Session 9 | Stewarding the Presence of God Big Ideas • Abide in Christ • Watch with me • Crucify the flesh and give place for the Spirit of God. • Power of prayer and waiting on the Lord “I've experienced His presence in the deepest darkest hell that men can create…I have tested the promises of the Bible, and believe me, you can count on them.” Corrie Ten Boom Abide means “to continue to remain connected.” John 15:4–8 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. Here are some of the main takeaways from John 15:1–17: • The passage emphasizes the intimacy between Christ and the Father and the intimacy that Christ wants with us, just like He has with the Father. • Christ speaks about the importance of bearing fruit and the consequences for those who do not bear fruit. Did you see how the Father is glorified when we bear kingdom fruit? • We must depend on Christ, and our prayer life changes when we abide in Him and have His heart. What Does It Look Like When You Are Abiding with Christ? • You develop a hunger for God's word and spend time digging into the Bible, reflecting on what is being said, and applying it to your life. • You assume a posture allowing you to hear what the Holy Spirit says throughout your day. • You don't look at what people will do for you; instead, you seek ways to show God's love to others. • Throughout the day, your heart seeks to draw closer to Jesus, no matter what is happening around you. • You see godly fruit happening all around you, not because of your efforts but because you are in tune with what the Holy Spirit is doing in and through you. Watch with Me Matthew 26:37-41 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” 39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” 40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” “Are we prepared for our Lord to say to us, ‘sit here while I go over there and pray’? Are we prepared to give due weight to the fact that we are not our own masters? Are we devotees to a cause or disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? He said to His disciples to ‘sit here’. If they had been like some of us, they would have said, ‘no that is absurd. We must go and do something.’” -Oswald Chambers Watching is not passive. Crucify the flesh and give place for the Spirit of God. Galatians 5:16-18 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Learning to crucify our flesh (sin nature) is an often overlooked foundational principle of a disciple of Christ. If we are unable to apply this simple (not easy) part of following Christ daily, we will be dominated by our sinful nature and will not abide in biblical prosperity. Romans 7:15-25 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Romans 8:1-8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. What well are you drawing from? Jeremiah 2:11-13 “Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But My people have changed their glory for what does not profit. 12Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; Be very desolate," says the Lord. 13“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Power of prayer and waiting on the Lord Psalm 84:1-2 How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! 2My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Habakkuk 2:1-2 I will stand my watch, set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected. Psalm 40:1-3 I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry. 2He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. 3He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord. Psalm 27:4-5 4One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. 5For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. Psalm 27:14 Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord! Isaiah 40:28-31 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. 30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, 31But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Slides during prayer: • Lord, in what areas am I not watching with you? • I ask you to open my eyes to areas where my flesh is weak and what changes I can make to walk in the Spirit. • Am I so busy working for you that I am not abiding in you? • Am I a devotee to a cause or a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself?