old lessons I wrote for WM

Mar 18, 2007

Feelings about God (examine yours!)

How would you describe your FEELINGS in terms of your personal relationship with God? How do you view God on a FEELING level? (Take a different color pen and answer the same questions about your earthly father as you knew him when you were 5 years old. Our relationship with our earthly father colors the way we see Father God.)

(Check one only)MostlySometimesNot sureHardly everNever

He is Distant

He is Unapproachable

He is Hard to talk to

He is Official

He is Cold

He is Indifferent. . . . . . ... .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

He is Touchy

I have to look out for myself

He is Irritable

He puts me down

He Treats others better than me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

He Lacks confidence in me

He Does not believe in me

He is pleased with me

He Does not listen to me

He is Concerned with how I behave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

He is Easily upset

He corrects me to help me

He takes care of my emotional needs

He is Disappointed in me

He is Too busy to be involved in me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

He is Detached from me

I am unimportant to Him

He does not care how I feel

He looks for faults

I feel abandoned

He is quick to get angry with me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

He wants to spend time with me

He reminds me of my mistakes

He listens to me

He waits for me to make mistakes

He makes me feel special . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

He only wants to talk to me a few minutes each day

He encourages me

He punishes me when I make mistakes

He keeps track of my mistakes

He has no favorites

I am His favorite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . .

He is patient with me

I can talk to Him about anything

He cares about my feelings

He is available to me

……………..

Mar 18, 2007

Point One--I am a child of God

In the process of learning the truth, we are also going to expose some untruths. Please read these lessons slowly and answer the questions truthfully. It doesn't do you any good to rush through any of the lessons if you don't learn from them. No one is grading you—you will only cheat yourself. Handouts are referenced—please check them out and do the worksheets as well. The stories are from my life unless otherwise noted, and they are there to help you understand the lessons designed to uncover the truth about who you really are in Christ.

MY RELATIONSHIP:

I'm a child of God—He is my Father.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him."1John3:1 NIV

There are several reasons why we need to study the Believer's Identity in Christ. First, if we don't know who He is, then we will never know who we are. Our identities are found IN Jesus. If we don't know who we are, then we will never walk in the fullness of life that He came here to give us. We will remain broken, always seeking personal wholeness and reconciliation with God.Second, if we don't know who we are then we won't know the authority that we have, and we will remain a private in the army of God, rather than becoming the general in His army that He wants us to be. If we always remain a private in God's army, it will be difficult for us to train and disciple others who will follow us.

Whoever you are, and however old you are, you still hear voices that tell you things about yourself and others. Heard any of these voices lately? "You're no good." "They don't want to listen to you—you're boring/ stupid/ ugly." "You don't belong here." "If only you were better looking/ blonder/ made more money/ had a better job/ drove a better car/ etc, then that person would like you." "You deserve to be treated badly because_____." "They would be better off without me—I should leave." "Don't talk—you have nothing of value to say anyhow." Sound familiar? We all hear these voices, and they are the voice of the enemy wanting to keep us in line so that we cannot be effective for the Kingdom of God. Satan wants us to be kept quiet and in the dark so no one else will see the Light that lives within us. Sometimes we first heard that voice as a child from one or both of our parents. I heard "Go away kid, you're bothering me" a lot as a child, and to this day, I have to silence that voice that tells me that I am bothering someone. If I call a friend more than once in a day and leave a message, that voice tells me that I am stalking them, when in reality my friend is happy to hear from me. You just have to continually tell the voice to be quiet and recognize that any voice that does not have your eternal good in mind is not from Father God. Any voice that tells you that you are bad, unforgivable, not valuable, not lovable, stupid, or anything else like that, is from the enemy. The voice of God will always tell you how much you are loved and cherished, how important you are to Him, how much God wants to spend time with you, and His voice will always line up with what he has said in scripture about you.

What are some of the labels you have believed about yourself?

What are some of the lies?

 What does God say about you? (Find the scripture references and write them down. Put them in your house somewhere you can see them.)

 The father of lies (John8:44) is the first fatherless creature, and he wants us to be orphans, forever away from the Father's love. When he speaks, he always lies because lying is his native tongue. He cannot speak the truth completely (but he can mix truth with lies, which is very dangerous if you can't tell the two apart) and his goal is to kill us, our lives and spirits on this earth, and to keep us from eternal life with Jesus.

Our perceptions of Father God are colored by our perceptions of our earthly father WHEN WE WERE 5 YEARS OLD to a great extent. When I was growing up, my father worked two jobs and had a gambling habit, so he was hardly ever home. When he was home, he was only awake for a few hours and I had to be sure no one bothered him while he was sleeping or we would all be in trouble. He didn't have time for me, and I really thought he didn't like children. Consequently, I battle this voice in my brain that says that God doesn't have time for me and He doesn't want to listen to me. My earthly father is different now, and our relationship has changed, but the relationship that I had with him as a child is still the role model for how I think about Father God. I must continually ask God to change that faulty picture of Him in my heart and in my brain, and He does. Gradually it is changing, but I know I still do not see Him as He truly IS. One day we will all see Him as He truly is (1 John 3:2).

When do you feel loved and accepted by God?

When do you feel loved and accepted by your earthly father?

Before/after you have done something for them?

REFUSE to be driven or motivated by tasks (which is nothing more than bondage or slavery)—Luke 10:42.

REFUSE to be driven or motivated by fear, especially fear of rejection. Mark 1:11—Jesus hadn't DONE anything yet, but the Father publicly stated that because Jesus was His Son (and had a relationship with God the Father), He was well pleased with Jesus.

God loves us the SAME way He loves Jesus—John 17:23.

See Enoch, not known for being or doing anything besides being the friend of God---Gen 5:18-24, Luke 3:37, Heb 11:5, Jude 14.

Thoughts about being a child of God:

Deut 14:2, Isaiah 63:16, Hosea 11:1, Matt 5:9, Luke 20:36, John 1:12, Ro 8:14-16, Ro 8:21, Ro 9:26, 2Cor 6:18, Gal 3:29, Gal 4:5-7, Phil 2:15*, 1John 3:10.