How Can I Hear God?
Hello. This is Mark’s wife Shell with an introduction to this teaching.
I have often told Mark he needs to tell people the reason he hears from God so quickly. He takes an hour each day sitting in stillness and silence with God. Sometimes he won’t hear or sense anything for days, but he still shows […]
What is the secret?
Zechariah Chapter 4:6 – “not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty”
As far as I am concerned, this is the central message we need to “live” in order to survive in ministry. Not understanding the balance between our effort and His is what brings about most of our frustrations […]
Enlarge my Territory
The following post is a collection of excerpts from Mark’s sermon. Listen to the podcast for the full sermon.
The Bible says that Jabez was an honorable man and from this we can deduce that his prayer for blessing and an enlarged territory was not a selfish prayer. He was asking for blessing in order to […]
Life in the Spirit
We speak often of “life in the Holy Spirit” but often it means different things to different people usually depending upon our differing theology about the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is unfortunate because life in the Spirit is a much deeper reality than simply whether or not you believe in the supernatural […]
What do we do about evil?
We had a very interesting video testimony scheduled for last Sunday about a family set free from years of negative spiritual activity in their home, referred to as “haunting”. I decided that I should take the opportunity to speak on the subject of our Christian authority over evil. There is a very illuminating incident in […]
Contrast between Religion and Grace
Recently Shell and I were down in Guadalajara doing a conference at a cutting edge church there. The conference was on training the church to recognize communication from God and how to share it effectively. I was ready to teach Sunday morning but I knew I had a prophetic word for the church. I thought […]
Are we prone to self-deception?
We Christians think of ourselves as truthful people. We say we not only know the truth but we love it as well.
Being a Christian, I have a lot of Christian friends. Being a pastor, I have known a lot of Christians over the years, in good times and bad. I find the above statement very interesting […]
The Trouble with Truth
Let’s be honest, most of us aren’t.We all like to think of ourselves as basically honest people. We believe this because most of the time we don’t leave the house in the morning intending to lie our way through the day. Strangely, neither do we leave the house consciously intending to tell whole truth and […]
IS MEGA BETTA? Is big always God’s will?
Today, I suggest we kill a sacred cow. The sacred cow is,
“bigger is better.”
I planted the first church I pastored, and I did it as a church growth disciple. I began with what I took to be a foundational tenet of the church growth movement; “Your church will succeed or fail based on your leadership”. And success […]
What’s the Problem with Religion?
All religions are basically the same. A spiritual, material, eternal reward is offered and a system of behavior is required. When properly applied, the behavior brings the reward.
The rewards differ: Nirvana, 72 Virgins, Cosmic Consciousness, Heaven, etc.
As well, the system of behavior differs: prayer wheels, jihad, religious rituals, moral living, etc. But the rewards and […]
What do my life choices reveal?
Someone has asked me how to respond to someone who doesn’t really care about their life choices because they think God has to love them on account of Grace.
This attitude is, of course, a misapplication of God’s unconditional love. Sadly, it proliferates where teaching on grace abounds. In fact, this attitude is often cited, by […]
How often do you feel like you are not winning at being a Christian?
Someone has asked me why, given all we know about our faith as a relationship with God rather than a works based religion, do we so easily fall back into a works based, religious orientation toward God. I think there are two basic reason for this.
The first is pride. Sadly, pride survives conversion. In a […]
What do I tell my friend who is angry at the church?
The answer depends on what they are angry about.
For many years I was very angry with the church I grew up in. My anger was such that it was keeping me from God. I actually hated Christians. My issue was hypocrisy. My mistake was confusing God with His people. People are almost perfect hypocrites. We […]
“We have nothing to fear but pride itself”
I just got this email and it provoked some thoughts about pride. They wrote:
Mark,
Your messages have been amazing! It was so quiet on Sunday as you were speaking, so I know the words you were speaking were going straight to people’s hearts, including mine.
Your description of the sins we commit just being surface symptoms of […]