Category: Level: Beginner

gifts

The Kingdom Of God Flows Through Our Spiritual Gifts

Posted on by

“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 →

god's love Adam man human person heart

I Am Loved By God Even In Pain

Posted on by

Scripture tells us over and over that we are loved by God. Nothing can separate us from His love (Rom. 8:35-39). The ultimate demonstration of His love was giving His Son to become a human and die for us. He also gives us a new self to live from and puts peace and kindness in our hearts. His Scripture makes us wise and transforms our lives. His Spirit lives in us and actively and patiently works in us. God even answers prayers. And the best gift is that He guarantees us a fantastic eternal destiny. So shouldn’t it be easy to trust that we are loved by God? Unfortunately, trust doesn’t come naturally to us. Consider how often we lose our faith in His love. When life starts caving in, it is harder to keep faith that we are loved by God. We think, “God is all powerful so if Continue Reading →

father and child

I Am A Child Of God And An Heir

Posted on by

God actually adopts us into His family as His child when we believe in Christ (Rom. 8:15)! It seems too good to be true, but you are a child of God. This is our new core identity and we need to remind ourselves of this daily. When we remember who we are, we will find strength to become more like Christ. When people adopt a child they often go to great expense and effort. God did the same thing for us: the Son came to earth as a human and endured opposition and execution just so that God could adopt us as a child of God. And once He adopted us, we became one of His heirs (Rom. 8:16). In fact, Scripture says that Jesus is our brother (Mt. 12:49-50 (Mk. 3:34-35); Heb. 2:11, 17) and just as He receives an inheritance from the Father so too we are fellow Continue Reading →

cross forgiveness

Do You Have A Forgiveness Mindset For Your Faults?

Posted on by

In my early 30s I had gone through over a year of excruciating physical and emotional pain. One day I was standing in the yard looking out over the sea and reflecting on what I was feeling, and I realized that I was angry at God. This was not welcome news, but I accepted it and started to tell God why I was angry at him. Even though I was afraid to express anger at God I pressed on because I trusted his forgiveness. When I was done there was no sense of rejection from him, on the contrary it was a big release and birthed a deeper relationship with God. It was okay to have my bad and tell him all about it because I had a forgiveness mindset. It’s interesting how a forgiveness mindset changes our view of ourselves and others. Without a forgiveness mindset our natural attitude Continue Reading →

city

Our Future Perfect Community

Posted on by

Do you long for the perfect community where humans live in complete harmony and mutual support? One of the most fascinating passages in Scripture is Revelation 21:1-22:5, where our destiny is explained. One part of this destiny is the idea that we will live in a city, the New Jerusalem. This will be our future perfect community. God will dwell with us in this city: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads,” (Rev. 22:3b-4). And Rev. 21:3 emphasizes God’s presence by stating it three times! The New Jerusalem is also the Bride of Christ (Rev. 21:9). Thus, we have the mysterious description of the New Jerusalem as both the Bride and the dwelling place of the Bride and God! Perhaps these are two different ways of Continue Reading →