Power to be Witnesses for Christ

I want to begin with Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 1. I want to teach you to read the Bible carefully. The reason is, this book has changed my life. When I was born again, I had not read the Bible fully.

I was born again when I was 19 and a half. I'm going to be 85 in another month or so. It's a long time, nearly 66 years.

And one of the first things that I was thankful I learned when I was converted and baptized, after my baptism especially, it took me about a year and a half after I was converted to be baptized, because I was born in an Orthodox family where I was sprinkled as a child, and I thought that was baptism. It was not baptism. Baptism means immersion, and so I decided to get immersed, but it took me one and a half years after I was converted to be baptized, because people in the Orthodox denomination I was in told me, why do you want to go and join a believer's assembly? We are already converted.

Here are the people in this Orthodox church who are not converted. If you take baptism, they'll throw you out of this church. If you don't take baptism, you can stay here and convert these people.

That sounded very reasonable to me. And for one and a half years, I accepted that argument, that I must stay on in this dead church so that I can convert, bring other people to Christ. But as I read the Bible, I found baptism was very clear.

You must be immersed after you're born again. I felt the Lord saying to me, if you're not listening to me, why should I listen to you? And I knelt down to pray. I felt like that.

If you're not listening to me, why should I listen to you? Have you disobeyed something that God has made clear to you? God may say the same thing to you. Why should I listen to you when you're not listening to me? It's more important for me to listen to God than for God to listen to me. He's almighty.

So I started reading the Bible. After I baptized, I took it really seriously. I was 21 years old when I got baptized.

From that day, I began to read the Bible every day. My morning routine, I was in the Navy. I had a room to myself because I was an officer.

I had a very comfortable room. I would get up in the morning and kneel down by my bed. Spend a few minutes in prayer.

Then get up and take my Bible and a notebook and sit at my table. Go systematically studying the Bible. Didn't understand most of it.

Whatever I understood, I tried to obey. A couple of years later, I tried to be a witness for Christ. I found I needed power and I didn't have that.

Then I sought for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. People told me that the only people who talk about that are the Pentecostals. I didn't know all these denominations.

I was going to a believer's church, but they never spoke about the baptism of the Holy Spirit there. They said there's only one group that preaches the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I'm talking about 1961.

They told me the Pentecostals. Somebody took me to a Pentecostal pastor. I said, I want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

I heard that you guys preach about that. He said, well, I'll pray for you, but I want you to keep saying hallelujah. Once, twice, no, keep on saying it.

After a while, your tongue will drip. Then you'll suddenly be uttering something and you'll be baptized in the Holy Spirit. He was much older than me, but I said, brother, he was a pastor.

I said, brother, nobody taught the apostles to do that on the day of Pentecost. You're trying to teach me some technique. I don't want that.

I want a real part of the Holy Spirit that transforms those fearful disciples into fearless, powerful witnesses for Christ. He said, if you don't listen to me, you can leave. I said, thank you, goodbye, and I left.

I thank God that I left and I never went to a Pentecostal church again for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I went to the Lord. I said, Lord, you tell me.

These people aren't telling me techniques and it's all psychological tricks. I don't want that. I want the genuine part of the Holy Spirit in my life that will change my life because I find I'm not able to speak fully.

I believe I want to speak God's Word and be a witness. And so I sought the Lord. The Lord gave me a revelation.

It was like this. How was Jesus anointed? I was seeking for anointing to serve primarily. It was not so much for victory over sin at that time that came later.

I was seeking for anointing to serve. I was speaking in the streets. I wanted to be able to preach boldly God's Word.

And I saw when did, how did Jesus, how was Jesus anointed for service? For 30 years he lived a perfect life in his house, never sinning, never sinning. And still he was not qualified. And yet to serve God, he had to be anointed.

He who was born of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit from childhood, still had to be anointed before he went out to serve. So I looked at that passage where it says he went to John's baptism. First of all, I see a humility there.

It's always the number one thing in anything that God wants to do for you. You start with humility. It's the greatest requirement in the Christian life.

And I see Jesus, you know, I see a line of people standing, go one by one, get baptized by John. John preached repentance. The Pharisees wanted to be baptized as a new generation of vipers.

Don't come here. You don't repent of your sins. Don't stand in this line.

Get out. So the people standing in that line were all those who had acknowledged that they were sinners. They were repenting.

And Jesus went and stood in that line. Now I can imagine thoughts coming into his mind and saying, what do people think? I've never sinned in my life. Why should I be standing in this line with all these people who are acknowledging their sin? What do people think? People think there's some secret sin in my life.

He ignored it. His father had told him, go get baptized by John. I see that first step in Jesus' life was a willingness to identify with sinful people, even though there was no sin in him at all.

He did not exalt himself. He humbled himself and identified himself with ordinary people. Sometimes, you know, we have a feeling, can I mingle with these very ordinary people who are not so cultured? And maybe a little unholy or uncultured.

Learn a lesson from Jesus. If you really want God's best, identify with all of God's people, however uncultured or weak or foolish or stupid or ignorant or uncultured they are. He stood in that line.

And when his turn came, he went up and John the Baptist immediately recognized him. He said, hey, I can't baptize you. I need to be baptized by you.

He said, no. He baptized him. There is an example of a man who submitted to a sinful man.

Christ had not yet died on the cross. John was under the old covenant. His sin was not cleansed.

According to Psalm 32, he was only covered. The Old Testament, nobody's sins were cleansed. They were covered.

John the Baptist was a sinner. His sin had been covered because he was sincere. He was an anointed person.

He was millions and millions of miles below Jesus. But yet Jesus submitted to him. There I see the first lesson.

You want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't elevate yourself before others. Take the low place.

Be willing to be a nobody. Lessons I learned because I was seeking for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And when John dipped Jesus in the water, submerged him completely, it was, you know, Romans 6 says baptism is being identified with his death and burial.

And so the Lord said, if you allow other people to kill you and bury you inwardly, as it were, not physically, and you accept that, I will lift you up. Just like John the Baptist lifted Jesus up. If I submit to death to myself and people insult me or do something against me and I react in love, I don't have anything against them.

If I'm willing to die, how does a dead man react? That's to me, that was the meaning of baptism. If I'm willing to submit to death, and I used to picture myself, I'm a dead man here. And people come to me and shout at me, Zach, you're a stupid idiot.

You're a good-for-nothing person. No reaction. Or somebody else comes to me and says, oh, Zach, you're a great prophet.

You're a wonderful creature. No reaction. That is death.

There's no reaction to criticism, no reaction to praise. You're living before God. That is what I symbolize in baptism.

And when Jesus accepted that, death completely, every aspect of self, and God raised him up, the anointing of God came upon him, and the voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. From that day, Jesus went forth in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what God spoke to me.

And said, if you go that way, if you're willing to choose the way of the cross, that's where I first understood the way of the cross when I was 23 years old. And I understood the way of the cross a little bit when I sought for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. There I saw the connection.

I find a lot of people don't preach about the connection between the way of the cross and the baptism in the Holy Spirit today. God opened my eyes when I was 23 years old. That's more than 60 years ago.

And he showed it to me through Jesus' example of how he was anointed. And he submitted to death and burial. Let people bury me, kill me.

God will raise me up. That is a symbol of baptism. And the Lord said to me, if you choose the way of the cross, my power will always rest upon you.

The day you move away from the way of the cross, when you're graduated or something, my power will depart from you. I have not forgotten that for the last 61 years since God first met me through anointing me with the Holy Spirit. Because the anointing of the Holy Spirit is not a once-for-all thing.

You have to live continuously under that anointing. And I believe any one of you can live under that anointing if you want to be a witness to Christ. Acts 1 verse 8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And you will be my witnesses. In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth. Now there's a difference.

Read carefully. You must always read Scripture very carefully. Every word is important.

You notice it doesn't say bear witness for me, but be witnesses to me. You know the difference between bearing witness for Christ and being a witness for Christ? Bearing witness is with my lips. I bear witness that Christ is my Savior.

He's the Son of God. Being a witness is by my life and my words. First by my life.

Then my words. That is what will happen when the power of the Holy Spirit really comes upon me. Initially, I was seeking for the anointing to serve.

And it's absolutely amazing how God supernaturally anointed me. I was not a public preacher. I never spoke openly in school or even in the military academy.

I never did much public speaking at all. It was not my gift. But as I began to witness for Christ, I found I had a desire to witness for Christ, not for any honor, not to be invited anywhere.

I didn't want money because I was earning a very good salary as a naval officer. I didn't want to go preaching to earn money. I never took any money from anyone.

But I wanted to be a bold witness for Christ. And I needed the power of the Holy Spirit for that. And I sought God earnestly.

This is how God showed it to me. And I didn't have any supernatural experience at that time. But I decided to choose the way of the cross.

And I began to understand a little bit of that identity. And it's amazing how God began to give me utterance, speak, revelation on His Word, and utterance to speak that within a year or so of that revelation from God, and I was only less than 24 years old, I was preaching in huge Christian conferences of 5,000 people. And they were so blessed that they would ask me to speak again.

I said, Lord, it's amazing. When you anoint a person with the Holy Spirit, what a difference it makes. There was no stumbling and struggling to speak when the anointing came.

And I learned there that anointing is something you need all the time, like branch stays in the tree all the time and gets the sap. The sap that flows from the tree to the branch is what produces the apples or mangoes or whatever that tree is like, supposed to be. It's the sap that produces.

The branch does nothing. You know that. You look at the branch of a tree bearing fruit, apples or anything, the branch does absolutely nothing except abide in the tree.

It doesn't have to struggle to produce apples or mangoes or anything. The sap uses it. That's a picture of the Holy Spirit.

I want to say to you, that is God's will for every one of His children. You have to surrender all, everything, to the Lord. Every part of your life must be opened up completely.

You have the Holy Spirit when you're born again, but you may not be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you see a house with ten rooms and there's light in one room, if I ask you, is there light in that room? There is. Is it filled with light? No, nine rooms are dark.

And so also the Holy Spirit seeks to when you're born again, the Spirit of God comes in, otherwise you're not born again. Romans 8, 9. A man doesn't have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn't even belong there. But we can receive the Spirit when we are born again.

When you say Christ came into your heart, the Spirit of Christ comes into your heart. Christ is in everything. But He may not just fill your heart.

Like I said, that house has got light, but nine rooms are dark. That's how many believers are. Not because the Holy Spirit doesn't want to fill them, but there is a principle, which Jesus also said, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in. Every room of your life that you open to the Holy Spirit, He'll come in. Remember, He's a gentleman.

That means He'll knock and He will not enter without knocking. He will not force His way into any area of your life. What you yield, He'll open up to you.

He'll come to knock at one door and say, Can I look into your library room? What type of books are you reading? What type of magazines are you reading? What type of magazines or papers do you read? What type of pictures do you look at in your books and magazines? Can you allow me to tell you to get rid of some of them? Eliminate some of them. Don't read that type of stuff. And you say, No, Lord.

I like some of this. Hey, I want to enter into that room. That room of your life will remain dark.

Don't ever ask God again to fill you with the Holy Spirit. He will not. He will lock in the door.

A Christian who is not filled with the Holy Spirit continuously is a Christian who has closed up some doors in his life. He does not want the Holy Spirit to come in. He may knock at another door.

Say, Let me look at your finances. I want to see how you're handling your money. Are you in debt to anybody? You know my word.

God says, Oh, no man, any. Never be in debt. If it's a debt for a house, it's not a debt because you lose.

You don't have the money. The bank will take your house. It's not a debt.

You borrowed money to buy a car. The car is insured. There's no debt there also.

You lose your car. The insurance pays the cost of the car. But if you borrowed money from somebody, even if it's $100 and you don't take pains to return it, you will not be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I'll tell you that right now. Don't waste your time praying for the Holy Spirit to return your debt. Because there's a command in God's word.

He says, Oh, no man, any. I remember a poor brother in India once wrote to me. He said, I'm a poor worker in the field.

But I somehow have built up some big debt. I don't know. I remember the amount now.

It was some 3,000 rupees or 30,000 rupees. It was a huge amount. And I said, can you pay back 10 rupees a month? With 10 rupees a month, you pay about 120 rupees in a year.

When will you clear this 30,000 rupees debt you have? Maybe 200 years or 250 years. You'll die long before that. But God will consider your debt as paid.

Because you sincerely tried to pay back with your limited income, 10 rupees a month. God will consider you as debt cleared. It's a hard attitude God sees.

He's not looking at that amount there. The Holy Spirit comes into your accounts room and says, are you earning all your money righteously? Is there anything in your accounts which is sort of something you're able to hide because it's cheating there. You're cheating somebody or cheating the government perhaps.

Not paying your taxes properly, hiding some of your income so that you don't pay some tax. I believe it's perfectly right to get every possible tax deduction that we are entitled to. I don't want to give to the IRS money that I can give to God.

God comes above IRS. But I must pay. You know that it says in Romans chapter 13, Romans 13, it says, therefore, Romans 13 7, give to all what is due to them tax to whom tax is due.

You know to whom this is written? Written to Christians living in Rome. And the ruler in Rome was a man called Nero, the most wicked anti-Christian ruler that ever was there in Rome. This anti-Christian ruler is collecting taxes and the Holy Spirit tells Christians in Rome, pay your taxes.

How many people have this type of statement? Oh, the government is unrighteous. Why should I pay the taxes to them? I'll give it to God. Read Romans 13 chapter 7 and see what the Holy Spirit says when Rome was being ruled by the most wicked emperor that your country America has never seen.

Worse than any ruler in the world we can think of. Because we can find so many excuses to avoid our taxes. The Bible said, pay tax to whom tax is due.

It is a debt. It says in the next verse, owe no man anything. I've tried to live by that.

God is my witness. I'm 84 now, past the 84 years, I've never been in debt for a single cent to anybody. I remember when my wife and I were married, we were extremely rock bottom poor.

We were so poor because we were working among poor believers in India. And I wouldn't take money from anybody. The believers were so poor, they couldn't possibly support me in any way.

Or give me any gifts. And even if they gave it to me, I wouldn't take it. I would take it from them so that I don't insult them.

But when they're not looking, I'd go and put it in the offering box. I said, I can't take money from these poor people. So we had to struggle.

I couldn't afford to pay house rent in the early days. We were so poor, I could not rent a house. So I had to live with one room that my dad had a spare room in his house.

It wasn't easy to live in somebody else's house. But I said, Lord, that's how I earned such a huge income as a naval officer. If you reduce me to this level, I'm willing to accept it.

I will not violate my conscience. Then after 10 years, the Lord provided in another way where my dad was able to give me some money that he was able to get from his ancestors in inheritance. Passed it on to me.

And that's what helped me to live through the years. God tested me for three, four years with real poverty. Real, real poverty.

He did not, when our first son was born, he did not have enough money to buy daily clothes for that son. My wife had to tear up some of her old clothes, the sticky clothes. Said, Lord, we will not violate a single principle.

We will never make our needs known. Anybody in the world, you're our father. You keep us poor.

We are happy to be poor. Test us. We will pass the test.

Our only desire is to serve you. We will not violate your word, which says, oh, no man. We decided we'd never borrow anything.

You know, God looks at these little things and sees whether you have a desire to pay him. This is where so many believers are careless. They say, when they look at these advertisements, they say, buy now and pay later.

If you do that, you're in debt for a long time. They'll never do that. I'll save up, then buy.

That's what we did. For years and years and years, we could not afford a washing machine. How did we wash our clothes? Just like Jesus washed his clothes.

He never had a washer. It was difficult for my wife, especially, she was doing all the washing. But we said, Lord, whatever difficulty we have is unimportant.

We will not violate the smallest command in your word. And I tell you, I have no regret. We went through a lot of struggle.

It wasn't easy to live with my parents. I mean, especially for my wife. They were my parents.

They were her in-laws. She accepted it. It was what the Lord said.

I was wondering why the Lord took us through that. Years later, our calling was to work among the poorest people in India, the villages. For 40 years, we traveled every year there.

Annie would conduct free medical clinics. She never earned one cent as a doctor in all her life. She was always helping poor people.

When we went to these poor people, we discovered that many of them also were so poor that when they got married, they couldn't afford a house. They had to live with their parents. And we said, brothers, I can be your forerunner there.

I did not know back then why God allowed me to live with my parents in poverty, my poverty. Now I know because you brothers, God is calling me to minister to you poor brothers. I can preach to you what I've practiced now, if you're going through a difficult time living with your in-laws or your parents, we face that.

I can say to you, follow me as I follow Christ. We will not violate God's principles. And if God gives you the opportunity to live on your own, fine.

But if he doesn't, what do you do? You don't beg, you don't borrow, you don't steal. Trust God and say when he opens up a way. After four years, God did open up a way for us to have our own home.

We're meeting in our home. What I mean is, if you really sincerely seek to obey every little thing in scripture, however inconvenient it may be, I tell you, God will give you an amazing ministry. I had no gift when I started serving the Lord.

I was not a public speaker when I was in school or in the military even, but God anointed me and all kinds of miracles happened after that. And I found that God gave me outrights. I believe that there are many, many people, God says, you shall be my witnesses when the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

I want to ask you, why do you want to? I never sought for the gift of tongues. I said, Lord, I don't want tongues. I'm not interested in that.

I want to be a witness for you because Acts 1.8 says when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, this is the word, Jesus' own words, people preach when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall speak in tongues. I don't preach that. I preach what Jesus said.

You can't be more accurate than that. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, Acts 1.8, you will receive power, power to be my witness. Being a witness is different from bearing witness.

Bearing witness is with my lips. Being a witness is by my life and my lips. So I saw, Lord, I want to be a witness and live with my wife the way I bring up my children and the way I speak will be backed up by my life.

I said, Lord, if my children go astray and are not following me, I will obey the command in 1 Timothy 3, which says, 1 Timothy 3, 5, because man does not, I'm sorry, 1 Timothy 3, verse 4 and 5, an elder who proclaims God's word must be one who can keep his children under control with all dignity. Because if a man does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of the Church of God? The Lord said to me, I've given you four sons. If you can't bring them up to follow in my ways, how in the world are you going to preach to follow the Lord? You can't even bring up four people in your house to follow the Lord.

Bring them up first to follow the Lord and then try to preach to 50 people. It is a very logical answer here the Holy Spirit says. If a man does not bring up his own family properly to follow the Lord, what high thoughts he must be having to think, yeah, I can preach to 50 people, I can preach to 500 people.

There are so many pastors today whose children are wayward. I said, let's see you practice your Christianity in your own home first. I told the Lord, if my children go astray, I'll stop preaching.

What am I going to preach to others? I can't bring up four children in my own home to follow in Jesus' footsteps. I'll keep my mouth shut. I will live a good life.

I'll help people financially and do practical things, but I will not preach how to live the Christian life because I'm not in it myself. I took it seriously. That's not what I see in strictly.

So, I decided I'm going to first bring up my family. That's where I understood that the Christian life is a three-story building. The foundation is to know God as a father.

It's not knowing God as God. God is known as a father, a loving father who loves me more than any human being on the earth. You don't have that foundation.

You cannot build the Christian life. You have to know God as your father. He said, when you pray, say, our father who art in heaven.

I don't pray to say, oh, God. I pray, oh, my dad. Dad, I want to talk to you.

That's the foundation. On that, number one, the first story is living with a good conscience all the time. It's like I breathe all the time.

Not a second when I don't breathe. I must live with a good conscience all the time. That is the air of heaven that I breathe.

Good conscience. Very, very important. That means if I hurt somebody, I must apologize.

When? Tomorrow? No. Then I can't stop breathing for one day. Sorry.

Out of breath, I've got to do something, get back to breathing again. I've got to apologize immediately. We may have, in the early days of marriage, we don't know how to live as husband and wife.

We sometimes say a rude word or immediately apologize. Start breathing again. Otherwise, you'll be suffocated.

Your Christian life, many people are living suffocated. They're not breathing properly because they don't apologize immediately. They're too proud to acknowledge.

I'm sorry, darling. I hurt you. Please forgive me.

May God help me to do it better. And you won't become better in one day. It may take time and you keep apologizing till you finish with that habit of hurting others.

You'll go. If you apologize, it'll go quickly. If you don't apologize, you postpone it.

It's like I ask people, if a thorn gets into your foot, when do you take it out? You pray about it. When should I take my thorn out of my foot? You wait till tomorrow because it's more convenient tomorrow. I don't have time right now.

Is there ever a time when a thorn gets into your foot and you say, I'm too busy, I can't take it out of my foot? It irritates you, irritates you, irritates you that you can't do anything else. Or a speck gets into your eye, how long do you take to clean it out? All these things, we love our bodies so much. Ah, that speck out of my eye, I must take it out.

It's hurting me, that thorn in my foot. But when it comes to having disobeyed God by hurting somebody else, that can wait. This is the type of Christianity that so many Christians have.

That's why we have a bunch of third-rate, useless Christians and so-called yet-born-again believers in the world today. I said, Lord, I never want to build a church like that. I'd rather have a church with ten people who are wholehearted, following the Lord, and seeking to honor you than have a big crowd of what's called a megachurch, people who like to listen to Zach Koonin preach.

They're not living with a good conscience. I'm not interested in that. I want a church that glorifies you where you can look at everyone and at least they are seeking to honor you and glorify you.

That's the only type of church. I've never, I never rejoiced when my numbers increased in my church. I remember going back to, you know, I left as an elder.

I resigned from my eldership more than 25 years ago in Bangalore because I was traveling around so much. And I went back to the church, excellent elders, and so many people have come. Many people come to our church because they want to listen to a Brother Zach preach.

That's not a qualification in the power of the Lord. They say, I like this preaching. It's so simple and clear and challenging.

But I say, Brother, if you're not interested in keeping a good conscience all the time, you're not really going to be accepted by God. I remember going back to our church and said, Brothers, I've seen many of you and I want to have a doubt. I saw these 500 people sitting there in our church in Bangalore.

We started with two of us. And I said, I have a, I watched all of them and I said, I have a serious doubt in my mind that all of you are really walking in front of God. I don't think so.

And I said, don't think that because you come to the CFC church where Brother Zach is the leader, that you're going to get any special place in heaven. You may never enter the kingdom of God at all. I urge you to repent.

Hate the sin in your life. Set everything right with God and man. Very, very important.

Deliver the good conscience. That's the first story. All the time.

Let me show you Acts chapter 24. Acts 24. We read the scripture carefully.

You read some amazing things. Acts chapter 24. Paul was speaking to Felix.

Felix was the governor, ruler in that area. And Paul was standing there as a, it brought him there as a criminal for preaching the gospel. And he says, he's giving his testimony to this judge.

And he says in Acts 24, these Jews were accusing him. And he says, I have a hope in God. Just like these men.

Verse 15. That there will certainly be, listen to this carefully. There will certainly be a resurrection.

There will certainly be a resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. There are going to be two resurrections. One of the righteous and one of the wicked.

And listen to this. How have you understood this verse? In view of this, I do my best. In view of what? There will certainly, let me paraphrase it now.

Verse 15. There will certainly be two resurrections. One a resurrection of the righteous and many years later, a resurrection of the wicked.

And I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. Therefore, what do I do? I do my best to keep my conscience blameless. 24 hours a day always means that.

24 seven. Before God and before men. Why do I keep my conscience righteous before God and when you ask Paul, Paul says I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous.

There are so many Christians today who don't keep their conscience clear. Oh yeah, I'll be in the resurrection of the righteous. My brother, sister, you will not be in the resurrection of the righteous.

The Apostle Paul says I do my best to keep my conscience 24 hours a day clear before God and men because I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous and you have the audacity to say I will be in the resurrection of the righteous even if I don't keep my conscience clear. That's the devil who has told you that lie. Believe God's word.

I want to keep my conscience clear because Jesus died to save me from sin and I don't want to do anything that displeases me but it will also ensure that I'm in the resurrection of the righteous. Read it carefully. In view of this I keep my conscience always clear.

Always is the word there. 24 hours a day 7 days a week I keep my conscience without blame. It's the easiest thing to do.

To get victory over sin may take years but to keep a blameless conscience you can start with day one and the time you're born again you can keep your conscience clear by confessing. If it was a sin in the thought or attitude we know we sin in five ways. We sin by our actions.

We sin by our words. These are the most external. We sin then inwardly.

There are three ways we sin. Not thoughts. Nobody knows.

Even your wife doesn't know what all thoughts are going in your mind. Attitudes to people which you can conceal. You can sit in a church and despise certain people sitting over there for whatever reason.

Maybe they are from another race or maybe they are uncultured or stupid or foolish or uneducated or their language is poor. So many reasons why you can despise people. Attitude.

Sins of attitude. The fifth one is sins of motive. When you do a good thing the motive behind it is bad.

For example, preaching is a good thing but if I'm doing it to make money or to get honor it's a sin. Preaching is sinful even though the words sound so good but the motive behind it is to get honor from people or money. Many people are not after money.

Preachers are after money but most other Christians would be sharing something to get some honor. I want to share this to church so that everybody thinks I'm a wonderful guy or a great sister. That's a sin.

It's a sin to preach like that. It's better you keep quiet and don't sin. There are tremendous amount of sin committed in the church from people opening their mouth in a wrong motive.

There is sin in deeds, words, thoughts, attitudes, motives. To be free from sin is to be free in all these areas. So I have to keep a good conscience in all these areas and that's the first story or the first floor of the house.

On top of that the next story I have to do with my family. If you're married first of all your relationship with your wife or your husband must be clear. Always clear.

There's no I mean there may be things you don't agree on. That doesn't matter but you can love one another. You don't have to be perfect but you don't have any bitterness.

The Bible says don't be bitter against your wife. Live in an understanding way with each other. If you're not perfect both are imperfect.

Bear with one another. It's a wonderful experience to get married and to learn to live together. Forgiveness you need to have a forgiving heart from day one because you have two imperfect people coming together to live together.

God brings two imperfect people and unites them. Remember always that you are imperfect. I'm imperfect until I become like Christ 100%.

I'm not like Christ 100%. I'm conscious that I'm imperfect. An imperfect man lives with an imperfect woman a husband and wife even if they are wonderful Christians they're not perfect.

You may accidentally not deliberately accidentally say something which can be not at all said to hurt but be misunderstood. Very often in husband wife relationship to a good husband and wife the devil brings a misunderstanding. He said that with this motive.

He did not. He said it with a good motive the devil told you it was a wrong motive. She did not say that with a wrong attitude.

He said it with a good heart maybe she didn't say it wisely because she loves you. The devil won't let you know that brother. So there's a great need for being alert to the schemes of Satan and Mary.

The second story is very important to live with a very good attitude towards your partner. Very, very, very important. That's building this family life.

Bringing up our children in strict ways especially to teach them obedience to parents and speaking the truth. Those are the only two things I emphasize with my four boys. You must always respect dad and mom.

You always respect older people and always speak the truth. The other things will come later. I'm not worried if you break something in the house accidentally it doesn't matter.

But always respect your parents and always speak the truth. So if I live like that then I can live in a good way with my wife my husband and bring up my children in a Godly way then I have built this floor. On top of that floor I can build the church as a member of the church.

That is not second floor it's a third floor. There are so many people today who don't have a good home life who are trying to build a church. How in the world can they do that? Have you ever seen any crazy builder building the third story before you built and no support for the second story? No.

You have to build the pillars on the second story before you build the third one otherwise the whole thing will collapse. And that is every unconverted builder knows that but there are so many foolish Christians who don't know that. You can't build the church if you haven't built your family.

Church is a three story structure your personal life your family life and then the church. So that's very important. You shall receive power to be my witness.

And I remember I lived with that power to be anointed with the Holy Spirit and I found a great liberty and I was being invited here and there as a speaker in those years for many many years but then I found what happens and what happens after a while. I didn't have much fellowship I didn't have a proper church in those days. I'm talking about the first 16 years of my Christian life.

I had known my forgiveness of sins I knew the word of God I was anointed with the Holy Spirit I understood a little bit of taking up the cross but I had no body fellowship and so I began to backslide. For a number of years it was inward outwardly my testimony was perfect I lived a clean life with my taxes I didn't fool around with women I was very upright in everything but my inner life thought that I just did not have dignity but nobody knew that. To get up and preach powerful sermons everybody would think I'm a great saint I knew I wasn't.

I would go before God and weep and say Lord I'm defeated finally a time came in my life when I said Lord honestly a day came in my life and I said Lord I cannot continue with this hypocrisy anymore I have to I'll give up preaching if you don't give me now I sought for anointing to speak and God had given me the ability I now wanted power to live a holy life a godly life that should have come first but I put the cart before the horse my stupidity anyway I began to seek God for a godly life and months and months I prayed and fasted prayed and fasted sought the Lord nothing happened I said Lord I will I will never give up Christianity you love me I'll live for you but I'll stop preaching I actually said that way back in 1974 I said I will never give up my Christian faith for my love for you I will not preach because I'm a hypocrite I'm not living what I preach so I'll sit in the back of some church be a good faithful church member and never speak God's word until you make only one request I want you to make my inner life correspond with my outer testimony the same that people think I am I want to really be inside church that's all I ask for I said you've given me tremendous power to speak God's word that's not enough I'm not satisfied with that many people they get some gift of preaching that satisfies them even though there's hypocrisy in their family life hypocrisy in their personal life they continue with it because they have such liberty in preaching God's word God showed me a hypocrite I could be I remember at a time when I was really inwardly defeated and I went to speak at a conference in another country it was a big public conference in Australia they had a Christian newspaper that printed that stated we had this young preacher from India who preached one of the finest sermons we ever heard here and here I was a hypocrite preaching this wonderful sermon the Lord showed me see what these people are saying about you they are appreciating your preaching they don't know your inner life you're a hypocrite I said yes Lord I acknowledge they only hear my preaching they don't know my life that I've repeated in my thoughts I can fool everybody with my language and I said I'm fed up I will not give up Christianity but I'll stop preaching I want to be genuine I want to be real and God knew I really was serious about it that's when he met me six months of struggle and pain and fasting God knew I really meant it that if God did not make my I only asked for one thing make my inner life respond with what I speak every word I speak must be true in my inner life just give me that Lord and I will never ask for anything else you can even take away my gift of preaching I don't want it I want my inner life to respond with my outer life and the day came and I came to the end of myself I wasn't seeking for the dungeon or anything I just wanted the power to live a holy life based on Acts 1 verse 1 Acts 1 verse 1 you know Luke wrote two books of the Bible Luke was not a Jew all the books of the Bible were written by the Jews except two books were written by a non-Jew a Greek you know that? there were two books in the Bible written by a non not a child of Abraham a Greek he was Luke and Luke is written by one of the finest records of the gospel of the life of Jesus the gospel of Luke was more exhaustive than the other of the actual life of Jesus it was written by a Greek man the other book he wrote is the Acts of the Apostles and when Luke refers he wrote that to a man called Theophilus both those accounts and when he refers to his first book the gospel of Luke he writes like this the first account Acts 1 1 the first account I composed Theophilus was about all that Jesus began to do and teach you ask Luke hey Luke could you give a title to your gospel that you wrote yes title is all that Jesus began to do and teach not teach and then do no no no he first began to do and then teach that's what I was asking for what I must do first and then teach the trouble is I'm teaching a lot of things I'm not doing but Jesus himself 30 years he did something then he taught it here I am not doing those things and teaching I'm not following Jesus' footsteps I'm calling myself a Christian but I'm a first class hypocrite so so if I were to ask Luke hey Luke what is the title you would give to Acts of the Apostles Luke gospel I understand all that Jesus began to do and teach what's your title for Acts of the Apostles he would say the title is all that Jesus continued to do and teach through his spiritual body the church that was in his physical body that he did and taught now in his spiritual body which includes me and others he did and taught through Zach Thunen and through other persons all that's how I'm supposed to live first do and then teach thank God I learned that I said Lord I don't have the power I have the power to preach you anointed me I can preach powerfully I've discovered something through the years that you can be a first class hypocrite and a first class preacher don't you read nowadays in the news in the news and Christian news born-again spirit-filled pastor falls into sexual sin and has to give up his pastor not one case case not born-again pastor spirit-filled pastor tongue-speaking pastor of a mega church with 10,000 people he's preaching to is exposed as having lived in sexual sin with someone sometimes with a young girl and he's caught when he's caught this MeToo movement the MeToo movement that has come up in the U.S. has exposed many people including pastors they are resigning one by one thank God we don't know how many there are still sitting as pastors who have not yet been exposed this is the condition of christened men if you are building a new covenant church there must be zero of that in any of our churches zero not even 1% we continue to do Jesus continues to do and teach through his children I say those are the only people I want in any of my churches those who are not who are perfect no no no no nobody's perfect I'm not perfect but those who are eager to do and share what they have experienced not talk about a whole lot of things they've never experienced those are hypocrites you know Jesus condemned the hypocrites more than anybody else there were two groups of two or three groups of religious people in Jesus' time the Pharisees the Sadducees and the Herodians the Pharisees were the people who knew the scriptures very well they were very exact in obeying the Sabbath and all the laws the Sadducees were people who didn't believe in supernatural things they're like today's liberal Christians they don't believe in the supernatural they didn't believe in angels and resurrection and all that and there were the Herodians who were thoroughly worldly we have these three groups today also the worldly Christians and those liberal Christians who don't believe in the supernatural and then there are these Bible believing Christians who believe every letter of the scriptures now of these three groups you know who were the ones who really were eager to crucify Christ? I think it was the Herodians no I think it was the Sadducees no it was the Bible believing Pharisees who were eager to kill Christ apply that to today where is Christ being crucified today? among Bible believing Christians who go according to the letter of scripture but it's not in their life they are teaching before they are doing I pray that anyone who is a part of this church will not follow that upside down ground rule it's like walking on your hands you are not supposed to walk on your hands use your hands when you are going to walk on your legs you do and then teach I will use another illustration doing and teaching are like our two legs most Christians are limping they have one one leg is about six inches long the other is three feet can you imagine how they walk? this is exactly how spiritually speaking the angels from heaven see Christians walking with a six inch leg and a three foot leg what they do is six inches their preaching is three feet we must get rid of that equalize our legs make both of them six inches in other words don't preach more than you have done as you grow more as one leg grows you can teach more the leg grows look at our children how they grow their legs are so small when they are born but they walk stable as they grow both legs grow together it's a parable to us your legs must grow together what you do and what you teach must be equal don't let your teaching leg preaching leg becoming longer than what you do be patient don't have this lust to preach like some other wonderful preacher in your birth otherwise you'll end up like a hypocrite like I was for so many years thank God I got rid of that 50 years ago God met with me again I remember I was praying praying praying for the baptism in the holy spirit to be fulfilled again not to be anointed to speak I already had that but to live this life to do in each type of life and I remember finally the day came and somebody gave me faith to say when you pray leave what you have received what you said to in your life I said Lord I was waiting for a sign waiting for some sign waiting waiting waiting and nothing happened the day came in my life in January 1975 I remember it so clearly I said Lord I prayed and fasted and said I'm not interested in anything surrender everything I want day I believe that you have filled me with the holy spirit without any external evidence I was praying with somebody suddenly as I was thanking the Lord I found myself uttering syllables in some language that I never learned. I don't know what it was. So what am I saying? And I switched back to English again.

And then I continued to pray in English. And again, I found myself between some syllables and some unknown language. And I switched back.

And after I finished, I asked that other brother who was with me, I said, what happened? Did he hear me say something? He said, yeah, you were speaking in some unknown language. Oh. Well, that was the first time I spoke in tongues.

I never sought it. But it was something God gave me. After I believed, not before I believed.

It was not because of the tongues that I believed. God gave me that gift after I believed. So I know it's a genuine gift.

And I know that I have found it very useful. And I'm praying to God I never use it in public. I follow what Paul said.

The church, I would rather speak five words in a known language than 10,000 words in an unknown language. I say that because there's a lot of confusion in people's minds concerning that. I want to show you that verse in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 19.

18 and 19. 1 Corinthians 14, 18, Paul says, I thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you. That teaches me that it is a genuine gift, that it's useful.

He doesn't give it to everybody. However, verse 19, 1 Corinthians 14, 19, in the church, I would rather speak five words with my mind that others will be instructed, rather than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. So let me ask you, in the church, is it better to speak in English or in tongues? English is better.

How much better? 10,000 divided by five. English is 2,000 times better than speaking in tongues in the church. Thank God that I discovered it.

But speaking in English is 2,000 times better than speaking in tongues in the church. And yet, there may be some people sitting here wishing, I wish I could pray in tongues. Rather, praying in English is 2,000 times better than that.

Here's God's word. You're seeking to speak in tongues to show off. To show off to others, get rid of it.

It will lead you into sin. I never saw that. I'm glad God gave me a gift when I didn't see it.

And it also goes on to say in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, very simple question. Verse 29, are all apostles? No. 1 Corinthians 12, 29, are all prophets? No.

Are all teachers of the word? No. Can all do miracles? No. Do all have gifts of healing? No.

Do all speak with tongues? No. Do all interpret tongues? No. These are the things that they do not teach you in Pentecostal charismatic faith.

We don't teach 1 Corinthians 12, 29, and 30. We don't teach 1 Corinthians 14, 18, and 19. We preach the whole counsel of God.

We're not against any gift. But we say the main thing is to do and teach. The main thing is the power to be, not to bear a witness for Christ, but be a witness for Christ.

Seek to be a witness for Christ by your life. This is my longing. People who watch me live, they should never forget the death.

They met a man once who sought to live the Christian life, but always patient and forgiving and ignoring, never accepting, never returning insult for insult, or never taking revenge against anybody. They should meet someone that's not rich. People who meet you should feel like that, that at least once in my life, I met a true Christian.

He was not a great preacher, but he could live the life. They can say that about you. That's a far better testimony than getting a reputation as a great preacher.

So brothers, I'm just trying to emphasize the things that are most important in the Christian life. And I believe that is what God wants to accomplish in every one of us and in all of our churches, so that together we can build the body of Christ. The greatest thing you can do is to build the body of Christ, because Jesus said in Matthew 16 and verse 18, I will build my church.

In the powers of darkness, the gates of hell will not be able to overpower it. It's the church that stands against the devil. It's when two or three are gathered together, Satan cannot have power over them.

Two or three who are united. I will build my church, Matthew 16, 18, and the gates of hell will not overpower it. Now turn to Matthew 18 and see the authority two or three have, Matthew 18, verse 20.

If two or three, okay, let's take the minimum. If two people, Matthew 18, 20, are gathered together, not gather together, but are gathered. Gathered means the Holy Spirit has brought two people together.

Could be a husband and wife. Could be two brothers who are called to lead a church or three brothers. But they are gathered together in Jesus' name, not to promote their own names.

A lot of people come together as elders. They want to promote their own name. They get up on to speak and they want to show that I can preach better than that other guy.

Brother, this promise is not for you. This is for those who are coming to glorify the name of Jesus, who are gathered together for the name of Jesus. You're getting into the pulpit to show people what a great preacher you are.

This is not for you. Forget about it. Go to some other church.

But those who are gathered for the name of Jesus, those are the only people we want. I only want people in our church who want to glorify the name of Jesus. Brother, you wanted to get the name for yourself? Find some other church.

Please don't waste our time here. You want somebody to think you're a great sister? Go and find some other church. You want to stand up and sing to show you can sing well or play some instrument well? Please find some other church.

Don't waste our time here by trying to get a name for yourself. There's so much of it, so much of it in charismatic Christianity. People will stand up there and wave their hand and lift and shout and so on.

I'm all for good singing, but I'm not for people who are trying to get a name that they're great song leaders or great preachers. I mean, such people must go to some other church. But those who are gathered in the name of Jesus, gathered by the Holy Spirit to exalt the name of Jesus, we want more and more such people, even if they're not great preachers or great singers.

They're gathered in the name of Jesus. The Lord says, I am in the midst. I want a church where people will go away from a meeting and say, I met the Lord today.

He spoke to my heart. He spoke so strongly to my heart like I've never heard him before. That's the type of meeting I want to always be in.

Not once in a while, not once in a blue moon. Oh, that was a great meeting today. We never had a meeting like that in the last six months.

That's not the type of thing. We want a church where every single meeting, people go away and say, I met with the Lord. Sure, is there a single meeting of the church where Jesus doesn't want to be in our midst? And that depends on you and me, brother, sister.

We have to repent. I tell you, I repent daily. God is my witness.

I repent every day because of one reason. What does repent mean? I was in the military and we had a command called, about turn, that is repentance. I lived my life facing the world and sin and God was behind me and a day came in my life when I turned about.

Initially, I'm sorry to say, I turned only 90 degrees. Instead of about turn, it was a left turn or a right turn. I turned 90 degrees with one eye on the world and one eye on God.

When I thanked God, a day came in my life, I did it about turn. My back completely to all my old ambitions and God and everything what people thought about me. And I say, it was only what God thought about me and that matters from now on.

Facing Christ and God and that's what I'm gonna live for. Money and honor and position and the opinions of men are all behind me. Can you say that's true of you today? Then you're moving in the right direction.

And from there, in that direction, we can be one with one another. Gathered together in my name, two or three. Now, you don't need 2,000, 3,000.

The Lord is in the midst. I remember when I first got married, before we got married, I told my wife, she was not my wife then. I told her, Annie, I always want to be, you will always be second in my life.

You will never be first. I wanna tell you that in the beginning. And I always want to be second in your life.

Christ must be between us always, always first. And today, after 56 years of marriage, I tell her the same thing. You will always be second in my life.

I wanna be second in your life. And then we have a very happy marriage. You are gathered in my name.

I am in the midst. If Christ is in the midst, you have the happiest marriage you can ever have. That Christ speaks to both parts, both people.

Immediately you admit, I was wrong. I'm sorry, darling. That was my mistake.

Both ways. Our home will be like heaven. We are having a poor taste of it in our own marriage.

That's the way it should be. We're not interested in our own name or position or honor. It's just that Christ must be glorified in our home.

And then we expand that circle. Christ must be glorified in our children. Christ must be glorified in our church.

And then we have claimed this promise also as husband and wife, verse 19, and can expand to the church, Matthew 18, 19. If two of you agree, agree means you are united about one particular issue. And boy, when you get married and you have children, a lot of issues that come up with children.

They have problems in school. They have sicknesses. All kinds of problems come up when you have small children growing up.

They have ungodly friends that they meet somewhere. It's influencing some of them, especially nowadays. And what a responsibility two people, husband and wife, have to pray for their children.

But they have to be agreed. That's where the devil knows I can get these children because I can make sure that their parents are not agreed with each other. Their parents are constantly quarreling and fighting with each other.

I can do anything I like with their children. That's how today's children are going astray. So the parents are not agreed.

You think the problem is with the children, brother, sister? No, the problem is with you and your wife or you and your husband. You're not agreed. You're not united in one direction, the glory of God.

You're blaming your children. If you agree concerning, let me paraphrase it, you can ask anything for your children. Are your children not born again? Ask.

First of all, you get agreed with your husband and wife. It will be done for them by my father. You go against that word.

It will, not it might be done. Thank God he didn't say it might be done. It shall be done by my father in heaven.

Is there anything impossible for God? You think the problem was with your children. It was never with your children. It was with you and your husband, you and your wife.

Two of you agree concerning anything. I remember my wife and I decided we have to go to school. And in the school, some of them had a great prejudice against, Zachary is preaching so many things against what other Christian churches.

Yeah, I was pretty sure there's a lot of Christian churches that do the wrong things. They don't obey God's word. And that was a Christian school where some of those teachers belong to that other church.

And they didn't like our church. So they would trouble my children in school because they say, oh, this is Zach's children. He's the heretic.

And we had to forgive them. And we had to teach our children, love them. Don't get into conflict.

Let me, when we live for Christ, we suffer. Our children suffer. It's okay.

They never lost out. But we said, Lord, please help them. Please don't let them get bitter against anyone and forgive, forgive, and let them pray anything for my children.

And what did we pray for our children? We never prayed that they should be rich and famous. We prayed that they would be wholehearted disciples of Jesus. Are you parents praying that for your children? Do you agree concerning anything? Anything means anything.

Spiritual. Ask. It will be done by my father.

And I can tell you numerous things in my life that Annie, my wife, and I have agreed together, not just for one matter, but in our life, agreed. We asked. We could tell you miracles that God has done for us.

Financial provision, because we didn't have meat. We didn't have what we needed. Or spiritual provision, especially for our children.

To find employment for them so they can stand on their own legs and not be dependent on us. All types of needs that come up in our family. Spiritual needs, first of all.

Pray. It will be done. Further.

See, because of the word for, in verse 20 means you've got to go backward to 19. Again, in verse 19 means you've got to go backward to 18. So ultimately you end up in verse 18.

This is where we finally end up. Going backwards from 20 to verse 18. One third, Matthew 18.

Again, two of you. When you bind anything on earth, you'll be bound in heaven. See, there are three heavens.

Perhaps you don't know that, you're reading. I don't have time to show you that. 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says, I was caught up to the third heaven.

There are three heavens. First heavens are this universe, sun, moon, stars, and this whole fantastic universe of billions and billions of miles of space. Then the third heaven is the immediate presence of God where Paul was caught up.

Just by the way, let me tell you something. It turned to that verse, if you don't know it. 2 Corinthians in chapter 12.

2 Corinthians 12 and verse 14. He's talking about himself. Paul says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know.

He says, I don't know what actually happened. I was caught up to the third heaven, but I don't know, I don't figure out, was I there in my body or was it only my spirit? He said, I can't explain it, I don't know. That means he's very honest.

And he says, and how I was caught up, body or apart from body, I don't know. Twice he says that, verse three again. Yeah, I was caught up into paradise.

That is the third heaven is paradise. You know, that's why Jesus told the thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise. Paradise is the third heaven.

And I heard, listen to this, this is very, very important. I heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. When I got up to the third heaven, Paul says, I don't know whether I was there in my body or in my spirit.

And I heard some amazing things. The Lord said, you are not to speak about this to me. You go to Google today and search for people who've gone to heaven and come back.

You'll see so many of them. Just to remind you, I went to heaven and they'll tell you exactly what they saw. There are books written about it.

People have gone to heaven and they tell you, this is what I heard and this is what I saw. Every one of them is fake. Why do I say that? Because Paul said a person who's got up to third heaven is not permitted, see that verse four, is not permitted to say anything of what he heard there.

That is the real heaven. The others are writing stories. The gullible Christians, they become bestsellers.

People who write it make a lot of money. But all these fake stories, I'm not saying they're telling lies, no. Have you ever had a dream which is so realistic that you actually thought you were in that place and when you woke up and say, hey, I'm in my bed.

I thought I was in another place. Some dreams and some people have got a wild imagination and have such dreams that they actually think they are in that place. And they wake up and they discover they're sitting in their bed.

So I'm not telling you, saying that these fellows are telling lies. They've got a wild imagination and that imagination makes them think all types of things and it gets added and multiplied and then they write a book on it because they can make money with it. Don't you believe one of those stories? Believe the Bible which says a man who really goes up to heaven is not permitted to tell anyone about anything that he heard, not one word.

It is not permitted. That verse one, 2 Corinthians 12, four tells me that all these books about people who went to heaven are 100% fake. And all the multitudes of testimonies you can search in Google of people who went to heaven, fake, fake, fake, gullible Christians who don't know the Bible, people who don't read the Bible carefully believe it.

I don't believe one of them. I believe the Apostle Paul. I believe the scriptures are the inspired word of God.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear it. Those who want to be deceived, let them be deceived. So what I say is, this is the way we are protected.

There is a third heaven that God dwells in this universe and what is in the second heaven? Yeah, I'll tell you what the second heaven is. Ecclesiastes chapter six, verse 12. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

That is not against human beings, but against rulers, powers, world forces of darkness, spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. Which heavenly? Second heaven. They can't be in the third heaven.

They were thrown out of the third heaven. Lucifer was thrown out of the third heaven and all his angels were thrown out. They became demons, but they are in the heavenlies.

Not in this first universe, but in that second heaven between the third and heaven. That's why when you pray, try to get to the third heaven, there's resistance in the second heaven. That's why you've got to have a clear conscience when you try to reach the third heaven.

That's why you can only go through the name of Jesus through that if your conscience is clear. Otherwise there's opposition in the second heaven. Yeah, that's why you fight opposition when you pray.

Have you ever tried to kneel down to pray and you suddenly remember all the things you're supposed to do, which you had forgotten? That's how the devil takes your mind away from prayer. All the things that you're supposed to do tomorrow. I always say this.

You want to try and remember what you have to do tomorrow, just try and kneel down to pray. So always the devil will remind you of all the things to distract you from prayer. I found it, that's all I know.

I say, Lord, I'm going to break through this. I want to get through this second heaven to get to talk to Jesus personally and talk to the father. We have to struggle against flesh and blood, against all these spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly place.

That's what Jesus says in Matthew 18, coming back to there, Matthew 18. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in the second heaven. And whatever you lose on earth will be lost.

That means here you have a demon possessed person. He's bound by these demons from the second heaven. I can lose him in Jesus name.

There are many demons I've encountered in my life. Clearly in the villages of India, they worship idols and demons come into them. And I've never till today seen one single case where a demon did not leave as soon as you commanded it to leave in the name of Jesus.

I never have to repeat it. In the name of Jesus, get out of him, get out of her. They leave immediately, every single case.

You don't have to shout. You don't have to yell. We have authority and we must have that.

You don't try to do it if you don't have faith in it. Don't try to do it if you don't have a good conscience. Don't ever try to cast out a demon if your conscience is not clear.

But if your conscience is clear, you have authority. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in the heavenlies. Whatever you, somebody who's bound by that will lose on earth, he'll be used.

I remember once some people from the Brethren Assembly in Bangalore, they don't believe in casting out demons. Brethren Assembly, they don't believe in baptism, all this good and all, they're good believers. So, but somebody in that group was demon possessed.

So they called me, said, Brother Zach, can you come and pray for this sister? I said, sure. And I went there and I found they had already got some Pentecostal person and they were yelling and screaming and yelling and shouting all kinds of things. I told them, brother, I don't know who's got the demon here.

Please ask these people to first leave. Then I can deal with the sister. And when that sister was alone, I said to her, ask Jesus to come into your heart right now.

She replies, tell her, don't tell me to accept that. There's another person inside her telling me, it was a demon saying, don't tell me to accept, I tell her. And I knew she was really demon possessed.

I said, in the name of Jesus, get out of her right now. Gone. And I said, sister, ask Jesus to come into your heart.

And she said, yes, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. She was free. It didn't take one minute, it was immediate.

There is authority and power in the name of Jesus, always. I remember another case in the villages in India. As soon as I began to cross out the demon, that girl was a Hindu.

She had some band tied on her, sort of a black string. Took it out and threw it away. Something that they had put in the temple as a identifying mark of their worship of demons.

Immediately they were aware that I have to throw this away. So encounter with demons is real. I remember another sister was brought to our house once.

Some sister in the church brought her this lady and said, she wants to be a Christian. So my wife and I were sitting there and talking to her in our sitting room. I said, will you ask Jesus to come into your heart? I said, I always tell people when they ask Jesus to come into your heart, to tell the devil you were defeated on the cross.

Because Christ not only took our sins on the cross, he defeated Satan on the cross. To a new believer, I always tell them, the sins are taken away. Now tell the devil you were defeated on the cross.

I told her, say that. She turned around and said to me, I was not defeated on the cross. So this was a demon now inside.

You see, I was not defeated on the cross. So then when a demon speaks to me, I speak to the demon. So I spoke to that demon, you get out of her right now in Jesus' name.

Next moment, I said, now sister, tell the devil you were defeated on the cross. And she said it, Satan, you were defeated on the cross. It didn't take even one second.

Demon goes immediately in the name of Jesus if your conscience is absolutely clear. And if you're not seeking any honor or glory for yourself, you can have that authority. I'm not special.

All the children of God are saying, if you come in the name of Jesus, your conscience is clear. You can have authority over every demon in the universe. They will all listen to you because they were all defeated on the cross.

That's the one aspect of Christ's death on the cross which many believers don't know. They know that he took their sins on the cross. They don't know that Satan was defeated on the cross.

Brothers, it's a wonderful savior we have. He wants us to live in triumph every day of our life. He doesn't want us to be defeated, gloomy, grumpy, any day of our life.

For that, you must know that all the wretched things that Satan put upon the human race are completely taken away by Christ on the cross, but you have to believe it. Accept all that that Jesus did for you into your life. Your life will be changed.

Your family life will be changed. Your home will become different. Your home will become a heavenly home.

That's God's will for us, and that's how we want to build our churches. Let us pray. A lot of things you heard today, and I pray that you will ask the Holy Spirit to remind you at the right time of what you need to remember, but above all, keep your conscience absolutely clear.

Let's begin with that. Let's begin with the first floor. Keep our conscience clear.

Then go to the second floor and build your home in a good relationship of quick to ask forgiveness, quick to forgive, and to not remember past failures. Please seek to live like that as husband and wife so that you don't give an opportunity to the devil to come inside your home to ruin your children. It all depends on father and mother.

Heavenly father, please help us all. Help us to build the church of Jesus Christ here and in every person represented here. Let your name be glorified through us.

In the few days that are left before you come back, help us to finish the work you've given us to do. We pray in Jesus' name.