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When the Nature of Christ Becomes Visible in the Way I Love I am becoming increasingly convinced that one of the greatest needs in the Church is not another revelation about power, another strategy for influence, another platform, another title, or even another manifestation of spiritual gifts. We need a revelation of love. Not sentimental love. Not permissive love. Not the kind of love that smiles while truth is being compromised. Not the kind that calls emotional dependency

How Do I Know I Carry What Heaven Has Entrusted? There comes a point in my walk with God when I have to ask a question deeper than whether I am gifted, anointed, called, or even fruitful. I have to ask, Do I carry His authority? That question matters because authority is not charisma. It is not personality, volume, confidence, education, platform, title, or public recognition. I can have a microphone and still carry no authority. I can have a title and still have no spiritual

Holy Spirit, Change What I Cannot Change in Me There is a prayer rising in me that has become deeper than asking God to change my circumstances, deeper than asking Him to remove resistance, deeper even than asking Him to change the people around me. It is simply this: Lord, change my heart. Change my heart until what flows from me looks like Jesus. Change my heart until love is not merely something I preach about, something I believe in, or something I extend toward the peopl

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS CHANGING ME Becoming Like Christ Through the Daily Surrender of My Heart There is a truth about every one of us that our pride does not particularly enjoy confronting: none of us has arrived. Not one of us is perfect. There is only One who walked this earth in absolute perfection, and His name is Jesus Christ. I can preach. I can pray. I can minister. I can understand Scripture. I can experience the presence of God and witness extraordinary things happen th

Seeing Myself Through the Eyes of Christ There comes a moment when I have to decide whose interpretation of my life I am going to believe. I can spend my life looking into mirrors other people have placed in front of me—through old words, failures, wounds, disappointments, or accusations that still whisper when everything becomes quiet. Or I can look again. I can look into the face of Christ. And there I discover that much of what I have believed about myself was never what H

There are times in life when a single word in Scripture opens a doorway into something so much larger than I first imagined. I can read a passage repeatedly, quote it, preach from it, and even believe that I understand it, and then suddenly the Holy Spirit causes one phrase to burn in my heart. It is as though the words have been waiting for the appointed moment to reveal their weight. One of those words is found in Ephesians 1:13: “In whom you also trusted, after you heard t

Letting Christ rule the hidden places of my heart I can raise my hands in worship while keeping a clenched fist around something God has asked me to surrender. I can speak about freedom while rehearsing an offense. I can pray for heaven to move across a nation while resisting the Holy Spirit in a conversation. That possibility searches me. Before I ask God to use my life to confront darkness around me, I must allow His light to uncover what I have been protecting within me. T

I tremble at the thought of becoming familiar with holy things while losing tenderness toward the Holy One. I can prepare a message, speak the language of faith, and recognize the movement of a service, yet still need the Lord to search my heart. My deepest prayer is that I will remain sensitive to Him: ready to listen, quick to repent, willing to obey, and available for His love to reach someone through me. When I speak of guarding the anointing, I am speaking of reverently

Loving with the heart of Christ without being controlled, depleted, or destroyed The Lord has been stripping away many of the false ideas I once associated with love. I have discovered that not everything called love carries the nature of God. Love is not merely being agreeable, keeping everyone happy, avoiding difficult conversations, or surrendering continually to the demands of others. It is not allowing someone to repeatedly wound me while I remain silent because I fear t

WHEN HIS PRESENCE RESTS: Carrying the weight of heaven into a world desperate for God I have walked with God long enough to know that there is a vast difference between knowing that He is present and living beneath the weight of His presence. God is everywhere. Heaven and earth are filled with His glory. There is nowhere I can flee from His Spirit and no place where His eyes cannot see me. Yet Scripture also reveals moments when God makes His presence known in an extraordinar

I have walked with God long enough to know that fear does not always appear as terror. Sometimes fear sounds like wisdom. Sometimes it disguises itself as caution, practicality, humility, or common sense. It tells me that I am simply being realistic. It reminds me of everything that could go wrong and presents retreat as maturity. It persuades me to remain where I am, accept less than God has promised, and call my hesitation discernment. But I have discovered that fear has on

When the Invisible Christ Becomes Visible Through an Ordinary Human Life There is a truth I have known for many years, yet I continue to discover the depth of it: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). I have preached it. I have prayed it. I have built much of my life and ministry upon it. Yet I have also learned that it is possible to believe deeply in the indwelling Christ while still wondering how His presence becomes recognizable in the ordinary circumstanc

The Authority of God Revealed Through a Life Fully Surrendered to Him I have walked with God long enough to know that His authority upon a human life does not always look the way people expect it to look. It is not necessarily found in the loudest voice, the largest platform, or the most impressive title. It cannot be measured by the number of people who recognize your name, applaud your ministry, or gather when you speak. Divine authority is not human influence dressed in sp

What God Is Doing When It Feels as Though Nothing Is Happening I have lived long enough with God to know that some of His greatest work takes place in seasons when I can see the least evidence of it. There have been times when I felt as though my life was moving forward with unmistakable momentum. Doors were opening. Prayers were being answered. The voice of the Lord seemed clear, and the path before me appeared certain. But I have also walked through seasons when everything

Why Greater Spiritual Weight Often Brings Greater Resistance There is something I have observed throughout my life with God, and I have experienced it too many times to dismiss it as coincidence. Whenever the Lord has desired to bring me higher, deepen something within me, enlarge my spiritual responsibility, or move me into another dimension of ministry, there has almost always been an accompanying increase in resistance. I have learned to recognize the pattern. Before certa

There is a question that has been troubling me. Not, “Do I believe in God?” Not, “Do I believe the Bible?” Not, “Have I been saved?” Not even, “Am I serving Him?” The question is far more uncomfortable than that. Do I really know Him? I cannot ask you that question without first allowing it to cut through me. Do I really know Him? Because I am becoming increasingly convinced that it is possible to spend years around the things of God and still remain strangely unfamiliar with

— Why Are Christians Still Living Defeated? There is a question that has been burning in me, and I do not believe the church can afford to avoid it any longer. If Jesus truly triumphed over principalities and powers at the cross, why are so many believers still living as though the devil is winning? I am not asking that question to condemn anyone. I am asking it because I have watched sincere Christians love God, pray, fast, worship, serve, give, and still live with an underl

The Hidden Pattern in Every Major Transition God Brings You Through There is a pattern in Scripture that I have begun to see more and more clearly. It is not hidden because God concealed it. It is hidden because it appears so often that we can read straight through it without recognizing what we are seeing. Abraham went through it. Joseph went through it. Moses went through it. Jacob went through it. Ruth went through it. David went through it. Paul experienced dimensions of

Every Time God Was About to Do Something Impossible, He Started Here First There is something I have been seeing in Scripture that I cannot unsee. Again and again, when God is about to reveal Himself in a way that leaves no room for human boasting, He allows His people to arrive at a place where their own strength, resources, reasoning, timing, and alternatives are exhausted. The Red Sea does not open while Israel still has several escape routes. Elijah does not call down fir

Holiness, Intimacy, and the End of Escapism There are moments when the Lord begins to show me that I have understood one of His commands too narrowly. Holiness is one of those places. For years, many of us have heard holiness preached almost entirely in terms of what we must stop doing. Do not go there. Do not touch that. Do not think that. Do not become like the world. Do not compromise. Do not cross the line. And certainly, holiness does involve separation from sin. Scriptu