Could some homeless people be far closer to G-d than we imagine?

[Blade]

I have listen to Rick, Todd etc.. just do not agree with all they teach. This "homeless" are we talking saved or lost? It matters. Well what does the word say about God and hearing those that dont know Him, unrighteous, wicked? OT NT Its written more then once. You believe GOD hears them? "We know that God does not listen to sinners" The Church? YOU are the Church..its not what is that PASTOR doing.. its what are YOU doing for His kingdom. WE are the Church.

I have said this before.. if we are going by the WORD OF GOD.. when you help someone.. YOU KEEP DOING IT till they are back on their feet. MANY of US do not do this at all. Yet many of us know.. so many want help.. but not to leave..to get better. One... we had this in LA.. the man didnt want new food.. went right back to digging in trash cans.. praise God ...its do they KNOW Christ that matters 1st and fore most.

I have to say this.. GIVE ALL praise thanks to GOD..NEVER take it. Never puff your
self up..what YOU did so forth so on. Or.. that is your reward. Man will never glory in His sight.

 

[bbbbbbb]

God is no respecter of persons. As a result, He saves whom He will despite our stereotypes as to who might or might not be a worthy candidate.

 

[DennisTate]

God is no respecter of persons. As a result, He saves whom He will despite our stereotypes as to who might or might not be a worthy candidate.

Exactly...... and the idea of God having plans to have used homeless man Angelo mightily...... but he was rejected by us in churches....... sounds to me like a powerful warning.......... and encouragement as well.

 

[DennisTate]

If you help a homeless then you are far closer to God. Many walk away and avoid helping the homeless however, this is the true test of LOVE.

Well said.....

Are you referring to the 3rd step of the 12 step program of AA ?

I haven't been to AA's myself but I sure have heard good things about it from friends and family. So I think that you are correct....

 

[servantofiam]

Just from my own observations of the homeless, I feel I have discovered a few key aspects that help relate to the thread topic.

First of all, the majority of the homeless seem very dependent upon the "good will" of others. To me, this also allows them to be more dependent upon God than those who have more in life.

Secondly, the homeless have hours upon hours of time to think. To me, this gives them ample opportunity to be in constant prayer with God compared to people whose jobs-family-commitments take time away from God.

Thirdly, when the homeless receive "good will" from others by money-food-shelter-time to speak with them they generally appear to be extremely thankful. To me, this is another sign of their possible faith in God by how thankful many homeless appear to be for the help they get. Many will say, "God bless you" when you help them. This is a far contrast from those who have much and always seem to be less thankful for any type of charity awarded them.

I honestly feel I am like the homeless in a sense of having ample time to always be in communication to God. I dwell on a farm, which life here is very slow and sometimes the days seem endless. But I have so much time even working on projects, tossing hay, filling water containers, doing general clean-up, walking around the perimeter of the farm, checking on the livestock that I am always in prayer/praise. My mind is free to roam like I imagine the homeless have time to do and I fill it typically with God, which I believe many homeless also do. I am not trying to place myself with the homeless, I am trying to compare aspects of my daily life that I feel is comparable to the homeless daily life.

In my opinion then, outside of those I guess new to being homeless who might be angry and full of rage, the majority of those who have been homeless for weeks and months and literally years, I feel they are very close to God!!

 

[Shempster]

Three of my closest friends are either currently or formerly homeless and I like being around them much more that the others. Having met and known many homeless, I can tell you that they are not proud nor arrogant. They don't boast. They don't tend to judge others. They are not greedy, just needy.
Of course, there are exceptions, but those are few.

 

[DennisTate]

God told me to. I trust Him. I will tell you though that I had written letters for my pastor to give to my family in case I didn't live through the experience. I had no clue what to expect. Just that I was supposed to do it. Honestly, one of the biggest lessons I learned was that food is relatively easy to come by (at least in NYC), but shelter from the weather wasn't. And, the homeless I met helped each other. So, when I arrived, some immediately took me under their wing to show me where to go and when.

I work with children now--some orphaned, some taken from parents--either way, they feel homeless. But, directly with homeless? Not at this point. But, I will never forget what I experienced and the people I met.

It just hit me this morning that Angelo.... .was meant to be a Torch Bearer.....

 

[Strong in Him]

Could some homeless people be far closer to G-d than we imagine?

Anyone can be closer to God than we imagine; we don't know their hearts, nor their faith.

 

[Strong in Him]

A couple blocks from my house, a few go to be with God every year.

 

[grasping the after wind]

I don't see why a homeless person would be less likely to be a recipient of the grace of god than anyone else. So I kind of resent the implication that we all would think otherwise. God is not a respecter of persons and we ought not be either.

 

[DennisTate]

I don't see why a homeless person would be less likely to be a recipient of the grace of god than anyone else. So I kind of resent the implication that we all would think otherwise. God is not a respecter of persons and we ought not be either.

I am glad that you kind of resent it if you assumed that I meant all.........
because lots of the replies to this discussion prove that many Christians are doing a powerful work for the homeless.

I am mostly accusing myself...... because I am not involved with any significant work for the homeless at this time.... (I would have to drive at least seventy kms / 45 miles to find almost anybody who is homeless)......... I do have a good friend who was homeless but he is making it lately and does have his own apartment.

Pastor Rick Joyner pleads guilty to..... in the past.... having had no clue how great the plans were that Messiah Yeshua - Jesus had for specific homeless people like Angelo.

Rick Joyner: “That is why I am with you here, and I will be with you when you return. Wisdom is to see with My eyes, and to not judge by appearances. I showed you Angelo in the vision so that you would recognize him when you passed him on the street. If you had shared with him the knowledge of his past that I had shown you in the vision, he would have given his life to me then. You could have then discipled this great king, and he would have had a great impact on My church.

“If My people would look at others the way I do, Angelo and many others like him would have been recognized. They would have been paraded into the greatest pulpits. My people would have come from the ends of the earth to sit at their feet, because by doing this they would have sat at My feet. He would have taught you to love, and how to invest the gifts that I have given you so that you could bear much more fruit.” I was so ashamed that I did not want to even look at the Lord, but finally I turned back to Him as I felt the pain driving me toward self-centeredness again. When I looked at Him, I was virtually blinded by His glory. It took a while, but gradually my eyes adjusted so that I could see Him.

It just hit me that the game plan that Messiah Yeshua - Jesus had for both Pastor Rick.... and for Angelo.... at the time that Pastor Rick was given a vision of Angelo was for Pastor Rick to find out what the vision meant...... Then he goes and prays for Angelo.... then Angelo is healed from being deaf and would then be able to speak and teach crowds...........
and his high level of GRATEFULNESS / Thankfulness that he had already developed..... and LOVE for others.... could have sparked an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the area where he lived..... that would have grown from there to affect huge numbers of people.

 

[DennisTate]

Anyone can be closer to God than we imagine; we don't know their hearts, nor their faith.

Exactly..... and I am hoping that some people who already have a ministry to the homeless may be able to use the writing that I quote in the opening post and give it to some of the homeless people that they work with so that they begin to have a better understanding of the plans of Messiah Yeshua - Jesus for their lives.

 

[DennisTate]

Three of my closest friends are either currently or formerly homeless and I like being around them much more that the others. Having met and known many homeless, I can tell you that they are not proud nor arrogant. They don't boast. They don't tend to judge others. They are not greedy, just needy.
Of course, there are exceptions, but those are few.

Excellent......... I am seriously impressed that three of your closest friends either are homeless.... or were once homeless!

My wife is planning for us to move within a year to a much more populace area and hopefully I can get involved with a ministry to the homeless once I am moved.

 

[DennisTate]

I think a lot of people will be surprised when they see who is and who is not where they are at in the afterlife, wherever they may end up by the way. As for the homeless, no doubt many of them may well be closer to the Lord than many of us here at CF.

Thirty years ago I was a Christian who was pretty good at debating....... but in 1990 I prayed and asked Messiah Yeshua / Jesus to correct me..... and show me what was wrong with my thinking...... (even though I personally thought that my thinking was pretty accurate). I have been shown error, after error, after error, after error.... over these past 28 and a half years........ and I am much, much less argumentative than I used to be.

The homeless people that I do know aren't as argumentative with their closest friends as so many of us Christians feel is how we should serve Messiah Yeshua - Jesus. Many of us seem to feel that ACCUSING others is the best way to assist them????

 

[CaspianSails]

There is a fascinating story from a dream that does a good job of illustrating this possibility?

It is at 4:35:00 in this audio on youtube:

It is also here about nine tenths of the way down this page:

The Final Quest [English] Rick Joyner

It is an interesting idea that Messiah Yeshua - Jesus may judge us by very different standards than we tend to use on ourselves and others.

Anyone can be closer to God than we imagine. Man judges on the outward appearance but God looks at the heart. If a person is a believer they are close to God. Anything other adaption is meaningless in terms of eternity.

 

[SkyWriting]

I am glad that you kind of resent it if you assumed that I meant all.........
because lots of the replies to this discussion prove that many Christians are doing a powerful work for the homeless.

I am mostly accusing myself...... because I am not involved with any significant work for the homeless at this time.... (I would have to drive at least seventy kms / 45 miles to find almost anybody who is homeless)......... I do have a good friend who was homeless but he is making it lately and does have his own apartment.

Pastor Rick Joyner pleads guilty to..... in the past.... having had no clue how great the plans were that Messiah Yeshua - Jesus had for specific homeless people like Angelo.



It just hit me that the game plan that Messiah Yeshua - Jesus had for both Pastor Rick.... and for Angelo.... at the time that Pastor Rick was given a vision of Angelo was for Pastor Rick to find out what the vision meant...... Then he goes and prays for Angelo.... then Angelo is healed from being deaf and would then be able to speak and teach crowds...........
and his high level of GRATEFULNESS / Thankfulness that he had already developed..... and LOVE for others.... could have sparked an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the area where he lived..... that would have grown from there to affect huge numbers of people.

Our son is in the next room sleeping, again. Another girlfriend kicked him out.

 

[DennisTate]

Anyone can be closer to God than we imagine. Man judges on the outward appearance but God looks at the heart. If a person is a believer they are close to God. Anything other adaption is meaningless in terms of eternity.

Absolutely..... I plead guilty....... it is so difficult for us to not be impressed by the outward appearance and manner in which people present themselves.

 

[DennisTate]

There is a lot here that fits with the first few paragraphs of this book........
any of us can be influenced by demons.

The Final Quest [English] Rick Joyner

Rick Joyner, The Final Quest:
The Evil Army



I saw a demonic army so large that it stretched as far as I could see. It was separated into divisions, with each carrying a different banner. The foremost and most powerful divisions were Pride, Self righteousness, Respectability, Selfish Ambition, and Unrighteous Judgment, but the largest of all was Jealousy. The leader of this vast army was the Accuser of the Brethren himself. I knew that there were many more evil divisions beyond my scope of vision, but these were the vanguard of this terrible horde from hell that was now being released against the church.

The weapons carried by this horde had names on them: the swords were named Intimidation; the spears were named Treachery; and their arrows were named Accusations, Gossip, Slander and Faultfinding. Scouts and smaller companies of demons with such names as Rejection, Bitterness, Impatience, Un-forgiveness and Lust were sent in advance of this army to prepare for the main attack. I knew in my heart that the church had never faced anything like this before.

The main assignment of this army was to cause division. It was sent to attack every level of relationship-churches with each other, congregations with their pastors, husbands and wives, children and parents, and even children with each other. The scouts were sent to locate the openings in churches, families or individuals that rejection, bitterness, lust, etc., could exploit and make a larger breech for the divisions that were coming.

The most shocking part of this vision was that this horde was not riding on horses, but on Christians! Most of them were well-dressed, respectable, and had the appearance of being refined and educated. These were Christians who had opened themselves to the powers of darkness to such a degree that the enemy could use them and they would think that they were being used by God. The Accuser knows that a house divided cannot stand, and this army represented his ultimate attempt to bring such complete division to the church that she would completely fall from grace.

The Prisoners