This sermon emphasizes the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit and giving our best to God, warning against counterfeit anointings and false manifestations. It highlights the need to discern between genuine and counterfeit spiritual experiences, focusing on the significance of offering our best to God to receive His true fire and approval. The speaker cautions against being deceived by emotionalism, manipulation, and false manifestations, urging believers to prioritize God above all else and seek the genuine fire of the Holy Spirit.

We were looking yesterday at the fact that the Holy Spirit has come to earth to bring the Spirit of Heaven into our hearts. And this is why it is very important that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not something that is only for some Pentecostal people. There is a lot of counterfeit in this area. Why is that? Because anything valuable in the world is always counterfeited. They make counterfeit gold and counterfeit currency notes. But nobody makes counterfeit newspaper. Because that doesn't have any value. But there are counterfeit Christians who counterfeit the anointing of the Holy Spirit and many counterfeit gifts of the Holy Spirit. So, we have to be careful. I mean, these things prove that the genuine must be very valuable. So, God has allowed all this deception to go on in the world. Because, like that, our faculties of discernment become sharpened. That we must be able to discern not only between black and white. No, even between grey and white. Or between yellow and white. Or even something which is slightly off-white in color. We must be able to discern between that and pure white. So, when God allows these things to go on so that we can discern and thus spiritually we grow. We mustn't think that anything supernatural is from God. Because if you read the book of Job, the first person who sent fire from heaven was the devil. You read that in Job chapter 1. Elijah also brought fire from heaven. But you must distinguish between the fire sent by God and the fire sent by the devil. Whenever God sends his fire, the devil is always there to produce a counterfeit. Not only the devil, but human beings also try to produce some fire on their own. Let me show you an example in Leviticus chapter 9. From the beginning of time, the way God has always manifested his approval is by sending fire upon the sacrifices. How did Cain know that God accepted Abel's sacrifice but not his sacrifice? It's not written in Genesis 4. But in other places we see how God manifested his approval. And it was always by sending fire from heaven. Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, the God who answers by fire, let him be the true God. So that has always been the way God has manifested his approval. I believe that is how it was in Cain's time also. The sacrifice was alright, but there was no fire. And it's good for us to see, maybe we can look at Genesis 4 first. Because we can see the reason why God sent the fire. Even today you find that God sends a fire on some believers but not on others. And very few people have the fire. Many are believers. But if you are a believer without the fire of God in your life, then you can say God is not really approved of your life. In Genesis 4, we read in verse 3 and 4 that Cain and Abel brought offerings to God. Now many preachers have taught that because Abel brought a lamb, shed his blood, that's why God accepted him. And Cain did not bring a blood sacrifice, so God didn't accept him. And because that teaching is not found anywhere in the Bible, that some preacher thought about it and started preaching. And most believers believe it. There are so many doctrines like that in the Christianity, which are not found in the Bible. For example, that Jesus said before he comes again, there's going to be a period of great suffering called the great tribulation. And many preachers about a hundred years ago, 150 years ago, started preaching that before that suffering comes, Jesus will come and take away his suffering. But that's not taught in the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible is it taught. But most believers believe that. But Jesus said you will go through the great tribulation and then I will come. Like that here also, because people think that if I offer blood, God will accept me. So people claim the blood of Jesus and then they live as they like. But you know, what Cain and Abel were offering to God was not a sin offering. They were offering a thanksgiving offering for God blessing their work. You know, like in the Old Testament, there was a command, you must give your tithe. And that was not money because those people didn't earn money. They were all farmers, so one-tenth of their crop they offered to God as a thanksgiving. Now in the New Testament, there is no command to give a tithe to God. That is why I have never preached on tithing for 50 years. Because it is not in the New Testament. It's an Old Testament thing like keeping the Sabbath and killing a lamb and all these things. It's an Old Testament. If you start obeying Old Testament, then you must not only pay the tithe, you must kill a lamb once a year and also offer all the sacrifices. And I am listening to any work on a Saturday. There are so many human teachings in Christendom. And we can ask, how do these preachers and pastors deceive all the Christians to do all these things? Many preachers force others to pay the tithe. They say, God will curse you if you don't pay. And where do they get that verse? Old Testament. I say, are you living in the Old Testament or are you living in the New Testament? Are you a follower of Moses or a follower of Jesus? Jesus told the Pharisees to tithe, but he never told his disciples to tithe. You read that very clearly. Never did Jesus tell his disciples to tithe. He told them, if you want to give, give cheerfully to God. The Lord's way is always giving cheerfully, voluntarily, no compulsion. Let me tell you something. God never forces you to do anything. If you want to understand a heavenly life, you must learn one thing. In heaven, they don't force anybody. In hell, the devil forces his demons to do things. The principle of forcing people to do something is from the devil, not from God. So, when any preacher forces you to do anything, he is being inspired by the devil. Whether they force you to pay the tithe or force you to come for a prayer meeting, he is being inspired by the devil. God may urge you to give, urge you to come for the meeting, but he will never force you. Because the Bible says, God loves a cheerful giver. He will never even force you to obey his commandments. Look at all the millions of people in India. He doesn't force all of them to go to heaven. Do you know how many thousands of people died yesterday night in India? Every day, people are dying. Thousands of them. And most of them are going to hell. Why doesn't God catch them by the neck and take them to heaven? Because there is one principle with God. He never forces anybody. He gives people freedom. To follow Jesus is the best life you can ever live on this earth. There is no happier, no better life that you can live on earth than the life of following Jesus. But even that, God doesn't force people to do. Jesus says, if anyone wants to come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me. There is no compulsion. In the Old Testament, there was compulsion. You must pay the tithe. You must offer a sacrifice. You must not eat unleavened bread on so and so dates. But all that changed when Jesus came. Now, he wants you to choose freely. So, this was a thanksgiving offering. In the book of Leviticus, if you read, there were many offerings which had no blood. The sin offerings had blood. But there was a burnt offering and there were also certain thanksgiving offerings which had only grains and oil, no blood. So, Cain and Abel were bringing a thanksgiving offering to God. Cain brought from the field because he was working in the field. He couldn't bring any flock or animals because he didn't have any animals. Abel looked after sheep, so he brought his sheep. There was nothing wrong in both those offerings. But it says here in verse 4, the last part, the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering. Genesis 4 verse 4. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. I want you to notice the order. Many preachers have deceived you by reversing the order. They read it like this. The Lord accepted Abel's offering and therefore he accepted Abel. Because he brought blood, he accepted in your bible. It says he accepted Abel first. Then he accepted his offering. He rejected Cain first and therefore he rejected his offering. So what do we learn from that? The Lord saw something in Abel's heart, not in his offering. And he rejected it. See today, even if you come with the blood of Jesus, God may reject you. Jesus said that. He said if you got something in your heart against a brother, you hurt somebody, you got angry with somebody and because of that he is hurt. And then you come and offer offering to God. He said in Matthew 5, leave your offering there. God won't accept it. Go first to that brother. Go and ask his forgiveness for what you hurt him. Then come and offer. So the Lord is not looking at your offering. He is looking at your heart. So even if you come with the blood of Jesus, but you hurt somebody, may be your wife, you have to go and ask her forgiveness. Then only come. Otherwise God won't accept you. The same thing we see here. God looks at the heart. Many prayers that Christians pray don't go beyond the root. God doesn't hear it because there is Psalm 66 verse 18. If there is sin in your heart, God will not hear you. If you have hurt somebody and you haven't asked his forgiveness, God will not hear you. Now how did Cain know that his offering was not accepted? Because fire came upon Abel's offering. There was no fire on his offering. Why was that? See the reason. Please read the Bible slowly. Never read it fast. Sometimes you may have to spend five minutes on one verse. Many believers have got a bad habit of reading very fast. It's better to read the Bible slowly and finish it in 10 years or 20 years than to read the Bible fast and finish it in one year. What do you see the difference between Cain and Abel in verse 3 and 4? If you read carefully the answer is there. I don't have to tell you. You will see one big difference in their offerings and it doesn't have anything to do with blood. Did you discover it? In verse 3 and 4, see what it says. Cain brought an offering. Abel brought the best of his flock. Cain brought an offering. Abel brought the best from his work. There are two types of believers. All bring something to God. Most bring something to God. But some bring the best to God. That is the difference. Even today there is a difference. You can give little bit of time to God or you can give the best of your time to God. You can give a little bit of your money to God or the best to God. You can give a little bit of your life to God or the best of your life to God. See there are people who have lived to make money for 60 years and then after they retire, they will apply to some Christian organization and say, we would like to now do something for the Lord in our retirement years. I have also got letters like that. What they are saying is, the best of my life I lived for myself and the world and for money. Now there is little bit of my life before I die, I want to give it to God. There also they want to earn some money from some organization. You tell me yourself, is that like Cain's offering or like Abel's offering? Abel brought the best. Cain brought an offering. No wonder the fire fell on Abel. Even today God is not fooled. He sees among all of us who is giving the best and who is just giving an offering. For some people, serving God is whenever it is convenient. I have got my own program. I have got many things to do. But when I don't have anything to do, if I can spare a little time, I will also go for God. You will take leave without pay if your child is sick and How many of you have taken leave without pay to go for a conference or to do something for the Lord? Do you expect to have the same fire as another person who has given his best to God? Impossible. You may get honor in your church. And you many people because maybe you are a good speaker or something, people can admire you. But there is a lot of difference between being a good speaker and having the fire of God. Very big difference. Many politicians of Tamil Nadu are very good speakers. If they become Christians, they can continue to speak very well in some Christian subject. But that is not the fire of God. You may be able to speak like some politicians. So what? Everybody appreciates you like the politicians are appreciated. Don't deceive yourself that that is the fire of God. The fire of God comes upon those who have sacrificed and given their best to God. Who God has seen, they never put themselves first. They never put their own convenience first. They never put their own relatives first. Put God first. God's work is first. Everything else is second. Do you know the number of relatives weddings I have never gone to in Bangalore because I had a meeting in the church? There is nothing wrong in going to even an unconverted relative's wedding. But I decided I will never put that above God's work. I am not telling you to do that. That is a decision I made in my life. I decided in my life, God will always have the first place. I decided I will not even please my wife if I have to displease God. That is what Adam did. He wanted to please his wife. He displeased God. There are so many good Christians. They give an offering to God. But it is not the best. That is why they have so many problems. There is no seal. There is no fire. I don't want to lose the seal and fire of God in my life even if I am a hundred years old. Because I know there is only one thing worth living for on this earth and that is Jesus Christ. I won't have that opportunity when I go to heaven. To go to heaven and say, Oh Lord I love you, I love you, I love you will be meaningless if I don't put him first now on this earth. All of you will go to heaven and say Lord I love you, I love you, I love you. It is so cheap and empty if you didn't put him first on this earth. Follow Abel. He gave the best. There is a verse in the last chapter of Malachi, the last book of the Bible, Malachi of the Old Testament. In chapter 1, the Lord says, you know in the Lord's prayer he taught us first of all to pray hallowed be your name. What should be the number one request in your life? That doesn't come naturally to us. What comes naturally to us is Lord heal my backache or my headache or give me a better job or give my son a good wife. But Jesus said, when you put God first in your life, those are not your first requests. My first request is hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. After that, I can talk about my earthly needs, give me my daily bread and provide for my family. He said to his disciples, most believers don't pray like that. They don't even know what it means to pray hallowed be thy name. So that's what the Lord was telling through Malachi. Malachi chapter 1 verse 6. A son honors his father, a servant his master. If I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my respect? You despise my name. Then you say how will we despise your name? See, the main thing was the name of the Lord. Hallowed be thy name. The Lord said, you fellows have despised my name. They say how, we don't even know we have despised your name. And the Lord says, I will tell you how you have despised my name. When you bring an offering, you don't bring the best. When you bring a blind for sacrifice and you blame the sick for sacrifice. Verse 8. You know they have to offer a bullock sometimes as an offering. So they look around the bullock and see which one, oh this one is all blind, is a big nuisance, let me offer it as a sacrifice. And they look around the sheep and one sheep is lame and lame, difficult to walk, we'll offer it as a sacrifice. And the Lord says, will you offer your governor something like this? Will you offer your governor some despised type of offering? Supposing the governor of Tamil Nadu comes to your house, will you give him some rice that you cooked three days ago? And if you give him a gift, will you give him something that you have used in your house for three, four years? No. But what do you give to God? The Lord says, even your governor you would give the best. And to me, you say I'm almighty God, but you don't give the best to God. They are so careless in the way they come to the pulpit to share the word of God. They don't take any time to seek God. Just last minute they get up and say whatever comes into their mind. And they waste people's time and bore them. If your governor was coming for lunch today, how will you prepare for it? 11.30 you'll suddenly get something in the kitchen and mix it all up and make some kichidi and give it to him and say, here it is. No. You probably prepare three days ahead of time before the governor comes. How do you treat the people in your church? I'll tell you how the Lord has told me. The Lord says, when you stand to speak to people, remember they are my kings and my queens. They are my kings and my queens. Treat them like that. Respect them. Don't throw some useless kichidi before them. Because you're offering something to my children. If the king's children come to your house, how will you treat them? Many preachers do not respect God's people because they are not servants. They themselves act like the king. That's what the Lord is saying. What are you offering? You're not offering the best. You seek your own convenience. You know, I'll tell you something about my own life. I have almost never missed a meeting when I'm in Bangalore. Whether it's rain or no rain, whether I've got fever or no fever, whether I'm sick or not sick, whether I've traveled and didn't sleep the previous night, it doesn't make any difference to me. I say, Lord, I will not seek my own convenience. You are first. Your people. My convenience is secondary. I didn't get time to eat food. It doesn't matter. Food is not important. God's work is important. That is how I have served the Lord for 42 years. I want to tell you, God has blessed me. Learn to put God first. I remember many times in my life when I would have a fever. And when it's time to go to the meeting, I'd get up from my bed and go to the meeting with a fever. I know when I sit there, they will expect me to speak. If I don't go, somebody else will speak. So I know, if I go, they'll ask me to speak. And so I sit there with the fever. They ask me to speak. And I get up and I speak. 45 minutes, one hour. And the fever is gone. And I go back home healthy. God honors you when you honor him. I'm not telling you stories. I'm telling you what I've experienced in my life. It's the fire of God in our life because we bring Cain's offering. God won't force you. He says, you bring whatever you like. That's up to you. I told you that the devil forces people. God doesn't force people. The pastor who forces people to do something, is actually inspired by the devil. I have been in Bangalore church for 35 years. You go and ask anybody there if I have ever forced them to do anything. Not in my personal life, but not in the preaching. I say, can you do this? They don't have time to do it. Forget it. It's okay. Do it when you have time. I always tell people, it doesn't matter if you don't do it. Because the only thing serious in life is sin. And if you don't obey me, that's not sin. Some pastors will say, if you don't obey me, that's a sin. I get up and say, if you don't obey me, it's not sin. Because I'm only a man like you. If you disobey God, that's sin. Why do I say this difference between compelling people and leaving them free? The spirit of heaven and the spirit of hell are completely different. I'm trying to show you the difference between the spirit of heaven and the spirit of hell. In the Bible, you read, in English it is very clear, you are filled with the spirit or possessed by demons. You see the difference? Not possessed by the spirit. You never read in the Bible of somebody possessed by the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Holy Spirit. But demons, you never read of anybody filled with demons or filled with an evil spirit. Always possessed by evil spirit. Why this difference? Because when a person is possessed by an evil spirit, even by one evil spirit, he has no control over himself. You see anywhere in the world, I've seen people possessed by an evil spirit. They cannot control themselves. They do all types of things, they have no control. They say things which they cannot control. Who is doing it? Not they. The demon inside them. That is the mark of the devil. That when he comes into a person, he forces him to do things which he himself may not want to do. Whereas when the Holy Spirit fills a person, he doesn't force him. He doesn't force me to do anything. He never forced me to come to Thanjavur. He doesn't force me to get up and speak. And he doesn't force me to sit down. Even the gift of tongues which he gave me, I can use it when I like and stop when I like. Some people say, the Holy Spirit filled me and I couldn't stop. That was not the Holy Spirit. That must have been an evil spirit. Only the evil spirit controls people like that, that they cannot stop. The Holy Spirit doesn't force anybody to do anything. He doesn't make people fall down. No. All this business of people pushing people down, that's not the Holy Spirit. Jesus always lifted people up. He never pushed anybody down. If you do the opposite of what Jesus did, there is a word in the Bible for it. Antichrist. Christ is lifting people up and you are pushing them down. That is the opposite of Christ. It's called Antichrist. That's the spirit of the Antichrist. I never in my life want to push anybody down. I want to lift everybody up. There are so many meetings going on now in Christendom, even on television you see. They are all falling down. I say, if you go to such a meeting, I will give you a promise. Please take that promise and go. Psalm 91. A thousand will fall on my left side and it's a good promise to take. Or another wonderful promise in Jude 24. He can keep you from falling. You take some of these promises and go. You never have a problem anywhere. We got to be very careful. We must not let anybody lay hands on our head whom we don't have confidence in. I met a young girl in Australia once. She said, Brother Zach, I need some help. One American preacher came here. He asked people to come forward for baptism in the Holy Spirit. I went forward. He laid hands on me. My whole life has been confused after that. I said, did you know anything about this person? Do you know whether he is living a holy life? Do you know anything about his family life? Is he a lover of money? You don't know any of these things and you still allowed him to lay his hand on your head. Absolutely foolish. Anyway, I said, we can help you. Because Jesus can cancel all the work of the devil in one moment. So I said, I will pray for you right now. And break whatever power Satan put upon your life right now in one moment. In the name of Jesus. If you got some suffering like that, renounce it in the name of Jesus. You should not allow anybody to lay hands on your head whom you don't have total confidence in. I remember some years ago, we were praying with some people. One man came and laid his hands on my head. I pulled his hand and pulled it away. He was upset and disturbed. We got to be wise. Don't let anybody lay hands on your head. There are so many spirits operating in the world. Forcing people. To do this. Without their asking. They come and lay hands on your head without your asking. You got to be wise in such situations. I remember my wife was in a meeting once. A lot of sisters were sitting down. One man went around laying hands. So she got up so that he couldn't lay hands on her. We have got to be wise. Put your head under somebody's head so he can't put his hands on you. We have to be very wise. There are so many preachers going around doing all these demonic things. Demonic means forcing people to do things which they themselves don't want. Forcing people to type, forcing people to marry somebody. All types of evil things. The Lord has said you must marry so and so. Which Lord? The devil not Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ never forces anybody. Please remember this simple principle. The Holy Spirit always is like a dove. Gently. The devil roars like a lion. Many times people say how do I know whether this voice in my head is coming from the Holy Spirit? One way you can find out is this. Do you feel that voice is forcing you? Come on do it now, do it now, do it now. That is definitely the devil. If it is the Holy Spirit, he will allow you to wait. The Bible says those who wait upon the Lord shall rise up with wings as eagles. Don't let any spirit force you. Don't let any pastor or preacher force you. Don't let anybody lay hands on your head whom you don't have total confidence in. If he wants to pray for you, let him pray on his own without touching you. I believe in laying on of hands but only those you have 100% confidence in. These are simple principles. If you don't follow them, you can have a lot of problems in your life. The spirit of heaven is something that always gives us freedom. The fire of God falls upon people who give their best to him. I can tell anybody sitting here, if you give your best to God like Abel, the fire of God will fall upon you. Now let's turn to Leviticus 9. We read about a time when Aaron offered the sacrifice to God. And it says here, verse 22 last part, they made the sin offering and burnt offering and peace offering. And then verse 24, fire came from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering. They gave their best to God and the fire came down upon it. And Aaron had two sons. Their names were Nadab and Abihu. You read in the next verse. Now they didn't have the same anointing their father had. And they said, we also must get a name for ourselves like our father. See, don't think that the anointing always goes from father to son. Sometimes the son may get an anointing if he individually seeks God, not because he is so and so's son. Nowadays we find many parts of India and other countries also, even in America. One man starts a ministry and the next leader in that ministry will be his son. How is that? That is like a family business. If you look all the big business houses in India, the father starts a big business and the son takes over that business. Because they don't want the wealth of the family to go outside the family, so the son takes over the business. Christian work also has become a business nowadays. A lot of money coming in and the father does not want all that money to go outside the family, so his son takes over that Christian organization. You look everywhere, you will see that. We read here about Aaron's sons also. Aaron did not appoint his sons. You know Moses had two sons. You read about it in Exodus chapter 4. When he had to hand over the leadership, he never gave it to his two sons. He gave it to Joshua who is some stranger. Those are men of God. They didn't follow this worldly business principle. But very often a son will think, yeah I must take over my father's ministry. So Nadab and Abihu said, yeah we will do what our father did. But God would not send any fire on Nadab and Abihu's offering. So what did they do? They made their own fire. See they brought an offering and they put their own fire there and tried to show people, ah see the fire has come. That was not a fire from God. It was a fire they produced themselves. Do you know today most of so called Holy Spirit baptism is this type of self produced fire. Even lot of healing meetings. For one hour they will keep on playing some music. You know when music has a tremendous power to move us emotionally. Whether cinema music or Christian music or anything. And so all these preachers will one hour they will keep on with music, music, music, music, music, music. And the preacher will also come and start some songs and everybody is moved. And the television camera will focus on somebody who started crying. And everybody is moved emotionally. And then the preacher will say, now get the healing from Jesus. Did Jesus do it like that? Did Jesus get all the musicians to play for one hour before he prayed for the sick? I am amazed that Christians are deceived with all this. This is exactly like Leviticus 10, strange fire. My dear brothers and sisters let me warn you. The Holy Spirit which the apostles had has been replaced by music today in Christendom. You don't have the power of the Holy Spirit so we will do it with the power of music. That is the fire of Nadab and Abihu. And the fire of the Holy Spirit is now being replaced with the power of money. One of the most important things today in many Christian meetings is money and music. And I have decided as long as I live I will fight with this false fire. The real fire is the fire of the Holy Spirit which makes us holy. It gives us the power of God. In Leviticus we read in chapter 10 who offered the strange fire. And what was the result? Another fire came from the Lord and killed them. That is the fire of judgment. And I believe God will judge all these ministries that are producing false fire today. We need the real fire of heaven in our churches. Don't produce a false fire by emotionalism and shaking and all that. You don't have to shake to get the Holy Spirit. You have to give your best to God. That is what you have to do. If you don't give the best to God, you will keep shaking and shaking and you will get a false fire. Give your best to God and he will send the fire from heaven. And your life will become heavenly. Your home will become heavenly. And your church will become heavenly. That is what God wants to do. That is what God wants to do in all of our churches. He wants to fill us with the Holy Spirit and bring the spirit of heaven into our life. Where everybody in the church is free. No compulsion. And joyfully they give their best to God. Let's pray. While our heads are bowed before God, you need to ask yourself only one question. Is God first all the time in your life? Do you always give the best of your time, best of your life? Can you honestly say, I never seek my own convenience. God is first. My wife or family is not first. Dear brothers and sisters, if you give the best to God, the fire will fall immediately. If you don't give the best, then you will try all these other tricks and get some false fire. Heavenly Father, save us all from deception. Help us to have the real fire of God in our life. Where we are free. Free to serve you. Help us to give freedom to others. Help us we pray. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.