Healthy Christians want more of God’s manifest presence in Christ. When God does put inside you a hunger for more of His presence, it is not that you are ungrateful for what you have. Hunger for more of God’s presence comes to those who are most grateful.  Read More

You will be fulfilling your God-giving calling not only for time but for eternity. The Apostle Paul wrote a letter that was masterpiece to the church in Rome. In it he identified the eternal nature of God’s purposes for every one of us. He clarified that our calling and the gifts God has given us are not only inseparably linked, they are eternal.  Read More

On this day, July 12, in the year of our Lord 1723, seventeen year old Sarah Pierpont married twenty-three year old Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan had been attracted to her when she was only thirteen. They would become not only marriage partners but soul mates who frequently encountered the manifest presence of Christ together. They loved to pray together and honor Christ together.  Read More

You may struggle in knowing your calling. You may even fail along the way. But no matter who you are, God wants you to know that your calling will not fail. One of the most fulfilling realities in life is to discover that your calling will succeed. When you discover that your calling is in Christ, you will easily understand that in Christ you will not fail.  Read More

There is no such thing as a low calling. If you are in Christ, you have a high calling. Period. The Apostle Paul strove with every fiber of his being to take hold of the high calling he had in Christ. Like the rest of us, Paul did not choose his own calling, but Christ chose it for him. Taking hold of Christ’s call was Paul’s ambition.   Read More

On this day, July 9, in the Year of our Lord 1742, a revival that began the day before was still continuing past 1 AM. George Whitfield had preached to an enormous crowd in Cambuslang, Scotland, on the afternoon of July 8, and a mighty revival erupted. A local minister documented, “For an hour and half there was such weeping, so many falling under deep distress, and manifesting it in various ways, that description is impossible.”  Read More

On this day, July 8, in the Year of our Lord 1894, D.L. Moody and R.A. Torrey met with a large group at Northfield’s Student’s Conference. They received their baptism with the Holy Spirit and encountered the manifest presence of Christ. R.A. Torrey later reported on this demonstrative encounter when he wrote, “Seven Reasons Why God Used D.L. Moody.” The seventh reason was that Moody received the endowment of power of the Holy Spirit. Torrey writes, “I shall never forget the eighth of July, 1894, to my dying day.   Read More

On this day, July 7, in the Year of our Lord 1741, Jonathan Edwards was preparing to preach the next day his most memorable sermon, “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God.” In the sermon, Edwards would preach, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the flame, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath toward you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire…it is nothing but His hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.”  Read More

On this day, July 6, in the Year of our Lord 1415, John Huss was burned at the stake. We honor this day on behalf of the persecuted church worldwide. The lives of many of our brothers and sisters are on the line today and everyday because of their faith in the Lord Jesus. More than 300 Christians will die today because of their faith in Christ. The same will happen tomorrow, and the next day, all year long.  Read More

The key to authentic Christianity is learning to live from the inside out. Most people blur the distinction between the soul and the spirit. This is a mistake. There is a categorical difference between the two, and it is helpful to distinguish the difference.   Read More

On this day, July 4, in the year of our Lord 1776, the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Read More

While this world’s system tries to put ultimate emphasis on the physical, God’s redemptive order is to put the primary emphasis on the spirit, or heart, of a person. When the Apostle Paul blessed the church in Thessalonica—spirit, soul and body—he intentionally laid out the divine order of emphasis. God first redeems the spirit, or heart, of a person. He then sanctifies the soul, and He will eventually glorify the body. Christ restores the heart, or spirit, of a person first, and He wants us to put primary emphasis on the spirit.   Read More

Everything in the Christian life flows out of being born again. When you are born again, your spirit is born again. You become a new person in your heart, or spirit. This new person is now, for the first time, able to hear the voice of God and able to encounter the manifest presence of Christ.  Read More

On this day, July 1, in the Year of our Lord 1857, the North Dutch Reform Church in New York City appointed Jeremiah Lanphier to do outreach because they were in spiritual decline. Lanphier was forty years old and a single businessman. The church thought that as a layman, he might be able to connect with other businesspeople. When he presented the idea of having a prayer meeting for business leaders, the church board was less than enthusiastic, but they gave their half-hearted approval.  Read More

On this day, June 30, in the year of our Lord 1905, the Spirit of God spread like wildfire across India to Puny, Bombay, Yoetmal, Manmad, Hyderabad, and other cities in Gujaret. This was prompted by a well known social reformer, Pandita Bamabai, who had been wonderfully converted years earlier. She grew rapidly in Christ and was invited to speak at a Keswick convention, where she pleaded with a crowd of 4,000 people to pray for the evangelization and revival in India. She spent most of her life serving at a girl’s school where revival broke out June 29, 1905. The next day, June 30, the revival spread out of her girl’s school all across India.  Read More

On this day, June 29, in the Year of our Lord 1905, the Holy Spirit poured out the manifest presence of Christ on a group of girls in western India. The girls responded with weeping, confession of sin, and prayers to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Many Holy Spirit manifestations followed, including visions, dreams, a spirit of prayer, shaking and holy trembling. Many girls at the mission boarding school spent hours weeping, praying with outstretched arms, and repenting under profound conviction of sin. At times, they erupted in intercessory prayer that sounded like the roar of many waters, and like rolling thunder. The girls would dance for joy after receiving forgiveness of sins. They broke out in spontaneous tongues, speaking in other languages. Several of the girls were bitten by cobra snakes and yet none of them died. Every one of them were reported healed.  Read More

On this day, June 28, in the Year of our Lord 1810, the first official foreign missions organization was founded in the United States, named the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Their first missionaries were Adoniram and Ann Hasseltine Judson, Samuel and Roxana Peck Nott, Samuel and Harriet Atwood Newell, Gordon Hall, and Luther Rice. Many of these missionaries were graduates of Williams College, Amherst and Princeton. Four years prior, during a rainstorm in August 1806 a prayer meeting of college students was interrupted, and they ran to a large haystack for shelter and continued praying for world evangelism. Historians have since called this the great Haystack Revival.   Read More

Don’t ever underestimate the power of your prayers for your child. When Christ entered the region of Tyre and Sidon, He encountered a Gentile woman with a pagan background whose daughter had been afflicted by an evil spirit. The mother begged Christ for help, and after an animated discussion, Christ told her, “Go your way, the demon has left your daughter.”   Read More

Some of the strongest prayers you will ever pray are for your children. A father brought his son to Christ, and the disciples were unable to help. Jesus, however, saw beneath the surface and was able to deliver the boy from an evil spirit. When your children face stubborn challenges, there is nothing more effective you can do as parents than bring them to Christ and intercede for them.  Read More

Not only does Christ allow children to enter the kingdom, He requires all the rest of us to become like children in order to enter. Christ was so approachable that parents would bring their children to Him in mass. The disciples thought things were getting out of control. They thought they would do Him a favor and tried to hinder the children from coming. Little did they know. Jesus rebuked them and taught them a most significant kingdom principle they would never forget. The kingdom of God is for the childlike—for those who receive Him with wide-eyed innocence, enthusiasm and faith.   Read More

On this day, June 24, in the Year of our Lord 1936, the manifest presence of Christ flooded the African country of Rwanda. Groups of believers gathered to sing and worship, and they fell down under the conviction of the Holy Spirit in open repentance and conviction of sin. Following repentance came singing, dancing, and celebration late into the night. God gave them increased hunger for more and more of His presence.  Read More

Don’t ever underestimate the power that is released when one person in the family receives salvation. Zacchaeus is a remarkable case study of a life transformation. He demonstrated hunger for God when he climbed the sycamore tree. He demonstrated hospitality when he hosted Christ in his home. He demonstrated heart change when he voluntarily offered half his wealth to the poor and a payback of fourfold to any he had defrauded. In response, Christ made the awesome declaration, “Today salvation has come to this house.”  Read More

A healthy marriage is not just for the enjoyment of the husband and wife; it is also for the enjoyment of God Himself. There is nothing on earth that paints a more accurate picture of Christ and the church than a healthy marriage. The Apostle Paul makes this clear while giving marital counseling to husbands and wives in the city of Ephesus, located in what is now modern day Turkey. God not only wants every local church to fight to protect marriages against divorce, He wants marriages to thrive so that they demonstrate the robust, healthy, dynamic interplay between Christ and His people.  Read More

When you serve your spouse, you serve Christ, even when you don’t feel like it. When the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, he exhorted the husbands to follow the example of Christ in the home—for husbands to go the way of the cross first. Every marriage faces conflicts, issues, misunderstandings and problems. Christian marriages are no exception. Christians, however, have a unique dynamic in their favor—the example of Christ and the presence of Christ.   Read More