A Church Without Walls

I know many people who have been kept from being open to the Holy Spirit due to a particular Pentecostal doctrine/theology that said you must speak in tongues as a sign of the baptism of the Spirit.  I wanted to have this conversation with my friend, Larry Spousta, who is a Pentecostal pastor.  You will be blessed by his story and his generous approach to the topic.

If there is a God in the room with me then that is a completely different world I'm living in than if God is talking to me from a distance on a walkie-talkie. So says my guest, Alison Millikan, as she shares her journey through some of her obstacles to the Holy Spirit - not wanting to be duped or emotionally manipulated, and her fear of being out of control. 

As we begin to believe for more, there can be a greater experience of disappointment when the more doesn't happen in the way we want or desperately need.  We continue our conversation with Andy Ekblad as he talks about the already and not yet of the Kingdom as he saw miracles and answered prayer all around him but not in his daughter. 

Join me with my friend, Andy Ekblad, as he shares part one of his journey of hunger for and experience of more of the Holy Spirit. Are you hungry for more of God?

It's Good Friday. Of all the things Jesus cries out from the cross, the most anguished may be the cry of dereliction, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" We have been told that in this moment of terrible suffering, the Father turned his face away from the Son as the wrath of heaven is poured out on sin. But is it true? Is that what is happening?

Meet my friend, Rebekah Cancelosi, as she shares her journey with the Holy Spirit through knowing the Holy Spirit as Helper in her 20s, as Hope in her 30s, and as Healer in her 40s. There is always more the Holy Spirit has for us and while there are big moments of breakthrough that mark the way, it is a long journey that won't end until we are face to face. You can find out more about Rebekah...

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Jesus call to love our enemies cuts across partisan lines and there is much that can be said about the failure to love on all sides. However, I feel the need to address a form of religious extremism happening in the church in America because it promotes a hatred of enemies and threat of violence as though these are compatible with being a follower of Jesus. We rarely win arguments by pointing out...

"The prophetic is a gift. It's not an award or a reward, or something you can earn." So says my friend, Kitsy Gregory. And like any gift, it needs to be opened and we need to learn how the Holy Spirit wants to interact with us through this gift. If you have been wondering about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and this gift in particular, you will enjoy this conversation.  And if you&ap...

When we talk about walking in spiritual authority, we are talking about doing the will of our Father to bring His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. There are few verses in the gospels that spell out the challenge of what following King Jesus means more than when he tells us to "love our enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you...&qu...

Whether we are aware of it or not, we live in a war zone. While armed conflicts between various nations are all around us, the reality is that there are only two kingdoms - the kingdom of our Lord Jesus and the kingdom of darkness - and they are at war. Jesus has won the ultimate victory but the battle continues. When we become aware of that battle, we are becoming aware of what is called "sp...

In this episode I want to step back into our conversations about Holy Spirit empowerment and look at how it intersects with the humanity of Jesus and the concept of spiritual authority. I want to do this because we will explore spiritual warfare in our next podcast, and our understanding of spiritual authority is the central issue in spiritual warfare. Our understanding of spiritual authority is a...

The Christmas / Advent season is about waiting for the fulfillment of the prophetic promise… God spoke through the prophets by his Holy Spirit and his word accomplishes what it set forth to do. It doesn’t return to him empty. But there is waiting. In the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth we see how their long awaited prayer was finally answered but it was part of a bigger story, and God was just ge...

We are in the season of Advent and while it is meaningful to us in many ways, we often treat the Holy Spirit supernatural activity more like a children's book than actual events. There is no section of the Bible given to more Holy Spirit activity than the conception and birth of Jesus. Let's explore and discover that the Bible isn't just a story of what God did then, it is what God...

Meet my friend, Ruby Tanaka. Some may say that she's a dreamer; but she's not the only one. In fact, dreams and visions are mentioned as a way that God communicates over 200 times in the Bible. And part of the prophetic promise from Joel 2 is that when God's Spirit is poured out on everyone, they will dream dreams! The question then becomes, how do we pay attention and understand an...

Lorinda's journey with God is one that highlights God's pursuit of us as described in Psalm 139: "Where shall I go from Your Spirit? If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the seas, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me." While she shares some of the big moves of God in her...

We dive back into the topic of deliverance from a new angle. How cano we engage with our own places where we are stuck? Join us as Bob takes us into Matthew 7 and Colossians 3 as we seek to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in identifying roots, addressing them and walking in new life.

One of the statements I have often heard is "everything happens for a reason." Usually someone is trying to give some sense of meaning to a hard situation, at other times there is a sense of resignation or fatalism. And while the thought that everything happens for a reason may feel like it offers some solid ground in the midst of chaos, if we believe in God it ends up saying that God is...

As we are learning to partner with and cooperate with the Holy Spirit, there are times when we can get excited about what God is doing, while at other times prayer takes more effort. The answers we are asking for don't come immediately (or at all). What does it mean or look like to persevere or contend in prayer? Meet my friend Wendy, who is a prayer warrior, and if there is anyone I want to...

Trigger warning: this episode contains content regarding drug addiction and attempted suicide.  Jonathan Oliviera shares his story of redemption from being a young, fatherless, addict who tried to end his life to an unlooked-for encounter where Jesus claimed him as his own and set him on a new trajectory. 

I'm excited to share this conversation with my new friend, Charlie Yang. Charlie works in the tech industry and was happy to finish out there. He shares how God has been moving him from being the "most okay Christian ever" to a Spirit led Kingdom life, as well as his resistance along the way. Beginning with honest prayers and moving toward praying for others, the Holy Spirit has bee...

If the conversations with about the Holy Spirit have felt like riding the rapids, let's wade into the deep, quiet waters where the Spirit hovers over the chaos of everyday life and the larger issues. Sara Shih operates out of a place of devotion that flows out of an experience of God's faithfulness in spite of her disobedience, a heart posture of regular dependence, out of which she part...

As soon as we start believing and expecting the Holy Spirit to do miraculous stuff, we run into all sorts of places where our expectations aren't met. God healed this person. Why not that person?  So, I'm excited to introduce you to my friend, Rita Nussli. Rita is a person who lives in the power of the Holy Spirit out of a deep foundation of her belovedness in God. Prepare your hearts to...

With all the talk about the Holy Spirit and hearing God, what do we do if we feel our experience of God has been all or mostly silence? It's not a "one-size-fits-all" answer. Let's ask more questions about your journey and explore some of the terrain through the lens of spiritual direction.

While still on topic, I've invited our regular guest, Drew Shih, to dialogue with me about my book, Hearing the Heartbeat of God, that came out in May. Join us in this conversation about some of the journey the Holy Spirit has had me on and what God has been teaching me in the process.