This Christian Journey

Spiritual Journal
This Spiritual Journal is formatted for use with Micro Soft Word. It is the digital format
of the This Christian Journey Spiritual Growth Journal. This journal works best with
Word Search Bible software. An introductory form of Word Search can be downloaded
from www.wordsearchbible.com and at the time of this writing was a free download.

Introduction

This Spiritual Journal is designed to help you nurture your own spiritual growth. The
Bible reminds us that we have a natural (carnal) man and a spiritual man.

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as
unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat:
for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet
carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not
carnal, and walk as men?

Since we each have our natural, selfish, and self-willed man and a spiritual, God guided
man and these two are contrary to one another, then how can one best grow spiritually?

An young Indian boy was sitting next to a camp fire watching two puppies play, when the
young boy asked the chief, sitting near by, “which dog will be stronger?” The wise elder
replied, “The one you feed the most.” This is incredibly true in so many different ways in
our lives. It is also undeniably true in our spiritual lives. You have two natures
struggling within you. Which will be strongest? The one you feed the most.

Hence, born again Christians need to purposefully work to grow themselves spiritually.
To fail to do so will leave one weak and immature in their relationship with our Lord.
This is why the Apostle Paul wrote,

Hebrews 5:11-14 11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing
ye are dull of hearing. 12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that
one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become
such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is
unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong meat belongeth to
them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil.

How do Christians grow spiritually? They grow spiritually by,

• Reading their Bibles purposefully every day.

• Regularly Studying their Bible.
• Attending Church faithfully.
• Seeking Godly friends and accountability.

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 • Talking to God in prayer daily.

This Spiritual Journal is intended to help you in your personal God and I time, Prayer
Time, Bible Study Time, Sermon Notes, as well as other important aspects concerning
your Christian Journey.

The Intercessory and Petition Prayer Guides

The Prayer Guides are meant to help you organize your prayer time. The daily
Intercessory Prayer Guide provides a place to record those you would like to pray for
every day and on various days of the week. There is also a Special Prayer list where you
can record specific requests and their answers. Use this guide to help you organize your
prayer time.

The My God and I Time Journal

The My God and I Time Journal is designed to help you structure your daily personal
times with our Lord. It provides a place for you to record spiritual insights and
discoveries from your daily devotions and Bible reading. Writing down your thoughts
from your daily time with God will help you remember those things that you discovered
and will help nurture your spiritual growth.

Bible Study Guide

The Bible Study Guide is provided to help you as you study select passages of the Bible.
There is also a Bible Passages To Study Guide so that you can record passages you wish
to study at some time in the future and record when you have completed your study.

The Soul Winners Journal

This section of the journal provides a Soul Winners Journal which will help you to record
your witnessing opportunities. Recording your activities in the area of soul winning will
help you to add purpose to your witness. You can use these pages to remind you who
you have shared the gospel with, who you need to follow up with, and who you have had
the privilege of seeing accept the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, God commands you to
be a witness and will reward you for your obedience.

Through The Bible In A Year Plans

Every Christian should read the Bible every day and should read the whole Bible,
completely, regularly and often. I strongly recommend reading the entire Bible every
year. Many Christians only read parts of the Bible and rarely read the entire Bible. In
doing so they neglect whole sections of God’s Word. Be careful not to neglect any
portion of God’s Word. Read the Bible through regularly.

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Two through the Bible in a Year Plans are provided in your Journal. One plan goes
through the Bible just as it is written. The second plan (Chronological) goes through the
Old Testament in historical order and the New Testament in authorship order. I find the
Chronological Order most helpful in my understanding of the Bible, although it is a bit
harder to follow in places.

Helps

Helps are provided following this introduction and with each spiritual journal section.
This information is intended to help you use this Spiritual Journal effectively and with
purpose.

WordSearch Backup File

If you are a Word Search 8 user and would like Pastor Walt’s Sermon outlines and other
files a back up file is included on this CD. However, I will caution you about restoring
the files over your existing files as the process may overwrite files you have saved in
your Word Search My Documents. Be sure to back up your files before attempting
this restore. The Word Search restore function is supposed to append the files to your
existing files so that nothing should be lost in the restoration process. However, just to be
safe make a backup before you add these files to your system.

Saving God and I Time Files in Word Search - If you use Word Search I suggest
saving your God and I time entries in your Bible Software. Simply copy the God and I
time page (Excluding your memory verse) and past it into the Word Search word
processor (The logos will not transfer). Then save the file to a God and I Time folder
using the date as the file name.

In my file system I save the God and I time pages in a God and I time folder and a sub
year folder. I then save the files by date AM and PM. In other words, I have created a
God and I Time folder and a year folder in the God and I Time folder, this year is 2009. I
would save a file using today’s date with AM after it for the morning and PM after it for
the evening in the year folder. I do not save the memory verses in Word Search because I
do not want them sending false results in my Word Search Cross Reference searches.

By storing your God and I Time Journals in your Word Search Software you will have
access to your thoughts when preparing various Bible Studies, Teaching Lessons and
Sermons. Which will prove to be a great spiritual growth tool.

I hope that these files will help you in your personal Spiritual Growth and help you to be
more effective in the Kingdom of our Lord. God bless you as you purposefully grow in
your relationship with our Lord

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Getting Started
To make this Spiritual Journal easier to use I suggest that you,

1. Create a folder in you’re My Documents folder and name it Journal.

2. Copy all of the files from this CD into the folder you just created.

3. If you will use this Journal every morning and evening you may wish to create
shortcuts to each of the forms you will use regularly and place these shortcuts on
your desktop. This will make the files more accessible. On my desktop I have
made shortcuts to,

a. Morning God and I Time

b. Evening God and I Time
c. Intercessory Prayer Guide
d. Petitions Prayer Guide
e. Bible Study Passages Guide
f. Bible Study Notes Form

However, you should set the forms up so they are easy for you to use.

4. Read the remainder of this introductory guide and then start using the software for
your personal spiritual growth.

The Intercessory Prayer Guide

The Intercessory Prayer Guide is designed to help you organize the way you pray for
other people. There may be some people or organizations you wish to pray for every day.
There may be other people or organizations you wish to pray for regularly, but perhaps
not every day. Use the guide to set up your daily intercessory prayer and to make your
time talking to God more purposeful and intentional.

Don’t ever forget that prayer is not intended to be mechanical or repetitious; it is literally
communication with God. Through prayer you will talk to God but don’t forget to leave
some time to listen for God. It is always good to spend a few minutes just quietly
listening for God to talk back to you after you have made your requests known to Him.
Meditation is best accomplished by setting your mind upon the Word of God and letting
God speak to you through His Word.

I find it helpful in my prayer time to prink this intercessory prayer guide so I can look at
it as I pray. I’m sure others choose to use it on the computer screen. Use it in the way
that best nurtures your prayer time with your Heavenly Father.

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The Petitions Prayer Guide

The Petitions Prayer Guide is provided so that you can record special prayer requests as
they are made. When a prayer is answered there is a place for you to record the date of
the answer. You may also wish to record some of the details surrounding how God
answers your prayers.

Answered prayer will encourage you to pray more and act as reminders or standing
stones in your life. Standing stones were memorials erected by God’s command and
recorded in the Bible. When God did something special in the life of Israel or various
Old Testament figures memorials and altars were set up to commemorate the occasion.
In setting up these memorials God’s people were reminded of those things that God had
done for them. These reminders helped them teach their heritage and encouraged them to
stay close to their Heavenly Father.

Types of Prayer

There are different types of prayer noted within the Bible. The types of prayer
discovered in the Bible include:

Adoration (Psalm 34.1) - This is praising God for who He is.

Supplication/Petition (John 16.24) - This is praying for your own personal needs.

E.M. Bounds has said supplication "is the very soul of prayer in the way of
pleading for some one thing, greatly needed, and the need intensely felt."

Confession (1 John 1.9) - This is agreeing with God about your sin.

Thanksgiving (1 Thessalonians 5.18) - This is thanking God for what He has done.

Intercession (1 Samuel 12.23) - This is praying for the needs of others.

E.M. Bounds also said intercession "is an enlargement in prayer, a going out in
broadness and fullness from oneself to others."

Meditation (Psalm 119.97) – This is listening for God by meditating upon His Word.

Understanding the various types of prayer described in scripture helps a Christian to

grasp just how broad and encompassing our Heavenly Father’s concern for our lives
really is. There is nothing in our lives that God is not interested in.

To learn more about prayer visit www.thischristianjourney.com. Another great

resource on prayer is the Bible Study resource prepared by Pastor Walter Huyck entitled

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“Prayer and Fasting” which is a part of the This Christian Journey discipleship series.
This study is available through www.thischristianjourney.com and is one of the Impact
Bible Studies.

My God and I Time Journal

It is important for born again Christians to spend time each day with God. Relationships
are important in life, and no relationship is more important than the one you have with
your Heavenly Father. God is not interested in your having a religion or a series of
liturgical traditions. God is interested in having a personal relationship with you. This is
never more eloquently expressed than it was by our Lord Jesus Christ in John 17 when he
prayed,

John 17:20-21 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me.

Almighty God, the creator of heaven and earth, the one who calls the stars in heaven out
by name, the one who set the bounds of sea, and has provided thought and life for you
wishes to be one with you. This speaks to the relationship our Heavenly Father wishes to
have with you. However, just as in any relationship, if you will have a relationship with
God you must nurture and grow it by giving it purposeful and consistent time. Hence,
you need to have a daily God and I Time.

A good God and I Time consists of,

• Opening Prayer
• Daily Devotion
• Memory Verse Work
• Daily Bible Reading
• Personal Prayer Time

A good God and I time might take about spend 20-30 minutes. The God and I Time
Journal provides a place for you to record what God is doing with you through your God
and I time. I might suggest that you refrain from looking at your God and I time as a
devotional time and look at it as your daily meeting with God. This should be the most
important 30 minutes of your day.

Opening Prayer – I suggest that you always start your God and I Time with a brief
prayer. In this prayer say good morning to your Heavenly Father and ask Him to guide
you through your morning meeting (God and I Time) in a way that helps you to be more
like Jesus and pleasing to Him. Ask your Heavenly Father to speak to you personally
through the devotions and Bible readings.

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Daily Devotion - I always suggest doing your God and I time early in your day. Since
this will help you get focused on God and walk with Him through out your day.
However, you can do a God and I time at anytime during your day. The God and I Time
pages are set up for a morning devotional reading followed by the writing of a spiritual
insight, prayer and application. There are many different daily devotionals available for
use. Your Church likely provides one for its members. A daily devotional helps you to
discover deeper truths and new insights into a passage of Scripture that you might not
have noticed on our own. It is always good to hear a testimony or spiritual thought from
another Christian. I strongly recommend using the devotional section of your God and I
time Journal.

Daily Bible Reading – Next complete your daily Bible Reading. Look up what your
next text should be, read it, and as you read it look for answers to the questions provided.
These questions are mere guides to help you consider what God is saying to you through
the text you are reading. As you read your Bible you will occasionally come across texts
that will grasp your curiosity. When you do, if you think you might want to do a more
complete Bible Study on this text then write the date, passage, and your initial thoughts
on the Bible Passages to Study List in your Journal.

Memory Verse - A space is provided to write out your Memory verse. I suggest you
work with your memory verse until you can write it out accurately without hesitation.
Writing your memory verse on a small card or piece of paper will allow you to carry it
with you and work on memorizing it whenever you have time through out your day.
Don’t underestimate the importance of memorizing the Word of God. The Bible says,

Psalms 119:11 11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against
thee.

Things I Need To Do – As you are working through your God and I Time things will
occasionally pop into your mind that you need to do. Don’t let these things distract you,
just write them down on a piece of paper and clear your mind of these concerns. After
you finish your God and I time come back to this list and prioritize it and use it to
accomplish those things you need to do. This list will help you to be more effective in
your day.

Personal Prayer Time – Now, take some time to do your daily intercessional prayers,
listed under the Prayer tab. Also, pray for your own requests, this is supplication or
petition. Nothing is too small or too big to pray about. You can say anything that comes
to your mind to your Heavenly Father. At the end of your prayer time take a few minutes
to listen to your Heavenly Father. Just say, Lord I have talked enough, now help me to
hear from you. Quite your mind and allow God to bring things to your mind. Thank
your Heavenly Father for meeting with you and ask Him to be with you and guide you
throughout your day.

Evening Bible Reading – Many through the Bible programs offer morning and evening
readings. For these an evening Bible reading guide is provided on your God and I Time
Journal. I suggest treating this as an evening God and I Time. If you are the spiritual

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leader of your home you might consider using the evening bible reading for a family
daily devotion time and teach your Children how to do a God and I time.

It is my prayer that this God and I Time Journal will help you to grow spiritually through
purposeful and focused time with your Lord and Savior. God bless you as you use it.

Bible Study Notes

As you have worked through your God and I Times you have written various passages of
Scripture that you felt you needed to study more completely. It is important for born
again Christians to dig into their Bibles. God says,

2 Timothy 2:15 15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

The Bible Study Guides are designed to guide you through an effective Bible Study.

How To Start - Start by recording the date and passage you will study at the top of the
page. Wait until you complete your study to assign a topic to it. Now, pray for God’s
guidance and the Holy Spirits illumination as you study through this passage. It is the
Holy Spirit that Jesus sent to teach us the deep things of God.

John 14:26 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Initial Thoughts – Read through the passage carefully. Take a moment to think about
what you think it is saying. You may wish to read the passage a couple of times to help
clear up your thoughts. Now, write out what you think the passage is saying. Record
your initial thoughts.

Difficult Words – It is likely that there will be some words in the passage that you may
not fully understand. This might be especially true if you use the King James Bible,
which is the Bible I use. If there are difficult words look them up in a dictionary or a
lexicon. A lexicon is like a dictionary but it focuses on words from a different language
with a specific focus, like biblical Greek and Hebrew. A Strong’s Concordance will
usually have a lexicon in the back of it. If you use the King James Bible you might
consider purchasing a copy of the Noah Webster’s Dictionary of 1828 for use in your
Bibles studies. The words in the English language have changed their meanings over the
years and our modern (politically correct) dictionaries may not help you discover the
meaning of the Biblical text. I have found that this is true of lexicon’s as well, however,
to use true Greek and Hebrew lexicons would require a knowledge of those languages.
For really difficult words you might seek help from you pastor or a good Bible teacher.
Record your discoveries on your Bible study sheet.

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Contextual Thoughts – It is very important in Bible Study that you never take a passage
or verse out of its context. Many false teachings and religious systems have developed
through this bad practice. To keep your passage in its context read the passage before
and after your text. If you are studying a chapter, read the chapter before and after. If
you are studying some select verse or verses then read the whole chapter in which it is
contained. Now ask yourself if the context wherein the passage lies changes your
understanding of your Bible study passage. Record your thoughts and discoveries on
your Bible study sheet.

Commentary Comments – Next you need to seek out what others have to say about the
passage you are studying. Ask your pastor to give you the names of one or two good
commentaries to use in your bible study. Read these commentaries remembering that
these were written by men and may be right or wrong. However, there are likely to be
some thoughts that you did not think of that they will bring out. D.L. Moody used to say
to his students, “Eat the hay, and leave the stubble.” So, seek out the best and most
revealing comments contained in these commentaries. Record your discoveries on your
Bible Study sheet.

Historical Impact – Understanding the historical setting of the passage when it was
written is very important in understanding a passage of Scripture. You might discover
this information through the commentaries you use or you might use something like a
Customs and Manners of Bible Times book to help you in our study. Record your
discoveries on your Bible Study Sheet.

What God Is Saying To Me – Now, look over your study notes and ask yourself, “What
is God saying to me in this study?” Write your answers in the space provided.

Organize Your Thoughts – Use this section to help you bring your Bible Study
together. Write three important things you learned through your Bible study and record
them in this section.

Topic - Now assign a topic to the heading of your Bible Study page.

Close with prayer thanking God for helping you to learn from His Word.

Now you have completed a good Bible Study. Keep these notes in a safe place and write
a small BS in the margin of your study bible next to the passage you are studying so you
know you have completed a bible study on this passage. You may be able to use these
notes to lead a Bible Study on this passage some day.

Many simply save this Microsoft Word file in a folder in their My Documents folder on
their computer. But when these note files multiply it becomes hard to recall which file
contains what information. This is why I strongly suggest a Bible software like Word
Search. This is the software I personally use.

Computer Bible Software – A good Bible software for your computer, if you own one,
will help you keep tract of your studies. I use Word Search and have discovered that it

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helps me keep tract of all my Bible Study notes. It takes a bit of organization, and you
will want to be sure to backup your data often, but this software can be a powerful tool in
your spiritual growth. I strongly recommend learning to use software like Word Search.

In Word Search I simply copy all of the Word document and past it into the Word Search
word processor. Next I save these devotionals in the My God and I Time folder I created
within the Word Search Software. Now, whenever I look up a Bible verse and do a cross
reference search Word Search will list all of my files that contain that Bible reference.
As your Bible Studies, Sermon Notes, and God and I Time notes multiply you will come
to realize that the Word Search bible reference searches are incredibly powerful for
recalling all of your studies and notes stored within the software.

Just so you know I store my God and I time files in a God and I time folder. However I
store all my Bible Study and Sermon note files under folders created from that particular
book of the Bible. This makes it even easier to find studies and sermons on a particular
passage of the Bible.

I strongly recommend Word Search, because I use it daily. I am sure there are many
other Bible softwares available. I can not speak for these others, I just know that I find
Word Search to be a power tool in my spiritual growth.

There are many Bible study helps available to help you in your studies at
www.thischristianjourney.com. Look for the Spiritual Walk page for an index of
available resources.

Sermon Notes
Taking notes is important. Whether you are taking Sermon Notes, Bible Study Notes,
Honey Do Notes, or To Do Notes, notes help you remember what you need to do or what
you ought to remember. We all have a problem, and it is the same problem, this problem
is called retention. We tend to forget things.

A study conducted by the United States Air force revealed that after 72 hours, we normally
remember:

Only about 10% of what we hear

Only about 30% of what we read

About 50% of what we hear and read

About 90% of what we hear, read and do!

Therefore, taking sermon notes and keeping a spiritual journal will help you to remember what
God is doing in your life. In addition to this Air Force study, we know that taking sermon notes
helps you to:

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 Focus as you listen.

Remember what you hear.

Apply the message to your life.

Share the truths with others.

I strongly recommend taking Sermon Notes while in worship services and storing these
notes in your Bible software, if your use one. Taking Sermon Notes will make your time
at Church more meaningful and spiritually nourishing.

Soul Winner Journal

I like the term Soul Winning because for one to be a Soul Winner one must Purpose,
Plan, and Perform as a Soul Winner. You will never be a Soul Winner until you decide
to be a Soul Winner. You will never be a Soul Winner until you develop a Soul Winning
plan. You will never be a Soul Winner until you actually start striving to win the lost for
Jesus.

The problem with the term Soul Winner is that it implies you have not succeeded until
you have actually won someone to Jesus. However, the truth is you win every time you
witness for our Lord. You are commanded by God to share your faith and proclaim the
Gospel message, but the actual winning of a lost soul is between God and the individual.
Even with this inherent problem with the term Soul Winning I still like to call my fellow
Christian to be a Soul Winner.

There are many plans available that will teach you how to be a good Soul Winner. You
need to get one and develop a Soul Winning plan. You need to memorize your plan and
its verses and be ready to use it everyday all day long. You never know when God will
give you the opportunity to lead some lost soul to Jesus, and you will never experience as
much joy as you will when you have. Learn to be a Soul Winner, be ready and God will
give you many opportunities to share the gospel message.

The Soul Winners Journal is provided to help you tract and plan your witnessing
opportunities. When you have an opportunity to witness you just write in the date, name,
type of witness and when they accept Christ the date they were won. Now, what about
this type thing? I categorize witnessing in basically three types,

Tract – this is when I have had an opportunity to give a tract to someone but did
not have the time to share a complete Soul Winning plan with then. I write them
down so I can try to approach them again later.

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 WW – Word of Witness – This is when I have time to briefly talk to someone
about Jesus and they expressed and interest in hearing more, but due to some
circumstance I could not share my Soul Winning plan with them.

SP – Soul Winning Plan – It is unusual when I can share the whole Soul
Winning plan with someone and they do not accept Christ, but it does happen
sometimes. These people I definitely want to get back in touch with.

There is no greater joy then when someone receives the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord
and Savior and I love to write that date in when they finally experience the New Birth
only found Through Jesus Christ.

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