0:18 I want to say everything that I share on my own personal experience. I was born again 67 years ago, 1959. >> [clears throat] >> And I had a choice of salvation. I was baptized. 0:37 But I have to admit that for the first 16 years of my Christian life from >> [clears throat] >> right up to 1975, from 1959 July to 1975 January. It was an up and down experience. >> [clears throat] 0:57 >> Sometimes up, sometimes down. And >> [clears throat] >> I knew this was not the way God wanted us to live. The Bible says in Proverbs 4:18, if you don't know that verse, it's good to be in the Bible. 1:17 Proverbs 4 and verse 18. >> [clears throat] >> It says the path of the righteous when we receive Christ, He makes us righteous in Him. And here is something that 1:36 I don't believe anybody in the Old Testament or the Old Covenant could experience. Proverbs is one of the rare New Covenant books in the Old Testament. And here it says the path of the righteous, that should apply to you and 1:50 me, is like a light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The example used is the sun. When you're born again, it's like the sun rising in the east. And you're born again. It's sort of a 2:09 There's all darkness in there. And all of a sudden it's daylight. The person's born again. And then from that moment on was an example that the children can understand. The sun goes up and up and up and up and up in the sky constantly. 2:28 There's never a time when the sun There's definitely no time when the sun backslides and goes back. State It's not the movement is not visible. But if you look at the sun 1 hour later, it's not in the same place. 2:48 And here it says that a truly righteous person, one who's been made righteous by the Holy Spirit in Christ, his life will be like that. You won't be able to see growth in every every single day, just like you don't see the sun moving every second or every 3:06 minute. But if you watch his life, say 1 year after he was born again or what from every year, there's going to be a growth. There's never going to be a time of going back, and there's never going to be a time of being in the same place. 3:25 That's a wonderful example that God has given of what the Christian life should be like. But I found as a young Christian, there was hardly any Christian that I met who could testify that that was their experience. And it certainly was not mine. 3:48 My sun was going back and forth, back and forth. That's how my life was. Sometimes up and sometimes down. And then I would I repentance and coming back. Not falling into sin externally, no. God had freed me from that, but 4:01 discouraged, condemning myself, getting angry, no complete victory over my thoughts. Externally, I looked like a saint. But God knew what my inner life was 4:21 like. And it was certainly not like the sun going brighter and brighter and brighter. And I feel that the lives of many believers is like that. And they are too ashamed to admit it. But if a believer would find someone he 4:40 can be honest with, he'd say, "That's my testimony, brother. Please tell me how I can get out of it." And I was certainly seeking to get out of it. And I was fasting and praying and praying with others who were also defeated like me. 4:54 And I did not know what would come next. But then suddenly >> [clears throat] >> I come to the end. You know, you got to get to rock You got to hit rock bottom before God lifts us up. I've discovered that. 5:13 God allows us to fail and fail and fail and fail until we hit rock bottom. Not externally, not that we commit external sins, but inwardly we fail. Discouragement, condemnation, anger, dirty thoughts, things that most 5:30 Christians that I accepted as normal. And then one day when he hit rock bottom, God lifts us up. It's like you know, God allowed Peter to fail and fail and fail and fail. One day he hit rock bottom. He even denied saying, "I don't know 5:49 Jesus at all." Three times. He hit rock bottom. And the Lord, you know, at that time when he said warned Peter, if you read there in the Gospels, he said, "You're going to be denying me three times today, Simon. But I'm not praying that you will not 6:08 deny me. I'm not saying that you'll be protected from denying me. I'm praying that your faith will not fail." So, that is God's desire for us also. He doesn't stop us from failing 6:27 outwardly, but he prays that our faith will not fail. You know, I've thought of when Peter went to the gate of the high priest's house, and Jesus was being tried inside. They wouldn't let him in. They did not feel They said, "Peter, we don't know 6:47 who you are." But John, who was who knew the high priest well, came to the gate and spoke to the gatekeeper and allowed Peter to come in. Just that simple incident. I thought of it. If only John had not come and let Peter in, Peter would not have 7:05 denied Jesus three times. Why did God allow John to come to the gate and ask the gatekeeper to let Peter in? That's what led Peter to deny Jesus three times inside there in the high priest compound. Why does God allow certain circumstances 7:23 in our life which lead us to fail? God could have protected us from that and not allowed us to come into a certain circumstance which tempted us as it were beyond our ability. Well, God had great wisdom. He has to bring us to a zero point in 7:42 our life. He had to bring Peter to a zero point. That is always God's way to bring us right down to rock bottom. And that's what happened to me. >> [clears throat] >> But I was seeking the Lord for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. 8:00 And one day without my expecting it, the Lord Jesus baptized me in the Holy Spirit. It was just sovereignly. I didn't even I was praying praying praying for many many weeks and months. And then I was praying with another 8:17 brother one day in my own home. >> [clears throat] >> And as I was praying, I suddenly began to speak in words I not in English, but some other language. I don't know what. I [clears throat] was surprised and I stopped and I again got into that 8:33 language. And when I finished praying, I asked that brother, "Did you hear me saying something?" He said, "Yes. You were speaking in tongues." I'd never spoken in tongues before. I didn't even know what it was. I was not 8:45 a Pentecostal. I'd never been to a Pentecostal church. At least I [clears throat] never came to a Pentecostal church as a member. I visited [clears throat] it now and then. But I knew then 9:01 that something had happened in my life. My wife, Annie, had been baptized in the Spirit earlier. And she'd been praying for me. And I had been praying I was praying with this brother in the upper room in my house. And when I came down, 9:20 Annie told me later she saw on my face that something had happened. I mean, she saw something on my face and she knew that the Lord had met with me. What was the result of that? That happened in January 1975. 9:37 That's 51 years ago. But I can say one thing that happened after that. Proverbs 4:18 became real in my life. My life began to go up. Not in a straight line like that, not perfect 9:56 straight line. Little dips, but the general trend was upward. There were little dips along the line, but going up and up and up. And each year, I found it was better than the previous year. My dear brothers and sisters, 10:16 in the love of Christ, I ask you, has that been your experience? You are a church that preaches the baptism in the Holy Spirit. There are churches that preach about being born again. 10:35 And there are many people sitting in those churches who are not born again. There are churches that preach the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And there are people sitting in that church who are not baptized in the Holy Spirit. 10:53 And sometimes they're ashamed to acknowledge it. It's better we face up to it and say, "Lord, I don't want to just sit testify to an experience. I have to see whether that experience 11:10 changed my life." You know, it's like we send a child to school, and that's great. In India, sometimes getting admission into a school itself is a big step. But then, every year, 11:29 we expect that child to move up to a higher grade. From the first grade, after 1 year, we don't expect that child to be in the first grade the next year. Every one of you, even if it's homeschooling, you expect your child to go into the 11:47 second grade. And then, you don't expect the child to be in the second grade more than 1 year. You go into the third grade. We expect our children to make progress every year to a higher grade, even if they're starting at grade one. 12:05 And you'd be disappointed if your child is in the same grade for 1 year, leave alone if he's there for 2 or 3 years. So, I look at it like that. Is God disappointed when he sees that some of his children are stuck in the same grade year after year after 12:24 year? He's a father. He's a loving father. And he's taught us in his word that the path of the righteous is like the sun that rises. Or in the New Testament expression, 12:40 from one degree of glory to another. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians in chapter 3. Here is the New Testament explanation of Proverbs 4:18. 12:59 Of the sun rising from one degree of glory to another. And [clears throat] it's related to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So, it it contrasts this experience with the experience of Moses. >> [clears throat] 13:19 >> In Proverbs 3:13, he says, "We are not like Moses. Moses was an old covenant person." And he said, "We're not like Moses, who had to put a veil over his face because, you know, when he had been in the presence of the Lord for 40 days, 13:37 his face was shining with a tremendous glow. And it says when he came down, the people of Israel was scared to look at Moses' face because there was a tremendous It was a sun shining from through his face. And so, it says he put a veil over him. 13:51 You read that in the Old Testament. And that's what's mentioned here in 2 Corinthians 3:13. He put a veil so that the sons of Israel would not be scared to look at him. But here, it says there's another reason, which is not mentioned in the Old 14:05 Testament. That glory, the more he stayed down on the earth and left King the mountain and came down to the ground level, the that glory was gradually fading away. It didn't remain there. And so, he says he covered his face so 14:24 that the sons of Israel would not look intently at something that was fading away. And after a while, he could take away the veil because his face had become like everybody else's. The glow had gone. That is a picture of the old covenant 14:41 life. You come into God's presence and spend some time there, and you're tremendously revived. And your life is bright, and you're in the seventh heaven or third heaven. And then, gradually, a decline comes in. 14:59 I know that was my life. Times of revival, and the next day, it goes down. That's how an old covenant life is, and I believe that the vast majority of Christians that I've met are in the old covenant, even many who claim to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. 15:19 There is a glory, tremendous glory, especially when they first immediately after being baptized in the Holy Spirit, the face is shining, and but then, they have to cover it up because it's not remaining like that. The glory slowly fades away, like it 15:31 says in 1 2 Corinthians 3:13. And there it says it's because of the old covenant, verse 14. And to this day, verse 15 is like that. But when a person 16 Turn to 2 Corinthians 15:50 3:16. When a person turns to the Lord, now this is the only place, as far as I know, in the New Testament where the Lord is not referring to Jesus. Usually, when you read the word Lord in the New Testament, it's referring to the 16:05 Lord Jesus. But in this place, it's referring to the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the only place in the New Testament. Because in the next verse, it says that the Lord is the Holy Spirit. So, the Lord spoken of in verse 16 is the Holy Spirit. He's speaking about 16:23 the baptism in the Holy Spirit. When a person turns to the Lord, the Holy Spirit, that veil is taken away. That means he doesn't have to hide his face like Moses had to hide his face. He can take away the veil now. 16:42 In the life of every Christian who's not walking with the Lord, there is a veil. He tried He has There's something in his life he has to cover up. There's something in his married life he has to cover up. Things Something he's ashamed of. 17:00 In his thought life, he has to cover up the way he speaks to his wife at home or the way he speaks to his husband at her husband at home. He has to cover up the thoughts that go through his mind. He's cover He has to cover up his attitude to money. He has 17:14 to cover up certain unrighteousness here and there in his life. He has to put a veil because there's a glory there that's fading away. He testified in the meeting about a wonderful experience with God, but he has to cover it up after a few days 17:28 because there's a glory there that is slowly fading away, exactly like Moses. But it's not meant to be like that. It says in verse 15, "To this day, a veil lies over the heart of many people who are really living under the 17:45 old covenant." When it says, "Wherever Moses is read," that means we are still not really entered into the new covenant. I never understood the new covenant, even when I was born again. But when I was baptized in the Holy 17:58 Spirit, then the Lord began to open my eyes to what the new covenant was all about. And let me tell you in simple terms, the old covenant emphasized mercy. The new covenant emphasized grace. And most Christians don't know the 18:17 difference between mercy and grace. Mercy refers to the forgiveness of sins. The old covenant is full of it. The mercy of the Lord endures forever. Grace is not a is a word not found in the 18:34 Old Testament. The Holy Spirit is called the spirit of grace or the spirit who communicates grace. Grace came through Jesus Christ. There was no grace in the world before Christ came. John 1:14 is very clear, and John 14:17 that grace came to the world 18:54 through Jesus Christ. And that grace is communicated to us through the Holy Spirit, who's called the spirit of grace in Hebrews 10. And what does grace do? 19:12 To me, the finest the clearest verse that teaches what grace does is Romans 6:14. It's my favorite verse in in all the churches I preach to regularly, they all know Romans 6:14. And I hope you will also know it. Romans 19:31 6:14 is a very important verse. It's the clearest verse which tells us what grace does. Which mercy cannot do. Mercy is forgiveness. Sin shall not be master over you >> [clears throat] >> because you're under grace and not under 19:51 law. You got You're moved over from law and you moved over from law to grace. And how do you know you moved from law to grace? How do you know you moved from the old covenant to the new covenant? Because sin does not rule over you. 20:10 My dear brothers and sisters, I love you all in Christ and I ask you in the spirit of Christ lovingly, can you honestly testify before the Lord, not to me, before the Lord, can you say, "Sin 20:29 does not rule over me." Then you're under grace. It's like right now you're under a roof. No matter how much rain falls on the outside, not one drop will fall on your head. 20:47 You're quite safe. But the moment you go outside, outside the roof, the rain falls on you. Or if you're carrying an umbrella, the rain doesn't fall on you. But you move outside it, the rain falls. 21:05 Grace is like that. When you're under grace, sin cannot have power over you. It's very Romans 6:14, "Sin shall not have dominion over you. Sin shall not rule over you." Sin shall not be the master over you. 21:30 That is a clear promise. How do you know whether sin is a master? A master is somebody we obey. When sin says, "Come here. Do this." You If you do it, sin is your master. It's as simple as 21:48 that. The way that guy treated you, don't ever forgive him. That's the word of sin and you obey it. And you don't forgive that person who hurt you. You're obeying sin. "Teach him a lesson. Speak to him in the way he spoke to 22:08 you." That's sin calling you to obey it. If you resist it, if you're under grace, you'll resist it. You say, "Sorry, I'm not going to listen to that." I've often used this example. I said, "If two people say that Zach is 22:25 our servant and Zach's master, how will you find out A and B?" I say, "You ask A and B to sit in front of me and call me. The one I respond to is my master." So, in all situations, it's the same thing. 22:44 Sin calls me to do this and grace says, "Don't do it. I'll give you power." The one I respond to is my master. Sin shall not be the master over you because you're under grace. You've started responding to grace and the baptism in the Holy Spirit 23:04 gives us grace to overcome sin first of all because remember what Jesus said in Acts chapter 1. I never understood that early in the beginning, but after I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I understood it. 23:21 Acts 1, Jesus said in verse 5 to his disciples. Okay, before that, let me ask you another question. Uh most Christians get this answer wrong, so I might as well warn you. When did those uh 23:40 11 disciples or 10 disciples, when did those disciples receive the Holy Spirit? Um almost every Christian says on the day of Pentecost. What is your answer? When did those disciples of Jesus 23:59 receive the Holy Spirit? Let me tell you, it was on the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not on the day Not on the day of Pentecost. Turn with me to John's gospel 24:18 and chapter 20. This may be a revelation to some of you, but this answers the question that many Christians ask when we talk to them about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. They say, "I received the Holy Spirit when I was born again. What are you 24:35 talking about baptism in the Holy Spirit?" I say, "Okay, I'll show you." John chapter 20, >> [clears throat] >> it says here how Mary Magdalene met Jesus in John chapter 20 verse 16 and 17 now, outside the tomb on the day of the 24:53 resurrection. And then in that evening, the first day of the week, John chapter 20 verse 19, Jesus came and stood in the midst of the disciples and said, "Peace be unto you." And they rejoiced when they saw him. And then after saying verse 21, "Peace 25:11 be with you." Read verse 22 very carefully. When John 20 verse 22, "When he had said this, he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" Brothers and sisters, 25:28 did they receive the Holy Spirit or not? 4,000 years before that, when Jesus breathed on Adam in the Garden of Eden, Jesus was there, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. On Adam, Jesus breathed on Adam. And he was not Adam at that time. He was 25:48 just a block of clay. But when Jesus breathed on him, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit breathed on that block of clay, it suddenly became Adam, a living human being. That was the old creation. Now the same Jesus has come to earth 26:07 to begin a new creation and he does it the same way. He breathes, just like he breathed on Adam. He breathes on these 10 disciples. Judas Iscariot and Thomas were not there. And he says, "Receive the Holy Spirit." I believe just like Adam became a living 26:29 soul way back when Jesus breathed on him 4,000 years earlier, when Jesus breathed on these people 4,000 years later, they were born again. It is the beginning of a new covenant. And then to these people who had already 26:46 received the Holy Spirit, nobody could dare to say that when Jesus breathed on them said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." Nothing happened. How can that be? When he breathed on Adam, did nothing happen? When he breathed on them and said, 27:00 "Receive the Holy Spirit." Something did happen. The spirit came in, just like the spirit comes into us when we are born again. And then to these people, after having been with those disciples for 40 days, he tells them 27:17 in Acts chapter 1 verse 5, "You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days." Now they could have argued and said, "What are you talking about, Lord? You breathed on us 40 days ago and we received the Holy Spirit." 27:32 Yeah, that's not enough. You are baptized is a Greek word which means immersed. You have to be immersed in the Holy Spirit. You got to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just receive the Holy Spirit, but be filled with the Holy 27:43 Spirit. And he said, "You will be immersed." Always read baptized as immersed. Filled with the Holy Spirit in a few days. And then he explained to them that verse 8, "When that happens, you will receive power 28:02 when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses." And that's another thing that I got light on after I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. There's a difference between bearing witness and being a witness. 28:16 Bearing witness is by my mouth. I speak about Jesus. I give my testimony. I proclaim the gospel. I'm bearing witness. Christ died and rose again from the dead. But being 28:34 refers to my whole life. I'm being a witness by my life, the way I live with my wife at home. The way I react to my neighbor. The way I react to people who get angry with me or who get upset. That's being a witness. Bearing a witness is telling people 28:53 about Jesus Christ. You shall be. Did you all notice that? Till today. It's just one example to show you read the Bible carefully. I'll tell you another thing that happened I was after I was baptized in 29:12 the Holy Spirit. I started reading the Bible carefully. And the Bible I'd been reading the Bible for 16 years before that. But when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, it became a new book. I realized that the old covenant could only forgive 29:30 my sins, but the new covenant could give me victory over sin. And that was the purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Not just to speak in tongues and to witness to other people. Boldness to witness. Yeah, that was there. 29:47 But to be a witness, power to overcome sin. And so they waited and on the day of Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, if you turn with me again to 2 Corinthians in chapter 3, 30:07 we looked at that verse in relation to the path of the righteous being like the light of dawn that shines more and more until the perfect day. In 2 Corinthians in chapter 3, we read >> [clears throat] >> how when 30:26 Moses had a veil, but if the person turns to the Lord, verse 16. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16. And I told you that Lord is the Holy Spirit as it says in the next verse. The Lord is the spirit, verse 17. So, it's saying when you turn to the Holy 30:40 Spirit, verse 16, that veil is taken away. I don't have to hide my life. Why did Moses hide his life? You read in verse 13 because the glory was gradually fading away. And that's exactly what happens to many people who claim a baptism in the Holy 30:56 Spirit, but then they have to hide something in their life because that glory is fading away. Something is wrong. They were not walking with the Lord. They did not use the power of the Holy Spirit to walk with the Lord. 31:09 They got more excited about testifying and joining the club. I joined the club. I'm also baptized in the Holy Spirit. And they get satisfied with that instead of realizing that the Holy Spirit didn't fill you to make you join a club. 31:24 The Holy Spirit didn't fill you just so that you could give a testimony I'm baptized in the Holy Spirit. He came to change your life from one degree of glory to another. And that's what the devil has hidden from the minds of many, many Christians. He hid 31:39 it from my life till my God opened my eyes and I proclaim it everywhere since then. And I've seen the transformation that's happened in many, many people in many of our CFC churches around the world. It says here, when a person turns to the Lord, 2 31:57 Corinthians 16, the veil is taken away. I don't have to hide anything in my life now. And then it goes on to say, "Now, verse 18." This is a wonderful verse. 2 Corinthians 3:18. Now, without a veil, we look at the glory of the Lord Jesus. 32:12 The Holy Spirit shows us the glory of the Lord Jesus. Now, I want to tell you, my dear brothers and sisters, to me the greatest experience of the last 51 years since I was baptized in the Holy Spirit is not power to witness. I've had that. 32:27 And not revelation on the scriptures, which I've had. Not anointing to preach mightily. That also God has given me, but the greatest thing of all the baptism Holy Spirit has done to me is to show me more of the glory of Jesus Christ. 32:44 I've seen things of Jesus Christ about Jesus Christ that I never knew for 16 years of my first 16 years of my Christian life. It was before I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. It was as if suddenly my eyes were open. I'm seeing things in the scriptures that 32:59 I never saw before in the same Bible that I had been reading for 16 years. And then it says here, first of all, the spirit of the Lord brings liberty in our lives, which is 33:17 freedom from sin. And see the glory of the Lord and when the Lord shows us his glory, one result is mentioned there in verse 18. He transforms us into the same image from one degree from glory to glory. 33:35 That is like Proverbs 4:18. The path of the righteous becoming brighter, brighter, brighter. The New Testament equivalent of Proverbs 4:18 is here, 2 Corinthians 3:18, from glory to glory to glory. Just that is what the Holy Spirit does 33:51 in our life. So, I want to say that this has been my experience with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He opened my eyes to show me what the church was. Till then, I thought of the church as a congregation of people who come together 34:06 and pray and sing and listen to. But then the Lord began to show me that that's not the church. The church is a body. Not a congregation of people who come together on Sunday and sing songs and listen to a message and go home 34:22 and very often live the same defeated lives even though they got challenged on Sunday to rise higher. No, the church is a body. And that's the other thing I began to see. The Holy Spirit baptized those 120 disciples into a body. It was like 120 34:41 pieces of iron being thrown into the furnace of the Holy Spirit and coming piece. They were all 120 small pieces of iron on waiting waiting on the Lord for 10 days. And when the day of Pentecost came, all the Lord took all those 120 34:57 disciples and put them in the fire and those 120 pieces of iron came out as one solid block of iron. That's what a furnace does when pieces of iron are put into it. And that's what the baptism of the Holy Spirit does. That's the other thing I 35:10 began to see. I became more united with my wife. I became more you know, it's not that we were fighting with each other or no danger of divorce at all. That wasn't there even before. But we got more one with each other. 35:30 We were both baptized in the Holy Spirit. Our home life changed. I became more one with my fellow believers as God gradually built the new church. It's after that only that the first CFC church started in Bangalore with two families, me and 35:48 another family. Mine another family and we gradually the Lord added. People would come and go. Some would find the price was too much and left. We didn't offer it cheap. I said total true Christianity there's a price to pay. 36:05 Jesus made that very clear. Are you willing to pay the price? And that's what we told people who came to our church, "Are you willing to pay the price? We're not here to increase the crowds. We're not in gathering a congregation. 36:17 We are building the body of Jesus Christ. And the life of the head flows into every part of the body through the Holy Spirit. That's the purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Because the life in my head in my human 36:35 body flows down to my right hand and to my left hand, the my both hands can work together perfectly without conflict. My left hand never gets angry with the right hand and it hits it or the other way around. There's always cooperation. 36:51 This is how the church is meant to be. I never knew that before. All the churches of born-again people that I went to for 16 years, to the Brethren Assembly and Baptist churches, I said, "Yeah, they were all accepted the Lord and were born again, 37:10 but there was backbiting and gossiping and grudges that people had against and they wouldn't visit somebody else's home and they'd have something against somebody and they wouldn't sit and talk to each other. Even the husband and wife 37:22 were very often in tension. And I thought that's that's normal Christianity, I thought. No, that's not normal Christianity. It's the devil's deception. It was a fake baptism Holy Spirit because I saw that in the Pentecostal 37:37 churches, too, who claimed to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. But I didn't see much difference. So, just like everything valuable in the world is counterfeited, gold is counterfeited, silver is counterfeited, currency notes are counterfeited, 37:55 the baptism in the Holy Spirit is counterfeited. If the baptism Holy Spirit not a valuable thing, it would not be counterfeited. Toilet paper is not counterfeited. Brown paper is not counterfeited. What is it that is counterfeited? Only valuable stuff. 38:11 Like currency notes, gold. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the most valuable thing in the whole world. More more valuable than gold and currency notes and the devil has certainly counterfeited it. And I was so scared of the counterfeit 38:28 that I said, "Lord, I don't care if it takes me 50 years, I want the real thing. And I'm willing to wait. I don't want something which I can just testify to before others. Yeah, I'm also baptized in the Holy Spirit. No, I'm not 38:43 interested in giving a testimony. I want the reality. You shall receive power." Turn back to Acts chapter 1. It says there in Acts 1:8 that when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, "You shall receive power." Acts 1 verse 39:03 8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit come upon you and you will be my witnesses. Now, read carefully. You will not you will bear witness, but you will be my witness. I never get tired of emphasizing that again and 39:20 again and again. Bearing witness means with my lips, with my tongue. Being a witness means by my life. So, when the Holy Spirit is comes and fills me, I will 39:35 bear I'll be a witness by my life. I can bear witness to Christ even without the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There are many people who are born in born again who are bearing witness to Christ. They're telling others about 39:48 Jesus. I did that. I did that for 16 years telling other people about Christ and there were people who were born again as a result of it. But to be a witness is different from bearing a witness. Many Christians are bearing witness to 40:03 Christ. Yeah, that Christ is a savior of the world, but they're not they're not being a witness in their home the way their husbands or wives. They were not being a Christian witness as a husband, as a wife, as a father, as a mother, as a 40:17 brother in the church, as a sister in the church. That's what I understood. I saw the difference between being a witness and bearing witness and I saw the baptism of the Holy Spirit makes makes me be a witness. And so 40:34 we saw that in 2 Corinthians 3:18 from one degree of glory to another. More and more like Christ. Just like our children, we go from first grade to second grade to third grade. Every grade they're learning more and more. I'll tell you my experience in 40:52 these 50 years and 51 years since I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I have been discovering more and more about Jesus. And as I've been discovering more and more about Jesus which are things that are not written in the Bible. What 41:10 is written in the Bible you don't need the baptism of the Holy Spirit to know what Jesus did that he raised the dead, he healed the sick, and he preached the sermon on the mount, and he died on the cross and ascend arose again and ascended to heaven. You 41:22 don't need the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can be a non-Christian and read that in the Bible and understand it. But to see the things of Christ which are not written in the Bible, that's what the Holy Spirit shows us. 41:36 Let me show you John's Gospel chapter Do you know the last verse in the Gospels? I always ask people a question. There are four Gospels. What is the last verse in the four Gospels? Most Christians that I ask that question 41:49 they don't know. It's a very important verse. John 21 verse 25, the last verse of the four Gospels. John 25 John 21 verse 25. John says, "There are also many other things which 42:07 Jesus did which if they were written in detail, the world itself would not be able to contain the books that would be written. In other words, these four Gospels do not say everything about the life of Jesus Christ, especially his first 30 years." 42:25 The four Gospels tell us about the last three and a half years of Jesus' life, mostly his ministry. Almost nothing about his private life. So many people try to imitate that ministry. You and I are not called to raise the dead 42:41 and to turn water into wine or multiply five loaves and feed 5,000. That's not our calling. Our calling is to become like Christ. So if I want to become like Christ, there's very little I find in the Gospels because it says there are many other things 42:59 which are written not about raising the dead and healing the sick. All that is in the Gospel. There are other things about Jesus. Must be about his private life and his walk with the Father. Which if they were written in detail, it 43:11 says the world would not contain. There's such a lot about Christ. How can we know about it? I'll tell you through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's what Jesus said in John chapter 16. John chapter 16, I saw 43:31 John 16 and verse 13, please read see with me. "When he, the spirit of truth, has come." He's talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. "He will guide you into all the truth." John 16:13. And listen to this 43:50 in the middle of verse 14. "He will take of mine and reveal disclose it to you." That's That's been one of my favorite verses. John 16:14, the second part of it. The Holy Spirit will take certain things from my life and discloses of 44:10 disclose means it's a sort of a secret that's not openly known. He'll secretly reveal to you what's not revealed to others. That's the meaning of disclose. That means other Christians don't see it. Other Christians won't be able to 44:26 see it because they just read the Gospels. But when you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will show you certain things in the life of Jesus which are not written here according to that last verse of John chapter 21. 44:39 What does he show us? I'll tell you some of the things that he showed me. He showed me that when Jesus was grew up as a little boy at home with four brothers and two sisters in his home as we know he had how he would react 44:58 when his younger brothers and sisters fought with him. Is that written in the Gospels? No. The Holy Spirit showed me how Jesus would react when his brothers teased him. I was happy to know that. The Holy Spirit showed me how Jesus 45:18 would react as a carpenter and did business selling whatever tables or chairs or whatever he made and when people cheated him. And different situations in those first 30 years of his life, 45:36 how he submitted to imperfect Joseph and Mary. Jesus did not have a perfect father and mother on earth I mean. God the Father sent Jesus born of a virgin, but to grow up 45:55 and to have imperfect earthly parents. John Joseph and Mary were totally imperfect. They were not even filled with the Holy Spirit. And Jesus had to grow up and learn and he says he submitted to them. You read in the last verse of Luke chapter 2. He 46:11 submitted to them. These are the little things that the Holy Spirit began to show me about Jesus. It changed my life. It made my family life anger disappear from my home. It's one of the good results. And my life at home became a foretaste 46:29 of heaven. I'm not telling a lie. God is my witness. My life with my wife became a foretaste of heaven on earth. It wasn't like that in the beginning even after I was born again. I would apologize. I'd get angry, apologize, get angry, apologize. 46:47 But it changed. Oh, it's a wonderful thing to be have a genuine baptism in the Holy Spirit to be filled. The Holy Spirit taking control of us. I think the lives of many Christians is like a dim light. Yeah, there is light 47:03 in their life, but it's a very dim light. In India we have a a bulb called a zero watt bulb. It's a sort of it's called a night light here. The type of thing you put place on the wall as so that you have a little light at night when you walk into 47:18 the room. And that's the light that many Christians have born again. But he filled with the Holy Spirit is like the blazing light like a street light or something that shines lights up the whole road. Dear brothers and sisters, this is our 47:35 birthright. That's what I want to say in closing. This is your birthright. Jesus purchased it for you and me on the cross and he went to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit 47:54 that we might be flaming witnesses for Christ. The passion that God put in my heart 51 years ago has not faded. It's just grown. God began to show me what it is to build new covenant churches instead of old covenant congregations 48:11 which many churches are. New covenant churches where people function together as a body and not just people who sat together and sang songs together and listened to a message on Sunday morning, but to function together as a body. 48:26 And that's what God's given me the burden to build wherever the Lord's taken us now to many many countries. And I praise the Lord for the number of churches the Lord has raised up that are seeking to manifest that principle of a body 48:40 and not a congregation. Many churches are congregations. Many churches are like clubs. You know, people go to a club to play billiards or to play cards or to drink or and some people come to a church as like a club where they meet 48:58 and sing together and listen to a message and go home. But a body is different from a club. A church is meant to be a body like the different parts of a body functioning together, caring for one another, loving one another. 49:12 Only the baptism in the Holy Spirit can do that. There's no human technique by which we can do it. That's what I found. And not everybody in not everyone in the church is eager for that. God doesn't force anybody. 49:30 He waits till people are willing to receive. I hope all of you will be open to what the Holy Spirit has spoken to you today. Shall we bow in prayer? Please bow with me. I want to say one thing. 49:47 The Lord Jesus is here in our midst. He's right in your midst right now. Where two or three are gathered together, there I am. Please be conscious of his presence as you pray to him in your heart. He is more eager to fill you with the 50:03 Holy Spirit than you are eager to be filled. Please remember that all your life. He is more eager to fill you with the Holy Spirit than you are to be filled. Just empty out everything that you've not emptied out. Open up 50:18 every room in your house, in your heart, to the Lord and say, "Lord, I open every door." Cuz he's standing at some doors and saying, "I'm standing at the door and knocking." If anyone opens the door, I'll come in. Open every door and say, "Lord, 50:34 please have complete possession of my life. My family life, my plans, my ambitions for the future, everything, my financial life, my money, everything is yours. I want a genuine fullness of the Holy Spirit because the time is short. I want to 50:51 make the most of the rest of my life before you come back again. Heavenly Father, grant every one of us the desire of our hearts that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit and be your flaming witnesses on earth. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 51:08 Thank you, brothers and sisters, for listening patiently to me. God bless you all.
