Because you were born in the flesh it does not mean that you’re a child of God.  You must be born into His kingdom.

Many teach that according to John 3:3-5 all you have to do is believe to be born again.  This is not how his own apostles applied it.  His own followers were baptized in the name of Jesus and were filled with the spirit (with evidence of speaking in tongues) as recorded many times in the book of Acts.

So I won’t be saved if I don’t follow this ‘formula’ as laid out by the his Apostles?  That’s the wrong attitude to have… God will be our eventual judge.  Our goal should be to receive everything that He has for us.  Every promise and every gift.

Getting religion shouldn’t be a simple commitment that can be broken but should rather be a prayer whereby we say “my life is not mine any longer”.  Our desire should be to not just have an experience, but to be a disciple.  If you are going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ you’re going to have to sit down and be taught.  To get in the book and figure things out for yourself.

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38) If you don’t take time to know what the scripture says about God and are taking everyone else’s word, you don’t know what to believe about Him. It’s not true relationship unless you take the time yourself to know Him.

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Lesson Notes:

Words spoken by others are powerful, but it isn’t until we speak in response that those words become real or of no effect to us. As Christians we are ‘new creatures’ and no longer posses the right to blame our current actions on our past. Words have the tremendous potential to harm others.

Just as negative words have the ability to wound, our positive words have even greater potential to create order out of chaos. The Word of God is living, powerful and sharper than any two-eged sword. (Heb 4)

We must speak what is in our hearts to God, be real, edify one another. Col 3:15-17 says: “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

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Lesson Notes:

Do you want to drink from the same cup that Jesus drank (glory)? Drinking from it will require sacrifice. The problem is that our flesh does NOT want to sacrifice. But when we truly desire and seek after God, drinking from this cup is the natural progression.

Mat 4
Jesus was led by the Spirit to be tempted! While God does not temp man, he does lead us into a place where we can be tempted. When we overcome this temptation we are better for it on the other side. We also know that He always makes a way of escape in the midst of our temptation.

If we didn’t want ‘IT’, then it wouldn’t be temptation…. So when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, we can deduce that his fleshly man wanted glory, fame & power. Jesus knew all along that all these things were promised to him in the end but the temptation came when the Devil promised him these things NOW. His flesh struggled just like ours knowing that he could have instant gratification without having to bear a cross in the end.

Heb 2:17
He’s able to help those (we) who are tempted. If we make decisions made solely on our needs and our best interests then we’ll miss out on what God wants to do both in our lives and in the church.

Luke 4:13
When the Devil ended the temptations he departed until another time. We think that when we overcome temptation we’re done with that particular one? No! The Devil will return with that same temptation again in the future.

So often the push and hope for a future ‘revival’ it’s not about God’s kingdom being built but about ministries becoming successful. A true revival will be accompanied by sacrifice and turmoil. How many are truly willing to take up that Cross?

God puts us in these tempting situations so that if he decides to use us for his Glory, it won’t destroy us. For us to be truly be used by God, our inner intentions have to be inline with His.

Heb 11:8
Sometimes the promises of God can become our idol rather than the God of the promise. Don’t pursue the promise (vision), pursue God!

Lesson Notes:

If you serve God in THIS world you will experience tribulation. If you don’t experience it, the question is… are you really living for God?

Having dominion doesn’t mean that we won’t experience tribulation. When we retreat to a place of earthly comfort we step out of His will. We are meant to live in a place where two seas meet.  In the midst of great turmoil the glory of God is revealed.

2 Cor 3:13-18
Religion sometimes causes a vail to be put over us.  Not experiencing God as he intended, with an ‘open face’.  Upon first experiencing God we have that true ‘open’ experience. But after man steps in with Religion and the human experience it causes us to slowly vail/cover our face again. There is no transformation without openness (when we are unveiled). God can not take who you pretend to be and transform it… He needs us to be open, uncovered and honest and only then can he transform who you are.

Heb 4:13
All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account… There is no sense in trying to hide yourself from God, he knows everything and we will give account of our actions before Him. There is not a place in our lives where God does not exist.

1 Cor 16:9
If a great door opened in front of you, one would think that God would have removed the enemies from the equation.  Here it says that even with a door opened by God, there are many enemies around.  We can get big enough to get to the place where we can open doors for ourselves, but there is a difference when God opens them.  It looks different when He opens them, he moves and demonstrates His power. We need to go through the doors he has opened to us… The ones that aren’t easy to walk through.

True praise is openness. When you praise outside of your comfort zone we are being honest with God.  This is the place where God can really bless us.

When you are down and disappointed, find something to be thankful for (in everything give thanks).

The early church experience nothing BUT turmoil and yet we expect it to be easy walking God’s glory today? We look for personal comfort more than we’re willing to experience the discomfort that comes with God glorifying His church.

A future revival will not happen by chance. But will be poured out through those who are willing to get uncomfortable in His Glory. To those who God sees as ‘capable’ of handling the responsibility of showing forth His glory. The early church did not wonder if God would back up their words but rather spoke with boldness and God confirmed his word with signs following.

The idea that “we’re about to cross over into the promised land!” is ridiculous. We are in the midst of God’s promises now! The enemy (through our unbelief) would like us to believe that God’s promises will arrive in the future and are not for today. We must ignore the ‘voices’ of unbelief and live in the promises/promised land that God has for us daily! We’re always waiting for some fictitious day in the future when we walk in His glory. We’re HERE people! We need to walk in faith and God will walk along side of us.  Not talking about a “name it and claim it”, “blab it and grab it” mentality but rather a confidence in God’s worth both written and spoken!

The “straight and narrow” that some have said to be church rules/regulations is instead the fine line in walking in His Glory. We have the choice to let His glory go to our heads or walk in it passing it on to Him. It truly is a straight and narrow path.

Matthew 7:21-23
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

How can those that do works in his name be rejected by God? The truth is that many will do works in His name (see above) but how many will walk in truth and give God the Glory for what He is doing?

A ‘promise‘ is not something that God gives to us alone and in our humanity. But rather something that God gives us in conjunction with Him. God gives us permission to build something with His help, not permission to build something on our own under the guise of Christ.

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Date:

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The question is not whether God wants to use us (he does), but whether or not we can handle being used by God.  In the end HE will be glorified and he will not entrust that glory to someone eager to take it for themselves.

People often assume that being used by God means being in the limelight… We want the glory of God to be what the Devil offered Jesus when he was led into temptation!  Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality it will cost something to be truly used by Him.  Listen to the teaching to learn more!

Date: Sunday School April 5th, 2009 | Speaker: Wade Petteys | Location: Corinth

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