Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4078. How the Spirit’s filling relates to intercessory prayer is a connection Scripture draws explicitly, and understanding it will change how you approach prayer for others, particularly when you genuinely do not know what to pray or how to pray it. Intercessory prayer, prayer offered on behalf of someone else, is not primarily a…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4057. The Spirit and resurrection are linked in Scripture far more tightly than most Christians realise, and once you see the connection you will not read Romans 8 the same way again. It is easy to speak of the resurrection purely in terms of God’s raw power, and leave the Holy Spirit as a…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4138. “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). This verse is one of the most personally assuring statements in all of Paul’s letters, and the Spirit bears witness in Romans 8:16 in a way that is worth examining both theologically and pastorally. It is the…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1012. Scripture teaches that creation reveals God to every person on earth, whether they live under bright city lights or open desert skies, and that truth runs far deeper than mere sentiment. Stand under a clear night sky and look up, watch the sun lift over the hills, or consider the staggering detail packed…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1011. Few pastoral questions trouble thoughtful Christians more than this one, and at its heart sits the matter of general revelation. Can a person be saved simply by looking at the created world and following their conscience, without ever hearing the name of Jesus? What about those born in remote places, or those who…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 0030 The difference between academic theology and practical doctrine is one of those distinctions that sounds dry until you realise how much harm comes from getting it wrong. I have met believers who treat theology as a cold intellectual hobby, and others who are suspicious of any teaching that asks them to think hard….
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 04027 The assurance of salvation is one of the sweetest gifts the Holy Spirit gives, and one of the most attacked. I have lost count of the believers who love the Lord yet lie awake wondering whether they are truly His. They are not careless people. They are tender consciences who long to know…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 04026 When I think about the Spirit in prayer, I am always brought back to a verse that quietly demolishes a lot of false confidence about my own praying. Most of us assume that prayer is a skill we slowly master, like learning an instrument, so that the longer we walk with God the…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 23. Why did Paul always start his letters with doctrine before application rather than practical instruction? Once you notice this pattern of doctrine before application, you cannot unsee it, and it will change the way you read the whole New Testament. Paul does not begin his letters with a list of things to do….
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 12017 This is a question the church cannot avoid, and one that must be answered with both clarity and compassion. The Bible speaks directly and consistently on the subject of homosexuality, and it does so within a broader framework of God’s design for human sexuality that is positive, purposeful, and good. The contemporary debate…