Participant Guide

Session Objectives

• Name the difference between troubles that carry your name and troubles simply marked 'Occupant.'
• Understand that godliness does not exempt the believer from adversity.
• Locate a personal 'Engedi' — a place where an adversary has established a stronghold.

Read Ahead

• Chapter 1 — The Problem in the online academy or PDF.
• 2 Chronicles 20:1-2, alongside 2 Chronicles 19 for context.
• 1 Corinthians 10:13 — commit the verse to memory before class.

Key Scriptures

• 2 Chronicles 20:1-2 · 1 Kings 22:43 · Genesis 19:29-38 · 1 Samuel 23:29 · 1 Corinthians 10:13

Reflect Before Class

1. Name one 'great multitude' currently arrayed against you. Do not soften the count.
2. Which troubles in your life do you suspect are marked 'Occupant' rather than addressed to you personally?
3. Where has your theology quietly promised what Scripture does not — exemption from suffering for the faithful?

Notes During Teaching

Space is reserved for your notes on the Occupant Principle, the Commonality Principle, and the Stronghold Principle. Watch for the moment Rev. Dr. Lewis says, 'Godliness and submission to the Will of the Infinite does not exempt us from life's adversities.'

Take It Home

• Write one sentence you have never said aloud in a church service about your own fear.
• Identify one Engedi in your life — a stronghold that is rationing hope, sleep, or prayer.
• Share one 'common to man' trouble with a trusted friend before your next session.

Session Objectives

• Distinguish fear that paralyzes from fear that drives the believer to prayer.
• Understand nathan (to consecrate) as the first act of biblical prayer.
• Practice Jesus's A.S.K. formula — Ask · Seek · Knock.

Read Ahead

• Chapter 2 — The Petition.
• 2 Chronicles 20:3-12 and Luke 11:1-13.

Key Scriptures

• 2 Chronicles 20:3-12 · Luke 11:1-13 · 1 John 5:14 · Ephesians 6:12 · Psalm 121

Reflect Before Class

1. Where is fear currently driving you toward pride rather than prayer?
2. What have you refused to invest in during peacetime that you will need in a coming crisis?
3. Write the Verse-12 sentence for a current crisis: 'We have no might . . . neither know we what to do.'

Notes During Teaching

Track Jehoshaphat's five prayer movements — Exalt · Remember · Claim · Stand · Admit — and mark which one is missing from your own prayer life.

Take It Home

• Draft your own five-movement prayer this week.
• Categorize one unanswered prayer as Ask, Seek, or Knock — and pray accordingly.
• Practice saying Verse 12 out loud to a mentor, spouse, or accountability partner.

Session Objectives

• Recognize the once-mentioned messenger God often uses.
• Distinguish 'stand still' from stalling.
• Hear the sevenfold shape of the Fear-Not oracle.

Read Ahead

• Chapter 3 — The Proposal.
• 2 Chronicles 20:13-17.

Key Scriptures

• 2 Chronicles 20:13-17 · Matthew 25:14-30 · Genesis 21:17 · Acts 18:9-11 · Psalm 121 · John 14:8

Reflect Before Class

1. Who is the Jahaziel in your history — the once-mentioned voice whose one word changed a season?
2. Where is God asking you to stand still while you are tempted to strategize?
3. Which of the sevenfold Fear-Nots does your current fear most need to hear?

Notes During Teaching

Rev. Dr. Lewis calls the leader's task 'repeating the process.' Note where in your life you are tired of hearing yourself say the same truth.

Take It Home

• Write a thank-you note to a Johnny-or-Jane-One-Note in your life.
• Name one battle where God is fighting and you are still expected on the field.
• Rehearse the sevenfold oracle aloud each morning this week.

Session Objectives

• Name praise as the outgrowth of trust, not a technique that produces it.
• Appreciate diversity of worship posture around a singular object.
• See Tekoa — the elevated wilderness — as both barrenness and vision.

Read Ahead

• Chapter 4 — The Praise.
• 2 Chronicles 20:18-21 · Psalm 150 · Psalm 116:12.

Key Scriptures

• 2 Chronicles 20:18-21 · Psalm 150:6 · Psalm 116:12 · Psalm 124:1-2 · Numbers 11:29 · Philippians 2:10

Reflect Before Class

1. Where has your praise drifted into technique rather than outgrowth of trust?
2. Name your Tekoa — the elevated place of barrenness and vision.
3. Which posture of worship is most native to you? Most foreign?

Notes During Teaching

Judah sent the choir before the army. Notice how this radical, reckless faith reframes the sequence of praise and outcome.

Take It Home

• Choose one act of praise this week that precedes the visible outcome.
• Try a worship posture that is foreign to you — kneel, stand, prostrate.
• Name the beauty of holiness in one attribute of God you are learning to trust.

Session Objectives

• See praise and power occupying the same moment.
• Recognize the kingdom paradox — great by being servants, exalted by being humbled.
• Climb the watch tower and count the fallen.

Read Ahead

• Chapter 5 — The Power.
• 2 Chronicles 20:22-24 · Acts 16:16-26 · Malachi 3:6.

Key Scriptures

• 2 Chronicles 20:22-24 · Acts 16:16-26 · Malachi 3:6

Reflect Before Class

1. Where in your life have praise and power occurred simultaneously?
2. Which kingdom paradox is God pressing on you right now?
3. Name a coalition that seemed arrayed against you but dismantled itself.

Notes During Teaching

Watch for the simultaneity: 'When they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments.' Heaven and earth in the same measure.

Take It Home

• Schedule 20 minutes on the watch tower this week — a retrospective of what God did that you did not see at the time.
• Identify one wilderness victory in your history and tell someone about it.
• Adopt one kingdom-paradox move this week.

Session Objectives

• Trust Jehovah-Jireh — God the Provider — as covenant character, not transactional payment.
• See blessing at its valley address in Berachah.
• Practice posterity — marking provision for the next generation.

Read Ahead

• Chapter 6 — The Provision.
• 2 Chronicles 20:25-30 · Luke 12:32 · Malachi 3:6.

Key Scriptures

• 2 Chronicles 20:25-30 · Luke 12:32 · Matthew 23:37 · Psalm 116:12 · Malachi 3:6

Reflect Before Class

1. Name your Valley of Berachah — a valley where blessing arrived.
2. What is your fourth-day discipline — the response of blessing after the three days of receiving?
3. What act of posterity will you undertake this year for the next generation?

Notes During Teaching

Rev. Dr. Lewis closes with shalom — an active peace, not the absence of war. Track where you are still restless at the end of an already-won battle.

Take It Home

• Rename a recent provision Jehovah-Jireh.
• Draft your Berachah Register — a written list of valleys where God supplied.
• Write one sentence of testimony to leave for your children or spiritual children.