~Open in prayer~
Icebreaker
• Pumpkin spice latte? Yes! or Yuck!
• Favorite outfit to wear for fall
• Do you have a “gratitude journal”?
Message Review
The world chases the spirit world, and the church will not let it in. Because of the absence of spiritual things, it can be difficult to find messages nowadays on Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, signs and wonders and the supernatural. Today most preaching leans towards cultural topics. The church not only has access in the spirt world but has dominion in the spirit world. Instead of casting out a demon the world will send you to counsel or give you medication. The church has so many things they do in the natural, lights, smoke and pom- poms. But this is like having clouds with no water in them, it has no power. We were put here to impact our culture by being the light in darkness, a city set on a hill and salt of the earth. If God sets you in a certain community and you are not affecting it, it is because you are like it. We must be different from it to change it and we must allow God to transform us more like Him.
Let’s dig into how.
Let’s Talk About It!
Read Deuteronomy 28:1-25
Curses are Restraints
Pastor Ron’s mentor Dr. Mike Murdock once taught him that if you have one flat tire, it will stop the entire car from running. The key is the Holy Spirit. So many churches have closed Him out. For example, joy can be a constant because if you have the Holy Spirit, no matter what is going on around you, you can stand in joy and peace. When the laws God has placed are ignored, the curse is built in. When the law is acknowledged the blessing is built into that. It is not God passing out curses or blessings, it’s a state of being. If we obey everything the bible says, we will enjoy the state of either blessing or curses. You may be living under the curse if you have sin in your life. Curses pursue and try to overtake you. They want to not just take you but take your entire family. Once it passes generations, we then call it a “generational curse”, and no one can get out from that blood line. People think it has to be “big sins” to be cursed, but it is an act of willful rebellion and disobedience in one generation and every generation it grew and multiplied. So, what was in the closet with your grandfather will be in the street with your child. Curses are simple to identify; look in your life and identify restraints. If there is a place that you know you have potential and you know it has not been released. It is an area you know; something is supposed to be happening and it never does. Share where you see in your life or your family something that you see as a “restraint”? Is there something where God was rebelled against and sin came in? Discuss as a group what the steps are to move from curse to blessing. (How to “make it right”)
Take the Steps to confront the curse
• Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where there is a “restraint”
• Repent of the sin
• Renounce the sin
• Cover it all under the blood of Jesus
• Make it right if it is possible for you to do so
Prayer Focus and Requests
Ask your members if they have any prayer requests or praise reports. Work on reviewing your life and where there may be “restraints”. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you and then take the following steps: repent, renounce and make it right if you are able to. Pray for one another that you all make this a priority and share and celebrate breakthroughs.