Jennie Allen - Chase Bible Study Leaders Guide: Chasing After the Heart of God

2012 by Jennie Allen

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Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from THE ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION. 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

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Author image Jessica Taylor. Used with permission.

ePub Edition January 2014: 978-0-5291-1798-4

She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them.

hosea 2:7 NIV

contents

Leaders,

I am excited to partner with you in your efforts to pour into the lives of women! I pray that these few short pages will help to equip and prepare you to lead this study. Many of you may have led plenty of groups in the past, or perhaps this is the first youve led. Whichever the case, this is a spiritual calling and you are entering spiritual places with these womenand spiritual callings and places need spiritual power.

My husband, Zac, always says, Changed lives, change lives. If you are not first aware of your own need for life change, the women around you wont see their need. If you allow God into the inner struggles of your heart, the women following you will be much more likely to let Him into theirs. These women do not need to see bright and shiny, perfectly poised people; they need to see people who are a mess and daily dependent on God for their hope and strength.

David was a wild, passionate warrior king, whose own messy story I had heard and whose psalms I had read a thousand times, but when I began to look a bit more closely at the life of this man, something about the way he related to God just wrecked me. His view of God was so big. David actually believed God was real and he lived like it. He chased after Gods heart (Acts 13:22). And I think as a generation of women, we are longing to do the same. We want to believe God is real and to live like it. We are tired of chasing everything else under the sun. We are tired of chasing wind (Ecclesiastes 1:14). We want to chase Him.

This is not a study for people who want to play it safe. This study will mess with you, just as it messed with me, because we all are chasing things other than God, and when you look into the life of someone chasing God Himself, God alone, you start craving Him too. I want a life like Davids, brave and dependent and full of worship. He had a relationship with God unlike any other in Scripture and, honestly, unlike any other Ive ever seen. I want to know God like he did. I want to trust God like he did.

I think many of us are tired and though we would like to please God, it feels like it would take a lot of effort to do that. Chase is an experiment in what it is God truly wants from us. The more I understand what God has done, the more I quit striving and simply rest in Him. David chased God, but part of them meant resting in the work of God, in Gods favor, in the plans God had written for him. Whether you are running from God or working your tail off to please Him, Davids journey will challenge your view of God.

Lets chase.

Each Chase kit includes:

study. A copy of the study guide (each member of your group will need her own study guide). Additional study guides can be purchased separately (ISBN: 978-1-4185-4935-0) .

see. A DVD with eight sessions

ask. A set of conversation cards

lead. A copy of the leaders guide

If you have a large group of women and need to break down into smaller groups during your study times, you may want to purchase additional kits so each group can have access to a leaders guide and a set of Ask conversation cards.

We will discuss how to use each element of this kit on page 14.

That we would see to uncover the things we are chasing on this earth instead of God Himself.

I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:14

That we would see that God wants us to love and chase Him above every other thing on earth and that our souls were built to be full of God. This is why nothing else satisfies. We were made for God.

Know that the LORD, he is God!

It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Psalm 100:3

We were made for God and He has called us to love Him above every single other thing.

You shall have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:3

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.

Luke 10:27

That women would be pointed to God, a God worth dying for. The rest of this leaders guide is aimed at equipping you to point the women of your group to God in ways that will change their lives.

1. Pray: Pray like the world is ending, pray like this is the last chance for people to know Him, pray like your lives and futures depend on it, pray like the future of souls in heaven is at stake... pray like you need God.

Pray for your women:

:: That God would show them the things they are chasing instead of God Himself.

:: That they would feel safe to open up and process.

:: That they would want more of God and that God would meet them.

:: That the conversation would be focused on God.

:: That we would be humble displays of Gods grace to these women.

:: That God would come and fall on your time together.

:: That many would come to a saving faith as they see God for who He is.

2. Lean on God. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead every moment together. We have provided you with tools that we will discuss in the next section; however, they are only tools to use as the Spirit leads you and your time together. God will have unique agendas for each of your groups as you depend on Him. Lean into your own weakness and into His strength and direction.

When Jesus left His disciples to go back to His Father in heaven, He essentially said, Dont go anywhere until you have the helper I will send you (see Acts 1:45). That helper was the Holy Spirit. We need to obey that same command. We shouldnt begin until we are doing so with the power of the Holy Spirit within us. He is real and available and waiting to flood our lives and the lives of those around us as we serve and speak. But we have to wait for Him to speak, ask Him if we should speak and what we should speak, and ask Him what to do in different situations. God wants us to need Him and to depend on His Spirit. If this is not how you live on a daily basis, begin today.

3. Be transparent. If you choose not to be vulnerable, no one else will be. If you desire women to feel safe with you and your group, be vulnerable. This is not an optional assignment. This is your calling as you lead these women.