Author: Phil Rehberg

Do you ever face these temptations when you are trying to let the Spirit guide you? Keeping ourselves open to the Spirit is essential to a complete Christian life but it comes with temptations that can gradually derail us. This continues a list of temptations that individuals and churches experience which we began last week. Bad principles of discernment. When the Holy Spirit moves people are happy and everyone wants to encourage and trust each other in what they do and say. But this causes problems especially in the area of prophecy, (i.e., speaking words from God.) The temptation is to encourage people that if they are focused on God and asking for words from God then if something comes to them then it is probably from God. I’ve been in more than one gathering where this was clearly taught. But Hebrews 5:14 states “But solid food is for the Continue Reading →

The Holy Spirit has brought many renewals to individuals and to his church over the centuries, bringing needed refreshment and invigoration to the people of God. Usually there is a strong sense of his presence and believers find themselves experiencing God in ways they never had before. This continues today. If we want to preserve the benefits God gives in renewal we will be wise to watch out for common temptations and faults that often accompany renewals, whether it is individual renewal or community renewal. Here are 10 temptations of renewal we need to watch out for today: A spiritual sweet tooth. This means putting a high priority on sweet spiritual feelings or blessings. This becomes a huge distraction from God’s work in renewal. He definitely wants to give good spiritual feelings but the problem is that we become attached to and focused on them. We seek God’s hand instead Continue Reading →