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My ability to serve the Lord is not dependent on my capability.

There are a number of ways to phrase this, but the truth remains the same, and it can be a bit unsettling for those of us who like to be in control. My strength isn’t always needed to do God’s will, and likewise, sometimes certain things can only be accomplished through my personal weakness or inadequacy. That’s uncomfortable, isn’t it?

While my grandmother taught me how to read generally, my mother and father taught me how to read my Bible. Every day without fail, my mother led our family in devotions. She would gather everyone who was in the house into the kitchen, where she would read a portion of Scripture, then pray.

We let going to church and living a moral life be enough. Although we sing about the greatness of God’s love, we surprisingly assign little importance to actually receiving it for ourselves and walking in its reality throughout our day. We let ourselves be satisfied with merely hearing about God and other people’s experiences of Him.

Have you ever formed ideas or opinions about someone based on what others told you? And then when you met the person for yourself, did you discover that actually he was very different from what you had been led to believe?

These are things we avoid. They result from pain and often leave a lasting marked reminder of an undesired moment. The wounds being referred to are not self-inflicted wounds, but rather wounds from an outside source, specifically from within the church itself.

In our programs with Anne Graham Lotz, she mentioned a seminary professor who confessed to being unaware that the Holy Spirit is, in fact, holy. While that may seem amazing to us, I am going to propose two possible reasons why we might be tempted to ignore or overlook the holiness of the Holy Spirit.

During our time with Anne Graham Lotz, she made a comment that sparked a memory of a defining moment in my own faith journey. She said, “God doesn’t have any grandchildren. You know, just because I’m Billy Graham’s daughter doesn’t mean I’m a child of God. I had to make that decision for myself.”

It was over a game of softball at a summer picnic in Wheaton, Illinois, that John first remembers meeting Billy Graham. Although John was quite young at the time, he was fast and had a natural talent for baseball. Because a few of the other guys knew this, they had him cover left-field.