Paul gives us a practical way to respond when anxiety takes hold: pray, ask God specifically for what we need, give thanks, and release the situation to Him. Prayer is more than simply telling God what is bothering us; it is an invitation to exchange our anxiety for His peace. God may not immediately change the circumstance we are facing, but He can change what is happening within us as we trust Him with it. His peace can guard our hearts and minds even when the situation itself remains unresolved.  Read More

Peter connects humility with how we respond to anxiety. When we are anxious about things we cannot control, our instinct can be to try harder, figure everything out, or carry the burden ourselves. But God invites us to humble ourselves by recognizing that we need His help and trusting that He cares for us. Casting our anxieties on God is an act of humility because we are admitting that we cannot carry everything on our own.  Read More

Pastor Matthew Johnson gets personally honest about anxiety before teaching what Jesus promised His disciples about real peace.  Read More

Pastor Chris Reed and Pastor Matthew Johnson dig deeper into hearing God's voice, from seeking signs to trusting Him one step at a time.   Read More

When Jesus told His disciples that He was leaving, they had plenty of reasons to be anxious about the future. They were about to lose His physical presence and would have to navigate life and ministry without Him beside them. But Jesus promised that they would not be left as orphans because the Holy Spirit would come to be with them and live within them. Our peace is not based on having everything figured out or knowing how everything will turn out; our peace begins with knowing that God is with us.  Read More

Recognizing God’s voice ultimately means very little if we are unwilling to obey what He says. Proverbs calls us to trust the Lord rather than leaning entirely on our own understanding and to acknowledge Him in all our ways. Obedience strengthens our sensitivity to God because we learn through experience that His ways are trustworthy; disobedience, on the other hand, can harden our hearts and make us less responsive to His voice. We do not need to understand everything before we obey—we need to trust the One who is leading us.  Read More

Paul discovered that an open door did not automatically mean it was the door God wanted him to walk through. Although an opportunity for ministry was available in Troas, Paul recognized that something was not right within him and chose to move on. This reminds us that opportunities and circumstances must be discerned rather than automatically interpreted as God's direction. Not every open door is our door, and not every closed door means God has said no forever; we need Scripture, prayer, the Holy Spirit, and wise counsel to understand what God is doing.  Read More

Pastor Stacy and Pastor Chris introduce First John, exploring its structure, key themes, and the call to know Jesus as fully God.   Read More

Paul and his companions were actively pursuing God’s mission, yet the Holy Spirit redirected them along the way. Sometimes God's direction comes as a check—an inner restraint that tells us to pause or reconsider—and sometimes it comes as a nudge, prompting us toward a particular action or opportunity. God can also direct us through open and closed doors, but circumstances alone are not enough to determine His will. As we know His Word, ask Him to speak, and become sensitive to the Holy Spirit, we can learn to listen for His direction and look for how He may be leading us.  Read More

God does not expect us to navigate life without His direction. James tells us that when we lack wisdom, we should ask God, trusting that He gives generously. Sometimes we may want God to direct certain parts of our lives while keeping other areas under our own control, but God invites us to acknowledge Him in all our ways. We can bring Him our relationships, finances, calling, work, struggles, and decisions, trusting that He is a good Father who wants to lead us.  Read More

Pastor Matthew Johnson teaches that God's voice can direct every area of your life, not just the moments of obvious tension.  Read More

God’s Word gives us the foundation we need to recognize His voice and discern His direction. Scripture describes God’s Word as both a lamp for our feet and a light for our path—it helps us know where to step and where we are going. The more familiar we become with Scripture, the more recognizable God’s voice becomes because His Spirit will never lead us contrary to the truth He has already given us. Before we look for a specific word from God, we should first become deeply familiar with the Word of God.  Read More

Pastor Matthew, Pastor Chris, and Pastor Anthony explore what it means to depend on the Holy Spirit instead of relying on ourselves.   Read More

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego give us a powerful picture of mature faith: they knew God could deliver them, believed He would if He chose to, and were determined to trust Him even if He did not. This is an important tension when we pray for healing, miracles, or supernatural intervention. We can ask boldly without demanding that God prove Himself by giving us the outcome we want. Our faith ultimately rests not in receiving the answer we requested but in knowing the God to whom we prayed. We can have proven faith—“I know God can,” hopeful faith—“I believe God will,” and relational faith—“I trust God even if He doesn’t.”  Read More

Not everything that appears spiritual comes from the Holy Spirit, which means followers of Jesus need to develop biblical discernment. In Acts 16, Paul recognized that the source behind the slave girl’s words was not the Holy Spirit, even though what she said about Paul and his companions was technically accurate. Discernment is not the same as suspicion, judgment, or second-guessing everyone around us; it is learning to recognize what is producing something and where it is leading. As we grow in Scripture, wisdom, maturity, experience, and attention to spiritual fruit, we become better equipped to recognize what is truly from God.  Read More

Pastor Stacy and Pastor Chris kick off a new season with an introduction to 1, 2, and 3 John, covering authorship, context, and key themes.   Read More

Peter and John encountered a situation they could not solve through ordinary human ability, but they trusted the power of Jesus and acted in faith. The miracle that followed was not a demonstration of Peter and John’s greatness; it was the Holy Spirit working through them. This reminds us that supernatural power is not given to make us impressive but to accomplish God’s purposes and point people toward Jesus. We should learn to look for opportunities where God may want to work beyond what we can naturally accomplish.  Read More

Pastor Matthew Johnson teaches that faith isn't rooted in getting the outcome you want. It's rooted in trusting who God is.   Read More

God cares about what is broken, and Scripture repeatedly invites us to bring those needs to Him in prayer. The gift of healing demonstrates the Holy Spirit’s power to restore what is broken, and James encourages us to pray boldly for one another. At the same time, healing is not something we control or manufacture; the Holy Spirit remains the One who gives and manifests the gift. We can therefore pray with expectation without making the outcome the foundation of our faith.  Read More

Faith is more than believing that God can do something; biblical faith moves us to respond to what we believe about God. Hebrews 11 gives us example after example of people who acted because they trusted God—Abel offered, Noah built, Abraham left, and Moses obeyed. The Holy Spirit can give us confidence in God’s power and faithfulness in a specific situation, but that confidence is meant to produce a response. We may not know exactly what God will do, but we can choose to pray, obey, risk, and persevere because we know who God is.  Read More

Paul ends this letter with a rapid string of commands: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, and — right in the middle of it — do not quench the Spirit or despise prophecies, but test everything and hold fast to what is good. You are called to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you, and ask Him to speak through you, and don't shut Him down out of fear or unfamiliarity. Paul isn't asking for blind acceptance either — test what you hear against Scripture and hold onto what's good. When God speaks to you, it builds your faith. When God speaks through you to someone else, it builds theirs. That's worth staying open for, every single day.  Read More

Paul spends real time on tongues in this passage — the most unique, and to many the strangest, of the spoken gifts. He describes speaking in a language you don't naturally know, sometimes to build up your own spirit in prayer, and sometimes spoken publicly and paired with interpretation so the whole church can understand and be built up together. Paul isn't embarrassed by this gift; he says he's thankful he speaks in tongues more than anyone, even while prioritizing gifts that build up the church when believers gather. The takeaway isn't that every believer's experience will look identical — it's that the Spirit still gives gifts for real purposes: to strengthen your own spirit in prayer, and, when interpreted, to strengthen the whole body. Don't let the strangeness of a gift make you dismiss what the Spirit might still want to do.  Read More

Paul tells the Corinthians to pursue love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially prophecy — because the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation. That's the heart behind the gift of prophecy: the Spirit supernaturally speaking to you or through you, to strengthen someone right where they are. Paul actually wishes everyone would prophesy, because a timely word from God does something no generic encouragement can — it tells someone God sees them. Growing in this gift takes confidence, not perfection. You don't need to have it all figured out before you're willing to share what you sense the Spirit saying, you just need to be willing to offer it in love and let God use it.  Read More

No eye has seen and no ear has heard what God has prepared — but Paul says God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit, who searches even the depths of God. That's the supernatural source behind wisdom, the Spirit showing you what to do, and knowledge, the Spirit showing you something you couldn't otherwise know. Paul says plainly that we have the mind of Christ, which means the Spirit isn't handing out occasional hints — He's giving you access to real spiritual insight for real situations. This isn't reserved for dramatic moments only. It shows up in the daily decision you can't quite reason your way to, or the sudden sense that something is off before you have any proof. The question isn't whether the Spirit is willing to give wisdom and knowledge — it's whether you're asking and paying attention.  Read More