Petey Bellini

Unlike the Greek mind, Hebrew thought did not toil to prove the existence of God. We open the Bible in Genesis 1:1, and boom, there is God! God is already there, creating. No explanation as to his 'origin.' The Greeks seek wisdom and knowledge, while the Jews seek a sign to credential one's prophetic pedigree. The Bible does not offer traditional "proofs" in the philosophical sense. The Spirit of God demonstrates rather than argues philosophically. God does not argue about his existence, resurrection, or miracles, he just demonstrates them. In the beginning, God is already there creating. Amidst the people, Jesus is working miracles. It appears foolish for one to argue with another and say this or that is impossible and cannot be done, while the person is before their eyes doing it. God's revelation is a revolution because it trumps mere reason. It allows the recipient to experience the reality demonstrated. Experience carries more convicting and sustaining power in the human heart than a mere abstraction. Experience sticks to your ribs! This mode of proof by demonstration is part and parcel with revelation. God's revelation is self-attesting, self-affirming and verifying. God, in his being and action, exists of himself (aseity, Jn 5:26). God is uncaused and fully self-sufficient. Aseity is a property of divine being that signifies that God is, was, and will always be self-existent and has no other source than God's self. He is the I AM THAT I AM, the absolute, self-existent One (Ex. 3:14). God bears witness to God's self triunely in three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The greatest "proof" God has given to us is his Son, Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. The Incarnation, God became human, is the greatest sign attesting to the existence and love of God. He could not have spoken any more clearly than with the sacrifice of his own life. He saves us from ourselves. He saves us in the deepest part of our being. He saves all that we are from the inside out. Salvation is the testimony of God's existence and his love. God reveals himself freely and not out of necessity. He reveals on our behalf, not for himself. The divine needs no witness, justification, affirmation, argument, or proof. God's existence cannot and need not be reproduced, reified, or reconstructed in any other form including an argument. God can reveal himself and bear witness to himself, though he may freely choose any vessel, even an argument. Ultimately, we do not pray to or worship an argument, proof, or a sign, we worship a living God. We worship him for who he is, and we worship him for what he does. In scripture, the closest we get to an argument for God's existence is found in Romans 1:18-20. Every person knows the truth of God's existence, but we suppress it. We do not follow through and believe God or give thanksgiving and worship him. We do not like to retain the knowledge of God, but would rather walk in unrighteousness. When we resist God, our minds become useless, our hearts darkened and turned to idolatry, and the wrath of God falls upon us. Scripture declares that God's judgment is righteous because we have no excuse. Through creation, God's existence, eternal power, and divine nature are clearly revealed to us. Scripture does not indicate how God's revelation grants us this knowledge. No argumentation is offered. As is the case with revelation, the Spirit's witness is self-attesting and unmistakable. The existence of God and creation are givens in a scriptural quest for truth. They are presupposed or assumed. Without them nothing really makes sense. Without God, there would be no creation, and hence nothing of which to make sense. And further, there would be no self,

Breaking the Threshold My Story: Its Only Anecdotal! As early as I can recall, I have had spiritual and supernatural1 encounters, visions, dreams, revelations, inspiration, premonitions, intuitions, prophetic utterances, and transcendent experiences of the divine (specifically the God of Christianity) dispersed intermittently throughout my six decades of life. An outlandish claim for some ears. Some experiences were subtle and others not so subtle. On the other hand, my normative daily experience with God has been simply a modest, discreet awareness that God is with me. I did not receive these manifestations regularly but sufficiently as needed. My spiritual experiences were both inside and outside of the institutional church, the Roman Catholic Church. As I mentioned, I became despondent with God and stopped attending church after my parents' bitter divorce. Not long after, I had an evangelical conversion experience and returned to God for a brief period. The only time I experienced a hiatus from "conscious" divine encounters was when I became a selfidentifying atheist in my junior year of college. However, I am convinced that God was still near me and at work circumstantially even in that dark time of my life. I was consistently on the Dean's List, while running my "businesses" out of my college dorm. I at least gave those up for the most part when my middleman sold to undercover. Nonetheless, I still wanted to be a wiseguy, somewhat. I was always more or less an underachieving gangster. Between brawling, atheism, partying, and the rest of campus life, I had enough vice in my life. Being an academic was beginning to slightly outweigh being a gangster, though I remained a wannabe. Yet, even during that time period when I was a committed, adamant atheist and did my best to buttress my mind against religion and religious arguments, I frequently backslid into a do-it-yourself romantic faith that integrated the Plotinian One, Wordsworthian, spirit-filled naturalism, and Emersonian transcendentalism. Even Milton's Paradise Lost wrecked me for a season. Originally, I was genuinely committed to good, old, hard atheist dogma. I had my atheist card and checked every box. I tried so hard to be a faithful atheist, but I could not help myself. I must confess that I was turning into a backslidden atheist. The Divine was bleeding through my DIY spirituality, in nature's church at dawn's altar. I would hear the Creator speak through the morning bird's song at Mirror Lake around 4:00 am every Saturday, after hitting clubs and parties all night. I could not resist the temptation of holy transcendence and innocence. I did not realize that I was looking for someone or something to change my life, a miracle. The subtle

Mission: I am an interdisciplinary theologian who researches, writes, and teaches in the areas of theology, philosophy, and the sciences. As an interdisciplinarian, my goal is to deliver a more robust and effective presentation of the Gospel that people may know Jesus Christ as Lord.

A few years ago, I wrote an article for Firebrand Magazine entitled, "Wesley, the Almost Charismatic." In it, I asked the question whether Wesley was a Charismatic in the modern use of the word, meaning one who holds the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit to be normative in the life of the believer. After much examination, as the title indicates, I determined Wesley was 'half a charismatic,' or 'almost a charismatic.' He was not a cessationist. He did not believe that the gifts passed away with the Apostles, but unfortunately, he relegated the gifts to extraordinary and not normative status. Wesley did not claim to have any supernatural gifts. Nevertheless, he and the early Methodist abundantly experienced the charismata, thus an almost charismatic. I would encourage the reader to take a journey through Wesley's literary corpus, which is quite an undertaking. Perhaps, start with his Journals, and maybe begin reading from 1758 and continue through until 1865. If you are like me, perhaps, you will find Wesley's entries to be contagious, like binging on a good Netflix series. Perchance, after reading this selection, you will read the rest of his journals and move onto his Letters and so on. One thing you will notice, among the many, is that Wesley and early Methodists regularly encountered the supernatural in their personal lives and in their ministries. From vision, dreams, prophecies, healing, deliverance, and miraculous faith, as well as other charismatic manifestations, the people called Methodists, in many ways, would be unrecognizable to mainline and even evangelical Methodists today. Old school Methodists were more like "Methacostals" if anything. As far as I am aware, not much scholarly, pastoral, or lay material has been produced specifically on the supernatural ministry of John Wesley and the people called Methodists. I know of only a handful of books. Why is it that in the last two hundred or more years there has been relative silence on this topic? A proper response to the question would probably require a hefty volume and not a short article. Somehow, we have overlooked, ignored, downplayed, demythologized, or reinterpreted the narratives, references, teaching, and preaching on the subject in Wesley's written works. The disinterest and gross neglect of the topic would be a proper beginning for such a volume, which would require an investigation too vast to be undertaken here. Hypothetically, I suppose one could take the easy and tired route of reducing early Methodism's supernatural phenomena to some socio-psychological explanation. Wesley's detractors and other Enlightenment thinkers did the same. Contrastingly, Wesley opposed a closed natural worldview and embraced a spiritual (supernatural) one. Regarding the supernatural and a scriptural worldview, Wesley understood the plain sense of scripture, and I take Wesley at face value. There has been much ink spilled on this debate, including my own. I will not be dealing with that problem directly beyond referencing the issue. Supernaturalism simply offends our modern sensibilities. But the question remains, why don't we see the power of God in our churches and communities like early Methodists did? In short, the theology and especially the practice of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in Methodism today is sparse for reasons that can perhaps be addressed expeditiously with three questions. First, do Methodists today share Wesley's worldview and theological empiricism that can account for the reality of the miraculous power of both God and even the demonic in our world? Modern science and biblical criticism have been major influences on a mainline Protestant worldview that eschews the "supernatural." My guess is that the tandem of the causal closure of scientific naturalism and the higher criticism of the Bible wiped out the possibility of such a perspective from our seminaries over a century ago. Put another way, we know better than

In part one and part two of this series, I distinguished between John Wesley's ordinary and extraordinary means of deliverance. He identified ordinary means, such as the Word of God, prayer, repentance, faith, and worship, in contrast to the extraordinary, or charismatic, means. Another distinction occurs between indirect and direct means. Wesley's ordinary means were indirect (Jude 9), meaning that he usually did not directly address the devil and cast out demons with a first-person formula or command, using the name of Jesus, such as, "I cast you out spirit of fear, in the name of Jesus!" Instead, Wesley's ordinary means indirectly addressed the demonic by directly addressing God through prayer, faith, and worship.

Although United Methodists today will rarely claim that they have had a confrontation with the demonic, let alone serve in a deliverance ministry, John Wesley and many early Methodists frequently encountered demons when ministering the gospel. They even had a deliverance ministry that effectively drove out demons. However, Wesley did not lay claim to any special gift of exorcism for combat in the preternatural fray. Wesley was convinced that ministers could expel demons by ordinary means, such as hearing the Word, repentance, prayer, and worship. Wesley would employ these ordinary means in his deliverance ministry. In part one of this article, we examined Wesley's ordinary means of deliverance and the various demonic manifestations he faced. In part two, we will

• Kann in einem Erstgespräch ausgefüllt werden vom Klienten selbst, einem Gebetsdienstmitarbeiter oder dem Leiter des Befreiungsdienstes Persönliche Daten Name ______________________________________________________ Adresse ______________________________________ ___ Geschlecht: () M () W Alter _______ Familienstand: () Single/ Ledig () Verheiratet () Geschieden () Wiederverheiratet ()Verwitwet Beruf: ______________________________________________________ Familienstand der Eltern _______ () Single () Verheiratet () Geschieden () Wiederverheiratet () Verwitwet Anzahl der Kinder und deren Alter: _____________________________________________________ Momentan in Seelsorge/Therapie () J N () Wie lange schon? _________ Zur Zeit eingenommene Medikamente () J / N () Bezeichnung_________ Wie lange schon? _________________ Wie viele Stunden schlafen Sie pro Nacht ? _____ Haben Sie im letzten Monat mehr als 4 Kilo zu-() oder abgenommen ()? Hatten Sie kürzlich weniger () oder mehr Appetit ()? Haben Sie im letzten Monat an Verstopfung () oder Durchfall () gelitten? Haben Sie in letzter Zeit das Interesse an Dingen verloren, die Ihnen sonst Freude machten ()? Haben Sie eines der folgenden Dinge erlebt: eine seltsame, unsichtbare Präsenz/ Anwesenheit (), Stimmen in Ihrem Kopf (), Erscheinungen oder Geräusche in Ihrem Heim () das Gefühl, dass jemand oder etwas sie beobachtet (), Momente in denen ihr Bewusstsein sich verdunkelt oder getrübt hat. Hatten Sie kürzlich eigenartige Erlebnisse wie: Alpträume (), Unfälle (), plötzliche erhebliche finanzielle Verluste (), ungewöhnliche Auseinandersetzungen mit Familienmitgliedern (), wiederkehrende Wutausbrüche (), Anderes__________? Andere Psychische Beeinträchtigungen/Erkrankungen in Ihrer Familie in der Vergangenheit oder zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt? ____________________________ Auskunft zu Ihrem Glauben

1. INSTRUCTION a. Teaching on the Principle & Task of Discipleship b. Teaching on character and the attitudes of the heart from Scripture (spiritual formation) c. Teaching on our mission, vision, call and purpose from Scripture d. Teaching on spiritual gifts and skills for service e. Teach and practice spiritual parenting or one to one discipleship f. Modeling-Christian life and ministry • I do-You Watch> I do-You Assist> You do-I Assist> You do-I Watch • Model prayer, teaching, ushering, outreach, laying on of hands, visitation etc. 2. CARE a. Small Group Roles-phone minister, letter /email writer, transporter, resource person for food, clothes and other needs, prayer leader, counselor, visitation, treasurer, apprentice b. Every member of the small group takes on a role and ministers it on a weekly basis 3. FELLOWSHIP a. Enjoy the fellowship of the saints b. Love each other and build each other up 4. ACCOUNTABILITY a. One to one and small group. Assign one to one partners. b. Take time to hold each other accountable to spiritual disciplines c. Hold each other accountable to church mission, vision, order, values, purpose & ministry d. Use the Language of Encouragement 5. IMPARTATION (Equipping)

As we think about the heritage of Pietism, in specific Methodism, and its legacy found in the world today, we cannot help thinking about its connection to the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement and even the Global Renewalist movement in the two-thirds world. Much research has traced these movements historically back to early Methodism and John Wesley. A historical connection has been made between the two, but can we also make an ontological connection between charismatic Christianity and the Methodist founder, whose heart was strangely warmed? Simply put, was an inchoate Wesley a charismatic Christian? Did Wesley hold the charismata to be normative as do charismatic believers today? In an attempt to answer this question, a select exploration of the literary corpus of John Wesley will be explored to identify Wesley's theology and practice of the charismata. Special attention will be paid to Wesley's epistemology of theology and the unique way he applies it to affirm an ordinary-extraordinary distinction of the work of the Spirit. Contextually, Wesley addresses the apologetic, soteriological, and pastoral aspects of the issue amidst hostile rationalistic detractors, overly enthusiastic false prophets, and faithful participants of a Spirit-led awakening. The results are the development and consistent application of a holiness hermeneutic that although bifurcating gifts into ordinary and extraordinary, also tests, acknowledges, and permits the miraculous but solely on the grounds of its submission and service to the greater work of sanctification. Though Wesley is a non-charismatic in theory based on the criteria of normativity, in practice, Wesley and early Methodists often functioned similarly to modern charismatic demonstrating a profusion of signs and wonders that followed the proclamation of the gospel. Wesley's approach serves as a corrective on two counts. First, the abundance of manifestations of the Spirit in early Methodism is an indictment against today's Wesleyans of all stripes who either forbid or do not experience the miraculous power of the gospel in their lives and ministries. Two, Wesley's holiness hermeneutic is an indictment against charismatic Christians who place gifts over fruit and charisma over character to the detriment of this spiritual growth and the integrity of the ministry.

As we think about the heritage of Pietism, in specific Methodism, and its legacy found in the world today, we cannot help thinking about its connection to the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement and even the Global Renewalist movement in the two-thirds world. Much research has traced these movements historically back to early Methodism and John Wesley. A historical connection has been made between the two, but can we also make an ontological connection between charismatic Christianity and the Methodist founder, whose heart was strangely warmed? Simply put, was an inchoate Wesley a charismatic Christian? Did Wesley hold the charismata to be normative as do charismatic believers today? In an attempt to answer this question, a select exploration of the literary corpus of John Wesley will be explored to identify Wesley's theology and practice of the charismata. Special attention will be paid to Wesley's epistemology of theology and the unique way he applies it to affirm an ordinary-extraordinary distinction of the work of the Spirit. Contextually, Wesley addresses the apologetic, soteriological, and pastoral aspects of the issue amidst hostile rationalistic detractors, overly enthusiastic false prophets, and faithful participants of a Spirit-led awakening. The results are the development and consistent application of a holiness hermeneutic that although bifurcating gifts into ordinary and extraordinary, also tests, acknowledges, and permits the miraculous but solely on the grounds of its submission and service to the greater work of sanctification. Though Wesley is a non-charismatic in theory based on the criteria of normativity, in practice, Wesley and early Methodists often functioned similarly to modern charismatic demonstrating a profusion of signs and wonders that followed the proclamation of the gospel. Wesley's approach serves as a corrective on two counts. First, the abundance of manifestations of the Spirit in early Methodism is an indictment against today's Wesleyans of all stripes who either forbid or do not experience the miraculous power of the gospel in their lives and ministries. Two, Wesley's holiness hermeneutic is an indictment against charismatic Christians who place gifts over fruit and charisma over character to the detriment of this spiritual growth and the integrity of the ministry.

The United Methodist Church has a theological statement in the Book of Resolutions 2012 on ministries in mental health that opens: We believe that faithful Christians are called to be in ministry to individuals and their families challenged by disorders causing disturbances of thinking, feeling and acting categorized as "mental illness." We acknowledge that throughout history and today, our ministries in this area have been hampered by lack of knowledge, fear and misunderstanding. Even so, we believe that those so challenged, their families and their communities are to be embraced by the church in its ministry of compassion and love.[1] According to a World Health Organization report in 2012 entitled " Depression: a Global Public Health Concern, " one in four persons suffers from a mental disorder, and among mental disorders, depression is the most prevalent. Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide in terms of total years lost due to disability.[2] Depression, as well as other mental disorders, adversely impacts the ability of affected persons to perform at work, school, and in the family. The World Health Organization (hereafter referred to as WHO) estimates 350 million people of all ages around the world suffer from depression, contributing significantly to the overall global burden of disease. [3] Lack of treatment compounds the problem. Less than half of the persons afflicted with depression, and in some countries less than 10%, receive any kind of treatment.[4] Lack of treatment is due to a lack of resources, including education, diagnostic tools, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, medication and support systems. Lack of resources is directly connected to the poverty and underdevelopment of such countries. Misdiagnosis is also another contributor to improper treatment. Untreated or improper treatment of depression can lead to other more dangerous mental disorders and often to suicide. The WHO cites that over 800,000 persons commit suicide every year, and it is the second leading cause of death globally in 15-29 year olds.[5] Depression is not the only mental disorder that afflicts persons globally. Anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, dementia, autism spectrum disorder and other mental and developmental disorders are on the rise as well, and countries face the similar challenges in treating these disorders. There are many individual and social factors that determine risk: genetics, perinatal infections, nutrition, stress, environment and environmental hazards, individual cognitive-behavioral coping skills, trauma, life crises, national policies, social protection, standards of living, work conditions and community support among others.[6]

In the previous article, I proposed that Methodism today can begin to emerge out of its systemic decline by radically shifting its focus from tired denominational programs and culturally driven agendas to recovering a focus on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We also briefly examined our Spirit-filled DNA through John Wesley and his influence on the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement. We cannot do justice to the full arguments for and against Wesley as a proto-Pentecostal in this limited space, but the following landmarks and signposts, as well as others not listed, seem to point at least one path from Wesley to Pentecostalism: John Fletcher's contested Pentecostal concept and language of the baptism with the Spirit; the 19th century revival of Christian Perfection as a second work of grace in Methodist writers and leaders such as Timothy Merritt and his Christian Manual, Phoebe Palmer and her sister Sarah Lankford's Tuesday Meetings, J

No surprise! The United Methodist Church, as well as much of mainline Protestantism, has been losing members at an alarming rate for over the last 50 years. In fact, currently at just over 7 million members, the United Methodist Church has lost around one third of its membership over that 50 year span beginning in 1965 (source). The decline of the United Methodist Church is not late breaking news. We have hopelessly watched this melting iceberg, as Lyle Schaller had called it, for years. We have watched it in our local church, in our annual conference and General church reports. Even though United Methodism and mainline Protestantism, or rather flatline Protestantism, has been in systemic decline for over a half century, it has not been the case for more conservative Wesleyan holiness and Pentecostal denominations. For example, the Wesleyan Church has experienced a 75% increase, the Church of the Nazarene has experienced a 50% increase, the Free Methodist Church has had a 25% increase, and the Assemblies of God has experienced an astounding 500% increase over the same 50 year span. We have heard these type of figures before and shake our heads. How can this be? We have the right theology, the right denominational structure and programming, a well-trained clergy, churches on every corner, and an unmatched zeal for social justice. How can these things be? There have been a multitude of explanations, diagnoses, prognoses, remedies and programs thrown at this problem in a desperate attempt to cure the disease, and this article may very well be another well-intentioned but shortsighted attempt. Here goes. My proposal is simple with hopefully profound ramifications – More of the Holy Spirit. We need more of the person, work, presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, our worship services, our seminaries, our spiritual disciplines, our missions and ministries, our boards and agencies from the local church level to the General church level and anywhere and everywhere we walk and breathe. We simply need more of the Lord, the Giver of Life, in any and every way the Spirit chooses. I am not speaking necessarily about phenomenology, though it may happen, that is speaking in tongues, gold dust, being slain in the Spirit or other spiritual phenomena. Let us at least begin with an awareness and a prioritization of the existence, influence, and readiness of the person and work of the Spirit in all we are and do. Then let us watch the book of Acts unfold in our own context as we do so. Such an exercise should not be far-fetched for the people called Methodists. This movement began over 200 hundred years ago with similar sensibilities. Pentecostals do not have copyrights on the Holy Spirit. Methodists are also Holy Spirit people, and we can participate in the current global outpouring of the Spirit that is going on among " Renewalists " and other types on every continent. I would define Renewalist as those Pentecostal, Charismatic, Neo-charismatic and other movements, denominations, institutions, churches, groups, practices and individuals that put a primacy on experiencing the person and work of the Holy Spirit, especially the gifts of the Spirit, including signs and wonders, prophecy and healing in their worship, discipleship, ministry, mission and evangelism. We have heard the reports of the growth of Renewalist Christianity in the world. The 2011 Pew Forum reports over 500 million globally. That is 8.5% of the world's population and 27% of world Christians. The Center for the Study of Global

As I share my thoughts on a healing ministry in the local church, allow me to delimit some of my discussion. I will not be dealing with any of the apologetic issues surrounding healing in this article. For example, " Does God heal today? " " What if some persons do not get healed? " , or " Why does a good God allow bad things to happen to good people " etc. will not be at the table of this discussion. Simply, there is not enough space in this forum, and they are not the topics of this particular focus. Much of what I have believed and practiced as an evangelist, pastor, and professor in healing ministry stem from a very basic theology of healing that I will succinctly identify in a few statements. Simply, God is a healing God (Adonai Rapheka – " The Lord that heals you "). In Matthew 8:17, Christ came to bear our infirmities and carry our sickness, and by his stripes we are healed. Healing is comprehensive and can be understood in somewhat of a holistic light that reflects a Wesleyan and even Eastern Christian understanding of salvation and wholeness. Since the source, authority, power and goal of our salvation is the resurrection, salvation needs to be understood as extensive. It is the salvation of the whole of our humanity, including spirit, soul, and body. It is also the salvation of all of creation, a cosmic theosis, a new creation in the image of God. Salvation as full restoration includes healing the disorder that prevents God's creative purposes from being accomplished. In this sense, salvation is curative in dealing with sin as spiritual sickness and also in redeeming our bodies. Christ came to heal the brokenhearted (Luke 4:18) and heal all who are oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38). Christ also came as the Resurrection and the Life to raise us from the dead and transfigure our mortal bodies (John 11 and Rom 8). In fact, the resurrection of Christ, that is the culmination of the eschatological breaking through of the kingdom, is the material grounds for all divine healing, and all divine healing is a foreshadowing and testimony of the resurrection. Thus, resurrection is the ultimate in healing and, of course, in deliverance from evil, sanctification from sin and salvation of God's people. Salvation based on the person and work of Christ on the cross, culminating with the resurrection, includes sanctification, deliverance from evil, and healing. Theologically, healing is a subset of sanctification, which in turn is a subset of salvation. Furthermore, but not the direct topic of this article, I understand deliverance (from evil) as a subset of healing. Thus salvation encompasses our sanctification, healing and deliverance, among other blessings. All that is to say that a theology of healing comes from a greater soteriology centered on the resurrection, which is rooted in a Triune God who redeems and restores. It is essential to have a theology and practice of healing that is rooted in the Triune God and in salvation lest it becomes dislodged and is seen merely as a benefit of divine health insurance to be claimed on route to our own health and wealth, success, self-actualization or whatever is the latest upgrade on the American Dream narrative.

One dynamic of this covenantal relationship with God is that he sets us free from sin and death and gives us new life. The truth is that Jesus Christ died for our sins, offering us forgiveness for our transgressions and deliverance from the power and presence of sin. The truth sets us free, and because of Christ, the truth is that we are new creations in Christ. The old or former things are gone, and behold all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17). This truth is liberating and life-giving. Believers have a new identity in Christ. Our new identities are birthed and formed in Christ and experienced in the Spirit as we grow in his image from glory to glory. This transformation in the image of Christ is our sanctification. It is a deliverance from the old and a manifestation of the new. John Wesley and others in the Wesleyan tradition have noted that this change is both instantaneous and a process. Convincing grace is a process by which we are convicted of our sins and our need of a Savior. Upon believing God, he justifies us in an instant. We then believe God for sanctification, which is often a process, resulting in a moment of deliverance and entire sanctification followed by a life of growth in grace (Wesley's Scripture Way of Salvation). One of the key agents of God's grace in this process of deliverance is the Holy Spirit: the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us through the truth and liberates us from the bondage of sin and death as well as past hurt and pain. Wesley, along with the Eastern Christian tradition, understood salvation as curative of the disease of sin. In salvation, God heals us of a sin-sick soul. He provides the cure for the spiritual sickness to the image of God within us, but when we believe the lies of the enemy, we remain in bondage and separated from the life that is in God. Not only are we devoid of the abundant life of the Spirit, but we are infected with sin and its destructive consequences. We do not function wholly as God created us. Our lives become inundated with fear, worry, anxiety, depression, rejection, hopelessness, and feelings of worthlessness. This type of spiritual sickness impacts not only our mental and emotional well-being, but it can even impact our physical well-being. Many of these conditions manifest themselves in the body and in disease. Physical, emotional, and mental problems are not always a direct result of sin, but there can sometimes be a connection between sin and illness. Symptoms of sin, such as stress, guilt, anxiety and unforgiveness can have a toxic impact on our minds and bodies. When we worry or are controlled by anxiety and fear

No surprise! The United Methodist Church, as well as much of mainline Protestantism, has been losing members at an alarming rate for over the last 50 years. In fact, currently at just over 7 million members, the United Methodist Church has lost around one third of its membership over that 50 year span beginning in 1965.1 The decline of the UMC is not late breaking news. We have hopelessly watched this melting iceberg, as Lyle Schaller had called it, for years. We have watched it in our local church, in our annual conference and General church reports.2 Even though United Methodism and mainline Protestantism, or rather flatllne Protestantism, has been in systemic decline for over a half century, it has not been the case for more conservative Wesleyan holiness and Pentecostal denominations, such as the Wesleyan Church has experienced a 75% increase, the Church of the Nazarene has experienced a 50% increase, the Free Methodist Church has had a 25% increase, and the Assemblies of God have experienced an astounding 500% increase over the same 50 year span. 3 We have heard these type of figures before and shake our heads. How can this be? We have the right theology, the right denominational structure and programming, a well-trained clergy, churches on every corner, and an unmatched zeal for social justice. How can these things be? There have been a multitude of explanations, diagnoses, prognoses, remedies and programs thrown at this problem in a desperate attempt to cure the disease, and this article may be another good intentioned, shortsighted attempt. Here goes. My proposal is simple with hopefully profound ramifications – More of the Holy Spirit. We need more of the person, work, presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, our worship services, our seminaries, our spiritual disciplines, our missions and ministries, our boards and agencies from the local church level to the General church level and anywhere and everywhere we walk and breathe. We simply need more of the Lord the Giver of Life in any and every way the Spirit chooses. I am not speaking necessarily about phenomenology, though it may happen, that is speaking in tongues, gold dust, slain in the Spirit or other spiritual phenomena. Let us at least begin with an awareness and a prioritization of the existence, influence, and readiness of the person and work of the Spirit in all we are and do. Then let us watch the book of Acts unfold in our own context as we do so. Such an exercise should not be far-fetched for the people called Methodists. This movement began over 200 hundred years ago with similar sensibilities. Pentecostals do not have copyrights on the Holy 1 " 50 Years of Methodist Decline, "

It was a tale of two cases. From my days as an urban pastor, mental health struggles in the local church could be summed up by the following two stories. The first is the story of Lisa. Lisa had weathered an abusive relationship with her father for years, and the pattern was repeating itself in her five-year marriage. From her late teens into her late twenties and through her marriage, she receiving regular counseling and was prescribed various regimens of meds for depression and anxiety. Lisa was occasionally suicidal and often had panic attacks and debilitating episodes of spiraling despair and depression. It seemed counseling and meds had only helped minimally over those ten plus years. Following a major episode and suicide attempt, Lisa was introduced to our church through a common friend. My wife and I began to spend much time with Lisa. We began to study the scriptures with her daily, teaching her God's plan for her life. In Christ, God wanted to make her a new creation full of the fruit of the Spirit, which meant unconditional love and peace of mind. We also anointed her, laid hands on her and prayed for her full healing regularly. Through the teaching of the scriptures and our prayers, Lisa began to experience God's healing and changed her perspective on her depression. Prior

Depression is difficult to define. It is commonly described as a chemical imbalance, a subjective experience of despondency, or even a semiotic construct. The various theories of depression―biochemical, psychological, cultural―often reflect one’s philosophical anthropology. How one defines the human person is telling in how one defines mental disorder. Philosophy and the sciences tend to offer reductive explanations of what it means to be human, and such approaches rarely consider that we may be spiritual beings and so fail to entertain a theological approach.

Peter J. Bellini invites us to reimagine the person in light of the image of God in Christ, the divine enfleshed in human weakness. The Cerulean Soul responds to real challenges in the sciences and philosophy and offers a relational theological anthropology shaped by a cruciform framework that assumes and affirms human contingency, limitation, and fallenness. With reference to Christ’s incarnation, Bellini reveals how depression is inexorably tied to our relationship with God as his created beings: original, fallen, and renewed. Despondency serves as a biosocial and spiritual marker for our human weakness, brokenness, and spiritual struggle for meaning and wholeness. Further, it is a call to grow, to be restored, and to be made holy in the image of God in Christ. What emerges is a therapeia of the imago for depression that fills the gaps in our present attempts to determine the malady’s etiology and treatment.

Taking the missio Dei of union with the risen Christ as its goal, The Cerulean Soul opens up the perennial problem of human despondency to an eschatological trajectory of hope and peace, redemption and transformation, given freely in Christ through the healing and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Christoformity, informed by the subversive kingdom of God, gives new form to all persons, "abled" and "disabled."

UNLEASHED is a groundbreaking work on deliverance that contains the C1-13 Integrative Deliverance Needs Assessment, an instrument used to indicate the probable need for deliverance. The ministry of casting out demons is either entirely dismissed on one hand or misused and abused on the other. A strict ratio-empirical, closed -system, natural worldview utterly rejects the notion of a spirit world with spirit beings. To the other extreme, some inept and careless deliverance ministries reject the validity of the health professions and identify every problem in the life of the believer as demonic. The theology of these ministries also fails to account for the power of the cross and its daily application in the life of the believer as the normative way in which God delivers from sin and evil. All challenges in the life of the believer do not necessitate a deliverance session. UNLEASHED is a book that offers a balanced perspective on these matters including an instrument that can be used to assist in discerning the probable need for deliverance. The C1-13 is a qualitative and quantitative probability indicator for deliverance. The C1-13 instrument was developed to assist persons in discerning the probable need for deliverance in any given case. This assessment employs an extensive inventory to identify sinful practices and accompanied symptomatology to ascertain the probability of demonic involvement. The C1-13 then assigns values to four variables related to each sinful practice that are evaluated to determine an overall BQ – Bondage Quotient. The BQ is a score that is evaluated to determine if there is a need for deliverance. The C1-13 is revolutionary in that it transcends the usual inventories by applying variables that are key factors to differentiating degrees of demonization or demonic influence. The instrument is also distinct due to its integrative approach that cross-references the work of other professional fields to arrive at a comprehensive picture of the problem and a more extensive and effective treatment.

A retrieval and reworking of the metousia/participation tradition of metaphysics in an attempt to construct an epistemology compatible with Christian trinitarian theism. Critique of modern and postmodern epistemologies. Participation draws from St. Maximus the Confessor, Thomas Aquinas, John Wesley and versions of participation or analogia entis.

As we think about the heritage of Pietism, in specific Methodism, and its legacy found in the world today, we cannot help thinking about its connection to the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement and even the Global Renewalist movement in the two-thirds world. Much research has traced these movements historically back to early Methodism and John Wesley. A historical connection has been made between the two, but can we also make an ontological connection between charismatic Christianity and the Methodist founder, whose heart was strangely warmed? Simply put, was an inchoate Wesley a charismatic Christian? Did Wesley hold the charismata to be normative as do charismatic believers today? In an attempt to answer this question, a select exploration of the literary corpus of John Wesley will be explored to identify Wesley's theology and practice of the charismata. Special attention will be paid to Wesley's epistemology of theology and the unique way he applies it to affirm an ordinary-extraordinary distinction of the work of the Spirit. Contextually, Wesley addresses the apologetic, soteriological, and pastoral aspects of the issue amidst hostile rationalistic detractors, overly enthusiastic false prophets, and faithful participants of a Spirit-led awakening. The results are the development and consistent application of a holiness hermeneutic that although bifurcating gifts into ordinary and extraordinary, also tests, acknowledges, and permits the miraculous but solely on the grounds of its submission and service to the greater work of sanctification. Though Wesley is a non-charismatic in theory based on the criteria of normativity, in practice, Wesley and early Methodists often functioned similarly to modern charismatic demonstrating a profusion of signs and wonders that followed the proclamation of the gospel. Wesley's approach serves as a corrective on two counts. First, the abundance of manifestations of the Spirit in early Methodism is an indictment against today's Wesleyans of all stripes who either forbid or do not experience the miraculous power of the gospel in their lives and ministries. Two, Wesley's holiness hermeneutic is an indictment against charismatic Christians who place gifts over fruit and charisma over character to the detriment of this spiritual growth and the integrity of the ministry.

This article is about knowledge and the Christian life, specifically our knowledge of God. The branch in philosophy that deals with knowledge is called epistemology. Now, it is important to note that Christian scripture does not offer any one specific epistemology, or any formal epistemology, that a believer needs to endorse in order to be a Christian or receive salvation. However, some things are accepted as basic to our understanding of God. We know God because God reveals himself to us. It is by revelation that we know God. God who is invisible and mystery makes himself known by uncovering that which is hidden and reveals it to us. God longs for us to know him. In fact the knowledge of God is eternal life according to John 17:3 God reveals himself to us in many ways. The primary way in which we know God is when God, the Word, became human through the incarnation. We know God in Jesus Christ. The transcendence and mystery of God is revealed and translated to us in human form in Jesus Christ who is fully divine and fully human. Another way in which God reveals himself to us is through the Christian Scriptures. The Bible shows us who God is as well as God's plan of salvation for the world. We also learn about God through the doctrine of the church as found in its creeds, councils, doctrinal statements, catechisms, liturgy, iconography, and testimony of the apostles, prophets, saints, martyrs, ascetics, confessors, father, mothers and other means of grace in the church. We also see the revelation of God in a less detailed, non-salvific manner in the created world. Scripture, i.e. Romans 1:20 and Psalms 19, indicates that the invisible nature and power of God are clearly manifest to us in the visible creation. For example, we are able to see the handiwork and beauty of God in the rising sun, majestic mountains, or the ocean tide. We are also able to know God internally through our conscience, in which the moral law is inscribed on our hearts (Romans 2:15). We have a moral core in our conscience that is developed throughout our lives and is intended to identify what is right and wrong and good and evil according to God's truth in scripture. Believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit are further enabled to understand God in Christ through the illumination of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit performs many operations and functions in the believer's life, but two vital functions are to make God in Christ known to us, and to grant the believer assurance of their salvation. Through these primary sources we are able to uncover knowledge of God. Although the Bible does not give a detailed epistemology of how we know God, one means of apprehending the knowledge of God is consistent throughout scripture. We know God by faith. Faith is our primary instrument for knowing God. By faith we know that there is a God. We know that God created all things, and that God provides forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Christ. Romans 10:10 states, " With the heart you believe and are justified… " By faith we are inspired by the Spirit to trust and depend on God and believe the teaching of Scripture. Scripture informs us that the righteous live by faith. It is not the intent nor is there space in this article to unpack all that is meant by faith, but it is important here to establish that faith is our primary instrument for knowing and experiencing the life of God, and without faith we cannot please God. We have established the vital importance of faith as a means to know God. However, we need to address misconceptions that are often held about faith. Many would