Chapter
4 –Forgotten God-- TAKE-AWAY
Why
do you want the Holy Spirit present in your life?
This
is a big question for every believer to answer. We have learned that the Holy
Spirit is given to us to strengthen us in the inner man, to empower us to live
the Christian life, and to help us build a closer relationship with our God.
We
will agree to define “supernatural” as being anything that cannot be
accomplished by “natural” man. Therefore, our salvation is supernatural, the
fruit of the Spirit is supernatural, and in like manner, the accomplishments of
a spirit-led community are capable of being supernatural.
If
you need some clarification on “supernatural, you can refer to http://joyofbiblelearning.blogspot.com/2011/03/sanctification-lesson-2.html#miracles and
WHY
A MORE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE?
Why
should we want more of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives? One reason we want
to submit more to the Holy Spirit is because He gives gifts for the benefit of
the community of faith according to the Will of God.
“Our
desire to live should be for the sake and glory of the God who put us on this earth
in the first place” (Francis Chan, chapter 4).
A
second reason we might need to submit to
the Spirit is to overcome the fear of witnessing for Christ (John 16:14). When Christ is magnified, the Spirit is
leading (1 Corinthians 12:3).
This is the true test of a spirit-led Christian;
Christ is continuously magnified in all situations: in plenty or in drought, in
sickness and in health, in comfort and in persecution.
Reflect
on these Scriptures before attempting the exercise below:
o
Revelation 19:5 “ 5
And a voice came from the throne, saying,“Give praise to our God,
all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.”
o
Mark
7:22 “22 deeds of coveting and
wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.”
o
1
Tim 3:6 “ 6 and not a new convert, so that he will not
become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
o
1
John 2:16 “ 6 For all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life,
is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
o
Romans
1:30 “30 slanderers, haters
of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to
parents,”
o
1
Tim 6:4 “ 4 he is conceited and understands nothing;
but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about
words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions,”
o
1
Peter 5:5 5 You younger men, likewise, be subject
to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility
toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the
humble.
o
Acts
5:36 36 For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be
somebody, and a group of about four hundred men joined up with him. [a]But he was killed, and all who [b]followed him were dispersed and came to
nothing.
o
Ephesians
2:9 9 not as
a result of works, so that no one may boast.
o
2
Tim 3:2 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of
money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful,
unholy
o
James
4:16 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all
such boasting is evil.
o
1 Corinthians 4:19 But I will come
to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not
the words of those who are arrogant but their power.
o
1 Peter 4:11” Whoever speaks, is to do so
as one who is speaking the utterances of
God; whoever serves is to do
so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen.”
o
Colossians 3:17 “ Whatever you do in word or deed, do
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”
Remember our example in 2 Corinthians
8:16. Paul could have said, “Thank you Titus for thinking of
us”, but instead Paul said, “But thanks be to God who puts the same earnestness
on your behalf in the heart of Titus.” Paul ALWAYS gave the glory to God!
Exercise
1: Change these phrases so that they reflect what a spirit-led Christian might
say:
1.
Proud
to be an American!
2.
Take
pride in your job
3.
My
friend is so creative and accomplished
4.
My
child won a scholarship to a Christian University
5.
Our
church has over 700 members
6.
My congregation is planning to build a new
auditorium
7.
The
talent in this place is amazing!
REVELATIONLesson 5 (Listen online)
In
Lesson 5 of Revelation we hear about the Power of the Lamb. The only ONE who was
able to open the scroll of God’s Will on earth. The Lamb faces the Dragon and
wins. The Lamb is glorified and praised by every living creature in Heaven and
on earth. If we are under the Power of the Lamb, we too must learn to magnify
His name by proclaiming His attributes before those in Heaven and those who are
on the earth. We can do this when we
focus our attention on what is above us and not what is around us. We can do
this when we are filled with the “awe” of our God.
REVELATIONLesson 6 (Listen online)
“HOW
LONG, OH, LORD?”, is the prayer of the persecuted saints. They present their
prayer under the throne of God. When will our prayers be answers? From this w e learn that we must trust God to
display His power in His time & for His purpose and learn to “Wait on the
Lord”
Psalm 27:14 “Wait on the Lord; Be of
good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!”
Sarah rushed into
making a decision by giving her handmaiden to Abraham. The result of Sara NOT
waiting on the Lord is the cause of wars and more wars between sons of Isaac
(Jews) and sons of Ishmael (Arabs) unto this very day.
Pursue
Christ instead of selfishly wanting to use the ”supernatural” for our own
purposes. Like a genie in a bottle, we often just want to really get down to
praying when there is something we want God to accomplish for us. Allow the
Spirit to guide our hearts. Submit to the Holy Spirit and He will lead us.
Don’t be tempted to make our requests (prayers) THE priority instead of the
Will of God.
Don’t
expect the Spirit to layout a “life plan” for you.
Francis
Chan explains that waiting for God to give you a whole life plan before you
respond to the Spirit is unreasonable. We almost never see God explaining an
entire life plan to anyone in the Scriptures. Instead, when Abraham was called,
he went. He didn’t know where, how long, what to pack, or if he would ever
return to his home in Ur. The important point here is to follow God moment-by-moment
and trust where He will lead. We don’t have to have all the answers before we
“walk in step” with the Spirit.
Pray
that we will recognize the doors of opportunities when He presents them to us.
Pray that He will give us the wisdom to step through those doors in faith and
obedience. Pray that we will make the most of those opportunities for the glory
of God.
Colossians 4:3 “ praying at the
same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may
speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned;”
Do
you really want to be led by the Spirit?
What
if He leads you where you don’t want to go? Are you willing to surrender to Him
no matter where He wants to take you? This is a life-long journey you have
committed to….putting to death the flesh and putting on the fruit of the
Spirit. We cannot love God and gratify
the desires of the flesh. Submitting to the Spirit means giving in, being
molded, transformed, and opposing the former desires.
Too
often we worry about how we might look to others rather than how we are failing
God. Remember, love casts out all fear and so let us pray for greater love
towards God and for our fellow man. We talk easily about whom we love. Dear
Lord, help us to love you more, to be thankful for our salvation, and to always
present praise to the only ONE to whom it is due. May we ONLY be “proud” of how
you work (dunamis) through our weaknesses and of how you have gifted us with
the power of the cross.
Galatians
6:14 “But
may it never be that I would boast,
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world.”
MULTIPLY
Disciples multiply.
This is a clear sign of discipleship!
But
did you know that Christ made provisions for disciples to multiply?
(1) Christ made them a community of believers
to support each other. They were taught together, prayed together, trained by example together,
and fellowshipped with one another.
(2) Christ
never sent them out by themselves
(3) Christ
used a method of encouragements and training called “debriefing” which helped
his disciples to learn from each other and to learn how to do a better
representation of Christ in the future. After being sent out, they returned to
their Mentor and excitedly discussed how things had gone.
(4) Christ modeled for them. He witnessed to
them and in front of them.
(5) Christ
demonstrated compassion and love. He served those he met along the way.
(6) Christ, on occasion, handed out some harsh
admonishments to those who should have known better
(7) Christ
promised his disciples the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen them along the
way as they obeyed His command to multiply
Disciples
are no different today. They need these same seven attributes to be developed
within the community of faith in which they participate.
Keep
asking, “Who do You, oh Lord, want me to love for YOU today?”
