Category: Key Growth Posts

walking in the spirit

Are You Walking With The Spirit?

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“Keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 NIV). The Holy Spirit guides us with the power of the presence of his goodness more often than with specific words that we hear inside our heads. God gives us his flow of life when we focus on his Spirit: “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires . . . the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:5-6 NIV). This is the practice of walking with the Spirit, and it is one of the most fundamental disciplines in the Christian life, though it often doesn’t make it on lists of spiritual disciplines! Walking with the Spirit is a little abstract but not difficult to learn how to do. Often the felt Continue Reading →

Our Return To The Garden

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God has an amazing plan for us after Jesus returns. Along with being in the direct presence of Jesus and the Father, we will live forever in a perfect community of love with God’s followers. This is what God originally intended for humans in the Garden of Eden, and after Jesus returns, we will return to the Garden. He told Adam and Eve “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals” (Gen. 1:28 NLT). If Adam and Eve and their descendants had not sinned then they would have built a community of people who were completely godly. Thus, their “city” would have been a fantastically harmonious and loving community. It would have been thoroughly creative and constructive as everyone joyfully used their God-given creativity to create and build beautiful and glorious homes Continue Reading →

weekly words of encouragement

He Will Guide Us – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

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“He will guide us forever.” (Psalms 48:14). God wants to guide our lives like a good Father. And like a good father he does not want to make us into puppets and predetermine everything we do. He wants to give his children room to grow in their wisdom and exercise their will in submission to Christ. At the same time, if we abide in Christ’s commandments, pray, and seek counsel then we can expect that he will guide us. He promises in James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (ESV). This doesn’t mean that we will usually receive a clear strong impression from God on all our important decisions. Instead, once we have fulfilled our responsibility to seek his guidance then we make a decision according to any guidance he Continue Reading →

gifts

The Kingdom Of God Flows Through Our Spiritual Gifts

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“A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other” (1 Cor. 12:7 NLT). God wants us to be channels of His power to restore His people so he infuses gifts into us so we can use our spiritual gifts to build up one another. He gives gifts of hearing words from Him to edify believers (prophecy, words of knowledge, words of wisdom) he gives gifts that alter the physical world (healing, miracles) gifts that connect directly to the world of the Spirit (discernment of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues) and gifts that are not manifestly supernatural (helping, administration, service, encouragement, mercy, giving). This generous endowment from God is rooted in the kingdom of God that Jesus brought to earth. When Jesus came he did more than just teach us how to live and then die for our sins. He also came to inaugurate the Continue Reading →

Big brother

Jesus Is Our Big Brother

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The family of God has an unusual genesis. It has a Father like other families but it also has another member who made the family possible: a big brother. In the family of God everyone has a big brother and Jesus is our big brother. He is the “oldest” of the siblings because He is the first of the newly designed humans, the first of the new Adams. He was the first to live an ideal human life and he did this is order to blaze a new trail for the rest of us to follow. The power he had to be the first new ideal human is available to us too. When we first believe, we receive a new self that is like Jesus’ pure human self but it is an infant new self. God’s goal was to choose people “to become like his Son, so that his Son would Continue Reading →