Flip the Switch

A devotional is an in-depth Bible study. A typical devotional should take you anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to complete. Download and print a PDF version of this devotional for yourself, or use it with a friend to create an engaging discussion.

Opening Question

• What dreams are you currently living for?
• Are your dreams centered around self or helping others and changing lives?
• Do you have a hard time dreaming because of past failures or dreams that never came to fruition?

Bible Study

Flip the Switch

Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the LORD tested Joseph’s character.

Psalm 105:19 (NLT)

And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

Genesis 45:5 (NIV)

• God has a purpose and dream for our lives. He uses our lives to save others.
• When we experience testing, pain and failure in our lives, it is easy to give into fear and doubt.
• “Flipping the Switch” is about learning to let God use our personal passion, ambition, dreams, pain, and setbacks for his greater purpose of saving lives.

1. Stop Living Small

Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
2 Corinthians 6:11-13 (MSG)

• Our lives are not meant to be lived small. Living small is living without purpose.
• We are called as disciples to live expansive, monolithic and prodigious lives that make an impact on others.
• What is causing you to live small?

Fear

As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” [18] But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! [19] Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. [20] Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.” [21] He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.

Genesis 19:17-21 (NIV)

• Fear led Lot to pursue the “small town” instead of the “mountains” God called him to run to. This had damaging consequences on his family.
• Living small is dangerous but is also deceptive because it feels safer.
• Are you living small? Just trying to survive whatever you are going through instead of looking for how God is setting you up to fulfill his purpose for your life?

Disappointment

When hope’s dream seems to drag on and on, the delay can be depressing. But when at last your dream comes true, life’s sweetness will satisfy your soul.

Proverbs 13:12 (TPT)

• Disappointment in relationships, loss of a loved one, failed relationships, and chronic character weaknesses are all things that can cause us to get down and stop dreaming.
• How is disappointment causing you to live small?
• How will you renew your faith in God’s dream so he can assure you that even in disappointment he still has a great plan for your life?

2. Answer the Call

Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. [12] When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. ” [13] “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

Judges 6:6,12-13 (NIV)

• We are God’s answer to the cries of this world. When people cry out to God he calls on his “warriors” to free them.
• The hard things that had happened to Israel because of their sin caused Gideon to doubt God’s purpose for him.
• What doubts about God are causing you not to answer God’s call to save lives and rescue people in need?

The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” [15] “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. ” [16] The Lord answered, “I will be with you , and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
God tells us to go and respond to his call with the strength we have. His assurance is that he will be with us.

Judges 6:14-16 (NIV)

• Insecurity, arrogance, and unbelief lead us to believe our view of ourselves over God’s view of us.
• How are feelings of insecurity about your past, weaknesses, inadequacies or sins stopping you from answering God’s call to help and save others?

He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us-Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.

1 Timothy 2:4-7 (MSG)

• God wants everyone saved.
• What work will you do to get the faith to answer the call?
  • Hard heart – Choose to reveal sins instead of concealing them!
  • Sick heart – Choose to get spiritual encouragement over living in discouragement over your past, weaknesses, inadequacies or sins.
  • Worldly heart – Choose purposeful relationships that help you fulfill God’s purpose over worldly relationships.

3. Give Your All

Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world-wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important-has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out-but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

1 John 2:15-17 (MSG)

• Dreams based solely on our desires squeeze out love for God.
• How will you start giving your whole heart to doing what God wants?
• What will you need to cut out of your life to be able to do God’s will?

‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

Acts 2:17 (NIV)

• When we give our all, God works through us to see and fulfill his dreams for the world no matter our age or gender.
• How will you start dreaming God’s dreams for your life? Who are the people around you that need help?
• Who can you help God save?