How I came to where I am

[NinjaWizards777]

I dont know if anyone does this on here, I dont post here enough to know(id be intresting to read if so)...but anyway I just wanted to take a moment to testify about how I came to believe what I do now, as far as UR goes and things.

Somewhere along the way, after being a very devout "born again" believer for about 7 years I realized that I needed to get close to God as I was before. I had grown very distant and apathetic though I still beleived...but I read Brian Head Welch(guy whos my avi) book about how he came to christ and I began to cry because I missed that feeling of God in my heart.

I said a prayer asking God to help me have that fire again and that i wanted to serve him and share his love with others. immediately my life became very hard, and i lost alot of things that i held dear. All i was left were questions about God, salvation, Hell...just everything...i had so many doubts and no answers.I grew more terrified of Hell than ever before, and was so confused about it. People would say that I was never saved even though I knew in my heart that what I had felt was the most real thing I have known. People would "rationalize" away my questions and say they didnt matter and such, or simply gave me answers that once had made sense but just didnt fit anymore. My understanding of God and scripture and life had grown too much for me to just rationalize away what didnt add up. And because of all the stress and depression from that, my girlfriend leaving me and just life in general I almost accepted to be agnostic and or just kill myself. I couldnt take it anymore.

And I just came to the point in all the time where I knew there was more. Shortly into this i learned what ultimate reconciliation was but felt it was just "too good to be true" (heck i still feel like that sometimes). But as time went on God has shown me the evidence for Ultimate Reconcilliation...bit by bit, piece by piece. and I am now fairly convinced it is the truth...and since that I feel the hold satan had on me all these past months has begun to break and I feel like I have something to smile about again(this feeling being EXTREMLY recent like as in the past couple days).

I dont want to die anymore, or stop believing. I feel the fire to talk about God again and show others his love/salvation. God has grown my heart for others in a way he never has before and I believe that was apart of his plan all along, and he has also grown my love and faith in Him and his wonderful plans that I will never fully understand. :)

I suppose im still not fully convinced, though I dont like to say i know anything for sure. I am still investigating. But the evidence is pretty strong and i feel this is no accident that the questions were placed in me and God has shown deliverance in that. Praise God for that.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: I think that's an awesome testimony, and for me earmarks a very real experience with God. I had someone ask me thru a mutual friend one time, if something she perceived as bad (much like you described above) happening to her right after she had given God her whole heart, was in fact, God.

My reply? If when it's over you don't feel like your world has been totally turned upside down and inside out, then it wasn't God. God once spoke to me thru a prophet I met, that "He was going to pull me thru a knothole backwards!" That about summed up what I went thru after that.  :mshock:

It's sometimes painful when the whirlwind of His Spirit hits and begins to blow away all that is not of His perfect will for our life at that moment in time. There is a good (outer court), acceptable (inner court), and PERFECT (Holy of Holies) will for our lives. Welcome to the chastening's needed to walk in His perfect will.  :HeartThrob: Blessings....

[jabcat]

Yes, very good testimony!  Brian's testimony is excellent as well.  I think more people need to hear of him.

Card, I like that explanation on the wills of God...I've used the "good, acceptable, perfect" terms before, but never in the court realms...very good, thanks.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Thanks Jab. It's funny how He brings things to mind as we need it. I had forgotten that one of the "three" scriptures until I replied to his post. I have steadily been adding them to the Tabernacle Thread post I made on the "threes", as He brings them back to me on here, LOL......Blessings...

[Molly]

God once spoke to me thru a prophet I met, that "He was going to pull me thru a knothole backwards!"

Yeah, that about sums it up.  :laughing7:

But, when you think about it--that must be what it feels like to be born the first time, too.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: That's very true.... :thumbsup:

[NinjaWizards777]

lol, in a way I feel like im born-again all over again :Sparkletooth:...hah.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Cool......when the times of refreshing shall come...... :bigGrin:

[jadestorm]

 :HeartThrob: When our daughter Christa was a toddler she had a morning ritual for waking up her dad; she would creep up to the bed, pry his eyes open with her little fingers and whisper "Daddy, are you awake inside your eyes?"

I Love God's simple messageners and their simplistic messages. Abba(PaPa,Daddy),
is not upset when we pry His eyelids open, pat His cheeks and ask our toddler questions.
Daddy, are You Awake under Your Eyes? What color are Your Eyes? How do YOU see things? People/religion can make it seem a fearful thing to question, but ultimately it comes down to your realational EXPERIENCE with Father that will always outweigh people's opinions. I'm sorry, but once you've stared into the Eyes of Daddy and realize they are bottomless pools of unconditional LOVE, no one can ever take that away from you. ;) You are undone, your world is forever changed, your mind helplessly blown.
Oh the messy lives Seekers have!!! :laughing7:
Happy treasure hunting, and keep swimming in the deep end of the pool!!! He becomes your very Breath the deeper you go ;)

[IceDash]

our faith might backtrack over and over because of fear and other stuff, but the only that never backtracking is LOVE, God love you for who you are just like Paul said Stay who you are as God called you, not changing yourself, God never tell people to change unless they are criminal...

[NinjaWizards777]

amen

[WhiteWings]

God never tell people to change unless they are criminal...

But aren't we all criminals?
Criminals break the law.
We all sin. = Breaking Gods law.

[IceDash]

well I meant doing evil over and over and over, you know, very bad people.

[preistsplace]

And I just came to the point in all the time where I knew there was more. Shortly into this i learned what ultimate reconciliation was but felt it was just "too good to be true" (heck i still feel like that sometimes). But as time went on God has shown me the evidence for Ultimate Reconcilliation...bit by bit, piece by piece. and I am now fairly convinced it is the truth...and since that I feel the hold satan had on me all these past months has begun to break and I feel like I have something to smile about again(this feeling being EXTREMLY recent like as in the past couple days).

I dont want to die anymore, or stop believing. I feel the fire to talk about God again and show others his love/salvation. God has grown my heart for others in a way he never has before and I believe that was apart of his plan all along, and he has also grown my love and faith in Him and his wonderful plans that I will never fully understand. :)
I know the feeling, also being someone who is rather new to this belief.My whole life I bounced back and forth through belief systems because I could not beleive that God would torture forever. I became an athiest, then an agnostic, I felt unstable inside I was missing something. I couldn't name it but I began searching taoism, paganism, philosophy drinking drugs abd many other things. During that whole time If someone tryed to tell me about God the doors on my mind slammed shut. Finally one day In a very very difficult time in my life I decided to go to church. There was one in the neighborhood where I was living and it wasn't far. I got there early and began to swing on a swingset that was in a little playground looking up at the cross, It was like I saw Jesus there looking at me and smiling I felt peace , I felt love , I felt free. I began to mattend that church but before long I moved back to Texas, and being here I did not know of a church where I might feel comfortable in my area so I did not attend until here recently. During this time I began to question  the ET thing and I would feel like it was a revelation every time I came accross a peice of the puzzle, but I also felt that conflict, which one is the doctrine of men, who is talking to me God or satan? Every time I questioned in this way I would read the Bible and come accross another peice of the puzzle and I would feel free. I came to accept UR. Looking back I now see and fully understand that what I thought was "God" was a conglamorate of the teachings of men. Now I understand the
word of God better,every day is a precious gift, I feel those "rivers of living water inside of me" .I am so grateful to God , I feel called to minister I feel on fire for God. So much has been lifted from my eyes ears and shoulders. God Bless

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Amen, beautiful testimony..... :thumbsup:

[wolverine11989]

Wow you know what????like 20 mins ago i began to slip into depression just thinking about the bad things that has happened to me ,with my girlfriend leaving me and all and my whole life in general that is in the heaps ,i just wanted to die but something told me to come to tentmaker and go into the testimony section and click your thread and press "Control + F" and search "Girlfriend" and there it was.........................your testimony pretty much describes my situation too ,its not exact but its close(close enough to not be a coincidence ,but a act of God showing me that im not the only one) .........i instantly felt better ,because it let me know God is with me and here to help as he is with others..........your testimony is very nice.......God bless...

[preistsplace]

God has always been with you,and always cared about you.He is currently working all things for good,even though at times it is very hard for us to discern.

[SPOKENFOR]

I dont know if anyone does this on here, I dont post here enough to know(id be intresting to read if so)...but anyway I just wanted to take a moment to testify about how I came to believe what I do now, as far as UR goes and things.

Somewhere along the way, after being a very devout "born again" believer for about 7 years I realized that I needed to get close to God as I was before. I had grown very distant and apathetic though I still beleived...but I read Brian Head Welch(guy whos my avi) book about how he came to christ and I began to cry because I missed that feeling of God in my heart.

I said a prayer asking God to help me have that fire again and that i wanted to serve him and share his love with others. immediately my life became very hard, and i lost alot of things that i held dear. All i was left were questions about God, salvation, Hell...just everything...i had so many doubts and no answers.I grew more terrified of Hell than ever before, and was so confused about it. People would say that I was never saved even though I knew in my heart that what I had felt was the most real thing I have known. People would "rationalize" away my questions and say they didnt matter and such, or simply gave me answers that once had made sense but just didnt fit anymore. My understanding of God and scripture and life had grown too much for me to just rationalize away what didnt add up. And because of all the stress and depression from that, my girlfriend leaving me and just life in general I almost accepted to be agnostic and or just kill myself. I couldnt take it anymore.

And I just came to the point in all the time where I knew there was more. Shortly into this i learned what ultimate reconciliation was but felt it was just "too good to be true" (heck i still feel like that sometimes). But as time went on God has shown me the evidence for Ultimate Reconcilliation...bit by bit, piece by piece. and I am now fairly convinced it is the truth...and since that I feel the hold satan had on me all these past months has begun to break and I feel like I have something to smile about again(this feeling being EXTREMLY recent like as in the past couple days).

I dont want to die anymore, or stop believing. I feel the fire to talk about God again and show others his love/salvation. God has grown my heart for others in a way he never has before and I believe that was apart of his plan all along, and he has also grown my love and faith in Him and his wonderful plans that I will never fully understand. :)

I suppose im still not fully convinced, though I dont like to say i know anything for sure. I am still investigating. But the evidence is pretty strong and i feel this is no accident that the questions were placed in me and God has shown deliverance in that. Praise God for that.

AMEN. This is no accident at all. My testimony of how I came to where I am and believing in UR is pretty close to yours in some ways. Except I instantly believed it. BTW, what made my journey some wild was that get this..I had never heard of UR or Universalism, I had not previous knowledge that there were Christians who believed that. I was really that naive in that area. The only person I heard mention it was Carlton Pearson, but I still was naive. God revealed it to me himself one night..and then he began to lead me to people and websites that supported what he was showing me. I was blown away to say the least..WOW..Enjoy the journey.

God gives wisdom to those who seek it. Many are already 'full' and feel there is nothing else to know about God. They have been to bible school, etc..or are just full of traditions and religion and are not open to hear what God is saying.

You are not alone...God is with you and many of us on this journey..:)