Covenant Class

A class for singles ages 14 and up is offered for three months in the fall on Monday nights.  Learn to prefer Christ.

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Listen to the classes:  click here 

Class Notes by Mary Linda:

Covenant Class
Sandi Querin – September 8, 2008
Revival Center – Clovis
(Notes taken by Mary Linda)

Sandi is a firm believer in the fact that, if you go after Jesus enough, all the other things will fall into place.

Three areas of Christian walk:

Justification:

Christ’s righteousness paid the price for our redemption.  Christ became our affirmative defense.  All claims of the law are satisfied.

II Corinthians 5:21  “For He has made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Romans 4:24-25  “But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from he dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”

If you don’t feel worthy, you don’t feel like you can expect a good thing, become a student of Romans.  There is nothing you can’t overcome.  Jesus justified us. 

In a relationship, two halves don’t make a whole.  Two wholes make a whole.  Abundance everywhere you go.  You are whole.  Being whole means all your wounds are healed up.

Difference between being cleansed and being whole.  Being cleansed is an outward thing but being whole means your wounds and all the things you struggle with are healed and your soul is whole.

Consecration:

Act of setting yourself aside.  Solemn commitment.  I am going to walk this way now.  It is a decision.  You can get stuck here, if you don’t separate yourself from the world.  How far are you willing to go to walk out the fact that you love God?  How far are you willing to go in your consecration with God?  Everywhere you go, in your job, neighborhood, etc., you are justified if you make a mistake but need to separate yourself.

I choose to separate myself is what consecration means.  Always fight for it.  This is where you will yield to God.  It is surrender beyond submission.

Romans 6:12-13 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.  Neither yield ye your members as instruments unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”

Consecration deals with a made up mind; it is a choice.

Sanctification:

We will work at it until we are dead.  It happens by the process of purification.

Definition:  It is the process of continual purification.  Being willing to be purified leads to sanctification.

It means free to be Christ minded.  The greatest freedom of all is to be Christ minded.

I Peter 2:1-15 “Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby; if so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.  To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, you also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.  Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded.  Unto you therefore which believe He is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him Who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light:  Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” 

Consecration is not only a choice to stop doing trash and follow Christ, but also securing your self into purification and sanctification.

II Thes. 2:13 “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”

You were chosen before you were born to live godly.  When you choose not to, then you don’t witness to anyone and you make Jesus look bad.  When you attempt to walk in sanctification continually, look for ways to tear your flesh down.

In consecration, God is taking the boy out of the country.  Sanctification is taking the country out of the boy.

What prevents you to be consecrated?

Lust – if you are always struggling about it, then your whole salvation is about that.  Every waking moment your salvation is based on what you struggle with.  Press in far enough to get over it, give it the death blow. 

Gossip – If continually struggling with that, that is where you will live.

I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Find a way to push self away from the world.  Sowing and reaping.  When you attach yourself to an ungodly thing, you become attached to that.  Keep yourself pure. 

Foundations – Purity, Preference

Purity – Do what is right.  Separate self from stuff that hurts your spirit.  Definition:  The condition or quality of being pure.  Free of anything that contaminates or pollutes.  Freedom from guilt.  Not perfect, but not heavy laden with guilt.

Choose a life style separated from the world.  I am going to choose to walk in my spiritual way and make right choices.

Purity is you are being careful with correctness.  Embrace them.

Be clean and spotless.  Virtue – the very quality and essence of being pure.

Preference:

Jude 23 “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”

We are to hate the garment spotted by the world.

Act of preferring – It is a choice you are making.  Putting one thing or one person above yourself or above another thing.  Also setting a precedence for that choice.  Once you prefer the Lord one time, it is easier the next time. Sometimes make preferences based on upbringing.

We are to make choices based on who we want to become.

The King in the movie did not hesitate to choose Sparta.  He was trained that way.  We need to train ourselves to choose the Lord.

I deliberately choose Christ.  We need to be trained to prefer Christ with a violent force.

Colossians 3:23 ”And whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.”

This verse could change you world if you make it your foundation.

Choose to do it like Jesus would do it and as if you were doing it for Him and as if everyone will get salvation because of it.  We will be trained to continually move in that desire.  Otherwise we will make bad choices.  It is a learning progression.

Galatians 1:3-5 “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:  To whom be glory for ever and ever.”

Jesus our example:

-Christ gave Himself for us.

-He preferred us.

-He delivered us.  He couldn’t do that if He didn’t understand His identity.

-According to God’s will.

-He submitted.  Couldn’t do that if His identity was messed up.

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

Covenant Class
Sandi Querin – September 15, 2008
Revival Center – Clovis
(Notes taken by Mary Linda)

Recap:

What causes you to make a choice?  Confusion, your upbringing, who you want to be in Christ, desire

A choice either leads to freedom or bondage.

Justification means pronounced righteous, not guilty, innocent.  It means Jesus covered your sin.

Consecration means to separate yourself.  It means not free to go and sin but free to choose.

Sanctification is the process of purification.

Perseverance:

Why did the Pirate persevere?  He wanted the princess. (passion)

The other guy persevered because he wanted war, revenge. (a cause)

Perseverance means the state of being steadfast and persistent, to be continuously steady and determined.

If you don’t have a cause or belief, you won’t be ready to persevere.  If you can’t persevere, you won’t be able to persevere in consecration.  You won’t hold on for it.  You will change your mind regarding a job, college, etc.  You will talk with other people and take opportunities that will change your world if you are not willing to persevere.  You have to be sold out to the cause or belief.  Choose the Lord, prefer Him or you will avoid the life that would secure it.  “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” (Dallas Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines) 

Hosea 6:3  NLT “Oh, that we might know the Lord!  Let us press on to know Him.  He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”

In the Swahili Bible Hosea 6:3 “Keep on keeping on.”

It was written by a man who only wanted to know the Lord.  Another man who only wanted to know the Lord was Paul, who said in Phil. 3:10-11 KJV “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

Why, if we know what is right, do we fail to secure it?  Because of laziness, fear, compromise, apathy (it’s easy so I’ll just stay here.)

It is not okay to be talked out of your passion.

As single people, even if I say I am going to persevere, the devil might come along with the wrong desire, or the wrong person might come along so you won’t impact the Gospel for the Lord.  Be locked into where you are to go.

Points to Remember:

James 1:2-8 NLT “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.  If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you.  He will not rebuke you for asking.  But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.  Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” 

Faith and endurance are fundamentals of perseverance.  The greatest cause of being double minded is to be unstable, can’t persevere, no faith.  Product from this:  you should expect nothing.  When pray, can’t expect anything.  It is not just an issue of persevering.

God taught Abraham to be a giver:  to give money, time, love, etc.  He was an obedient man and he became a giver.  If he hadn’t been trained in the school of giving, he wouldn’t have given up his son.  So when the big thing came, he passed.  He had practiced persevering and was not double minded.  He kept on keeping on.

II Corinthians 4:17 KJV “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

This affliction is nothing compared to the glory that is to come.

If you don’t persevere you won’t lead anybody to God and we are to lead everyone around us to God.

Double minded, wavering means to be a hypocrite, tossed with the waves.  It is hard to be around them.  They are like a chameleon, ready to change depending on who they are around.  You can’t count on them for anything.  You can’t push truth through if you can’t keep on keeping on.

Single people are confronted with more challenges than married people.

Double minded means flip flopping back and forth between carnal and spiritual priorities.  You are doubtful of who you are in Christ and Who He is in you.  Then you will have an identity crisis.

How could that happen to someone?  Insecurity, compromise, trauma, rejection, abandonment.  It is then hard to believe that God could entrust you with something wonderful.

An identity issue can come if you are not sure who you are.  If you don’t ask the question, God, what do you require of me?  If you have no idea of the call on your life.  You should find this out.

You don’t really want to change or take the risk.  What if you hear from God and then hate it?  You will have to admit God was right and you will have to reconcile unless you have developed perseverance.  Then you will be sold out to Who He is.

Being careful with correctness:

Make sure what you choose is correct and not just seemingly correct.  King Saul was killed by God because he didn’t inquire of God.  He did, but it was the wrong kind of inquire.  David later inquired of the Lord and it was the right kind.

When King Saul inquired of the Lord, inquire meant that he asked a very silly, small question and then ran away.

When David inquired of the Lord it meant to ultimately worship and he was ready to hear the truth.  He was saying, God, I want to know everything you have for me.

Saul inquired of the witch the way David did of God.  He worshipped the witch.  It was the difference between sticking your hand in water and soaking in it.  (See I Samuel 28)

When Sandi was told by the Lord to hug Evelyn, she did it out of obedience, but it was Sandi doing it.  When she did it and it was the Lord doing it through her, Evelyn started worshipping the Lord and Sandi wasn’t in the picture anymore.  You can’t be in charge of your obedience.  Make sure you obey the Lord the way He told you to.

As a single person, we need to be able to say it is not okay, when someone is doing something that is not okay.

Perseverance is a commitment; it is hard work, patience, endurance, bearing difficulties without complaint.  It is not giving up.  It is shouting at your failures and pursuing your success.  It is embracing the challenges that come along.

What gave Captain Mike perseverance?  Experience, confidence, training:  all add up to something:  I believe I can do it.

If you believe you can do it, everyone will get out of the way.

The passion of the Captain was that he knew he could do it.  If he had been wrong, he would have been very wrong.  Experience and confidence drove him but his passion pushed him over.  Passion is a belief, an extraordinary faith or knowing; a supernatural knowing.  His passion was driving him.  It is more emotional than logical.  Passion can be misled.

A lot of times passion is:  A staying quality, unshakeable.  If you are passionate about a decision, whether it is logical or emotional, it will happen because you really care about it.

Passion is something you feel strongly about, you persevere for, you will die for.  It is irrelevant whether it is emotional or logical.

There is an element in passion that involves God.  Passion on the other hand can turn into pride.  There has to be humility with passion.

Three Maxims or a formula to live out a fundamental principle of perseverance:

1-Failure is the path of least persistence.

2-All things will come to those who wait.  It is important to wait.  Isaiah 40 talks about “those who wait.”  Wait here means to be braided together with Jesus.  We develop a one on one relationship with Jesus when we wait.  Wait and you won’t screw it up.  You develop humility, not pride when you wait.  It is not in your hands so give it to God.  Pursue calmly and don’t complain.

3-Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.

In the situation where the 10 spies went in to check out the land before the Israelites came there (Numbers 13, 14), only two of them came back with good reports.  Only these two, Joshua and Caleb persevered.  The others were afraid of the giants.  The devil will send something so you won’t persevere.

Napoleon took more ground than anyone.  He was a military genius.  Victory belongs only to the most persevering people who have passion.  If I could keep going because my heart tells me I will win:  that is passion.

The Terry Fox Marathon of Hope was started by a one legged man with cancer who was only 22 years old but he had passion.  His passion was to get enough money to get a cure for everyone for cancer.

We have a responsibility to have a passion for Christ.

Moses stuttered.

Timothy had an ulcer.

David was a little guy.

Amos was only a herdsman,

Abraham was too old.

Josiah was too old.

These and many others persevered in spite of their problems and so should we.

Read Luke 24 – Get a revelation from the Lord about it.

Covenant Class
Sandi Querin – September 22, 2008
Revival Center – Clovis
(Notes taken by Mary Linda)

Recap

Covenant classes will give you tools to help you become what God wants you to be.

Perseverance – Not wanting to give up; not stopping, state of being steadfast and persistent; pushing beyond your desire.

Hosea 6:3  Keep on keeping on.

Week 1 – Prefer the Lord.  Desire – if you don’t have this, you won’t make it.  Most things in life are provoked by desire, good or evil.  Choose based on desire.

Gladiator – The Emperor’s son kills the Emperor.  Maximus, who was 2nd to Caesar and controlled the army, wouldn’t serve the son so they killed his family and stripped him of his identity.  He was now a gladiator, a slave.

What provoked Maximus to make his declaration?  What happened to him to go from a gladiator to a leader?  He remembered who he was.  He dropped his sword and the whole army dropped theirs.  He became a leader again.  He had to decide, “Am I a slave, a gladiator or what?”

We as singles have challenges that are life threatening --- the wrong spouse, etc.  We need to learn to understand how to make right choices and know who we are in the Lord.

How does someone go from knowing who they are to not knowing who they are?  By putting their identity in temporary things.  Then when that is gone, you don’t know who you are.  You think someone cares about you, but then they are gone.  We need to have a solid identity in Jesus.  If it feels good to have our identity in something else, we will leave the Lord behind.

We need to be steadfast – keep on keeping on.  Don’t waver.  Your faith is not to be dictated by your reality.  If it is, it will get stronger and stronger and when you let other people dance upon that foundation, it crashes.  If you put your hope in something other than God and get hurt just say, “that happened and keep going.”

2 Peter Chapter 1:  Study this. It is very important.

2 Peter 1:2-4 “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue:  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

It is one thing to know who you are in God, but you also need to know Who He is in you.  We have to be immovable and have a standard of no compromise, unwavering, unmoved.

In 2 Timothy 2:22 it says to flee youthful lusts. The reason it doesn’t just say flee lusts is because when something can get you when you are young, it will know your address and will follow you the rest of your life.  Usually we are to resist the enemy and he will flee --- push back and push hard.  But with youthful lusts, don’t even fight it.  Run away from what has followed you all your life.  Get to be strong in the Lord. You have to desire the Lord.  Don’t fight.  Afterwards, the Lord will teach you to resist.  There needs to be a different strategy for youthful lusts.  If you play with and touch something you shouldn’t, it will follow you the rest of your life.  Keep control of yourself. 

You cannot be partakers of the divine nature without the promises of God being alive in your life.  But if you do have them alive in your life, then you will escape the corruption that is in the world through lust, which is pride.

God in me – that is my identity.

Everyone has a call, a purpose, a desire.

Verse 4 – whereby means because of.  Because of that we get this.

Digest these words:

-Grace and peace are multiplied through and because of knowledge.

-Divine power is given to you because of knowledge.

-Knowledge is right in the middle and means knowledge of Who God is in you.

-Knowledge means acknowledgement, discernment and recognition.

-Without acknowledging what Christ did for you, you are a spiritual idiot.

-Knowledge is in the middle of this divine power.

-Recognize Who He is.

-You can escape corruption with the knowledge of God.

-I cannot have grace and peace multiplied to me or partake of His divine nature without knowledge.

Understand who you are, what your identity is:

1-Acknowledge God in what you are doing.  If you don’t have this in your life, you will have pride. “I did it myself.”  Pride goes before a fall.

2-Discernment – Discern the difference between what God is doing and what you are doing.

3-Recognition unto God - Recognize Him in everything.

If you have this as your identity, God will take you to a place of position and power.

Why do people fail?  Because they read their own fan mail.  They forget to discern that God did it and they bring failure on themselves.  We need knowledge of who we are.  We are a mess without knowledge of God and His power; and we need a true revelation of this.

Your identity is the knowledge of Who He is in you.  He set you up for greatness.  It is God Who makes it work.  It is important that you understand this.  Then you can say, I have made a decision and this is why and I will stick with it.

The reason Paul survived is because he had the knowledge of Who God is in the middle of His power.  We are not only to give God glory, but to recognize that without Him, you couldn’t make it.

We don’t need information, but divine revelation of God’s nature.  When you want a thing, you will go after it by yourself if you don’t have this.

Judges 13:1-5 “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and bare not. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, you who are barren, and bearest not: but you shall conceive and bear a son.  Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink and eat not any unclean thing: for lo, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”

You cannot be a partaker of divine nature without the promises of God being alive in your life.  Samson’s job was to deliver Israel.  Verse 5 says to begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.  Beginning is different than finishing it.  Samson did not walk in true knowledge of the divine nature.  From the womb until his death, God honored who Samson was, but Samson didn’t honor Who God was and thereby lost the fruit of his call.

Knowledge means acknowledgement, recognition and discernment of Who God is.

We are to put ourselves into what God is doing, not put Him into what we are doing.

Judges 14

The Lord said to go to the Philistines but in verse 12, the riddle and complications were who Samson was.  He did not activate the knowledge of God, the recognition of what God was doing.  He kept putting what he wanted in the middle.  Samson is playing with his calling.  That became his failure.

Judges 15

Unforgiveness caused others to want to kill him.  They were tired of him messing things up.  He had an identity crisis and refused to honor God or to walk in recognition and discernment.  It was in his bones to deal with the Philistines but he doesn’t slow down long enough to ask God what He wanted.  He was set aside in body as a Nazarite, but not in heart.

Judges 16

The Spirit of the Lord came mightily on Samson but he was doing it for unforgiveness, revenge, etc.  God honored it but he didn’t reap any fruit.  He made a mess.  He didn’t understand the knowledge of God in him to create an identity and to know that “that is okay, but that isn’t.”  His desire was confused.

Judges 16:4  Put yourself in his position.  What is going to make me weak?

An identity in Christ would say, “This is not what Christ would do.”  That will destroy your desire and make you react like Christ in the deepest place of your soul.  Samson should have removed himself from the situation.

Lust comes from desire.  He wanted what he wanted, not what God wanted.  His identity should have been that he was supposed to begin the Philistine deliverance.  We need to daily acknowledge, recognize and discern God in everything.  If he had, he would say it is from God where I get my strength. 

His soul was vexed unto death. In an abusive situation there is a weird enabling thing going on.  One hussy was able to hold him hostage.  She urged him to the point of vexing him so that he was so stressed out he wanted to die.  He was trying to force God to be involved in what he was doing rather than what God was trying.

If the same thing happens to you over and over and you say, Why do these people always find me?  Then you have a problem in you.  The same kind of person is always after you.  It is familiar spirits.  You have got to get rid of it.  Cast it down daily.

He was playing with his calling.

Do not put God in what you are doing, but put yourself in what God is doing.  Have the knowledge of the fact that God is doing it. Samson was moved by unforgiveness, revenge, etc.  He didn’t even know when God wasn’t on him anymore.  He had pride and compromise and was confused who God was anymore.  What would it look like if Samson did it right?

You have got to understand who you are and where you are going by putting God first.  I have God in me.  He is doing this.  You become so small you wouldn’t even dream of putting yourself before God.  Stop forcing God to be doing what you are doing.

Case Study:

It is about identity.  What do I believe?  I hold life and death in my bench.  How do I want people to behave in my life boats?  “When you know to do right and don’t do it, it is sin.”  Brooks did not make an effort to stop them from killing Parker and then later ate him also.  A dynamic Christian would know how to make a decision based on being a Christian.  What is pushing you?  Debate that scripture.  It was ill gotten game.  Scriptural basis.

How to make a decision:  Where is the Biblical precept?  It tells the heart of the man that he partook of the dead body.

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