"The essence of the Christian position is experience - experience of God! It is not a mere intellectual awareness or apprehension of truth. That can be of the devil ... If the experience is not an experience of the living God through His Son who has come to live and to die again in order to give it; if it is not through the Holy Spirit, it is not a true Christian experience".
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Ephesians Chapter 6:10-13 - The Christian Warfare" - Banner of Truth, Edinburgh (1976) - (p197).
"Many people at the present time say; "You mustn't touch (the baptism of the Holy Spirit) this subject, because it is only producing strife and division among Christian people". This I find really pathetic; that is the charge that has always been brought".
Dr Martyn Ll0yd-Jones - "Joy Unspeakable" - Kingsway Books, Eastbourne (2000) - p173
"If you and I, whether we are ministers of churches, simply talking to a neighbour over the fence, leading a choir or teaching a Sunday School Class, lose the joy of our salvation, we have bastardized the gospel. If ever we want simply the power of the gospel, but no longer delight in the simple and profound truth that before the heavens were formed our names were written down in the Lamb's book of life; if ever we want the power of the gospel and the unction of the Spirit of God but do not delight that our sins are forgiven, that endless eons into eternity still we will be trusting the Christ who shed His blood on our behalf - not cut off, not condemned, not confined to eternal perdition, but forgiven, transformed, renewed by the love of God in Christ Jesus - then the proclamation of the gospel degenerates to mere game".
Don Carson - “Rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven" - The Gospel Witness 61:7 (June 17, 1982): 6–7, 26–27.
"A doctrinalist may be very sincere, or he may not, he may be a religious hypocrite ... This is illustrated by Ezekiel’s vision in Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones. The bones are like doctrine. When they came together in proper order they were like a good systematic theology! But very dry. They needed flesh and sinews in order to live, move, act. In other words, the flesh, muscle, can illustrate living the life.
The flesh is shaped by the skeleton beneath it, and supported by it. Without the skeleton the muscle and sinew would be a heap on the ground. But those reconstituted bodies needed the life, the Spirit blowing through them. Only when all three were together did they become a living army. The skeleton alone (doctrinalism) is not enough. But the flesh and the Spirit without the skeleton becomes a writhing mass on the ground. We need sound doctrine, lived out in godly lives, empowered by the Holy Spirit".
Dr Stanley Jebb - "Beware of Doctrinalism" - Alethinos Reflections - June 9, 2009.
"The entire Mosaic Law comes to fulfillment in Christ and this fulfillment means that this law is no longer a direct and immediate source of, or judge of the conduct of God's people. Christian behaviour rather is now guided directly by the "law of Christ". This "law" does not consist of legal prescriptions and ordinances, but of the teaching and example of Jesus and the apostles, the central demand of love and the guiding influence of the Holy Spirit".
Douglas Moo - "The Law of Christ as the Fulfillment of the Law of Moses" - in "Five Views on Law and Gospel" - Stanley Gundry (ed) - Zondervan (1999) - (p343).
"The Holy Spirit is a great evangelist! Why are we shutting Him out of our meetings just because unbelievers are there?".
David Holden - "Ministers of the Spirit" - "Together on a Mission" Leadership Conference - Brighton - 2006.
"We must model charismatic life HOWEVER big the church is!".
David Holden - "Ministers of the Spirit" - "Together on a Mission" Leadership Conference - Brighton - 2006.
"A great cry to God, such as had never before come from my soul, went up to God. She must not die! I would not have it! Had not Christ died for her? … No words of mine can convey to another soul the cry that was in my heart and the flame of hatred for death and sickness that the Spirit of God had stirred within me. The very wrath of God seemed to possess my soul!".
John G. Lake - "Adventures in God" - p50-51 cited in Phil Moore - "A Healthy Theology of Healing" - Newfrontiers Theological Papers - 2008 - p15.
" At least there are certainly many who are very deficient in their religious practices, but their faith is involved in much darkness. Wherefore all preachers and those having care of souls should remember that it is their duty to instruct their people more diligently and more fully about the Holy Ghost - avoiding, however, difficult and subtle controversies, and eschewing the dangerous folly of those who rashly endeavour to pry into divine mysteries. What should be chiefly dwelt upon and clearly explained is the multitude and greatness of the benefits which have been bestowed, and are constantly bestowed, upon us by this Divine Giver, so that errors and ignorance concerning matters of such moment may be entirely dispelled, as unworthy of "the children of light." ".
Pope Leo XIII - "Encyclical Divinum Illud Munus" - May 9, 1897 - 1987
"We are so decorous, we are so controlled, we do everything with such decency and order that there is no life, no power, no warmth and it isn't New Testament Christianity! That's why the world is outside!".
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones - "Quenching The Spirit (1)" - Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recording Trust CD.
