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August 12, 2010 Volume 1

Welcome to the Vision 2 Hear Converse UniverseWe are the art, the fashion, and the handiwork of God. Everything we have, everything we are, everything we can become is created from God’s Spoken Word(Converse) and on display as we daily walk it out in our own shoes (Converse).

Origins:

At the beginning of the summer, I started to consider what our theme would be (actually I had been thinking about it before

that). But it was Ty’s wedding that I finally settled on it. He had decided to use “converse” for their shoes at the wedding, so I was really thinking about that word a lot since I was looking for a “cool” pair I could use. As I thought more and more about the word, idea, company, and even multiple meanings, I thought it was a perfect way to convey, teach, segway and merge where we were, are and are going with V2H.

Meanings:

The word “Converse” is not only synonymous with shoes but it also means to talk or communicate; hence the idea of walk it out and talk it out. As Christians we need to walk our talk and talk our walk! If we are too heavy on one aspect, we end up skewing people’s view of God and all other Christians along the way. The book of James is very clear that faith and works go hand-in-hand, and the same is with our walk and talk.

Directions:

We are all headed somewhere. Our goal with this theme this year is that we would walk with God and others, talk with God about others and talk with others about God! CONVERSE! Jesus said it best... “as your on your way (converse) make disciples (telling others, i.e. converse).

Walk It Out:

As Christians, we have been labeled as people who often talk more than we do. We have been called everything from “hypocrite” to “irrelevant”. We have settled for mediocrity and reduced our influence in many arenas where our lives could have made a marked difference! It’s time for us to Step Up in 4-D and Walk It Out!

The Christian should not act or react the same way every other person does. Jesus said some things that were revolutionary concerning this as he told His followers to go an extra mile. In other words, don’t simply do enough to get by. That’s the world’s way. Do more than you have too; that’s God’s way. Jesus told us to turn the other cheek. The world says to hate and make people pay. God’s way is to forgive and reconcile. This is walking it out.

Talk It Out:

Speaking about what we believe is very, very important. As our lives back up our words, our words explain our actions. We cannot ignore the fact that we need to talk about our faith with others. Living differently opens the doors for those CONVERSations to happen naturally.

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Converse With GodSometimes we pay too much attention listening to ourselves rant and ramble and not enough time listening to God whisper His word to us. We spend far too much time telling God about ourselves and very little time talking to God about and for others. For these reasons, our walk with God is minimized and our walk for God compromised.

Do you hear yourself?Recently I watched a video about an amazing woman who battled with cancer and eventually lost. To see her story, click here: http://deathisnotdying.com. One of the things she said that stuck with me in the course of her talk was how she spent so much time listening to herself instead of talking to herself. When we listen to ourselves we agree with ourselves. We simply offer ourselves company. When we talk to ourselves we actually offer ourselves help and then become able to help others. Far too many of our conversations are at God instead of with God. We demand; we beg. We hardly seek to understand or learn; and even less seek to simply accept what He has to say.

Talking To GodHow is it talking to God? Almost all of my prayer time is spent talking about myself, my wants and needs, desires and plans. It’s like God exists for me or something...yet a conversation does not work that way; both parties share. One listens while the other talks and then there’s exchange. God desires to have this same kind of interaction with us. If this is to happen, we must be still and quiet and listen. We must allow God to speak and understand that when He does, it may not always be about us. He may say something to us about someone that he wants us to interact with. He may tell us He wants us to have a conversation with someone else about Him!

Talking To God About Others Intercession is a lost art of our conversations with God. Seldom do we really spend time talking with God about other people. Now, talking with other people about other people, we can do that well! But praying for them, that’s another issue. This year can I urge all of us to really take this issue of conversing with God seriously; and especially talking to God about others. I believe that if we really did, God would speak into their lives and He would do it through us!

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September 3, 2010 Volume 2

Welcome to the Vision 2 Hear Converse UniverseColossians 1:10

“so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”

Baby StepsNone of us start out walking. In fact, we pretty much start out immobile, incapable of being able to go anywhere without assistance. We enter this world completely and

fully dependent babies. We have to rely on someone to carry us to places, to take us to places we need to go, places we could never go or get to on our own.

As you think about this “dependence” in your relationship with God, how has God carried you to where you are? Where is God taking you now?

In what way has God put people in your life to get you to where you could never get to on your own? Moreover, how has God carried you and taken you to places where you would not be able to get to...ever?

In what way do you show dependance on God now in your life? If we are to walk this walk, how must you become more dependent on God?

Prayer is one way we show dependence on God. In fact, when we kneel before God, it’s as though we are “crawling” again, face down, hands and knees on the floor again. When was the last time you took this position before God?

Perhaps it’s time to grow young again? Maybe the best way for any of us to walk is to learn to crawl again? Do you sense that God is taking you to your knees again? How would spending more time on your knees affect your walk with God? Your walk among people?

Prayer: Crawling Toward GodAs people of the Converse Universe, I want to begin by stressing our need to spend time in prayer concerning our own walk with God and our walk among people.

Prayer is something that most of us hear about often and yet honestly, do very little. The scripture is clear in that we need to be people of prayer and that we need to be constantly in prayer. (Colossians 4:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Over the course of the next couple of weeks I want to search out prayer and how we can become people of prayer. I think you will find that prayer will effectively transform your walk. Learning to crawl again is certainly the first big step anyone of us can take in the Converse Universe.

SHHHH!Prayer is not all talking. In fact, a baby can’t talk when born. A baby can coo or laugh or be quiet or cry to communicate but not talk. Romans 8:26, Isaiah 30:15

A baby also listens and absorbs as everything is new. A baby learns the heartbeat of the parents, the voice of the parents, the faces and the ways of the parent. Psalm 5:1-2, Psalm 62:5, Psalm 63:1-2.

What would your prayer time look or sound like? Do you carve out any periods of time to simply sit in silence? Do you spend any time listening for and to God? Is there anything for which you would cry over or about? When was the last time you cried in prayer? Cried out in prayer? Cried for someone in prayer?

Psalm 46:10 simply says to “be still”. Would this imply like a child? Like a baby being held in His Father’s arms, being carried to a place while simply looking at His Father’s face? Maybe God is not taking us to a place as much as a position on our knees? Maybe God wants to hold us and for us to simply hear His heartbeat? Maybe God wants us to simply spend time looking in His face?

Prayer is what attunes our hearts to God, aligns our lives to His Will, and adjusts our walk with God among others.

Sobeit.

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September 3, 2010 Volume 2

Welcome to the Vision 2 Hear Converse UniverseEphesians 6:18 18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,

Power WalkingI’m sure you have heard this term before in reference to those people who are walking kind of fast, swinging their hips and rolling their feet: power walking. What does it

mean for a Christian though to power walk with God?

The verse above notes the words “in the Spirit”. Power walking can only be done “in the Spirit”. This means being led by the Spirit, which happens when we pray in the Spirit. All of this starts with our realization of our complete and utter dependance on God. There is no power walking without a walk, which begins as a crawl with God, which is prayer. We have no power of our own. We become empowered by God which only happens through prayer. If we are to power walk with God we must prayer walk with God! Crawling prayer=power walking!

Prayer is often a time for many of us to make our requests known unto God which is biblical (Philippians 4:6). However, prayer can be so much more than that! Prayer is a time and a place in which we gain a clearer understanding of God and in which God’s power is demonstrated. Our prayers are being made known UNTO GOD! We are not praying to “ourselves”. We are not talking to the air. We are talking WITH GOD! This is a God of power! We have no power because we have little prayer. Our walk is powerless because of prayerlessness!

In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells His disciples that they would receive “power” when the Holy Spirit came upon them. This would be power to walk out the Christian life, power to witness unto Him and power to take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the world. God’s Spirit is what enables us to walk with power. Galatians 5:16 and 25 point to this fact. Ephesians 6:18 tells us to pray in the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit directly affects our walk in the Spirit, which directly affects our power of God being demonstrated in our lives. How can we practice our prayer walking in such a way to have God’s power in our lives?

1) We must view God in prayer and not simply give God our prayers! Surely God cares about our requests (Philippians 4:6) but that’s is not all God is interested in. God is interested in being God! We cannot fall into the trap of allowing our prayer life to simply consist of bringing requests to God. We must spend time in adoration, acknowledgement and wonder of God. Our God is the One and Only True Living God. He is so much more than our “spiritual Santa” and yet we treat Him as such. We lack power in our prayer because many times we never truly come to the God who is powerful; we are simply praying to ourselves or a god that doesn’t exist. We would do well to take time to just be in His presence. We lack power because we lack being in His presence. Isaiah 6:1 points that after the king died he was able to see the Lord “high and lifted up”. Sometimes things get in the way of us truly seeing God for Who He is and those things can be “good” things.

2) We must humble ourselves. There’s no doubt that we lack the power of God because we rely on our own power. We trust too much in our own abilities, resources or knowledge instead of being completely reliant on God’s power and Spirit. Prayerfulness demonstrates our complete dependence on God. It is in our weakness that He is strong and through our weakness His power is evident. Prayer means we must be aware of our own neediness which requires humility. However, the Lord empowers those who seek Him and enables those who “can’t” with His Spirit. The power walk is only possible because of His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6)!

3) We must commit to God’s Glory. Prayer can sometimes be boiled down to us seeking what we want for ourselves. But God is not committed to that. He is committed to His Glory and His Kingdom. God will empower us to do His Will. As we walk with God, we can rest assured that God will empower us to do His bidding as long as we commit to His Glory. Charles Swindoll once said: “refuse to expect or accept any glory that belongs to God”. Prayer walking that turns into power walking commits to God’s glory all the way.

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September 3, 2010 Volume 2

Welcome to the Vision 2 Hear Converse UniverseEphesians 6:18 18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,

Prayer WatchThere is no doubt that we must watch where we are walking! I can’t tell you how many times I have stumbled by missing a step, found gum or something left from a dog (need I say

more) or hit a wall, door, or some other object simply because I wasn’t “watching” my step.The verse above talks much about prayer and those prayers being “all” kinds of prayer. There is no doubt that many of us are engaged in all kinds of prayer throughout our day: cries for help, or out of frustration, aches and pains from bodies that hurt, hearts that moan for loved ones, the list goes on. We have a wide variety of prayers that range from intercession, to supplication, for the sick to our own needs and wants. There is another kind of prayer mentioned above that can easily be overlooked: watchful prayer.

Watchful prayer could best be described as the prayer that is done with our eyes wide open: much like prayer in the car! I’m just kidding. However, keeping our eyes open in prayer, during prayer and after prayer is what I call “watchful” prayer. It is so easy to allow prayer to simply be “wishful thinking” more than watchful faith. Watchful prayer is seeing those prayers, those dreams, those requests being answered. Not all prayers are answered the way in which we desire, nonetheless, a person engaged in “watchful prayer” is able to see the answer happening right before their eyes. Jesus said that the faith of a mustard seed could move a mountain. I wonder how much faith is required to see men moved? Maybe faith isn’t the issue, maybe watchfulness? God is always at work. He is always moving. Watchful prayer allows to see where, how, what God is doing and allows us to “watch with perseverance”.

Watchful prayer also includes listening. Just as music can be transcribed as notes on a page, we must learn to interpret what God is doing around us through the instruments in our lives. This includes watchful listening. A composer is aware of the talents, musicians at his disposal and he is able to lead them in a beautiful symphony, writing music for each of them to play their part and instruments well.Watchful prayer that is engaged in listening pays attention to the music that is coming from around us as God puts His symphony together. We cannot

simply come to God making our own “noise”. Watchful prayer silences every noise that is not of God and listens to the music He is composing around us. Watchful pray-ers are watchful “players” in God’s orchestra.

A final component in watchful prayers is that watchful “pray-ers” are not people who simply spend time “waiting” for something to happen. Watchful pray-ers are people who are not killing time but redeeming time. Watchful prayer-ers are people who see what God is doing, who listen for what is God doing and who contribute to what God is doing. Watchful pray-ers are people who act while they wait. In our restaurants we have “servers” as they are called now but the used to be called “waiters”. These people would bring your food, replenish your drinks and make sure that your dining experience was superb. We all have had those waiters and waitresses who have demonstrated an incredible amount of service to us. They received a generous tip from us because of their incredible service. Sadly, we have also had waiters that have not been so good. They failed to meet our desires, wants and needs for a pleasurable dining experience and probably did not keep their jobs for long. The two things that separated the good ones from the bad ones were: Service and Watchfulness, both of which go hand-in-hand.A waiter must be willing to serve anyone at any time in any way. However, if the waiter is not watchful, he/she will not only fail to miss the chance to do so, they will fail to live up to their job/title/role. Perhaps their titles would better be served as a “watcher”? How could this be true for us in our daily Converse Universe? How watchful are you in prayer? How long are you willing to wait for something? How much do you pay attention to what god is doing around you? Do you hear the music He is making? Could you transpose that music to fit your instrument? What about your service? Are you a good “waiter”, “server”, “watcher” ? If not you are not a good “pray-er”.

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September 3, 2010 Volume 2

Welcome to the Vision 2 Hear Converse UniverseEphesians 6:18 18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,

Prayer Waiting

The verse above mentions how prayer must be done with “all perseverance”, which means with “persistent determination.” Wow,

what a great meaning has perseverance! Yet, how often do we truly persevere? Prayer for many of us is a simplistic, trite saying or a 30 second meaningless mumbling before a meal. Prayer that the apostle Paul is talking about here is prayer that moves us to mention it more than once. It is prayer that we utter in and out of consciousness. It is prayer that we wade in the water with God in and through until His outcome is our desired outcome!

Living in the 21st century has its challenges for us as Christians. One of those is waiting and watching in prayer. With a society so accustomed to instantaneous results, we rarely know what it means to pray with perseverance. There is hardly anything we are so moved by or concerned about that would require a persistence or determined prayer time soliciting God or His blessing. Unless we are praying people out of heaven because we don’t want them to die from a disease, we must admit that our prayers are usually not very intense or passionate. How can we better become people who walk out and talk out prayer different than this?

We must pray in the Spirit. The Spirit is eternal. He is “Now” and He is “Then”. When we come to God in prayer, we must allow His Spirit to lead us in prayer. We must allow Him to put words into our hearts, minds and mouths about the “now” and the “then”. Since God’s Spirit is not bound by time, He can give us the words to pray and how we should pray for God’s Kingdom advancing here and now and in the future. As we do this, we will be praying “according to His Will” and this assurance will help us be more “determined” in our prayers. 1 John 5: 13-15 reminds of the fact that when we are determined for God’s Will to be done, it will be done. (Matthew 6:10, 33).

We must also pray watching with determination and persistence. If we are waiting for a desired result, we must pay attention for the timing and the movement of God. Sometimes we must pray with our eyes and ears wide open and our mouths sealed shut! Waiting for God to move does not mean that God does all the work. It means that we join Him in the work He is doing. God doesn’t always simply “make things happen” but He does make things happen through us. As we wait in prayer, we need to always be watchful, understanding that God may be trying to answer the prayer through us or in us. Waiting in prayer is not actionless; it is looking for how God wants us to act on His Word, His Way, and His Wisdom. True waiting is simple obedience and prayer helps us hear what we should obey.

Finally as we pray and wait, we must continue and tarry in prayer until the answer comes. How often have we not gotten the answer we so desired because we failed to persist? How often has God longed to give us what we asked but the timing was not right. Alas, we could not wait any longer and therefore gave up. As followers of Jesus, persisting with determined discipline in prayer is essential. We cannot falter or become weary in well doing. We cannot quit or fall asleep in prayer. We must persist. We must resist the evil one which happens alone by prayer and reliance upon God. We cannot avail without travail in prayer. A mother gives birth after nine months of carrying the “prayer”. However, the birth does not come easily. There is much labor and waiting along the way. Nonetheless, the answered prayer is very much worth the wait! The same is undoubtedly true of our waiting on the Lord in prayer. As a mother puts on weight prior to giving birth, so must we put on the “wait” in prayer knowing that with persistence and determination, the Lord will give birth in due time.

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September 3, 2010 Volume 2

Welcome to the Vision 2 Hear Converse UniverseEphesians 6:18 18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,

Prayer WalkingObviously there are many ways any of us can pray and we all know that we should pray. But sometimes we forget why prayer is so vitally important. May I take this time to

simply remind you of a few reasons why we should engage in prayer. These are things I found from RA Torrey’s Book How To Pray. I’ll only highlight a few things from the book here.

1) We have an adversary is a great reason we should pray. This adversary does not sleep but is constantly looking for a way to steal, kill or destroy. Through prayer, we are able to stay alert to his ways and tactics and do battle against the one who desires to destroy us.

2) It is God’s way for us to obtain God’s Will and Ways. If we truly want to understand God’s plan and desires, we discover His heart through prayer.

3) Jesus made great efforts to pray and so should we. Jesus not only showed great dependence on His Father in prayer but also showed how deep and meaningful their relationship was through prayer. Luke 6:12, Mark 1:35

4) Through prayer we obtain grace and mercy. Hebrews 4:16

5) Prayer is the pathway to joy. John 16:24 Through prayer we find a deep sense of joy and peace as we learn to rest in Christ and cast all our cares on Him

6) Prayer is the way to freedom in Christ. Psalm 16:11 Through prayer we are able to find freedom as we confess, cling and overcome. Wrestling in prayer is the way to wisdom and release from bondage.

7) Prayer increases our awareness of sin and of God. Ps. 139:23-24, Ps. 51:2

From the verse above taken from the American Standard Version, may I point out as Torrey did the amount of times the word “all” is used. Sometimes, we tend only pray sometimes instead of all times. This week in your Converse Universe, can I beckon you forward by challenging you with the following questions:

In this new season of life/time, what things are you praying for? Are there any prayers that seem to be being answered in this season of life and time for you? How has the adversary tried to discourage you in this season?

As you pray, do your prayers seem limited to a time of day only? like morning or evening? How could you incorporate prayer into more of your day? What would it look like for you to be in prayer at work or school? How could you begin to learn to “crawl” at school or at work in prayer before God for your friends, teachers, neighborhoods?

In your prayer time do you pray for mercy and grace? Do you pray it for others and for their lives? How about joy or peace? So often we pray for other’s health and healing but what if we prayed for people’s perseverance and endurance in a difficult time? What if we prayed that we would be better listeners and lovers than simply praying people would be “different”? How would it be to simply pray that God would make people more like Him instead of us praying that people would be more we wanted them to be?

What if we prayed that people would be set free from bondage and addictions? What if we prayed that they would find peace and become addicted to Jesus? Addiction is not a bad thing it’s just what are we addicted to? How much wrestling are you willing to do for another in prayer?

How often have we come to God and simply allowed Him to rake us over His coals and reveal to us what we need to change? Many times prayer is ineffective because we want God to change instead of ourselves.

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September 3, 2010 Volume 2

Welcome to the Vision 2 Hear Converse UniverseEphesians 6:18 18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,

Prayer WalkingObviously there are many ways any of us can pray and we all know that we should pray. But sometimes we forget why prayer is so vitally important. May I take this time to

simply remind you of a few reasons why we should engage in prayer. These are things I found from RA Torrey’s Book How To Pray. I’ll only highlight a few things from the book here.

1) We have an adversary is a great reason we should pray. This adversary does not sleep but is constantly looking for a way to steal, kill or destroy. Through prayer, we are able to stay alert to his ways and tactics and do battle against the one who desires to destroy us.

2) It is God’s way for us to obtain God’s Will and Ways. If we truly want to understand God’s plan and desires, we discover His heart through prayer.

3) Jesus made great efforts to pray and so should we. Jesus not only showed great dependence on His Father in prayer but also showed how deep and meaningful their relationship was through prayer. Luke 6:12, Mark 1:35

4) Through prayer we obtain grace and mercy. Hebrews 4:16

5) Prayer is the pathway to joy. John 16:24 Through prayer we find a deep sense of joy and peace as we learn to rest in Christ and cast all our cares on Him

6) Prayer is the way to freedom in Christ. Psalm 16:11 Through prayer we are able to find freedom as we confess, cling and overcome. Wrestling in prayer is the way to wisdom and release from bondage.

7) Prayer increases our awareness of sin and of God. Ps. 139:23-24, Ps. 51:2

From the verse above taken from the American Standard Version, may I point out as Torrey did the amount of times the word “all” is used. Sometimes, we tend only pray sometimes instead of all times. This week in your Converse Universe, can I beckon you forward by challenging you with the following questions:

In this new season of life/time, what things are you praying for? Are there any prayers that seem to be being answered in this season of life and time for you? How has the adversary tried to discourage you in this season?

As you pray, do your prayers seem limited to a time of day only? like morning or evening? How could you incorporate prayer into more of your day? What would it look like for you to be in prayer at work or school? How could you begin to learn to “crawl” at school or at work in prayer before God for your friends, teachers, neighborhoods?

In your prayer time do you pray for mercy and grace? Do you pray it for others and for their lives? How about joy or peace? So often we pray for other’s health and healing but what if we prayed for people’s perseverance and endurance in a difficult time? What if we prayed that we would be better listeners and lovers than simply praying people would be “different”? How would it be to simply pray that God would make people more like Him instead of us praying that people would be more we wanted them to be?

What if we prayed that people would be set free from bondage and addictions? What if we prayed that they would find peace and become addicted to Jesus? Addiction is not a bad thing it’s just what are we addicted to? How much wrestling are you willing to do for another in prayer?

How often have we come to God and simply allowed Him to rake us over His coals and reveal to us what we need to change? Many times prayer is ineffective because we want God to change instead of ourselves.

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September 3, 2010 Volume 2

Welcome to the Vision 2 Hear Converse UniverseEphesians 6:18 18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,

Prayer Wrestling

The word “supplication” means “earnest request” or “petition”. We all have true, honest requests

that need to be brought to God. He is the only one who can meet those needs or desires. There are also other requests that we need to make for others. It is quite easy to pray for ourselves but praying another is sometimes difficult. Why? We are not always touched by the needs or desires of others. We are not always focused on others. Praying for others requires wrestling to a great degree: wrestling with God on “why”, wrestling with God on “how”, wrestling with God on Him being God.

Prayer Wrestling means we must first seek God’s Kingdom and not our own. Matthew 6:33 is clear that we are to seek first God’s desires. Often when we come to God we have to wrestle with our hearts, imaginations, and desires because they are not always aligned with God. We must come and surrender our own wishes and plans and allow God to wrestle those things from us. Isaiah 55:11 tells us that His ways are higher than ours. If we are to truly engage God in prayer, we have to allow Him to grapple with our hearts and minds first and we must submit to His Lordship.

Another way that we wrestle with God in prayer is in putting others into God’s hands. As a parent, teacher, leader, or mentor, sometimes we can have a difficult time letting go of people. As we make “supplication” our sincere requests are not always with the best for that person. Of course we love these people but we cannot see the whole big picture and therefore must allow God to wrestle them out of our hands and back into His. Our supplication for others needs to be made

with full assurance that God will do what is best and right. We simply need to be willing to accept what God wants us to ask for those persons.

Wrestling in prayer also means that we let God pin us on the mat. Becoming a saint means we must recognize what we ain’t. Too often, prayer is mishandled. Our words and our motives are selfish and shallow. God wants to meet needs and fulfill us and answer our requests. However, His greatest desire in prayer is to engage us. He doesn’t want to pin us so that He can claim a “win” or declare us a “loser”. He wants us to lose so that we will win for He understands that we will only truly win when we have Him. God wants to “defeat” us in prayer not to withhold what we want through supplication but instead to give us Himself! God wants our ultimate request to be for Him. He wants our greatest supplication for others to be that they would know Him.

Ultimately, wrestling in prayer is for us to become “saints” which only happens through face to face encounters. Wrestling with God doesn’t just allow God’s Will to enter earth but it allows God’s likeness to enter us.We become what we constantly look at. Perhaps God engages us in wrestling and grappling trying to keep our faces looking at His all the while we are the ones who are trying to pull away? May we always engage God in prayer and may we realize that when He pins us, He wins us and we win Him!

Sobeit!

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September 13, 2010

Welcome to the Vision 2 Hear Converse Universe"That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God" Colossians 1:10

Walk This WayWe all have a “walk”, step, gait, or “swag”. It’s the way we place our steps, the way we move from one place to another using our feet;

it’s the way we live, move, breath, and find our being (Acts 17:28). In the Bible verse above found in Colossians 1:10, we have our theme verse for this season: "That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God" Colossians 1:10

To start things off in this study, let’s simply look at the word “walk” and begin to see what it means and how it translates into our normal everyday life.

Walk: Defineduse one's feet to advance; advance by steps accompany or escort be or act in association with live or behave in a specified manner

Day 1Take a walk. Spend a little time today noticing how you walk...is it a slow pace or hurried and rushed? Do you have large wide steps or smaller quick steps? How do you walk? Looking up down, or ahead? Are you distracted when you walk or are you focused? Notice the places you walk most to the most. Do you walk for exercise at all or just because you have to? How does any of this translate into your “spiritual” walk?Day 2What shoes are most comfortable for you to walk in? What shoes do you enjoy wearing? How many pair of

shoes do you have/own? What types of shoes do you have i.e. dress shoes, tennis shoes etc. How does changing your shoes translate into your spiritual walk?Day 3How has God uniquely crafted your “walk” and your “shoes”? Where does your walk take you everyday? Where can your walk take you? How do your shoes “assist”? What “shoes” help your walk for Christ? How can you walk better, live better, serve better, conduct yourself better and in a manner worthy of the Lord?Day 4Do you find yourself “walking away” from God? or anything else? Should you be walking away from certain people or certain things/practices? Spend a little time today walking backwards. How difficult and different is that? How do we try to do this in our spiritual life?Day 5How is your walk with God? Are you walking with Him or ahead of Him? Do you need to run to Him? Are you trying to run away from Him? Is God saying for you to stand still? Meditate on the verse from above and ask God to reveal Himself to you.

Sobeit.

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September 13, 2010

Welcome to the Vision 2 Hear Converse Universe"That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God" Colossians 1:10

Walk This Way 2

Day 1 Have you ever walked with someone or something on your back? Was this a burden or a blessing? How do you look at carrying another to Christ? Do carry them to

Him often in prayer?

Day 2 Who needs to be carried around you? Who needs a lift? Who cannot get up or has fallen down around you? How can your walk encourage, help, or minister to them?

Day 3 Listen to the song “Get Back Up Again” by Toby Mac. Read Galatians 6:1. Consider the word “Restore”. what does that look like, feel like, and mean? How are we to walk that out with those around us who have struggled and fallen?

Day 4 Read Mark 2:1-11

How did walking play into this story? Whose walk mattered first? What was the result? Who was carried and why? What must the friends have felt? How did their feelings affect the man? How does this get walked out in your life?

Day 5 How can you talk this out over the weekend? How can you walk it out? Give yourself a project inspired by the things you have learned this week and then share about it online.

www.vision2hear.com

or join the conversation on Facebook.

Some projects to consider:

What shoes would you wear to carry someone best? When you carry someone to God in prayer, have you ever considered removing your shoes (like Moses on the mountain with God)?

Fill a back pack and wear it as you walk this week. Fill it with prayer requests from your family and friends. Walk with it everywhere and let it be a reminder that they are your burden and you are their blessing in prayer. You may even want to weigh it down with rocks which can symbolize the stones that have been thrown at them or the stones they need rolled away to have new life.

Perhaps move your bed to the floor and sleep on the mattress and remember the man from Mark 2 each night. As you do, think about all those who must sleep on the floor or mats each night and say a prayer for them. As you carry them to the Lord, remember the ones who are paralyzed and have no one who ever reaches out to them. Remember the homeless and the crippled.

This week, take some time to walk around your city. Take notice of anything that would tie into this study and how God is speaking to you. As you learn to walk this way, what is God teaching you? What is He saying and what does He want want yo to say to others?

How can your walk encourage someone this week? How can your talk inspire someone this week? Walk it out. Talk it out.

Sobeit.