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Knowing the "heart" (and mind maybe) of God...?

PeaceJoyLove

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The mind will only come and follow after the "heart" and I want to focus on knowing God's heart here... and no I do not know it all yet, but I have faith that it is very possible to know...

And apparently, you don't, so...

God Bless!
Be still and know I am God...

Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.


Indeed, scripture tells us if we do not hope (have faith!) for it we will not SEE/percieve it...which has nothing to do with five senses perceiving. Jesus speaks where the LIGHT is...as is the kingdom and where KNOWING comes...as fully as we have always been known.

Duality within is not "single of eye" as Jesus speaks of in Luke 11:34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also isfull of darkness. 35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.
 
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razzelflabben

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I do also, but I also rely on his great mercies and long suffering loving kindness as well...

And, can, or will he, really blame us for wanting to know him...?

God Bless!
He tells us to seek Him with all our Hearts...I'm thinking that seeking Him means to know Him especially since we are called to be united with Him...
 
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razzelflabben

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No he will not, and there is nothing wrong about it also,

I was just stating how scary that would really be.

Always living in fear of judgment, on a daily basis, you know what I mean?
If we are justified by our faith in Christ...aka belief unto salvation, there is no longer fear of judgment for the law was already fulfilled that is the point of Christ.

Not to mention that we were previously talking about God's very nature, His heart and thoughts are that of Love now look at 1 John 4:18 I'm not seeing why I should have a problem with being in the presence of the Living God unless He is not who He claims to be and since I know Him personally and know that He has proven to me He is who He claims to be I have full confidence and boldness that assures me of being in His presence with awe and peace like nothing this world knows or understands.
 
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Neogaia777

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It's your thread I just want to be able to keep up without getting off topic.
I don't mind if people want to trail off a bit sometimes, I think these threads kind evolve along the way, or change and grow through discussion sometimes, and I kind of like that about them...

I think they can be kind of like a work of art that way sometimes, when it's done we can always get back to the OP and original topic...

Which is basically about God's heart and knowing his heart BTW, it's fine if it goes onto this sometimes, or that sometimes, we can always get back to the OP at any time...

For such is the nature of discussion, I think...

God Bless!
 
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razzelflabben

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oh I love rabbit trails and encourage them most of the time but have also been in trouble for taking them sometimes so I try really hard to find a balance.

Okay, story about Romans 8:28 if we add a few verses in context I think we can apply it to the current direction about fear of the Lord "28 And we know that in all things God works for the good have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

It's about testifying to the world that we live in the truth of Jesus purpose for coming, a purpose that sets the prisoner free from both sin and death.

So...leap day of 1980 I was driving to an appointment. The location had changed and I was horrible (still am ) with directions. I got lost. Ended up at a railroad crossing. I stopped looked both ways and since I didn't hear or see anything I proceeded to cross the tracks. Just as I got on the tracks, I glanced to the left....you cannot even imagine how large a train is until you see it barreling down on you. The train hit my car where the drivers door (my door) and the front fender meet. The car was thrown off the tracks and when it stopped moving I climbed out of the car and walked up to the road.

A bit of detail before I tell you the miracle part. The car was not just totaled but the only thing that could be salvaged was one tire. There was no room in the drivers compartment for my legs and yet the only injuries I sustained was a gash over my left eye, a small cut on my left ear and some bruises. Which sounds like enough of a miracle when you consider that there was a fatal accident at the same crossing a week before and a week after mine but the real miracle came later.

the people from my church all told me to draw close to God that He allowed this to happen to draw me closer to Him but no matter what I did, I couldn't get any closer to Him through this accident. For years I prayed that God would show me what He wanted from me through this accident. Well, one year sometime later He gave me Romans 8:28 as a promise for the year. So I tried to set my heart and mind on believing that promise no matter what I saw or didn't see.

One afternoon while at work a co worker and I were talking about a situation she had. I told her that I didn't have the answers but I had to hold and claim the promise of Romans 8:28 all things work together for good to those who Love the Lord to those who are called by His name. (if we look at the rest of the passage it is about a calling unto righteousness which removes our fear of judgment when in His presence) Okay back to the story. The co worker asked me to work for her that night and I did, the next day she runs into work and said, "I have to talk to you." I wasn't sure I wanted to hear of more bad things that were happening in her life but knew that God put me there for some reason so we talked. That is when she told me that that night I worked for her, she had borrowed a car from a friend and driven to a railroad crossing. She told of sitting on the tracks and waiting. Of seeing the train coming down the tracks...then, she told that in that moment she remembered my words, the promise of God and drove off the tracks.

See, the miracle is in what God does in our lives and through our situations not in the lack of injury. Scripture tells us that we will see greater miracles than the healings of the disciples. John 14:12...those miracles are miracles of the heart, they are miracles that glorify God in a new and amazing way. This is how we can know the heart of God...His heart is the good of His people and their testimony to the world of who He is. I was never in real danger in that car because God had a plan, I just had to be willing to endure the discomfort for a season so that He could preform a true miracle
 
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Colter

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These questions:

Does God have a nature or is he every conceivable nature?

Is God good and evil?

Can God make a square circle?
 
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Colter

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We agree. We are actually children of God. There is life in us and life isn’t mechanical. God doesn’t know all that we will choose, he doesn’t know the unknowable.

Take Lucifer for example, he chose rebellion.
 
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razzelflabben

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We agree. We are actually children of God. There is life in us and life isn’t mechanical. God doesn’t know all that we will choose, he doesn’t know the unknowable.

Take Lucifer for example, he chose rebellion.
From Genesis and other passages it appears that God knew that Lucifer would rebel but there is something greater than sin and rebellion...it's called grace, Love, mercy...aka God and His very nature.
 
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razzelflabben

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These questions:

Does God have a nature or is he every conceivable nature?

Is God good and evil?

Can God make a square circle?
I know this is directed at another poster and some I already answered, but here are my answers...Nature of God...we know that God is Love (which again is not the world version of Love and encompasses much more like just, peace, compassion, etc. and we also know that God is Holy...it is His holiness that requires a blood sacrifice for sin so that makes it important to our discussion.

IOW's all other things about God fall into one of these two characteristics...these are a summary of sorts.

Is God good and evil...God is good, God allows evil to show the world the beauty of good.
 
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Colter

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From Genesis and other passages it appears that God knew that Lucifer would rebel but there is something greater than sin and rebellion...it's called grace, Love, mercy...aka God and His very nature.
The authors have Hid acting surprised when Satan fooled Eve. Then they have God drown the whole earth and start over again only to have man exactly like he was before the flood.

Grace, Love and mercy do not require disloyalty from Lucifer. It wasn’t Gods will that Lucifer rebel.
 
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Colter

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That’s why I said that God cannot do the un-godlike thing. He can’t know the unknowable. At times people seem to claim that Omniscience depersonalizes deity.
 
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razzelflabben

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be careful...do you know what is good and what is not good? How do you know? Without that which is bad or evil, how can we know what is good and right?

If you want to become a thinker, let's think it through...
 
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razzelflabben

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That’s why I said that God cannot do the un-godlike thing. He can’t know the unknowable. At times people seem to claim that Omniscience depersonalizes deity.
your gonna have to explain what you mean especially as it applies to what you are quoting cause you lost me...all things are knowable, but within that I think some of us need to settle on some definitions that I am not sure are as clear as we would like to think they are.
 
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faroukfarouk

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Words can mean different things to different people, but it's good to be informed thoroughly of areas where there is underlying Biblical teaching.
 
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razzelflabben

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when we look at the omniscience of God in scripture we find several different words being used or ideas as it were...for example, Job talks about all knowledge where as Psalms talks about Him having no limit to His understanding. Psalms also talks about Him knowing our very thoughts before we do. The idea of omniscience is a characteristic of God without question but I am not sure very many people understand what that means. I'm not sure I understand it 100% but what I do know is that my mind cannot wrap around all that He does know which in most human terms is omniscience
 
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Neogaia777

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These questions:

Does God have a nature or is he every conceivable nature?

Talking about God, the Father...? His nature "encompasses" every nature that we can conceive of, and probably more... Which gives him a unique nature of his own, but it is an overall good and loving nature... But considers the "ultimate good (or benefit) at the end", "from the very beginning"... For that is also part of his nature (God, the Father, that is)...

Is God good and evil?

About God the Father...? Yes and No... He uses and knows both... In a way you could say he is above or "beyond" both good and evil... He is benevolent (in nature) though...

Can God make a square circle?

Already told you I wasn't going to answer that one... But, generally speaking God (the Father) can do anything... "Will He" is the real question...

God Bless!
 
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razzelflabben

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Words can mean different things to different people, but it's good to be informed thoroughly of areas where there is underlying Biblical teaching.
exactly...and if we do a complete study (maybe that is one for my list of future studies, we might begin to understand His omniscience better.
 
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Neogaia777

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Do you know what I mean when I talk about God, the Father, and God, the Son...? Or not entirely or completely...?

God Bless!
 
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