<< Week 17 >>
Go through the Study Guide by Dr. Kevin Zadai
Consider The Project given in this Lesson
Warrior Church Home Fellowship Study
Dr. Kevin L. Zadai
God Can Use You
"Make room for the Lord! Step back because God’s going to show up and it ain’t going to be pretty; if He comes in your enemies are going to scatter"
~ Dr. Kevin L. Zadai
After you watch the video and read the study notes on this page, answer these questions here on the Blog mentioned above:
He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.
—John 3:30 NLT
DISCUSSION:
God created man to display His glory on the Earth. He has set it up for us to cooperate with Him as ambassadors, and wherever we go, we have a "command" about us. We're able to implement God’s course of action here, and He trusts us to do it.
The key to God using us on the Earth is to step back and let God have His way through us. If we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, submitting to Him, then one day, He will promote us. We need to diminish so that God can use us.
That's what happened with John the Baptist. He was considered the prophet of the day, and he said, I'm the voice of one calling in the wilderness. I'm preparing the way for the Lord. (see John 1:23) One day the person he was talking about showed up. When Jesus showed up, John said, I must decrease so that He may increase. John was wise enough to know; it's time to hand this off.
John was preaching the Gospel and baptizing, and the Bible says that after this transference happened that Jesus continued to baptize and preach. He picked up where John left off. John stepped back and let Jesus go forward. Stepping back is key to God using you as His ambassador. In our culture outside of Christianity, it is common to be aggressive and competitive in business. The corporate world teaches you to move forward aggressively by pushing people out of the way so you can get to where you're going. It's not acceptable behavior or morally and ethically right, but people do it to get ahead. We don't want that to get into Christianity and in the church because that type of competition causes division. God teaches us not to move ourselves forward. Sit in the back of the room and be called up and honored, but don't push yourself forward to get into a seat of honor. Don't try and gain recognition on your own. Allow God to promote you.
o Have you ever tried to push yourself forward above others to get where you’re going? Take a moment to pray and repent for any time you may have willfully promoted yourself. You don’t have to share the details, but give yourself a moment as a group to discuss the difference when you let God promote you.
THE CRUCIFIED LIFE WITH CHRIST
Galatians 2:20 NKJV: I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Paul is telling the church in Galatia that; I've been crucified with Christ. I was put on a cross, and I died with Him. If I live, it's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. Jesus was crucified, but we're to identify with Him in His death. We're to do that because when we decrease, He can increase, and we then become more effective. Think about how often you oppose yourself, within yourself. It's as though there's an argument going on inside. There's a lot of good you're supposed to do, but you don't do it. The things you don't want to do you find yourself doing. Paul talked about this in Romans Chapter 7.
He said the struggle I had with trying to obey the law is I can't seem to do the things I want to do. Paul said I couldn’t obey the law. I couldn’t be perfect. While in Romans 8:1-2 NKJV, it says, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Those who live according to the flesh cannot please God. Those who walk in the spirit are sons of God. If Christ lives in you, then He can fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, not only through His blood but in your daily life.
o Discuss the effective ways to yield to the Spirit of God. Contrast and compare what living in the flesh looks like versus living by the Holy Spirit.
You can fulfill the law because the law's righteous requirements are fulfilled when you yield to the spirit's desires, then you can reap life. Whereas if you fulfill the desires of the flesh, it says you reap death. (see Romans 8:3). God can use you, but what's coming out has to be, according to the fruit connected to the vine, which is the fruit of the spirit. You will add to your faith all these characteristics that are manifesting the divine personality of God. The only way to do that is to let Jesus live through you. In one translation, Paul says, it's as though Christ has borrowed my body and is living His ministry through me or living His life out through me. It's as if Jesus has taken over Paul's body. That's what this translation is saying. Jesus didn't even take credit for what He did. He was a Son of God. He said, No, these are the works of my Father. I do not do my own works or say my own words. I didn't come to promote myself. I came to promote the Father.
o Discuss how you fulfill the righteous requirements of the law when you yield to the Holy Spirit’s desires.
Warrior Church Home Fellowship Study
Dr. Kevin L. Zadai
SUBMIT AND SURRENDER
What is it in you that is keeping you from diminishing so that He can increase? I don't mean that one minute you have money, and then you become poor.
I don't mean that you have health and now you're going to become sick, or you have friends, and suddenly they all leave. I'm not talking about that kind of diminishing.
What I'm talking about is the part of you that you learned from the world. Maybe, your personality is pushy, and you want to be in control and manipulate. Where you push people in a particular direction, or you want to be a player and get involved in situations where you set things up for yourself.
If you have these kinds of tendencies, which we all struggle with, you need to diminish. You need to back off of that and say, if God doesn't do it, then I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to push myself forward. I'm not talking about something that's rightfully due to you. For example, if you worked a week and your company didn't pay you, you're not going to back off of that. I'm talking about when you get to the place where you trust God so much that He's working in you, and you think, I could make this happen for myself, but I choose not to; I'm going to trust God to do it.
o Write down what is in you that keeps you from diminishing so that God may increase in your life. Discuss as a group the ways that you can invite God into those places of control or pride to see Him move.
Whenever my wife and I believe God for something, we don't talk about it; we just go to Him. We'll pray and commit to the Lord, and it's done. However long it takes, it doesn't matter because we've submitted our request to God, and the God of all peace is going to be a supernatural umpire in the situation. His peace rules and becomes a game-changer. We don't need to manipulate or step in because it's done.
o We all have this temptation to step in and help God, but God doesn't need our help.
o Unless He tells us to do something, we wait on Him.
o There's never been a time where God would require you to do something and not give you the ability to do it.
He's not going to tell you to do something and then not give you a way to do it. It's the same thing if you're not supposed to do something, and He says this is wrong; don't do this. If you have so much pressure that you feel like you can't do the right thing in a situation, just remember that in 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul said that God would provide a way of escape so that you can bear up under temptation.
The key for you to know is that there is a time to step back and let God be God. The Bible says to make room for the Lord. It is mine to repay. It means; you step back because God will show up, and it isn't going to be pretty because when He comes in, your enemies will scatter.
DISCUSS:
o How often our flesh wants to push ourselves forward?
o Not defending yourself and stepping back and letting God defend you.
o The transference of going from an emotional fleshy state to being ok with not being recognized and clinging to the truth of God's ways.
o Trusting in Him that everything in the Bible is true. Discuss not adhering to the temptation to push yourself forward.
o Submitting to God by going under His mighty hand, on His timetable, and humbling yourself. Making room for Him and letting Him live through you by allowing Him to borrow your body.
o Romans 8:1-8. Read and go over: Yielding to the flesh and Yielding to the Spirit.
PRAYER:
Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for your power. Thank you for your manifest presence right now. I thank you, Lord, that there are so many of us in our family out there in the world that has been pushed and persecuted and manipulated. They feel like they have to defend themselves. So, Father, just visit right now by your spirit and heal and help strengthen our family members all over the world at Warrior Church, that they will not submit to this spirit of control and try to defend themselves or promote themselves. Right now, we all just commit our way to you, Father. We know, Lord, that you're our defender, and you're going to go out and take off the heads of our enemies. You're going to destroy every work of evil around us, and that we just want to worship you. We're just going to worship you and let you fight our battles for us. Lord, we just worship you right now in the name of Jesus. Father, you are so worthy. You are a great and eternal and mighty one. I thank you that you dwell in all eternity, and you also dwell with those who are humble and contrite in spirit.
We humble ourselves under your mighty hand right now. We know that you will lift us up in the name of Jesus. Fire, touch everyone. Right now, the fire of the Holy Spirit, baptize with fire, with the Holy Spirit. Right now. Heal the bodies, Lord. Heal your children's bodies. Heal their minds right now. Touch their spirit. Let them go into an encounter right now. Father, by your Holy fire. The Holy way. Set apart for your purpose, Father. All of us. We honor you for it in Jesus' name.
DR. KEVIN L. ZADAI
