Throw off the Bondage!

"Through confession we are forgiven of our sins immediately, but we still have to throw off the bondage that came with them. The best way to do this is to give no place to the devil. Each morning say, 'Lord, fill me afresh with Your Holy Spirit this day and crowd out anything that is not of You."

Stormie Omartian. Lord, I Want to Be Whole: The Power of Prayer and Scripture in Emotional Healing. Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville (2000). Page 80.

Trust and Groaning

Without first establishing trust in the Father, people are usually unable to share the deep groanings of their hearts.


Andrew Comiskey. Pursuing Sexual Wholeness: How Jesus Heals the Homosexual. Creation House, Lake Mary, Florida (1989) page 51.

Pains Annexed to Sin

I was penetrated with so lively a dart of pure love, that I could not resolve to abridge, by indulgences, the pain due to my sins. "O my Love," I cried, "I am willing to suffer for You. I find no other pleasure but in suffering for You. Indulgences may be good for those who do not know the value of sufferings, who do not choose that Your divine justice should be satisfied, who, having mercenary souls, are not so much afraid of displeasing You, as of the pains annexed to sin."


Jeanne Guyon: An Autobiography. Witaker House, New Kensington, PA (1997). Page 50.
(Madame Guyon lived from 1647 to 1717)

Spirit of Forgiveness

"A spirit of forgiveness is a fundamental requirement for every disciple's life and learning." --Jack Hayford


Living the Spirit Formed Life: Growing in the 10 Principles of Spirit-Filled Discipleship. Regal: Ventura, California (2001) page 75.

Aim of Prayer

"...the aim of prayer is nothing less than a 'deep change in the whole of our personality.'" ---Sue Monk Kidd, quoting in part from Anthony Bloom.


When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions. HarperSanFrancisco (1992). Page 24.

Tainted, but not by Choice

"If you feel tainted by sexual impurity because of acts that were not your choice, God wants you to be released from the burden of them. Speak to the Lord about all that has happened. Every incident of your memory needs to be spoken out to Him so that it loses its power to torment you. Then ask Him to cleanse you from every effect of it."

Stormie Omartian. Lord, I Want to Be Whole: The Power of Prayer and Scripture in Emotional Healing. Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville (2000). Page 47.

Constrained but Not Free

He felt constrained by the truth, not set free. The reason was simple. Jim knew the truth about sexual ethics. But he didn't know the Father and His profound grace on Jim's behalf.


Andrew Comiskey. Pursuing Sexual Wholeness: How Jesus Heals the Homosexual. Creation House, Lake Mary, Florida (1989) page 48.

Unutterable Loss

As long as the soul continues resting in gifts, it does no fully renounce itself. Never passing into God, the soul loses the real enjoyment of the Giver, by attachments to the gifts. This is truly an unutterable loss.


Jeanne Guyon: An Autobiography. Witaker House, New Kensington, PA (1997). Page 48
(Madame Guyon lived from 1647 to 1717)

Victim of Unforgiveness

"That was it. I was simply tired of trying.

"I didn't physically turn my back and walk away from him at that moment; but in my heart and attitude toward Joe, I did. I was washing my hands of him, done trying to be his friend. I wouldn't realize it until later, but Joe had become a victim of my unforgiveness." --Jack Hayford

Living the Spirit Formed Life: Growing in the 10 Principles of Spirit-Filled Discipleship. Regal: Ventura, California (2001) page 73.

Waiting is Something

"When you're waiting, you're not doing nothing. You're doing the most important something there is. You're allowing your soul to grow up. If you can't be still and wait, you can't become what God created you to be."

Sue Monk Kidd. When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions. HarperSanFrancisco (1992).

Prayer--Set Your Heart Right

"Prayer starts with and remains deeply rooted in the Scriptures; the revealed Word of God quickly discerns our hearts. If our hearts are anxious, fearful, unforgiving, or sinful then they are to be immediately set right in conversation with God."

Leanne Payne. Listening Prayer: Learning to Hear God's Voice and Keep a Prayer Journal. Baker Books: Grand Rapids, Michigan (1994).

Hardened Hearts

"If we do not deal with an offense, it will produce more fruit of sin, such as bitterness, anger, and resentment. This added substance hardens our hearts just as alloys harden gold. This reduces or removes tenderness, creating a loss of sensitivity. We are hindered in our ability to hear God's voice."

John Bevere. The Bait of Satan: Lifing Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense. Charisma House, Lake Mary, Florida (2004). Page 9.

Abuse and Unforgiveness

"You may feel that the abuse in your past has kept you from becoming all you were supposed to be. But it's really the unforgiveness for the abuse that keeps you from becoming all that God made you to be."

Stormie Omartian. Lord, I Want to Be Whole: The Power of Prayer and Scripture in Emotional Healing. Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville (2000).

Power of Feelings

The power of the feelings at hand must be faced. And having faced it, each struggler needs to submit the reality of those impulses to the Creator, to grant Him His rightful place as Lord and Redeemer of the struggle.


Andrew Comiskey. Pursuing Sexual Wholeness: How Jesus Heals the Homosexual. Creation House, Lake Mary, Florida (1989) page 39.

Ecstasies

Ecstasies arise from a perceptible delight. They may be termed a kind of spiritual sensuality, wherein the soul, letting itself go too far by reason of the sweetness it finds in them, falls imperceptibly into decay. The crafty Enemy presents such interior elevations and raptures for baits to entrap the soul, to fill it with vanity and self-love, to fix its esteem and attention on the gifts of God, and to hinder it from following Jesus Christ in the way of renunciation and of death to all things.


Jeanne Guyon: An Autobiography. Witaker House, New Kensington, PA (1997). Page 48
(Madame Guyon lived from 1647 to 1717)

Obedience & Deliverance

"Obedience is followed by deliverance."

Jack Hayford. Living the Spirit Formed Life: Growing in the 10 Principles of Spirit-Filled Discipleship. Regal: Ventura, California (2001).

Parental Unforgiveness

"If you despise something in yourself, check to see if it's because it reminds you of one of your parents. If so, there may be an area of unforgiveness there."

Stormie Omartian. Lord, I Want to Be Whole: The Power of Prayer and Scripture in Emotional Healing. Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville. (2000). page 22.

Legitimate Craving

[God] called me to a more profound level of trust for all my needs, including that legitimate craving for physical and emotional bonding with another.


Andrew Comiskey. Pursuing Sexual Wholeness: How Jesus Heals the Homosexual. Creation House, Lake Mary, Florida (1989) page 29.

Vanity to the Soul?

Visions are in the inferior powers of the soul and cannot produce true union. The soul must not dwell or rely upon them, or be impeded by them; they are but favors and gifts. The Giver alone must be our object and aim. It is of such that Paul spoke, "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14 [KJV]). This deception generally happens to those who are fond of visions, and who overemphasize them, because visions are apt to convey a vanity to the soul, or at least hinder it from humbly attending to God only.


Jeanne Guyon: An Autobiography. Witaker House, New Kensington, PA (1997). Page 47
(Madame Guyon lived from 1647 to 1717)

Barter for the Spiritual Life

"Our Lord distinctly taught His disciples that if they were going to live the spirtual life, they must barter the natural for it; that is, they must forgo the natural life. We mean by the 'natural' life, the ordinary, sensible, healthy, worldly-minded life." --Oswald Chambers


"Heart: The Radical Region of Life: TheRendezvous of Perfect Life" in "Biblical Psychology" in The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers page 177.

Perfect Hatred

"God loves the world so much that He hates with a perfect hatred the thing that is twisting men away from Him." --Oswald Chambers


Heart: The Radical Region of Life: The Radiator of Personal Life (continued)" in "Biblical Psychology" in The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers page 175

Piously or Inquitously?

"...it is easy to talk piously and live inquitously." --Oswald Chambers


"Heart: The Radical Region of Life: The Radiator of Personal Life (continued)" in "Biblical Psychology" in The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers page 175