The Way to Cups Running Over

So I want to turn to the verse we thought of first yesterday, which is the verse the Lord gave me when we were stuck on the tarmac of the airport yesterday for five hours. James chapter 1. It is a word to my heart, it's been through the years, and I believe it's one of the most important lessons we need to learn in the Christian life. As in the King James Version, it says, let patience have its perfect result. Then you will be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Under the pulpit of our church back home in Bangalore, we have a verse that we've had for many, many years. Let us press on to perfection. Hebrews 6 verse 1. That's been the motto of our church, and of all of us Christians. In fact, it's one of the great truths of the new covenant, that you don't have to remain where you are. We start off with the life of Adam, unconverted, in the pit of sin. And then one day the Lord picks us up and we are born, born again. And when we are born again, we know, I mean, our attitude to sin has changed. We're still probably defeated by many sins. As soon as you're born again, you're defeated by anger, you're defeated by sexual thoughts, you're defeated by murmuring, you're defeated by the love of money, and you're defeated with bitterness and unforgiving attitudes. It's all there. But what has happened when you're born again is not that you overcome all this, but you don't want to live like that anymore. It's that want to do that shows that you're born again. Not that you overcome, but I don't ever want to get angry again. I don't want ever to have a lustful thought again. I mean, you may take 10 years to overcome it, but you don't want to. That's happened. And that's the mark of a new man that God has put into your heart that wants now to please God, just like in the old days, you wanted to please yourself. Now, I'm not saying you won't slip up. You know, God has made it such that human beings, little children, take the longest time to learn to walk. You know, the little babies of cats and dogs and lions learn to walk pretty quickly. But human beings take the longest. It's about two years before a child really gets steady on his feet. And it may take two years after you're born again to really get a little steady on your feet in terms of following the Lord. If it takes longer than that, you're not really wholehearted. It does take longer than that with most people, because most born-again people are not wholehearted. But I want to tell you, if you're really radical and wholehearted and obey everything that the scripture tells you to do when you're converted, your life can be completely different two years after you're born again. Do you know that the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt, this is a picture of their salvation, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. They put the blood of the Lamb on their doorpost. It's a picture of Jesus, the Lamb of God, whose blood was shed for us. When they went into the Red Sea and came out, it was a picture of baptism in water. And when the cloud came down upon them from above, it was a picture of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That whole threefold experience, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, baptized in water, baptized in the cloud from heaven, is a picture of the three things with which we begin the Christian life. Redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, baptized in water, and if you really seek the Lord the way the early apostles did, baptized in the Holy Spirit. But because there's so much controversy on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the devil deceives people into counterfeit experiences, and other people react against the counterfeit experiences and say we don't want it all together. So we have christened Christians of these two extremes, some with the counterfeit experience and some with turning away from it altogether. The devil's kept both of them away from the truth. But there is a genuine feeling of the Holy Spirit. I know it changed my life. It changed my wife's life. It's like one of the best illustrations of that I can use in scripture is when the disciples toiled a whole night to catch fish. They couldn't catch it. How many hours from, say, 6 p.m. in the evening to 5 o'clock in the morning, 11 hours, no fish. And then Jesus said, listen to me, cast your net on the other side. And in a moment, the net was full of fish. It's something like that that happens, you know, filled with the Holy Spirit. That's what happened to me. It happened to my wife. It's what happened to many great saints of God. Sometime in life, they met with God a second time. There was somebody who did some research on this, the various men of God through the ages who had written their testimonies as to what was the average time they took from their first conversion experience to this entering into the rest of God or entering into this fullness of life. And they discovered that, I mean, their research said that the average was 15 years after they were converted. They came into a life of rest. The Bible says there is a rest for the people of God in Hebrews 4, the Sabbath rest, which is a picture of that inner life of rest, free from turmoil, complaining, grumbling, and anxiety, and tension, and bitterness, and an unforgiving spirit. It's a wonderful thing, and all that goes away. In my life, too, it took about 16 years. But it was a completely different life. You're like, I have two phases in my Christian life. When I initially was converted, it was all wonderful for a while. It's like the, what, there's a word in English called euphoria. The euphoria of a new experience of being born again. And everything's so wonderful. But then somehow, over a period of time, it fades. I'm sure all true Christians, you probably have that experience, too. That initial excitement, the devotion to read the Bible every morning, and to spend time in prayer, and slowly fades away. Then we sort of, we don't want to let other people know. We still go to church and pretend that everything's all right, when we know everything's not all right. We pretend that everything's okay with our married life at home, and it's not. But we keep up that pretense, and we are first-class hypocrites for a long time. And some people remain like that till the day they die. There are some others who are fed up with their hypocrisy. That's how it was with me. I got fed up with my hypocrisy to the point where I said, Lord, I'll stop preaching, because I don't want to tell a lie to people. I do not want to preach what is not true in my life. I will keep quiet till you do something in me. And I want to say to you, if you really want the baptism, a genuine baptism of the Holy Spirit, let me give you one bit of advice. Hate hypocrisy. Many people are never genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit, because they do not hate hypocrisy. They allow a little bit of hypocrisy to remain in their lives. They pray and pray and pray, and nothing happens. Nothing will happen. Nothing will happen in the next 20 years. I remember a brother told me, Brother Zach, I've been praying for the baptism of the Holy Spirit for 40 years and nothing has happened. One little step. Hate hypocrisy. Hate seeking the honor of me for your spirituality. You don't have it. Why do you want to pretend that you have it? I'm not saying get up publicly and confess all your sins. No, we must confess a sin to a person only if we have sinned against him. If I've sinned in my thoughts against God, I don't confess that to you. I confess it only to God. Don't believe this psychology rubbish that you have to confess your sins to other people to get victory. I've heard people who say, I've got a prayer partner. And the way I get victory over pornography is I'm a slave to pornography, they say. And I go and every time I fall into it, I tell my prayer partner I've fallen and I gradually get victory. How? Through the shame of having to confess it. That is victory through the fear of man. It's a hollow victory. It will not last. Yeah, you can get some type of freedom from pornography if every time you do it, you confess to some man and you're so ashamed that you have to go and confess to him again after one week that you did it, that you avoided. That's not victory. That's a psychological counterfeit. That's not the way Jesus taught it. If you've sinned alone against God, you confess to God alone. Sin must be confessed in the circle in which it was committed. All the people who knew about your sin or you hurt through your sin, you must confess it to. One person, then only one person in that circle is the only person I confess to. The whole church, then I tell the whole church, only God, then only God. But the Bible says we perfect holiness in the fear of God. If you don't know that verse, it's 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1. We perfect holiness in the fear of God. A holiness that comes in the fear of man to trying to get the good opinion of man is a counterfeit. Let me tell you that straight away. Any holiness that you get through trying to give a good impression to people or through confessing your sin to people is a false holiness. It will not last. It will not stand in the day of judgment. The only holiness that's worth anything is that which is perfected in the fear of God. That means nobody watches me except God. And I say, Lord, I'm concerned about your opinion and only your opinion, and I want to be right before you. And if you get, even if it takes longer to get that victory than the shortcut psychological method, that will be real victory. This one won't last. You know, there are three things that have replaced the power of the Holy Spirit in the church today. Not replaced, but tried to replace. One is psychology. Beware of preachers who use psychological tricks to let you, to make you live a better life. There are psychologists who teach people how to overcome anger. They say, are you angry against somebody? They give them a pillow and say, hammer this pillow. Imagine this is the guy you hate and hammer him and hammer him and hammer him. Get over your anger. It's interesting. Jesus never thought of that method. Jesus said, you've got to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You'll overcome anger. You'll forgive everyone. These are, I'm telling you the truth. I'm not telling you stories. Don't be fooled. And there are preachers who fall for these psychological tricks because they're not filled with the Holy Spirit. They don't hear from God. They read books on psychology. They go into Bible school. They don't know how to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. So I want you guys to come to a genuine life of victory. It's better to wait 10 years and get a genuine victory than get some cheap, quick counterfeit through psychological gimmicks and tricks. I remember when I first sought for the, you know, I was grew up in a brethren assembly and they never talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit. But one thing I'm thankful for, they taught me to study the scriptures. But it was academic study of the scriptures. And there was something missing in my life. And then somebody told me when I was, this is when I was about 22, 23 years old. Somebody said, you've got to go to the Pentecostals to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I had never heard of that. So there was a friend of mine who was attending some Pentecostal. He said, I'll take you. I said, okay, let me see who these people are. So they took me to some specialist pastor there who apparently had the ability to lead people into the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So I said, okay, I'm young, 23 year old, baptized just two years earlier in water, not knowing much of the scriptures, but eager for the power of the Holy Spirit. And I went to this pastor and he said, keep saying, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. I said, for how long? Just keep saying it till your tongue crips. And then all of a sudden you'll be saying something you can't understand. They're speaking in tongues. I said, I don't see anybody teaching all these tricks to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. So I'm not going to do that. And he got so angry with me that I wouldn't listen to him. And then I went, the night was Saturday, I think. On Sunday, I went to the Pentecostal church and I found they were just yelling and screaming. And I saw that because I was pretty well off as a naval officer earning a lot of money. They were happy to be friendly with me, especially when I gave them financial gifts. So I said, this is not the Christianity I want. I find these people are filled with the Holy Spirit, but they love money so much. Can you imagine being filled with the spirit of Jesus Christ and loving money? That's so contrary. That can't be the real thing. And I've noticed, you know, when I watched a lot of television evangelists here and there, I don't have TV in my house, but I've seen it in other places. And I've seen it on the internet. I've seen one thing that most of, I would say almost 90% of these television preachers are charismatic. They claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And they are the biggest lovers of money that I've ever heard. And to me, that's a contradiction. If you're filled with the spirit of Christ, you must be free from the love of money, not become a bigger lover of money. And that shows me the whole thing is fake. And I believe that so-called healings are fake. And the talk about raising the dead and all is fake. I remember years ago in 1972, I heard, 71 or something, I heard about revival in Indonesia. It was a very well-known revivalist and the people being raised from the dead. And so I visited Indonesia in 1973, about a year or two after that. And I discovered something, that they had the same word in the Indonesian language for being in a coma or for dead. So very often when they talk about somebody being raised from the dead, the guy was in a coma and he got up. And if he got up, even if he didn't pray for him. But it was an opportunity to say, for preachers to say, I raised somebody from the dead. I'll tell you this. I find sometimes born-again Christians are the most gullible people. They so easily get fooled by all these deceivers. I have a great verse for all such people. 1 John chapter 4 and verse 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit. Do not believe every spirit. You know, there are people who, when I speak against some of these things, they say, oh, Brother Zach, be careful. You're speaking against the Holy Spirit. Bible says, if you speak against the Holy Spirit, you'll never be forgiven. I say, you can't scare me with all that. I know the Bible well enough, and I know the Lord. And the Bible says, don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because there are many false prophets gone out into the world. And I say, the way to know the spirit of God, it says, it gives you a test. The way to know, verse 2, the spirit of God is a spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, is from God. That means Jesus came in the flesh is called in 1 Timothy 3.16, the great secret of godliness. 1 Timothy 3.16, the mystery of godliness is that Jesus came in the flesh, not just as a man. He came in the flesh, which means he had a self-will with which he was tempted, but did not sin. That is the spirit that I'm going to trust. The man who confesses that Jesus Christ came like us and was tempted and did not sin, and therefore we can follow him and not sin ourselves. That is the mark of the spirit of Christ. It's here in scripture. And John is so concerned about that. You know, remember, John is living at a time, 95 AD, when a lot of Christians had backslidden and gone away from the Lord. You read that in the Revelation chapter 2 and 3. Five out of those seven churches planted by the apostles were so bad that the Lord says, some of you only got a name that you're alive, you're dead. The elder is like that. To another elder brother, he says, you're poor and wretched and naked and blind and good for nothing. Imagine, elders of churches planted by the apostles that come to the place where God says you're good for nothing. And in such a situation, John says in his first letter about what I just read, and in a second letter, he says the same thing again. He never gets tired of saying it. Second John, the second letter of John, and there's only one chapter, there were seven. Many deceivers have gone into the world. Who are these deceivers? Those who don't acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh, which means one, he was tempted like us and did not sin. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. What does the word antichrist mean? Against Christ. Have you seen meetings where a man, a preacher, lays hands on people and the fellow falls to the ground? I mean, I've seen it on the internet, people doing that in some YouTube programs, some famous preachers. What do I see Jesus do? Jesus always lifted people up from the ground and made them stand and walk. So when I see somebody doing the opposite of what Jesus did, I call that the antichrist. That's the meaning of antichrist. You do the opposite of what Christ did. Christ lifted up people. You push down people. I'm not afraid of saying it because there's hardly anybody else speaking out against all this rubbish going on in Christianity today in the name of Jesus Christ. And don't be deceived by, I've heard a lot of so-called speaking in tongues in Pentecostal churches. 95% it is counterfeit. I've seen it. And they repeat few syllables, sha, ra, da, ga, la, backwards and forwards for about five seconds and then they get tired. That is not speaking in tongues. That's like a baby babbling. Somebody's taught them to say that rubbish and call it speaking. It's an insult to God. God gave me the gift of tongues more than 40 years ago. I say like Paul, I speak in tongues more than all of you, but in the church, I would rather speak five words in a known language than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. So you ask Paul, then where did you speak these 10,000 words in an unknown language, Paul? In private. When I speak in tongues to God, it's my private love language between me and Jesus Christ, my bridegroom. And it is not sha, ra, ga, ba, la, no. It is a language. It's a language. I can't understand it, but it's a language. I mean, you can recognize a language. If a man gets up here and speaks in Chinese, even though you don't understand a word of it, you know it is not sha, ra, la, ba, ga. He's just speaking something. It's a language. If you hear somebody speaking Russian or you hear somebody speaking an Indian language, Hindi, you can make out if it's a language or the guy is just babbling like a baby. Don't be deceived, please. There are many deceivers in the world today, and because most people are not rooted in the scriptures and anything supernatural is from God, they are deceived. And that's the way you miss out. I saw this happening myself when I was 23 years old, and I went to the Lord. I was in the naval base those days. I knelt down before God after I came back from meeting that Pentecostal pastor, and I said, Lord, I don't want this. I don't want to be a lover of money. I want to be free from the love of money. I don't want to babble something and say it's a speaking in tongues, and I don't want to coach people into it. I'm willing to wait 10 years, but I want the real thing. I had to wait about 12 years. I didn't mind waiting, but when God gave me something, it was genuine. Seek for what is genuine. I never wanted a counterfeit victory, which is only before people. I said, Lord, I don't care how long it takes. It may take battle, a battle, a battle to come through, but I want to come through to victory. I want to be able to control my tongue. There are people who told me, do you know that when people were filled with the Holy Spirit and the Acts of the Apostles, the first thing that happened was they spoke in tongues. I said, no, you can't fool me. I know the scriptures. You can fool those other people who don't know the scriptures, who don't read it carefully, and they believe that's true. I said, I said, let me tell you what the Bible says. Turn to your own scripture, I said. Turn to Acts chapter 2 and see what happened. The first thing that happened when they were filled with the Holy Spirit, it was not speaking in tongues. See it, and you'll see how carelessly you read the scriptures. It says in the day of Pentecost, there came this noise from heaven, which is a rushing mighty wind, which is the Holy Spirit, and they spoke in tongues in verse 4. But before that, what happened in verse 3? Tongues of fire sat on each of them. There was a fiery tongue, a tongue like a fire on top of their heads. That's the first thing that happened, and God was saying thereby, I want to fill you with the Holy Spirit to be able to control your tongue, because that is the main instrument I'm going to use in this new covenant age to spread the gospel, to teach my word, and I want it to be pure. And interestingly, my tongue was the biggest, most important part of my body with whom, with which I had a problem. I used to get upset with people, but I rode a scooter for 42 years in India. That was my main mode of transport, and sometimes people would come in front of me, and I'd collide with them, and they turned without a signal. Many people turn without a signal in India, and I wouldn't yell at them. There were more subtle ways of hurting them. I would say, who gave you a license to drive? And I would go away from there and say, Jesus would say to me, the Lord would say, Holy Spirit would say to me, Jesus would never speak like that. I said, Lord, I'm sorry. I shouldn't speak like that. I was a defeated Christian. Problem? My tongue. I'd get upset with my wife, like all newly marrieds do, especially after you get children. My tongue was my problem. I needed a tongue on fire, not an unknown language. I wanted a known language to overcome in my known language. There are so many people who, in a Pentecostal church, babble away in unknown tongues on Sunday morning, and then use their mother tongue in the afternoon to shout at their wives. What type of nonsense is that? That tongue is not under the control of the Holy Spirit. I said, Lord, I don't want unknown tongues. I want a mother tongue that is controlled by the Holy Spirit. I'll tell you honestly before God, that's what I sought for. I never wanted the gift of unknown tongues. I never sought for it, and I didn't want it. If God gave it to me, it was like an added extra he gave me, which I didn't seek for. I wanted a tongue that is under the control of the Holy Spirit, and I said, I'll never be satisfied until when I collide with somebody on the road due to his fault, I will not say anything insulting to him. I will not even frown at him. I'll smile and forgive him. And that 365 days of the year, I will never get angry with my wife. I'll never snap at her no matter what happens. That is the tongue I want. I sought for it. I wept for it. I prayed for it. I fasted for it. I said, Lord, give me this, and I won't ask for anything else. I don't want to be a famous preacher. I don't want any such thing, but I want that tongue of fire which you gave people on the day of Pentecost. And I don't care if I never speak in unknown tongues. And I want to say to the glory of God, he gave me. If you seek him earnestly, he'll give it to you. There is no partiality with God. What he did for someone else, he'll do for you. The word God spoke to me was what he did for Jesus, he will do for me because he loves me as he loved Jesus. I told you John 17, 23 was the greatest verse in the Bible for me. He loves me as he loved Jesus. Okay, did Jesus have control over his tongue 24 hours a day? Sure. Did he do it as God? No. Then I can't follow him. He did it as a man filled with the Holy Spirit all the time. That's why I have hope that if I am filled with the Holy Spirit, I can walk as Jesus walked. I can talk as Jesus talked. It may take years. Like I told you, I said, Lord, if it takes 10 years, I'll wait. If it takes 25 years, I'll wait. But I want the real thing. See how careful people are when these worldly people, when they go to buy diamonds, I cannot distinguish a real diamond from, I've never bought one, but I cannot. They say that they can make glass that looks like real diamonds. That's fake gold. So you would need to take an expert with you if you ever go to buy any of these things. And I said, I need to go with the word of God. This is the expert advice I have when I seek for any gift of the Holy Spirit, not some preacher, not some famous preacher, God's word. And that's what's protected me. And I want to say to you, seek God earnestly for victory. You know, God called me to preach when I was 23 years old. That's why I sought for the power of the Holy Spirit. And as I began to seek the Lord, here's the word that the Lord gave me concerning how he would use my tongue. In Jeremiah chapter 15, this is an amazing verse that the Lord gave me. And it's for you also. It's in your Bible. So it's for you as well. Jeremiah 15 and verse 19, Jeremiah was God's prophet. And the Lord told him a certain principle. If you want to be a prophet, means a spokesman for God. We are not all prophets. Only God calls a very few people to be prophets in the church. But we're all called to be witnesses. Every, you are supposed to be a witness for Christ. Acts 1 verse 8, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you and you shall be my witnesses. And the main part of the body God uses in witnessing is the tongue. Okay. The Lord said to Jeremiah in 15 verse 19, if you return, I will restore you and you will stand before me. And if you extract the precious from the worthless, that means in your conversation, if you get rid of all that is worthless, just like you throw away all the garbage, who accumulates garbage in their house? You get rid of it as soon as possible because it stinks. And the Lord's saying, get rid of the garbage from your speech. Get rid of the garbage you stored up in your mind. You'd never store garbage in your house, but you store up so much in your mind, garbage, dirty thoughts and wrong attitudes towards other people, all garbage stored up in your mind for years. When are you going to throw it in the trash can and throw it away? Throw it out of the house. Get rid of the worthless. Get rid of the garbage in your speech and keep what is precious. You keep what is precious in your kitchen. You throw away the garbage. Then the margin of my Bible says, you will be my mouth. That's a real word in the Hebrew. You will be my mouth. I said, wow, Lord, I can be your mouth like Jesus was the mouth of God. Jesus said in John 20 verse 21, as the Father sent me, so send I you. As I was the mouth of the mouthpiece of the Father, you can be my mouthpiece. I said, really? I want it, Lord. I'd pay any price for it and you know it's not money. What you have to give you is yourself and all those ambitions and desires you have to get a name for yourself or something like that. I said, Lord, I want to be your mouth. The Lord said, get rid of the worthless speech in your, get rid of your anger. Get rid of the rude words you speak to people. Get rid of the way you snap at people. Get rid of it. I said, Lord, I can't do it, but I want it. Give me that tongue of fire. I'll tell you something. You remember that story of the man who went to his neighbor's house? Jesus said, kept on knocking. Luke chapter 11. You read those first 15 verses in Luke chapter 11. He kept on knocking and the man from inside said, don't disturb me. What do you want? I want some bread to give to my friend who has come hungry at midnight. Don't disturb me. That man says my children are sleeping and he says, I don't care whether your children are sleeping. I want bread for my friend. What a passion he had to help someone who was needy. It was not for himself. He had already eaten, but his friend had come and he had nothing to give him. I was like that. I said, Lord, I want to give a word to God's people. I want to give a word to so many unbelievers who come to my meetings. I don't have it. That's the first thing you need to recognize. You don't have it. Some of us think we have plenty. We have enough Bible knowledge and we can get up and preach a sermon. Okay. Then you won't go to God. I didn't have it. That's why I went to God and I said, Lord, I don't have it. Yeah, I'm a clever person. I can think up a message. I can take a Bible study on Ephesians anytime I want, but that's not it. I want to give a word which is exactly suited to the need of the people sitting there. How in the world can I give that? It's like a doctor who's told to diagnose a hundred people sitting in front of him and none of them have told him what their problem is. Can you imagine a doctor treating a hundred people sitting in his clinic and none of them tell him what their problem is and he diagnoses all of their problems and solves them. It's that impossible to try and preach God's word to a crowd of people. You don't know any of their problems. You don't know what they're facing in their home, what they're facing in their job, what they're facing in their life, and you're supposed to minister to them, to deliver them. I said, Lord, this is impossible. God says, I know their problem and if you get rid of the garbage from your speech, you will be my mouth and you will discover that every time you speak, people will receive a word from me, which will be different from just preachers getting up and saying something. It'll be a prophetic word. I said, Lord, that's what I want. I want that more than anything else in my life. I don't want any honor. I promise you, I will never take an offering in any of my meetings. I will never ask people for money. I'll never send a prayer letter asking for money. I will live simply. My wife and I live extremely simply. I don't want any money. I want to be your mouthpiece. You remember how Elisha, when Naaman, the great rich general, came from Syria and that God experienced a miracle of healing supernaturally from his leprosy, and he came with a lot of money and gifts of clothes to Elisha. Elisha said, I said, I don't want all that. Go away. And his servant, Gehazi, went after Naaman and told a lot of lies and collected that money. And you know what Gehazi got and what he lost? I'll tell you. What he got was a whole lot of money and a whole lot of clothes from Naaman. You know what he lost? Elisha, his master, was the servant of Elijah. He was known as the man who used to pour water for Elijah to wash his hands. That's what Elisha's name was, the man who pours water for Elijah to wash his hands. You know what he got from Elijah? A double portion of Elijah's anointing. Read that in 2 Kings chapter 2. What do you think Gehazi would have got? A double portion of Elisha's anointing, which would be four times what Elijah had. What did he get instead? Leprosy. Not only him, his children got leprosy too. You know why? He went after money instead of seeking for the anointing. Multitudes of Christian preachers have gone the way of Gehazi, gone the way of Bela, who when some big man said, come preach for me, initially God told him, don't go. He told the big man, I won't come. But the big man offered more money and God had already told him not to go. Why should he seek God again? But he went to God again. You know when God has told you something, no, about anything, and you go to him a second time and God sees you desperately want it, he'll tell you, okay, you can have it. It's not my will for you. It's not my will for you, but you lust after it. You can have it. That's how some people get married to the wrong person. God's told them don't marry that person, but they lust after it. That's okay. Go ahead. Shall I show you a scripture for it? Turn with me to Psalm 106. It's a scary word. It's one of those scary words in scripture, which says God will give you what he doesn't want you to have and where you can miss the will of God completely. In marriage, job, or anything. It's a scary word. Read it only if you're willing to face up to it. It speaks about the Israelites in the wilderness. Psalm 106 verse 14, they craved intensely in the wilderness for something God did not promise to give them and tempted God in the desert, craving. That's a word, you know. You understand the meaning of the word craving in English? It's not just asking. I want it at any cost. I want to marry this girl or this boy at any cost. I don't care what you think about it, Lord, but I want it. I want this thing. And God gave them their request. Sad words, but he sent a leanness into their souls. There's a margin of my Bible says, their souls dwindled and became dry, but he gave them their request. Do you want that? You want it to be written about you. You crave for something God didn't want you to have. And because you pestered God so much in prayer, he gave it to you, but your soul became lean and sick. And you lived with that leanness and sickness of your soul for the rest of your life. You became a rich man. You made a lot of money. Maybe you became a famous person and a preacher and all that, but leanness in your soul, you didn't know God. You couldn't be a prophet. God wanted you to be a prophet. You became a professional preacher. There are many, many people who are like that. Yeah, I know it's happened in India. It's happened in the United States. It's happened every part of the world. And God is disappointed. His church suffers. His church suffers because the man who was supposed to be a prophet just became a famous preacher. Useless to God and useless to man. Dear brothers and sisters, there's a challenge that comes to you. When God takes you through trials, endure. What did we read in James 1? Let patience have its perfect work. God cannot bring you to the place of rivers of living water flowing through you easily. There's a path to it. Turn with me to Psalm 23. It's a wonderful thing to be the mouthpiece of God, to be God's mouth. How many of you long for it? God wants to make every one of his children, men and women, you sisters, you may never become teachers of the word. The Bible says, I do not allow a woman to teach. But do you know half the people in almost every church is women? And in India anyway, it's very difficult for a man to speak to all those women. And even in this country, a woman can more easily speak to other women. For example, in personal counseling and all. How many? You got a whole congregation there. You don't teach men because you're a woman. Fine. But what about all those children? You can teach children. You can teach other women. So you women should also be God's mouthpiece. You women should become the mouth of God as well to other women, to children, to your own children, and to other Sunday school children in the church. It's for men and women. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. And it says here, you have an verse five, you have anointed my head with oil, a picture of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And my cup runs over, overflows rivers of living water. God anoints us. And like Jesus said, he who believes in me out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. In the Old Testament, God poured out his spirit on Moses, even on a fellow like Samson. And they blessed thousands, but it was not from within. He's like this. Here is something which has got a lid on it. If a river falls on it, a waterfall, it will flow over it and flow and bless thousands, hundreds of thousands. But what happened on the day of Pentecost was the veil was rent. The way into the spirit was opened up. The veil was rent and God could now enter the most holy place within of man, man's spirit. And the Holy Spirit could now from the day of Pentecost enter man's spirit, fill the spirit and then overflow as rivers of living water. There's a difference between that and the Old Testament outpouring where it was on top with the veil and truly bless other people without blessing the person himself. That's why Samson could lust after women and still deliver Israel as a judge. That's why David could be anointed with spirit and still fall in sin with Bathsheba. It never went inside any of them. That's why Moses could bless people so much. For example, the first time, the beginning of the wilderness journey, when they were thirsty, the Lord told Moses to hit the rock. That rock is a picture of Christ smitten on the cross. Hit it and the waters will flow. Because Christ was smitten, the river of the Holy Spirit flows for us to drink from. 40 years later, the first one is Exodus 17, 40 years later in Numbers and chapter 20 or 21, it says, the second time they were thirsty, this time the Lord said to Moses, don't hit the rock because Christ has to be crucified only once. You don't have to smite Christ twice. Don't hit the rock, now just speak to it and the water will flow. But the Bible says Moses was so angry with the people that he hit the rock. He disobeyed God. Does God bless the ministry of preachers who are disobedient to him? Did the water flow from that rock when Moses disobeyed God? Sure. Why? Because God loved those two million people who were dying of thirst in the wilderness. When some woman decides to disobey God and to teach men on the internet or through television or against God's word, will God bless her ministry? Sure. Because God loves the two million people who listen to her, just like Moses. But afterwards, God pulled up Moses and said, okay, I bless the people because I love them, but you disobeyed me and I'll punish you Moses. And he gave him the worst punishment Moses could have ever got. If he had made Moses blind, that would have been nothing. If he had given him leprosy, that would have been nothing. But he gave him the worst punishment of all. Moses, you will not enter the promised land. What years you've been waiting to enter it, now I'll disappoint you. You will not enter. When my servants commit a sin, I punish them severely. To whom more is given, more is required. Ordinary people will not get such a severe punishment. What about all these people today who preach for money, who preach and ask poor people to give their money and they go and buy airplanes and all types of things with that money? Does God bless their ministry? Sure. Because he loves the people. Sometimes he even heals the sick because he loves those people. But is he going to deal with these preachers one day? Sure. One day they will stand before the Lord and say, Lord, we did miracles in your name. Because of demons, we heal the sick and the Lord will say, I never knew you. You lovers of money, get away from me. Do you believe that some of these people will go to hell? I don't have the slightest doubt in my mind. A man who lives in sin cannot enter God's kingdom. You cannot love God and love money. I do not believe that a man who loves money loves God. You know, in heaven, you know, by the way, they have gold in heaven. Did you know that? The difference is here on earth, they put gold on top of people's heads. You know where the gold is in heaven? Under the feet, on the streets. If you have learned to put gold under your feet, you're ready for heaven. I hope you have. If you haven't, you better hurry up. But I know many, many preachers who haven't learned that. I know in my life, we are all lovers of money. Don't pretend that you don't love money. We do. Every child of Adam loves money. You think only the rich people love money? No. Have you ever seen a homeless man standing on the street saying, I need food, who doesn't love money? Only the rich people love money. That poor man loves money just as much as the rich. There's not a soul on earth who doesn't love money. You think little children don't love money? Wait till you give them something. Then you'll discover. Everybody loves money. And if you're honest with it, the Lord can deliver you from it. That's what I did. I remember reading Luke chapter 19 once. You know, Zacchaeus, the great lover of money. And the people, everybody in that town knew that Zacchaeus was a lover of money. He was such a reputation. He was a lover of money, cheating tax collector who had cheated a lot of people. And Jesus went to his house. Does Jesus go to the house of people who love money? Yes, if he sees that there's a longing in their heart to be free from it. And he went and delivered Zacchaeus from the love of money. The man returned four times of what he had stolen from people. And those people whose address he did not know, he didn't know. He didn't keep it for himself saying, oh, I don't know the address of these people, so I keep that money. No, he said, I'll give it away. I'll give it to the poor because I don't know the address of these other people who I stole. He was very honest. I will not keep one cent with me, which is not righteously earned. And then Jesus said, Zacchaeus, chapter Luke 19, 9, salvation has come to this house. That's the only time in scripture where you read Jesus saying about someone, salvation has come to this house. Salvation from what? Salvation from the love of money. Did you see that? I can expand Jesus' statement. Salvation from the love of money has come to this house. Wow. I said, Lord, can you say that about me? Can you say that about me, Lord, that salvation from the love of money has come to brother Zac? I want you to say, Lord, salvation has come to Zac from the love of money. But you have to acknowledge it first. I went to the Lord and I said, Lord, I'm like Zacchaeus. I may not be cheating people, but I love money. I'll tell you honestly, I do. And even though I didn't ask people for money or send prayer reports, in my heart, I had the nature of Adam. I love money. And I said, I want to be free from it. I want to be 100% free from it, just like I want to be free from every other sin. And the Lord did it. He did it by sometimes allowing me to have huge financial losses. I remember I used to try and earn my living with some type of investments and I had huge losses. And I said, Lord, why did that happen? Well, I'm answering your prayer. I want you, you wanted to be free from the love of money, right? Oh, thank you, Lord. And that's it. Sure. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I lost these few thousands of rupees. Okay, great. I'm telling you the truth. It actually happened. And then I became free. You have to pay a price if you want to get anything from God. And then, this is the verse that helped me. Luke 19 10. In the context, the son of man has come to seek those who are in the love of money and to save them from the love of money. Because they are lost in the love of money. Read that verse in its context. I said, raise my hand. I said, Lord, I'm lost in the love of money. Will you seek me and save me? I felt the Lord saying, because you're honest, I'll do that for you. How many of you will be honest before God and say, Lord, I'm lost in the love of money. First of all, seek me and save me. So, I was reading from Psalm 23. From my cup runs over, it says in Psalm 23. And when I was a young Christian, I read this verse, my cup runs over. And one of the first things I invested in, in my Bible study in 1961, when I started studying the Bible, was that young's concordance. One of the best concordances that there are. And when I looked up the young's concordance, the young's concordance has a wonderful thing, which the other's concordances don't have. It gives you in English words, English letters, the Hebrew word or the Greek word used there. So, I saw here, cup runs over and I looked up the concordance. It says, this is a Hebrew word called reviah. I don't know a word of Hebrew, I still don't know. But it is written in English letters, reviah. And the young's concordance has another wonderful thing. You turn to the back of the concordance, in English words, English letters, it gives you the Hebrew concordance. Where is this word reviah used elsewhere in the Old Testament, but not translated as running over? Aha. So, it's almost like having a Hebrew concordance, even though I don't know a word of Hebrew. It's like having a Greek concordance, even though I don't know what a Greek. So, I turned to that and I said, oh, it says there that reviah is used in only one other place in the Old Testament. Psalm 23 is one place. And the only other place where that word is used is Psalm 66 and verse 12, where it a place of abundance. Same word, reviah. Okay. So, I read Psalm 66 and there it tells me something which it doesn't say in Psalm 23. So, you compare scripture with scripture and if you're patient enough to do that, you're a serious study student of scripture, you discover things that you never discover otherwise. And here it tells us how you come to the place of abundance. How you come to the place where your cups run over, which did not tell me that in Psalm 23. God is a rewarder of those who diligently search the scriptures. If you didn't find it, because you didn't diligently search, there's no partiality with God. And here I found how you come to the place of abundance in verse 12. I'll tell you. Now, read. I'll read it to you. Let me read it to you. How do you come to the place where your cups are running over and rivers of living water flow out from you? First of all, verse 10, God tries us or tests us. He refines us like silver is refined and that is he puts us in the fire of trials and circumstances. Fiery trials. You don't want it? Then you won't go beyond verse 10. He brought us into the net. Net means like an animal trapped in a net that tiger that was free to run around in the forest is trapped in a net and God puts us in circumstances where I can't go here and I can't go there for various reasons. I can't go. It's like some mother with a number of children trapped in her home. She can't do this. She can't do that. She's limited so much. God's put you into the net. Don't complain. Or could be some other circumstances which prevents your free movement. Trapped in the net. Don't complain. It's part of the way to get to the place where rivers of living water will flow from you. You'll only stop complaining. And then as if that was not enough, he laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. Maybe you've got a little sickness. Can sickness be a help? It was a great help to Paul. You know how Paul got grace? The way all of us get grace, by humility. God gives grace to the humble. But in order to keep Paul humble, he had to give him a sickness. A thorn in the flesh. And he said, Lord, heal me of this. And the Lord said, no, this will keep you humble. An oppressive burden on our body. You got that? You're on the way to rivers of living water. And then you made men ride over our heads. Boy, and they could have walked by the side, but they didn't. They walked over our heads. Have you experienced that in your office? Some boss riding over your head? Have you experienced that with some family member or relative who doesn't like you riding over your head? Or somebody in the church rides over your head, crushes you and puts you down, humiliates you, embarrasses you, tells false stories about you, rides over your head. And as if that was not enough, then the Lord takes us and puts us in the fire. We went through fire. And as if that was not enough, then he brought us into water. It's like when they test these aluminum for making airplanes, they put it in the fiery furnace. Can it endure that? Take it out, put it in ice cold water. Take it out and put it back in the fiery furnace again. Put it in ice cold water. And if it cracks and breaks, they say, oh, this is not fit. We can't make an airplane with this. Make it children's toy or something. You want to end up as an airplane or like a children's toy? You go through fire and through water. But then you brought us to the place of Revaya. Cups running over, abundance. It was an amazing discovery that I made when I studied that 1961. And I've never forgotten it. 58 years ago, I said, Lord, that's the life I want. And the Lord said, well, you must be willing to go through this path without complaining. And when you go through this path, be patient. Let patience have its perfect result. Endure without complaining. I said, Lord, I'll do that. Please help me. Give me grace. But please make me your mouth. Give me a tongue of fire. Fire of the Holy Spirit. Controlled by the Holy Spirit. Not just once in a while. Not when I'm in the pulpit. But all the time. You can't rent out your tongue to the devil most of the time. And then you suddenly come to the Lord to speak to him and say, Lord, now my tongue is yours. Doesn't work. The Lord is a jealous God. He wants your tongue all the time. And I'll tell you something in Jesus' name. To everyone sitting here who has ears to hear. If you give your tongue to the Lord, say, Lord, I want it 24 hours as yours. You'll be absolutely amazed what the Lord does through you. How people will be blessed through you around the world. You. Unknown you. There's no partiality with God. What he did for others, he'll do for you. Amen. Let's bow before God for a moment of prayer. Heavenly Father, be still and know that he is God. I pray that all of you who are bowed before God, you'll respond in some way to what the Lord spoke to you in this session. You know which way to respond and what particular area God spoke to you. If you got hurt by what you heard, praise the Lord. That means you're sensitive. That's why you got hurt. You didn't feel anything. Pray God that next time you will feel something. Heavenly Father, please help us. We know you love us more than we can understand. Help us to live worthwhile lives on this earth before you come again. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.