A Deeper Christian Life

“How to call upon the name of the Lord.”  In a nutshell: As softly and as lovingly as you can, from the innermost part of your being. Check out my video on YouTube here . 

1) It’s the perfect paradigm through which a modern believer can transcend this corrupt and perverse generation and its decadent Prosperity Gospel. 2) It’s a wonderful conceptualization that enables the believer to take up his cross daily, deny himself, and follow his Lord. No need to struggle over what these ideas mean: you ditch you : you may have your own thoughts, opinions, preferences, etc., but none of them matter. The only things that matter are 1) the will the Master; 2) diligently, scrupulously, punctiliously fulfilling that will joyfully and without resistance, vacillation, or resentment; and 3) at the end of the day, bringing pleasure to the Master. Put another way, being a slave of Christ frees you from the tyranny of being you! 3) When you are thus free from yourself, you are enjoying the ultimate in liberation, and are completely free to be absorbed in everything about your Master, in discerning His will, and in figuring out the best, most profitable way to fulfill it and...

Saints, today I’m going to take what should be an obvious turn and encourage you to engage the time-honored practice and tradition of  fasting  to augment, foster, and facilitate a deeper walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ll try to be brief. Why fasting? First, three conceptual points. Jesus fasted and advised His disciples re: the practice. The apostles, early church fathers, and great saints throughout the history of the church fasted. The practice of fasting is mentioned throughout the Scriptures as a primary way to humble one’s soul and flesh before God. If you have a concordance, break it out and dig into the Word yourself for first-hand illustration. Next, four practical points. The time you spend thinking about, preparing, consuming, and cleaning up after a meal is all time you could spend with your Lord. Every hunger pang or signal of physical discomfort can prompt you to return to the Lord in your spirit to sustain you with His life and Spirit within you. Fasting hel...

One way that the Holy Spirit may open your mind and heart to the deeper things of God is for you to consider the nature and origin of that innermost part of you: your human spirit. This has profound implications for your sense of identity, and for where you place your attention and affection and allegiance. Your spirit, once regenerated and quickened by exercising saving faith in Jesus Christ, is, subjectively and theoretically speaking, the purest part of you. If you have believed into Jesus Christ and have received His Spirit, you have received His eternal life, which wells up within your spirit to quicken you and your mortal body and to quench your thirst. Your body was made to interact with the physical dimension; that is, the visible, physical world all around you. But not so your spirit. This innermost part of you was created to live in the spiritual, invisible world, otherwise known throughout the Scriptures as the heavens, the heavenlies, the heavenly realm, the Kingdom of Heav...

I’m going to assume that you, the reader, are a Christian, someone who has repented of his or her sins and sinfulness and exercised saving faith in the resurrected and ascended Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of the guilt of sins and for the deliverance from the power of sin. This is really First Things First. If you have not, you must start there.  ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sPNVVMwdlI&list=PL8QDVNheNZgs6nOiF-4WoT7iT61QkV1fo ; please forgive the ads) Assuming you are therefore right with God and are enjoying the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus,  the first step toward a deeper relationship with Him is to learn how to find Him within your regenerated human spirit. I’ll start with some basics. If you have truly repented of your sin and turned to the Lord, and exercised saving faith in Him, you have been born again by His Holy Spirit, Who has regenerated your human spirit, which was born dead unto God as a result of the original sin of our human ancestors, Adam ...