I’m not sure what image comes to your mind when you hear the word church, but it’s probably a good ways off from how those first apostles understood it on the day of Pentecost. The apostles understood the church to be a movement birthed by the mighty, rushing wind of the Spirit of God. Is that how you see your church? Most people today see the chur

(Don’t miss, by the way, the fact that Jesus’ entire teaching about prayer in Luke 11 centers around the request for the power of the Holy Spirit. We see this in Jesus’ conclusion to the teaching: “ . . . how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” [v. 13].)

I would encourage you to hold loosely what you think God is saying to you. God simply did not outline for us a definitive way to know with absolutely certainty that he is moving in our spirits about something.

The Christian life is something you do with God, not for God. He works through you. That’s a theme we return to again and again. Jesus did not merely issue an assignment; he invites us into a relationship. Christian prayer, therefore, ought to be a two-way, not one-way, conversation; less a presentation of a catalog of needs and more a dialogue wit

It’s not that we’re doing this for God so much as we’re doing it with him.

Third, I see in Scripture an enemy whose whole goal is precisely to give us “peace” about spectacularly wretched decisions. (When Satan tempted Eve to eat the fruit, no doubt he gave her a “peace” about it, even though she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life.) Fourth (and most important), I see nothing in Scripture telling us to look

Don’t miss that. The way we first received the Spirit is also how we grow “more full” in him. We received the Spirit not by asking for him, but by believing the gospel. So if we want to grow in the Spirit, we don’t just plead for more of the Spirit — we put renewed faith in the gospel! Fullness of the Spirit, you see, is the byproduct of believing

He prays they would understand something that is beyond all knowledge. Isn’t that a contradiction? Not at all. We arrive at certain kinds of “knowledge” not through the accumulation of more cognitive facts, but personal experience. There are two words for “knowledge” in Greek. Oida refers to facts, data, and cognitive pieces. Ginosko refers to an i

Ours, you see, is a posture of active waiting, in which we gratefully offer ourselves in full surrender to God to be used in his mission. As we do that, he guides.