Listening To The Spirit In The Text

Although the subject matter of this essay has been brewing over a long season, its present impetus stems from writing the commentary on Paul’s letter to the Philippians during Winter and Spring of 1994. As I worked through Paul’s text with great care, I experienced an ongoing encounter with the living God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — an encounter which happened in two ways. On the one hand, as I exegeted the text so as to articulate its meaning for the sake of others in the church, I was often myself so overcome by the power of the Word that I was brought to tears, to joy, to prayer, or to praise. On the other hand, I was also regularly experiencing the text of this letter in church settings, in such overwhelming ways, that I felt compelled to mention it in the final paragraph of the Author’s Preface:

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A Call To The Secret Place

I love that the gospel is so simple and real. God loves us so much; it’s as though He has purposed to leave us love notes everywhere! Wherever we open our hearts to see and hear Him, He is there. It’s wonderful to look back over your life and see those hidden messages strategically placed— especially when you haven’t noticed them earlier. I have one such love note I’d like to share with you. When I was growing up, my family had a few movie favorites that we truly enjoyed watching together. My parents just loved Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy movies. Jeanette MacDonald was believed to be a Christian and had a beautiful operatic voice. She sang in all her movies—at least the ones I saw. When her lovely voice was blended with Nelson Eddy’s rich baritone one, the musical match was just heavenly. Click Here To Download The Book

Creating Social Media Strategy

All business planning should start with defining clear goals, and social media is no exception. Without a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with social media, you are unlikely to achieve anything at all because your efforts will be scattered or aimless. In addition, different social media goals require different sets of action. For example, if your goal is to gain consumer credibility, that looks very different than if your goal is to convert 30 percent of prospects to sales. Start by writing down at least three social media goals for your business. Make sure each goal is specific, realistic and measurable. It is vital to make your goals measurable so that you can track your business’ progress towards each goal. To test how measurable your goal is, ask yourself what it will look like when partially or completely achieved. If you don’t know, you need to continue working on the goal’s measurability. It’s also important that your goals for social media relate to your overall goals...

10 Curses That Block The Blessing

Even though God had delivered Larry completely from drug addiction, he had not been delivered from the uncontrollable outbursts of anger that had plagued his life. Larry had tried everything he knew, but he could do nothing to put these terrible moments of rage behind him. These outbursts would come upon him unexpectedly, and when they did, he said and did terrible things to his wife and even terrified his children. After violent episodes, he would apologize in tears and beg his wife to forgive him. Though he would promise to never lose his temper again, sooner or later his control would slip. During one extreme outburst he understood that he had become just like the generations before him, angry and violent. Though he had vowed never to do those things, he had become the very thing that he most hated. In a moment of revelation he knew that he was confronting a generational pattern, acting out his anger just as generations of his family had done before him. He went to the Bible a...

12 Ways To Be A Blessing To Your Church

Do you remember a statement similar to this one made by President John F. Kennedy? In his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” I remember learning that famous quote in school. I think more people would be saved and ministered to if Christians had that same thinking in the Church today. Many times we have a tendency to look for ways to be blessed rather than looking for ways to be a blessing. Of course, you know as well as I do that the best way to have joy unspeakable in our lives is to be a giver. Real joy is in putting others first instead of ourselves. Click Here To Download The Book

A History Of The Early Church To A.D 500

At the outset we are faced by the difficulty of deciding whether there is or ought to be in any real sense a Christian society at all. A common notion is that original Christianity consisted in a recognition of the vital truths of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, and that all organisation is a departure from primitive purity. It is pointed out that in the history of most religious movements we find the first incentive given by some enthusiastic prophet, who with his immediate followers is swept forward on the crest of a wave of fanatical emotion. Those who come after him, however, are not able to maintain this exalted position, and endeavour to preserve what they can of the Master’s spirit by reducing his teaching to a code and hedging it about with the protective barrier of an institution. But in the process a great deal of the original enthusiasm and freedom is inevitably lost. This, it is often contended, has been the fortune of Christianity. The original inspiratio...

The Azusa Street Revival

GIVEN all the demands that press in upon us as we deal with the stress of the present moment and living in angst about what is to come, it is easy to become disconnected from our past. Why even bother with what has been? Yet, as someone has said, if we don’t learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat the past. That is the negative side of why we should study the history of the Church. The positive side is that there is much in the past that will inspire, breathe into us hope, and create fresh motivation for our own historical journey. History is the harbor of our heritage and the fountainhead of our families. Click Here To Download The Book

Four Keys To Hearing God's Voice

We are going to make something that has been very hard, very simple. I could not hear God’s voice for the first ten years of my Christian life, and now I have spent 30 years teaching the Body of Christ how to do so. It is as simple as quieting yourself down, fixing your eyes on Jesus, tuning to spontaneity, and writing! And all Christians can do it! You can do it! Jesus promised, “My sheep hear My voice” (John 10:27). So you can hear His voice. His voice sounds like spontaneous thoughts that light upon your mind, especially as your heart is fixed on Him. And you can do this every day as part of your morning devotions. You can live out of His voice all day, by simply seeing Him alongside you (He is Immanuel, God with you), and staying tuned to spontaneity all day long. The Bible calls this abiding in Christ (see John 15:4) or “praying without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Click Here To Download The Book

How To Hear From God

Learning to hear from God and be led by the Holy Spirit is very exciting. God wants to speak to us about the plan He has for our lives. His plan is a good plan, but we are in danger of missing it if we don’t learn how to listen to and obey God’s voice. We talk to our children all the time—why wouldn’t our heavenly Father talk to His children? We would not expect our children to know what we wanted them to do if we did not talk to them, so why would God feel any different? God wants to speak to us about the good plan He has for our lives. He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us and be our Counselor and Helper in life as well as other things. John 14:26 says that He will teach us all things and will bring to our remembrance things God has taught us. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth; therefore, He will lead us into truth, not error. Click Here To Download The Book

Social Media Strategy

Social media allows people to be more connected than ever before and marketing is changing rapidly as new technologies come available. Online users are communicating in real time and every brand in the world is being caught up in the conversation whether the company is actively participating or not. Venturing into social media means opening up your brand and company to the world at large and giving up some control over how your message is being spread. How do you take back some control and make sure that your brand is being promoted in a positive and effective way? Click Here To Download The Book

Operating In The Supernatural

Christ is our root in the faith; and everything about Him is a miracle. Therefore, if we as Christians disregard the place of the supernatural in our lives and walk here on earth, we will become spiritually impotent. Not only that, when we disregard the place of the supernatural, we will also become spiritually vulnerable to every wicked manoeuvring of the devil, as the supernatural is the security of our destiny in Christ. The supernatural is very relevant to our human needs today, because we are confronted daily with spiritual forces. The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, and against rulers of this wicked world and wicked spirit in high places. So, you must operate in the supernatural to be able to deal with them. The supernatural is the only thing that differentiates the Christian faith from all other faiths. The supernatural is the proof of the Christian faith. This is because every need answers to a miracle, every challe...

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