0:00 And they would sometimes remove elders or sort out problems in a church. Prophets were like we can say like consultant doctors who could diagnose the problem with a child. The pastor, the shepherd is like a 0:19 mother. And who takes care or mother and father take care of the children. Uh that's a shepherd ministry in a church. Not a teacher, but a father. And but there may be things which the father and mother can't solve. 0:38 And then they take the child to a consultant doctor. And he's able to diagnose the problem and provide a solution to the sickness of that child. So prophetic ministry is like that where he it's more than a consultant doctor 0:54 because if you were to go to a consultant doctor, you got to explain the problem. But prophetic ministry God gives revelation to a prophet concerning the need in a church. And when he speaks prophetically he ministers to needs that he knows nothing 1:12 about which God reveals to him. Not that God tells him this is the problem, but unconsciously he speaks uh things which relate to the problems in a particular church or to a group of people. It's one of the most needed ministries 1:28 in Christendom today. Evangelists of course you know those who go and bring non-Christians to Christ. But the difference is today's evangelists just don't bring them into a church. The early Christians when they were evangelists, 1:43 they brought the converted person into a church. Today people they say they go out to save souls. The early Christians never went out to save souls. In fact, this whole business of saving souls you never find it anywhere 1:53 mentioned in the New Testament. They were adding people to the church. The way it's mentioned in the New Testament evangelism is God acts through the last verse added to the church those who should be saved. That's evangelism. But there's so little 2:06 of that today. And most of it is done through personal evangelism. That's how we've experienced it in India for the last 35 years. God has added to the church through people contacting others and bringing the gospel to them. 2:22 So evangelists today who function as independent evangelistic ministries go and conduct a crusade somewhere absolutely unheard of in the New Testament. They were even the Philip was the closest to that. He went as an evangelist to Samaria. 2:36 But then he uh invited Peter and John the apostles to come there and continue the work which he began. And so then finally it was a church. So and the teachers are those who take God's word and explain its meaning to people. You don't need many teachers, 2:55 especially in these days when we have CDs, internet and all that and so much of material available. Um but you can have one teacher for 100 churches. But a prophetic ministry you need a lot more. And there are different degrees of that. 3:13 The Bible says prophesy according to the proportion of your faith. Meaning that um those who have a lot of experience can speak a lot more prophetically than those who are just beginning. But all these ministries are available 3:27 in the church. It says here this is for the equipping of the saints, verse 12. The important thing in verse 12 is these ministries do not build the church. Notice that in the next verse, verse 12, it says they equip the saints. 3:44 And the saints build the church. That's how it says here. So these ministries are for equipping people so that those people go out and build the church. So it's the individual members in the body who build the church. But these people equip 3:58 those individual members, okay? Uh what is your proper understanding of salvation? Is it by God's grace through faith in Christ alone or we supposed to work out our salvation? See salvation has got three tenses, past, present, future. 4:13 We are saved from the guilt of sin. We are being saved from the power of sin day by day increasingly. And one day we will be saved from the presence of sin. That's future. So when you say saved 4:32 it's a total word. Everything is by grace through faith. Initially grace is God extending his gift down to us. Faith is my receiving it and saying thank you. I didn't do anything for it. For the forgiveness of sins, anything I 4:50 do will be like a filthy rag. My works of righteousness are like filthy rags. I cannot I have to receive it freely and be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. That is how I'm saved. It's a free gift. I don't do anything. I just receive 5:07 because there's zero I can do to get my past guilt removed. But when it comes to my present tense being delivered from the power of sin if that was entirely God's work like the work he did on the cross all of us would have become like Jesus 5:22 by now. But let's be realistic, we are not. Not only we are not, all of us are at different levels. Which is the clearest proof that some have cooperated with God more than others. In the different temptations in life that you and I have faced 5:37 each of us has responded in different ways and that has determined and what level in the school of Christ you are today. So and one day when Christ comes again we will be raptured to meet with him. Okay. 5:56 This is on? Yes? Okay, fine. Anytime it is off let me know. Okay, I hate that I think too much of what others think of me. I try to take every thought captive. I know it's a lie that I need the approval 6:14 of others to validate me. How to be set free? Is this through repentance, surrender, reckoning the truth of filling with the spirit? How to love the Lord all my life? I'll tell you something. It's almost a lifelong battle 6:28 to be free from the opinions of men. Because you can be free from the opinion of a little group. For example, when you're first converted you say I'm finished now with the opinion of my old unconverted unconverted friends. 6:43 But now I can be concerned about the opinion of this little group I've joined as a church. And then I seek to be free from their opinion and I may be concerned about the opinion of the leaders. So I need to be I would never never devalue that. 7:00 Okay, you explained Matthew 7:21. Somebody says Lord, Lord. What about verse 22 and 23 where it says about uh those who cast out demons in Jesus' name etc. and the Lord says to them I never knew you. That's right. Now there could be two reasons for that. 7:18 One is that this guy was really saved. And he got his gifts when he was saved. Like the devil has got supernatural gifts, but he didn't get those gifts after he became the devil. He got those gifts before he became the devil when he was 7:35 the head of the angels. And then when he got the became fell away, God didn't take away his gifts. You say why? Well, there's a wisdom of God there. He took away the anointing. You read in Ezekiel 28, he was the anointed cherub. 7:52 Not he is. The anointing is gone. Grace is gone. There was no grace, but the favor of God is gone. But the gifts remain. The devil is the greatest example of that. The anointing is gone. Grace is not there, but gifts are there. 8:08 And he's Satan. So it's possible for a human being to be like that. Once he was saved he sought God. He was very sincere. God gave him gifts. You can say didn't God know that one day he'd fall away? Didn't God know that Satan would fall 8:24 away? But God says I am that I am, not I will be what I will be or I was what I was. He lives in the present tense. Which means he deals with you as you are now, not as you will be. You may be a going to be a backslider 10 years from now, but if 8:40 you're wholehearted today God will treat you like a wholehearted person. He won't treat you like you were in the past, thank God. He'll treat you as you are now. That's why you don't have to regret. Oh Lord, are you still treating me like 8:52 I was 10 years ago? No, he isn't. He's treating you as you you are now. His name is I am. We should never be discouraged. Question is are you wholehearted today? Never mind all the blunders and stupid things you did even last week. Forget 9:07 it. I am. I am that I am. So therefore, he deals with us as we are today. You're wholehearted, you seek God. And he gives you gifts and you serve him, you cast out demons, you heal the sick. And then a few years later you 9:20 backslide and go right away and you lose your salvation. He says I never knew you. Now the question is what does that mean you never knew him? Yes. The word know is a very deep word in the Old Testament. It's used about a 9:36 husband-wife relationship. Adam knew his wife. It's a very intimate relationship and there are a lot of born-again people who don't have that intimate bridal relationship with Jesus Christ. They don't choose to have that. 9:48 They just want forgiveness of sins. They get forgiven. They want to go out and serve. They receive certain gifts from the Lord. I know a lot of people who are preachers, who I think they're born again, but when I get close to them, I don't 10:01 sense that they have a bridal devotion to Jesus Christ. It's not that. They're like servant to a master. You can have a servant-master relationship with Christ. It's an Old Testament relationship. It's not the highest, and such people 10:16 usually fall away. A bride, when he gets married, the wife does a lot of work. You know, in India in many homes we have maidservants. It's a help for them because many of them are poor. Now, here in a hot in a kitchen, a wife and a maidservant are cooking the 10:34 same meal, but they're complete the both of them are completely different relationship with the man of the house. One is a wife, and one is a servant, but both are doing work in the kitchen, and the I find in the Lord's work today 10:47 there are those like that. There are a lot of people doing a lot of work for the Lord, but their relationship with Jesus is not a bridal relationship. Then I think the Lord will say to them, "I never knew you." It's absolutely 10:58 right. In the parable of the dishonest steward in Luke 16, uh to whom does verse 9 apply with Why did the Lord commend him? Now, if you read the verse carefully in Luke 16, it does not say 11:18 that um the Lord commended him in verse 8. It says his master commended him. In the one in the parable, the master in the parable praised that unrighteous steward, see, not Jesus. Jesus told the parable, but he said in Luke 16:8, "The master 11:34 praised the unrighteous steward saying, 'You're a wise guy. When you had money in your control, you used that money to make friends for the future when you'd be out of a job, so that when you're kicked out of here, you get there those fellows will receive 11:52 you as friends.'" And Jesus said, "You also, verse 9, today you and I have money in our hands. Use that money to make friends for your future." That guy's future in the parable was on earth after he got kicked out of his other 12:11 job. Your future and mine is in heaven. I must make friends who will meet me in heaven with the money I have today. And they will receive me, it says, verse 9 into eternal dwellings. Somebody will meet me in heaven and say, "Brother, 12:29 because you gave money for the spread of the gospel, or you gave up your job, gave up money to bring the gospel to me, because of that I'm here." Friends who receive you in eternal dwellings. All of us have 12:46 the opportunity to use the resources God gives us. Maybe a house you have, maybe money you have, whatever whatever you have, earthly resources that you use to win people for eternity. That's the meaning. Um 13:06 Today you said how fear is a sin. I really feel convicted, but I'm ashamed to say that I have an irrational fear of the dark and being alone. I know Jesus defeated Satan. How shall I battle it when it comes, and it my imagination runs wild when I'm alone? 13:22 Do I battle this like lust? See, there's a difference between caution and fear. Now, if I were going into a dark forest at night, I would carry a torch with me. And that's not fear. That's just being careful. Or if I'm going into I may avoid a 13:41 street where I know there are gangsters. It's not because I'm afraid. I'm just being cautious. There's I mean, to say I'm going to go through that um street full of gangsters because I trust in the Lord would be equivalent to 13:56 jumping off the roof of the temple and saying, "His angels will protect me." And Jesus didn't do that. That's stupidity. It wasn't because Jesus was scared that he would fall down and crash. I mean, if God has provided steps, you 14:10 take use the steps. Why should you jump off the roof? So, if God has provided medicines, why should you say, "I'll trust the Lord to heal me"? Medicines are like steps. You can go down with that and be healed. Now, if you think that 14:26 um God doesn't heal through medicine, then who uh who heals through medicines? We know lots of people who were healed through medicine and surgery and chemotherapy who got cancer and were healed and lived for 20 years thereafter. Was it the devil who healed 14:38 them? I can't believe that. If it was God who healed them, then God must have used those doctors, those unconverted doctors, and those medicines. The medicines are herbs and minerals that God has placed in nature that somebody's done some research and 14:51 found that they are good for a medicine. It's part of God's mercy on us in cursed earth. So, we use means, but we trust in God. So, caution is okay. And if we have You know, some people are more afraid of being alone or in the dark, and some are 15:10 more there's a natural um courage some people have. But if you are a coward, you're like me. And therefore I cling close to Jesus. I often ask to use this example. If a 2-year-old and a 14-year-old are standing by the side of a busy road, 15:29 especially in India where nobody follows the laws on the road, and you have to cross the road, and the dad is standing there. Dad, 2-year-old son, 14-year-old son. Which of those two sons will cross the road safely? The answer is the 2-year-old. 15:47 Because the 2-year-old will say, "Dad, I can't cross this road. You better hold me and take me across." But when the dad tries to hold the hand of the 14-year-old, you know how 14-year-old boys are. "Hey, leave me alone. I can get on by on my own." He 16:01 gets run over. It's the bold person who gets run over. The coward goes across safe. That's why I say, "Lord, when the tribulation comes, I don't know whether I'll deny you when somebody pulls out in the nails from my fingers 16:18 and tortures me in other ways. I I'm a coward, Lord. I better stick close to you. I'm not like Peter who says, 'Even if all deny you, I will not deny you.' Lord, if you don't help me, I'll deny you. I want to cling close to you, 16:30 and therefore I'll have grace in the moment of God gives grace to the weak, you know, not to the strong. So, if you're weak, cling to God, and you'll go across safely more than the other guy who boasts like Peter, "I'm a courageous guy." 16:48 So, don't be afraid. You're in a better position. Uh in your eternal security article that's on the website, you said the elders believed they could leave Egypt, but you see, they didn't. In multiple instances of God No, they 17:00 did believe because otherwise they wouldn't have put the blood outside the door um of their houses. And there could have been a number of Israelites who didn't believe Moses and said, "Ah, who's what's this business of killing a 17:16 lamb and putting the blood?" They Their firstborn would have died. It's quite likely some Israelites fled. So, they did believe when it comes to um coming out of Egypt, but they didn't believe when they came to the borders of Canaan. And they 17:30 didn't enter in, those elders. The other question is, in you said that in uh January '75 when you met with the Lord again, it radically changed your life forever. Did you have complete victory over all dead works of the flesh since then? 17:45 I would say, I can honestly say this, from January '75 onwards, my life has gone upwards. It hasn't been a shooting up vertically. It's been a slow, steady climb towards the peak of total likeness to Christ. 18:01 But if you look with a magnifying glass at the individual days' experience, it's not a straight line. It's little wavy lines that go upwards. There were, you know, little falls and climbs and falls and repentance, and and as time goes on, those falls and 18:19 repentances are more far apart, not so frequent, and not such big dips. Whereas formerly it was just up and down all the time, and most of the time down. But uh then, so I don't believe there's anyone lives a straight line 18:35 without ever falling, but the falls become less and less frequent. You know, it's like a child learning to walk. So many times it falls, but it finally learns to walk. But none of us standing here can say, "I'll never fall." You can 18:49 trip on a stone outside and fall even today. But you have learned to walk. So, that's how it is. It's a progress, but it should be upward in the sense that we get more and more light on the un-Christ-likeness in our life, or we 19:04 become more and more like him. What does it mean, "Don't give what is holy to the dogs. Don't throw your pearls before swine"? See, in the same chapter where Matthew 7:1, where he said, "Don't judge," in the same chapter in verse 6, 19:21 he says, "Don't give uh what is holy to the dogs." So, it's almost as though you've got to judge whether somebody's a dog or not a dog. Immediately after That's the balance in scripture. You must not judge, but you must 19:33 discern. There's a difference between judgment and discernment. If you don't discern, you'll be like a zombie, a mindless person floating around the earth, um not knowing what is spiritual and what is not spiritual. You'll end up in 19:46 a cult, perhaps, thinking that is godly. So, we need discernment. There are a lot of ministries I have nothing to do with. I don't judge them, but I discern. I say that's not according to God's word. We must have discernment. 20:00 But we don't judge them because I'm not here to decide whether that TV preacher is going to hell or how he lives. I say I don't know how he lives. I'm not interested. But I say that the way he ministers, that's not the way Christ wants us to do it. It 20:13 doesn't fit in with my understanding of Christ. So that's discernment. So don't give that which is holy to the dogs and pearls before swine. A pearl, you would know a pearl is extremely valuable to a human being. But a swine looks at it and says, "I 20:26 don't want that. Give me some muck. Give me some dirt. I love that." So there are people on Earth who would rather watch pornography than listen to the gospel. Okay, I'm not going to present the deep truths of the gospel to people who are 20:40 not who value who don't value it because they don't have a sense of need. There's a sense in which we preach the gospel to everyone, to every creature. But when you see that someone despises it. Jesus said just shake your dust off your 20:57 feet and move on to the next place. There are many millions of others who need to hear. I don't keep on wasting my time with people who don't have a year to hear. Maybe 5 years later that guy will come to a need and then I can come back 21:08 to him. It's not that I reject him permanently. So the principle is don't waste your time giving truths of God because the people of God, the number of God's people and his servants are so limited on Earth. And the world is so huge in its 21:22 population that you can't afford to keep wasting your time with people who have no time to listen to you. Go to those who have ears to hear. The picture God's given me in my mind is this. Here is a huge fruit garden. Or what the Lord would call a vineyard. 21:40 And here's the master. And I'm it's it's in millions of square miles. There's so many trees. Now I can get into this vineyard and say, "Lord, I'd like to serve you. I'd like to go here and see get some fruit and go to this other tree. I may have to 21:55 sit under a tree for 10 years before I get the fruit. When I get something I move to the next tree." A better way would be to consult the master and say, "Where do you want me to go?" And the master says, "Go down there." 22:07 And I go there and the tree's all ready to drop the fruit. Now I just collect the fruit in the basket full, give it to the master and say, "Where do I go next?" The Lord says, "Go there." I go there and collect the fruit and 22:16 give it to the master and go there. Some people are called to sow. I want you to go and plant a tree there. The fruit will come a little later. Some people are called to collect the fruit. But the best thing to do is to listen to 22:29 the master. What do you want me to do? Instead of you know, like people say, "Go and do something for God." That's not how we are to do God's will. Thy will be done on Earth as in heaven. How is it done in heaven? Michael doesn't tell Gabriel, "Hey, go 22:43 and do something for God, man. Don't just sit around." No. My Gabriel doesn't run around trying to do something for God. He waits for God to tell him. "Go down to Nazareth and go and give this message to that girl Mary." He goes 22:57 and comes back. "What next, Lord?" Thy will be done on Earth as it is done in heaven. It's because we are too lazy to wait upon God to listen to his voice that we um you know just go around doing whatever we think we should. 23:12 Can a man be sanctified living with his second wife having divorced his first wife who's still alive? I believe he can. It depends on the circumstances. When it comes to divorce and remarriage the circumstances are so different 23:24 that I would not like to give a standard answer to that because two identical cases may have different answers. Uh there could be different reasons. One could have been before he was converted. Uh many many factors which have to be 23:41 considered. But there are certain situations where a man can do nothing no matter what he tries to do, he cannot rectify it and he doesn't have to torture himself for what happened in his unconverted days which he cannot rectify. And God is 23:57 not a torturer. He doesn't demand of us things which he knows are impossible to do. But there are certain other situations where something possibly could be done. So that's why I say I wouldn't like to give a standard answer to that. 24:10 What are the dangers of the charismatic doctrine and practice? I personally think one of the greatest dangers is when they say that speaking in tongues is the only evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I don't believe that. I believe God 24:25 baptized me in the Holy Spirit before I spoke in tongues. I spoke in tongues about 10 11 years after that. I thank God for the gift. But um I don't believe that's the only mark of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Um I There are lots of very godly people 24:41 through the years who were filled with the Holy Spirit who did a tremendous work for God like John Wesley D.L. Moody, Charles Finney, A.B. Simpson Tozer great men of God who never spoke in tongues. But they were filled with the Holy Spirit. 25:00 And there are also people who filled with the Holy Spirit who spoke in tongues like Paul and John and Peter and all the others also. So we can't say one or the other. And even today there are some godly men who speak in tongues. 25:14 So when you what the danger of saying that is the only mark is it makes people when if you're in that church you're always treated like a second class citizen. Oh, you don't speak in tongues yet. And you know, every uh one of us wants 25:30 to be accepted in a church. Especially when you're young in the Lord like children who go to school the first day, they want to be accepted by others. That's how a lot of young people get into drugs and other bad habits 25:41 because they want to be accepted. We go to a church and we want to be accepted. And then if there is a certain thing that has to be done before you get accepted they will manufacture it. Because psychologically that whole 25:53 system says, "You're not accepted. You're not accepted until you speak in tongues." Then we are such creatures that we will mumble something and people say, "Okay, you got it." And then you think I've joined the club now. 26:06 That's the danger. That's why my opinion, this is my opinion. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7 I give my opinion. So my opinion, my opinion, 90% of the tongues I have heard in charismatic Pentecostal services is a 26:25 lot of rubbish. It doesn't witness in my spirit that this is from God. I've heard genuine tongues. And I uh it's about 10% only what I've heard. The other is, can you name a few solid Christian writers apart from the Bible 26:42 that are a positive influence for believers? It depends on what level we are in our Christian life. So at different levels in my Christian life different authors have helped me. 27:00 And I have through the years tried to share with others um benefit I've received from many of these people. Um at certain levels Tozer has been a tremendous help to me. 27:19 A.W. Tozer. Watchman Nee up to a certain point. I wouldn't accept everything, but he was a very godly man. But some of his followers are in churches which are are dead as a doornail. But that happens. I mean, Methodist churches today a lot of them don't even 27:38 preach the new birth. Whereas John Wesley was a very godly man. So a church associated with a man is not necessarily godly. But the man himself uh but you have There also you got to be selective because you got to compare 27:53 scripture with scripture. So Andrew Murray is another godly writer. Will be we Will we be with our wives in heaven have the relationship? Jesus said there's no marriage in heaven. But I I certainly believe we'll recognize who our wives were. And I 28:12 don't know all about heaven. Tell you a little later. Um Will I Will my fellowship with God be broken 28:31 if I don't ask a brother or sister whom I've done wrong against for forgiveness? If I ask only God for forgiveness. The answer to that is given by Jesus in Matthew 5 in verse 23 onwards. When you come to present your gift to 28:46 God and there you remember that you've done something against your brother leave your offering, go and ask forgiveness, set it right and then come and offer offering. Otherwise God will not accept it. So the answer is very clear. Now what if 29:00 that person refuses to forgive me? My responsibility is over. I don't have to cringe and crawl before him asking for forgiveness. I asked for forgiveness once. I say, "Brother, I'm really sorry for what I did. It was my mistake." 29:15 Don't say it was partly your mistake and all that. That's not for you asking for forgiveness. I was wrong. Even if he was wrong, that's for him to confess, not me. I was wrong and this is what I did. And if he says, "You know, I'm not going 29:27 to forgive you." Okay. My responsibility is over before God. I can now go before God and have fellowship with him. Uh what constitutes true corporate worship in the true body of Christ? I think individual people who are 29:42 worshiping God in their own life for whom Jesus is everything, who can say sincerely from their heart, "Lord, there's nothing on earth I desire beside you, no one and nothing. You are everything to me. You're not just the 29:56 main thing in my life, you are everything to me." Such people are worshipers. When such people come together and praise God and thank God in song and words, there's a wonderful spirit there. It's worshipers who are coming there private 30:12 in private, they are worshipers. And they're coming together for a corporate time of praise and thanksgiving. That's a wonderful experience because the spirit of God will be mightily present where you have even five or 10 30:27 people for whom Jesus is everything compared to a whole lot of people who can sing well or who got good music. The other you just feel the emotion of the music and in the others in the first case, you feel the presence of God. 30:40 Is it possible to lose your salvation? How do you know it's happened? Well, it is possible to lose our salvation. I mean, there are many verses you can look at my article eternal security on our website. It says in Hebrews 3 and verse 12, "Be 30:53 careful, brethren, that you don't get an evil unbelieving heart and falling away from the living God." It's very clear. A brethren can fall away from the living God. Have an evil unbelieving heart. So, the way to know it is that 31:10 you don't have any the desire you had for Jesus is gone. You it's like uh you married a your wife and you loved her and it's you don't love her anymore. It's Maybe you're interested in other women now. And uh it's like that. You Now you're 31:27 more interested in other things in the world and you do you won't care whether uh Jesus it hurts Jesus or not. You couldn't care less. You just want to enjoy yourself. That's a pretty clear indication that you've lost your 31:39 salvation. I mean, a person may slip up. That's different. Where a person really wants to, you know, even a loyal husband may have a slip up. It's not right, but but he immediately feels sorry and goes and confesses and sets it right. I'm not 31:56 talking about that. A person who's quite happy to fool around and his main uh friendship now is with ungodly people. That's almost a clear indication the guy's lost his salvation. He can come back because the Holy Spirit 32:09 will keep pleading with him to come back. But if he dies in that state, he's lost. What to do if you're in a church where the elders are caught up and taught teach the emotional effects of the spirit, things like healing and prophecy as the 32:23 important things to pursue? Now, let me say I'm not against emotion. Uh many times when I pray and praise God in private where I weep, I am uh I'm not very emotional, but when I think of God's love for me 32:42 or think of my own un-Christ-likeness or sins, I really feel great sorrow. So, I'm emotional. There's nothing wrong in that. But that's not the main thing. Repentance means a turning around from sin. I want to hate sin more than just 32:57 weep about it. Uh much more if I have a choice between hating sin and weeping over it, I say I choose hate sin. Whether I weep or not. I want to take a decision. And um healing, I want to say this about healing also. You can go to two 33:11 extremes. I find both among some believers. Some will say God will heal everything. That's not in scripture. He'll forgive all sins. That I can show you scripture. But in the New Testament, there's no verse which said promises that God will 33:23 heal all your sicknesses. It's an unrealistic thing to um pursue. And um if a person prays, it says in James 5, "Elders must pray for the sick and um prayer of faith will heal the sick." It's the faith of the elders. 33:41 And if the it's the measure of the elders' faith that determines the healing, not that guy's faith. It's very clear. You read James 5. Read it carefully. And so, each each of us has a certain measure of faith. We can only pray up to 33:53 that measure of faith. Some have the gift of healing. I don't have it. But some may have it. I don't know. But if you have it, then people will be healed when you pray for them. I personally think there are very very few people on earth who have it. 34:08 I think it's mostly given for people who are going into what I call frontier evangelism. That means those who are going into areas where the gospel has never been preached. And we've seen that in areas where the gospel has never been preached, there's 34:21 casting out demons and healing that takes place. When you read the Acts of the Apostles, remember it was all frontier evangelism. All of it. That's why you see healings and all that. Everything was frontier evangelism. But once you come to the epistles and 34:36 you read of believers who are already in the church, you see Paul having a sickness. He prayed three times and he didn't get healed. You have Timothy having frequent stomach problems and Paul saying, "Well, I prayed laid hands 34:48 on you enough number of times. Now you better take some medicine." So, and Trophimus of I left at Miletus sick. Epaphroditus was sick nigh unto death. It's very different. But when you come to frontier evangelism, a lot of people are 35:00 healed. So, we can go to two extremes. One that God never heals anybody. That's nonsense. Or God heals everybody. That's also nonsense. The God does heal with a certain purpose, even believers. I'm not saying believers in the church can't be healed. I myself 35:16 have experienced healing many times. And I believe every time we are sick in our family, anybody is sick, we must pray for healing. We must lay hands on that child and say, "Lord, I want to heal." And if I had a sick child, 35:28 I tell you, I would pray and pray. I don't care how serious that sickness is. I would pray and pray and pray and pray for total healing. If it takes 20 years, I'll pray 20 years. If the child dies, I'll say, "Okay, Lord. Now I understand your will. I 35:40 accept it. I won't have any questions. But I will not give up praying with whatever little faith I have, I'll cling on to God. And that's what I would say. And that's what you should do whenever there's sickness in your home. 35:54 And anybody you're burdened for, we must pray for healing. We should not think that only doctors can handle that. So, but if you are in a church where people are make that the main thing, well, they're not willing to change. You need 36:09 to see whether what effect it has on you and your family. And look around and see if there's a better church where they preach holiness, even if they don't have the gifts of the spirit. The ideal would be to be like Jesus, the original body of Christ, 36:26 who had character plus gifts. Jesus had both. And that's ideal. What does local membership consist of? What are the requirements biblically? See, in the early church, early days, there was only one church in every town. 36:45 So, if you were born again, you just joined that church. But things are so different now because there are so many churches. Many of them have come out of some church and the other church continues and this one after a few years this becomes corrupt 37:00 and another group comes out of it. So, we are living at the end of 2,000 years. It's very difficult to uh decide which church to join. I would say you must study God's word and to the measure you know God's word, visit the different 37:19 churches in your locality and see which is closest to your present understanding of God's word. Don't go to place just where somebody loves you very much because you'll join a cult. They are the ones who show the maximum 37:31 love and ultimately control you. No. I must see is it I don't care whether they love me or not. I want to see whether it's according to God's word first. I don't go to a church to get love. I can go to church to love others, but I 37:45 don't go there to get loved. I go there to honor God. And you can't honor God if you don't obey his word. So, I want to go to a place where they teach me to obey God's word and to grow spiritually. And um membership, see, we don't have membership in our 38:02 church at all. We say if you come here regularly, we know you and we come here regularly and you're willing to accept the authority of the elders here, then you are a member. But we got to be sure from our side that uh we consider you 38:19 really born again, want to be a disciple of Jesus. That's from our side as elders. And from your side, you must see whether you're willing to submit totally in church matters to the authority of the elders. There may be a problem at either end. 38:36 Maybe you're not willing to submit to the authority of the elders, then you should honest in all honesty find another church. You shouldn't sit in the church and create problems. Now, that's God will never bless that because that's spirit of rebellion. 38:49 Go and find another church where you can submit to the elders. And you say, "Well, all the churches are like that." Then go and sit at home. Do what you like. Because you'll never find a perfect church. Uh you heard the story of the 39:03 young man who asked a servant of God, "Uh brother, I'm looking for a perfect church. Can you tell me where?" He said, "Well, in my all my long life, I've never seen a perfect church. But if you find one, don't join it because as soon as you join it, it'll be 39:16 imperfect." That's that's what happens, you know. It's there's no perfect uh husband or perfect wife. Those who want a perfect partner will remain unmarried. So, those who want a perfect church will remain alone and probably lose their salvation as 39:33 well. So, we must look for the best in the locality. But when you do find the best, submit to the eldership. And the elders must also be confident that you're willing to accept the terms of discipleship that they have. And then they accept you as 39:51 one of their even if there's no formal membership statement, they accept you as one of their local body. Um about raising children. While my wife and I are away, my mother-in-law teaches our young daughter other things. 40:10 She belongs to some cult. Well, I think you should make sure that your wife and you are not away. At least the wife should be at home. If God gives you a child, uh you should look after that child, not let anyone else bring your child up. 40:30 I think God will hold you responsible. My wife and I decided that when our first son was born, we were extremely poor. But we decided even if we live in a small little room, uh we're not going to leave that child alone. 40:48 Even though my wife is a doctor, medical doctor, she gave up her profession as soon as our child was born and she's never worked. I mean, she's helped thousands of people medically, but she's never earned 1 cent as a doctor in 40 years. 41:02 Um because she was a mother first of all, and we don't regret it. Uh we couldn't provide all the rich stuff that wealthy parents could give their children. We don't regret that. But we could provide the love and care and whatever we could afford 41:19 to them and we're very happy to see them all following the Lord today and all married God-fearing women and seeking to bring their children up in the fear of God. So we don't regret. So I would never encourage leaving our children for someone else to 41:33 bring up. It's far better to the wife doesn't work and stays at home and look after. Uh Revelation 20:6 speaks about reigning with Christ a thousand years. That's on Earth. Those who have overcome sin in their earthly life will have positions 41:51 positions of authority in that thousand years on Earth before eternity begins. It's my understanding that when Christ comes back, it'll be after a period of tribulation that we've gone through. They're going to be God's greatest 42:07 witnesses for Christ on Earth. Revelation is very clear. There's a book of mine there called The Final Triumph. You can read more details of it there. It's a verse-by-verse study of Revelation. But at the end of that, Christ will come 42:19 and he will set up his kingdom on Earth for a thousand years and people are going to be rewarded for their faithfulness on Earth and they are the ones who will reign with Christ. And at the end of that, eternity will begin. 42:31 Some people have said to me that where I live, there is a dark cloud or curse that keeps a church from being built in my place. Should I listen to them? I'm a young Christian and a very good fellowship another brother, but we have no elders. 42:45 See, I find a lot of Christians, like I said yesterday, have got a grasshopper Jesus and a giant devil. That's not the real Jesus. That's why they're always afraid there's a curse or cloud, the church can't be built here because the devil is too 43:01 powerful. It's exactly what they said in the borders of Canaan. You can't get into this land. These giants are too big. You're like grasshoppers. What is your God? Nothing. And they said, "That's right. We and our God are like grasshoppers." 43:12 But Joshua and Caleb said, "No." He said, "These giants are like bread. We can eat them up with God on our side." So it's there's no place on Earth where a church cannot be built. No place. Not even Afghanistan. If God calls somebody, they'll be a 43:29 witness in the midst of any country on the Earth. And for all you know, when you get up into eternity, you may find there was a church even there. We don't It's not publicized much, but there are believers in the most unlikely 43:44 places. So don't ever believe there is a dark cloud all over the world because the principalities and ru- ru- rulers rule over in the heavenly places, but we battle them and resist them and we overcome them. We bind their 43:57 activities on Earth. Okay. This is a personal question, I think again, about divorce and um remarriage and all that and I believe that some of those things it's difficult to answer publicly because I found in the past that 44:16 some people are waiting to get some sentence out of my mouth to justify what they want to do. They've already decided what they want to do and they're waiting for some sentence to hang on to do what they want to do. So I'm very careful that I don't speak 44:29 about in public. I'd rather speak about that take each case individually. Um even on emails now I've stopped giving counsel in that area because uh we found people are always waiting. They've already made up their mind what 44:44 they're going to do and they're waiting for some man of God or someone to give them a little one half a sentence sanction and that's it. But we're not going to do that because people misuse God's word. People It's like people look in the scripture for 44:56 some little justification for doing what they want to do. I only All I want to say is God is a very compassionate God. Remember Jesus looked at that five times divorced Samaritan woman with great compassion and didn't re- view cur or condemn her. 45:10 There's hope for everybody with repentance. My I believe that a divorced man can never have responsibility in a church. That's certain. Because he's got two wives. Um but he can be restored to fellowship with God if in certain situations where 45:27 it's impossible for him to go back and rectify situation. God is very merciful. He doesn't ask you to do things which he knows are impossible. Please remember that. He does not ask you to do anything which is he knows is impossible. Men may 45:42 demand that of you, but not God because God understands your situation. And children When when there are children, I never ask a divorced couple to separate because those children will suffer. They will either lose a father 45:57 or their mother. And there's a clear verse in Jeremiah and Ezekiel that you must children will not have um sour teeth because their parents ate sour grapes. The children's teeth will not be set on edge. The children will never suffer for the 46:13 sin of their parents. Must not be made to suffer. So I will never be a party to make some poor children suffer because their parents did some stupid thing in divorce or remarriage. So I I say you got to stay together for 46:26 the sake of your children. It may be God's second best, but it is worse than the greater evil of separating and leaving your children without one parent in this world particularly. So some of these things we need to uh deal with in a personal level. 46:44 And the maximum I would permit is allow them to uh if I see everything is sorted out and they've got a good sincere heart, I may permit them to break bread in the church, but never have leadership. In a meeting, if somebody says I can't 46:58 sense the presence of God here, is it his problem or the church's problem? Could be either. It depends. Sometimes it could be that there are certainly many churches which meetings there is absolutely no presence of God. 47:13 And there are other cases where a person cannot understand what the presence of God is. If he's convicted of his sin when he goes to a place and there's a spirit of compassion in that leadership there, well, then the Lord is there. 47:27 What does it mean to pray through something? What if I don't have a burden? Well, if you don't have a burden, you can't really pray about something. There are some people who make long prayer lists and repeat them. I've got 47:39 no criticism of them. All I say is do it if the Lord leads you. Don't do it because you read in some book somebody did that. A lot of people are following the example of other men. Find it in scripture, number one. See if Jesus did it. 47:56 See if the apostles did it. Or see if God gives you a burden for it. Then it's okay. But just to do it because brother X who's a godly man did it is no reason why you should do it. Because we are not called to imitate Some people are 48:10 I've got a specific gift of prayer. It's one of the ministries in the body of Christ. It's like the heart. I often compare the heart to the the heart to the ministry of prayer. And some have that gift. Some have more than one gift. 48:27 It's like some have the gift of teaching. Some have the gift of evangelism. I firmly believe that some people have a gift of praying and praying through things and others are not called to that ministry. They benefit from 48:39 the ministry of this guy who's praying. Like the many parts of the body benefit from the heart pumping. So every believer cannot have that gift. Just like every believer cannot be a teacher or an evangelist. But all of us are to be witnesses. 48:53 So prayer is the way I have understood it. There's a little book of mine there called God-Centered Praying where I explain this. Prayer is like a circle. It has to begin with God. All things that are valuable begin from God, through God, and to God. 49:11 Romans 11:29. From God, through God, to God. So it begins with God giving me a burden. That's how real prayer begins. Not by my making a list of people I feel like praying for. God gives me a burden concerning a circumstance, concerning a 49:28 person, concerning a church, concerning a ministry, whatever it is. And that burden I pray back to God in faith. That completes the circle. If either of these is missing, it's not a complete prayer. If I just feel like praying some for 49:45 something and say, "I want to try to work up faith for it." You may or may not get it. God's a good God. If it's a material thing, he'll probably give it to you because he gives material things to all types of people. But some other things you may not get. 49:56 That doesn't mean you don't have faith. It just means that God never wanted you to have it. So, but if God has given you a burden and you don't exercise your faith for it, again it's the circle is not complete. So, that is true prayer. 50:10 Okay. Um Is it possible for a believer Christian to serve in the military in a combat position? I'm not asking this question in order to play devil's advocate. All the viewpoints I've heard on this issue have been based on preconceived 50:29 ideas backed up by cherry-picked scripture. What does cherry-picked scripture mean? Means whatever you want. Pick from here and there. Okay. That's what I thought. I'd like to hear your unbiased view. Can I be unbiased when I served in the 50:45 military for 11 years myself? And seven of those years as a believer. How can I Well, See, I think I would have had a problem if I was in the Chinese army. I was in the Indian army. Do you know that in the history of India is India has never 51:03 invaded another country in 3,000 years. So, it's um we've had a history of an army that's only interested in preserving its borders, not invading another country or any such thing. So, in all the years I was in the military, 51:21 I never had to do one single thing to go against my conscience. I never had to kill anyone. And um so, I never faced that. I would pray that God would keep me out of such situations. So, when it comes to a combat situation, 51:38 the thing is this. Uh I believe it's right to defend ourselves. It's wrong to attack. And the reason I say that is when they went to Gethsemane, Jesus said, "Have you got a sword?" "If you don't have a sword," you read in 51:55 Luke 22, "sell your shirt, buy a sword." Can you imagine Jesus telling his disciples to buy a sword? Some people say that is a Bible. There were no Bibles those uh He wasn't telling them to go to a Bible store and buy a Bible. So, 52:09 it was a literal sword because they were going to Gethsemane. And what he meant was that if they attack you, instead of lifting up your arm and getting that sword hit on your forearm, lift up a sword. You can defend yourself. But when 52:24 Pete Peter took out that sword to chop off somebody's ear, Jesus said, "Put it back." So, when you put scripture with scripture, what you learn there is never attack. That is not God's will. Trust God to protect you. But if they 52:37 attack you, that soldier who was not lifting up his sword at Peter, he had no business to cut off his ear. So, what I learn is you can defend yourself. That's why Jesus said, "Take a sword." And if you don't have a sword, buy a sword. 52:49 Defend yourself. If you're walking down the street and somebody's coming to bash up your wife while you're walking with her, you're not to just sit back and say, "Well, here's the other cheek." I don't think that's Christianity. 53:03 I think you should defend your wife. Protect your wife from that person. It's a spirit we need to understand. And um So, I personally believe that self-defense is right. So, there's no standard answer into which you have to be. I think in a lot of 53:21 situations in some countries, I would not join the army. I would ask for release because it would be against my conscience to do certain things in certain armies. But in some other places, if I were in the Singapore army, for example, I would 53:36 have no problem. So, certain countries it's possible and certain You got to decide according to each situation. So, I don't know how it is here. But um the thing is we must not say uh It's supposing I were to ask, "Would you join the United States army?" 53:54 You say, "No, no, that's completely un-Christian." W- Would you want the United States to have an army? Oh, yes. Otherwise, we'd have been communist ruled by Russia 30 years ago. So, you want somebody else to defend you, but you don't want to defend the 54:09 country yourself. That is what I call selfishness. If you really believe that, you must say, "I don't believe in an army at all. I don't want any protection. I don't believe in the police. Let the robbers come and rob my house." 54:23 I find a lot of Christians are absolutely inconsistent in their pr- policy of pacifism. I personally believe I don't I'll tell you honestly, I do not encourage anybody in our church to join the military, having said this. 54:40 But that's because it's so difficult to be a Christian. And very few can manage it to come out unscathed. I found myself becoming strong as a believer there, but it was tough. But I was in it when I got converted. 54:59 And um so, I wouldn't recommend that people join. Even in the India, I don't even en- en- uh encourage anyone to join the police forces because you're brought into so many compromising situations as a Christian and a young Christian will just fall. 55:16 And I would never recommend that. So, I say choose some other profession. And um I would not be against it, but I would discourage some most believers from joining something which involves a lot of temptation. It's not only the police 55:32 and the for example, being an attorney in India, almost impossible if you're a Christian. Because you just can't survive if you don't tell lies. Even jobs like accountancy, very difficult to be a Christian. Because they're always asking you to 55:49 fudge the accounts and cheat and So, there are very few jobs in India that you can really do as a Christian. But that's part of the price we pay in following the Lord. Uh how can a Christian be released from the bondage of apathy and live a joyful 56:01 life full of enthusiasm for Christ? I think taking up the cross like I said today, valuing the Father's presence more than anything else on earth. Okay. Um how can I ensure that the truth that I learned at this conference will become 56:17 a life experience and not just new knowledge? I'll tell you. Every situation that you face in life in the future and you're reminded by the Holy Spirit of something you heard at this conference, seek God for grace. My grace is 56:32 sufficient for these. A wonderful promise to live by. I have used that many, many times. I said, "Lord, this is a tough situation. This is a tough temptation, but your grace is sufficient. I acknowledge my weakness. I cannot overcome this on my 56:46 own, but I believe with your power everything will be like a grasshopper in front of me." I believe in a big Jesus, small teeny weeny devil and small teeny weeny temptation compared to Jesus. Compared to me, they are huge. But when Christ is in me, 57:02 it's different. So, seek God for grace, the power of his Holy Spirit. Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Prepare yourself even before temptation comes. Study the word of God. Fill your mind with God's word. Seek to be filled with 57:15 the spirit. Be Keep short accounts with God. That means as soon as uh That means you don't keep credit. You like you buy something from the store and say, "I'll pay you later." No, pay immediately. Meaning, if you have sinned, confess immediately. 57:30 Confess immediately. And that's the meaning of keeping short accounts with God. Immediately confess and set it right. Um And I believe that God will lead you further. How important is church membership? If I am in a church for 3 years, become a 57:45 member, is anything changed from God's perspective? Well, we have in our church in Bangalore those who come as visitors for many years. We don't ask them for coming to me because they don't want to. They just like to come to listen to a good 57:57 message. They know that commitment means more. For example, you can treat a church like a restaurant or like a home. In a restaurant, you have no responsibility. You don't have to clean the dishes. You don't have to clean the 58:09 floor. You don't have to even clean the table. You just eat, pay your tithe, and go. That's a church which is like a restaurant. But if it's a home, if the church is like a family, after you eat, there are a lot of responsibilities. 58:27 You got to sweep the floor. You got to clean the damn wash the dishes. You got to do a lot of things in the home. So, commitment means I have committed myself to take responsibilities in that church, too, because this is my home. 58:39 This is not a restaurant that I come to visit to just listen to a good message and go. A lot of people treat that go to a church like uh you know, butterflies go from one flower to another flower picking up honey here and there. 58:52 They'll just remain butterflies all their life. And some Christians are like that. We're supposed to be living active members of a body like a like a human body functioning together in fellowship with each other, not just strong individualistic 59:08 believers. You're not accomplishing God's purpose if you are just a Say, "I'm a fine believer. All the members in my family are fine believers." That's fine, brother. Have you moved on to the next level of building a local church 59:21 according to God's word? Or you're satisfied with moving from kindergarten to grade one? Would you be happy to let your children finish with grade one education? Oh, no. You want your children to become graduates. But in spiritual things, you're happy 59:39 with grade one. That shows that the things of earth are a million times more important to you than the things of God. And you will discover that when you stand before the Lord and you'll have a lot of regret. I don't want that. The 59:51 things of God are much more important to me. I want my children to get a good education. I want them to get a good education spiritually, too. To get all of God's best, not part of it. The times of ignorance God overlooks, 1:00:04 but now I must seek for God's best. Um, can you describe briefly the process by which a unrepentant stubborn sinners eventually rejected from membership at CFC? I can see this is a loaded question, which which somebody wants to get an answer to 1:00:21 hit somebody on the head with, probably some elder he wants to hit with. Um, so I'm not going to answer it. What do you mean by an unrepentant stubborn sinner? The thing is whether God rejects him. I I don't know whether first of all God 1:00:35 has accepted him. I wouldn't even know whether such a person is born again. Um, in 1 Corinthians 5:11, it speaks about a person being put out of the church. Yes, I'll tell you this, that in we have had to put out certain 1:00:49 people from our church in the past, and we don't regret it one bit. If they repented and come back, we'd welcome them. But if they don't repent and come back, we do not allow them to break bread with us because we would be 1:01:06 telling a lie that this person is in fellowship with us when he's not. Um, what is Hebrews 6 and verse 6 mean? Is it impossible to come back to repentance? I think it all depends on a translation of one word there. And uh I believe that correct 1:01:23 translation would be like this. If somebody has tasted Hebrews 6:4-6, if somebody has tasted the heavenly gift, particles of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word, and then he falls away, verse 6, it is impossible to renew him again to 1:01:41 repentance as long as In the margin of my Bible, it says that while that's a legitimate translation. He crucifies the Son of God. That means when you sin, Jesus was crucified for our sin. Whether you realize it not, every time 1:01:59 you deliberately sin, you're saying, "Crucify him." You're crucifying the Son of God afresh when you sin deliberately. And if you keep doing that, as long as you do that, you can't repent, obviously. But if a time comes when you 1:02:15 realize your stupidity and stop doing that, you can definitely repent. The whole As long as you feel the desire to turn back to the Lord, you can always come back, no matter how far away from God you've fallen. One last question. 1:02:29 What is your view on Israel in connection with the final redemption of the last days? I've explained this more fully in my book The Final Trump. You can read that. Okay, thank you very much. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, 1:02:47 we thank you that your word gives us light in the darkness concerning many areas and areas that are not clear. We pray that you will give light to those who need it. We believe you'll do that through your word, through the Holy 1:03:05 Spirit. Thank you for this time. In Jesus' name. Amen.
