I met some people recently who said some things that really confused me about things that I have had no trouble accepting my whole life. The sad thing is that they were supposedly Christians and were trying to help me to see the "error" in the doctrine that I grew up in. I told them how much what they said was confusing me, but they told me that God apparently placed them in my life so that they could show me the truth. But this little voice in the back of my mind kept telling me "if they are of God, then why are you so confused? Confusion is not of God. And if they are of God then why are you getting farther from Him since you met them instead of closer to Him like you had been getting?" I pushed that little voice aside saying perhaps God really had sent them to teach me some things, but the more I "learned" from them, the more confused I was. And finally I just got to my breaking point. I felt almost as if God had abandoned me. Why would He let me go through this? If they were right and He had really sent them, then why had He let me think all this time that I was getting closer to Him when they said that I was not? And if they were really not of God, then why did He let me meet them in the first place? I felt as if He was just being unfair. I KNEW that wasn't true, but I honestly felt that way. Every time I would bow my head to pray, instead of hearing God's voice, I heard the voice of those who told me that I had been praying the wrong way. And every time I lifted my hands to heaven instead of thinking of how wonderful God was all I could think of is the words that were spoken about how I had been worshiping the wrong way. And each time I would hear a person of God speak, instead of hearing the message, all I could do was compare what they were saying to what these people had said to me. It was awful.

Last night I told God that if I did not leave with more understanding that I walked in with that I would have to give up. I was that desparate. I know that it is not good to tempt God, and that you should not give Him ultimatums. But I was so confused that I did not know which end was up. I was walking around in a stupor. I was at my wits end. I had given someone advice earlier to not lean on thier own understanding and not to concern themselves too much with their search for answers because I know where it got me. It got me all manners of unsettled in my spirit.

And so I walked in last night knowing that something had to happen. I needed God to help me. I prayed and I asked Him why? And He told me that He tried to warn me away from the people, but that I had not obeyed. Listen to me next time, He said. I promised I would.
And Steve called for those who needed prayer to come up to the front. And I came. And Mandy prayed with me and I know that the Spirit spoke to her because of what she said. ALL THE QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED ONE BY ONE AND ALL OF THE CONFUSION WILL BE REPLACED WITH UNDERSTANDING. (I hadn't told her what I was going through...) And one of my questions was answered right then. 2 down, one hundred thousand to go. But one at a time. Okay, God. I trust you.
And today someone sent me this email. How appropriate:




Okay, that answered a few more...

I'm still listening. But I will pray that God will give me discernment along with my open ears.

"They will hear my voice and they will know me."
Satan sometimes appears as an angel of light. He is sneaky, and he will use other christians sometimes, or those who appear to be christians. Anything to divide the body of Christ.
When you hear a voice, make sure that it is His.

Preach Preacha!

Just as in that website I pointed you to quite a while back, there are many people who think they are doing good by "setting us straight" in our doctrine, when all they are doing is preaching division and confusion.

I too, have run across well-meaning Christians who want to argue doctrine (man-made, for sure) about the simplest little things, when people die and go to hell all around them every day... just as broke spoke about in another post, we are here to worship Him and lead the lost to Him, period.

When their "ministry" is based on telling Christians of a different faith that their God is the AntiChrist (I have actually heard this from the pulpit of a local church), then you can be sure that they do not hear the voice of God.

I could tell something was on your mind when you showed up last night, that's why I asked...

------------------
Allen

hehehe...I don't have much of a "poker face", do I? I try!!! But I'm just too readable sometimes...I guess that's not such a bad thing, altho it gets me into trouble once in a while!

It's so funny (not in the litteral sense of the word) that people can condemn other people--Christians--who don't see things their way and call themselves Christ like. And they can preach that all other denominations are going to hell and find scripture to back it up, even. They preach hate and call it "tough love". They attack people and call it "correction". They have all the rules down and they can be very deceptive. They have all the head knowledge, but the one thing that they are missing is the most important thing: "Greater love."

The greatest commandment.
The greatest gift.
God is LOVE.
And yet that is what is missing; very sad...

I love you guys!

Michelle

I wish i had words to say to comfort you i am not good at this but lemme try,i understand and what came to me when i prayed is that when you pray, it is you and God, and those around you may be a help and may confuse you even more, if your focus is good and right then you will be answered, the people around me in my spiritual journey have gravely disappointed me in the past, thus i am very very leary about interacting with those in a spiritual rhelm. the trust is broken and it will take me a long time to rebuild it, no matter where i am. but one thing stands strong. the lord never abandoned me, he was always there, i just had to see him through them, through me and through moments of seemingly unanswered prayer. keep the faith and focus and you will see God through the clouds. peace will come ... i pray it will because i know the battle.


------------------
Jennifer

Thanks for the encouragement.
I find that people usually only let me down when I set my expectations of them too highly. And since it is the people that we love and respect the most that we have the highest expectations in, it stands to reason that those we love are the ones who seem to hurt us the most. And visa versa. But as you said, despite all of our human downfalls, He is the one who will never let us down.

Which is why the email that I got about spiritual confusion really hit home for me. I was really feeling as if God had abandoned me. I felt as if He was being unfair, like He was too harsh, and like He really wasn't there for me. How wrong I was. I have been really digging into the Word lately, and it seems that the more I learn the less I know. But then there are those moments when God gives you and understanding about something--as He did when I read the email--and you KNOW that He really is looking out for you and that you honestly just have to trust Him. That is where faith comes in.

For me, faith is not so much having to worry about believing in God even though I don't see Him...I KNOW that He is there. My struggle with faith comes when it is time to just take a step knowing that wherever my foot lands He is right there to shine light on the darkened path even though I can't see that light sometimes until AFTER I put my foot down.

The Bible has many examples of faith, and then there are those instances recorded of "great faith". Knowing that somthing is impossible, and yet trusting that He can do it anyway. The man who had a sick servant in Matt. 8 asked Jesus to heal his servant, and then would not let Jesus go into His house! He said "I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but just speak the word and my servant will be healed." And Jesus told the man that He had not seen such great faith not even in Israel. In Hebrews, the examples of faith were those who knew and believed in God's promise to them until death even though they did not see their promises fulfilled on the earth, they knew that God had greater things for them in heaven (Ch.11 v. 13 & 39-40) That is why faith is described as the "substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen." (Ch.11 v. 1)

I pray that one day soon I will have such great faith that I can trust in His promises even though I cannot see the evidence of them happening. How does faith come? Well, Rom. 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing. Hearing what? The Word of God. And so THAT is why David said "Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path..."

I encourage anyone who is having problems with faith to get deeper into the Word. It may seem discouraging at first, but if you persist then God will reaveal things to you in His time. "Seek and you will find."
It is written: With faith in Him all things are possible.

Thank you forever.. I feel like moving mountains after reading that...

------------------
Allen

Good, Allen! You can start with the moutnain that I made out of a molehill!

------------------
the tYpInG FOOL

ok... let me see what I find:


Psalm 46
10
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."


And my all-time favorite:

Romans 8
1
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
2
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
3
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
4
in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
5
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
6
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
7
the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.
8
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
10
But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.
13
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,
14
because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
16
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
17
Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
18
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
19
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
20
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21
that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?
25
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
27
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
29
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
33
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
34
Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
36
As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


I challenge you to memorize this... I will.



------------------
Allen

Do you allready have it memorized?
If not, then I'll beat ya to it.
Love ya,
Meeeeeshel

Mostly... that is one of the better chapters to keep in your heart, so much speaks to me in every verse.

The challenge is on...

------------------
Allen

Well, you both know I like challenge with
scripture memory so---who ever comes to me first with it completely mimorized then I will treat you to lunch!!!!

Love you both and good luch
Purity

------------------
Love,Joy,Peace,
and Holiness Always

Well, since Allen allready has it mostly memorized...
Well, maybe I can still beat him...

I have lots of the verses memorized... I have heard them for years, but never all together... that's where they really speak to you... so, I am starting from the beginning.

I prolly will not memorize the verse numbers, that's not important, and it interrupts the flow of the message. I will most likely memorize it in paragraph form.

Hide God's Word in your heart...

------------------
Allen

You better get back to work! Mr. Snooze!

Who's got the most memorized?

Come on now, times a wastin!



------------------
* Elizabeth *
health-net

Allen does.
I can't even remember to take my purse off the back of my car before I take off. Remember that list of stuff I told you I forgot allen? Well, add one to that...
last night I forgot to take my purse off the tail end of my car and I drove off and Lord only knows where it is now...
Had my second favorite Bible, all my bible study notes, my driver's liscense, social security card, voters registration, some cash...


grrr!

------------------
the tYpInG FOOL

Someone has some valuable resources to reach them then... they are a captive audience...

Has it been turned in yet?


------------------
Allen

nope. nobody turned it in...I walked by the edge of the road all the way to the corner stopping at all of the businesses asking if anyone had turned it in. nada. But this is interesting. This is the whole story: I was at WalMart and we were leaving. I put my purse on the back of the car to get my keys out and Celeste started acting up screaming about how hot it was and so I got in and turned on the AC and then my sister got in and shut the door and I never gave my purse a second thought. I got home and couldn't find it, but I didn't really worry about it because the dome light in my car is out, so I have trouble finding ANYTHING in there at night. So I just locked my four doors and figured that I would just find it in the morning before work...so this morning when I went out to the car to go to work there was still no purse. Nothing. So I went in the house and asked my sister if she had taken it out of the car, and she said no, and so I went back to the car and left for work cause I was allready late. The whole way up there all I coud think was that the last time I saw it it was on the back of the car so I thought great. I drove off without it...It was a busy day for once and by the time Gytha got there it was slowing down so she told me to go look for it. I asked everyone in the cusotmer service depts if someone turned it in and no...and then I took a walk and still nothing. So I went back to work and I was a little miffed. I got home and my sisiter was outside and I asked her again if she was SURE she didn't touch it and she said no. And she hadn't seen it all day.I asked her when she saw it last and she said that she thinks the last time she saw it was on the back of my car. Might as well just let it go...go get my lliscense replaced and just hope that whoever got my bible reads it...So I stumbled into the house in the same door that everyone has been walkin in and out of all day, and guess what was right there on the floor in the doorway???
How did it get there?
Somebody explain that one to me...

That falls under the "God works in mysterious ways..." category,

or maybe the "I'm having a bad day, so the worst has happened in everything" category...

or maybe just the "praisalujah!" category...

either way, I am glad you found it... God is good, huh? That's what I thought... little missy... I'll save the "I told you so's" for later... and make that call wontcha? I think she needs it...

------------------
Allen

i did...but nothing happened...