Sermon by Pastor Alex
As Christians, we must always know that God is in control of history. No matter what happens
I make known the end from the beginning,
Isaiah 46:10
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.’
The world is building a Babylonian system which will create a platform for the Anti-Christ to come.
We need to understand what God’s plan is for our lives in these end times.
But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night, an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So, keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.
Acts 27:22-25
There is a powerful principle here. Even though the circumstances and situations were dire, since Paul was in the centre of God’s will, the danger that was coming would not affect him and those around him. Since he had an appointment according to God’s plan, he was safe.
So, the safest place for us is to know and understand and remain in the centre of God’s will.
1st element of a consecrated life – Know, understand, accept, and surrender to God’s will for our lives
For God to fulfil His plans for our lives, He needs a life that will not struggle with Him; a life that is mentally and emotionally strong so that it will not struggle with what He wants to accomplish through it. A life that is submitted to His word, His will, and that is becoming more and more stable and unshakeable.
The path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
Proverbs 4:18
shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
As we walk with Christ, our lives must be becoming more and more stable and unshakeable.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
When we seek His will and walk according to His plan, everything we need will come to us at the right time and the right place. He is obligated to fulfil His plan for our lives. So, we don’t need to struggle with other things. We just need to build a life that will facilitate what He wants to do in our lives. So, when the Word comes, we are not struggling with it, but we flow with explicit obedience.
That’s why we don’t have to fast; we don’t even have to cry out; we just need to focus on building a life that is connected with God.
Building blocks of our faith
And he died for all, that those who live
2 Corinthians 5:15
should no longer live for themselves
but for him who died for them and was raised again.
We were destined for hell. Jesus died for us, cleared all our debts and sins, and then He gave us a new life.
But the catch is this – In this new life, we don’t live according to our will. We need to live for Him.
Are we stewards or owners of this life?
The key thing about a steward is that we don’t own what we manage. So, we don’t decide what we want to do; we need to know what the owner wants to accomplish through this product that He has entrusted to us.
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
1 Peter 4:1, 2
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Ephesians 5:15-17
We will only receive all that He has promised when we have done His will for our lives.
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
Hebrews 10:35,36
So, partial obedience does not qualify.
1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
Anyone who pleases God will live forever. The promise of eternal life is for such. The key word we should focus on today is: If the love of the Father is in you, you will not run after what the world offers.
We have to connect this with Ephesians 3:16-19: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Why does the Holy Spirit want us to understand the expanse of God’s love for us and for us to be rooted in love for Him?
He needs to work in us to help us see and understand God’s love. If we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to work in this area, If it is not happening in our lives, we will not be able to see our value in God’s eyes.
Our finite minds cannot understand how valuable we are in God’s sight. We measure merely by our earthly relationships.
Only the Holy Spirit can open our spiritual minds to understand how valuable we are to God. That will settle our identity. That will generate a flow of gratitude in us that will help us love Him.
Unless we let the Holy Spirit do an in-depth work in our lives, we will struggle.
The starting point is always what we allow God to do inside our lives. How is this life aligned and built? Is it totally aligned for God to flow easily?
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 7:21
They justified their actions based on ministry. If only one area of our lives is surrendered, we allow only one area in our life for God to have total control, and we are selective about all other areas of our lives; then we are also under the same judgment as them.
Paul warned us about this. When we subscribe to selective scriptures, and scriptures we are comfortable with, we create our own image of Christ, and then we create our own gospel. Since it is still the Word of God and not the whole counsel of God, we reason that we are submitted in some areas of our lives, and so we are OK. Somewhere I am doing something for God. These are all the lies of the enemy.
What does God want? He saved us, and He wants us to put our lives back on the altar so that He has full access to our lives.
What is sin? Anything that doesn’t fit into the moral standards of God is sin. If in any area of our lives we have not submitted to His will, are we living in sin?
If we don’t enquire and find out what His will is in each area of our lives. We can be very selective. We may enquire of Him in certain areas, and then there are other areas where we take it for granted. Sometimes this happens because of familiarity with God.
In order to build a consecrated life, we must be at a position of total surrender.
Holy Spirit does this work in our daily walk with God. He helps us understand God’s love. From that, there will be an overflow of gratitude. The way we love God is how we will love His people. We will have an overflow of compassion, mercy, overlook offenses, etc.
The danger is this – There is a spirit in the world that always wants to cause us to deviate. It’s a subtle spirit. It is the spirit of Babylon.
The world is building a Babylonian system which will facilitate the arrival of the Anti-Christ. There is also a spirit that is coming against our lives. If we are not careful, it will subtly come and influence us in a way that looks scriptural but is actually against the will of God.
A general description of the spirit of Babylon is a global world system that operates through human pride, spiritual rebellion, materialism, and idolatry.
The revelation of the man of sin, or the Anti-Christ, is based on a rebellious man. He will challenge everything against God. This system will challenge everything against God. Just like certain aspects of AI are challenging every aspect of God. Elon Musk made a statement that Neuralink technology can create “Jesus-level miracles.”
So, slowly, different systems that walk in total rebellion against God will come.
For us as Christians, what are the things we must watch out for?
The Babylonian system will place emphasis on image over identity.
Babylonian system places emphasis on impressing people and living for people’s approval.
Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10
When the spirit goes into projecting an image, living for the approval of people – This is the goal of the Babylonian system.
Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.
Ephesians 5:10
Our focus must be on what pleases God.
2 Corinthians 5:9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
Colossians 1:10: So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
Kingdom system focuses on pleasing God. It is a cultural mindset. The opposite of the Kingdom mindset is the Babylonian mindset. Kingdom mindset also deals with our identity. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. What matters most to us is what pleases Him.
The Tower of Babel is a very good example. They wanted to build a tower that could reach heaven. But did it reach? It is a false representation of success. It gives a false sense of achievement. But it is not an achievement. The Babylonian system will permeate our mindset that this is the way to go – Create an image; look successful. If you are not successful, how will you know that God is with you?
But success from God comes in a different way. Success in God’s eyes is doing His will.
Who controls our world? We must realize that we are important enough for Christ to die for us. Is there anything more valuable than that? So, image may last for a period, but our identity as a son and daughter is for eternity.
The enemy will always find a way to attack us.
The best example is Job’s wife when she told him, “Curse God and die.” These same words were spoken by Satan when he was talking to God. So, every time a voice comes, especially from people close to us, by friends or those we respect, we must discern where the voice comes from.
Matthew 16:23 Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
This was just after Peter had a great revelation about Christ. Yet when Jesus said, “I have to go through the cross”, Peter immediately tried to stop him. We need to discern voices, so we are not easily distracted or offended.
The enemy will always do anything to just distract you.
The World will call you a fool for doing God’s will, but for God, it is “Well done. My good and faithful servant.”
People will criticize you for trying to be holy, but what does God’s word say about it – “Without holiness no one can see God.”
Hebrews 12:14: Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
So, what is important for you? Doesn’t matter what they think. At the end of the day, our life on earth is limited to 70 or 80+ years. But we are going to be in Heaven, in God’s presence for eternity. So, what we bring beyond our grave is what we focus on, right? Everything else, most of what we carry, will stop at our grave. Remember the Navy SEALs movie? Whatever badge, silver, bronze, medal of honor, years of service, everything gets stamped on the coffin. All your achievements end at your grave. Only what you have done for God out of love will go beyond your grave.
Every time we face an attack, we must ask ourselves why it affects us, because that’s the door that always allows the enemy to come and exploit us.
That is the root we must deal with, and how should I prevent it in the future?
We have to ask ourselves, whose words determine our worth.
Isaiah 66: 2 Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the Lord. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.
What does the Word “tremble” mean? It means we are in awe of the Word. It means we give it the highest regard. If the Word says so, that’s it; I have no more arguments. I just obey. This is the person that God values. Whatever opinions people have, they are not interested.
Image is only for a season. The same people who praised Saul soon after started praising David. That means there is always going to be someone better than you. But with God, the way He sees us is Person-centric. He treats each one of us uniquely and specially. The place we hold in God’s heart is unique. That is only our place in His heart. No one can take it away from us. The enemy will use anyone around us to destabilize us and move us in this certain direction – Image maintenance.
2nd way the Spirit of Babylon can permeate is the emphasis on material possessions.
Babylon measures success based on material possessions. Kingdom measures success by transformation.
Having material possessions is not wrong. Scripture also says God wants us to enjoy the blessings He has blessed us with.
Matthew 6:19–21: Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
What is God actually saying? Have your priorities right. Your priority must be Kingdom first.
Luke 12:15 Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”
Life is not measured by how much we own but by how much God owns us. That will determine where we end up in the future.
Whatever gifts, talents, and blessings He has given us, they will be measured by God on the basis of stewardship. This life is a testing period. How we manage these resources (including stewardship of our children’s lives) will determine where we end up in the 1000-year reign. If we have a big ministry or we consider ourselves something big, it doesn’t mean we have a big position there.
God looks at your motives and how you manage whatever you have. This will determine what responsibilities He will give us when Christ reigns here for the 1000 years.
So, our priorities must be right.
3rd way the Spirit of Babylon permeates – It places emphasis on hidden compromise vs. consecration
God wants us to be consecrated.
James 1:27: Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
This spirit of Babylon does not tell you outright that it is wrong. It is always half-truth, right. It normalizes compromise. “God understands.” “Everybody does it.” “It is not a big sin.” In sin, there is no small sin or big sin. Sin is sin, lie is lie. There is no white lie or grey lie. But God wants us to live a consecrated life.
Consecration means setting apart our life for a purpose according to the laws of God.
The end does not justify the means. In the beginning of our ministry in India, we wanted to buy land for planting a farm and generating income for the Churches. There was a lot of bribery involved. My leader said straightaway that we would not pay bribes. The local pastor insisted that this is how things worked in India. But our leader maintained that whatever we do for God will not be built on sin or falsehood. It impacted me a lot. Even though the end goal was that the churches would benefit, that will not justify that small compromise. Sin is sin no matter how small. God does not operate in this way. We may think, end of the day, I am doing it all for God; I can take a right turn or left turn.
God is Pure. God is Holy. He does not compromise on anything.
4th way The Spirit of Babylon permeates: “Everybody is doing it”
Everybody may be doing it, but everybody is going to be judged individually.
If you say, “It is common in the world”, then we must remember we are not of the World. We are not governed by the principles of the World. So, we must watch out for these small little foxes. Everything will look scriptural. For e.g., the Blessing message is getting so much popularity.
Why does our spiritual life fluctuate?
- We have not established boundaries in our thinking
When we want to consecrate our life before God, there are some things we build into our life. When we put these boundaries into our life, we prevent fluctuation.
Galatians 5:17: For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
We have internal conflicts inside us. Who decides how the conflict ends?
Romans 7:19–24: For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So, I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Romans 8:5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
It all comes down to where we set our minds. That is how we resolve.
If we put our mind on pleasing the flesh, we reap the fruits of the flesh. If we put our mind on pleasing the Holy Spirit, we will reap the fruits of the Spirit. Which nature dominates depends on which nature we are feeding. If we have one foot here and one foot there, we are not moving forward. We are not spiritually growing, but we have a sense that we are walking with God. Everything in life is a choice, right?
Setting our mind on the Holy Spirit is an obvious deliberate choice.
The spirit of the Babylonian system is used by the enemy to suggest that “God understands, so we can compromise,” etc.
- Internal conflict exists because we decide to feed on something.
- If we are facing internal conflicts, meaning it has not lessened and we are not overcoming it gradually, it means we have not decided to let it go.
- If something happens twice in your life, then it means that you did not make any changes after the first time. The same principle applies to our internal state also.
- Lack of spiritual disciplines
1 Timothy 4:7, 8 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
The key word here is training. Training is not a one-time event. It is a process.
Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.
Once the law was passed, he did not panic or hesitate. It says, “as was his custom”.
Discipline and consistency produce spiritual strength.
Since he had been consistently doing it, no matter what people said, he was not affected; he just continued on in his routine.
Many people desire closeness with God but lack that structured routine.
Everything we build must have a structure, right? Is the structure we have created for ourselves disciplined and consistent? Consistency is the name of the game.
- We are more emotionally driven than conviction-driven
Our faith is more emotionally driven than conviction-driven.
For we live by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7
It says we walk by faith, not by sight.
When we see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was very emotional. All sorts of emotions went through Him: fear, anticipating the pain and whatever punishment He would go through. Yet He subdued His emotions and, in faith, said, “Not my will but Yours be done.”
If emotions drive, then our spiritual walk will be one day hot and one day cold. We cannot be consistent.
We take taxi stops, leisure stops, time off from God, and all these kinds of things mean we base our walk with God on our mood. Whether you approach the throne room of God is based on how you feel that day! If you feel sad or discouraged, you don’t go. If your walk is emotionally driven or feelings-driven, you cannot move forward.
Whatever weakness we have, if we don’t deal with it, the enemy will come and establish a beachhead.
Ephesians 4:26: “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.
Do not let the sun go down while you are angry. If you do, it gives the enemy a beachhead. We allow him inside because we are not dealing with a certain weakness.
How does the enemy come and establish a stronghold?
By whispering lies into our ears.
Whoever controls our mind controls our life.
So, he will inject thoughts. “You are lousy Christian. You are a pharisee. God doesn’t love you. Why does this keep happening to you if you are sincere?” All these kinds of lies and accusations come. But you must remember God will never accuse us. As long as we have breath and we are in this flesh, He never gives up. Which is why we must never give up on anybody.
When we have a mature faith, it is based on the conviction of God’s Word, not on our emotional appetite.
The core value here is – No matter how I feel, I have to go into God’s Presence. He is the reason I live. This life belongs to Him. I have to give Him the time and priority.
- The threat of shallow roots
Matthew 13:20,21 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
Spiritual growth is not a suggestion but a command.
John 6:2: A great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.
A large crowd was following Him until He gave a sermon on the cost of following Him. After that, we see in
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
John 6:66
A lot of people left Him. Nobody wanted to pay the price. They were interested in the miracles, but they didn’t want to pay the price.
Colossians 2:6,7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
The palm trees in the Bahamas bend during the hurricanes. The buildings around them may fall, but the trees never break. These palms can bend up to 45 degrees. Their specialty was that every time they encountered a hurricane, the roots grew deeper. They became stronger after every storm.
Even in our spiritual life, every time we go against something, we grow by a certain degree. It can be 1% or 10%, but we grow. Every time we overcome something, God builds something inside us. What is that? It is not something supernatural.
Picture this: You are a talented athlete, and you have not won any medals. When you go to the right Coach, he evaluates you and trains you in the area where you need improvement. It may be your stride or your breathing technique. It may be changes in your strategy. Basically, he strengthens you wherever you are weak. Once you are trained, you know what to do to break the record; overcome your own limitations.
The same way, the Holy Spirit helps us. Wherever we think it is impossible, He teaches us the way to do it. He leaves us to our own devices. We now have the knowledge to overcome. If we don’t use that, we simply sit and wait for the Holy Spirit to come and help us again.
So, when we say God has built something in us, it’s that breakthrough we have understood. You know now, if we do these things, we can break through. It is the knowledge we have acquired. It is the experience we have acquired. If you don’t pay attention to it or take heed to it, we will go back to where we started.
We must remember what He has taught us and apply it consistently in various situations. We can move to maturity, but as long as we are in the flesh, if we are not careful, we can fall any time. But we can also maintain a strong walk with God.
If we understand how we overcame and we maintain the walk at that level, we will never come back. But if we slacken, we don’t go back to the ways that God has taught us through the previous experience; we will come back to square one.
So, God won’t do it for us. He teaches us how to overcome. Then we have continuous victory by consistently applying his teaching to our lives. We must always go back to the pathway that God taught us.
- Spiritual warfare and unseen opposition
Sometimes, it is true that we may face spiritual opposition, but not always is there a demon behind every attack.
Ephesians 6:12: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
1 Kings 18, 19; 1 Kings 18 NIV; 1 Kings 19 NIV
After his greatest miracle, when the voice of the enemy came through Jezebel (who is a picture of Babylon), he became fearful, and he went and hid himself from her. He went into depression.
So, what did the enemy do to Elijah?
At his greatest hour of victory, Elijah was most vulnerable. So are we. Why? Because we let all our guards down. The enemy just sent a voice that sent him into depression. It was an intense psychological and spiritual attack against Elijah.
It destabilized his whole faith. One moment he did the greatest miracle of his time; after that, he was running from a woman. The God who sent the fire down on a wet altar can easily take out that woman! Why didn’t that occur to him?
As Christians, he cannot possess us. But the enemy can destabilize us. He sends thoughts and words to do that, which can affect us psychologically. If Satan controls our mind, he can control everything in our lives.
We must also be aware of the areas we are attacked all the time. That is the enemy’s inroad into our lives. One of the reasons Elijah fell was that he became weary; very tired. Maybe tired in the spirit or mentally exhausted. If we consistently keep facing an attack in an area, ultimately, we will become weary. E.g., Abraham had no children for 10 years even though God promised him. After a while, he probably got tired of his wife’s nagging and became weary in faith and gave in to her request and went into Hagar. The same thing can happen to us. I am praying! I am fasting! Why is there no change? It is not because Satan is strong, but because there is an unknown inroad into our lives. That’s why we need to ask the question – Why?
Why am I reacting this way? Why am I feeling this way? Why am I responding in this way? We can take external precautions. I don’t talk to this person. I don’t go here or there. But actually, the problem is not outside; it is inside. We have to deal with the root first. That’s why we have to be careful.
The moment we give him space, he is always looking for an opportunity to destabilize us.
1 Peter 5:8: Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
After destabilization will be isolation. He will isolate you from a community; from people who care for you and can help you; he will isolate you from your family. He will keep you alone until depression increases. When people don’t go out for help, depression increases. Actually, Christians shouldn’t be in depression.
2 Corinthians 1:6-8 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.
Paul talks about every situation he went through. They were at the brink of death. They suffered so much, yet they remembered the same God who helped me before will help me now, and he will help me in the future.
2 Corinthians 1:10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Isaiah 26:3
So, depression is not a necessity. It depends on where we look and also how we have built our relationship with God.
- Double-mindedness and compromised devotion
James 1:8: He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
When we are double-minded, we are unstable in all our ways.
E.g., Lot wanted to partake of the promise of Abraham. He also wanted the luxury of Sodom. In the end, he ended up losing his wife, sons-in-law, and the possessions that he accumulated there, and finally ended up with nothing.
Partial surrender will cause the enemy to establish beachheads in our lives, cause turmoil, and cause our walk to be very volatile. The enemy will use these areas to exploit. We will be in a spiritual paralysis where we can neither move forward nor backward. One foot here, one foot there. So, we must make up our minds about what we want to do, what is important for us. Our convictions must be based on what God says, not what we want.
- Lack of continuous infilling of the Spirit
Ephesians 5:18: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Every day, something is happening in our lives, so we leak. Sometimes, our thoughts go astray; we disobey, we are tempted by something, stressed, all kinds of things come, and we lose focus on God and focus on other things. All these can make us leak. That is why it is important to connect with God daily.
If we are really connecting with God, then we must come out strengthened; we must feel joy and be full of hope, etc. When that is happening, there is an infilling of the Spirit. When we are not connecting by prayer, by worship, or anything, we cause a break in the infilling. Then we feel dryness. We can actually go through the whole process of worship, teaching, preaching, and all that, and we can be dry.
Ephesians 4:17-19 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
Every time we connect with God, the life of God and the light of God come. When we don’t connect on a regular basis and we are not receiving, we are living on what we received in the past. The manna for that day must be used for that day. Otherwise, it will rot.
If we are living by past experience, then our spiritual walk will be up and down.
We must make sure we touch God. It must not become a routine.
We must understand the difference between experience and encounter.
Nobody had experiences like Israel, yet they went through a cycle of disobedience; then God would discipline them, and then they came back. In the case of people like Paul, Jacob, and Isaiah, they had an encounter with God, and then something changed. Encounter will not be a one-time event in our lives. At different stages of our lives, we will have different encounters to bring us to the next stage level. The moment we have that encounter, something will change in our spiritual lives; something will break that will help us go to the next level.
So, we must form the structure. If that is not in place, God cannot do anything.
We cannot force God’s hands to come and have an encounter with us but we can create a conducive lifestyle that attracts God to come and encounter us. Discipline and consistency are the name of the game.
- We need to set a consistent time. Even Jesus had a consistent time with God.
Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
- We must set our minds to pursue Him.
Psalm 63:1 You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
- Prioritizing Him. If you seek the Kingdom, you must seek the King. You must prioritize the King in everything.
Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Colossians 3:2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
So, what goes beyond your grave? What matters to God? Determine what will please God.
Philippians 3:13, 14 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
When God sees this pursuing mentality in us, it is attractive to Him because we are diligently pursuing Him.
- We must set our heart to give Him the highest honour.
Luke 10:27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”
If we don’t love God with all our hearts, other things will take over. Paul told us in the last days.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
So, did they love Jesus? Yes, but they loved all these things much more. All their decisions were based on love for money, pleasure, or self. That is why they have a form of godliness. They have an outward appearance of religiosity, but internally they were ruled by self.
- We must set our minds to obey His word.
His Word has the highest priority. We don’t just listen. We do
James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Psalms 119:20 My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.
Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
It says if our minds are not transformed into His word, we cannot understand His will.
One of the reasons the Word comes is to tune us to the frequency of Heaven. Right? It will help us understand God’s Word. If our mind is not tuned to the frequency of Heaven, we cannot understand the will of God, and hence we cannot accept.
What we cannot understand, we cannot accept.
God has laid down His conditions.
Jeremiah 29:13: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
James 4:8: Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
You must come to Me with clean hands and a clean heart.
Philippians 3:7-11 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in a Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
We don’t know what happened to Paul after the encounter at Damascus, but he gives a little bit of insight into Philippians 3. After that encounter, he reprioritized his whole life. Now he says, “to know you is my main priority.” We must set our hearts NOT to follow a religion but to know Him. The same way we don’t teach our children to follow a religion but to follow Him. You have to introduce Christ to them. They need to know Christ as their Savior.
We know there was an encounter between Jacob and God. He wrestled with God, and then his life changed. Destiny changed. Name changed. But before that, something significant happened.
Genesis 32:22: That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
Verse 22. It says he crossed over the river Jabbok after sending over his servants, family, and possessions. Jabbok actually means emptying yourself. There is a spiritual significance. He emptied himself, and when he entered that place, he had an encounter with God.
When we come to God, if we want to have an encounter, we must have no agenda. We must empty ourselves, surrender ourselves. Say, “Lord! Do what you want to do. I want to know you. I need to know you.”
We have this saying, no? If I have Jesus, I have everything I need. Because in Him, through Him, by Him we will live. If we have Jesus, we will have everything we need.
One of the critical things we need to do is to empty our hearts. What am I holding on to that is preventing me from encountering Him? Religious rigid routines will not produce anything. It is a posture of the heart. It is a posture of the mind. It is a posture of the life. It is not words because God looks beyond our words.
Proverbs 24:12 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?
God looks at the heart of a man.
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks at the heart.
He looks at our heart. What is the posture of our hearts? Why do we want Him? Why do we want to encounter Him? Why do we need Him? We cannot strong-arm Him into encountering us but we can create a conducive lifestyle. We just keep pushing and pushing until He says, “Ok. Now I can see my son or daughter is serious,” and then He steps in. The moment He steps in, what was a struggle becomes freedom. What we couldn’t break through, we will go into the next level. Our understanding, our spiritual awareness, everything will increase.
We must ask, enquire, accept, and surrender to His will. We must recognize the spirit of Babylon and see the way he is distracting us. This season, distraction, deception, and disillusionment will be attacking. Many of their love became cold because they were disillusioned.
If we don’t understand God, if we don’t know God, it is not enough to study the Word, but we must know God’s heart – why He said what He said. Otherwise, there is no rule for interpretation. Theology does give us some rules for interpretation, but at the end of the day, why God said what He said. This is because we can interpret from any angle. We must be careful this season.
When we live a consecrated life, we are building a solid fortress. We are fortifying our minds; we are fortifying our hearts, emotions, everything, so that nothing can shake us. So, we are well aware.
Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
1 John 2: 6
We must live the way Jesus lived. We must live a life of love, but the enemy could not find any inroads into Jesus’ life. So, it is a possible destination for us also. He fortified Himself, and so we can also fortify ourselves. We must give greater allowance for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Holy Spirit never does anything against our will.
The greatest freedom is our freedom of choice.
How we show God that we are serious about Him is by creating the structure. If we don’t allow the Word to come in every day, and God’s presence to come in every day, our spirit will pick up other things during the day.
We feed on the wrong things; we are listening to the wrong things; we are watching the wrong things; we are studying the wrong things. That is what will begin to work in our lives.
We must be careful what is going inside our spirit. His Word and His Presence must go first; not just reading the Word, we must meditate, focus on the Word, asking What does this mean for us, according to our understanding. When we meditate, what are we doing? We are keeping our focus on the Word, and so we are giving the Holy Spirit something to work on us.
James 4:5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?
The Spirit inside us is the Holy Spirit. So, imagine every day the Holy Spirit is waiting for the clay to mould something into our lives. That clay comes from God’s Presence and His Word. If He receives nothing, He cannot do anything. He has nothing to work on in our lives on that day. Even if we read something, just glance and walk away, and then nothing is on my mind regarding the Word; He’s got nothing to work on.
Romans 8:14: For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
Mature sons of God are led by the Holy Spirit.
How will He lead us when we don’t give Him currency to work on our lives? The currency with which He works on us is the Word of God, of which He is the Author. So, it’s not about reading; we must allow the Word to be with us throughout the day. Even if we read a paragraph and only a single word sticks to us, hold onto that Word. That day He wants to do something with that Word. Don’t lose that momentum.
The moment the connection goes, the voice of the enemy will be louder. What are you feeding your spirit?
Galatians 6:8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Sow into the flesh, you reap the fruits of the flesh. You sow into the Spirit; you reap the fruits of the Spirit. So, it depends on what you feed into your mind and spirit daily. We must have a solid structure for God to work with us. God is not going to come in and take control of our lives. We have to show Him we are serious by building a proper structure.
Now, they are talking about UFOs and all other things. US Government has revealed. There is a theory that they will create a hologram to create aliens as God. This kind of theory has existed. We don’t know what sort of conspiracy there is. Whatever it is, we must be clear. All these things are predicted. We must remember we don’t live by miracles. In Pharaoh’s court, his magicians could also do the same miracles as Moses. The only thing was that it was not a permanent solution. It was a temporary one. Whatever Moses did could swallow up their work.
Revelation 16:13,14 Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
There are spirits that can create false signs and wonders. So, they can do signs and wonders. We must be based on the heart of God. Don’t be deceived. Don’t be disillusioned. Don’t be distracted. If we are in the centre of God’s will, we walk in step with Him, and He will save us. He will also save the people with us.
Hebrews 10:5-7 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’”
God required a body. What does He require in the body – a surrendered life, so that He can fulfil His plan for our lives in this new life that He has given us. Our job is to consecrate that life; make sure it does not struggle when His instruction comes. He does not want us to go hide in a cave and become a sadhu. He has a plan to put us in different aspects of society so that we take different aspects of the society for Him. That life has to be surrendered to Him.
So, let us build a consecrated life. Let us build spiritual disciplines so we do not fluctuate. Be very careful of what you feed on because if the Word is not going in, His Presence is not going in, your spirit is picking up other things. And the Holy Spirit is just there, unable to do anything.
