Holy Spirit | Craig T. Owens

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5 More Quotes From “The Ministry Of God’s Word”

May 16, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

There was simply too many passages I highlighted in The Ministry Of God’s Word by Watchman Nee to share in just one post. Pastor, you must read this book! You can read my full book review by clicking here.

“Each man’s special characteristic is brought out only when he is subject to the Holy Spirit.”

“No one today can have God’s Word extraneous to the Bible; even the New Testament cannot exist alone, nor can the words of Paul. You cannot cut the Old Testament away and retain much of the New Testament; neither can you excise the four Gospels and keep the letters of Paul. … All the ministries in the Bible are interdependent; none possesses an unconnected revelation totally unrelated to the others and entirely disconnected.”

“How does God interpreted the Bible? How does He explain the words of the Old Testament to the New Testament minister? There are at least three distinct ways of interpretation in the New Testament: (1) prophetic interpretation, (2) historical interpretation, and (3) comprehensive interpretation. When New Testament ministers study the Old Testament words, they will approach the Scriptures from these different angles: they look to the Holy Spirit for interpretation of prophetic words, historical records, or comprehensive messages.”

“Let us remember that ministry of the Word in our day ought to be richer than that of those who wrote the New Testament. … How, then, do we say that today’s ministry of the Word should be richer? Because Paul had in his hand only the Old Testament as the basis of his speaking, but we have in our hand the writings of Paul and Peter and others in addition to the Old Testament. Paul had only 39 books in his hand, but we have 66 books. Hence our ministry should be richer in Word. We have more materials at the disposal of the Spirit of God, more opportunities for God’s Spirit to explain. Our ministry therefore ought not be poorer but richer.”

“One should never deceive himself by thinking he can be a minister of God’s Word if he simply reads the Bible. The question is not whether he has read the Bible: it is instead, how has he read it?”

You can read other quotes from this book by clicking here and here.

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: Bible, book review, God's Word, Gospel, Holy Spirit, interdependent, New Testament, Old Testament, pastoring, pastors, preaching, prophesy, quotes, Scripture, Watchman Nee. Leave a Comment »

8 More Quotes From “The Ministry Of God’s Word”

May 9, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

I stand by what I said: The Ministry Of God’s Word by Watchman Nee is a must read for anyone who preaches the Bible. You can read my full review of this book by clicking here. Below are some more quotes from this amazing book.

“Should anyone fail to see the necessity of having himself dealt with by God, fail to see how his habits, temperament and life need to be pruned and refined, he is of no use to the Word of God.”

“Never forget what the ministry of the Word is. It is the outflowing of the Spirit of God in man as well as in the Word. One part of it consists of God’s Word and the other part of man’s ministry. The Word of God comes to man, who adds in his ministry, and then the two flow out together. God’s Word is not delivered if it is just the Word without the human ministry.”

“Having been set apart as a minister of God’s Word from our mother’s womb, none of us can afford to be foolish before God.”

“A minister of the Word needs to rise very high before God; only then will His Word come through. The pureness of the Word released depends on the amount of discipline received before God. The more the man is broken, the purer the Word; the less that has been learned, the more corrupt its release. The ministry of the Word is based on the condition of the man before the Lord.”

“When the Holy Spirit finds it possible to put the Word in a person’s mouth because the emotion, thought, will, and spirit of that man are under His control, then there is revelation.”

“Every area of our life must therefore be dealt with by God. Always remember that to be a minister of the Word is not a cheap matter.”

“God does not put His Word in man for him to repeat verbatim. He puts His Word in man for the latter to search out with his mind. He gives light to man that man may grasp it and think on it. He places a burden in man for him to find appropriate words to express that burden. It is man who thinks, searches, and speaks; even so, God is able to acknowledge that it is in truth His very own Word.”

“If you as a person have not been pruned and refined by God, your opinion will not be dependable. Any bit of its projection will spoil the Word of God. How God has trusted you as His minister! He gives you a light and burden, and then allows you to think out and feel His Word, even permitting you to form your own opinion. He trusts you. He still works in you that all your opinion, thought and feeling will be like His. This is New Testament prophesying, New Testament ministry of the Word.”

You can read some previously posted quotes from this book by clicking here.

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: anointing, Bible, book review, discipline, God's Word, Holy Spirit, ministry, New Testament, preaching, prophesy, purity, quotes, Revelation, Scripture, Watchman Nee. Leave a Comment »

Steppin’ Up

May 5, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Here’s a really simple true-false quiz for you. Anyone who has ever been in church should be able to handle this one simple question. Are you ready? Your one question is—True or False: The Bible contains the Word of God?

The answer is FALSE! The Bible doesn’t contain the Word of God, the Bible IS the Word of God.

It is inerrant = without error.
It is infallible = without mistake.
It is universally applicable regardless of age or culture.

The worldview which dominates today is usually one of pragmatism. That means people do what feels right to them in the moment, and then they determine the rightness or wrongness of their decision based on the outcome. In other words, if they like how things turned out they must have done something right, and if they don’t like the results then they must have done something wrong.

Christians, however, need to see the short-sightedness of this. The Apostle Peter shows the contrast between how accurate God’s Word is and how false teachers want to “exploit you with stories they have made up” (see 2 Peter 1:20-2:3), and how destruction is the end result for those with a pragmatic worldview.

It is by no means an easy thing for Christians to discipline themselves to have a consistent biblical worldview. It’s easy to simply reject something because it doesn’t appear to be “churchy” or receive something because it’s been done in the church for years. The hard work comes in this:

Using the Bible for everything (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Allowing the Holy Spirit to form the mind of Christ in you (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).
Then using what you’ve learned to redeem things for God’s glory (2 Corinthians 10:5).

This week I’d like to give you the same challenge I gave my congregation: How can you STEP UP your involvement in the Word this week?

Do you need to read the Bible more?
Do you need to read the Bible better?
Do you need to meditate more on what you’ve read in the Bible?
Do you need to re-look at some things you’ve automatically rejected or received?
Do you need the Holy Spirit to overhaul your worldview?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apostle Peter, Bible, Christian, counter-cultural, culture, God's glory, God's Word, Holy Spirit, inerrant, infallible, pragmatism, Scripture, video, worldview. 2 Comments »

Links & Quotes

May 4, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Here are the links to some interesting reading I found this weekend.

“The dominant model of how speech works is that it is planned in advance—speakers begin with a conscious idea of exactly what they are going to say. But some researchers think that speech is not entirely planned, and that people know what they are saying in part through hearing themselves speak.” Check out more of this fascinating report You Don’t Always Know What You ’re Saying.

A balanced approach is vital. “Beware any teacher or preacher who has little use for doctrine or church history.” —T.M. Moore

“Lastly, as the best advice I can give, seek more of the Spirit of God, for this is the way to become Christ-like. Vain are all your attempts to be like Him till you have sought His Spirit. Take the cold iron, and attempt to weld it if you can into a certain shape. How fruitless the effort! Lay it on the anvil, seize the blacksmith’s hammer with all your might; let blow after blow fall upon it, and you shall have done nothing. Twist it, turn it, use all your implements, but you shall not be able to fashion it as you would. But put it in the fire, let it be softened and made malleable, then lay it on the anvil, and each stroke shall have a mighty effect, so that you may fashion it into any form you may desire. So take your heart, not cold as it is, not stony, as it is by nature, but put it into the furnace; there let it be molten, and after that it can be turned like wax to the seal, and fashioned into the image of Jesus Christ.” —Charles Spurgeon

John Stonestreet has a timely reminder in his commentary Race And Redemption.

A great piece on euthanasia: What Happened To Switzerland?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Charles Spurgeon, Christlike, church history, doctrine, ethics, euthanasia, Holy Spirit, John Stonestreet, medical science, quotes, redemption, T.M. Moore. Leave a Comment »

Links & Quotes

May 3, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Here are the links to some interesting reading I found this weekend.

“The Holy Spirit does not belong to you. Are you charismatic? He is bigger than your signs and wonders event. Are you Reformed? He will not be limited by your theology.” —R.T. Kendall

“The worst thing that can happen to a man is to succeed before he is ready.” —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Where is the outrage in the American mainstream media?! Kidnapped School Girls In Nigeria Sold As Child Brides.

“It’s funny that many secularists believe that Christian myths about Jesus evolved over time until they were written down generations later. This is the thesis in Bart Ehrman’s latest book. It’s not accurate. It’s funny because there are things believed by some of the same secularists that actually are myths that evolved over time to create the impression that Christianity is a science stopper and anti-intellectual. One of these myths is about the scientific revolution that was purportedly initiated by Copernicus and the supposed subsequent opposition from the church to his heliocentric theories.” Read more of this eye-opening post: Copernicus And The Scientific Revolution.

Disney’s Peter Rummell shares how the Imagineers keep the great ideas coming.

“The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden— that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.” —C.S. Lewis

“When sin is pardoned, our greatest sorrow is ended, and our truest pleasure begins. Such is the joy which the Lord bestows upon His reconciled ones, that it overflows and fills all nature with delight. The material world has latent music in it, and a renewed heart knows how to bring it out and make it vocal.” —Charles Spurgeon

7 Quotes From “The Ministry Of God’s Word”

May 2, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

The Ministry Of God’s Word by Watchman Nee is a MUST READ for all pastors, preachers and evangelists. You can read my book review by clicking here. Over the next few Fridays, I’m going to share some powerful quotes from this book.

“In incarnation … the Word instead was dressed in Man; therefore it had human feeling, thought and opinion, though it remained God’s Word. … In this do we find a great principle of the Bible: that it is possible for the Word of God to be unimpaired by man’s feeling. The presence of human feeling does not necessarily ruin God’s Word; it does so only when such feeling is inadequate. Herein lies a tremendous problem. The great principle is that human elements must not be of such a nature as to hinder God’s Word.”

“God will work in man until his human elements do not damage God’s Word. … The Holy Spirit so operates in man, so controls and disciplines him, that the latter’s own elements can exist without impairing God’s Word; on the contrary, they fulfill it.”

“To be the one who delivers God’s Word we must be pruned and refined. God has to lay aside those whose human makeup contains many uncleannesses, fleshly things, and matters condemned by God. Others He has to bypass because they have never been broken before God, or their thoughts are not straightforward, or their lives are undisciplined, their necks stiff, their emotions untamed, or they have a controversy with God.”

“We need to be daily disciplined. Any defect in us will defile the Word and destroy its power. … The greatest difficulty we confront in preaching the Word is not whether the subject is proper or the phraseology correct, but whether the man is right.”

“God chooses men to be His ministers in order that His Word may carry a human flavor.”

“The Bible is not a collection of devotional articles; it is men performing or living out the Word of God.”

“God puts His Word in us that we may meditate on it, feel after it, be afflicted by it, or rejoice in it, before the Word is released by us. … Thus the ministry of the Word is not the mere delivery of sermons we memorize. We must allow the Word to come to us, to drill and to grind us, until it flows out with—yes, our personal elements in it—and yet not spoiled or corrupted in the least. The Lord wishes to use us as a channel of living water.”

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: Bible, discipline, evangelist, feeling, God's Word, Holy Spirit, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, pastors, preaching, purity, quotes, Watchman Nee. Leave a Comment »

Thursdays With Oswald—The Spirit Of Antichrist

May 1, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

The Spirit Of Antichrist

The spirit of antichrist is that spirit which “dissolves by analysis” the Person of Jesus—“someone unique, but not what the New Testament claims.” To preach the Jesus of the Gospels at the expense of the Christ of the Epistles is a false thing, such a false thing that it is antichrist to the very core, because it is a blow direct at what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do, viz.: expound Him to the disciples, and “through their word” to innumerable lives to the end of Time.

If I say, “Of course God would never convey a right interpretation of Himself through a handful of men like the disciples,” I am casting a slur on what Jesus said, telling Him that His reliance on God’s promise of the Spirit was without justification; that His basis of confidence on the Holy Spirit’s revelation of Himself to the disciples was misplaced.

From Conformed To His Image

The spirit of antichrist is any thought that diminishes God’s Word, or diminishes the Person of Jesus Christ. But I don’t want to spend my time trying to spot the counterfeit, antichrist teachings. I want to know the Original—the Authentic—so well, that I can easily spot the antichrist forgeries.

This means that I must study all of the Bible. I cannot exclude the Old Testament; nor can I choose the Epistles and ignore the Gospels, or vice versa. As I study, I must rely on the Holy Spirit’s help. He breathed on the men that wrote the inspired Word, so He is the only One Who can breathe on my heart and mind the truth of the Word as I study it.

If the spirit of antichrist was already being discussed in the New Testament, and again by Oswald Chambers 100+ years ago, how much more prevalent must it be now! I must know the Authentic Word and the Authentic Christ so well that I can immediately identify the masquerading antichrist.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: antichrist, authenticity, Bible, counterfeit, Epistles, God's Word, Gospel, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, New Testament, Old Testament, Oswald Chambers, Revelation, Scripture. 1 Comment »

You Are God’s Favorite Place On Earth

April 28, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Undoubtedly you have a favorite place. It might be a special friend’s house, or a summer cabin. Perhaps it’s your favorite wooded path around a lake, or even a comfy chair in your home where you find rest.

In our favorite places we might hear from God or reconnect with friends. Maybe in our favorite place we de-stress and get re-energized for life’s challenges. Wherever the place is, and whatever happens there, one thing is certain: We cannot stay there forever. At some point we’ll have to leave that favorite place.

But we can take that favorite place with us. That energizing, affirming, consoling, encouraging feeling we gained in our favorite place can go with us in our hearts and minds.

The people of Bethany and the disciples had a favorite Person in Jesus Himself. Jesus, too, had a favorite place—the village of Bethany—and favorite people—a special family in Bethany and His disciples—but He said, “It is for your good that I go away, so that I can send the promised Holy Spirit to you” (see John 16:7). Just before He ascended to Heaven, Jesus took His followers with Him to Bethany and instructed them to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4-8). This time of waiting was the only time that Jesus instructed His followers to wait, after this we were to GO!

Indeed, this empowerment of the Holy Spirit was for us to go into all the world with the message of Jesus; it was not for us to hunker down in our favorite place. So the empowerment of the Holy Spirit helps us take our favorite place and Person with us. When we GO, we GO with a message of hope for the world.

We become God’s favorite place on earth, as we GO with an invitation for others to know this favorite relationship as well!

Being baptized in the Holy Spirit means that you’ve given Him unlimited access to your thoughts, your talents, your personality, your opportunities—your all—so that He can show the love of Jesus to others through you.

If you haven’t experienced this empowerment of the Holy Spirit, remember that it is a promised gift God wants to pour out on you (see Luke 11:11-13; 24:49; and Acts 1:4). All that is needed is for your willing heart to wait on Him to pour out this gift on you. What are you waiting for?!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: baptism, Bethany, empowerment, God's promise, Great Commission, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, witness. 1 Comment »

Links & Quotes

April 27, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some great reading I found this weekend.

“God’s work on this earth languishes when God’s people give up their ministries of prayer and supplication.” —A.W. Tozer

Very thoughtful: Why We Should Say “Yes” To A Culture Of Marriage.

Hmmm … Teen Pregnancy Rates Drop When Planned Parenthood Locations Close.

An informative article about the Holy Spirit: Jesus’ Closest Companion.

“Grace is given to heal the spiritually sick, not to decorate spiritual heroes.” —Martin Luther

“It becomes those to be generous who are the children of a gracious God.” —Charles Spurgeon

Debunking 7 Myths About Marijuana.

This is so cool! Laser surgery conducted on twins girls while they were still in the womb.

Where is the outrage in the mainstream media?! Pakistani married couple sentenced to death for their “anti-Islam” texts.

Links & Quotes

April 16, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Some cool reading I came across today.

“We simply can’t change ourselves. Only the Spirit of God can conform us to the glorious image of Christ.” —David Wilkerson

“Oh, that today my clothes may be vestments, my meals sacraments, my house a temple, my table an alter, my speech incense, and myself a priest!” —Charles Spurgeon

I like this: 8 Things Healthy Couples Don’t Do.

“Sound biblical and theological learning is useful for building the church when it is delivered with patience and gentleness by a loving shepherd.” —T.M. Moore