Chapter 3: Page 23 Vision January 28, 2011

LOVED: “God gives people the exact experiences he wants them to have in order to shape the specific destiny he’s designed for them. In fact, I can look back at my early life and see how God was forming an audacious vision in my life.” Pg. 21

Think back on your life and your past experiences. Where can you see God working in your life? Can you see how God was shaping you for your future? What kinds of experiences have brought you to where you are now spiritually?

What is a Page 23 Vision? How do we know what it looks like?

-   A personal, God-appointed dream or calling. Pg. 23

-   Begins with a seed of inspiration that takes root in your imagination. Over time it will produce a harvest of obedience for the glory of God. And the whole process will take place deep in the soil of your faith. Pg 24

-   It will probably flow from something you’re already doing- relationships you’ve already established, priorities you’re already passionate about. Pg. 25

-   It is biblically based, focused on Jesus, affirmed by the key people in your life, and tethered to your passions, gifts, and life experiences. Pg. 25

How do we find our Page 23 Vision?

SEIZE: Open your heart and mind to God’s vision for your life.

ACTIVATE: Choose to step out in a strength not your own.

MAKE YOUR MOVE: Act with boldness. God will MOVE in your life.

LOVED: “Certainly I felt way too young to take on such a serious task that required this much wisdom. But somehow I sensed that none of this would matter. Ignorance and inexperience wouldn’t count as valid excuses. When God speaks, he does not stutter. When he awakens you to your calling, the snooze button stops working. It was time for me to get busy for God.” Pg. 29

Seeing yourself as too young to be used for God’s glory is NO EXCUSE. If anything, it is BETTER that you are young. You have the ability to be audacious. Examples of young’uns used for God’s glory:

-   David

-   Jeremiah, pg. 29

-   Timothy, pg. 29

I asked my girls to come up with their own Page 23 Visions for this week’s Bible Study. Start brainstorming with your group what a Page 23 vision in their life would look like. Share them with the group. Support each other!

“How radically different would modern American culture be if we stopped raising our kids to survive their world and started empowering them with a vision to change it?”

“How would your general outlook shift if you woke up every morning, not just to a to-do list, but to goals and activities that flowed from a Page 23 vision?”

Discussion Questions for DVD:

1. Why is it necessary to have a Page 23 vision for your life?

2. What’s the closest experience you’ve had to a Page 23 moment? What did it look like?

3. Looking at your life—your experiences, your passions, your gifts—what are the seeds that God has planted in you that could hint at your own Page 23 vision? Write and discuss some of your impressions.

4. What’s the next step you need to take to begin turning your Page 23 vision into a reality?

An awesome revelation:

If you DO NOT think that you have a Page 23 vision for your life or you CAN NOT think of one, here is some good news…

“You have a personal birthright to believe in a God-given mission for your life. And if God can instill and fulfill a big-city dream of enormous Kingdom impact in a small-town boy like me, he can put a Sun Stand Still spirit in you too. CONSIDER THIS YOUR PAGE 23.

Consider this Chapter of Sun Stand Still your page 23 vision for your life. You WILL be used for God’s glory. Start thinking how you can live to serve HIM.

Chapter 2: Prayer That Stops the Sun January 22, 2011

JOSHUA

-   pg. 11: Israelites are at the border of the Promised Land. PANIC- giants and walled cities stood between them. Everyone wanted to turn back.

-   Numbers 14:7-9, “…Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up.”

-   Fear won out. 40 wasted years.

Have you ever felt like the Israelites? What were the giants and walled cities holding you back from the good land you were meant to occupy?

If you want to experience God’s blessings, audacious faith is NOT OPTIONAL.

Joshua 10:8-14

-   Joshua had the AUDACITY to ask God to make the sun stop in the sky.

Pg. 15: Could it be that God intends for us to have the same kind of faith- the kind of faith that dares to believe God for the impossible-as a normal way of life?

Pg. 17: “When you have a dream in your heart, but no earthly idea how to make it happen, keeping your faith intact is a full-time job. But I’ve discovered that these crises of belief don’t have to be the end of faith. They can become the foundation that a stronger faith is built on.”

Audacious faith is for schoolteachers, college students, etc.

I want to be a Joshua in my generation.

Begin thinking of the way you pray now.

-   What does it look like? What kinds of things do you ask for?

Now think of how you could pray audaciously.

-   How are the two different?

Chapter 1: Welcome to Audacious Faith January 22, 2011

“Pastor Michael PROUDLY showed me the place where his church was putting in new toilets.” – Kampala, Uganda. This reminded me of the small church that I visited in Guatemala. Some people in this world have next to nothing by American standards. Yet, they are on fire for Christ. They believe and trust with audacious faith.

How strange is this…

A shed + a garbage heap + games with an orange peel + a witch doctor + opposition = AUDACIOUS FAITH

Huge churches + resources + wii games and technology + freedom of religion = audacious faith?

I am amazed at the way that Pastor Michael looks past his situation and focuses only on God’s vision for his life. He detailed how he wanted to TRANSFORM his current situation for Christ. Some would say that we in America have it GOOD. Easy even. Do we ever look past our situation and focus solely on God’s vision for our life?

LOVED: “But when we prayed for God to make fire fall down from heaven, and his house burned down that same week, he left us alone.” THIS IS BOLD FAITH.

I want for us to be a ministry of excellence: DOING ALL THAT YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT.

Tonia “designed her life around leveraging her on-camera talent to make an off-camera impact.”

LOVED: “If it’s necessary, and it’s never been done, that’s because God intends for her to do it.” THIS IS BOLD FAITH.

What do Pastor Michael and Tonia have in common?

-          Share the same spiritual DNA

-          Accomplish amazing things for Christ

-          Are not afraid of the impossible

-          Are not afraid of opposition

-          Are not afraid of God changing their lives for his glory

What is my ministry? Where is my village? What is the area where I could make an impact?

-          School: classmates around me who watch my every move because they know that I am a Christian and I’m in SAO.

-          Family: be an example for my family members. Do not be afraid of what your family members will say if God is calling you to something different than you first had in mind.

-          Friends: share with your friends what God is teaching you in your life. PRAY that God will use you and your friends in miraculous ways. Instead of talking about what your friend did, pray for them. Ask God for the sun to stand still over their lives.

-          Relationships: be on the look out for a man who is after God’s own heart. A man who also has a sun stand still vision for his life. A man who is not just a mediocre Christian but someone who is willing to act audaciously for God’s glory.

• If the size of your vision for your life isn’t INTIMIDATING to you, there’s a good chance it’s insulting to God.

Audacity: Unusual boldness, makes regular people behave with boldness or daring, especially with confident disregard for personal comfort or conventional thought.

Does the brand of faith you live by produce the kinds of results in your life that you read about in the biblical stories of men and women of faith?

-          Why not?

-          What has happened to this generation?

What do you envision for your life/future?

What if there is a higher calling to fulfillment and significance for you and your life?

Prologue: This is How it Feels January 22, 2011

I remember going to Elevation’s Easter Sunday at Time Warner Cable last year. It was incredible and one of the highlights of my year. Over ten thousand people were praising God together in the center of Charlotte. Hundreds of people gave their lives to Christ. The church that has given me so much inspiration and insight into my relationship with God was started with one audacious vision and a prayer to see the sun stand still. I want to believe God for the impossible. I want to see the sun stand still over my life.

 

SUN STAND STILL January 10, 2011

Hello girls! Welcome back from Christmas break! I have missed all of you and I am SO ready to see what our wonderful Lord has in store for us this semester! I am very excited to begin our book study on Sun Stand Still.  We have some great girls leading Bible Studies this semester. These girls are: Katie Hodges and Abbey Starnes, Elyse Perry, Alice Smith and Hannah Lingerfelt, Jen Park and Kristen Morrison, and myself.

“Without good direction, people lose their way; the more wise counsel you have, the better your chances.”
- Proverbs 11:14
“But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a LEADER among you, must be your servant.”
- Matthew 20:26

I encourage each of you to get involved in your Bible Study groups! PRAY with and for each other.  SHARE your struggles and triumphs with each other. LISTEN to what is going on in each girl’s life. ENCOURAGE each other on a regular basis. GROW with each other in Christ. And finally, CHALLENGE each other to not just be mediocre Christians, but to be radical Christians for Christ. To go to God with every problem, no matter how small. To trust God when things start falling apart. To trust God when things start getting better. To love instead of hate and to forgive when its hard. To not only have faith that God can help you through some things. But to have faith that God can do the IMPOSSIBLE.

This semester, we will be learning about having audacious faith. Audacity makes regular people behave with boldness o daring, especially with confident disregard for personal comfort or conventional thought. When you live with audacious faith in Christ, your eyes will be opened to see your day-to-day life in vivid color. Your spiritual growth will accelerate at a super natural pace. You will find a higher calling to fulfillment and significance that God deeply desires for your future job, your relationships, a marriage, your finances, and your impact on this world.

“On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a human being. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!”

- Joshua 10:12-14

This book may be difficult for some of you to get into. Maybe because you don’t believe its possible for God to do miraculous things in your life. Maybe because you’re afraid what will happen to your ordinary life if you do ask God for the impossible. What I desire most this semester is for you to be CHALLENGED. I want for you to accept the fact that ordinary people, you and me, can do miraculous things for God. I want to see the sun stand still in our lives. I love you all and I am truly looking forward to this semester

Love, Caroline