We have control over our prayer life, our relationship with Jesus.
Francis ChanRead
When you read the New Testament, you see the Holy Spirit was supposed to change everything so that this gathering of people who call themselves Christians had this supernatural element about them.
Interpretation
The Holy Spirit empowers Christians to embody a transformative and supernatural community.
In this quote, Francis Chan emphasizes the transformative power of the Holy Spirit within the Christian community as presented in the New Testament. He suggests that this divine influence is intended to create a distinct and supernatural identity among believers, enabling them to live in a way that reflects their faith and impacts the world around them.
In practice
In a church sermon about spiritual empowerment, one might invoke this quote to inspire congregants.
We have control over our prayer life, our relationship with Jesus.
A disciple is a disciple maker.
Don't fall into the trap of studying the Bible without doing what it says.
Our God listens to us. Our God is a living God. He's not a block of wood you made up that's not going to answer you. My God listens to me. He answers me.
...I don't have to worry about not meeting His expectations. God will ensure my success in accordance with His plan, not mine.
People who are obsessed with Jesus aren't consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else. Obsessed people care more about God's kingdom coming to this earth than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress.
The gospel alone is sufficient to rule the lives of Christians everywhere - any additional rules made to govern men's conduct added nothing to the perfection already found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself.
Even the darkest moments of the liturgy are filled with joy, and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the lenten fast, is a day of happiness, a Christian feast.
I thank God and His Son, Jesus Christ, for the Restoration and its power to propel a magnificent wave of truth and righteousness across the earth.
Somewhere along the way we have subtly and tragically taken the costly command of Christ to go, baptize, and teach all nations and mutated it into a comfortable call for Christians to come, be baptized, and listen in one location.
The encouragement and the deepening of Eucharistic worship are proofs of the authentic renewal which the Council set itself as an aim and of which they are the central point.
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