What does one believe?

[micah7:9]

After a time of silence, which may again resume, justified or not.. I must ask, just what does one believe in... have faith to stand on....is it religion, its denominational  and theological offerings, or the ministry of Jesus Christ  taught by  His Apostles and those who willfully follow as learning disciples?

I find myself in the latter, tho even as of this very minute have many faults, weaknesses and addictions that make me feel and think that I am not worthy. But I have been brought to a realization, that the Lord made me, made me who I am with all the difficulties that plague me as a human being  all are are of the Lord. I no longer make myself guilty, feel bad about my situation. He has  brought me to know " For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease."

I have yet to know, and I will offer that none have come to understand and know just what The Spirit is. GOD IS SPIRIT, myself as well, we all, attempt and try to make the Bible and what we glean from its words, "work for us." The Lord does not hinder this, He is the CAUSE of it, all the happenings  even enclosing Azua and the Later Rain. The movements made US somebody, heck Pentecost (became just another denomination) there was a power, a power we ASSUMED we were given, and as we see in 2014 just as abused as any power we were given. Moses was given power, yet he STRUCK the rock. We fail to see we all are weak, just as weak as the first man Adam, but yet when enlightenment comes, like deliverance ministry, we get in ourselves and become somebody.

Yes, of course these words are just the opinion of a forum-mate and to be taken with whatever value one should decide. God IS Spirit and as far as I know we have no idea whatsoever as to what that is. Yet some act as though they do. I do not know, but I do know it is more than any religion, theology, or  any new  denominational up spring.   Jesus IS RISEN...Jesus LIVES and Jesus is ALWAYS COMING.

I believe we as humans were given to play and we do just that... play.  :dsunny:   

[ed]

Hi mikah7:9

I believe in love.  More then anything else I believe in love.  I love the different version that I see in this forum.  I love the tenderness that people have when stating their view.  I love the occasional spats that nobody takes sides on.  I left tentmaker some time ago for a good period of time.  I was drawn back for love of the church.  The church being the whole body of Christ.   I use the forum help me stay grounded with a diverse group of people who all hold to the love of God as the highest call.

No denomination.  No church. No leader.  Just Jesus Christ.

For me the call of God is in the place we are.  The things we have been given in our lives.   Every little thing is our responsibility.  The seemingly insignificant become very exciting with this view.  God cares about the smallest thing, in us and through us.  Christ everywhere and in everything.

.

[josh]

what methinks god requires of one's faith
faith in his mercies
then with proper faith
one can be justified by god's grace...

ah the relationship of grace and mercy
worth googlin maybe....

[Ross]

1 Cor 1;26-31 " For see your calling, brethren;
not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many are called noble;
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,
and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and God has chosen the base things of the world which are despised,
and things which are not to bring things which are to nothing;

SO THAT NO FLESH SHOULD GLORY IN HIS PRESENCE

and you of Him you are IN CHRIST JESUS, Who became wisdom from God TO US, and also righteousness, sanctification, and redemption so that as it is written,
' He who is glorying let him glory in the Lord."

1 Cor 2;2 " For I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

vs 5   " That your faith may not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."

Romans 9 through to 12 also talks about the pot and the potter, and elaborated about the reason we are here.
E.G Rom 9;11 " For they, not being born yet, neither having done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to choice might remain not of works, but of Him Who is calling."
Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
We have many demonstrations of all sorts of extremes around us.
Paul said in 1 Cor 15 that if Christ were not raised then we have reason to be pitied. But the witnesses of the resurrected Christ gives us the reality of a glorious future PROVIDED FOR US by Christ setting us free from the law of sin and death.

When I freely give a gift to mine own children that gift is for their benefit because I love them. God loves us far greater than we can even grasp.
No angel, power or principality, life or death etc can keep us from the love of God In Christ Jesus.
We can be our own worst enemies and come up with all sorts of excuses to justify ourselves.
Our Father lets us go for a while to see what we have attempted, then at His appointed time will correct us for all those feeble attempts just like we sometimes we wait for our own kids to learn from experience before we point out the truth.
We are going to have all the right stuff come into a much clearer picture when Christ arrives. Till then we have great expectation of a glorious life to come.
We are going to see His mercy demonstrated in ages to come to show how we should really base our decisions.
Eph 2;7 " That He might show, in the ages that are coming, the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness towards us In Christ Jesus."
vs 9 " Not of works, so that no one may boast."

God is indeed spirit. We are made in His image, so we look LIKE Him, but are a different substance. A bit like comparing us to a cardboard cut-out; same image just different material.
The spiritual world was around before we were created, and is much greater power that our current state of being.
Just imagine the sun and the power there; God created that so He must have greater power than the sun .
Christ is coming in glory and we will be raised to be like Him.
Paul said to look forward to the things that are coming, because the things that we currently see are temporary, and the things of spirit are permanent.

Because of Christ we are called children of God.
1 John 3;2 " And it was not yet shown what we shall be, and we have known that when He will be shown we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He truly is."

Hope! Expectation! A glorious resurrection!
Amen!!!

[Lazarus Short]

Don't judge the Spiritual things by the here-and-now, for we live in (and are) an IMAGE, and the image is not reality, just a poor imitation.  God will fire the clay that we are in due time, and He will be well pleased when He is finished.

[josh]

thoughts on image in last comment by laz...

any more explanation on why the image of here and now is not real...

the image i take is our contact with reality
as it is our contact in the here and not
to change our likeness back to the original image and likeness we were made it....

[Seth]

From my perspective, we need to believe the Gospel. And in terms of sin, the Bible says that the man who says he hasno sin is a liar, and tthat we stumble all the time. I think the key thing is humility. I think that is the main characteristic God is looking for. I have seen people in ET and UR proclaim "peace and safety" with regard to sin, and I believe they are in for a blistering reality check someday.

I think the Bible teaches us to be humble about our sin, to thirst for righteousness, and to resist sin. If we fail and stumble, to maintain a humble spirit about it, like the publican. The moment we take a "peace and safety" attitude is when we are steered toward a storm. God hates pride.

[Lazarus Short]

thoughts on image in last comment by laz...

any more explanation on why the image of here and now is not real...

the image i take is our contact with reality
as it is our contact in the here and not
to change our likeness back to the original image and likeness we were made it....

Perhaps this will explain it better:

We all know of the distorted way that dreams reflect our waking lives.  We accept these distortions when we are in the dream because we exist there under the Law of Dreaming.  While we are under this Law, we never stop to think (and I have come to believe we cannot think) of where we really are.  And where is that?  Of course!  We are, generally, snug in our beds.  When we awaken, we say "Oh, it was only a dream!"  and we get on with our lives, under the Law of Waking.  We think, if we think about it at all, that we now know where we are – right here and now – but I cannot help but wonder if "where we are" is yet another place, still unknown to us.

Centuries ago, early anatomists dissected cadavers, looking for the "seat of the soul."  They failed.  If you read the story of the creation of Adam/Man in Genesis, and really understand it, you will know that man was not given a soul, but BECAME a living soul when the Breath of Life was breathed into an otherwise dead body.  Naturally, by the time the dissectors got their hands on the corpse, the soul was non-existent, and the breath/spirit was long gone.  More recently, the theory was concocted that consciousness is a product of chemical reactions in the brain.  As far as I know, this theory has failed, as has the one which postulated that consciousness is produced by electrical activity in the brain.  What are we left with, then?  Are we looking for something ephemeral or even ineffable?  There is a school of thought which speculates that the brain is merely a transducer for the Mind, and that implies that our minds may well be in another place, but the nature of that place we have no knowledge of, being as we are, under the Law of Waking.  Be aware that I am Philosophizing, not Scientificating here...

I have come to believe that when we move on into the "far country," the afterlife, or rather, step over that barrier which we must all step over, we will awaken and say, "Oh, that too, was just a dream!"   

[Cardinal]

From my perspective, we need to believe the Gospel. And in terms of sin, the Bible says that the man who says he hasno sin is a liar, and tthat we stumble all the time. I think the key thing is humility. I think that is the main characteristic God is looking for. I have seen people in ET and UR proclaim "peace and safety" with regard to sin, and I believe they are in for a blistering reality check someday.

I think the Bible teaches us to be humble about our sin, to thirst for righteousness, and to resist sin. If we fail and stumble, to maintain a humble spirit about it, like the publican. The moment we take a "peace and safety" attitude is when we are steered toward a storm. God hates pride.

:cloud9: I agree Seth. I literally just heard the Lord speak that scripture about a week ago, pertaining to a well know minister. Sudden destruction is the end of that scripture and He indicated that was the way he was heading. He "gave" him to me decades ago, as one of a few in particular ministers, He wanted me to intercede for regularly, and I do; sometimes He has taken me into deep travail over them right before a crisis in their lives.

A few years ago He dropped into my spirit that there were those who had become "at ease in Zion" and that a spirit of complacency had come upon the spiritual priesthood because of it.

EVERYTHING that He gives us as a breath, we have to take it and judge ourselves FIRST. So if we're praying for others daily, we're also doing a "housecleaning" of ourselves, too, in the process. It never stops! The wicks had to be trimmed daily, else they would start to smoke and obscure the view of the priests until they couldn't see to minister to the Lord. My  :2c:  Blessings....

[josh]

LAZ SPOKE OF...
We all know of the distorted way that dreams reflect our waking lives.  We accept these distortions when we are in the dream because we exist there under the Law of Dreaming. 

WHAT ABOUT THIS ASPECT OF DREAMING
DO YOU HAVE LAWS OF DREAMING THAT ACCOUNT FOR SUCH...

the dreams that come from god to instruct us
Job 33:14  For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
Job 33:15  In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;
Job 33:16  Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,
Job 33:17  That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
Job 33:18  He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.

[Lazarus Short]

No, Josh, I do not know all the Laws of the Dream.  I only stated that there are Laws, and not well understood.  God does speak to me in them, and the rest is like a weird movie.  The main point is that our waking from sleep may just be a lot like waking up from the grave:  sleep is over, time to live.  :Peace2:

[joeteekay]

what methinks god requires of one's faith
faith in his mercies
then with proper faith
one can be justified by god's grace...

ah the relationship of grace and mercy
worth googlin maybe....

What God requires: yes faith, not faith in Christ but faith of Christ in us and then:

Mic 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

[saintwalee]

micah7:9

I hear you about the Spirit, for it is truly mysterious:

Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

But even though we can't understand the Spirit of God, we can see its working.

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

When we see the leaves of the tree dance in the wind, we know they are moved by the same, so with the Spirit, although we don't see it or can't understand it, we can definitely see its affects.

Since the Lord has called me back, I have been sitting at Jesus's feet, just like Mary. I think that is important, that we really come to know Him. Jesus chastised Martha, because she didn't realize it was more important to have a relationship with Him, than to serve Him. I commend you in listening to Him, rather than getting caught up in the works of a denomination.

As I read more of the posts from the members of this forum, I truly am amazed at the peace and love that is shared.

Have a most wonderful day in His Grace and Love.