2) God wants to see if you'll put into practice what you've been learning.
We've taught you how to live in the spirit; how to build your spirit man; how to resolve. You've been more taught than any people I know.
But what do you do when you're under pressure? That's how much you've learned. It's only what we put into practice.
We've taught you how to flow with the spirit, how to listen to the spirit, got to be sensitive to Him; but you've actually got to put it into practice.
Most learning takes place in the course of life, not in a meeting like this. In meetings like this, you get flashes of information, flashes of help; but it's in the small groups that learning takes place, where we can interact.
Where we're interacting in our faith with someone, that's when we really grow. God wants us to learn and continue to grow, so He'll let us face a few experiences: 1) to reveal and bring up what's in our heart; 2) so we can see where we need to grow and change; and 3) so we can see if we're really applying what God has told us to do.
We've taught you how to build a strong spirit man; but if you're not doing that, then when pressure comes - you cave; you live out of your soul and emotions.
There's only so much the teaching can do. At the end, it's actually what we're putting into practice in our life.
That's where small groups are so helpful, because you get with others, and you're sharing and interacting over your faith. You bring out to the open what God is doing.
One of the best questions we can ask one another in a small group is something like this: what is God currently doing in your life right now? What was the last thing God was speaking to you about? How are you getting on putting that into practice, and doing it?
Those kinds of questions, when someone's facing you – that’s when you start to change.
I see people say: God's been speaking to me about this. I say: what's the specific area He's talking to you about? If you can't say what specifically it is - it's just general fuzzy stuff - you won't change; but if I can answer the question: God specifically is dealing with me about this attitude; then the next thing is: well what will you do to change?
What plan have you got in place, in order to grow?
What are you doing to shift from where you are, to where God wants you to be?
If we don't apply God's word into our life, if we don't actually let it shape and change us, we get deceived in our mind.
The Bible says: if we hear the word and don't do it, we're deceived in our mind; but when we hear the word and do it, our life becomes strengthened, and a foundation is built.
Do have anyone asking you these questions: what did God last say to you; or what is God speaking to you about right now? What is your plan to put this into practice? How are you getting on with that? How can I help you with that?
That's a great way we can help one another, in this journey of growing in God.
So God sometimes is silent, and sometimes frictions and difficulties come up - in order to stimulate seeking Him and growing.
With Mary and Joseph, it surfaces some things in them. It says: “they went a day without realising He was there.” Don't you love that - they went a day? Then it says: “they supposed He was there”.
We can drift in our Christian life, supposing we're flowing with what God wants, and suddenly become aware: it's not all right. That's the time to start to re-centre, and redirect, your life again.