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What Is It Like To Live In Full Intimacy With God?

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We often hear about intimacy with God. We all want to be closer to God, although it may be unclear to us what that really means. Today we will taste some of that life, and I suspect that this taste will fire our hearts and bring us closer to complete loving surrender to God. And if you are wondering how to motivate people to pursue Jesus, then consider beginning with the idea of intimacy with God. Once people see the treasure, they will be more willing to “sell all they have” in order to get the treasure. When people understand what God wants to do for them, then they are much more willing to embrace your leading. John of the Cross was a 16th-century Spaniard who pursued and loved God as much as anyone ever did. We are blessed that he was also a great writer and could express his Continue Reading →

weekly words of encouragement

God Is Our Protector

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The Lord is my light and my salvation —whom shall I fear?The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? Psalms 27:1 (NIV)This passage is a reminder that Yahweh is our light, our rescuer; God is our protector. His light enables us to see what is true and what is good. On our own we would just stumble. And he saves us, he rescues us, from ourselves and from everything that tries to steal our happiness. Finally, he is our protector, our fortress against attackers who slander us and damage our lives. Nothing can separate us from his love. That is why we don’t need to fear. And since he is Lord, Jesus is also the one who is our light. He is the light of the world (John 8:12). He is also our salvation because he is the door to salvation (John 10:9). Remember that Continue Reading →

discernment

Discerning The Voices In Our Head

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“Whose voice is that?” An area that trips up many of us is whether a voice in our head is ours or God’s. Quoting from a previous post: “Our own inner voice is very capable of speaking many things to us! Many confuse it with the voice of God. It can sound like another person talking. It can answer our questions, give direction, give long prophecies, teach us ideas – but none of it is from God. We should never underestimate the power of the human soul to generate all kinds of impressions that may seem like they are not from us. We need to be humble and seriously consider this possibility when doing discernment.” We need to be very honest when discerning the voices. God’s voice usually feels separate from us and produces the fruits of the Spirit. But it is easy to confuse his voice with ours. Discerning the Continue Reading →

weekly words of encouragement

God Guides The Humble – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

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He guides the humble in what is rightand teaches them his way. Psalms 25:9 (NIV)God wants to guide us and teach us, but if we allow pride to reside in us, then he is not so willing to guide and teach. Why? Perhaps because he doesn’t want to encourage and magnify our pride by giving us more blessings. Instead, God’s blessings flow when we keep in mind that all the good that we have began with God’s grace. He guides the humble, not the self-sufficient. We are weak and corrupt by nature, but he still accepts us. We can think of ourselves as students, not masters. We can remember that in our ministry, we are just messengers of his teachings; we did not create the truth. We can understand that we are servants of God and others, not kings over others. In short, if we embrace an attitude of the Continue Reading →

two roads discernment

Overcoming A Fault That’s Beyond Your Character

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Have you noticed that sometimes the reason we aren’t overcoming a fault is that we haven’t fully intended to? We make some mild efforts to change but they don’t work. Then one day we decide to put our full effort into it and presto – the fault is gone! But we also have another kind of experience with overcoming a fault: failure, in spite of all our efforts. “I keep trying to stop doing this, but it doesn’t work.” We’ve probably all said this at some point. We ask God for help, read books, study Scripture, and exercise our willpower, but nothing works. And the fault lives on. Why do we have such different experiences with becoming holy? Because some changes are within our character, and some are not. What do I mean by this? There are some changes that God has already equipped us to make, and success is Continue Reading →