We are frequently asked what we believe and what type of faith we hold. Here at From His Presence®, we are a Christian organization dedicated to reaching the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.
We believe as follows:
1. We believe in the God of the Bible: Yahweh, the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; His Son, Jesus Christ; and Holy Spirit, the Ruach and very breath of God.
2. We hold the tenets of faith that God reveals in the Bible, which are clearly summarized in the Apostles’ Creed:
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy worldwide Church of people who have confessed Jesus as their Savior and Lord,*
the communion of the saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.”*I changed this sentence slightly for clarity.
3. We believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Salvation is not of works, lest any man should boast.
4. We believe that there is no other name in heaven or on earth by which men must be saved but the name of Jesus Christ.
Salvation was purchased for us by the blood of Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for the sins of the world with His own blood. This is from John 3:16-17, which says:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17 NKJV).
5. We believe that Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity.
Holy Spirit is equal with Father God and Jesus Christ, very God of very God; and that He is a Person, not a thing.
6. We believe that Holy Spirit and Jesus come to live inside every Christian’s heart/spirit at the moment they accept Jesus Christ as Lord.
7. We believe that every Christian can and should experience a radical encounter with God’s Spirit, often called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is a full surrender to the work of Holy Spirit in your life, accompanied with an infilling of boldness, power, and spiritual fire.
8. We believe there is a real Heaven and a real Hell. Heaven is the physical place of paradise and eternal life, where God and His temple are. Hell is a physical place which is a lake of fire, the flames of which shall burn forever and ever.
9. We believe that Heaven is where God dwells.
At the end of days, God’s holy city, the New Jerusalem, will move to earth and God’s people shall reign with Him forever and ever.
10. We believe that Hell was prepared by God for the devil and his angels, and that God will eventually throw the devil and his angels into Hell, nevermore to escape, and shall be tormented forever and ever.
11. We believe that the wicked–all those who do not receive Jesus Christ as their Lord, with the forgiveness of sins that only He provides by grace–shall be subject to eternal damnation at the end of days if they do not receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. They will burn in the fires of hell forever.
12. We believe that it is not God’s will that anyone should perish and be condemned to hell; but that it IS His will for everyone to come to repentance and receive Jesus Christ as his/her personal Savior and Lord.
13. We believe that every person has the choice of whether they should receive Jesus Christ as Lord or not.
14. We believe that the Bible–made up of the 66 books listed at the bottom of this page, and ONLY those books–is the inerrant, infallible Word of God.
15. We believe that God instituted a leadership structure in His Church, and that those leaders consist of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher.
We believe that all five of these leadership offices/positions (commonly called “the five-fold ministry”) still exist today. We believe that all five ministry offices must be alive and well in the local church in order to have a local church body that functions rightly according to the Word of God. We believe the Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone.
16. We believe that all the gifts of the Spirit are still functioning today, including the gifts of:
- Words of wisdom
- Words of knowledge
- Faith
- Gifts of healings
- Working of miracles
- Discerning of spirits
- Different kinds of tongues
- Interpretation of tongues
- Prophecy
- Ministry/helps
- Teaching
- Exhortation
- Giving
- Leading
- Mercy
- Craftsmanship
- Celibacy (a gift that God has only given to some, not all)
- Administrations
Related: Get my free spiritual gifts test, Know Yourself: An Inventory of 18 Spiritual Gifts, for FREE here and find out what YOUR gifts are!
17. We believe in the imminent, bodily return of Jesus Christ to the earth.
We believe that He will return to earth in the clouds of glory, surrounded by His angels, and will defeat the wicked and catch up His people to Himself.
18. We believe that the Kingdom of God consists of righteousness, peace, joy, and power in God’s Spirit. We believe that the purpose of God’s Kingdom on earth is to make earth look as much like Heaven as possible, winning as many souls to Jesus Christ as possible before His soon return.
19. We believe in the regular, frequent assembly of God’s people together for corporate worship, prayer, and for the preaching of the Word.
20. We believe that every person has a God-ordained call on their lives to do something specific for Him.
We believe that every calling has equal worth: not equal publicity or equal responsibility, but equal worth and value in the Body of Christ.
Related: Finding Your Calling and Life Message
21. We believe that all aspects of life should be fully submitted to God and His commands as given in the Bible.
We believe that God’s people become the righteousness of God in Christ at the moment of salvation, but that one must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling–taking what already IS on the inside and manifesting it on the outside through changed living that honors and glorifies God, in obedience to His Word.
22. We believe that every Christian can and should imitate Jesus Christ by being baptized in water.
We believe that baptism is done by immersion, following the Biblical pattern, and should take place after dedicating his or her life to Jesus.
We believe in dedicating children to God at birth, but we do not believe in infant baptism. Baptism represents the death of the old man and the new birth in Christ Jesus, and should therefore be reserved only for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
23. We believe that God created humankind as male and female, assigning each person their unchangeable gender at conception.
24. We believe that human life begins at conception, and that every human life has value.
We believe that abortion is one of the greatest sins of mankind, for God abhors the shedding of innocent blood. Abortion is an abomination to God and to society. It is a blight to every nation and society that permits it.
Abortion hurts both men and women and is the murder of an unborn child.
If you have had an abortion, we believe that God can and will forgive you for your sin through the blood of Jesus if you will confess your sin to Him. As it says in 1 John 1:9:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
If you have had an abortion, Jesus Christ is merciful and gracious. He loves you very much and wants to forgive you, save you, and heal and restore your life.
25. We believe that marriage is a God-ordained lifetime covenant institution, limited to one biological male and one biological female.
26. We believe that the biological children of Abraham through the line of Isaac and Jacob–the Jewish people–are God’s covenant people.
However, we believe that the Jewish people must still receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Messiah in order to be saved from sin, be forgiven, and receive eternal life from God. We believe that Gentiles have been grafted into God’s original covenant with Abraham through the blood of Jesus Christ, making us all spiritual Jews in matters of covenant.
We believe that all who accept Jesus as Savior have been freed from the Mosaic Law of sin and death, and have been filled with life and grace by the blood of Jesus Christ.
27. We believe that God’s promise to Abraham still holds true, and that God will bless all who bless the Jewish people and will curse those who curse the Jewish people. As God’s hands and feet on the earth, we bless the Jewish people as much as we can.
28. We believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is advanced by people who aggressively seek to obey God and carry out His will on the earth (Matthew 11:12). We believe that every believer in Christ should become one of those aggressive ones whom God can use to change the world in their generation.
What we believe is obviously a huge topic, and I could go on forever with this list.
However, the points above should sum up the main questions you may have. If you have specific questions about other things I believe, feel free to ask them in the comments below, and I will answer!
List of the 66 books of the Bible that we accept as God-inspired (and these are the only books that we accept as God’s Word):
Old Testament:
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy
6. Joshua
7. Judges
8. Ruth
9. 1 Samuel
10. 2 Samuel
11. 1 Kings
12. 2 Kings
13. 1 Chronicles
14. 2 Chronicles
15. Ezra
16. Nehemiah
17. Esther
18. Job
19. Psalms
20. Proverbs
21. Ecclesiastes
22. Song of Solomon
23. Isaiah
24. Jeremiah
25. Lamentations
26. Ezekiel
27. Daniel
28. Hosea
29. Joel
30. Amos
31. Obadiah
32. Jonah
33. Micah
34. Nahum
35. Habakkuk
36. Zephaniah
37. Haggai
38. Zechariah
39. Malachi
New Testament:
1. Matthew
2. Mark
3. Luke
4. John
5. Acts (of the Apostles)
6. Romans
7. 1 Corinthians
8. 2 Corinthians
9. Galatians
10. Ephesians
11. Philippians
12. Colossians
13. 1 Thessalonians
14. 2 Thessalonians
15. 1 Timothy
16. 2 Timothy
17. Titus
18. Philemon
19. Hebrews
20. James
21. 1 Peter
22. 2 Peter
23. 1 John
24. 2 John
25. 3 John
26. Jude
27. Revelation