Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 7022 This is one of the most pastorally urgent questions anyone can ask, and it deserves an answer that is both theologically honest and deeply compassionate. The grief surrounding suicide is compounded by fear, and that fear is often intensified by poorly grounded teaching that confidently declares suicide an unforgivable sin. What does Scripture…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04038 Being ‘drunk in the Spirit’ is a phrase used within certain charismatic and neo-charismatic circles to describe a state of apparent spiritual intoxication, characterised by uncontrollable laughter, staggering, slurred speech, and behaviour that mimics physical drunkenness. The phenomenon gained global prominence during the so-called ‘Toronto Blessing’ of 1994 and continues to feature in…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4079 Every serious Christian has encountered the experience of doing something wrong — a sharp word, a deliberate compromise, an act of selfishness — and then wondering, sometimes with real anxiety, whether something has been lost with God. The question of what a single act of sin does to the Spirit’s filling is not…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4078 The relationship between the filling of the Spirit and intercessory prayer is one of the more neglected connections in practical pneumatology, despite the fact that the New Testament draws the two together with some consistency. Intercessory prayer — praying on behalf of others — is not simply a spiritual discipline that believers undertake…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4076 The phrase “second blessing” carries a great deal of theological baggage, and the doctrine it represents has divided evangelical Christians for well over a century. At its core, the second blessing doctrine holds that there is a distinct, definable spiritual experience available to Christians after conversion — often called entire sanctification, perfection, or…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4074 When theologians speak of the “eternal counsels of the Godhead,” they mean the purposes, plans, and decisions that exist within God’s own being before any act of creation — the eternal agreement between Father, Son, and Spirit regarding what they would do and how they would do it. The language of “counsel” risks…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4080 Among the questions that unsettle believers who take their spiritual life seriously is whether their current experience of the Spirit bears any relation to the security of their standing before God. When the filling of the Spirit fluctuates — as it undeniably does — and when seasons of spiritual vitality give way to…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 4081 Two commands in the New Testament describe ways believers can disrupt their relationship with the Holy Spirit: “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30) and “do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). These are distinct warnings, and collapsing them into a single idea loses something important from each. Understanding…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04104 There is a common but mistaken assumption that once a person has the Spirit, the hard work is largely done. If the Spirit of God genuinely dwells in every believer, why does Paul write as though Spirit-directed living is something that requires determined, daily effort? The commands to “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04106 Philip is one of the more interesting figures in Acts, and his ministry tends to be overshadowed by the drama of the Simon Magus episode and the theological puzzle of the Spirit’s delay. But he deserves attention in his own right. He was not an apostle. He was one of the Seven appointed…