Friday, November 12, 2010

Zac Poonen, Living By Faith

I know I've never learned this. I've recognized that for a LONG time. Trying to live the Christian life is SUCH a struggle and I know I'm missing the life of faith, that's the only thing that can explain it. But understanding this much doesn't make it any easier to enter into that life of faith.

I love to read the literature of the Holiness and Higher Life people who generally do emphasize that the life of holiness is completely by faith and may go into great detail trying to get that across to the reader, and yet I continue to struggle and continue to be exhausted by the struggle and always a failure at it. Yet not struggling isn't the solution either.

I certainly don't see this faith in the majority in the churches, just as I don't see the Higher Life even sought let alone lived. Some even teach that there is no such thing as a "higher" life, and leave their congregations content with a "faith" that amounts to very little spiritual power.

But I've always known there is more, even if it may be really what the NORMAL Christian life SHOULD be, "higher" only in the sense that the average Christian life is sub par. In any case, those who have been through revivals as well as the "higher life" people describe it, while neither the Reformed nor the fundamentalists seem to know it exists, the life I'm looking for, there on the other side of the glass as it were, that life of power through the kind of faith that makes all things possible.

Anyway, today I got an email on this very subject from a ministry I subscribe to. I hope it will change me as I ponder it, as I've been hoping for so long, but my faith that it will is of course low although I know it's the only way.
WORD FOR THE WEEK 14 November 2010
Christian Fellowship Church, Bangalore, India
http://www.cfcindia.com
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Living by Faith

Zac Poonen

Many Christians, through the ages, have sincerely sought after holiness and victory over sin by taking up their cross and denying themselves. But they have often found the Christian life to be a "hard grind" instead of the glorious life that the Bible describes. Their failure has been this that they never understood the life of faith under the new covenant. They sought to be holy by the principles of the old covenant and thus missed what God had for them.

2 Corinthians 3:6 tells us that the new covenant is a ministry of the Spirit that brings life, whereas the old covenant was a ministry of the letter that brought death! And if we walk according to the letter of God's commandments - even in the new covenant - it will still bring death. Only if we live by faith and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, will we enter into the "life of Christ".

Since Jesus has now ascended on high and sent the Holy Spirit to this earth, our life can be far more glorious than that of any Old Testament saint. So if we find ourselves living under condemnation, depression and gloom today, it must be because we are still living by old covenant principles (2 Cor.3:9).

There were two things that Jesus emphasised frequently in His ministry - faith in God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Adam missed this life of faith in the power of the Holy Spirit when he chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life (Gen.2:9). He chose to have the knowledge of good and evil resident within himself, instead of being dependent on God for it.

The tree of life represents the life of faith under the new covenant while the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents a life of self-effort under the old covenant. If Adam had chosen the tree of life he would have lived by faith - in constant dependence on God. Then the Holy Spirit would have given him Divine life. But instead, he chose to live in dependence on himself, independent of God. And so he died. All unbelievers live like this - without constant dependence on God. Unfortunately many believers live this way too.

All religions teach their followers to do good and to avoid evil. Christians who seek after holiness also do good and avoid evil. And in their pursuit of holiness, they usually end up making finer and finer distinctions between good and evil, through various rules and practices!! Yet most of them still never come to a genuinely holy life. Why? Because they seek it by works and not by faith.

For 1500 years God taught the Israelites through the Law, what was good and what was evil. But obedience to the good works commanded by the Law did not lead a single Israelite to partake of eternal life. Living by any set of rules and regulations - however high the standard - will never lead anyone to genuine godliness, even today.

True holiness is the life of God in the soul of man - and God has to give this to us as a gift. We can never attain to it. We must receive it by faith. Paul said that in the days when he was unaware of the Law's demands, he felt he was "alive". But when he understood the demands of the Law of God, he became so aware of the wrongs in his life that he felt "dead" (Rom.7:9)!! This is the experience of many who are born again too. They appear to be happy and "alive" as long as they hear only about the forgiveness of their sins. But as soon as they hear about victory over sin and obedience to God's commandments, they feel condemned and miserable and "dead".

But Paul did not stop with the old-covenant law - and neither should we. God showed Paul another law - the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This was the law that finally set him free from sin ( Rom.8:2).

Many seek to be holy by doing good. Remember that Eve ate of the tree because it looked good!! She wasn't seeking to do something evil!! She ate the fruit, not because she wanted to become like the devil, but because she wanted to become like God - for that was what the devil had promised her (Gen.3:5). People who live according to the Law also make the same mistake today - thinking that they can be like God through external good works.

Much of the good that we see in the lives of many Christians comes, not from genuine holiness, but from a good upbringing. Many of these Christians are upright, but they don't have a passionate hunger after God. They spend their lives accumulating Bible knowledge, but without any revelation from God. As a result, their lives are not much different from the lives of some good unbelievers around them. All such believers have missed something vital that God wants them to have - the Divine nature.

God is not first of all trying to make us do good, but to make us trust in Him so that He can give us His nature. In His eyes, the righteous are not those who do good but those who live by faith (See Romans 4:5 and Habakkuk 2:4). In Habakkuk 2:4, God contrasts two groups of people - those who believe in the Lord and those who are proud. Those who are proud cannot live by faith. The reason many do not accept God's gifts freely, by simple faith, is because they are too proud to accept anything freely. They would rather earn their forgiveness and their holiness by doing something themselves.

Satan tells Christians even today (as he told Eve) that they don't need to depend on God to know the difference between good and evil. He tells them that they can know the difference through their conscience or by reading the Bible. But many unbelievers also live by their conscience - and live fairly decent lives. A Christian can live like that too - but he won't be righteous in God's eyes. Many believers begin their Christian life right - by trusting God alone for their justification. But then like the Galatian Christians, they seek to become perfect through their own efforts (Gal.3:3). They evaluate their spiritual worth by how much they have done for God or by the results they have seen in their ministry. And they feel satisfied. But when people asked Jesus how they could do the works of God, He did not tell them to do good works. He told them to believe in Him (Jn.6:28-29)! Without faith it is impossible to please God.

There are many paradoxes in the Christian life and here is the first one that we encounter when we are saved: We know that Jesus justifies us so thoroughly that we now stand before God just as if we had never sinned - for God promises never to remember our past sins against us (Heb.8:12). At the same time we are also told never to forget our past sins, lest we become blind and shortsighted (2 Pet.1:9)!!

So, on one hand we see that God does not remember our past sins and on the other hand we are told never to forget them!! How are we to live with this apparent contradiction?

Only by being MORE conscious of the fact that the blood of Jesus has cleansed away our past sins, than we are conscious of those sins themselves.

Read that last sentence once again, for this is one of the most important principles of the Christian life. If you believe it, this truth can liberate you.

There is no humility in feeling guilty about our past sins. That is unbelief, not humility, and is an insult to the blood of Christ. Such unbelief does not glorify God in any way. Paul called himself "the chief of sinners" even after being a Christian for 30 years (1 Tim.1:15). Yet at the same time he also said, "I am conscious of nothing against myself" (1 Cor.4:4). Both facts were true. This assurance is what gives us great confidence before God and great boldness against Satan's accusations and against the fears with which Satan tries to frighten us.

The most popular books in Christian bookshops today are those that deal with faith and the Holy Spirit. But most of these books lead Christians into a counterfeit faith and into counterfeit experiences. The "faith" that these books teach is faith to become wealthy and healthy - not to become holy and spiritual. Christians are told that they can get whatever they want from God, if only they can believe sufficiently. Such teaching is fundamentally opposed to the teaching and the practice of the first apostles and to that of godly missionaries (of the 19th and early 20th centuries) who sacrificed their lives for the promotion of the kingdom of God.

Genuine faith is that which enables us to overcome the world (1 Jn.5:4) - the world being "the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life" (1 Jn.2:16). As Jesus overcame this world, we too can overcome it. (See John 16:33 and Revelation 3:21). When we overcome the world, we will no longer be deceived by Satan telling us that the pleasures that come through health and wealth are superior to the pleasure that comes through fellowship with God.

God wants us to taste the pure pleasure of fellowship with Him. That alone can drive away the desire for other pleasures (Psa.16:11). Many are trying hard to overcome the attraction of sinful pleasures by human means. But only when we taste fellowship with God can we be truly set free. Faith in God and the power of the Holy Spirit can set you free from every bondage that Satan ever put upon you.

Do you find yourself unwilling to give up some particular worldly pleasure that attracts you. Then cry out to the Lord, like Peter did when he was sinking in the sea, saying - "Lord save me". You will find that God gives you not only the desire to be free from sin, but also a hatred for it!! In the new covenant, it is God Who works in us both to desire and to do His will (Phil.2:13). What a wonderful gospel the new covenant is!!

The life of Jesus is not something that we can imitate. We must partake of it through the Holy Spirit. Most Christians do not experience this because they are not poor in spirit. That means that they do not live their lives with a constant awareness of their need of God. They are self-confident and independent. Jesus invited only the thirsty to come to Him and drink. To walk by faith we must be constantly thirsty (poor in spirit), always aware of our need of the Holy Spirit's power. There must be a constant cry in our hearts (even if unspoken) to be filled with the Spirit and to experience His power. Those who come to Jesus and drink, will find rivers of living water flowing out from their innermost beings (a life in the fullness of the Holy Spirit - Jn.7:37-38). Thus the weakest believer can experience the glory of this life of faith in the new covenant and become as strong as the strongest. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.



Wednesday, October 20, 2010

RIVERS OF LIVING WATER ARE PROMISED TO US, but we have to be right with God to receive this promise.

Why is America in the condition it's in?

It's the church's fault. Yes it is. Everything starts with the church. It is all our responsibility. We need to find out what to repent of and confess it and repent of it. On behalf of the whole church. The way Daniel did on behalf of Israel.

Should we confess the sins of churches we don't agree with, the liberal churches, the ones that claim to be Christian but deny the authority of scripture, the ones that have women pastors and gay pastors and accept homosexuality instead of warning that it will lead a person to hell? If Daniel took on the sins of all Israel it seems we should do this for all churches that claim to belong to Jesus Christ. But we have enough to confess and repent of even in the doctrinally good churches.

Why are the churches so weak? Why don't we have the power that the early church had? I'm not even talking about the miraculous powers although I think we should be ashamed that we don't see those either. I'm talking about the power of witness, of conversion, of salvation, the "living water" that Jesus PROMISED would flow from everyone who believes in him. Of course that's miraculous power itself. But you know what I mean.

I've wondered about our powerlessness for years. Of course there are bogus signs and wonders in some churches and that has a discouraging effect, but in general our weakness must be because of sin in various forms. It must be because we don't repent and don't pray enough. It's discouraging. I pray about it, but something is in the way. Here is a sweet sermon by Bill McLeod, one of my all-time favorites, on this very problem, Rivers of Living Water. The list is alphabetical, scroll down. He has another I haven't yet heard I believe is on the same topic, A Tragic Discrepancy . Bill McLeod led a great church revival in Canada in the 70s and he has also spoken on that in great detail, such as in this series at You Tube, very worth listening to. It takes PRAYER, PRAYER and more PRAYER and the prayer leads to repentance and making things right and great conversions follow. This is what we need. Am I the only one who thinks this? I don't have the perseverance either, but shouldn't we be praying for this for each other? It's terrible that the church of the living God is such a fleshly mess.

And we ARE a fleshly mess. Good grief isn't it obvious? Don't we live just like the unbelievers? Aren't fleshly methods used to support church business instead of spiritual methods? I'm thinking now of AUCTIONS to raise money for important projects. This is TERRIBLE. People donate worldly services and items to be auctioned and they all have a great old time bidding and eating and raising money for their important cause. THIS IS A DISGRACE! The church should operate ONLY BY GOD'S METHODS, ONLY BY THE SPIRIT. By prayer, by prayer, by repentance and PRAYER.

Silly entertainments, worldly stupidities. At the very least it dissipates whatever spiritual life the church has. It's a distraction even if it's not exactly a sin. Really it IS a sin that the church has sunk to such a level. It's not just the compromising churches, the seeker-sensitive churches, the self-esteem churches, the Bible-denying churches, it's the GOOD CHURCHES that are failing in these ways.

Preaching that is from the head and not the spirit. Delivered with a proper emotional tone, but it's ACTED, it's a PERFORMANCE, instead of coming from the heart, from the Spirit of God. ONLY THE SPIRIT can touch others with the gospel of God. CAN'T YOU SEE THAT? I'm thinking of LOTS of preaching I hear from many sources.

And there is sin in the churches too, tolerated sin. I know some churches insist that divorce is acceptable in some circumstances, but when I read Jesus on the subject I can't see it. I can't see that deacons or elders could ever have been divorced and remarried. I know many in this situation, including a pastor who was divorced and remarried. I can't say for sure but I worry that this is one basis for weakness in churches. And sin begets sin too. Eventually just the forms and shadows of the faith are kept up week after week, and the flesh is quite capable of pulling off a credible imitation as long as there's nobody around with spiritual discernment. Radical repentance is needed but this requires that the Holy Spirit come and convict people. Start with prayer, prayer, prayer and more prayer.

IF WE'RE THE BODY OF CHRIST WE'RE A HEADLESS BODY TOO MUCH OF THE TIME, a zombie staggering around blind.

Do what one pastor once did -- his name isn't coming to me, but I'll put it in when I remember it -- He BURNED his sermons because although they were doctrinally fine and true and fit to affect his hearers, they were not winning any souls and not changing any lives -- oh now and then and here and there but nothing like what the Bible seems to promise. They were of the flesh and not the spirit. Guess what happened when he burned his sermons? He was nearly bowled over by the Spirit of God almost immediately and God began adding converts to his church. AND HE PREACHED THE SAME KINDS OF SERMONS, only now they were of God and not his own fleshly head tripping. Samuel Chadwick I now think.

We send missionaries out who are quite sincere but also lack the power of the Spirit and don't even know it. They may labor hard for a foreign people and love them and help them in many ways -- BUT THEY LACK THE POWER OF WITNESS, THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE CONVICTING SPIRIT. They don't know what they lack or that they lack anything. They may make a few converts, but converts as weak as themselves. They don't pray enough. They don't fast.

THEY DON'T FAST. Even PASTORS don't fast. They should be fasting and praying FREQUENTLY that God would move in their churches. Bill McLeod started praying early mornings during the week and found that he prayed more and more as time went on and his burden increased for God to move in His church, until he was praying many hours every day. Then he got his people praying in various ways too. It took years but finally God came in great power to his church and many other churches.

Bill McLeod fasted much. I haven't been able to sustain a fast very well for a long time and I feel terrible about it. This is necessary. We need to fast, and we need to fast a LOT if we want to see God's power.

Lord, set a fire under your people. Set a fire under me until I'm right with you and can believe in You to receiving the rivers of living waters.

Well, I've said all this before here. I probably shouldn't say it again until I've succeeded at following my own advice. In fact, make that a prayer. Lord, make it happen. Amen.