No matter how far you’ve gone with God there’s more room for you to grow. We have entered into a season where the Lord is inviting us to go deeper with him and with each other.
The deeper reality of God is a treasure worth pursuing and this requires sacrificial focus and discipline. Many people can’t even sit through a message without checking their email or social media 20 times. I’ve had to learn the destruction of distraction. I’ve had to learn to put my phone on “do not disturb” any time I’m needing to prioritize time with God, my family or anything else more important than being distracted by random messages and notifications.
We are all part of the bigger story of God and in this story, we begin to realize how we are part of the eternal plans and purposes of God. A deeper narrative exists within all of us. We are all created to experience This Garden where we know God intimately and interact with Him conversationally. In this place we discover deep and meaningful friendship and a joining of our lives realizing it is not good for man to be alone. Even in our brokenness God is working to restore and rescue us. In his image we discover our design to build some form of an Ark to help and even rescue others.
As we journey forward God invites us to explore the reality of a Ladder that exists between heaven and earth revealing how God’s presence can come into any place in which we dwell. The house of God is the gate of heaven. We are the house of God. We are the gates of heaven. Lift up your heads oh ye gates that the king of glory may come in.
This is where we begin to explore a greater place of promise realizing we were born to conquer giants and to tear down strongholds that no longer have the power to keep us from all God desires for us to possess.
Jesus is alive and so are we; truly alive. This abundant life is available for everyone who accepts God’s invitation to go deeper with Him.
Daniel 11:32 “…the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out (do) great exploits.” NKJV
Know God! Be Strong! Do great things! This Hebrew word for, “know” is the same word used when describing how Adam “knew” eve and she conceived. A changed life begins and is sustained through intimacy.
Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. ESV
We are designed for intimacy with God and intimacy with brothers and sisters in Christ, as family. You and your children will be spiritually underdeveloped if you don’t cooperate with what God is doing in this season. There is a shift from function to friendship in this season of the church.
Not everybody wants to go deeper with God because it is costly to that which is convenient. But we must ask the question, “Does the church of our generation embody the kind of intimacy with God that results in humility, authority and power?” When we evaluate the blueprint of Scripture from which the church should be defined there seems to be glaring discrepancies.
The Israelites came out of the world's system of Egypt them when they encountered pressure just how much of the worlds system existed within them was seen. The church has been built on the consumer strategies of the world's system. Covid was just the beginning of a little testing for the church to see just how much of the worlds system has defined some of our deepest desires.
Suddenly many people who didn’t truly value the gathering of the church took Covid as an offramp giving them an excuse to abandon what they never valued deeply enough in the first place. God is taking us into a deep sense of community where our lives are truly joined together and we begin to learn what it means to be members of one another and not just look at the church as a nether one of many priorities in our lives.
This is an amazing season of grace and unity God is awakening in the hearts of those who are willing to take the journey with him
For Christians the ministry center has become the church. For Jews the ministry center has always been the home. Somewhere along the journey we made a transition from taking individual responsibility for the atmosphere of our homes to expecting an institutional responsibility to provide what we Christians need.
The Bible is filled with passionately language about personally pursuing God, thirsting for him, longing for him, being given to the sacrificial pursuit of him!
We just don’t hear this kind of “consumed with God’s presence” language very much in the church. Often we hear Christians talk about how amazing a worship service was or how good a sermon was but rarely do you hear believers say they got into the presence of God to seek him and just didn’t want to leave. If you’re only engaged in worship in times when something his provided and presented for you then that makes church leaders producers and church attenders consumers. What are we producing in the churches of today? God is inviting us into something deeper than this kind of model.
Philippians 3:10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him... (AMP)
Psalm 119:20 My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times. (NIV)
Psalm 119:148 My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises. (NIV)
Psalm 143:6 I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah (NIV)
2 Thessalonians 3:5 May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. (NIV)
Habakkuk 2:4 "...the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive." (MSG)
We Bring GP2RL Action Point:
Make it a point to discover something deeper by purposing a deeper pursuit of God this week.
DEEPER: Discovering the Deep
DISCUSSION GUIDE
Click here for a downloadable pdf file of this guide.
We are all part of the bigger story of God: A deeper narrative exists within us. We are all created to experience The Garden where we know God and interact with Him intimately. In this place we discover deep and meaningful friendship and relationship realizing it is not good for man to be alone. Even in our brokenness God is working to restore us and rescue us. In his image we discover our design to build an Ark to help rescue others. Promises are awakened within us even if we feel we may be too old or question being qualified or capable in any way. As we journey forward God invites us to explore the reality of a Ladder between heaven and earth revealing how God’s presence exists in any place even if we didn’t realize it at first.
We explore a greater place of promise realizing we were born to conquer giants and strongholds that try to keep us from all God says is ours. God keeps bringing us back over and over again as often as we need to be reminded of His ways. Jesus is alive and so are we. True life is discovered as we grow deeper in Christ.
Philippians 3:10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him... (AMP)
Daniel 11:32 “…the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” NKJV
God’s plan is for us to hear his voice together as a family. This is why we start each group with this question first:
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
1. Where are you reading in your Bible and what are you sensing from God?
Ask each person in your group to answer the discussion questions below after reading the verses. Realize there is great power in just reading the Bible together and allowing the Holy Spirit to awaken his conversational nature in the group.
Philippians 3:10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him... (AMP)
Daniel 11:32 “…the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” NKJV
Psalm 119:20 My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times. (NIV)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
2. Have each person give a 60 second summary of what these verses are saying, in their own words.
3. What do these verses teach us about God?
4. What do these verses teach us about people?
5. What should you do this week in response to what we are reading and what God is revealing?
6. Who comes to mind when considering a person you might share this with this week?
We Bring GP2RL Action Point:
Make it a point to discover something deeper by purposing a deeper pursuit of God this week.