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The question uses terms mutually exclusive. There are no more blessings that curse than married bachelors. Blessings do not curse.Edit: Can God take away blessings for a spoken word that curses? Can I repent and will the blessings return?
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.
i am a man who had recently found god my faith is currently like a spark inconsistent doubtful but undeniably there i wish to cultivate it into a roaring flame to always feel gods presence and blessings thank you for this guidance
LeastOne
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.
i have been decided, told that god was not real from childhood, turning my parents into instruments of deception denied the light of god i now look to for enlightenment
LeastOne
i believe god is watching over me, that in my darkest moment after years of depression isolation and anxiety his light was shun upon me, and while i do not always hold belief in everyday events i feel he is watching, when i see a bird take flight i feel he is telling me to get started when the morning sun first hits my face i feel he is encouraging me to keep going i am hopeful for the futureamenHi Saints:
The Lord often uses the simplest of events in life to bring some spiritual lesson or another to our notice, if we will but pay attention. In His parables, Jesus did this many times; He would describe great spiritual principles using basic everyday occurances to which everyone could relate. God is always a working in the present moment, for truly He is always Now and is ever working in His creation. May He open the eyes of each of His children, that they may see Him today as He works in and around them in their everyday lives.
Some time ago we had a stray cat come to live in our garage, and she was probably the ugliest cat ever: one gnarly, chewed up ear that permanently flopped halfway over; short little legs and a round, fat body; she looked like a cartoon cat the way she darted around everywhere. But mostly she was the most traumatized animal I have ever seen; you could see it in her eyes, that whatever had happened to her in her previous life had not been good.
We set food and water out for her, but if we came anywhere near her she would cring down, panic in her eyes, ready to run. We decided that rather than traumatize her more by pushing ourselves on her, we would just let her alone to realize for herself that she could trust us. She made herself a bed under an old chair we had, and for the first month or so would hardly come out except to eat and go outside to the restroom. In time, by showing her kindness but requiring nothing in return she eventually realized we meant her no harm, and learned to trust us, allowing us to pet her and even enjoying it. Later, when we had to move, we found her a good home where she is today. And she has become the most loving, sweetest cat; even her looks have changed to where she is actually cute.
I know a woman who didn't leave home until she was 39 years old; up until then she was berated and belittled constantly, forced to chauffer her mother everywhere, basically allowed no life of her own. Finding thoughts of suicide growing stronger and stronger in her, she finally had to just run away from home. Having nowhere to go, she lived with us for a while, until she could find a job. Quite honestly, the darkness surrounding this woman at first was extremely difficult to be around. The spirits of oppression were so heavy around her they were almost physically felt; it was nearly impossible to even have a normal conversation with her because everything that came out of her mouth was so filled with depression and despair.
Rather than have us directly confront her, or go through a lot of spiritual warfare, the Lord asked that we just allow her to be, and for us to just love her. So, that is what we did (as difficult as that was at times). But today, she is a totally different person; saved, and developing her own life. And though she can still be a little much at times, it is mild in comparison - and it has only been a couple of years.
The point of all of this is that there is no set formula that always works for every person and every situation. Jesus healed each person differently when He walked the earth, and He does the same today. It is only by diligently seeking the Lord for whomever He brings our way that we can truly minister His Life to that person. Often He will lead us to just be a friend to them. And we never go wrong with kindness and real loving acceptance.
Col. 3:12 - "And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience..."
By the way, we gave the cat to the woman and both are doing well together.
seduced by pornography, deceived into believing atheism is enlightenment forces are at work to dim gods light to take us of the path to enlightenment i try to stay on that path with meditation and the few prayers i have learned since my awakening i am to saddened my own parents are non believers each miserable as they have no hope for the future. no faith i wish only to live with good character upon the word of god amenHi Saints:
As I read through some of the posts here, it both saddens me and angers me that so many Christian brothers and sisters are left floundering in their spiritual lives, uncertain and in despair over what in happening to them in their Christian walk. This should not be, for truly God has a purpose for each and every one of His children, and He is working toward that purpose in each and every one of those lives - including yours. But understanding what is really going on is absolutely crucial in order to stop being so discouraged and beaten down.
Our spiritual growth in Christ is what God is most concerned about in our lives. Everything He does is aimed toward accomplishing that one purpose; that is, if we are seeking Him. His primary goal is for each one of us to be whole - complete - with "the maturity found in Christ". And His intention is for each one of us to reach that goal in this life.
The enemy's purpose is just the opposite; his basic aim is to keep us from reaching any kind of spiritual growth - much less maturity - in this life. And so since the beginning of the church the enemy has used his two chief weapons - deception and seduction - to hide both the goal and the means given to reach that goal. Substituting mere appearance for true substance, and proper form for the freedom of the Spirit, he buries the Light revealed in Christ under a blanket of religion and hides the Wisdom found in Christ behind the knowledge of human reason. All to keep in darkness those who are intended to be "called out" into Light; all to keep us from discovering, then aiming toward, and finally reaching that God-intended goal of spiritual maturity in Christ in this life!
Jesus warned us that the enemy would infiltrate our camp (the wheat and the tares), and use whatever means he could to keep us in the dark and so, throughout church history down to the present day - even in this very forum - there are those who will try to hinder spiritual growth. And always it is the same, deception and seduction - the weapons of darkness: one works to force you back, the other to tempt you astray. One will attack you, the other distract you. One will try to scare you, the other to impair you. The means may vary, but the aim is always the same:to keep you from growing in Christ.
Since darkness can never defeat light, he can never completely snuff out the Light of God's Word, but he works tirelessly toward keeping us in the dark about it. But, the truth is, only those who have light can control whether it is brightened or dimmed; the darkness has absolutely no say in it. Ultimately therefore, only we determine whether we will grow spiritually brighter in the Light - no one else. No one can make us do it, and no one can make us stop. Our spiritual growth is truly in our hands alone; and it all comes down to which side we choose to believe: God's Word or the enemy's words. One is telling the truth and one is telling lies; we must decide for ourselves which is which.
Joshua 24: 15 "..choose you this day whom ye will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
LeastOne
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
Reading is good. Doing what it teaches is better. If a person wants to follow Christ (a concept we don’t use anymore) then he needs to do in real life what God wants Him to do. “Faith comes by hearing” not reading.Jesus in the sermon on the mount said “Seek God first …” How do we seek God? Answer: by reading the Bible. And reading it with strong intentions to learn more about God. This means read very slow, and meditate and research. The more we know God the more we fall in love with him. This is a prerequisite to sitting silent and listening to God. The more mature we get spiritually from reading the bible, the more better equipped we get to recognize God’s message to us from all the other noise in our life.
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.
Amen God Bless you for sharing this and being obedient to His will. There is so much more to this...
I love how you said we must always get in line with Him... For it is written:
Proverbs 3:6 KJV
"In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
This is the simple thing should we do it that helps us avoid a lot of the pitfalls that snare Christians. All Your Ways... Not only the things you think you should but all your ways... You said so many good things in your post. I also love that you said Praise God.
Did you know that it was biblical that God lives in the praises of His people?
Learn more here... Rise & Shine
I encourage you leastone, post: 1192719 and all brothers and sisters in Christ
I will say that you should keep shining for Jesus.
I want to share this encouraging video with you by Casting Crowns Praise You In This Storm. It compliments nicely with what leastone has said.
Especially, if you are currently going through it. Don't forget to Praise Him In It...
God Bless you all and keep you safe.
Hi Chris, just read your testimony. I enjoyed your story! So thankful Dustin came into your life that night. Truly seemed like a divine appointment sent by God. Love the concept of coming to Christ by the campfire. Reminds me of Jesus on the shore by the campfire cooking fish (John 21:9). He was by the campfire with you and Dustin that night I am sure. Just curious do you still keep up with Dustin?hello all some may have read some of my posts on other threads, i would like to share something very dear and special to meit was in the summer of 2000 i would have just turned 18 at the time had recently gone through a surgery and was feeling lost, i was asking god why of all people did this have to happen to me. later after that for before i did not have a relationship with christ i had an oppurtunity to go camping with my family that week i met while camping a person of darker skin color named dustin and we quickly became friends, later the night i met with him outside our camper by a roaring campfire the rest of my family was asleep so it was just me and him out of the blue he asked if i knew and had jesus as my own personal lord and savior we talked about it and at the time i had said no, so he asked iff i would like to after thinking about it tears in my eyes i said yes he lead me into acceptance of christ that night and when we were done we noticed there was no wind blowing, at some pointthat same night we decided to go out on the water in a rowboat while out on the water it was foggy at that time we actuaally ended up loseing an oar! so here we were with one oar in a rowboat during a foggy nightwhat we ended up doing to get us to shore was use the remaining oar to get us back., fast forward in 2002 i receved my first bible from a friend at school it was not the kjv i use today from my parents but instead an inspirational study bible i then guickly after that joined a baptist church got baptised there after awhile went to the unshakeable acquire the fire concert from my church , which the event was held in the rca dome. since those times i have been on a continual walk with god i am currently 38 graduated with a highschool diploma and have tryed to stay true to who i am reborn through christ, there have been alot of trials and tribulations for me in such a short span of years that i feel older then i am all while dealing with how society views differnt thinking, since the age of 5 when i was in school i was put on medications, the schoolboard at my school heavily suggested to get startred on useing ritalin, i was diagnosed as having adhd and aspergers syndrome, later i got other labels like schizzo effective disorder i would like to ramble on and on about my life but the only way it could all accuratly fit would be like a villian monologue to a superhero so i will keep it at this for now, i am truely blessed to have the loved ones i do and to have experoenced the things i have i am truly grateful that the lord my redeemer has had my back since my conception even to now whether i knew it then or not he has been with me, thank you all for your time in indulging my ramblings peace be with you all and god bless.
We hear when we read as well. Hearing also means understanding. Hearing is not just hearing from someone preaching. Hearing is also absorbing, taking to heart, hearing what the word is saying.Reading is good. Doing what it teaches is better. If a person wants to follow Christ (a concept we don’t use anymore) then he needs to do in real life what God wants Him to do. “Faith comes by hearing” not reading.
uunfortunatly no after a few years i lost his number, iive grownn a lot since those times, with me now having a higher understanding of self and have grown into maturity.Hi Chris, just read your testimony. I enjoyed your story! So thankful Dustin came into your life that night. Truly seemed like a divine appointment sent by God. Love the concept of coming to Christ by the campfire. Reminds me of Jesus on the shore by the campfire cooking fish (John 21:9). He was by the campfire with you and Dustin that night I am sure. Just curious do you still keep up with Dustin?
thanx for the complement but i believe that moment was predestined. i have stayed true to myself dispite my huge shopping list of flaws, and have become a stronger person because of what was done through me that night.uunfortunatly no after a few years i lost his number, iive grownn a lot since those times, with me now having a higher understanding of self and have grown into maturity.
For if indeed your sins are purged, it is in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Cor 2:10-11)The Spirit has reminded me of some additions to this list:
9) Confess your sins; get cleansed in the Blood of Jesus. The enemy gains influence over us through sin in our lives.
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