Where the gospel is not cherished, the Spirit will not be experienced. And, on the flip side, where the Spirit is not sought, there will be no deep, experiential knowledge of the gospel. The two always go hand in hand.

More havoc has been wreaked in the church following the words, “The Spirit of God just said to me. . . .” than any other phrase. God’s Spirit never operates independently of his Word.

Such moments are more than “flashes of insight.” They are, as the apostle John explains, communion with God himself.7 In those moments the Spirit is making the gospel personal to you.

In the Middle Ages, believers began to think of a “church” as a place that people went to for religious services, rather than a movement built around a mission.

fact, there is a certain irony in how the Spirit operates; whenever he is really present, you are not thinking about him, you’re thinking about Jesus. The Spirit’s work is to direct you to notice something else.

In the same way, God will not ask us all to make the same level of sacrifice. Sometimes I look at the assignments given to other people and say, “Lord, am I inferior? In this season I’m not being asked to sacrifice like them.” I’ve never had to watch my family be fed to the lions. If God asks that of me one day, I hope I will endure it faithfully.

We don’t produce fruit by working it up with self-discipline and resolve. We simply drive our roots deeply into the gospel and the fruit grows naturally.

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

Justification by faith is the “root”; the fullness of the Spirit is the “fruit.” The two are inseparably linked. Believing the gospel is the means by which we release the power of the Spirit into our lives.