The Blueprint Projects: Making the Bible Personal, Relatable, Becoming a True Prophetess

By April Zahlmann and Jackie Johnson

You are fearfully and wonderfully made! (Psalm 139:14)

Every day we are bombarded with the false truths of this world, overwhelmed with earthly desires, wants, needs, opinions, idea’s, and criticism. The enemy is out to create a spirit of confusion in each of our lives. We can combat this confusion with God’s truth.

This study will help you further understand:

your biblical truth and what Jesus has to say about you

what a personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ looks like

what faith is and how to activate it

how to make your faith abundant and have it in full

The Blueprint Projects, that you are holding in your hands right now, is an action plan that will help you personalize the Bible to your life, learn God’s Ten Commandments and keep them in your heart forever. By going through this journey, you will gain the tools to become spiritually ready to handle tough situations before they happen. We will transform our spirit to make us pro-active versus reactive.

We pray your Godly purpose, your strength and your power comes alive as you dig into the Bible, go through The Blueprint Projects and journal with Jesus right next to you, creating a design plan for your life. You will learn who Jesus is, what he stands for and where your life fits into His great story.

Together, through the Ten Commandments, let’s begin to gain clarity in Scripture, confidence in our walk with Jesus, an action plan to fight against the schemes of our enemy and build a powerful faith!

Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate, to help you and be with you forever.” John 14:15

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664200470

April Zahlmann

April Zahlmann and Jackie Johnson have a great love for Jesus Christ and God’s word. One of their strongest passions in life is helping women ignite their faith; guiding women of all ages on how to make their faith both personal and powerful. April and Jackie coach and mentor young women in their life and spiritual journey. They are both wives, mothers, friends, sisters and have a calling to study Gods word and live it out daily.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 April Zahlmann and Jackie Johnson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical,

including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written

permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed

since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do

not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Illustrated by Nayla S’mone

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica,

Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and "New

International Version" are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

ISBN: 978-1-6642-0048-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-0047-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020913979

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/30/2020

Contents

Session 1

Session 2     The Ten Commandments

Session 3     Commandment 3

Session 4     Commandment 4

Session 5     Commandment 5

Session 6     Commandment 6

Session 7     Commandment 7

Session 8     Commandment 8

Session 9     Commandment 9

Session 10   Commandment 10

Appendix 1   Self-Esteem Quiz

A

special thank you:

We would like to thank our husbands, Darrick Zahlmann and Shane Johnson

for believing in us. We are grateful for your love, support, and wisdom.

To our artist – Nayla S’mone:

Thank you for your hard work and creativity. God has truly kissed your hands.

Your talent takes our breath away. Your heart, passion and individuality set you

apart as an artist, never let anyone steal that from you. We thank you for blessing

our book with your artistry. You brought our vision alive and knew exactly how to

create every image we asked of you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Session

1

The Bible is God’s living word; it is alive and will speak truth into your life. It gives you all the tools you need to grow in Jesus, live a Christian life, and deny Satan by covering yourself in the complete armor of God.

—Ephesians 6:10–18

The Blueprint Projects (BP) will help make the Bible relatable to your own personal life. Does the Bible intimidate you? Do you know scripture verses? Do you read some books in the Bible but feel desperate to know the whole story? Do you want to know more? Do you have a tug in your heart to understand how this book—the living word and truth of God—relates to your life?

With The Blueprint Projects, we are going to travel on a journey together learning about the Bible, digging into the Ten Commandments, and making this beautiful history book completely relatable to each of you. After this study, you will have created a blueprint for your life. You can take this design, or plan, with you wherever you go and refer to it on a continual basis. Your Bible will be your truth, and your blueprint will be your journal. It will be beautiful, stunning, personal, and designed by you. It is about your life, your struggles, your joys, your confusions, and your love—all related to scripture with Jesus in the perfect center.

Are you ready? Let’s get started.

The Blueprint Projects Rules

• Honesty: Be completely honest with yourself. This process will not work if you aren’t digging into your heart and pouring out your truth.

• Dedication: You have to commit to complete each session. You will miss a very important step if you miss even one session. Life happens, but we strongly encourage you to go through any sessions you miss or allow yourself the time to complete the sessions in order.

• Autonomy: This is completely private, is not to be shared, and is for your eyes only. The only exception to this rule is during discussion time if you feel God is leading you to share something. Please be very prayerful about what you share.

• Diligence: Complete each personal journaling time. In order to successfully move through this journey, the journaling must be completed.

• Nonjudgment: We are not here to judge or condemn you. Every person in the history of humankind—even the people in the Bible, except Jesus—has good and bad. If we are honest, the BP will open our eyes to our sinful nature and empower us to make a change toward a Christlike life.

• Redemption: We are not here to go through every sin with you. Jesus wants to redeem you from sin. Your personal Blueprint will be looking at your heart and not just the sin.

• Safety: Questions! If you are completing this in a group, we want all your questions. Don’t be shy about asking questions during this process: personal questions, biblical questions, or anything that may be bothering you. The goal is for you to truly know God and his love for you. We don’t want uncertainty on a certain topic to get in your way. Your coaches are here to help you build a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus. We will come by your side and help you find peace with some of the difficult questions you may have. If you are completing BP on your own, we encourage you to reach out to a strong believer of Christ to confirm what you are hearing or answer questions you may have.

• Design: This Blueprint is yours. Be creative. Add color and illustrations. Make this project your own personal journal.

• Owner’s manual: The Blueprint is not a book of rules to follow to prove your loyalty or worthiness to God. This is an owner’s manual for your life. This process is going to be tough. It is direct. Some areas will impact you harder than the rest, but God’s grace is with you. We are here to grow in the Lord and build a closer relationship with Jesus.

As of today, we are moving forward! Let’s begin by tackling a couple of logistical questions. It is perfectly okay if you don’t know the answers to the questions below. Answer them to the best of your ability. We are here to learn, grow, and live for Jesus. We don’t need to know everything; we just need to have open hearts, be respectful, and be willing to learn.

In your own words, explain what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Do you see Jesus as your one true God or as a historical figure? Remember to use complete honesty here. What do you think it means to be a follower of Christ? Do not say what your church says, what your parents tell you, or what your pastor has told you. Make this personal.

Briefly define the word sin and what it means to you.

In the Bible, sin is described as an immoral act against God’s law or against God’s commands.

Do you know what the Trinity is?

The Trinity is the state of being three. In the Bible, the Trinity includes God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit—one God in three divine persons. We have God, our Father. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who died on a cross for our sins. We then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit when we accept Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior.

What is your definition of the Gospel?

The Gospel is defined as the record of Jesus’s life and teachings in the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus is speaking to his disciples about salvation. Let’s learn through Jesus, including what he says about salvation and taking up the cross.

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Peter answered them, We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us? Jesus said to them, Truly, I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. (Matthew 19:25–30)

Discussion Time

With your group, briefly discuss what this verse means to you. Jot down your thoughts.

What stands out? Go through your thoughts now and underline any verse that stood out to you.

Let this verse sink into your skin and into your heart, and carry it with you throughout the entire Blueprint projects. Let’s take up the cross and follow Jesus. Let’s make his teaching personal to our hearts and to our lives. Our walk with Jesus depends on this.

Jesus died on the cross and rose again three days later so