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A Study of the Manifest Presence of God in 1 Samuel
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Jour%al Week 1 In his book the Circle Maker, Mark Ba9erson tells the inter:estamental stor< of Honi. “It was the first centCr< BC, and a devastating drought threatened to destGoy a generation-‐the generation before Jesus. The last of the Jewish prophets had died off nearly four centCries before. Miracles were such a distant memor< that they seemed like a false memor<. And God was nowhere to be heard. But there was one man, an eccentGic sage who lived outside the walls of JerCsalem, who dared to pray anyOay. His name was Honi. And even if people could no longer hear God, he believed that God could still hear them.” Honi drew a circle around himself with a staff in his hand and with a crowd looking on Honi prayed, “Lord of universe, I swear before Your gGeat name that I will not move Som this circle until you have shown mercy upon Your children.” The crowd continued watching as a few raindrops began falling. Honi continued praying, “Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain that will fill cister%s , pits and caver%s.” The crowd watched as the rain began to fall in a deluge and still Honi prayed, “Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain of Your favor, blessing and gGaciousness.” The rain began to fall steady and the drought was broken. (Stor< of Honi comes forW Mark Ba9erson’s book the Circle Maker.) Jour%al what God is showing you through this week’s passages and the stories of GyZsy Smith, Hannah, and Honi
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Over the nex: ten weeks you are being asked to draw a circle around yourself and pray. Jour%al what area of your life God is speaking to you needs this circling prayer.
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A Study of the Manifest Presence of God in 1 Samuel
Jour%al Week 2
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As you circle areas of your life in prayer all of a sudden things seem to have more impor:ance than they did before. As Samuel is being called all of a sudden hearing had new impor:. Samuel needed Eli to exZlain what was happening. Eli tGanslated for Samuel what the Spirit of God was saying and doing. “Some things cannot be perceived with the five senses; they can only be conceived by the Holy Spirit. Some things cannot be deduced by deductive reasoning; they can only be imagined by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit compensates for our sensor< limits by enabling us to conceive of things we cannot perceive with our five senses. Think of it as a six:h sense. The revelation of the Spirit gives us ex:Gasensor< perception, in the sense of that phrase. He helps us see the invisible and the inaudible. But that six:h sense has to be cultivated, much like our five senses do. Our spiritCal vision develops like our physical vision does.” (Mark Ba9erson, The Prayer Circle) God is calling you. He is developing your spiritCal abilities to perceive HIM. He is circling you as He did Samuel calling you, calling you, calling you. As you circle the sitCations of your life and ask God to manifest His presence into the sitCation ask HIM to develop your spiritCal perception. Realize that as you circle sitCations in your life in prayer God is circling around you. As you draw near to God, He is drawing near to you. Jour%al what you have been hearing Som God as you have prayed circles around your life this week.
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A Study of the Manifest Presence of God in 1 Samuel Jour%al Week 3 Reflection day is an impor:ant day in our 1 Samuel series. It is a time to reread the passages of the week and to jour%al what we have been
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hearing Som God. Mark Ba9erson in his book, Draw the circle writes, “the shor:est pencil is longer than the longest memor<.” Par: of circling sitCations in our lives with prayer has to include jour%aling. If God is going to speak powerfClly to you over these ten weeks then the spiritCal discipline of jour%aling and recording is ex:Gemely impor:ant. “Jour%aling is the best antidote, maybe the only antidote, to spiritCal amnesia.” (Mark Ba9erson, Draw the circle) For many of us it is not that God has not been speaking but rather that we have no memor< or record of what He has been saying to us. Take this time to jour%al what God is saying to you Som 1 Samuel and what HE is saying to you about His glor<. Include in your jour%aling time what you have been hearing in circling prayer.
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Jour%al Week 4 ““Acts 10:4 declares that our prayers are memorial offerings. I cannot promise that God will answer you prayers how you want or when you you want, but I can promise that God will answer. He always answers! At critical points in my life, the Spirit of God has whispered to my spirit; Mark, the prayers of your gGandfather are being answered in your life right now. Those sacred moments rank as the most humbling and exhilarating moments of my life. Like a parent who collects their children’s elementar< ar:-‐work and displays it prominently on a reSigerator door, the heavenly Father loves our prayers. Each one is a keepsake. Each one fCnctions like a memorial that jogs the memor< of the Almight<.” “If our prayers are that precious to God, shouldn’t they be more sig%ificant to us? Ar%e’t they wor:h collecting like snapshots in a family photo album? shouldn’t they be tGeated with respect and dig%it<, like the monuments that gGace the nation’s capital/ Ever< prayer we u9er is like the marble stones used in the building of the Washing:on Monument or the Lincoln Memorial. When we pray, we are building a monument to God, a memorial to Him.” (Mark Ba9erson, The Circle Maker)
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Take time to jour%al today. Your prayers are like Ebenezer stones. Your prayers are a memorial offering. Circle your life in prayer knowing that “Each one fCnctions like a memorial that jogs the memor< of the Almight<.”
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Jour%al Week 5 “Drawing prayer circles isn’t some magic tGick to get what you want Som God. God is not a genie in a bo9le, and your wish is not His command. His command be9er be your wish. If it’s not you won’t be drawing prayer circles; you’ll end up walking in circles. Drawing Prayer circles star:s with discer%ing what God wants, what God wills. And until His sovereig% will becomes your sanctified wish, your prayer life will be unplugged Som its power supply. And ge9ing what you want isn’t the goal; the goal is glorif<ing God by drawing circles around the promised, miracles, and dreams He wants for you. (Mark Ba9erson, Drawing the Circle)
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This is week 5 of a 10 week stCdy. Sometimes mid way we have to make some adjustWents in prayer. The the Israelites have adjusted Som having judges to having kings. In the nex: few chapters we will see the kingly role moving Som Saul to David. Think of this week as a time of adjustWent in your circling prayer. Maybe in the midst of praying you have realized, “ge9ing what you want isn’t the goal; the goal is glorif<ing God by drawing circles around the promised, miracles, and dreams He wants for you”
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Jour%al week 6 Mark Ba9erson says in his book the Circle Maker, “prayers are prophecies. They are the best predictors of your spiritCal fCtCre. Who you become is deterWined by how you pray. Ultimately, the tGanscript of your prayers becomes the script of your life.”
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We see this tGCth in the passages about Samuel this week. Samuel intercedes, instGCcts and pleads for Israel. His prayers and prophecies change coming for Israel. If the tGanscript of your prayers will become the script of your life what changes do you need make in your prayer life? Spend some time jour%aling and in prayer.
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“There is nothing God loves more than keeping promises, answering prayers, perforWing miracles, and fClfilling dreams. That is who HE is. That is what HE does. And the bigger the circle we draw, the be9er, because God gets more glor<. The gGeatest moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and divine omnipotence intersect-‐and they intersect when we draw a circle around the impossible sitCations in our lives and invite God to interqene” (Mark Ba9erson, The Circle Maker) We have seen in this week’s passages the human impotence of Israel meeting the divine omnipotence of the Lord. As you are praying circles around the areas of your life where are you seeing your human impotence interacting with God’s omnipotence.
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Jour%al Week 7 What should we lear% Som the life of King Saul? 1. 2. 3. It’s not how you star:; It’s how you finish. Saul star:ed out ver< well only to see his subsequent disobedient actions derail what could have been a stellar, God-‐honoring rCle over the nation of Israel. How could someone so close to God at the star: spiral out of contGol and out of favor with God? 1. 2. From the ver< star: of his reig%, Saul had the perfect oppor:Cnit< to be the benchmark by which all fCtCre kings could be measured. All he had to do was to seek the Lord wholehear:edly, obey His commandments and alig% his will with that of God’s, and his rCle would have been a God-‐honoring one. What difference does it make to obey God with your whole hear:? How did pride and misuse of power affect King Saul’s life? 1. 2. Jonathan, just the opposite of Saul took initiative, showed courage, acted humbly, purZosefClly exZosed his father’s folly, exhibited tGCsting confidence in the Lord. By God’s power, Jonathan, not Saul, was the one who set in motion Israel’s victor<. How did the stories of Jonathan’s faith impact you? 1. 2. 3. In what ways are you like Jonathan and in what ways are you like Saul? 1. 2. How can you gGow in the characteristics of faith-‐filled Jonathan?
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A Study of the Manifest Presence of God in 1 Samuel Jour%al Week 8
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Saul’s ban on food for the entire day of the ba9le was foolish. “Saul’s oath belongs to those superstitions which think that God is more likely to listen if men indulge in unnecessar< self-‐denial.” Saul has alienated himself Som Samuel. Then by his inaction against the enemy he has alienated himself Som his arWy, and with this ban of food he has caused them gGeat distGess on a decisive day of ba9le and salvation Som the Lord. Religious superstition and it various forWs of legalism are aimed at ear%ing God’s favor. Grace is unear%ed favor. Saul’s inabilit< to receive and believe in the gGace of God cost him dearly. Do you believe in the gGace and favor of God in your life, or are you still tG<ing to ear% his favor? 1. 2. Jonathan understands faith and lives in the gGace of God. Listen to what Jonathan says. “My father has tGoubled the land. See now, how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a li9le of this honey?” This gave me some energ<. “How much more, if only the people had eaten Seely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found! For now the slaughter among the Philistines has not been gGeat.” Saul ended up with an incomplete victor<, because of his fear and superstition. Are there areas where you need complete victor< or breakthrough? 1. 2. How will you seek that victor< by faith in the gGacious favor of God already in your life, instead by fear and religious superstition or condemnation? 1. 2. 15:22. Samuel says, “Has the Lord as much delight in bur%t offering and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is be9er than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquit< and idolatG<. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you Som being king.” The
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consequences of disobedience were drastic for Saul. Write your reaction to Samuel’s words:
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Jour%al Week 9 “Contend, Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me.” Psalm 35:1 Mark Ba9erson writes in Draw the Prayer Circle: “ I love the Hebrew word tGanslated ‘contend’ in this verse. It’s tOo-‐dimensional. It refers to both physical combat and verbal combat. So it rCns the gamut Som cage fighting to cour:Gooms. In terWs of physical combat. God is like the mother gGizzly that protects her cubs. It is God’s instinctive natCre because we are the apple of His eye. If anyone messes with us, they are messing with our heavenly Father. In terWs of verbal combat. God is like the defense a9or%ey that pleads our case, pleads our cause. When our backs are against the wall, God has our backs. When ever<:hing is on the line, God steps in . Satan is the accuser of the brethren, but he’s no match for the Paraclete. The New Testament depiction of this is a li9le more defined. We actCally have tOo intercessors. The Holy Spirit interceding for us with gGoans that cannot be u9ered. Long before we woke up this mor%ing and long aſter we go to sleep tonight the Holy Spirit was and is circling us in prayer. And if that doesn’t infCse us with holy confidence, I don’t know what will. But it isn't just Holy Spirit who is interceding for us; the Son of God is interceding for us as well. They are interceding for the will of God to be accomplished in our lives. We are double circled. They are circling us all the time with songs of deliverance. I made a deterWination a few years ago that I wasn’t gong to defend myself against any and ever< criticism that comes my way. Life is too shor:, and the mission is too impor:ant. And I’m called to play offense, not defense. God is my defender. And I believe He is contending for me if my cause is just and my hear: is right.” (Mark Ba9erson, Draw the Prayer Circle)
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Draw a prayer circle anew around the area that God has been asking you to pray about. Go on the offense and tGCst God to play defense!
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A Study of the Manifest Presence of God in 1 Samuel Jour%al Week 10
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We have lear%ed of Hannah who prayed……Samuel who interceded on behalf of his nation and declared, “far be it Som me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.” We have watched David who drew a prayer circle and made a declaration before the king, “The Lord who delivered me Som the paw of the lion and Som the paw of the bear will deliver me Som the hand of this Philistine.” And we have heard the stories of Honi who drew a circle around himself saying, “O Lord of the universe, I swear before Your gGeat name that I will not move Som this circle until you have shown mercy upon Your children.” “Never underestimate the power of one prayer circle. When you dream big, pray hard, and think long, there is nothing God cannot do. Aſter all, He is able to do 15.5 billion light years beyond what you can ask or imagine….Don’t a9empt this by yourself. Israel had an arWy. You need to invite others into your prayer circle. Together you will forW a prayer circle. And when tOo or three agGee in prayer, double circling their God -‐ordained dreams, all bets are off.” (Mark Ba9erson, The Circle Maker)
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Close out the time reflecting and jour%aling what God has done over these ten weeks.