Assurance Of Salvation

" That some Christians fall into doubt regarding the state of thier sould is not always a bad thing. Their failure to believe and trust in the certainty of their salvation is not a failure of faith on their part but a merciful gift from God."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 72

Excercise Of The Spirit

"But 'persons being disposed to abound and to be zealously engaged in the eternal exercises of religion, and to spend much time in them, is no sure evidence of grace; because such a disposition is found in many that have no grace.'"

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 69

The Spirit

"And who that considers what man's nature is, and what the nature of the affections are, can reasonably doubt but that such unutterable and glorious joys, may be too great and mighty for weak dust and ashes, so as to be considerably overbearing to it? It is evident by the Scripture, that ture divine discoveries, or ideas of God's glory, when given in a great degree, have a tendency, by affecting the mind, to overbear the body; because the Scripture teaches us often, that if these ideas or views should be given to such a degree, as they are given in heaven, the weak frame of the body could not subsist under it, and that no man can, in that manner, see God and live."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 62

True Spirituality

"Whereas true spirituality will always manifest itself in powerful and intense affections, the latter alone are not proof that one is regenerate."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 61

Saving Activity Of God's Spirit

"But the mere presence of intense and heartfelt affections is itself no proof that one is the object of the saving activity of God's Spirit. We must be diligent to distinguish between affections that are genuine and God-gi ven and those that are not."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 59

Importance of Community

“Those who lack friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts….This communicating of a man’s self to his friends works two contrary effects; for it redoubles joys and cuts griefs in half.”

Francis Bacon, “Of Friendship,” 1625

The Spirit

"So has God disposed things, in the affair of our redemption, and in his glorious dispensations, revealed  to us in the gospel, as though everything were purposely contrived in such a manner, as to have the greatest possible tendency to reach our hearts in the most tender part, and move our affections most sensibly and strongly."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 58

"How they can sit and hear of the infinite height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus, or his giving his infinitely dear Son, to be offered up a sacrifice for the sins of men, and of the unparalleled love of the innocent, and holy, and tender Lamb of God, manifested in his dying agonies, his bloody sweat, his loud and bitter cries, and bleeding heart, and all this for enemies, to redeem them from deserved, eternal burnings, and to bring to unspeakable and everlasting joy and glory; and yet be cold, and heavy, insensible, and regardless! Where are the exercises of our affections proper, if not here? What is it that does more require them?"

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg 57

Affections & Satan

"It is as much an error to dismiss affections entirely as unimportant to the reality of true religion as it is to focus on high affections without regard to their source or nature. Satan is happy with either error. He would as much have us fall into a lifeless formality as he would that we be stirred and energized by affections unrelated to truth."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 56

Intellect, Affection & Obedience

"THose who insist on the intellect of man or the doctrinal accuracy of his thoughts as the pinnacle of religious expression need to consider that no idea or attitude or theory or doctrine is of any value that does not inflame the heart and stir the affections in love and joy and fear of God. Those who argue that moral obedience is the essence of religion fail to see that such behavior is only good to the degree that is springs from and finds its source in the holy affections of the heart as they described in Scripture."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 55

Worship

"When people object that certain styles of public worship seem especially chosen for their capacity to awaken and intensify and express the affections of the heart, they should be told that such is precisely the God-ordained purpose of worship. What they fear-namely, the heightening and deepening of the heart's desire and love for God, and the expansion and increase of the soul's delight and joy in God, what they typically call "emotionalism" or even "manipulation" - is the very goal of worship itself. For God is most glorified in his people when their goal of worship itself. For God is most glorified in his people when their hearts are most satisfied (i.e., when they are most "affected" with joy) in him."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 54

Preaching

"So with a view to "affecting" sinners and not merely "informing" them, God has appointed that his Word be applied in a particularly lively way through preaching."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 54

Worship

"In fact, virtually all external expressions of worship "can be of no further use, than as they have some tendency to affect our own hearts, or the hearts of others."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 53

Prayer

"We are not to pray as if our petitions inform God of what he doesn't know or change his mind or prevail on him to bestow mercy that he was otherwise disinclined to give. Rather we pray "to affect our own hearts with the things we express, and so to prepare us to receive the blessings we ask."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 53

Heaven & Affections

"If we can learn anything from Scripture about the nature of heaven and the experience of the saints there, it is that they have a love and joy that "is exceeding great and vigorous, impressing the heart with the strongest and most lively sensation, or inexpressible sweetness, mightily moving, animating , and engaging them, making them like to a flame of fire. And if such love and joy be not affections, then the word 'affection' is of no use in language. Will any say that the saints in heaven, in beholding the face of their Father, and the glory of their Redeemer, and contemplating his wonderful works, and particularly his laying down his life for them, have their hearts nothing moved and affected, by all which they behold or consider?"''

-Signs Of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 51-52

Affection

""there is doubtless true religion in heaven, and true religion in its utmost purity and perfection. But according to the Scripture representation of the heavenly state, the religion of heaven consists chiefly in holy and mighty love and joy, and the expression of these in most fervent and exalted praises."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Jonathan Edwards Quoted, Pg. 51

Love

"From love arises hatred of those things which are contrary to what we love, or which we oppose and thwart us in those things that we delight in. It is from the various exercises  of love and hatred, according to the circumstances of the objects of these affections, as present or absent, certain or uncertain, probable or improbable, that arise all those other affections of desire, hope, fear, joy, grief, gratitude, anger, etc."

-Signs Of The Spirit, Jonathan Edwards Quoted, Pg. 49

Holy Spirit

"I am bold to assert , that there never was any considerable change wrought in the mind or conversation of any one person, by anything of a religious nature, that ever he read, heard or saw [who] had not his affections moved."

-Signs of The Spirit, Sam Storms, Pg. 48

Affections

I am bold to assert, that there never was any considerable change wrought in the mind or conversation of any one person, by anything of a religious nature, that ever he read, heard or saw, [who] had not his affections moved."

Sam Storms, The Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards Religious Affections, p. 48

Affections: The Essence of True Spirituality

Not only are affections the essence of true spirituality, they are also the spring or source of virtually all our actions. There is hardly any activity or pursuit of man that is not, to some degree, driven or influenced by love, hatred, desire, hope, fear, etc. If we were to eliminate from the world all love, hatred, hope, fear, anger, zeal, and desire, that is to say, all affections of the soul, the world would lie motionless and dead. Whether it be covetousness or greed or ambition or sensuality or any such worldly experience, apart from such affections energizing this activity mankind would be passive and uninvolved.

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards Religious Affections, p.48

Spirituality

Spirituality is actually of little benefit to anyone if not characterized by lively and powerful affections. Nothing is so antithetical to true religion as lukewarmness. Consider those many biblical texts in which our relationship to God is compared to "running, wrestling or agonizing for a great prize or crown, and fighting with strong enemies that seek our lives, and warring as those that by violence take a city or kingdom."

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards Religious Affections, p.47

Emotion

One can experience an emotion or feeling without it properly being an affection, but one can rarely if ever experience an affection without it being emotional and involving intense feelings that awaken and move and stir the body.

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards Religious Affections,
p. 45

Affections

God has so united the material (body) and immaterial (soul) aspects of our being that it is virtually impossible for the latter to be greatly moved and it not affect the former.

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections,
p. 44

Joy

This is a joy shot through and through with the resplendent majesty of the beauty of God's being. It is not fleshly or worldly joy, nor the joy that comes from earthly achievements or money or fame. It is a joy that has been baptized, as it were, in the glory of God himself.

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections,
p. 40

Trials & Pains

"Perhaps most important of all is that trials and pains purify and increase true spirituality. They not only enable us to see and discern what is true from what is false, but also "tend to refine it, and deliver it from those mixtures of that which is false, which encumber and impede it, [so] that noting may be left but that which is true."

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections,
p. 37

Revival

...the religious intensity of 1741 could not long be maintained. The dreadful concerns, the traumatic awakenings, the accelerated devotion - these by their nature are of limited duration. The fever pitch must soon pass, else the patient dies... The ebb of this flood of revivalism would seem then to require no elaborate explanation: it declined simply because it had to, because society could not maintain itself in so great a disequilibrium.

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections, p. 31. quoted from Gaustad, Great Awakening in New England, p. 79

Conversion

It was very wonderful to see how person's affections were sometimes moved - when God did as it were suddenly open their eyes, and let into their minds a sense of the greatness of his grace, the fullness of their hearts as it were to leap, so that they have been ready to break forth into laughter, tears often at the same time issuing like a flood, and intermingling a loud weeping. Sometimes they have not been able to forbear crying out with a loud voice, expressing their great admiration.

Sam Storms, Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections, p.26

Repentance

One can experience the deepest possible remorse over sin and not repent. Both Esau and Judas demonstrate this. Indeed, we must all learn to distinquish between the sorrow that comes from being caught and the sorrow that comes from a deep, inward hatred of sin and longing for the glory of God that is the distinquishing feature of a regenerate person.

Richard Owens Roberts, Repentance: The First Word of the Gospel p. 86.