Getting to know God
This is the first step of this journey! Throughout this stage, our focus is to get to know God and create a relationship with him. We will focus on who he is to us, the role he plays in our life as well as his likes and dislikes. The goal is to build and establish a relationship with God. By the end of this stage, you will have created and established a relationship with God. Just like in any relationship, communication and understanding are important from both ends.

Here are an important thing to remember during this stage:

Remember you are getting to know God, but he already knows you. Here is the Biblical reference for this fact: Psalm 139: 1- 14 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. Praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works;my soul knows it very well.

Trust in God
Trusting God is the second and probably the most important part of the journey because trusting God is what will grow your faith. In this step we will look at patterns to find out what is in the way of you trusting God fully and stopping you from being the man/woman of faith God is calling you to be. By now we will have completed the first step and we will know who God is and know that his promises are true. This knowledge gives us the confidence we need to hold onto his promises.

Here are some scriptures that speak to God’s promises to us:

Isaiah 43:2
When you pass through the waters,I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

John 14:15-31
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Those are the Lord promises to us. We need to get to a place where we can make those promises our own by becoming one with them and really trusting that God will do what he says he will. Take this example from the bible:Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego made a powerful statement trusting themselves in the hand of God. Those men were confident that God would deliver them from the hands of the king. Even if God did not free them, they were determined to not serve the image the king had set up. Those men trusted God in this dire situation they were in, and no matter the cost, they were going to trust God.

In the end, there was no need for them to defend themselves before the king alone because they placed their trust in the hand of God. Let us all continue to seek God and the way of God so we can grow in trusting him more and be sons and daughters of faith.

Trust in God
Trusting God is the second and probably the most important part of the journey because trusting God is what will grow your faith. In this step we will look at patterns to find out what is in the way of you trusting God fully and stopping you from being the man/woman of faith God is calling you to be. By now we will have completed the first step and we will know who God is and know that his promises are true. This knowledge gives us the confidence we need to hold onto his promises.

Here are some scriptures that speak to God’s promises to us:

Isaiah 43:2
When you pass through the waters,I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

John 14:15-31
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Those are the Lord promises to us. We need to get to a place where we can make those promises our own by becoming one with them and really trusting that God will do what he says he will. Take this example from the bible:Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego made a powerful statement trusting themselves in the hand of God. Those men were confident that God would deliver them from the hands of the king. Even if God did not free them, they were determined to not serve the image the king had set up. Those men trusted God in this dire situation they were in, and no matter the cost, they were going to trust God.

In the end, there was no need for them to defend themselves before the king alone because they placed their trust in the hand of God. Let us all continue to seek God and the way of God so we can grow in trusting him more and be sons and daughters of faith.

Walk with God
We will look at the life of David as one of the most powerful fighters in his time. Scripture tells us God used David to fight his fights and with God by David’s side he was a force to be reckoned with. David had a strategy in most of his battles that we should incorporate into our daily lives. They are as follows: Seek God for his approval and his instructions. With this strategy,we will walk out of any fight with victory. In these next passages, we see how God’s instruction brings David victory in a battle.

Here are some scriptures that speak to God’s promises to us:
2 Samuel 5; 22-25
David wins the battle
22 Once more the Philistines came up and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim; 23 so David inquired of the Lord, and he answered, “Do not go straight up, but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the poplar trees. 24 As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the poplar trees, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.” 25 So David did as the Lord commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. David seeks the Lord and with the Lord’s instruction he won the battle.

1 Samuel 30.
David Destroys the Amalekites
David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, 2 and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.
3 When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 5 David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.
7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, 8 and David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” “Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”
David was hurting and was devastated because his family was gone., David was also very afraid for his life because the men were talking about stoning him, We can only imagine the fear and desperation in David’s heart in this period. However, David knew just where to get his strength from and when he went to the source he found the courage to rise up again with the Lord by his side, his men succeeded. Walking with God doesn’t mean things will always go our way. There will be times when our faith gets tested and the challenges become more than we can handle However, if we find the strength to go to him and seek his instructions and trust in his promise, he will boost our faith and give us the courage we need to move with him. What we need to remember is: If God is with us we will not fail.