The Indwelling God

The Lord’s Table: Bible Study/Prayer meeting

(Every Wednesday 6-7 pm in the Chapel)

St Paul’s Church

The Anglican Church of Canada

18 January 2012

Opening Prayer

Theme: The Good News

Topic: The Indwelling God

Reading: Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17

¹ O Lord, you have searched me and known me. ² You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. ³ You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. ⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. ⁵ You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

¹² even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.  ¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed. ¹⁷ How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

Introduction

According to the Scriptures, God made us in His image and likeness. He not only knows our inmost being but desires to live within us. He knows us because He made us and He lives within us when we yield our lives to Him. When we accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and guides us. He is the Strength of the believer; this is what it means to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Allowing the spirit of God to dwell within us is the ultimate innate desire of mankind. No wonder the saying that a Christ-less life is a crisis-filled life. The focus of this study is how God has chosen us to dwell in our hearts and manifest His power, glory, splendour and majesty in our lives.

Questions/Discussion

1. How do we know that God knows us?

Psalm 139:1-4, 13, 15-16

¹ O Lord, you have searched me and known me. ² You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. ³ You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. ⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.

¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

John 1:47-50

⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’⁴⁸Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’⁴⁹Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’⁵⁰Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’

Romans 8:28-30

We know that all things work together for good^* for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.^*30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

2. Since God knows us:

a) Are we expected to know Him as well?

1 Samuel 3:7-10

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.⁸The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.⁹Therefore Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” ’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place. ¹⁰ Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’

Philippians 3:8-11

⁸More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ,^* the righteousness from God based on faith.¹⁰I want to know Christ^* and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,¹¹if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

b) How do we know Him?

Romans 10:14-15, 17

But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?¹⁵And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ ¹⁷So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.^*

1 Corinthians 1:18-19, 21-29, 2:7-16

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.¹⁹For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’

²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Consider your own call, brothers and sisters:^* not many of you were wise by human standards,^* not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.²⁷But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,²⁹so that no one^* might boast in the presence of God.

^2:7But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.⁸None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.⁹But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’—¹⁰these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.¹¹For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God.¹²Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.¹³And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. ^*14 Those who are unspiritual^* do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually.¹⁵Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. ¹⁶ ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.

3. List some of the benefits and responsibilities that come with knowing and being known by God.

Galatians 4:4-9, 5:1

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,⁵in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.⁶And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our^* hearts, crying, ‘Abba!^* Father!’ ⁷So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. ^*8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods.⁹Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits?^* How can you want to be enslaved to them again?

^5:1For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Intercession

Conclusion

There is no doubt that God knows us and desires that we know Him and be filled with His Spirit. His presence in our lives grants us the strength to live for Him. Let us continue to deepen our knowledge of Him through His word and the indwelling of His Spirit.

Closing Prayer

Lord without You we can do nothing. Thank You for Your presence in our lives. Teach us to love and know You more and more all the days of our lives through the mercies of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.