Month: April 2020

holy spirit

What Does The Holy Spirit Feel Like?

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It is important to understand what it feels like for us to host the Spirit of God. This helps us avoid discouragement as well as presumption. Jesus gave us some description of the experience of the Spirit when he said: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit” (John 7:38-39, ESV). The Spirit wants to be a river of life flowing out of us! Some people feel a strong sense of the Spirit when they first believe. They may feel a powerful love from God invading their hearts. They may feel a peaceful presence from outside them filling them up inside. They may feel strong joy or holiness. Later, their strong sense of his Spirit often becomes moderate or light. A few are blessed with a strong sense of the Spirit for Continue Reading →

Weekly words of encouragement

Humility Opens The Door To God’s Guidance – 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 blessing. Instead, God’s blessings flow when we keep in mind that all the good that we have began with God’s grace. 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 king over others. In short, if we embrace an attitude of the heart that reflects who we are Continue Reading →

bible big picture

The Whole Story When We Look Back From Eternity

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On the New Earth we will look back and marvel at the history of God’s work on earth. I think it will read something like this, and it should help us to remember the context of our lives and what God is doing in us. God generated a garden of delights for humanity to enjoy and called them to develop and expand and steward this garden in partnership with himself and each other.  Humans chose to embrace evil and mixed it with the good had God made. Because of this God established death on earth as a judgment on them and in order to shorten the time that humans would live in a corrupted world. Humans lost the delight of living and they were alienated from full fellowship with God. The leader of the fallen angels, Satan, became the destroyer-prince over the earth. But God did not abandon humans and Continue Reading →

Weekly words of encouragement

Our Hope In God Will Not Disappoint Us – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

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No one who hopes in youwill ever be put to shame. (Psalms 25:3, NIV) It is interesting how fear unconsciously and semi-consciously influences our lives. Is it not true that one of the reasons we do not trust God for difficult things is that we fear it will not turn out well? We fear he doesn’t hear us, or that he won’t act, or that we won’t like the way he acts. We fear giving up our attachment to something in order to trust God in that area. We even fear that he won’t keep his promise to reward us in the next age for our sacrifices now. Yet God promises in his word that if we put our trust and hope in him then we will not be put to shame. In the Old Testament, this often meant that God will give faithful believers material blessings, prosperity or victory Continue Reading →

joy in the garden

What Will We Do On The New Earth?

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Jesus and his Apostles taught us to keep our focus on the next age. However, when it comes to the next age when we live on the New Earth it is important to remember that God has only revealed what he wants to reveal and we can’t force Scripture to answer questions it isn’t trying to answer. Yet, we have more than enough information in Scripture to assure us that the next age will be euphoric for God’s saints. In Revelation 21 the New Jerusalem will come down from heaven onto Earth (v. 2). Throughout Revelation 21-22 we find signs that this New Jerusalem is also a New Eden. From Revelation 2:7 we know that it is a paradise; remember that Eden means “pleasure” in Hebrew. We will live in delight. This new Eden will not just be a restoration of the first Eden but rather a vastly superior Eden. Continue Reading →