Unit 5, Day 5: God Speaks Through Prayer

"Prayer is a relationship, not just a religious activity." The sad fact is that far too many believers find prayer a religious activity rather than an encounter with Him. Some see it as a boring duty, but prayer is perhaps the greatest delight of being a follower of Jesus Christ. One of my favorite quotes regarding prayer is, "Prayer ceases to become prayer, when it stops coming from the heart."
Are you having trouble finding the desire to pray? Is it difficult for you to be quiet and still long enough to wait on Him? Are you a "go" person, one who needs to accomplish things and always be busy?
Try to begin viewing prayer as an appointment with God. Set a time, write it in your appointment book, allow plenty of time to speak, listen, wait and worship, and make sure that you keep your appointment with Him daily. Your life will change. Remember...life and ministry are empty and void apart from your remaining in Christ (John 15:5).

Unit 5, Day 2: God Speaks by the Holy Spirit

I'm hoping that by now the Lord has begun to awaken your soul to hearing His voice. Don't forget, it's much easier to hear His voice when we are engaged in daily Bible study, prayer, and being a part of the body of Christ (the church), rather than merely attending a Sunday church service. God speaks through the pastor, but He speaks even more so through the many different people and the gifts God has given them that make up the body of Christ.

Respond Immediately
Has God revealed something to you that you are sensing you need to respond to immediately? Perhaps this response will cause you to exercise great faith. We would love for you to share your experience in this Blog and if you do, we would like to back you up in prayer so that you are able to respond immediately to His voice.

Unit 4, Day 2: Worship God

Worshiping God Through Prayer
In the lesson entitled, "Worship God," the authors of Experiencing God teach us how to worship God using His names and Scripture. Too often we rely solely on music to bring us into an atmosphere of worship. But as we have learned in this study, worshiping God is giving Him worth for who He is based on what Scripture says about Him. Years ago I learned a valuable lesson in worship and that was to worship God in prayer. So often we think that the purpose of prayer is to ask God for something and await His response. Prayer is so much more than that. Using the list of names on page 268 in your workbook, begin developing the habit of calling out to God using His names. Don't ask for anything, just thank Him. Worship Him. Adore Him. Try spending 10 minutes each day just calling upon Him and you will notice a change in your prayer life, your worship time and your personal interaction with the One who created you and Redeemed you back to Himself.

Unit 3, Day 3: Walking With God

The day 3 study introduces an assignment of spending at least 30 minutes alone with God, simply taking a walk with Him, praying to Him and allowing your soul to connect with your Creator.

We would like to hear from you. What did God do during your walk? What did you do for your walk with Him? Perhaps others reading this could benefit and be encouraged by your experience.

Unit 2, Day 4: God Speaks to His People

Hearing God speak to your soul can be one of the most profound experiences a person can have in his or her life. The authors of Experiencing God point out four ways God speaks to His people in the 4th reality listed in the back cover of your Experiencing God workbook. Those four ways are through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church. If you are not daily opening yourself up to these 4 ways, you most likely will not be hearing from God as clearly as you could be.
The Bible: Not just a book to read, the living Word of God. Read it, memorize it, meditate on it and study it. If this is a problem for you let me ask you a question? Which would you prefer....watching an hour or two of television each night or knowing the Word of God?
Knowing God's voice comes from an intimate love relationship with God
Prayer: Not just reciting a ritualistic prayer that you were taught years ago, but calling out to God with a sense of desperation, knowing that He has your entire life in His hands. Thanking Him in prayer, confessing your sins to Him in prayer, praying for others to come to know Him, growing to love Him in prayer. Praying with others frequently. Staying in prayer for more than 5 minutes (ever pray for an entire hour?). Waiting with expectation in prayer to hear from God.
Knowing God's voice comes from an intimate love relationship with God
Circumstances: Coming to the realization that every experience in your life is not just by chance, but that God Sovereignly ordains everthing that happens to you. You need to figure out what God's purpose is in it all.
Knowing God's voice comes from an intimate love relationship with God
The Church: Not just attending a Sunday morning church service, but being a part of the church...giving back to the church and the people of that fellowship through serving, loving and knowing them. You might not hear from God that clearly if you are just attending a church service with no other active Christian fellowship experience in your life.
Knowing God's voice comes from an intimate love relationship with God

Unit 2, Day 2: God's Plans Versus Our Plans

The Experiencing God study continues to stress the truth that we are to find out what God is doing or what He is about to do and join Him. Here is a question I have for anyone who is reading this: What do you think God is about to do in our church? What do you see Him doing? What is the yearning of your heart for our church? Perhaps we could get a list going.

I've been thinking about the Karla Faye Tucker story referenced at the end of Unit 2, day 1. Our summary statements are that we must deny ourselves, focus on God's purposes (not our own), see things from God's perspective, wait to see what God is about to do, and watch to see what God is doing around us. For someone on death row, it seems like there would be two main options... to give in to hopelessness because your life is over, or turn everything over to God and let him take complete control and submit totally to His plans for you. God really used her story and I was amazed at reading about it on wikipedia. I think that we as "free" Christians have too many options sometimes. Maybe we think that our plans are better than Gods or that His plans don't really apply to us, because we are content doing our own thing. Really, our lives apart from joining in God's plans for them, are as futile as if we were like Karla in prison on death row, awaiting our execution in a dark and empty cell, with no way out and no motivation to even attempt an escape. But if we turn our lives over to God like Karla did, and engage fully in His calling to us... we can be used powerfully, even if we are awaiting an exection and shut up in some prison somewhere. there is no shutting out God's presence and purpose to any of God's children who seek Him, because His love is too great to be interupted by concrete or barbed wire. Robert