Mark Cowper-Smith's Blog, page 14

Are You People Angels?

What happens when you come back to your home church and tell them about the field trip to the mall?

They want to do it too!

So, ditto the whole experience. I teach for a weekend and then the next weekend we go to the Food Court at one of our local malls. It was about three weeks before Christmas and the malls were busy. We needed some kind of helpful introduction to shoppers. This is what came to me, “If you could have anything you wanted for Christmas from God other than the usual presents...

Great question

[image error]Dear Mark,

I’ve been looking for a church lately. I’ve been attending a conservative style church because of the Bible teaching the last few weeks. I’ve never been one for the crazy Charismatic services as I think the disorderliness of them Paul would have rebuked, however I’m not a Cessationist, but THIS church is entirely the opposite.

I want your opinion. This morning at this church the preacher in his sermon was boasting of how at their church they love the bible so much & how they’re #1...

A Waitress Encounters the Supernatural

A few days after the field trip to the mall, mentioned in a blog last week, my pastor friend and I were driving to San Antonio for more meetings. On the way, we stopped at a sports bar for lunch. After we ordered, my friend asked me if I got anything from God for our waitress. I said no, did you? He said he had a thought come into his mind that maybe she has trouble trusting men. I suggested we find out. When she came back with the food I said, “I know this sounds kind of crazy, but my friend...

Prophetic Teenagers at a Houston Mall

“Our youth group needs shaking up! I want you to come and teach our youth how to hear the voice of God and then I want you to take them out in public to prophecy over strangers!” so said my pastor friend from Houston. To be honest, I was a little intimidated. I had never done a field trip like this before. At the same time, I was excited, so I said yes. Friday night and Saturday morning, I taught the youth how to “hear” God’s communication to us [which will be the subject of later chapters –...

What is a whole-hearted commitment to God?

Here is a comment from a reader with my reply below: I now understand your point about supernatural experiences being available to people regardless of the state of their “heart”.  But, due to the problems involved with such experience with, what we might call, less mature individuals, you go to some length to outline concerns about this, and suggest remedies such as Humility, and developing the fruits of the spirit, and other ways to try to avoid using Gods power without having His purity....

Supernatural Evangelism during a trip to the Doctor

[image error]A few years ago, my doctor sent me for a radiological CAT scan. I had the procedure and the attending nurse told me to drink water as soon as possible to flush the radioactive dye out of my system. As I was walking across the foyer to leave I saw a young man loading up a water vending machine. I went over and asked him if I could buy a bottle. I bought the bottle and headed for the door. About half way to the door this thought came very clearly to my mind. “Go back and tell him about Me.”

I...

Quote from Walt Whitman

It is hard to find a Christian who doesn’t know allot about God. We have plenty of information about Him. Ironically, it is almost as hard to find a Christian who can tell you of a recent encounter WITH God. My point is that there is a difference between knowing about God and knowledge OF God. Our question becomes,

“How can I know God relationally – person to person?”

The truth is that God doesn’t impose Himself on us. He does not shout and He rarely causes handwriting to supernaturally appea...

What is the difference between fruits and gifts?

[image error]Although this blog deals, in a new way, with the relationship in the Christian life between character and giftedness, it might be helpful to read my last blog before reading this one. In it, I suggest that the Christian walk is an act of balance between advancing our Christlike character on one hand and our Christlike actions [in the present case, Jesus’ deeds of supernatural power] on the other.

In this blog I want to explore another problem that often arises when the fruits of the Holy Spir...

What do you think about supernatural evangelism on mission trips?

“I took a team to Murmansk to do an outreach with the brand-new Youth with a Mission base there. We arrived in Moscow the day that Yeltsin was facing the attempted coup in Red Square. It was a very exciting time to say the least.

The town that we held our meetings in was a very rough place. Our Russian YWAM leader told us that this town was the place where criminals came to hide from the law. It was, in his words, the place where you go when you have nowhere else to go. My confidence began to...

What about supernatural power and holiness?

In this blog I will explore the relationship between character and giftedness. Another way of describing it would be “the relationship between supernatural power and holiness”. Yet another way of expressing the issue is to differentiate between the fruits of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The distinction is important because of the argument within the body of Christ [the church] which simply will not go away. As a proponent of living the Christian life in the supernatural p...