Have you ever wondered, "What is God's will for my life?", "Does He even care what I do?", "Is God active on the Earth or has he just abandoned us to our own choices?". The women of ISBC are searching out the answers to these questions through the Study Experiencing God: Knowing & Doing the Will of God. 

The study is broken into 12 units that can be completed in 12 weeks - but we're being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. If it takes us longer, then so be it! We started unit 1 last night (Tuesday, October 15, 2024). We discussed what God showed us throughout the first 5 days of the study, worked on our weekly memory verse, and prayed for our sisters in Christ. So far we have broken into 2 groups with about 10 women in each group in order to be more intentional in our discussions. But there's room to grow! If you'd like to join us, we are prepared to add more group leaders. 

The book covers Seven Realities of Experiencing God. We'll discuss each of these seven realities and more over the course of our study. 

1. God is always at work around you. 
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal. 
3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His Work. 
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways. 
5. God's invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action. 
6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing. 
7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him, and He accomplishes His work through you. 

A sneak peak into what we've learned so far:

• As we follow Jesus one day at a time, He will keep us in the center of God's will for our lives. If we surrender our will, our desire, hopes, dreams, and goals for our life and trust/follow Jesus whole-heartedly with every day, then we'll be exactly where God wants us. Let us desire to Trust God even when we don't know or don't understand what He is doing in and around us. 
• We can look to see what God says and how he works in Scripture. We should make our decisions and evaluate our experience based on biblical truths. We can't trust our experience, our hearts, or our minds. We must allow God's word to inform our analysis of our world, not allowing our lives to cloud our view of God. We often ask the wrong question, "What is God's will for my life?". We have taken a very self-centered perspective on the Bible, God, His will, and everything else. The proper question is "What is God's will?" Period (Or Rather Question Mark). 
• We were created to be servants of God. Not servants in the worldly definition or connotation, but servants that ask God to work through us, not striving in our own strength. To be this kind of servant we must be moldable and remain in the hand of our master, as a potter molds and designs his clay for His specific purposes. 
• As servants of God, we can learn from the lives of God's servants in the Bible. We see these similarities among them: 
  • When God spoke, they knew it was God. 
  • They knew what God was saying to them. 
  • They knew what they were to do in response. 
    • How wonderful it would be to walk with God in this manner. John 10:27 tells us, "My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;"
• When God reveals what He is doing, we are invited to join Him in His plan for the world. With great revelation, comes great responsibility. It's nearly impossible to hear from God and remain unchanged and unphased. God is able to do ANYTHING He pleases with one ordinary person who is fully consecrated to Him. Imagine a church, community, and world full of people completely yielded to God's will.

It's been an impactful week one of learning. We've unpacked so much already. I'm sure the rest of the study will be just as life-altering. God is so good, He is faithful, and He is intentional. Our hearts prayer for this study is that we won't be the same, that we'll be completely on fire for joining God is His work, and that we'll continue to grow in our close, personal relationship with our loving creator.  

Ladies, it's not too late to join the women of ISBC in this study. Please reach out to Penny or Terrie if you'd like to embark on this journey of discovering God's will with us.