All about the Holy Spirit plan

I just started a new YouVersion plan today on the Bible app. It is called, “All about the Holy Spirit” and is only five days. Here is the description…

God’s Spirit is with you the moment you accept Jesus. But what is the Holy Spirit’s purpose, character, and relationship with us? In this Bible Plan, let’s explore 5 common questions about the Holy Spirit, and learn more about who He is and what He does. This original Bible Plan was created and provided by YouVersion.

If you are interested, you can find it here.

I am inspired by?

Who are you most inspired by?

I am inspired by a lot of things, but mainly by people who live wholeheartedly for Jesus and serve others. Here are a few things that inspire me.

  • People who step out in faith who trust God
  • People who help the poor and needy
  • People who reach others for Christ
  • People who teach and disciple others
  • People who rescue others from slavery
  • People who give their life caring for others
  • People who suffer and have strong faith
  • People who read the Bible and pray daily

I do get inspired by sporting achievement and physical feats, but not as much as people living wholeheartedly for Jesus.

Preaching and using PowerPoint

When I preach I always prepare a PowerPoint presentation to go with it. I find this helps people to follow along and it keeps them engaged.

I always try to use a nice image like above and the title at the start when doing my introduction. Then I use a different slide for each point. This might include the point, a key verse and a statement, a quote, a Greek word, or an image.

Using PowerPoint has really improved my preaching and it helps people to take notes. To give you an idea of what I mean, you can click here to see a PDF example of one of my messages. 

As a special way to keep people engaged, sometimes I intentionally spell words wrong in the PowerPoint and ask people to call out when they see one. If they are right I might throw lollies out to them. This is usually quite popular as you can imagine.

If you cannot afford PowerPoint, LibreOffice has a free version that is compatible with the Office version. This is what I generally use to do mine. It allows me to save it as a .ppt file and also a PDF.

A great skill to master

If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be and why?

I would love to wake up tomorrow and find out I could play the piano and the guitar. To be a master of those instruments would be awesome.

I really admire people who can play multiple instruments. You see them at church one week and they are on the drums and the next week they are on the piano or the guitar.

I can play the basic beats on the drums and I can sing a bit, as long as my wife is next to me so I can follow her! But to play an instrument well would be fun and helpful at church.

I have tried to learn the guitar and piano a few times, but I quickly realise I am not naturally talented at them. It would mean a lot of mental energy and discipline to get really good at them.

It would be nice to master an instrument, but to be honest I would rather put that energy and discipline in to developing the gifts God has given me.

But hey, if God thought I needed these skills to build His Kingdom, I would be happy to wake up tomorrow a master of piano and guitar 😀

A free gift for you

As a free gift to you for visiting our blog you can download our free discipleship Bible study booklet.

This booklet has 10 studies including the topics of salvation, the Bible, serving God, prayer, sharing your faith, church, the Holy Spirit, having the right view of Jesus and the right view of ourselves.

Each study has an explanation of the topic, a number of Bible verses, some reflection questions, a keyword with explanation, a memory verse and a prayer.

You can download the PDF here. No email address is required.