Extremely Tough Christian Journey

[aiki]

The way I became a Christian. God is the one who found me.

This is always the way it works. No one "finds" God; He finds us.

John 6:44
44 No man can come to me, except the Father who has sent me draw him...

It was during youth group this one night. I had what felt like I was being struck by a bolt of lightning, a shockwave went thru me and I was filled with this nervousness. Although it took me awhile, I figured it had something to do with God.

It might have had something to do with God, yes, but I suspect what you felt was you responding to the convicting work of the Spirit, not the Spirit himself. This is what I was getting at in my post to you about the difference between what the Spirit does to us and our reaction to what he has done. Very often, people confuse their responses to the Spirit with the Spirit himself, blending the two together. When this happens, the person who makes this conflation ends up calling their feelings in response to the Spirit, the Spirit. But these two things are distinctly separate and very different.

After being a Christian for a year, I began experiencing deep peace from the holy spirit and sometimes that peace lasted for 2 weeks before fading away.

Then it wasn't of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't fade away. He is "the peace that passes all understanding" (Philippians 4:7), he is the joy of the Lord (Romans 14:17; Romans 15:13), he is "the love of God shed abroad in our hearts" (Romans 5:5) and he "never leaves us nor forsakes us" (Hebrews 13:5). As he controls each of us more and more, who he is fills us in an ever-increasing measure and we overflow, in time, with the "fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, etc. (Galatians 5:22-23) If, then, your sense of peace faded away it was because it was something you had generated from within yourself in response to a variety of spiritual influences.

Our feelings come and go like waves on a beach, shifting and vacillating, and often existing in contradiction to reality. They are the very worst ground for walking with God, changeable as they are, which is why you never see in Scripture that the Christian is to walk with God from the basis of what they feel, from the motive of mere emotion. Instead, God appeals to the mind of the Christian again and again, declaring that it must be transformed, ordering the will which, in turn, orders one's feelings.

Matthew 16:23
23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Matthew 22:37
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Acts 1:13-14
13 When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Acts 17:10-11
10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who arriving there went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Romans 7:22-23
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Romans 7:25
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 8:6-8
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Ephesians 4:22-24
22 That you put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

And on it goes, God's word urging the Christian by command and example to be people whose minds are conformed to, and transformed by, the truth of God, leading the charge in their spiritual life rather than their emotions.

She stated that what I was feeling was the holy spirit refining me and that once I became a more mature Christian, I would experience even harder tests and she stated that all Christians experience change, but, most can't feel them but for some reason, I can.

Merely saying these things are so doesn't make them so. On what biblical grounds did she establish her remarks? You see, Christians need the word of God, the Bible, as the Final Arbiter of what is true concerning God, and themselves, and how to walk rightly with Him. How do you know what a crooked line is if you don't have a straight line to which to compare it, right? The Bible is the "straight line" by which we assess all other spiritual "lines," all truth-claim "lines." If they "line up" with the Bible, those "lines" are straight, not crooked, and so may be kept; but if not, they gotta go. This objective, authoritative, unchanging standard is vital to determining what is and isn't of God, which is why God, in part, gave it to us.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Psalm 119:103-105
103 How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

Psalm 1:1-3
1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Some, though, want to throw off the constraining limits of the Bible, making their personal, subjective feelings and experiences the Final Arbiter of what is and isn't true about God, themselves, and how to walk rightly with Him. This is encouraged by the widespread relativistic secular philosophy of modern western culture that is radically committed to the supremacy of the individual. Everywhere one may turn these days, the message that "the individual is King" is promoted: "Follow your heart," "you are whatever you choose to be," "there is no absolute truth, only your truth and my truth," "you do you," "everybody else is responsible for making me feel safe," and so on.

In the Church, too, this radical individuality has taken root, producing a deep skepticism - even opposition - toward the Bible which limits the individual at every turn. In His word, God is constantly ordering the individual about, commanding them to do this and that, telling them that one thing is true and another false, reminding them that they answer to their Maker for everything they do, not only to themselves. Nothing could be more counter-cultural, more opposite the hyper-individualistic relativism of modern western society, than what God says to us in His word.

But Christians who've taken in the relativistic, individual-centered thinking of the World, who want "flexibility" (they call it being "tolerant" and "open-minded") over the constraining limits of divine Truth, who want to make God conform to their natural sensuality and emotionality, who wish to be the Final Arbiter of what is and isn't true about experiencing God, deny the authority of Scripture, God's special revelation of Himself and His Truth to us, placing their personal, subjective experience above what He has said, essentially adding to God's word. These Christians say things like, "God isn't limited by the Bible!" or "You can't tell the Holy Spirit what to do!" But what they really mean is, "You can't tell me my ideas and subjective experiences are limited, even excluded, by God in His word."

What happens, though, when each of us becomes the Final Arbiter of divine Truth? If we all have our own truth about God and walking with Him, how can we accept what Jesus said about himself: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6)? If the Truth is ultimately located in us, in what we feel, and experience, and think, then Jesus is wrong and we may each write our own Bible.

So, what does any of this have to do with your personal, spiritual story? Maybe you can guess. Does your experience of God, does your spiritual journey, line up with the "straight line" of God's truth given to us in His word? Not as far as I can see. Like so many believers these days, your walk with God has been all over the map, stumbling and unbiblical (these things always go together), anchored to feelings and sensations, that, having subsided, leave you now contemplating a departure from the faith. This shouldn't be the case for someone who has walked with God for over twenty years! But this IS exactly where a sensual, emotional spiritual life leaves you when the sensations and emotions, for whatever reason, disappear.

Now, I'll tell you, within giving up TV, movies and video games at the end of 2018, only once, 1 week ago, did I start up my Xbox system and I'll tell you, I was very nervous to do so, but I wanted to and for 6 hrs, I experienced deep peace. So, I was given the confirmation that it was OK to do that.

No, friend, this absolutely is NOT the way you decide if a thing is okay with God or not. We sinners can be "at peace" about a great many things God hates! Read the fifth chapter of 1 Corinthians. And very often what we want to call "the peace of God" is really just the relief of the pressure of sinful desire that results from yielding to it. I've heard that serial killers talk of the "peace" they felt after they murdered someone, a sense of calm and contentment that came over them after they'd tortured and killed another human being. I had a Christian man say something similar about yielding to the desire to look at porn. He had struggled against the impulse to look at filthy sexual pictures for days, but, finally, gave in to doing so. The relief he felt giving up the struggle against his sinful desire was enormous, of course, and he wanted to tell me that this "peace" confirmed to him that God was okay with his looking at porn. Sound familiar?

I've heard this confusing of "God's peace" with a sense of relief over and over again from Christians. God, though, doesn't leave it up to a "feeling of peace" to determine what is right and wrong to do. He establishes in Scripture a clear hierarchy of priorities, and values, and morality that order everything we do. And so, we don't need "feelings of peace" to guide us, but a clear understanding of God's hierarchy of things given to us in His word. In His word, the Bible, God tells the contented serial killer he has done a terribly evil thing; to the porn addict who feels at peace about looking at porn God says in His word he has sinned; to the person who has yielded to any "idol" that competes with God for their affections and "treasure" (time, energy and money), God declares them disobedient. However calm and contented, even happy, these sinners feel about their sin, however much peace they have yielding to their favorite sin, God says in His word they have done wrong.

Deep peace is from the holy spirit or Jesus.

Not at all. I once saw a Buddhist priest immolate himself in public protest over severe social conflict in his country. With perfect calmness he doused himself with gasoline, sat down in the middle of the road, and without a single moment of hesitation ignited himself. As he roasted to death, he sat perfectly still, no cry of agony escaping his lips, no contortion of the features of his face occurred, he never leapt up and ran about, mad with pain. He just sat there and burned to a crisp. In a note he had left behind explaining his horrendous act, he said he was "at peace" with his fiery "statement," and thought it absolutely necessary to halting the great social unrest in his nation. He had no qualms at all about torching himself, no concern that it wasn't the right thing to do. He was at perfect peace about his decision to burn himself to death. How many Christians have this incredible certainty, calmness and sense of peace? Very, very few. Oh, they claim to have "deep peace" but next to the "peace" of this Buddhist priest, what they are calling "peace" is a pale shadow.

I think the priest's "peace" was actually entirely demonic. The fact that his "peace" led to his ultimately pointless destruction indicates this very clearly. The "thief" (aka the devil) comes to destroy, the Bible says (John 10:10), the "roaring lion" seeks to devour (1 Peter 5:8). And this is why relying on a feeling of peace can be so incredibly dangerous for the Christian believer. The devil can counterfeit "peace" very powerfully, deceiving believers into operating on the basis of this feeling rather than upon the objective declaration of God's word, getting them to compromise spiritually and morally and convince themselves of all sorts of ungodly things.

This has been my experience. Whether this is how God typically works or not...idk. But this is my experience, my story. If this doesn't line up with anything, idk what to tell u.

It isn't whether or not your experience lines up with "anything" but whether or not it lines up with the "straight line" of God's word. And much of it doesn't, as far as I can tell. But you aren't alone in this. A great many modern Christians have never been properly discipled into the faith and so have walks of faith very similar to your own. I work with such believers all the time in my role as a discipler of men at my church.

Last summer, as I was praying while walking my dog in the woods, I told God I was stuck and asked him what I should do. I clearly heard him say Read Jeremiah, so, I stopped by the river and started reading jeremiah and it was very relatable. I'm glad he told me to read through that book.

How do you know it was God speaking to you? That Jeremiah was "relatable"? Every book of the Bible, read at almost any place and time, is relatable in some way to our life with God. What if reading Jeremiah had not been "relatable"? What if doing so had been a dull business out of which you got nothing? Would having read God's word been a bad thing, then?

 

[Chris35]

Two and a half years is a long time for no answer. To me, it seems that if it is God's will for you to know, he would have given you an answer by now. It seems to me God has hidden it from you, and from everyone else.

You say that you know God is refining you, which makes me think that God is letting you know that he is still their and still working in you which brings me to this verse,

Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’?

Also this verse
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Have you tried going in a different direction and accepting Gods will for you during this difficult time, and asking God for the strength to endure, that he teach you what you need to learn, and that he dont take any longer to complete his work then he needs to.

 

[Gentle Lamb]

I have had an extremely difficult christian journey. I have gotten to the point of closing up and not sharing with people anymore bc what I've gone through is completely unrelatable. I've even given up talking to different pastors bc although they listen, they often don't have any advice to give bc they can't relate to what I'm going thru. No one can. I have pressed in for the last 2 1/2 yrs praying wholeheartedly asking for answers and getting silence in return. I feel so alone in what I'm going thru. I have asked God so many times within 3 1/2 yrs to send me someone who's been thru something similar and who can relate to me and it never happens, yet, since I pray and God doesn't give me answers, I keep hoping people will. Am I the only one experiencing this?

For 18 yrs, I'm used to God speaking to me in 2 particular ways and outta nowhere he stopped. It has thrown me for a loop and for the last 2 1/2 yrs, I've been going in circles trying to figure things out. But, they say God is your best friend and you can tell him anything and he'll help u. But, lets say you had a best friend that you spoke to and you both communicated well everyday and then one day, your best friend stopped talking to you. What would you do or think? Would you continue to pursue and press in, or would u get all confused and eventually let them go due to getting no responses and them ignoring you?

Also yesterday at church, I've always gotten very confused when they say the holy spirits presence is in this room. To me, the holy spirits presence is a feeling, so, to hear them say that, always makes me say no, BC I would feel it.

I continuously tell God that I don't understand how to stay faithful in what I'm experiencing, yet, I know he's refining me and things just continue to get harder and harder and I feel like I'm about to let go and my letting go means that I'm fully going to totally let go of God bc staying faithful right now with what I'm experiencing is absolutely impossible. I have absolutely no idea and God isn't showing up anymore.

I know I'm being vague but thats BC people always shoot me down after I explain what I'm experiencing. Would you understand if I told you that I've experienced over 200+ types of God's peace over the last 2 1/2 yrs. Would u understand if I told you thst God has been putting me thru this renewal provess and I've been experiencing these internal shifts or changes everyday and most days are extremely difficult. Would u understand if I told you that I can literally feel when the Holy Spirit is working in me bc I can Feel it and then a chsnge often takes place. Would you understand if I told you that I had smelled the holy spirit on numerous occasions. I'm in tune with the spirit but faithfulness doesn't come easy. I'm used to feelings/changes/peace/confirmations thru the holy spirit. What I don't understand is how to stay faithful without feeling anything. I have been a christian for 21 yrs now and for 20 1/2 yrs, its been filled with all these other things I've explained to you. I've also received deep peace at night before going to sleep everyday for the last 2 yrs. I don't have any idea how to separate the feelings/changes and if I'm struggling to stay faithful now while still experiencing these changes, whats it going to be like when they stop again? I had one 6 month period where are the feelings, changes stopped and I failed miserably with staying faithful. Every 2-5 days, the holy spirit nudged me which brought me back but then starting in 2019, what I'm experiencing now started but God has been bringing me thru different things. And I'm feeling lost.
I've never been feeling so lost, confused, frustrated and depressed as I have now

Over the last 2 1/2 yrs, I've spoken to 7 pastors at my church and 6 from 6 different churches but with Most, I was totally shut down bc they didn't understand what I was talking about. 2 pastors at my church, although they didn't understand, they paused to listen and try to help but the last time I spoke on the phone with this 1 pastor, he only gave me 30 min and no advice. That's when I started shutting down from wanting to talk to anyone. 3 months ago, this 1 other pastor at my church, I felt the holy spirit nudging me to talk to him. I ignored it until that pastor asked to speak to me and I opened up about Everything and I felt like a total idiot explaining things to him but he believed me. 2 weeks ago, he said we need to get together again and catch up. I haven't spoken to him yet due to my fear and stupidity of being afraid to speak to him again. I know he had said we could talk yesterday after church, but including my fear, I also felt it inappropriate to talk with all the other people around. I have such a huge fear of talking to him but I feel like God isnt giving me answers and at this point I really need soneone to talk to BC I'm feeling completely stuck. This morning as I was praying about this spiritual stuff, I felt the holy spirit again tugging on me to contact that pastor. Was it the holy spirit? Idk at this point but it seemed like it. I txt him apologizing for not speaking up yesterday and also asking for another day to speak. Idk what else to do at this point. And now im afraid i wont hear back from him. If God continues being silent, what do u do? How do u continue stay faithful when nothing is lining up? I'm afraid of going to chase all these pastors away bc of the high unrelatability of what I'm going thru. I don't typically reach out anymore. Today, it feels like the holy spirit has retracted from me.

Please don't judge me. This is what I've experienced.

It's always a good way to go to confess your sins to God, forgive and bless those who have hurt you and read His word daily and often. Read the word of God out loud and repeat His promises to yourself. In the silence that you are experiencing, repeat the promise out loud and in your heart that God will never leave you nor forsake you. Everything that we go through is for a purpose. Don't make the mistake of letting go of God. There are only 2 places to end up after this, make your abode in heaven and not in hell. Choose Jesus, hold on to Him. Read the gospels, focus on everything Jesus taught us, focus on putting those principles into practice. And pray pray pray. God will continue to speak to you. Him nudging you through the Holy Spirit is Him communicating with you. That is not silence. It may just be a difference in communication. I had to get used to understanding a new way that God has been communicating to me and it's been a loooong time. Once He asked me if i would get frustrated with a baby who can't speak? No I wouldn't, I would try everything to understand what the baby is communicating. So try everything to understand what God means by the current silence. And be sensitive to the spirit. But don't give up on God.

 

[Natto]

Hi
Dear sk,

I actually ever heard other religions, such as Buddhism or Daoism, their God or Goddess come nearby people, there radiate warm and fragrant. Ghost comes nearby, the temperature drop like ac with a feeling of coldness. It might be a little bit kind of similar to what you describe.

I actually just knew a sister from you tube, and saw her sharing and testimony posed by various churches in Taiwan on youtube. She had third eye. she saw ghost since she was a child. When she went to China to study Chinese traditional medicine, she was sometimes got bully by ghosts at night. After graduation, she practice acupuncture in Australia. Now, she is back to Taiwan, work as funeral home service provider and shared her testimony in numerous churchs in Taiwan.. Her testimony is really interesting as follow.

Entering the workplace of a life etiquette teacher is related to Yang Farou working in a funeral parlor in his spare time when he was in high school, and serving as a forensic assistant in college. Yang Farou said that she majored in music in high school, and had the opportunity to play the erhu or music at a funeral home. She worked as a forensic assistant in college, assisting forensic doctors to examine corpses at the scene of criminal cases such as jumping off a building, suicide, and car accident. She said that because of her personal psychic constitution or third eye, she became a "little helper" for the criminal police. For example, in cases of suicide for money or love, Sister Yang Faro was able to "dialogue" with the ghost and convey the reasons why they suicide. To the police, but she didn't dare to tell them that she had third eye, just describes: "Is it possible that can be the true cause” to tell the police indirect way. Yang Farou said, "At that time, many police officers thought that this little girl and her clue were amazing, but I simply wanted to use my third eye to help those who passed away."

After graduation, Yang Farou went to Sydney, Australia to work as an acupuncturist. She was still disturbed by ghosts and could not sleep at night. She even invited an idol to worship at a local temple, but the situation remained the same. At this time, Yang Farou remembered that when she first arrived in Sydney, a Christian couple from the Truth Church in Taipei gave her a Bible. , Yang Farou put the Bible next to the pillow. That night, it was Yang Farou had the most peaceful night's sleep in years. God also led a sister who often visited the clinic where Yang Farou served. Every day, she preached prayers to Yang Farou's Christian sister, and led her to pray for her decision. From that day on, evil spirits and evil spirits could no longer disturb Yang Farou.

Later, the sister who brought Yang Farou to pray for her decision invited Yang Farou to participate in their church's New Year's Eve prayer meeting, but Yang Farou declined because she was going to the temple to attend the New Year's Eve prayer meeting that day. That night, when Yang Farou was chanting sutras with the master, she suddenly felt that the incense in the temple smelled so bad, she couldn't keep it any longer. Because Yang Farou's mother suffered from lung cancer, Yang Farou, who has a strong relationship with her mother, decided to resign and return to Taiwan to accompany her mother. Before returning to Taiwan, Yang Farou went to the local church to pray, and Yang Farou clearly heard lots of Angels say to her: " Pray for your mother's health, your future career and all troubles", Yang Farou thanked for love with tears.

On the two Mother's Days after Yang's mother passing, Yang Farou couldn't go to church because she missed her mother, so she could only read the Bible and pray at home. God asked Yang Farou to talk to the mother in heaven in a image or dream. The mother in heaven is not like the terminal cancer patient who lost all her hair and teeth before her death, but returned to the appearance of her youth, Jesus said to Yang Farou: "You have to go back to the earth, and in the position of life funeral director, tell others, heaven is real!"

On the day after Mother's Day in the third year after her mother's rest, Yang Farou accepted a funeral case from two remaining family member, two son. When the family sent the deceased mom's white coffin into the crematorium for cremation, It just triggered Yang Farou burst into tear, because Yang's mother also used a white coffin for cremation. Yang Farou was suddenly heard God say to her in a soft voice, "My child, your mother is now with me, no more crying."


Many people will ask Yang Farou, "I don't believe in Jesus, how can I meet the deceased family in Heaven who believes in the Lord?" At this time, Yang Farou will encourage everyone with the sight that God made her see in the dream. Yang Farou said that what she saw in her image, vision or something like dream was that she climbed up a stairway to heaven and saw many transparent glass houses with different surnames written on them. Inside, Christians who first returned to their heavenly home were placed on the table. A prayer list for the names of families who have not yet believed in the Lord, or people are weak in faith and have left God. She wants to encourage everyone in the family, that a Christian family member who has passed away, whether you are a believer or not, to believe that “other family members in heaven already has been praying for your faith, boding and unification with God."

(I just pick a only a few passage and use yahoo translator to translate some passage, Her story is more interesting than those few passage , She has more direct contact with God's experience other than just a few. She said more on YouTube, since it speak all in Mandarin. I can only provide text link as follows. It is probably easier to translate with Goggle translator I guess.

【有靈異體質的生命禮儀師信主】從被鬼騷擾逢廟就拜　楊法柔遇見神成為哀哭者的安慰

But I kind of be able to relate what you talk about since I often watch ghost hunting, third eyes, ghost detector, ghost meter, and even someone with special ability to have direct contact experience with God. Someone's third eye can only see ghost only, some can even see God, or Angel. I guess your antenna is probably stronger than average people, but it is just not as strong as advanced level yet like those people, or Moses, or Abraham . It might be one out of several millions believers.

I agree with others, you shall rely on faith rather than sight, practice principle rather than feeling, mold characters rather than search for the sensation. We sometimes do feel hollow, empty, alone, and distant in walk with God, and sometimes, we just feel like only a number in church, sometimes we just feel like to walk away from God at some point of life for whatever reasons. To be honest, I pray hopefully that we all be able to rekindle fire or love with God in some ways at some point of life. In Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[com7fy8]

I believe the wind she's referring to is the holy spirit,

"In Your Little Sailboat"

If you steer your little sailboat
straight against the wind,
it will blow you dead in the water,
plus the waves will flip you
up and down and all around,
while the wind is just
flapping your sails.
And this is why your
. . .r-i-g-g-i-n-g
is getting so rattled.
But if we obey the flow of
the sweet and gentle breeze,
this will ease us to safe harbor,
plus the waves of this life's troubles
will help to push us here

"'Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
. . for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
. .and you will find rest for your souls.'"
. . . . . . . . . . . . (Matthew 11:29)

My issue is lack of understanding when it comes to staying faithful w/o feeling anything.

Well, I find that God is so sweet and kind and pleasant and personal . . . and gentle and quiet and humble. So, while I am quiet, I do feel Him sharing with me and personally guiding me.

I might need, though, to stop and trust Him to fight the battle to get me with Him in His peace with He personal guiding. I can get into wrong stuff, my attention in the wrong place. And I need how God alone is able to correct me.

His peace is not just a feeling. God's peace is His own perfect harmony of His almighty activity. And He shares this with us, and we are commanded to be ruled by this peace >

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)

Now, do I feel this peace? Maybe I could say I feel the absence of the nasty and negative and naughty stuff! But yes He is pleasant and personal. I have prepared a video of about 13 minutes, and you can find it in Youtube, if you search with "William obey God in His peace"; it should be the first to show up. There is more to peace than a feeling.

At the time, I was struggling with reading the Bible but I often spent 3+ hours in prayer. God often spoke to me audibly/inaudibly/thru peace or confirmations and often times, those answers lined up with what I was going thru.

So . . . how about God's word? How much time have you been investing in discovering God's word?

And what does God's word say about what prayer is for, and what comes with prayer?

How about Philippians 4:6-7?

 

[StillGods]

man, if I went by my feelings/emotions my walk with God would be a mess.