So how do we receive from God? How do we expand the boundaries of our influence and spiritual authority? Last week, Dennis McNally taught us that we do not receive because we earned it. All we receive from God comes because of His grace, not our good works. It is always a [...]
Most Western Christians have an aversion to the supernatural power of God. Much of the time when God touches us through His Holy Spirit, it impacts us emotionally. This should not be a surprise to us because we received our emotional nature from Him. We are made in His image [...]
Sin is not the bad things that we do but the deep desire within all of us to be independent from God – to be our own bosses. Man started out as children of God in the Garden of Eden [the garden of pleasure]. Through stepping away from God as Lord and Father man became [...]
Mark gives a great sermon on How to Hear God.
We need the perseverance of Jesus to endure the delay. I think most of us know this by virtue of our experience with doubt. The question is; what can we do about it? How can we survive the delay? How can we wait well? Delay always brings difficult questions and a terrible temptation. The questions [...]
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 [...]
We are told that we need to “know” God but rarely are we told HOW to know God. We are told that God wants an intimate relationship of love with us but we are not told what our part is or how to do it. Join Mark on Thursday nights from 6:30-8:30 pm; Jan 22, [...]
This is part two of Deliver us from Evil - see Part 1 And this brings us to the central difference between authority and religion. Jesus began his role as teacher by teaching about the Kingdom of God but he didn’t stop at simply teaching about it. Jesus demonstrated the Kingdom of God by demonstrating [...]
If our faith is about a relationship rather than law, why does the law exist? We were always intended by God to live life with our focus upon Him. He designed our operating system as an intimate relationship of love. Out of that relationship, we will be compelled by His love to do what pleases [...]
Up close and Personal, A practical guide to an intimate relationship with God. We are told that we need to “know” God but rarely are we told HOW to know God. We are told that God wants an intimate relationship of love with us but we are not told what our part is or how [...]
At the last evening of our book discussion group, I led a Scripture meditation of the paralytic being lowered down through the roof to Jesus. Scripture meditation is patiently thinking about the Scripture passage in light of God's Holy Spirit. Our part is slowing down and listening. Richard Foster (author of many books including Celebration [...]
Mark Cowper-Smith We all want more of God in our lives, so how do we get more of Him? Psalm 78:40-42 in the KJV says, "How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert! Yea, ....they limited the Holy One of Israel." It is more than possible [...]
Mark Cowper-Smith The following is a testimony from someone that read my book and spent some time with Shell and I. When I first met this woman several weeks ago, she described herself as a "black and white" person who wanted to go beyond that mode of thinking. She was hoping the book would [...]
Someone sent me an article from Richard Rohr about the Dark Night of the Soul. I am including the full article and then my comments below. There comes to many seekers, at some time or a few times in their lives, a “dark night,” a period of seeming distance from God, from the ways in [...]
Mark Cowper-Smith There are a few reasons for the condition of not hearing God's voice like you used to. The first is very easy to fix. It may be that you have stopped listening in order to obey. Many of us, at times, only listen to hear what we want Him to say. [...]
I like cars. I love those TV shows that show some beat up, rusty wreck being rescued from a junk yard. The show takes the viewer through the process of restoration. We see the rust being cut out, the whole car being sand blasted to remove corrosion, and bent parts being straightened, etc. The goal [...]
Listening prayer is listening with the intent of hearing God's message to us, for whatever He wants to say. It is not about getting our prayers answered. It is not about our needs or desires. It is focused on intimacy with God who is our loving Father. It does not seek information, wisdom or answers. [...]
This is a serious problem and one that Shell and I have coped with personally during her 17 year illness. The "faith" community has taken the role of faith in healing prayer and exaggerated its importance to the point where it is treated as a magic formula. Just generate enough faith and God HAS TO heal [...]
There is a tenet of Ignatian spirituality*[see note below] that when our hearts are generally inclined towards God [that we are generally consecrated to Him] the desires of our hearts are placed there by Him. If you have prayed a genuine prayer of consecration and your desire is to worship God, then you can trust that [...]
