Zac Poonen emphasizes the significance of sanctification, particularly the need for a pure spirit in our relationship with God. He highlights that true worship must come from the spirit, not merely from outward actions, and that maintaining a pure spirit is essential for experiencing God's presence and guidance. Poonen warns against the dangers of prioritizing work over worship and stresses that sanctification is God's work in us, requiring our submission. He encourages believers to cultivate a deep, intimate relationship with God, which will lead to discernment and a life that reflects His holiness.

It's always a joy for me to be here with you. And I think it was six years ago that I came here first. And I'm personally thankful for the growing fellowship that I have found with GFA in India and here. There are very few organizations that I minister in, mostly because most of them don't want me, or they allow me to speak once and that's about it. But there are certain things I look for in a ministry and in those who work in a ministry, which on the basis of which I decide whether I want to continue to associate with it. One is the quality of the families. Now, that's not given much importance in our day, but for me, that's primary. If a man's brought up his children well, I don't mean necessarily to be in the ministry, but to be spiritually minded, then you know how he lives at home. Otherwise, we only see how he lives in public. And the second thing is the type of co-workers that God gives to a servant of His indicates to me the measure of backing that God is giving a man. And that's another thing I've noticed here right from the beginning. I'm not the greatest discerner of people, but I feel that I have some measure of discernment having been a Christian for 44 years and in full-time work for about 36 years. And I've seen that God's really given among those whom I have known here through the years some really fine, godly people. And that's another indication to me of God being with a movement. The other thing that I look for when I fellowship with those who are in the ministry is whether they talk more about their work or about the Lord. And that's another thing I've personally found in my fellowship with Brother K.P. Though, of course, we do talk about the work of G.F.Faith, the Lord is more important. You know, there are Marys and there are Marthas. And if you get together with the Marys, they tell you what the Lord's been telling them. And if you get together with the Marthas, they tell you how many chapatis they made in the kitchen, etc. Well, I know we need to make chapatis in the kitchen, but if that becomes primary, I think something is wrong. So these are some of the things that have drawn me. I'd say one more thing, it's very important, and that is financial integrity. There are only two masters in the world, and they're not God and Satan. Jesus said in Luke 16, it's God and mammon. And mammon refers to the entire material world of money and possessions and property. And a person's attitude to these things is a pretty good indication whether that is his God or whether that is his servant. Mammon's a very good servant, but a terrible thing to have as God. And the world is full of people who have made mammon their God. The Christian world is full of people who have made mammon their God. To find financial integrity is rare, and certainly in a country like India, where I've lived all my life, and I know pretty much about a lot of Christian work. And that's another reason why I have deeply appreciated my fellowship with GFA, because of these reasons. I thought I'd mention that for many of you who may be coming in new and wondering what this is, whether this is just another Christian organization. So I want to share something from 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23. Our work is dependent on our relationship with God. The closer our relationship with him, the better our work is going to be. God is more interested in the quality of our work than quantity. It's very important for us to bear in mind at all times, because when we see the need around us, it's very easy. Certainly I see that constantly in India. I have to battle it all the time. When you see the need in a country like India, it's very easy to sacrifice quality because the need is so great. It can be a very good desire to reach people, but we have to resist that temptation. If the price we pay is sacrificing quality in our work, a lot of Christian groups, churches, organizations in India have done that. And the effect of it, the results of it are often not seen for many years. It's like, you know, a child can develop rickets because of years of not eating proper food. The effect is not seen immediately. But over a period of time, you discover whether the child is being given proper diet or not. It's the same with Christian work. Sometimes the results of a sacrifice of quality are seen years later, and then it can be too late to rectify it. So that's why I personally decided many years ago that even if my work was going to be very little, I would never sacrifice quality. In fact, the Bible says, if you're familiar with that passage where it speaks about gold, silver and precious stones and wood, hay and stubble in 1 Corinthians 3, the word quality comes there. The fire will test the quality of each man's work, not quantity. And so here it speaks about sanctification. Verse 23 speaks about entire sanctification. So that's what I want to speak about, entire sanctification, without getting into all the controversies of the theology of entire sanctification. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely. And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he who calls you, and he also will bring it to pass. There's a verse in the earlier chapter, chapter 4, verse 3, which says, this is the will of God. There are many areas where we don't know God's word, but there are one or two areas where we know it very clearly. And here's one of them. This is the will of God, your sanctification. So that's one area where we certainly know God's will. 1 Thessalonians 5.18 is another area. In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you. So, sanctification is God's will for us. But the thing I want you to notice here is that it's not something we are to produce. It says here, may God, 5.23, sanctify you entirely. So that's the first thing to be noticed, that this is God's work and not my work. My work is to submit. And again, it's repeated in verse 24. Faithful is he who calls you, he will bring it to pass. To me, the great difference in a very simple way between law and grace is that law is man trying to produce something that pleases God. And grace is God producing in us that which pleases him. It's a very simplistic, perhaps, explanation, but I find that sort of sums it up in a nutshell. Law is man trying to do something, produce something that will satisfy God. We never achieve it. Now, 1500 years Israel tried to achieve that standard, never achieved it. But it seems as though many Christians haven't understood that. That you can never produce something that will please God. You've got to allow God to work in you. And then it comes forth. The first words of scripture are, in the beginning, God. And any work that doesn't start like that is doomed to failure. In the beginning, God. A sanctification that does not begin with God doing something in me. It's not the genuine thing. There are a lot of non-Christians who, you know, live good moral lives. And we can even say some of them appear to be better than believers. But the question is, did God begin that work or was it man? You know, we can be fooled a lot by what we see on the outside. And that's why we don't want to judge others. But we can certainly know in our own life whether we have understood this principle in all of our life and our ministry. That everything must begin with God. There's a verse in Matthew 15 where Jesus said, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted out. And the question is not whether it's a good plant or not. The question is who planted it. I mean, you may have watered it. You may have nurtured it. You may have done a lot of things to it, but who planted it? That's the question. That work of sanctification is, did it begin with God doing something in your heart? Or did it begin with your gritting your teeth and deciding to be holy? Any amount of discipline and gritting our teeth and denying ourselves is not going to make a sinful heart holy. All that is necessary. We need discipline. We need determination. We need endurance. But the work has to begin with God. And that's why God sent His Holy Spirit. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to work within us to make our spirit pure. He speaks about spirit, soul, and body. So I want to share concerning these three things. First of all, a pure spirit. God wants us to have a pure spirit. Jesus spoke in John chapter 4 and verse 24. God is a spirit. And those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So I just want to say a few words, first of all, about worshiping God in the spirit. Now, under the old covenant, first of all, notice in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, we saw the threefold nature of man, spirit, soul, and body. Man is a trinity. It's made in the image of God who is a trinity. Spirit, soul, and body. A lot of people confuse spirit and soul. I think there are some Christians who probably think they are the same. But they are not. Hebrews 4.12 speaks about the word of God dividing between soul and spirit. So it's not the same. And speaks here about entire sanctification involving spirit, soul, and body. Now, in the Old Testament tabernacle, which is a picture of God's dwelling place. In fact, God told Moses, tell them to make a sanctuary for me, a dwelling place where I can dwell. God dwelt in that tabernacle. And the literal translation of John 1.14 is that the word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. Dwelt among us means tabernacle. So the tabernacle in the Old Testament is a picture of a human being. The way God made man in the tabernacle had three parts. The most holy place, the holy place, and the outer court. The outer court was the only one that was visible to everybody. There was one visible part, the outer court. And there were two parts that were covered with curtains, with a tent. The holy place, the most holy place, exactly like man. Our body is the only visible part, corresponding to the outer court. And the holy place, the most holy place, are the soul and spirit, covered. And between the soul and spirit, between the holy place, the most holy place, was this thick veil, which was rent when Jesus died. And until Jesus died, there was this veil indicating that no one could come into God's immediate presence. God didn't dwell in the outer court. God didn't dwell in the holy place. God dwelt in the most holy place of that tabernacle. And nobody could go there. Nobody could get into that life in the spirit in the Old Testament. They could worship God only in the body and in the soul. In the outer court and the holy place. There was a lot of activity in the outer court. A lot of activity in the holy place too. They were always burning the incense and making sure the lamp stand was burning, etc. But when you came to the most holy place, of course they couldn't come there. The high priest could go there just once a year. There wasn't activity. It was worship. And the mark of a spiritual man is, one mark, that he's comfortable in the most holy place. He's comfortable when he's worshiping God. If our service for God and our activity means more to us than worshiping God, I would say we put the cart before the horse. I'm not saying we don't need the cart. I'm just saying put the cart before the horse. You remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 4, I think it's verse 10, where he told Satan in answer to one of the temptations, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. You see the order there? You've got to worship before you serve. And here Jesus said that the Father, verse 23, seeks those who will worship Him, the true worshipers, will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Jesus was explaining to the Samaritan woman, when she was asking him, do we worship in this mountain or Jerusalem? And Jesus said, the place is not the thing. It doesn't matter where you worship, but our is coming, verse 23. So, in other words, it wasn't possible until this time. But now, a new age is dawning. It has now come, verse 23, John 4, 23. When the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit. Till now, they could only worship in the body and the soul. But now, they're going to worship in the spirit. Now they're going to enter right into the presence of God. In the Old Testament, it's amazing what all they could do without entering into God's presence. We know very clearly that there was this veil indicating that no man could enter into God's presence. Until Jesus died and rose again, the veil was not rent. In Hebrews 10, it's called a new and living way that Jesus opened up through the veil. So, it's very clear that all Old Testament worship was not in the immediate presence of God. And without being in the immediate presence of God, people could clap and shout and dance and play instruments and make such resounding noises of praise. We read in 1 Samuel 4 that Israel shouted so loud once when the ark came into the midst that the earth began to shake. Their worship was very impressive, very noisy, very musical. But it wasn't in the spirit. It's possible today. And we need to discern that. We live in a day when Christians don't have much discernment of what is spiritual and what is human. And that's the reason for a lot of confusion in a lot of things that go by the name of being spirit-filled. A lot of it is just soul-filled, not spirit-filled. It's not in the spirit at all. And we can learn that when we go to the Psalms and see what tremendous forms of worship they had there, David and all the others. And yet, the hour had not yet come in those days for man to worship God in the spirit. The veil was not rent. But now the veil has been rent, and Jesus said, the hour is coming. Now is when the true worshipers, and God desires each of us to be in that number, dear brothers and sisters, true worshipers, who will worship Him in spirit and truth. And it says the Father seeks for such worshipers. Imagine the longing of God as He looks down upon the earth where there are so many whom He has redeemed and He is seeking for worshipers. The question is whether He finds them in us. It's more exciting to serve, and that's why carnal people prefer that. Worship is more something personal between us and God. And I'm not talking about praise. There's thanksgiving. There's praise. There's worship. There are three different things. Thanksgiving relates to many gifts God has given us. We can thank God for food. We can thank God for health. We can thank God for gifts and other things that He has given us in many ways. We praise God for the fact that He is sovereign and He is almighty and He is holy and all those things. But when it comes to worship, worship is something so completely centered in God. It's got nothing to do with me. It's got nothing to do with what God has done for me. It's got to do with God Himself, with the person of God. It's very difficult to define. It's the thing that brings intimacy between man and God, between God and man. Intimacy. It's the thing that can preserve us from backsliding from many, many things. So, I would encourage all of you, if you are not already one, be a worshipper. It doesn't matter if you don't serve so much if you are a worshipper because your service will be so much better quality that there will be a lot more gold, silver and precious stones when Christ comes back. You won't have any regret in your life if you worship. A worshipper is not this monastic type of thing I'm talking about where you lock yourself up in a cell and keep on meditating. A lot of people are not worshipping there. Worship is an attitude which never goes away from our life. It's a life of very close, intimate walk with Jesus. The type of relationship described in Song of Solomon between the bride and the bridegroom. That's the type of worship I'm talking about. Worshipping in the Spirit. Jesus spoke in Matthew chapter 5 about being poor in spirit, verse 3. In fact, that's the first of the Beatitudes. And he said that those who are poor in spirit could possess all of God's kingdom. So, I've seen poverty of spirit as a master key with which we can open every room in the kingdom of heaven. There are tremendous riches available in God's kingdom. But here is the master key that opens every door. And we can open the first door of forgiveness of sins. And we know how we got that. By acknowledging our need. And poverty of spirit basically means that. It means to be constantly aware of our need. Why is it the Pharisees could not even open that first door? Because they wouldn't even acknowledge their need there. And it's very easy for us, having received from God forgiveness of sins or maybe some go beyond that and be filled with the Holy Spirit, to suddenly feel that we don't really have any need now. And we have lost the master key. And that's going to put an end to all further possessing of the riches of God's kingdom. So, poverty of spirit. It's again speaking about the deepest part of me. Poverty of spirit. A sense of nothingness before God. This is true humility. And this is what brings real worship. God, I want you to be everything in my life. I want to be nothing. And such a man is a spiritual man. And he will accomplish the most. If you think in terms of statistics, Jesus' ministry was very unimpressive. He worked only three and a half years. He traveled a very limited distance in his ministry. Such a small little area in Israel. And at the end of his ministry, he had only 11 people to show for all that work that he had done. It's not at all very impressive. But look at the quality of those 11 men. They turned the world upside down and started something that's been going for 2,000 years. Boy, if you can produce one man like that, it will be something. It's quality that matters. And Jesus' life is the perfect demonstration of that. He was a worshiper. We read of times when he would slip away from the midst of people. Luke 5.16 He would slip away into the wilderness to be alone with the Father. That was the greatest thing for him in his life. Here was a world lying in need. He would slip away to be alone with his Father. He was a worshiper. And a worshiper, because he worshipped, you know, when the devil offered him all the things of the world, they didn't have any attraction. A worshiper is not even tempted by those things. He didn't have to think about it. If we find the honor of men, you know, attractive, or the honor of Christian leaders attractive, or if we find money attractive, a comfortable life attractive, or all the things that the world offers, you know, the devil offered all of that to Jesus in the third temptation. If we find it attractive, it's because in that measure we're not worshippers. When a man has got through the veil into the most holy place and seen God face to face and is a worshiper, it's actually true like Paul said. He finds everything else to be rubbish. Garbage. That's the word he used in Philippians 3. Garbage. And I thought of it. I've asked myself this question. Can I honestly say that when the attractive things of the world are presented to me by the devil, that they are in fact no more attractive to me than what I see in a garbage bin? I mean, I'm not tempted by anything in a garbage bin. Nothing. I'm not even tempted to look to see if there's possibly something I could find. Imagine living in this world and having that attitude to the honor of men, to the praise and approval of people, to money, a comfortable life, everything that the devil can offer. We really be free. That's the result of worship. That's the result of getting to know God. That's the thing that can preserve us from the many snares and temptations that the devil's got lined up for anyone who's seeking to serve God wholeheartedly. So, be a worshipper. The second thing I want to say in relation to spirit is a verse in 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1 to have a pure spirit. It says here in 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1, let us cleanse ourselves, middle of that verse, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Our spirit can variously be defiled. There's a defilement of the flesh which I would say refers to outward sin and defilement of the spirit which refers to inward motives, attitudes, etc. which we can cover up very easily. But if I want to inherit God's promises, it says here in verse 1 that I have to cleanse myself not only from the defilement of the flesh but the defilement of the spirit. And if I'm not careful to keep my spirit pure, I may miss out on the promises of God. And certainly, there is no question of perfecting holiness like the rest of that verse says, perfecting holiness in the fear of God if I'm not careful about my spirit. The mark of an Old Testament person is of a good Old Testament person is that he's very careful to avoid all defilement of the flesh. The Ten Commandments basically dealt with defilement of the flesh. Anyway, nine of them. The tenth, thou shalt not covet, went a little deeper. But nine of those commandments dealt with defilement of the flesh on the outside. And I believe God put that tenth one in there just to see how many would be honest enough to acknowledge we can't keep it. Thou shalt not lust, thou shalt not covet. But that was sort of a little thing put in there to show that there was more to it than just these external things. And that's the one commandment that Paul says in Romans 7 he had a constant problem with. He says, I could keep all the other nine. But when it came to the tenth, he says, I found all types of lusting and coveting in my spirit. And he says, how would I be free from this? And that's in Romans 7 and Romans 8 he says, what the law could not do, God has done. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus set me free from the law of sin and death. See, the law of Moses was written laws. You know, thou shalt do this and thou shalt not do that and thou shalt do this and thou shalt not do that. But the law of the spirit mentioned in Romans 8 too is not laws. It's not written things. The law of the spirit is fundamentally different from the law of Moses. The law of Moses was a number of rules. And a lot of Christians who if they really examine their life they'll discover they're living by rules. Many, many Christians perhaps you may discover if you were honest with yourself you've got certain unwritten rules to preserve your testimony in an organization or in a church or in the midst of other Christians. You say, I shouldn't do this because that'll spoil my testimony or I shouldn't do this because that I won't be useful for God or, you know, various reasons but unwritten rules by which we try to live our life. It's good. It's a good Old Testament life. But that's not New Testament at all. The New Testament law of the spirit is described in Romans 8 too as a life. Life in Christ Jesus. It's the difference between the two trees in the garden. One was the knowledge of good and evil. That's laws. This is bad, that is good. This movie is good and that one is bad. Etc. But life in Christ Jesus is something completely different. You see, it's like my tongue. If I put bad food into my tongue, I don't need a rule book to tell me whether it's good or bad. If I've got life, I spit it out immediately. It just tastes bad. But if you put it on a dead man's tongue, he doesn't feel anything. So, the law of the spirit is life. A life which can taste. You don't need rules. You don't need a list of bad movies and good movies or bad books or good books, bad websites, good websites. You don't need them. It's life. And the rejection of something which doesn't have the life of God in it, which doesn't have the approval of God is immediate. Just like bad food comes on my tongue and I don't even take a second to spit it out. So, this is the law of the spirit. And this is the law we must live by. And the Holy Spirit speaks to our spirit and tells us things concerning defilement in our spirit which we can very easily ignore and still keep a good testimony before men. You can live years, all your life with a good testimony before men and completely ignore the voice of the spirit telling us about filthiness in the spirit. It's a fearful thing when I read about David. You know, there's a beautiful passage in 2 Samuel 15 or 16 where there's this guy called Shimei who curses David when David's running away from Absalom. And one of David's soldiers says, let me go and chop off this fellow's head who's cursing you and calling you all types of names. And David says some amazing words. It's an indication of how much he understood of God's sovereignty. He says, if God has told Shimei, curse David, who am I to fight against God? Think of having that attitude to somebody who treats you badly. I mean, we would put it slightly more accurately that if God has allowed this man to curse me or to treat me badly or tell a lie about me or tell stories about me, well, God's allowed it. Okay? I'm not going to fight against God. But we read that David, who behaved so magnanimously at that time, just before he died in 1 Kings, one of the first two or three chapters there, just before he died, in fact, those are the last words recorded of David before he died, he told Solomon, don't spare this fellow Shimei. He cursed me some years ago. Don't let him have a natural death. Kill him. I promised not to kill him, so I can't do it. But Solomon, you never made any such promise. He was going according to the law. He would keep his word, all right. So, you get a hired killer to do the job. You know, the thing that brings a fear into my heart there is, if you don't cleanse your spirit, when you become old and senile, what's inside is going to come out. You better cleanse yourself immediately. Now, we're fooling ourselves. If we think we're clean, we're not clean inside. We're only cleansed from filthiness of the flesh and not filthiness of the spirit. Now, I don't blame David. He lived under the old covenant. The veil was not rent. He could not penetrate those inner beings that we can. He perhaps didn't hear the voice of the Spirit like we can. The Holy Spirit was not given in the way He's given now. But I see that possibility. I see Christians who old, they've been believers many years, and as they grow old, they are sour and grumpy and bitter. God save me from ever being like that when I grow old. I want to be a cheerful, happy person, happier and more cheerful as I grow older. And the only way to do that is to keep our spirit clean, to keep our conscience absolutely clean. And the best way to keep our conscience clean is to cleanse it as soon as you're aware that there's something wrong. It's like if a thorn or a nail got into your foot. I mean, how long would you keep it there? How long? If you didn't know, that's another thing. You know, people who have leprosy get things into their feet and they don't feel it because they've lost sensation. But we're not like that. As soon as you know, you pull it out immediately. Why should it be there? Why should I have something within me which I know very well is contrary to the Spirit of Christ? Why should I retain an attitude towards a human being, leave alone a brother, to a human being which I know very well is not the attitude Jesus would have? Why should I keep that even for one second? Why should I keep a nail in my foot for one second if I know it's got in? Okay, accidentally I tramped on something and I got it under my foot. I was careless. Okay, well, the next best is pull it out immediately. Wash it off. We do that with our bodies. None of us would ever keep anything on our body. I mean, we flick off a mosquito, leave alone a nail. A mosquito. Imagine if we lived like that in relation to filthiness of the Spirit. Where we would have been today if we had lived like that from the day we were converted. Well, we can't do anything about our past life, but we can do something about the future to ensure that we keep our spirit pure. We worship in the Spirit and keep our spirit pure. It says in Matthew chapter 5, I believe that the words heart and spirit are often used interchangeably in the New Testament. Verse 8 refers to what I've just been speaking. Blessed are the pure in heart, or we could say pure in spirit, for they shall see God. Look at the privilege. If I keep my spirit pure, I shall live with the constant vision of God in my spirit. Which is more than even being a prophet. Once God told, we read in Numbers chapter 12 when Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses. God said, you fellas don't realize what a great man Moses is. To other prophets He says, I speak by visions and dreams. Nowadays people think that visions and dreams are great things. But God said there, that's sort of second best. With Moses I speak face to face. And that's our privilege in the new covenant. To enter into the most holy place. I'm not interested in dreams and visions. Well, if God gives them, I receive them. But face to face is my privilege. Because the veil has been rent. Dreams and visions are second best. Face to face is the best. It's very clear from Numbers 12. Blessed are the pure in spirit, those who keep their, those who are very careful to keep their conscience absolutely clear. I remember about 40 years ago, soon after I was baptized, when I had to make some restitution in my life concerning money to the government and etc. And I was debating, calculating how much to give back and working out the figure and I was in a bit of a doubt about two figures. Should I give this much or a little more? And while I was debating like that, I read a verse in the book of Numbers which said that when you make restitution, give 20% more than what was taken. And that was exactly the two figures I was debating. And you know how we always tend to choose the lesser amount. And that showed me a principle there. When you're in doubt making restitution, give more rather than less. Because money is not everything. To see God is everything. And to miss seeing God, because I was debating about that 20% is absolutely stupid. We'll discover that in eternity. A lot of people are missing out on the greatest thing for some silly little thing there which they don't set right. We're so foolish. Blessed are the pure in spirit, the hard they shall see God. And I believe that also applies in another way that when my spirit is pure, I see God everywhere. In my circumstances, I don't see people. I see God. Like in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter saw the Roman soldiers. Jesus saw the Father. There's a lot of difference between the two. Your reaction becomes different when you see God. Jesus saw the Father. He said, well, the cup the Father has given me, I'll drink it. Because it doesn't matter if the mailman is Judas or the Roman soldiers. The one who sent this cup was the Father. So he could see the Father there. Whereas Peter, who did not pray like Jesus did in Gethsemane, Jesus had warned him, listen, you fellas, if you don't pray, you're going to fall in temptation. And he didn't tell them, but of course, I'm different from you. I don't need to pray. He was like us. He had to pray, too. Because he made himself like us. And that's why, in the moment of temptation, he could see the Father. And Peter couldn't. Peter saw the soldiers. And that's why he took out his sword. Blessed are the pure in spirit, for they shall see God everywhere. They have no complaints against anyone, not even against Judas Iscariot, who betrays them. Their spirit is clear, and they see God. And one last thing is I want to speak about discernment in our spirit. Great need of it in our day. To be a worshipper in our spirit, to keep our spirit pure, and to discern in our spirit. 1 John 2. Verse 27. When it speaks here about the anointing, you know it's the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you. And you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and it's true, it's not a lie. It's taught you. You abide in Him. Now, that doesn't mean we don't need anyone to teach us the Scriptures, in which case, we wouldn't need any meetings at all. God has appointed teachers in the church to teach us His Word. But here He is speaking about discernment. Even if you are a young believer, a new believer, you can be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit will give you a sense in your spirit when something is wrong. We tend to go very often by our mind, what our mind or our reason tells us. But through the years, I've discovered that it's far safer to go by what our spirit tells us. For example, in dealing with other Christians, Christian workers, people who want to join our church or work with us, and you check the person out and everything appears to be right. His doctrines are right. He's got all the right answers. And yet, you feel a bit uneasy in your spirit. I say, go by that witness. And you'll never regret it. You'll find the witness of your spirit is right. And vice versa too. Sometimes you find a person who may be very rough and abrasive in his ways. You feel, well, it's not a very good Christian testimony, okay, but in your spirit, you see the guy is genuine. He's got no guile in him. Go by the witness of your spirit. It's a very important thing, and that's possible only if we have cleansed our spirit. Otherwise, our discernment can be faulty. The Bible says that those who know their God, Daniel 11.32 says, those who know their God will be strong. The way to strength is to know God in our spirit, to know Him. I want to share more about that in the next session. But this is so important to recognize that in this new covenant, we have the privilege to get right into God's presence in the most holy place and know Him and worship Him. And thus, our spirit becomes more sensitive to what is of God and what is not. This is the essential difference between the two trees in the Garden of Eden. What God was telling Adam, there are two ways you can live. One is by having in your mind, this is right, this is wrong. That's the way all human beings live. We've all descended from Adam. We know what's right, what's wrong. And some people have a higher degree of what's right and what's wrong. We call them more moral than others. But it's still by rules. But the other is by life. May God Himself, through our knowledge of God, we can discern in a way which goes beyond our mind. It's not contrary to our mind. I always say, faith is not contrary to reason, but it's beyond reason. The Bible says, trust in the Lord, not with your mind, but with all your heart. And do not lean upon your understanding. Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6. And He will direct your paths. So, if I want God to direct my paths, I must not lean on my understanding. I must go beyond that and trust in the Lord with my heart. And my heart tells me, if I'm walking with God, if I'm a worshipper, if I'm keeping my spirit pure, my heart tells me things which my mind can never tell me. And that's the way to live. That's the way Jesus lived. And that's the way He calls us to live. By the life of God springing up and telling me to avoid certain parts or certain people, I can protect myself from many, many dangers. Let's pray. We pray, Father, that You'll make our spirit more sensitive to Your voice. And make us worshippers. Help us to understand that intimacy with You that You desire to have with all of Your children in the new covenant. And to go further in this realm of living in the Spirit, keeping our spirit pure than we have ever gone so far. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.