The Importance of Dying to Our Own Will: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

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Even many people who in their mind understand all that they’ve heard about the new covenant, they don’t find it. I’ve seen that even in churches, in our own churches, in many places I’ve preached. There are many who understand it. They can explain it to others but in their daily life at home, they don’t find that way which is the way of the cross.

They don’t find that way of death to self. They don’t find it in their home. They don’t find it in their office. They don’t find it on the roads. They don’t find it in daily life, but they understand it so clearly. They understand it so well they can explain it.

The Deception of Bible Knowledge and Excitement

It’s one of the great deceptions in our day I find is thinking that Bible knowledge is spirituality. It’s one of the greatest deceptions of our time. If bible knowledge could make people spiritual, we should be having the holiest people that ever lived in the time of Christian — in the Christian era in our day. And we know the Bible better than Peter, James, and John because we’ve got printed Bibles which they never had.

It’s a great deception that knowledge makes us spiritual. And the other great deception is thinking that being excited about Christianity and about the things of the Lord makes us better than those who are dry, dead intellectuals. That’s another mistake.

So you find in Christendom, as I’ve looked around, there are those who major on intellectual knowledge of the word, understanding it, and imagining that that is and they’ve got it all accurately. It’s not defective knowledge. It’s correct knowledge and thinking that understanding justification means you’re justified or understanding about victory means you’ve got victory.

And, there are people who react against that and say that’s all dead knowledge. And they swing to the other extreme and say the important thing is to be excited. And they draw the example of people who are excited in a football game and how they yell and scream when their team has won. And don’t you think we should be like that when we know about the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

And they yell and scream and, get excited especially in their singing. And they think that’s spirituality. But both are in a deception. There are three parts to our personality, our intellect, our emotions, and our will. I want to say that God is after our will being yielded.

The Importance of Denying Our Will

And that’s what he comes to, you know. You can understand and you can be excited and you can still be on the broad way. And that’s where he speaks about the false prophets, verse 15, who come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

And even the preachers, they also haven’t understood this way of where the will is denied. You know, man will fight everything. Our human nature will fight everything provided we don’t have to deny our will. I’m willing to accept anything that Christianity or any other religion preaches so long as I don’t have to deny our my will.

Now we see that in children. The thing that they are unwilling to give up is their will, their stubborn will inwardly. I’m reminded of that story I often quote about the little boy who his dad said, “Sit down.” And he said, “I won’t sit down.” Then dad takes a stick and the boy sits down and he says, “Dad, inwardly, I’m still standing up.” The question is, how do you get that inward person to sit down? This is the stubbornness in a child and he doesn’t go away from us when we are grown up.

We think that spirituality is knowledge and emotion. And then he speaks further down in verse 21 about mind, our intellect, our emotion, and our will. You see that in verse 21. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

When a person says, “Lord,” to Jesus, you know, he’s got his intellect right. His mind is right. Jesus Christ is Lord. When he says “Lord, Lord,” it means he’s even excited. His emotions are also stirred by the fact that Jesus is Lord. But what does he not do? He doesn’t yield his will. He doesn’t deny his will to do the will of the Father.

Evaluating Our Spirituality

And this is where we need to – if you really want to see how spiritual you are, never never evaluate yourself by how well you know the Bible. The scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ time knew it very well. How well you can explain it, it only means you’ve got a very good mind that can understand, analyze, explain, and, you know, secretly you can be proud of it. That I really know the Bible.

Or there are others who, as I said, I don’t just say “Lord,” they say “Lord, Lord.” They’re excited. And, they are the emotional type who think that that is the in fact, one of the great deceptions of our day is to confuse emotion for the moving of the Holy Spirit. They think that in a quiet meeting where nobody’s emotional, nobody’s excited, nobody’s raising their hands, the Spirit is not moving. And they think on the other hand where everybody is excited and lifting their hands and shouting and praising and saying hallelujah and all this must be the Holy Spirit. This is the deception in Christendom today.

True spirituality. You can be quiet or you can be emotional. If you deny your will in daily life, you’re spiritual. Otherwise, you’re not. That’s why I often say when people ask me, “What’s the difference, brother Zac, between your church and other churches?” I said the difference is that from this that in other churches Sunday is the important day. For us Monday is the important day and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday.

In other words, if I’m denying my will you see Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday I’m not studying the Bible and shouting and praising God like I do on Sunday. On Monday, it’s my will that matters at home in the different situations that arise by denying my will.

It’s not just what I said “Lord, Lord” on Sunday, but I want to do, verse 21, do the will of my Father in heaven. See, when we’re sitting here on a in a Sunday service, there’s not much opportunity to do the will of our Father, except listen to God’s word perhaps. But Monday onwards, we have a lot of opportunity to deny our will and to do the will of our father.

On Sunday, we are saying, “Lord, Lord.” So “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” The one who’s got his intellect right and his emotions all excited. No. But the one who quietly does the will of my Father in heaven.

Christians generally are impressed by someone who can expound scripture well, explain it well, preach well, or someone who is, you know, a great master of ceremonies on a Sunday morning can stir everybody up to, raise their voices and to say hallelujah and praise the Lord. Yep.

God Is Impressed by Those Who Deny Their Will

And God’s not impressed with any of them. He’s impressed with the person who, you may not be impressed by because maybe he’s a quiet type of person. That’s his personality. In God’s church, there are people who are quiet by temperament and personality. They’re shy. They are reserved and generally speaking, people look down on them as not being spiritual.

And then there are others who are very exuberant and most Christians think they are the ones who are spiritual because they’re very exuberant or they’re very knowledgeable. But it’s not our temperament that makes us spiritual. The shy person may be far more godly than the exuberant extrovert.

I’m not saying that the quiet person is spiritual. No. What I’m saying is both are equal before God’s eyes. The only thing that matters is what do you do with your will? Do you deny it when you’re tempted? When you’re provoked, do you deny your will? Say, “I want to do the will of my Father here. I want to do what God wants me to do and I can never do the will of God if I don’t deny my own will.” And he goes on to say, “Many will come to me in the final day and say, ‘Lord, Lord,'” verse 22. “We did all these other things and, you know, a lot of activity.”

He says, that’s not the will of my Father. It was your attitude to sin that was important. When you know, he explains doing the will of my Father. What is that? Verse 22. Is it prophesying in Jesus name? Yeah. That may be part of the Father’s will. Sure. Is it casting out demons from people who are demon possessed? Yes. That’s also part of the Father’s will. Jesus did it.

Or is it performing miracles, perhaps? That could also be the Father’s will. Jesus did it. But in spite of these people doing it, the Lord says to them, “I don’t know you. I never knew you.” “I never came into a personal relationship with you because when it came to sin, you didn’t give that out.”

So it’s in the area of sin and holiness that, the final judgment is going to determine whether the Lord’s going to accept us or not, and whether we did the will of the Father in relation to sin and holiness, not in relation to miracles and preaching and singing and, you know, attending services.

The External vs. the Internal

We were just studying Isaiah chapter 1 a little while ago. And if you notice there in that first chapter, the external things they did were according to scripture, you know, burnt offerings and sacrifices and sabbaths, but it is all the ritual part. And the really practical part of caring for the widow and defending the helpless and the orphan, that they left out. It’s the easy part.

It’s the ritual more than real righteousness that even Christians are occupied with today. See, for example, what people call praise and worship and singing and reading the Bible and attending, church. It’s all the external ritual. And that’s exactly how it was then.

So doing the will of God in relation to sin and holiness, that is — is the person who has chosen that and who seeks to do that every day, who’s really walking the narrow way that leads to life and very few find it. A lot of people who we think are great men of God and women of God on Sunday morning, the first will be last. And some of the others who we don’t think much of because, they’re not the exuberant type. They don’t know — they’re not — they don’t have so much ability, and they don’t have the ability to prophesy or cast out demons or do miracles. They may be first because in daily life, they have — they find the way that Jesus walked, that narrow way of denying our own will and doing the will of God.

Building on the Rock vs. Building on Sand

And that’s what Jesus went on to speak about in the end. You know, this is the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. Ultimately, he says, it’s not a question of whether you understand the Sermon on the Mount. It’s not a question of whether you get excited over it. It’s a question of whether you actually do every day the will of God in your daily life.

And he goes on to speak about the man who built his house on the rock, the wise man, and the man who built his house on the sand. And if you read carefully, let’s look at the man who built his house on the sand, verse 26. He heard these words of mine. So the man who built on sand was not an atheist. He was not even a nominal Christian who was sitting at home watching television on Sunday morning. He was a faithful church goer. He heard the words of Jesus.

And you know, in those days when they didn’t have a Bible, remember for 1,400 years, nobody had a printed Bible. The only place where they could hear the word of God was in a church meeting. The words of Jesus. He heard these words of Jesus. So the foolish man was one who went regularly to church so he never missed a Sunday service. But he was foolish. He heard, maybe he understood it. Maybe he was clever, humanly speaking. He was excited about what he heard. But when it came to his daily life, in his home, in his work, he did not do it. That’s all.

He heard these words of mine but he did not yield his will.

Walking in the Light Means Denying Our Selfishness

He understood it, excited about it, but he didn’t do it. Now I want to say this, my dear brothers and sisters. If you want to escape deceiving yourself, the Bible speaks about a number of times in the New Testament about don’t deceive yourself. Don’t deceive yourself. Number of times.

And if you want to — don’t want to deceive ourselves, then never evaluate your spirituality by how much you know the Bible, how well you can explain it, how well you can preach, how well you can sing, how much other people think of you as one who knows the scriptures or one who’s a very exuberant Christian. Never evaluate yourself by that.

But evaluate yourself by how much you deny yourself in daily life at home, in relation to your husband and wife and family. And how much you deny your selfishness that there is in all of our nature. The Bible calls our, speaks about our flesh in which dwells nothing good, Romans 7:18, we can say that the reverse of it would be saying everything in our flesh is selfishness.

We’re always thinking of ourselves first. We’re always thinking of our own convenience. If I take this course of action, how will it affect me and my family? What is the minimum I have to deny myself and get maximum benefit from God and from my fellow believers and from the church? And what is the minimum I have to do to deny myself? That is the corruption of the flesh.

And if I’m not denying that in daily life and if I’m not getting light on it more and more, if I’m walking with the Lord, I’ll be getting more and more light on this selfishness that there is in my flesh. The subtle pride that I have in my imagined spirituality. If I’m not getting light on it, I’m not really walking in the light.

The Bible never speaks about standing still in the light. If we walk in the light, that means I’m getting closer and closer to God, who is the only source of true light. God is light. We read in 1 John 1, God is light. And if we walk in that light, walk means I get closer and closer to that light. That means I’m getting more and more light on myself.

On what? On my selfishness. And, to walk in the light, there’s only one way to walk in that light. And that is when I get light on my selfishness, I deny it. I haven’t seen all of it. I’ve got a long way to go to see all of it. But that one little bit that I see in some situation in my home or in my work spot or somewhere else or I often used to find it driving a scooter down the roads of India as well. I could get light on myself. I could get light on it at home. I could get light on it in the way I handle my finances.

I could get light on it. I could get light on it even when I’m preaching or in church and all the time. Light on my selfishness, my lack of consideration for others or and I had light on it and I say, “Lord, I want to put this to death.” There I deny myself in order to do the will of God. There in that moment, I have found that narrow way that leads to life.

And if I haven’t found that in daily life, whether I know it or not, I’m walking a broad way. Even if I’m doing miracles, preaching great sermons. I remember many years ago, the Lord told me, “Never evaluate your life by all these external activity that you’re doing for me. Preaching, traveling, writing books, singing songs, never evaluate yourself by any of these things. Your value before me is how much you deny yourself, your will, your selfishness, how you get light on it and you deny it in order in order to do my will.”

The Wise Man Builds on the Rock by Denying His Will

That’s the wise man who hears, and he’s not — the foolish man hears and he’s excited about it, you know, to know the scriptures, to be able to explain the scriptures, my house is still on sand. And to be excited about Jesus, my house is still on sand. But when I go through the sand, through the — it’s not that we despise the mind. It’s not that we despise the emotions. God created our mind and God created our emotions.

And when we hear God’s word, it goes through our eyes or ears. Right now through the ears, it first comes to our mind. And it’s coming into your mind now. And then it stirs our emotions. We respond in inwardly, but we still haven’t become spiritual. We haven’t still hit rock. We’re still going through the sand. The sand is our mind and our emotions. When do you hit rock? When you say, “I’m going to deny my will in this area where God has shown given me light.”

See, that’s what it says in Luke 6:48. The wise man is like a man who building a house, Luke 6:48 dug deep and founded — put his foundation on the rock. So why was he digging deep? Because it all sand all the way down here. It was sand, sand, sand, sand, sand.

Intellectual understanding, being able to explain the scriptures, excited about it to still stand. And he said, “I’m not happy.” Now, a person who gets happy say, “Hey, I’ve understood the scriptures. I’m excited about it. Boy, he had a wonderful time of praise this morning and Sunday.”

Wasn’t that some lovely songs he sang? It’s all fine, brother. When you hit rock is when you’ve gone through that and denied your will. And you say, “I do what God tells me to do.” Then I have laid my foundation on the rock, then the flood can come and the torrent can burst, the rains can come.

I’m rock solid. And there you see the reason why so many Christians who come and listen to God’s word and understand it and sing so well, some situation comes up in their life and they begin to shake. They’re anxious, they’re afraid, they’re worried and they lose their temper and they backslide. It’s because for years and years and years, they’ve been living on sand. They’ve been just growing in their understanding and their excitement about God’s word and thinking they’re spiritual because they understood so much or, were excited so much.

Taking Up the Cross Daily

So this is this is why it’s so important to understand exactly what Jesus meant when he said in Luke chapter 9 and verse 23. He was saying to them all. Jesus was saying to everyone. Luke 9:23. “If anyone wants to come after me, doesn’t matter who it is, let him say no to himself, to his self will, to his selfishness, and take up his cross and that means to die to his own self and then follow me.”

I mean, there’s so little about understanding an emotion. If you want to follow Jesus, it is some action of denying myself. In the different situations of life, when I’m provoked to say no to myself. I’m not going to respond to that. I’m going to be like a dead man in this situation.

Or it could be when I’m praised, appreciated by somebody. I’m going to be like a dead man. That’s the meaning of taking up the cross. I’ve died to myself. You see, for a dead man lying here, he’s not going to be affected by your criticism or your praise. Or equally say you call him a devil or you call him a prophet. There’s no change of expression on his face. He’s just the same. He’s dead. If the criticism of men or the appreciation of men can inwardly, make some change in us inwardly. We are not dead yet. And this is the thing I used to keep praying for as I began to understand, seek the Lord for understanding the way of the cross.

I said, “Lord, when people insult me or get angry with me, there must not even be a flicker inside my heart. And if people call me a prophet or a man of God, there must also not be a flicker in my heart. I want to come to the place where I’m really dead.”

Like that dead man. You call him whatever you like. Evil names or good names, no change of expression in him. Are you keen on getting there? That’s the first question.

Dying to the Opinions of Men

Does the praise of men excite you? Criticism of men depress you? I think if a godly man, I mean, if a man like the apostle Paul came up to me and said, “Zac, I’m a bit concerned about your life. I think you’re a bit of a hypocrite.” I mean, that I would take seriously because the man who’s saying it, is a godly man.

So I’m not saying that we should devalue the opinion of godly people who may be able to discern something in us which we can’t discern ourselves. But otherwise, I mean, there are very few like that who love us enough to speak the truth about us and who are spiritual enough to able to discern us. Very few. Most of the time, we are facing people who either are angry with us or upset with us or are jealous of us or want to hurt us or etcetera etcetera. I want to show that they are better than us or something like that.

And that’s why in most situations, I have to just die to the opinions of men. I say the approval and, disapproval of men is all just fit for the trash can. I want to be dead. I want otherwise, I can’t follow Jesus. Jesus, anyone who wants to come after me, you have to die.

You have to and that’s not something I can just do today and settle it forever. When I’ve given my life to Christ, when I’m born again, it’s like a marriage. Okay. I’ve decided. I want to be your disciple all my life.

But when it comes to taking up the cross, I can’t do it once for all. It says I’ve got to do it every day. However faithfully I may have taken up the cross yesterday, that’s not good enough for today. I may have been a very faithful follower of Jesus yesterday because I took up the cross and day died to myself and today, I may be a backslider. I have to take up my cross daily and follow him.

And when it says take up the cross daily and follow him, it must mean that he also took up a cross every day. Otherwise, how in the world could he ask me to take up the cross every day if he took it only once in his life? No. When he tells me to follow him daily taking up the cross and denying myself, read that verse slowly, carefully. I must — to follow Jesus, I must deny myself every day, say no to myself every day and die to myself every day.

It must mean that that’s the way he went every day of his life. And that’s the hidden cross in the life of Jesus which most people don’t see. Most Christians have only seen that outward cross that he took the last day of his earthly life and that’s what they shed tears over. “Oh, he suffered so much for me.” And if you see that cross, I mean, you get forgiveness of sins.

That’s fine. I believe that. You don’t need to see his daily cross in order to get forgiveness of sins. To me, that’s the gate. But that gate leads to a way. There’s a narrow gate and you can enter through the narrow gate and stick, be stuck at the gate all your life. But then narrow gate leads to a narrow way that leads to life. That’s what Jesus said. The gate is narrow and the way is narrow that leads to life. And I got a picture in my mind of a lot of Christians just stuck at the gate.

And they stand at the gate and they spend their entire life increasing in understanding and increasing in activity, but never actually walking the way of denying themselves and following Jesus. And that’s why even after so many years of being a Christian, they still get depressed. They, still don’t know how it is to rejoice always. They still don’t know how it is to be anxious for nothing. They still, when they hear words like, “He who says he’s a Christian must walk the same way that Jesus walked.” 1 John 2:6.

Walking as Jesus Walked Is Possible in the New Covenant

I say, “Oh, that’s all impossible.” It is impossible. If you stick if you stay around the gate, it’s impossible. But yet there are words like this. “He who says he abides in Christ must walk in the same way as he walked.” This is the new covenant. This is what was impossible in the Old Testament. Intellectual understanding of God was possible in the Old Testament. Excitement was possible.

If you read the Psalms, you find what tremendous excitement these people had in praising God. They would bang their timbrels and instruments and shout and raise their hands and clap and say praise the Lord. Yeah. That’s all the Old Testament. There’s nothing wrong in it.

We can do it. But Jesus said, the true worshipers in the new covenant will worship God in the spirit and not just in the soul of mind and emotions. I’m all for it. I believe man is spirit, soul, and body, and we should worship God with our spirit, soul, and body. That’s why I’m alright for clapping hands and raising our hands.

I’m alright for use, using our soul as well to worship god and with our intelligence. That means I mean what I sing to God. I mean the words. I think seriously about the words. I’m excited about the words, And, I can say hallelujah excited, but it’s the will that penetrates through and opens the door to the spirit.

The Veil Torn in Two

It’s the will that is that veil that hung in the Old Testament temple. You know, it’s just like this. You couldn’t go into the most holy place. Nobody in the Old Testament could go to the most holy place. What was this thing that blocked off the presence of God?

And remember, in the Old Testament tabernacle, this is something like this where there was a most holy place and there was a holy place and then there was the outer court, you know, corresponding to man’s body, soul, and spirit. And God did not dwell in the outer court. He did not dwell in the holy place. He dwelled in the most holy place and nobody could get there. That Shekinah glory of God was there.

The mercy seat was there. God says that’s where I’ll speak between the cherubims and the mercy seat. And this veil, nobody understood in the Old Testament what this veil meant. And when Jesus died and he said “It’s finished,” that veil was torn from top to bottom saying, now you can enter God’s presence. So if you turn to Hebrews chapter 10, you see what that veil is.

The way into the most holy place is called a new and living way. That’s part of the new covenant. Hebrews 10, brethren, verse 19. We have confidence to enter the holy, that is the most holy place. First of all, by the blood of Jesus. That is what forgives our past life, cleanses us from all our sin and by a new and living way, a way that living means ever fresh. New, of ever fresh, a new means ever fresh, and a living way, that means there’s no depth there, which Jesus inaugurated for us.

Now what is the meaning of something inaugurated for us? You know, sometimes when a new road is being laid out some place, some big official comes in, inaugurates it, they cut a ribbon and say the road is open now. The road is open for what? Not not just for observation. We can walk on it now. We can use it. We can drive on it. It’s a way that’s been inaugurated, not for admiration, but for us to walk on for us.

Jesus inaugurated a way by the way he went and that way goes through the veil. It was a way. So the veil was not just a door, but a way. There’s a way through the veil which has been inaugurated for us. Have you ever considered what that way is?

What is the way, the new and living way through the veil. You need to understand what the veil is. He inaugurated the veil – inaugurated through the veil that is he explains what the veil is. His flesh. There was something in Jesus that was torn. It’s not his body. If it was his body, it would have been written there. The veil is his body. His body was not torn. His body was just pierced in a few places.

But there’s something inside that body that was torn. And that’s described in John chapter 6 and verse 38. John 6:38, Jesus says I call this the one line autobiography of Jesus. The way Jesus described his entire life in one sentence explaining why he came down from heaven. He did not come to die on the cross. That was one part of what he came for. But he sums it all up in this sentence. “I came from heaven to deny my own will.” Not to do my own will means say no to my own will and say yes to the will of my Father who sent me. He describes his entire 33 and a half years with that one sentence.

Right from the time he came to an age of understanding as a child to the last moment on the cross when he said it’s finished. He denied his own will and did the will of his Father. His going to the cross was just one part of that. You know, in Gethsemane, he said, “Not my will but thine Father.” But that’s not something that he said only in Gethsemane.

He said it all through his life. As a little child, at home in Nazareth, “It’s not my will but thine.” As a carpenter, as he worked, he wouldn’t do things according to his will. He wanted to do exactly what the Father told him to do in every situation. And that’s why he was constantly listening.

Jesus’ Life Was a Life of Listening

Jesus’ whole life was a life of listening, And that’s why his first spoken words in his ministry, the very first spoken words of his ministry were, “Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4. Not by just food and things like that. By every word, if that’s the way man is to live, how many people have understood it? That if you want life to its fullest, you must hear every word that God is saying.

And what a work the devil has done by getting Christians in our day particularly to completely neglect the Bible. We live in a day when people don’t even bring the Bible to a meeting, to a church service. They have no time for it. Their ignorance of the Bible is so absolute. They despise it. They don’t value it. No doctor goes around without a stethoscope. Man thinks he can live without the word of God and that’s why they’re so defeated. They know more about the news on television than every word that proceeds from God’s mouth. I want to ask you a straight question brothers and sisters.

Have you read through the scriptures? Have you read every word that has proceeded from God’s mouth? First of all, do you believe the Bible is God’s word? If you don’t believe the Bible is God’s word, then it’s okay if you didn’t read it. I don’t despise them.

Those who say, “Well, I don’t believe the Bible is God’s word. Why should I read it?” Oh, okay. I appreciate your honesty. I don’t agree with you, but at least you’re honest.

But I’ll tell you the dishonest person, the hypocrite, the one who says, “There is only one book that God has given to man. Among all the millions of books in the world, there’s only one God has written,” and he doesn’t read it every day. He doesn’t study it. He doesn’t bring it to a meeting where you’re studying God’s word. He is a hypocrite. Fit to be with the Pharisees of old. He’s not consistent. He’s not honest. And God sees that dishonesty in him and allows him to be deceived.

Jesus was — his whole life was one of listening. He would often go out into the wilderness to listen. What does the Father want me to do? Because his entire aim in life was to do the will of his Father. And if he had missed it at one point, he would have sinned. To sin for Jesus was not like what we call sin, getting angry or having a dirty thought.

I mean, those are all such low level sin kindergarten stuff. Those are not the things Jesus was dealing with. He had overcome all that. For him, sin was something where I did not do what my Father wanted me to do. I did my own will. It was a pretty high level that Jesus lived and God calls you and me. This is spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is not knowing the Bible. In that case, the devil is the most mature person of all. He knows the Bible so well.

If I have a Bible quiz competition with the devil, he’ll win. Definitely. It’s in obedience where he fails. I’m sure the devil is excited about a lot of things, but there’s no obedience to God’s will. That’s the thing which characterized the life of Jesus. He never did his own will. See Romans chapter 15. Romans 15, we read these words. Verse 3, “Christ did not please himself.” I tell you that’s such a challenging verse to me.

Just those few words. Five words. Christ did not please himself. He could have. There are a lot of things we can do to please ourselves without committing what world the world calls sin. But Christ was so intent on doing the Father’s will that he would not do his own will in any area. It’s not just what we call sin. For example, if Jesus had gone to Rome, he would not have sinned. He wouldn’t have, you know, lusted or got lost his temper or got anxious or afraid. He could have lived a pure life in Rome just like he could have lived it in Israel.

Why didn’t he go? One reason. It was not in his Father’s will. Let’s settle the matter. If the Father doesn’t want me to go to Rome, I don’t go there. It’s not a question of whether I can overcome sin there or not. That’s not the point. The Father does not want me to go there. That’s the end of the matter. His whole life was governed by this. I have to complete a work on earth, which my Father gave me to do. And he has not told me the whole thing. Moment by moment, day by day, he shows me what I’m supposed to do. He lived one day at a time. See, Isaiah 50 — There’s a prophecy about Jesus in Isaiah 50.

The Tongue of a Disciple

Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 4. “The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples.” Isaiah 50 verse 4. “That I may know how to sustain the weary one with the word.” And what was the word which he was going to give this weary person who suddenly — you know, Jesus remember this, Jesus lived just like us.

He had given up the prerogatives of God when he was on earth. He did not know just like we don’t know which weary person is going to come across our path needing a word from God. Suddenly, this weary person comes before the Lord and I will know how to sustain that weary one with a word because I’ve got a tongue of a disciple. The tongue of a disciple, that means I don’t speak unnecessary words. I have allowed the Lord to control my tongue all the time.

Therefore, I will have a word on that tongue for this weary person who comes my way because this morning, verse 4, my Father woke me up and woke my ear to hear what he had to say to me. That’s why he had the word for that weary one. Because he had already heard the Father. And it was not just that he opened his ear for half an hour of quiet time like people say, “I’ve had my quiet time and then” No. His ear was open the whole day. Listening, listening, listening, listening. So he had a word for every person who came across this path. His life was like that and people say, “Boy, isn’t that a strain? To live always wanting to listen?” Not at all.

The Relaxed Life of Hearing the Father

It’s the most relaxed way you can ever live. The strenuous life is the one where you do your own will, which leads to so many complications and problems. The relaxed life is the one where I keep inwardly listening to the Father and then — So when it says the new living way through the veil is his flesh, That was his will that was torn for 33 years. He heard the Father. Okay?

“I won’t do what I want to do. I’ll do what he says. I won’t say what I want to say. I’ll say what my Father says.” You know, in one place Jesus said, “Even the words that I speak, the Father has given me.” It’s a tremendous thing. I don’t know whether you when you read scriptures like that, whether you have a passion. John 14:10. It’s amazing. When I read a verse like this, boy, it challenges me to no end.

I don’t know whether it challenges you like that. John 14 verse 10. “Don’t you believe the Lord says that I’m in the Father and the Father in me? Even the words that I speak to you, I don’t speak it on my own initiative.” Boy, to be so much in touch with the Father that I know exactly what to say at each time.

That’s Isaiah 50 verse 4. He woke up my ear to hear. Dear brothers and sisters, what we need more than anything else is a waking ear throughout the day to listen. And when the Father says and the Holy Spirit speaks to us, Just don’t say that. I listen. Or in some other situation, he says, “Say that.” Or “Don’t look at that. Don’t pick up that magazine.” It’s a wonderful way to live. We’ll not only be free from sin, but we’ll be able to complete the task God has appointed for us.

Jesus lived like that. You keep on being sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit like that, and Jesus walked down the road and the Spirit of God would say, “Stop. Look at the tree. There’s a man there.” That’s how Jesus fulfilled his ministry.

Honor the Holy Spirit

And to think that we, people who are such wretched sinners, suddenly so cleansed in the blood of Christ and so filled with the Holy Spirit. That’s why I keep saying, dear brothers and sisters, honor the Holy Spirit. There is no Christianity without being filled with the Holy Spirit. Don’t get caught into the theological controversies of it and doctrinal arguments. Don’t get into argument.

You cannot live the Christian life without being filled with the Holy Spirit every single day. If there’s one exhortation I would give to Christians, be filled with the Holy Spirit continuously. The Spirit of God is the one who speaks to us. Be sensitive. And you know, he comes like a dove we read in the scriptures.

And you know how easily why — why is the picture of a dove used? It’s so easily you can scare him away. Any the dove doesn’t like impure things. That’s the difference between the the raven and the dove that Noah sent out. The raven is a picture of the flesh and the dove is a picture of the Spirit.

And the raven went out of the ark and saw all the carcasses of the dead bodies floating around and said, “Boy, that’s great for me. I can have a feast now.” And the dove went out and said, “I can’t touch any of this.” Came back. That’s how the man led by the Spirit lives on this earth.

If you find delight in the things of earth, you’re living like the raven according to the flesh. But we have to live on this earth. We look around and say, “No. I don’t want any of this.” And I come back to the ark. I want to hear what the Spirit is saying. That’s the most effective way. That is the new and living way Jesus inaugurated through the veil, never doing his own will. And when he did — when he lived like that for 33 and a half years, the Father bore witness to that by tearing that veil and saying, “I’ve opened a way for all those who want to go this way.” There’s no compulsion.

God doesn’t even compel a person to go to heaven. If you want to go to hell, go to hell. And neither does he compel a born again Christian, like all of us are, to walk this way. You don’t have to. You can live doing your own will every day and glorying in the fact that you’re part of a good church, listening to good messages, increasing in Bible knowledge, and learning new songs and wonderful songs of praise, and imagining that that is spirituality.

It is not. There is a way that Jesus inaugurated through his flesh. And that was the way of self denial, the way of increasing discovery of our own selfishness, of how we impose ourselves on other people. Has the Lord ever shown you how you impose yourself on others and you don’t even have light on it? And then one day you get light on it and say, “Oh, boy!”

“Look at the way I was imposing myself on my wife all these years as if I was almighty God! Look at the way I imposed myself on my husband. Or how I made things difficult for that person instead of easier.” If God brings me into the life of somebody else, even a brother or sister, I must make life easier for him. It’s one of the prayers which is praying.

“Lord, help me to make life easier for my brothers. Help me to make life easier for my husband and my wife the way I live. Not make it more difficult. Help me to make life easier, Lord.” That requires getting light on ourselves constantly.

Fullness of Joy in God’s Presence

It’s a glorious way. And one of the byproducts of it is that we never lose our joy. Yeah. One last verse. The time is up.

Psalm 16. Psalm 16 and verse 11. This is one of the tests I’ve applied for my own life. “In thy presence is fullness of joy.” And so, I say to myself, “Lord, this is how I know whether I am in your presence or not.”

Do I have fullness of joy? Then I am in your presence. If I don’t have fullness of joy for whatever reason, I am not in God’s presence. At any time in my life, if I am not full of joy in the Lord, things may have gone right in the world and around me, things may have gone wrong in the world around me, joy of the Lord inside me is unchanging. Then I know I’m in God’s presence.

And that is in the most holy place. And that’s where Jesus has opened a way for us to live forever in his presence. And when it says that Jesus, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, Hebrews 12:2. You know what that means? In his presence is fullness of joy in the most holy place.

Jesus was saying, “That’s the joy I want. I don’t want the joy that I can get on earth from so many other things. I want that fullness of joy which is in the Father’s presence, and if the only way to get there is by denying myself and going through the veil, I’m ready for it.” He endured the cross for the joy that was set before him in the most holy place and denied himself. And that’s the reason why we’re not able to rejoice all the time.

We think it’s because of this factor, the other factor of my personality is like this and my temperament is like this. It’s got nothing to do with your personality. It’s got nothing to do with your temperament. It’s got nothing to do with the number of people who irritate you every day. It’s got to do with only one thing. I do not choose to walk that new and living way of denying myself. And you know, like everything else in life, the more we do it becomes a habit. Like they say in the world, “Sow an act and you will reap a habit.” You do it little by little by little afterwards, it becomes a habit like brushing our teeth. You do it even without thinking about it in the morning now.

It started off as a habit that you were disciplined to do by your parents and now it’s, as an act, and finally it became a habit. So it is to walk this way. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, it’s so easy to understand all this. We’re all clever people and I pray that we shall not deceive ourselves because you’ve understood. Thank you for the many opportunities you give us to walk this new and living way. Lord Jesus that you inaugurated for us the way of continuous joy, the way of rest in God. Help us to walk it. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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