Seek Earnestly to be Filled with the Holy Spirit Continually

So I'd like to continue on what Bobby began about being filled with the Holy Spirit. I, through many years, I've come to this conclusion. You know, the Bible speaks about entering into rest. Hebrews 4.1, it says, let us fear, lest there's a promise of entering into his rest, and some of you come short of it. Hebrews 4.1. Is there a rest that God has promised us that I have not come into, that I should fear lest I miss it? Something like, and it's compared there to the entering the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan, the way Joshua went in, that is the spiritual life. It's not a life where all the giants are killed in one day, not at all. But one by one, the giants are killed. There may be occasional failure like in the, where they compromised and they were defeated and I, but basically it was a life of continuous victory. That's the context in Hebrews 4.1. It says entering into rest. And it says later on, there's a remains a rest for the people of God and compares it to the Sabbath in Hebrews 4, where Adam entered into the Sabbath as soon as he was made. The sixth day, the seventh day was the Sabbath. So I've come to the conclusion that because it's, we also see in scripture, it says we must press on to perfection. So we must be at rest and we must press on to perfection. And so I've come to the conclusion after many years of studying and experience that the true Christian life is one of a continuous dissatisfied satisfaction. And that looks like a contradiction. It's not. Complete satisfaction in the fact that my father has accepted me. I'm not an orphan anymore. He has accepted me. All my past sins are blotted out. I don't live in condemnation over any one of them, not even one, not even the grossest sin that any of you have committed in the past. The blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin. But not just that, but justified. Justified means as if you just, the word justified is from the word just or righteous, made righteous, not just forgiven. I used to think it was just as if we had never sinned. That itself is a great thing. If God looks at you just as if you had never sinned in your whole life. But it's more than that. It's just as if you had been righteous all your life. Justified. A rest there. But yet along with that rest of complete assurance, my sins are forgiven. And also the assurance of Hebrews 8, 12 that he will not remember your past anymore. I want to say that to all of you, my brothers and sisters, many Christians struggle with this. The devil will remind you particularly of some terrible sin that you did long ago before you were converted even, or before you really came to understand a life of victory. He keeps on reminding you to harass you, harass you. And I know the devil harassed me, so many things. And I had to keep on confessing, confessing, confessing until I realized I'm insulting God by that. Don't I believe what he says? He confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We have to come to rest there and say, my past has been forgiven. God does not remember my past anymore, but because of the way I have dishonored God, it brings in me a tremendous sorrow. I'm aware of how much I failed. I mean, Paul said towards the end of his life, I'm, I'm the chief of sinners. He wasn't thinking, he wasn't committing any gross sin at that time, but he was aware of the seriousness of sin. But yet in his life, there was a rest because at the same time he could say, I'm aware of nothing against myself. That's what he said in 1 Corinthians 4. 1 Timothy 1, he says, I'm the chief of sinners. 1 Corinthians 4, he says, I'm not aware of anything in my, my conscience is 100% clear. Here is dissatisfied satisfaction. I, my conscience is a hundred percent clear, but I'm the chief of sinners. Do you have that sense? Can you say that? My conscience is a hundred percent clear. There's nobody on earth whom I have not forgiven. There's nobody on earth who I had to ask forgiveness from. There is no debt I owe to anybody. My conscience is clear. Every sin has been confessed. Every debt has been repaid. I can, I'm ready to meet God face to face and let his holy light shine upon me yet. I'm not satisfied because I've not become like Jesus. I see areas in my life. I need to constantly become more and more dissatisfied satisfaction. And that is why we need to be filled with the Holy spirit all the time. And not just in our life. I believe that God wants every one of us to have a ministry, not a ministry like somebody else. When we think of ministry, everybody thinks of preaching. And then you think of the best preacher you've ever heard and say, boy, I like to be like that. But God may not want you to be a preacher. He may not have called you to be a tongue. He may have called you to be some internal organ in the body of Christ, like the liver. Don't you think the liver is very important? I mean, if I were given a choice of losing my heart or my tongue, I say definitely tongue. I can live without speaking, but I can't live without my heart. There are internal organs, which I've never seen are visible. And so also in the body of Christ. But what it says in one Corinthians chapter 12 is that God has given, this is the verse I want you to remember concerning the Holy spirit. There are many gifts, one Corinthians 12, four. And there are many ministries, one Corinthians 12, five. And there are many effects of the different ministries. There are many gifts from the spirit. The various ways in which these gifts are expressed in ministry, verse five. And the effect of this ministry is also different in different cases. Verse six. So verse four, five, and six is a description of Christian ministry. But to every single member in the body of Christ, verse seven, is given some manifestation of the spirit to bless everybody else. That's the verse I want to emphasize to all of you. You say, I'm so shy. Well, if you're shy, you need to be filled with the Holy spirit. You say, I don't have any gift. Well, then you need to seek for the part of the Holy spirit, because it says here to every single person, if you're not included in that, you're not a member of the body of Christ. If you're a member of the body of Christ, to every single person, there's some manifestation of the spirit, which is given not just for you to enjoy yourself, but for the common good of the entire body of the, at least the local body of Christ you belong to. So there is no place for being shy. And I'm not talking about speaking or teaching. I'm not even speaking about sharing in the Sunday or weekday meetings. Some of you sisters may never speak in your entire life in a weekday or a Sunday meeting because you're not gifted in speaking or you're shy. Nevermind. But do you ever speak to people during the week? Do you speak on the phone to somebody? Do you write emails to somebody? Do you write letters to someone? It doesn't matter who it is. There, the Holy spirit can use you to manifest some gift of the spirit. 1 Corinthians 14 says, we must all covet to prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14 verse one, gift and fruit of the spirit are combined here in this one verse. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, and so on. And here in 1 Corinthians 14 one, it says we must pursue. This is the dissatisfied satisfaction of love. Lord, I thank you. I don't hate anybody in my heart. I can stand before God and say, I don't hate a single person to the best of my ability and knowledge. I love everybody. I don't, I even love my enemies, but even though I'm satisfied there, I'm dissatisfied that I don't love enough like Jesus. So I had to still pursue after love, even though to the best of my knowledge, my heart is filled with love. Use an illustration. You know, our capacity has to increase. We start off like a cup. Jesus spoke three times about water in the gospels. You can look it up sometime. John three, John four, John seven. I don't have time to turn to it right now. In John three, he spoke about born of water. He told Nicodemus, you must be born of water. That's being born again. That's like a cup and you can only feel so much in a cup. You're born again. The cup is a picture of, you know, in the Psalms, it says, I lift up the cup of salvation unto the Lord. He forgives me, gives me the Holy Spirit. The cup is full. But if we walk with the Lord from that day, we are born again and take up the cross every day. That's the secret. This cup will gradually become a well. There's a lot of difference between a cup being full and a well being full. You know, there are wells that have never run dry for years and years and years, always full. That's John chapter four, where Jesus said the water that I give him will spring up within him like a well or a spring that keeps on springing up forever. So it started with a cup of water in John three to Nicodemus. It proceeded in John chapter four. It's all referring to the Holy Spirit. Remember what is a picture of the Holy Spirit to a well of water in John four. And then it went on in John seven, the only place in the Bible where it says Jesus shouted out. If you take some time and you read Matthew chapter 12, there's a verse that says Jesus would never raise his voice when he preached. That's why he never lost his voice because he's always speak softly. All these preachers who shout and yell and scream, they lose their voice pretty. Jesus didn't. It says in Matthew 12, he never shouted, but then in once he did the only time that it says he raised his voice and cried out, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. So it started out with a cup, became a well in John four and John seven rivers. So this is dissatisfied satisfaction. I got a cup. I'm satisfied. I'm born again. Every sin is forgiven, but I'm dissatisfied. I want more. I want a life that meets every need of mine. And a well is something that's constantly, you know, if the supply of water from the city, we call it the corporation in India, the city service that supplies water to our house. If they cut that off, it doesn't disturb me. If I bought a well in the house, in other words, my life in God is not dependent on any supply from outside, not even the opportunity to come to a Sunday meeting. I mean, if your spiritual life is dependent on going to two meetings a week, well, you need to work out your own salvation. Your life must be independent. I mean, thank God for the weekly meetings, but I must have a well that's not dependent on other people supplying it. A well in my own house that springs up. If somebody cuts off the supply from outside, it doesn't make a difference. I've got a well in my house and that springs up all the time. Satisfies me completely. That's the place we must come to. You may start with a cup that other people built, but you must come to the place where you say, Lord, I want this well in me, where I never thirst again for anything. And from there go on to rivers. The difference between a well and a river is well is only for your own house needs. But when a river flows through you, it meets the needs of hundreds of people. And do you know that God can use you like that to bless other people? The blessing of Abraham, you're told in Galatians 3.14, is for us through the Holy Spirit. And that blessing is, I will bless you and you will be a blessing to all the families that you meet. God's will is, this is the meaning of the power of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 3.14, the blessing of Abraham is ours through the Holy Spirit. I will bless you. That means your own life will be satisfied, a cup and a well, and then you will be a blessing, I would say, to every family that you meet. You know, like it says in Psalms, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, wherever I go. And the picture I have in my mind is, I go visiting a home and I leave goodness and mercy behind there. I go visit another home and I leave goodness and mercy because they are following me. I meet with a brother or a sister and I leave goodness and mercy behind with him or her as I've left. What a life it is. Do you covet this? That goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life? That wherever you go, you leave that behind, you know, like these highly perfumed women, they sit down on a couch or something and the perfume is left behind there when they go. It's something like that. The aroma of Christ, that we leave that goodness and mercy behind. This is God's will. And any one of us can be like that. You may not, God may not take you around the world to preach the gospel, but if you meet with people, if you speak to them on a phone, you can leave goodness and mercy behind. It's a wonderful life. This is God's will. And it says here in 1 Corinthians 14, we pursue after love, but we must earnestly desire for the gift of prophecy, especially earnestly desire spiritual gifts, pursue after love. I'm not going to get it if I don't pursue after it. You know, sometimes in India, we often travel by the bus from one place to another. Not many people have vehicles and I own many years. I used to travel by bus too. And sometimes you come to a bus station and you find the bus is just about to leave. And many buses in India, they don't have doors. You can still run after it and it's open. You just catch it and jump onto it. I think of it like that, that something is leaving and I must pursue it. I must run after it and get onto it before I leave, pursue after love. I don't want to lose it. I don't want to miss the bus. And I must earnestly desire spiritual gifts. So when we talk about the fullness of the spirit, these are the two words you see 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1, pursue, pursue something you're going to miss. If you sit back, you'll miss it and earnestly desire. And the gift of prophecy verse 3 is to build up people, encourage them and challenge them. Edification, exaltation, consolation means to speak to people in a way that will encourage them, challenge them, build them up. Any one of you can do that. You can do it with a human ability. Maybe it'll accomplish a little bit, or you can ask God to give you that gift. Every one of you, if you're born again, I want to encourage you. I tell you as a young person, when I was 21 years old, I got baptized and I read that verse and I said, Lord, I want to prophesy. Not like these old Testament prophets who predict the future. I never was interested in that. And I have never done it also. I'm not an old Testament prophet. But 1 Corinthians 14, 1, earnestly desire that you may, let me paraphrase it in relation to verse 3, earnestly desire that you may speak to people to encourage them, earnestly desire that you may speak to people to challenge them, and earnestly desire that you may speak to people to build them up. And in the early days, it was just two or three people. I remember the first time I started taking meetings was when I met a family who was nominally Christian. And I said to them, I was very young, 22 years old or something. And I said, 23, I think. And I said, can I come to your house and just half an hour once a week and share something of the Bible with you? Oh, they said, sure. And that was in the naval base I was working in. And I used to go to their house. I mean, they knew nothing about the Bible. They were nominal Christians. I knew more than them. I could share with them. Little by little, they got born again. And finally, when the man retired, he went into the ministry. I was so thankful, just a little thing. And I knew almost nothing those days about the Bible. But I said, Lord, I want to do something for you. I want to ask you, my brothers, don't be satisfied just that you've accepted Christ and you're going to heaven. Say, Lord, I don't want to live a useless life. I have one life on this earth. I talk to so many people on the phone or I write emails and I encounter people in your place of work or somewhere. I must seek to be an encouragement to them, even to worldly people. I must challenge them to something higher. And I must build them up with their Christians. That's why I want the gift of prophecy. And I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. And I'll tell you, somebody said, you must go to a Pentecostal church. So I went to a Pentecostal church and the pastor there told me to keep saying hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. And finally, your tongue will trip and you'll speak in tongues. I said, no, thank you. I don't believe in this type of rubbish, coaching people to speak in tongues. This is exactly the garbage that goes on in so many so-called charismatic meetings. I'm not against charismatics. I'm not against any Christian. I love Christians, even in the Roman Catholic church. I respect them. But I disagree with this type of garbage that's coaching people to have a soulish experience, which fakes the genuine fullness of the Holy Spirit. So I came home to my room and I said, Lord, I saw them yelling and screaming in that Sunday meeting. And I said, Lord, I don't want that. I want a genuine experience, the fullness of the Holy Spirit that changed those apostles on the day of Pentecost from people who are afraid to bold witnesses for Christ. And God met with me. And then as I began to exercise my gifts, I went through a period of backsliding in my life when I was in my 20s. Because, you know, when you don't have fellowship and you don't have others who are constantly challenging you, you're living a lonely life. That's what happens. I never had a local church like you all have now. And I was so defeated. I said, Lord, I need another full filling of the Holy Spirit. I need to be filled in the Holy Spirit. This is not the way. And I began to seek God again and weep and pray and fast. And God met with me on another time. That was 46 years ago. And that's the time I found God really led me to this life of overcoming, which I did not know before. The Holy Spirit showed me this wonderful truth that every single temptation to sin that you face, Jesus faced before you, every one of them. And this tremendous message you can overcome. From Revelation 321, he who overcomes exactly as I overcame. You read that verse? Jesus says, he who overcomes exactly as I overcame will sit with me on my throne as I'm sitting with my father on the throne. And I said, Lord, this is wonderful. Is it true that I can overcome as you overcome? Please fill me with the Holy Spirit. I had already begun prophesying, but I wasn't living this overcoming life. And I began to seek God. And then the Lord led me into that. And from that, that was the time the first CFC church was born in Bangalore. And God began to gather a few people who also wanted this overcoming life. They wanted to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And we'd have prayer meetings where we sought God to be filled with the Spirit and the Spirit of God would meet with us. I've discovered through the years, the ideal way is to seek God on our own. God met with me, not in a public meeting. Both times God met with me and many other times when God has met me, usually when I'm alone, that's the best way. When we are with others, we're so conscious of others. When we pray, we are conscious others are listening to what we're saying. And it's far better when you meet with God alone. I know different people in our own churches I've encouraged, get alone with God and say, Lord, I'm not going to leave you until you really meet with me and lead me into the Spirit filled life. You know, I think of this verse in Acts 19, where it says, Paul came to a place called Ephesus, Acts 19. And he found some disciples there. They were disciples of Jesus. And it says, he must have been at a meeting there, Acts 19.1 in Ephesus, where he met with these disciples. And when he sat with them in their meeting, at the end of the meeting, he said, hey, fellas, this meeting is so dead. Did you guys have the Holy Spirit, by the way? Or do you just have an intellectual knowledge of truth? You know, with an intellectual knowledge of Jesus, you can have a meeting where clever people say very, very clever things and intellectual people are stimulated. And we can think that's a very spiritual meeting. It's a lot of garbage. It's soul, it's soul, it's soul, soul, power of the soul, the power of the human mind. And Paul could sense something is missing here. Yeah, these are, they believe in Jesus. And they're having a meeting together. They meet regularly, but something is missing in the meeting. The whole thing is dead. They didn't realize it was dead. But this man of God came and said, hey, this is dead. I mean, you've often heard me say that the opinion of men is worthless. It's fit for the garbage bin. But not the opinion of a man like Paul. If Paul said something, I would take heed to it. It's the opinion of all the other worldly men whose opinion is fit for the trash. But when Paul says, hey, something's missing in you guys, they took heed to it. And the question he asks is, have you guys got the Holy Spirit, by the way? Do you value the Holy Spirit in your meeting? Do you value the Holy Spirit in your life? I've been to meetings like that. And I sat like Paul. I'm not like Paul, but I sat the way he sat. And I felt the same thing. Hey, there's something missing here. These guys are not filled with the Holy Spirit. They're very clever. They're evangelical, 100% evangelical. There's no wrong doctrine there. But there's no life in this whole thing. He doesn't challenge me, what I hear. He doesn't encourage me. He doesn't build me up. Just a lot of excitement, a hundred hallelujahs. I'm not interested in all that. Or wonderful music. That can also stimulate us, but it's all soul. We need to distinguish between soulish stimulation in a meeting and spiritual stimulation. Very different. Soulish stimulation is very temporary. You get very excited during the meeting and you can go home and yell at your wife. Yeah. There are Pentecostals who speak in tongues on Sunday morning and shouted their wives. I mean, speak in other tongues on Sunday morning and shouted their wives with their mother tongue on Sunday afternoon. It's just deception. No, that's the type. If you're stimulated only in a meeting, I'll tell you what you need. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So I felt like this in some meetings, like Paul felt. He said, there's something missing here. Part of the Holy Spirit is missing. I've been in meetings which are so dead. I know it's like, the doctrines are all right. And everything said is correct. There's no encouragement. There's no challenge. There's no building up. Why? Because these folks have thought my intellectual knowledge of the Bible is enough. They have not earnestly sought for the gift of prophecy. If you love me, keep my commandments. The Holy Spirit says in 1 Corinthians 14, earnestly desire the spirit of prophecy. God is my witness. I can say this before God today. For more than 50 years, again and again and again and again, every week I have sought God for the gift of prophecy. Not to be an Old Testament prophet. I'm not interested in predicting the future. I have never predicted the future. But the gift of being able to encourage others, the gift of being able to challenge others, and the gift of being able to build up others. And I've said to the Lord, Lord, I cannot do it. I can teach people scripture, correct doctrine. I can use my intellect and explain things to them, but I cannot build them up spiritually. I need the supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit. I want to say to you, God has answered my prayer. My challenge is always Jesus walking on the road to Emmaus and explaining the Bible to those people. You've heard me say this many times. And when they, three hours it took them to walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And he says, all those three hours, their heart was burning. You know, when a spirit-filled person is prophesying under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, people's hearts will burn. That was one challenge that came to me. I said, Lord, whenever I speak, I want people's hearts to burn, not for their intellect to be stimulated and say, you know, Brother Zach, I learned something today from you. I'm not interested in that. I'm not interested in their mind was stimulated. I want their hearts to burn. The other passage that would come to me was a great challenge that came to me from, these are the things that made me seek for the power of the Holy Spirit. It says about Samuel, in 1 Samuel, that when Samuel began to speak, not one word that he spoke fell to the ground. That's a tremendous passage. He would preach and the Lord was with him. 1 Samuel 3, verse 19. Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and did not allow any of his words in the margin, it says, fall to the ground. Years ago that came to me, I said, Lord, how will I know when I speak that the Lord is with me, that the Holy Spirit is with me? I'll tell you how, that the words that come out of my mouth will not fall to the ground, but will go straight to people's hearts. That's the word that came to me. Lord, you did it for Samuel in the Old Testament. You can do it for me. I believe we need to be bold when we go to the Lord and seek him. Lord, I want my life to be a blessing to others. Please help me. And I want to encourage all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, you may never preach in a Sunday meeting or a weekday meeting, nevermind all that. If you speak to one person on the phone or you meet somebody or your children, your husband, your wife, don't you think you can prophesy to one another? What I mean is not stand up like some prophet, but say things that will encourage one another, say things that will challenge one another to a higher life, say things that will build up one another. Don't you think all husbands and wives have spoken enough words to hurt one another and criticize one another and find fault. Let's finish with that and say, Lord, now I want to spend the rest of my life building up and encouraging, not trying to show off how much of the Bible we know. Oh, detest that. Detest it, wanting to show off how much of the Bible we know. That's garbage. Seek instead to prophesy, encourage, obey the command which says earnestly desire to prophesy. Say, Lord, I'm not satisfied with a cup of water. I'm not even satisfied with the well that satisfies my need. I want not just one river, a river that flows in many directions to my unconverted relatives. When I speak to them, many of you have got unconverted relatives. You think you can convince them with your cleverness about Jesus Christ? No. Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They may not get converted. Jesus did not convert everybody, but at least you'll be a flaming light before them. That's all. I can't convert all my unconverted relatives, but I must, I must, I had this burden, you know, when I was in the Navy and different people would encounter me, I felt they must remember all their life that sometime in their life, they met with a true Christian who proclaimed Christ. They may not have accepted him, but they should never forget in their life that sometime in their life, they met a man of God, a Christian or a woman of God. So your relatives may or may not get converted, but they must recognize that in their life, they met one man, one woman who was in touch with God. Earnestly desire that my brother, sister, it doesn't matter how incapable you are, how introverted and inward-looking your personality is. I'm basically an introverted, inward-looking person. You probably won't believe me when I say that. I tell you, that was how I grew up. A very shy person, never willing to stand before anywhere, but when God filled me with the Spirit, my whole personality began to change. Seek God. God wants to do wonderful things through every single one of you, especially those who are very shy and reserved and withdrawn. You're not meant to be like that. You're meant to be like flaming light for Jesus. And the only way to do it is to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The first promise in the New Testament is Matthew 121. He shall save you from your sin. Seek for that. The second promise in the New Testament is Matthew 311. He shall immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire. Claim both of them. Two promises. Lord, I want to be saved from my sin. Matthew 121. I want to be immersed in the Holy Spirit and fire. Matthew 311. I believe those who seek Him with all their heart. He's a rewarder. I love that verse. Hebrews 11. He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11. Let me read to you in close with this. Without faith, Hebrews 11.6, it is impossible to please God. So what is faith? When you come to God, this is faith. When you come to God, Hebrews 11.6, first of all, you must believe that He exists. You may say, well, of course I do exist. No, sometimes you don't believe God exists. You pray and you don't even know that He heard you. Then you don't believe that He exists. When you pray, do you believe God hears you? For example, supposing you decide today you're going to pray for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Do you believe God hears it? Do you believe God really heard that this son of mine, this daughter of mine wants to be filled with the Holy Spirit? If you don't believe that He heard you, you don't believe that He exists. You believe that He just prayed into the air. First requirement for faith is believe that He exists as your Father and hears you. And second, that He will definitely reward those who diligently seek Him. That's faith. Lord, I believe I've asked you for something. I want to be filled with love. 1 Corinthians 14.1, both are there, the fruit and the gift of the Spirit. Pursue after love and earnestly desire to prophesy. That is the fullness of the Holy Spirit in fruit and gifts that is our inheritance. It's written in the will, the will that our Father has written down for us with Jesus' death. This is God's will for you. And just like if your Father left an inheritance for you, you can claim it. Don't let some cheating lawyer or advocate cheat you of your inheritance. Don't let the devil cheat you of your inheritance. Your inheritance is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be a blessing to others and to be an overcomer. God bless you. Amen.