discipleship - The Practical Disciple

Posts Tagged Under: discipleship

Dose of the Ghost – Spirit of Love, part 4 of 9, [episode 52]

 
This is part two in a nine part series on praying to the Holy Spirit. To access the entire series click the link below.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE ENTIRE SERIES
 

Verse:

“For God did not give you a spirit of timidity but of power, love and self discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

Mediation:

Jesus told us “love your neighbor as yourself.” I know what he means. He means that he wants us to love others the way we would want to be loved. Did you ever stop to think though that you probably are loving your neighbor as yourself right now but not in a good way? Here’s what I mean by that.

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A Protestant Novena, A Dose of the Ghost – Spirit of Truth, part 1 of 9.



 

What is a Novena?

A novena is a nine-day prayer commitment focused upon a specific intention. The most common novena is a novena to the Holy Spirit between Ascension of the Lord Thursday and Pentecost Sunday. A novena though may be said at any time of year and there is no limit to the focus of a novena. Click the button below to get your free copy of my novena to the Holy Spirit, A Dose of the Ghost.

Typically, a novena is a catholic tradion. “Protestant novena” may be an oxymoron, because as far as I know

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Repentance Prayers–How to Stop Recurring Sin, Part 1 [Episode 11]


 

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Sin Cycle

If you have a recurring sin that you can’t seem to escape, expanding repentance prayers by doing more than just asking for forgiveness can often break the cycle. When you understand that something is wrong (sinful), you pray that you will stop, and yet you don’t, then you have gotten trapped in what I call a sin cycle.
 
The danger of a sin cycle is that it can trap you spiritually from moving forward. You are like a man trying to walk down a path with

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Kingdom Value, The Key to making life count

Do you ever stop and wonder about the value of what you are doing?  If not, then you might ought to.  This weekend I visited with my brother and he was talking about his pastor labeling things in his home with the words “kingdom value” and whatever didn’t have it, he needed get rid of.  The idea of sorting my life by what has “kingdom value” has really grabbed my attention.  I can’t seem to let go of the thought or perhaps it won’t let go of me.

The pastor was talking about physical things in his life, but my mind instantly gravitates more toward the activities of my life.  What will I do today that has kingdom value?  What will I do today that adds to the over all value

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Finding Blessing in Adversity

“In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider–God has made the one as well as the other.” (Ecclessiates 7:14)

Does adversity stress you out?   Anger, disappointment, fear and stress are common responses to adversity.  I wonder if my own feelings would change if I truly took to heart the words of the Psalmist.

I know from scripture that God blesses people through some of the most horrible events.  My mind goes to Joseph whose brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. Eventually prison would lead him to the palace where he would later be a blessing to many people including his family.  I think of Paul whose imprisonment brought him into a position to share the Gospel with higher and higher levels of political

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Prayer Journaling Difficulties and Solutions

Our youth have been prayer journaling for a week now using a method that I outlined in the Prayer Journaling Orientation video posted a week ago.  Last Sunday we discussed their experiences.  In today’s brief video I share 5 common difficulties they encountered and 3 “triggers” for being consistent.  They have had some really awesome God-incidence stories happen because of their prayer journaling.  I can’t wait to see what a couple more weeks of journaling is going to yield.  You can expect more video posts on the lessons they learn.

On another note…Today’s video has a cleaner , crisper audio signal with more volume range over prior videos.  Unfortunately, in my efforts

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