Study Questions: What Do You Expect [1] - Miracles 101

Date: November 13, 2005
Passage: Acts 1:6-14: 2:1-13
Message: Miracles 101 – Seeking
Series: What Do You Expect?

“Everywhere I read in the Bible I see God doing the UN-EXPLAINABLE and the UN-CONTAINABLE!”
Take a few minutes and brainstorm as many of these
things /events as you can.

“ I believe many of have consigned God within the realms of predictability because our lifestyles don’t have room for the unpredictable works of God.
We can’t afford for faith to get messy.
Our diary doesn’t have room for God to be creative.
We are trying to fit faith in with everything else we want in life!”
Discuss

“You know I think the best things that happen in life are unplanned!”
Share some examples from your life.

“Part of us wants everything scripted out, but that isn’t the way God works!
Many of us make the mistake of focusing our energies on telling God what to do and how to do it and when to do it….”
How do we often take things into our own hands?
Why do we find it so hard to seek God in times of chaos?

“When you read Acts 2 you realise that God couldn’t have scripted things any better than He did. The disciples start speaking in tongues.
This happens on the day of Pentecost, one of three pilgrimage feasts when Jews from around the ancient world would travel to Jerusalem.

It was called the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), and in the Old Testament was originally an agricultural festival celebrating and giving thanks for the "first fruits" of the early spring harvest (Lev 23, Exod 23, 34).

The New Testament writers associate the events of Acts 2 with Pentecost, and relate it to the prophecies of Joel 2 and promises of Jesus (Acts 1:8). In both, the emphasis is on empowerment through the Holy Spirit to enable the people of God to witness to Jesus Christ.”

Read passages relating to Pentecost / Feast of Weeks.
In what ways does the Holy Spirit empower you to give witness to Jesus Christ in your life?

“God wants to sanctify every part of you. The word “sanctify” means “to see apart for His purposes.”
He wants to sanctify your motives so you do what you do for the right reasons.
He wants to sanctify your imagination so you dream God dreams.
He wants to sanctify your experiences and use them to serve His purposes.
He wants to sanctify your education.
He wants to sanctify your talents.
He wants to sanctify your competitive streak.
He wants to sanctify your expectations.”

How do our lives get all tangled up so that we are not wholly set aside for God’s purposes?
Share how God has helped you set aside some part of your life in a new / fresh way.

“There is no such thing as a “non-Pentecostal”
Paul says in Romans 8
v9 …you, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

v15 …For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

We are all Pentecostal in the true sense of the word!
My own observation over many years is that –
“Pentecostals” have an EXPECTATION of the Spirit at work
“Conservatives” have an EXPLANATION of the Spirit at work.”

Discuss