Stephanie’s Reviews > Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit > Status Update

God delights to show up when His children call on His name and when they are trusting fully in Him to come through, whether that is in relationships, in battling sin, in strength to make sacrifices, or in endurance to be faithful in daily life. Are you living this way? Or are you surviving only by your own strength, by your own wits?

When I live by my own power and strength, relying solely on my natural talents to see me through, then people naturally praise me for how I am living. But when I am living in a way that requires me to depend on the Holy Spirit, people respond by praising my Father in heaven.

But despite our inability to change ourselves in this way, to simply become more peaceful or joyful, we expend a great deal of effort trying. We focus on what God wants us to do and forget the kind of people He wants us to be.

I don't believe God wants me (or any of His children) to live in a way that makes sense from the world's perspective, a way I know I can "manage." I believe He is calling me—and all of us—to depend on Him for living in a way that cannot be mimicked or forged.

a growing and energetic gathering is not necessarily evidence of the Holy Spirit's work

Like yeast and flour are both necessary to bread, both God's action and our response-action are necessary in this relationship with God.

walking in the spirit requires participation on your part. you can't just buy the treadmill and not run on it and expect results.

Christians can't ever lose the Spirit, but His filling is something we should constantly pursue.