| Points | 10 |
| Due | February 07, 2023 |
Assignments to be completed
- Prayerfully read Chapter 8 of 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice.
- Read Appendices E and F of Dialogue with God.
- Watch Session 8 of the teaching, following along and taking notes in your LEARN notebook.
- Answer the exercise questions for Lesson 8 found in the Quiz section of the Kairos portal.
- Memorize I Chronicles 29:18 KJV.
Subjects to be explored
- How to Restore Your Visionary Capacity Dreams and Visions in Scripture
- Dreams and Visions throughout Church History
Related Objectives
- You will quote I Chronicles 29:18 KJV.
O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee.
- You will discuss at least three ways you can strengthen the eyes of your heart.
- You will discuss how the eyes of your heart can be used for both good and evil.
- You will live as Jesus did, doing only what He saw the Father doing and saying only what He heard the Father saying.
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Seeing Heart?
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Write out I Chronicles 29:18 KJV.
Oh Lord, the God of Abraham, Issac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee.
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What is the context of this verse?
David's prayer to God regarding the building of the temple and the worship of Israel. Asking the Lord to help his son, Solomon, keep the commandments, testimonies, and statutes and faithfully build the palace he has made provision for.
Virkler:
God has commanded us to imagine His Word (“meditate”). I will approach the Bible as God has commanded me to. I will imagine it and pray over it and ponder and meditate upon it! I will not let my Bible times descend into Western rationalism!
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Journal about this verse, asking the Lord what it means to you and how He wants to apply it in your life.
David was a type of Christ who prepared for his son Solomon to build the house for the Lord. Jesus prepares for His Church the sufficiency of grace to build the Kingdom. Paul admonished the church that the "Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and hope through grace, comfort [our] hearts and establish [us] in every good word and work" (2 Thess 2:16-17).
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- Seeing Things?
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Discuss at least six specific things you can do to strengthen the eyes of your heart.
6 Things to strengthen the eyes of your heart according to Virkler:
- Focus intently on Jesus
- Look for vision
- Praise and worship the Lord Jesus
- Realize we can have encounters with Jesus
- Enter a bible story in prayerful contemplation
- Be still
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Use one of these exercises each day during the next week to stimulate your ability to see in the Spirit. Record what you do and what you see.
I spent time praising and worshiping the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit led me through the contemplation of the Scriptures into intimate fellowship with Jesus. The Lord revealed the void in the depth of the crevices of my heart that can only be filled with the tenderness of His presence. By His atoning death and blood, I can approach the throne of grace in full assurance of the Father's love for me.
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The Mind’s Projectors?
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Discuss the three projectors that can fill the screen of the eyes of your heart, how you can recognize the source of a vision, and how you are to respond to each.
According to the author, the projectors that fill the screen of the eyes of your heart and how to appropriately respond:
- Cutting off pictures from Satan - recognize what's from Satan and stop imagining it
- Present the eyes of the heart to the Lord - pray that God uses the eyes
- The Spirit projects on the screen - look at the screen and record it
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During the next few weeks, become more aware of the pictures you see in your mind and heart. Test them by their spirit, their ideas, and their fruit. Begin to actively reject satan’s pictures, embrace the Holy Spirit’s visions, and present your own “projector” to the Lord to fill and use. You will be asked to discuss your experience and what you learn in the next two lessons.
I believe when I draw near to God, He draws near to me according to His promise. When I'm in the assembly of the saints, the Lord promises He inhabits the praises of people. Being justified by the death of Jesus, the Father invites me to come into His presence through the faith of Christ. I'm not worried about setting up any spiritual apparatus except returning to the closet and praying in secret as He instructs.
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After reading through Appendix E of Dialogue with God, summarize what you learned. Then ask the Lord through journaling what He wants to say to you specifically through these Scriptures.
According to the reading, the scriptures listed under the "Mandates" section use visions and dreams (no mention of images) as a medium to describe optical and spiritual visions. Vision was also used as a medium to conjure the dead (1 Sam 28:15). The section "Opened Eyes" lists scriptural references that talk about various means of using both physical and spiritual visions. Section "Looking to see" lists the references to theophanies and visions people saw. Section "Seers" lists references to prophets who were called seers before they were called prophets. The last section, "Responsibilities of Seers," lists specific work the seers were responsible for.
The Lord wants me to study these scriptures using historical-grammatical hermeneutics to understand the author's original intent to understand the purposes of God fulfilled through the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross.
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After reading through Appendix F of Dialogue with God, summarize what you learned about dreams and visions in Church history.
The author recounts the early church fathers interacted with dreams and visions throughout history.
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Complete the Personal Application at the end of Chapter 8 of 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice.
Lord, what do You want to say to me concerning the ideas presented in this chapter?
Be an example to those around you through what you say concerning Me in word, conversation, love, spirit, faith, and purity. Mediate on these things and give yourself to doctrine and continue in them for the benefit of the gospel. Give yourself to reading, exhortation, and doctrine, and do not neglect the gift I have given you.
John 5:19-20
Item 5 from 4KHGV, p. 205
As Jesus lived, He ministered out of vision (see John 5:19-20). I, too, will minister out of pictures and visions that the Lord gives me (word of wisdom, words of knowledge, discerning of spirits, prophecy).
Text from the Authorized Version:
19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
John is telling us that Jesus taught the disciples the things He saw from His Father. Jesus (as God) teaches us the things of God because we cannot see God.
You Cannot See God
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (Jn 1:18)
And in the chapter, verse 37:
And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. (Jn 5:37)
But you can argue that eventually we can see God, here’s a later passage:
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (1Jn 4:20)
The Context of Jesus’ Words
The intent of Jesus’ statements is two-fold:
- He spoke these words to prove his equality with God (v. 18)
- When we believe in Jesus’s words, we will not be condemned but have eternal life because we believe in the Father who has sent Jesus (v. 24)