SESSION 4 - THERE IS NOTHING PASSIVE ABOUT GOD'S WILL
GROUP VIDEO
Today we look at why Redemption is important:
God's will is His passion to bless us. The idea that God "doesn't mind if we are healed, blessed, protected, Etc. reduces God's attitude towards us to something that is passive. There is nothing passive about God's will to bless us. Redemption gives us a solid security around God's attitude towards us.
SESSION 4 - GROUP VIDEO
Watch 10-20 minutes of a GROUP video teaching, that correlates with the full Workshop semester topics.
GROUP CONVERSATION GUIDE
Where there is sin, open and unatoned sin there is DEATH.
- First, Adam’s sin that all of humanity inherited
- Second, our choices to sin
- Third, perpetrators sins that brought grief into our lives
Where there is sin, open and unatoned sin there is a PENATLY.
Curses aren’t God’s enforcement of the penalty;
it is the negative engagement of spiritual laws.
Atonement is the Old Testament equivalent to Redemption, which is a New Testament term.
God’s will, revealed in Redemption, is for Believers to live in health, strength, protection, spiritual authority, peace, joy, grace, favor and everything that is considered a “blessing” of God.
Many people are unsure of the “will of God” for their lives. They will often affirm God wants good for their lives, but when stress and chaos seem to be unrelenting, they will express an uncertainty. Redemption cemented God’s will, rooted in God’s nature, not in a contingency of our day-to-day behavior or circumstances.
Uncertainty of God’s will is one of the greatest devolutions of boldness in a person’s faith before God and mountains of life. If you assess God’s will and attitude towards your sufferings as being situational-relevant, under seasons of duress you will always default to insecurity. This insecurity impacts your sense of attachment to God, making intimacy problematic.
JAMES 5:13-17 NKJV Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you SICK? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will SAVE the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed SINS, he will be FORGIVEN. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
- The name of the Lord is a term of spiritual authority. It is a constant. This spiritual authority doesn’t come and go. This can’t happen if there isn’t a secured Redemption.
- The prayer of faith will “SAVE” the sick.
Redemption, here, is the forgiveness of sin and healing of the body. Even when our experiences are different than full, miracle healing, we must exalt Redemption as our final authority of God’s will, not our experience. This makes us bold in the face of any contradictory circumstance. This gives us conviction to pray the “prayer of faith,” to be unwavering and to contend for God’s highest and best for us.
Redemption is solid. It has cemented God’s desires for us. There will never be anything to disrupt the clarity and constancy of God’s will. Redemption is a fact in the mind of God.
James 5:15 says, “The prayer of faith will save the sick.” It doesn’t say, “The will of God will save the sick.” This distinction is to highlight how something can be God’s will and yet not our experience. Just as it can be God’s will for a person to be forgiven of sin, and yet that person can struggle to personally experience that forgiveness. So it is, that it is God’s Redemptive Will for us to be healed, and yet some of us struggle to personally experience healing.
Faith is our response
to what Jesus did
in Redemption.
PSALM 103:1-5 NKJV Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His BENEFITS: 3 Who FORGIVES all your iniquities, Who HEALS all your diseases, 4 Who REDEEMS your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
- God forgives ALL of your sins.
- God heals ALL of your diseases.
God SAVES us. The word “SAVE” means “all the manifold blessings of God bestowed upon humanity.” If something is a blessing of God it is already predetermined to be a part of our SALVATION package.
Healing for the body is not to be elevated above the other blessings of God. Healing is an illustration of God’s system of forgiveness of sin, then the right and privilege of blessing.
ISAIAH 53:4-6 NKJV Surely He has borne our GRIEFS (sickness) and carried our SORROWS (pain); Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are HEALED. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
These Old Testament prophecies are highlighted in the New Testament too. The Old Testament was foretelling what was to come. The New Testament is looking back at what Christ has already DONE.
Let’s look at another New Testament verse that corroborates the accomplished fact.
MATTHEW 8:17 NKJV that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our INFIRMITIES and BORE our SICKNESSES.”
- Without question, the Isaiah 53:4 text is talking about physical healing, not just spiritual healing.
1 PETER 2:24 NKJV …who Himself BORE our SINS in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by whose stripes you were HEALED.
The word “bore” means “to take away” or “to convey” or “to remove to a distance.” Notice that Jesus satisfied God’s eternal character regarding JUSTICE and destroyed sin at its roots, thereby destroying sickness at its roots. It is as much God’s RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT for us to be healed as it is for us to be forgiven.
If anyone came to you and said, “God won’t forgive me.” I have sinned and I don’t think He wants to absolve me from it. You would rise up with indignation, fervency and passion to help them see it is RIGHT for them to know God WANTS them forgiven and it is WRONG for them to be caught in the confusion of wondering about it.
So it should be when someone is questioning God’s will to heal us from sickness, disease, brokenness and emotional distress. If they don’t know if God wants to heal them, we should be grounded in God’s Word to the degree it feels passionately RIGHT for them to be healed, and passionately WRONG for them to be in the confusion wondering about it.
Now remember, Isaiah 53 said “by his stripes we are healed.” 1 Peter says looking back, “by his stripes you were healed.” It is an accomplished FACT. Healing isn’t even a promise, technically. It is a FACT of God’s Will and previous redemptive work.
- You can boldly say, “I AM forgiven!”
- You can boldly say, “I AM healed!”
This Redemptive “will of God” is not a passive thing.
This is God’s passion for humanity.
GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Take a few moments to discuss your answers to these questions with the Group.
ICE BREAKER
If you could design the perfect house/home, what would it be like?
MY MEMOIR STORIES
IMPORTANT: If the Group would like to continue telling one Memoir Story per week until they are completed, that might allow for a more congruent transition. Please be sensitive to the Science of Freedom content and discussion. It is important that our people are exposed to the possibilities in their potential that this content will provide. Please take no more than 20-25 minutes for the Memoir to leave time for the rest of the content below.
MEMOIR: PREPARING TO TELL MY STORY (Scope Timeline) worksheet to help you think through your story. You can download the SCOPE TIMELINE WORKSHEET at the link. There is a longer version of the worksheet, that gives an extra step to dig deeper into your story, which can be downloaded at LONG VERSION WORKSHEET (RECOMMENDED). You can also watch the WRAP UP video from last week that explains how to use the worksheet. Each person's Memoir should be 10-15 minutes long.
QUESTIONS
- Have you ever thought of God’s will to heal, bless, protect, or even to forgive your sin as being an attitude of passivity on His part? Why do you think you framed God in that way?
- When you hear that Redemption disallows God’s will to change towards you, how does that impact your desire to know and attach to Him? Why?
- When you think of the Bible word “saved” or “salvation,” what do you think of? What does it mean to you? How has your definition of it changed? Why did it change?
- After watching Session 4’s Video, what is your biggest takeaway, “ah ha” moment, or challenging thought? Why?
SESSION 4 - WRAP UP
This is a 5-10 minute section for MOVING FORWARD, GOING DEEPER, use of worksheets and periodic church-wide announcements.
MOVE FORWARD
Receive the challenge to “move forward” by applying what was learned this week.
SUGGESTIONS:
- PRAY FOR GROUP MEMBER - Pray for at least one person in the Group. Try to identify someone who hasn't been prayed for, or given an encouraging Scripture. Don't worry about feeling inadequate as a prayer. No one feels like they are professional prayers, at least not when they look into eyes of the Almighty God. Praying the Scriptures over people is the best way to learn how to pray effectively. Simply find a Scripture, put the person's name in the text, and pray those words out loud. Then ask the Lord to help you think of things to say to Him about them that would help their lives.
- ASK FOR A SCRIPTURE WORD - Ask God to give you a Scripture to give them to encourage, comfort and edify them. You can Google search "God's Promises" and find a plethora of appropriate texts. Look for one that seems to give you a spark of energy as you think about the person you have been praying for.
- DELIVER THE WORD TO THEM - Then send them an email, text or phone call to encourage them. This is how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. As you practice these movements you will expand your own capacity with God, all while giving people much needed hope and strength.
GOING DEEPER
Encouragement to engage the FULL WORKSHOP SEMESTER experience. While this is not required, nor is the Group discussions connected to the full workshop, it is an option for everyone.
PRAYER / DISMISS GROUP
Prayer time with the Group.