Dear Friends,
My friend Moose does not believe God talks to Christians today in their heart. Now"¦I have never heard Him speak audibly but He speaks all the time in my mind / heart. Hear are a few verses to consider"¦
1 Thess.4:9But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And how does God teach us. I mean we do need teachers and pastors but concerning love why don"™t we need a teacher. BECAUSE God in our hearts instructs us.
Proverbs 3:5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
3:6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths
We are told not to lean on our own understanding but in all our ways acknowlege Him. You may say that means read your Bible. When this was written there were no Bibles.. And when a missionary is locked in confinement without a Bible how does acknowledge God and"¦"¦.get his paths directed? How..? the man is led by God"™s Spirit.
Romans
8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The sons of God are led by His spirit.
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
6:45It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
How does God teach and draw men without speaking convictions in the man"™s heart. Read verse 45. Every man.
John 10:16And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear MY VOICE ; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
Voice "¦not word. A personal shepherd"™s voice.
13:11
But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
13:12 Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.
13:13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
This has not happened yet. This is looking toward the future. He is telling future Christians to take comfort knowing that the Holy Ghost shall give you the right words to say when you will be arrested.
This is the end of my study Moose.
God bless
Chuck
Bro.Chuck, have you ever been in Combat? If you have, then and only then
you would really know what little voices in your head means. That's the
closest a man will come to God without meeting Him.
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Jesus said, "he who stands firm to the end will be saved" Mark 13:13.
Live Life in such a way that those who do not know Christ will come to know Him because they know you
I would absolutely agree with you. If God cannot speak to each one of us in our hearts and in our minds, why pray?I believe it is one of our purposes in this life to learn how to hear his voice and heed it.
To some it is given visions, sounds like you may have expereinced one. I also beleive this happens. My mother had cancer and said she obtained a vision of the Lord. Although doctors told her she would most certainly die from stage 3B cancer, the Lord (or one of his angels sent to deliver the message by power of divine investiture) relayed to her that is was Gods will that she would live. This good messenger also let he know that if HER will was in accordance with Gods, she would have a long recovery, but we be spared in order to raise both me and my younger sister.
Doctors still cannot understand how she was able to recover from this serious a grade of cancer and live. They call her the walking miracle (Cancer treatment was pretty poor in 1971) Only 1-2% of 3B victims lived more than 6 months to a year.
I'm happy to say that my mother will enjoy the big 60 in January.
All this being said, I think the most prominent way that God speak to us is in our hearts. One wise man once said:
"When a man has a manifestation from the Holy Ghost, it leaves an indelible impression on his soul, one that is not easily erased. It is Spirit speaking to spirit, and it comes with convincing force. A manifestation of an angel, or even the Son of God himself, would impress the eye and mind, and eventually become dimmed, but the impressions of the Holy Ghost sink deeper into the soul and are more difficult to erase."
God speaks to me in prayer. He primarily teaches me what and how I can become better. Oftentimes this is hard to accept. However, one time as I was praying I felt a voice within me that said this:"When hard things are spoken against our own misgivings, we need to soften. If we will soften, then we can hearken. Then "hard things" will not make us hard hearted."
This was followed on another ocassion when I felt the voice of the spirit communicate this: "In addition to having a broken heart, we must have a contrite spirit. The depths of our soul is where spiritual emotion and deep seeded change takes place. It is here where true sorrow for sin is felt. The key here is what we "feel." We must feel pain for our sins, and then have the ability to sanctify our sorrow. Humble contrition will justify our repentant petition before the Lord."
Finally, the Spirit gave me this to relate in adiscourse one time in relation to John 14:26 and other scriptures:"Men are often blinded from seeing, hearing and feeling truth. The eyes, ears and intellect are the avenues to the mind, heart and soul of man. When truth is sought and followed in earnest, these members of the body become the repositories of divine revelation unto the righteous, not the rebellious."
I can testify that God does witness to our souls and to our minds. God bless you as he does so with you.
God Bless,
Porter
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"The Lord commands us to be peacemakers. This is more than peace keeping. Peacemaking is an active thing that requires much greater effort at making peace happen rather than just keeping ones peace."
Wow, Although our doctrines are so much different..I have to agree with all you have said.
I will put a verse with it.
Hebrews 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Brother Chuck
Porter,
The following is a very powerful statement.
"When a man has a manifestation from the Holy Ghost, it leaves an indelible impression on his soul, one that is not easily erased. It is Spirit speaking to spirit, and it comes with convincing force. A manifestation of an angel, or even the Son of God himself, would impress the eye and mind, and eventually become dimmed, but the impressions of the Holy Ghost sink deeper into the soul and are more difficult to erase."
Here's a New Testament verse.
1 Corinthians 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
I have heard His voice audibly. I've shared my story with Bro. Chuck, and related my experience even before I knew Chuck had seenHim. We both experienced the same kind of electrical shock.I know he still talks to us. Why me? Maybe I was too busy talking, and not listening....
Rev,
It amazes me that Christians are telling me that they don't hear his voice in their hearts. But come to think of it..this is a big revelation. I always thought God was way out there. Believers and readers , He is much closer than that. He is in your mouth.
Romans 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth,
Christis in YOU !! The hope of glory.
Col.1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Ye are the Temple of the living God. 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If He is in us can He talk. Yes, we need to have ears to ear. And a heart to believe. And eyes that really do see.
Rev.3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man HEAR MY VOICE , and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Amen Bro Chuck!... I would question if they had quenched the Holy Spirit so much they may never hear His voice. I would like to add John 10:27 MY sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me.... In plain English, if you ain't hearing, either you ain't listening, or you ain't His.
I feel His Spirit witnesses to our Spirit constantly. Some are in tune with that, some are only in tune off and on. Some have learned to ignore that quite well and still others will take personal credit for what was the umption of the Lord. The more we tune in to the Spirit , the more we will recognize the things of the Spirit.
Just a thought . . .if I had something that I wanted to share with someone or something I wanted someone to do, I would most often go to those that I know would listen to me and do my bidding.
__________________ And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Can we hear God's voice today?
