HOME FELLOWSHIP MINISTRY LESSON OUTLINE FROM GROWING DEEP IN GOD

INTRODUCTION - BROAD LESSON STRUCTURE

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REFERENCE i. These lesson notes have been prepared based on the book Growing Deep In God by Edmund Chan. ii.As far as possible, these notes have been prepared chronologically in accordance to the chapters of the book. Where common themes run across certain chapters, these chapters in question have been integrated as a single lesson. The chapter reference will be included for each lesson, to facilitate referencing to the book. iii. Certain chapters of the book have been omitted from the lesson notes, for reason that these chapters are more personal and testimonial in nature to the author. KEY QUOTES i. This section contains salient quotations that are the embodiment of the chapter (s) concerned. KEY TRUTHS i. This section is intended to encourage participants to identify scriptural principles that can be gleaned from each weeks study materials. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS i. This section is the companion tool provided from the book for a deeper understanding into the principles gleaned from each chapter. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS TOWARDS GROWING DEEPER IN GOD AND PRAYER T i. here will be various practical prayer applications introduced throughout this 13-week series that will encourage the participants to respond to the call of God towards a deeper life of prayer. Details of these will be released as the lesson progresses.

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LESSON 11 (BOOK CHAPTER 14) GROWING DEEP IN GOD PART 1

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KEY QUOTES FROM CHAPTER Page 196 If knowing God is the key to prayer, then surrender is the key to knowing God. Unless a surrendered heart walks through the portal of faith that pleases God, there can be no depth. There is no other portal that ushers us into the deep things of God except the surrendering to God in faith. The greater the faith, the deeper the surrender. And the deeper the surrender, the more we will be ushered into the depths of faith and the intimate knowledge of God.

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KEY TRUTHS (Adapted from Growing Deep In God) # 1 LISTENING TO GOD AND SURRENDERING TO HIM a. God is ever prepared for us to grow deeper in Him. It is we who must prepare ourselves. Our hearts must be ready to follow Him.

b. There are two important responses to prepare our hearts to grow deep in God. The

first is listening to God, and the other is surrendering to Him.

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Listening is a cultivated skill. To pray well, we must listen. Prayer is not just speaking to God prayer is also listening to God. However, we are not tutored in listening. We must come prepared to listen in order to hear the still, small voice of God.

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There are three kinds of listening that are dangerous.

The first is, TUNING OUT. In this listening, there is just no appetite for spiritual things. We are like a person with an attention deficit, who listens for a while and then suddenly dreams about other things. The second is, TUNED OUT BUT LOOKING TUNED IN. In this listening, the person may look attentive, even dutifully copying notes, but is spiritually tuned out because the heart is not inclined to do anything God says. The third is, TUNING IN AND TUNING OUT. In this listening, the person is selectively listening and this practice is detrimental to cultivating depth in the soul. This type of listening happens because the heart is not ready to listen and follow God fully. Instead of giving us true faith, it gives us a kind of faith that is shallow. We think we know God when we really do not. Our soul is neither grounded in the depths of God nor instructed by His unchanging Word. Our faith is severely compromised.

e. When the Bible calls us to listen to God, it is founded on two things. First, that God
speaks, and second, that our listening involves our obeying. Obedience is the acid test of listening. Prayer is creating a space in which obedience is learnt.

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If we area anything but tuned in, we are at best pretending obedience to God. To grow deep in God, we must be tuned in by walking in surrender to God. If knowing God is the key to prayer, then surrender is the key to knowing God. There is a great difference between a surrendered life and a committed life.

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The committed life centres on our doing; the surrendered life centres on our being. The committed life emphasises what we must do for Christ; the surrendered life realises that we can do nothing apart from Christ. The committed life exalts competence; the surrendered life exalts character. The committed life emphasises the outward, the surrendered life emphasises the inward. The committed life centres on operations; the surrendered life centres on obedience.

h. We have substituted commitment for surrender. A man may be outwardly committed to

Christs work but may not be inwardly surrendered to the will of Christ. A surrendered life is the consecrated key to intimacy with God.

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The more we are ushered into the depths of intimacy with God, the more unbearable our unsurrenderedness becomes, and the sweeter our oasis of surrender. For in surrender, we become rested in our spirit

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Here is the key to dynamic prayer; Our eyes are on You! Not on the multitudes. Not on the problems. Not on the circumstances. Not on the wind and the waves. Not on our limited resources. Our eyes are on you, Lord! So, if we can come to this point of our journey of prayer where we are able to lay hold of this key of faith, everything in our life will change.

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This is the best thing that we can possibly do keep our eyes on God. This is what is meant by being theological in our prayers. Keep your eyes on God! On the kind of God He is revealed in the Scriptures. On what He has done for us. And on what He

now says to us, The battle is not yours. The battle belongs to the Lord.

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

a. b. c. d.

What feelings, thoughts and actions are hindrances to your prayer life? What does it mean to listen to God? How does selective listening distort your view of God? The surrendered life exalts character. Do you agree or disagree? Why? The church has substituted commitment for surrender. How can you address this in your own life and then in your church?