No 1 | Effective Prayer (Introduction)

Almost everybody prays to God when they have a tremendous need. No matter whether they are a Christian believer, an agnostic or an atheist, men, women and children ask for divine help when they are in severe difficulties.

For many people, prayer is a last resort. They pray only when they are desperate. They are not sure whom they are addressing or quite what to expect from their prayer. If their need continues, it is ‘proof’ that there is no God. If their need disappears, God is forgotten until the next emergency.
For Christians, it should be the exact opposite. Prayer should be as natural and instinctive as breathing. However, it should not be restricted merely to asking God to meet needs; it should also be an expression of an intimate relationship with God.

This study on prayer has three aims. Firstly, to help you discover and understand the biblical teaching about prayer. Secondly, to introduce you to an exciting life of prayer. And, thirdly, to encourage and equip you to pass your understanding and excitement about prayer on to others.

I am sure you do not need to be told that you should pray more! All Christians, everywhere, feel like this - whatever their spiritual maturity. I know several people who have helped large numbers of believers to pray more effectively, but none of them are entirely satisfied with the quality of their own prayer life.
Yet although we know that we should pray more, we may not be quite so sure why we should pray more, how we should pray or what we should pray. That is why this teaching aims to help you both to learn about prayer from the bible and to pray following biblical principles.

By the time of the events recorded in Luke 11, the disciples had been with Jesus for a considerable while. They had watched him at work. They themselves had preached, healed the sick and seen demons submit. From childhood, they had prayed in the Jewish synagogues and Temple. They had even been with Jesus when he prayed. Yet they still felt the need to ask, ‘Teach us to pray’.

Their passion for Jesus, and the example of his praying, inspired the disciples to desire to learn to pray. They realised that - despite their years with Jesus and their ministerial experience - they were beginners at prayer who needed to learn from the Master, from Jesus.

Most of us have learnt to pray by listening to other people pray. This is why Christians in particular traditions or denominations often pray in a similar way. But if our personal and corporate Christian life is to be mature and Christ-like, we need to base every aspect of our lives on God’s word rather than on human experience.
In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul reminds us that ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work’.

This study is essentially for those believers who are prepared to set aside their own ideas about prayer and study God’s word to discover God’s biblical principles.
Establishing a lifestyle of scriptural prayer is a basic part of developing your relationship with God. It is my prayer that, as you study this topic, you will experience a new quality in prayer which has deep consequences for you, for your family, and for the needy people around you.
Colin Dye

Effective Prayer (Chapters)
PART ONE - Prayer in the Old Testament
PART TWO - Prayer in the life of Jesus
PART THREE - The Spirit and Prayer
PART FOUR - Intercession
PART FIVE - Thanksgiving
PART SIX - Paul’s Prayers
PART SEVEN - Spiritual Warfare
PART EIGHT - Fasting
PART NINE - Tongues
PART TEN - Towards Effective Prayer
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No 2 | Knowing the Spirit (Introduction)

Many ordinary people are puzzled by the idea of a Holy Spirit. They believe that Jesus lived on earth two thousand years ago. They feel that some sort of all-powerful being must exist ‘somewhere out there’. But they struggle with the concept of a Spirit who is God and Jesus and himself, and who is both out there and right here.

Despite all the teaching about the Spirit in recent years, I suspect that there are still many believers who are puzzled by the Spirit. They know that they should consider him a person, but they cannot help thinking of him as an ‘it’, as an impersonal force like electricity. They believe they can be affected by him, but they do not think that they can know him in a wonderful personal way. They are not convinced that the Spirit is as distinctive and as real a person as Jesus.

There is a tremendous amount of talk about being ‘led by the Spirit’, ‘filled with the Spirit’, ‘anointed with the Spirit’, ‘empowered by the Spirit’, and so on. Yet most of this talk is focused on ‘us’. We want to know what it will mean for us to be filled and empowered. We rarely concentrate on knowing him who desires to lead and fill us, or on discovering the Spirit’s holy purpose behind his activity.

Some Christians seem to think that the Spirit appeared at Pentecost. Yet we can only truly know the Spirit and understand his ministry when we appreciate all that the Bible teaches about him. The Old Testament introduction to the Spirit is a vital foundation for any accurate understanding about him. We will misunderstand his work today if we ignore what he did before Pentecost.

By the end of this course, you will see that the Spirit is totally centred on Jesus. He convicts unbelievers about Christ and urges them to receive and respond to the Son. He brings about the new birth, by which sinners trust Christ and are initiated and introduced into Christ’s body. He goes on revealing Christ - and the truth about him - to, in and through Christian believers. He witnesses to the fact that we are forever Christ’s by giving us a foretaste of heaven. He equips us to serve Christ, to serve with Christ, and to serve like Christ. And he transforms us into the likeness of Christ. He is all about Jesus Christ!

This course is essentially for those believers who will set aside their own ideas about the Holy Spirit and will study God’s word to discover God’s revelation about the Spirit.
By the time that you have finished working through this topic, it is my prayer that you will know God’s wonderful Holy Spirit more fully, that you will have entered into an even deeper relationship with him, and that you will have started to experience the joy of living in and with the glorious presence of Christ.
Colin Dye

Knowing the Spirit (Chapters)
PART ONE - The Spirit in the Old Testament
PART TWO - The Spirit in the New Testament
PART THREE - The Spirit and Jesus
PART FOUR - Receiving the Spirit
PART FIVE - The Power of the Spirit
PART SIX - The Purity of the Spirit
PART SEVEN - Performance and the Spirit
PART EIGHT - The Presence of the Spirit
PART NINE - Partnership with the Spirit
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No 3 | The Rule of God (Introduction)

It is absolutely crucial that you get the title of this topic in the Sword of the Spirit series right. It is ‘The Rule of God’ not ‘The Rules of God’ - that little letter ‘s’ makes a huge difference!

The period of time from the giving of ‘the Law’ to Moses on Mount Sinai until the coming of Christ was the age of ‘The Rules of God’. In that age, because of their sin and disobedience, God’s children could not know God intimately and personally. So priests acted as mediators between the people and God, prophets passed on God’s word, judges and kings governed the people, and ‘the Law’ ruled over them all.

People who loved God, and wanted to please him, had to keep all his rules - the totality of the regulations given through Moses and recorded in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Only through keeping all these rules, could people know God and be accepted by him.

But the age of ‘The Rules of God’ ended with the coming in Christ of ‘The Kingdom of God’. Because of Christ’s perfect obedience and sacrificial death, all people can now know God intimately and personally. The Great High Priest has, once-and-for-all, acted as mediator so that we all can approach God ourselves. The Great Prophet has come as God’s incarnate Word so that we can know exactly what God is like, can know him for ourselves, and can hear him speaking personally to each one of us. The Judge of the whole earth, the King of kings, personally governs his people with grace and mercy. He himself rules supreme over all people who submit to his authority.

We will see that the New Testament makes it clear that the coming of Christ has set us free from ‘the Law’. We are now called to be ruled by our gracious, merciful God rather than by a collection of rules.

How sad it is, therefore, when some Christian leaders try to lead God’s people back into legalism, to urge believers to live by God’s Old Testament rules (or rather, to keep a tiny selection of them), and to keep on introducing human rules and regulations into the church.

This study is essentially for those believers who will set aside their own ideas about God’s kingdom, and will study God’s word for themselves to discover God’s revelation for living. Please make sure that you read each scriptural reference - ticking the boxes in the margin as you go along. Please answer every question and think through each point as it is made.Before moving on to a new section, always think carefully about the implications of what you have studied for your situation. Please allow God to speak to you as you study his word.

It is my prayer that, through studying this topic, you will see God’s kingdom more clearly, will enter into his kingdom more deeply, and will consciously submit to him and be directed by him in every area of your life. I pray that you will live as one who has been liberated from rules and released into the personal rule and reign of the King of kings.
Colin Dye

The Rule of God (Chapters)
PART ONE - The Kingdom
PART TWO - The Call of the Kingdom
PART THREE - The Attitudes of the Kingdom
PART FOUR - The World in the Kingdom
PART FIVE - Righteousness
PART SIX - Spiritual life in the Kingdom
PART SEVEN - Physical life in the Kingdom
PART EIGHT - Judgement in the Kingdom
PART NINE - Kingdom Reality
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No 4 | Living Faith (Introduction)

Everybody knows that Christianity is commonly described as 'the Christian faith', but most people think that this refers to the particular beliefs of Christianity. And many men and women consider committed Christians to be 'believers' because of the beliefs that they hold

This common idea about 'faith' has led many people to think of Christianity as essentially cerebral. Ideas are deemed to be supremely important, so we quiz people about what they believe, and often withhold friendship and fellowship on the basis of human opinions.

But does the Bible really restrict faith to cerebral understanding? Does the roll of faith in Hebrews 11 commend the Old Testament heroes because of their ideas, or because of their actions, or perhaps both? We need to discover the answer and then work through the implications for our individual and corporate Christian living.

In the past, there have been disagreements within the church over the relative importance of 'faith' and 'works'. Some Bible teachers have defended faith and denigrated works, while others have insisted that 'faith without works is dead'. Wee need to check whether the Scriptural idea of faith is bigger then either group realised.

More recently, there has arisen a new 'faith' emphasis within the church. And some have started to insist that faith means we should be able to obtain any and every biblical promise almost immediately. As a result, several different techniques are now taught which are supposed to help us receive everything by faith without any delays.

We all know that we should have faith, and most of us will have had some struggle with doubts and sincere questions. Many believers want to have 'more faith' or 'better faith', but are not sure how to develop it - and several people will wonder quite what 'living faith' can be.

This is a study for believers who are willing to set aside their own ideas about faith, and to study God's word to discover God's revelation. We need to find out what he means by faith and belief, what we should believe, and - most importantly, how we can develop a life of faith.

By the time you finish this topic, it is my prayer that you will know what you have already received, the assurance which you have been given, and how you can develop your living faith from a tiny seed into something like a strong and very fruitful plant.
Colin Dye

Living Faith (Chapters)
PART ONE - What is Faith?
PART TWO - Biblical Faith
PART THREE - The Operation of Faith
PART FOUR - The Foundation of Faith
PART FIVE - Listening Faith
PART SIX - Believing Faith
PART SEVEN - Confessing Faith
PART EIGHT - Acting Faith
PART NINE - The Assurance of Faith
PART TEN - Developing Living Faith
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No 5 | Glory in the Church (Introduction)

There can be very few people who have not heard of ‘the church’, yet nearly everyone seems to have a different idea about it. Most ordinary people appear to think that the church is a building or denomination, and many believers assume that it is a series of meetings or services.

Even those of us who know that ‘the church’ is ‘the people’, who have heard about ‘the body of Christ’, often have very different ideas about how the church should be organised and what it should do.

Some leaders think that the church is all about worship, other ministers insist that evangelistic mission is what really matters, and a few clergy focus on caring for needy people in practical ways.

When we attend a variety of churches we soon find it hard to believe that they are all the same church of God. We discover that many leaders wear ceremonial robes, while others are casually dressed; that some clergy read their services from a book, while others seem to make it up as they go along; that most church services are over in forty minutes, but many last for several hours; that a few ministers still chant in seventeenth century English, while others sing in tongues. It can all seem terribly confusing.

Sadly, there is often considerable suspicion, even competition, between different churches in an area - or even within a denomination. Many believers realise that some genuine Christians must attend the other churches in their locality, but they cannot work out why!

If the church is important to God, we ought to try to understand the basic scriptural principles about the church so that at least we know what are matters of culture and taste, and what are matters of doctrine.

For example, it may not matter to Jesus whether we prefer service books or spontaneity, medieval chanting or modern choruses, robes or plain clothes. But it does matter to him when we separate ourselves from each other, when we refuse to engage in spiritual warfare, and when we quench the Spirit by our attitudes.
This study is for believers who will set aside their own ideas about the church, and will study God’s word to discover God’s revelation about God’s church. We need to know his vision and purpose for the church.

By the time you finish this topic, it is my prayer that you will grasp that God has always wanted to reveal his glory in the church by Christ Jesus; that he is going to reveal his glory in the church so that all the nations of the world will come to the light; and that you will know how you can work in partnership with him to bring this about in your area.
Colin Dye

Glory in the Church (Chapters)
PART ONE - The Glory of God?
PART TWO - The Church of Christ
PART THREE - The Gathering
PART FOUR - The Fellowship
PART FIVE - Pictures of the Church
PART SIX - The Church and the Kingdom
PART SEVEN - Belonging to the Church
PART EIGHT - Leadership in the Church
PART NINE - The functioning Church
PART TEN - The Sacraments of the Church
PART ELEVEN - The Spirit and the Church
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No 6 | Ministry in the Spirit (Introduction)

There is something of God’s compassion in all humanity. No matter how distant a person may be from God, there are very few men and women who are not moved by the painful images they see in the media of lives which have been crushed by some new disaster. We do not need to know an individual personally to empathise with their suffering and to wish that we could do something to help them.

Close at hand, most people know somebody who is troubled by illness or accident, by unemployment, debt or family breakdown, by social isolation, some form of evil or just the stress of modern-day life. As Christian believers, we find that our human compassion is greatly intensified by the Holy Spirit, and we long to reach out to the bruised lives around us, and to help them receive God’s comfort and counsel.

Of course, we should pray for the hurting people we know - pleading with God to intervene in their lives and bring his transforming wholeness. But, deep down, we know that we should be doing something ourselves; that we should be acting and speaking in a way which makes a genuine lasting difference.
As Christian believers, we are part of Christ’s body on earth. We are Jesus’ hands and voice in the world; and he has anointed us with his Holy Spirit so that - through us - he can do today for many in our nations what he did himself in Israel for a few.

Acts 10:38 describes how God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil - because God was with him.

As we live in partnership with the Spirit, and are moved, motivated and empowered by him, so we too can speak God’s words, can carry out his deeds, can do his good, can pass on his healing to those who are oppressed by the evil one, can offer God’s help to some of the hurting people around us. This is true ministry in the Spirit.

This study is essentially for those believers who will set aside their own ideas about helping people, and will study God’s word to discover God’s revelation about ministering in and with the Spirit.

By the time you have finished working through this topic, it is my prayer that you will understand how God wants you to be willing to deal with demons, how he expects you to be ready to heal the broken-hearted, how he intends to do good through you - and that you will be eager to respond to his prompting.
Colin Dye

Ministry in the Spirit (Chapters)
PART ONE - Ministry in the Spirit
PART TWO - Ministers in the Spirit
PART THREE - Ministering in the Spirit
PART FOUR - The Basis of Healing Ministry
PART FIVE - Healing in the New Testament
PART SIX - The Healing Ministry Today
PART SEVEN - The Basis of Deliverance Ministry
PART EIGHT - Deliverance from Demons in the New Testament
PART NINE - The Deliverance Ministry Today
PART TEN - Speaking with Prophetic Authority
PART ELEVEN - The Ministry of Counselling
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No 7 | Knowing the Father (Introduction)

I doubt whether there are many Christians who do not know that God is three persons - the Father, the Son and the Spirit. They may not all appreciate the significance of God's triune nature, they may not all understand the full biblical basis for the Trinity, but the vast majority have been taught that their living God is somehow 'Three-in-One'.

I also suspect that every believer throughout the world can describe the Second Person of God - the Son - in some detail. They know what he is like and what he has done for them: they can speak about him with some accuracy to any uncommitted person.

Furthermore, in the last thirty years, there has been a widespread re-awakening to the Third Person of God. In every Christian tradition, believers have begun increasingly to appreciate and to experience the distinctive Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Again, many might struggle to describe him, but most know what he does.

Yet it is all rather different when we consider the First Person of God. Most believers today appear to confuse the triune God with the First Person of God. They know that God is the Father, but they find it difficult to distinguish between the general fatherhood of Almighty God and the specific nature and ministry of God the Father.

It has been said that Evangelicalism is a Jesus movement, that Pentecostalism is a Spirit movement, and that the Orthodox tradition is a Father movement. But this should not be so, for every branch of the church is meant to be filled with Father-focused believers.

Everything that the Son has done, and still does, is so that we can know the Father. Everything that the Spirit does is to enable us to live in the Father's presence and to fellowship intimately with him. Sadly, if we do not know the Father - and do not know what it means to be children of the Father in his world - the Son has died in vain.

This is a book for believers who are willing to set aside their own ideas about God, and to study God's Word to discover God's revelation about himself. We need to find out what the Scriptures teach about the general fatherhood of God, and - especially - what they reveal about the First Person of God, about the Father.

Please make sure that you read each scriptural reference - and tick the margin reference boxes as you go along to show that you have. Answer every question and think through each point as it is made. Before moving on to a new section, think carefully about the implications of what you have studied. Please allow God to speak to you about your relationship with the Father as you study his word.

At the end of the book, there is some activity material and questions. Please make sure that you study Parts 1-9 before beginning to work through the activities, as this will ensure that you have an overview of the biblical teaching about the Father before you try to apply the details of any one area. These questions will help you to grasp and apply the scriptural material that you have studied.

You will also be able to use the activity pages when you teach the material to small groups. Please feel free to photocopy these pages and distribute them to any group you are leading. Although you should work through all the questions when you are studying on your own, please don't expect a small group to cover all the material. Instead, prayerfully select those parts that you think are most relevant for your group. This means that, at some meetings you might use all the material whilst at others you might use only a small part.

By the time you finish this book, it is my prayer that you will have a better understanding of the name and nature of the triune God, that you will have begun to know the First Person of God much more deeply, and that you will have started to revel in the wonderful freedom of the sons and daughters of 'Abba', our gracious heavenly Father.

Colin Dye

Knowing the Father (Chapters)
PART ONE - Who is God?
PART TWO - The Name of God
PART THREE - The Fatherhood of God
PART FOUR - The Father and the Son
PART FIVE - The Father and the Spirit
PART SIX - The Father and the Cross
PART SEVEN - The Will of the Father
PART EIGHT - The Father and Prayer
PART NINE - Our Father
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No 8 | Reaching the Lost (Introduction)

Mission is the true church’s greatest passion and purpose. As every fire exists to burn, so every congregation should be a holy conflagration reaching out to the people around them with God’s infinite grace and love. Every church must spread the gospel, or suppress in shame; obey the Great Commission, or pretend that it is nothing to do with them; reach the lost, or leave them to perish. There is no middle way.

God has entrusted us with a burning mission to speak his message of total forgiveness in words that people can understand, to demonstrate his compassionate power in deeds that people can see, and to incarnate his life-giving gospel with lives which dazzle people with his holiness.

Nobody pretends that this is easy - we know that it cost Jesus his life, and that the missionary church has always faced a mixture of apathy and opposition. There will always be some people who do not want to hear a word about Jesus, while others will seek to dampen our fire and gag our mouths.

In the last fifty years, there have been thousands of conferences, courses, books and videos on evangelism - yet the church is still inactive and the world largely unreached. When the task is so urgent and the need so great, it almost seems wrong to ask anyone to make time to study evangelism. But the church will not recover its passion for mission until it has asked and answered some very basic questions.

Are people truly lost? Does God care individually about all the 6,000 million people alive today? Is the gospel genuinely good news? Can people’s natures be changed? Did Jesus’ death actually make a difference? Did he literally rise from the dead? Will all people really be judged by him one day? If the answer to these questions is a reasoned ‘Yes’, mission or evangelism is the only sensible conclusion.

This is a study for believers who are willing to set aside their own ideas about evangelism, and are eager to study God’s Word to discover his revelation about our mission. We need to learn what the Scriptures teach about the lost, what they reveal about the good news itself, and how they show the church reaching the lost with the gospel.

Please make sure that you read each scriptural reference - and tick the margin reference boxes as you go along to show that you have. Answer every question and think through each point as it is made. Before moving on to a new section, think carefully about the implications of what you have studied. Please allow God to speak to you about your personal evangelism as you study his word.

By the time you finish this topic, it is my prayer that you will have a much better understanding of God’s purpose in sending us into his world with his gospel, the different ways that we should spread the gospel, and the resources which he has given to equip us for this task. In particular, I pray that you will be so convinced by the truth of the gospel, so equipped with the power of the Spirit, and so motivated by the love of the Father, that you will start to reach the lost and hurting people around you with gospel effectiveness.
Colin Dye

Reaching the Lost (Chapters)
PART ONE - Evangelism
PART TWO - The Lost
PART THREE - Motives for Evangelism
PART FOUR - The Message of Evangelism
PART FIVE - Personal Evangelism
PART SIX - Church Evangelism
PART SEVEN - Evangelism and Discipleship
PART EIGHT - Evangelism and the Spirit
PART NINE - Evangelism and Prayer
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No 9 | Listening to God (Introduction)

Most church services seem to be filled with human speaking and human singing. The people appear to gather together to speak to God in prayer and thanksgiving, to worship him with hymns and spiritual songs, to speak about him in praise, and to listen to human preachers. Listening to God usually has a lower priority than speaking to God and singing about God.

There are some obvious reasons for this: for example, most believers really enjoy singing; they find it relatively easy to pray; and, from childhood, they have been well used to listening to people teach. In contrast, men and women today are increasingly uncomfortable with any form of silence, and they find the idea of actually listening to God rather strange.

Many congregations would be bewildered if their leaders announced that they were going to spend the next twenty minutes listening to God - the people simply wouldn’t know what to do.

On the other hand, in the past decade, there has been a considerable increase in the numbers of Christian people claiming to hear God speak to them personally. The phrase, ‘God has told me’, must surely now be one of the most commonly heard expressions in many contemporary churches.
Yet some of the believers who make this claim find it difficult to explain how they have heard God speaking to them, and they have not been taught how to deal with the words that they have heard.

Listening to Almighty God must be fundamental to the life of faith and to every form of spiritual service. If we do not receive God’s direction we cannot obey him; if we do not know how to recognise his voice, we can be led astray; if we do not know how to test revelation, we can act foolishly; and if we rarely consciously listen to God, our relationship with him is bound to be distant and superficial.

This is a study for believers who are willing to set aside their own preconceived ideas about listening to God, and are eager to study God’s Word to discover God’s revelation about this matter. We need to find out what the Scriptures teach about the way God communicates with his people, and - especially - what the Bible reveals about the way we should recognise and handle God’s words.

By the time you finish this topic, it is my prayer that you will have a better understanding of God’s purpose in speaking, the process by which he speaks, and the scriptural principles involved in dealing with revelation. In particular, I pray that you will know his holy voice, will be developing a hearing heart, and will be ready to act on his words.
Colin Dye

Listening to God (Chapters)
PART ONE - Prophetic listening
PART TWO - The Communicating God
PART THREE - The Word of God
PART FOUR - The Will of God
PART FIVE - Old Testament Prophetic Listening
PART SIX - New Testament Prophetic Listening
PART SEVEN - Prophetic Listening Today
PART EIGHT - Judging Revelation
PART NINE - Developing Prophetic Listening
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No 10 | Knowing the Son (Introduction)

The twelve topics in the Sword of the Spirit series have been constructed both to 'stand alone' as individual guide-books about particular bible topics and to 'join together' to form a cohesive and thorough course of studies which will establish you in ministry and equip you to teach others to know God and his purposes more deeply.

All twelve topics refer to each other and are fundamentally inter-related, so you need to study them all if you want to grasp the full picture of 'the Word and the Spirit'. Each subject, however, is a full-and-complete unit for study - except, perhaps, this one.

Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Lord, the Saviour, the Son of the living God, so dominates the Scriptures that it is impossible to describe the fullness of his nature and work in such a short space.

In one sense, all twelve topics in this series are about the Son - who is himself the Word of God. For example, we study his holy teaching in The Rule of God, his prayer life in Effective Prayer, his earthly service in Ministry in the Spirit, his evangelistic mission in Reaching the Lost, his Trinitarian interdependence in Knowing the Father and so on. Although we touch on each of these aspects of the Son's life in this section of the course, you will need to study them in more depth in the other subjects.

Most importantly, we deal with the great abiding purpose of the Son in Salvation by Grace; it is imperative, therefore, that you study Knowing the Son in conjunction with Salvation by Grace. You will not grasp the fullness of the Son's mission without studying both topics.

In this section of the course, we are more concerned with knowing 'who the Son is' than with knowing 'what he has done' - we cover that elsewhere. We focus on the mystery of his fully divine, fully human nature; we consider the uniqueness of his being and the unique events of his life; we examine his working relationship with the Father and the Spirit; and we think about the cross in the way that is presented by the Gospels.

Knowing the Son is for believers who are eager to study God's Word to learn how Jesus of Nazareth can be both one of the sons of a simple carpenter and the only Son of the Almighty Creator; it is for disciples whose minds are open to receive God's biblical revelation about the nature, mission, purpose and destiny of his beloved Son.

By the time you finish this topic, it is my prayer that you will have a far better understanding of the wonderful person and work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - and, especially, of the way that his Sonship should shape our lives as sons and daughters of the one Father.

Even more than this, I pray that you will be inspired to greater devotion, and to more dedicated discipleship, by the submissive dependence of the Son - who willingly came in suffering and death (and will willingly come again soon in power and glory) to rescue humanity from evil and establish the kingdom of God.
Colin Dye

Knowing the Son (Chapters)
PART ONE - The Fully Human Son
PART TWO - The Fully Divine Son
PART THREE - A Unique Being
PART FOUR - A Unique Life
PART FIVE - A Unique Mission
PART SIX - The Son and the Spirit
PART SEVEN - The Son and the Father
PART EIGHT - The Son and the Cross
PART NINE - The Return of the Son
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No 11 | Salvation by Grace (Introduction)

The little word ‘save’ is one of the commonest verbs in the English language. Every day, we all use it dozens of times in association with words like time, money, goals, fuel, animals, stamps, paper, inner cities, computer work, derelict buildings, drowning people, and so on.

But even though we use ‘save’ in an amazingly wide variety of contexts, its general meaning is clear. To save something means to preserve it, to rescue it, to reclaim it, to deliver it from danger or to prevent it from falling into misuse.

When it comes to Christianity, however, the meaning of ‘save’ can seem less clear. Although most believers understand that ‘being saved’ means being preserved, rescued, reclaimed, delivered and resuscitated, many are not sure how this happens, why it happens, and what its consequences are in human life.

The basic idea of salvation is easy to grasp: God finds the lost, gives new life to the dead, cleanses the dirty, forgives the guilty, turns the defeated into victors, releases the imprisoned, and so on. But the why, how and so what of salvation involve some very hard thinking.

New believers instinctively know what the simple word ‘to save’ means, but they soon realise that a host of technical words are associated with ‘being saved’. Many are bewildered until somebody explains the differences between, for example, atonement, covenant, election, glorification, judgement, justification, predestination, propitiation, redemption, regeneration, sanctification, and so on.

Although these technical words can confuse believers, the important ideas behind them shape the way that we think about salvation, the way that we experience salvation, and the way that we reach out to others with the good news of salvation.

If we do not work hard to grasp the full biblical why, how and so what of salvation, we are bound to move away from the totally God-focused view of biblical salvation and to start to think and speak about it in an unhelpful human-centred way.

This is a study for believers who are eager to study God’s Word to learn about salvation, and are keen to discover God’s revelation about the purpose and nature of Christ’s death, the means by which it is made effective, and the results of his death in human life.

By the time you finish this topic, it is my prayer that you will have a far better understanding of fallen human nature, of the wonderful person and work of Christ, and of the way that the cross dominates and unites the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

Even more than this, I pray that you will be overwhelmed by the infinite grace of God, which has worked in salvation at so much cost; and that you will respond to this grace by living out your salvation in such a way that you draw others to his grace for themselves.
Colin Dye

Salvation by Grace (Chapters)
PART ONE - Holiness, Sin and Forgiveness
PART TWO - Self-consistency
PART THREE - Substitution and Sacrifice
PART FOUR - Covenants of Grace
PART FIVE - Salvation and Atonement
PART SIX - Salvation and Revelation
PART SEVEN - Salvation and Victory
PART EIGHT - Salvation and New Life
PART NINE - By Grace through Faith
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No 12 | Worship in Spirit & Truth (Introduction)

There is probably a greater diversity of public worship today than at any time in church history.
As recently as thirty years ago, most Anglican worship was based around the 1662 Prayer Book, most Roman Catholic worship was in Latin, and most Free Churches used the ‘hymn-prayer sandwich’. Nearly all services were led by the recognised minister, the organist ruled supreme, and there was no leading role for women. Although there were different denominational hymn books, they contained very similar hymns - few churches sang any modern hymns or choruses.

In the last thirty years, however, there has been a revolution in worship. For example, services have become more informal; they are led by more people and many musical instruments; and they use modern liturgy and a mixture of contemporary and traditional songs.

Although these changes have reflected the increased informality in western society and the musical tastes of the post-Beatle generation, they have also been a response to the genuine work of the Holy Spirit through ‘Charismatic Renewal’.

As a result of this, there has been a great deal of discussion (and disagreement) about the place of spiritual gifts, the role of women, the balance between prepared liturgy and spontaneity, the use of dance and drama, the position of the Lord’s Supper, different forms of worship, acceptable styles of music, and so on.
Much less attention, however, has been paid to the biblical principles which undergird worship. By concentrating on form rather than substance, on modern details rather than scriptural principles, some congregations have put the proverbial cart before the biblical horse.

This, therefore, is a study for believers who are eager to study God’s Word to learn about worship in spirit and truth; it is for Christians who want to go behind the debates about style and format to establish what the Bible means by worship and to discover God’s eternal principles about the way he wants us to respond to his grace.

Please ensure that you read all the references - and tick the margin boxes as you go along to show that you have. Answer every question and think through each point as it is made. Before moving on to a new section, think carefully about the implications of what you have studied. Please allow God to speak to you as you study his Word.

By the time you finish this topic, I pray you will have begun to appreciate that biblical worship is much, much more than what you do in church on a Sunday, and to grasp that God wants your every word and deed to be motivated by holy fear and adoring love.

Even more than this, I pray that you will have been inspired to make the worship of God your number one priority. Feed your mind with his truth, fire your imagination with his beauty, free yourself to his love, follow his perfect example, and firmly devote your will to his purposes - enjoy God, and worship him fully in spirit and truth.
Colin Dye

Worship in Spirit & Truth (Chapters)
PART ONE - The Father's Priority
PART TWO - Praise and Worship
PART THREE - Worship in the Old Testament
PART FOUR - Worship in the Psalms
PART FIVE - Worship in the New Testament
PART SIX - Service and Worship
PART SEVEN - Giving and Worship
PART EIGHT - Rejoicing and Worship
PART NINE - The Holy Spirit
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