I would like to turn to the word
of God in Revelation chapter 4.
After the Lord had given John a revelation
of himself in chapter 1, and then an
insight into the actual state of many of
the churches that were around that part of
the world in chapters 2 and 3.
And as you know, many of them were
in a pretty backslidden state.
Then the Lord said to John, in chapter
4 verse 1, He said, come up here.
And that's a lovely word.
When we see the state of a lot
of things in the world, and many things
we don't know the solution to, it's good
to hear the Lord saying to us, come
up higher.
Come and see everything from my standpoint.
Not from that low earthly level, from which
you have been looking at those things.
And I believe this is a voice that
all of us need to hear constantly.
Come up higher.
Paul said, one thing I do, forgetting the
things that are behind, and pressing on to
the things that are before, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.
He was never satisfied, no matter how far
he had attained.
The danger in Christian leadership is, we stand
so much in front of people, we are
acclaimed, we now have media coverage, we have
titles before our name, degrees after our name.
What else do we need?
I'll tell you what we need.
We need to get closer to the heart
of God.
We need to come up higher.
God did not create Adam because He wanted
a servant.
He did not create Adam because He wanted
a scholar.
And He did not create you and me
because He needed servants or scholars.
He's got enough servants in heaven.
Millions of angels.
He created Adam, first of all, that Adam
might have fellowship with Him.
And that's why, for Adam, the law was
not, six days you shall work, and the
seventh day you shall rest.
That came later under the law.
Adam was created on the sixth day, and
His very first day, the seventh day, the
seventh day for God, but the first day
for Adam, was a day of rest, of
fellowship with His Creator.
And it is from that fellowship that He
was to go out into the garden and
serve.
And when we forget that order, when we
forget that fellowship with God is to precede
going out into His vineyard to serve Him,
we have missed the primary purpose of our
creation and our redemption.
We can be so taken up with need,
and particularly in a country like India, if
we are taken up with need, we'll have
no time for fellowship with God.
It's a waste of time, because there is
so much need.
But what is the result of need-based
work?
Well, perhaps a lot of work, but the
quality goes down.
Statistics are deceptive.
You've probably heard the statement, there are three
types of lies, black lies, white lies, and
statistics.
It's deceptive.
The Jehovah's Witnesses have got statistics.
The Mormons have got statistics.
They are among the fastest growing groups.
Islamic fundamentalists have statistics.
Everybody has statistics.
Jesus never bothered about those things.
There are times in my life when I've
been through certain crises.
One was very early in my life, as
I sought to serve the Lord, and I
found I knew the word, but I lacked
power.
And I sought God for the baptism in
the Holy Spirit, to be endued with power
from on high.
Now, I'm not, I know there are different
views on this, and I'm not trying to
convert anybody.
I'm just trying to say that I was
born again and I was baptized, but rivers
of living water were not flowing out of
my life.
That's all.
And I knew God had promised, Jesus had
promised, that everyone who believed in him, rivers
of living water would flow out of their
life.
They would never be dry.
I found myself at times dry, even though
I knew the word, even though I was
preaching.
I was dry.
And very often, my service for the Lord
was like pumping a hand pump.
And you pump and pump and pump and
get a few trickles of water out.
It certainly wasn't like a river.
And yet I saw the word of Jesus
so clearly that everyone who believed in him
out of their innermost being would flow rivers
of living water.
All I can say is I sought God
and he met with me.
And that changed the direction of my life.
I didn't join the Pentecostal church.
I do not consider myself a Pentecostal or
a charismatic, but God met with me, filled
me with the Holy Spirit.
And then, years later, I came to another
crisis in my life.
And that was another crisis that dealt with
the issue of reality.
Whether what I was preaching was true within,
in my inner life.
Whether the burden I appeared to have when
I spoke to people was really true within.
I forget when it was.
I think it was about 27 years ago
or so when we had what I think
was the first Congress on Evangelism that we
had in India in Devalali after the Berlin
Congress.
And I presented a paper there.
I was young.
30, 31 years old.
And you know how it is for those
who are young.
I wanted to impress.
And my paper was impressive.
I'm insure of that.
I worked on it.
It went on like that.
I traveled to speak at deeper life conventions
in Australia, Singapore, here and there.
And my aim was to impress.
And the Lord spoke to my heart once
and said, Do you want to impress people
or do you want to help them?
I said, Lord, I want to help them.
And the Lord said, Stop it, trying to
impress them then.
And I said, Lord, I'm going to do
that.
I want to help people.
And I came to a place in my
life where I said, Lord, my inner life
does not correspond with what I'm preaching.
Externally, I had a good testimony.
But my thought life, my attitudes, my attitude
to money were not Christ-like.
I was proclaiming Christ with my life.
But it wasn't the spirit of Christ that
was reigning in my thoughts.
And I was honest.
I believe the first step to God is
honesty.
And by then, I mean I was fairly
well-known.
I was writing books and my books had
a wide circulation.
I had a weekly radio program.
I was invited here and there.
And the Lord one day spoke to my
heart and said, Are you willing to stand
up in front of that congregation that respects
you and tell them that you're not genuine,
you're not real?
I said, Yes, Lord, I don't care what
people think of me.
I want you to do something for me.
I ask you only for one thing, and
that my inner life will correspond with what
I preach.
That's what I asked the Lord for 23
years ago.
God met with me again.
He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek
Him.
The Lord said to me, Come up higher.
Fellowship with God has become to me the
most precious thing in the last 22 years.
It's changed my life.
It's taken away discouragement and depression from my
life.
I have found the secret of walking with
God.
And that's made my service joyful, no longer
dry.
Everything must depend on your walk with God.
Remember when Jesus was in the house of
Mary and Martha?
He said to Martha, You are careful and
worried about so many things.
What was Martha worried about?
There was a knee.
She was serving the Lord unselfishly like many
of us are.
Sacrificially, sweating away in the kitchen, not cooking
food for herself, but for the Lord and
His disciples.
What greater service.
Totally unselfish.
And she didn't do it for money.
She didn't do it for a salary like
many Christian workers serve.
No, it was totally unselfish.
And yet the Lord said, You are worried
about many things.
She thought Mary was selfish, sitting there, not
working, listening.
And Jesus said, That's the important thing.
There is a beautiful paraphrase in 1 Corinthians
4, 2, in the Living Bible, which says,
The most important thing about a servant, the
most important thing about a servant, is that
he does just what his master tells him
to.
You know, that's brought so much rest into
my heart.
What do I have to do when I
see a needy world get all worked up?
There are plenty of manipulators who are out
to work me up.
I say, Lord, I want to listen.
There are plenty of Marthas out to criticize
and say, Tell her to get up, not
waste her time when there is a needy
world perishing.
Well, we certainly need to see the need.
Jesus said, lift up your eyes and look
at the harvest.
To see the need, to point out the
need, yes.
But the call must come from God, not
from man.
I've discovered that.
Jesus sat in heaven for 4,000 years
while a world lay dying in need of
a savior.
Nobody could pressurize him to leave heaven till
the Father's time.
In the fullness of time, he came.
And when he came to earth for 30
years, he sat making stools and benches while
a world lay dying.
He would not be moved.
But a time came when the Father said,
And he went.
And he did more in three and a
half years than others could do in 3
,000.
The most important thing about a servant is
not that he runs around doing this, that,
and the other for God, but he listens.
It's difficult to listen.
I used to be in an assembly in
my younger days where we spent a lot
of time in reading the scriptures and praying
and fasting and praying.
And every morning, it was a rigid rule
to get up and spend a quiet time.
Very good habit.
I would recommend it to everyone.
But I found that in spite of these
hours apparently spent in the presence of God,
people were sour, bitter, hard to get along
with, critical, judgmental, suspicious.
Something was wrong.
I know times when I have spent just
10 or 15 minutes with a godly man,
and it's challenged me.
10 or 15 minutes with a man of
God, and it's challenged me.
Can you imagine what it would be like
to spend 10 or 15 minutes with God
himself?
And how is it these people are not
changed?
How is it I was not changed?
And the Lord showed me I wasn't spending
time with him.
I was just spending time with myself.
I mean, whether it was a chemistry book
or the Bible in front of me didn't
make much of a difference.
It was just studying some book.
It wasn't time with God.
To listen.
Jesus said concerning Mary is the one thing
needful.
From that flows everything else.
And that's a very efficient way of serving
God because God can tell you what to
do.
He told Jesus what to do.
Jesus felt the prompting of the Spirit He
went once to walk 50 miles to Syrophoenicia
outside the borders of Israel from Galilee.
I don't know how many hours it took
him.
Probably a whole day.
He went there.
He met one Gentile woman whose daughter was
demon possessed.
Cast out that demon.
Pointed out to his disciples what great fate
that woman had when she said give me
the crumbs that fall from the table and
walked back.
That's how Jesus lived.
For one soul.
Not very impressive statistically but it was the
will of God.
He lived like that for three and a
half years.
And he said at the end of his
life Father I have finished the work you
gave me to do.
Had he met all the need there was
in the world?
What about India?
What about Africa?
But he had finished the work God gave
him to do.
And he never desired to live on the
earth for another day.
The Apostle Paul could say at the end
of his life I have finished my course.
You may have a different calling and I
may have a different calling we are different
members in the body of Christ.
But we need to understand what God wants
us to do.
And one of the major hindrances to our
becoming deaf to the voice of God is
unreality.
When I'm not honest when I pretend.
The Pharisees could not hear what Jesus was
saying because they were living a life of
pretense.
They gave people the impression they were godly.
They were up there in the front.
They were the leaders.
They were the scholars of that time.
If you had met Peter, James or John
say four or five years before they met
Christ and you had asked them well Peter
can you tell me the name of some
godly man whom you know?
He would have perhaps mentioned the name of
some Pharisee who was the elder in the
synagogue because that was his understanding.
People who knew the scriptures people who fasted
people who prayed people who were carrying little
boxes of scripture on their forehead and who
appeared so holy and pious they were godly
people.
And then can you imagine the shock he
got when Jesus came and lambasted these elders
in the synagogue God saying you are a
bunch of hypocrites candidates for hell and when
he selects his apostles he doesn't go to
any bible school there was a bible school
in Gemaliel running it in Jerusalem at that
time he doesn't go and pick them up
from there.
He picks them up from the shores of
Galilee illiterate uneducated fishermen and made them his
apostles and they write books which today we
give people doctorates when they study.
Isn't that amazing?
I think Peter himself wouldn't go through some
of our seminaries and get a degree.
Perhaps one among the twelve disciples could have
got a degree and you know who that
was the cleverest and the smartest of the
lot.
Why did Jesus pick up such people?
They were simple they were willing to listen
and what a stir they caused when they
went to the synagogues and preached they were
not just giving the routine messages that the
synagogues had heard for years they were prophets
and people have never liked prophets in fifteen
hundred years of Israel's history Stephen said which
of the prophets did you not persecute they
were not diplomatic speakers, they were prophets and
I believe that our country could do with
a few more prophets so that we can
hear what God is saying He doesn't care
for that which is big and great in
the eyes of men yeah I'm not against
you know meetings like this but more than
twenty years ago I stopped going to them
I turned down all those invitations I mean,
I know, you get known, you get famous
you get media coverage and you're well-known
but I discovered in this land as I
travel down the villages where I spend most
of my time now that the people doing
the work are not here they're out there,
unknown you don't even know their names, they
can't even speak English they don't know what
it is to present a paper but they're
filled with the Holy Spirit and they love
the Lord and they go out and reach
the souls for Christ praise God for them
there are many others who organize the thing
and who are leaders who appear to be
the mission leaders that's fine but many who
at first will be lost when Jesus comes
again it's good for us to be humble
it's good for us to have low thoughts
about ourselves perhaps we're not so great in
God's eyes as other Christians around the world
think we are because of our degrees and
our titles they can impress men, but not
God not only they don't impress God, even
the devil's not impressed the devil's impressed by
a holy man a man who is genuine
a man whose inside and outside are the
same a man who never preaches what he
never does people ask me, Brother Zach, why
don't you stir people to go to North
India I said, Jesus taught what he did
I haven't done it, I will not do
it, preach it I'm not saying it doesn't
have to be done it has to be
done, but I'm not the whole body of
Christ I'm only one part of it I'm
an imbalanced member of the body of Christ
I will always be imbalanced the only balanced
man that walked on earth was Jesus Christ
you are imbalanced and so am I we're
one part, let's never think we're anything more
than one part and every part is needed
the evangelist, the teacher, the prophet the shepherd,
the apostle for people to be made members
of the body of Christ what is evangelism?
let's consider, what is our calling?
it is to make someone who is not
a member of Christ's body a member of
Christ's body isn't that our calling basically?
that's it, I think you'll all agree on
that to use an illustration from, I mean
since the Holy Spirit has used the illustration
of the body to use an illustration from
our physical body here is a plate of
food on the table say a potato, that's
an unbeliever that potato has to become a
member of my body how does it happen?
it happens first with evangelism and that is
the hand reaching out it's always the first
ministry, evangelism that's why I never devalue it
I highly value, particularly those who suffer in
the heat and dust of North India I
read their magazines, I get a number of
magazines in my home and I really thank
God for these dear brothers of mine who
labor there, and I've been up there now
and then to see some of them too
here is this, taking this potato and putting
it into the mouth it will never become
a part of my body if the evangelist
doesn't go out and do that but is
that all?
if I keep it in my mouth forever
does it become part of the body?
it doesn't I'll spit it out after a
while it will get rotten inside the mouth
just like some converts have got rotten inside
some churches they just pulled in and kept
there something else has got to happen once
it goes inside the mouth that's the way
God has made the body, it's got to
be chewed, it's got to be crushed and
then it goes down, and then this poor
potato which is all broken up now feels
at last it's all over and goes down
to the stomach and finds it's not over
and now he gets acids thrown on it,
that is prophetic ministry it's not comfortable to
have acids poured on us this gentle ministry
of picking up and all is so nice
but when acids are thrown at us and
that potato is broken down completely till it
no longer looks like a potato and lo
and behold in a few weeks it has
become blood and flesh and bones a part
of the body of Christ now whose job
is important?
what have you that you did not receive?
when we are humble we will confess we
are imbalanced the hand is not more important
than the stomach they complement each other unfortunately
in Christendom there is this perpetual competition the
hand building it's own kingdom, the stomach building
it's own kingdom and the mouth building it's
own kingdom and what have we?
we don't have a body we have an
anatomy laboratory with the mouth there and the
hands there and the legs over here, it's
not a body what do we need?
yeah, we need instruction we need humility we
are all equally important you and I and
the great mission leader is no more valuable
to God than that poor brother who can't
speak English properly who goes out and brings
souls to Christ they are all a part
of the body come up higher, the Lord
says see things from my viewpoint and things
will look very different from God's viewpoint then
they look when you look at it from
this low earthly standpoint why is it so
many Christian workers have such a high opinion
about themselves I want to ask you my
brother sister tell me honestly what are the
thoughts you think about yourself when you are
by yourself are they thoughts of humility recognizing
that you are nothing there are times when
I sit outside and look at the stars
and knowing a little bit about geography I
know there are millions of them and I
know that the earth is but a little
speck of dust in this vast universe and
I say God how great you are what
am I?
just a small talking big things help me
to have a sober estimate of myself I
would recommend that to you God gives grace
to the humble knowledge anybody can have grace
only the humble get we need grace more
than knowledge I will tell you that I
have thought of young people coming to the
Lord from Hindu backgrounds, Muslim backgrounds recently I
was speaking to one of them converted in
one of our churches in Tamil Nadu I
thought of that Muslim opposed, persecuted by his
family and I thought what does he see
when he comes to Christianity does he see
people with the spirit of Jesus Christ you
know people have such a wrong impression of
what we claim to be when we are
Christians the other day, well some months ago
one of my Hindu neighbors said to me,
well Mr. Poonen I saw your Pope on
the television the other day well I said,
well sir he is not my Pope I
will tell you that, well he was relieved
to hear that he was relieved to hear
because he was a man who respected Jesus
Christ he was relieved to hear that my
version of Christianity was not one where people
were carried around on thrones but that which
we see in the Gospels where Jesus was
a servant I have long believed that the
first principle of all ministry whether it is
evangelism, teaching prophecy, whatever is found in Hebrews
in chapter 2 and verse 17 Jesus was
made like his brothers in all things I
want you to meditate on that verse he
was made like his brothers in everything how
can I serve another person I have to
be made like him in everything, I have
to descend to his level, why is it
I cannot communicate with a little ant crawling
on the floor, because I am so big
if I go to him, to that ant
as a human being, he gets terrified the
only way I can communicate with that ant
is becoming like him, and the only way
God could communicate with us was by becoming
like us that we can understand but in
our ministry to others too, whether it is
in a local church or whether your calling
is to go out into some unreached area,
the first principle is this, like Ezekiel says
I sat where they sat to be made
in all things like our brothers in other
words, I don't want to exalt myself above
them in any way that's why Jesus told
his disciples, don't take titles like Rabbi, Father
or any other title, and we got lots
of them in Christendom today because that title
exalts you above that other person whom you
are supposed to serve you will over all
them with your knowledge instead of being one
like them Jesus became one like us you
know, we think that we can serve God
better with the, sometimes with the methods of
the business world but it is not true,
we read in the Old Testament once that
the Philistines had captured the Ark of God
and when they had some problems with it
they sent the Ark back on a bullet
cart years later David heard about it and
said, hey that's a bright idea this crazy
thing that Moses taught about the Levites carrying
it, that's ok for a short distance but
long distance, bullet cart is a better idea,
the Philistines have got a bright idea there
and he put it on a bullet cart
you know what happened the oxen stumbled and
Uzzah reached out his hand to touch the
Ark and he was smitten dead right there
and David was greatly disturbed, where did it
all start?
it started with David trying to imitate the
Philistines death came in, death always comes in
when we imitate the ways of the world
when Christian churches are run the way business
enterprises are run when money becomes the number
one factor in Christian work I believe one
of the very good things that we could
ask ourselves is whatever calling you are in
whatever organization you are running will it survive
if money stops or will the whole thing
come crumbling down the work of God uses
money but it's not dependent on money it's
dependent on the Holy Spirit and the Bible
says the Spirit of God is jealous jealous
when something else or someone else takes his
place in the church it could be music,
I'm not against music I believe we should
have the best possible music without imitating the
world in our churches but we must not
depend on music if we think that at
the end of a meeting get the organ
to play gently and we can move people
to a decision what's that?
that's psychology it's not the Holy Spirit if
the word of God has been preached in
the power of the Spirit like Jesus preached
it and like Peter preached it we don't
need any organ, you can have it if
you like but it's not going to help
but if you haven't got the Holy Spirit
you can manipulate people psychologically and think you
got them to take a decision superficial, emotional
and you'll discover it in the long run
the Holy Spirit is jealous for his place
in the church you can't replace him with
theology, you can't replace him with music you
can't replace him with money thank God for
all those things use them all, Jesus used
money, how could we be against it Jesus
sang a hymn we read, how can we
be against music we read in Hebrews 2
that Jesus is the one that leads the
church in praise to God so when we
praise him we're just following our leader we're
not against these things it's a question of
dependence dependence on great personalities, dependence on preachers
no, the Holy Spirit is jealous he was
made like his brethren in everything he became
a servant everybody speaks about a servant lifestyle
and servant books and so many things everybody
speaks about being a servant but what does
it actually mean, I'll tell you what it
means brother, how do you treat your co
-workers how do you treat the junior most
co-worker who joined your organization yesterday, is
he really a brother to you does that
fellow live in awe of you it doesn't
matter if you preach servant lifestyle till doomsday
you haven't understood, you haven't seen Jesus Jesus
was so simple he never over awed people
he said I'm a son of man, which
just means I'm just an ordinary man he
who was pure, he who was the son
of God he who had lived with the
father from eternity came to earth and walked
just like an ordinary man he became in
all things like his brothers isn't that what
it says here, he was made in all
things like his brothers and for that something
in us has to die it says he
humbled himself to the point of death death
is the perfect proof of humility if a
corn of wheat falls into the ground and
dies, guaranteed much fruit that's one of the
things I discovered when I had this crisis
of reality with the Lord 22 years ago
I discovered that the greatest thing I could
do for India was to fall into the
ground and die to myself to my will,
to what people thought of me to the
opinions of people, to my ambitions to my
goals, to my love of money to everything
and especially to myself so that henceforth Jesus
would be everything so that I could honestly
look up at him every day of my
life and say like the psalmist whom have
I on earth beside thee Lord there are
times when I have laid down in my
bed and said Lord, even my ministry is
not my God you are my God and
nobody will ever take that place you are
everything to me you can take away my
voice you can paralyze me and let me
lie in the bed I'll just lie here
and love you with all my heart nobody
will take away my joy in his presence
is fullness of joy it is from that
font that rivers of living water must flow
through us one last thing many many years
ago as a young Christian the Lord spoke
to me through a verse in 2nd Samuel
chapter 24, verse 24 it says there David,
I don't have time to go into all
the situation there, the circumstances but David said
these words when he was going to make
an offering to the Lord he said I
will never offer to the Lord that which
costs me nothing and what the Lord spoke
to my heart was that when he came
to earth he offered that which cost him
everything and if I were to serve him
I had to serve in that spirit every
service of mine must cost me something how
is it brothers and sisters today has your
service for the Lord cost you something we
have many people in Christian work today in
India who are earning 5 times, 10 times
what they would have got if they were
in a secular job is that sacrifice I
made a decision when I quit my job
in the Indian Navy 31 years ago that
I would never receive any money that would
raise me higher than what I would earn
in a secular job it's preserved me for
31 years ask yourself we don't have to
judge others and I'm not here to judge
you, most of you I don't even know
so it's easy to speak, because I'm not
judging anyone I'm just asking you, what would
you have got today if you were in
a secular job John Wesley used to tell
his Methodist workers make sure that preaching the
gospel has not become a means of making
money you know where Christian work suffers, it's
here you cannot serve God and money and
that's the issue we need to deal with
we can talk about everything under the sun,
but if you don't deal with this issue
in your heart, your service will not be
effective people relocate their residence from one place
to another, there's nothing wrong in that Jesus
relocated from heaven to earth but he relocated
it was a step down it was because
he had a genuine concern for people how
do you relocate I'm not criticizing, I'm just
asking have you relocated your residence because you
feel that you could serve the Lord more
effectively in this land of India where you
have such a burden for is that true?
can we live in the comfort of South
India and have a burden for the villages
of North India I suppose you can, but
I don't see how it works in my
case I can't can you live in the
United States and have a burden for India
yeah, on paper yes, on paper you can
do anything the devil is a great deceiver
he deceives us thoroughly he makes us feel
we've got great burdens when we've got nothing
it's just hot air I want you to
be honest I'm not presenting a paper, I'm
just sharing my heart I hope it is
God's heart I'm not judging you my brothers
and sisters God showed me years ago if
you judge others you'll destroy yourself I can
stand before God today and say I'm not
judging anyone I judge myself I repent my
life, God is my witness is one of
daily repentance because I see un-Christ likeness
in my life, in many areas and I
repent I say Lord, I didn't speak kindly
to that person I want to learn how
to speak if a man does not control
his tongue his Christianity is worth zero James
says and I want to keep that before
me always Paul said once concerning his co
-workers not concerning the heathen in Philippians 2
he said verse 19 to 21 I want
to send somebody to you in Philippi and
I looked around and I found Timothy but
I couldn't find anybody else what Paul, you
couldn't find a single person among your co
-workers I mean getting on to Paul's team
itself would have been a tremendous honor Paul
was the type of fellow who said John
Mark, get him out of here, I don't
want him he's not radical, if you got
on to Paul's team that was a great
honor but Paul looked around at his team
and said Philippians 2 to 21 all seek
their own they seek their own comfort but
they are preaching the gospel they are seeking
their own honor but they appear to be
burden for souls they are promoting themselves they
are promoting their children they are promoting their
family members to take over their work when
they finish like Saul wanted to promote Jonathan
and God said it's not Jonathan, it's David
who is God to take over Saul was
furious, he wanted to get rid of David
because he wanted to promote his own son
you think that's not happening in Christian work
today?
yeah, when we serve the Lord, when we
speak the truth if we judged ourselves we
are not going to be popular but if
we seek to please men, we cannot be
the servants of Christ brothers and sisters I
want to thank God for every brother, every
sister especially those who labor in difficult circumstances
who have made sacrifices that we will never
know about until Jesus comes again who are
not known in Christian circles whose names are
not heralded, who have no media coverage but
God fearing, humble people who are sacrificially spreading
the gospel of Jesus Christ in this land
I want to salute them I'm not worthy
to untie their laces of their shoes I
praise God for such people many of them
are working in our organizations let us follow
in their footsteps Amen