Forgotten God - Francis Chan

One of my goals this year is to read two books a month. I enjoy reading so much but have not really had a good outlet to share what I've learned during the process.

After reading "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan, my perception of the Holy Spirit is forever changed. It has been my prayer that I would continue to walk in the knowledge of the power that is inside of me because of the Holy Spirit.

Prior to reading the book I had big dreams for my life, but they were nothing more than that. Merely dreams of what could happen one day, but I knew they probably wouldn't. I didn't realize the power of the Holy Spirit. I was completely unaware of how big and great the plans God had for my life were. I have now realized that I quite possibly could've been quenching what the Holy Spirit wanted to do in my life.

Here are just a handful of the quote that really jumped out at me.

"Shouldn't there be a huge difference between the person who has the Spirit of God living inside of him or her and the person who does not?"

"Many of us don't need more knowledge about the Spirit from a cerebral vantage point - what we need is experiential knowledge of His presence."

"Do you have enough humility to be open to the possibility that you have been wrong in your understanding of the Spirit?"

"I think that quite often we worry a lot more about how people will respond to us than we do about how the Holy Spirit of God will respond. But rarely (if ever) do we consider whether our actions or lifestyle are grievous to the Spirit of the living God!"

"When you begin living a life characterized by walking with the Spirit, that is when people will begin to look not to you but to our Father in heaven and give Him the Praise."

"We are made to be like Elijah, who did not question whether God would show His face that day. He prayed and asked for help, and God sent down fire from heaven in response."

"I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through. That if He doesn't come through, I am screwed!"

"We have to get on the treadmill and run - merely looking at the workout machine doesn't do a whole lot."

"The Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is not someone we can just call on when we want a little extra power in our lives. Jesus Christ did not die in order to follow us. He died and rose again so that we could forget everything else and follow Him to the cross, to true life."


Since reading this book I am completely convinced that any dream I could have for my life I will be able to fulfill; because of the power of the Holy Spirit living in me. I'm not convinced that at the end of my life people will know who "Laura Carlson" was, but I truly pray that because of my life Christ will be more famous and people will only remember Him and His work in their lives.


God is still working on my heart about these things. I cannot even begin to expound on them all. I cannot encourage you enough to pick this book up. Very much life changing!