“Don’t try to analyze or rationalize the sound coming out of your mouth. Your brain will try to shut it down because it is not English. It is your private prayer language. Jude 20 says you build yourself up on your most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit. The devil cannot understand this language, and he does not want you to have it because it is the perfect prayer. You cannot mess it up. I am going to…
Here I was, standing in the New Age section of a large chain bookstore, feeling extremely uncomfortable and facing a wall of books. It would not surprise you to know there were books concerning astrology, tarot card reading, numerology, necromancy, and supernatural phenomena of various curiosities lining the shelves. I never knew I could huff so much and be so thankful to make my way back to the Bible section. Is that not fitting? After observing what I came to…
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Colossians 4:6 ESV “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” Matthew 5:13 ESV From time to time, I get messages from people responding to a blog post, a video,…
Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. Psalm 42:7 ESV For the longest time, Psalm 42:7 was lost on me, and I didn’t even know it. I had taken this verse to mean something it was not saying, that the depths in me called out to the depths of God within me. How poetic, right? Not really. I had never read it in context. I had never…
There are two words you would least likely expect to see or to hear used in the same breath. Those two words would be Charismatic legalism. It came to mind about a year ago when I was thinking about some of the things I was once taught over the years in a Charismatic church, things which were viewed as freedom but were really creating shackles. Few words tend to make a believer in Christ bristle more than the word legalism….
While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” Acts 21:10-11 ESV Recently, I was listening to an online discussion regarding prophecy in the Old Testament versus the…
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” Acts 17:1-3 ESV A few weeks ago, I was…
As I think about how to begin this blog post, I am reminded of the apostle Paul’s words in Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Now no one asked me a question per se when it comes to a recent document released concerning the prophetic movement, and I will be the first to admit that I am no theologian. I am merely a…
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV None of us want to suffer. None of us want to…
This is bound to stir the hornet’s nest. I realize that is probable, and though I do not personally enjoy confrontation, I am compelled to address certain topics of concern and to point myself and others back to Scripture. This is one of those topics. I wrote a post recently about Christian deliverance and how I disagreed with the premise that born again believers can be indwelt by demons and how Scripture does not support such a belief. This is…