How do I live ONLY IN THE SPIRIT?

Yes J you are right - you need an encounter with Him asap. Keep speaking the truth about your feelings towards Him. He can take it.

J Daniel said:

President Obama said the same thing to the Emmanuel church in Carolina where that white supremacist shot dead all the black church goers, then was taken to Burger King afterwards.

Imagine that - your family gets slaughter and the President says GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS after the holocaust of your loved ones.

He should have got the living hell kicked out of him in that church when he said that.

Don't even think GOD'S PEOPLE THE JEWS would have let him get away with saying that in a Synagogue.

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Ok, i cant say anything good.

I wish you all the very best my friend. God bless you

Living in the spirit is just being a Christian and getting back up every time you fall. It will certainly not solve all your problems. You will always have problems. But you will be able to live with them and live beyond them. Mostly what you need is time. I didn't grasp what my Christianity was doing for me until I had a lot of time to look back at. Then I saw how I had been protected and strengthened and given far more grace than I had realized at the time. Christianity is not the way to live apart from trouble. It is the way to live in spite of trouble.

Look J, you have been taken in by the churches misunderstanding on sanctification - that it is gradual and requires discipline like prayer and fasting.

So you have come to a crisis of faith and the usual words of wisdom do not cut it right?

You are responsible though for not being guided by the Spirit as you have listened to man. OK it was all you knew but when the rubber hits the road, it fails. So now you can move forward into the truth. your life has been as it has because you were not walking in the Spirit due to not being united with Him in the way that the early believers were, and during revivals of this truth.

You are fortunate that you have come to this, many do not and spend their lives living in this deception from the devil. Sin must be removed.

J Daniel said:

Apparently, this will solve all my problems in life.

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only God can reveal God. start by asking him.

J Daniel said:

YES MAKING EXCUSES FOR GOD! I hate when people do that! Making excuses for him like some dead beat father.
I need to be spoken to! I need that - not talking about PROVING HE EXISTS like I am some BIG BANG THEORY BELIEVER!

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He'll speak. You have to do the leg work. He's already spoken quietly in your heart because He's your creator and you can't even live or move or have your being without Him. Now live as if He exists. Live like love and goodness are foundational to this world, like you expect hope to exist at the end of this temporary journey. Or DON'T. No one can do it for you. He expects YOUR faith, that you already have in seedling form, to be exercised. And then He'll speak louder and louder. Otherwise, yes, you are talking about Him PROVING HE EXISTS. But its a partnership, where we do our part. Do you believe in the resurrection? If so, there's not much more you need. He did His part.

J Daniel said:

I have been told all these things to read the Pastor i met in the park gave me the RHAPSODY DEVOTIONS to read - I NEED GOD TO COME TO ME IN HIS MEGA POWER!

Paul can be a mass murder then become a SAINT afterwards. Maybe that is the way to go! I dunno. I am TRYING HERE!

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J Daniel said:

I was told: prayer and fasting is not the way.

So please, tell me.

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Who told you that?

Sometimes there is a big dramatic moment. Sometimes there is not. God knows what is best for each of us, and loves us, so if you are not getting what you expect/want - there is a reason. Usually it is that something better needs to happen for you so that you will be established in Christ. God never withholds what we need - but sometimes we THINK things need to be a certain way, but we don't know what that way will do to us and what God intends instead.

"Belief" as in mentally agreeing there is a God, or even that Jesus is God and died on the cross and came back to life is not faith - even the demons believe (they actually don't just believe, they KNOW) and they are not "saved".

We must trust Him, and learn to live in Him. There are certainly people who do that. But some of the best ways to get there ARE through prayer (which is our communion with God), fasting (which is how we weaken the flesh and strengthen the spirit), and reading Scripture as well as learning from those who are experienced in a life of faith, being in a loving relationship with a community of faith, and the ways God has established to give us grace. Have you been baptized btw?

I don't know if you are willing to receive this. The best thing maybe is if you could meet people who are what you seek. (And not just pretenders - there are a lot of those.) I've met many. Some people carry Christ so fully that it can change you just being with them, and you remember it and carry it with you.

Prayers for you. It sounds like you are in a chaotic place.

Oh, and no one should say what God will do with any particular soul, since it isn't our place to judge. And God IS loving and merciful. But it is the enemy that wants to drive us to destruction. He hopes to maximize our pain, and hopes that we can die in such a state that we cannot accept God's mercy. You're listening to half-truths. But it's much better to firmly shut such thoughts out of your mind, refuse to listen to the chaos, focus on Christ, and come to know Him deeply. Then you will know peace.

Welcome to CF. And God be with you.

J Daniel said:

Apparently, this will solve all my problems in life.

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It is a daily walk...continually renewing the mind and "rowing" instead of drifting. It takes work for sure in the process of sanctification. Then pretty soon, you can get out of the boat and walk on water, because trials and overcoming trials in the Spirit produces endurance and a greater faith to keep your eyes on Jesus. We are overcomers even when we don't feel like it!

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long ; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered .” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35‭-‬39 NASB

J Daniel said:

President Obama said the same thing to the Emmanuel church in Carolina where that white supremacist shot dead all the black church goers, then was taken to Burger King afterwards.

Imagine that - your family gets slaughter and the President says GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS after the holocaust of your loved ones.

He should have got the living hell kicked out of him in that church when he said that.

Don't even think GOD'S PEOPLE THE JEWS would have let him get away with saying that in a Synagogue.

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God's people are those who do the Father's Will... Matthew 12:49-50

Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Note that it was His disciples who are within that Will, it was they He pointed to.

We all have difficult times. I am sick and lack money for medical care, and it's nearly to the point of the care being life saving.

I've been wringing my hands, fasting and praying and not knowing what to do, do I embrace my death? Do I fight for my life and beg for help even though every where I've tried has so far turned me down?

Crying some days, mourning for my death before I'm dead - which is more than a little silly..

So then I see the silliness of that and leave the house, go to try and live only to find myself away from the comfort of my home, suffering heat exhaustion and trying to hang on to consciousness..

But even there God was with me - even when I couldn't feel Him.

He is not a feel good happy feeling, He is a strength that doesn't come from within us, that we aren't capable of having without Him, outside of Him. He enables us to pull through every trial and tribulation. Sometimes we may feel burned, but we make it because we are becoming purified gold..

Hold onto Him in the darkness, even when you can't feel His Hand because He is there with you, carrying you.

Fight for life because it's a gift from God, and He has something He wants you to do with it. You don't know it yet, but it's there right around the corner if you hang onto Him..

your life depends on it.

J Daniel said:

I was told: prayer and fasting is not the way.

So please, tell me.

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What is your relationship with God?

J Daniel said:

Very loving(!)

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Because God owes you nothing. You must approach him as a broken man like a beggar. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit.

J Daniel said:

Apparently, this will solve all my problems in life.

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If you've been born-again, that is, been given new spiritual life by the Holy Spirit, you already live in the Spirit. The Bible says that when a person is saved, when that person is born-again spiritually, the Holy Spirit comes to live within that person and it is by His presence within them that they are made "new creatures in Christ." (Romans 8:9-17; Titus 3:5) In making this point, the apostle Paul called the Christians at the city of Corinth the "temple of the Holy Spirit." (1 Corinthians 6:19) That's you, if you have by faith trusted in Christ as your Saviour and yielded your life to him as your Lord. You have become a temple of the Holy Spirit.

But, you know, many Christians live for decades as a temple of the Spirit but are little changed by him. Why is that? How can a person have the Holy Spirit within them but remain who they've always been, struggling with the same sins, still the same temperamental, selfish, lazy, gossipy, fearful person they were before they were saved? Well, the problem is that they have never truly yielded themselves to God, to the will and way of His Spirit. This requires that they die to themselves, that they "deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Christ." (Matthew 16:24-25) It is only love for God, however, that can properly motivate this sort of living (1 Corinthians 13:1-3), which is why loving God with all of your being is the First and Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-38). Living the crucified life, the life of Self-denial, which is the life God calls all of His children into (Galatians 2:20; Galatians 6:14; Colossians 3:3; Romans 6:1-18), can't be properly lived by any other motive than love.

So, life in the Spirit is anchored in loving God with all of who you are. When you love God fully, when you love Him deeply, denying yourself for His sake, putting Him first in everything, is a natural and joyful way of living. Without love anchoring your relationship with God, however, living His way, living the crucified life, soon becomes a burden, a costly and dreary task that you will eventually give up. We do what we love to do, you see. It's just the way we are.

Many Christians get busy doing stuff for God. They read their Bibles, they pray, they go to church, they give, but they don't really love God. The Bible says, "These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." (Matthew 15:8) Don't be one of these people who think doing religious things without a heart of love for God pleases Him. It doesn't.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 Though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.

Don't seek from other men the answers only God can provide.
Lotta these dudes are pompous know it all's who are so sure of themselves and their own accomplishments. Pretending like they do no wrong an no longer sin.
God will speak through signs if you look for them.

Never give up. It's a hard path with many haters.
Prayer and fasting is good.

J Daniel said:

I need to have control of something - like i am drifting in the current.

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If he is Lord, which we, in our hearts should make him, then by definition we are allowing him to have control.

That aside... faith isn't belief. This is a mistake in Christianity. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God... and faith without works is dead. So, we hear the Word and then we do whatever it is we hear. THAT is faith... hearing God and obeying what we heard. And if you think I have stretched the definition... go look at the examples of men of faith in Hebrews 11. Each and every example has a man hearing and doing... and it is faith.

J Daniel said:

I need to have control of something - like i am drifting in the current.

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Prayer. Letting Christ help you, asking God to come into a fix, guide, inform, and heal every part of your life.

Being patient with yourself. Something that helps me *immensely* is confession. In a general sense, this can be done by all Christians. Sit down, talk with God, and one by one, as much as you can remember, confess the day's or week's sins to Him, and ask for His help, forgiveness, guidance, and mercy.

This has helped me tonnes. Helps me see where, exactly, I am messing up most, brings these things to light, and helps me not want to continue in them.

Brother J, what you clearly need is peace, of which Christ is Prince. I tell you honestly, it is very clear that you are greatly troubled. This is the work of the enemy of souls. Do not take responsibility for this upon yourself. You CANNOT bear it. It must be laid at the foot of the cross where all evil is vanquished. You are not alone. God is with you. Satan has desired to sift you as wheat. But Christ has prayed for you, that your faith would not fail. We have all been given a measure of faith. You are no exception. Do NOT allow the evil one to deceive you on this point.

Not even your five senses, however keen they are, can be trusted over the Word of God. It will NOT return to Him empty, but it will accomplish the thing for which He has sent it. You are no exception. He knew you in the womb. He knows the plans He has for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. This is nearly all scripture I am sharing with you now. They are not my words. you are even now receiving what you asked for, and you must, by the faith that has been promised and granted you, seize upon it and claim it for your own.

I am enclosing the beginning of a work entitled "Lessons On Faith." It is a volume co-written by a man named Alonzo Trevier Jones over 100 years ago. If you are blessed by it, you may Google and find the entire work, or if you prefer, I will continue to post proceeding portions or links to them.

Faith is a simple thing, and so it is not naturally agreeable to us. We, who experience much complexity on a day-to-day basis do not readily accept the power of simplicity. This is perfectly natural and, although usually proves to be cause for alarm, need not be so at all. If you can find a better work than this one to help you to understand simple faith then, by all means, make use of it. In the meantime, perhaps this will calm and encourage you. You will not succeed in trying to force God's hand. Put it out of your mind. It is a trick of the devil. Remember, my Brother that He that is in you is stronger than he that is in the world. May He Bless and Keep You.

Actually, I found a youtube link to a good starting point: