Prayer keeps the soul in touch with the power by which alone we build aright. Mere Bible knowledge may make one heady and doctrinal. Prayer alone, if unguided by Scripture, tends to fanaticism; but the Word and prayer together give a good, firm base on which to rear a sturdy Christian character.

 H. A. Ironside, Praying in the Holy Spirit (New York: Loizeaux, 1946), 2.


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He is the Holy Spirit. He detests sin in all its forms—pride, lust, selfishness, worldliness, in every shape and of every degree. He is most sensitive to neglect, and is easily grieved.

 H. A. Ironside, Praying in the Holy Spirit (New York: Loizeaux, 1946), 3.


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The Holy Spirit is more sensitive to moral filth, to spiritual defilement, than the most delicate and fastidious lady could be to vulgar and degrading living conditions; and the Word says, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed until the day of redemption!” (Eph. 4:30).

 H. A. Ironside, Praying in the Holy Spirit (New York: Loizeaux, 1946), 4.

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We realize that when we forgive the other person, we give up the right to seek justice against that individual for the betrayal and the pain that he or she caused. The problem is that we probably will never receive the compensation that we believe the other person owes us. 

 Elmer L. Towns, How to Pray: When You Don’t Know What to Say (Ventura, CA: Regal; Gospel Light, 2006), 51.


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The biblical concept of worldliness has more to do with a way of thinking, a mind set, or a worldview than with particular actions.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 63.

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Worldliness is best understood as an overall philosophy of life or way of thinking that stirs up the flesh to indulge in specific sins such as sexual immorality, drunkenness, gossip, or self-righteous arrogance. Worldliness is a way of thinking about life that is contrary to the biblical way or divine viewpoint. Worldliness may contain a large amount of truth, yet its overall makeup and foundation is divorced from Scriptural authority. As such, worldliness provides a rationale for sin, and it is often associated with false teachings that blind people to the truth and lead them away from God (2 Cor. 4:4).

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 64.


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We should understand “world,” “worldly,” and “worldliness” as the external arrangement of nonbiblical thinking (or what we called human viewpoint in chapter 2). Worldliness is an organized and attractive system of ideas, concepts, attitudes, and methods that Satan uses to compete with God’s concept of how people should live on planet Earth. Satan is the head and controller of this system of thinking. Whenever we think like the world, we are thinking exactly as Satan wants us to think.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 65.


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“The lust of the eyes” is associated with greed, envy, and covetousness.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 66.


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“The boastful pride of life” is cited as the third controlling principle of this world system. It is the arrogant attitude by which people think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. It is the ambition to center one’s life on self rather than on God.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 67.


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The central idea of the world’s approach to life is selfishness, summarized in three words: passion, greed, and pride. The world system favors “men who are alienated from God [who] have [as] their ambition in life the desire to please the longings of a nature corrupted by sin; to possess the things they see and can enjoy; to prevail over their fellow-men in power and prestige.”

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 67.

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The believer’s new relationship to the world system revolves around two simple aspects: separation from the world and evangelism of the world. We are left in the world to evangelize it, because in the world is the only place where we can call sinners to faith in Christ. On the other hand, believers are to be separate from the world because we are citizens of a heavenly country, have a different system of thinking, and follow a higher code of conduct.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 76.


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First of all, love is the principle of good will. The angels sang, “good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). Love always wills the good of its object and never wills any harm to its object. If you love somebody, really love him, you’ll want to be good to him and to do good to him. You’ll never want any harm to come to him if you can help it. That’s why John says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18). If I know a man loves me, I’m not afraid of him. If I’m not sure he does, I may be a bit cagey around him. Love casts out fear, for when we know we are loved, we are not afraid. Whoever has God’s perfect love, fear is gone out of the universe for him.

All real fear goes when we know that God loves us, because fear comes when we’re in the hands of someone who does not will our good

 A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God: Deeper into the Father’s Heart, vol. 2 (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2001–), 184–185.

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Every time God thinks about you, He thinks about you lovingly. Even if He must chastise you, or allow hardships to come to you, it is love that allows it to come and love that sends it. And we never should be afraid of love, because love casts out fear.

 A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God: Deeper into the Father’s Heart, vol. 2 (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2001–), 194.


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If you’ve been a wanderer from God, dare to come home. Don’t add to your sins that you won’t come home. A teenage girl gets an impulse to run away from home, so she takes off and gets a job somewhere in a restaurant. Then she reads in the paper or hears over the radio how her grieving mother wants her home. But she is so ashamed of herself that she feels it wouldn’t be right to go home after doing what she did. Why should she add this one more crushing blow to her mother, to refuse to come home, when her mother wants her to come?

And why should you add this one more blow at the heart of God? Of course, you don’t deserve to come. And yes, it looks cheap and little, and it’s a humbling thing. But are you going to add one more sin to your account by refusing to believe that God loves you?

God never took the lamp out of the window when you went away; it’s still there. Every night He puts fresh oil in it, trims it and says, “Maybe she’ll come back tonight! Maybe he’ll be home tonight!” It was said of the prodigal, “And he arose, and came to his father” (Luke 15:20). Will you arise and come, whatever the need might be?

 A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God: Deeper into the Father’s Heart, vol. 2 (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2001–), 199.


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Cultivate the proper mindset: one of humility. It is easy to think people are dying to hear us. Only part of that is right. People are dying! They might enjoy hearing us speak, but they care more about the length of our message than we might think. Haddon Robinson has appropriately said, “When preachers stand up in the pulpit, they face audiences with their guard up. A few in the congregation wait eagerly for the sermon to begin. Most wait eagerly for the sermon to conclude.”³ Humility keeps us from crediting ourselves with being more exciting than we really are.

³ Michael Green, ed., Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989), 7.

 R. Larry Moyer, Show Me How to Preach Evangelistic Sermons, Show Me How Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2012), 141.

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As far as God the Son is concerned, I was saved when he died for me on the cross. But what he did on the cross was not effective in my life until I yielded to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and then it all came together and I was born into God’s family.

 Warren W. Wiersbe, Be What You Are: 12 Intriguing Pictures of the Christian from the New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1988), 41–42.

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Anything in our lives that hinders us from hearing God’s call and obeying it is worldly and must be abandoned.

 Warren W. Wiersbe, Be What You Are: 12 Intriguing Pictures of the Christian from the New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1988), 46.