Be Open With God

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Lesson Notes:

If you serve God in THIS world you will experience tribulation. If you don’t experience it, the question is… are you really living for God?

Having dominion doesn’t mean that we won’t experience tribulation. When we retreat to a place of earthly comfort we step out of His will. We are meant to live in a place where two seas meet.  In the midst of great turmoil the glory of God is revealed.

2 Cor 3:13-18
Religion sometimes causes a vail to be put over us.  Not experiencing God as he intended, with an ‘open face’.  Upon first experiencing God we have that true ‘open’ experience. But after man steps in with Religion and the human experience it causes us to slowly vail/cover our face again. There is no transformation without openness (when we are unveiled). God can not take who you pretend to be and transform it… He needs us to be open, uncovered and honest and only then can he transform who you are.

Heb 4:13
All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account… There is no sense in trying to hide yourself from God, he knows everything and we will give account of our actions before Him. There is not a place in our lives where God does not exist.

1 Cor 16:9
If a great door opened in front of you, one would think that God would have removed the enemies from the equation.  Here it says that even with a door opened by God, there are many enemies around.  We can get big enough to get to the place where we can open doors for ourselves, but there is a difference when God opens them.  It looks different when He opens them, he moves and demonstrates His power. We need to go through the doors he has opened to us… The ones that aren’t easy to walk through.

True praise is openness. When you praise outside of your comfort zone we are being honest with God.  This is the place where God can really bless us.

When you are down and disappointed, find something to be thankful for (in everything give thanks).

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