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The need of the Church
The need of the Church is not some cleansing to make sure we have some very strict doctrinal stance memorized perfectly. Doctrine is important. Teaching is vital. Memorizing something to sound absolutely correct and then demanding that precision accuracy of everyone else is not healthy. The need of the Church is not beating our one issue social concern drums. Either…
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Goals are dreams with deadlines — um, no
It’s a very Western saying. We tend to not like dreamers. Dreamers don’t get anything done. They sit around and, well, dream. We can’t wait that long! We need a PLAN! Dreams in the Bible were different. For Abraham, he had a dream. If he had put a deadline on it, he would have settled with Ishmael. For Joseph,…
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Loving truth AND loving others
1 Cor. 13:6 — Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (NIV) The careful walk we must take in the Spirit is to understand we want to communicate with kindness, but we cannot work so hard on being kind that we neglect truth. Then, there is the other side that gives little regard for kindness because TRUTH is…
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Walking in the Spirit
Some of the lessons I am learning from 1 Corinthians 12: 1. Spiritual gifts and the moving of the Spirit should be an expectation in the life of the Church. It doesn’t have to be in some huge scene. It doesn’t need to be “spectacular” or “epic” or distracting or annoying. Life in the Spirit should be something normal. At…
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The HARD question on spiritual gifts
Tomorrow I am leading our church through part of 1 Corinthians 12-14 as we explore the power of the Spirit. The hard question I have in my mind is this: As Paul is addressing specific issues in the Corinthian church regarding spiritual gifts, abuses, etc., what would be the question or exhortation or correction the Spirit would have for US concerning spiritual gifts?…
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Being bold in prophetic words
As I prepare teaching on 1 Cor. 12-14 in our series on the Holy Spirit, there is something that is on my mind and may sound quite rude. I am not trying to disrespect people, and especially the Holy Spirit, but this question just comes to my mind as I think of services where there have been messages in tongues…
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Creating a healthy laboratory for the Spirit and spiritual gifts
What is the outcome of this, brothers and sisters? When you meet together, each one has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. All these things must be done to build up the church. (1 Cor. 14:26, CEB) We all have fears. Even as Pentecostals, we all have fears when it comes to church services. One…
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Pray to walk in the Spirit
There are moments when I wonderfully realize God has orchestrated paths crossing so the Spirit has an opportunity to work. Unfortunately, there are also other times I get so busy and distracted I miss those divine moments altogether. This past week were a couple of moments I’m glad I didn’t miss. One was visiting a young man in a detention…
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I’m more spiritual than you
That was the attitude of the Corinthians. (And you thought I was going to talk about blogosphere blowhards. Sometimes they can be interchangeable. Feel free to apply the principles.) A key thing to remember about the “spiritual gifts” in 1 Corinthians 12 is not trying to find out which one you have as much as understanding WHY you are being…
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The rush of the Spirit
Yesterday our family was in Duluth and we took a trip to Gooseberry Falls. It’s a state park and the river at that point is magnificent, pouring over a series of falls as it makes its final journey Lake Superior. The falls were immense and strong. Several years ago, we had visited there in August and the falls were so…
Category: Holy Spirit
