Growing in Christ

[brinny]

Praise God, parsonsmom. Please post more. And i agree that it is our instructions to live a fruitful and abundant life. Thank you for teaching as you do.

 

[parsonsmom]

Praise God, parsonsmom. Please post more. And i agree that it is our instructions to live a fruitful and abundant life. Thank you for teaching as you do.

Thank you; It is a privilege to share. I get very excited when I find a seeking person. what would help you most; I am going to start a post of what helped me most. Truly Parsonsmom.

 

[brinny]

Yes, post what helped you most.

 

[KennethSam]

[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif'][/FONT][FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']Hi guys !
I want to share something with you .
This is inspiring.

[/FONT]
[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']The book of Revelation written by the apostle John – Revelation 1:1-3 1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Learning prophecies has what I’ve always wanted to do. Now that I found this site, I just found the reason to pursue. Propheciesfordummies.com [/FONT]

 

[brinny]

To All:

My reasons for starting this thread are out of obedience to the Lord and because so many of us seem to be struggling to grow in Him. While I in no way know all there is to know of Him, and seek daily to learn from Him - both directly through His Word and His Spirit and from others who sit at His feet in Love - He continues to prompt me to take the risk and share what I have learned.

After He led me to share the following in another thread, He is now telling me to put this here. (In fact, in His gentle way, He will not leave me alone about it!) My constant prayer is to be pleasing to Him always, and be a blessing in some small way to others. And so it is with humility before Him that I offer this.

All I ask is that others will also post here what they have learned and are learning, that we may all grow in Him and come to the unity of faith, bonded together with Him in the Spirit of His great Love.


There was a time in my life when I did not think God liked me very much, when my whole life seemed to go from misery to misery. Yet, I believed; I knew the Bible very well; and I knew there was a love in me for Him. But I could never seem to get close to Him, and never really saw any specific answers to my prayers. I always felt as if I was following Jesus from way back in the crowd; as if I was climbing hills, only to catch a glimpse of Him going over another hill far in front of me. Finally, I just got fed up and told Him, "Lord. I don't care if You like me or not! I am still going to love You!" And right then, I made up my mind to know Him personally.

So what I would like to offer you are some practical steps that He led me to take (although at the time, I did not realize it was Him leading me) that He used to grow me and teach me and help me find Him. And what a difference this has made in my own prayer life.

1) Guard your tongue. Become aware of what you say out loud, for your words can rob you of any blessings He has for you. No matter how you feel, how depressed you get, etc., don't allow yourself to start speaking from those feelings. There are a multitude of scripture in the both the OT and NT which teach this.

2) Praise God. This truly helps in guarding the words of your mouth as well as overcoming negative feelings. You don't have to try to conjure up reasons for praising Him for the situation, just make up your mind to praise Him in the situation. He lead me (and I still do this at times when necessary) to say out loud: "I praise you Father that I am not moved by my feelings, but only by your Word. I praise you Father that I am not moved by what others say about me, but only by your Word." And so on. Truly, praise works!

3) Get His Word from your mind to your spirit. Two ways to help with this are (a) to never read the Bible without praying first, asking the Holy Spirit to guide you in it; to open your heart to receive what He is teaching you; to open your understanding to grasp it. Etc. And (b) go through the NT finding every passage where it talks about who we are in Christ and who He is in us. In other words, everything positive that applies to us being new creatures in Him. Make a tape recording of your own voice saying these passages, applying them to yourself. Our spirits pay attention to what we say, and since it is with our hearts that we believe - not our minds - by saying His Word aloud we can re-program our inner man according to that Word. Example: "I am the Righteousness of God in Christ." Then, play that tape! I would put on headphones at night and play it as I went to sleep, night after night for weeks.

4) Don't try to believe for more than you have faith to believe. Faith is like a muscle; it must be exercised in order to grow. Just as you would not begin lifting weights with the maximum amount - the goal you want to reach - until you built up to it, so don't try to believe too far beyond what you know you can believe for. Judging this is tricky, I agree. But you have to start somewhere and I believe the Lord will guide you. Many, many times I have wanted to believe, but had to admit I really did not have that big of faith. Don't set yourself up to fail; but don't set your sights too low either. Exercise your faith and it will grow, until you can believe for big miracles.

5) Make it your primary goal to know Christ Jesus. More than anything else, seek to know the Giver rather than the gift. Humble yourself - in your attitude especially - before Him and trust Him to guide you. Remember that love is not a feeling, rather love causes feelings. We know He loves us - just like we know anyone loves us - because He says He does. His love for us is not dependent upon our feelings about it, anymore than our parents love for us was dependent upon our feelings. Realizing this is extremely important in our being able to trust Him, for our trust - our faith - is very much dependent upon our knowing and believing in His love for us in Christ. And we know He loves us because His Word says He does, and God does not lie.

6) Remember we have an enemy and he is a liar! Daniel prayed and even though the Lord heard his prayer the first day, it took 21 days for the answer to come. Pray, believe (because of His Word) that in the Name of Jesus we can be sure that the Father hears and answers our prayers, and then persevere in thanking Him for answering our prayer. The enemy delights in robbing of us of our joy, faith, confidence, peace, etc., as well as the answers to our prayers. Stay the course!

7) Practice listening. Set some time (20-30 minutes) aside each day to sit quietly before the Lord. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. Get a notebook and write what you hear inside. Don't worry about getting big revelations - because you probably won't; and don't worry if you don't get anything - because you may not for awhile. Consider it as you would any conversation: both sides talk in a conversation, not just one. So you are allowing the Lord His opportunity to speak to you and not you just talking to Him. And write down what comes to you. And even when you do begin to hear from Him, don't expect some earth-shattering revelations. For a long time the Lord had me practice this, just to learn how to hear Him no matter what was going on around me. And I am still learning. But measure everything you hear against His Word! And seek to be obedient to what He tells you. It is when we are faithful on the little things that He will trust us with bigger things.

8) Seek His will first and always. The Lord will never get in line with us; we must always get in line with Him. In all your prayers - for others as well as for yourself, seek His will.


May the Lord bless others through this, and continue to bless us all in the coming posts from His faithful ones.

LeastOne

Amen, brother in Christ. God bless you.

 

[parsonsmom]

Yes, post what helped you most.

Greetings Brinny: This has helped me more than anything; because it the Core of the Christian walk;

Obligation Covenant. #1.
Though it is only a man’s covenant; yet if it is confirmed no one annuls; or adds to it; To Abraham and his Seed were the promises made; He does not say; to seeds; as of many, but as of one; And to your Seed; who is Christ. So that the law; which was four hundred and thirty years later; cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before; by God in Christ ; that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law; it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise; What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions; untill the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator; Now a mediator does not mediate for one only; but God is one; Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life; truly righteousness would have been by the law; So the Scripture has confined all under sin; that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe But before faith came; we were kept under guard by the law; kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed; Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ; that we might be justified by faith so that after faith has come; we are no longer under a tutor;
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law; having become a curse for us; for it is written; Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree; that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith; To speak in terms of human relations, if even a man makes a last will and testament; merely human covenant; no one sets it aside or makes it void or adds to it when once it has been drawn up and signed; ratified; or confirmed. Now the promises; covenants, agreements were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed; his Offspring, his Heir. He; God does not say, And to seeds; descendants, heirs, as if referring to many persons, but, And to your Seed; your Descendant, your Heir, obviously referring to one individual, Who is none other than Christ; the Messiah. This is my argument: The Law, which began 430 years after the covenant concerning the coming Messiah, does not and cannot annul the covenant previously established; ratified by God, so as to abolish the promise and make it void; For if the inheritance of the
promise depends on observing the Law; as these false teachers would like you to believe, it no longer depends on the promise; however, God gave it to Abraham as a free gift solely by virtue of His promise. What then was the purpose of the Law? It was added later on, after the promise, to disclose and expose to men their guilt because of transgressions and to make men more conscious of the sinfulness of sin; and it was intended to be in effect until the Seed; the Descendant, the Heir should come, to and concerning Whom the promise had been made. And it; the Law was arranged and ordained and appointed through the instrumentality of angels; and was given by the hand; in the person of a go-between. Respectfully; Parsonsmom.

 

[parsonsmom]

Greetings Brinny: This has helped me more than anything; because it the Core of the Christian walk;

Obligation Covenant. #1.
Though it is only a man’s covenant; yet if it is confirmed no one annuls; or adds to it; To Abraham and his Seed were the promises made; He does not say; to seeds; as of many, but as of one; And to your Seed; who is Christ. So that the law; which was four hundred and thirty years later; cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before; by God in Christ ; that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law; it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise; What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions; untill the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator; Now a mediator does not mediate for one only; but God is one; Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life; truly righteousness would have been by the law; So the Scripture has confined all under sin; that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe But before faith came; we were kept under guard by the law; kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed; Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ; that we might be justified by faith so that after faith has come; we are no longer under a tutor;
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law; having become a curse for us; for it is written; Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree; that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith; To speak in terms of human relations, if even a man makes a last will and testament; merely human covenant; no one sets it aside or makes it void or adds to it when once it has been drawn up and signed; ratified; or confirmed. Now the promises; covenants, agreements were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed; his Offspring, his Heir. He; God does not say, And to seeds; descendants, heirs, as if referring to many persons, but, And to your Seed; your Descendant, your Heir, obviously referring to one individual, Who is none other than Christ; the Messiah. This is my argument: The Law, which began 430 years after the covenant concerning the coming Messiah, does not and cannot annul the covenant previously established; ratified by God, so as to abolish the promise and make it void; For if the inheritance of the
promise depends on observing the Law; as these false teachers would like you to believe, it no longer depends on the promise; however, God gave it to Abraham as a free gift solely by virtue of His promise. What then was the purpose of the Law? It was added later on, after the promise, to disclose and expose to men their guilt because of transgressions and to make men more conscious of the sinfulness of sin; and it was intended to be in effect until the Seed; the Descendant, the Heir should come, to and concerning Whom the promise had been made. And it; the Law was arranged and ordained and appointed through the instrumentality of angels; and was given by the hand; in the person of a go-between. Respectfully; Parsonsmom.

- Seeking The Kingdom.
In order to prosper; we need to know Gods instructions; I call doing the Word; We have been given the legal right to functon and operate Gods covenant; and all of the principles; we are legal citizens of God's Kingdom and we do have the right to prosper; Prov.10:22- says The blessing of the Lord makes one rich; And He adds no sorrow with it.The blessing of the Lord makes one rich; And He adds no sorrow with it. This kind of prosperity can only come from God; So don't go around worring; saying; What shall we eat? or What shall we drink; or What shall we wear; For after all these things the Gentiles seek; For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things; But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you; so don't worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about its own things; Sufficient for the day is its own trouble; For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking; but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; For he who serves Christ in these things; is acceptable to God and approved by men; Prosperity is a protected right; that comes as a result of being obedient to the instructions; or the law of the Kingdom; so discovering His principle; and then do the works; Notice He said ; seek first the Kingdom.

 

[parsonsmom]

Greetings Brinny: This has helped me more than anything; because it the Core of the Christian walk;

Obligation Covenant. #1.
Though it is only a man’s covenant; yet if it is confirmed no one annuls; or adds to it; To Abraham and his Seed were the promises made; He does not say; to seeds; as of many, but as of one; And to your Seed; who is Christ. So that the law; which was four hundred and thirty years later; cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before; by God in Christ ; that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law; it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise; What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions; untill the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator; Now a mediator does not mediate for one only; but God is one; Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life; truly righteousness would have been by the law; So the Scripture has confined all under sin; that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe But before faith came; we were kept under guard by the law; kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed; Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ; that we might be justified by faith so that after faith has come; we are no longer under a tutor;
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law; having become a curse for us; for it is written; Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree; that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith; To speak in terms of human relations, if even a man makes a last will and testament; merely human covenant; no one sets it aside or makes it void or adds to it when once it has been drawn up and signed; ratified; or confirmed. Now the promises; covenants, agreements were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed; his Offspring, his Heir. He; God does not say, And to seeds; descendants, heirs, as if referring to many persons, but, And to your Seed; your Descendant, your Heir, obviously referring to one individual, Who is none other than Christ; the Messiah. This is my argument: The Law, which began 430 years after the covenant concerning the coming Messiah, does not and cannot annul the covenant previously established; ratified by God, so as to abolish the promise and make it void; For if the inheritance of the
promise depends on observing the Law; as these false teachers would like you to believe, it no longer depends on the promise; however, God gave it to Abraham as a free gift solely by virtue of His promise. What then was the purpose of the Law? It was added later on, after the promise, to disclose and expose to men their guilt because of transgressions and to make men more conscious of the sinfulness of sin; and it was intended to be in effect until the Seed; the Descendant, the Heir should come, to and concerning Whom the promise had been made. And it; the Law was arranged and ordained and appointed through the instrumentality of angels; and was given by the hand; in the person of a go-between. Respectfully; Parsonsmom.

Covenant part 2.
Seeking The Kingdom.
In order to prosper; we need to know Gods instructions; I call doing the Word; We have been given the legal right to functon and operate Gods covenant; and all of the principles; we are legal citizens of God's Kingdom and we do have the right to prosper; Prov.10:22- says The blessing of the Lord makes one rich; And He adds no sorrow with it.The blessing of the Lord makes one rich; And He adds no sorrow with it. This kind of prosperity can only come from God; So don't go around worring; saying; What shall we eat? or What shall we drink; or What shall we wear; For after all these things the Gentiles seek; For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things; But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you; so don't worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about its own things; Sufficient for the day is its own trouble; For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking; but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; For he who serves Christ in these things; is acceptable to God and approved by men; Prosperity is a protected right; that comes as a result of being obedient to the instructions; or the law of the Kingdom; so discovering His principle; and then do the works; Notice He said ; seek first the Kingdom. Parsonsmom.

 

[brinny]

Amen, Parsonsmom.

 

[brinny]

Praying that God continues moooooving and gathering His own to Him and wins hearts, minds, and souls of the dear ones who are lost (((hug)))

 

[A New Day]

leastone I wish that I saw your thread before, thank you and thank you for the moderator that put it in the top.

 

[brinny]

Amen. What a precious thread.

 

[revsola]

This is a powerful share.May the Lord grant you more wisdom.

 

[ron103]

In respect to leastones obedience to Father, this is the only thread i am going to write on...

dont take this as arrogance, but as confidence from a 15 plus year conscious obedience and serious pursuit of The relationship and the truth and maturity that gets engrained from...

It does not happen overnight as God suggested through isaiah when He said 'here alittle, there alittle'...you have to take time to digest what He is teaching you and pondering is important...

But it all starts with being spiritually receptive and observant...and what you were thinking prior to what you just saw or felt usually determines if He is pleased with what you are thinking or doing...

This thread has the potential to be the starting point to the end game....

Nice to meet everyone, you are all involved...and needed...

Time to get real.

His servant and old friend,
ron

 

[brinny]

Amen ron, and welcome to CF and thank you for sharing your thoughts and encouragement.

 

[ron103]

i remember in my youth, i would get this feeling down the back of my neck seemingly right before i had to make a decision, and most times in hindsight, it turned out to be a life or death situation; and back then this feeling would compell me or pull me in a certain direction and it would turn out to be the right decision...i learned to respect and be obedient to this, but just rationalizing it as instinct or reflexes and not thinking any deeper on the 'why' i seemed to be in the right place at the right time...

I grew up catholic, so i learned what to do during mass, yet when scripture was read, i had no clue what was being said, i was into sports, hunting and fishing...

I was fortunate to grow up in a stable, non racist, generally optimistic household, so i had no external immaturity molding me, yet i had the low self esteem, always felt different and was very naive to the harsher and manipulative aspects of society...that all changed when i got married, my wife was well honed in the art of communication analysis and body language, meaning she could take a seemingly innocent statement from someone and disect it into multiple directions of motive...i learned well as well as other maturities her and our children have shown to have...and when God saw that i was growing in the knowledge of good and evil and was choosing to retain good and reject evil, He called me to mature in spirit and truth, i said 'yes'...

That was in the spring of 2000...

To be continued.

His,
ron

 

[ron103]

so i started checking out churchs and was given a bible...the first verse that gave me the 'freezing feeling' was genesis 4:7 when God said you must 'master sin'...when i started to realize that i was valuing the same morals, ethics and principles that God valued, that is when i made a covenant with Him that i was going to finish what He started and i sold my soul to God that day...from 2000-2006 i had attended atleast 20 churchs and learned many truths and insights from pastors and other believers who were pursuing the truth for many years, but when i would attempt to share an insight with them, it was never received warmly...and staying in a stagnant was not an option, so i would bless them and move onto the next sign from Him...this brought me to my first spirit filled church in the summer of 05...and after 4 months of learning and growing from these people, the same rejection happened, but i couldnt leave, i had to stay...it was a week before christmas...

Tbc

 

[ron103]

reported the pastor...'his name is jim ........ from colorado and he is filled with the Holy Spirit and will be here the first week in january for a 3 night healing service and teaching and you may ask the Holy Spirit anything you wish'...

After 5 years of expending serious amounts of mental energy following signs and what i perceived as mind thoughts from God, i was two weeks away from knowing His hand was truly on me or i was just living a delusion....nervous was i to say the least...i spent those 2 weeks completely going through the file cabinet in my mind searching for any unconscious hypocrisy's i may be still harboring, any unremembered cruelties i had dealt to anyone in my past, anything that would cause God to say...'sorry my son, you are not worthy to enter...

The first night i was planning on just sitting and listening to see if this man of God was legit...i knew that jim had no personal connection to the congregation i had spent 4 months with getting to know and when he started the healing service, the things he was saying to individuals i knew was very, very personal...it lasted from 7 pm til 1 am and then i went home to replay everything...the second night i went to the front and jim put oil on my forehead and told me that His hand was on me and that i have always felt odd (with a sad face if i may add) and that i had seared my emotions so that i didnt have to feel the full emotional weight of all the rejections i had endured in my past...it felt like i had a hole in my back that got filled in...after there were around 10 people still there and suddenly we were in a circle holding hands and one person went to the center and went to there knees and while staring at the floor, was sobbing and evidently was seeing a vision of the lake of fire, for he was repeating, 'all those souls, they are burning...' this was my first spiritual experience and it was 'sobering'...

The last night while driving there, i knew this was my last chance to ask God if He had a plan for me or not and as i got close, i had two choices, drive by or pull in and just as i arrived, my mind spoke, 'just pull in....so, i did and i parked in a spot where i could see jim through a window...i was alittle early, so i stayed in the car for awhile planning on going in, in a few...



thats what i was thinking anyway...

 

[ron103]

what i learned from watching the previous nights healings was that the people behind the person getting healed, 'the catchers' would sometimes get 'the wave' they called it, even if they werent touching the person getting healed...which is important not to do, because if you understand electricity, you will know that touching that person may cause the power of God to go right through that person and may cause that healing to fail...i have seen alot of churchs after this, not understand that and miss out on alot of sincere healings, this is different from anointings or blessings where like in the movie 'avatar' where the whole village has their hand on each other...

Now, what was i talking about..? oh, yeah, thats right, i was sitting in my car watching the service begin when i felt 'the wave' come right through the windshield and hit me in the face...the next thing i know i had unconsciously grabbed for the lever to put the back of my seat down and curled up into the fetal position...

Now, if anyone reading this is a runner or has sprinted or has done some serious cardio, you will understand what my chest and stomach were doing...i have always been in decent shape because of my work ethic bordering on workaholic, but i had been channeling most of my physical energy toward mentally growing the kingdom in me (mustard seed) for 5 years and i had lost atleast 20 pounds of muscle, mainly my shoulders and calves, but i still had stomach muscles, but not what was needed to endure what i was now experiencing...my first thought was 'my stomach muscles were going to get shredded, there is no way i can keep this up...but as time went on, the pain did not come, then i knew God was helping me get through this...it felt like i was deep into hypothermia, yet not feeling cold and the shakes were slightly slower...and if you have ever heard someone in gutteral agony in their soul, this was similiar, yet when i did get a chance to release noises, an uncontrollable laughter came out...i was experiencing all the signs of agony, yet the feeling from was levels of euphoria i had never experienced before...i remember about 3 hours into this, asking God if this was the height of the experience...? that was not a smart thing to ask...

The next thing i know, i am upright in my seat feeling like i am going through the roof, it was like He turned up the volume to a point i could not handle....then it slowly subsided and i was back in the fetal again thanking Him over and over...

About midnight, i watched most of the people leave until there were those same people left...i went in there still shaking like i had a too close of contact with a high voltage power line and these people witnessed the aftermath of this...yet, seemed to be not too interested, so that was the end of that church...the next morning, i would stagger once in awhile after getting up and the shakes lasted about two weeks after, then left, but never really did, for it returns when He is nearby....

It took awhile to ponder what happened that night, but one thing that stood out immediately is the feeling that i was now officially in 'the Family'...and there was no turning back....ever.

Thank you again Father...

 

[ron103]

after i wrote the above, i turned around to look out a window i fortunately work by and from behind the building directly above me appeared atleast 50 ravens all in a group and it looked like the were playing, diving and spinning around and i watched them hover around for a minute and then fly away...

This is not the first time ravens have appeared in number after a potentially serious spiritual experience...hmmm...

Have a blessed weekend...alll of you.

Thank you again Father...and Brother for plowing the road...

Yours,
ron