Category: Level: Beginner

One type of faith is faith in God’s promises for all believers at all times. We are always justified in expecting God to fulfill such promises. But there is another type of faith that causes many problems. It consists of expecting something from God that he has not promised for all believers, something which he is justified in giving or withholding. Of course, when we ask for something from God that he has not promised for all believers we should still ask with faith that he will give it. But you might ask: “Sometimes our requests are not his will so how we can have faith that he will give something when we don’t know if it is his will?” The answer is that we can have faith like a child. When a trusting child asks their father for something that they think their father will think is good, then Continue Reading →

Loving God is the supreme mark of maturity. When we love him we will desire to be like him. We will desire to see him someday. We will desire to please him. We will find ourselves just thinking about him. We will desire to study his words in Scripture. We will desire to talk to him. We will desire to purify everything ungodly from our life. We will desire to be with others who love him. All of these naturally flow from loving God, even if they might start small in our early Christian life. As we follow these desires they will grow and so will our Christformation. When we love God then this love will naturally manifest through us in many ways. It lifts our hearts, blooms into joy and gives us strength. In the words of the author of the Imitation of Christ: Love flies, runs and jumps Continue Reading →

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 →