Spirit

  • Genesis 1:2 read or listen online
  • Ezekiel 36:26-27 read or listen online
  • John 16:5-15 read or listen online
  • Romans 8 read or listen online
  • Galatians 5:16-25 read or listen online
  • Witness of the Spirit | Tim Keller | MP3 There are three jobs that the Holy Spirit does in a Christian's life. The first is to regenerate us by dwelling in us and making our spirit alive. The second is to sanctify us by putting to death our misdeeds and destroying our motivation for sin. The third job of the Spirit is to assure us that we are children of God and we belong to him.
  • The Power: Understanding and Experiencing the Holy Spirit | Jeff Purswell | Sovereign Grace Ministries | MP3 Preaching from John 14:16–26, Jeff outlines six marks of the Spirit’s empowering work in our lives and outlines ways we respond: be desperate, be hungry, and be dependent, remembering it’s only because of the cross that we can respond at all.
  • Communion with God in a Fallen World | John Loftness | Sovereign Grace Ministries | MP3 Man was created for daily communion with God, yet Adam’s sin broke off the possibility of communication. Now, through Jesus’ atonement, although physically separated from God, we may daily spend time with him. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit reminded the apostles of everything Jesus said while he was on earth. These words enabled them to get through life successfully. These words will do the same for us.
  • The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit | Abe Meysenburg's handout from the 2008 Soma Men's Retreat | PDF A one-page document outlining the key attributes of the Holy Spirit and referencing the scriptures about him.
The 4Gs
  • 4Gs in Estonia | Abe Meysenburg and Caesar Kalinowski | MP3 Abe and Caesar taught church planters in Estonia 4 simple truths about God and their profound implications.
  • Christian Growth | Tim Chester | MP3 Tim Chester taught us during a visit to the northwest and showed us 4 simple truths about God and their profound implications for us and our growth.
  • You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behaviour and Negative Emotions | Tim Chester | Book We think this is the best book on the gospel and sanctification we have ever read. We'd recommend everyone in the Anchor family read this book (more than once).
Prayer
  • Mathew 6:5-15 read or listen online
  • Luke 11:1-13 read or listen online
  • John 17 read or listen online
  • Ephesians 1:15-23; 3:14-21 read or listen online
  • Romans 8:26 read or listen online
  • James 1:5-8, 4:1-10 read or listen online
  • Philippians 4:4-9 read or listen online
  • The Basis of Prayer: "Our Father" | Tim Keller | MP3 The proper basis for prayer is to approach God as a Father and to view our relationship with God as a family relationship - not a business relationship. In order to do this, we need to understand that we have been adopted as children of God because Jesus died for us.
  • Personal Prayer | Tim Keller | MP3 Jesus tells his disciples to have private prayer lives. Using the disciplines of morning and evening prayer, we can process our lives before God and bring him our requests while being at peace with the outcome. This talk was given during a leadership training session at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, and includes suggestions concerning Bible study, meditation, and contemplation.
  • Praying in the Spirit | Tim Keller | MP3 To address God as Father was an intimate and shocking thing for Jesus to do. As we move toward the Father in intimacy of prayer, the Spirit will grow in us a deepening wisdom, develop beauty of heart, and give us spiritual clarity. Prayer is primal, realistic, positional, experiential, and communal.
  • Meditation - What it is | Tim Keller | MP3 Psalm 1 gives us a key to deeper fulfillment in every dimension of our being: meditation. Its essence is reading and reminding ourselves of the truths of God while dwelling in his presence. As we dwell on him with our minds, our other dimensions ignite, affecting our lives and relationships, infusing them with wisdom, stability, and delight. This talk was given during a leadership training session at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.
  • Prayer and the Gospel | Tim Keller | Article Keller examines 2 common ways we distort prayer without the gospel and practical ways to move toward gospel-centered prayer that aims at knowing God not simply making requests.
  • The Essentials of Prayer | E.M. Bounds | Book One of EM Bounds many classics on prayer. "Prayer has to do with the entire man... All of man receives benefits in prayer. The whole man must be given to God in praying. The largest results in praying come to him who gives himself, all of himself, all that belongs to himself, to God."
  • The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer | E.M. Bounds | Book Generations have been taught by Bounds--a man who practiced what he preached--about the essentials, necessity, possibilities, power, purpose, reality, and weapon of prayer.
  • Andrew Murray on Prayer | Andrew Murray | Book Another classic on prayer, this volume includes 5 of Murray's books on prayer which also focus squarely on Jesus.
  • A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World | Paul Miller | Book Miller winsomely engages barriers to prayer like a short attention span, guilt, inconsistency, formulaic prayers and trying to make ourselves acceptable to God through prayer. Many have found this work life changing.
  • Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: What Happens When God's Spirit Invades the Hearts of His People | Jim Cymbala | Book The inspiring story of how the Brooklyn Tabernacle devoted themselves to prayer made in faith and repentance and God granted amazing favor.
Understanding and Using Spiritual Gifts Sanctification/Discipleship
  • Romans 6-8 read or listen online
  • You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behaviour and Negative Emotions | Tim Chester | Book We think this is the best book on the gospel and sanctification we have ever read. We'd recommend everyone in the Anchor family read this book (more than once).
  • The Centrality of the Gospel | Tim Keller | Paper In Galatians 2:14 Paul lays down a powerful principle. He deals with Peter’s racial pride and cowardice by declaring that he was not living “in line with the truth of the gospel”. From this we see that the Christian life is a process of renewing every dimension of our life-- spiritual, psychological, corporate, social--by thinking, hoping, and living out the “lines” or ramifications of the gospel.
  • How the Gospel Changes Us | Tim Keller | MP3 The default mode of the human heart is to work on our behavior and outer appearance, but the gospel changes us at the heart level. To grow, we must understand the difference between religion and the gospel, and apply the gospel to our hearts to confront the idols at the root of our sin.
  • How to Change | Tim Keller | MP3 Christian growth is described through the metaphor of the fruit of the spirit, which is a gradual process that begins with the seed of the Holy Spirit. As we are changed from the inside out, organically and radically, we will find deep joy and lasting change.
  • The Main Thing (2 part series with outline) | CJ Mahaney | MP3 Have you wondered if maybe someday you'll come across that elusive key to the Christian life that will really make everything come together? If you're a Christian, God isn't holding back some secret truth. You've already seen it—but perhaps you don't realize its full power and beauty. It's the Cross. That's the main thing. Mahaney provides compelling reasons and practical tips on to keeping the main thing the main thing every day.
  • The Gospel and Yourself | Tim Keller | MP3 The cure for our self-absorption is an encounter with God. The real God is infinitely glorious, weighty, and beautiful. When God moves from being a concept to a reality, he changes our beliefs and priorities by displaying his beauty, man’s sinfulness, and purifying man by grace. Once changed, we can live new lives for him.
  • Inside-Out Living | Tim Keller | MP3 A common misconception about religion is that it is seeking approval and acceptance from God through our behavior, but this approach is self-centered and self-righteous, leading only to a rejection of God and Christian community. Real acceptance from God only comes from accepting God's grace and Christ's sacrifice to atone for our sins.
  • Removing Idols of the Heart | Tim Keller | MP3 The essential dynamic of change in the heart of the Christian runs on a cycle of repentance and faith. Repentance is unmasking the idols of the heart, the motivations for action and bases for identity other than Christ, and then taking them to the Cross. Faith is trusting in the forgiveness of Christ, understanding both the depth of our sin and the worth of Christ’s sacrifice.
  • All of Life is Repentance | Tim Keller | PDF Article "In 'religion' the purpose of repentance is basicly to keep God happy so he will continue to bless you and answer your prayers. This means 'religious repentance' is a) selfish, b) self-righteous, c) and bitter all the way to the bottom. But in the gospel the purpose of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union with Christ in order to weaken our need to do anything contrary to God's heart."