I'm a serious Christian: Ask me anything.

But He did, in the person of Jesus.

John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

You realize your using the bible to prove the bible. There no historical evidence to prove that even a human Jesus existed. Josephus and Philo were prominent Jews from the first century with plenty of writings. They never heard of Jesus. The Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden away between AD60-160 and they don't mention Jesus. All of the prominent Romans don't mention a Jesus. Tacitus, Suetonius, countless others including Stoic Philosophers which would have an interest since the Apostle Paul's writings were very similar to Seneca's.

Nice one.

Your humility in asking about this is really beautiful. I think it's a very good sign you are going to be a zealous follower of Jesus if you only do it His way.

More to your point, there are a lot of people out there right now in this age with very, very strong callings for the Lord. We are very close to the end, and those who are following Jesus closely are going to be lit up with God's glory and shine even as things get darker.

There are a bunch of Spiritual gifts that God brings forth in believers when they're doing their part in God's plan.

Some people are impressed with these things because they are very supernatural. I mean, who doesn't like to see God do something awesome and supernatural?

However, the most important thing to God is love. He wants you to be able to love Him with as much as you can, and He wants you to love others as much as you can (all while walking out His plan for you).

In general, Christians are "prophetic" people. Prophecy, in a nut-shell, is Jesus speaking to, or through, His people.

Any Christian can hear from God, and it's one of the most exciting things to cultivate that relationship with Him because you will undoubtedly see Him move in miraculous, supernatural ways. I know I have.

He can speak through His people spontaneously, or He can speak to them through a direct word, an impression on their heart, a vision, or a dream.

Every time He does this, there's a purpose. He may be teaching you something, He may want you to share it with someone else. Whatever it is, there is a purpose.

If you really want to walk out your calling, surrender your life to Him. It's not complicated. Maintain a humble, workable heart before Him. Spend time in prayer with Him daily. Spend time in His Word, and ask Him questions. Find an authentic congregation where you can get plugged in. Make sure it's a congregation that believes in the moving of the Spiritual gifts, but be careful. There is a lot of witchcraft going on in some charismatic churches because people are more zealous for something supernatural than something more mundane like love.

When a believer's heart is not aligned with God's love when moving in the Spiritual gifts, they may end up being influenced by foul spiritual forces.

Go after God! It's not hard for Him to teach you directly if you're humble and workable. Just be patient and don't trust yourself more than Him. If you really want the truth, don't settle for anything less. He is faithful to guide you into all truth.

Last Edited by FireInCairo on 05/13/2015 09:45 PM

I have been a Christian since I was a child. I believe, but I do not feel anything.
I do not feel at home at church.
I listen to U Tube videos of sermons.

I feel empty and lonely.

Is this true?

To OP,

Thanks for putting yourself out there...

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Many are called, few are chosen. from Matthew 22:14

Paul clearly said that when we die, we go directly to be with the Lord now:

2 Cor 5:8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

In the Old Testament, those of faith in right standing with God would go to "Abraham's Bosom" which was not the heavenly abode believers now go to.

Of course, there will be a resurrection of the dead where all the faithful down the ages will receive their glorified bodies.

That sucks. It's hard, I know. There's such a lack of love in so many churches. It's like people don't know how to treat each other.

Remember, though, we don't go by feelings; we go by faith. That being said, if you press in in prayer Jesus will manifest His love for you. You can experience His presence any time you want.

Almost every night I cue up live praise and worship music over the internet. You can find it here:

www.ihopkc.org/prayerroom/

I shut the lights off, I lay a blanket on the floor, I get on my knees and raise up my hands to Him singing along. It's beautiful.

Lifting your hands up in praise/worship/prayer is a powerful act of faith. When you hold your hands out to Father God, He is so touched He will fill them with His presence

Mind you, I do this for 40-60 minutes every night. Sometimes it's hard to be disciplined, but it's worth it. Especially when the world is so bad off. It's beautiful spending time with Him. It's kinda like visiting heaven for a while.

God bless you, too!

But John also said no one has seen God (but Jesus). And people obviously saw Jesus. And still no one saw God. Doesn't seem to add up with trinitarian doctrine.

[link to www.angelfire.com]

John also says the Father is the ONLY true God.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3

Last Edited by truemonotheism on 05/13/2015 10:18 PM

Great post OP. The Lord is real/true--Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be. I was born again in 1999 and always laughed at or mocked anyone who believed in God before that--but then the Lord manifested himself to me and I felt so stupid for acting the way I did. I'm not special--Jesus will make Himself known to ANY of you right now. OP said humility is the key and he's right, but it's also effort--Jesus said, "Seek me with your whole heart and you will find me." What the church hasn't done well is explain to everyone else that IT'S REAL!!! There are tangible feelings that happen when you ask God into your heart. The moment I said "Yes" to God, I was overcome by a rush through my body, similar to "the shivers"--came to find out that's the Holy Spirit. And that has happened regularly ever since whenever I pray for someone from the heart or ask God questions or just talk to Him--we have a relationship and that's how it was intended to be from the beginning. For anyone on the fence, you still have a little time!! On your own time when you're alone, simply ask God if Jesus is His Son--cry out in humility and He will answer!

I do disagree with OP saying that the Bible doesn't clearly talk about the rapture. It's going to happen extremely soon and for a bunch of reasons, it might happen between now and the end of September.

A lot of stuff in the Old Testament was just good advice any Father would give to His children.

For example, in the ancient world there was no refrigeration. Well, you know there were still people hawking shellfish in the center of town. You cannot go by smell when it comes to whether or not shellfish is safe. Even if it doesn't smell bad, it may have bacteria, so God prohibited it and helped His people avoid unnecessary sickness.

Much of the OT law and regulations were like that.

That being said, some of God natural teachings in the OT were foreshadows of spiritual teachings for the New Testament.

For example, all the feasts God appointed. You'd think Jews were fat and happy with all that feasting, and they likely were.

But, consider Jesus' teachings. Wasn't He always talking about food? Why is that?

Because the Jews understood all the OT teachings about feasting as a way to honor God.

But the New Covenant is for new wine skins, no? What is our new wine skin? It's our born again spirit person.

When Jesus taught the Jews, He related to their OT teachings about how to take care of their physical body, but applied it to new spiritual truths for the New Covenant spirit person.

This is why He says that the Word of God is food. This is why He says they can drink living water. This is why He says it is true food to do the will of His Father. This is why He says to eat of His Body and drink of His blood (representing our prayer communion with Father God through the only means possible: Jesus’ body and blood offered on the cross). This is why He said to pray in the Spirit (meaning pray in tongues).

If you were to write down simple directions for taking care of your naturTal body, it would look like this: Drink plenty of water, eat healthy foods, exercise regularly and you will be healthy and strong.

Jesus' directions for taking care of our new spirit person are really no different: Study the Word, be obedient and do our Father's will, pray daily, and pray in the Spirit to build up your spirit person and walk out your ministry calling trusting God to guide you.

One awesome observation the Lord showed me: Much of Jesus' teachings were oppositional to conventional wisdom, weren't they?

For example: Bless your enemies. Pray for those who use you. Etc, etc...

Well, Jesus' teachings on taking care of your spirit person are no different.

In the natural, you only eat when you get hungry. In the spiritual, the more you eat, the hungrier you get!

The more you press in to the prayer, study of His Word, and ministry calling, the stronger you become and the more you hunger for the things of God.

That's why we need to be disciplined. This is battle, and if you're a soldier you need to fight.

Last Edited by FireInCairo on 05/13/2015 10:23 PM

I politely asked at the outset of this thread not to bring forth nasty accusations. Make your own thread if you feel the need. Thanks for respecting that.

God is supremely just. That means whatever judgment befalls a man at His hand, is perfectly measured for that man.

The beautiful thing about His mercy and grace is that it helps us avoid that justice. Why wouldn't you want to sincerely look into that? Nothing is stopping you, just start a relationship with Him, but be ready to be humble. He is God, we're just people.

Jesus is God, and Jesus can speak through whomever He wishes.

So you think god is just and fair to burn billions alive forever...after he went to great lengths to get the point across to us to forgive our enemies and do good to them...even to the point the religios leaders slaughtered jesus for teaching this...and yet...he tortures his enemies in far worse ways them those romans and pharisees managed to do to jesus.

either god is a lying two faced sadistic mentally twisted fuck with a torture and revenge obsession...or christians are full of shit in what tbey say about his justice.

cause going by what jesus said...ya forgive ya enemies...not kill and burn them.

and I cannot imagine jesus would have asked us to do something he himself refuse to do.

God delivered me from a 25 year pornography addiction back in 2009. It was an awesome, powerful move of God.

I thought I was a good person, and that if there was a God I was in right standing with Him. I was a typical do-gooder who was bound by sin and ignorant of the gospel message which saved: Belief, repentance, and relationship.

My wife sent me a video of this preacher. It was short, but it was so anointed. After watching it, I had to find out more about this guy David Wilkerson. What was it about that video? I saw something in this guy I'd never seen in anyone before.

It was Jesus I saw in him.

I did a web search for his name and if you search for David Wilkerson on the internet you'll find out about repentance, the forgiveness of sins, Jesus' atoning blood, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Then something astonishing happened. God spoke to me. He said, "Jeff, you can't do it your way. If you do it your way you're going straight to the pit of hell."

I was shocked, I had never heard God speak to me (in my mind, not audibly), but I knew I had just heard from Him. And I was fearful. He didn't say anything about the pornography, but I knew I had to cast that sinful practice aside.

But how? I had been indulging in it for decades. I'd tried to stop again and again, but would always go back. It was hurting my marriage, it was terrible to support such a wicked industry.

But I knew I had to turn from this sin or I was going to hell bound by it.

So... I stopped cold turkey. And God showed me that if I called upon the name of Jesus to overcome the temptations when they came, He would get me through. And He did.

It went on for a couple weeks. The temptations would come, and I would call on Jesus' name. All the while, I had started up a daily prayer life. It was simple. I would pray every morning for a short time before work. I would pray every night a short time before bed.

When the temptations came, I would call upon Jesus. Also, I was asking God to baptize me in the Holy Spirit.

Around the 12th day something awesome happened. I woke up and I knew something had changed. The power of that sin was now outside of me. It no longer had the hold it had before. Jesus had broke the chains of that bondage and set me free. He also lit me up with the power of the Holy Ghost.

As far as lustful thoughts go, thoughts are not sins. We are told to "take every thought captive in obedience to Christ" as believers.

That means when something foul comes into my mind, I simply recognize it's not God's will that I dwell on it and it goes away.

If we indulge thoughts, they can become intents in our hearts, and then be birthed into action which is sin.

Excellent post and replies OP! The Lord bless you :)
Do check out this site - Bible verses set to music, I have been greatly blessed by the songs here
[link to www.theversesproject.com]

The Bible is the only authority to explain the Bible. Additionally, in terms of historian standards of ancient texts, it's basically the most documented text ever recognized (meaning what was written was what was written).

If you chose not to believe what's written, that's your choice. But God has a principle when it comes to whether or not people will know His truth: They must be humble.

Position yourself to receive truth, be humble and you will find His truth.

Check out the Psalms 27:3 song, its one of my favorites :)
[link to www.theversesproject.com]

Heresy hunters have a lot to say about people they've never met, ministries they've never experienced, and words they've never actually heard spoken.

It would be wise not to judge people by second-hand talk on the internet.

Jesus said we would know His people by their "fruit," not slander on the internet.

He said "fruit" for a reason. For one thing, it takes months for fruit to come forth. Meaning, if you want to know if someone is a Christian, you need to spend some real time with them. Fruit must be inspected in hand, not over the internet.

Ok, so that's a 40 minute video and I have not watched it completely. If I get the chance, I will and report back. I watched the first minute, and I can kinda see where it's going.

There's lots of speculation about what the devil is doing in the world. There is no doubt a system of schemers in these last moments colluding to destroy the earth and go after Christians. That's all Biblical, it's called the "beast system."

One thing is sure: God will deliver, strengthen, and provide for His people. That being said, some of us may be martyred. That's alright, too, and God's grace will be available for that.

One thing I encourage everyone to do is ask Father God to baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus called "power from on high." It's something every Christian should have, especially in these last moments before His return.

With it, you can pray in the Spirit, also known as praying in tongues, which will strengthen you spiritually for whatever may come in the days ahead.

Last Edited by FireInCairo on 05/13/2015 10:56 PM

That's really awesome.

You posting this is totally the Holy Spirit, too. In 2009, when I first started walking with the Lord, I wrote a song based upon Psalm 27.

I'm sorry, I don' argue with monotheists. The triune nature of God is a mystery that can only be received by faith.

Experiencing God is the greatest thing. I agree with all your points, though I still think that rapture theories have not been taught well.

One of the things about teaching is that it should be clear, concise, and obvious. A lot of people have tried to teach on the rapture, and they've done it poorly.

That being said, eschatology in general is a really tough subject.

I do believe we're going home soon, though.

A 'serious' christian? Does that mean a complete fundamentalist who believes the world is 6000 years old, snakes and donkeys can talk, and that a loving God created hell to torture most of his creation forever?

No, Jesus didn't say He would never fight. He said it wasn't time to fight yet:

John 18:36
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place."

Right now, the war is spiritual, but that's all about to end (emphasis mine):

2 Thess. 1:5-10
5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering- 6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from2 the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Last Edited by FireInCairo on 05/13/2015 11:16 PM

God can do whatever He wants, but most of all, He wants you to be in right relationship with Him. That's why He sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins on a cross.