~Open in prayer~
Icebreaker
• If you could take off work and travel for a year, what places would you travel to?
• If you were given a million dollars, what would do with it?
• If you didn’t have to work, what would you do instead?
Message Review
Enemies are necessary. A quote – “your friends’ comfort, your family humbles; your enemies promote you, and there is no promotion without enemies” 1 Corinthians 16:9 NKJV says, “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” Great doors require great battles. You have to be exceeding glad, not when you open a door, but when you see an enemy. The size of your reward always parallels the size of your attack. To get great rewards you have to fight great battles; you cannot be great and fight ordinary battles.
Let’s Talk About It!
The announcement of an enemy is the announcement of your next season. It announces to you that God is totally finished with what you have just experienced, and a new door is opened, but between the old door closing and the new door opening, there is going to be a giant that you are going to have to kill. There is going to be something that you’re going to have to engage and overcome.
Exodus 13:17 NKJV – Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” The children of Israel had an enemy between their last and their next. Israel had to deal with the land of bondage. Deliverance was not freedom for them. God had delivered them from the hand of the enemy. They were not used to fighting wars, something did that for them. God had a great land for them, but there were giants in the land.
What giant in your life is keeping you from walking through the new opened door?
Before God takes you out of your past and into your next, you are going to have to learn to embrace the process. God got the Israelites out of Egypt, but He took them the long way out in order to get Egypt out of them. God can break any addiction but has to get the addiction out of you. God can give you money but has to break the hustle you learned on the street. It took 40 years to flush Egypt out of the Israelites. God took care of them in the wilderness and He provided manna, quail, and water. Pharoah took care of them and they never had enough. God took care of them and they had just enough. Now they were in Canaan and if they wanted more than enough, they had to work the land. Just like we have to work for our “more than enough” you have to be diligent, disciplined, apply focus, apply passion, set boundaries, and manage your time.
Who would like to share one thing that needs to change in order to receive the “more than enough” that God has promised you?
God provides overflowing resources, but you have to work for it…it will work if you work it! When God is asking you to walk into a new season, it’s a season of pure faith. A season that you cannot see, God has spoken it. It requires you to live a life of faith. To hear and see a word that you cannot see. God knows when you’re ready to fight for what He has for you. God wants to build something in you to help you engage your enemy, and handle the blessing on the other side. Blessings are heavy and difficult to manage. Sometimes there is an assault on your senses. Don’t allow what you see talk you out of what God said. Faith is having hope in something in your hand that you cannot see. The enemy wants to always show you something that you can believe. You can either walk on what you hear or what you see, and that determines your outcome. It is time to get out of the boat and walk on God’s Word. If God says a thing, He WILL do what He says.
How has standing on your faith in God been a tremendous blessing in your life?
Just as God took the Israelites the long way out of Egypt; he organizes and disciplines, us to do the same. The promise land requires you to be organized and disciplined. Discipline is key! There are common battles, but the uncommon battles are conflicts. The enemy only fights what he fears. You need to track uncommon battles or conflicts. There is something in that. Whatever the enemy attacks, he knows that something about THAT would wreck him. If there is something that you’re battling, there is something that is powerful, and you have to know that and engage the enemy!
Prayer Focus and Requests
Ask your members if they have any prayer requests or praise reports. Encourage one another to stir up your faith and pray BIG prayers this week and expect God to blow your mind with His answers.