My friend is intensely deceived

oi_antz · May 23, 2010

My friend is "spiritualist" by faith - meaning he believes in the abolishment of religion and everyone striving for Love of their own human ability. However I see a spiritual battle going on between what he believes and what I beleive, and it has resulted twice now in my asking him to leave me in peace.

He doesn't have the spirit of Christ and this is why we can't see eye-to-eye on matters of faith, he continuously attacks the Holy Bible saying "shouldn't reduce God to just one book, I want to give the whole world to God" - obviously he is making up an image of God which satisfies his curiousity.

Anyhow, the enemy speaks to me through him and seeks to sow seeds of doubt to make me question whether I really do belong to the good side and whether I really am doing the work of God in the best interests of humankind.

He made statements yesterday that I should stop posting the messages I do, but he says this without even reading my posts! I noticed an instant change in his attitude toward me when I announced I had found my faith in Jesus, he is now treating me as though I'm one of those Christians he hates: one who has become narrow-minded (as some people get when they believe messages from fellow humans without asking God to put things in perspective - that disillusion is real!), so he has preconceived ideas about my beliefs based on what he has observed as detestable in other Christians.

One of the remarks his demon said to me was "I am one of the church members who cut their heads off" - this is from the enemy who possesses my friend, attempting to have me believe that past Christians who got it wrong are lingering on earth and possessing people like my friend, and ultimately I am bringing destruction and doom upon them by sticking to my guns.

When he got to the point of being offensive yesterday I told him to leave before it gets aggressive and he said something tried to judge me and I said I'm entitled to my freedom not to be preached to by him in my own home, and he left swearing "f'n Christians f'n this and that"..

The enemy is desperately trying to stamp out my fire, what am I meant to make of all this going on in the world around me, and what can I do for my friend?

Offspin · May 23, 2010

Hi
Here is my 2 cents, it sounds as though your friend has similar beliefs to me before I became Christian, furthermore your clash together sounds very similar to the clashes I had with a lot of my friends about God and the Bible, hopefully it may be of some assistance.

Firstly

"He doesn't have the spirit of Christ and this is why we can't see eye-to-eye on matters of faith, he continuously attacks the Holy Bible saying "shouldn't reduce God to just one book, I want to give the whole world to God" - obviously he is making up an image of God which satisfies his curiosity."

I dont think its curiosity, its what satisfies his own ethical and ideological standards. I imagine its what makes him passionate and forthright. Which is what makes it so hard to talk to people with this sort of belief against the Bible, because they have to have their own morals and ethical beliefs destroyed, before they are able to look on the bible as Gods word, and as to what truly is ethical and right in this world. How will God go about this? Who knows? But if you are to be instrumental in that you have to represent all that Jesus is to your friend.

The best thing you can do is to justify Jesus through yourself, by being kind, loving, and turning the other cheek when he criticizes, hates, swears, and whatever else. There is a line where you may have to remove yourself from this relationship or certain situations within it as it can be so damaging, and you arent going to justify God if youre falling apart at the seams. I dont know your situation or how big a challenge it may be for you so the line is yours to decide, seek advice from your pastor perhaps.

I realised my folly in hate towards the bible when I was no longer morally justified in myself. No one is without Jesus, I eventually became completely broken in my individualism. And my supposed ethical standards which I never obeyed.

So its all about representing your higher purpose and spirit driven holiness. By your actions and by your reactions. If he doesnt have the spirit in him he will see hatred in the Bible, he will never understand it, and the enemy has a huge amount of freedom in dictating the meanings to him, through what he believes and what is the emerging, enemy driven societal norm. Ultimately you have to prove to him that Christians are the most ethical people on this planet, and wow its hard to prove when you look at the news at times as mostly Christian representation on it is that which is extreme and often ludicrous. Its the quiet strong people working in our communities and around the world that are the greatest witnesss of Christ, sadly so much of what they do is a closed book to the media, as it refuses to acknowledge them more often than not. You need to show him this.

Something that helped me was realising that most people driven to do aid work and help people overseas are pretty much mostly Christian. That the people who are driven wholly to great good in this world are Christian. Not to be judgemental but it is very true, of all the other faiths in this world the one committed with the most passion and biggest desire to do good, which is demonstratable in work around the world today are the followers of Jesus Christ. If you are an unbeliever this perhaps is the greatest justification for taking another look at what your beliefs are around Christians.

So yeah in short, dont be judgemental in anything you say or do to him, represent love, dont justify him by getting into philosophical arguments about theology. The best representation for Jesus is love and the works that have been done through love. Try not to react turn the other cheek.

Perhaps this may seem obvious, but so many christians think arguing theology is the best way to justify faith, it seems to always result in arguments and people turning further away from God, to me atleast.

My prayers are with you as you go through this. God bless.

ChildOfGod97 · May 23, 2010

I typically approach people as people. It could be constraining to approach your friend with his viewpoints as simply "the Devil".

You know the phrase: "Demonizing people".

It is true, however, such wicked thoughts come from the darkness, the evil one. But, everyone has choices on what to believe. He is believing messages of darkness. I say "everyone has choices", but by this I do not mean "equal choices". Otherwise, what value would there be in attempting to educate such people and give them choices other then the darkness they embrace?

I approach everyone as people with varying levels of knowledge. Hence, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do"... and as Paul said of the very evil Pharisees, "They have zeal... but lack knowledge".

The trick is to figure out how to educate them.

Unfortunately, you can waste your time with some people. God ultimately is the Teacher and He may not have them anywhere close to a place yet where they can hear anything.

Otherwise, "what are their life experiences"? "What are their motives"? "What leads them to believe what they believe"?

Context in language can be huge. Different life experiences lead to different context in language. The concept of "rapport" is essential in education in most cases. One does not always want to have rapport, usually, otherwise one never leads. But one should be able to deftly obtain rapport, lead the person in a different direction then what they are in, and if rapport is lost, go back and start again.

oi_antz · May 24, 2010

Hey, this guy is pretty fixed on being a preacher of his self-discovered truth, I can't really argue with him, nor can I stand to! I've turned my other cheek to him in an email, I think he'll find it's exactly the same as the first and if he decides to slap me again I understand it's his decision to make and I just don't have to tolerate it.

Man, I feel like Kyle on South Park having Eric for a friend, God bless our good friend and please offer a prayer that he'll be saved from the lies of the world when the time comes for him to decide, cheers!

ChildOfGod97 · May 24, 2010

oi_antz said:
Hey, this guy is pretty fixed on being a preacher of his self-discovered truth, I can't really argue with him, nor can I stand to! I've turned my other cheek to him in an email, I think he'll find it's exactly the same as the first and if he decides to slap me again I understand it's his decision to make and I just don't have to tolerate it.

Maybe he likes to get into arguments just for arguments.

Sometimes, less is more in communication, often just in that sort of situation.

You don't have to continue to talk to him. He will change. Years go by, lessons learned.

Often changing tactics entirely or even being random can help in the most sticky of social situations. People have a tendency to think of social situations as "one road", but it isn't. It can be expanded by creativity, experimentation, exploration.

Autumnleaf · May 24, 2010

Talk about Jesus in everything you say to him. Say that's okay, Jesus loves you. Jesus will forgive you for cutting their heads off, you probably didn't know what you were doing. Do that and Jesus will fight the battle for you.

oi_antz · May 24, 2010

Autumnleaf said:
Talk about Jesus in everything you say to him. Say that's okay, Jesus loves you. Jesus will forgive you for cutting their heads off, you probably didn't know what you were doing. Do that and Jesus will fight the battle for you.

Yeah there's always a tendency to think "I should have said this or that instead", I don't have any regrets though, I've always stuck up for my faith and glorified Jesus.

I think this is partly why he thinks he can represent Jesus he keeps saying "I am Jesus, You are Jesus" and I know what he means by that, but he is spiritualist so he has chosen his friends as all the evil spirits and has not chosen the Holy spirit - we are not equally yoked in our spirituality, but we are both strong testifiers of our own found faith..

I never knew what an enemy was before all this.. it's interesting to become aware of spirituality, that's for sure, but to see a good friend with a heart of love being so deceived to think he has the right to argue with God's people and tell them "stop posting your words (without reading them, remember) because it's destroying my world" implying that he is God - this is the actual deception of his spirits: they claim to be God and they have him think he is God, and his attitude comes across like that when he spews his anti-religion hatred at me, having me feel that I'm at war with God. It's not God though is it.

It's a bit exhausting and I feel a bit disrespected that he thinks his lies are worth anything to me.. :sigh:

Anyhow, it's more a problem for him than me, thanks for chipping in with prayers and advice everyone!

Dantag · May 26, 2010

Remember that Jesus said if a person rejects the Gospel, shake the dust off of your feet and move on. I believe he says this to protect you from the very thing(s) that you are going through right now with your friend. Just keep him and his salvation in your prayers (That way, God, who is able, can do what you are trying to do).

I've had to learn this the hard way by continually, over years, bringing up Jesus and the Gospel to an unbelieving friend. I just recently vowed to not bring it up again but to keep him in my prayers .

I believe that my friend will see the TRUTH by seeing God work in my life. Blessings, Love, Growth etc.

I hope this helps.

BTW, first post here. Hi everyone :wave:

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My friend is intensely deceived

oi_antz

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Offspin

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ChildOfGod97

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oi_antz

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Autumnleaf

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oi_antz

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