Pastor Karena shares from the Bible and personal experience about how God engages with our heart and will - to grow up like Jesus. From a talk given at Blazing Fire blazingfire.org
1. MAKING ROOM FOR GROWTH
Saul’s Journey
- Acts 9 -
Karena Lout
October 5, 2019
2. “Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus
for a few days. And immediately he began
preaching about Jesus in the synagogues,
saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!” All who
heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same
man who caused such devastation among
Jesus followers in Jerusalem?” they asked.
And didn’t he come here to arrest them and
take them in chains to the lead priests?” Saul’s
power INCREASED greatly as he became more
and more proficient in proving that Jesus was
the anointed Messiah.”
ACTS 9:20 - 22
3. “God’s grace unveiled His Son in me so that I
would proclaim Him to the non-Jewish people of
the world. After I had this encounter, I kept it a
secret for some time, sharing it with no one. And I
chose not to run to Jerusalem to try to impress
those who had become apostles before me.
Instead I went away into the Arabian Desert for a
season until I returned to Damascus where I first
encountered Jesus.”
- Galatians 1:16 - 17 -
“I spoke privately with those who
were viewed as senior leaders of the
church. I wanted to make certain
that my labor and ministry for the
Messiah had not been based on a
false understanding of the gospel.”
Galatians 2:2
4. GROWTH IS OPTIONAL
We can stay stuck or we can embrace the process.
Jesus paid the price for our complete freedom!
Our part is believing Him and allowing truth to reach the places of our heart
that still have difficulty fully receiving it.
5. Saul needed to learn how to receive.
Ananias prays for his sight to be restored. He is healed and baptized.
Barnabas became is mentor and kept him accountable.
6. “Go ahead and make all the plans you want, but it’s the Lord who will
ultimately director your steps. We are all in love with our own opinions,
convinced they’re correct. But the Lord is in the midst of us, testing and
probing our every motive. Before you do anything, put your trust totally
in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.”
PROVERBS 16:1 - 3 (TPT)
7. Questions can sometimes make us feel uncomfortable
because our culture wants immediate answers.
God invites us into a continual discovery of who He is.
It’s in the mystery that we find how expansive
and beautiful He truly is.
8. “Refusing constructive criticism shows you have no
interest in improving your life, for revelation insight only
comes as you accept correction and the wisdom that it
brings. The source of revelation knowledge is found as
you fall down in surrender before the Lord.”
PROVERBS 15:32 - 33 (TPT)
10. “God, I invite Your searching gaze into my heart.
Examine me through and through; find out
everything that may be hidden within me. Put me
to the test and sift through all my anxious cares.
See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and
lead me back to Your glorious, everlasting ways -
the path that brings me back to You.”
PSALM 139:23 - 24
(TPT)
11. “Be free from pride-filled opinions, for they
will only harm your cherished unity. Don’t
allow self-promotion to hide in your hearts,
but in authentic humility, put others first and
view others as more important than
yourselves. Abandon every display of
selfishness. Possess a greater concern for
what matters to others instead of your own
interests. And consider the example that
Jesus, the Anointed One, has set before us.
Let His mindset become your motivation.”
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2:3
12. “My brothers and sisters, when I first came to proclaim
to you the secrets of God, I refused to come as an
expert, trying to impress you with my eloquent speech
and lofty wisdom. For while I was with you, I was
determined to be consumed with the one topic - Jesus,
the crucified Messiah. I stood before you feeling
inadequate, filled with reverence for God, and trembling
under the sense of the importance of my words. The
message I preached and how I preached it was not an
attempt to sway you with persuasive arguments but to
prove to you the almighty power of God’s Holy Spirit.
For God intended that your faith not be established on
man’s wisdom but by trusting in His almighty power.”
1 CORINTHIANS 2:1 - 5(TPT)
