HOME FELLOWSHIP MINISTRY LESSON OUTLINE FROM GROWING DEEP IN GOD

INTRODUCTION - BROAD LESSON STRUCTURE 1. 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 i. There 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 1 PART 2 (BOOK CHAPTER 3) THEOLOGY AND PRAYER PART 2

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KEY QUOTES FROM CHAPTER Page 54,55 Everyone has a theology, whether they know it or not, and whether they can articulate it or not. We all have a particular view of God. The heart of true theology is the essential and intimate knowledge of the God Almighty. The primacy of knowing God is crucial to a vital spirituality. To grow deep in prayer, we must grow deep in God. Our view of God radically influences the way we pray. There is an intrinsic integration of theology and prayer. Our theology, or view of God, determines our practice. That is why crucial to spiritual growth, is the knowledge of God. Not merely a superficial knowledge about God, but the magnificent delight of knowing Him in the context of a personal, intimate relationship.

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KEY TRUTHS (Adapted from Growing Deep In God) # 1 GOD AND OUR RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES a. Authentic discipleship leads us to personal experiences with God. The biblical narratives are full of stories about ordinary people experiencing extraordinary engagements with God in daily life. Divine revelation and personal experiences must go hand in hand. We all need fresh personal encounters with God.

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Our problem is not with our personal experiences, but our subjective prejudices. When we reject religious experiences because they do not fit neatly into our theological paradigms, we have become subjectively prejudiced.

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When we make our experiences, rather than the Word of God, the yardstick of our theology, we are guilty of prejudice. Conversely, we also fall into prejudice when we fail to recognise that while God is not contradictory to His Word, He is bigger than our interpretations of it. We cannot put God in a neat theological box nor create God in the image of man. We need to know the God who sovereignly gives to whomever he wills, whatever He wills, whenever He wills.

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Let us embrace personal experiences with God that are deep. But let us not embrace subjective prejudices by making them normative or by seeking borrowed experiences from someone elses encounter with God. For man shall not live by experiences alone, but by the Living Word of the Living God.

# 2 THEOLOGICAL CRISIS CONFRONTING THE CHURCH TODAY a. The Church today faces a serious theological crisis. The ideology of secular humanism is so entrenched in our Christian mindsets that our ability to think deeply about the things of God has been entirely compromised, often without our realising it. We are unaware of the extent to which our thinking has been compromised and shaped by a secular mindset.

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We live in a generation where a sound theological foundation is ignored, or worse, even disdained. Unexamined assumptions shape the intellectual contours of a lazy and slothful generation, tainting the moral and spiritual landscape of the soul.

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One of the distinct weaknesses of the modern church is that of having zeal without the knowledge. We end up with a superficial faith without a deep theological foundation.

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This theological crisis is essentially a spiritual crisis. For at the heart of this crisis is the man-centered (thus self-centered) worldview that corrupts our orientation of life, even the spirituality of our prayer life. Oswald Chambers said, Beware of placing the emphasis on what prayer costs us; it cost God everything to make it possible for us to pray. We have not learnt to be God-centered. Thus we sometimes begrudge what prayer costs us and forget what it cost God! What God did to make prayer possible MUST give us a renewed perspective on what an exceedingly great privilege prayer really is. We speak more of our commitment to God than of Gods commitment to us. No wonder we struggle and falter in our walk with God. We need to rediscover Gods uncompromising commitment to us. This fresh insight into how much God is committed to us is life changing. We are significant to Him! Understanding Gods commitment to us deepens our commitment to Him.

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# 3 A RETURN TO SCRIPTURES AND CONTEMPLATION OF GOD a. We need to return to the theological contemplation of God. The aim of theological contemplation is not just to help us to think more deeply about God, or to think more clearly about God. Rather, the aim of theological contemplation is to help us think in a more godly way about God.

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There are at least three fundamental questions to guide us in such contemplation. i. What is the essential nature of God and His Kingdom? ii. What is the fundamental purpose of God in the light of His nature? iii. What are the unchanging principles by which God deals with man, which are consistent with His essential nature and fulfil His fundamental purpose?

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Thus, true prayer must stem from a vital spirituality that is nourished by strong theological roots that are developed as we intentionally contemplate God. How we view God determines how we pray.

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS a. Why is the theological contemplation of God a prerequisite for effectual and fervent prayer? Should the Word of God interpret your religious experiences or should your religious experiences help you interpret the Word of God? Discuss. Do you agree with this statement, Prayer is a privilege for the disciple of Christ? Why or why not? The heart of the theological crisis is a spiritual one. What steps can you take to ensure that your prayers are not perfunctory, but rather directed, theocentric (God-centered) prayers?

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