Spiritual Practices
Let pain be a sign
Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
I have a soul
“Secularism is a cultural framework that works against belief and undermines anything supernatural. Secularism is built on doubting. Secularism is set up to make you doubt.” (Mark Sayers).
Mark 8:36-37 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?Is anything worth more than your soul?
Is anything worth more than your soul?
Matt. 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled
Hunger is a good desire, it leads you to be filled
Matt. 4:4 People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Everyone has normal spiritual hunger
There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made know through Jesus Christ. – Blaise Pascal
Ps. 42:1-2 As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?
I am hungry for you God
Ex. 3:2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
Ex. 3:3-4 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
The stirring of spiritual desire indicates that God’s Spriit is already at work within us, drawing us to himself. We love God because he first loved us. We long for God because he first longed for us – Ruth Haley Barton
God initiates then waits
James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Rev. 3:17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
Rev. 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
The emptiness you feel may be God’s knock
John 7:37-39 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive
Spiritual Practices
Information is not transformation
I thank you for your…