What is God and what is ocd?

You're right, obedience is better than sacrifice. However, I suggest you look up Jan Boshoff (finalcall07) if you feel as if you're disobedient. He helped me (though I'm still a little bit unsure about my standings). Remember your OCD is not you, but a "shadow" version of you. The thoughts you think aren't yours. And it's only a sin if you dwell on those thoughts. If they pop in, rebuke them. May Jesus bless you.

BeccaLynn said:

Do any of you struggle with feeling as if you're always disobeying God and going your own way? It seems I constantly feel I'm in the wrong. I struggle feeling as if He's always mad and me or disappointed with me and that I'm just rebellious. The same themes tend to always pop up too that I obsess about and feel that I'm in the wrong about. I've been told by strong Christian friends to go to God's Word and not to go by my feelings. I understand what they are saying, but also people often know when God is telling them something that is not directly in the Bible, such as not to take a certain job, etc. For example, one minister who didn't want to leave the church he was pastoring in our city said that God told him to go to Austin, TX and start a church and that he didn't want to disobey God because it had almost cost him his family before when he disobeyed. That was a certain sermon given during a time when I felt as if I was disobeying God in a certain area over homeschooling my son. Even though the Bible doesn't say not to homeschool and says to raise your children in the training and admonition of the Lord, I felt God didn't want me to homeschool. Yet, I did anyway. Now that theme is reoccuring in my life and I fear something terrible happening due to my disobedience. I don't know what to blame on ocd and what to blame on me for being rebellious. If I listen to my minister friend and my Godly mentor who know about how I struggle, they have told me to stick with God's Word. But, I so fear I'm disobeying and just want to use ocd as an excuse. My friend also told me that since I struggle with ocd, to go by what my husband says. My husband says you just have to be logical with things too. Everywhere I turn though, even in my devotional, it's like the same verse "Obedience is better than sacrifice", or something about obedience is everywhere I turn. Last Wednesday, it was in my Women's Bible study, just seemingly randomly thrown in the last five minutes of class. The speaker talked about obeying God even when you didn't understand why He was asking you do something.

Any advice from others who know what I'm talking about?

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Sit in a quiet place and speak to God. Listen what He says to you and know and feel it in you heart. Also ask for your husband's input. I know a lot of Christian people who homeschool their children.
Sometimes the question of obedience comes to me about fasting. I often wonder if I am fasting because God wants me to fast or because I promised God and I need to do it otherwise i would be disobedience.

Hi Rebecca
I definitely understand what you are saying, and it is terrifying when it is backed up by signs and providence in the world around us. I left a very good job in 2012 because of these feelings and remained unemployed for 7 months living off my 401k. I went back to work, and actually the company I am with now is so much better, and I learned a lot in my time off. I can't say whether the initial decision to leave was from God, but I was blessed overall.
Here's what I have been thinking lately...
In Romans CHPT 8, Paul says that God did not give us a spirit of slavery (or bondage) to fall back into fear, but rather a spirit of adoption. This spirit of adoption frees us from being slaves and we are adopted into the family of God, now we can call God "Abba".
I guess the question is, do these internal promptings feel like a spirit of bondage, or a Spirit of adoption? Does it seem like your own Heavenly Father is leading you to a deeper relationship and likeness with Him, or does it seem like a taskmaster who is impossible to please. If it is the Spirit, I think it should lead to freedom and not bondage and fear of punishment. Since we now serve not by the law, but by the Spirit, and we are adopted into His family, justified by His righteousness, there should be a joy and freedom in serving Him. Like a child serving his own father out of love, trust, and thankfulness.
I guess I was and am trying to save my soul by the following of these internal promptings (which are impossible to please no matter how hard I try), but now I am starting to understand the biblical theology. We are sinners enslaved to sin, out of His own goodness and mercy God saves some (not by our works) and by this we are adopted into His family, not serving in the old way of the law (and the fear of missing all the requirements), but instead we are serving by the way of the Spirit which He gives us to conform us to His likeness. The righteous which saves us is completely from Him (it is alien to us), and the Spirit which sanctifies us is completely from Him.
Because we serve Him as our Father in this new way, there is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1). In fact the condemnation was put on Christ when he died on the cross (Romans 8:3).
These views have been helping me lately... Understand the difference between being a slave vs being a child, and the difference between a spirit of bondage vs a Spirit of adoption. And then look at those internal promptings in light of that. Obedience to God is extremely crucial, but I believe it shouldn't be from a bondage leading to fear, but rather from adoption and therefore a joy. Also my own personal belief is starting to be that the Bible is usually sufficient in most cases to make decisions, although I don't want to discount God's ability to lead us through signs and providence.

If youve accepted Jesus as savior then you are in right standing with God. Jesus took all your sins to the cross. Even poor decisions. God cast all your sins as far as the east is from the west.... you obviously want to do right and God sees that. Its hard for us being human to concept ALL are sins past present and future are wiped away with the precious blood of Jesus. The enemy tries to get us focused on ourselves so we become miserable christians which will stop us from getting out like productive christians doing what God wants us to do.

The feeling of wanting to live right is from God. So be thankful that Hes working with you. The enemy knows when we are trying to be close to God and will whisper lies like YOU BETTER NOT HOMESCHOOL YOUR KID BECAUSE THAT WILL MAKE YOU A REBEL! God gently guides us because He is meek and quiet. So if you are walking around feeling scared of a decision then thats the enemy. God knows we are learning how to listen to His guidance we will make mistakes and thats ok He knows our hearts. By the way He knows what decisions your going to make before you make them. He goes before you..... He promise nothing in all creation can seperate us from Him.Thats in romans 8:38,39

The more worry and anxiety you have the harder it is to know when God is prompting you to do something. The enemy knows that to. So relax and know that God has you and loves you more that you can comprehend because you are His masterpiece. The journey isnt easy but at least Hes always with us.

Hi Rebecca, my pleasure, I hope it is helpful in some way. I understand all too well the terror of being disobedient in these areas. I sometimes feel like I am at a crossroads when I feel those promptings, and if I make one wrong decision, as time goes on I will be further and further from God's will in my life. No matter how obedient I am being, because I made that one mistake everything in my spiritual life will have been in vain.
I imagine that these sort of struggles we endure cause us to dig deep and really search for the truth, and can be a blessing in the long run. If you learn the stories of Martin Luther and John Bunyan, they struggled so deeply with doubt, condemnation, and blasphemes of unwanted thoughts before they found peace and rest through faith and obedience.

Hi Rebecca, my pleasure, I hope it is helpful in some way. I understand all too well the terror of being disobedient in these areas. I sometimes feel like I am at a crossroads when I feel those promptings, and if I make one wrong decision, as time goes on I will be further and further from God's will in my life. No matter how obedient I am being, because I made that one mistake everything in my spiritual life will have been in vain.
I imagine that these sort of struggles we endure cause us to dig deep and really search for the truth, and can be a blessing in the long run. If you learn the stories of Martin Luther and John Bunyan, they struggled so deeply with doubt, condemnation, and blasphemes of unwanted thoughts before they found peace and rest through faith and obedience.

HI Rebecca,
this does make perfect sense. Like all of us with this obsessive type of thinking, you want to do everything perfect, and if you miss out on one point, it means everything else is ruined.
You mentioned fear of punishment, which I am so familiar with, but for the child of God, we know that His perfect loves casts out fear, because fear has to do with what? Punishment. (1 John 4:18). And the one who fears has not been made perfect in love.
So the child of God need have no fear of punishment. The child of God is no longer condemned (Romans 8:1). We still are under the discipline of God, but even that is meant to grow us in holiness, and serves a loving purpose.
What has been helping me lately (besides what I mentioned about adoption and sonship instead of bondage and slavery), is reading the Bible and starting to understand the goodness and faithfulness of God. For those who are born again, it is beyond dispute how unbelievable treasured they are. There is so much family language in the Bible... I was reading Hebrews 1-2 the other night, and just noticing all the family language about Jesus being our brother, Jesus not being ashamed to call us brothers and sisters, God calling us to glory, etc. I pray that all of this will start to become more real for you and me (and everyone on this forum).
In James, it says that when we ask for wisdom, God will give it generously without reproach (of course we must ask in faith). Later on in James, it says that wisdom that comes from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality... (James 3:17). So with regard to this issue of homeschooling (or any other issue), you can ask God in faith, knowing that he will give wisdom, and knowing that the wisdom that comes from God is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits... It makes me think that we should be thrilled to get wisdom from God, not terrified. Even if that wisdom is agaisnt what we want, I would imagine if we trust God, that there will be a peaceable and gentle component to that wisdom, not a fear of punishment. This does not mean we should not fear God, or that He doesn't warn us in some ways, but again the fear for the child of God is the way we would fear a Father, not a tyrant or slave master.
I pray for you right now that God would give you wisdom in a way that is gentle and peaceable, easy to understand, and also a heart of trust to follow His leading.

BeccaLynn said:

Do any of you struggle with feeling as if you're always disobeying God and going your own way? It seems I constantly feel I'm in the wrong. I struggle feeling as if He's always mad and me or disappointed with me and that I'm just rebellious. My friend also told me that since I struggle with ocd, to go by what my husband says. My husband says you just have to be logical with things too. Everywhere I turn though, even in my devotional, it's like the same verse "Obedience is better than sacrifice", or something about obedience is everywhere I turn. Last Wednesday, it was in my Women's Bible study, just seemingly randomly thrown in the last five minutes of class. The speaker talked about obeying God even when you didn't understand why He was asking you do something.

Any advice from others who know what I'm talking about?

Click to expand...

You got some good advice- follow your husbands lead. I have to follow my wifes lead in a lot of cases because lets face it- you can't see the forest because the tree's are in the way sometimes. And it REALLY sucks when you're seeing the trees trying to see the forest you're lost in!! Sometimes trusting other people is what we need to do.

Like, on a certain Christian forum I've been told about....