This sermon emphasizes the importance of seeing God as a loving Father who cares deeply for His children. It challenges believers to view God from a heavenly perspective, understanding His eagerness to fulfill His promises and provide for their needs. The message highlights the need to have faith that God is more eager to give than we are to receive, encouraging a shift from unbelief to trust in God's goodness and provision.

We've been thinking of seeing things from God's viewpoint. So I want to begin with a verse in Ephesians, in chapter 2. Why it is possible for us to see things from God's viewpoint. Here is a description of what we were and what God did for us in Christ on the cross. And I feel that there's a lot that Jesus did for us on the cross and an inheritance that he purchased for us. And the vast majority of Christians have got only 10% of that inheritance. That's a great tragedy and that's why they're living in spiritual poverty when they could be spiritually wealthy. Something like, if your father was a billionaire and owned a lot of property and bank accounts in different places, different banks, and he died and he left a will for you, his only son or daughter, and gave complete details in that will of what all there was of his wealth in so many different banks and property in different areas. I'm absolutely sure you would carefully read it. You wouldn't let any crooked lawyer cheat you out of your inheritance. You would make sure that you get it all. But I don't find that type of passion among Christians to get a far richer inheritance that they have in Christ. They don't read the scriptures carefully. The inheritance that God bought for you is here in this book. And when I look at the spiritual poverty of so many Christians, to me it's like that billionaire father's son living like a homeless man on the street asking people for help. And you look at that homeless man on the street and if I tell you, you know his father was a billionaire who left all his wealth for him, you wouldn't believe it. How did that happen? Some crooked lawyer cheated him of his inheritance because he didn't read it carefully. And when I see some Christians in exactly that condition spiritually, pathetic, gloomy, discouraged, defeated, grumbling, complaining, losing their temper, lusting and watching pornography of all things, and saying that they are children of God, they remind me of that homeless beggar claiming, my father was a billionaire. But look at your condition. We say our father is the ruler of this universe, but it doesn't look like that when I look at your life. Why is that? Because we have not read our inheritance fully. So I want to help you to possess your inheritance little by little. That's what I tried to do yesterday. So to see things from God's viewpoint is to see the inheritance that Jesus purchased for us at such tremendous cost. Do you think the blood of Christ is worth more than a billion dollars? Sure, trillions. It's worth much more. So think of the price He paid to purchase that inheritance. And this is what it says here in Ephesians 2 and verse 1. Once upon a time you were dead in your trespasses and sins, and you walked according to the course of this world, lived according to the lusts of your flesh, verse 3. But God, being rich in mercy, verse 4, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. You see, there's a lot of difference between just saying that you were forgiven. A lot of Christians know their sins are forgiven. That's great. But it says here we are made spiritually alive. We were dead spiritually, but we are made alive in Christ and raised up with Christ. That means one of the great truths that is taught in Scripture, which many people have not understood, is not just that Christ died for our sins, but God put us in Christ when He died on the cross. Many of you probably never heard that in your churches, because even if they preach, they preach that Christ died for your sins and rose again. But the fact that you were crucified with Christ, that is the secret of deliverance. You don't get delivered by the blood of Christ. That only blots out your past. You know, there's a song we sing, would you be free from your passion and pride? There's power in the blood. Well, I want to tell you, there's no power in the blood to free you from your passion and pride. That's completely wrong. There's power in the blood to cleanse your past sins. But we sing in that song, would you be free from your passion and pride? There's power in the blood. No, you don't find a single verse in Scripture that teaches that. We need to recognize what the blood of Christ does. You want to be freed from your passion and pride? It's not the blood of Christ. You must be crucified with Christ. It's completely different. And so people sing about the blood of Christ, freeing them from their passion, their anger and their pride, and they live with their anger and pride, singing that song for endless ages. And they don't seem to say, hey, the blood of Christ doesn't seem to have delivered me from my anger or my pride, but I keep singing that song. It's absolute nonsense. Singing something that doesn't work in your life. You have to be called a liar. If you sing something that's not true in your life, you're a liar. That's the meaning of a lie, to tell something which is not true. And to tell other people, you'll be free from your passion and pride by the blood of Jesus. No, you won't. It didn't free you, and it's not going to free anybody else. So we need to understand what the blood of Christ does and what being crucified with Christ does. The blood of Christ was shed as the atonement for our sin. There's a price to be paid for the sins we committed, and Jesus died for that. And all our sins can be taken care of if you confess them. But now our next problem is our nature, which is full of passion and pride and selfishness and every wretched imaginable thing that you can think of that comes from the corrupt nature of Adam we've all inherited from our parents. And for that, the deliverance is not through the blood of Christ. I am crucified with Christ. So that's what it's talking about here. We were crucified with Christ on the cross and then raised up with him, verse 6. That means when he was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead as well. That's how I get delivered from my pride and selfishness. And that's a truth which is hardly preached anywhere in Christendom. Paul experienced it. He says in Galatians in chapter 2, how did Paul manifest the life of Christ in him? Listen to this. Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. He's not talking there about the forgiveness of sins. He was already cleansed by the blood of Christ. Now he's talking about how he can manifest the life of Jesus in his body. I have been crucified with Christ. Now it is no longer I who live. What happened to the I? The I was crucified. It's dead. And that dead man, he says he's not living anymore. But Christ lives in me. We can call this the exchanged life. I gave up my life to be crucified with Christ and Christ came and took over. And the life which I now live, I live in the flesh, but I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. If I don't do that, verse 21, I'm cancelling the grace of God. But I don't cancel the grace of God. So a question can come into our mind, well, how in the world could I be crucified with Christ when I'm living in the 20th, 21st century and he died in the 1st century? Well, I'll tell you how. It says in Ephesians in chapter 1 and verse 4 that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1, 4 is referring to a period of time before Genesis 1, verse 1. We think Genesis 1, verse 1 is the first verse in the Bible. In terms of the Bible, yes, but in terms of time, the first verse is John 1, 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. That's long before Genesis 1, 1 and Ephesians 1, 4 is also long before Genesis 1, 1. The foundation of the world was Genesis 1, verse 1. Before the foundation of the world, He, that is the Father, chose us in Christ. That means long before you were born, long before Adam was created, God knew about you. God knew about you by name. That brings great comfort to me that you're not just a social security number floating around on this world. You were known by name before the world was created if you have received Christ as your Savior. Why is that? Because God can look into the future and see everything. Now the Calvinists say, and I'm not a Calvinist, the Calvinists say that God chose you arbitrarily. That means He just shut His eyes and picked out some names and said, okay, you guys are going to heaven. The rest of you, sorry, you're going to go to hell. That would be an evil God. I don't believe in a God like that. Because then if somebody goes to hell, He'll say, why are you punishing me when you didn't choose me? That's why I'm in hell. That's not what the Bible says. God wants everybody to repent. It says in 2 Peter, in chapter 3, God wants everybody to be saved. It says in 1 Timothy, in chapter 2, verse 4 and 5. So God wants everyone to repent and everybody to be saved. And how in the world would He just pick out a few names in eternity and say, only you guys are going to be saved. And that's why I'm not a Calvinist and I never will be one. How then, does it mean that God, is it true that God chose us? Yes, He certainly did. But how did He choose us before the foundation of the world? We must compare scripture with scripture. Don't ever get a doctrine from one verse of scripture. You could misunderstand scripture. So when it speaks about God's choosing, think of what else scripture says in 1 Peter, chapter 1, in verse 1 and 2. Here it explains how we were chosen. In Ephesians 1, 4, it just says we were chosen. But in 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 1 and 2, it says how we were chosen. It says to those who are residing in these places, those who were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And this is the verse that all Calvinists will never talk about, because it completely destroys their teaching. You were chosen, not arbitrarily, it's not that God put a lot of names on a hat and pulled out some names and said, you guys are going to heaven, no. Foreknowledge. God did not influence your choice. You chose, but He knew about it before. He did not make you choose. He did not make somebody else reject Christ. God does not make anyone reject Christ. He encourages everyone to repent. He encourages everyone to believe, but He will not force them. Like I said yesterday, He doesn't want robots. But He knows in advance who is going to choose Christ, even though He doesn't influence them. It's not that God forces a person to accept Christ, what they call irresistible grace. It's a lot of rubbish, irresistible grace. You can resist the grace of God, sure. You can say no. It wasn't God who crucified Christ on the cross. It was evil people, inspired by the devil, but God allowed it. God knew about it before the foundation of the world that Jesus Christ would be crucified. It's not a surprise. God knew that Adam would sin long before He was created in him. It wasn't a surprise. It's not that Adam sinned and said, oh, what shall we do now? That's not how God reacted when Adam sinned. He knew about it all along. He said the seed of the woman will come and crush the serpent's head. Straight away He said that, because it was all planned before the foundation of the world. So what does foreknowledge mean? Now, here is an illustration. If you listen carefully, you'll understand it. How God does not influence your choice to accept or reject Christ, but He knows about it. Supposing you see a video on the screen, a home video produced by somebody of some people playing together, or children, or human beings that say a quarrel on the street, or somebody doing some kind act, and a video of various things that's happening in a town, and you see some people quarreling and fighting and hitting and somebody killing someone, and then you see another video of somebody doing a very kind act and helping the poor, and you're just watching it, okay? And you're just watching what's happening. You don't even know those people. You did not influence that man who killed that man. You did not influence that man who showed that act of kindness to that poor man. You were just watching it. And if someone tells you to write down what you saw, you can write down. Yeah, I saw this man killing this man, and I saw this man doing an act of kindness. You did not influence that at all. You just watched the video. Now, God can watch a video of something that's going to happen in the future. You can only watch a video of something that's already happened in the past, you and I. But God sees a video millions of years into the future, what somebody's going to do. Whether he's going to kill somebody, whether he's going to do an act of kindness, whether he's going to respond to the gospel and receive Christ, or whether he's going to listen to the gospel and chuck it out, or whether he's going to worship idols and turn away from God, or worship some false gods. God is only watching the video. And just like you didn't influence that home video that somebody else shot and showed you, God doesn't influence the video of the future either. He watches it. And like you can describe what you saw in that video, God can describe exactly what happens in the video, what's going to happen 10,000 years in the future. That is called foreknowledge. And on the basis of that foreknowledge, what he sees in the video of the future, he elects that person. He's received Christ, okay, I choose him. That person rejected Christ. He's not in the book of life. So that's what it means here by election. I hope you understand that. That's the best illustration I've ever found of what election is. And now we come back to Ephesians 1, 4. We were chosen in Christ, now you understand, according to God's foreknowledge, before the foundation of the world. And the purpose was that we should be holy and blameless before him. Because in love, he predestined us. Because he saw the video ahead of time, to see what you were going to do. And he saw you folks sometime in your life receiving Christ. And God said, okay, your name is in the book of life. And he saw somebody else rejecting Christ. His name is not in the book of life. There's no partiality with God. He created all human beings. He allowed all human beings to come to this earth. And he leaves it to us to choose. He urges us to choose. He gives us the grace to repent. But people can reject the grace of God and then they don't repent. It's their own. That's why everybody who goes to hell is 100% to blame himself. He'll never be able to blame God. He'll never be able to blame somebody else. And so, when God knew us before the foundation of the world, he'd already got all these names. That includes you and me and everybody else right up to the end of time. We're going to be born again children of God. And in God's mind, he put them all into Christ when Christ was crucified on the cross. You were there. I was there. In God's mind, I was there, killed with Christ on the cross. That old man, called Zakbonen, died on the cross. Now, it becomes real to me only if I accept it. Take the matter of sin. There are people who can ask this question. How could Jesus die for my sins when I'm committing them in the 21st century? How's that? How could he die for my sins in advance? Because of the videotape. God already knew what you were going to do. He knew every sin that you were going to commit from the day you were born right up until the day you die. And he could put them all on Christ. Every single sin. Because of the videotape. With the future which he can see. And he put you to death on the cross as well. But he did not only put you to death. Because you received Christ. He put you in Christ. In Christ you died. And listen to this, Ephesians chapter 2. When Jesus Christ was buried, you were buried with him. And when he rose up from the dead, Ephesians 2, 6. You rose with him from the grave. And here's the best part of it. When he ascended to heaven, you ascended with him there. And as he is seated in heaven today, you are seated with him there. None of this is true until you receive it. Just like Christ died for your sins, but it never became true in your life until you received it, right? Think of the years and years and years and years and years in which you lived in sin, even though Christ had died for your sins, and yet you were living in your sin. When did it become real in your life? When you believed it. When you accepted it. Lord, I believe that 2,000 years ago, these sins that I committed now in my earthly life, you took it there and you died for me and I believe I'm forgiven. In the same way, our death with Christ and our being raised up with him becomes true in us when I believe and accept it. There's a principle in God's dealings with us. It's called, according to your faith, be it unto you. So, if I accept it as true that I was united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, and it doesn't stop there, and ascension, I'm in Christ, and where is Christ now? In the heavenly places. Then, I can look at everything from God's viewpoint. See, you can't experience this unless you believe it. What does it mean to look at things from God's viewpoint? That is from heaven. And one of the wonderful things about heaven is that when you look at a lot of things on earth from heaven's viewpoint, they don't appear so big. They're pretty small. You know, people on earth fight for houses and lands. But you go up into an airplane 30,000 feet up in the air and that house looks like a little toy house. People fighting for it, little children fighting for toy houses. And that expensive Cadillac car is like a little toy car when you get up to 30,000 feet. It doesn't look so attractive as down on earth. Why are so many things on earth so attractive to you? Because you're living on the earth. If you take your place with Christ in the heavenly places, the place where God has put you, it says here. You've read Ephesians 2, 6 many times. Do you believe it? You know that in everything in the scripture, you cannot experience until you believe. I've often thought about Matthew chapter 9. It's one of my favorite illustrations. Matthew chapter 9, you read about two blind men who came to Jesus and said, Lord, have mercy on us. He asked them, what do you want me to do for you? Matthew chapter 9, and they said, Lord, we want our eyes to be opened. When they came to him and wanted their eyes to be opened, the fact that they asked for their eyes to be opened is mentioned in Mark's gospel. And then he said, he asked them a question. He said, do you, this is Matthew chapter 9, verse 28. Do you believe that I am able to do this for you? Do you believe that I'm able to do this for you? They said, yes, Lord. Okay. Be it done to you, not according to your desire, not according to my desire, but according to your faith. So what did they get? They got as much as they believed. And I've thought in that situation, if those two men had gone one by one into the room where Jesus was, because, you know, he came into the house, we read in verse 28, and the blind men came to the house. Supposing they went one by one, and the first man went in, and Jesus asked him, do you believe I can open your eyes? And supposing he had said, Lord, I believe you can open one eye. Definitely, I'm absolutely sure. You know what God would have told him? The Lord would have told him? Exactly the same words. According to your faith, be it done to you. What would have happened? His one eye would have been open. And he'd be so excited. When a blind man gets one eye open, can you imagine how excited he is? Because he's been blind all his life, and all of a sudden he can see things. He's jumping and shouting and happy. And he comes out and says, hey, you know what Jesus did for me? He opened my one eye. And then the other guy goes in, and Jesus asks him the same thing. Do you believe I can do this for you? He says, sure. I believe you can open both my eyes. According to your faith, be it done to you. He comes out with both eyes open, and the man with one eye looks at him and says, how in the world did you get both eyes open? Jesus only opens one eye. This is the conflict in Christendom today. To have one eye open is to have our sins forgiven. To have the second eye open is to overcome sin. Now the question is, does Jesus only forgive sin, or does he also keep us from falling into sin? Does he save us, or does he only forgive us? One man says he forgives us. He's got one eye open. How did he get it? By faith. Another person says, I believe Jesus also saves me from my sin. He saved me. How did he get it? Not because he was better than the other guy. Not because he did more works. It's got nothing to do with works. He just believed. The Lord asked him, do you believe I can do this for you? He said, sure. So what happens? These two guys go out, and this one man starts the one-eyed denomination that preaches Jesus can open only one eye, and the other guy starts the two-eyed denomination that preaches Jesus can open two eyes, and the guy with one eye calls the other guy a heretic. It's false teaching that Jesus can open two eyes. He does not. I know from my own experience that he opened only one eye. And he's speaking the truth. He doesn't realize that he missed out on what he could have had if he had trusted God for more. This is exactly what has happened. Today we have most of Christendom preaching Jesus can forgive your sin. How many people can teach that Jesus will help you to overcome sin? That Jesus who opened one eye will open the other eye as well? That you can be seated in the heavenly places because you're crucified with Christ and you can see things from God's viewpoint, and a lot of things that people fight for on earth are like little toys for you because you're now looking at them from heaven's viewpoint. Otherwise it's such a struggle. This guy is taking that thing of mine. When you look at it from God's viewpoint, it looks so trivial and small, things that Christians fight about. I believe this is the problem. For example, I don't know how many of you know, what is the first promise in the New Testament? We've spoken about Old Covenant, New Covenant. Old Covenant was abolished. Malachi is the last chapter of the Old Covenant. As soon as you turn to Matthew 1, you come to the New Testament part of the Bible, and the first promise in the New Testament is, do you know what it is? Tell me. He shall save his people from their sins. Matthew 1.21 I ask people, do you know the meaning of the name Jesus? Matthew 1.21, the angel told Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus because because he will save his people from their sins. I tell people, listen, has Jesus saved you from your sins? They say, yeah. Has he saved you from your anger? No, he hasn't, but he forgives my anger. Has he saved you from lusting after women? No, not yet, but he's forgiven me every time I do it. Has he saved you from complaining and grumbling? No, he hasn't, but he forgives me every time I do it. I say, then be honest and say, Jesus is my forgiver, not my savior. Don't call him your savior. He's not your savior because he's not saved you from all the wretched sins you're still practicing. But he's forgiven you. Why tell a lie that he's your savior when he's not your savior? He saved you from nothing. Oh, you say he saved me from hell. Well, that's in the future. What's he saved you from right now? You see how we are telling lies. I think, supposing I'm witnessing to a non-Christian, a non-Christian who's seeking the truth, he's been worshiping false gods, and he's fed up with his defeated life, and his home life is a mess, and he hears about Jesus, the savior. And he comes, and I tell him about Jesus. And he says, what can Jesus do for me? And I tell him, you know, we're all sinners, and he died on the cross to take the punishment for all my sin and your sin. You can just receive him, and you can be forgiven immediately, and when you die, you'll go to heaven. He says, that's wonderful. But he says, I have another problem. I keep yelling at my wife every day, can Jesus save me from that? And if you yourself are not saved from that, he says, no, no, no, Jesus can't save you. He's not so powerful. He cannot save you from that. But he can forgive you. And then he says, I have another problem. I keep lusting after women all the time. Do you think Jesus can save me from that? No, no, no, Jesus is not so powerful. He can't help you with that. The devil is pretty powerful, you know. He makes you do it. Jesus is not so powerful. And he says, okay, you've got to live with that. And he says, no, thank you. I don't want your Jesus. You keep your Jesus. I'm looking for someone who will deliver me from these sins. Do you blame him for rejecting this wretched gospel that you have preached to him? That Jesus can forgive your sin, but he can't deliver you from any of the other sins, because the devil is so mighty and powerful that he's done such a work in your life that even Jesus cannot do it. That is a false Christ. It is another Jesus. That is the other Jesus that is being proclaimed by many Christians, if not by their words, by their life. You know what many Christians are proclaiming by their life? This Jesus of mine can never deliver me from anger. This Jesus of mine can never deliver me from lusting with my eyes. This Jesus of mine will never deliver me from grumbling and complaining, or lusting after women, or loving money, and being covetous, and being selfish. If you don't believe me, ask my wife. She'll tell you. This Jesus does not deliver me from any of these things. But he forgives me. Boy, how good he is. Even if I sin a hundred times a day, his blood cleanses me, and I will sing about the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood, power in the blood. What type of savior is this? Call him forgiver. And I believe that most Christians only know him as forgiver if they're honest. They are liars when they say he's savior, because he saved them from nothing. You ask yourself, what has he saved you from? I use another illustration. Supposing a little child of mine is six years old, and I tell him, hey, don't go outside the gate. The construction workers are working on the road, and they're digging a deep pit there for the sewage line. And if you go outside the house, you can fall into a pit. It's a deep pit, ten foot deep. Don't go outside. And you know how children are. They disobey their dad. And they go, and he goes and falls into that pit. And he says, daddy, daddy. And I come running and say, son, what happened? Daddy, I'm sorry. I disobeyed you. Please forgive me. I say, okay, son, forgiven. Goodbye. Have I forgiven him? Yes. Have I saved him? Has Jesus forgiven you? Yes. Has he saved you? No. Don't you think you're telling a lie when you say he's your savior? Don't you think Christendom has deceived you? By not allowing you to see your inheritance? Telling you that he took your sins on the cross, but he didn't take you on the cross, even though the Bible says you were also there, crucified, buried, and raised up. What is the difference, let's say, between you and the other guy whose sins are not forgiven? Don't you know? Tell me honestly. Don't you know some people in the world who have not sinned as much as me? I know people who have not sinned as much as me. I'm sure you know people who you know the wretched sins you committed, and I'm sure you know some people who have not committed as many sins as you. How in the world did you get forgiven and that guy get left out? How were your sins forgiven? And he who committed less sins than you, not forgiven. Only one reason. What is it? You repented, and you believed. That's all. It's not because you were better than him, not because God was partial. You believed. You said, Lord, I believe. You forgive a wretch like me. That guy doesn't believe. Okay. Now we go to the second eye, second problem. How is it that that person has got deliverance, that he's got victory over his anger and his bitterness and his complaining and his lusting and his love of money, and you haven't got it? Same reason. He believed and you don't. According to your faith, be it unto you, do you want victory? Yes. Does Jesus want to give you victory? Yes. But you don't have faith for it. That's the only reason. Supposing God wants to forgive. God wants to forgive everybody in the world. It's very clear. He wants all men to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3, verse 9. He wants all men to be saved. 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 4 and 5. So here it is. God wants all men to repent and all men to be saved. That's clear. Yet, the number of people on this earth who actually repent and are saved is probably 5% of the most. 95% of people for whom Jesus died are on their way to hell. Including lots of Christians who call themselves Christians. Why is that? They won't believe. They think they've got to do some works in order to believe. No, no works. It's free. And in the same way, 95% of born-again believers who've already been forgiven, they never come to a life of victory. Again, the same reason is the same. They don't believe. They don't accept the fact that I have been crucified with Christ. As I've often said, I was born again when I was 19 and a half. But I never experienced the beginnings of victory till I was about 36. 16 years as a born-again Christian. Absolutely sure I'm on my way to heaven. But with one eye open. I couldn't really say, I called Jesus my Savior, but He wasn't because He hadn't saved me from a lot of things. But He had forgiven me. I was absolutely sure of that. No doubt about it. The tragedy was, I never heard a sermon like this that you're hearing right now. I wish I had when I was 19. I really wish I had heard this as soon as I was saved. But I went to a church where they never preached victory over sin. I don't blame them because nobody there had victory over sin. All they knew was forgiveness. So, that's all I got. I mean, if you go to a school where the only class is kindergarten, there's no other class after that, well, that's all you learn. You'll be 25 years old, you'll be in the kindergarten. A lot of churches are like that. There's only one class, kindergarten. How to have your sins forgiven. And most churches are like that with one class, kindergarten. I remember I went to, we went for meetings in a village in India. Most of our churches are planted in these villages where lots of non-Christians have accepted Christ. But there are Christians also there who have got this kindergarten type of churches. And so, one of them asked me in a question-answer time, So, Brother Zach, have you come here to steal the sheep from other churches and start your church here? I said, No. Most of them are goats in any case. So, I'm not stealing any sheep here. I'm not coming here to steal any sheep at all. And secondly, quite apart from the illustration of sheep and goats, I said, I don't look at it like that. I look at it as I've come to a village where there are a whole lot of schools which only have kindergarten. And I've come here to start a high school. Is that a crime? Now, a lot of people are quite happy with kindergarten. Okay, stay in the kindergarten schools. But there are a few people, maybe 1%, who say, Hey, we're not happy with just kindergarten. I want to get a little more education. So, I'm just making a provision for them. I'm not dragging them out and saying, Come on, come here. And the other thing about my school is it's absolutely free. You don't have to pay for this education. The teachers are also not paid, by the way. It's free. So, what is the crime of my setting up a school to help those who want to study a little more than kindergarten? I said, That's what I'm doing. I'm not stealing anybody's sheep. If, for example, in a town, there's only schools and no colleges, and somebody sets up a college there, would that be a crime? Is he stealing people from the schools? No. He's telling people, Those who have finished school, if you're happy with that's all you want, stay where you are. But if there's maybe some of you, maybe 1% of you who finished school, who want to go on to college, well, we're setting up a college. Free education. What's the crime in that? There is no sheep stealing there at all. It's all the lie of the devil that she's stealing sheep. Not at all. Then the other crime people accuse me of is, You take the best people from our church to your church. I say, Those are the ones who want to go on from school to college. Who are the ones who go from school to college? Always the best students, right? The useless students stay on in school. So, if the best people come to our church, I say, Don't blame me. You can set up a college too. Nobody's stopping you. And they'll stay with you. That is what we plan to do. We want to set up a place where people can come to the full inheritance in Christ. I'm absolutely convinced that just like me, lots and lots of Christians are living on 10% of their inheritance. And they're exactly like that homeless man standing on the street saying, I need help. Can you please give me some food? Drop a few currency notes into this bag. That's exactly how Christians are. Spiritual beggars. And not living on their inheritance in Christ even though a tremendous inheritance was purchased for them on Calvary's cross. And one of the greatest parts of this inheritance, see, when we look at it from heaven's viewpoint, you know, when we get up to heaven, heaven is so full of the glory of God our Father. And you read Revelation, and they're singing the praise of our Heavenly Father. They're so taken up with Him. I love to see that picture of heaven. I sometimes meditate on the time when I will be in heaven. And I know I'll be there one day. I have absolutely no doubt about it. And I'll be there, and I read in Revelation how it'll be. And everybody's singing the praise of the Father and of Jesus Christ. Nobody knows Paul or Peter or any of the great saints. Nobody knows me there. I'm so thankful. To be lost in that crowd. I long to be lost in a crowd of millions of Christians. And I'm just one of those. Just like anybody else. Not special. And Paul also is happy to be there just like anybody else. On earth, you know, people like him and all are very special. Apostles and prophets. But up there, they're all the same. And those who are ready to go there are the ones who are willing to be just like ordinary people. And when you get up to heaven, you'll be just an ordinary person. And the only ones who are praised there are the Father and Jesus Christ. They sing, Worthy is God, and Worthy art thou, O God. Worthy is the Lamb. So, we're going to be taken up with our Heavenly Father when we get up to heaven. So, one of the things from heaven's standpoint that we see is God as a loving Father. I believe the thing that will overwhelm us when we see Jesus Christ, when we see Jesus face to face, the thing that will overwhelm us is how much He loved us. We don't realize a fraction of it right now. How much He loved us when He hung on the cross for us. We read about it and a little bit about it, but most of us don't know the agony He suffered of the three hours of being forsaken by the Father on the cross when He was cut off. And in three hours, He suffered the pains of eternal hell. That was the price He paid. Many people don't realize that Jesus actually suffered hell for three hours on the cross. That's the meaning of being forsaken. You know, hell is a God-forsaken place. The only God-forsaken place in the universe is hell. And it's really a God-forsaken place. God is not there. God is in the deepest pits on the earth, in the filthiest places on earth, God is there. But if there's one place in the universe where God is not there, it's hell. It's a place where God is not there, and that's what makes hell, hell. It's not the worms and the fire, it's the fact that God is not there. I believe I can endure the worms and the fire if Jesus is with me. Definitely. It'll mean nothing to me. If Christ is with me, I can face anything. But if Christ is not there, that's hell. And that's what hell is like. The God is not there. And when Jesus hung on the cross for three hours, the Father was not with Him. He was cut off. That's why He said, My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? Now, I can answer that question. I could say, Lord, if I were there, I could say, Hey, Lord, I can tell you, Lord, why You're forsaken. You're taking my sins. Why in the world didn't Jesus know that? Have you ever thought of that? Why did He ask a question, My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? When all the time He was saying, before that I'm going to the cross to die for the sins of the world and I'll be raised up. I mean, He said that so many times. Why at that moment did He ask this question? Why have You forsaken Me? Because when you are in hell, you've lost your senses. You don't even know anything. And that is one of the clearest proofs to me that He was facing hell there, that He asked such a question, Why have You forsaken Me? Which He knew very well for 33 years, why God would forsake Him. Because He was dying for my sins. I don't know whether you understood this. That's what He faced there. And He never wanted to face it. And that's why He kept on praying, Father, don't let me drink this cup. It's terrible. I don't mind the pain and the agony and the nails and all that. But don't let me be forsaken. You and I have had fellowship with all eternity. Why should I be forsaken? And if some angel says, Lord, it's only for three hours. I don't want to be forsaken for one second. Jesus valued fellowship with the Father so much. But He endured it for you and me. And that was the price He paid to buy this inheritance for us. Not just forgiveness of sins. But that I might overcome sin, that I may know God as my Father. That's why when He rose up from the dead, He told Mary Magdalene, Go and tell my brothers that I am ascending to my Father and your Father. In the entire history of the Old Testament, nobody could call God Father. It's a special privilege. And it's what happens when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, it says in Romans 8, cries out from within us, Abba, Father. Abba means Dad. I thank God that even though I lived in ignorance of it for 16 years after I was born again, a day came in my life about 42 years ago when I came to know God as Dad. The greatest need in the world is for people to know God as Father. I remember when I was preaching in a church in California on the fatherhood of God, somebody told me, Brother Zach, you haven't lived in the United States. You don't know conditions here. You've lived in India. But let me tell you something about most families in the United States. Most children have never experienced a real father in their home. Many homes, the father is absent. Or the man who is there, his father is a stepfather. Probably the third father he has had because the wife has divorced so many times the mother. So this word Father means very little to them. They've had a stepfather who's been rude and hurt them and abused them. So you've got to explain what a father is. It was an absolute shock to me because I come from a country where the poor Hindu in the village, the poor Hindu who worships idols in the village is a very good father to his children. They hardly have divorce in their midst. You see how much Christendom has deteriorated, that it has sunk lower than the Hindu religion where they don't have divorce, hardly ever. If you want to know how low Christendom has sunk, its leaders, its pastors are divorced because they don't know that God is a father. The root cause is that. In the Old Testament, God permitted divorce. And when somebody asked Jesus in Matthew 19, why did you permit divorce? He says, because your hearts were hard. When people's hearts are hard, they can't bear a wife. They have to divorce her. But when the Holy Spirit comes, it says he takes away that stony heart and gives us a heart of flesh. See Ezekiel in chapter 36, there's a prophecy there. Ezekiel 36 and verse 26. He says, I'll cleanse you, verse 25, from all your filthiness. That's the first thing God does. Ezekiel 36, 25 is a prophecy of what will happen in Christ. I'll cleanse you from your filthiness. That's what the blood of Jesus does. And then, I'll give you a new heart. That means you'll be born again. And I'll remove the heart of stone and give you a soft heart. Jesus said to the Pharisees, because your hearts are hard, that's why you can't bear your wife. That's why you divorce her. Any man who cannot bear his wife, the problem is not with his wife, the problem is with his heart. He's got a hard heart. Even if your wife is like a witch, if you have got the fullness of the Holy Spirit, you'll be able to love her. It's absolutely true. It's got nothing to do with how bad your wife is. It's got to do with how bad your heart is. You can blame others. I mean, man's been blaming others ever since the days of Adam. You remember when God asked Adam, did you eat of the tree which I told you not to eat, for which there's only one simple answer, yes or no. It's a multiple choice question, yes or no. You know, like these question papers, you have tick, yes or no. Which box do you want to tick? And Adam doesn't tick either box. He puts a third box underneath and says, my wife took the thing and gave me. I mean, this blaming others has started then. This pointing of the finger, you. You are the cause. You blame your wife, you blame your husband. It started with Adam. And that's the reason why you're so dried up in your life. I'll show you a verse which says about pointing the finger, how it makes you dried up. Turn with me to Isaiah 58. In Isaiah 58 it says here, this is the reason why your prayers are not answered. Do you wonder why sometimes your prayers are not answered? Here's the reason. One reason anyway. Isaiah 58, it says in verse 9. Then you will call. Isaiah 58, 9. And the Lord will answer. You will cry and the Lord will immediately say, here I am. Imagine getting an answer to prayer like that. You say, Lord Jesus, and the Lord says, here I am. What do you want? Wow! If you stop pointing at others and speaking wickedness. Ah! Can you do that? Stop pointing the finger at others. Is that such a difficult habit to get rid of? We have inherited it from Adam. Blaming your wife, blaming your husband, blaming somebody else, your children or mother-in-law or someone. All the problem in my home is because of my mother-in-law. Okay. When you pray, the Lord will not be there. He will not answer because you are pointing a finger at your mother-in-law. It doesn't matter who it is. You stop pointing the finger and when you pray, God will say, here I am. And not only that. What will happen? You will be in the last part of verse 11 like a watered garden. Like a spring of water whose waters never fail. I say, Lord, I want to be like that. I want my life to be like a watered garden. And the Lord says, just stop pointing the finger at others. Lord, is that so difficult? It's not difficult. I just got to judge myself. I got to start pointing the finger at myself a little more. And so the Holy Spirit takes away that hard heart which points the finger at others and gives me a soft heart that teaches me to judge myself and say there could be problems with me. You know the old saying that when you point a finger at somebody, three fingers are pointing at yourself. Don't forget that. It's absolutely true. So it's like that. We see our own need. And the other thing the Holy Spirit does is show us God is our loving Father. One who cares for us. Jesus is always trying to teach his disciples, your Father cares for you. He numbers the hairs on your head. Have you read that verse? If you don't know it, read it exactly like the Bible says. Matthew 10. I don't believe you read it accurately. You think you know it, but you don't know it. I'll show you a lot of verses which you think you know, but you don't know. Here's another of those verses. Matthew chapter 10, verse 29 and 30. Not two sparrows fall for a scent, not one of them fall to the ground apart from your Father. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. What does that mean? It means that God knows which is hair number 490 and which is hair number 699. It doesn't mean just he knows the total number of hairs on your head. When you say the houses in the street are numbered, what does it mean? Does it mean you know the total number of houses in that house, in that street, or every house is numbered? What did Jesus say? The hairs on your head are numbered. I believe the Bible exactly like it says. He knows every single hair of mine and he's numbered all of them. And if one of them falls to the... you know, you wake up one morning in the pillow and there's a hair on your head. Ah, sorry. On the pillow. You don't get into a panic. I mean, even I don't get into a panic. Few hairs that I have. One hair, but your father knows. That was hair number 895 that fell off at about 2.31 in the morning today. I believe in a father like that, believe it or not. That's the father Jesus taught me and I'm not joking. It has made such a difference in my life since I found a security. And you know that why did Jesus take the example of the hair falling from the head? It is the most insignificant thing that can happen in your life. Even a pain in some part of your body is worse. The most insignificant thing that can happen in your life is one hair falling off from your head in the middle of the night at 2.30 in the morning onto your pillow and you never knew about it and you don't worry about it. And that insignificant event Jesus took and said, your father knows about it. What a wonderful father we have. What security we have. Why should we fear anything? He's taken care of every little detail of my life. And the Holy Spirit says, this is your father. Worship him. He cares for you. He's put a hedge around you. No one can touch you. See this beautiful verse in Zechariah chapter 2. Zechariah chapter 2 it says in the last part of verse 8 He who touches you touches the apple of God's eye. Do you know what is the most sensitive part of your body? The most sensitive part of your body is the center of your eye. It's the only part of your body which pains as soon as you touch it. Other parts of your body may pain if you have an infection or if it is sick or wounded, but when you're healthy, there's no part of your body that pains when you touch it, except your eye. You touch the eye and it pains like anything. A healthy eye. And the Lord says, if anybody touches you, he's touching the apple of my eye. This is my father. Why am I not Why do I have to be scared? Do you believe in such a father? The Holy Spirit has come to show you such a father. Do you see yourself from God's viewpoint? It's a wonderful thing. It's brought such security into my life and for 16 years after I was born again, I didn't know it. Because the preachers never told me the truth. That this was my father. They scared me with words about judgment and how God was so strict and like a policeman flashing his lights behind me, always trying to catch me if I tripped up somewhere. That's not my father. And yet a lot of Christians think of God as a policeman just going behind them all the time in the police car, waiting to catch you if you trip up in some little way. That's the lie of the devil. Stop believing it from this moment. Allow the Holy Spirit. This is the mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Even if you never speak in tongues in your whole life, it doesn't matter. It's more important to know God as your father than to speak in tongues. To know him as a father who cares, who loves, who rejoices over you. A lot of people think of a God who's always frowning down at them. That's a lie. He's not a father who says, there, again you went and did it. No, he doesn't speak like that. Earthly fathers speak like that. Earthly mothers speak like that because they don't know God. But your Heavenly Father doesn't speak like that. He's a loving father. He's concerned when I slip up. He says, come to me. Picks me up. Because I'm like a little child. And I praise God. He doesn't give me everything I ask for. Do you give your little children everything they ask for? I hope not. I hope you're not such a foolish father as to give your children everything they ask for. You'll ruin them. My Heavenly Father loves me so much He will not give me everything I ask for. Some of those things will ruin me. He gives me what He knows is good for me. But everything that's good for me, He'll always give. I'll never lack any good thing. There's a beautiful verse in Psalm 84 which says in verse 11, if you don't know this promise, take it and believe it. Your Father in Heaven is telling you, Psalm 84 verse 11, the middle of that verse it says, the Lord is the sun and shield, the Lord gives grace and glory, and not a single good thing not a single good thing will He withhold from you if you walk uprightly before Him. Not a single good thing that you need will He withhold from you. He'll give it to you. This is your Father. So it's a wonderful thing to see God from a heavenly viewpoint as my Father who cares, who undertakes. What about the gift of the Holy Spirit? I've heard so many people tell me, oh brother Zach, I prayed and prayed and prayed for the baptism in the Holy Spirit and you never gave it to me. I say, hang on. Luke chapter 11 verse 11 to 13 and I'll close with this. If one of your fathers, his son asks for a fish, will he give him a snake? Even a bad father won't do that. Son says, dad, give me a fish and he puts a cobra on the plate and says, here you are. Never! If he asks him for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If he asks for bread, will he give him a stone? It's you evil fathers. Verse 13, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more your Heavenly Father will give what? The Holy Spirit to those who ask him. So what do I learn there? I'll tell you something I learned. If you read Luke 11, 13 carefully, the best father on earth, the best father on earth is evil compared to God. That's what it means. You evil fathers, he said that to every father on earth. The whole lot of you are evil compared to God. He's so good that the best earthly father is evil. He's trying to show how good God is. And how eager God is to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Okay, now here's my definition of faith. Listen. This is the definition of faith I've come to after studying scripture from this verse. Faith is to believe that God is more eager to give me what he has promised than I am eager to receive it. Got it? Faith is to believe that God my Father is more eager to give me what he has promised than I am to receive it. He's not eager to give me a Cadillac car or a 10 bedroom house because he's not promised those things. But he's promised me forgiveness of sins. He's more eager to give it to me than I am to receive it. He's promised me to fill me with the Holy Spirit and he's more eager to give that to you than you are to receive it. That is looking at God from heaven's viewpoint. Now when I hear a person say, oh brother Zach I prayed and prayed and prayed and fasted and prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and he never gave it to me. Aha. I'm not surprised he didn't give it to you. Because you are full of unbelief. What do you mean full of unbelief? You believe that you are more eager to receive and God is reluctant to give you. That is your unbelief. The way you're expressing it itself shows me that you feel you're more eager and zealous and God is like a miser hanging on there and saying he won't give it to you. That's unbelief. You're insulting God when you talk like that. You come to the place where you give up your unbelief. Unbelief is the opposite of what I said. I am more eager to get what God has promised than God is to give it to me. Are you like that? That's unbelief. And I believe that many Christians are like that. I am so eager to get this but God is not giving it to me. That's unbelief brother. You'll never get it in a hundred years. You come to God with faith. I've heard of people who almost before they pray they are baptized in the Holy Spirit. And I've heard one man say I prayed for forty years. He always believed he was more eager. He never got it. You won't get it in a hundred years because it is according to your faith. Faith is to believe that if God has promised something in the scriptures he will give it to me. He's more eager to give it to me than I am to receive it. This is your father. Believe him at least from now and your life will be changed. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us to see you more clearly Father in order to change our lives.