[quote author=whyiloveitaly link=
I apologize if I offended you in any way. I just wanted to share what I've experienced, if it could be of any benefit to you or to anyone else reading.. Otherwise just ignore it!
Blessings!
Bri
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Well I understand, and please don't get me wrong, I am not trying to infiltrate everyones personal experiences. I can understand that many have had momemts that they feel were " Spiritual", and they count that moment as the time they were converted, or " Born Again", or something happened to them that they count the experience as one generated by God. Because of what we read in scripture, we know God can come in a dramatic way, and instantly do something to a person. That is possible, but I would disagree with any teaching that would claim that to be " Normal". It is not normal for God to call someone dramatically. It is not normal for God to supernaturally communicate with a human.
It is normal for God to slowly, over the years, deal with the human bit by bit, page by page, here a little there a little. That is the normal way that God breaks a human in. Look closely at 1 Corinth. 13:4, this is the Evidence of how God communicates with an individual. This is how God always, normally reveals himself to a human. God is Love, thus what Love is, defines how God is. Thus what Love does, is the way we can know how God does things. " Love is patient, Love is Kind and is not Jealous, does not brag and is not arrogant. Now if you go through this list, it is really a discription of Gods own personality in vs. 1-8. But notice that Love is Patient, that there reveals that the calling of God is not normally instant, as if we can nail it down to a specific moment, I disagree with that traditional notion. Not that it is impossible to do, but it is not normal, or common for God to do it, so we shouldnot expect that from him. I call it the " Big Bang Theory", you ask someone how they know they have been called, they think they have to explain some big bang moment in their lives. The Goodness of God leads to repentance, not the drama of God. Many of us are just " Spiritual Drama Queens." They start explaining their calling and it goes like this:" Well one day God threw me off the Ambassordor Bridge, and every since then I knew I was different."
No, Love bears all things in your Life, thus God will bear all things in your Life, and use all things in your Life. Are we now Gods Drama Kings and Queens, are we indoctrinated by specfic dramatical great moments in our lives? Love endures all things, thus God will endure all things, and Love never Fails. Do you realize what it means to be called by a God, that whatever he is doing to you, whatever method he is using, will NEVER Fail? Where is the need for drama, when you hold a Power like that? No, we underestimate God, and WE have a need to dramatise things.
Look at verse 8; the name it claim it now people are trying to extend the time of Flesh, saying we will train people for 1000 years, some even think we will always be taught things in the Kingdom, as if Knowledge will last forever; " Love never Fails", that is the consistancy of Consciousness right there. " There will be gifts of prophecy, they will be DONE AWAY, IF there are Tounges they will CEASE, IF there is Knowledge, it will be DONE AWAY WITH!" God uses these things NOW, but when we motor into the Kingdom, these things will be done away with! There won"t be any teaching done in Gods Kingdom. There will be no soul Saving or some kind of Trainning being done. The WHOLE THING will be NEW, but I don't think we understand that. This is why I know we are not Born Again yet. The Kingdom of God is going to be a Fantastic Voyage, one that none of us have already experienced. Oh how misleading it is to think you are now experiencing the Kingdom of God, or the Fullness of his Spirit.
Vs.9, " For we Know IN PART, and Prophesy in Part". Look, thats it right there, from perhaps the greatest teacher God has formed on earth. We just LEARN in part, we are Just Partly Conscious of God. We are not yet fully equiped, but we LOVE to think that we are. Why, because we COVET GOD! We imagine ourselves to be what we would Love to be. And its just our imagination, it is not God. Oh but imagination is a very Powerful thing.
And I am not offended in any manner, I am the one who needs to be concerned with causing offence. These things I am sharing, can greatly offend others, espically those who have claimed things for 20 years, then here comes along this person who suggest that those 20 years, need to be re-evaluated and set on course. Oh people don't like that. I am the one who needs to be concerned with that, because I don't want to hurt people, or burst their " Spiritual Bubbles."
Peace.