Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4087 The question of how to distinguish a genuine prompting from the Holy Spirit from one’s own reasoning or from an external spiritual influence is one of the most practically pressing questions in the Christian life. It is easy to claim, and equally easy to dismiss — and both errors have consequences. Claiming the…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 04096 At first glance, the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 appear to be two separate lists, one from Jesus and one from Paul, addressing similar territory from different angles. The connections between them are real and theologically significant, though the two passages are not simply saying…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 04097 The relationship between biblical sanctification and what contemporary psychology calls character formation or psychological maturity deserves careful handling. There are genuine points of contact, observations from psychology that illuminate what Scripture has always said, and areas where the two frameworks diverge at a fundamental level. The task is knowing which is which, rather…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04098 Paul had other options available to him when he wrote Galatians 5. He could have described the qualities he was commending as virtues, drawing on a framework that every educated reader in the Greco-Roman world would have immediately recognised. He could have presented them as the disciplines of the Christian life, the practices…
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: 3 minutesQuestion 04021 Sanctification is not simply a matter of moral improvement or religious discipline. It is the Spirit’s work in the believer, transforming what we are from the inside out rather than merely adjusting behaviour on the surface. Understanding how the Spirit actually does this changes the way a Christian approaches the whole project of…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 04022 Paul’s instruction in Galatians 5:16 is not a vague encouragement to be more spiritual. “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” is a precise description of a way of living that has practical content. The question of what it actually means to walk by the Spirit…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 04023 Every Christian has moments of genuine uncertainty about their own spiritual condition. Am I acting out of the Spirit’s leading, or am I following my own desires and calling it God’s will? This is not an abstract theological question; it touches something very practical about self-knowledge, discernment, and honesty before God. Scripture provides…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 04020 The Holy Spirit produces fruit in the believer and distributes gifts to the believer, and while both come from the same Spirit, they are doing entirely different things. Conflating them causes no end of confusion in the church, particularly when spiritual gifts are treated as evidence of spiritual maturity, or when character is…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04037 Being ‘slain in the Spirit’ is one of the most recognisable and controversial phenomena in contemporary charismatic Christianity. The scene is familiar: a preacher lays hands on someone, or simply gestures toward them, and the person falls backward, apparently overcome by the Spirit’s power, often caught by designated catchers positioned behind them. This…