God Speaks Retreat Information

Overview of God Speaks Retreat - Contemplative Scripture reading and prayer
We are going to have a 2 hour quiet time with God.
Please make sure you have selected a time and a place where you can be alone an uninterrupted for 2 solid hours.
We are going to practice God’s presence. Read and pray over His word and listen for His voice.
Start this time of solitude expecting to hear from God. Have faith in Him and He will show up!
My desire is that God would have a Rhema word for each of you, but even if it does not come this time I know you will be greatly blessed by His presence and instruction and it will help you to be more willing and able to receive a Rhema word from Him when it does come.
(See below for definition of a Rhema word.)

A 2 Hour Experience of Solitude
Psalm 42:1 “As the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O Lord.”
Step into the Quiet…
§ Find a place where you can be alone for a two hour period of time.
§ For the first half hour relax and allow yourself to be comfortable.
§ Calm the noise and clutter within…this could take awhile.
§ Focus on God’s Holy Spirit actually indwelling your very being.
§ Repeat a special name or phrase which characterizes your relationship with God.
§ When distractions come, return to your name or phrase
§ Sing a chorus or pray Psalm 42:1
§ During this first half hour you may want to listen to music. Let the music draw you closer to God and let yourself experience His presence through your senses.
§ For the next hour, read and meditate on the truths you find in specific set of scriptures.
(July 12 – Exodus 23:20-30)
§ Ask the Holy Spirit to be your teacher and your guide.
§ If it helps you to focus, write as thoughts or prayers as they come to you.
§ I have included several different translations of these verses. You can concentrate on only one version or take the time to read them all. Do whatever helps you to best internalize His truth and understand what God is speaking over you.
§ For the last half hour just listen.
§ Be sensitive to any scriptures and instructions, or promises that God may be giving directly to you, or those that He may be wanting you to share with another individual or the group.
§ Conclude your two hour time by praying the Lord’s Prayer and/or singing. Thank God for this precious time with Him and for the privilege of being in His presence.
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Scripture for God Speaks Retreat July 12, 2008
Exodus 23:20-30
20-24 "Now get yourselves ready. I'm sending my Angel ahead of you to guard you in your travels, to lead you to the place that I've prepared. Pay close attention to him. Obey him. Don't go against him. He won't put up with your rebellions because he's acting on my authority. But if you obey him and do everything I tell you, I'll be an enemy to your enemies, I'll fight those who fight you. When my Angel goes ahead of you and leads you to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, I'll clear the country of them. So don't worship or serve their gods; don't do anything they do because I'm going to wipe them right off the face of the Earth and smash their sacred phallic pillars to bits.
25-26 "But you—you serve your God and he'll bless your food and your water. I'll get rid of the sickness among you; there won't be any miscarriages nor barren women in your land. I'll make sure you live full and complete lives.
27 "I'll send my Terror on ahead of you and throw those peoples you're approaching into a panic. All you'll see of your enemies is the backs of their necks.
28-31 "And I'll send Despair on ahead of you. It will push the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites out of your way. I won't get rid of them all at once lest the land grow up in weeds and the wild animals take over. Little by little I'll get them out of there while you have a chance to get your crops going and make the land your own. I will make your borders stretch from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and from the Wilderness to the Euphrates River. I'm turning everyone living in that land over to you; go ahead and drive them out.
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The Power of God’s Word
God has given us the blessing of His word, the bible which allows us to know His word made flesh, Jesus His one and only son. But God also speaks to us personally. It is such a privilege and yet we often take it for granted that the God of the universe knows us intimately enough to speak to us specifically about our situation.
We need to let Jeremiah be our example and learn to go to God’s word with great joy and anticipation.
Jeremiah 15:16 - Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.
God’s word is a powerful weapon against the enemy.
2 Corinthians 10:4 - The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
We need to remember how much power there is in His word.
They are His life changing!
Isaiah 55:11 - so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Even when His words are difficult for us to accept, we need to remember that it is because He loves us so much that He challenges our destructive thoughts and practices.
Proverbs 3:11-13 - My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke,
because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding,
Some reasons why I think we do not hear from God more:
1. We do not spend enough time reading His word
2. We have difficulty knowing His voice.
3. We don’t spend enough time listening.
4. We don’t expect to hear from Him.
5. We don’t really want to hear from Him.
John 10:4
When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
Isaiah 50:4
The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
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Two different ways we can receive a word from God:
John 1
The Word Became Flesh
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
Logos – word, spolen or written, message, news, instruction, account, book, preaching, story, teaching, truths. (3364)
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Luke 3:2
During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert
Rhema – word, saying, matter, thing, bring a message, charge, command, promise. (4839)
Ephesians 6:17
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Questions for Chapters 7-9

1. Have you ever been in love? How did you feel? How did you feel about yourself?
2. All relationships ebb and flow. Yes? How would you describe your relationship with God over the past several months?
3. Are you beginning to grasp more deeply what it is God wants from you? What He is after?
4. Do you see and experience beauty in other women? How?
5. Think of a friend who you find truly lovely. What is it about her that is so lovely? How does she make you feel when you are with her?
6. A woman whose heart is at rest invites other to rest, too. Have you experienced that? What is it like to be around a restful woman? What do you feel the freedom to do?
7. What did John Eldredge say are the two messages a man needs to hear from His wife?
8. Do you remember looking to boys for your validation as a teenage girl? As a young woman? In what ways are you looking to Adam to answer your heart's Question these days?
9. Think beyond the bedroom. What are some ways that a good woman could seduce a good man? How could you, as a woman, arouse desire in a man, to play the man? To exert his masculine strength in good ways? To grow into becoming a more godly man?

Questions for Chapters 4-6

1. What did your father value about women? What did you learn from him about femininity? How did (does) he treat your mom?
2. Do you see how any of the wounds you received as a little girl shape the way you see yourself as a women now?
3. Are you aware of a mistrust of God deep in your heart? Are you aware of ways that you are trying to control your world?
4. How have your wounds come to you, were they obvious like a betrayal? Or more subtle like years of neglect? What messages were driven home into your heart?
5. Where do you think the hatred for women that we see all over the world comes from? Why is it so diabolical?
6. Do you live with a fear of abandonment? How much of your efforts to "be a good woman" or to make yourself beautiful are fueled by that fear?
7. What in your heart do you really want Jesus to heal, touch and restore?
8. What lies do you believe about yourself?
9. What enemies of your soul would you like Jesus to destory? Self contempt? An addition? A spirit of overwhelmed?