I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
My favorite thing about myself really has nothing to do with me except for my willingness to listen to and surrender to the inner Guide who leads me day by day. He is known as the Holy Spirit.
Are you an ever-tuned-in receiver of the Holy Spirit’s inner rivers? I woke up this morning with these words in my spirit:
“Instead of rivers of living water, Christianity is too often presented as a dried-up puddle. Without the experiential awareness of the risen Jesus, Christianity becomes a mere religious routine.”
What does it mean to receive? A wide receiver in football catches the ball and runs with it. A radio receiver picks up radio waves and makes them perceptible by letting them freely flow through it. A receiver of encouragement takes what is said to heart and puts it into practice.
As Christ-followers we need to catch the wind of the Spirit and let Christ take us wherever He wants. We need to catch the Spirit’s energy and run with it. We need to pick up the Spirit’s invisible signals and make them perceptible to our conscious awareness and to the people we encounter throughout the day. We need to take to heart the Spirit’s inner promptings and always do what He urges us to do.
How is your Holy Spirit reception? Is it loud and clear? Or is it rare and sketchy? To receive the Holy Spirit is to let the risen Jesus live and freely flow from deep within you as “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Holy Spirit reception isn’t a once and done deal. It is moment-by-moment reliance on the ever-flowing presence, power, and love of Christ living and working in and through you. All Christ-followers are called to be an ever-tuned-in Holy Spirit receiver.
Go with God’s inner flow. Avoid temptation’s turbulence.
The institutionalization of Christianity tends to put out the Holy Spirit’s fire and spontaneity. It can easily shut down people’s Holy Spirit reception. I saw this happen during the Jesus Movement. The Jesus Freaks who I was around in various places seemed to be far more excited about Jesus when they met spontaneously than they were when they began to focus primarily on regularly attending church.
Forget about retiring! I want to re-tire with hope and a never-ending mission. As long as I live, I want to put new tires on my dreams and keep on rolling to encourage and serve other people.
Difficulties can bring hope instead of despair. The hope of the afflicted is to look to the Lord as their refuge. When people can see no human way out of a difficult situation, they either give up and self-destruct, or they begin look intently to God for deliverance. Hurting people who wholeheartedly seek the Lord as their refuge and stronghold are never left in the hopelessness of despair. The Lord sees their affliction and rescues them.
People who God has supernaturally delivered from the angst of affliction, bondage to tormenting thoughts, and enslavement to sin, have personally experienced the risen Jesus as so real and so present that gratitude constantly overflows from their heart. They tell the wonderful things Christ has done and is doing in and through them. They tell how He has overthrown their inner enemies and even erased the memory of their torment. Never-ending gladness runs through their heart like inner rivers, and they sing out praises to His name. They don’t retire; they re-tire!
Your inner media — what you say, hear, and allow in your mind — will raise you up or crush you down. Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice.” Constantly stay tuned in to His hope-filled media. Jesus is so real and so present that you can connect heart-to-heart with Him without going through a religious institution. I believe in non-religious, non-political, and non-proud Christianity that flows like rivers of living water from deep within the heart.
Let hope always abide. Never allow anything To override Christ in you The hope of glory. Abound in hope. Rejoice in hope. Overflow with hope And tell Christ’s story By the power Of God’s Spirit
I have a really old recipe book. It’s a collection of many recipes written by many authors that has been passed down for centuries. It’s actually only a copy of the original anthology that has been translated into English.
The recipes give all the information and explain in detail the processes necessary to make incredible experiences. All I have to do is to read them and to do what they say. The more accurately I follow the recipes, the better the results I get.
I use my ancient recipe book every day to cook up a better attitude and better behavior than I would have without its powerful daily influence in my life. It’s the world’s bestselling book of all time. It’s called the Bible. Chances are you have seen one and you may even own one.
When I pick up my copy and read it with an open heart, the words stir up a fire within me (even when I read it digitally) and fill me with hope and joy. I encounter the risen Jesus on every page and sense Him applying the Bible’s recipes directly to my life. Through the words of Scripture, the living Jesus Christ trains me to hear His still small voice within me and makes me aware of His supernatural presence both inside of me and around me. He empowers me with a burning desire and with the spiritual strength to follow and obey Him throughout each day.
“Christians are called to follow Christ beyond the culture around them and to live by the values of the kingdom of God — to be in the world but not of the world — to be lights that radiate the presence, love, and reality of the risen Jesus, not mirrors that reflect the thoughts, feelings, desires, and beliefs of the society where they live.” That’s why I daily read, ponder, write about, and seek to obey that wonderful recipe book called the Bible and the living Jesus who it makes so real to me.
I had a moment decades ago that still reverberates loudly within me every day of my life. The way water moves a mill wheel, Christ’s living water moves me from within my innermost being throughout each day. It all started in an instant. I call it my Apollos moment.
When someone has a good education, extensive Bible knowledge, religious fervor, and talks accurately and boldly about Jesus, is anything missing from their Christian faith? According to the Bible, that’s not enough. Jesus said: “Apart from Me you can do nothing?” It’s vital that Christians stay consciously aware of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and continually surrender to being “led (controlled) by the Spirit”?
The story of a man in the Bible named Apollos illustrates this. You can read it Acts 18:24-28. My story is very similar. Here is my Apollos moment.
I had been a Christ-follower about a year. During that time, I had devoured the Bible daily. I was very excited about Jesus. However, some people explained to me that God had something more for me. They called it the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and said that it included the “gift of tongues” which they said was a supernatural prayer language that flowed with power and love from deep within you. They showed me several Scriptures about speaking in tongues and asked if I wanted the Holy Spirit’s power that comes with that gift. Although I didn’t mentally understand it, my heart was hungry, so I said, “Yes, I want anything God has for me?”
My good news bringers laid hands on me and began to pray for me in tongues. I felt something stirring deep within me when suddenly words that I didn’t know began to flow out of my inner most being. In a moment Jesus was more real to me than my physical environment — gushing like a fountain, like a mighty rushing wind, like rivers of living water, from somewhere deep inside of me. I prayed in tongue for hours basking in Christ’s presence, love, and power.
Ever since that moment I’ve had an awareness of Christ in me. He never leaves me alone. Even in my darkest and most painful moments, He has been with me, comforted me, and strengthened me. I pray in tongues off and on throughout each day and when I do, I experience that amazing moment once again and am lifted up by the Spirit’s inner flowing. The biblical concept of “joy unspeakable and full of glory” isn’t just a religious idea, it’s a present moment reality.
If you’ve never had an “Apollos moment” I recommend that you make sure that your life is fully surrendered to the risen Jesus. Then ask God for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues.
When the gift of tongues is first mentioned in the Bible in Acts chapter two, it says: ‘They began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance.” Although speaking in tongues is supernatural, we have a part to play. We speak but the words we utter come from God’s Spirit. When you ask God for the gift of tongues, step out in faith to receive it by moving your vocal cords and speaking out in a few words you don’t know. As you exercise your faith a stream of unknown words and a flood of joy will flow from within you.
Pray in tongues often. Don’t give up on it. The more you do it the more you will experience the presence, power, and love of Jesus flowing from within you.
I am so fortunate. I get out of bed every morning with a calling and a purpose. I wake up with something burning in my heart and I feel called to share it. I post it on social media and on this blog. Here are some of the notable thoughts that I woke up with today.
Paul (the writer of much of the New Testament part of the Bible) “traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.” (Acts 18:23.) He was a personal trainer. Paul coached Christian groups and individuals to help people get in spiritual shape. He trained them to be led by God’s Spirit.
Paul explained his calling to coach Christ-followers in Ephesians chapter four. “Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”
In the 21st century God wants to once again give the body of Christ personal trainers, men and women who will “equip His people” so they can attain “to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ.” The body of Christ needs personal coaches who will train and disciple Christians to be continually and spontaneously led by the Spirit. Will you be one?
Every time a Christ-follower listens to and obeys the risen Jesus they take a giant step in faith. “Christ in you” really is “the hope of glory.”
Here are some notable ways spiritual personal trainers can disciple Christ-followers to be continually led by God’s Spirit in the 21st century:
Create an environment of heart-to-heart community.
Frequently pray Spirit-led prayers with other people.
Give people hands-on practice in listening to and obeying the risen Jesus.
Coach people to share their salvation testimony with other believers and with nonbelievers.
Set up training sessions where people can practice ministering to one another.
Open up church services so people are free to listen to the living Jesus and to publicly share whatever He tells them during the service.
Coach people how to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in their heart and in their lifestyle.
Train people to open their heart and follow the Holy Spirit in free-flowing praise and worship.
Give people opportunities to operate in the gifts of the Spirit and help them be more effective as they do.
Give people training in how to see God in the beauty that surrounds them and in the circumstances that occur in their daily lives.
Train people to read the Bible while keeping their heart sensitive to the voice of God’s Spirit.
Coach people to seek and maintain and ever-increasing hunger for the presence of the risen Jesus.
I am passionate about the ancient Greek concept of “ekklesia.” It’s an incredible people-connecting, community-building idea that has been lost for many centuries.
I feel called to be an Acts 18:13 person — to persuade people to worship God in ways contrary to institutional church tradition. That tradition says that people should gather as spectators for a prearranged program and hear the same man speak week after week. Where did that tradition originate?
In 1517 a priest named Martin Luther persuaded people to worship God contrary to Roman Catholic tradition. He shifted people’s attention away from religious rituals and on to the proclamation of the Bible — away from the bread and wine and on to the pulpit. Few people could read in those days, and they needed someone who could explain the Scriptures to them more than they needed solemn ceremonies.
Ever since then almost 100% of Protestant (and non-denominational churches) have had a one-man sermon as the center of their Sunday morning service. However, you may have noticed that things have changed. Today almost everybody can read. People also have access on their phone to more sermons than they can hear in a lifetime. So, there’s really no longer a need for a church service to be focused on a sermon.
What we need today in a world full of human isolation and loneliness is Christ-centered community. We need heart-to-heart, Spirit-led interaction. Paul, the first century Christ-follower who brought Christianity to much of the non-Jewish world, was accused of disrupting religious tradition in Acts 18:13: “‘This man,’ they charged, ‘is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”
Paul was turning people’s attention away from formalism and human control to the presence and active Headship (control) of the living, resurrected Jesus. He taught: “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14.) And: “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.” (1 Corinthians 14:26.) (Free open sharing by anyone present was the way the city council, called the “ekklesia,” met in ancient Greek cities. When Jesus said He would build His followers together, He is quoted as using the word “ekklesia.”) Christ-followers are called to be bonded heart to heart with the risen Jesus and with His followers, not to be bound to a religious institution.
Nowadays gatherings of the body of Christ in the Western world seem to be like savorless salt — bland and ineffective at radically changing people’s life by intimately connecting them with an ongoing, fully surrendered relationship with the risen Jesus, the way the first century Christians did. It’s time to let Jesus be the active, direct Head of His body again. If churches truly want to help people heal, they need to let the risen Jesus take the wheel. We need to make church “ekklesia” again! (I’ve written a book that can help: Google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.)
There’s no clergy/laity system in the New Testament. It’s time for the body of Christ to become a Spirit-led community instead of trying to be a religious hierarchy. You’re free to go beyond Christian institutionalism and to begin to continually follow the supernatural presence of “Christ in you, the hope of glory”!
I believe in right and wrong. I believe that many things are black and white and that shades of gray are often temptations that distort the way and lead many people astray. I believe that the only way to get rid of guilt is to admit wrongdoing and not try to explain it away by saying that morality is nonbinary. Freedom from guilt comes from confession and forgiveness not from denial.
Perhaps it is good to think rationally about sexual activity instead of merely defining it by feelings and desires. When people say, “Love is love,” it seems like they are referring to sexuality and saying that all sex is equal. But that isn’t true. The primary purpose of sex is to keep the human race in existence. There is only one kind of sex that can do that–sex between a man and a woman.
To declare that your desires are definitive determinants is to say that you are nothing but a biological robot. You are so much more than that! (Are the modern “anything goes” views on sexuality working?)
To deny the binary is to cut anchor from self-evident reality and drift into confusion and chaos. It is to banish clarity and embrace confusion.
My pride is nothing to celebrate. It wants to imprison me in self-focus and throw away the key, but humility can set me free!To repent is to shift from relying on human pride and to begin to fully rely on the risen Jesus.
To repent is to do more than to apologize and say you’re sorry. It is to sincerely and humbly ask for forgiveness and to do everything you can to make things right with the person you have wronged and with God. It is to change your thinking and behavior so that you don’t repeat the same offense again.
Seasons of heart-felt joy are my favorite times of the year. When you have a compelling and loving reason to live, “joy unspeakable and full of glory” is always in season. Jesus is my reason to live. The more I trust Him the longer my seasons of joy last.
To trust Jesus means to stop relying on your own ability and effort and to begin to depend on His presence, His leading, and His action in your day-to-day life. It means to listen to and obey the ongoing promptings of the Holy Spirit within you. To trust in Jesus means to rely on Christ living in you to be your hope and to continually produce the fruit of His Spirit in and through your life. It means to not be afraid to speak the truth in love–to not be silent about the glory and reality of risen Jesus no matter the consequences. It means to lay down your defenses, to be courageously vulnerable, and to humbly open your heart to the people God puts in your path.
Jesus doesn’t want to be institutionalized. He wants to be engraved on your heart.
Consciousness is the center of the Universe because without consciousness there would no awareness of its existence. Keep your consciousness focused on the presence and reality of the risen Jesus!
Trust in God! When your power gives out, let Jesus be your inner life flow and fill you with His joy! Jesus is the reason for my eternal season of joy!
There’s no clergy/laity system in the New Testament. It’s time for the body of Christ to become a Spirit-led community instead of trying to be a religious hierarchy. You’re free to go beyond religious institutionalism and to begin to continually follow the supernatural presence of “Christ in you, the hope of glory”!
I’ve devoured church history for 5 decades. I love reading it and learning from it. It has brought me to the conclusion that the body of Christ was never intended to be a human led institution, but a Spirit-led assembly of Christ-followers who listen to and obey the living, resurrected Jesus.
The luxury of inner peace Will make your anxiety cease. It’s an extravagant gift That will give you A life changing lift. Don’t let fear And worry sift Joy from your life. Ask Jesus The Prince of Peace For His gift Of inner peace.
Shake off sad endings And move on Following God’s Spirit To new beginnings.
In the Bible (Acts 18:1-6), Paul reasoned with people and tried to persuade them to change their world view. He testified to the reality, presence, and authority of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Creator who became a man. But when people began to abuse him, Paul shook off his clothes in protest and moved on to find people who were willing to listen with an open heart.
Don’t be deterred from humbly loving and obeying the living Jesus with passion and persistence. Sure, some people will respond to your enthusiasm with abuse. (Remember that Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”) “Bless those who curse you,” and move on. Keep talking to Jesus and talking about Him and the Holy Spirit will lead you to other people who will open their heart as you reason and share your testimony with them. Then you and they will see live demonstrations of the risen Jesus working in and through you and right in front of your eyes.
Repentance is a key to opening your heart to God’s gift of inner peace. To repent is to do more than to apologize and say you’re sorry. It is to sincerely and humbly ask for forgiveness and to do everything you can to make things right with the person you have wronged and with God. It is to change your thinking and behavior so that you don’t repeat the same offense again. To repent is to shift from relying on human pride and to begin to fully rely on the risen Jesus.
https://amzn.to/3aTGNe6
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 
Being a Guide Receiver
My favorite thing about myself really has nothing to do with me except for my willingness to listen to and surrender to the inner Guide who leads me day by day. He is known as the Holy Spirit.
Are you an ever-tuned-in receiver of the Holy Spirit’s inner rivers? I woke up this morning with these words in my spirit:
“Instead of rivers of living water, Christianity is too often presented as a dried-up puddle. Without the experiential awareness of the risen Jesus, Christianity becomes a mere religious routine.”
What does it mean to receive? A wide receiver in football catches the ball and runs with it. A radio receiver picks up radio waves and makes them perceptible by letting them freely flow through it. A receiver of encouragement takes what is said to heart and puts it into practice.
As Christ-followers we need to catch the wind of the Spirit and let Christ take us wherever He wants. We need to catch the Spirit’s energy and run with it. We need to pick up the Spirit’s invisible signals and make them perceptible to our conscious awareness and to the people we encounter throughout the day. We need to take to heart the Spirit’s inner promptings and always do what He urges us to do.
How is your Holy Spirit reception? Is it loud and clear? Or is it rare and sketchy? To receive the Holy Spirit is to let the risen Jesus live and freely flow from deep within you as “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Holy Spirit reception isn’t a once and done deal. It is moment-by-moment reliance on the ever-flowing presence, power, and love of Christ living and working in and through you. All Christ-followers are called to be an ever-tuned-in Holy Spirit receiver.
Go with God’s inner flow. Avoid temptation’s turbulence.
The institutionalization of Christianity tends to put out the Holy Spirit’s fire and spontaneity. It can easily shut down people’s Holy Spirit reception. I saw this happen during the Jesus Movement. The Jesus Freaks who I was around in various places seemed to be far more excited about Jesus when they met spontaneously than they were when they began to focus primarily on regularly attending church.