.

Petros2015 said:

Put it to his head, and pulled the trigger.

Click.

His gun jammed.

Click to expand...

That's a very touching testimony.

But I'm still talking about something really supernatural. The kind that everyone is scared of. Even the disciples got scared of it when Jesus did it. 2000 years later, now, things have changed a bit.

The world loves to bury it. Everyone seems to hate it, and sadly, including many Christians hate the notion.

timewerx said:

But I'm still talking about something really supernatural. The kind that everyone is scared of. Even the disciples got scared of it when Jesus did it.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I did kind of accidentally slam Daytona with a hurricane that one time. Long story, there was a girl involved, and it was really frustrating. Big misunderstanding. She was trying to get me to leave MD and come down there, and I really, really, really just needed a friend up here... But she was obsessed and in a bad place (much too bad to safely start a relationship with - honestly I wasn't all that much better at the time myself) and she wanted me to leave MD and do that with her. As the tension between us increased a hurricane formed and moved on Daytona lol. She broke all contact with me about 6 hours before it arrived because she wasn't going to get what she wanted. And I was mad and upset that neither was I, because I really did like her and always had. At the time, the hurricane seemed an appropriate expression of my feelings and frustration on the matter...

Sorry Heather! Sorry Daytona!

It was pretty funny too, went right for her, like not near her, the eye practically rolled down her street.

Petros2015 said:

Yeah, I did kind of accidentally slam Daytona with a hurricane that one time. Long story, there was a girl involved, and it was really frustrating. Big misunderstanding. She was trying to get me to leave MD and come down there, and I really, really, really just needed a friend up here... But she was obsessed and in a bad place (much too bad to safely start a relationship with) and she wanted me to leave MD and do that with her. As the tension between us increased a hurricane formed and moved on Daytona lol. She broke all contact with me about 6 hours before it arrived because she wasn't going to get what she wanted. And I was mad and upset that neither was I, because I really did like her and always had. At the time, the hurricane seemed an appropriate expression of my feelings on the matter...

Sorry Heather! Sorry Daytona!

Click to expand...

Now we're talking! Some will say a mere coincidence but make that 20 more and you have a problem!

timewerx said:

Now we're talking! Some will say a mere coincidence but make that 20 more and you have a problem!

Click to expand...

In my 48 years of life, I have 1 more like that which happened much longer ago, around 1999, but it makes a good story, I'll try to post later

Petros2015 said:

n my 48 years of life, I have 1 more like that which happened much longer ago, around 1999, but it makes a good story, I'll try to post later

Click to expand...

Long story, there was a girl involved... lol (I feel like there's a pattern there)

In the meantime, enjoy some light music, one of my favorites...
So true, so true for so much of my life. Still makes me laugh.
But not bored anymore.

Petros2015 said:

In my 48 years of life, I have 1 more like that which happened much longer ago, around 1999, but it makes a good story, I'll try to post later

Click to expand...

In 1999 I had just gotten out of the psych ward - things were maybe not as bad as just before I went in, but pretty bad. I was living with a friend (the friend I had left my wife for, I was now an adulterer and divorced and a few other things - completely disentegrated spiritually, pretty much an enemy of God, or at the least I had decided that He would view me way for the rest of my life. I don't think He did, I think there was a gross misunderstanding by me of who and what He was. I think there was also a gross misunderstanding by me of me of who and what I was. I was, hmmm 26? 27? So we are talking 2 decades ago. I was trying to get the woman to be committed to me, because I didn't know how to live alone, and couldn't live with myself (in a lot of different ways, probably, in all the ways you can interpret that statement). She didn't want anything like that with me (can't blame her lol). So there was this building tension and argument of (similar to the hurricane) not getting what I wanted. But you don't have control over another person, ever. If they are going left, and you are going right, you have to able to go right without them, or choose to go left with them. This is a truth that I live by today.

Often in recovery rooms we hear the phrase "Let Go and Let God". I don't think what was building in me was God though, quite the opposite. You ever know when you are not getting your way and something starts building and building and you can't let go, and it's not good? Maybe you do, maybe you don't.

Anyway, some realization of that "Let God and Let God" principle which I had probably never heard before came into my head and soul in the middle of it, and I let go of the insistence on what I wanted, the control I was trying to insist on and the out-of-control reaction that was building and accepted the situation as it was. I literally felt it taken from me and go up into the sky. There was a relief, like dangerous power leaving, and some sense of peace.

About 3 seconds later...

What went from me into the sky came back down to earth; there was no storm going on at the time that I can recall. But a bolt of lightning suddenly struck very close to the house we were in. A good portion of our local area in Arlington VA was blacked out for the next 3 days.

No harm done, but it was stunning. Looking back, I think it might have been a little like the time Jesus sent the demons of Legion into the pigs, and then they drowned themselves. I let go and let God take this other spirit of anger and control out of me. I felt it go out of me and into the sky. I don't think the sky liked the look of it either, and discharged it back down as a lightning bolt, powerful enough to black out town*.

Sorry Arlington!

*"town" is an exaggeration, Arlington is a big place - I remember at least our street and some other places nearby were out. Looked for a hotel nearby at one point and it was also affected

Petros2015 said:

In 1999 I had just gotten out of the psych ward - things were maybe not as bad as just before I went in, but pretty bad. I was living with a friend (the friend I had left my wife for, I was now an adulterer and divorced and a few other things - completely disentegrated spiritually, pretty much an enemy of God, or at the least I had decided that He would view me way for the rest of my life. I don't think He did, I think there was a gross misunderstanding by me of who and what He was. I think there was also a gross misunderstanding by me of me of who and what I was.

Click to expand...

This is key though, as far as anxiety goes; understand who and what God is, understand who and what you are. If your view is that you can only be enemies, you live a life that feels damned (or at best hopeless and pointless) no matter what you do, and that will be huge source of anxiety. If you change (or more importantly, ask to have changed, your spiritual orientation), then you can only be friends. This is a huge source of comfort, and if you look at the Christian scriptures, this is exactly the offer that Christ put on the table through his sacrifice and resurrection. It's what God wants. He desires all to be saved from being enemies of God.

Recovery has what is called the 3rd Step prayer, it is this:

God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life.

Most of us change the wording a little as we are led; I say "to those you would help"

To this, I often add something like this or similar, "Please keep my thinking divorced from selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, anxiety, depression, fear and anything that is not of your Spirit. Please pour your Spirit into me, and from me out onto others. Please open my eyes to your miracles that I may see them, and show me the part you would have me play in them. Make me a blessing to all I meet today through your Spirit. In Jesus name, amen"

Pray things like that daily, and know they are prayers your Father will gladly grant as you learn to be his servant, child and friend. Life will change, anxiety will slip away. Can't turn your back on God and walk away and find anything else but growing fear and anxiety, insanity, hopelessness, unholiness and darkness. Can't turn your front to God and walk towards Him and find anything else but growing faith, peace, joy, light, sanity, humility, truth, holiness and all the fruits of Spirit because He is the source of all these things.

Why would I want to be an enemy of THAT??? Being an enemy of that would destroy me by definition!

It's like a campfire in the woods - you walk towards it, and as you get closer there is more warmth and more light. You will probably find friends gathering around the campfire, smiling and welcoming you. Some of them have been there for a long time before you got there. More are on their way every day.

But if you turn and walk away from the campfire, you will find it gets colder and darker the further you go. Eventually, you will find some wolves, smiling and welcoming you... But not in quite the same way as the friends that were around the campire would have welcomed you.

Took me a loooooooooooonnng time to learn this. I don't think I ever really learned it, He just popped in started revealing it to me. Had some other servants along the way to encourage me. But it made sense, and doing anything else doesn't make sense. Had to be sober to see all that too, had to let go of everything else I had made God in my life.

But. He IS there. And it did work. Thank God, thank Christ, thank Spirit.