An Invitation to my Non-Charismatic Friends

The following is a pre-recorded program.

With grace to infuse you with faith, truth, and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines, we were just getting ready to go to the phones yesterday from our studio at Christ for the Nations in Dallas, Texas, where I broadcast when I'm teaching here a number of times every year. And suddenly the internet, our Ethernet connection, so a wired internet connection, just went out through the building. There was an international meeting with leaders locally and by Zoom, and the Zoom cut out. And it was just right halfway through, so I apologize if you're listening on radio. It immediately went to a backup broadcaster. If you were watching the live stream on YouTube or Facebook, it just stopped.

So the first half hour is on the Line of Fire YouTube station, YouTube channel. You can watch that and get into the comments. And I may on Monday of this coming week, Wednesday or Tuesday of this coming week, I may probe the subject deeper that we were getting into. Can you be a racist and a Christian and talk about being products of our times and using equal weights and measures? So we may get into that further.

I know people were waiting on the phone to weigh in, and there was more material I wanted to cover as well. Hey, before we get into today's subject, which I really pray will bless you, I'm not being combative. I'm not looking for an argument.

I'm not trying to win a debate. I really want to give you an invitation from my heart and I believe from God's heart. But a reminder, I was at the Tuesday night service at Christ for the Nations, not taking any calls today.

If you're watching online, we are audio only. So a student came up to me during a little break in the service, just kind of meet and greet from Guatemala. And he wanted me to know. He shows me his phone. There's the front line newsletter he just got.

And he goes, I like, I like this. I'm getting married in seven months. And he points to an article we posted a few days ago. Of course, we send out to everybody via email, which was practical marital advice. Forty eight years of marital bliss with my bride, Nancy, from last Thursday, March 14th.

So he was just appreciating that. So we want to be a blessing to you as well. If you're not getting our emails, if you're not getting the front line newsletter, if you're not getting or equipping articles and videos that go out every single week, this way you don't have to worry about missing anything because it'll just come right into your inbox. So go to the line of fire dot org, the line of fire dot org.

Sign up today. I am very sure you will be blessed. OK, I have had debates with on Charismatics about the gifts and power of the Spirit continuing for today. God willing, we'll be having a major debate later this year with Pastor Andrew Rappaport.

We're working together, both Jewish believers. And I'm very open to having debates with qualified leaders that are not continuationist, not charismatic, not Pentecostal, asking what does the Bible say? What does scripture say? Because that's the issue.

Not my experience, but what does the word say? In other words, I could raise the dead, but that doesn't prove that raising the dead is for today. I mean, theoretically it could happen and it doesn't prove that it's for today. Or I could speak a word to you that's a true prophetic word. It doesn't prove that prophecy is for today. Conversely, if someone gives a false prophecy or pronounces someone healed and they died, that doesn't mean that prophecy is not for today or healing is not for today.

Ultimately, experience can confirm scripture, but we base doctrine on scripture. So I've had those debates. I'm very happy to continue to have them if they're edifying and glorifying to the Lord, edifying for the body.

But today, from the heart, I want to give you an invitation. I'm not speaking down to anyone. I'm not speaking in a condescending way.

I'm not saying, I have something and you don't. Rather, having experienced the goodness and beauty of the Lord in so many ways, having seen the reality of the Spirit's work with my own eyes for over 50 years, having seen the glory of the Lord come as I've ministered in other nations and the Spirit break in in meetings and people get radically set free, radically transformed, as I've seen these things with my own eyes, and then above all, experience the beauty of the Lord, a fellowship with Him that's so sweet, that's so amazing, that's so overwhelming, that's so overflowing that you just want to worship Him all day and all night and you can't wait to get to that place where you'll be with Him forever in worship and praise. I want to invite you to taste and see everything that God has. I want to encourage you that beyond speaking in tongues, beyond prophecy and healing, there is a communion that we experience with God and intimacy that we experience God. Yes, feeling His presence. Yes, knowing His reality. Yes, hearing His voice.

Yes, being led by Him and then experiencing His love in such overwhelming ways that it's absolutely transforming. If you've never experienced God like that, I believe the Lord Himself is inviting you to do it. 1 John says, that which we've seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. 1 John chapter 1 verse 3.

So here's my question. What does it mean to have fellowship with someone? What does it mean to have communion with someone?

The Greek word koinonia that many of you use. When you have some really sweet fellowship with a brother or sister. What does it mean? What's it like? Is there interaction? Is there sharing of lives? Is there a holy camaraderie? Is there a deep friendship? In other words, it's not just I'm having a conversation with someone and exchanging information. That's not fellowship.

That's not koinonia. That's not communion. Rather, there is a sharing of life together in an intimate way, in a very personal way. You don't have communion with a stranger that you don't know because there's not enough commonality and openness. And yet, John says, we want you to have fellowship with us and our fellowship was with the Father and His Son Jesus the Messiah and then Paul, in his benediction in 2 Corinthians 13, invokes the love of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus and the communion of the Holy Spirit. Do you have communion with the Holy Spirit? Not just a theological truth, I affirm the reality of the Holy Spirit in my life.

Praise God, I'm glad you do, but I don't mean a cold theological affirmation. Do you have warm fellowship with the Spirit? Do you enter into communion with Him? When you pray, is there that sense of shared life together? Have you felt His heart in prayer? Have you felt His burden in prayer? Have you experienced what Paul writes of in Romans 8, that the Spirit prays through us with groans that cannot be articulated? In human speech, have you had those seasons of just groaning out of the burden of the Lord? Have you had times in worship where you just feel like you're soaring out of your body?

I don't mean a mystical experience, but I mean He's just so wonderful, He's just so near, He's just so beautiful, He's just so glorious. A Tuesday night at Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas is a night of worship. Most weeks preaching, they have teaching all morning every day and then Tuesday night just worship and then preaching and then one Tuesday night a month mainly just worship. And I'm recording this message now as I'll be flying out to New Jersey, God willing, tomorrow afternoon during radio time.

So I'm recording this message shortly after the service. I taught this morning, I wrote an article, I did a luncheon meeting and gave a talk to leaders about church discipline. Then did radio, then preached, but I was so renewed by the presence of God, I said I'm going back to my room and I've got to record this broadcast because as we worshiped, the Lord was so near. I know He fills the universe with His presence. I know His glory fills the earth.

Isaiah 6, Jeremiah 23, Psalm 139, I'm aware of that. I'm aware that God's presence is with us whenever we gather together in His name. There are times when God comes in power. There are times when God comes in unusual ways His manifest presence. If you read the history of revival in the church, that's what happens time after time after time.

God breaks out suddenly, beautifully, gloriously. And tonight after beautiful worship, I preached a message about the moving of the Spirit. About Moses' prayer in Exodus 33, that the thing that distinguishes us from all the other nations, speaking of Israel then, but the church today, is the presence of God, the tangible, real presence of God in our midst. And then went through some other scripture, Luke and Acts, and then preached and shared. I testified to what I've seen when God suddenly came in meetings and the Spirit broke out, weeping and repentance took place, or the power of God fell, or people were set free, confession of sin, just as God came in. And then I said, let's go back to worship, those that want to leave can leave, those that want to stay stay.

I didn't announce anything, I didn't hype anything, I didn't go around laying hands on people. We just went back to worship. Oh, what a beautiful presence. What beautiful communion. It just leaves you saying, Jesus, you're so wonderful. Jesus, you're so beautiful. I just want to serve you with everything. I just want to give my life to you. I don't want to hold back anything from you.

Nothing, nothing held back. One of the leaders there said to me, someone just came over to me and confessed sin in their life. We weren't preaching about that, but the Spirit, the conviction, the presence of God was there. And as I was worshiping, I was thinking of many of my brothers and sisters in the Lord, who are non-charismatic, some are very strongly anti-charismatic, and I was longing for you to experience God in these ways. If you do regularly, if you have that depth of communion, if everything I'm saying is something you relate to even though you don't believe in tongues and prophecy, good, I'm so glad, I am so glad. But if this is foreign to you, if this sounds mystical or exotic, or just what those Charismatics do, I would challenge you to read the Word again. I would challenge you to go through the New Testament and ask, what should we expect? Even if you argue against tongues or prophecy today, which of course I'm sure is a wrong argument scripturally, but even if you did, where does it say you can't experience that intimate presence? Do you know in your life the inexpressible and glorious joy that Peter speaks of in 1 Peter 1?

Even though we haven't seen him, we would rejoice with an inexpressible, glorious joy, or in the words of the King James, joy unspeakable and full of glory. Have you experienced that? Do you know that? Is that real in your life?

It's not at all. You're missing out, and I want to invite you to taste and see just how good the Lord is. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Welcome back to the Line of Fire. Michael Brown is a personal invitation to my non-parasitic friend to taste and see everything God has for you. To say to the Lord, whatever you have for me that will make me more intimate with you, whatever you have for me that will help me work more closely to you, whatever you have for me that will bring more glory and honor to your name, whatever you have for me that will help me to serve others better, whatever you have for me that will bring me into the fullness of the cross in this world, I ask for it, Lord. I ask you to hold nothing back. It's not a selfish prayer.

It's a prayer that recognizes the goodness of God and the love of the Father and His kindness and His compassion and His desire to have that intimate relationship with you. Jesus, before He was betrayed, He said to His disciples in Luke 22, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Jesus wanted to be with His friends and that's His heart with us today. Remember He calls us friends.

Abraham was called the friend of God. There's an intimacy there. There's a shared life. There's a shared experience. It's real.

It's beautiful. Yes, we experience God. It's impossible to read the Bible without seeing that God's people experience Him. It's impossible to read the New Testament.

It's impossible to read the Epistles. Any part of the New Testament, it's impossible to read it without seeing that God's people are called to experience God and that there's something beyond our intellect. What does Paul say when he's praying for the love of God in our lives in Ephesians 3?

He says it's beyond knowledge. When he's praying for telling us the peace that we'll receive in our communion with God in Philippians 4, he says it passes understanding. And the joy that I mentioned in 1 Peter 1 is an inexpressible and glorious joy. I have been so overcome with the joy of the Lord sometimes that all I could do is jump and dance and spin and celebrate because Jesus is risen and the promises are true and God is real. And it's not because I'm a hyper-emotional guy. Look, I imagine if you're a sports fan, you get emotional with sports. It doesn't mean you're an emotionalist, but something excites you. I imagine you cry at funerals. I imagine you celebrate the birth of a child.

I imagine it's not just all cold intellectualism. That's being human. We're human in our relationship with the Lord as well. You know, when God changed my life, December 17th of 1971, I've told this story endlessly and it never gets old. There was an encounter with the love of God through the joy of the Lord.

After weeks of conviction, after weeks of battling back and forth, back and forth, shooting heroin one day, going to church the next, knowing I need to change, not willing to change, God dealing with me, conviction that made me want to crawl out of my skin when God would deal with me. I couldn't wait to get to church service December 17th, 1971. Remember, I was playing drums in a rock band, long-haired, hippie, rebel kid, 16 years old. I loved going to rock concerts and saw dozens and dozens of bands in concert. I mean Jimi Hendrix twice. I mean Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison and The Doors and The Who and The Grateful Dead and Ten Years After and Jethro Tull and other famous bands. Some of them I saw four times over and over.

Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused and Hendrix's Purple Haze. The music's so loud that I would scream, literally I would scream at the top of my lungs during a concert and if I could hear my voice it wasn't loud enough. Now I'm in this little Italian Pentecostal church, men in jackets and ties, women in dresses and the worship team is the pastor's wife playing piano, playing hymns, old hymns. Make me a blessing, softly and tenderly, power in the blood. These are the hymns that we're singing and the worship service, there were multiple services a week.

It was very devoted and worshipful people. But the normal service was if we stand up, sing one hymn, there's only four verses. Sometimes we'd repeat the last verse a second time.

That was it, they went quick, right? And then we'd sit down and normally sing two more songs, sometimes three but normally two. And then we might have some testimonies, then an offering. During the offering there'd be some worship. Sometimes we'd take off in spontaneous worship for a little while after that. Then the pastor would preach, then we'd come to the altar and pray.

So this is a completely foreign environment. Everything about it, I'm Jewish, I've never been to church before these recent weeks and months and I'm used to heavy rock music and now it's a piano player playing a hymn. And I get so overcome with the joy of the Lord that in a split second I said to myself, this is qualitatively different than anything I've ever experienced. I instantly thought of drug highs and I was a heavy drug user. I got very high, this was different. I thought of sports highs, music highs, friendship highs, kindness highs, whatever would give you a good feeling.

I thought, no, in an instant of time this is different. This must be what they call the joy of the Lord because I hear about it in church, the joy of the Lord. What Nehemiah 8 says, the joy of the Lord is your strength. What Psalm 16 says in his presence is fullness of joy. In 1 Peter 1, inexpressible and glorious joy.

I thought this must be what they call the joy of the Lord. And that moment I had a clear picture in my mind, a very clear mental picture. I saw myself as filthy from head to toe, covered with mud and dirt. I saw Jesus wash me clean from head to toe.

This is in my mind's eye. I saw it clear as day and put beautiful white robes on me and I was going back out and playing in the mud. And I said right at that moment, Lord, I will never put a needle in my arm again.

It was instantly for life set free over 52 years ago. The love of God revealed to me through the joy of the Lord after weeks of deep conviction. Here are some of the songs we used to sing. I wonder if you can relate to this or if it's all foreign to you. There was one that was called In the Garden. I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. So going to the garden to pray.

And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known. Singing songs like that, that joy was so real I was instantly set free from shooting drugs.

Think of that. He speaks and the sound of his voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing. And the melody that he gave to me within my heart is ringing and then the refrain. And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own.

And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known. I'd stay in the garden with him, though the night around me be falling. But he bids me go through the voice of woe. His voice to me is calling. And then the chorus once again. I would sing these songs and be so overcome with joy, the love of God. Fanny Crosby's, I am thine O Lord, draw me nearer. I am thine O Lord, I have heard thy voice and atold thy love to me. But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to thee. Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord to thy precious bleeding side. And how about this stanza, can you relate to this? O the pure delight of a single hour that before thy throne I spend when I kneel in prayer and with thee my God I commune as friend with friend.

O the Holy Spirit is inviting you. Look, I'm as intellectual as the next person. I love to debate and dialogue. I got a PhD in Semitic languages.

I write scholarly literature, commentaries. It's not mind or heart. It's mind and heart.

It's all of us. Jesus wants you to commune with him as a friend and to experience the riches of his presence and know his voice. It's scriptural.

It's beautiful. And my heart's longing for you to experience God. This is how we rise up. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us on the Line of Fire. I take a train as a sacred pivot, a commission from God. I give you what I can to build you up in the works. Thank you and may the Lord be a resource for you. And I'm thrilled to provide materials, apologetics materials, cultural materials, exegetical, interpretive materials, all kinds of things like that. Our website, thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org. If you've not visited there, by all means do it. Make sure you sign up for our frontline newsletter if you're not getting that, sign up when you visit the site. But we've posted there and on our YouTube channel, The Line of Fire, we've posted more than 3,000 videos.

I've written in the last dozen years more than 3,000 articles and then almost 50 books, many debates, all kinds of resources for you. So we're here for you. We're here to serve you. And what grieves me, when people speak against me, call me names, they're talking about within the body, say things, they air their opinion negatively about me, that doesn't hurt me personally. We're public figures and people are going to attack us and differ with us.

And our friends overseas are literally dying for Jesus. The fact there's some opposition or name calling, it doesn't hurt me personally. It doesn't bother me personally. And I'm not mad at the people who do it.

And I'm not looking to attack back and insult them the same way. You know why it grieves me? Because they cut that person off from receiving from me. After Pastor MacArthur wrote his book, Strange Fire, and I wrote a response, Authentic Fire, there was a brother who was very much in the MacArthur camp and close to Pastor MacArthur. And he wrote to me, because we were having some interaction, and he said, I can no longer use your material. He said, I loved your books answering Jewish objections to Jesus. They really helped me. And your book, A Queer Thing Happened to America, I found so helpful on the culture wars, but I can't use your materials anymore because of your charismatic views.

I thought, what a shame. If those materials have been a blessing to you, let them be a blessing to you. That's why I put them out.

That's why we produce the materials. It's not for monetary gain or personal aggrandizement. God forbid.

I mean, who thinks like that? Unless you're a very carnal person. You're doing this for the Lord. You're doing this for people. You're doing this to honor Him and to help people. So that's what grieves me.

I'm not being super spiritual about this. I'm just telling you the truth. What grieves me, when people call me names and brand me in different ways and put out attack videos against me and other people see that that's all they know about me. So they won't benefit from all the resources we have. That's what hurts me because I want to help them.

And now that opportunity has been cut short. Let me share a few things with you as I give you an invitation from the Lord, from the Word, from my heart to experience all that is in God, in particular, the beauty of communion and intimacy with Him. Yes, we walk by faith, not by sight.

That's very true. Whether I feel anything or not, I know God is true. Whether I feel anything or not, I follow Him. At the same time, the Spirit says, the Word says that the Spirit, Romans 8 16, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And Paul writes, as many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. It's present continuous in the Greek. It's not just, we hear His voice in salvation. First, where does it say that?

It doesn't just say, we only hear His voice in salvation. How long does a sheep know the shepherd's voice? Always. Always. When it's time to move on, when it's time to stop, when it's time to go back to the sheep pen, they know that voice.

It's an ongoing thing. It's God's desire. He wants to commune with us. So I'm just looking at some of the stories that I told in Authentic Fire, talking about a service at my home church some years back, as the worship was so beautiful, just like tonight, as this is a pre-recorded show, recording a Tuesday night to air today on Wednesday. So as we're worshiping tonight, I just was so overwhelmed with the beauty of the Lord, thinking how I wish my non-charismatic friends, my anti-charismatic friends, could enjoy the beauty of God like this, and could be caught up in worship like this, could sense His presence like this.

So I wrote this in Authentic Fire. During that service, during the time of corporate prayer, one of our leaders, who oversees our missions department, Dr. Josh Peters, felt prompted to read from Psalm 27, which turned out to be the very text that was going to be used for the sermon. Of course, he had no idea about that. And then before the message, a visiting pastor, who had been miraculously healed of inoperable bone cancer more than 30 years ago, was asked to share his testimony, preaching in microcosm the very message that was about to come from the pulpit. And I asked, how many times does something like this happen in our meetings, and should little providences like this really surprise us if the living God is in our midst? I remember another service in our home congregation when I was going to preach from Psalm 112, and during the worship time, one of the leaders, Bob Gladstone, asked me if it would be appropriate for him to read a portion of scripture to everyone. I told him, go ahead, thinking to myself, he's going to read Psalm 112, which he then did, as he thought to himself, I believe Mike is going to preach from this text tonight.

The amount of times things like this have happened is beyond counting, I'm just my own experience. And while it's hardly proof of the reality of the charismatic movement, it's a reminder that the living God is in our midst and that we're part of his family. Isn't this part of our life and the spirit on our walk with the Lord? Then I wrote this, so this would have been 2013, I wrote it last year, meaning 2012, I was preparing to minister at a gathering for some of the most sold-out, Jesus-devoted men I know in America. Normally at their annual gathering, I would preach along the lines of taking up the cross or stepping out in obedience, but this time, I felt led to focus on the error of hyper-grace, a theme that surprised me. The men had been praying together for some time before I arrived, and to their surprise, they felt prompted to pray for God to expose the error of hyper-grace, a term they were not particularly familiar with.

What do you know? Obviously, they readily received the message I preached. The confirmation encouraged me as well. So I knew these men. They really went for it. They were bold, street preachers. They worked sacrificially with hurting people, and normally, I would challenge them, let's go deeper. Let's really lay down our lives for the gospel.

Let's take up our cross and follow him. They kind of drank that in, and this time, out of the blue, I feel prompted to teach on hyper-grace. Before the meeting, they're praying, and they had heard the term. They weren't really familiar with what it was. They knew there was something wrong, and they asked the Lord to expose it through me, and then I get up and preach on it.

I mean, those things have happened so many times. It's just more the reality of God in our midst. One time, while ministering on a Saturday night to a small group of Pentecostals and met in a tiny building which could barely hold 30 people, the Spirit began to touch people dramatically, with some crying out, others weeping. I shared this story the other day, how the Lord revealed to me, listen, 30 people in the building, 30 max, this little building, little church building, that the skeptic sitting in the front row, standing there with a smirk on his face, said he was a pickpocket, and he had picked someone's pocket earlier that night on the way to church, and before the service, he was telling someone at the church what a good pickpocket he was.

And here, I called out that exact thing, and the smile disappeared from his face. It was just, it was the beautiful nearness of the Lord. You know, overseas, I've been in so many meetings, I go back to my journals and see what the Lord did and the beauty of his presence. Tonight, at the end of the service, one of the leaders at Christ for the Nations was standing next to a young man, oh, maybe in his mid-20s, and the pastor said to me, this is ours suddenly. I talked during the service from Acts 2 and Philippians 16 and Malachi 3 about God coming suddenly and unexpectedly, and he said, my wife and I were in Brownsville during the revival, in Pensacola during the Brownsville revival, where I served as a leader from 96 to 2,000.

He said, we could not have kids, my wife was unable to have a child for five years, and during the service, Steve Hill pointed up in the balcony, and he did not preach a lot about miracles and healing, his messages were primarily messages of repentance and turn from sin and be saved and receive new life through Jesus. And he points up to the balcony, and he says, if you need a miracle, now take it. And this pastor, the pastor's local church, the leader of Christ for the Nations, he said to me, that was her suddenly. She knew it, she grabbed hold of it by faith, and then immediately he was conceived, and here he is a fine young man of God. This is who God is.

This is what he does. Jesus has risen from the dead and is continuing to do his works today through us. What does John 14, 12 say? Jesus says, whoever believes in me, the works that I do, will he do also. In context, it's talking about miraculous works, and greater works than these will he do because I go to the Father. So when Jesus goes to the Father, he now intercedes for us.

When Jesus goes to the Father, he now sends the Spirit. Go through John's Gospel. If you can read Greek, look for every time those Greek words occur, whoever believes in me, Hapistuon enmei, whoever believes in me.

Look for those words. There is also, there's an expansive form. There's the whosoever form. It comes in a couple different ways, but you've got about a half dozen different times where Jesus says, the one who believes in me.

For example, John 6, 35. The one who believes in me will never hunger, will never thirst. Or John 11, where he says, I am the resurrection of life. The one who believes in me will never die. And if you die, you live on. So you never die spiritually.

You die physically. You're raised from the dead. It is a whoever promise. It is a promise for every single one. It's straightforward in the Greek. It occurs multiple times in John.

It's straightforward. Based on that verse alone, I cannot be a cessationist. And that means that today, through God's people, he's doing what Jesus did. Not that every one of us is doing what he did in terms of miracles. There was a uniqueness in how God works. For example, none of the apostles turned water into wine.

That's not recorded anywhere, is it? And Peter tried to walk on water and failed. It's not recorded that anyone else walked on water. Jesus did those things. And yet, the healing of the sick, the opening of blind eyes, the setting of captives free, the driving out of demons, Jesus is doing that through his people today.

And multitudes are being saved at single moments like happening at Pentecost with Peter and happening through God's people today. It is for us that your inheritance from the Lord for his honor and glory and for your edification. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us on the Line of Fire broadcast. Join the broadcast, God willing, everything normal. On our schedule, Friday, four months, we'll be open to call, interact. And obviously, if you're watching on the Line of Fire YouTube channel, listening on radio or podcast, if you want to interact, go over to the Line of Fire YouTube channel.

Look for today's broadcast. And then, by all means, enter into a discussion there. Let's have a healthy, edifying discussion. And hey, our burden is to see a healthy church, spirit, soul, body. Get the church healthy because we know a healthy church will touch and impact and change the nation.

A healthy church will provoke Israel to envy. So it's spiritual first, it's mental-emotional, it's physical too. So I hit a workout with Students of Christ for the Nations Monday, early evening, and you know, 69 years old, and we nailed it. It was a combined workout that we did where you split between two people alternating. You split 930 jumping jacks and 465 squats, push-ups, and crunches. So you alternated. You did rounds, back and forth, back and forth.

And my team with the president of the school, Golan, who's in his early 40s, we won, yeah, we did it, in under 30 minutes. But for me, that's because of healthy eating. And yes, yes, you better believe it, actually before the workout and after, I took some of my Triveda supplements.

I did, for greater strength and blood flow and oxygenation through the workout and then afterwards just to strengthen my skeletal system, muscles, things like that. So by all means, we invite you to check that out too. Triveda, our co-sponsor, generously donates tens of thousands of dollars to the line of fire that goes exactly right back out to you to pay for the bills on our stations and to get us into more radio stations.

So 800-771-5584, check these out for yourself, 800-771-5584 or go to triveda.com and use the code BROWN25. In Pastor MacArthur's book, Strange Fire, he writes, the Holy Spirit enables fellowship with God and he says that the Spirit produces in our hearts a profound love for God that draws us to the Father without fear and we long to commune with him to meditate on his word and to fellowship with him in prayer. Amen, amen, amen.

I hope you're doing that. I hope you're really enjoying communion with God. At the same time, Pastor MacArthur says biblical faith is rational, it is reasonable, it is intelligent, it makes good sense and spiritual truth is meant to be rationally contemplated, examined logically, studied, analyzed and employed as the only reliable basis for making wise judgments. That process is precisely what scripture calls discernment. Well, that's part of discernment but the Holy Spirit reveals things, that's discernment as well and the Holy Spirit bears witness and leads us and guides us, that's discernment as well. And one of the gifts of the Spirit is discerning of spirits.

Is this the Holy Spirit at work or is this Satan at work? And for sure, communion with God is not just based on intellect, it's not just based on rational analysis. I found it interesting that Pastor MacArthur in Strange Fire at the conference was talking about enjoying worship and music and he said, I sometimes wish the music would all go away, that I didn't have to deal with sensations along with my thoughts. Lower understanding of God, superficial shallow understanding of God leads to shallow contentless, superficial hysteria, that's not worship. Why have you been singing hymns this week?

Because there is rich theology in hymns, we don't have to go hysterical, we want your mind fully engaged. Well, is that how you relate to your spouse? Is that how you relate to your children? Is that how you relate to things that you engage in with your emotions as well? Is it all just an intellectual reflection of truth?

Is there not the experience? Is there not the sensation of God being there and the combined power of music and words together? What do we do with Psalm 150? This is part of the hymn book of the early church, Psalms, the hymn book of the early church. Praise the Lord, praise God in His sanctuary, praise Him in His mighty heavens, praise Him for His mighty deeds, praise Him according to His excellent greatness, praise Him with trumpet sound, praise Him with lute and harp, praise Him with tambourine and dance, praise Him with strings and pipe, praise Him with sounding cymbals, praise Him with loud clashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

How do you compare that to, I sometimes wish the music would all go away, that I didn't have to deal with sensations along with my thoughts. I find that very foreign to biblical mentality of worship, which is worship of your whole being. I would think that someone who talks about the sensations and is concerned about hysteria, that they would have had a problem with David dancing with all his might before the ark, wearing a linen ephoh, the priest's garment, but not clothed like a king, to the point that his wife Michal despised him. I would think that that inglorious type of worship, that undignified type of worship would be offensive, but David said, it was before the Lord that I danced. It was before the Lord I was undignified, and I'll be more undignified.

That was his response. And the times when I've been, I mean it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of services where the celebration is wonderful, where we're dancing and jumping and celebrating before the Lord with joy. And then maybe a few minutes later we're on our faces weeping because of the beauty of his presence, and it's all enhanced by the music. That's why when I was just singing hymns with a piano player when I surrendered to the Lord December 17th, it was that same presence joined with music. Now it can be with the whole band and all the instruments and much better sound equipment, but it's when God's there.

It's not just the music. I've been in services where it's just singing, good singing, good playing, but there's no real worship. The presence of God isn't there, and there's nothing to it.

And I hate emotionalism. I hate trying to work people up emotionally, but I love when God comes and we experience his glory and we experience his goodness and we experience his power and we experience his beauty. That is what is going to change young people and experience with God. That's why there are all these instruments in the tabernacle and in the temple so that God could be worshiped in these ways.

It's a truth-driven experience enhanced by music, enhanced by all of that. Have you ever danced before the Lord? It's in the Bible. We're called to dance to the Lord. We're called to raise holy hands.

We're called to clap to the Lord. Listen to what W.H. Griffith Thomas said. He was co-founder with Lewis Barry Chafer of Dallas Theological Seminary.

Listen to what he said. It is, of course, essential to remember that theology is not merely a matter of intellect, but also of experience. This is the co-founder of the Dallas Theological Seminary, W.H.

Griffith Thomas. Theology is concerned with spiritual realities and must include personal experiences as well as ideas. The feeling with reason must share in the consideration of theology because theology is of the heart, and the deepest truths are inextricably bound up with personal needs and experiences.

Do you pray the Psalms? I cried out to the Lord. He heard me. He lifted me out of a miry pit. He set my feet on solid ground. That's something you experience.

It really is. Listen to the Baptist preacher Vance Havner. There are Christians in churches that boast of being mature when really they are spiritually frostbitten. We have developed a prejudice against feeling and emotion until amens would be no scarcer if they cost $100 apiece. And the real truth is we have lost our first love. This accounts for a lot of church troubles. When we love the Lord, we love the brethren. We break up the fallow ground of our hearts. We uncover roots of bitterness. There is a reckless enthusiasm about first love.

It is not cold and calculated. Leonard Ravenhill once said, You can have all of your doctrines right, yet still not have the presence of God. Or how about Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian of the first great awakening, and a Calvinist, of course. True religion consists so much in the affections that there can be no true religion without them. He who has no religious affection is in a state of spiritual death and is wholly destitute of the powerful, quickening, saving influences of the Spirit of God upon his heart. As there is no true religion, there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection. And writing about Jonathan Edwards, a textbook on American history notes, for Edwards, an unemotional piety would never be the work of God.

Look at what A.W. Tozer said, In spite of the undeniable lukewarmness of most of us, we still fear that unless we keep a careful check on ourselves, we shall surely lose our dignity and become howling fanatics by this time next week. We set a watch on our emotions, lest we become over-spiritual and bring reproach upon the cause of Christ, which all, if I may say so, is for most of us about as sensible as throwing a cordon of police around the cemetery to prevent a wild political demonstration by the inhabitants. I wonder if some of you are even born again if you've never truly experienced God? If you don't know what it is to have communion with him, could it be that you were raised with an intellectual knowledge of the faith but have never truly been born again?

Could that be part of the struggle you're having? Or if you're a true believer, I invite you to experience him deeply. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and whoever's thirsty, let him come and drink of the water of life through you. Drink deeply. Experience all the ways of God. Enjoy communion again, and this will help you serve him better and glorify Jesus. May it be so. May God bless you. Receive this invitation today.