John Nelson Darby Quotes

I went to America to convert the Indians, but, oh, who shall convert me? Who, what, is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief?

Religious life is an encounter with the living God. Sometimes that encounter is preceded by a kind of soul-searching agony that tries desperately not to hear, runs in the opposite direction, and frantically tries to reason itself out of answering the invitation.

Authentic spirituality... does not render the self content, it renders it undone.

Little by little he came to recognize the difference between the spirits that agitated him, one from the enemy and one from God.

If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose.

We have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired.

My principal anguish, and the wellspring of all my joys and sorrows, has been the incessant merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.

My life is such a contradiction. My soul yearns for holiness and then runs from the mortification necessary to attain it.

I got freed of all of my addictions January 16, 2009, but at that point I didn't do a full surrender to Jesus. I didn't give a full surrender until February 18, 2017, so there's quite a story in between where God was still chasing me.

Salvation brings the soul a deep awareness of God's love. Life takes on more meaning, for it now has a purpose.

What I don't think I knew when I was young was that 'losing your faith' is actually part of the plan for a lot of people - that it's actually maybe the most beautiful and graceful thing that can happen. The mystery of God can handle all of it. It can handle all of your thoughts, all of your doubts, all of your folly. It's all in the game.

He that comes to Christ cannot, it is true, always get on as fast as he would. Poor coming soul, thou art like the man that would ride full gallop whose horse will hardly trot. Now the desire of his mind is not to be judged of by the slow pace of the dull jade he rides on, but by the hitching and kicking and spurring as he sits on his back. Thy flesh is like this dull jade, it will not gallop after Christ, it will be backward though thy soul and heaven lie at stake.

The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation.

That was what gospel was meant to do - make you hate and love yourself at the same time, make you ashamed and glorified.

It seems to me that the darkness that has troubled you ... comes from one very serious source. Without wanting to be in conflict with the truth and with the will of God, we are actually going against God's will and His teaching.

The true saint burns grace like a 747 burns fuel on takeoff.

I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

It just took all of that to come to a screeching halt, to get to the point of having nothing, for me to finally realize, Hey, what are you fighting with this for? Until then, I hadn't claimed my faith as my own; I had just grown up with it.

I've received a lot of positive feedback from both the secular and Christian markets. People seem to be receiving it with open arms and hearts, and are interested in the stories I want to share about my relationship with God and my faith.

The only thing you're taking out of here is your spirit and your soul, so we need to be conscious to try and develop that part of ourselves, because we're all spiritual creatures.

Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.

I hate how hard spiritual transformation is and how long it takes. I hate thinking about how many people have gone to church for decades and remain joyless or judgmental or bitter or superior.

Spiritual consciousness is, on the whole, very adventurous and all about pursuing our deepest, most fulfilling dreams.

My hope is that 'Beyond the Heavens' will encourage people to explore faith, open their mind and go beyond what they think they know. That is what my mother encouraged me to do. I hope to encourage others to do the same through this story.

If we're interested in spiritual things, we gradually realize that what we really need is to understand this nature that seems to be a bottomless basket, because there is no peace in it.