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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Francis Chan
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January 11, 2016 - March 14, 2023
I find it harder to simply be with God, to focus only on Him while spending intentional time with Him.
this Spirit is not a remote force. He takes up residence in our lives, in our very bodies, and by doing so brings with Him a deep level of security.
God said to Israel, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD” (Jer. 29:13–14). When is the last time you sought after God with all your heart?
Consider Abraham, who was told to pack up his family and all his possessions and start walking. He didn’t know where he was going.
I think a lot of us need to forget about God’s will for my life
God cares more about our response to His Spirit’s leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today’s decisions.
The phrases keeping in step with the Spirit and walking with the Spirit are mostly likely familiar, but do they affect your life in a practical and meaningful way?
You only need the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help if you truly want to follow the Way of Jesus Christ.
You only need Him if you desire to “obey everything” He commanded and to teach others to do the same (Matt. 28:18–20 NIV
She literally gave everything she had, even though she was a “poor widow” with no other means of income or support. And Jesus holds her up as an example.
To submit and give up everything truly is radical and terrifying. However, when I think deeply about it, walking in my own wisdom, contrary to the Spirit’s leading, is even more frightful.
The crux of it, I believe, is realizing that being filled with the Spirit is not a one-time act.
He typically asks us to play an active role in the journey toward wholeness. He doesn’t need our help but invites us to participate. Often this journey to freedom takes time, sometimes a very long time. And it takes perseverance.
In any given moment, it is impossible to live in the power of the Spirit and sin at the same time.
This does not mean that if you sin, you don’t have the Holy Spirit or aren’t a follower of Christ. It does mean that when you are sinning, you are not simultaneously submitted to the authority and presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.
“Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (3:3).
I think each of us has a strong tendency to attempt to wrestle control from the Spirit and “do” this life on our own.
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (2:12–13). I love the apparent contradiction in this passage. Paul says in one breath, “Work out your own salvation,” and in the next, “It is God who works in you.”
Yes, the Spirit empowers you to do the work. And, yes, you do the work.
a growing and energetic gathering is not necessarily evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work.
Has anyone ever been amazed by your peace? Love? Joy? Have they ever envied your self-control? Have you ever prayed that God would so fill you with the Spirit that people would know the change could be empowered only by the Spirit?
often He waits for us to ask.
Even as the Spirit works in us to make us more like Christ, to transform us, He is also patient. This work will not be complete until His kingdom comes in full, though this does not deter Him from working now.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (vv. 22–23 NIV
Notice that the subject (“fruit”) in this verse is singular. It does not say that there are many fruits of the Spirit, but that one fruit incorporates all the different elements that follow (love, joy, peace, etc.). This certainly doesn’t make it any easier.
Don’t keep yourself from praying desperately and courageously for the Spirit to work in your life simply because you are not the prophet Elijah.
If you have not known and experienced God in ways you cannot deny, I would suggest that you are not living in a needy and dependent way.
I don’t want to merely talk anymore. Life is too short. I don’t want to speak about Jesus; I want to know Jesus. I want to be Jesus to people. I don’t want just to write about the Holy Spirit; I want to experience His presence in my life in a profound way.
No matter where you live and what your days look like, you have the choice each day to depend on yourself, to live safely, and to try to control your life. Or you can live as you were created to live—as a temple of the Holy Spirit of God, as a person dependent on Him, desperate for God the Spirit to show up and make a difference.
when we stock up on knowledge without applying it to our lives, we are actually sinning.
instead of thinking and telling people they are crazy when they feel like the Spirit is leading them into something that doesn’t necessarily make sense to us, we should join them in the discernment process. Instead of discouraging people, we should pray for more insight and boldness. Instead of deadening people to the Spirit’s leading with our words and our actions, we should celebrate and join the Spirit’s movement in and through them!
