What does it mean to be “filled with the Holy Spirit”? In the New Testament, this phrase is used in two distinct ways. Sometimes “filled with the Spirit” describes the baptism with the Holy Spirit–that initial experience at the time of salvation when the Holy Spirit indwells us, changes us, and connects us to the body of Christ.
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There are some Christians who just seem to live in a different realm. They have the power to say no to sin. They have joy no matter what is happening around them. They are the people you want praying for you when you have a need. These Christians have experienced something more than the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
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What does the baptism with the Holy Spirit mean to you and me? For one thing, the Holy Spirit is the one who gives us the ability to trust in Christ.
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Jesus closed the Sermon on the Mount with a dramatic illustration about two houses. Look at Matthew 7:24: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them.” It is not enough to hear the Word of God. To hear and not obey is not to hear at all. But those who do obey “may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. ...
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It is easy to say you cannot worry your way to wealth, but how do you keep yourself from having anxiety about money? Jesus gave the cure for worrying about wealth in Matthew 6:33–34. If you want to quit obsessing about your needs and your finances, Jesus said to put first things first: “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (v. ...
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Dilemmas—we face them every day. Somebody once described a dilemma as watching your mother-in-law drive your brand-new Lexus over a cliff. But in all seriousness, a dilemma is “a problem involving a difficult choice.”1 Sometimes the choices we face are between the known and the unknown: “Do I keep my present job or take that new position in a different city?”
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God did not leave us here to isolate ourselves from this darkening culture or to identify with the culture. He left us here to influence the culture. That is God’s purpose for our lives. That was true for the prophet Elijah. Although Elijah lived in a corrupt culture, he understood that his purpose was to influence his culture for God. What made Elijah a spiritual giant in his time? He ...
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For most of my life, I was not really interested in prayer. Prayer seemed boring, honestly. You might think I wasn’t interested in prayer because I hadn’t been exposed to this spiritual discipline. But the truth is, I have been in church my entire life. As the daughter of a pastor, I was praying before bed and at the dinner table ever since I could talk. I have had a front-row ...
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The Apostle Paul gave us the answer in the book of Romans. The main message of Romans is that the righteousness of God is available to anyone who trusts in Christ for salvation. Romans 1:16–17 says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness ...
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I have a confession to make. I love James Bond movies. I’m not proud of it, but I can quote many of them by heart. Mr. Bond has a special designation. His number is 007. If you’re like me, and you really know something about James Bond, you know the “double-o” designation refers to a special class of agents on her majesty’s secret service who possess something that regular secret ...
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