I wrote previously that as Christians we need to discern the difference between soul and spirit. If we allow ourselves to be controlled by our soul—mind, will, and emotions—we will not be on the right track in our walk with God. When we are born again through receiving Christ, our spirit comes to life we are restored to fellowship with God. But this is only a beginning; now we are to grow up in Christ and become who God intended us to...

One of the great needs in the church today is the discernment to divide between soul and spirit. According to the Bible, it is the Word of God itself that will enable us to make this distinction: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, emphasis...

My previous article highlighted the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is the tree that Adam and Eve ate from, causing the fall of man and the curse to come upon the earth. The root of this tree is independence from God, and its fruit is death. But there were two trees in the middle of the Garden of Eden. “The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). Right...

Genesis 3 describes the fall of man. This tragic event is the cause of the sin, chaos, sickness, and turmoil that this world has seen for the last several thousand years. God had created Adam and Eve, placed them in the Garden of Eden, and given them responsibility over the earth. There was only one command for them to keep: they must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They could eat from any other tree—including the...

One of the keys to understanding the ministry of deliverance is the revelation that to the spirit world, the human body is a house. God sees the human body as a potential dwelling place. Scripture calls the body of the believer the temple (or house) of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:19). But the devil and his demons also see the human body as a place to live. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places,...

The devil works through ignorance and fear. I believe that in the Western culture the primary weapon of the enemy—in regards to deliverance ministry—is ignorance. There is widespread unawareness of the whole topic of the spiritual realm and the need to free people from evil spirits today. As a result of this ignorance, many of God’s people are suffering unnecessarily, perishing for lack of knowledge (see Hosea 4:6). In other areas of...

This past weekend I preached a sermon at Threshold Church called Restoring the Ministry of Jesus. This message is a good summary of my book by the same title. In this sermon I outlined the four things that Jesus did on a regular basis: preaching, teaching, healing, and deliverance. Then I talked about things that we must be pursuing in order to see the ministry of Jesus restored. Listen to the message to learn how we as the church can begin...

Earlier this week I wrote an article called keys to overcoming fear, in which I named four areas to grow in in order to conquer fear. As we have a revelation of God’s presence with us, His love for us, His protection over us, and His destiny for us, fear will have less and less of a place in our lives. I want to follow up now with some more truth about fear. Though we all face fears of different kinds, we must not let fear rule in our...

The Bible commands us over and over to not be afraid. God knew that there would be plenty of opportunity to be afraid in the fallen world in which we live, and so He continually reminds us not to fear. There are certainly a lot of things that could cause us to fear if we focus our attention on them. A simple scan through the news is enough to prove this point. So how do we live without fear in a world where chaos, darkness, and uncertainty...

This week I have been focusing on the gift of prophecy, which is one of the nine manifestation gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12. If you have not yet, I encourage you to read my article on embracing the gift of prophecy and Emily Tomko’s guest post on the three purposes of prophecy. There are a lot of questions and some confusion surrounding prophecy. How do you know if a prophetic word is from God? What do you do when...

This article is a guest post written by Emily Tomko. Emily is the author of three books, including Thirty-One Thoughts on Prophecy. My husband and I were invited to attend a Sunday evening worship and prayer service in the home of an old friend from high school with whom I’d just reconnected after ten years. As we drove to the meeting, I tried to prepare my mind for meditation on the Lord, but I was distracted with anxiety. A...

God is in the process of restoring His church, and part of this restoration includes the genuine gift of prophecy being recognized and received by the body of Christ. Prophecy is listed in 1 Corinthians 12 as one of the nine manifestation gifts of the Holy Spirit. Over the past several years, I have been encouraged and strengthened by prophetic words. When God speaks to us through another person, it has a powerful effect. Once I was in a...

In my previous article I wrote about how words can take the form of a curse, bringing harm and destruction to people’s lives. Our words are more powerful than we sometimes realize, and they can cause much damage to others if we are not careful. But now I want to explore the other side of this; how our words can bring encouragement, blessing, and life to others. I was struck by something I saw a little while ago in Ephesians 4:29: “Let...

The Bible speaks of the tremendous power of words; both for good and evil, for blessing and cursing. God spoke creation into existence. His words have ultimate power and authority. Since we are created in the image of God, it stands to reason that our words also carry power. Obviously, our words are not on the same level as God’s, but they are powerful nonetheless. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about the power of words. Here are...

When Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, the intention was to bring them into the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When it was time to move into the Promised Land, the Israelites refused to enter. They were afraid of the battle that would have to take place in order for them to possess the land. In the same way, Christians have a spiritual “promised land.” We have been given amazing...