Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I would like you to think about a wise, loving friend. One who has years of godly wisdom, empathy, loads of patience, and loving boldness. When you talk with them, you know that you will always get good counsel—even if you may not like exactly what they have shared with you, deep down you know it is still sound wisdom. This is what the Holy Spirit—as our Counselor—does for us.
The Holy Spirit is not merely a force, but He is a Person. Jesus Himself give the Spirit the pronouns “He / Him / His.”
I especially want to key in on those last two attributes where the Holy Spirit is speaking to us.
Samuel grew up during the time of the judges, where everyone did whatever they thought best. This is a time that is described like this, “In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions” (1 Samuel 3:1). Visions in the Hebrew language is two words: open communication. In other words, people just weren’t listening for God’s voice.
Samuel had to learn to hear God’s voice as well (see this passage and all of the other biblical references in this post by clicking here).
God doesn’t reveal His heart to those who are unwilling to obey. His persistent call is for obedience to His Word and reliance on His provision. So the word of the Lord had to be revealed to Samuel (v. 7). When Samuel said he was listening (v. 10), that was a posture of readiness to obey.
God wants to reveal His heart to His obedient people. I love how God does this later for Samuel, “Now the Lord had told Samuel in his earthe day before Saul came…” (1 Samuel 9:15).
This is how Jesus described the Holy Spirit in John 7:37-39, as streams that flow continuously out of our being. And Jesus also calls Him Counselor (John 14:16).
Isaiah described our Counselor like this, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a Voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isaiah 30:21).
Let’s call this GPS = God’s Personal Spirit in us!
Those who are baptized in the Holy Spirit—utterly yielded to His wisdom—will experience:
More insight into God’s Word—Psalm 119:18
More timely application of God’s Word—2 Timothy 3:16-17
More boldness in prayer—2 Samuel 7:27 (same word for in his ear as Samuel experienced)
All Christians have a deposit of the Holy Spirit in their lives at the moment of salvation. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a completed yielding to the Counselor’s influence. So don’t stop at salvation, but ask Jesus to send you what the Father has promised (Luke 24:49; Acts 2:33).
Check out all of the messages in our series leading up to Pentecost Sunday by clicking here.
Pentecost for over 1500 years was a celebration in Jerusalem that brought in Jews from all over the world. But on the Day of Pentecost which came just ten days after Jesus ascended back into heaven, the meaning of Pentecost was forever changed!
Followers of Jesus—now empowered by an infilling of the Holy Spirit—began to take the good news of Jesus all over the world. These Spirit-filled Christians preached the Gospel and won converts to Christ even among hostile crowds, performed miracles and wonders, stood up to pagan priests and persecuting governmental leaders, and established a whole new way of living as Christ-followers.
We, too, can be Pentecostal followers of Jesus Christ today. We can experience an anointing and an empowering in our lives that turns ordinary Christianity into extraordinary Christianity!
Please join me this Sunday at Calvary Assembly of God as we rejoin this series. You can check out what I taught in this series in 2023 by clicking here.
T.M. Moore has a challenging word for those who are called to preach the Gospel. He writes, “Jesus, like Ezekiel set His face like flint to fulfill His appointed mission. And so must we, for whom the Word is both sweet and bitter (cf. Revelation 10:8-11). We must live and proclaim its sweet and bitter message to an impudent and hard-hearted age, beginning in our churches. It is time for judgment to begin from the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). We must speak to our brethren in the Lord, the household of faith, to teach, warn, direct, and to summon them to revival, renewal, and awakening, for a greater knowledge of the Lord and His love, and a fuller realization of His Kingdom presence, promise, and power.”
“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” —Edwin H. Land
I have written before how significant it is that the New Testament uses the phrase “one another” so many times. T.M. Moore writes about this as well, noting, “The more we love Jesus, the more loving our neighbors will come (super)naturally to us as the Spirit of God works in us to will and do of His good pleasure. So, as in everything we do to take up Jesus’ work of building His Church, loving one another begins with loving Jesus.”
After listing a truckload of verses describing Who the Holy Spirit is, Sinclair Ferguson concludes, “Think about all of that! This Spirit—this one and the same Spirit, and no other—‘dwells within thee.’ He is the very Spirit who dwelled in the Lord Jesus. … There are not multiple Holy Spirits—One in Whose grace and power the Lord Jesus lived, One Who indwells you, One Who indwells me, and a multiplicity of other Holy Spirits indwelling an innumerable company of believers. No! There is only One Holy Spirit; and He who thus indwells me as the Spirit of Christ also indwells every believer I shall ever meet.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I have always been both intrigued and encouraged by the blessing Moses was instructed to give the the priests to pronounce over God’s people.
Tell Aaron and his sons, “This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you;the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you;the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.’” (Numbers 6:23-26)
After giving this blessing, God then says, “And they shall put My name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them” (Numbers 6:27 AMPC).
What does it mean to put God’s name on me?
I think the Bible shows that it means—
I feel the heaviness of His holiness AND
I feel the security of His surrounding presence.
I feel the unapproachableness of His perfect righteousness AND
I feel the welcoming embrace of His atonement.
I feel how unworthy I am AND
I feel how worthy He is.
I know that He knows everything about me AND
I know He still loves me with an unquenchable love.
I know He is the holy Judge AND
I know He is the Forgiver of my sins.
I know that His Holy Spirit convicts me of my sins AND
I know the His Holy Spirit helps me get free of those sins.
What an inexpressible, overflowing-with-joy, irrepressible, unshakable assurance I have in my relationship with my Heavenly Father, through the work of Jesus Christ, and the assurance of the Holy Spirit. This is indeed a blessing that the no one else but my God can put on me!
P.S. You may also be interested in another take on the priestly blessing in my post The Blessing.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Have you ever heard this little saying: “To live above with saints we love, oh, that will be glory. But to live below with saints we know, well, that’s a different story”? I’ve found that it’s sometimes true!
We love Psalm 133:1-3 when the saints are all together. What a great “selling point” to invite someone to be a part of the Christian community! But Psalm 41:7-9 is kind of embarrassing as David talks about former friends who have hurt him deeply.
But being bitten by a fellow sheep is a reality we all have experienced, and, sadly, we will probably have to deal with again in the future. There is a natural way we tend to react when we’ve been bitten, but there is also a supernatural response that the Bible consistently calls us to. This is the God-glorifying way we all need to strive for.
In Acts 23, Paul is standing before the Sanhedrin. He opens his remarks by simply saying he has a clear conscience before God, and the high priest immediately orders that Paul be smacked on the mouth! That seems like a bit of an over-reaction on the part of the high priest, but maybe it was a bit of show of force to let Paul know who was really in charge. Paul responded with an immediate—and natural—reaction when he says, “God will slap you!”
Paul is an old man by this time. He’s been through shipwrecks, beatings, imprisonments, gone without food, traveled more miles than he can count, and preached more sermons than he can remember. His body was giving out on him, and his eyesight was especially weak. Clearly, Paul didn’t realize to whom we was addressing his remarks. But when he became aware, he immediately owned up to his mistake. Paul offered no excuses or justifications, just a quick, simple, sincere apology.
When you have been bitten (slapped) by another sheep, you should ask:
Could I have provoked them by something I said or did?
Could I have hurt them by something I didn’t say or do?
David prayed a great prayer in Psalm 139:23. But this prayer is only effective if we are willing to accept that we may have been the agitator that led to the bite. In the last words that Job speaks in the Book of Job, he is very introspective. Check out all of the “If I have” statements throughout Job 31.
In Psalm 26:2, David invites the Holy Spirit to check him three times!
test me = scrutinize me
try me = assay me
examine me = refine me in the fire
When we are bitten, we should be open to the possiblity that God is using this bite to get my attention—to make me aware of a fault in my life or something that’s been in a blind spot.
So we should consider the following:
Has this kind of bite happened more than once? From different sheep?
Has a spiritually wise person attempted to address this with me before?
Do I ever admit that I’m at fault, or is it always the other person’s fault?
Do I find myself making a list of why they should apologize to me?
When was the last time I apologized to someone else?
If the Holy Spirit reveals something in us, He will also empower us to make the change and make amends. The natural response is to place all the blame on others. The supernatural response to pray Psalm 26:2 before responding.
If we react only the natural way, it is a lose-lose for us and for the whole pasture. But if we learn to respond in a supernatural way, it becomes a win-win for everyone. Listen to the wise words of King Solomon—
He who heeds instruction and correction is not only himself in the way of life but also is a way of life for others. And he who neglects or refuses reproof not only himself goes astray but also causes to err and is a path toward ruin for others. (Proverbs 10:17 AMPC)
Let’s all strive for the supernatural response that is a win-win for the whole Kingdom of God!
Please follow along with all of the messages in this series by clicking here.
P.S. If you are a pastor, you may want to check out my book When Sheep Bite.
In the Tent of Meeting [of God with His people], outside the veil which sets apart the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it burning from evening to morning before the Lord…. (Exodus 27:21)
Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish (thoughtless, without forethought) and five were wise (sensible, intelligent, and prudent). … Watch therefore [give strict attention and be cautious and active], for you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come. (Matthew 25:1-2, 13)
Just as the lamps in the Tabernacle had to be continually supplied with oil so they never went out, we have to keep our lamps burning. We have the full supply of the Holy Spirit, but we have to make sure we don’t quench the Spirit. That means listening to His voice and responding in quick obedience.
If we want to be shining brightly when Jesus returns, we must “give strict attention and be cautious and active” every single day.
Whether you call it grit or stick-to-it-iveness, those who don’t give up easily are the ones who will become leaders by their example. Check out the conversation we had on The Craig and Greg Show.
I was thrilled to be asked to write an article for Influence Magazine about the biting sheep that every pastor has experienced. I am praying that this article will help pastors recover and thrive in their shepherding ministry.
“Knowing our lowliness and Christ’s worthiness, we neither grovel nor saunter into the presence of God. And we do not go home flippant or weeping. In Christ, we will receive what we ask or what we should have asked.” —David Mathis
In 1 Thessalonians 5:19, the apostle Paul warns us not to quench the Holy Spirit. T.M. Moore asks, “How do we quench the Spirit?” and then gives Christians seven warning signs to avoid this quenching. Check out his post Joy In His Spirit.
I really enjoy these archeological biographies of biblical people and places. The Bible Archeology Report writes, “The Neo-Babylonian king, Amēl-Marduk (biblical Evil-Merodach) is only mentioned twice in Scripture (in 2 Kings 25:27–30 and the parallel passage, Jeremiah 52:31–34), both times in connection with the restoration of Jehoiachin, king of Judah.” In a separate post, John Stonestreet shares an archeological discovery in a Roman cemetery in Frankfurt of an amulet that shows that “the Gospel spread farther and faster than historians thought.”
This unity is seen during the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2. But unity is not the same thing as conformity, as I shared in this message.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I take some time at the end of each calendar year for a quick recap of everything we have learned during this year at Calvary Assembly of God. I do this because I want to make sure we are all on the same page with each other before we move into a new year. And I also think it’s very important that we are continually reminded and reassured of what God has done for us. In our series on gratitude we talked about the dangers of forgetting to remember and re-tell the blessings of God. We see in the letters from the apostles both a re-telling of their own words, and reusing and amplifying the words of Jesus and other apostles.
You can click on the sermon series title to find a list of all of the sermons in that series. Clicking on those individual sermons will give you a short written recap of that message, and it will also give you the link to watch the video of the full sermon.
Kingdom Praying. Jesus made it clear time and time again that He came to reveal the Kingdom of God to us. He described what the Kingdom was like and told us that He came to be the means by which we could enter God’s Kingdom. He also told us how God’s children could access the power and privileges of our Heavenly Father through the means of prayer. He assured us with words like, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Jesus said quite simply that we had access to our Father through prayer. And then to make sure we didn’t miss out on this awesome privilege, He instructed us, “This, then, is how you should pray” (Matthew 6:8).
Jots and Tittles. As we get closer to the death and resurrection of Jesus, there are an increasing number of prophecies that are fulfilled in these events. Jesus appears to have been very attentive to making sure that each and every one of these prophecies were fulfilled to the smallest detail. Near the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus noted that not one iota—or “one jot or tittle” in the Old English vocabulary—of any of God’s promises would be left unfulfilled (Matthew 5:18). It’s amazing that Jesus so carefully attended to all of these, but it’s also important to ask ourselves what these fulfilled prophecies mean to us today.
Takin’ Him to the Streets. Just before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He told His followers that they would have the joyful responsibility of taking the good news of forgiveness and eternal life to all the highways and byways of every nation. Later on, Paul would get more specific about all of the groups to which he was taking the message of Jesus (see Luke 24:46-47; 1 Corinthians 9:20-22). That commission is still in effect for Christians today: We are to share the gospel with everyone—from easy street to skid row, from Wall Street to Main Street, and every street in between. The streets on which you live and work are different from the streets where I travel. In fact, all of us live on different streets, but everyone we meet on every street needs to hear about Jesus. In this new series of messages, we are going to learn how the Holy Spirit can help us be ready to take Jesus to those on each street where God sends us.
Ascending. Every year, Jews from around the world made four pilgrimages up to Jerusalem for various feasts and sacrifices. These journeys reminded them of God’s goodness as they went to the Temple to worship, and they helped refocus on God’s ways as they returned to their regular routines. Jerusalem is over 2500 feet above sea level, so the pilgrimage there was a physical workout as well as a spiritual workout. These workouts were beneficial for God’s people, preparing them to minister in their cities in the following months. The Book of Psalms contains 15 songs that these pilgrims would sing to and with each other as they traveled up to Jerusalem. These Psalms of Ascent are still instructive for Christians today.
Living in your Gift Zone. God created each and every human being uniquely. We all come in different shapes and sizes, but we all share one thing in common: He created each of us with a unique personality and a unique gift package. By unique, I truly mean that we are all one-of-a-kind creations that have never existed in all of history! Here’s another thing we all have in common: We usually live in a comfort zone that is far smaller than our gift zone. Living this way keeps us from soaring through life in the way that God intended. He wants each of us to know our gifts, and to use our gifts in a way that benefits our world and brings Him glory. It starts with believing that we are indeed gifted by our Creator. Then we must have the courage to step out of our comfort zone into the much larger gift zone God has given us.
Is that in the Bible? A meme that makes me chuckle every time I see it is a “quote” attributed to Abraham Lincoln in which he says, “The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they are often not true.” (Not to spoil the joke for you, but unless Lincoln knew how to time travel to the future, I don’t think he knew about the modern internet!). I love this meme because it captures something that so many people fall into: a quick acceptance of a statement without verifying its source or thinking through the implications of the statement’s truthfulness. In this series I think you may be surprised to discover just how many phrases we call biblical aren’t, and how many phrases there are that we never realized are actually in the Bible.
Be Thankful. It’s so easy to spot the negative things. It’s so easy to gripe about the bad stuff with others. It’s so easy to complain about what’s wrong with the world. But the Bible repeatedly calls the saints of God to rise above this downward pull of negativity. In fact, for those who have a relationship with their Heavenly Father, who call Jesus their Savior, and who call the Holy Spirit their Counselor, there is really only one way to live: Grateful!
Christ’s Advents. The word Advent means the appearing—something that bursts onto the scene. At this time of year we are actually thinking about TWO Advents. We look backward in gratitude to celebrate the first Advent of Jesus when He was born in a manger in Bethlehem. And then we look forward in joyful expectation to the second Advent of Jesus when He will return to earth again as King of kings. As Christians live in this time between the two Advents, our celebration and expectation should bring four noticeable attributes from our lives: hope, peace, joy, and love.
This next year promises to be another amazing time of learning and growing. If you live in northern Kent County and don’t have a home church, I would love for you to visit us!
Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all want us to live in the fullness and freedom of the Kingdom of God. The Father longs to give us the kingdom, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit intercede for us!
Do not be afraid, little flock, because your Father has chosen to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)
Therefore [Jesus] is also able to save forever those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)
I would like you to think about a wise, loving friend. One who has years of godly wisdom, empathy, loads of patience, and loving boldness. When you talk with them, you know that you will always get good counsel—even if you may not like exactly what they have shared with you, deep down you know it is still sound wisdom. This is what the Holy Spirit—as our Counselor—does for us. 
Those who are baptized in the Holy Spirit—utterly yielded to His wisdom—will experience:
Craig T. Owens 