Finally! The long awaited reply!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiyahstarter
Timmy,
God has spoke to me personally before. Several times.
Once He said, "Would you listen if I told you?" Clear as a bell.
Another time he said to me, "Aren't you glad they do?" Again, I heard it perfectly clear.
Another time he said, "Leave her to me."
All times I was DEEP in prayer over a "situation."
The first time He spoke to me I understood exactly what he was saying. I was searching, demanding answers. I was angry with PEOPLE and trying very hard to understand things, and to get over things. I "leveled" with God and told him "if it was going to be, it would have to come from him. He would need to tell me if that's what I needed to do." And his gentle answer to me was, "Would you listen if I told you?" I knew then that God was telling me that I was in no frame of mind to HEAR anything, I was that angry. I knew then I HAD TO GET a spirit adjustment ... even tho I was the victim in the situation. I reacted badly, and thank you God for telling me so. It would have been a lose/lose situation had I not calmed down.
A different time God spoke to me, it took three months and ANOTHER event before His meaning came clear to me. But when it did, I can tell you, I was humbled.
A third time was over a situation with my unsaved sister who was driving me NUTS with her anti-Christian remarks and digs. I was in tears, in prayer, and fasting. God told me to "leave her to him."
Yes, GOD speaks personally... at least He has with me. And YES I have started to write things down. Do you want a copy of my book? lol
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I can no more disprove your experience than you can disprove Joseph Smith's or Muhammed's. And you can't prove yours any more than they can. Maybe that doesn't bother you. Maybe you don't feel a need to prove to others. You know that you know. (And somehow you know you are right about what you "know", and those other guys are wrong about what they "know".)
But please consider this:
what if you thought of these instructions you received as coming from
yourself, instead of from God? What would you have lost? What do you gain by thinking (OK, "knowing"
) that it was literally God speaking directly to you?
Our minds are wonderful, mysterious, amazing things. They can work on things in the background, without our conscious awareness. Once, I woke from a sound sleep in the middle of the night with a solution to a problem I'd been having at work. Sat straight up in bed and yelled it out loud, which startled and amused my wife, let me tell you! Was it God, speaking to me in my sleep, helping me with my work? Probably not. More likely, it was that background thinking and analyzing coming up with an answer at a really odd time. But that's how it works! Call it God's amazing design, if you like.
Same thing could happen during a long session of prayer. Your mind is working, processing information, including scriptures you know. Suddenly, you get the answer! Was it God talking to you, or was it God's design at work?
Anyway, maybe I can offer an answer to the question "what do you gain?" You gain a sense that God loves you and helps you. Sometimes, that works out well enough. Lets one feel valuable, in God's eyes. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but only if it really was a specific message from God to you. And only if it really is something good, and not "kill your children". (An extreme and rare example. But a valid one, despite the attempt of some to minimize it.)
For
some, it goes way beyond a healthy sense of self-worth to extreme pride and elitism. "Look everybody, God talks to me!" They usually put on a show of humbleness, of course, but the message is clear. They are one of a chosen few spiritual warriors. God's special forces. (We had a pastor like that. Oh, man, was the message clear! He was really impressed with himself, and talked about it all the time. God spoke to him audibly since he was a child!)
The belief that God literally speaks to His children, specifically and intentionally for the particular moment, has pros and cons. But I submit that abandoning this belief will not lose significant "pros", but will of course eliminate all of the "cons". (No pun intended!
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