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Kindle Notes & Highlights
I knew I wanted to follow God, but I had come to a place of simply hanging in there, resigning myself to a Christian life based primarily on trudging it out and not expecting too much. One of the highest values in the Kingdom of God is faithfulness, but what good is faithfulness without faith?
God’s gift to us is ability; our gift to God is availability. He says to us, “You go first. You be available and step out, and I will empower you in the moment.”
One definition of grace that I appreciate is “the power of God, to do the will of God.”
We are not going to move this world by criticism of it nor conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit of God.
We are not disqualified by our doubts. We’re often distracted by our shortcomings and our sense of limitation, but the reality is, it’s not about us—it’s about Him.
God’s style of revenge is to rescue the broken and then turn them into rescuers.
Living in obedience to Him is the biggest adventure we’ll ever have. Life is short, and God wants to give away so much through us.
It means that the good news of God’s love actually lives inside us and is available to build up, restore, heal and transform the world around us.
He’s not only saving people from sin, but He’s saving people for victory and glory over the kingdom of darkness, and to bring back the cities to Himself.
Going to the Promised Land was God’s idea. It was His plan for the Israelites, but Moses knew it was never a substitute for God Himself.
If the Holy Spirit left our homes or churches, would anything change? Would we notice? We get so focused on what we see as the end goal that we forget the Lord, from whom all good things come.
The presence of God wasn’t just for a holy few—those who encountered God being the rare exceptions—it was to be the defining characteristic of an entire people and a reflection of the promised kingdom.
When we come into proximity with God and seek His face, parts of us must fall to the side and die. Those parts cannot be near God and live.
And God was saying to me, “You’ve been the most dry.”
when we started praying for people in the youth group, they started shaking and being powerfully touched.
When Jesus calls us the temple of God and promises that streams of living water will flow from those who come to Him (just as He told the woman at the well), I believe He is referring to this same river described both in Ezekiel and Revelation.
We are called to be a “People of the Presence,” too, and our ability to host God’s presence is probably one of the most determinant factors of our Christian life.
For me, a series of encounters with God’s presence led to increasing breakthroughs in evangelism and in people responding to the Gospel, along with an increase in my confidence and boldness.
Simply pray, “Father, my power is not enough. Come fill me and envelop me with Your Holy Spirit and with fire. Give me the power I need from the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
The Lord wants to be pursued. He searches for men whose hearts are fully devoted to Him so that He can share His secrets with them, share His glorious presence and reveal Himself. Nothing matters like the presence of God.
Looking back in my own life, I believe my encounters with God’s presence were instrumental in my being a carrier of the Kingdom, walking in authority and being able to minister the presence of God to other people.
it’s the presence of God that touches people’s hearts and transforms their lives. When I pray for people, first and foremost I ask, “Lord, let Your presence come.” I have learned to wait on this presence—to give it room—and to expect that His presence will move mountains of hopelessness, discouragement, anger and unbelief in people’s lives.
the Kingdom of God as “the sovereign rule of God, manifested in the person and work of Christ, creating a people over whom he reigns, and issuing in a realm or realms in which the power of his reign is realized.”
To call ourselves Christ followers, to seek to do the things that Jesus did, means coming to terms with also walking in His power.
“Everything depends upon knowing the person in order to recognize the work.”
Love was His weapon of choice, and He expressed His power in humility. He did that so that we could be accepted, built up and encouraged. The power of this love—this sacrifice—was His weapon of mass destruction that broke the stronghold of Satan over us and over the earth.
The Good News of the Kingdom doesn’t just stop short with us as individuals. It’s also about healing us in relationship to our world, its lands and its peoples. It’s about the restoration of families, the building up of communities, the care of our environment, the redemption of cities and the glory of nations to be restored as God’s unique expression and celebration of Himself on earth.
Gospel about a lot more than individual salvation
It’s that connection that we have through Christ that carries His presence and love.
In going out to minister to people by doing the things Jesus did, always remember that if you don’t feel as though you’re getting through, or if you feel that other approaches are failing, look people right in the eyes with the message that Jesus loves them.
What I’ve seen is that everywhere, both Christians and non-Christians are held in bondage by guilt and condemnation.
For instance, Satan wants the message that the world hears from the Church to be “God hates fags!” That’s not Good News, yet whenever some protestor stands up waving that kind of sign somewhere, the world is convinced that the Church is more about condemning the lost than about seeing them reconciled to God.
We’re His children; we were designed for communication and intimacy with Him.
The Church has become nonchalant to the power of those words “Jesus loves you.” The world is dying to hear them.
Nothing is stronger in disarming the kingdom of darkness than love.
Love is power and passion that take action to set people free.
Simply being more aware of needs around us is the way to start loving others.
We need to lay down our need to defend or prove ourselves, and instead look to the Father for direction. Spirit-led evangelism forces us into a place of dependency on God to do the impossible, even working through us. Our boldness comes not from confidence in ourselves, but from believing Him and declaring the things that only He is capable of fulfilling.
this is critical
If God deems people worthy of Christ pouring out His life on their behalf, they’re certainly worthy of us pouring out our lives.
As we go out as His disciples and declare the Kingdom of God, He accompanies our words with signs and wonders. Healing is a part of how we continue Jesus’ work on earth—to destroy the works of the evil one
The Kingdom of God is not about our own prosperity, yet God graciously grants us blessing upon blessing—but that is His nature, not our pursuit.
Our goal is to know God and walk with Him, doing the things He did, proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom of God through His love and reconciling p...
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our goal and kingdom orientation
There’s a richness and luxury of love in Christ’s ministry. Sometimes we act as if there’s a poverty of love—as if there’s hardly enough to go around for us Christians, much less for some sinner.
In every portrait of Old Testament judgment, God wept over every judgment and then restored and blessed those whom He “rejected.”
My experience has been that whenever God highlights someone’s pain to me, it’s because He wants to heal it right then,
With every person I meet, the temptation is always there to see them from a worldly or critical point of view. The question I always need to be asking is, “Father, how do You see this person? Jesus, You’re standing right here with us. What are You saying to this one whom You love?”
We need to see people from God's perspective .
We may not have too many stories like this to tell, but when we look back over our lives, we often can recognize moments when we sensed a tiny nudge to step out and take a risk. It’s so easy to brush off those nudges and tell ourselves, Nah, that couldn’t be God. Then we continue on our way, attending to the next ten things on our agenda and missing out on God-given opportunities.
The treasure is in the risk. We are willing to die for Jesus, but are we willing to look foolish for Him?
For God to use you, you have to be willing to be interrupted and available.
God isn’t necessarily looking for qualified people; He’s looking for available people whom He can use.
