The Way to Spiritual Prosperity

Brothers and sisters, thank you for coming here. I'm sure many of you have taken a lot of trouble and spent quite a bit of money to come here and even to stay here. God is a rewarder of all who diligently seek him. That is universally true. In the history of man, you will discover one day when we stand before the Lord, that there was not a single human being, educated or uneducated from any country, who sought God diligently and did not find him. Not even one. That's encouraged me through the years. In the early days when I thought I didn't know much about God and I really didn't know. I'd never read the Bible fully till I was about 19 years old. I mean, I knew the truths in the Bible from Sunday school and all. But I believe this, that if I diligently seek God, I will find him. If I seek him with all my heart, he has promised that I will find him. So let's begin with that promise in Jeremiah chapter 29. It's always good to begin with the promises of God before we go to his commandments. When you go to the commandments, you can be discouraged if you don't know that there's a promise supporting that commandment. The promise is like the foundation. The commandments are like the superstructure. A lot of Christians try to build a house without a foundation. No wonder it collapses. You try to obey the commandments without being supported by God's promises. What happens? It's like a house without a foundation. No wonder it collapses. And you wonder why didn't it work? I'll tell you why it didn't work. Because you founded your life on your own strength and not on God's promises. So here's a wonderful promise in Jeremiah 29. And it says there in verse 11, and I want you to take this personally, it's written in your Bible for you. When the Lord says for you, in that first sentence, it is for you. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Make it personal. Plans for your welfare. Welfare means to give you a good, something good in your life and not for calamity. Not to create problems for you. To give you a future, a wonderful future and something to hope for. Isn't that good? But you have to call upon me. And you come and pray to me. And I will listen to you. And you will seek me. And you will definitely find me when you search for me with all your heart. That's the only condition. Search for the Lord with all your heart. And the example I use very often is, if you were walking down a grassy path at night and you dropped a 10 cent coin there, how long would you look searching for that 10 cent coin, even if you're poor? Even if you're a poor homeless person, how long would you spend searching for that 10 cent coin? Not very long. So well, it's only 10 cents and you move on. Maybe if you're coming by that way tomorrow, you'll look again, is there my 10 cent here? But if you, if you had drawn $100,000 from the bank and you visited one or two other places before you went home and you misplaced it, you say, hey, where did I leave that? How long would you spend searching for that? That's not 10 cents. You would take leave from your work, even two, three days if necessary to find it, go to place after place after place. Where did I leave that money? It all depends on how much value you place on that item you're looking for. Now apply that to seeking after God. A lot of people seek for God like a 10 cent coin. Oh Lord, I really want to know you. I want to overcome. And then nothing happens in a few minutes and say, well, I've got other things to do. I've got to move on. Maybe tomorrow I'll say, oh Lord, you know, it's what I said yesterday. I'm really seeking after you. Nothing much happens in a few minutes and you move on. And God is testing you all along to see, is this guy really, is this woman really searching for me with all her heart? Or has she got a lot of other priorities in her life? And in a list of a hundred priorities, I'm about number 100, God says. He's not going to find me. The Bible says God is a jealous God. There's good jealousy and bad jealousy. Bad jealousy is where you envy somebody for something he has that you don't have or something he can do that you can't do. But a good jealousy is where God says, well, you see, that's mine. I don't want anybody else to have him like your child. You don't want your child to be more devoted to some stranger than to you as a father or mother. That's a good jealousy. Or a husband towards his wife. You don't want your wife to love another man. You're jealous for the love of your wife. Now, those are the two pictures, a father and son and a husband and wife. The God also, his relationship with us is like that. As a father, he wants us the exclusive love of our son for him more than anyone else. And anyone else you love must be after your love for him. If it exceeds your love for him, you're going to have problems, which you created yourself. It's just like a son who loves a stranger and the father knows that stranger is not up to any good. He's going to exploit my son for some benefit for himself. He'll do evil to my son. How you try to protect your son from kidnappers and evil people, that's exactly how God tries to protect us from Satan and deceivers because they're going to kidnap our soul. It's the same the relationship that a husband has with his wife is what Jesus wants to have with us. He's jealous for our love that we don't share our love with somebody else. And that somebody else is the devil or the world and things that are going to harm us. There's nothing wrong in that. There's nothing wrong in you being a husband desiring the love of your wife 100 percent. You would not want a wife who says, can I spend one month with another man? And you say no. Okay, can I spend one day with another man? You say no. What type of husband are you? Out of 365 days, you won't even allow your wife to spend one day with another man. That's jealousy. It's a godly jealousy. So is there anything wrong in God Almighty who created us saying, I want you 365 days of every year. I don't want you even one day to not be with me, to be interested in something else which will ruin you. We must believe God has us are good at heart. It's very, very important. Another verse in the New Testament in Hebrews in chapter 11, Hebrews 11 and verse 6. It says, when you come to God, you must believe something, the faith that you must have. Without faith, Hebrews 11, 6. Hebrews 11, 6. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You can do a million things. Help the poor, come to church, read the Bible, pray every day. The only thing you lack is faith. Impossible to please God. But Lord, I came to church. I read the Bible. I did so many good things. I helped the poor. Sorry. Faith is fundamental. What would you, again, let me use the husband-wife illustration. What do you think of your wife who cooks your meals and takes care of the house and takes care of the children, but tells you, listen, I don't trust you. What would you say? I'd rather you trust me and don't cook my food and don't take care of the house. Trust is so important. It destroys the relationship if a husband and wife tell each other, I can't trust you. You don't get married for someone just to cook your food and look after your children. Trust is so important in human relationships. And God says the same thing. You must first of all trust me. And if you trust me, you'll trust what I say. If I say something is not good for you, you must believe that. Well, like little babies, you know, that little kid takes a knife into its hand, one-year-old kid. And you see, mom says, no, that's not good for you. And the child can't understand. It screams when you take away that knife from it. It can't understand why you're saying no. And when we are babies, ignorant of God, we don't understand why God doesn't allow us to enjoy those illegal or illicit sexual pleasures. Why can't God allow me to enjoy a little pornography? It's exactly like that one-year-old child. Mom, can't I have the shiny knife with me? And the mom snatches it away. And God says that will destroy you. Do you think that child believes it? No. He thinks the mom is evil to prevent it from playing with that knife. And we think that God is so strict in not allowing us these little pleasures that we want in life. It's just like handling a knife or more than a knife, playing with a bomb worse than a knife. You must believe it is impossible to please God because you come to God. You must believe that he exists. That's the number one thing. That's interesting that the Bible says you shouldn't be an atheist. You must believe that he is, that there is a God up there to whom you're answerable. And your conscience tells you that. You are answerable to God. Even a little child, a little child, as soon as he comes to a little age of understanding, it's got a conscience that tells him that was a lie that you told mommy. And you can see it written all over his face that he's telling a lie. His conscience, he's got a conscience. Animals don't have it. That conscience is what from childhood we kill it. Every time we violate conscience, we kill the conscience a little bit. And by the time you're 17 or 18 years old, you can tell a lie with a straight face because you've killed your conscience so thoroughly, it has stopped speaking. And what happens when you're born again, when Christ comes in, one of the first things he does is resurrect that dead conscience and make it alive and more and more and more and more alive. And I believe that that is one of the marks of spiritual growth. That we get more and more sensitive in our conscience. Conscience is like a weighing machine. When we are unconverted, you can put one ton weight on that weighing machine and the needle doesn't even move. But when we get converted, it starts moving and that gradually gets more and more sensitive till you put one ounce upon it, one gram and it moves. That's how you know you're growing spiritually. Many people ask this question, how do I know I'm growing spiritually? I ask you, is your conscience getting more and more sensitive to bad thoughts, to bitterness, to wrong attitudes to other people? Good. You're growing spiritually. Are you in the same condition where you can still hold an unforgiving bitter thought towards somebody as you could 10 years ago? You're stagnant. You're not growing. God exists and our conscience tells us that every day. Secondly, you must believe that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Hebrews 11, 6. That if you diligently, wholeheartedly seek him, he will reward you. So these are some fundamental truths about God that we must believe if we want to move on in the Christian life and we must never lose these truths in our life. Like, you know, there's no time in the life when this foundation can be removed. Even if you build more floors on top of this, the foundation has to be there. The foundation is important and our relationship with God must be like that. The reason why a lot of marriages are unhappy is because this foundation in the two people's relationship with God is weak. The best way to have a good marriage is for husband and wife to have a good relationship with God, to have Christ in between them, to have Christ as first in their life. That's what makes our relationship. My wife and I have been married for 50 years but I never wanted to be first in her life and I told her she'll never be first in my life. Christ will be first. He'll always be second and I wanted to be second too. That's why our married life has been very happy. That's why God's given us grace to bring up our children following the Lord because each other, we were not first in each other's lives. Christ was first and always between us there was Jesus Christ. It's like Christ living in your home. The many things you won't say to your wife if Christ is there, right there listening to you. The many things you won't say to your husband if Christ is there listening to you. Long for Jesus Christ to be in your home always. Let me show you another verse in John chapter 7. John 7 is the only time in the Bible where we see Jesus. I mean there's another place where he cried out but that was on the cross but in his preaching there was only one time when he cried out. Later on on the cross when he was hanging he said cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me. That's when he was hanging there for our sin. But we will never understand the agony he went through there. But when he preached he would not cry out normally. His voice was always very gentle and gracious but one time he cried out. John 7 37 he cried out to everybody saying if anyone is thirsty come to me and drink. And if you really believe in me the promise of scripture will be fulfilled in your life. From your innermost being rivers of living water will flow out to bless multitudes. You know how rivers bless multitudes. And this he spoke about the Holy Spirit whom those who believed in him would receive. And listen to this. The Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Do you know when the Holy Spirit was given for mankind to dwell in man? Only after Jesus died and rose again and 50 days later on the day of Pentecost 10 days after Jesus ascended up to heaven the Holy Spirit came and filled those first 120 people within. But you may say weren't people in the Old Testament anointed with the Holy Spirit? David and the prophets. Yes but their anointing was on top. You know something like this. You pour the Holy Spirit. You pour water on top of this jar. It doesn't go inside because it's closed on top. And man's heart or spirit was closed like that because of sin. Sin blocked the door to our heart. That even when God poured the Holy Spirit on Moses or Elijah or Elisha the wonderful men even John the Baptist. It could not go inside because of sin. And all the blood of bulls and goats that they sacrificed could not open that door. But the water flowed outside and flowed and blessed millions. John the Baptist was a blessed to thousands of people. Moses he blessed millions of people. You know he would hit a rock and two million people would get water. But that is the Holy Spirit flowing over him and becoming rivers of living water but not inside because of sin. And that sin could be removed only when Jesus died and took the punishment for our sin which is not death but hell. You know very well that if you have sinned God doesn't punish you by killing you. Everybody dies. He punishes you by sending you to hell. And if Jesus did not suffer hell on the cross then my punishment has not been paid. Physical death like if you have a debt of one billion dollars and you pay one cent for it that doesn't clear your debt. So when you die you're paying one cent for your one billion dollar debt. Your one billion dollar debt of sin can be cleared only if you go to hell. So if Jesus paid one cent by dying on the cross that did not pay for your sin. He had to experience hell the full one billion dollar debt. And that's what he experienced on the cross. You know what hell is? It's not just a place of fire and worms. It's a place where you're completely forsaken by God. It's the only place in the universe where God is not there. Everywhere else God is there. Everywhere on earth God is there. Even in unbelievers homes God is there because he's watching over the whole thing. But in hell God is not there. And that's what makes hell, hell. And the presence of God who is the source of all blessings is withdrawn. And the agony that people suffer there for all eternity is indescribable. That's why Jesus pictured it like worms and fire and all types of pictures he used. But it's very difficult to understand what it is to be forsaken by God. No one on earth is forsaken completely. There's a mercy of God upon this earth which there's a goodness. The bible says God makes the sun to rise on the good people and the evil people. He makes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous because God is good. Terrorists, they have good health. Who gives them that health? Not the devil. They get married and they have children. Who blesses them with children? Children are the gift of God. Terrorists have children. God is a good God. He gives good gifts to everyone. But his most important gift of salvation is only for those who receive him. But what I'm trying to say is there is the blessing of God even upon the worst people on earth. Atheists experience the blessing of God in their life. But there's one place where God is absent completely and that's hell. And that's what Jesus experienced when he cried out, my God, my God why have you forsaken me? I keep teaching this everywhere I go because a lot of people don't understand it. The price that Jesus paid. You know when I understood it first I wept and wept and wept and wept and wept. I said Lord I want to hate sin with all my heart and that's the time I began to hate sin. I'll tell you before that I was born again and all that but I never hated sin until I really understood the price Jesus paid for my sin. Then we begin to love him more. Many of us treat sin so lightly. I'll tell you why. Because you did you have not understood fully the price Jesus paid for every word of anger that comes out of your mouth. For every filthy thought that you allow to enter into your heart. Not what you're tempted with but which you enjoy and relish. For every minute of pornography that you watch or every second that you watch Jesus died suffering eternal hell on the cross being forsaken by his father so that you might not be cleansed. And then you take advantage of that death of Jesus and keep on sinning. What do you think God should do to you or me? He really experienced hell but it was over in not in three after three days in the grave no no no in three hours. And the proof of that is when he was when he cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me at 12 noon up to 3 p.m in the afternoon there was darkness on the earth. There was an earthquake and what happened? All of creation was recognizing the creator of the universe had come in human form and was bearing the sin of mankind. And I don't know what Jesus went through in those three hours. I don't think I'll ever understand until one day I see him face to face. Then I will know the price he paid for my sin. But I want to know it now because I wanted to make me hate sin with all my heart. I want to hate the smallest bad thought one bad word that comes out of my mouth one rude word one rude word if I speak to another person I want to repent and recognize what Jesus paid for that rude word he had to hang on the cross for me. At the end of you know he's cried out my God my God it was the only time in all eternity in all eternity there was only one time that Jesus called his father God. He never called him God he always called him father throughout his earthly life it was father father father father for all eternity it was father but one time in his life he said God because at that moment on the cross he was standing not before his father he was hanging before the judge of all the universe he was judged as a sinner though he had never sinned. My sin was there I want to make it personal you make it personal my sin was put upon him and he took it voluntarily even though I hated him I did everything in my life to displease him I couldn't care less for him I rebelled against him he forgave me so many times yet I took advantage of him but he said it's okay I'll take your sin and he took it and then he was standing before God the judge of the universe and the judge of the universe said if there's sin there I don't care if it is my own son you got to go to hell for eternity and what Jesus experienced in those three hours was eternal hell you and I cannot experience eternal hell in three hours but Jesus was infinite God and because he was infinite he could experience hell even in a few moments eternity he could experience eternal hell in a few moments and so what Jesus experienced in three hours on the cross was eternal hell the punishment that billions and billions of human beings are going to experience in eternity in hell because they rejected Christ to save them from that to save me from that I make it personal he experienced it that I might never have to spend one moment separated from God either on this earth or in eternity and at the end of the three hours how do I know the debt was paid how do I know I get a certificate you know somebody's paid my debt of billions of dollars and I say hey show me the receipt I can't be sure till I get the receipt you say you've paid my debt but show me the receipt and here's the receipt at the end of the three hours he said Jesus said father once again into your hands I commit my spirit that one word father makes me aware I got my receipt my debt has been paid I've been forgiven my forgiveness did not come at the resurrection the moment the debt was paid my receipt was in my hand and I said father once again it was the father relationship I thank God for that sentence it comes only once in the gospels but it's so important to know that that he was no longer standing before the judge of the universe the price had been paid in three hours and now it was the father-son relationship again and that's what blesses my heart you know I never understood all this when I first accepted Christ but one of the things that the Lord taught me when I was born again at the age of 19 I was born again 60 years ago when I was 19 years old and one of the first things the Lord began to impress upon me was meditate on the cross of Jesus Christ I was in the navy and a lot of time I was alone on a ship out in the high seas and there was not a single other believer on the whole ship there'd be 200 people and I was the only believer and they'd all be playing cards and drinking and when they're not on duty and because I was an officer I had a room to myself on that ship and I could be there and study the bible and the Lord said meditate on the cross and that's what I did from the beginning that's what I slowly began to and it's not suddenly it took me many years to understand what I've just told you in the last few minutes but it changed my life and I wish it would change yours there's nothing that can make you love Jesus as much as knowing how much he loved you absolutely nothing no sermon can make you love Jesus as much as the revelation in your heart as to how much he loved you and that the proof of that love is seen on the cross and I didn't know all this theology you know I came from an orthodox church and I didn't hadn't heard much of these things but then I attended a brethren assembly where I didn't hear much of this either but I thank God that the Lord drove me to the scriptures all the it's in the bible everything I've understood in my Christian life is from the bible and I saw this in the scriptures I never read it in a single book or heard it in any tape about Jesus being forsaken as the punishment paid for my price I've never heard it I mean I've heard hundreds of internet messages but I never heard a single person speaking about this I never read a book on it I said amazing the most important truth of all hardly anybody's written anything on anything on it I said Lord I'm going to proclaim it wherever I go and even get people get bored listening to the same thing for a hundredth time I'm going to say because it hasn't sunk deep enough in your heart how do I know it's sunk deep in even in your heart when you stop sinning when you stop sinning I know now they've got it till then they were only listening they understood it in their mind it didn't sink into their heart do you know a lot of truths that we hear only go to our mind it's got to go down from there into our heart when we are gripped with it and then it'll change our life don't let it stay there you know it's like when it's in your mind it's like you eat wonderful food and you keep it in your mouth what are you going to do with it you'll spit it out after a while that's exactly what happens you hear something in the meeting and you think you got it you ask him you ask the person next week what did you hear oh I sort of forgot brother it was only in your mouth but the food that got digested in your stomach you know where that is that's in your body it got converted into blood and flesh and bones so you must meditate on the word of God there's no word which says if you read the word of God you'll be blessed no meditate on the word of God and whatever you do will be blessed psalm one very important song that's why it's put as number one song how do you like this promise whatever you do will prosper you like it whatever you do will prosper I love that you mean lord whatever I do will prosper yes here it is how blessed is the man start from verse one who does not walk according to advice of wicked people who does not stand in the midst of sinners standing along the direction they're going who does not sit in the seat of people making fun of God or fun of others but he spends his time delighting in the law of God and what does he do with that when he reads it he meditates on it day and night you can't read the bible day and night that's impossible maybe you read the bible 15 minutes yeah that's enough if you meditate on it for the next 23 hours and 45 minutes 15 minutes of reading the bible is enough if you meditate on that thereafter spend a little time meditating on that as soon as you read it and then whenever it comes to your mind some verse lord help me to remember it some people when they read the bible in the write it on a piece of paper and keep it in their pocket take it out once in a while during the day while they're at work somewhere meditate on it it can change your life if you meditate if you only read you'll get almost nothing whatever he does will prosper for whom those who meditate on God's word because then God shows them how to trust him and what they should do and what they shouldn't do and he'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water always yielding fruit in season his leaf does not wither means he doesn't get anxious and dried up whatever he does will prosper here's the promise whatever he does he will prosper if i were a christian businessman and that was the job God gave me to do i would pray that i said lord whatever i do must prosper not that it'll make me a millionaire or a billionaire a lot of billionaires have a lot of other problems but whatever i do will prosper in the sense that it'll go well with me in my life in my business in my family i'd rather have one God-fearing child than a billion dollars i'll tell you that any day that's how i value God-fearing children will you be happy if you earn a billion dollars and your children are wayward you don't realize what what's going to value in eternity your billion dollars was trash in eternity but if you have brought up God-fearing children that'll bless you and bless many others while they're on earth so what do you mean by whatever he does will prosper you've got to understand what true spiritual prosperity is so i believe this and so since i'm called to be a preacher and that's what i've been doing for nearly 50 more than 55 years i say lord when i preach God's word i don't care where it is which by which country or wherever it is i don't care whether it is when i'm tired or when i'm exhausted or when i'm fresh it doesn't make a difference when i preach God's word my word must prosper spiritually i mean it must bless people i don't want ever in my life to preach one sermon that doesn't bless people whether whether personally or on the internet whatever he does will prosper i want to believe that because as far as i know i do not walk according to the advice of wicked people no a lot of people give me advice i don't listen to it they tell me to violate laws and they tell me to cheat and tell lies and i say sorry i won't do it i remember once when some religious people took me to court in India because they were unhappy with my exposing their wrong teachings and my lawyer said one day we don't have to come to court today your wife is a doctor just get a certificate that you've got a fever or something don't come i said i'm sorry i don't tell lies i'll come even though it's inconvenient and that guy was surprised but later on one of the persons in that lawyer's office said to me you know Mr. Poonen you're the first true christian that our lawyer's office ever met so far because i wouldn't even tell a lie for a small thing like that i will not walk according to the advice of wicked people and i will not stand in the path of people standing in line to commit sin or sitting in the seat of people who make fun make fun of God or make fun of other people you know there are a lot of people who make fun of others in a way that they would not like anybody to make fun of themselves the bible says treat others in the way you want to be treated yourself sometimes you make fun of your wife in a rude way publicly would you like her to make fun of you like that and don't do it i'm not talking about a healthy joke or something which is understood but i'm talking about making fun there's such a bad habit which is even found among christians a habit of making fun of in other way in a way that hurts others we want to make fun of somebody i'll tell you who you should make fun of yourself some stupid thing that you did somewhere yeah explain that let people laugh at it i do that sometimes yeah by the way i have done a few stupid things in my life but don't sit in the seat of scoffers don't ever do that you young people don't join others in making fun of your teacher or fun of somebody God will not bless that that's a human being created by God don't make fun of homeless people don't make fun of somebody who is awkward who's got some physical disability or speech disability or so many things you know children sometimes make fun of others in school we got to teach our children do you think Jesus would make fun of that lame boy the way he walks or that other person who can't speak properly no you want i'm trying to get to the place where whatever you do will prosper that's what i'm trying to get you well begin with don't make fun of others don't sit in the seat of scoffers and instead of doing all those things it says here delight in the law of the Lord not just read it you know how you delight in ice cream i think all people delight in ice cream delight it's not oh do i have to eat this you give a chocolate to a child mom do i have to eat this it's not like that you delight in it delight in the law of the Lord have you come to that place it doesn't initially it doesn't come you know it's like you get a child to eat vegetables or broccoli or something mom i don't like that give me a chocolate or ice cream instead in the beginning but you know that to tell you honestly even the doctors will tell you that vegetables do good for you a lot more good than ice cream and chocolate does in case you didn't know so when a person comes to maturity in their way of thinking they realize hey this is what does good for me and that doesn't so let me eat more vegetables in my life and gradually believe it or not you'll come to the place where you enjoy eating vegetables yeah when you realize its value so which says here delight in the law of the Lord in the beginning when you read the bible you don't delight in it you do it as a ritual oh i have to go through this it's like studying for some examination okay how long do i have to study mom 15 minutes thank God let me finish this 15 minutes okay i finished that's the way a lot of people read the bible they're not delighting in the law of the Lord whatever you do will not prosper i'll tell you that but you delight in the law of the Lord and i'll tell you it's like eating vegetables or eating something which is unpleasant but which is good for your health some medicines that are bitter but it's good for your health you go through a surgery you don't enjoy surgery nobody does but you're willing to go through it because it's going to save you from cancer or something like that you okay praise the Lord for the result that will come i'll accept the surgery i and Lord i know ultimately this is going to do good for me so even though in the beginning i found out but i find the bible a bit boring after a while it's interesting i'll tell you my honest testimony i'm not trying to sell something here i've been reading the bible for 60 years and in the first seven years i read it so thoroughly that i knew it pretty well in fact almost all my knowledge of scripture today theoretical knowledge in my head has come from that first seven years of study it's like you store something into your hard disk up here and it stays there of course as you get older some of these this hard disk gets a few bad sectors in and gets a little bit of it the brain cells get a bit destroyed but in spite of a few bad sectors most of the things remain and if you decide which you want to remain i decided that i want scripture to remain other things i can like some of your names forgive me but i may forget it because i don't have enough space in my hard disk for all the names of people i meet but i and also because i want to preserve my hard disk space for scripture so sometimes i have to ask a person's name 10 times when i meet him and what to do i have to a lot of bad sectors coming in my hard disk as i get older but i want to preserve the good sectors for scripture believe me it'll stand you in good stead all your life when jesus was 30 years old and the devil tempted him turn the stones into bread now what's wrong in that don't think of it logically you're not stealing anybody else's bread you're not being a glutton if you're fasted for 40 days there's absolutely nothing wrong in eating bread and you're using your own power it's like using your own money to buy bread not somebody else's money jesus had power everywhere you look at it is absolutely legitimate for jesus to turn the stones into bread but there was one qualification for jesus even something that appears right i need to get my father's permission wow what obedience i tell you if you can raise your children like that you'll have wonderful children when they grow up dad even if it appears right to me shall i do it boy i wish such children for all of you that's how jesus was he's our example father it appears right to me i have power to turn stones into bread i'm hungry i haven't eaten for 40 days i'm not stealing anybody else's bread and i'm not asking for ice cream just bread no word from the father okay then i won't do it satan man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from god how did that word come to his mind at that time because he memorized it when he was seven years old he'd go to the rabbi in the synagogue there were no printed bibles those days they didn't have the luxury of a printed bible in their home like you have you have so many versions of it jesus didn't even have one version of it he had to go to the rabbi and says rabbi can you please turn to the next chapter and read it for me in deuteronomy so rabbi is delighted delighted the seven-year-old is coming to nobody else comes like him and in nazareth jesus would go and he'd say where are we son today in deuteronomy the next chapter what we call chapter eight and there he read man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from god's mouth seven years old he heard it memorized it 23 years later when he's tempted he comes back to his mind that's how god protects us from temptation that's how our way prospers when we meditate on the word of god he went home that day and meditated on that scripture and it stuck there it was stored in his hard disk forever so my brothers and sisters this is the way god wants us to go jesus has set an example for us and it says here that there will be fruit in our life psalm 1 verse 3 it'll be like a tree planted by the streams of water you know sometimes you see a tree planted and there's no river there's no water being nobody's pouring water on it to plant to water that tree but it's still flourishing because it's underneath its roots have gone out looking for water you know the roots of a tree have got amazing intelligence it keeps searching for water to nourishment and it finds there's a river nearby it goes there and draws the water from it into the tree and the tree is green and produces its fruit that's how it's a hidden that is the roots that give the greenness to a tree and brings fruit it's not what's visible and then that's how it must be in our life in our life there must be hidden roots that reach out to god nobody can see it it's underground god i want nourishment from you and the result is you see a man like that or a woman like that what does it mean is always fresh you know what that means listen to me never in a bad mood many years i had bad moods many times in my younger days as a christian but i said lord jesus if i'm like living like this i'm drawn nourishment underground nourishment that other people can't see from god i will never be in a mad bad mood no matter if 101 things go wrong in my house no matter if i lose my job or i lose my money or i'm seriously sick or somebody at home is seriously sick i will not be in a bad mood because i am inwardly in touch with god who runs this universe who can do all things my heavenly father with whom nothing is impossible he may allow me to go through suffering he may allow me to go through trials i read in the book of job that one of his greatest saints job god allowed him to go through tremendous trials but he never forsook him he gave him back double at the end of everything he lost god gave him double that's how good god is so i say lord this is the one i trust and so i'll never be in a bad mood see what i discovered through the years is if i'm not in touch with god it's very easy to be in a bad mood you pull that plug out of the socket and the light goes off immediately you say hey that's been burning for six hours what happened connection was gone but what about all that six hours of experience useless if you don't if you're not constantly connected you know in electricity it's like that the plug has to got to be in the socket even if it's even burning for 50 hours you take the plug out of the socket it's gone and even if i walked with god for 50 years if i lose my connection with god i'll get into a bad mood tomorrow but i know i won't because i've determined like that the roots of that tree to draw from the river the river is never dry god is never dry he's always supplying and i can always be fresh i want to ask you my brothers and sisters do you want such a life are you really eager for it are you searching for it like you search for 10 cents are you searching for it like you search for a million dollars how much is god worth for you 10 cents or a million dollars how do you seek lord i want this life at any cost i wanted it i said lord lord jesus you walked on this earth without ever being in a bad mood even for a single second i want to be like that no matter what happens god is still on the throne and he will remember his own the trials may press us and burdens oppress us he will never forsake his own that's our faith and we can sing that it was one of my favorite songs for many years god is still on the throne he'll never forsake his own his promise is true his word is true his promise is true he will not forsake you so that's how we are always fresh now this tragedy is i find a lot of christians say well you know as long as we live in the world we'll be we'll have bad moods for the people of the world it's okay those who don't have any connection to the river fine those trees can all dry up but why should i be like those dried up trees when i have an underground connection with the river that's the meaning of this song it's like a streams of water not only the leaf does not wither it says in verse three the leaf never withers a withered leaf is a bad mood there must not be one withered leaf in my tree and it's possible and it yields its fruit that means there'll be fruit from my life see i'm preaching i don't know how many hundreds of times in a single year all the time preaching and most of my sermons go 45 minutes to one hour and i say lord i mean i may say the same thing but it must be fresh i'm not saying that i've got always come up with some new invention there's really nothing new everything isn't from the bible only but what i say must be fresh even if it's the manna same taste as yesterday's manna but fresh same test taste as the manna we got for the last 30 years but fresh so i say lord i'm not saying that i should say something new or novel all the time i'm not i don't have that lust to be able to say something new and entertain people i'm here to bless people not entertain them to build them up so i'm willing to repeat the same thing 100 times but it must be fresh from heaven something that ministers life i mean the breakfast you ate today may have been exactly the same breakfast you've eaten many times in your life but you didn't say oh well the same old breakfast i've had this for 34 years the important thing is it fresh or is it polluted that's all that matters and i said lord i want fruit like that in my ministry that whatever i speak it must be fresh why can't it be like that for you and then it comes whatever he does will prosper and then there's a serious word here which says the wicked are not like that so when i'm not like that i'm categorized with the wicked when i have bad moods and god doesn't want my life to be a failure i believe in all my heart that god does not want my life to be a failure because i'm a son of god and i want to say to every one of you sitting here i don't care what mess you have made in your life so far say right up until today you've made a mess of your life i want to tell you the good news god can turn it around completely if you thirst and come to him say lord i'm gonna dare to believe that you'll do a miracle for me lazarus was dead for how many days you remember all your bible scholars four days in the grave jesus said i can raise it amazing those are messages that encourage us lord you may be dead for many years spiritually you made a mess of your life if you turn around today and say lord i will trust you i will seek you diligently you're going to be number one in my life from now on in the midst of all my work i'm going to seek you let's turn to john 7 again in closing john 7 we read there in verse john 7 and verse 37 onwards jesus cried out and i believe he's standing today in our midst and crying out if anyone it doesn't matter if you've been a made a mess of your life or you're a failure so far or you're not gifted or you have not even had any interest in the bible till now anyone sitting here is thirsty and i don't mean the type of thirst which says okay i don't mind a glass of water right now not like that but supposing i told you a glass of water calls it costs a million dollars oh you see i'm not that thirsty thank you but if you had been wandering in the desert for many days and you're dying of thirst and you're offered a glass of water for all your life-saving use to give it to me because i'm dying man and when you thirst like that lord this is the most important thing for me in my life and i'm willing to pay any price for it for the life of jesus in me when you come to that place of thirst come to me you know how jesus said about a man who went to his neighbor's house and knocked and knocked and the guy wouldn't open he says i'm not going to go away i'm going to keep on knocking or like we heard about the widow who went to the judge and kept on saying jesus always emphasized that continuous ask and ask and ask and ask and ask just to test whether you're serious about it many of you have not got what what god wanted to give you because you didn't ask long enough i saw a cartoon once try and understand this you know the apostles the 120 people including the apostles waited for the 10 days in an upper room in jerusalem for the there were 120 of them waiting for the coming of the holy spirit jesus said you wait jesus never told them 10 days very interesting wait until you receive the holy spirit it could have been 10 years who knows so they waited and this cartoon i saw was all these people sitting there waiting for the holy spirit and one man saying i've had enough waiting for nine days i'm going home and he goes home and the next day he hears these guys are all filled with the holy spirit and he missed it by one day he walked away one day earlier i wonder if that has happened to some of you that you prayed up to a certain point i say yeah i waited nine days it's enough i'm going home now and if you waited another day you did experience the greatest miracle in your life i believe that's happened to many people when i'm convinced that god wants me to have something i'll keep on praying till i get it a lot of things i don't know am i supposed to marry this girl or marry this man you don't know okay those things we don't know am i supposed to get this job or not get this job i don't know a lot of things like that we don't know will i get a house this house i'm trying to buy this house or i want to rent this house will i get it i don't know i want to transfer to this place from my present location will i get it i don't know i want to try and get this new job will i get it i don't know but there's one thing you can know Romans 6 14 says sin will not rule over you because you're under grace lord that i'm sure if i come under grace sin will not rule over me that's not some of these uncertain things like can i marry this person or can i get this job absolutely certain then why not seek it until you get it the promises of scripture you will seek me with all your heart and you will find me have you found god as your personal father jesus as your personal friend if not seek him there's a promise thirst like that and what will happen this holy spirit that used to be old testament only poured upon people on the day of pentecost this closed heart was opened up you know why it was opened up because the blood of jesus had cleansed all sin now therefore the heart was not blocked by sin the veil in the temple was rent and now the holy spirit could come inside and then fill inside and overflow from inside and bless millions that is the meaning here from his innermost being now the rivers will flow in the olden days up to the day of pentecost it was from outside but now inside that means the inside gets cleaned up first you remember how samson was anointed but his inside was full of adultery he was living in sin but the water flowed over him and still blessed people moses disobeyed god by hitting the rock the second time when god told him to speak to it but the water still flowed and gave water to two million people in the wilderness but god punished moses moses just because i blessed you don't think what you did was right you did a serious thing by disobeying me and some people think oh god blessed my ministry so he must be happy with me god has blessed my children so he must be happy with me rubbish god has blessed me in my job he's happy with me no god blessed moses even though there was sin in his life god blessed samson's labors even though there was sin in his life he was not happy with him and so god gave moses the severest punishment that he could have got you know what is the worst punishment moses could have got for disobeying god in one little thing he had obeyed god for so many things but one time god told him to speak to the rock he hit the rock in anger god said i'm going to punish you he didn't give him cancer that would be a very light punishment he said you will not enter the promised land that is the worst blow that he could get because for 40 years he'd been waiting for that boy god is strict and the more you receive from god the more strict he is with you if moses was some junior servant he may not have got such a strict punishment but because more was given to him more was expected so what i say is they were a lot of sin inside them but on the day of pentecost the whole way changed the gifts of the holy spirit changed in a different way he would come inside and clean up my inside first and then flow out from me and in rivers rivers means not just a little trickle but blessing thousands and that can happen to you if you thirst and believe lord there are only two conditions thirst verse 37 believe verse 38 from your innermost being rivers of living water flow and this is when jesus was glorified the holy spirit was given in this way that's the meaning of 39 my dear brothers and sisters the whole secret of the christian life live is dependent on being filled with the holy spirit every day i seek to be filled with god's holy spirit every day of my life first of all because i want to live in holiness i don't want to be in a bad mood i never want to be anxious for a single moment 24 hours a day i never want to lose my temper even once in 365 days of the year i never want to lust with my thoughts i can be tempted but i don't want to lust and therefore the only way out is to be filled with the holy spirit every day to me that is the most important thing whether i miss breakfast lunch or dinner not so important but i must be filled with the holy spirit when you thirst like that for god's holy spirit your christian life will rise up to another plane altogether something that you'll never experience that's how it's been with me it can be like that with you let's pray heavenly father i pray for all those who are sincerely crying out to you at this very moment who want this life at any cost i know you'll do it there's no partiality with you you'll do it for anyone here thank you father that's the rest of the day for us we pray in jesus name amen