Has this ever happened to anyone else

[Tyler52]

I was lying down the other night (can't tell you how long ago it was with any degree of certainty), and I was praying, and I felt a presence. After I felt it, I felt a feeling, peace, I think, I'm not very good with emotions, but it felt like there was another emotion with the peace. I may have felt the other emotion because of doubt. Again, I'm not good with emotions, but did anyone ever experienced anything like this before? I don't believe that this is OCD (I have OCD). I'm afraid to post this because of what I think that some people might say, so please don't say anything that you don't know for certain. If you want more details about OCD, or more background information, then ask and I'll tell you if I think that I can.

 

[pescador]

I was lying down the other night (can't tell you how long ago it was with any degree of certainty), and I was praying, and I felt a presence. After I felt it, I felt a feeling, peace, I think, I'm not very good with emotions, but it felt like there was another emotion with the peace. I may have felt the other emotion because of doubt. Again, I'm not good with emotions, but did anyone ever experienced anything like this before? I don't believe that this is OCD (I have OCD). I'm afraid to post this because of what I think that some people might say, so please don't say anything that you don't know for certain. If you want more details about OCD, or more background information, then ask and I'll tell you if I think that I can.

Thanks for posting this. What was the other emotion?

 

[plain jayne]

I was lying down the other night (can't tell you how long ago it was with any degree of certainty), and I was praying, and I felt a presence. After I felt it, I felt a feeling, peace, I think, I'm not very good with emotions, but it felt like there was another emotion with the peace. I may have felt the other emotion because of doubt. Again, I'm not good with emotions, but did anyone ever experienced anything like this before? I don't believe that this is OCD (I have OCD). I'm afraid to post this because of what I think that some people might say, so please don't say anything that you don't know for certain. If you want more details about OCD, or more background information, then ask and I'll tell you if I think that I can.

I have felt all kinds of emotions: in praying, in reading the Bible, in listening to a pastor, in passing by the homeless, and a whole lot more.

I've felt conviction, joy, sorrow for my sin, peace, a stirring of desire to please God, enlightenment about something I was wrong about, and more.

Yes, sensing all kinds of emotions is normal.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

Emotions come and go. Some are nice and some not. Just let them go. They are not you.

 

[Tyler52]

Thanks for posting this. What was the other emotion?

I would describe it as something negative. I think that it's the same or a similar feeling that I notice that I get when I nerd out about something (I would describe the feeling as excitement, but the accompanying feeling is more like a guilt or a fear. The accompanying feeling is the one that I think may be the same as the feeling that I had that night, that accompanied the feeling of peace). I used to not get the bad feeling when I nerded out.

 

[shortangel]

you might have been feeling God's Presance when you were praying but you also mentioned emotions too, pray for discernment & ask God about it, he will not fail you

 

[Carl Emerson]

I was lying down the other night (can't tell you how long ago it was with any degree of certainty), and I was praying, and I felt a presence. After I felt it, I felt a feeling, peace, I think, I'm not very good with emotions, but it felt like there was another emotion with the peace. I may have felt the other emotion because of doubt. Again, I'm not good with emotions, but did anyone ever experienced anything like this before? I don't believe that this is OCD (I have OCD). I'm afraid to post this because of what I think that some people might say, so please don't say anything that you don't know for certain. If you want more details about OCD, or more background information, then ask and I'll tell you if I think that I can.

For what it is worth - for me the journey was long to learn what was God when He chose to assure me (the Word is close, even in the mouth and the heart.) Rom 10:8... I mean years.

This is partly because I was delivered from darkness and was well aware of counterfeit peace. Deut 23:5-6

Classic case of this a few weeks ago - I had been out of church for several years and was woken up at 2.30am with a strong surge of peace right through me. The Lord was healing me and assuring me He had a work for me to do in the church.

This impacted me so deeply that it took about three days for my mind to catch up on what He did in my heart. Initially I couldn't believe what I was saying.

So for me when He visits you there is a permanent change - an impact for good that does not fade.

I live in a remote valley in the country and daily enjoy His quiet presence in praise and worship - a quiet peace - the still small voice.

His Word can be deep and urgent if there is a work to be done.

So there you have three ways He speaks to me aside from through the Scripture.

There are plenty of folks on CF who do not acknowledge Jesus speaking in these ways as they have replaced the Holy Spirit with the Holy Bible and have become so captive to the book that they leave no room for a conversational relationship with Him who is closer than a brother. Prov 18:24

Our walk with Him is meant to be a joy not a chore.

Love you all.

 

[Swan7]

When I became born again, God lifted such a huge burden off of me that I didn't even know was there. I actually had peace going to work and spent that time with God (I walked to work), which was something I never had before. I was walking chaos, but God placed order in me so I was able to learn and hear from Him at my own pace. He gave me warnings along the way, and not just in scripture, but deep within me: Psalm 42:7

I can't tell you what you have experienced since I don't know you, but I sure hope it was from God. Like another have said: ask God. He will give you a clear answer.

 

[Tyler52]

Thank you to everyone who has posted so far
edit and to anyone who does after this post, if there is.

 

[tdidymas]

I was lying down the other night (can't tell you how long ago it was with any degree of certainty), and I was praying, and I felt a presence. After I felt it, I felt a feeling, peace, I think, I'm not very good with emotions, but it felt like there was another emotion with the peace. I may have felt the other emotion because of doubt. Again, I'm not good with emotions, but did anyone ever experienced anything like this before? I don't believe that this is OCD (I have OCD). I'm afraid to post this because of what I think that some people might say, so please don't say anything that you don't know for certain. If you want more details about OCD, or more background information, then ask and I'll tell you if I think that I can.

Yes, I've had many experiences of inner feelings and emotions, and some of them very powerful. It's a good thing if it increases one's awareness of God. However, be careful not to regard feelings too highly, since they quickly go away and are soon forgotten in times of tribulation and distress. God wants our faith to rise above feelings, which requires growth in knowledge of the Word.
TD

 

[1213]

I would describe it as something negative. ...

Do you have some idea why would you have had that negative feeling?

 

[K2K]

I was lying down the other night (can't tell you how long ago it was with any degree of certainty), and I was praying, and I felt a presence. After I felt it, I felt a feeling, peace, I think, I'm not very good with emotions, but it felt like there was another emotion with the peace. I may have felt the other emotion because of doubt. Again, I'm not good with emotions, but did anyone ever experienced anything like this before? I don't believe that this is OCD (I have OCD). I'm afraid to post this because of what I think that some people might say, so please don't say anything that you don't know for certain. If you want more details about OCD, or more background information, then ask and I'll tell you if I think that I can.

I love the post and happy to hear about the realization


The sad part in the OP is that this comes as a surprise, and I don't mean it is sad because it is a first time experience for Tyler52, I mean it is sad because the church has not explained that this type of thing happens and we should actually expect things like this to happen sometimes! Indeed, these things should be a well known and well communicated part of Christianity. So if a person has even gone to church and listened to sermon or two, this should have been explained clearly.

Too often we make God and has been, instead of alive. When that is happening, we find people who have come to church and yet when God does start doing things in their life they think that it might not be from God. We then have become the authors of doubt instead of belief.

Tyler52 - it is nice to hear the testimony. This sight should be full of those testimonies. Knowing God means these type of things are going to be happening in your life. God is spirit, and His presence should be felt at times. Since Jesus Christ is the prince of peace, you can expect these feelings of peace come on you when His presence comes on you. It is an awesome experience indeed, and you will find Him capable of so much more. Thank you for the testimony. People need to hear our testimonies.

 

[Tyler52]

Do you have some idea why would you have had that negative feeling?

I think that it's probably because I had a bad thought, but I don't know for certain when the bad feeling came in, and I have OCD, which makes me doubt things, so that doesn't exactly make for perfect recollection.

 

[Tyler52]

Thanks for posting this. What was the other emotion?

I said this in response to another post,
"I think that it's probably because I had a bad thought, but I don't know for certain when the bad feeling came in, and I have OCD, which makes me doubt things, so that doesn't exactly make for perfect recollection."

I would describe the experience as feeling a mixture of both feelings at once.

 

[Tyler52]

I love the post and happy to hear about the realization


The sad part in the OP is that this comes as a surprise, and I don't mean it is sad because it is a first time experience for Tyler52, I mean it is sad because the church has not explained that this type of thing happens and we should actually expect things like this to happen sometimes! Indeed, these things should be a well known and well communicated part of Christianity. So if a person has even gone to church and listened to sermon or two, this should have been explained clearly.

Too often we make God and has been, instead of alive. When that is happening, we find people who have come to church and yet when God does start doing things in their life they think that it might not be from God. We then have become the authors of doubt instead of belief.

Tyler52 - it is nice to hear the testimony. This sight should be full of those testimonies. Knowing God means these type of things are going to be happening in your life. God is spirit, and His presence should be felt at times. Since Jesus Christ is the prince of peace, you can expect these feelings of peace come on you when His presence comes on you. It is an awesome experience indeed, and you will find Him capable of so much more. Thank you for the testimony. People need to hear our testimonies.

I don't know if this is the first time I've experienced the presence of God or not.

 

[K2K]

I posted my initial reply above, but I want to comment a bit more specifically on peace and emotions.

As a person and God - (Jesus Christ is a person, The Son of God, and He is God) - is One incredible person to come to know. Which is to say that He is someone to get excited over!

With that in mind, the first time I heard Him tell me, "Karl, I love you" it brought tears to my eyes.
And like in the OP there I have had quite a number of times when His presence has brought on what I can only describe as a supernatural peace. His presence might also bring on joy in a supernatural way. Those are only some of the basic things (emotions) that His presence brings to you. And they should be part of the normal Christian life. After all God is love, the Prince of peace, and the Joy of the Lord is your strength, so expect that this might and will happen to you. And we need it at times!!

So 3 quick testimonies:

I mentioned that the first time I heard that small voice of His tell me He loved me. I was driving by a church, towards a stop sign. When I heard those words "I love you", by Him, instantly my eyes watered up so much I could hardly see the stop sign. What I didn't know was that a couple of years later He would have me going to that church and working in a healing ministry for Him in the exact same building of that church that I was driving next to at the time. So that every time I worked in that healing ministry I would remember that first time He told me "I love you", so that I was reminded of His love for the people coming in for pray to get healing. He knows what He is doing.

The next testimony is about supernatural joy. When He came into my life I was working as a retail manager for a large store. I was so excited about Him that I started telling the other employees about the Lord Jesus Christ. But our society and nation has laws against that! Other employees complained that I was preaching Jesus Christ at work and so I got fired from that job. I knew it was going to happen and so did He. He had asked me to pray for a write of someone with carpel tunnel at the end of my last full day. The next day I came in I found out that the Lord had fixed the wrist, but right afterwards I was called in to be fired. At being called to the office by the director of the store and before he told me I was fired a supernatural joy came on me. It was so apparent that I had this extremely Joy that the director commented on it, saying something like 'I can't believe you are so happy, you are losing your job.' Honestly, I could believe I was so happy either, but their is something mentioned in the Bible about rejoicing in those times of persecution, because your reward in heaven is great. Still, I didn't understand that the Lord was going to supernaturally make that rejoicing possible with supernatural joy.

Then there was a time when He gave me supernatural peace to the extreme. This was a pretty sad story, because it shows how many Christians think. The Lord had asked me to work in the children's ministry at a church, so I did. Yet the Lord was doing incredible things, and had given me the gift of tongues. I was just using it as a prayer language for myself, so nobody at the church had heard me praying in tongues. However, I was applying for membership in the church and they asked me about tongues and I explained that the Lord had given me that gift. I heard even before their interview, that whether I spoke in tongues would be asked and that if I told them about it that my membership would be turned down, and so it was. From what I could tell, I was the only one turned down at that time. I was also called in by the children's pastor because they didn't want me around the children, and as they told me I was about to get upset when suddenly his presence came on me and I got this supernatural peace, and I heard Him talking to me also. He is so disappointed with His people at times, which He explain.

It is sad - we Christian's don't talk to Him as we should, so we don't know what we should. We study the Bible and lean on our own understanding and as a result we get things all messed up. And one of the things we mess up is our failure to know about and tells others about the presence of the Lord and the feeling and emotions we get from coming into His presence. If there is shame on us, it is because we don't get into the Lord presence and listen to Him.

I loved the OP

 

[Tyler52]

I posted my initial reply above, but I want to comment a bit more specifically on peace and emotions.

As a person and God - (Jesus Christ is a person, The Son of God, and He is God) - is One incredible person to come to know. Which is to say that He is someone to get excited over!

With that in mind, the first time I heard Him tell me, "Karl, I love you" it brought tears to my eyes.
And like in the OP there I have had quite a number of times when His presence has brought on what I can only describe as a supernatural peace. His presence might also bring on joy in a supernatural way. Those are only some of the basic things (emotions) that His presence brings to you. And they should be part of the normal Christian life. After all God is love, the Prince of peace, and the Joy of the Lord is your strength, so expect that this might and will happen to you. And we need it at times!!

So 3 quick testimonies:

I mentioned that the first time I heard that small voice of His tell me He loved me. I was driving by a church, towards a stop sign. When I heard those words "I love you", by Him, instantly my eyes watered up so much I could hardly see the stop sign. What I didn't know was that a couple of years later He would have me going to that church and working in a healing ministry for Him in the exact same building of that church that I was driving next to at the time. So that every time I worked in that healing ministry I would remember that first time He told me "I love you", so that I was reminded of His love for the people coming in for pray to get healing. He knows what He is doing.

The next testimony is about supernatural joy. When He came into my life I was working as a retail manager for a large store. I was so excited about Him that I started telling the other employees about the Lord Jesus Christ. But our society and nation has laws against that! Other employees complained that I was preaching Jesus Christ at work and so I got fired from that job. I knew it was going to happen and so did He. He had asked me to pray for a write of someone with carpel tunnel at the end of my last full day. The next day I came in I found out that the Lord had fixed the wrist, but right afterwards I was called in to be fired. At being called to the office by the director of the store and before he told me I was fired a supernatural joy came on me. It was so apparent that I had this extremely Joy that the director commented on it, saying something like 'I can't believe you are so happy, you are losing your job.' Honestly, I could believe I was so happy either, but their is something mentioned in the Bible about rejoicing in those times of persecution, because your reward in heaven is great. Still, I didn't understand that the Lord was going to supernaturally make that rejoicing possible with supernatural joy.

Then there was a time when He gave me supernatural peace to the extreme. This was a pretty sad story, because it shows how many Christians think. The Lord had asked me to work in the children's ministry at a church, so I did. Yet the Lord was doing incredible things, and had given me the gift of tongues. I was just using it as a prayer language for myself, so nobody at the church had heard me praying in tongues. However, I was applying for membership in the church and they asked me about tongues and I explained that the Lord had given me that gift. I heard even before their interview, that whether I spoke in tongues would be asked and that if I told them about it that my membership would be turned down, and so it was. From what I could tell, I was the only one turned down at that time. I was also called in by the children's pastor because they didn't want me around the children, and as they told me I was about to get upset when suddenly his presence came on me and I got this supernatural peace, and I heard Him talking to me also. He is so disappointed with His people at times, which He explain.

It is sad - we Christian's don't talk to Him as we should, so we don't know what we should. We study the Bible and lean on our own understanding and as a result we get things all messed up. And one of the things we mess up is our failure to know about and tells others about the presence of the Lord and the feeling and emotions we get from coming into His presence. If there is shame on us, it is because we don't get into the Lord presence and listen to Him.

I loved the OP

How do you know when you've heard the voice of God?

 

[Tyler52]

I posted my initial reply above, but I want to comment a bit more specifically on peace and emotions.

As a person and God - (Jesus Christ is a person, The Son of God, and He is God) - is One incredible person to come to know. Which is to say that He is someone to get excited over!

With that in mind, the first time I heard Him tell me, "Karl, I love you" it brought tears to my eyes.
And like in the OP there I have had quite a number of times when His presence has brought on what I can only describe as a supernatural peace. His presence might also bring on joy in a supernatural way. Those are only some of the basic things (emotions) that His presence brings to you. And they should be part of the normal Christian life. After all God is love, the Prince of peace, and the Joy of the Lord is your strength, so expect that this might and will happen to you. And we need it at times!!

So 3 quick testimonies:

I mentioned that the first time I heard that small voice of His tell me He loved me. I was driving by a church, towards a stop sign. When I heard those words "I love you", by Him, instantly my eyes watered up so much I could hardly see the stop sign. What I didn't know was that a couple of years later He would have me going to that church and working in a healing ministry for Him in the exact same building of that church that I was driving next to at the time. So that every time I worked in that healing ministry I would remember that first time He told me "I love you", so that I was reminded of His love for the people coming in for pray to get healing. He knows what He is doing.

The next testimony is about supernatural joy. When He came into my life I was working as a retail manager for a large store. I was so excited about Him that I started telling the other employees about the Lord Jesus Christ. But our society and nation has laws against that! Other employees complained that I was preaching Jesus Christ at work and so I got fired from that job. I knew it was going to happen and so did He. He had asked me to pray for a write of someone with carpel tunnel at the end of my last full day. The next day I came in I found out that the Lord had fixed the wrist, but right afterwards I was called in to be fired. At being called to the office by the director of the store and before he told me I was fired a supernatural joy came on me. It was so apparent that I had this extremely Joy that the director commented on it, saying something like 'I can't believe you are so happy, you are losing your job.' Honestly, I could believe I was so happy either, but their is something mentioned in the Bible about rejoicing in those times of persecution, because your reward in heaven is great. Still, I didn't understand that the Lord was going to supernaturally make that rejoicing possible with supernatural joy.

Then there was a time when He gave me supernatural peace to the extreme. This was a pretty sad story, because it shows how many Christians think. The Lord had asked me to work in the children's ministry at a church, so I did. Yet the Lord was doing incredible things, and had given me the gift of tongues. I was just using it as a prayer language for myself, so nobody at the church had heard me praying in tongues. However, I was applying for membership in the church and they asked me about tongues and I explained that the Lord had given me that gift. I heard even before their interview, that whether I spoke in tongues would be asked and that if I told them about it that my membership would be turned down, and so it was. From what I could tell, I was the only one turned down at that time. I was also called in by the children's pastor because they didn't want me around the children, and as they told me I was about to get upset when suddenly his presence came on me and I got this supernatural peace, and I heard Him talking to me also. He is so disappointed with His people at times, which He explain.

It is sad - we Christian's don't talk to Him as we should, so we don't know what we should. We study the Bible and lean on our own understanding and as a result we get things all messed up. And one of the things we mess up is our failure to know about and tells others about the presence of the Lord and the feeling and emotions we get from coming into His presence. If there is shame on us, it is because we don't get into the Lord presence and listen to Him.

I loved the OP

Also, how do you pray? What do you do when you don't know what to say to God?

 

[K2K]

Also, how do you pray? What do you do when you don't know what to say to God?

Ok - 2 questions - How do I pray, and discernment

Both are a bit more than someone might think, especially the discernment

First - How do I pray?

Mostly my prayers are just conversations with Him and me. So it is just like talking to a friend, but of course your friend is God.

Is 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.

It is like what Isaiah wrote about above. I have thing I want to discuss with Him and He has responses to them.

Gen 5:24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

It is like that. So often He asks me to walk with Him and off we go. While on the walk I bring up things important to me, and He responds and brings up things important to Him. Honestly, this is really how you get to know Him, and most (99%) of my time in prayer with Him is just conversations back and forth

So then there are other prayer times, and they are for different reasons.

Intercession is an important one. Now I do intercede for people during my walk with Him, but that is simply in the form of a conversation. There are times, when either as a group, or because He has had me in 'intercession' that I focus just on asking for things. Then it is mostly from the Father, in His name. Of course if it is in His name, then I should ask Him what He wants prayed for, and I do and listen, then petition the Father.

On that same line, but slightly different is praying for others in ministry. He had me work five years in a healing ministry, where people came in for prayer. That is intercession and ministry combined, but the principle of asking Jesus Christ and praying in His name to the Father as He instructs is important.

Then there is praying in tongues. There are different reason for praying in tongues, but perhaps the main reason is that we just don't need to know about all that needs to be prayed for. There are other reasons, but for now let me just explain this: If someone has private problems do I need to know about them? Of course not. So I can just turn my voice over to the Holy Spirit and let Him do the praying. Again, there are many other reasons for tongues, but this is perhaps the main reason.

(Oh, I almost forgot something important. That is that our relationship with Him is something built up, just like any relationship. So it is important to understand that He is God and you are not, thus the bending of knees was very important to me at first. Yet as you get to know Him, your relationship changes to more of a servant, friend, son, and bride! Again this building of the relationship takes some time. Remember that the angel Gabriel said that he stood in the presence of God. It doesn't start that way, but it will get that way. He will tell you someday that it is not needed, of course even then you will be more than willing to throw any crown you got down and bow down to Him, after all He is still God and He is amazing)

Now on to discernment of spirits.

I have been with the Lord twenty years and still feel I have much to learn with this, though He is taught me a ton of information about this. So to be a bit brief I will cover a few main things:

The first thing to clearly understand is that God is God!!! That means He is omni-present, omni-potent, preeminent, omniscient, and more. Which is to say He is running His creation! Even when the devil is actively rebellious and against Him, He is still in charge!

Job 1:12 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.

Look close at the above verse. For Satan to get at Job he had to come and ask the Lord for permission. Satan got the permission but with certain limitations, and Satan was unable to go outside the permission he got from God!

So if Satan gets at you, then he could only do it if the Lord let Him! If that is the case, the Lord must have a purpose. That purpose, like in Job's case, is to get your attention on Him!

Second - It is written that all those who seek find, and to seek first the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom would first include the King (Jesus Christ) but also there are more (angels) with you than against you. You need to understand that. So the devil does exist and we do battle with the dark forces of this world, but there are more with our King and Lord than in the dark forces! So seek first the Kingdom of God.

Third - We have specific tests in the Bible we are supposed to use

1 Jn 4:1-3 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist

Forth - practice!! If you want to get good at playing the piano you practice. If you want to get good at discerning what is from God and what is not practice using your spiritual senses. Mainly I am talking about hearing with your spiritual ears, but you have five physical senses so figure you have five spiritual senses also and practice using them, with some discretion and consideration and you will get better at discernment.

Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

And fifth - which perhaps need to be first and is connected to seek first the Kingdom. That is, Jesus Christ is called the Teacher, and Wonderful Counselor. So talk to Him and ask Him questions about what is going on!!

2 Cor 10:5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

Taking all thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ means that we are taking all our thoughts to Him and asking Him what we need to do about them. We then listen to Him and do it, and in that way you get wonderful counsel and also get taught about discernment.

I could go on, but those are the basics and if He is the Teacher, perhaps you should be asking Him more about this than leaning on what I have learned. He has a plan for each of us and it includes what needs to be taught when and how.

 

[Tyler52]

Ok - 2 questions - How do I pray, and discernment

Both are a bit more than someone might think, especially the discernment

First - How do I pray?

Mostly my prayers are just conversations with Him and me. So it is just like talking to a friend, but of course your friend is God.

Is 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.

It is like what Isaiah wrote about above. I have thing I want to discuss with Him and He has responses to them.

Gen 5:24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

It is like that. So often He asks me to walk with Him and off we go. While on the walk I bring up things important to me, and He responds and brings up things important to Him. Honestly, this is really how you get to know Him, and most (99%) of my time in prayer with Him is just conversations back and forth

So then there are other prayer times, and they are for different reasons.

Intercession is an important one. Now I do intercede for people during my walk with Him, but that is simply in the form of a conversation. There are times, when either as a group, or because He has had me in 'intercession' that I focus just on asking for things. Then it is mostly from the Father, in His name. Of course if it is in His name, then I should ask Him what He wants prayed for, and I do and listen, then petition the Father.

On that same line, but slightly different is praying for others in ministry. He had me work five years in a healing ministry, where people came in for prayer. That is intercession and ministry combined, but the principle of asking Jesus Christ and praying in His name to the Father as He instructs is important.

Then there is praying in tongues. There are different reason for praying in tongues, but perhaps the main reason is that we just don't need to know about all that needs to be prayed for. There are other reasons, but for now let me just explain this: If someone has private problems do I need to know about them? Of course not. So I can just turn my voice over to the Holy Spirit and let Him do the praying. Again, there are many other reasons for tongues, but this is perhaps the main reason.

(Oh, I almost forgot something important. That is that our relationship with Him is something built up, just like any relationship. So it is important to understand that He is God and you are not, thus the bending of knees was very important to me at first. Yet as you get to know Him, your relationship changes to more of a servant, friend, son, and bride! Again this building of the relationship takes some time. Remember that the angel Gabriel said that he stood in the presence of God. It doesn't start that way, but it will get that way. He will tell you someday that it is not needed, of course even then you will be more than willing to throw any crown you got down and bow down to Him, after all He is still God and He is amazing)

Now on to discernment of spirits.

I have been with the Lord twenty years and still feel I have much to learn with this, though He is taught me a ton of information about this. So to be a bit brief I will cover a few main things:

The first thing to clearly understand is that God is God!!! That means He is omni-present, omni-potent, preeminent, omniscient, and more. Which is to say He is running His creation! Even when the devil is actively rebellious and against Him, He is still in charge!

Job 1:12 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.

Look close at the above verse. For Satan to get at Job he had to come and ask the Lord for permission. Satan got the permission but with certain limitations, and Satan was unable to go outside the permission he got from God!

So if Satan gets at you, then he could only do it if the Lord let Him! If that is the case, the Lord must have a purpose. That purpose, like in Job's case, is to get your attention on Him!

Second - It is written that all those who seek find, and to seek first the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom would first include the King (Jesus Christ) but also there are more (angels) with you than against you. You need to understand that. So the devil does exist and we do battle with the dark forces of this world, but there are more with our King and Lord than in the dark forces! So seek first the Kingdom of God.

Third - We have specific tests in the Bible we are supposed to use

1 Jn 4:1-3 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist

Forth - practice!! If you want to get good at playing the piano you practice. If you want to get good at discerning what is from God and what is not practice using your spiritual senses. Mainly I am talking about hearing with your spiritual ears, but you have five physical senses so figure you have five spiritual senses also and practice using them, with some discretion and consideration and you will get better at discernment.

Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

And fifth - which perhaps need to be first and is connected to seek first the Kingdom. That is, Jesus Christ is called the Teacher, and Wonderful Counselor. So talk to Him and ask Him questions about what is going on!!

2 Cor 10:5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

Taking all thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ means that we are taking all our thoughts to Him and asking Him what we need to do about them. We then listen to Him and do it, and in that way you get wonderful counsel and also get taught about discernment.

I could go on, but those are the basics and if He is the Teacher, perhaps you should be asking Him more about this than leaning on what I have learned. He has a plan for each of us and it includes what needs to be taught when and how.

Thank you