| Author | Message | ||
| Colleentinker |
Darrell--what a wonderful experience. I believe God was leading you! | ||
| David |
Jude, I love the integrity of you questions. Here's a funny story about how God gave me a word of comfort and confirmation a couple of years ago. The transmission went out in our van so I was pricing the repair and the cost was really great. So I decided to get a junkyard transmission and have it installed. About four weeks after installation, the replacement tranny started acting up and I barely got home. I had a 90 warranty on the unit so I called the junkyard but they didn't have a replacement in stock and I had to wait a week to get it. Well, I got to thinking about that replacement and decided that when I got it, I would do a quit rebuild of the clutch plates so that I could be assured that everything was okay this time and I would not be throwing good money after the bad. I finally installed the unit and then I began to have doubts about my work and voices seemed to be trying to convince me that my efforts were doomed to failure. I started to pray really hard and asked the Lord to give me a sign that everything would work with no weird sounds. I had a little pocket Bible and I randomly flipped it open to Psalm 39:7 "And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee." With this assurance, I fired up the van the tranny has worked great ever since. Pretty cool, huh? | ||
| Jude the Obscure |
David, yes. Thank you for that. God doesn't seem to do things like that for me. In fact, God often seems far removed from my day-to-day experience, and I have to struggle to see "God in action," so to speak. Maybe your experience is more like that of your namesake the king, whereas mine is more like that of Job or John the Baptist. I don't know. My faith in God remains strong. -Jude | ||
| Onesimus |
Jude: I can identify with you when you say "God doesn't seem to do things like that for me." I have struggled to hear God's leadings in every day life, too. But because of a recent example, which I want to share with you, I feel encouraged! I went to church last week in a great spirit but when I got there some old feelings of jealousy reared their ugly head. As we progressed into worship, I stopped singing as the tears began to flow. I decided to right then ask God why I was feeling this way. In a few minutes I remembered how I had received "love" as an Adventist, but my old way hadn't been working for some time. And I was miserable and in pain about it, all the while knowing that this wasn't how I wanted to be nor was it the way God wanted me to be. I desired healing! We were getting closer to the sermon so I opened my Bible to Hebrews 12. Soon I looked down and the first thing that caught my eye was an underlined passage which read "God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness." "Oh, so this is what discipline feels like," I thought. "At least there is a purpose--holiness," I read on. "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 'Make level paths for your feet,' so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed." After the sting wore off (!), I felt so encouraged that God had answered my prayer through my (His) thoughts AND the Scripture. The Scripture was so perfect for my concerns, pains and desire for healing. And, as a recovering Adventist, I sure do feel lame! So Jude, "strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees" and "press on with endurance the race marked out before you." I am sure that God wants you to hear His voice as much as you want to hear His. Limping in Christ, Onesimus | ||
| Jude the Obscure |
Onesimus, Thank you for that witness. When you felt "miserable and in pain" and the tears were flowing, the Holy Spirit directed your eyes to a passage in Hebrews 11 -- "God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness." This verse enabled you to see "what [God's] discipline feels like." And as you read on, and "the sting wore off," you "felt so encouraged that God had answered my prayer through my (His) thoughts AND the Scripture." And you were further enabled to transfer your encouragement to me. And so, yes, I do feel your encouragement. And I thank and praise God for you and your witness. And you have reminded me, as well, of something I had forgotten in my correspondence with David: I, too, have been directed by the Holy Spirit to certain passages -- and not always in Scripture -- that have encouraged me in my present "wilderness experience." One of these has been posted on the bulletin board in my office for many months: "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all they ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Proverb 3:6,7. This is the key to my current spiritual discipline and something I have to hang on to. Bless you for reminding me of how I came by it. Jude | ||
| Cas |
Jude, my experience with Gods leading is similar to yours. It seems God is silent in day to day living and I have at times wondered or thought it a bit strange when I would hear someone say "The Lord told me" or something to that effect. I would think how did they know for sure the Lord told them. Did they actually hear a voice, or was it a feeling? One time though I did have an experience that I knew the Lord was there for me and taking care of me. I had been having daily headaches for about 2or 3 weeks and just a general feeling of not feeling well (this was not foreign to me I had the episodes before). It's hard to explain but a very dark and negative mood starting cropping up inside me and I was sure I had a brain tumor. I became obsessed with the feeling that I would die and I wondered what would happen to my young daughter and my grown up daughters without me, and could my husband cope alone. The feeling of darkness and hopelessness overcame me until one morning I prayed very hard asking the Lord to put me at peace with this nightmare. When I was done praying and the dark thoughts tried to settle in again I verbally said No outloud, No this must stop, and it is unbelievable but the darkness lifted off me and I knew I would be ok. The Lord would see me through and his hand was over me. It was a miracle that I got into the Dr. I wanted to within a few days, the receptionist even said it was a miracle someone had just happened to cancel their appt! Anyway I prayed for the Dr.'s wisdom and came out of the office feeling like someone had given me my life back. It seems a small thing but it was so exciting to me to think the Lord cared about these small matters and how I felt. I don't know what the negative feelings were for sure but I try to remember to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus always. | ||
| Colleentinker |
Cas--I have had experiences similar to the one you described. I'm convinced that one of Satan's most effective ways to hinder our walk with Jesus is to attack our health and our moods. Jesus came to give us freedom, and that, I believe, includes freeing us from harrassment. I believe that Jesus not only wants us to confess our "sins" to him, but he wants us to submit our fears and doubts and anxieties to him as well. He said he came to give us life--more abundantly! As Paul said, our battle is not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers. God calls us to admit to him the truth about our experiences. Yesterday my almost-17-year-old observed, "If you admit to God the truth about things in your life, you remove them from Satan's territory." I think he's right. Satan can harass us in areas where we deceive ourselves or refuse to submit to God. |
