Our normal is so subnormal that normal seems radical.

If you want God to do something new in you, you cannot keep doing the same old thing. You have to do something different.

If you want to discover your God-ordained passions, then you need to identify what makes you sad, mad, or glad.

Don't just go out and do what Dick Eastman or your spiritual hero did. That's a spiritual cop-out. Copycat spirituality is short lived.

the reason many of us get stuck in the six cages—the cage of responsibility, the cage of routine, the cage of assumptions, the cage of guilt, the cage of failure, and the cage of fear—is for one simple reason: We want God to do something new while we keep doing the same old thing.

until His sovereign will becomes your sanctified wish, your prayer life will be unplugged from its power supply.

Jesus didn't die on the cross to keep us safe. Jesus died to make us dangerous.

Do the best you can with what you have where you are. Success is not circumstantial. We usually focus on what we're doing or where we're going, but God's primary concern is who we're becoming in the process. We talk about "doing" the will of God, but the will of God has much more to do with "being."

Obedience starts with a pierced ear. It's tuning into God's frequency and turning up the volume. It's obeying His whispers, even if a thousand people are screaming something different. 'Tell me to what you pay attention,' said the Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset, 'and I will tell you who are you.' You will eventually be shaped in the image of the loudest voice in your life. Genuine listening is ultimately an act of submission.

This verse is not just about capturing sinful thoughts and getting them out of our minds; it's also about capturing creative thoughts and keeping them in our minds. It means stewarding every word, thought, impression, and revelation inspired by the Spirit of God.

Neurologically speaking, that is what we do when we study Scripture. We are literally upgrading our minds by downloading the mind of Christ.

Not many people sell their souls to the devil, but many of us sell our souls to the culture. Instead of defining success for ourselves, we let the culture define it for us. Instead of daring to be different, we conform to the pattern of this world. Why? We let our culture have the loudest voice.