Tune and Prepare!

This article is part of the "Vitalize" pack Reuben A. Torrey: "How to Obtain Fulness of Power For Christian life?" Chapter 3 — The Power of the Holy Spirit sample, part I "Power belongeth unto God." Ps 62 Intro The Holy Spirit is the person who imparts to the individual believer the power that belongs to God. This is the Holy Spirit's work in the believer, to take what belongs to God and make it ours. All the manifold power of God belongs to the children of God as their birthright in Christ, "All things are yours." (1 Cor. 3:21) But all that belongs to us as our birthright in Christ becomes ours in actual and experimental possession through the Holy Spirit's work in us as individuals. To the extent that we understand and claim for ourselves the Holy Spirit's work, to that extent do we obtain for ourselves the fulness of power in Christian life and service that God has provided for us in Christ. A very la...

This article is part of the "Vitalize" pack Reuben A. Torrey: "How to Obtain Fulness of Power For Christian life?" Chapter 3 — The Power of the Holy Spirit sample, part II "Power belongeth unto God." Ps 62 8. Further down in the chapter there is a new thought. Rom. 8:16: "The Spirit [himself] beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God." The Holy Spirit bears witness with the spirit of the believer that he is a child of God. Note that Paul does not say that the Spirit bears witness to our spirit, but with it— "together with our spirit," is the exact force of the words used. That is, there are two who bear witness to our sonship: First, our spirit bears witness that we are children of God; second, the Holy Spirit bears witness together with our spirit that we are children of God. How does the Holy Spirit bear His testimony to this fact? Gal. 4:6 answers this question: "Because ...

By Brant Hansen Why isn’t righteous anger ever listed among the things that a Spirit-filled life will bring us? If it’s righteous, why is it not akin to the “fruit of the Spirit,” like love, joy, peace, and gentleness? Why is anger in Scripture so consistently lumped in the other lists with things like, say, slander and malice, with no exclusions for the “righteous” variety? (See, for example, Colossians 3:8). We aren’t to just pretend anger away or feel guilty for the initial emotion of anger. But we are to deal with it, with the goal of eradicating it within us. This, of course, is not easy to do, but it’s not complex to understand, either. Few ever present the radical implications of what it means to die to ourselves and what it means to practice a lifestyle of forgiveness. “Stepping out of anger,” Dallas Willard says, “means you are surrendering your will to God. It means you have accepted that you don’t have to have your way.”[1] When I’ve read commentaries on Ephe...

Isten nem a nemes és lenyűgöző embereket keresi. Úgy vesz minket, ahogy vagyunk, és kegyelmet és irgalmat mutat. De örömét leli az átalakulásban, és azt tervezi, hogy méltóvá tegyen minket Őhozzá. Ez egy közös projekt. Ő munkálkodik rajta, mi pedig kidolgozzuk Phil 2:12-13 Terry Virgo

God does not search for noble & impressive people. He takes us as we are & shows us grace & mercy. But he delights in transformation & plans to make us worthy of him. It's a joint project. He works it in & we work it out. Phil 2:12-13 Terry Virgo

The Stage – Action and Reaction Behaviour and action, + reaction of the audience pre A very large percentage of Christian communities are made up of active leaders and passive listeners. Of course, the church leaders see this too, so they try to "mend" it. They set up projects ranging from social work via food banks to a building/church/temple construction. They set up activities having a desire: building a good community. These are 2000 years old church activities, triggering the " filia " or the " storge ". Which is nice - but it is not the " agape-love " mentioned by the apostles. Earthly actions occupy the community for a while and give it a visible purpose but do not affect the core missional identity, the spread of the glory and love-principle of the Kingdom: "give and it will be given" (Lk 6:38-39), most of the time without even touching the possibilities given by divine life: sharing the good news by t...