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  ENTERING THE LIFE OF VICTORY (VIDEO)
  by Zac Poonen
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of spiritual growth and
maturity in the Christian life, urging believers to move beyond the
basics of faith and into a deeper understanding of righteousness and
obedience. It challenges listeners to press on to perfection, following
Jesus as the forerunner, and not to remain content with elementary
teachings but to strive for spiritual maturity and discernment between
good and evil.

Topics: "Spiritual Growth", "Maturity in Faith"
Scripture References: Hebrews 5:12, Hebrews 6:1, Hebrews 6:19, Hebrews 13:22

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of spiritual growth and maturity
in the Christian life, urging believers to move beyond the basics of
faith and into a deeper understanding of righteousness and obedience. It
challenges listeners to press on to perfection, following Jesus as the
forerunner, and not to remain content with elementary teachings but to
strive for spiritual maturity and discernment between good and evil.

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CONTENT
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As the church grows in numbers, we have people at different levels of
the Christian life. As our children grow up, and some of them are
hearing the gospel for the first time, in a sense, even though they've
been sitting here many years, they were too young to understand. So the
great burden a true servant of God has is to ensure that God's Word is
preached, not in one single message, but over a period of time in any
church, where the children, spiritual children at all grades, get
something.

And that's not easy, because there are some who never seem to get out of
the kindergarten, even after sitting in the church for seven, eight
years. Now, I believe that a Christian should enter the promised land in
two years, and I'll tell you why I say that. From two examples, the
Bible says that when you're born, you're like little children, babies
born, and in almost every case, by the time a child is two years old, he
can walk.

Till then, he's falling, getting up, falling. Yeah, you don't get upset
with it. Nine month old, falling, getting up.

Even sometimes, a little over one year, they're falling, getting up. But
if a child is two years old, and if you think of your child, if it was
two years old, still falling, still getting up, falling many times a
day, you would get concerned. Are you concerned that you've been a
believer for two years, and you're still falling and falling? Okay, even
I can fall.

I can trip on stone outside and fall, even at my age. So that can happen
to anybody at any stage. But victory over sin does not mean I'll never
fall.

Victory over sin means I've learned to walk. So I'm not asking you
whether you ever fall or whether you ever will fall. My question is,
have you learned to walk? Are you more than two years old in the Lord?
Now, I know that's not true, the vast majority of Christians, but that's
because they don't take the Christian life seriously.

I'll tell you, if you keep carrying, if you want to make sure your child
never learns to walk, I'll give you the prescription for it. Carry him
all the time. Never let him on the ground.

Put him on the ground. You carry him, carry him. As soon as he goes,
gets out of the bed, carry him.

Let somebody carry him all the time or keep him in the bed all the time.
I guarantee, even when he's 10 years old, he won't learn to walk. He's
got to be put on the ground, and he crawls, and he gets up and tries to
walk, and falls down, and don't get disturbed.

He'll learn to walk. I find today in Christendom, there are so many
pastors and preachers who are just carrying these little babies in their
church all the time. The only message, I'll tell you what I mean by
carrying a baby.

The only message they'll preach to them is, God loves you, brother. You
don't know how much he loves you. He's always longing for you.

He misses you so much. He's wanting to see you in heaven one day. Oh, it
doesn't matter if you fall.

He loves you. He wants to pick you up and carry you. You keep listening
to that for five or ten years.

You'll be a baby. You'll never in your life will you get victory over
sin. Until somebody lets you on the ground, and you've run and fallen.

You're determined to learn to walk. And you look at a child. It doesn't
matter how many times it falls in a day.

It's determined to walk. It never gives up. Oh, I fell down 50 times
today, so there's no hope for me.

Foolish believers say that, but not a child of God. So the other reason
why I say two years is the God's plan. I mean, you know, you can take
longer than two years.

How long does it take for you to finish 12th grade or high school? Most
children 12 years, but you can take 30 years, right? Why not? How long
does it take to go and get to be a graduate in a college? Four years?
Well, you can take 40 years as well. It depends on how seriously you
take your education. The average, the person who's really sincere, will
finish 12 grades in 12 years.

Finish college in four years. The child will learn to walk in two years.
And a wholehearted disciple of Jesus will learn the life of victory in
two years.

I mean, that's God's will. Which shows how few Christians are really
wholehearted about overcoming sin. They prefer to be carried and petted
and cared for.

Now, if you turn to Acts of the Apostles chapter two, sorry, not Acts,
Deuteronomy chapter two. We read here about how the children of Israel,
Moses is describing their wandering through the wilderness. And I want
you to see this verse, Deuteronomy 2 verse 14.

First of all, how many years did Israel wander in the wilderness? Do you
know? Altogether? 40 years. That is the punishment God gave them. Now
listen to this.

This is the border of the promised land. He says in Deuteronomy 214. The
time it took for us to come from Kadesh Barnea.

Kadesh Barnea was the place where they sent the spies into the land. You
read in Numbers in chapter 13. The spies went into the land and came
back and said, oh, we can't conquer this land.

Joshua and Caleb said, no, we can go. But the other 10 spies said, no,
we can't go. And the 600,000 people believed the 10 spies and said, we
can't go.

Canaan is a picture of the life of victory. The deliverance from Egypt
is a picture of being born again. Going through the Red Sea is a picture
of water baptism.

The wandering in the wilderness for 40 years is a picture of life under
the law. The child trying to learn to walk for 40 years. But it says
here, the time it took from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Brook
Zirid, which is ready to cross into Jordan, is 38 years.

And during those 38 years, all the generation of the men of war perished
from within the camp as the Lord had sworn them. What does that prove?
That means in God's plan, from Egypt to Kadesh Barnea, where they were
supposed to cross into Canaan was two years. Because they did not, God
sent them into the wilderness for another 38 years.

So it's from that verse that I understand that God's plan, original plan
for the Israelites was that two years after they came out of Egypt,
redeemed by the blood, baptized in the Red Sea, God wanted them to
overcome Canaan. He said two years, such a short time. That was God's
plan.

If they trusted, you know, after two years, Joshua and Caleb said we're
ready. They were ready after two years. See what they say in Numbers.

Let me tell you the history. What happened after two years? Two years
after they left Egypt, they came to this place in Numbers in chapter 13.
The Lord spoke to Moses.

This is two years after they left Egypt. We know that from the verse I
read in Deuteronomy. Send the people to spy out the land because I am
going to give this land to the sons of Israel.

That's like the Lord saying in Romans 6, 14, sin shall not have dominion
over you. I don't care how many giants have ruled the land of Canaan or
your life and your body and your mind all these years. They will not
reign over you anymore.

I'm going to give you this land. Now send some tribes, people from the
tribes to search out the land and Moses sent at the command of the Lord
from each tribe. He took one person and the total was 12 people and they
all went.

Verse 16, these men, Moses sent to spy out the land and Moses verse 17
sent them to spy the land and said go there and come back and tell me
what it's like. What is the land like? Is it good or bad? Verse 19, what
are the camps like and how is the land? Is it fat or lean? Verse 20,
what about the trees? Try and get some fruit from there. Verse 20, and
they went out and spied out the land.

You see, he also told them, verse 19, see whether the people are lean in
it, whether they are strong or weak. Okay, they went out and spied out
the land and came back and they, you know, the grapes were so huge. It
says in verse 23 that when they cut down a branch of one cluster, a
single cluster of grapes, verse 23, it was so heavy that two people had
to carry it on their shoulders and then they came back, verse 25, after
40 days.

They'd gone around 40 days examining the land and they came to the
congregation and they told them we went into the land, verse 27, and it
certainly does flow with milk and honey. You see, this is the testimony
of those who have come into a life of victory. It's a wonderful life
when we are living in fellowship with Jesus all the time, filled with
the Holy Spirit.

It's a life of overcoming, like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2 and verse
14, he says, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.
There's only one meaning for always, if you look up the dictionary, is
24-7, who 24-7 leads us in triumph in Christ. Now, it's almost
unbelievable, but there was a man in the Bible who said that, the
Apostle Paul, and there are many men since then, not many, but a few
through the ages, who've had that testimony.

Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph, who brings every giant
of Canaan under our feet, without exception. There's no giant too strong
for the Lord. But they said, even though it's a beautiful land, a land
of love and joy, and verse 27, I'm paraphrasing it, a land flowing with
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, and gentleness, and goodness, and
faithfulness, and meekness, and self-control.

It's a wonderful land, the fruit of the land. But the giants who live
there are strong. The cities they have fortified are so large, and the
descendants of Anak was there, the huge giants.

And so, Caleb quieted the people and said, no, we can go in and possess
this land. See, he was also one of the spies, according to Genesis, I
mean, Numbers 13, 6. He was one of the spies. He said, I saw those
giants.

I know they're huge, but we can take possession of it. We can overcome
sin. But the men who had gone up with them said, no, no, no, no, no, no.

This anger, I tell you, my father had it, my mother had it, my
grandfather had it, my parents told me that. And they said, it runs in
the family. I tell you, it runs in everybody's family, not just yours.

And I cannot overcome it. That's the language of these people. No, no,
no, they're too strong.

The sexual lust, oh boy, it's too strong. It's too strong a giant. I
know God says sin will not have dominion over you, but not when it comes
to this.

This particular giant is particularly strong. And we're not able to go
up against the people. They are too strong for us.

Think of whichever sin, the sin which easily besets you and see if your
language is this language of unbelief in verse 31. This is too strong
for me. And they gave a bad report.

What is the bad report? God wants you to conquer that land. And you come
saying, no, it's too tough. They're too strong.

The land is a wonderful land. Oh boy, I'd really like to live. Love,
joy, peace, rejoice always and be anxious for nothing.

And thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph. I'd like to live
there, but it doesn't seem to work because giants are too strong. And
when I look at these massive sins that rule my life, verse 33, I look
like a grasshopper, which this giant called anger can crush every day.

And this giant called sexual lust can crush every day. Now I'm a little
grasshopper there. Scripture is given so that we can learn from it for
ourselves.

All scripture is given for us to learn. The things that are written in
the past were written for our instruction. And everybody was, you know,
one thing you can see that they wept because they were sick and tired of
this two years wandering in the wilderness.

They said, we thought we could enter into this land and these spies come
and tell us. I think these spies are pictures of pastors, preachers,
never entered the land themselves. Older leaders who have disheartened
all the people saying, no, no, no, we've lived for you.

Don't try and come with all your new religion. I've been a Christian 25
years and I couldn't possess the land. What are you talking about?
You're just a young upstart.

That's what they told me when I was a young person. I'll tell you, I
thank God, I did not listen to them. It took me many years to come to
victory, but I would never have come if I had listened to all those old
men, preachers and pastors who were defeated in their lives and tried to
disheartened me.

Everybody around me accepted their word. I said, no, I don't care. I
remember telling the Lord, Lord, if I'm the only person in India who
believes that I'm going to believe it because I believe your word.

I'm not going to just say, I believe God's word and just neglect it like
a lot of people do. I'm absolutely convinced that many of you listen to
me carefully. You say you believe the word of God, but I tell you to
your face, some of you do not believe God's promises.

It's not true because you've sat here in NCCF for so many years and it
hasn't changed your life much. It hasn't changed your family life much.
What are you believing? Where is the light shining? It's darkness in
some of your homes.

If people could come secretly to your home and watch what's going on,
it's darkness. And yet I want to say to you in Jesus' name, it should
not be like that. Let's move on.

Let's possess the land. And it says here about Joshua, verse 6, chapter
14, verse 6, and Caleb, they spied out the land. They spoke to the
congregation.

Look at this language of faith. The land which he passed through is an
exceedingly good land. It's a wonderful life, brothers and sisters.

Like it says in Proverbs 14, 14 in the Living Bible, the godly man's
life is exciting. That's how it's supposed to be. Every day, challenge
to overcome situations, circumstances, sin.

And the Lord is, if the Lord is pleased with us, verse 8, he will bring
us into this land and give it to us. And they tell the others, don't
rebel against the Lord. Don't fear these people.

Don't fear these sins that have ruled you for so long. They will be our
prey. It's like, they're going to be like the animals we capture.

We're going to capture them. Their protection has been removed from
them. The devil was defeated on the cross.

Don't act as if the devil is still victor. When you live a defeated
life, you're proclaiming by your life, Satan is victor. I tell you, he's
not the victor.

Jesus is victor. I don't care what you say with your mouth. What is your
life proclaiming? What is your family life proclaiming? Satan is victor
in my home.

Satan is victor in my life. Satan is victor in my thought life. It
doesn't matter then what you say with your lips.

Satan sits back and laughs. These fellows can say what they like with
their lips. They can sing such beautiful songs.

But their life is testifying something else and all my fellow demons,
Satan says, can see it. All my fellow demons can see it every day that
their life is proclaiming something completely different from what they
sing on Sunday morning. Dear brothers and sisters, how many of you will
rise to the challenge that Joshua and Caleb gives? It says, the Lord is
with us.

It says, don't be afraid. Their protection, verse nine, has been removed
from them. And the Lord is with us.

I will not be afraid. In one translation, it says, they're like bread.
We're going to eat them.

They're our food. And that's really true. They are like our food.

Let me repeat that story. The parable that I've heard before, and some
of you probably heard me say it, but for those of you who haven't heard
it, there was this ugly looking lizard or iguana, one of these big
lizards sitting on a man's shoulder. It's a picture of sin that had
conquered his life.

And an angel comes to him and says, get rid of that, get rid of that.
And that iguana lizard says, no, no, no, no, don't get rid of me. You
and I have been friends for years.

I'll behave myself. I'll behave myself. And so he says, okay.

And he argues with this angel, allows the sin to remain. And then
finally, he gets fed up. And he says, okay, you do it.

And the angel pulls out that iguana lizard and throws it on the ground.
And suddenly it becomes a horse. And the angel tells this man, now you
don't have to walk anymore to the promised land.

You can gallop on this horse. This sin that ruled your life is what
slowed you down, slowed you down throughout your life. If you conquer it
and put it down, it becomes a horse on which you can run and go full
speed into God's kingdom.

I've never forgotten that parable. Every sin I conquer is something that
I can ride on and go fast into God's kingdom. Remember that, brothers
and sisters, and don't listen to the devil when he says, keep me, keep
me, I'll behave myself.

He'll never behave himself. He'll ruin your life. And it says, when you
hear such a wonderful message of victory, one would think all of
Christendom should rise up to it and says, yes, this is what's written
throughout the Bible.

It says in Romans 6, 14, still will not have dominion over you. It says
in Romans 8, 37, we are more than conquerors, not just conquerors. We
are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

It says in 2 Corinthians 2, 14, thanks be to God who always causes us to
triumph in Christ. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, verses 1 to 4, I know
nothing against myself. My conscience is absolutely clear.

Paul says in Acts 24, 16, this is my testimony. I live with a perfectly
good conscience every single day, all the time, 24 seven. What a life
example of these men.

Paul, John says at the age of 95 in 1 John 5, 3, God's commands are not
a burden. There's not a single command of God, John says at the age of
95, that I found to be a burden in the last 65 years since I was filled
with the spirit on the day of Pentecost. Can you give that testimony?
Even for one year, leave alone 65 years.

There's a Chinese proverb that says the journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single step, and then another step. You don't have to walk
a thousand miles, just one step, one step, continue, continue, and you
will reach the end of the thousand miles. God's got a plan for your
life.

It was planned before you were born. It was planned before I was born.
And all of us have messed up that plan for a lot, for many, many years.

You and I, I know I have. I've been a backslider in my life too. And I
repented and wept and cried out to God for years till God one day filled
me with the Holy Spirit and turned me right around.

I had my day of Pentecost and continuing in filling with the spirit. You
cannot do it without it. It is impossible.

Don't even attempt it. And don't go for these fake counterfeit spirit's
fullness found in a lot of Pentecostal churches. Go for the real thing
that the apostles got on the day of Pentecost, where Jesus said, you
shall receive power, not tongues.

Power. I wanted power. I was thoroughly defeated in my life, more than
all of you.

But I said, Lord, I want power. I was at rock bottom when God met with
me, filled me with the spirit. And I'll tell you why.

If I were to draw a graph of my life, from the time I was born again, I
was really wholehearted. And it was climbing, climbing. I was really
wonderfully, according to the light I had, till a day came in my life, I
said, Lord, I give up the ambition I had in my life to go to the top of
my profession.

And I chuck it because you called me to leave it and serve you. And I
continued like that. But the one thing I lacked, or a couple of things I
lacked, I did not have a spiritual father.

I did not have a spiritual mentor to challenge me to a life of victory.
I never heard a preacher preach saying, sin will not have dominion over
you. Come on, be an overcomer.

I never heard that. So I was defeated. And the second thing I didn't
have was fellowship.

I never saw a church which functioned like a body of Christ, where
people loved the Lord and loved one another and functioned together as a
body. You know, it makes a tremendous difference when you have a body.
Because if this hand is paralyzed, there's another hand that comes to
help.

And if any part of this body is injured, when you're part of a body, it
functions and helps and restores it, can massage it and bring it back to
life. But imagine if this hand is all by itself, and it's dead. It's
just like that, dead forever.

I didn't have a body. I didn't have a spiritual father. And it's the
years of my defeated.

Then I, you know, my graph started going down. And once you're
discouraged, you get more and more defeated. When you're discouraged,
you condemn yourself.

Oh, I'm preaching so many things. It's not true. I finally got so fed up
with my life way back nearly 50 years ago.

I said, Lord, I'm not going to preach anymore. Because I'm a first class
hypocrite. I'm preaching and singing things which are not true in my
life.

I don't want to fool anybody anymore, sitting up there in front and or
standing up in front and acting like a holy man when I'm not. I won't
give up being a Christian. I love Jesus.

I know he died for me. I know he's the only way of salvation. But I'll
sit at the back of some church and never preach again.

I really said that to the Lord. Unless, Lord, you do something for me.
Only one thing.

I don't want the gift of healing or even preaching nothing. Make my
inner life correspond with what I'm singing and saying. That's all.

I don't ask for anything else. Make my inner life correspond with what
I'm saying I believe, with my testimony, with the songs I sing. That's
all I ask you, Lord.

And I was at rock bottom. I prayed like that and nothing seemed to
happen. I'll tell you this, sometimes it can be so discouraging when you
pray and pray and there doesn't seem to be an answer to it and you go
down and down and down and down.

And I was at rock bottom in my backsliding. And there, one day, when I
least expected it, God met with me and filled me with the Holy Spirit
all of a sudden and began a life in me. Of course, he has this post
script.

He also gave me a little finger called the Gift of Tongues. Only this
size. It wasn't 12 feet long like in some churches.

A little Gift of Tongues. That was not the main thing. The main thing is
something began to change in my life.

And I said, Lord, if this is the real fullness of the Holy Spirit, when
I read the New Testament now, it should become a new book because the
Holy Spirit wrote it. I should see things in it that I have not
understood or seen in the last 16 years that I've studied it. I'd
studied the Bible thoroughly from 1959 to 1975, 16 years.

But I believe you'll show me and I'll tell you this. From that time when
God met with me and filled me with the Holy Spirit, and I believe in
continuously being filled with the Holy Spirit, not just once for all
experience. I've seen some of the most amazing truths in Scripture that
I never knew before about overcoming sin, about spiritual maturity,
about building the church, and overcoming Satan.

I never knew before that, for example, what it was to cast out a demon.
But since that day, no demon could stand before me. If there was a demon
in a person, he'd go at the name of Jesus.

But I never knew these things before. I really knew that Satan was being
defeated. The kingdom of God has come.

Jesus once said, if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the
kingdom of God has come. You remember that verse? If I cast out demons
by the spirit of God, the kingdom of God has come. And it really came.

It became real in my life. It's not just verses in Scripture. It's not
just verses to memorize.

It became real in my life. And boy, was I encouraged. And the Bible
became a new book, and I found so many things.

And it was not a sudden going up to the top of the mountain. The graph
slowly began to move upwards. And it is not a perfectly straight line.

I want to say that also for your encouragement. There were little dips
in it, but not such huge dips like before. Small little dips, but the
dips were on a graph that was going upwards.

That's the encouraging thing. I was going upwards, but to small, small
dips, and I was going up and up and up and up. And the dips became less
frequent.

It's a wonderful life. I'm not telling a fairy tale. This is really my
testimony.

And the most important thing the Lord showed me was, I allowed you to go
to the depth of defeat to teach you that I do not give the Holy Spirit
to those who think they deserve Him, but to the most undeserving, and at
the time when they deserve Him the least. That cured me of ever thinking
that the Holy Spirit is something you work for and get. You know how the
entire religious world thinks they have to work for forgiveness of sins?
Back in India, there are people who roll on the ground to get
forgiveness of sins, who go and dip themselves in rivers.

There are many people in many religions who light candles and pray to
Mary and so many other gods to get forgiveness. What all they do to
forgive forgiveness of sins? They give hundreds of thousands of dollars
to get forgiveness of sins or rupees in India. No.

How did you get forgiveness of sins? How many rupees did you pay? How
many dollars did you pay to get forgiveness of sins? How many times did
you roll on the ground to get forgiveness of sins? We look at all those
people and say, boy, I wish they could understand. You don't have to
roll on the ground, brother. You don't have to dip in a river.

It's free. You mean it's free? Yes, it's free. What about an undeserving
wretch like me? You're the most qualified if you're an undeserving
wretch.

Are you the chief of sinners? Christ died for you, man. Come right and
get it. And how long will it take me to get this forgiveness of sins? Do
I have to wait six months or something? No, it's immediate.

The birth process in the kingdom of God, I mean, there may be a lot of
preparation for it, like in the mother's womb, a baby's form, but the
birth itself is a moment. And that's how new birth is. There may be a
lot of preparation for it, of repentance, but you're born again.

It's a moment. And it's not for those who are deserving. No, I certainly
didn't deserve it.

No, far from it. I mean, if God picked on the basis of merit, He would
have picked a lot of other people before me, lots of other people. It's
not on merit that I got my forgiveness of sins.

That's why I can be bold to say that. And it's not on my merit that I
got filled with the Holy Spirit. God showed, and if he had got it,
filled me with the Holy Spirit at a time when I was not backsliding, and
I was living a pretty good life, I might have thought it's because I've
been so faithful.

God filled me with the Holy Spirit. And thank God He filled me at a time
when I was utterly, utterly defeated to show me that the Holy Spirit is
given not to those who deserve him, but to those who need him
desperately. Oh boy, I needed him desperately that day.

I say that for your encouragement, because some of you, though you hear
this so often, you still live under the illusion that I have to pray
some more, I have to fast some more, I'm going to do something more. No,
sir. No, sister.

You have to yield everything and be honest about your defeated life and
believe that God is true when he says something in his book. If you
don't believe he can't do anything without faith, it is impossible to
please him. You can have everything else in your life, but you don't
have faith, it is impossible to please him.

So we read in Luke chapter 11, two parables. One is related to being
filled with the Holy Spirit, and the other is related to overcoming sin
and Satan. Two parables.

Do you know that Jesus only spoke two parables on prayer? And those are
the only two parables I want to point out today. Number one is Luke
chapter 11, how to get into this promised land of Canaan. And the Lord,
the disciples came to Jesus and the Lord teaches us to pray.

The chapter 11, verse 1, Luke 11, verse 1. And the Lord gives a long
answer, teaches us to pray. Many people finish at verse 4 and say, okay,
you know, our father who art in heaven, they go through whole prayer,
that's over. The fuller prayer is in Matthew 6. This is a little
extract.

But that is not the end of the answer to the Lord teach us to pray. He
just prays the question in verse 1. And then it says, okay, I'll tell
you what you should do. When you pray, say this, be concerned about
God's name, be concerned about God's kingdom, be concerned about God's
glory, and not your own needs first.

God is not honored or glorified by your defeated life. That's what you
need to be concerned about, first of all. Forget about your daily bread
and even forgiveness of sins comes later on.

But God is not honored by your life. We pray for that. Father, hallowed
be your name, let your kingdom come and so on.

And then he said, I want to continue my answer. Your question is teach
us to pray. I'll tell you how to pray.

Supposing you have a friend. And that friend is God. He is your friend.

And you go to him in the middle of the night and say, Lord, please give
me something to help someone who is in need here. I want here he's
thinking of serving God. You shall receive power.

What does Acts 1.8 say? You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit's
come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to the outermost parts of the
earth. You shall be witnesses.

So the Holy Spirit comes into our life to make us a blessing to others,
not just to satisfy ourselves. You remember what Jesus said? If any man
thirst, let him come to me and drink. And out of his innermost being
will flow rivers.

Rivers are not for myself. I don't need a river. A well is enough for
me.

What the Lord told the Samaritan woman, a well of water springing up,
that's enough for me. The Lord says, no, you've got to be a river, not
one river, but many rivers that wherever you go, people are blessed. You
know, when you look at the maps of the world, not nowadays, but you look
at some of the ancient maps, the ancient civilization, always gathered
together in certain areas of a country.

And it's always around the rivers. It's always like that because they
needed water. You go to the desert places, Sahara, the middle of
Australia, nobody lives there.

Why? Because there's no water. Rivers, that's where people gathered. And
when rivers are flowing out of a person, the Lord will bring the people,
those who are thirsty for that water.

That's how we have to build the church. That's how the church is built.
That I understood much later.

Rivers of living water will flow. So you're concerned about others.
You're not concerned about others.

You can't build a church, I'll tell you that. If you're only concerned
about yourself, sorry, you begin there. And you see, you go to him and
say, give me three loaves, not for myself.

I'm quite happy, but a friend of mine has come. I don't have anything to
give him. So there's two things I need to recognize.

One, I'm a concern for these other people who are in need around me, who
are lost without salvation or who are defeated in sin. I must have a
concern for them. Lord, a friend of mine is thoroughly defeated by sin.

I want to paraphrase that. Please give me some power to help him to come
into this godly life. I'm satisfied.

You brought me to victory, but he hasn't come to that life. And I have
nothing to set before him. I got victory, but I don't know how to lead
this person into this life.

Do you feel like that? Well, this guy was honest. And now God doesn't
actually say that, but he tests our persistence. In the story, the
neighbor says, don't bother me.

I can't get up now and get my children in bed. And the Lord is trying to
show you the apparent ridiculousness of someone. First of all, you won't
go to your neighbor at midnight and ask for bread.

If a friend has come in the middle of the night, it's better not to ask
him whether he ate or not, if you don't have any food in the house,
because you'll be embarrassed if you don't have any food in the house.
But this guy asked and he found he didn't eat and said, I'm going to get
it for you. I don't care how much embarrassment it costs me.

I'll go to my neighbor and knock until I get it. And even if the
neighbor says, no, please keep quiet. I have to sleep.

My children are asleep. I don't care. I'm going to keep on banging here
until you give me.

Look at the burden he had to help other people to be fed with a message
of victory. You know, when you're really filled with the Spirit, that's
what happens. I know it happened to me.

When I got forgiveness of sins, it's excited me so much that I wanted to
share that with others. I'd give out tracks and the buses and stand on
the streets because I wanted people to know that Jesus forgives sin. You
got to do nothing.

And the same thing happened when I got filled with the Holy Spirit and I
found a life of victory. I had such a burden. I got to share this with
others.

I said, Lord, I don't know how to do it, Lord, but I want to help others
because I see around me people are constantly defeated, families that
are in a mess because sin rules their life. Help me to help them. And I
need power for that.

I don't have anything to help them. That's how we went. If you're like
that, my brother, sister, if you're like that, if you've got a burden,
not just selfishly for yourself, but if you've got a burden for others,
I had a burden for my children.

I said, Lord, how in the world can I lead my children into this life?
How in the world can I lead others whom I know into this life? I have a
burden. Your children will never follow the Lord if you don't have a
burden for them. I'll tell you that.

You've got to have a burden, not just that they get educated and fed and
clothed, but that they will come into a godly life, that rivers of
living water will flow out from their life. You have a burden? You've
got to have a burden from the time they are one year old. You've got to
have a burden to pray for them.

And it says here, this is the wonderful verse, verse eight, last part,
because of his persistence, the neighbor got up and give him whatever he
needs. And then he says, now what's the point of this parable? You're
teaching me, you asked me to teach you to pray, right? Verse one. Okay,
I'm teaching you how to pray.

You ask like this man asked and you'll get it. And you ask to bless your
neighbor, you'll get it. And seek like this man sought and you'll find.

Are you seeking for some understanding of scripture? Seek like this man
sought, you'll find it. If you're too lazy to read the word of God,
you'll never find it. Knock like this man knocked and the door will be
open to you.

There are very few believers who knock like this man knocked. They knock
a few times. Okay, I got to go to sleep now.

Well, no wonder you don't get anything even after 50 years. You won't
get anything in 100 years. This man was determined, I'm not going to
give up until I get something.

Because, verse 10, everyone who asks like this will receive. Everyone,
there's no partiality with God. You haven't received? Uh-huh.

Here it says, everyone who asks like this receives. Why didn't you
receive? You did not ask like this. Everyone who seeks finds.

How is it you didn't get find? Because you didn't seek like this.
Everyone who knocks like this, it'll be open. You haven't found? It has
not been open to you? You know the answer.

And then he says, you think God is reluctant? You think God is reluctant
like this neighbor who was unwilling to open the door? God is not
reluctant. God is like a father, verse 11, not like this neighbor. He's
contrasting a father with this reluctant neighbor who's unwilling to
open the door.

He says, now I want to tell you of a father. If your son asks you for
fish, do you think you'll give him a snake? There are people like that,
you know, who say, I better not ask. Keep on praying for the Holy
Spirit.

I don't know. I've heard of some people who had evil spirits come upon
them. Uh-huh.

It's not my father. He won't give an evil spirit to someone who's
seeking for the Holy Spirit. It's impossible.

If you evil fathers know how to give food to your children, how will
your heavenly father give anything else? If he asks for an egg, verse
12, will he give him a scorpion? And then he says, verse 13, the best of
you fathers are evil. God is much better than that. If you know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly
father give what? The Holy Spirit.

To everyone? No. To those who ask him like this, to those who seek him
like this, to those who knock like this, who say, Lord, my life is not
the blessing it should be to others. Not even a trickle is coming out of
my life.

Hardly a single soul has been blessed through my life in the last one
year or in the last 10 years. 10 years I've been a believer and hardly
anybody's been blessed through my life. Lord, what am I doing? And I'm
not asking for the power of the Holy Spirit.

Boy, what a laid-back way to live the Christian life. But I don't have
the power to witness. Uh-huh.

This guy didn't have the food either. What did he do? He knew there was
one place where he could get food and there is one place where we can
get power to serve God in whatever way he wants you to serve him. I want
to tell you this, my dear brothers and sisters.

Oh, I wish I could convince every one of you, one single thing, that God
has got a wonderful plan for your life, which was made before you were
born. I'm absolutely convinced about it when I'm, now that I'm 60 years
a believer and a lot of those early 16 of those years I wasted. Well,
not wasted, I learned the wrong way to do it.

I learned, I remember telling the Lord, Lord, I wish you had shown me
all this, not 16 years after I was saved, when I was 35 years old. I
wish I'd known it when I was 20, when I got converted or 21, when I got
baptized. And I believe in my case, because of the particular ministry
the Lord had prepared for me, which I did not know then, the Lord said,
I needed to take you through every street in Babylon to show you what
Babylon is really like.

The buildings and the streets and the idols in Babylon. That's why I
took you, not every believer has to go that way because they don't all
have that ministry. They have different ministries.

But your ministry was this to expose Babylon and you could never do it
unless I showed you all of Babylon thoroughly. So God gave me a guided
tour through all of Babylon in 16 years. And I saw it through and
through.

That's why I'm not fooled today by what goes on there. There's some
people who still seek to have interdenominational fellowship with
Babylonian groups, not me. I've seen through it and I don't blame them.

I say, you guys haven't got a guided tour through Babylon yet. That's
why you think there's something there. I know there's nothing there.

I know that everything in Babylonian Christendom runs on the principle
of money. Nothing will happen in Babylon without money. The preachers
will resign, the pastors will resign.

Churches will collapse because Babylon runs on money. So I'm convinced
of that. That's why when we started, we decided we'd have nothing to do
with money.

We won't even take an offering. We will never have a single paid worker
in any of our ministry in our churches. Oh, you know, today that's
become so common that you can glory in it.

Because I say, if I have an elder brother in one of my churches who
doesn't take money, doesn't take an offering, but he's defeated by sin,
I say, that's no better. If you're defeated by sin, you're part of
Babylon again. It's not just the money.

So this is one parable. This other parable of, this is building the
church, you know, let the rivers flow out from. The other parable on
prayer is in Luke chapter 18.

There are only two parables. Jesus spoke on prayer. And I want you to
see the similarity in both.

He was telling them a parable again, in verse one, Luke 18 verse one,
how they ought to pray and never give up. It's always this thing you see
in the New Testament. Never give up.

Never give up asking God for something which is promised in his word.
That's the meaning of it. Can you, did you find something written in
God's word and you haven't got it? Oh, don't give up till you get it.

Okay, here's the parable for that. In a certain city, you know, always
the Lord takes some extreme case and compares it with a loving God, like
this reluctant neighbor and a loving father. It's a contrast.

If a reluctant neighbor can give you bread, how much more a loving
father will give. Here's another one like that. A dishonest judge who
did not fear God or respect man.

And he's comparing him to the loving, faithful father who is your God.
There was this judge who did not fear God. Verse two, he did not respect
man.

Hard hearted. There was a widow in that city. The widow is a picture of
the believer.

You know, the Lord always pictures believers as someone very weak. Sheep
and around are wolves and lions. And a widow who doesn't even have a son
or a daughter to go and plead for her case with the widow.

No children. A childless widow, husband dead, no children. A neighbor is
encroaching on her property.

She has a little property that she got from her husband, but the
neighbor knows that she's a helpless widow and keeps on occupying her
property. This happens in India, by the way. They move the fence closer
and closer and closer, and they know that this poor widow can do
nothing.

And she comes and says, please give me legal protection from my enemy.
And he keeps on hammering at the judge's door in the middle of the night
and house and the office. And he was unwilling.

And finally he said, even though I don't fear God or respect man,
because this widow bothers me, verse 5, I will give her legal
protection. Otherwise she'll wear me out. And the Lord said, verse 6,
hear what this unrighteous judge says.

And do you think God will delay? You think God will delay, verse 7, in
bringing justice for his elect? Not elects who sing a few songs and go
to sleep. No. The elect who cry to him day and night.

Lord, Satan is getting power over areas of my life. Lord, Satan is
invading my family. Lord, Satan is getting hold of some of my children.

They've begun to misbehave. Lord, don't leave me like this. And to
bother the judge day and night, that widow.

And we go to God and keep on saying, cry to him day and night. You think
God will delay? I tell you, if God finds one believer like that who
cries to him day and night, he will bring justice for him quickly,
speedily. But when Jesus comes, will he find anybody with such faith?
Where will he find believers who have such faith that if I lay hold of
God, he will drive the devil out of my home and out of my life and out
of my children and wherever the devil is encroached upon the property.

And the Lord says, what I see is a whole lot of my children laid back.
Okay, what to do? My child is wayward. He will always be wayward.

And nothing's going to happen. I've not been a blessing to a single
person in the last 10 years. And I won't be a blessing to anybody else
in the next 20 years either.

And my life will be like that. They're laid back. God doesn't do
anything for such people.

They just drift along. You can't even say about such people that they
lived, they existed on earth as believers. To live with a capital L is
quite different.

Will he find faith? Not will he find people who are not, he's not
asking, will I find any widows on earth who are muscular enough to drive
the enemy out? No, no, no, no, no. Will he find helpless widows who have
faith to believe that their heavenly father will come down and support
them and drive the enemy out of their lives and their homes? That's the
question. You're supposed to be a helpless widow.

It's wonderful the picture the Lord gives me. I said, Lord, the pictures
you give me of myself, what am I supposed to be? A widow, helpless old
widow. That's a Jack Punan.

Or a sheep, dumb sheep. If I don't have a shepherd, I'm lost. I can fall
over the cliff.

That's me. Or the other picture the Lord gives is a little baby. He
picks up the little baby and says, the kingdom of heaven belongs to
this.

I love these pictures because I see that's no problem, Lord. If I'm only
supposed to be like a helpless widow or a sheep who doesn't know head or
tail about what to do, or like a baby. I qualify, sure.

Some dumb person, me. What am I supposed to be? What did Jesus ride on?
Not on a horse. You know why he rode on a donkey? Because that's the
dumbest animal.

Like it says in Genesis 3, one of the sharpest animal was the snake. The
dumbest is a donkey. And all the rulers, all kings in those days rode on
horses.

Caesar and all the others. And here's the king of kings who came on the
earth. Like it says in Zechariah, behold your king comes riding on a
donkey.

And you know, it says that when he sent his disciples to lose that
donkey to bring him. If somebody asks you, why are you losing this
donkey? Tell him the Lord has need of him. I have a picture in front of
my table where I work.

It says, it's a picture of Jesus riding on a donkey. And underneath are
the words, the Lord has need of you. I say, thank you, Lord.

That's the place I always want to be. The Lord has need of me. And when
people appreciate me and throw their shirts on the, the coats on the
ground and says, hey, what a wonderful things happening here.

I don't think that they're celebrating me. It's because who is riding on
me. And if he ever gets off me, that'll be the end of people throwing
any coats in front of me.

The donkey knows that. And I hope you and I know that. Never, never
forget that.

We're not worthy of anything. But that is God's will, my brothers and
sisters. I hope you will believe that God wants you to be victorious and
triumphant.

Not defeated. His children are not supposed to be defeated. I don't care
what your circumstances are.

I think of those early Christians, how brave they were. I read of a
disciple of the Apostle John. I read it in Christian history.

His name was Polycarp. Polycarp was the leader of some church there. And
the Roman soldiers were sent to capture him because he was confessing.

And he was about 90 years old or so. They'd been preaching faithfully.
And when they came to capture him, just hang on, let me pray and then
I'll come.

And he came with him and they brought him before the magistrate. And the
magistrate said, deny Jesus and we let you go. And apparently, Polycarp
said, 86 years, 86 years, I served my savior.

And he's done me nothing but good. All these years, how can I deny him?
You can do what you like. And instead of saying, Caesar is Lord, they
would all say, Jesus Christ is Lord.

Burn him. They'd burn him. You and I are going to meet these people in
heaven and they'll tell us their testimony.

I want to have something to tell them also of what the Lord did for me.
I don't want to be ashamed in that day and said, well, Polycarp, I
thought I'd lose a little money there. So I told a little lie.

I thought I'd lose my job. So I did not confess Christ. Imagine telling
Polycarp that story when we meet him in heaven.

I don't want to say that. I don't care which job I lose, which money I
lose or what I lose. I remember in the early days, way back in 1975,
when we first started CFC in our home, the Lord said to me, you know,
people would come and go, come and go.

There's hardly anybody left from those days today with us because there
was a big turnover. People would come and go and come and go because the
message was too strong. We spoke about spiritual harlotry.

We spoke about Babylon the harlot. We spoke about being free from the
love of money, being free from anger and bitterness and murmuring and
complaining and sexual lust and everything. We spoke about the same
thing we're preaching today.

And little by little, people came and go away. And the Lord said to me
one day, what if finally only you and your wife are left? I said, it
makes no difference. You'll be with us and that's enough.

And I'll tell you, I mean, there was another brother with me at that
time. Ian Robson, he stuck with me. I knew that.

I mean, we were great, both of us. But I said, if everybody else goes,
it's almost become like that now. All those people with us, they're all
gone.

But this brother and I are sticking together. And the Lord said, if
they've all gone, what do you do? I said, Lord, we'll still be here. So
what if we are like Noah? Only eight people, you know, he had only eight
people in the ark.

It says the last days will be like the days of Noah, full of sexual evil
and violence. But I also see that the last days will have people like
Noah on earth who stood true, even they had only eight people in their
church, even though he preached for 120 years. Some of my great heroes
in the Bible have been Noah, Elijah, John the Baptist, who stood and
stood for the truth no matter what happened, whether they lost their
head or whatever.

And Noah, the last days will be like the days of Noah, that God wants
families like Noah. You see, Noah, one good thing about him, he had his
family in the Lord. He brought his wife and his children up properly,
that they got into the ark with him and believed in.

He was a wonderful father, a wonderful husband, a wonderful family man
who brought all his children into the ark. I don't forget that. The last
days will be like the days of Noah.

Let there be any amount of sexual evil and violence and terrorism and
all types of going down in the sexual area and marriages and all types
of marriages. I won't be surprised if they finally start marrying
animals as well. That's the next stage, by the way.

It'll happen. Mark my words, and they'll legalize it. The world is going
in that direction.

In the midst of such a world, to stand true to the Lord, it'll be
unpopular, sure. I mean, if you want popularity, forget it. Go and join
something else.

But if you want to stand true to the Lord, stick like Noah. He never
changed his message for 120 years. Peter calls him a preacher of
righteousness.

It's a wonderful title. A preacher of righteousness who never
compromised, no matter if people called him madman or crazy or whatever
it is. It didn't make a slightest difference to him.

Dear brothers and sisters, God wants you. I think of you young people
here listening to me. I hope you will grow up to carry this torch in the
next generation.

You can't become a prophet overnight, but you can become one if you're
faithful. The great godly men did not become godly men overnight. God
worked on them, disciplined them over a number of years, maybe got a
hold of them by the time they were 15 or 16 or 17 and worked in them and
led them through all types of disappointments and frustrations.

By the time they're 30 or 35 years old, they're into a ministry God has
for them. That can happen to you. Yes, I want it to happen to you.

And if some of you are older than that, never mind. You started late in
the race. It doesn't matter.

You still press on. God needs you, my brothers and sisters. God does not
need just three or four people getting up here and proclaiming the
truth.

He wants many because the more he has, the more he can spread the word
to many, many more people through your witnesses, to all the people who
you communicate with. But you've got to know the word. You've got to
know God's word.

Let me conclude. Turn with me to Hebrews and chapter five. Hebrews five,
this is really the burden which I've been sharing.

He says, I want to speak to you about Jesus. Hebrews 5a, the son of God,
how he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And he became
perfect means complete.

And he has become the source of eternal salvation to those who obey him.
And concerning Jesus in this way as a forerunner, who has gone ahead of
us, there's so much I want to show you about Jesus as our example. But
it's very hard to explain, not because you guys are not clever enough,
but you're dull of hearing.

Your conscience is not sensitive to sin and has made you spiritually
deaf. Because of that, by this time, verse 12, you should have become
teachers. Instead of that, you're sitting there like babies still
wanting to be taught.

Some of you should have been like Caleb and Joshua. But you're not.
You're sitting there waiting.

Somebody has to teach you again the elementary principles of the oracles
of God. And you still need milk and not solid food. You know what milk
is? God loves you, brother.

He's desperately in love with you. God is madly in love with you. He
cares for you.

He rejoices over you with shouts of joy. It's true. I mean, I drink milk
even at my age, but I drink a lot more than milk.

I eat a lot of solid stuff too. I'm not against that milk. Sure, we need
to know all our life that God loves us immensely.

In fact, it's one of the great truths in my life that God loves me
immensely. But that's not all solid food. This love of God is so
wonderful that He doesn't want a single giant to live in my life.

He not only died to forgive my sins, He died to deliver me from sin.
That is the love God has for me. But everyone, listen to this, verse 13,
everyone who partakes only milk is not accustomed to the word of
righteousness.

Word of righteousness is solid food. Compare verse 12 with verse 13.
Milk and solid food, verse 12.

And verse 13 is milk and the word of righteousness. So, you know, solid
food is the word of righteousness. That is what we've been, and He says,
that's what we've been preaching.

The life of righteousness, overcoming sin, where every area of life
becomes righteous. And they don't want that. They want always, God loves
you.

All the songs you sing must be, how wonderful you are, O Lord. How
wonderful you are. How much you love me.

How much you care for me. When you were dying on the cross, you thought
of me. Oh, and I get moved with all these songs.

What about a word of righteousness like, sin will not rule over you.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Give up all murmuring and complaining.

No, no, no, no. You can't chew. It's too hard.

I'm still a baby. That's solid food. Verse 14 is for the mature, who
because of practice have their senses trained to discern between good
and evil.

Therefore, challenging us, leave aside these elementary teaching about
Christ. I wish I could go across Christendom and proclaim in every
church. Leave aside this elementary teaching about Christ and press on
to maturity.

That's the verse we put on our CFC pulpit right from the beginning. Let
us press on to perfection. When people accuse us of claiming to be
perfect, I said, read what's written there.

We are pressing on to perfection, which proves we are not perfect. If
you guys don't preach it, the other guys will think you're perfect. We
are publicly confessing we have not become perfect when you read that
verse in front of our pulpit.

And every person who stands behind that pulpit and preaches is
proclaiming I'm not yet perfect. But I'm not lazily sitting there
drinking milk. I'm pressing on to perfection.

Let us press on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of
repentance and belief in the forgiveness of sins and baptisms and laying
on of hands and healing and resurrection of the dead. Let's move on.
Let's move on to follow Jesus, who's our forerunner.

Verse 19, was gone within the veil as our forerunner and overcome. Let's
follow him. That's our message in this church.

And that's the message we have preached for more than 40 years. And
those who have years to hear have heard it. And many lives have been
changed.

Many families have been changed. Many young people have grown up to be
wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ. And I pray that will be true
here as well.

I pray that all of you, my dear brothers and sisters will grow up to be
those who challenge others by your way of life. That when people see
your life and your family life, they'll be challenged that your life
will be a rebuke to their defeated life. Like, you know, the book of
Hebrews is one of the strongest books with some of the passages I just
read, strongest letters in the New Testament.

And by the time he comes to the end of that letter, he's concerned that
a lot of people would think this is too strong. And so he concludes like
this in Hebrews, Hebrews 13 and verse 22. Dear brothers, please bear
with this word of exhortation and challenge.

And it's 13 chapters long, but he says, I've written unto you briefly.
So even if I've spoken one and a half hours, I've spoken briefly. Please
bear with this word of exhortation because it is for your good and for
the glory of God.

Let's pray. Our heavenly father, help us never to disappoint you by the
way we live in our homes. Help us never to let you down by our language,
the way we speak, by our attitudes, by anything in our life that the
devil can accuse us to you.

Lord, we want to shut the mouth of the devil as far as we are concerned
and our families, that the devil will have nothing to open his mouth
about concerning me and my family. I pray that it'll be true of every
family here. Give us a burden.

Help us to be true disciples who love you more than we love our parents,
more than we love our wife and children and brothers and sisters. Help
us to be disciples who take up the cross every single day and never get
tired of it because we are following Jesus. Help us to be disciples who
are detached from our possessive attitude to earthly things.

Give us grace. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/UOroIofmhk4.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/zac-poonen/entering-the-life-of-victory-video/
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