Monday, January 7, 2008

LET GO OF WHATEVER MAKES YOU STOP

Provided below are questions that can be asked within your group. You may print a copy for your members to read from simultaneously. You might also inform each of them to choose one or two of the questions for discussion after they have all been read.

If someone were to pay you ten dollars for each kind word you spoke and collect five dollars for each unkind word, would you be rich or poor?

“What progress are you standing in the way of?” (Tim Redmond)

Are you a creature of circumstance or a creator of circumstance?

Are you ready for opportunity when it comes?

Do you make others feel bigger or smaller when they are around you?

Are you spending your life to answer questions nobody is asking?

Ten years from today, what will you wish you had done now?

If you have God’s promise for something, isn't it good enough?

Why worry when you can pray?

How old is your attitude?

Are you ready?

Do you acquire the doubts of others?

Are you willing to follow the truth no matter where it leads?

Do you share your hurts or memorize them?

How much has it cost you to worry about things that never happened?

Do you go through a problem or try to go around it and never get past it?

Do you say, “There ought to be a better way and do it,” or do you say, “That’s the way it’s always been done?”

Are you deliberately planning to be less than you are capable of being?

Are you willing to give up what you have in order to become what you can be?

"If not you, then who? If not now, then when?" (Hillell)

What do you believe in the depth of your being?

How can you get from here to wherever it is you want to be?

What is the first, small step you can take to get moving?

Are you thinking of security or opportunity?

Are you being transformed, or do you think you have arrived?

“If you don’t have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true?”
(Oscar Hammerstein)

Do you look at a horizon and see an opportunity, or do you look into the distance and fear a problem?

Do you put off until tomorrow the things You’ve already put off until today?

Has failure gone to your head?

Does your reach exceed your grasp?

Do you see difficulties in every opportunity, or do you see opportunities in every difficulty?

Do you spend the first six days of each week sewing wild oats, then go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure?

Are you traveling or going somewhere?

Are you always ready to live but never living?

How many people of great potential have you known? Where on earth did they all go?

Are you content with failure?

BE INSTANT IN PRAYER

After your group has had quality time to fellowship, and after you open up with prayer, but before you open up the Word of God, whisper something in the persons ear next to you. Be sure everyone’s attention is on you, and just say something nice about someone in your group, but make sure no one hears what you say other than the person you whisper to. Then look to your group members and ask them, “Did anyone hear what I just said?” Of course they will all say, “No,” so tell them what you said and then ask them, “Why couldn't you hear me?” You will probably get several answers, but the one you are looking for is, “Because, we weren’t close enough!” The point to make is that the primary reason people don’t hear what God is saying is because they aren’t close enough.

This is a short message, so after it has been presented you might consider spending some quality time praying for each member, one at a time, that they would be more sensitive and attentive to the quiet voice of our Lord.


How do we get close enough to God to hear Him?

A primary key to hearing God is drawing near!

James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners;
and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Romans 12:12 is a power verse for drawing near!

Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient through tribulations, and continue instant in
prayer.

Points to make about being instant in prayer

Thayer Definition: Of Instant proskartereo pros-kar-ter-eh'-o
1) to adhere to one, be his adherent, to be devoted or constant to one
2) to be steadfastly attentive unto, to give unremitting care to a thing
3) to continue all the time in a place
4) to persevere and not to faint
5) to show one’s self courageous for
6) to be in constant readiness for one, wait on constantly

Strong’s Definition: Of Instant proskartereo pros-kar-ter-eh'-o
to be earnest towards, that is, (to a thing) to persevere, be constantly diligent, or (in a place) to attend assiduously all the exercises, or (to a person) to adhere closely to (as a servitor): - attend (give self) continually (upon), continue (in, instant in, with), wait on (continually).

To be instant in prayer is to listen and follow through with those quiet promptings from the Lord. To listen and respond to those quiet whispers from God when we hear him say, “Come into your prayer closet, I have something to tell you.” Or those times that he tries to inspire us to respond to reading his word, or even those special invitations to be a witness for Him. Basically, any time we receive a word of direction from Him we should respond immediately.

Hebrews 2:1 is a support verse for Romans 12:12

Hebrews 2:1 “Take the most earnest heed to those things which you hear lest they slip away.

One of the most beneficial things that this verse tells us that there is no better time to receive from God than during an invitation; consequently, one of the most beneficial things that is received through heading earnestly to those quiet promptings is faith.

Consider these verses:
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Obviously, from these verses, we recognize that Christ is the word, so obviously when we refer
to the word of God we are not just speaking of the biblical word.

Now consider these verses:
Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

James 1:22 “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”

So, when we hear those promptings we are to adhere to them immediately, otherwise we deprive our selves of something that is available at that time. We may not experience the fulfillment of the blessings during our response, but we will experience the blessing at just the right time.

Being instant in prayer requires sacrifice. The Lord will often call one into the closet
during family time, during a movie, or when one really doesn’t want to respond.

There is nothing more comforting, during trials and tribulations, than the sweet voice
of Jehovah. His voice gives hope and helps us in our efforts to be patient. Warriors that
are instant in prayer learn to recognize the sound of God’s voice and ultimately are more
apt to hear from Him during those desperate and trying times when they really need to
hear from Him.

Of course, we should always begin each day with prayer, (Proverbs 8:17 I love them that
love me; and those that seek me early shall find me) and we should never end a day
without prayer (Revelation 1:11 I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last) ; however,
if we are not careful those prayers can become ritualistic. Those prayers are the times that
He requires, but they are the times that we set. Those quiet promptings we receive from
Him are the times He sets. That is why it is so important to respond immediately to those
quiet promptings. They are special invitations from the Holy One.