The Church & The Spirit

"The affection was quickly propagated throughout the room; many of the young people and children... appeared to be overcome with the sense of the greatness and glory of divine things, and with admiration, love, joy and praise, and compassion to others that looked upon themselves as in a state of nature [unsaved]; and many others at the same time were overcome with distress about their sinful and miserable state and condition; so that the whole room was full of nothing but outcries, faintings, and the like (emphasis mine)."

-Jonathan Edwards, Quoted in: Surprised By The Power Of The Spirit, Pg. 89

Wesley

"Wesley concludes his journal entry that day with the statement: "Form this time, I trust, we shall all suffer God to carry on his own work in the way that pleaseth Him."

-Jack Deere, Surprised By The Power Of The Spirit, Pg. 89

Pride & Humility

"It has been my observation that God does not normally violate the prejudices of religious pride. Many of the Pharisees went to their deaths absolutely convinced in the validity of their own traditions and prejudices. Their religious pride shut them off from the correction that God would so willingly have given them, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (1 Pet. 5:5).

  The tragedy is that many of their doctrines were biblical and true. Yet I would rather have some wrong doctrines and humility than to have perfect orthodoxy on every point and no humility. A person who has wrong doctrine and humility can be corrected. A person with mostly right doctrines and no humility will be resisted by the Lord he professes to serve."

-Jack Deere, Surprised By The Power Of The Spirit, Pg. 86

Traditions

"As J.I Packer has said, we are 'victims and beneficiaries of our own traditions.'"

-Jack Deere, Surprised By The Power Of The Spirit, Pg. 85

Toungues

"The problem with that method, besides being dishonoring to Scripture, is that this kind of authoritarian control stifles spontaneity and drains away the very life of the church. It drives sin and abuse underground where it is much more difficult to deal with. I have seen much more wickedness and secret sin among authoritarian fundamentalist churches than anywhere else among the spectrum of Christian churches today."

-Jack Deere, Surprised By The Power Of The Spirit, Pg. 85

"Charismatic" Gifts

"There is enough evidence that some form of "charismatic" gifts continued sporadically across the centuries of church history that it is futile to insist on doctrinaire grounds that every report is spurious or the fruit of demonic activity or psychological aberration."

-D.A. Carson, Quoted in: Surprised By The Power of The Spirit, Pg. 73

Justification

"One of the most precious teachings ever given to the church is the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ. Shortly after the death of the apostles, however, the writing of some of the Apostolic Fathers begins to show that the doctrine of justification by faith was already being perverted (cf. the epistle of Barnabas and the shepherd of Hermas)."

-Jack Deere, Surprised By The Power of The Spirit, Pg. 72

Apostolic Ministry & Gifts

"If we are going to say that the apostolic ministry sets the standard by which we should judge the gifts in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, we might be forced to conclude that no gifts, miraculous or non-miraculous, have been given since the days of the apostles! For who has measured up to the apostles in any respect?"

-Jack Deere, Surprised By The Power of The Spirit, Pg. 67

Apostle Paul's Ministry

"We should, of course, expect the healing ministry of the apostles to be greater than that of others in the body of Christ. They were specially chosen by the Lord to be his handpicked representatives, and they were given authority and power over all demons and over all disease (Matt. 10:1; Mark 3:13-15; Luke 9:1). They received a special promise to be "clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49, cf. Acts 1:8). They possessed an authority that no one else in the body of Christ possessed. Paul, for example, actually had the authority to turn someone over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh (1 Cor. 5:1-5)."

-Jack Deere, Surprised By the Power of The Spirit, Pg. 67

Teaching

"Therefore, since no one has arisen with the gift of teaching that is equal to the apostle Paul's, should we conclude that the gift of teaching was withdrawn from the church?"

- Jack Deere, Surprised by The Power of The Spirit, Pg. 67

Sin

"Nothing can hurt you but sin; nothing can grieve me but sin; nothing can make you fall before your foes but sin; beware of sin, my Mansoul."

-Ethel Barrett, The War For Man's Soul, Pg. 194

Temptation, Prayer, Evil & Sin

"'Yes, I suffer Diabolonians to dwell in your walls, O Mansoul; it is to keep thee watchful, to try thy love,' Emmanuel was saying as Prywell entered the market square. He found himself a place at the edge of the crowd and listened. It was as though Emmanuel had read his thoughts-as if a conversation that had begun in his study was continuing in the market square.
'It is to cause you to prize my noble captains and their soldiers. It is to cause you to prize my mercy. And it is also that you be made to remember the deplorable condition you once were in," Emmanuel went on. "O my Mansoul, should I slay all them within, many there be without that would bring you into bondage. Were all those within cut off, those without would find you sleeping. Then, as in a moment, they would swallow up my Mansoul. Therefore I left them within your walls not to do you hurt but to do you good, the which they must, if you watch and fight against them. Know therefore that whatever they shall tempt you to, my design is that they should drive you, not farther off, but nearer to my father, to teach you war, to make petitioning desirable to you."

-Ethel Barrett, War For Man's Soul, Pg.193

Holy Spirit

"If we profess to be believers, we must seriously examine ourselves to see whether we have truly received the Holy Spirit or not. If the Spirit does not dwell in you, if he is not your Comforter, then God is not your Father and nor is the Son your Redeemer. Nor do you have any part or lot in the riches of the gospel."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 209

False Assurance

"If they have false assurance of God's care and promises to them, and in this false assurance they comfort themselves, then their comfort is like the dreams of a hungry man who thinks he is eating and drinking, but when he awakes, he is still hungry and thirsty. So, many will awaken in the last day and see all things clearly. In that day, they will then find that God is their enemy. They will see him laugh at their calamity."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 208

Holy Spirit

"If, therefore, our living to the glory of God or the joy of such a life is important to us, then we are to ask for him from the Father as children ask their parents for their daily bread. It is in this asking and receiving of the Holy Spirit that we have communion with the Father, who in his love sent the Holy Spirit to us."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 207

Holy Spirit

"Let this be our meditation: 'The Holy Spirit is infinite love and kindness to me. He has wonderfully chosen to be my Comforter. He does this work willingly, freely and powerfully. What great things I have received from him! How often he has comforted my soul! Can I live one day without him? Shall I not care what he wants to do in me? Shall I grieve him by my negligence, sin and foolishness? Shall not his love constrain me to walk before him in such a way that brings him great pleasure?' In this way, we shall have holy fellowship with him."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 203

Holy Spirit- Prosperity

"Without the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit, the poverty of the church will overwhelm us and the prosperity of the church will not concern us."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 199

Holy Spirit

"Without the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit, we will either despise afflictions or collapse under them and God's purpose in sending them to us will be defeated."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 198

Satan

"The Holy Spirit was to glorify them who was to suffer in Jerusalem. But the false spirit that is in the world glorifies itself. It denies and treats with contempt Christ who suffered for us. Its own glory and honour is all this false spirit seeks, wholly upsetting the order of the divine dispensations. THe origins and source of all divine dispensations lay in the Father's love. The Son came to glorify the Father. He still says, 'I do not seek my own glory, but the glory of him that sent me'. The Son, having carried on the work of redemption, was now to be glorified with the Father. This is what he prayed for (John 17:1). So the Holy Spirit is sent, whose work it is to glorify the Son. But now a false spirit has come whose whole work is to glorify himself not Christ. By this we can know what sort of spirit this is that is in the world."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 195

Satan

"The business of this false spirit is to deny the things that Christ has spoken which are written in the Word and, instead, to claim new revelations of his own, to lead men from the written Word in which the whole work of God and all the promises of Christ are recorded. Such was the spirit of the Montanists and that of Mohammed and of all who claim new revelations today."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 195

Satan vs. The Holy Spirit

"The first way that Satan tried to cast contempt on the work of the Spirit was by seetting up a ministry without the Spirit. This was done by setting up a liturgical service to be read by the minister. No special gift of the Spirit is required to do this. So men were set apart to the ministry who had never once 'tasted of the powers of the world to come' (Heb. 6:5), nore received any gifts of the Holy Spirit for the work of the ministry. Those who claimed to pray by the Spirit were held in contempt and scorn was poured upon them.
The second way that Satan tried to cast contempt on the work of the Spirit was by setting p the Spirit without a ministry. In the first case, it was sufficient for the Word to be read without either preaching or praying by the Spirit. Now the Spirit is enought without reading or studying the Word at all. In the first way, Satan allowed a literal embracing of what Christ has done in the flesh. Now he talks of Christ in the Spirit only, and denies that he ever came in the flesh. John warned Christians of this deceit (i John 4:1)."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 194

The Holy Spirit- Peace

"A man may be chosen in the eternal love of the Father, redeemed by the blood of the Son and justified freely by the grace of God so that he has a right to all the promises of the gospel. Yet this person can, by no reasonings or persuasions of his own heart, by no considerations of the promises of the gospel, nor of the love of God or grace of Christ in them, be brought to that peace until it is produced in him by the Holy Spirit. 'Peace' is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22)."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 191

The Spirit- Comforter

"Our prayers may be considered as a spiritual duty required by God. So they are wrought in us by the Spirit of sanctification, who helps us to perform all our duties by exalting all the faculties of the soul.
Our prayers may be considered as a means of keeping up communion with God. The soul is never more lifted up with God. The soul is never more lifted up with the love of God than when by the Spirit it is taken into communion with God in prayer. This is the work of the Spirit as Comforter."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 189

The Spirit

"God gives us the promise of eternal life. To guarantee this to us, he gives us his Spirit. So the Spirit is the 'earnest, the deposit, the guarantee' of the full inheritance that is promised and purchased."

John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 186

The Holy Spirit-Condemnation

"It is the same with the believer. The soul, by the power of his own conscience, is brought before the law of God. There the soul puts in his plea that he is a true child of God, that he does indeed belong to God's family, and to prove this, he produces all his evidences, everything by which faith gives him a right and title to God. Satan, in the meantime, opposes with all his might. Sin and the law add thyeir opposition also. Many flaws are found in his evidences. The truth of them all is questioned and the soul is left in doubt as to whether he is a child of God or not. THen the COmfoter comes and by a word of promise or in some other way, overwhelms the heart with a sure persuasion, putting down all objections, showing that his plea is good and that he is indeed a child of God. And therefore the Holy Spirit is said to 'witness with our spirits that we are children of God.' "

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 182-183

Holy Spirit

"What we have of heaven in this world lies in this work of the Holy Spirit."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 182

Holy Spirit

"To persuade a poor, sinful soul that God in Jesus Christ loves him, delights in him, is well pleased in him and only has thoguhts of kindness towards him in an inexpressible mercy.
This is teh special work of the Holy Spirit and by this special work we have communion with the Father in his love, which is poured into our hearts."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg.182

Holy Spirit

"The work of the Comforter is to glorify Christ. So any spirit that claims to be of Christ and does not seek to glorigy that Christ who spoke to his apostles is clearly a false spirit."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 180

Faith & The Holy Spirit

"Faith deals especially with the Holy Spirit. Faith considers the promises themselves, looks up to the Spirit and waits for the Spirit to bring life and comfort into them. No sooner does the soul begin to feel the life of a promise warming his heart, freeing him from fear, worries and troubles, than it may know, and it ought to know, that teh Holy Spirit is doing his work. This will add to the believer's joy and lead him into deeper fellowship with the Holy Spirit."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg.180

Holy Spirit

"While he was with them, what little effect his promises had on their hearts! But when the Spirit came, how full of joy did he make all things to them. He brings the promises of Christ to our minds and hearts to comfort us, to bring us the joy of them and that far beyond the joy the diciples found in them when Christ spoke to them on earth. THe gracious influences of the promises were then restrained so that eh dispensation of the Spirit might be seen to be more glorious that that of the giving of the law."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 178

Holy Spirit

"Whereas the Spirit of sanctification dwells in us always and therefore it is impossible for us to utterly lose our holiness, the Spirit as comforter and helper does not seem to abide with us always."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 174

Praying for The Holy Spirit

"Praying for the Holy Spirit is the most important work faith has to do in this world."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 173

Holy Spirit

"No other sin is considered to be as rebellious as is the sin of rejecting the Holy Spirit. it is considered to be the height of rebellion to reject the Holy Spirit, because he comes in the name and authority of the Father and the Son from whom and by whom he is sent. Therefore, to sin against him is to sin against the whole authority of God, all the love of the Trinity and all the utmost willingness of each person of the Godhead to take the place and office appointed him for our salvation. To reject the Spirit is to reject the love of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 171-172

Salvation & The Holy Spirit

"The order of persons in the work of salvation is, firstly, the Father and his loving purpose to send the Spirit. Then we have the asking of the Son, which is folled by the willing proceeding of the Holy Spirit."

-John Owen, Communion With God, Pg. 170