Collecting Original Thoughts

Daily writing promptDo you have any collections?View all responses

I love my collection of original thoughts. Currently my blog has 4,278 posts that are mostly filled with original thoughts. Here are the ones that assembled together in my mind and heart this morning:

God wants to rebuild, restore, and release the aqueducts that carry His rivers of living water that Jesus promised would flow from within the inner most being of His followers. Church shouldn’t make it difficult for people to seek the Lord and to freely obey and flow with God’s spirit when they gather in Christ’s name. Church should never quench, hinder, or interrupt the Holy Spirit.

It takes great care, much courage, and extreme humility to let the Holy Spirit freely flow in a gathering of Christ-followers. It’s essential that churches move beyond formalized orthodoxy that replaces spiritual fire with mere mental ascent to doctrines and creeds. Instead, it is time to stir up and ignite the words of orthodoxy to burn in people’s heart and continually transform their life.

Christians need to be on the right side of Christ’s living presence, not just promoting “a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.” We need to align and be ever led by Christ’s active presence and by His Gospel story.

Churches offer people religious programming but what people need is real demonstrations of the presence of the risen Jesus. Religious programming is often a cork that bottles up and shuts down the flow of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to interrupt our religious programming with His real presence and with His own voice. If Christ is in you, don’t keep Him bottled up. Let Him continually flow out.

We live in a culture where many people insist that you approve of and applaud their behaviors. If you suggest what you believe is a better way than the way they have chosen, then people often accuse you of hating them. From a lifetime of Bible study, church history study, and fresh ways of relating to the living Jesus that keep my heart on fire for Him and aware of His presence, I have found a beautiful relationship with Jesus that I don’t get from any amount of religious programming. I’m so excited about relating directly to Jesus in a heart-to-heart way that I want to shout it from the housetops (even though some people accuse me of being on the wrong side of religion). There are so many much more powerful ways of relating to the risen Jesus and enjoying His presence than religious programming. Don’t miss out on the other powerful ways of experiencing Jesus, such as: Spirit-prompted testimonies, praying out loud with other people, words of knowledge, prophesying, opening your heart to the risen Jesus and to His followers, words of wisdom, open sharing, openly confessing and repenting of sin, obeying the Holy Spirit no matter how uncomfortable it makes you, and devouring the Bible daily with an open heart, etc.

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