Forgotten God

I loved the book. I am so blessed by how bold Francis Chan is about the things we so easily taint of the things of God. May God continue to pour wisdom, discernment and love upon this man.
I want to first say that Francis and I differ in our beliefs on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When I first sat down to read the book, I finished half of the book. Once I realized that we still hold our different opinion, I had to let God do some business with my heart. I realized that I would not be able to give the book it's full due with the way my heart was secretly thinking. I am so very blessed by his ministry that I knew until God fixed my slightly irritated heart, I wouldn't be able to receive all the GIANT nuggets that the rest of the book would hold. So the interesting thing is as I let God do business with my heart I began to really seek Him on some powerful truths about the Holy Spirit. What a journey this has been - one I am most grateful for.

I think one of the most profound things Francis talks about is the lack of the Holy Spirit in our Churches today. You see what we do is we put people in ministry according to what we see in them as their natural abilities. So whether you are someone who is saved or not, abiding or not, you still can function in the task and duties of your ministry. There becomes no need at all to really pray, to really seek God for His strength, for His empowerment of His Spirit. People are not fasting and praying at all. Look around at some of the churches that we know without a doubt are not Spirit lead. They grow, they seem to succeed, all the ministries are thriving and fun - they are a well oiled machine, yet there is no Spirit of God any where close to running their church. I think you get the picture. In fact I was so convicted when I read this because I know I am guilty of seeking people for ministry that I see are "gifted" yet knowing NOTHING about their real heart and private worship with God. So this happens so much of the time and then we wonder why we are not seeing real modern day miracles / signs and wonders / freedom in worship / 100 - 1000 of people coming out for prayer meetings. Well this is the reason. May God shine His light powerfully on this veil of deception that we all have allowed the enemy to win with. It's time to rip that veil!!! We have been given power like no other and yet we choose to crawl like the Caterpillar instead of flying like the butterfly. may we all become desperate for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. May we all stop the compromise that taints the name of God. May we all see our sin and repent before a Holy God so that THEN we can have healing from our bondages and live the remaining years of our lives in the restoration of His love.

Go get the book and read it!