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Lesson OneSacred Companions on a Sacred Journey: Three Defining Elements of Supernatural Relating3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TwoSecular vs. Spiritual SoulCare: The Danger of Blurred Distinctions3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson ThreeSoulCare Through Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Friendships: The Biblical Alternative to Psychotherapy3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FourBeginning Steps in Spiritual Direction3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FiveThe Rhythm of Spiritual Direction: Following the Spirit As He Releases Supernatural Goodness3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SixSpiritual Friendship: Pouring the Passion of Christ From Your Heart into Another's3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson SevenThe Sacred Journey: Where Control is Lost, Where Good Dreams Shatter, Where God's Agenda Looks (and Feels) Bad3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson EightReal Church: Two or Three Broken People Agreed on One Purpose3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson NineEntering the Real Church of Supernatural Community: The Covenant of SoulCare3 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TenEntering the Real Church of Supernatural Community: A Format for SoulCare3 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 154
Discussion Questions
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Describe in your own words these two deceptions that cause us to walk away from God. We think we need something other than God in order to be home. We believe we are walking towards God when we are walking away from Him. How have you experienced these deceptions in your life?
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27 Replies
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I can slip into an addictive state, especially when stress is high, seeking soothing and relaxation in TV, the news, politics, current events, and junk food instead of turning to God. In these stressful moments, I think I need these things, some of which are not necessarily bad things. But after wasting several hours, sometimes days, I realize that I need God. Reluctantly, I’ll turn to him in prayer and reading Scripture, which lifts my spirits and burdens EVERY TIME! Now, I’m beginning to learn that I need to turn to Christ first EVERY TIME because He is who I need. I should put those other things in their proper place, relegating them to the physical and NOT The spiritual and emotional.
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I think currently I am dealing with a huge heart wound by looking to my husband in a way that only Christ can truly fulfill.
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Our world is full of many great distractions. Some things are blessings and lovely, but we often use the good things or people as idols in our lives. God and idolatry cannot live in the same space. In order to put our hope in the idols, we walk away from God. We seem to think we need God + something else in order to have the good life. We also can be doing the great things of ministry, evangelism, serving others, etc., thinking we are walking towards God when we are actually walking away from Him, towards another idol (the good things of our faith journey) and placing more priority on that than on God Himself. I have seen both of these in my own life, in living by the principle that “I can only be okay if my kids (….,husband, parents, boss, etc.) are happy” as well as doing the good things of ministry but walking away from Him. I had forgotten my first love.
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After having received the great freedom and forgiveness of sin, our hearts still work at rebelling against God. And that comes in the form of idols – material things, thoughts, beliefs – things that we pursue, that may even be a good thing, but we place a desire to “have” greater than knowing and enjoying God’s love for us. That deception moves us further from home. And that is a constant battle in our hearts that drives us back to God, if we are striving to follow Him. The second deception is us convincing ourselves that the pursuit of one of our idols is what God wants us to do. The deception, when finally discovered in our minds, causes us shame and sorrow.
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We need something other than God in order to be home: If this is the case, we have chosen to believe that there is something in this world that can satisfy other than The God of the universe and we are decieved. But all too often this occurs. We see a child walking away from God and rathr than entrusting that chid to The Father, we decide there is something we can do to “fix them,” to “amke THEM return home,” when all the while we ourselves have walked away. In this eample I answer the second question as well, because when this occured in my own life with my wayward son, I tried everything humanly possible to fix him, to redirect him, to control him, all to no avail and then GOD!!!! He brought me to my knees in prayer before Him, totally spent and exhausted from years and years of thinking I was praying for my son, when all the while I was praying for God to protect him, which He did, but that was not what my son needed. He needed to be let loose so he would feel the pain and aguish of being away from the Father himself, and finally come to the end of himself. I actually prayed, when I reached the end of myself, that if God had to take my son home, that He would do that because I saw no other way to stop the madness. And in that very tender moment on the floor of my living room, I heard God say “now I can call him, thank you for giving him to me.” I was so decieved thinking I could do something, when in reality there was NOTHING I could do! This was God’s work and I was in the way.
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Dr. Crabb makes the following observations about the spiritual journey: It is not governed by the law of linearity but by the law of liberty. Lesser dreams (even good ones) must shatter to awaken our appetite for greater dreams. To say that God is in control means that He is moving all things towards an end point that we don’t always properly value or even like. How do these observations help when you are offering spiritual friendsdhip to another?
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19 Replies
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That helps me to realize and to respect that God’s ultimate plan behind the scenes for each person is so complicated and so far above my ability to figure out or wrap my head around that I am left with a choice to either humble myself before Him and let Him work through the Holy Spirit during the conversation or to abandon the process either by trying to control or by disengaging. The healthier option is to humble myself before God and to let Him work.
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These obeservations help (and past experience helps) because we can know that God will not always do things the way we think He should, but that He Is Good, and if we trust that, then we can trust that the circumstances that don’t make sense to us, do to God and that he is making a way, where there is no way, in manners that so outreach what we could even imagine, that we do well to rest in Him and trust!
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Realizing that we as flawed beings have hinderances that stagger our communication/relationship with the Lord (ie flesh dynamics, loss of hope, misinterpreted goals), as SoulCare providers, we through the direction of the Holy Spirit may provide the spiritual friendship that helps direct others to the true end point God desires for the individual—a way back home.
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We grow through pain and suffering. It’s in the valleys we find water and green pastures to nourish our souls. If we really want God and have that appetite for him , we allow Him to strip away even what seems good to us so we can gain Christ. He knows best and when we have suffered a while, He will establish strengthen and settle us. I Peter 5:10
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Dr. Crabb makes three observations about Eckhart’s quote. Discuss what you think and feel about each. God’s home is now in me. When I walk away from God, I walk away from me. The only way to discover my true self is to come home to God.
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23 Replies
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He lives in us, we are His temple. If we leave Him, we leave our new nature and home. To come back to our true self we have to return to Him, to our first love
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God’s home is now in me: I am a blood bought child of God and His Spirit has taken up residence in my and is in communication with me all the time.
When I walk away from God, I walk away from me: God has given me a new identity in Christ, but when I leave that sacred home with Him, because the grass looks greener, I not only leave Him, but myself, my new identity and revert to an old identity of bondage and chains.
The only way to discover my true self is to come home to God: In coming back to God I find hope, peace, rest, security, belonging and the truest sense of who I am. At home with God is the safest place to be.
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The holy Spirit is definitely living withon
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God’s home is now in me: As a believer in Christ, the Holy Spirit now dwells within me. 1 Cor 3:16
When I walk away from God, I walk away from me: Having accepted the Lord in my life, knowing He now dwells in me, He is a part of me. Knowing that, if I walk away from Him, I am walking away from myself.
The only way to discover my true self is to come home to God: He is my Creator and my Savior. If anybody knows me, He does.
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God’s home is in me. Once He spoke on Mt Sinai when He gave the Commandment and then The Law. He has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. We are created in His image and He is now residing in every Believer. He is in me and I am in Him. He has made His abode in me.
Because I’m in God and He is in me, when I walk away from God, I am walking away from myself.
He is the vine and I’m am the branch , without Him , I can do nothing. If I am to be my true self I must abide in Him and He upon me.
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We don’t return to God for several reasons, among them: We do not see our flesh dynamics. We lose hope. What does the phrase “flesh dynamics” mean? When have you experienced these hindrances to returning to God?
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23 Replies
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Our own flesh’s pattern to find satisfaction in something other than God
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My flesh dynamics are those things I put in place, that take the place of God and that I hug to my chest, a pleasure that “seems” like it is the answer to all my problems, when in fact, it is the source of all the problems and what gets in the way of my “returning home to God.”
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- Reasons for not returning to God. Shame, pride, self-centeredness.
- Flesh dynamics we think we need something other than God to make us whole or we are walking in self-centeredness.
- Throughout my life God has lifted me up and carried me along when I could hardly stand or function if&&g&&5&
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As Dr. Crabb describes it, we think we need something other than God to make us whole or we are walking in self-centeredness. Going through these courses, I see now I’ve experienced these hindrances many moments in my life, and I’ve been a Christian since childhood. It amazes me how taking the time out to just look opens our eyes so much!
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Flesh dynamics are all the things we go after in life other than allowing The Spirit guide and direct us. We lose sight of who we are in Christ, who we could become and lose hope. We go on our journey like a lost sheep going astray think we will find the way home, only to wander far away. We get so entangled in making life work ,like working to make ends meet and walk from God. I’m very very mindful that without Him, I am nothing and can do nothing without Him.
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Dr. Crabb wants a revolution in his life and in the church where our desire for God actually becomes stronger than our desire to fix our problems. To what extent is that revolution occurring in your life?
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30 Replies
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Currently I am dealing with a major issue that He does not seem to be answering. I battle discouragement, which tells me there is something off in my deepest desire
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I see this revolution taking over my life more and more, as I daily lay down those things that started as desirs and became demands, to surrender them to God so they are desires again, and that they are in second place to God always. I certainly have not arrived, and won’t until I see him face to face, but I pray daily that I am on His narrow path, in His yoke, walking this out with Him First!
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At this time, I don’t know how to measure that other than in comparison to the person I was before taking these courses, I strive more to seek God’s face and His ways more intentionally now and a little less on ‘fixing’ my problems. I’m coming to the realization that focusing on ‘first things’ is more important than anything. Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
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This revolution is ocurring in my life as I see how I have allowed a what seemed like a ministry to pull me away God.With questions , I’m in pursuit of what matters the most, my appetite for God
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As I am studying these courses, there is a revolution occurring within me to actively engage in the lives of others and for others to be more engaged in mine. I have seen how other believers have walked away from church, questions asked but no one actively pursued to engage to bring that soul back home to God.
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What do you think a “defining decision” is?
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6 Replies
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An inner vow made in the flesh
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A “defining decision” is usually when a thought/belief that I use to protect myself from feeling pain, embarrassment, or loss. Looking back, I can see where I shut myself off in ways that prevent others from knowing the true me. And the false me is not what God wants at all.
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A defining decision, is a place in our lives where we have been hurt, or disillusioned in some way, and we have made a “decision” this will never happen again, so I will…….. what ever that decision was, it was one that now defines who we are and how we respond in any given situation.
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A decision that changes the dynamic of how you may interact with people, places, circumstances or life in general.
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God’s way is always the best way. There are times when we step away from Him to carve our own path.Like a sheep going astray, we wander off the path and make a defining decision , that this is the only way to solve my problem. I go the way of the flesh instead of the Spirit.
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When did you last sense a longing to have another person walk with you as you walk home to God? What did you do about that longing?
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6 Replies
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Right before I called a Christian counselor for help. I called her and she has been immensely helpful
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I am currently praying for this. It becomes harder when we get older, because there may not be as may people before us with the wisdom we so desire. It is an interesting place to be to be one of the oldest people in your church family, and so we tend to band together and hopefully speak wisdom to each other and listen to the younger as they grow, to glean from them as well.
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For me my longing was having the spiritual support from someone of faith that could assist me walking through some difficult journeys in my life that were trying to turn me away from home. Nonetheless, God was my everything then and remains my everything now.
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The last time I sensed a longing to have another person walk with me as I walked home to God was about a month ago. I actually reached out to that person and started communicating about hurts that I hadn’t spoken about in over a decade. I’m glad I did.
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My longing is always to have another person walk with me as I walk home to God. We build each other up through scriptures,prayer and fellowship. I joined a prayer group.