What is SOAP?

SOAP is an acronym for: Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. As you prepare for participating in City Group this week, we invite you to write down your thoughts in a journal. Journaling is a great way to record and process your thoughts & what God is sharing with you.

Week of April 12th
Overcoming Evil Thoughts

OVERVIEW

To help us navigate this life of living in true freedom with jesus, we have been exploring over the past weeks; How our frame of view, our choices, our approaches, affect our daily lives, how walking with Christ (eating from the tree of life) helps us to walk in freedom rather than in shame, guilt, and with a victim mindset. We've also explored what it means to understand how God designed us (spirit, soul, body) and how this understanding helps us to live purposefully in spiritual order as He desires for us.

For our time today, let’s look at what prevents us from living in this overflowing and abundant life, to the fullest, in the tree of Life, in Christ Jesus. This is critical to our continued discovery of what it means to walk in Freedom! Scripture says, "What a man thinks in his heart so is he " (Proverbs 23:7) It’s truly powerful to be able to experience God designed freedom in our hearts as our frame of view, our perspectives, our mind sets, our paradigms, and our hearts are being transformed by the Holy Spirit in us. We can experience life to the fullest!

KEY POINTS

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  • There’s a huge danger in looking at the list in Matthew 7:21-23 and saying, “I sure would never do this or that" , but yet if we don’t see the capability of these kinds of sins in us, then we are out of touch with the reality of our fallen nature.
  • Evil thoughts plug up the overflow of the Spirit from working in our lives. There is a remedy... The Word of God.
  • When I am intentional in choosing to meditate on the Word of God continually, I am leading my body, soul, and spirit to be in spiritual order.
  • When we read God’s word and apply it to our lives, we will see Him fulfill the promises written in its pages
  • The word of God is literally Spirit and life, meant to accomplish the will and purpose of God, and it will succeed.
  • When we include the Spirit of God in our journey to explore the word, the Spirit of God makes the scriptures come alive, a Rhema Word. We NEED the Spirit of God in order for the Word to come alive in our lives. 
  • God and the Word are inseparable. Remembering, God is a Spirit. The Word was with God as the mind of God, the reasoning of God, and the plan and purpose of God.
  • Understanding that the Word of God is more than just a Bible or collection of Books, but is also the life-giving pathway to knowing the person of Jesus Christ, so that you may surrender and give yourself to His Leadership and receive His spirit of life and truth.

SCRIPTURE

As we read aloud through these verses, let's pause, reflect, and listen for what Holy Spirit might be saying to you through the Word of God.

Key scriptures from Sunday. 

  • Matthew 7:21-23 Evil originates from inside a person. Coming out of a human heart are evil schemes, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, treachery, debauchery, jealousy, slander, arrogance, and recklessness. 23  All these corrupt things emerge from within and constantly pollute a person.

Additional Scriptures

  • Joshua 1:6–8 “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”

  • Hebrews 11:3  “through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God (Rhema), so that things which are seen were not made of the things which do appear."

  • John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made.

  • Romans 10:17 NIV Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word about Christ.

  • Psalm 1:2 “The righteous man delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night.”

  • Proverbs 3:1-4 My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying. Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation.

  • James 1:22-25  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.  24  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25  But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

OBSERVATION

Talking through the message during the week helps you turn what God is saying to you into action steps. These talking points, questions, and scriptures are designed to help you take the next step.

Q1. Ask yourself the honest question. Am I reading the Bible out of duty? Am I only in it for the bread like many of the followers of Jesus were? Do I have a "what do I get out of it" attitude, or am I reading the Word out of my desire to know God in a real and intimate way? 

Q2. The promises of God are fulfilled when we walk in obedience to His Word. It’s one thing to actively study the Word, learning from it, getting excited about it, but are we applying the Word of God and doing what it says? In what ways are you putting God's Word into action?

Q3. Can you remember a time where you experienced the rhema Word of God – a time when God’s Word came alive in a situation in your life?

Q4. Am I regularly consuming the Word of God and letting its truth replace my old way of thinking? If not, what is standing in the way?

Personal Reflection Question:

What are some practical steps I can take THIS WEEK to prioritize the Word of God in my life?

APPLICATION

WAYS TO ACTIVATE THE WORD OF GOD IN YOUR LIFE

  • Make God's Word a priority in your day to day
  • Believe and have faith for what you read in Scripture
  • Meditate on the Scripture.

WAYS TO MEDITATE ON GOD’S WORD

  • Speak God's Word out loud.
  • Make the Scripture personal.
  • Think about the Scripture night and day.
  • Make meditation on Scripture practical.

PUT GOD'S WORD INTO ACTION. DO WHAT IS WRITTEN

  • The promises of God are fulfilled when we walk in obedience to His Word. See James 1:22-25

PRAYER

Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross and making a way for me to be in relationship with you. Thank you for absorbing my sin and shame. I choose to receive this extravagant gift of life and ask You to come into my heart and be the Lord and leader of my entire life. I give You all of me and ask You to lead my life for Your glory. Fill me with Your Spirit, and help me live the life You died to give me. Turn my eyes to you, face to face with you Jesus. I want to be in relationship with you, walk hand in hand with you. Holy Spirit reveal and reconcile these areas in my life where I have held onto evil thoughts and my old ways of thinking. Create in me a hunger for your truths. Reveal to me through your word and Spirit your plans and purposes for my life and how I can walk in abundant life. Show me how to activate your word in my life. Show me. - continue to reveal to me your Truths. Holy Spirit change me, and fill me to the fullest with your Spirit. In Jesus name, Amen!

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Next Steps

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