Why doesn’t God always heal the sick? That is a profound mystery that is both frustrating and confusing to us all. In this episode we look at the first five of ten reasons I will give as to why not everyone for whom we pray is healed.

How did Jesus perform his miracles? By what power did he heal the sick and drive out demons? You may think the answer is, “By virtue of his divine power as God.” But you would be wrong. Yes, Jesus was and always will be God, but he accomplished his earthly ministry and performed his many miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit, the very same Holy Spirit who now indwells and empowers Christians to carry on the ministry that Jesus inaugurated.

In the previous episode we closely examined all the arguments that people use to demonstrate that a Christian cannot be demonized. In this episode I examine several biblical texts that I believe suggest that yes, a Christian can be demonized. Although no NT passage explicitly and definitively states that a believer can have an indwelling demonic spirit, no text says he/she can’t! We will look at those biblical texts in this episode.

There is hardly a more controversial and widely discussed issue than that of demonization. In particular, can a born-again believer in Jesus be inhabited or indwelt by a demon? In this episode we look at all the biblical texts and theological arguments cited to prove that a Christian cannot be demonized.

In this episode we continue our efforts to answer the question, What is baptism in the Spirit and when does it occur? Here I explain where the doctrine of Spirit baptism as separate from and subsequent to conversion comes from. We explore numerous texts in the book of Acts that have been used by classical Pentecostals and many Charismatic Christians to prove their view.

Love is Love! Or is it? That is the question I address in this podcast. We see everywhere this slogan. But what does it mean? Does it mean that we must embrace and affirm everyone’s belief or the lifestyle they’ve chosen to pursue? So it would seem. In this podcast I examine this slogan and instead choose to say that love is telling someone whatever it is that will most bless them in this life and ensure their eternal destiny in the presence of God. And what you tell them may be offensive to their way of thinking.

There are a handful of spiritual gifts that are mentioned in the NT but are never defined. I’m thinking of word of knowledge, word of wisdom, and the discerning of spirits (1 Cor. 12:7-10). What are these gifts? How do they operate? Do we have examples of them in the NT. Join me in this episode as we explore this challenging question.

What are we to do when we hear what purports to be a prophetic word? In this episode we explore what it means to judge or weigh or assess a prophetic word. Often times Christians neglect to evaluate what they hear, simply swallowing everything in a somewhat naïve way. But in 1 Thessalonians 5 and 1 Corinthians 14 Paul exhorts us to judge prophetic words. How do we do this? The answer is found in this episode!

If spiritual gifts are only bestowed by the Holy Spirit when he wills, what responsibility do we have? Doesn’t God’s sovereignty undermine the importance of our praying for them? No, it doesn’t! Also, how might we go about discovering our spiritual gifts? Does the Bible give us any guidance for this? These and related questions are addressed in this episode.

In this episode I explore the issue of our responsibility to pray for and pursue spiritual gifts. In doing so, I respond to those who would tell us that this isn’t something we should do, or that it is a matter of choice. A close examination of 1 Corinthians 14:1 demonstrates that if we aren’t desiring and pursuing and praying for spiritual gifts, we are sinning!