This sermon emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God, cleansing our conscience, forgiving others, and yielding every area of our lives to the Holy Spirit. It highlights the need to test every spirit and align our lives with the teachings and examples of Jesus and the Apostles. The speaker encourages building a strong foundation in Christ, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and focusing on glorifying Jesus in every aspect of life.

As I have often said, the main difference between the old covenant and the new is that God gave His Holy Spirit to dwell within and He wants us to live a life of dependence upon Him. That is the meaning of the two trees in the Garden of Eden. I see the two trees as the Law and the Holy Spirit and Adam had a choice to live by the Law or by the Holy Spirit and all of us have the same choice as well. Why do I call it the Law? Because through the Law is the knowledge of good and evil and God gives a law that tells you what is good, what is evil. And it was a way of life that God did not want man to live by. There are many verses that tell us that those who try to live by the Law, it brings death. And it's the people who try to live according to the Law, the Pharisees, finally killed Jesus. They were the biggest illegal itself. And worse than the unbelievers, because a man like Pilate was a complete heathen, idol worshipper, he wanted to let Jesus go. But the legalists wanted to put Him to death. Those who live under the Law are always against the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They can't identify it. In fact, the legalistic Pharisees looked at Jesus' ministry and said, That's the devil. That can't be God. That's the devil. Even though they saw the life He lived and the blessing He was, they were so prejudiced that they said it's a devil. He's Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Prejudice against something can be such a very powerful force that blinds us. And the devil has ensured that there's a lot of prejudice against the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Christendom today. And I decided, I myself found disappointed with a lot of things that claim to be of the Holy Spirit. The Lord spoke to my heart and said that I should not have an understanding of Scripture based on a reaction to the fanatical extremes I have seen in some Christians. A lot of Christians, their theology has come as a reaction to the fanatical extremes that some people have gone to in this matter of the Holy Spirit. And so they back away from it completely and follow the cliff to the other side. There's a narrow way that leads to life. And I know a lot of people have gone to one extreme and fallen on the cliff. But people who back away from that fanatical extreme don't realize that they've just fallen on the cliff to the other side. And the devil's quite happy with whichever side of the cliff you fall over as long as you don't walk the narrow way. So we have to make sure that our understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit comes from Scripture, not from a reaction to that, or a traditional view that we have had inherited from our parents or particular church we grew up in. Both these things can be equally dangerous. The fanatical part looks more ugly. The traditional acceptance of what our forefathers believed doesn't look so ugly. But it's just as bad. We have to be willing to break free from tradition as well as fanaticism if we want to walk the way of life. For example, I know that the Pentecostals speak a lot about the gift of tongues. I've said that the gift of tongues is a very useful member of the body of Christ. But it's only like a little finger. You can live a perfectly normal life without a little finger. I hope you know that. Because this is not the most important part of the Christian life. It's a part, but it's not as important as the heart, the liver, the kidney. There are many, many other things in Christian life which are a million times more important. You can't live without the heart, the liver, the kidney. But you can live without a little finger. But when you get so taken up with this little finger, like the gift of tongues, and make it 12 feet long, imagine if I sat here with a 12 feet long little finger. I'd be, or if anywhere I travel, I'd be making a nuisance of myself. And that's exactly what many Christians do. They just make a nuisance of themselves. So some people see this and say, this is terrible, this little finger, let's cut it off completely. So a lot of people, particularly Baptist brethren folks, just cut it off completely. Because they've seen this 12 foot long finger in the Pentecostal. And I say, I don't want it 12 foot long. And I don't want to cut it off either. I just keep the right side cut. Keeps it. And when I'm fellowship with a person, like shaking hands with a person, I don't want to check whether he's got a little finger first before I shake hands with him. That's fanaticism. So we don't get our understanding from scripture. And as I started to try to understand what was the balanced scriptural position on this, I discovered that the most perfect example of the spiritual person was Jesus Christ himself. And when I had a genuine experience of fulfilling the spirits, many times, but one of the very first times, I was a bit confused. Because I never expected to speak in tongues, but I did. And the next morning, I said, Lord, what's this? Did I make it all up? I'm not a Pentecostal. I'm a Christian. There's something in scripture. If it's in scripture, I want it. But if it's not in scripture, I don't want it. But I know that a lot of people make it up. I've heard a lot of people make it up. And I say, did I do that too? But I didn't want to do it. I found myself speaking when I didn't want to. And I was reading. What I said to the Lord was, if this is really a genuine infilling of the Holy Spirit, then the New Testament should become a completely new book for me from today. In other words, the author himself has come and filled me. And the author is sitting with me when I'm reading his book. I discovered a lot of meanings in that book, which I never thought of without the author sitting with me. So I decided from the very next day to start reading the New Testament all over again. This was 38 and a half years ago. And I started reading from the book of Matthew to try and get an assurance of whether this experience I had the previous day was genuine or not. And the Lord gave me some assurance. And I went through all of so-and-so began, so-and-so, and so-and-so began. I wasn't getting any assurance from all of that. Just a bunch of names all the way through. And anyway, I'll press on. And I pressed on. And all of a sudden, I saw this verse. That which was conceived was of the Holy Spirit. I said, wow. I couldn't get a more direct verse than that in the whole Bible. That which was conceived there was the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1, 21 is what the angel told Joseph. And then from there, it was exactly what I prayed for. Lord, if this is the Holy Spirit, the author is sitting there, you're going to show me things in the New Testament which I never saw before. By that time, I had already studied the Bible in depth for 15 years. I knew verses of the Bible. I could pick out a verse anywhere. I knew the doctrines. I had read books and everything. But I said, I'm going to see things which I had never seen before. I was defeated by sin with all of my Bible knowledge. And then the Lord began to speak to me and gave me a whole message from there. And said, just like the Holy Spirit came upon Mary to produce Jesus, the Holy Spirit has come upon you to produce Christ in you, in your life. It was wonderful. And just like nobody would understand Mary, they would make all types of false accusations against her, saying some Roman soldier raped her, all types of things. They say that even today. The Lord said to me right then, people will misunderstand you. But that's part of the Christian life. Mary faced it. He let her face it. But Mary herself knew that she wasn't faking anything. She wasn't faking a pregnancy. She did not know a man. But others did not. And most people would not believe her. The Lord said to me, most people won't believe you. But you know that you were not attempting anything or faking anything by the manufacturing. Yes, I said, Lord, I know that. And then the Lord said to me, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to produce Christ in you. And then he said, the gift of darkness has been so abused and misused in the world by Christendom that I am now giving you that gift so that you can adorn this gift with a Christ-like life so that once again, some people will have faith in that gift. I said, okay, Lord. And I understood by calling them. And from that time onwards, God began to show me the most amazing things in Scripture, all about the New Covenant, all about the difference between mercy and grace and the greater glory of the New Covenant was that sin didn't have to prove over you anymore. And all about the Church, how the Lord longed to see little expressions of His body everywhere. He did not come to make holy Christians. He came to build holy Christians together into a whole body. And I hardly ever saw that in many places. I saw little Bible study groups, people would come together. People who belonged to different churches would come together for Bible study. I saw a lot of that. I've been part of those myself. But people were totally, 100% committed to each other and really wanted to be an expression of the body of Christ and not just a respectable church in the eyes of the world. I didn't see much of that. But I know in the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostles went around not producing holy individuals, not even having deeper life meetings to make people holy, but to plant people together into churches. Some of those churches were not perfect. And when they were not perfect, the Apostles worked with them. And so I began to think, you know, why can't we see New Testament Christianity all over again? God is the same, Jesus is the same. What she was just saying, there was a man called Jesus who lived so many years ago, and the Apostles did all that in those days. But of course, those things don't happen today. You know, it's all for that man's history. Why should it be history? Why can't it be experienced? Today. I mean, just because there's a lot of fake and counterfeit. And I began to think, what are the things that are fake and counterfeited in the world? People don't counterfeit newspapers and toilet paper and all that. They counterfeit currency notes. They counterfeit diamonds. They counterfeit gold. Only valuable things are counterfeited. Nobody wastes time counterfeiting something that's cheap. So if you have counterfeit manifestations of the Holy Spirit, boy, that proves the genuine thing must be pretty valuable. I mean, there may be very little of the genuine, 99% may be counterfeit, that's fine. But God will give me discernment about the genuine. And little by little, God began to show me the importance of not only the fruit of the Spirit, but the gifts of the Spirit. And showed me that Christianity was imbalanced in so many places. Most Christians were imbalanced. They had their favorites, favorite direction in which they went. And it was good, it was spiritual, but they left out something, another side completely. It was like the Lord showed me the importance of grace and truth. The glory of God, John 1, 14, was seen in Jesus, full of grace and full of truth. There was a balance. And I saw truth was like the bones in my body. And grace was like the flesh on top of it. Which was more important? If I had only bones, you don't exactly get attracted to somebody who's coming to you as a skeleton. But a skeleton is the perfect description of a legalist. He's got all the laws, he's got the bones, they're all there, 200 of them. But when he walks up to you and talks about Christ, you feel like running away. It's a skeleton. And there are a lot of legalists in the world today. Sticklers for this rule and that rule, and pick up some small teeny-weeny verse in the Bible and say, we've got to do this. And they drive people away from Christ. And the Lord said, don't be like that. Don't be a skeleton. But when I have flesh over my bones, does it mean I've lost some of my bones? No. Jesus had as many bones as the Pharisees. But how is it sinful people were attracted to Christ but not to the Pharisees? Now normally speaking, a sinful person would be more comfortable with a sinner than with a very holy person. The Pharisees were sinners and Jesus was holy. How is it that sinners were attracted to Jesus? Because these were bones. That was bones. He had more bones than the Pharisees. He had the whole law of God, but covered the flesh with grace. And see how wonderful it is when flesh covers our bones. That's what makes us presentable, trampled. And you know, I put my hand around this little knob here. It's flesh that makes it fit around that. If I had only bones, there'd be a lot of gaps. But flesh makes it fit around it. That's how we make people feel comfortable. Flesh, not bones. But if I were only flesh, you know, I wouldn't be able to stand here. I would collapse. You need bones. There are certain advantages of not having bones. Like you can fit in through any opening, star-shaped opening or horizontal opening, I mean, rectangular, circular. You can fit in through anything. And that's how people who don't have a conviction on truth can fit into any theology. They can fit into this doctrine, that doctrine. The main thing is love. We must love one another. Truth is not important. There are a lot of Christians like that. They think love is the greatest. And it is the greatest, in one sense. So they fit into any theological opening, any doctrinal church setting. I don't. I tell you, I can't fit into a lot of Christian church shapes. Because I've got some bones that doesn't go through them. What people do is they cut off some of those bones and they go through and fit in that church. I can't understand how they fit in there. I can't fit in a lot of Christian groups, even though they are born again. Because I have a few bones from the Bible that just don't fit into that. So I see that I need bones and flesh. I need truth plus grace. So I began to see many things like this that opened my eyes to see what the spiritual life really was. And I saw the perfect example of the spiritual life was Jesus Christ. You couldn't get it better than that. That was the perfect example that God had given us of a spiritual man. And it's when I saw Jesus that I saw more clearly that speaking in tongues was not all that important. Even though I was studying for it. Because Jesus never spoke in tongues. And he was the perfect spiritual person. Was I superior to Jesus because I spoke in tongues? What conceit and what arrogance. Then I began to think, why did Jesus never speak in tongues? He was the most perfect spiritual person. He was the beginner of the New Covenant, the mediator of the New Covenant. He was the one who was the head of the body. And the head of the body never spoke in tongues. Then I began to understand the meaning of the gift of un-easy. I'm the investigative type. My mind is like that. I'm not curious into people's lives. I'm not interested in that type of stupid curiosity to find out what all is happening in other people's lives or homes. But I'm very curious when it comes to the Bible. I want to know why it is like this. Why is it like this? Why is it like this? My mind works like that even in scientific things. I say, why does it work like that? I harass my wife sometimes with medical questions. In relation to the body. Anyway, I learn a lot that way. But I hold the Bible. It's why I'm a great favorite of Google nowadays. Because it answers a lot of my questions. But when it comes to the Bible, what we need is revelation. And so I began to think, why did Jesus not speak in tongues? And I realized, His mind was completely unaffected by sin. His mind was not warped and twisted by sin. It was a perfect mind that was always in perfect communion with His Father. There was no need to speak in tongues. And then I realized that the gift of tongues was because I was imperfect. Because my mind was warped by sin. And God wanted me to have communion with Him. That's why He gave me this gift. So that when I'm tired and exhausted, I can still commune with Him. You know how when we are weary in our mind, we don't feel like praying. Because it takes some concentration to use the English language. But when you speak in tongues, you don't have to use any language. You speak to God directly. And I began to see that when a heart is full, it's like a tank, it is full. Whether it could be full of sorrow, it could be full of praise and happiness. And you want to communicate that to God. An expression of praise or unburdening ourselves unto God. The Bible says, cast your burden upon me and I will sustain you doing that. But when our heart is full of sorrow or praise or anything, to communicate that to God, this heart, what's full in my heart, is to go through a mind in which there is a very narrow pipe called the English language. And that narrow pipe from the heart to the mouth, comes out through the mouth. The heart is still full and these few drops are going out through this narrow pipe. And in the gate of tongues, the Lord says, bypasses the mind and goes straight from the heart to the mouth. That's wonderful. His God all gushes out then. Without the limitation of the English language. And I said, this is wonderful. And in practical terms, I thought of it like this. Supposing I want to, let's say it's a burden of praise. God's done some wonderful things for me and I want to like it. You know, when we say, let's praise God. I've seen in so many churches, including our own, you're stuck after about 45 seconds. After that you have to repeat yourself. If you don't believe me, try this out. I'll give you a little homework. Go home. This homework won't take more than one minute to experiment. Experiment and find out. Start, no prayer. Only praise. I'm talking only about praise now, not even thanksgiving. If you start thanksgiving, you can say thank you for this and thank you for that. Thank you for this. Thank you for that. Thank you for this. You can go on forever. But praise God. Praising God is more than thanking God. It's for who He is. And anyway, words of praise. Try and praise God without repeating yourself. Okay? Okay, you said hallelujah. Now don't use that again. I praise you. Now don't use the word praise again. What shall I say next? Thank you, Lord. That's over. Don't say thank you. I praise you. I thank you. Hallelujah. Okay, then maybe a few more words. But the English language is very limited. What are you going to say next? You can say next half an hour. Jesus said don't use empty repetitions. Then I'm discomfort. What a wonderful thing. I can praise God. Now if you don't have a great word to praise God, of course you don't need it. If you're happy with 45 seconds of praise, you're okay. I was not. I was not happy with 45 seconds of praise. Do you know the atmosphere in which the early Christians were filled with the Holy Spirit? Let me show you. Luke 24. Jesus had just told them, I want you to go and preach, Verse 47. Repentance for forgiveness of sins to be proclaimed in all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. And you are witnesses. Verse 49. I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you. And you must stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high. That's all. And then he went up, ascended into heaven. He blessed them and he disappeared. And they returned, verse 32, to Jerusalem with great joy. And listen to what they were doing. They were continually in the temple praising God. I suppose in the Aramaic language, which is what they used. And they must have discovered in the early days the Aramaic language is just like the English language. They keep repeating themselves after 45 seconds. Imagine for 10 days, just keep on repeating themselves after every 45 seconds. It must have been pretty boring, but anyway. They said, we're going to praise God and praise God and praise God. Imagine sitting 10 days in prison, God. It's almost as though God said, you guys are so eager to praise me, I'll give you another language. And you can praise me in that, there won't be any limit to it. One of the byproducts of that in my life was I used to be so discouraged. Very frequently discouraged, discouraged. It's gone from my life. Honestly, I can tell you. I can't remember the last time I got discouraged. Was it 20 years ago or 25 years ago? I don't remember, honestly. Tell me the truth before God. But before that, I was so in bad moods. It's gone. It's not that I'm not tempted. But every time I'm tempted, I just keep on praying and praising God in tongues till it goes. It's one of the byproducts. But I want you to remember, I started this teaching by saying Jesus did not speak in tongues. Remember that. So I'm just telling you how God began to open up so many things to me. And He began to give me a fresh anointing in my ministry as well. In the spoken word, where it wasn't a hand-pumped type of experience, but river just flowing out. There's a lot of difference between one and the other. Even preaching and everything else became easier to forgive people who had harmed me, to wish good for people. If somebody began to argue, it was very easy for me to keep quiet and not respond. Allow him to think he has won the argument. God bless him. Because you know, sometimes people come to me with some theological argument. Trying to convince me about something. You know, all types of crazy things like you shouldn't take medicine, Jesus will heal you. Or everybody must speak in tongues, etc. I don't believe all that. So when I find that, I don't mind sharing Scripture with them, but when I find that, you know what happens with a lot of people is when they find that I'm convincing them about something in Scripture, they don't have enough Scripture to put back at me. They get angry. I can see the tone of their voice changing. And I stop. I say, brother, let's change the subject. Let's talk about cricket. That's a very favorite topic in India, like in Australia. Just so that we can talk about something more pleasant. Because I don't... And he can say, oh well, but Zach has got no more argument. That's why he lost the argument. I'm ready to lose an argument to keep a friend. I'm not interested in winning arguments. A lot of things changed, I found, in my life, in my whole approach to ministry. I was not so interested in convincing people about my doctrine on anything, including baptism in the Holy Spirit or the gifts of the Spirit. I just wanted to let people know that I love them. And that the most important thing in the Christian life was to become like Jesus Christ. Not anything else. I had my convictions about a number of things, but I was not here to force it on anyone. And I did not believe that only those who had my convictions were born again. I did not even believe that I was the most spiritual person. Far from it. I genuinely respected other people who were far more godly than me. I could sit in my own CFC church and listen to young brothers get up and share the word of God and be blessed by it. Really be blessed. Not to act humble and to go to them and say it was a blessing. Not all that formality, but really be blessed. God spoke to my heart. I could see the functioning of the body of Christ. I had a particular gift, but that was not everything in the body. Christ could minister to me through other people. And I began to see the wonder of the body of Jesus Christ. As I saw it more and more, I said, Lord, that's the only thing I want to spend my life doing. You know, like some person invented some new thing. They discovered some software with which he could become a millionaire. Or like these start-up companies. They start something and then somebody buys it up for one million dollars or something. You probably say, I made it. But for me, it was like that. Finding, building the body of Christ. Didn't make any money out of it, but boy, eternal wealth. I can't even count how many millions that is. To build the body of Christ among educated PhD people and among illiterate people equally in the villages. In the poor people, who ride only a bicycle or not even rich enough to own a bicycle. And in rich people who own two cars in their houses. Same. It was wonderful to see the body of Christ being built in different places. And God raising up from within their body elders to lead that church. It's been a tremendous experience for me and I began to see that New Testament Christianity was possible. And it all begins with a mighty anointing of the Holy Spirit. And I saw in Jesus' life, what did he have? Did he have the fruit of the Spirit? Or did he have the gifts of the Spirit? He had both. That's the balance. So I said, Lord, if you had them both, then I need both. The only difference was that apart from the gift of tongue, Jesus had all the gifts of the Spirit. He didn't need the gift of tongue, because as I said, his mind was so clear. He was not limited like we are. But he had the fruit and the gifts, but not always. For the first 30 years, as far as we know, he had no gifts at all. Then for three and a half years, he had fruit plus gifts. The first 30 years, it was only fruit. As far as we know, he never healed a sick person, never cast out a demon, never preached a sermon. So I learned something else from that. The fruit and gifts were not equally important. Both were necessary. But the fruit was only three and a half... Gifts were only for three and a half years. And fruit was for 33 and a half years. I worked out the mathematics of that. That fruit was ten times more important than gifts. You know, these are little things. Mathematics is very useful when we come to God's Word. For example, I worked out that to speak God's Word is 2,000 times better than speaking in tongues. Exactly 2,000 times. And that is from... I'll show you a scripture. Don't ever believe me unless I show you a scripture. 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 19, where Paul says, I have a choice. See if you can work out the mathematics of this from 1 Corinthians 14, verse 19. I would rather speak five words in a known language than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. You got it? 2,000 times better than speaking in tongues is to prophesy in a known language. I believe that. That's why I kept my gift of tongues in the proper place. I say, I'd rather 2,000 times better. So many things like this in scripture, you know, which if you don't read carefully, you'll miss out. Little things were profitable, and sometimes little things that... I'll tell you something which is very, very unimportant, which I saw the other day. It's unimportant in itself, but it taught me to read the Bible more carefully. This is something I studied the Bible for 55 years, and I never even saw this. A very, very trivial, unimportant point, but that taught me to read the Bible more carefully. I saw this in Luke 22. And verse... You know the story when Jesus was in Gethsemane, Luke 22, verse 50, that was Peter, a servant, one of them, struck off the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. You know who that was. So I said, wow. I've read the Bible for 55 years, and it never struck me that it was this, that Malchus, that servant's right ear that was cut off. Not an important point. But I thought, how did Peter, facing this Malchus, cut off his right ear? It's very difficult. When I strike at somebody, I cut off his left ear. Peter was left-handed. That's why he cut off the guy's right ear. I mean, that's an encouragement for left-handed people. Now, you may not appreciate that, but I come from a country called India where the left hand is called a dirty hand. And I won't give you the reasons for that right now. But in India, it is an insult to give... That means you should listen. It's an insult to give anything to anyone with a left hand. I know a foreigner who gave his passport with his left hand to the immigration people. The guy got so insulted that he strip-searched him. Imagine that. Be careful with it. In India, the right left hand is a dirty hand. You never even give anything with the left hand. It's always with the right hand. You eat with the right hand, you eat things with the right hand. I say, hey, I found something to encourage all the Indians who are left-handed. You know, what happens in India is that if a child is left-handed, and some children are left-handed, the parents force that child to be right-handed. And that child develops all types of emotional problems because he's being forced to something that's not natural to him. It's not right. You shouldn't force a left-handed child to be right-handed. But I've seen, I myself know people who are permanently emotionally disturbed because parents force them. So I found something of help to such people. But the thing that struck me was that I never read this carefully, and the Lord showed me, if you don't read the Bible carefully, you'll find more important things like this if you read slowly and carefully. There are many things hidden in God's Word. And that's why I'm convinced that the Bible is the Word of God. I'm convinced there's only one book in the whole world that's written by God. There are millions and billions of books. There's only one written by God, and I know every Christian believes it. They don't act as though they believe it. Many of them watch television more than they read the Bible. Many of them are on Facebook more than they are on God's book. And that's why they never become spiritual. They have time for novels and other things. I'm not against their faith, but God's book is the most important. I'm living like this, and the Holy Spirit made me love what He had written, and to see more and more. And the other thing that happened to me was that when I was filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God in my spirit lifted me into a realm which I had never known before. The realm of evil spirits. And, you know, the Bible says people wrestle with not with flesh and blood, but with demons. Before that time, if I met a demon-possessed person, I wouldn't know what to do. I'd just avoid them and go somewhere else. It's like that preacher who didn't know how to cast out demons. And there was a demon-possessed person in a meeting. He said, well, I can't cast out the demons. I can cast you out. So, the demons would go with you. So he called the Assyrians to take the fellow out and pray. And that's the Old Testament way. Get rid of the Canaanites because they are demon-possessed. Kill them, or throw them out of the meeting. The New Testament way is not that. It's not throw the fellow out or kill him. Cast the demon out. That's how Jesus did it. So then I realized that the Lord's given me authority over demons. And I've had numerous encounters with demons since then. But in every single case I discovered that a demon would listen to one sentence of mine immediately. If I came in the name of Jesus, and my heart was clean, that's very important. If you've got bitterness in your heart, don't try to cast out demons. Because the demon would say, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who do you think you are? But I found this, you know. Once I remembered, I was in a Bible school. And I had just finished giving the lesson from this pulpit. It's a long rows of students sitting there. And I said, OK, I finished the lesson. I said, let's pray. Everybody was quiet. And all of a sudden, from the last seat, one of the students jumped up and began to dance. He didn't make a noise. But I said, this looks like the devil disrupting the meeting. So I didn't want to raise my voice. He was about 40 feet away. Because everybody whose heads were bowed would suddenly get distracted. It's the right time the devil wants to distract services when we are bowed for prayer. So I turned away from the mic, and I whispered in a way that the people sitting behind me on the platform would not hear. Quietly, in Jesus' name, sit down there. He sat down. The front row wouldn't have heard me. There, he heard me sit down. Six months later, I got a letter. I never met this boy. I never met any other man. This is my dog. Six months later, I get this letter from Mauritius, which is an island in the Indian Ocean. He says, Deo, you don't know me. You've never met me. But I'm the student who was sitting there in the back row. And you told me to sit down. I said, wow. That's the day I discovered that the devil has got good hearing. I discovered that I don't have to be like these pedagogues who shout and yell and scream at demons. I'm very thankful I heard that. Learned it that day. That all this yelling, that was the dignity about Jesus. He never yelled and screamed at demons. Whenever people yell and scream, it's because they're not sure. You know how you shout when you're afraid? It's like that. But if you're sure of yourself, you don't shout. Jesus never shouted. He never yelled and screamed. But that's one of the first things the Lord had to teach me. Authority over sin. And I remember another time, this was in CFC, when we were having a conference. I was just about to begin the afternoon Bible study. We had rows of chairs, and an aisle there, and way at the back, I couldn't see rows there, but everybody was looking down at the aisle. I thought, what is this, some child crawling there? I couldn't see because of the rows of chairs. And all of a sudden, I saw a man crawling like a snake, coming up to the front. So I thought, I'm not going to let the devil disrupt the Bible study. I said, in Jesus' name, just lie down there. He went to sleep immediately. I said, okay, let's continue with our Bible study. And he was just lying there, and the rest of us, we continued the Bible study for one hour. And we said, let's pray, Amen. And he woke up. As soon as we said Amen, he woke up, and then we could counsel him. I remember another time, again, it was a CFC meeting. We used to have Sunday evening meetings for those days, and I was standing up in front. We were all closing our eyes for the closing of prayer. The minds were closed, and this guy comes and taps me. He was a nominal Christian whom I knew before he would come. And he had a knife in his hand. He said, I want my way to murder someone. I said, okay, wait, let's pray first. We're in prayer now. So I said, you sit there, and I'll come. And we finished prayer, and I said, okay, now what do you want? He said, there's somebody I hate so much, and I'm going to murder him. I said, okay, before you do that, let me talk to you. And I said, you know, he knew all about the gospel. He was a nominal Christian. I'd spoken to him before. I said, I want you to say that Jesus Christ is Lord. He shouted out to all the people here meeting in just a minute. Jesus Christ is not Lord. I didn't think he had a demon. I thought he was just a murderer. I said, there's a demon. I said, you're a liar. Not to him, but to the demon. Get out of him right now, in Jesus' name. And he took a karate position and just slipped to the floor like a snake. Really like a snake. I don't know how he did it. And I picked him up, and I said, say that Jesus Christ is Lord. And I said, Jesus Christ is Lord. He said, all this headache is gone. I'm sure he didn't murder anybody after that. But, you know, the sad thing is he now expected me to make a big issue of the fact that he was a demon who was cast out and wanted to give a testimony, and I said, no. We don't make a big issue of this. We've been proclaiming for years in this church that the devil's been defeated. We're not going to give prominence to people who are delivered from demons. We preach about being freed from sin. So we're not going to make much of it. So he left the church. He went to some other church where they would get him to give his testimony and make a big issue that a demon was cast out of him. So many things like this, I discovered, I could tell you many more stories, but the authority we have is so important in the ministry to us, spiritual authority. Authority over influencing government decisions. To be the light of the world means the prince of darkness, that's Satan, must recognize that you're a light. Like the light drives out darkness. It's not a struggle. When you switch on this light, it's not a struggle for it to slowly drive the darkness out. You know that. Like that, the darkness goes. That's the authority we have for Satan and all his power. He cannot touch us. You need to recognize that just like darkness goes out of our room, the moment you put on a switch, it's not a slow movement. No. It's immediate. It's very, very important. It's not slow, it's immediate. We have authority in prayer, authority also, you know, when the Bible says that we've got to be a light to the nations. It's not trying to take over the country like the Marxists. Christianity is not communism. We're not trying to take over the government. We influence the government and we influence the people. We influence them by prayer. And that's the other thing I began to discover through the ministry of being filled with the Holy Spirit. You know how the Bible says you're a young man who sees visions and you're old man who dreams dreams. I saw visions and I had dreams. Meaningful. I mean, we have a lot of meaningless dreams because we ate too much at night and all kinds of crazy things we see which mean nothing. Sometimes I have things like that too. But I've had a few meaningful dreams which were really from God warning me about certain things in relation to the church and the ministry. And about 37 years ago, we had gone to the north of India for some ministry and about 2.30 in the morning I had a vision. I saw the face of one of India's cabinet ministers. He was in charge of the whole ministry. And I saw a number of faces of various Indian people. And I heard a word that said the power to free these people is in the church. That's all. It was over. So I didn't know what it meant. But I knew. And this face is very clear of this cabinet minister. I had to do something about it. I didn't know what I was supposed to pray concerning him. But I mentioned his name and I prayed in tongues when I didn't know what else to pray. I came back to Bangalore in the south where I live. I shared this with the church. And I said, brothers and sisters, I don't know what this vision is but this is what I got. And I've been praying in tongues. And those of you who have it, you can pray with me in tongues. I don't belong to any political party because they're all corrupt one way or the other. But I said, I believe that the church must influence the government without belonging to any political party. So I said, let's just pray. And very soon, first of all, he became sick and then he had to leave the party. And then a month later, he resigned from his cabinet post. And I knew something was happening. And he was the leader of one section of that party. And so there came a team, a division in that political party. They were divided. There were two groups which were one until then. And every now and then people would try to unite the party together and be in the newspapers and immediately a verdict would come to me to pray against it. So I prayed against it, even though I'm not a political person. I wasn't on this side of the opposition party either. But somehow I had this burden, this shouldn't come together. I didn't know why. So they never came together. About eight months later, one of the members of parliament in India, this is 1977, in December, raised a bill in parliament which he wanted to make an act that there should be no more conversion to Christianity in India. We must pass a law. All conversion must be forbidden. People must stick to their allegiance. And they put it to the vote. But because of this deep division in the party, it could not be passed. And it's never been passed at any time from then till today. In one or two states they have passed it, but never in the whole country. Then I knew why God had given me that vision eight months earlier. To influence the government to protect the possibility of converting people to Christ in India. Little things. This didn't make the headlines of the newspapers, and in fact I didn't want it to make the headlines. Because I was not on this side or that side, I was on the Lord's side. We had another experience where, in Bangalore, where all the government factories, you know a lot of India's factories are not privately owned. India was a socialist in those days, becoming a little more capitalistic now, but in the 70s India was very socialist. They had patterned themselves after Soviet Russia. And so almost all of the big factories and industries were owned by the government. And all the factories in Bangalore went on strike. Never happened before, never happened since. And everybody went on strike for, you know, things that people go on strike for, more pay or whatever it is. And it became so bad that it went on for weeks on end. People had to send their families home because they didn't have money to keep them. And then on one day there was a police firing. I think it was something overkill or something like that. Now Bangalore was like a gunpowder cake, ready to be blown up, and that happens. We called a three day prayer meeting in our church and said, I said the police can round up all the gangsters and people who create problems, but they can't touch the evil spirits who are behind all these evil activities. That's our job. We're a church in Bangalore. We've got to bind the activities of these evil spirits who create this violence. So we called three evenings of prayer. And on the third evening we felt God had answered our prayers. And that's it. And sure enough, the strike subsided and one of our members, when they went back to work, the factories opened. The security guard at the gate told this person, we were living in such fear after things had got so bad, but on this particular date, I don't remember what it was, but on some particular date, suddenly things changed. And we knew that was the last day of our three-day prayer meeting. So like God confirming to us that we could exercise authority in the city. It's amazing. You know, things that are written in Scripture, it's a wonderful thing when you begin to experience it. It produces faith in our, in the younger generation. Our children grew up seeing all this when they were little. Boys and girls in our church. And my own children saw things happening in our home. Demons being passed out. It strengthens their faith. They realize that Christianity is not just a doctrine or a theory, but it's real. The first century Christianity is the same as the 20th century, 21st century Christianity. It's the same thing. And that we can trust God just as much today as they could then. They were persecuted then. We will be persecuted today too. They lost their lives then. Peter was beheaded, crucified. Paul was beheaded. We may face that in India too. We're prepared for that, but we want to demonstrate New Testament Christianity. And it's impossible to demonstrate that in any country if you don't have the same power that the apostles had on the day of Pentecost. And that's why the devil has made the doctrine of the Holy Spirit the most controversial doctrine in Christendom. Some on one chaotic extreme and some saying we don't want any of that. I say both are wrong. Let's look at Jesus and the apostles as an example. So one of the things that the Lord gave me as a Bible teacher was to give us a test to people. To find out whether something is of the Spirit. You know, some people scare you by saying, Oh don't speak against that. That is the Holy Spirit. Those people falling down on the platform and doing all kinds of stupid things. Some barking like dogs and saying it's the Holy Spirit. Don't speak against it. The Holy Spirit works in strange, mysterious ways. And on the day of Pentecost they were like drunk people. So these people are also acting drunk. I don't believe all that. Jesus never acted like a drunk person. Some people lying on the floor laughing saying it's the Holy Spirit. That's not the Holy Spirit. So, I said the way to test everything is the Bible says in 1 John 4 verse 1, Beloved don't believe every spirit is one of the most needed words for us today. 1 John 4 verse 1, Beloved do not believe every spirit. But test the spirits. I'm not against the Pentecostals or Charismatics. There are some wonderful brothers among them and I love them deeply. But a lot of their teaching I am 100% against because it's not the Holy Spirit. I don't mind saying that publicly. There is a genuine that's not a bit just mixed up. See I saw this video recently of a conference of the biggest Pentecostal church in Australia. Hillsong. And I saw a 4 minute clip of the pastor, the chief pastor and this is what he said. I can give you the link if you like. The Muslims and us worship the same God. We worship Abba, we worship Allah. It's enough for me. Hillsong is the one that's got so many songs. I presume they sing to Jesus and to Allah. Where is Christianity going? What shall we say? Oh, don't speak against the Holy Spirit. You'll never be forgiven. No. I say test every spirit. Beloved, do not believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For there are many false prophets gone out into the world. And Jesus said the false prophets will cast out demons in his name, will heal the sick in his name, will prophesy in his name, and the Lord will say to them finally, I never knew you. Get away from here. That doesn't mean I'm against the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I'm against the counterfeit. A good seller of diamonds will reject every counterfeit, but he'll have real diamonds in his store. So, we should be against the fake, definitely. Haven't you met people who claim to be born again who are fake? I've met lots of people who claim to be born again. They don't know the Lord at all. I don't therefore throw out being born again. We don't throw the baby out to the backwater. Keep the baby through the backwater. Yes, there are lots of people who say they're born again who are not born again, but there is an experience of being born again. I know it. Likewise, being filled with the Holy Spirit. So, this is the test I've given to people. Fourfold test. You must know the New Testament, otherwise you can't apply this fourfold test. You must read the New Testament carefully, study it. Then you can apply this fourfold test to every manifestation that you see or everything that you hear preached. Number one, did Jesus do that? Did Jesus lie on the ground and laugh? Did He push people down? I find Him lifting people up, not pushing people down. When you do the opposite of what Jesus does, Jesus lifted people up and these people pushed people down. You know there's a word in the Bible for doing the opposite of what Jesus did? Antichrist. That's right. Antichrist. Christ lifts people up and these people push people down. And things like this. So, number one, did Jesus do it? If He didn't do it, I'm not interested. Second, did Jesus teach it? Is there any verse, anything where Jesus taught that we should do that? Third test, did the Apostles do it? Did the Apostles push anyone down or did they lift them up? Did the Apostles lie down on the floor and kick their legs like little babies and laugh hysterically? No. And number four, did the Apostles teach it? Very simple. Did Jesus do it? Did He teach it? Did the Apostles do it? Did the Apostles teach it? And if it fails on all four counts, I've taught people, reject it. If it is of God, at least one of these four it should pass. And so, you know what I mean. There are mistakes that the Apostles did, but they're identified as mistakes. People can take what I say and misquote it. Paul shaved his head so everybody should go and shave their head. The Apostles did it. But that is one of the stupid things about it. You know, I mention that because a lot of people misquote me. I remember once saying, Oh Lord, these people take some sentence of mine and go and misquote it. And the Lord said to me, Don't worry, they misquoted me for 2,000 years or so. Then I was at rest. People will misquote Jesus, they'll misquote you, but you know what I mean. The way to identify is Jesus, did he ever do it and teach it in a spirit filled Apostles? Did he write it or teach it or do it? It's the way to detect all the false things going on in the earth today. Why is God allowed so much of contradict? Why is he allowed so much of deception? I believe it is to make us more discerning. Our discernment doesn't come by the rule book, but by we are more dependent on the Holy Spirit. See 1 John chapter 2. It says here verse 27. 1 John 2, 27. The anointing that you receive from him abides in you and you don't need anyone to teach you. See that? It doesn't mean you don't need teachers. Teachers are there to explain the Bible. But you don't need, when you see something, you don't need somebody to come and tell you that's wrong. The anointing will teach you. You know, you listen to a preacher, maybe you're not a great theologian, I've had new believers, new believers tell me that they listened to one of these false teachers using the Bible and they said to me, Brother Zach, when I heard it, I felt there's something wrong about this man. I couldn't explain it because I don't know the Bible well but I sensed there was something wrong. I said, that's right, that was the Holy Spirit in you telling you be careful. This guy's not genuine. So that's what this verse is about. You don't need anybody to sit down there next to you and say, don't listen to him. The Spirit of God will tell you there's something fake about this person. Listen to that voice and you'll go astray. The anointing will teach you and you abide in Him and particularly in relation to the last days, verse 28, little children, abide in Him like that because He's going to appear soon and when He appears you must have confidence in Him and not shrink away. Is it possible that some little children of God are going to shrink away because they got taken up with all these side issues instead of being focused on the central issue of Christianity which is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. As a young Christian when I didn't know much way back 50, more than 50 years ago and there were all these different groups I found I came from an Orthodox church sprinkled as a baby, praying to Mary, praying for the dead, all that type of stuff was what went on in that church and I came out from there and I saw all these groups in Christianity everybody holding a Bible and saying we've got the truth. The Jehovah's Witness said we have the truth in them. Methodists said they had the truth and the Roman Catholics said they had the truth and the Baptists said they had the truth, the Pentecostals said they had the truth, the Brethren said they had the truth. Here I am, confused by all these people. I was reminded of that story where somebody in some country in Africa they started a church called the Church of Christ and that had a split and down the street just down the same street they started another church called the True Church of Christ. And the True Church of Christ had a split and further down the road they started another church called the Only True Church of Christ. The Church of Christ the True Church of Christ, the Only True Church of Christ and the man walking down the street says which one should I go to? Absolutely tragic. But remember, this is what a lot of people are I'll tell you what actually happened in one of our Hindu villages in India. In that particular village there was only one dead Christian church. Thoroughly dead. You know like some of these dead denomination churches. People were always fighting with each other and it was well known in the village. In a little village everybody knows what everybody else is doing. Some people went into that village and preached the gospel and one Hindu man was converted. And the next person he asked was this person who brought him to the Lord. Now that I have become a Christian Do I have to go to this church where they always fight with each other? What answer did he give? There's no other church. This is a tragedy. New converts. Confused. We have to repent. Say Lord, you don't have to blame for that church. But if God has called you to be a part of a pure church in your locality and you are not willing to pay the price for it. If you are being diplomatic and doing this that and the other. Your answer will be to God if you stumble some young people in your area. It's not enough just to get a reputation that I've preached holiness. Jesus did not come to produce a bunch of holy people. He came to build local expressions of his body. Of people who are totally committed to one another. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When we had a family my wife and I and our 4 children they were with us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They never had any other home. That was the only home they knew. That's the church. We find exactly the same as the church we build today. It's a family. We belong to one another. We're committed to one another. That's the type of body that Christ is building and it's not Bible study groups. Let me tell you that. God bless the Bible study groups but that's God's second best. I can't be against it because it's better than nothing. But I want to tell you that it's not God's highest. A lot of compromises and diplomats will break that. No. Christ is building the church. The gates of hell will never prevail against the church. He will prevail against all Bible study groups but he won't prevail against the church. The church is the only thing I'm interested in building. Like Noah. He was only interested in building the ark. He didn't have time for anything else. And you see, how can I do it? I'm not qualified but I'll tell you what you need to do. You first go to God and confess every known sin in your life. Everything that you know to be sin. That's the first step. Then forgive everybody who you have forgiven. Who's hurt you. That you remember. You don't have to dig up your memory and just whatever come, the Lord will bring to your mind. If you're not forgiven, some parents who didn't treat you properly or some uncle who molested you or some relative who took advantage of you or some boss who fired you or somebody cheated you. Just forgive them. Just like Jesus forgave you. One hundred percent. And say, Lord, it's not a question of feeling. Don't live in your feeling. Live in your will. Exercise your will and say, Lord, it doesn't matter if I feel I've forgiven them or not but in my will I say, I am forgiving them now. God goes by your will not by your feelings. Please remember that. That was a great liberation for me when I discovered that. That I don't have to live in my feeling. It's not a question of whether I feel something. Lord, my will is set. I have forgiven that person. That's it. I don't want to commit that sin. Okay, I'm going to keep on being tempted but Lord, my will is set. I don't want to do it. Live in your will. It liberated me. If the feelings are yours, it's set. So, that's the first thing. Confess every known sin. Forgive everybody who has hurt you. And ask forgiveness from anyone whom you have hurt that you can remember. Call them up, send an email or write a letter or meet the person and say, I'm sorry for the way I treated you or spoke to you or I'm really sorry. I want to keep a clear conscience. Give back money that you cheated other people of like Zacchaeus, with interest. Give it back. And say, Lord, I want to be clear. I want to give to Caesar what is Caesar's before I give to God what is God's. I want to be clear in my heart. I want to have an absolutely clear conscience before God and before men. Then, next step. First is clearing the conscience. Then see if you have opened up every room in your heart to God. I'm telling you how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. First, clean up the cup. You don't pour tea into a dirty cup. That's why I say clean your conscience first. And then, that's why they couldn't have the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Everybody's heart was dirty. But now it can be cleansed. See, there are different compartments in our heart. We love certain things. And we love certain things more than we love Jesus. But in that area, the Holy Spirit cannot come. The Holy Spirit will come to every area in your heart where you love Jesus supremely. Lord, I love Jesus more than I love my parents. I love Jesus more than I love money. I love Jesus more than I love my job. I love Jesus more than I love my car. I love Jesus more than I love reading novels or whatever it is. There's nothing wrong in having a car or having a house or caring for your parents or your wife or children. But the moment you love some of those things more than Jesus Christ, that is the area of your heart that's closed. And you can pray for a hundred years to be filled with the Spirit and you'll knock the door. How can He fill you? That's the reason so many Christians are not filled with the Holy Spirit. They'll knock the door of certain compartments of their heart and say, Oh God, fill me. Don't waste your time. Go to sleep. Don't pray all night. He's not going to hear you. You'll knock the door. You open the door. Say, Lord, come in. Oh, I love Jesus more than some of those precious TV programs that I watch. Can you give it up for Jesus' sake? Are you willing to give up some program that's not clean? It's not very identifying, but maybe you've watched it for years. I'm not against people having television. To me, television is like a library. I don't tell people, don't go to the library, but I say, be careful what books you take out of the library. TV is like that. Nowadays, with computers, that's worse than TV. So how can I tell people to get rid of TV and have a computer? It's a question of attitude. And if you are so attached to something that you can't give it up for the sake of Jesus, it's no use asking God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. You have to. The Spirit of God comes to exalt Jesus Christ in every area of your life. He must mean more to you than your job. More to you than... That means in your job you never compromise or tell a lie to get more business, or to make more money, or to get a promotion. I say, no. I had to do that in the Navy. I had to sometimes tell my senior officers, no standard attention. Say, sir, I'm a Christian. It's against my conscience to do that. Fine. I don't get the promotion that I would have got otherwise. That's fine. I'm interested in being promoted by the Lord, not by that man. Make sure there's nothing in your life that you will compromise for the sake of Christ. Examine your life. Every area. Or you can tell me what DVDs I have in my house that have been thrown into the trash. What type of music I'm listening to is not glorified by God. Not what other Christians tell you. And I'm not here to tell you. You sense in your spirit. That type of thing is not helping you. I'm not against secular music. Let me tell you that. Sometimes secular music can be very relaxing. But you young people listening to a lot of these love songs is not going to identify you. It will damage your mind. Be careful. The type of love songs you listen to. And rock music. People once asked me, what do you think of Christian rock? I said, that's like asking me what do you think of Christian adultery. Or Christian murder. Christian rock? I mean I can see a place for rock music in the world. Christian rock? I don't understand that. I say all our singing must be for to glorify Jesus. To worship the Father. Not to entertain people. I don't want that. Entertainment is ok in the world. But Christian music is not meant to entertain. It's meant to, can be a word that can challenge people. Inviting people to come to the Savior. Or glorifying God. So we've got to be very careful about a lot of things in our home. And all of which you have to see whether things are glorifying to Christ or not. I remember reading a little poem about what would you do if Jesus suddenly came to your house? And never forget that. If Jesus came to your house I'm sure you'd welcome him at the door. And have the best room ready. The best food and all that. would you have to hide some magazines before he came to your house? Throw away some books and decide not to watch your favorite TV program that day because Jesus is there. And speak extra kindly to your wife. Because Jesus is around. And a few things like that. And then after a couple of days when Jesus goes away, he says, I'm going. Of course, like we would say to all guests, oh please don't go. We want you to stay and all that. But he says, I'm going. What would you say when he goes? Would you say, ah. Now I've got to be myself again. You don't really want Jesus in your house. Think of it. If Jesus were visiting in your house what would you have to change in your house? You might want to change it now and ask Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit. But that is bringing the presence of Jesus into your home. To be put to the servant is to bring the presence of Jesus into your home. It's actually Christ there. He'll never be lonely out there. Because he'll be with you. It's the most wonderful thing to constantly be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Christ is bringing Jesus right into you. Give you peaceful sleep at night. Control your dreams. Control your conversation. Make you upright. Deliver you from anxieties, fears concerning your children. It's the best atmosphere in which you can bring up your little children in your home. I wanted our boys, you know, poor boys, I wanted them to grow up to feel that the most wonderful home they could ever build when they got married would be that home like ours. I said, Lord, if they can feel that, we've done our job. And if they can understand the secret of that is to obey God's word. Never have anything in the home that dishonors Christ. And be faithful. Don't waste money. I don't believe Jesus was extravagant with money. If you earn a little more one day, then just don't spend it. Be very faithful in little things like this. And then go to God and say, Lord, I'm yielded every area. I want you to fill every part of me with your Holy Spirit. Believe me, you will. It will be like pulling the curtains. When you pull the curtains, you don't have to ask the sunlight to come in. You don't have to ask it. Immediately, the sunlight comes in. It's like that. So, let's do our part. That's powerful, Lord. Amen. It's not an emotional thing. Being filled with the Spirit. It's very sacred, but not emotional. The Spirit of God can blow like a whirlwind or like a gentle whisper. A wind blows in different ways in different believers. Don't seek for the experience that you've heard somebody else have. You are unique before God, and God will meet with you in your own way, in His own way for you. Let's say this, Lord, everything that I've heard today, I really want to respond to, particularly the matter of conscience, to have a clear conscience before God. First opportunity, I want to say, alright, and I want to yield every area of my life that not yet yielded. Please help me in the area where I find a reluctance to yield. Please make me willing. Bend my will, Lord, so that it surrenders to You. I'm willing for You to bend my will to the will of God. That'll do. If you say you're willing to let God bend your will to the will of God. He knows that you're weak. He knows the attractions you have, so don't try to fool Him. He knows everything. And never justify yourself before Him. Don't give Him reasons why you do this and why you do that. Forget it. Say, Lord, I want to yield it to You, and I'm willing to pay the price. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that I can build the only thing that's going to remain when everything is destroyed, the Church of Jesus Christ. I want You to give me the gifts that are needed to do that. I don't want to waste my life. Maybe I'm not prepared yet. Maybe I need to be more broken. I'm willing to be broken, Lord. Do whatever it takes and prepare me. And when the time comes, please use me to build Your Church. I'm available. I'm not able, but I'm available. That's all God wants to give me. And trust Him. And as you pray those words to Jesus, quietly in your heart, thank Him that He's heard you. And say, Lord, give me an assurance that He really heard me when I said that prayer. And wait on the Lord to get that assurance, and till then thank Him. Keep thanking Him that He heard your prayer. He's a loving Father. He will not deny break for those who ask for it. How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask it? Will He change your life? Will He lift your life to an altogether higher plane? Don't look for manifestations. Look for a more fervent love for Jesus. The Spirit of God will fill your heart with love for Jesus Christ. And love for the unlovely people around you. That's how you'll know the Spirit of God has come. It's the aroma of Christ's love that will flood your heart. That's how you know. Heavenly Father, I believe there are many sincere, really sincere brothers and sisters here who want your best. And whom you want to give your best. I pray in Jesus' name that you give them a deep assurance that you've heard their cry. Pour out your Spirit upon them, Lord. Fill them with the Holy Spirit. And the Lord your hope will be in their heart to lead them to the place where rivers of living water will flow from them in the days to come. Bring them into that deep rest in God. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay.