The 
Phases of Faith
Faith is the only way to grow in our relationship with God.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
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Read your Bible more in 2004!
My Prayer Today
Father in Heaven, I want to seek you with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength. I long to live in your presence and be filled with your Holy Spirit. You promised that you would pour out your Spirit in the last days, and so I ask that you would pour out your Spirit upon my life. Fill me to overflowing with your presence. I ask this so that you would use me to be a blessing to someone else. I ask that you would put a dream within my heart that would ignite a fire within me to serve you. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ your Son. . . Amen.
God's Word For Me Today
Acts 2:17-21
"In the last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit upon all my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy. And I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below -- blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon will turn blood red, before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives. And anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Reflecting on God's Word
According to Acts 2:17-21, what is the reason why "sons and daughters will prophesy" and people will "see visions" and "dream dreams?"
Is there any age, or gender who will not receive these signs and wonders? Why not?
Why does God speak to his people in dreams and visions?
A Deeper Exploration of God's Word
Are we living in the "last days?" How do you know?
According to what evidence should we know that we are living in the last days?
Should we be afraid of the last days, or should we be excited?
Understanding God's Purpose
What is the Holy Spirit's role in the reception of dreams and visions?
Do you hear of people receiving a dream or vision from the Holy Spirit?
How do you test to see if a dream or vision is from the Holy Spirit?
Applying God's Word to Our Lives
What can you share about the Holy Spirit's role in your life?
How do you know if you have received a supernatural dream from the Holy Spirit?
Read Acts 2:17-21 again, and ask God to pour out His Holy Spirit upon your life today.
Thoughts...
Of the three persons in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit appears to many Christians as the most mysterious. For many years I thought the Holy Spirit was a "fog that hovered in the corner of a room." It wasn't until I began to realize that the Holy Spirit is a person when my Christian life began taking a dramatic shift. If the Holy Spirit was just a "power" then I would want to get a hold of it. However, if the Holy Spirit is a "person" then I wanted Him to get a hold of me! In Acts 2:17-21 God says that in the last days, "I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. . ." He doesn't specify a group, an age, or a gender that this would happen to. God says ALL people! One of the signs that the Holy Spirit is being poured out is that people will begin to receive dreams and visions. As we are continuing in our Six Phases of Faith, "dreams" is the first phase in which God births something great within us.
All of us, hopefully, have some type of ambition in life. We all desire to have a loving family, spouse, or children. We may desire to have a successful career and be financially stable, or write a book, or climb a mountain. There are countless dreams that we may have. But a God-given, Spirit-filled dream is something that is supernatural in nature. It is not simply wanting to have life more comfortable, in fact, almost all of the time God-given dreams take us out of our comfort zone. A God-given dream is given to us when we have the Holy Spirit poured out upon our lives. As Christians we all have the Holy Spirit living within us, but the Spirit also wants to saturate our lives with His power. When talking about receiving a supernatural dream, we must seek the Giver of the gift (the Holy Spirit) rather than the gift of the dream itself. When we seek Him will all of our heart, the dreams, visions, and experiences will follow. God is not the means to the end, but He is rather the end in itself!