Book: Forgotten God
- Read: September 2012
- Rating: 9.0/10
Forgotten God is another excellent book I recently read by Francis Chan. It’s pretty interesting how he talks about the Holy Spirit, and he mentions regularly how the Spirit is God and how often we forgot that fact. I think one of my favorite quotes in the book is “Have you ever thought about the significance of having ‘another’ counselor who is ‘just like’ Christ?” For me that’s pretty amazing to think about. We regularly say, “what would Jesus do?” rather than saying “what does the Holy Spirit (who lives inside me) want me to do?” I’d definitely recommend this book.
Quotes / My Notes
“The benchmark of success in church services has become more about attendance than the movement of the Holy Spirit.”
“Perhaps the core issue is really about our holding back from giving ourselves to God, rather than our getting ‘too much’ of Him.”
Exegesis - an attempt to discover the meaning of the text objectiveley, starting with the text and moving out from there Eisegesis - to import a subjective, preconceived meaning into the text
“The problem is much of what we believe is often based more on comfort or our culture’s tradition than on the Bible”
“People are more likely to describe the quality of the music or the appeal of the sermon that the One who is the reason people gather for ‘church’ in the first place.”
“We need to begin afresh by reexamining our preconceived ideas about the Holy Spirit and what it means to be a temple of the Spirit”
“Have you ever thought about the significance of having ‘another’ counselor who is ‘just like’ Christ?”
“When was the last time I undeniably saw the Spirit at work in or around me?”
“I think the fear of God failing us leads us to ‘cover for God.’ This means we ask for less, expect less, and are satisfied with less because we are afraid to ask for or expect more.”
“There is a huge difference between believing what God has promised and praying for things you’d like to be true.”
“Am I even open to the possibility that I could be wrong in my beliefs?”
“We worry a lot more about how people will respond to us than we do about how the Holy Spirit of God will respond.”
“God is nol like anything. He is incomprehensible, incomparable, and unlike any other being.”
“The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is Eternal and Holy. The Holy Spirit has His own mind, and He prays for us. The Spirit has emotions. The Holy Spirit has His own desires and will. The Holy Spirit is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.”
“Pray for the day when believers care more about the Spirit’s grief than their own.”
“By the power of the Spirit we put to death the misdeeds of the body.”
“Why do you want to be healed? Why do you want to stay on this earth?”
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” - James 4:3
“The Spirit desires to use us when our hearts are aligned with this vision, when we are filled with genuine love for the church, and when we desire to see the church grow in love for God and others.”
“His love for the church was the only thing that kept him tied to life on earth.”
“They weren’t interested in what God was doing in others; they just wanted to show off what God was doing in them.”
“The Spirit is God, a being who requires that we submit ourselves to be led by Him. Do you really want to be led?”
“The truly startling thought is that by not submitting and totally trusting the Holy Spirit, I am not submitting to or trusting God.”
“How would you be missed if you left this place? What would change? Basically, what difference does your presence here make?”
“The Holy Spirit is the one who fills believers with God’s love and the one who enables us to love one another.”
Comfort - Maybe your life is too safe Volume - Maybe your life is too loud
“He was willing to remove Himself from people’s reach in order to pray and commune with God the Father. Our lack of intimacy often is due to our refusal to unplug and shut off comunication from all others so we can be alone with Him.”
“If you have received by faith the promise of the Holy Spirit, you are also His temple. As you drive your children to school. As you go to work every day. As you embark on a new, unknown season. As you go to school. As you face tragedy and pain. As you buy groceries. As you give of yourself in relationships. As you walk the dog. As you make decisions. As you live your life, the Holy Spirit is dwelling in you.” - As you are driving…
“It is easy to use the phrase ‘God’s will for my life’ as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience”
“When Jesus calls us to take up our cross, He is doing much more than calling us to endure the daily, circumstantial troubles of life.”
“What if you could hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and He asked you to literally give everything you owned? What if He asked you to sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor? Could you do it?”
“I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit.”
“It is safer to avoid situations where we need God to come through than to stake it all on Him and risk God’s silence.”
“Often in Christian circles we talk about the truth in lieu of applying it to our lives.”
“Is it not an emergency that children in Cambodia and Thailand and even the United States are being raped every single day of their lives? Why is that not an emergency?” - on emergency funds/savings