Not By Works
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I'm quite Impresed by what Hevosmies said. You understand that Jesus suffered for us but did you understand that your to suffer if you are to grow in Love. But I came here for a slightly diferent mater, that is also related, to show that we can ad to our salvation: as its written, or should I say "Ad to your Faith, Vurtue,"... unless we want to remain babes of course. I hope you find this woman's experience convincing, as I can't convince you of anything and certainly can't ad anything to your salvation. You can read the whole thing by copying title at the end. I'm reading it again in the midle of the night to be uplifted. In case your wondering, no one in their right mind with God would make this up, and no one left could know the character of God as she describes but the part I sent is her sharing someone else's experience first.
CAN WE INFLUENCE GOD TOWARDS HAVING A VISITATION
OR IS IT PURELY HIS SOVEREIGN WILL?
In my experience, yes. When I think about the backdrop of all of these three visitations, they have all happened after a time of intense, wholehearted, desperate seeking of God, when nothing else mattered more to me than to experience Him.
In each situation, it was a time when no other life priority or heart focus even came close. It was not a time of ‘I want God AND I want this or that”, it was a time of “I want God, period”. The magnifying glass was on wanting God, to the exclusion of any other desire existent on my focus radar.
It was not that I had nothing else to do but to seek God. In the first two visitations, I was busy pastoring and I was newly married. In the third visitation, I was far busier than I wanted to be: I was managing life on my own while Michael was away in India for two straight months while running a real estate business, looking after a primary school child and a toddler, managing six tenants in my private real estate investments, helping a widow and a missionary who just returned from the field, writing Christian articles and counselling people.
It is not the amount of time that you have for God that matters, it’s the amount of heart for God that you have and how you apply that heart for God to your everyday life – that is the key.
I am not saying I was better than anyone else. I just received a gift of hunger for God, which I then fueled through diligent seeking of God and diligent focus. In fact, before my third visitation, I did not feel very spiritual compared to other times in my life and I begged God to increase my hunger for Him because I was worried about my lukewarm state. Once you receive that hunger, then you are responsible to steward it. You do that by setting your heart on God with renewed commitment and setting your focus towards seeking Him, abiding in Him and fueling that hunger even more by feeding your spirit with the Word of God.
While I am sure there is a sovereign factor to every visitation, I disagree that it has nothing to do with your actions. Not that any of us can earn such an experience, but the level of diligent seeking of God and the level of sincere, desperate desire for God has something to do with how much of God you experience. Through it all, He tried to teach me that if you intentionally seek to get hungry and desperate enough for God, you will experience things you would not otherwise.
It is not just my experience that panned out this way. I know of a great man of God in India who was considered the equivalent of the apostle Paul for India – pastor D G S Dhinakaran. While working as a bank manager and leading a family, his hunger for God led him to get up every morning at 4 am to pray, pray at each lunch break and pray again after dinner in the late hours of the evening.
And He prayed for one thing only: Jesus, I want to see You. He prayed this one intensely every day – morning, lunch and dinner for seven years! He did not give up because it did not happen soon. One day before the seven years were up, he began really desperate for the encounter He desired to the point that He asked God to take him from this life, as he felt he could not bear without seeing Him any longer. I don’t know anything more powerful than desperate hunger to move God to action.
The next evening, Jesus appeared in his living room and spoke to him face to face for three hours. What impacted me the most was the content of the conversation. Jesus began by saying: I came because You asked for Me so much. On such and such a day, you were in such and such a place, at this hour, and you asked for this. And on such and such a day, you were in such and such a place, at this time, and you asked for this. And He spent a long time of this visitation listing all the locations, times and the content of this pastor’s prayers.
Jesus takes note of our prayers with intricate detail, even when we don’t feel particularly spiritual or when nothign much seems to be happening. And He is moved by desperate hunger and persistence. He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Our problem is we never know when enough seeking is enough, therefore we give up when it seems to us that we did enough seeking and we feel as if we are ignored by God. When it is enough for God to move it’s really up to God to decide. We need to seek until something happens, and then seek some more until more happens.
MY THIRD VISITATION
JESUS APPEARED TO ME IN A LIFE CHANGING DREAM
CAN WE INFLUENCE GOD TOWARDS HAVING A VISITATION
OR IS IT PURELY HIS SOVEREIGN WILL?
In my experience, yes. When I think about the backdrop of all of these three visitations, they have all happened after a time of intense, wholehearted, desperate seeking of God, when nothing else mattered more to me than to experience Him.
In each situation, it was a time when no other life priority or heart focus even came close. It was not a time of ‘I want God AND I want this or that”, it was a time of “I want God, period”. The magnifying glass was on wanting God, to the exclusion of any other desire existent on my focus radar.
It was not that I had nothing else to do but to seek God. In the first two visitations, I was busy pastoring and I was newly married. In the third visitation, I was far busier than I wanted to be: I was managing life on my own while Michael was away in India for two straight months while running a real estate business, looking after a primary school child and a toddler, managing six tenants in my private real estate investments, helping a widow and a missionary who just returned from the field, writing Christian articles and counselling people.
It is not the amount of time that you have for God that matters, it’s the amount of heart for God that you have and how you apply that heart for God to your everyday life – that is the key.
I am not saying I was better than anyone else. I just received a gift of hunger for God, which I then fueled through diligent seeking of God and diligent focus. In fact, before my third visitation, I did not feel very spiritual compared to other times in my life and I begged God to increase my hunger for Him because I was worried about my lukewarm state. Once you receive that hunger, then you are responsible to steward it. You do that by setting your heart on God with renewed commitment and setting your focus towards seeking Him, abiding in Him and fueling that hunger even more by feeding your spirit with the Word of God.
While I am sure there is a sovereign factor to every visitation, I disagree that it has nothing to do with your actions. Not that any of us can earn such an experience, but the level of diligent seeking of God and the level of sincere, desperate desire for God has something to do with how much of God you experience. Through it all, He tried to teach me that if you intentionally seek to get hungry and desperate enough for God, you will experience things you would not otherwise.
It is not just my experience that panned out this way. I know of a great man of God in India who was considered the equivalent of the apostle Paul for India – pastor D G S Dhinakaran. While working as a bank manager and leading a family, his hunger for God led him to get up every morning at 4 am to pray, pray at each lunch break and pray again after dinner in the late hours of the evening.
And He prayed for one thing only: Jesus, I want to see You. He prayed this one intensely every day – morning, lunch and dinner for seven years! He did not give up because it did not happen soon. One day before the seven years were up, he began really desperate for the encounter He desired to the point that He asked God to take him from this life, as he felt he could not bear without seeing Him any longer. I don’t know anything more powerful than desperate hunger to move God to action.
The next evening, Jesus appeared in his living room and spoke to him face to face for three hours. What impacted me the most was the content of the conversation. Jesus began by saying: I came because You asked for Me so much. On such and such a day, you were in such and such a place, at this hour, and you asked for this. And on such and such a day, you were in such and such a place, at this time, and you asked for this. And He spent a long time of this visitation listing all the locations, times and the content of this pastor’s prayers.
Jesus takes note of our prayers with intricate detail, even when we don’t feel particularly spiritual or when nothign much seems to be happening. And He is moved by desperate hunger and persistence. He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Our problem is we never know when enough seeking is enough, therefore we give up when it seems to us that we did enough seeking and we feel as if we are ignored by God. When it is enough for God to move it’s really up to God to decide. We need to seek until something happens, and then seek some more until more happens.
MY THIRD VISITATION
JESUS APPEARED TO ME IN A LIFE CHANGING DREAM
I'm mpressed by what you shared, I had come here to share something encouraging that I found, looking for articless of encounters with Jesus. Lets say, encouraging enough to read it again in the middle of the night when you cant sleep, and believing it will be better than sleep as it gets us in touch with the Lord in Prayer. Also experiencing what she experienced, left in tears of Joy at understanding the Lord better and renewed motivation to Work out our renewal.
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Yes, I agree, but spiritual growth is not always reliant on pain and suffering, although they can be the impetus, spiritual growth is found in being persuaded/convinced/convicted/agreeing with God of Truth and the Truth revealed and the more we do this the more he reveals of Himself to us.
This is why building on sound doctrine is so important.
The salvation of our souls (mind will, emotions) does require work and often dealing with difficult things, but they too can be healed and transformed.
This is why building on sound doctrine is so important.
The salvation of our souls (mind will, emotions) does require work and often dealing with difficult things, but they too can be healed and transformed.
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Mine is still smaller. 
That would imply Jesus sinned. Jesus didn't learn how to be obedient. Jesus was God in flesh. The Holy Spirit was always within Him and acted through Him.
Of course He didn't want to die on the cross. The Romans were very fond of crucifixion punishment and it was something that became part of the landscape in ancient Palestine.
Jesus was human, and had emotions, of course He was afraid. But He knew His mission and He accomplished it. That's why He prayed, if it be thy will take this cup from me.
It wasn't, God didn't, and Jesus carried on.
Of course He didn't want to die on the cross. The Romans were very fond of crucifixion punishment and it was something that became part of the landscape in ancient Palestine.
Jesus was human, and had emotions, of course He was afraid. But He knew His mission and He accomplished it. That's why He prayed, if it be thy will take this cup from me.
It wasn't, God didn't, and Jesus carried on.
There is no such word as Oneatarian. Therefore your remarks have no meaning. Nor is there any such thing as false Jehovah Witness. Either someone is or is not a JW.
Furthermore, the passage in The Book of Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7? "Breath of life", in Hebrew is, nishmat chayyim.
7 And Hashem Elohim formed the adam of the aphar min haadamah, and breathed into his nostrils the nishmat chayyim; and the adam became a nefesh chayyah. Nefesh=5315. nephesh Chayyah=2421. chayah
Nishmat Chayyim (נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים) is translated as Ruach, spirit, in Hebrew.
The Book of Genesis in Orthodox Judaism scripture is, Bereshis.
Adam was a living soul clad in earth.
"The ru’ach is the connection between the nefesh and the neshamah, it exists because of the tension between being both Divine “breath” and clothed in earth. Yet, because it sits in this middle world, the ru’ach is also an entity in its own right. "
Furthermore, the passage in The Book of Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7? "Breath of life", in Hebrew is, nishmat chayyim.
7 And Hashem Elohim formed the adam of the aphar min haadamah, and breathed into his nostrils the nishmat chayyim; and the adam became a nefesh chayyah. Nefesh=5315. nephesh Chayyah=2421. chayah
Nishmat Chayyim (נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים) is translated as Ruach, spirit, in Hebrew.
The Book of Genesis in Orthodox Judaism scripture is, Bereshis.
Adam was a living soul clad in earth.
"The ru’ach is the connection between the nefesh and the neshamah, it exists because of the tension between being both Divine “breath” and clothed in earth. Yet, because it sits in this middle world, the ru’ach is also an entity in its own right. "
