Growing in Christ

Blessed2003 said:

Oh, I love this thread, this is the first time I have read it. I like what you wrote abigail.mcintyre, it spoke to my heart. Thanks.
Last night I was studying the Word, and praying. I thought of how hard it has been to practice the deeds of Love, and not be overcome by evil. I look around at the people in my life, and I see how sometimes, ONLY ONE act of Love, and forgiveness, has completely CHANGED our relationship. (ofcourse, I had to take the step) I use to sit around, crying, feeling so sad, because I didn't feel that anyone loved me. I have had to learn to love them first, then guess what, they love me back the way I want to be loved! What an amazing thing, sometimes being the one who has to make the first move is so hard, but through experience I have learned, once you do, the DOOR is open from then on. Praise God, the only way, the ONLY way, is the way of Love. Today, if you read this, and feel unloved, unappreciated, unnoticed, take the first step. Love the unlovable, feed your enemy, let's kill the enemy with kindness. That is the only way.
Afrer all, Jesus died for us, and we know that really, we too have been the unlovable, we have hurt people, and done wrong too, we have been forgiven, so let's love, and forgive, even when it doesn't seem that the person who needs the forgiveness, or love deserves it.
I know I am preaching to the choir here, but hey, we all need reminders.
Love to all in Christ,
B

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Hi B,

I stand in awe of His love! What a good model He has given us!

Sow love and you will reap love. Isn't this just the most divine revelation?

Such amazing grace has our God. Preach it sister, I'm listening! - Abi

PS So is He!

Tell everyone about My love.
Tell them I love them with an Almighty love.
That is why I sent My Son.
I sowed My Son in love, and I reaped a great harvest of godly offspring.
They are My joy, and the delight of My Father's heart.
Tell everyone about My love.
I Am your Heavenly Father, Yahweh.

Love in Christ - Abi

leastone said:

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

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What an awesome post. Thank you.

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.

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All of your post is excellent and right on target. But the above something that stands out to me, because that is what He has been doing in my life, calling me to listen more to Him and to quit doing all the talking. But it does take setting aside some time to do that. And that amount of time set aside is not unreasonable, when I think how available He is for me. Thanks for this post it is such an encouragement. God bless!

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...

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 ...

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...

THANK YOU LEASTONE FOR THIS WISDOM GIVEN IN LOVE - Abi

I fought the good fight, and I finally won, and He tamed my tongue with His mighty Help, and now I know it is done - I am healed of a critical tongue.

Hallelujah! He did it for me! I could not do it myself. It was enough that I tried. He took my desire and multiplied it for my benefit. My God reigns!
Not my tongue! Except to praise His holy name! Hallelujah!

Revelation this week:
God loves those who love His Son Jesus.
Jesus loves those who love His Father as He does.
We have the Holy Spirit of Love spread abroad in our hearts.

Love in Christ - Abi

you would not believe how much these posts have affected my time on here today. I know that the Lord lead me to these posts for inspiration after a sligtly lagging time with him. A sin which I have asked forgiveness for time and time again seems to still be everywhere, in my head, my heart and my life. I thought that maybe I was asking him the wrong way, but I guess I now realise it is time to sit back and let God clean me up, not to forget the sin but to bring it to him everyday if need be, and to spend more time working for him, in his love and his grace.
In his loving name,
forever,
C@ xx
P:s: thankyou

I guess the biggest lesson I learnt was to keep my eyes and ears open for answers.
before I even properly accepted the Lord I sat reading my childrens bible one night, shortly after my Grandad had died and read the story of Noah. As I read the part about the promise of the rainbow, I said to God, "how do I know that you won't kill us all agin in a flood or whatever?, how do I know that? I haven't even seen a rainbow in years". The next day, as my dad was driving us to my grandparents, (the other set) we saw the biggest brightest rainbow stretched out right across the road ahead of us I have ever seen. Everyone commented on it's beauty, and I just silently prayed "ok I get the picture, a promise is a promise!"
shortly after accepting the Lord into my life I went out drinking with a friend, (I didn't yet understand the consequences of this but I was about to!) I got heavily drunk and was sick, from alcohol for the first time ever, they didn't sell water in this place and the club was overheated and stuffy, I felt horribly lonely so I sat down on the floor and prayed. I saw something ahead of me and it was a tiny silver cross on the floor which had clearly fallen off a necklace or something, but the message for me was clear, he was with me!
C@ xx

I just wanted to thank you for this thread. Please don't let it die.

Earlier today I was talking with a dear friend about some of the things I have been going through and learning. We got on the subject of self-righteousness. I had a family that went to church faithfully and as far as I knew were not living in sin. I remember at an early age that something did not seem right, but I didn't know what it was. I was taught by my family what right and wrong were, according to what they knew to be true. I was taught that verbally, but what I SAW was not matching up. As a child, I didn't question the actions or motives of anyone around me, I just observed and took it all in. As I developed my own sense of me, I decided that I didn't want to be what they were because they were mean. The way I analyzed it was like this OK, they are "Christians" and they serve God, so God must be like them, mean. I had a love for God in my heart and prayed, but I was confused. I decided not to even try to 'follow the rules' since they were way too hard for me to keep, so I rebelled against authority, ALL of it. (I do not mean to sound like I don't love my family, ofcourse I do, and I know that we are all different and I know that I can not judge another person's heart, but to tell the things I learned I have to include my 'calls' on right and wrong, just to clarify) Somethings we learn are not taught, we learn to repeat what we see as we find others to model ourselves after. When there is no one to look to that we admire enough to be like then we set our own standard. Self-righteousness comes from this, it also comes from a person who really has no clue about what true right and wrong is. As a human being we all have standards, right. If I look at a situation without knowing everything (and I can't because I'm human) I will judge it on my standard of right and wrong and make an immediate call (usually) to say that it is good/bad right/wrong. We all do that, whether we are aware of it or not. The scary thing about self-righteousness is, one who is, DOES NOT KNOW it. All self-righteousness is, is a LIE. It is being caught up in the world. So, the challenge is to look DEEPLY inside, not outside. As a Christian we know that there are people who look at us, and decide if we are true. We are also in the position of representing our Lord, so we need to examine ourselves and make sure that self-righteousness does not find it's place in our heart. It is a mask. Everyone has one until the Lord removes it. If He has not removed, or is not removing yours, then this is for you. Pray about it and ask God to reveal your mask to you so it can be removed. It is normal to keep a part of yourself 'hidden' from others, since we are judgemental by nature of what we have never experienced, or dont know. I can tell you from personal experience it HURTS to see the real you. It is nice to keep on your mask because it FEELS like a protective cover, and we don't even know we have it on! Our hearts should be compassionate for other people, ALL people. The homeless guy that you might see pushing his little buggy filled with all of his possessions, (including a bottle of liquor) may make you feel like he could have prevented that, or he should do something. Be careful, you never know what you will wake up to tomorrow, even your santiy is from God, He could choose to take it! Don't judge the 'outcasts' of 'society' because you don't know what it took for them to get there. God is the only ONE who knows everything and it is only by His grace that any of us are saved, and have what we have. I say that we should let our actions speak for who we are, let's not TELL the world as much as we SHOW the world who our saviour is. It hurts to know that the only Good in me is not really me, but what hurts more, is that it is true for us all, and we refuse to see it.
God Bless

thankyou for your inspiring message blessed
C@ xx

Thanxs
That really resonates with a message GOD has been stirring in my heart for the last couple of weeks about eating meals together in the spirit of unity.

It is so important to value each others gift and abilities and to work as a body.
Foreal

Wow! I have only read the first page of this thread, but so far, there are some great thoughts that encourage me in the Lord.

I just have a few things to share myself. One thing God has been showing me lately about growing in Christ is that the growth must be "in Christ" i.e. keeping the focus on Him who is the object of our faith and love. I think often new Christians love the Lord, but then after time, they take the focus away from Christ. They begin to get self sufficient when they begin to realize "Hey I know a lot about the Bible now" or "I'm really getting this thing down. I go to church every time the doors are open. I do this, I do that." So it's almost as if they have outgrown Christ (or think they have) rather than grown in Him. But without Him, we are nothing and we never will be anything without Him.

The second thing God has shown me about growth is that we must always seek to advance and never become content and at ease with where we are in our walk with God. There is always room for growth. In 2 Peter, chapter 1, the Bible says we should add to our faith virtue, knowledge, etc. It gives a long list of things we should add to our faith.

Also John 15 speaks to me. This chapter says that if we abide in Christ, we will bring forth fruit continually. May we all pray that we will be like branches abiding in the Vine and bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit!

I've read some pages. Too many though.

From www.arcamax.com

Monday August 23, 2004
Today In Bible Verses:


Today's Scripture
Read Through the Bible in a Year
Weekly Meditation


Today's Scripture


Preach the Gospel!

"But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will
receive power and will tell people about Me everywhere -
in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the
ends of the earth."

Acts 1:8 NLT

---------------

And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

Mark 16:15,16 NKJV

---------------

No Easy Road...

You will be arrested, punished, and even killed.

Because of me, you will be hated by people of all nations.
Many will give up and will betray and hate each other.

Many false prophets will come and fool a lot of people.
Evil will spread and cause many people to stop loving others.

But if you keep on being faithful right to the end, you will
be saved. When the good news about the kingdom has been
preached all over the world and told to all nations, the end will come.

Matthew 24:9-14 CEV

---------------

We need a Savior because we are sinners,
and the wages of sin is death...

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift:
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God is the object of
our faith; the only faith that saves is faith in Him.


Back to Top


Read Through the Bible in a Year


August 23, John 5:19-47, 1 Chronicles 20:1-22:1, Zechariah 8
Click Here for the complete schedule

Or Cut and paste this link into your browser:
http://www.arcamax.com/ttb-yr.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll be right back with a link for the latest Web Evangelism bulletin online

It must be a real "God-incidence" that the 2 came @ the same day

www.gospelcom.net/guide/resources/webull04aug2.php

Most students have @ 3 weeks vacation left

I pray that you find this fruitful

God bless!

Ian

leastone said:

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

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Leastone,

Ive been a christian for a while now.. since my sophmore in highschool. I was growing then.... was always studying and reading and praying.... soemthing i loved doing. Things started happenenin and life got tough.... I walked away.. but im happy to say in the last four years i have come back to the LORD>.. unfortunately... the growing is not there like it used to be anymore..... ITs been a real struggle to read or pray ... i mean i still do but not on a daily basis.... Its not that i dont love GOD..CAUSE I DO I REALLY DO. Ive been asking God why.... and ive been asking him why cant he use me.... why hasnt the youth ministry that im studying for taken off... why cant i keep focused on my classes for that.... sighs.. your post answered these questions..... Thankyou for posting this. Im gonna work a little harder at falling in love with God all over again. (((((((((((((((((( LeastOne)))))))))))))))))))))))))) ty for listening to God.

Terri

That's the key, isn't it? The 'falling in love' with God? Everything else is secondary. There's no point to it really if we do not love God. Even in the seeking of Him and in in our brokenness, He is working His grace and love in our hearts. And we find that we love Him....like something that was hidden sprouts forth with the watering of the Holy Spirit.

It is not possible to carry on with anything at all without God's prompting through the Holy Spirit. It's merely going through the motions.

This thread is in sync with what I've been struggling with myself. As I go on in my walk, I realize how crucial it is to be honest with God, seeking transparency, praying for clarity. Coming clean about being tired, not feeling like it, and my avoidance of Him when I fall short. Yet the 'pull' happens. And somehow I know that He is awakening that part of me that cried out to Him to not fall prey to a 'deadness' to Him.

The 1st post on this thread says it all. To want to just climb on His lap....to want to be with Him, lay my weary head against His chest, and absorb all that He is. A God that rejoices over me with singing. To want to see Him rejoice. That's what it's about, isn't it?

leastone,



I have been registered for a long time here in this forum, for over a year, but seeing the outward things Christians were always dealing with, not only did I write anything but I also didn’t visit the forum for a long time. Two, three days ago I decided to delete the “Christians forums” from my “favorite” folder but in the last moment I thought it would be better to have a quick check before deleting it. So I came across with the “deeper fellowship” and “growing in Christ”. To be honest I was surprised with that really deeper knowledge that I saw in your writings.



I was immediately tempted to write, but I thought it would be better to read all the writings before making the decision to write. So after reading all your writings from “growing in Christ” and “following the way” I finally took this decision.



Most of us, as I already have noticed not only in this forum but also in my daily life and the life of my fellow Christians, tend to speak about outward things, about soul’s things. We tend to please God by means of flesh, by means of the earth, not by heavenly means.



Fortunately, there are few Christians who speak about inward things, that is, spiritual things. They have learned the lesson of living according to the spirit and they convey to others nothing but Christ who comes out from their inner part, the very place where Christ dwells. Christ’s spirit dwells in our spirit, but the problem with us is that this very spirit cannot be released just because of our unbroken outward man, so we fail not only to touch others with our spirit, but we also fail to grow in Christ.



However my spirit was touched by you leastone, and I immediately recognized that you are one of those few broken men. You can spontaneously grow in Christ, you can spontaneously be nourished by Him, you can spontaneously nourish others with your spirit, you can easily be used by your Lord, just because the Lord in His Grace has broken you through His Cross. His Cross has been for you a real experience, not just e theory, not an intellect knowledge.



Most of the Christians, as you have already said, in the beginning of our life with Christ are not taught to have a deeper fellowship with Christ, are not taught to walk inwardly, but outwardly, and soon we pass the time of excitement and enthusiasm and we are still in dark inwardly, and we suffer our Christian life. Our Christian life is a huge burden for most of us and we constantly struggle under this heavy weight. This exactly has happened to me. First, when I was converted, I was the happier person in the world, but unfortunately instead of being given the right food for my spirit, I was given food for my soul, for my flesh.



After many years I came to realize that all I was being taught was rather an obstacle for my spiritual life so I soon quit that kind of experience and started reading the best Christians books. The problem is that I think I am in the same situation now that you were once. I have read the best Christians books during these years I have known through their books the greatest Christians of Church history, Guyon, Fenelon, Brother Lawrence, Nee, T. Austin – Sparks, etc.

What I want to say is that about ten years after I was converted I cannot complain any more about not having the right way of knowing the Lord. Mentally I know everything right, but in spirit I am still baby. I am an unbroken person and I understand that all this is because I haven’t experienced the Lord yet. I haven’t experienced an inward walk with my Lord.



So I thank you for your writings in this forum, because they have given me hope that I might experience that inward walk with my Lord. I am not too quick to say that the Lord has already changed me through your writings or something like that, because I now very well that the process of being broken is a long time one. I can say for sure nothing. It has been a relatively long time now that I have been asking the Lord only one thing: “Lord, I want to get rid of myself, please help me.” I see in mirror myself and I can see clearly how much I am an obstacle for my spirit to be released and I wish that one day the Lord will mercy me and break me.



Nothing has changed until now and I am still insisting that the Lord breaks me. I don’t know what is going to happen in the future but sometimes it seems like the Lord asks me if I really mean that, if I am really ready for getting rid of myself. There are times that I hesitate, but finally before sleeping I would say to my Lord I don’t care what is going to happen to me, just unchain me from myself.



You said:

Little did I know that He was the One leading me all that time.

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Dear brother, I am not sure if He is doing the same in my life, but I wish I would be able one day to say these same words.


leastone, I have noticed that you sometimes speak about the body of Christ, about the Church. I agree with you in what you have said but it seems like you speak about the church in a more general term rather than in a specific term. I wonder if you have ever experienced church life. I have seen your insight in the Lord and I am sure that this has not come as the result of just sitting in a pew every Sunday morning. I mean the church as it exists today cannot provide the believers with such insight.(that's why brothers and sisters in that forum are sou touched by your writings)



The Sunday morning service, just going and sit in a pew and hear the sermon and nothing more, is not the church used to be in the apostolic age. It is not the church of the New Testament. Therefore the church today is not capable of giving the real Food to the believers, that’s why I believe that most of us suffer a lot the Christian life.



I live in Athens, Greece and until now I haven’t had the opportunity of being with a group of Christians with the same goal; pursuing the Lord, but I have seen the organic church, that has nothing to do with the institutional churches or the organized churches where believers just “go to church”. I have seen the body of Christ where all the believers are participators, all the believers share…Christ.



Let me give a simple example to illustrate it a little bit. In your first writing in “growing in Christ” you have written:

...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.

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I have visited that church and have seen this thing practicing together. Each of them found such verses in N.T. and when they got together declared to each other those truths from the bible. For example, one brother would say to a sister: “Sister, you are holy, you are holy because of the blood of Jesus Christ. You are in Him and the Father sees His Son in you, and you are in Him as holy as He is, as righteous as He is etc.” The sister would thank the brother and would declare other words to him or another brother or sister, and so on they would continue to encourage each other with such declaration. They would share with each other anything that they think would help in their growing together in Christ. They also from time to time practice the “quiet times”. During a period of time they would get together in groups of two or three every morning and would stay quiet before the Lord for 10, 15 or 20 minutes. It depends on how much they could hear His voice. They would read a Christ-centered verse and try to feed the spirit with that verse. And when they would get together, they would share their experience they had during the week.



You also say:

The next season we had a new kid who was a much better basketball player than any of the rest of us were. Everyone expected us to be even better than the year before because of this new addition but, because he did not play with the same unselfishness as we did, and continued to play the way he wanted to - and especially because he did not pay attention to what the coach said - we did not do so well that year.

And so it is with the Body of Christ.

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This is what exactly happens with an organic church. They don’t have a leader, a pastor or whoever that would do everything for them. They are just brothers learning to love each other under the headship of only a Man, who is Jesus Christ. Unfortunately that church is in a neighbor country of Greece and there are such churches all over the US so I have not had the chance of being part of that church, and pursuing Christ together.



So, I would like to ask you, are you experiencing church life? Are you speaking about church in a general term, that is, about the invisible church, being seen only from the Father, or are you speaking about the visible church, that can be experienced from the believers in their everyday life? Because I cannot see how a believer can function as a member of the Body when he does nothing but sit and listen to the sermon. I cannot see how the church can function when there is only one man (the good player in your basketball team) who does everything for the others with the result of believers being focused on the “good player” instead of the “coach” who is Jesus Christ.



I look forward to you answering me. Thank you in advance.

Hi Count,

I don't know wether leastone will respond or not as it's been a while since his last post here. I did e-mail with him a few times but my last one didn't get a response so he may not reply unfortunately.

I do want to applaud your bravery and your zeal! Bravo! Good luck and I'll keep you in my prayers.

In Christ,

Pseud,

Thank you for your information and your prayers.