Overcoming When You Feel Overwhelmed Study Guide

5 Steps to Surviving the Chaos of Life

Jentezen Franklin

• Publisher: Chosen Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780800799878
• eBook ISBN: 9781493435821
• Topic: Theology & Religion

It Is Time to Tackle the Things Trying to Overrun Your Life

Do you feel stuck in a mess? Are you wondering how you got to this place and trying to make sense of it all? Don't give up!

In this companion guide to his book Overcoming When You Feel Overwhelmed, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Jentezen Franklin offers five life-giving steps to help you get up, get out and get free--and walk into the destiny God has prepared for you.

Perfect for going deeper on your own or with a small group, Bible study or church class, this study guide offers
· group discussion questions
· personal reflection prompts and action points
· section for notes while watching the companion videos
· and more!

If you find that every battle you're fighting has gotten more difficult, or if you're paralyzed and don't know which way to go, remember God doesn't call you just a survivor. He calls you an overcomer.

"Yes, these are perilous, fierce times. Things that seem out of our control are still in God's control. You have not escaped His gaze. He's going to watch over and take care of you and your family. You're a chosen vessel for such a time as this. Are you ready?"--from Overcoming When You Feel Overwhelmed

SESSION
1

You Are on a Prophetic Journey

Big Idea

God has you and your family on a prophetic journey. This means that if you trust Him, you are held in His hand. So many times, our ordinary comings and goings seem insignificant, when in fact they are leading to an encounter with God that will change everything. God is working it out while you are walking it out.

Get Started

If you have already begun reading Overcoming When You Feel Overwhelmed, you may remember the following paragraph that I wrote to introduce part 1, “Destined to Overcome.” It bears repeating here, however:

Have you ever been through a season in your life where you just can’t understand it? Where you try tracing the line of your past to your present, but it doesn’t seem to tell you anything about your future? Often, we forget that our life has an Author—a loving Father in heaven who chose to write our name into His story. And He wants to tell a fascinating story through our days . . . if we’ll let Him.

God indeed wants to tell a fascinating story through our lives. In case you haven’t noticed, however, the enemy has posed a radical attack on the Church today—on you and me. Our world, our communities, our homes are facing unparalleled moral, mental, spiritual, racial, social, financial, emotional and physical crises, to name a few. This is not by coincidence. Nor are these agitations simply consequences of living in a fallen world. The attacks we face today in our personal lives and in our world are part of a much larger attack the enemy has intensified because Jesus is coming soon.

“To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). That’s the good news. However, before Jesus returns, Satan is committed to taking down as many people as he can with him.

In the early days of the Church, the soon return of Jesus was ever impressed upon the hearts and minds of the people. It was always in the conversation of the saints. It permeated their thinking. In the New Testament Church, when people would greet one another they would use the word maranatha, which means “the Lord cometh” or “the Lord is coming.” It was the way they identified with one another as Christians.

Yet a shift has happened just over the last two centuries. Not much emphasis is placed on the end times, and yet we are living in a time marked with prophetic promises. God is allowing us to see events unfolding that the ancient prophets only saw in visions and dreams. When we ignore, or set aside, this teaching we should be passing down to another generation, we fail to remember the warning James gave: “Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5:8–9).

In other words, Jesus’ hand is on the doorknob. At any minute, with the slight turn of His wrist, He could return for His people.

We all need a God encounter that wakes us to the spiritual reality of what is happening around us so that we understand the following: (1) we are on the brink of the coming of the Lord, and (2) our steps are being ordered of God, and as such He has placed us where we are for a purpose.

Think about This

When you read that you are on a prophetic journey, what comes to mind?

Video Session 1

Watch video session 1. While viewing the video, use the space provided to record key ideas or any thoughts you want to remember.

Go Deeper

1. Do you feel the “end times” are currently a popular topic of conversation? Why or why not? Under what circumstances do you think people’s attention to the end times is usually heightened? Why do you think that is?
2. Trust God with your setbacks, your missteps, your failures. Loss and the challenges of this life are often a setup for His next assignment for you. Talk about an instance in your life when you acted with an intended result, yet the outcome became something entirely different.
3. In the introduction to Overcoming When You Feel Overwhelmed, I wrote:
   If you’ve been feeling as if the battles you’ve been fighting the past few years have gotten a lot harder, there’s a reason. Is the pull to click on that inappropriate website more powerful than ever? The urge to pick up what you’ve left behind stronger? The weight on your shoulders heavier? Does your heart race faster than you can remember? There’s a reason.
   Jesus is coming—and soon.
   Talk about an issue in your life that has become more difficult to manage or has grown more deeply rooted in complexity. Also share the ways in which you have been trying to cope.
4. Why do you believe God can be trusted in overwhelming times?
5. Romans 13:11–14 says,
   And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
   How does this Scripture encourage you to approach life in light of the return of Jesus Christ?
6. God can use anyone who is willing to trust Him. His direction and anointing are for those who struggle through life, as well as for those who seem to have it all together. God doesn’t just use the perfect, the important or the talented people. He will use anyone who is willing to be used. Describe a situation in which God used an ordinary event or person to influence positive change in your life.

Wrap It Up

Don’t allow the cares of your nation and this world to trouble you. God has a great destiny for your life if you will submit to the journey on which He has you. If you will eat what He is serving, you will receive a miracle. Let’s close this time together in prayer. Here are some ideas from this session that can guide your conversation with God:

• Thank God for ordering your steps and having everything under His control.
• Ask Him for the strength and will to be obedient in the big and small decisions that affect your destiny.
• Pray for opportunities to shine His light in these last days.
• Ask your Father in heaven to use what you’ve lost, or have been missing, to draw you even closer to Him and to the journey He has purposed for you.

Personal Application and Reflection

Day 1—Study and Reflect

We should all revisit the book of Esther from time to time because of the timeless truths found there. It’s the only book of the Bible in which God’s name is never mentioned, yet His handprints are everywhere. Read the story of Esther in preparation for the following study.

This book is about a young peasant girl who became a queen while also growing in her understanding of the role she would play in the story of God’s people. Esther had it all—beauty, untold wealth and fame. She lived a princess’s fairy-tale life and never really considered why God would elevate her to such a high position. The influence Esther was given could have faded away, never to be remembered, if she had not connected her what to her why. When Queen Esther’s Uncle Mordecai found out that all the Jews were to be killed, he sent an urgent message her way: “You need to talk to the king and speak up for the Jewish people!”

Mordecai’s request meant the queen would have to risk her life. After prayer, fasting and clever thinking, Esther entered the king’s presence without being summoned (often punishable by death) and convinced him to spare the lives of all the Jews. She also uncovered the murderous plot purported by a wicked court official, Haman, and had him executed while also elevating her uncle’s status. I see three key elements in this story that can help remind us today of the prophetic journey we are currently on. God was able to use Esther to save the people of Israel because she knew these things:

• Who she was
• What she had
• Why she had it

Who are you?

Wake up to who you really are—a son or daughter of the Most High God. It’s easy to settle for so much less than your standing with God allows for. Too many people don’t know who they are. God didn’t put you here to play games, go through the motions and settle for less than His best. He put you here to rescue the souls of men and women until Jesus returns. Live and walk with the authority of a child of the King. You are a somebody with great purpose in life. Fully embrace who you are in Christ Jesus.

When you realize and embrace who you really are, your impact and influence will expand to people and places you’ve never imagined.

How can you begin to embrace who you are in Christ?

What do you have?

Esther had unusual authority as a queen, and you have unusual authority, too. If you have made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, you have been filled with the Holy Spirit. You have become a carrier of the very presence of God. It’s no longer only about what you can do. You have the power of God in your life to do His will.

How have you allowed the world or circumstances to keep you from believing that you can be used to make a difference in someone’s life because of Whose you are?

Why do you have the presence of God in you?

Walk through life with authority, knowing that God wants to use what you have for the purpose of bringing others to Him. Bring faith to people who are hurting. When you walk into desperate situations, don’t just pray weak little pitiful prayers. Pray under the anointing and expect that things will begin to shift an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• A Note from Pastor Jentezen
• SESSION 1: You Are on a Prophetic Journey
• SESSION 2: The 5 Steps for Overcomers
• SESSION 3: The 5 Steps for Overcomers
• SESSION 4: Overcome Fear with Faith
• SESSION 5: Dismantle Discouragement and Depression
• SESSION 6: Keep Watch and Endure
• About the Author
• Back Cover