The God of Life, Adopts

Why would God need to adopt us?  Are we not God's Child already?  Is there something that separates us from God?  Why doesn't God just snap his fingers and make everything right?  Is everyone going to be adopted by God?  All these questions hit to the heart of how God is the God of Life and does what even most people are unwilling to do; adopt rebellious orphaned children.  This article addresses all these questions with what God himself reveals.

Who or What Is The Holy Spirit?

Who or what is the Holy Spirit?  Is it a force, is it supernatural energy, is it a person, or is it something else.  Is it a thing or is it a being?  Knowing who or what the The Holy Spirit is directly impacts who you know God to be.  This article will evaluate what God makes known about The Holy Spirit.

Is There A Baptism of The Holy Spirit After Salvation?

What is a Subsequent Baptism to salvation, second baptism, or also called a second blessing referring to?  Simply stated, it is a second spiritual event that takes place after and separate from the moment of salvation where an individual is overcome by the Holy Spirit and exercises spiritual gifts for the first time.  But does the Bible support this and explicitly state A Second Baptism event after salvation?  In this article we will see what Holy Scripture says about the moment of salvation and being baptized by The Holy Spirit.

God Does ALL The Work

It is ultimate satisfaction and relief to know and trust in God.  He does all the spiritual eternal work for us. The pressure and burdens of trying to love him, do good, and stay faithful to him all our life is on Him.  When we have faith in Jesus Christ, we experience the peace and joy from God doing all the work in our lives from beginning to end. From before the beginning of time, to us being lead and coming into faith, to us growing in faith, to our bodily death; God does all the work.  This is a deep and hard issue to accept.  It even turned away disciples of Jesus in his day.

The Gift of Supernatural Healing

What does God say about divine supernatural healing and the gift of healing?  What is the bible's stance on 'inner-healings' like the Sozo Prayers?  And are healings today the same as healing of the Apostles and the disciples of the apostles?  It is important to state that it is not the position of The Gospel 4All that the gift of healing has completely ceased; however, due to recent history we do believe that it has changed but God reserves the right to gift it as he pleases, even to this day.  This article will address the biblical understanding of divine healing and why this gift has changed to this date.

Supernatural Positive Thinking

Life can get hard and people can be mean.  Does thinking positive and speaking positively have a supernatural effect on the negative world around us?  Does being positive only invite more positive things to occur?  Is there such a thing called "Law of Attraction"?  Where does all this positivism come from and what does history prove and God say about it?

Repentance

Repentance is an essential sign of genuine saving faith.  It is what is to be preached and what The Gospel Message compels true believers to do.  It can be faked and is avoided by health, wealth, happiness, and prosperity teachers.  There is a reason for this.  But what is IT (repentance) and why is it an essential element of faith?

The Virgin Birth

Jesus' virgin birth is extremely important to understanding who Jesus truly is!  Where he came from, how he got here, and how he relates to us are all intertwined with his miraculous birth.  First we need to look at what was foretold about him:

Isaiah 7:13-14

Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God?  Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

God, The Holy Spirit

One of the most misunderstood and mischaracterized persons of the Trinity of God himself is the person of The Holy Spirit.  Man gets confused with feelings, emotions, wind, or just thought of as a 'force'.  Yet, scripture makes it clear He is a unique, co-equal, divine person of the Trinity that makes  God himself.  This simple study will help understand him more clearly.

Faith Without Works is Dead

Let's make this clear;  Christians are saved by GRACE through FAITH in Jesus Christ as Lord God and Savior (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9).   But it is because of genuine faith in Jesus that will defiantly cause the life of someone who just came to faith to drastically change.  A changed life is a sure fact.  To reiterate, it is NOT the changed life that leads someone to faith.  It IS the faith that leads to a changed life.  Faith proceeds the life change but the life change is an inevitable result from saving faith.  This addresses the issue of Lordship Salvation.

James drives this point home in James 2:14-26.  Verse 26 bluntly states "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

The Triune God of Christianity

This essential biblical teaching is a profound and deep understanding of the eternal God of the universe.  He condescends these truths about himself just enough for us to be able to understanding Him to this degree.  This understanding allows us to know and understand him on the deepest level in our time in this world.  It also helps us see faiths that know Him and religions that do not know him.  Helps discern false teachings and truth in more clear terms.  The following is known as The Trinity.

It is so profound and at the deepest level of our understanding; it is best that our finite freshly minds can understand of our infinite and eternal creator of the universe.  Anything deeper is incomprehensible for our limited intellectual sinful minds to grasp.  The term "trinity" is not in scripture because it is a word used to describe the triune God described in scripture.  See 'Objections to the Trinity' bellow.

Christianity can be described as Monotheistic Trinitarianism.  Belief in One God made up of three 'persons'.  The word 'persons' does not accurately describe what makes up 'the trinity' but it helps.  It is NOT faith in three different gods. It is NOT One God with three different 'masks' (Modalism/Oneness Pentecostalism). It IS the following:

What Happens When We Die

It is the completion of God's plan for those who came to faith in Jesus Christ.  For God, the plan began before the creation of the world, but for the person it began when they were lead to faith by God's Grace in Jesus Christ.  From that moment on, their lives are changed.  Though still with a sinful nature, they are enabled to be free from its enslaving grasp. Free to recognize it, fight it, and empowered to resist.  Free to come to God for mercy, forgiveness, and to receive his Grace, forever.  As they went though life, God continually sanctified them and matured them in faith.  Finally at the end of their life in the world, God will do yet another thing for them: Its called Glorification.  This is our hope that has yet to be revealed.

If Your Not Fighting Sin, Your Living It.

The war on sin is a necessary part of Faith in Jesus Christ.   We would not even have the sight to recognize sin or the knowledge of sin if it wasn't for God.   We would be unable to resist sin and would forever be dead in sin and slaves to sin if it wasn't for God.  Therefore the fight of sin, is a result of someone who has recognized and acknowledged their sins and have been given the ability to resist sin and are free from its slavery.  If you truly love God, you WILL fight your sin.  Here we list 10 things that are important to fighting sin in your life!

How Old Are You, Spiritually?

What if our physical aging and maturing is symbolic of our spiritual aging and maturing?  Even as our bodies grow an developed they are still completely dependent on water and nutrition.  As we keep it hydrated and fed, it grows.  As toddlers and children grow into the teens and young adulthood; our parents or parental figures in our lives discipline us and help mold us into adults acceptable to the cultural and societal standards.  Our parents and older siblings help mold us all throughout our lives.

When we come to faith in Jesus Christ; we are Born Again.  As we learn and seek the Lord we grow in a child like faith.  As time goes on and the Lord disciplines our spirit, we are then expected to be more mature in faith.  As we reach spiritual adulthood we look more and more like Christ.  All the while we are fed by God's Word and grown by The Holy Spirit.  God The Father and our older spiritual siblings mold us though discipleship all throughout our lives.

The similarities of our physical maturity and spiritual maturity are uncanny. But as our body is in the world, our spirit is in Christ.

The Joy of TRUTH

Definition of Truth:

What God has declared and done is truth.  Its that simple.  If God says we are sinners, that is truth; we are sinners.  If God says that to covet someone else's material things is sin; than when we covet, we sin.  If God says to simply look at another person with lust is sin, then if we look at someone with lust we have sinned.  If God says any sexual desires outside of marriage is immoral, than it is immoral. If God declares marriage between an man and woman, than any other marriage is not true.  Its that simple.  No matter the culture or time period; immorality is immorality and God's truth is God's truth.  Sin is sin.  God is truth. 

Why does truth seem so complicated sometimes?

Personal Bible Study: Method

Having a consistent and reliable method to research, study, and unlock the truths contained in scripture is key to really knowing and understanding divine truths.  God designed man to be methodical, logical, and rational beings and to glorify him with our minds.  There is no better use of our minds than to use our mind and thoughtful abilities to seek Him.

This method of bible study is known as Expository study or Exegesis study.  This is where the bible interprets its self and we just draw out the meaning in its original context by what it says.  The meaning comes from scripture and not from us into scripture. 

After your plan is made; choose a book of the bible to study.  For new believers, always start with The Gospel of John then move to Romans.  Understand that good thorough studies will take months and maybe years to go through one book.  You never want to be in a rush and you want to take your time in every sitting to absorb every thing God has to offer.  After your plan is made and the book is chosen, repeat the methodology below.

THE 5 STEP STUDY METHOD

The Holy Spirit or Emotionalism?

So many times we hear Christians say "I felt the Holy Spirit today" or "I was over come by the Holy Spirit and it felt..." But how do they know and how do we know it was in fact the person of the Trinity- The Holy Spirit- and not our own human feeling and emotions (or a different spirit for that matter)?

First we must ask:  Can we feel things apart from the Holy Spirit that is caused by ourselves or another spiritual force?  The obvious answer yes.  

So knowing we can the next logical question is: How do we know what is causing our feelings?

Can we idolize and worship our own feelings and not God?
 

Tongues of Angels of 1 Corinthians 13

This is the one and only go-to verse, 1 Corinthians 13:1, for people who believe there is a kind of language in heaven that is not of this world.  Here is the major flaw in this thinking.

Paul is using a Hyperbole. 

Hyperbole is a figure of speech.

Just like if someone went to a concert and listened to their favorite singer said "that singer has the voice of an angel".  That is a hyperbolic expression.  The voice was not literally an angle from heaven voice.  It is describing the positive effect from the human voice. 

What is Paul saying then:

He said that it doesn't matter if he speaks to people with his own language or if the Spirit gives him the ability to speak in another language he has never spoke before; its all useless if there is no love. 

An interpretation that he is talking about a language of Heaven that angels speak to each other is a poor understanding of literature comprehension and adding into scripture what is not being said.  Because of this failed biblical hermeneutics; people are confused and deceived. 

Speaking In Tongues

This is a very simple subject that is made difficult because of the hearts and minds of man.  When we let The Holy Spirit speak through scripture and let Him tell us what he is saying in scripture we can see exactly what it is. 

Acts 2, 1 Cor 12, and chapter 14 is where The Holy Spirit, through Paul, addresses this gift. 

The Montanists of 170 AD and Charasmicits of Today

The saying 'history repeats itself' is true for false teachings and pseudo-Christian movements.  A perfect example is Montanism and the Charasmatic, Word of Faith movements.   First lets took at what the Montantist believed and taught in the late 2rd century then we will look at what the Word of Faith and charismatic movements are teaching now.

Montanus, a self described Christian around 160 AD jumped to fame when he started teaching that he had visions from God.  He teamed up with two other followers, Maximilla and Priscilla, who also claimed to be receiving visions and messages form God.  Their visions were so energetic and grand that it drew a large crowd and soon become a movement.