Showing titles in Spiritual Growth

The Bible tells us there is ecstatic, extravagant joy eternally in God's presence. We do not have to experience joy only intermittently, since every fruit of the Holy Spirit is available to us always. Georgian Banov knew nothing of this joy. Born and raised in Communist Bulgaria, he escaped miraculously to the United States, where he was embraced by the love and joy of the "Jesus people". 

The Gallup Poll reports that one in 25 people has had a near-death experience. Their heart stopped beating, their brain waves ceased; they claim they were more alive than ever. With improved medical resuscitation, more and more verifiable evidence indicates that life doesn't end with our last breath - it's just beginning. Drawing out the similarities found by studying over 1,000 accounts of near-death experiences around the globe, John Burke unfolds a compelling and comforting vision of a world where we are free from pain; we feel fully known and accepted; we are greeted by loved ones.

Every one of us will experience suffering. Many of us are experiencing it now. As we have seen in recent years, evil is real in our world, present and close to each one of us. In such difficult times, suffering and evil beg questions about God--Why would an all-good and all-powerful God create a...

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Read by the author. Discover how God has created you and called you to flourish even in the most difficult times. Join bestselling author Christine Caine as she shows you how God created you with a powerful purpose and destiny. He wants you to flourish...

In this life-changing audiobook, author and pastor Steven Furtick shares six mindsets that will help you get from who you are today to where God is taking you. Featuring an ensemble performance by Steven Furtick and his children—Elijah, Graham, and Abbey—this author-read audiobook speaks...

Being close to God means communicating with him—telling him what is on our hearts in prayer and hearing, and understanding what he is saying to us. But how do we hear God's voice? How can we be sure that what we think we hear is not our own subconscious? What role does the Bible play? What if what God says to us is not clear? The key, says bestselling author Dallas Willard, is to focus not so much on individual actions and decisions as on building our personal relationship with our Creator.

Most of us tend to think of the second half of life in chronological terms, but this book proposes a different paradigm. Spiritual maturity is found "when we begin to pay attention and seek integrity" through a shift from our "outer task" to the "inner task." Falling Upward is an invitation to living the gospel and a call to ongoing transformation.

Many of us fail to recognize that obtaining the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to getting to heaven. We often block their reception through our own faults. We fail to see how they are passed on or strengthened in the sacraments. And, sadly, we forget to petition God in prayer to bestow these gifts upon us.

Prayer is hard. Often, unless circumstances demand it—such as an illness or saying grace before a meal—most of us simply do not pray. This kind of prayerlessness can leave us with a distressed spirit and practical unbelief characterized by fear, anxiety, joylessness, and spiritual depression. A Praying Life is a prayer guide that has encouraged thousands of Christians to pursue a vibrant prayer life full of joy and power. A life of prayer invites you to a life of connection to God. 

Are you dying? If not, then you have not yet begun to live. The Bible teaches us that when God forgives a person by the death of Jesus Christ, He starts a process in him of dying daily putting his sinful habits to death as he lives in union with Christ. Though being born again brings fundamental changes in a person's soul, every Christian has sin remaining in him. Pastor Geoffrey Thomas explains how Christians can fight and conquer sin in their lives by the grace of Christ so that they grow to be more like Jesus, living wholeheartedly for the Lord one day at a time.

The apostle Paul described the Christian life as a race, but to many believers it feels more like a punishing obstacle course. Fearing they'll never be able to do enough or give enough or be enough, they see themselves as spiritual failures. But Scripture offers good news: even in ordinary life, Christians can be faithful, fruitful, and pleasing to God.

While Christians have had a long heritage of rigorous scholarship and careful thinking, some circles still view the intellect with suspicion or even as contradictory to Christian faith. And many non-Christians are quick to label Christians as anti-intellectual and obscurantist. But this need not be so. In this classic introduction to Christian thinking, John Stott makes a forceful appeal for Christian discipleship that engages the mind as well as the heart.

"I'm tired of helping others enjoy God―I just want to enjoy God for myself." With this painful admission, Ruth Haley Barton invites us to an honest exploration of what happens when spiritual leaders lose track of their souls. Each chapter includes a spiritual practice to ensure your soul gets the nourishment it needs. Forging and maintaining a life-giving connection with God is the best choice you can make for yourself and for those you lead.

What do Christians hope for? To leave this wicked world and go to 'heaven'? For the 'kingdom of God' to grow gradually on earth? What do we mean by the 'resurrection of the body'? And how does all this affect the way we live in the here and now? Tom Wright addresses these questions in this lively and thoroughly biblical book. He describes the persistent confusion about 'the last things' in both Church and world.

In this book are sensitive lessons from a walk with pain. Amy Carmichael writes from experience with illness on how to follow God in the midst of struggle. However Gold by Moonlight is not for the ill only. Rather, it is for all who walk in difficult places or who are caught in any.

Whatever situation you find yourself in, there is a prayer in this book that will stir up your spirit so that you can draw closer to Jesus Christ and seek him more fervently.

This fresh and inspiring look at the meaning of discipleship covers the essentials of the christian life, including: faith, hope and love; forgiveness; holiness; social action; life in the Spirit.

Discover the joy of intentionally dwelling in the presence of God as the beloved author of Joni weaves contemporary insights with the timeless wisdom of The Practice of the Presence of God by seventeenth-century monk Brother Lawrence. “Suffering has a way of heaving you beyond the shallows of...

From the best-selling female gospel artist of all time CeCe Winans comes a heartfelt guide full of spirit, music, and faith. CeCe's first book in over 10 years, Believe for It explores what it means to pass along wisdom and faith to generations to come. Believe for It beautifully recounts the pivotal experiences in CeCe's life that have shaped her faith. From her childhood in Detroit and the miracle of motherhood to her award-winning music career, CeCe brings listeners along for a story full of heart, passion, and wisdom acquired from her walk with God.

Did you know you can read Jesus's Sermon on the Mount in about eighteen minutes? Yet packed into this short talk are more life-changing and startlingly original teachings than anywhere else in Scripture. Drawing from decades of study, Dr. Robert Jeffress breaks down Jesus's most well-known (yet least-followed) teachings about happiness, faith, relationships, sex, reconciliation, prayer, money, and more. He shows how we often misunderstand and misapply these verses and unpacks exactly what Jesus was teaching us about our own hearts and minds.