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Experiencing
God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God
Seven Realities of Experiencing God
- God
is always at work around you.
- God pursues a continuing love relationship
with you that is real and personal.
- God invites you to become involved
with Him in His work.
- God speaks by the Holy Spirit through
the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church
to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
- God's invitation for you to work
with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief
that requires faith and action.
- You must make major adjustments
in your life to join God in what He is doing.
- You come to know God by experience
as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through
you.
Weekly Summary
& Verses To Memorize
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Week
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Memory Verse
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Weekly
Summary |
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"I am the vine; you
are the branches. If a man remains in me and
I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from
me you can do nothing." (John 15:5 NIV)
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Day 1
- As I follow Jesus one day at a time, He
will keep me in the center of God's will.
- Jesus is my way. I don't need any other
road map.
Day 2
- I will look to see what God says and how
He works in the Scriptures. I will make
my decisions and evaluate my experiences
based on biblical principles.
- The Bible is my guide for faith and practice.
- The right question is, What is God's will?
- Watch to see where God is working and
join Him.
- God is always at work around me.
Day 3
- To be a servant of God I must be moldable
and I must remain in the Master's hand.
- Apart from God, I can do nothing.
- With God working through me, I can do
anything God can do.
- When I find out where the Master is, then
I know that is where I need to be.
- I come to know God by experience as I
obey Him and He accomplishes His work through
me.
Days 4 & 5
- God reveals what He is about to do.
- The revelation becomes an invitation to
join Him.
- I can't stay the way I am and go with
God.
- He is able to do anything He pleases with
one ordinary person fully consecrated to
Him.
- God's standards of excellence are different
from man's.
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Some trust
in chariots and some in horses, but we trust
in the name of the LORD our God. (Psalms 20:7
NIV) |
Day 1
- To know and do the will of God, I must
deny self and return to a God-centered life.
- I must reorient my life to God.
- I must focus my life on God's purposes
not my own plans.
- I must seek to see from God's perspective
rather than from my own distorted human
perspective.
- I must wait until God shows me what He
is about to do through me.
- I will watch to see what God is doing
around me and join Him.
Day 2
- Do things God's way.
- God will accomplish more in six months
through a person yielded to Him than we
could do in 60 years without Him.
- I am God's servant. I adjust my life to
what He is about to do.
- Understanding what God is about to do
where I am is more important than telling
God what I want to do for Him.
Day 3
- God's revelation of His activity is an
invitation for me to adjust my life to Him
and join in His work.
- "I seek at the beginning to get my
heart into such a state that it has no will
of its own in regard to a given matter."
- "I do not leave the result to feeling
or simple impression."
- "I seek the Will of the Spirit of
God through, or in connection with, the
Word of God."
Day 4
- God has not changed. He still speaks to
His people.
- If I have trouble hearing God speak, I
am in trouble at the very heart of my Christian
experience.
- God speaks by the Holy Spirit through
the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the
church to reveal Himself, His purposes,
and His ways.
- Knowing God's voice comes from an intimate
love relationship with God.
Day 5
- The moment God speaks to me is the very
moment God wants me to respond to Him.
- The moment God speaks to me is God's timing.
- God develops my character to match the
assignment He has for me.
- He has a right to interrupt my life. He
is Lord. When I accepted Him as Lord, I
gave Him the right to help Himself to my
life any time He wants.
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Jesus
replied: "Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment."
(Matthew 22:37-38 NIV) |
Day 1
- My Christian life depends on the quality
of my love relationship to God.
- God created me for a love relationship
with Him.
- Everything God says and does is an expression
of love.
- A love relationship with God is more important
than any other single factor in my life.
Day 2
- To be loved by God is the highest relationship,
the highest achievement, and the highest
position in life.
- God did not create me for time; He created
me for eternity.
- I will let my present be molded and shaped
by what I am to become in Christ.
- "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness."
- I will make sure I am investing in things
that are lasting.
- Only He can guide me to invest my life
in worthwhile ways.
Day 3
- When my relationship is as it ought to
be, I will always be in fellowship with
the Father.
- I will make the priority in my life to
come to love Him with all my heart.
- I will have my quiet time because I know
Him and love Him, not in order to learn
about Him.
Day 4
- In this love relationship, God always
takes the initiative.
- I do not choose Him. He chooses me, loves
me, and reveals His eternal purposes for
my life.
- I cannot know the activity of God unless
He takes the initiative to let me know.
Day 5
- The relationship God wants to have with
me will be real and personal.
- God's whole plan for the advance of the
Kingdom depends on His working in real and
practical ways through His personal relationship
with His people.
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Whoever
has my commands and obeys them, he is the one
who loves me. He who loves me will be loved
by my Father, and I too will love him and show
myself to him." (John 14:21 NIV) |
Day 1
- Knowing God only comes through experience
as He reveals Himself to me.
- I know God more intimately as He reveals
Himself to me through my experiences with
Him.
Day 2 & 3
- Obedience is the outward expression of
my love of God.
- If I have an obedience problem, I have
a love problem.
- God is love. His will is always best.
- God is all-knowing. His directions are
always right.
- God is all-powerful. He can enable me
to do His will.
- All of God's commands are expressions
of His nature of love.
- When God gives a commandment, He is not
restricting me. He is freeing me.
- If I love Him, I will obey Him!
Day 4
- God is at work in the world.
- God takes the initiative to involve me
in His work.
- God must take the initiative to open my
spiritual eyes, so I can see what He is
doing.
- When I see the Father at work around me,
that is my invitation to adjust my life
to Him and join Him in that work.
- God's revelation is my invitation to join
Him.
Day 5
- A tender and sensitive heart will be ready
to respond to God at the slightest prompting.
- Pray and watch to see what God does next.
- Make the connection. Ask probing questions.
Listen.
- God speaks when He is about to accomplish
His purposes.
- What God initiates, He completes.
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He
who belongs to God hears what God says. The
reason you do not hear is that you do not belong
to God." (John 8:47 NIV) |
- Day 1
- If I do not know when God is speaking,
I am in trouble at the heart of my Christian
life!
- God speaks to His people.
- That God spoke to people is far more important
than how He spoke.
- When God spoke, it was usually unique
to that individual.
- When God spoke, the person was sure it
was God.
- When God spoke, the person knew what God
said.
- When God spoke, that was the encounter
with God.
- If I do not have clear instructions from
God in a matter, I will pray and wait. I
will not try to bypass the love relationship.
Day 2
- An encounter with the Holy Spirit is an
encounter with God.
- I understand spiritual truth because the
Holy Spirit is working in my life.
- When I come to the Word of God, the Author
Himself is present to instruct me.
- I never discover truth, truth is revealed.
Day 3
- God's revelations are designed to bring
me into a love relationship with Him.
- God reveals Himself to increase my faith.
- God reveals His purposes so I will do
His work.
- God reveals His ways so I can accomplish
His purposes.
Day 4
- God speaks uniquely to individuals, and
He can do it in any way He pleases.
- When God speaks to me, I will recognize
His voice and follow Him.
- I cannot understand spiritual truth unless
the Spirit of God reveals it.
- He is more interested in what I become
than what I do.
Day 5
- When the God of the universe tells me
something important, I should write it down.
- Truth is a Person.
- Prayer is two-way communication with God.
- Prayer is a relationship, not just a religious
activity.
- I need to make sure that my only desire
is to know God's will.
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Jesus gave
them this answer: "I tell you the truth,
the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do
only what he sees his Father doing, because
whatever the Father does the Son also does.
(John 5:19 NIV) |
Day 1
- Oh, God, if I ever give You a request
and You have more to give me than I am asking,
cancel my request.
- Only the Spirit of God knows what God
is doing or purposing in my life.
- God will let me know what He is doing
in my life when and if I need to know.
- Sometimes God's silences are due to sin.
- Sometimes God is silent as He prepares
to bring me into a deeper understanding
of Himself.
Day 2
- God used circumstances to reveal to Jesus
what He was to do.
- Jesus watched circumstances to know where
the Father wanted to involve Him in His
work.
- To understand my bad or difficult circumstances,
God's perspective is vital.
Day 3
- Never, ever determine the truth of a situation
by looking at the circumstances.
- I cannot know the truth of my circumstance
until I have heard form God.
- The Holy Spirit takes the Word of God
and reveals God's perspective on the circumstance.
Day 4
- In a decision-making time my greatest
difficulty may not be choosing between good
and bad, but choosing between good and best.
- Two words in the Christian's language
cannot go together. No, Lord.
- God works in sequence to accomplish His
divine purposes.
- When God gets ready for me to take a new
step or direction in His activity, it will
be in sequence with what He has already
been doing in my life.
- A spiritual marker identifies a time of
transition, decision, or direction when
I clearly know that God has guided me.
Day 5
- A church is a body. It is the body of
Christ!
- Jesus Christ is present as Head of a local
church.
- Every member is placed in the body as
it pleases God.
- God made us mutually interdependent. We
need each other.
- Apart from the body, I cannot fully know
God's will for my relationship to the body.
- Every member needs to be listening to
what the other members are saying.
- As I function in relationship to the church,
I depend on others in the church to help
me understand God's will.
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And without
faith it is impossible to please God, because
anyone who comes to him must believe that he
exists and that he rewards those who earnestly
seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 NIV) |
Day 1
- When God invites me to join Him in His
work, He has a God-size assignment for me.
How I live my life is a testimony of what
I believe about God.
- When God tells me what He wants to do
through me. I will face a crisis of belief.
Day 2
- When God speaks, my response requires
faith.
- Faith is confidence that what God has
promised or said will come to pass.
- Sight is an opposite of faith.
- Faith must be in a Person.
- Before I call myself, my family, or my
church to exercise faith, I must be sure
I have heard a word from God.
- When God lets me know what He wants to
do through me, it will be something only
God can do.
- What I believe about Him will determine
what I do.
Day 3
- The kind of assignments God gives are
God-sized.
- When God's people and the world see something
only God can do, they come to know God.
- Let people see the difference that a living
Christ makes in a life, a family, or a church;
that will make a difference in how they
respond to the gospel.
Day 4
- What I do reveals what I believe about
God, regardless of what I say.
- What I believe about God will determine
what I do and how I live.
Day 5
- Faith without action is dead!
- Genuine faith is demonstrated by action.
- God has planned something far better for
people of faith.
- Don't grow weary in being faithful. A
reward awaits faithful servants.
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In
the same way, any of you who does not give up
everything he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke
14:33 NIV) |
Day 1
- When God speaks to me, revealing what
He is about to do, that revelation is my
invitation to adjust my life to God.
- Adjustments prepare me for obedience.
- I cannot stay where I am and go with God.
- My greatest single difficulty in following
God may come at the point of the adjustment.
- No one can sum up all God is able to accomplish
through one solitary life, wholly yielded,
adjusted, and obedient to Him!
Day 2
- God is interested in my absolute surrender
to Him as Lord.
- I adjust to a Person.
- Adjustments are well worth the reward
of experiencing God.
- The God who calls me is also the one who
will enable me to do His will.
Day 3
- Obedience is costly to me and those around
me.
- I cannot know and do the will of God without
paying the price of adjustment and obedience.
- I must adjust my plans and program to
what God is doing.
Day 4
- My obedience is costly to those around
me.
- I can trust God to care for my family.
- Don't deny others the opportunity to sacrifice
for the Lord.
- I need to trust Christ to communicate
with His people.
- Lord, whatever you may ask of me today
or in the future, my answer is yes!
Day 5
- Obedience requires total dependence on
God to work through me.
- "IT" never works! HE works!
- The key is my relationship to a Person.
- Through me He will do more in days and
weeks than I could ever accomplish in years
of labor. Waiting on Him is always worth
the wait.
- Fervent prayer will be one of the most
demanding things I ever do.
- My church needs to be a praying church!
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Jesus replied,
"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.
My Father will love him, and we will come to
him and make our home with him." (John
14:23 NIV) |
Day 1
- I come to know God by experience as I
obey Him and He accomplishes His work through
me.
- If I love God, I will obey Him.
- Obedience is the outward expression of
my love of God.
- Faith that does not obey in actions is
dead.
- Obedience is my moment of truth.
- God blesses those who are obedient to
Him.
Day 2
- Obedience is doing what is commanded.
- I should obey what I already know to be
God's will.
- When God sees I am faithful and obedient
in a little, He will be able to trust me
with more.
- God often gives second chances.
- Sometimes He does not give a second chance.
- Disobedience is costly.
- God is interested in developing my character.
- Affirmation comes after the obedience.
Day 3
- When I obey God, He will accomplish through
me what He has purposed to do.
- God wants to reveal Himself to me and
those around me.
- I will be blessed when God does a special,
God-sized work through me.
- I need to be very careful that any testimony
about what God has done only gives glory
to Him.
- "Let him who boasts boast in the
Lord" (I Cor. 1:31).
Day 4 & 5
- I will allow Him to take all the time
He needs to shape me for His purposes.
- Any assignment that comes from the Maker
of the universe is an important assignment.
- God calls me to a relationship.
- I won't leave the relationship and take
things into my own hands.
- Let Him work out the details in His timing.
- Know the ways of God so thoroughly that
if something doesn't measure up to God's
ways, I will know it is not from Him and
turn away from it.
- God will never give me an assignment that
He will not enable me to complete.
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so in Christ
we who are many form one body, and each member
belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:5 NIV)
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Day 1
- When a church allows God's presence and
activity to be expressed, a watching world
will be drawn to Him.
- A church is a living body of Christ with
many members.
- A church is on mission with Christ in
our world carrying out the Father's redemptive
purpose.
- God wants His people to be holy and pure.
- God wants His people to display unity.
- God wants His people to love each other.
- No one individual has the total vision
for God's will for a local church.
- A church needs to hear the whole counsel
of God through the Bible, prayer, circumstances,
and the church.
- Sharing what God is doing in my life may
help someone else encounter God in a meaningful
way.
Day 2
- A church comes to know the will of God
when the whole body comes to understand
what Christ--the Head--is telling them.
- Every believer has direct access to God.
- Individual opinions are not that important.
The will of God is very important.
- A church must learn to function as a body
with Christ as the Head of His church.
- A church must wait until God's time.
Day 3
- The Holy Spirit is the Gift.
- The Spirit of God always is present to
equip me to carry out a divine assignment.
- A spiritual gift is a manifestation of
the Holy Spirit at work in and through a
person's life for the common good of the
body of Christ.
- The Spirit decides who to give assignments
to, and enables spiritual leaders and members
to accomplish His work.
- God puts spiritual leaders and members
in the body where He wants them to be.
- The body is not complete without all the
spiritual leaders and members God has given
the body.
- Members of the body should have equal
concern for each other.
- Spiritual leaders and members of the body
have different assignments from God for
the good of the whole body.
Day 4
- Jesus is Head of the body.
- God is very concerned about the body maintaining
unity.
- God-like love ought to prevail in the
body.
- God decides where I ought to function
in the body.
- I understand the will of God for my church
when I listen to the whole body express
what they are experiencing in the life of
that body.
- Each member is precious to God.
Day 5
- Right relationships with God are far more
important than buildings, budgets, programs,
methods, church personnel, size, or anything
else.
- God doesn't add members to the body accidentally.
- God builds the body to match the assignment.
- God builds the body, gives it an assignment,
and equips the body to carry out the assignment.
- I will pay close attention to the people
God adds to my church.
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But if we
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship with one another, and the blood
of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
(1 John 1:7 NIV) |
Day 1
- I am a Kingdom person, and Christ is my
King.
- To be related to Christ is to be on mission
with Him.
- Every congregation is a world missions
strategy center.
- Any time God has access to our church,
He can touch the world through us.
Day 2
- God can do anything He wants with one
person who believes Him and will obey Him.
- God can cause my small influence to have
far-reaching effects in His timing.
- The Kingdom is worth everything.
- If I am faithful in a little, God will
make me ruler over much.
Day 3
- Your own summary here.
Day 4
- A church is a vital, living, dynamic fellowship
of believers.
- Koinonia is the fullest possible partnership
and fellowship with God and with others.
- I cannot be in fellowship with God and
His Son and not walk in godly fellowship
with other believers.
Day 5
- Everything each church possessed belonged
by love to each other.
- Everything a church has belongs to the
Kingdom.
- When Koinonia exists between churches,
it will show in their relationships.
- When Christ is allowed to rule, man-made
barriers will fall.
- The churches of the New Testament were
interdependent.
- As my church experiences Koinonia with
other groups of God's people, we experience
greater dimensions of God's presence at
work in our world.
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And let
us consider how we may spur one another on toward
love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting
together, as some are in the habit of doing,
but let us encourage one another -- and all
the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews
10:24-25 NIV) |
Day 1
- Koinonia is created and maintained by
the Holy Spirit.
- Broken fellowship with a brother or sister
in Christ indicates a broken fellowship
with God.
- Sin breaks Koinonia with God.
- Discipline and judgment of God are expressions
of His love.
Day 2
- Koinonia with God is an experience of
His presence.
- Koinonia with God is the basic element
of salvation and eternal life.
- I must love God with my total being.
- I must submit to God's sovereign rule.
- Koinonia is possible only if a church
is made up of individuals who are willing
to submit to the lordship of Christ in the
body of Christ.
Day 3
- I must experience God in a real and personal
way.
- I must trust completely in God.
Day 4
- Christians need each other.
- We must help each other learn to obey
everything Christ commanded.
- Worship of God must be real and personal
encounters with Him.
Day 5
- Your Spiritual Inventory.
- What God has begun in your life He Himself
will bring to perfect completion!
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| Will
you please commit to daily prayer for SonRise Community Church,
it's
leadership, and its vision? Prayer is one of the most powerful
gifts God has given us.
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was
shaken. And they were filled with the
Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Acts
4:31
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