Dear Friends,

Stay tuned for Monday’s post. I will be releasing a special conference message from 2012 on the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m confident it will bless you.

In the meantime, check out my recent discussion with Dr. Michael Brown. It was a rare and touching moment in talk radio.

Here is a special note from my publisher.

If you find this post helpful, you are free to ADD A LINK to it on your blog or website. But don’t copy and paste the post as this violates Google’s guidelines.

This is an aggregate post containing all of my blog articles on the Holy Spirit’s ministry.

50 Things the Holy Spirit Does

Rethinking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Part I

Rethinking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Part II

Rethinking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Part III

Rethinking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Part IV

Rethinking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Part V

Rethinking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Part VI

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part I

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part II

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part III

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part IV

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part V

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part VI

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part VII

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part VIII

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part IX

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part X

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part XI

Rethinking the Gifts of the Spirit: Part XII

Rethinking the Five-Fold Ministry

The Finger or the Hand?

If you find this post helpful, you are free to ADD A LINK to it on your blog or website. But don’t copy and paste the post as this violates Google’s guidelines.

Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.

~ 1 Corinthians 14:20

The following is the Introduction to my eBook Rethinking God’s Will (Revised). I’m giving this book away as a FREE gift to all who subscribe to this blog by Email. You will receive the book beginning on May 8^th and following.

Click here to subscribe by Email. It’s free.

If you are a Christian in your late teens, 20s, or 30s, this book will be of particular help to you. It could very well spare you and your friends years of agony over searching for God’s will and making needless mistakes. So I encourage you to ask your friends to sign up to the blog so they can get their free copy. The blog is very popular among 20s and 30s who are serious about following Jesus. 

Continue Reading…

This post is a P.S. to my article on Monday entitled Rick Warren’s Horrific Tragedy & The Sickening Response of Some “Christians” which has become my most viewed blog post since I started the blog in 2008.

Throughout my years of being involved in various and sundry Christian movements and denominations, it seems that Christians understand mental disorders in one of three chief ways:

1. Mental illness is demonic in origin. So the antidote is to cast out the demons that are causing it.
2. Mental illness is psychobabble. There’s no such thing as a “mental disorder.” All so-called mental illnesses are just sinful behaviors. So the antidote is for the person to repent and get right with God.
3. Mental illness is a physiological disorder. The brain is a physical organ just like the heart, the thyroid, the joints, etc. Thus if someone has panic attacks or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia or chronic depression or ADHD, they have a chemical imbalance in the brain, not dissimilar to a hyperthyroidism or high blood pressure or arthritis.

I cut my teeth on a movement that promoted #1. I’ve met many people who believed #2. But I believe #3 is often the case.

Yet it’s not so simple. Continue Reading…

The following is another revealing quote by Frank Bartleman. Bartleman was part of the Azusa street revival that gave birth to the modern Pentecostal/charismatic movement in the early 1900s. To my mind, his words were prophetic and ahead of their time. He foresaw the dangers of co-opting Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit. He wrote, 

In the beginning of the Pentecostal work, I became very much exercised in the Spirit that Jesus should not be slighted, ‘lost in the temple,’ by the exaltation of the Holy Ghost and of the gifts of the Spirit. There seemed to be a great danger of losing sight of the fact that Jesus was ‘all in all.’ I endeavored to keep Him as the central theme and figure before His people. Jesus will always be the center of our preaching. All comes through and in Him. The Holy Spirit was given to “show the things of Christ.” The work of Calvary, the atonement, must be the center for our consideration. The Holy Ghost will never draw our attention from Christ to Himself, but rather reveal Christ in a fuller way. We are in the same danger today. There is nothing deeper nor higher than to know Christ. Everything is given by God to that end. The ‘one Spirit’ is given to that end. Christ is our salvation and our all. That we might know ‘the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ’ (Ephesians 3:18-19), ‘having a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him’ (Ephesians 1:17). It was ‘to know Him (Christ),’ for which Paul strove . . . We may not even hold a doctrine, or seek an experience, except in Christ. Many are willing to seek power from every battery they can lay their hands on in order to perform miracles, draw attention and adoration of the people to themselves, thus robbing Christ of His glory and making a fair showing in the flesh . . . Religious enthusiasm easily goes to seed. The human spirit so predominates the show-off, religious spirit. But we must stick to our text—Christ. He alone can save. The attention of the people must first of all, and always, be held to Him . . . Any work that exalts the Holy Ghost or the gifts of the Spirit above Jesus will finally end up in fanaticism. Whatever causes us to exalt and love Jesus is well and safe. The reverse will ruin all. The Holy Ghost is a great light, but will always be focused on Jesus for His revealing (Frank Bartleman, Another Wave of Revival, Springdale: Whitaker House, 1982, pp. 94-96). 

One of the churches I planted taught me a great lesson on this score. Their meetings were completely open, participatory, and indelibly centered on Jesus Christ. They had no building. No clergy. No set order of worship. Continue Reading…

I am often asked what I believe about “the gifts of the Spirit.” My typical answer is that I believe in them . . . all of them. However, I believe in and practice them without the classic charismatic packages and Pentecostal wrappings.

A large chunk of my life in the institutional church was spent in charismatic circles. About sixteen years ago, however, I came into an experience of the Spirit’s work and power that looked nothing like what I had seen in any charismatic or Pentecostal church to which I belonged or visited. For me, it was a new experience of the Spirit. One that was less artificial, less contrived, and less centered on the Spirit Himself. Rather, it was an experience that was authentic, pure, and centered on the Lord Jesus Christ.

For this reason, I am neither a cessationist (those who believe that some spiritual gifts have ceased) nor a charismatic (those who emphasize spiritual gifts). Instead, I consider myself to be a post-charismatic. Continue Reading…

Over the last four decades, a heated controversy has raged in the church over the question of spiritual gifts. It has been my experience that much of the disagreement among believers regarding spiritual gifts often finds its basis in a conflicting conversational style. That is to say, two believers may actually have similar beliefs and experiences regarding the gifts, but because they use different theological jargon, they mistakenly conclude that their beliefs and experiences are worlds apart. I liken this phenomenon to that of medicine and medicine labels.

Suppose, for example, that your doctor prescribes a certain medicine for a stomach disorder from which you suffer. Through a careless mistake, the medicine is labeled improperly. Instead of labeling it “Senna,” as it should be, the medicine bottle is mislabeled “Sopor.” Not knowing the difference, you take the medicine and it aids in your recovery. Yet when you tell others how this medicine (Sopor) has helped you, they are dumfounded because Sopor does not relieve stomach problems.  Continue Reading…

It is interesting to note a significant shift of emphasis in Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church. In 1 Corinthians, Paul lays emphasis on gifts. In 2 Corinthians, he lays emphasis on life. In 1 Corinthians, Paul mentions many gifts and discusses their relative value to the church. But in 2 Corinthians, he is occupied with the subject of ministry and is concerned with the inward formation of Christ.

The “treasure (Christ) in the earthen vessel” is the basis of Paul’s incredibly fruitful ministry and the theme that runs through 2 Corinthians. In Paul’s thought, life is what serves the church and is the very basis of all true ministry. But life can only come out of death (2 Cor. 4:10-12).

The church increases because some are willing to suffer. By allowing God to work through our trials and tribulations—in humble submission to His will—God’s people make it possible for Him to supply His life to others. Paul was intimately acquainted with suffering – especially personal attacks from “false brethren” who were jealous of him. Continue Reading…

As I’ve established in Parts I – III, spiritual manifestations are real, important, and they should function in the Body today. But they must be held in proper balance.

Interestingly, spiritual gifts operate non-personally. This means that they function regardless of the spiritual stature of the person who functions in them. Gifts can be thought of as an outside power that God places upon an individual for a specific task.

Accordingly, the Bible gives us many instances where newborn babes and even carnal Christians functioned in powerful gifts (Acts 19:1-6; 1 Cor. 3, 14). God’s ultimate purpose, however, is intensely personal. It is not outward, but inward. God’s highest aim for His children is the inward formation of Christ within them. It is not the outward manifestation of the Spirit that temporarily abides upon them.  Continue Reading…

Be not deceived. You can only supply to others that which you yourself have received from God (Matt. 10:8; Acts 3:6). When spiritual gifts become the central focus of our attention, Christ takes the backseat.

This has been the tragedy of many assemblies that have emphasized gifts over life. Among such groups, there is an abundance of soulish excitement coupled with an absence of the self-emptying experience of the cross. In this regard, Frank Bartelman, reporter and eyewitness of the Azusa Street Revival of 1907, solemnly warned the church of this danger saying,

The temptation seems to be toward empty manifestations. This does not require any particular cross or death to the self-life. Hence, it is always popular. We may not put power, gifts, the Holy Ghost, or in fact anything ahead of Jesus. Any mission that exalts even the Holy Ghost above the Lord Jesus Christ is bound for the rocks of error and fanaticism. There seems to be a great danger of losing sight of the fact that Jesus is “all in all.” The work of Calvary, atonement, must be the center of our consideration. The Holy Ghost will never draw our attention from Christ to Himself, but rather reveal Christ in a fuller way. We are in danger of slighting Jesus—getting Him “lost in the Temple,” by the exaltation of the Holy Ghost and of the gifts of the Spirit. Jesus must be the center of everything. The Lord Jesus becomes a stranger among His own people when they give the Holy Spirit preeminence over Him, when they praise Him but will not fellowship with Him, and when they seek His power rather than Him who embodies all spiritual things. Put another way, the upper room should never overshadow the cross or the empty tomb. 

In short, the giftings of the Holy Spirit are to do away with self and bring the Lord Jesus into greater view. If they are not doing that, then there is good reason to question their source. Note that the Spirit does not speak of Himself. Instead, He always speaks of and glorifies Christ (John 15:26; 16:13-14). Thus a person who is filled with the Spirit will be consumed with Jesus. Continue Reading…