to them it becomes a habit God says
go and ask forgiveness from your wife you
think about it for five days and you
do it I tell you all your life
you'll be like that let there be light
yeah after five days the light comes on
it came on you're better than those guys
who never respond but you'll be like that
it'll take you a million years to become
like Christ but you don't have a million
years to live there was a plan for
each day and every day I want to
tell you in Jesus name God has something
for you to do where you'll become a
little more like Christ towards that final day
let me show you 2 Corinthians 4 and
verse 16 2 Corinthians in chapter 4 and
verse 16 therefore we don't lose heart we
don't get discouraged it's a great word we
don't get discouraged Paul says that more than
once verse 1 we don't get discouraged verse
16 we don't get discouraged so which means
Paul was facing the temptation to be discouraged
every Christian faces the temptation to be discouraged
but Paul did not yield to it I
remember the years and years in my life
when I used to yield to it but
it's finished it's gone from my life I
don't remember whether it was 20 or 30
years ago that I lost God discouraged it's
gone because you refuse to accept it we
do not get discouraged we have authority over
it we decide I am not going to
get discouraged we don't lose heart but though
our outer man is decaying you see there's
nothing you can do about your outer man
decaying they say once you cross the age
of 25 you're going downhill you see these
great athletes and sprinters and all they reach
a peak and then it's downhill and somewhere
around the age of 25 we reach our
peak and then our body starts decaying physically
and brain cells start dying out and as
you grow older your memory is not so
sharp and bodily functions become weaker you can't
do anything about it you can make it
worse by bad habits like bad eating habits
and bad life habits and quicken the decay
of your body a lot of foolish Christians
do that particularly by bad eating habits but
the inner man it says here is being
renewed that doesn't happen automatically that's the difference
the outer man decaying is automatic you cannot
make you can make it worse and by
good habits you can slow it down but
you cannot stop it it will decay but
the inner man renewal depends entirely upon how
you respond to the word of God and
how often is the inner man supposed to
be renewed according to this verse day by
day that means every single day first day
second day third day fourth day and if
you live for 10,000 days on the
10,000th day it has to keep on
going and if you live for 20,000
days or 30,000 days keeps on going
in 70-80 years keeps going every day
so look at the tragedy of so many
Christians who never change even in a year
you see them after a few years they're
just the same there's no greater graciousness in
their life there's no greater humility there's no
greater knowledge of God there's no greater faith
there's no greater love they're just the same
I hope your children can see and say
to your parents dad, mom I see a
change in you you're different in the Proverbs
it says if you have animals even the
animals will recognize the change in you if
your character changes yeah it's day by day
now if you say yeah that's impossible according
to your faith be it unto you it
will be impossible for you but not for
me I believe what scripture says day by
day you know there's one thing about scripture
God doesn't force you to accept what he
says I mean if God forced people nobody
would be in hell you know that think
of the 100,000 people or more who
died in the last 24 hours around the
world who went to hell did God stop
any of them and say hey don't go
no, if you want to go, go look
at the number of believers say in the
last 24 hours who committed some sin some
serious sin I hope nobody here is like
that but even if you did did God
stop you no did God puncture the scooter
wheel of the man who was going to
commit adultery no the scooter ran perfectly all
the way to the place where he committed
adultery and came back did you suddenly become
blind when you clicked on that pornographic site
no your eyes were wide open your eyesight
is perfect God doesn't stop you from destroying
yourself no that's a terrible thing because he
doesn't force you that's the difference between Genesis
1 and man and the earth God spoke
and responded immediately and that's a lesson for
us it's demons who force people as you
often heard me say demons possess people the
Holy Spirit fills people the demons never fill
people and the Holy Spirit never possesses people
you'll never see that expression in scripture the
difference is demons possess that means when a
demon possesses a person you see demon possess
people they have no control over themselves I
mean sometimes they look self-controlled because the
devil is sort of sitting quietly saying I
won't do anything now so that people don't
you know people think this person is normal
he's not normal he's demon possessed but he
gets stirred up if a man of God
comes in front of him you know how
Jesus used to go to the synagogues and
all those demons who sat quietly when the
Pharisees were preaching suddenly got worked up how
do they not get worked up for all
these 30-40 years when the Pharisees were
preaching because the demons saying who are you
but when Jesus got into the pulpit they
all got worked up suddenly one fellow would
cry out I know who you are and
Jesus telling him keep quiet get out of
there so demons control people the Holy Spirit
never he gives you power he says you
can use it if you want you can
use it to overcome sin you can use
it to live a godly life you can
use it to bless other people you can
use it to control your tongue but if
you don't use it do what you like
that's the difference and that's why we have
to live in fear God's given us power
but we may not use it you know
two people can be filled with the Holy
Spirit ten years later one is a godly
man and the other is an ungodly man
how is that they both may have had
a genuine baptism in the Holy Spirit and
fire at the beginning but in one person
it all went out he lost it the
other person faithfully responded so that's the difference
day by day renewal so coming back to
Genesis 1 we find that day by day
by day God moved changing things and making
it better and better and better and that
applies not only to our personal life I
believe even in our married life I often
tell young couples who get married in the
church you guys are luckier than me when
I got married I never knew these truths
I never had anyone there like a spiritual
father to explain to me how I could
have a wonderful happy married life I never
had anyone explain to me how I could
bring up godly children I had to sort
of struggle and struggle and struggle for many
years and learn from Scripture and through making
many mistakes mistakes that you don't have to
commit no we can discover it straight away
without making the mistakes because you can learn
from others you see that's how in science
there is a phrase called don't reinvent the
wheel many years ago in the stone age
some man invented the wheel and things became
easier to push things around but I think
they experimented a lot before they invented a
simple thing like the wheel today we don't
have to reinvent the wheel we already have
it we move on from the wheel to
discover other things and science is always you
know progressed because it has learned from the
mistakes of others the trouble with Christians is
we don't learn from the mistakes of others
we go and repeat them ourselves it's like
reinventing the wheel we got to learn it
all over again why do you have to?
your children don't have to repeat the same
stupid mistake you did in your teenage years
no do you want them to do that?
no so when your children say oh dad,
mom how were you in your teenage years?
yeah I don't want you to do the
stupid things which I did in my teenage
years everything is advanced so in the same
way in the Christian life if we can
learn from the mistakes of others and move
on that's why I say the young married
couples you are so lucky you can live
a godly life from day one especially if
you were married in the church in day
one and you have not lived a godly
life from that day every single day you
should hang your head in shame put your
face in the dust and say Lord I'm
probably just increasing in knowledge in CFC and
I want to say possibly it is the
same today you may think you are becoming
more spiritual because you are listening to so
many wonderful truths you are not if you
were responding to everything you heard especially those
think of those of you who were married
after you came to CFC or you heard
these truths how is your life been since
then didn't you hear so many wonderful truths
before you got married you didn't take it
seriously and that's why there's been so much
conflict and up and down and so many
problems in your relationship with your parish partner
now I want to tell you it's not
going to be any better now because what
is the proof that your attitude to the
word you are hearing today is going to
be any different from the attitude you had
to the word of God 25 years ago
maybe the same we have to take it
seriously we have not responded to the word
of God that we heard in past years
as we should have now I want to
say to young people don't think that increase
in knowledge is increase in life increase in
knowledge is just your head getting bloated and
bloated and bloated I remember seeing a little
baby once with a huge head which is
about the same size or bigger than the
size of its body it's a disease called
hydrocephalus where the head is don't think it's
a big brain it's water I've seen only
one baby like that but I've seen a
lot of Christians like that lots and lots
of them so much knowledge and their life
so little such babies don't last long and
such Christians don't last long either because there's
no development it's a huge head with so
much information and so much knowledge and I
want to say that is one of the
great dangers of people coming here and listening
to these messages every Sunday listen to it
on CDs and the internet and in the
church the great danger is that your knowledge
can increase and you can be like that
hydrocephalus baby with a huge head and a
wee tiny life just examine yourself it wasn't
like that in Genesis 1 as soon as
it heard something happened so let the earth
come out of the waters the earth came
out of the waters let the trees come
up from the earth the trees came up
let the trees bear forth fruit came up
let there be fish in the waters immediately
there was no delay and that's what I'm
trying to say this is where God we
can say is frustrated and disappointed with most
of his children and why do we delay
because listen to this if you delay in
obedience to God's word it's because you think
you know better than God when you're planning
to click on a internet site which is
filthy and you hear a prompting you shouldn't
do that but you do it you think
you know better than God ha God doesn't
have to do that I know I know
what's good for me that's why transformation doesn't
take place and that's why Christians bring such
reproach on the name of Christ in this
country and everywhere and we should hang our
head in shame because the Lord says my
name is blasphemed among the non-Christians because
of you have you ever heard that word
many times I have fallen before God and
said Lord let your name be honoured in
India let your name be honoured in India
I mean that's a prayer he taught us
to pray hallowed be your name our father
who art in heaven hallowed be your name
and it has to begin with you it's
got to begin with me first Lord let
everything in my life hallow your name and
if you have that burden you'll find that
gradually a transformation takes place there's another thing
I want to say here the Holy Spirit
and the word of God together that's the
old creation you go to Acts chapter 2
Acts chapter 2 is the beginning of the
new creation it's very similar to Genesis 1
here was something new man cut up spoiled
4000 years in sin not much change great
men of God like David committed adultery killed
a woman's husband married a woman this is
what happened great men of God Elijah get
depressed when some woman frightens him and sits
under a tree and says Lord take away
my life I don't want to live great
men of God like Moses coming down to
the tablets of stone from the mountain gets
angry and throws it down and breaks it
you know what that is the equivalent of?
that's the equivalent of taking the Bible and
tearing it Moses tore the Bible in anger
these are the great men of God in
the Old Testament they didn't have the Holy
Spirit within don't think you're better than Moses
because you never tore a Bible the standard
is much higher today the Holy Spirit comes
within today if you commit adultery you can't
make David your excuse if you get angry
you can't make Moses your excuse if you
get depressed you can't compare yourself with Elijah
we've got the Holy Spirit a new creation
something new after 4000 years of man's failure
God says now I'm going to do something
and Jesus comes dies, rises up ascends to
heaven and sends the Holy Spirit the day
of Pentecost has come the Holy Spirit came
and filled them now I believe that one
of the great tragedies among Christians is the
tragedy that took place in Israel when Jesus
was there walking for 33 years that was
the second person of the Trinity came down
to earth 2000 years ago and lived around
in Nazareth for 30 years nobody recognized him
nobody fell at his feet and worshipped him
they didn't know he's just a carpenter looks
like the rest of us they didn't know
imagine if the Son of God were living
in the house next to yours and you
didn't even know it for 30 years wouldn't
that be a tragedy?
and then he moved out in ministry with
such fantastic miracles that God did to confirm
this is the second person of the Trinity
and still they were blind they called him
Beelzebul Prince of Devils Samaritan Demon Possessed what
all names they called him how is that
possible?
it's very easy to think of the mistakes
of another generation how did the Anglicans persecute
John Wesley?
how did the Methodists persecute William Booth?
it's very easy to look at the mistakes
of another generation in every generation you'll find
the true prophets are always called heretics false
teachers because that's the way the devil keeps
away Christians from the truth in every generation
it's happening in this generation too but after
that prophet dies then some years later they'll
discover ah he was a prophet of God
very few people recognize the prophet in their
generation so all these people you know it's
very easy for us to look at another
generation and say ah we wouldn't do that
but we could be doing it now and
not knowing it the second person of the
Trinity walked around in Israel and people didn't
recognize him today the third person of the
Trinity is on earth how many Christians acknowledge
him?
how many Christians value him?
how many Christians recognize him?
how many Christians long I mean if you
you'd say oh if I were in Israel
I would have longed to be with Jesus
all the time well another person just like
Jesus is here did you know that?
Jesus said another helper just like me the
Holy Spirit how much do you long long
to be with him to be ruled by
him to be controlled by him to listen
to him it's very easy to say if
I were in Nazareth I would have listened
to Jesus I would have done everything he
said it's like saying in another generation this
is the words of the devil fooling us
you were not living in Palestine 2000 years
ago but you are living today and the
same God who walked on earth is here
in our midst and I see Christians have
ignored the Holy Spirit they don't crucify him
they just ignore him yeah I really believe
that and that's the reason why there is
so much failure in our lives that's why
Israel failed they ignored the Son of God
when he came into their midst and Christians
today do exactly the same ignoring the Holy
Spirit I want to say to all of
you my brothers and sisters if you want
daily renewal honor the Holy Spirit what a
work the devil has done by turning people
away from the doctrine the fullness of the
Holy Spirit by all the fanatical extremes that
we see in some Christian groups where people
speak some gibberish and call that speaking in
tongues no that's not speaking in tongues that's
just somebody repeating two or three syllables back
and forth a tongue is a language I
mean even if you didn't know a language
supposing somebody got up here and spoke in
Romanian you may not understand a word of
it but wouldn't you be able to make
out it's a language or if somebody spoke
in Chinese you wouldn't be able to understand
it but wouldn't you be able to make
out if it's a language can't you make
out a language from the little gibberish that
your little baby speaks sure and a lot
of so called tongues today is like the
gibberish babies speak it's not a language at
all real tongues I tell you is a
language it's a gift of God so you
see all this counterfeit going on I look
at it and I say boy dishonoring the
Holy Spirit making the Holy Spirit an object
of ridicule people laughing and kicking their legs
and lying on the floor can you imagine
Jesus lying on the floor somewhere and kicking
his legs and laughing I can't imagine that
by any stretch of my imagination but insulting
the Holy Spirit saying this is Jesus this
is how Jesus would behave they get some
verse from Acts chapter 2 where the unbelievers
said these people are drunk and say ah
when you're filled with the Spirit you'll act
like a drunken man you don't listen to
the words of those unbelievers and live on
that who said that lot of Christians I
tell you their fundamental problem please listen to
me is they don't read the Bible that's
why they deserve to be deceived read the
Bible my brothers and sisters it's God's word
it's the thing that will bring transformation along
with the Holy Spirit in our lives so
in Acts chapter 2 it says the Holy
Spirit came and filled them just like Genesis
1 the Holy Spirit began to move something
new was beginning to happen and from this
day onwards people could be renewed day by
day and people the Apostle Peter didn't become
Christ-like in one day he made a
lot of blunders even after this and so
did the other apostles but a transformation began
and they needed to be filled with the
Spirit again and again and again and again
they honored the Holy Spirit it's like if
you were living in Israel in Palestine in
those days in Israel 2000 years ago you'd
want to go and be with Jesus again
and again and again and some neighbor would
say hey you went with Jesus yesterday man
why do you want to go again no
I want to go and see him again
today and you go and see him again
and again and again and some neighbor says
you guys are fanatics say yeah I'm a
fanatic when it comes to the second person
of the Trinity on earth how many of
us long to go to the Holy Spirit
like that you know Jesus said to his
disciples it's good for you that I go
away because if I don't go away we
could say he could have said like this
I'll only be in Nazareth or Galilee all
the time what about all those people in
India they won't have me or the people
in Africa they won't have me but it's
good that I go away because if I
go away and I send that the third
person of the Trinity who is exactly like
me another helper will come comfort her strengthen
her encourage her he'll come and then he
can be everywhere and not only he can
be everywhere if I'm here I won't be
able to come and live inside you I
can protect you from storms and sicknesses and
all that but what about you know this
desire to fight with each other to see
who is greater you know when the disciples
were discussing who is greater when Jesus was
sitting right there you can have Jesus sitting
right in front of you and you can
have a fight as to who is greater
but you can't do that when he's inside
so that's the other thing is that it's
good that I go away because then I'll
come inside it's good that I go away
because then I can be everywhere that is
the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ and
I believe with all my heart Christians today
have ignored the Holy Spirit just like the
Israelites ignored Jesus just like those Jews we
can look at them and say how is
it they didn't recognize the second person in
Trinity I look at Christians and say how
is it you don't recognize the third person
in Trinity trying to move in your midst
trying to fill your life and you don't
respond to it if you were living in
Israel and Jesus came knocking at the door
of your house one day would you open
it sure what if he came the next
morning and said what if he came after
one year every day again what do you
say oh come on I have already opened
it one year for you would you say
that to him or would you just ignore
it ah that's just Jesus I know you
know that is how people are treating the
Holy Spirit you may not even realize it
ah Holy Spirit yeah yeah he's there no
wonder my brother sister your life is so
shallow and yet there may have been a
time in the lives of some of you
I'm sure when you honored the Holy Spirit
when you longed that you might be filled
and possessed by him but you become familiar
like the proverb which says familiarity breeds contempt
that means you become so familiar with a
person that now you just ignore him that's
happened I never wanted it to happen in
my life I every day I long to
say Lord fill me Holy Spirit of God
I want you to fill me I want
to open my being to you I don't
want to ignore you not only every day
I don't want to ignore you any time
of the day I want to respond to
you it's not conscious prayer it's more like
breathing more unconscious an attitude of willingness to
respond immediately we can get an illustration from
Genesis 1 God said let there be something
and something happened and then 24 hours no
more word okay and then after 24 hours
let the earth bring forth vegetation fine so
it doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is
speaking to us 24 hours all the time
no but what it does mean is when
he speaks we respond and then for a
while I may not hear anything then he
speaks and we respond particularly in temptation times
of temptation he responds so the thing I
wanted to see here is the connection between
the Holy Spirit and our tongue if you
go to the average Pentecostal and ask him
what is the sign of the baptism of
the Holy Spirit he'll say Acts 2-4
they all spoke with tongues if you come
to me ask me what is the sign
of the fullness of the Holy Spirit I'll
first say Acts 1-8 which Jesus said
that you will receive power but I'll say
alright if you want to connect the tongue
with it I say Acts 2-3 not
Acts 2-4 let's go to Acts 2
-3 before we go to Acts 2-4
in Acts 2-3 it says there were
tongues of fire resting on each of them
I know that's one of the things that
happened in my life when the Lord filled
me with the Holy Spirit my tongue got
set on fire that means it got
under the control of the Holy Spirit that
means I began to be able to control
my anger forget about speaking in another language
that can come next verse but first Acts
2-3 why jump to Acts 2-4
before you go to Acts 2-3 supposing
I say the mark of being filled with
the Holy Spirit is that you stop getting
angry not many Pentecostals would accept that but
that's in the Bible Acts 2-3 a
tongue under the control of the Holy Spirit
dear brother sister long for it because it
will give you such a tremendous power in
your life because just like God spoke words
we can speak words with our tongue yeah
and things can happen if you allow your
tongue to come under the fire of the
Holy Spirit you remember how Jesus said in
Mark 11 Mark 11 verse 22 verse
23 sorry Mark 11-23 let me paraphrase
it whoever uses his tongue and says to
this mountain be taken up and cast into
the sea and he doesn't doubt in his
heart imagine a mountain moving and dropping in
the sea it's not a literal mountain I
don't gain any benefit by moving the Himalayas
into the Bay of Bengal and what do
I gain from that but there are other
more problematic mountains in our lives which stand
in the way of our doing God's will
which I do want to get out of
my way and I don't sit there and
say oh what to do brother there is
so much obstruction I can't move on this
thing is happening that thing is happening this
person is against me the devil is doing
this devil is doing that no you are
supposed to speak to that mountain to get
out of the way that's the meaning of
this verse but if you want to speak
that with your tongue your tongue has to
be under the control of the Holy Spirit
you can't be spending the day gossiping with
your wife speaking evil about others and getting
angry and yelling and screaming and all that
and then suddenly speak to a mountain to
get out of the way the mountain will
say who are you I don't recognize you
there is tremendous power which Christians are missing
if you don't allow the Holy Spirit to
control your tongue all the time let me
show you two verses first of all Jeremiah
15 Jeremiah in chapter 15 the Lord told
Jeremiah in verse 19 in
the middle of that verse if you extract
the precious from the worthless you will be
my mouth you will be my spokesman for
their part they may turn to you you,
you must not turn to them what it
means is in your conversation in all your
conversation 24 hours a day get rid of
the worthless my dear brother and sister I
challenge you to take me up on this
word and see if it does not work
in your life from this day make a
concerted effort a serious effort to get rid
of worthless things from the conversation you have
at home with your wife and husband the
useless gossip which does not change people in
any case but just destroys you what a
fool you are to speak evil about people
it does not make them better or worse
but it destroys you I mean you got
to be it's like those that mad gathering
demoniac who cut himself with knives I've seen
believers who do that destroy themselves gossiping backbiting
I say these guys are demon possessed who
else would cut or harm themselves I mean
worldly people try to harm others but here's
a man harming himself crazy get rid of
the worthless things it's like saying get rid
of the garbage and speak words like the
message bible says use words truly and well
only then will you speak for me and
let your words change others don't change your
words to please them and I want to
show you Matthew chapter 8 Matthew chapter 8
there was something which the Roman centurion recognized
when he saw Jesus his servant was sick
and he came to Jesus and said please
heal my servant Matthew 8 and verse 6
and Jesus said yeah I will come to
your house and heal him and he said
no lord I'm not worthy I'm just a
non Jewish military man I'm not worthy that
you should come to my house but just
use your tongue speak the word it will
happen you can stand here speak the word
and there 5 kilometers away in my house
my servant will be healed power of a
word and I'll tell you why lord I
am saying that because I'm a military man
I'm used to commanding soldiers come and I
don't have to repeat it left turn right
turn about turn quick march you never hear
that repeated in a parade ground once go
and he said Jesus I know that you
can speak like that too and he said
the reason is because when my senior officer
tells me come I go immediately he doesn't
have to call me twice when my senior
officer says go I go immediately when my
senior officer says come back I come back
he said Jesus I know I don't know
what authority is but I can sense as
a military man you know military people can
usually recognize other military people there's something about
the bearing of military people which is different
and so this man said this is a
military man I recognize I don't know what
authority is with general he's ruling under living
under but he's a military man there's a
bearing about him there's a dignity about him
there's an authority about the way he speaks
I know I don't know who it is
but Lord Jesus you must be listening to
somebody and because you're listening to somebody I
know that when you speak things will happen
you know why things don't happen when we
speak because we are not listening to the
Holy Spirit when he speaks to us our
senior officer says come I'll think about it
I've got something important to do right now
I'll come a little later and then we
come out in Jesus name nothing's happening yeah
brother sometimes it's not the will of God
we say we excuse ourselves I'm spiritual but
maybe it's not God's will it's not because
it's not God's will it's because you have
no authority you have no authority because you
don't listen and the Holy Spirit says let
the earth bring forth vegetation yeah we'll think
about it what tremendous power we have lost
in our life for so many years I'm
not talking about the word of faith type
of thing which a lot of charismatics are
speaking about today where we say all types
of things very often they speak things in
order to get some personal benefit but I'm
taking the example of Jesus when he was
tempted in the wilderness and the devil came
to him and said turn these stones into
bread satisfy yourself speak the word and get
something for yourself he said no today a
lot of charismatics are speaking in order to
get money for themselves you know I know
I can use my preaching gift to make
money I know that but I also know
that I'll destroy myself in the process and
I'll lose the anointing and the grace of
God and I've seen that happen to so
many people I fall on my face and
say oh God please save me from it
don't let me even accidentally touch this wretched
thing that I lose my anointing I tell
you to lose the anointing it's not worth
billions of rupees definitely not a lot of
people sacrifice it for just 30 pieces of
silver but Jesus said I will not use
this ability God has given me to get
something for myself bread or money or honor
or position or fame or nothing I will
use it to drive the devil away that's
what he used it for it is written
and the devil went he'd come back it
is written he'd go away again come back
it is written that's what we've got to
use the word of God for not to
get honor for ourselves as a great man
of God great healer and all that that's
a counterfeit what goes on on Christian television
what I'm talking about is the use of
the tongue to drive the devil out which
is the devil that needs to be drawn
out of your home the devil is doing
more damage in your home than that fever
even if somebody has got cancer that won't
do as much damage in your home as
the devil it's the devil we've got to
drive out of the church of our home
of our life so brothers and sisters respond
to the Holy Spirit live under the authority
of the Holy Spirit like a military man
every day when he says don't go to
that internet site don't go don't waste your
time browsing the net for hours and hours
and hours and getting nothing out of it
read the Bible a little bit respond respond
go and apologize to that person your wife
your husband your child do it be like
a military man come you go you come
go you go I tell you if you
take my word your life will be changed
and there will be a power in your
tongue that demons will tremble before you when
you speak a word the devil will flee
I want to live that type of life
Lord we have to admit the devil fooled
us for many years but no longer the
light is shining the light is shining brother,
sister Heavenly Father thank you for light your
light which drives out the darkness we don't
live in a world of imagination but a
world of reality we believe your words are
true mountains can get out of our way
when we speak the word if we live
under the authority of your word help us
in Jesus name