In this message, Trisha and David talk about their story of life in the Spirit and share their journey about the call to ministry. It includes the story of how they met at the Lakeland revival, and reunited at Bethel Church in Redding, California, where they were eventually married. Check out this message if you want to hear the story about how The Lord led them together, how He fulfilled specific promises about where they would live and what they would do, and how He ultimately led them to plant a church in Ottawa. Through their story they share why they have a passion for living Spirit-led lives, the fruit it produced in their own life, and why they love to see people transformed by His glorious presence:
David Cwir - The Experience of the Spirit and Belief in the Truth
The scriptures speak of salvation in terms of God the Father as initiating it, Christ as effecting it historically through His death and resurrection, and the Spirit as the one who effects it experientially in the individual's life. Although important, Salvation in Christ is not simply a theological truth, based on God’s prior action and the historical work of Christ. Salvation is an experienced reality, made so by the Spirit coming into our lives. Check out this week’s audio message to learn about how crucial both the objective, historical reality of what Christ accomplished and the subjective, personally experienced dimension of salvation are for understanding what happens at conversion.
David Cwir - The Spirit of Revelation and Faith
Conversion is the work of the Spirit, beginning with the proclamation and revelation of the gospel. Faith occurs at the point between and our hearing the gospel and our calling on God and is in some mysterious way the working of the Holy Spirit as both cause and effect: The Spirit is the one who initiates our faith and is also received by that same faith. So, faith itself, as a work of the Spirit, leads us to receive and experience the Spirit who also comes through that same faith! The Spirit is also the One who reveals the mystery of the gospel to us so that we can believe and receive salvation (1 Corinthians 2:6-16). Check out this audio message if you would like to learn more about the Spirit’s role in revelation, faith, and identifying the people of God:
David Cwir - The Spirit and Conversion: “Did You Receive the Spirit?”
What role does the Holy Spirit play in salvation? From a Biblical perspective, the Spirit is the absolute key to understanding Christian conversion. In fact, in the early church, conversion was primarily understood as the work of the Spirit. So much so, that when inquiring about people’s conversion, no one in the Bible ever asks “Are you saved?” Rather, they ask “Did you receive the Spirit?” (e.g., Galatians 3:2; Acts 19:2). Why? Because the evidence that they were saved in the early church was whether or not they had the Spirit (Romans 8:9; John 3:5). Check out this audio message if you would like to learn more about how the Spirit plays a central role every step in the process of conversion:
David Cwir - Understanding Salvation: The Threefold Activity of the Triune God
How is salvation brought about in our lives? According to scripture, God is the initiator, Christ is the one who has effected it historically, and the Spirit is the one who brings it experientially to bear in our lives. Salvation in Christ is not simply a theological truth, based on God’s prior action and the historical work of Christ. Salvation is an experienced reality, made so by the person of the Spirit coming into our lives. In fact, Scripture says that you have not experienced the work of Christ if you have not received the Spirit (Romans 8:9). One simply cannot be a Christian without the effective work of the Trinity. Check out this audio message if you would like to learn more about the absolutely vital role the Spirit plays in our salvation in Christ.
David Cwir - The End Time Realities of Salvation and the Metaphors that Express them
What is salvation? The early church understood salvation in Christ as a thoroughly End Time reality. However, they also understood that believers live “between the times” with regard to the two resurrections, so that salvation is to be understood as an “Already/Not Yet” reality. That’s why you see the language of salvation is sometimes a PAST EVENT (“we have been saved;” Ephesians 2:8), it is sometimes spoken of as a PRESENT PROCESS (“we are being saved;” 1 Corinthians 1:18), and sometimes the CONCLUSION OF THE PROCESS that is yet to be completed (“we shall be saved;” Romans 5:9). Check out this week’s audio message if you would like to learn more about the multifaceted realities of salvation and the biblical metaphors that are used to express those realities:
David Cwir - What is the Temple of the Holy Spirit?
In the New Testament, the local church is referred to as God’s temple because it is the place where His presence dwells by His Spirit. The implications of this central matter are considerable for us. We are called to build the habitation of the Lord, the dwelling place of God, the place where He wants to dwell. Check out this audio message to learn more about the importance of the church as God's temple, the implications for us in terms of how we are to understand the local church, and our mandate to be a people of His presence:
David Cwir - The Fulfilled Realities of the Promised Holy Spirit
The Spirit is the fulfillment of the promise that God Himself would once again be present with His people. The implications are considerable in terms of what it means for us individually and corporately to be the people of God. The whole existence of the church is to be a colony of heaven; living out the lifestyle and the values of eternity in the present age by the Spirit. This is where the Spirit becomes key to the Christian walk, because without the Spirit we cannot live this eternal existence in the present age. Check out this message if you would like to learn more about how the coming of the Spirit into the life of the believer, and in the community, fulfilled three critical dimensions of the promised New Covenant and how that changes our present existence.
David Cwir - The Spirit as Evidence of the Presence of the Future
The resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Spirit marked the beginning of the End—the turning of the ages—and God has set the future in motion, so that we are already citizens of our new homeland (Philippians 3:20)! By the Spirit’s presence, believers taste of the life to come and become oriented toward its consummation. The Spirit is the down payment of the future inheritance (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:14), He is the seal of that Day of the Lord that is to come (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30), He is the first fruits of the final realization, the NOW and the NOT YET (Romans 8:23). Check out this audio message if you would like to learn more about the New Testament understanding of the Spirit as the present evidence of future realities and the assurance of the final glory:
David Cwir - The Spirit and the New Covenant
Christian Theology in general has neglected the central and crucial role that the Spirit played in the life and theology of the early church. From their Jewish heritage, early Christians understood that the Spirit was part of the promise for the future (Ezekiel 36:26-27; Joel 2:28-30) and the gift of the Spirit is the crowning evidence that God’s end-time promises are being fulfilled (Acts 2:15-18; Ephesians 1:13-14). The gift of the outpoured Spirit meant that the Messianic Age (“The Kingdom of God”) had already arrived, that God had ushered in the new covenant, and that He had renewed the lost presence of God to His people. Check out this audio message if you would like to learn more about why the Spirit is so crucial the early church's understanding of Christian existence from a biblical perspective.
David Cwir - Spirit Ministry: Power or Still Small Voice?
For the early church, the Spirit meant God’s own personal presence—and because God is all powerful—they always thought of the Spirit as the presence of God's power. Yet for some reason, later Christians developed a quiescent view of the Spirit that is more like a “still small voice,” which is not at all the New Testament experience. The early church wouldn't have understood our later ideas of a quiescent Spirit: They knew that when God was present, there was power present. The difference between them and us lies in many ways in this latter reality. Check out this week’s message if you would like to learn more about the central and crucial role that the Spirit played in the life and theology of the early church and what it means for us today:
David Cwir - He is not an “It”: Understanding the Person and Power of the Holy Spirit
Within Christian theology, the role of the Spirit has often been given short shrift and been left on the periphery. As a result, many people have difficulty seeing or relating to Holy Spirit as a Person, which is often reflected in erroneous beliefs that He is some kind of “impersonal force” or “influence” or “it.” In the final analysis we live out what we most truly believe, and relating to Holy Spirit as a Person becomes crucial in our own relationship with God. In fact, your entire walk with God will be transformed if you begin to relate to Holy Spirit as a Person as He empowers us to live the entire Christian life (see Galatians 5:16-25). Check out this week’s audio message if you would like to learn more about Holy Spirit from a biblical perspective as well as a major key to living a Spirit empowered life.
David Cwir - What is “Spirituality?”
The word "spirituality" has been shipwrecked! Because the term can mean anything these days, it has totally lost its meaning. However, originally the term “Spirituality” was all about God’s Spirit (according to Paul who coined the original Greek word in the Bible). Yet in our common speech, we no longer see the Spirit in Spirituality because the word has become mostly about us as individuals. This even shows in the way many English Bibles have translated the word “Spiritual” with a small “s” in texts where the Holy Spirit is clearly in view. Check out the following audio message if you would like to learn more about the meaning of Spirituality according to how the Biblical writers originally intended it.
David Cwir - The Story of the Restoration of the Lost Presence of God
The theme of the presence of God is crucial to both the Old and New Testaments. The main calling and purpose as the people of God is to be a people of His presence. In the New testament, there is a very explicit equating the now present Holy Spirit with the same Holy Spirit who led Israel out of Egypt into the promised Land. He was present among them in the tabernacle first and then in the temple. It was that presence that was lost in the exile that was now restored: first in the coming of Christ and then in the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you would like to learn more about the history and importance of our calling to be a people of God’s presence from a biblical perspective, then you can listen to the audio message at the following link:
David Cwir – The Importance of Shameless Audacity (Luke 11:8)
What are the keys to receiving answered prayer? Fortunately, Jesus addresses this question in one of His most extensive teachings on prayer (see Luke 11:1-13). Not only that, but He also exhorts us to be audacious in our prayer life, which is illustrated by His concluding statement, “yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need” (Luke 11:8). If you would like to learn more about Biblical keys to answered prayer, scriptural promises that will absolutely transform your life if you get a hold of them, and how to get breakthrough in your prayer life according to the teachings of Jesus, then check out this week’s audio message at the following link:
David Cwir - The Age of the Kingdom has Dawned
The Kingdom of God is here! Jesus’ coming set the future in motion, the Coming Age has dawned, and we await the consummation in His Second Coming. In His earthly ministry, Jesus was all about bringing the future realities of the Kingdom into the present. As His disciples, we are to follow His footsteps by living the values and the life of the future now. In other words, God’s people are determined not by their present realities but by the coming kingdom: we are to live the life of the future in the present. If you would like to learn more about Jesus’ primary message—the Kingdom of God—and how we are to live in light of it, then you can check out this audio message at the following link:
David Cwir - The Life of the Age to Come
The Kingdom of God—the life of the future—is made available now through Christ and the Spirit, but is to be fully realized at the Return of Christ. We must be born again of the Spirit to see and enter the Kingdom of God and experience Eternal Life in the present. Although we live between the ages, believers have already been given the life of the coming age. We are stamped by eternity because our lives have been marked forever by eternal realities and we live them out now as we await the final end. Check out this audio message if you would like to hear more about the significance and meaning of “Eternal Life:”
David Cwir - The Presence of the Future
The resurrection of Christ and gift of the Spirit marked the beginning of the End—the turning of the ages—and we are called to be living the life of the future now in the present age. The Spirit is the clear evidence that the future “Age of the Spirit” has dawned, and by the Spirit’s presence, believers taste of the life to come so that everything we are and do is the life of the future lived out now in the present. We are citizens of another world (Phil 3:20) and we live in this present world as a colony of heaven by the power of the Spirit. Check out this audio message if you would like to learn more about our present future existence:
David Cwir - Living Life in the Radical Middle (Between the Ages)
Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Spirit, God Himself had set the future in motion, so that everything in the “present” is determined by the appearance of “the future.” We live between the times: already the future has begun, not yet has it been consummated (1 John 3:2). As result, we are supposed to live in the radical middle; our lives being so absolutely marked by the realities of the future that we live it in a new kind of way. Check out this audio teaching if you would like to learn Biblical principles about how we are called to live the life of the future now in the present age:
David Cwir - Back To The Future In The Present
The future has already entered the present age. God has already triumphed. He has already secured our life. What He is asking us to do now is to live the life of the future in the present. In other words, God’s people are determined not by their present realities but by the coming Kingdom, and we are to live the values and the life of the future now (already, but not yet). Check out this audio message to learn more about the already/not yet realities of the Kingdom of God and the parables of Christ that served as primary vehicles for confronting people with the Kingdom of God:
