"Have you ever had a spiritual paranormal encounter?"

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marks

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The danger is in thinking that such experiences are evidence of God's presence, or his favour, or even you're maturity... And then depending on such experiences as validation that your faith is real or "going places". Similar to those who believe tongues is evidence that they are more mature or real than those who don't speak in tongues... it is utter nonsense... No pun intended.
Well put my friend!
 
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amadeus

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ah well as im sure you're aware i do not believe in "death, more abundantly" so as to the possible future scenario, i couldnt say
Well maybe I was talking with tongue in cheek. However, if there are no tongues or cheeks in heaven [3rd] what does that mean? The question is, what message is God sending to us... talking with an audible [man's definition] voice or in some other way? As to a future scenario what if the future is simply now after a while? It always seems to be today, yet we seemingly have memories and even impressions such as our posts on this forum that make us want to believe, or at least consider, that there really was a yesterday. Tomorrow [the future]?

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Matt 6:34

Perhaps tomorrow really is just a long unending today for anyone who qualifies. Qualifies for what?

"And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" John 11:26

So then what is death? What is it in a more abundantly sense?
 
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amadeus

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I understand...it wasn't my intent to speak against those who do visit their loved ones graves.
I have never visited anyone's grave but I can certainly understand why some people do that. Perhaps it is why we have and keep pictures of people, especially people who are physically dead.
 
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amadeus

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Thank you all for the variety of responses (in line with what I hoped).
Being the other side of the pond the majority came in whilst I was asleep and that makes it very difficulty for me to find points at which i would otherwise have joined in.
Bless you all for responding.....I guess that, on balance, I am safe to continue to involve in CB (which is why I raised the thread)
Safe? Is anyone safe anywhere if he is not in the arms of God? If he is in God, where is he not safe?
 
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amadeus

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If they think there is God appearing in a dust cloud out of the vents, laying on people's graves, etc, yeah, they are NOT normal.
And what is the world is normal? We all probably have used the term but it means different things to different people in different situations. Probably in a sense, few "normal" people know the Lord and want to know Him better!
 
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Helen

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Why the eye rolling Marks?

Have you never heard of Kathryn Kuhlman?

I agree with @Willie T Her delivery was someone affected and over-the-top I thought...and her style of dress was strange...But GOD chose her and used her for year in healing.
What I liked about her was her honesty at the end of her life...she wanted Jamie Buckingham to "tell it all"...all about her many healing's but also about her downfall , we weakness which 'brought her down'. Etc..the books is so honest, I respected her for that. She told him to not hide anything.
Quote:-
"Many accounts of medically documented healings were published in her books, which were ghost-written by author Jamie Buckingham of Florida, including her autobiography, which was dictated at a hotel in Las Vegas.[9] Buckingham also wrote his own Kuhlman biography that presented an unvarnished account of her life.[10] An estimated two million people reported they were healed in her meetings over the years.[11]
....
Dr. Richard Owellen, a member of the cancer‐research department of the Johns Hopkins Hospital who appeared frequently at Miss Kuhlman's services, testified to various healings that he said he had investigated.[2

(..But other Dr's said the healings didn't last ) ..
 

amadeus

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Why is that? I am pretty certain Scripture does not say we would die in the presence of His Glory....but it does say no man has seen His face and lived.

“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,”
— Jude 1:24 (KJV)
Yes, but it says it says it in the OT long before the Holy Ghost was poured out. Did that make a difference? Also we see even that David, the shepherd boy become King, was told to seek His face. Would he be told to do that if it only meant death? Then again the Apostle Paul writes that there will be a "then" in which we will see Him "face to face".

"And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." Ex 33:20

"When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek." Psalm 27:8


"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." I Cor 13:12

"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:" John 17:22
 
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bbyrd009

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Well maybe I was talking with tongue in cheek. However, if there are no tongues or cheeks in heaven [3rd] what does that mean? The question is, what message is God sending to us... talking with an audible [man's definition] voice or in some other way? As to a future scenario what if the future is simply now after a while? It always seems to be today, yet we seemingly have memories and even impressions such as our posts on this forum that make us want to believe, or at least consider, that there really was a yesterday. Tomorrow [the future]?

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Matt 6:34

Perhaps tomorrow really is just a long unending today for anyone who qualifies. Qualifies for what?

"And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" John 11:26

So then what is death? What is it in a more abundantly sense?
ha i think "free beer tomorrow" pretty succinctly defines the phenom lol;
the kingdom of heaven is within you
and as to the third heaven,
where I am going, you cannot come
 
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amadeus

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Why do we "normal" people make trips out to the cemetery to stand at the site someone was hidden six feet under? We take them flowers and even stand there talking to them. (But, that is considered sane?)
As with so many things "Christian", THEIR brand of crazy is just different than OURS. We accept and approve of ours, but we ridicule theirs.
I remember one very faithful brother losing his beloved wife. He had her cremated and kept her ashes in an urn on top of the mantle of the fireplace in their bedroom until he died some years later. Was that also strange?
 

reformed1689

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Why the eye rolling Marks?

Have you never heard of Kathryn Kuhlman?

I agree with @Willie T Her delivery was someone affected and over-the-top I thought...and her style of dress was strange...But GOD chose her and used her for year in healing.
What I liked about her was her honesty at the end of her life...she wanted Jamie Buckingham to "tell it all"...all about her many healing's but also about her downfall , we weakness which 'brought her down'. Etc..the books is so honest, I respected her for that. She told him to not hide anything.
Quote:-
"Many accounts of medically documented healings were published in her books, which were ghost-written by author Jamie Buckingham of Florida, including her autobiography, which was dictated at a hotel in Las Vegas.[9] Buckingham also wrote his own Kuhlman biography that presented an unvarnished account of her life.[10] An estimated two million people reported they were healed in her meetings over the years.[11]
....
Dr. Richard Owellen, a member of the cancer‐research department of the Johns Hopkins Hospital who appeared frequently at Miss Kuhlman's services, testified to various healings that he said he had investigated.[2

(..But other Dr's said the healings didn't last ) ..
Kathryn Kuhlman was an adulteress fraud.
 

amadeus

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Actually, it is.
We nibble on a piece of manufactured (usually) wafer and drink a tiny half-ounce of liquid... we close our eyes and bow our heads when told to... we either raise our hands or we definitely do NOT... we make a performance of getting dunked, usually in front of an audience... we stand and sit on que... some even kneel when told to... we recite "Responsive Readings" back to a leader... And those are only the common things. Many churches perform a heck of a lot more odd little rituals.
We really DO pick and choose what we want to call "peculiar."
I remember the wafers and drink but have not been a member of a church that did that for more than 30 years. I was also once a member of a church where we really did take a bucket of warm water and wash each other's physical feet. While I don't do those thing any more, when I did I was blessed along with others because according to my heart at the time it was the right thing to do. Why is it that people insist on making others follow what they believe is right but they criticize or condemning anything else?
 

aspen

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I'm asking this to further test out my own 'odd ball' situation.
I personally have never enjoyed anything remotely resembling a 'Road to Damascus' conversion, and maybe that is because, right back to my earliest childhood memories, I have always firmly believed in God and his interaction in my life.
My parents had two devastating life and heath losses before I was born and mother, who otherwise was a very sociable person, invited every visitor in for a drink and goodies. But when the visitor was JW, Salvation Army, Local Evangelicals etc., she always demanded that they should never mention the word 'God' whilst in her house.
(I think I might conversely have grown up to believe that there just had to be a God for her to have been so angry with him)
Amazingly my mother sent me to the Sunday school in the Evangelical Chapel on the opposite side of our road (presumably to get a bit of Sunday afternoon peace).

I remember my neighbour's ex army son giving my a tiny 'Forces' New Testament, to which I attached such value that it never left my shirt pocket whether at nursery school or at play.
I rarely read it but I remember how much importance I still placed on its presence when I later sat for the 11Plus exams for entry into Grammar School.
I was best friends with my desk mate at that time who was much higher placed at school than me, and when I passed the 11Plus exam, and he didn't, I put it down to the magical influence of my pocket New Testament.
When we were older I persuaded him to join the Young Men's Group that proceeded Sunday School and eventually he excepted the Lord as his Saviour, became my 'best man' when I married at the Chapel and, until the chapel closed last year, was their senior deacon.
We still write to each other and he reckons himself to be the "Jewel in my Crown " without which he would never have met his wife and brought up a lovely family of five.
BUT
I have never "enjoyed anything remotely resembling a 'Road to Damascus' conversion".
Is that the reason why I appear to some to be an 'Intellectual Believer' without a Saving Faith?
What say you all?
Have you ever had a Paranormal Spiritual Encounter?
Met Christ Face to Face?
Seen a blinding light?
Enjoyed a life changing moment?
Experienced a Reincarnation?

I have heard God’s voice in prayer.
I have seen and rejected a demon.
 

marks

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I've had some minor oddball stuff happen. I've done some speaking before the congregation and not remember how it went and had "bent" vision (hard to explain, but it was like seeing things crystal clear but distorted). But that could've just been lazer focus...

The most remarkable thing that happened to me isn't so remarkable at all. I got a flat tire at work and when I saw it, my first thought was, "yes! Praise God! He's delivering me from something!". I don't always do that (though I should). Sometimes I cuss like a sailor. But not this time.

I fixed it and got on the road. 5 to 10 minute delay. On the way home there was a huge telephone poll down in the middle of the road that just happened within the last 10 minutes. I got goosebumps at that. I had a very haunting feeling about it. It happened 15 years ago and it still chills me.

I suppose it doesn't count as a "road to Damascus" experience, but it certainly made an impression on me.

Sometimes, I suppose, the greatest miracles you have are the ones you don't even know happened.
I've gotten to where a lot of the time when something happens, I figure He's adjusting my schedule. I expect you are right in your idea.
 
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stunnedbygrace

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If God is speaking to you in an audible voice that would be special revelation. If that were true, it should be added to Scripture.

Hmm...okay, so you think every single instance of God ever speaking to a man is in the bible. So the Holy Spirit told them to set apart paul and barnabas but after that, none of them ever heard from God again because if they had, it would need to be added to the bible...? Do I have that right?

And so, the only things the Holy Spirit ever said to Paul are in the bible and Paul never heard anything from the Holy Spirit other than what's in the bible?

And the last man then, to ever hear anything from the Holy Spirit was John, around 90 A.D. and no man has heard anything from the Holy Spirit since then?
 

reformed1689

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Hmm...okay, so you think every single instance of God ever speaking to a man is in the bible. So the Holy Spirit told them to set apart paul and barnabas but after that, none of them ever heard from God again because if they had, it would need to be added to the bible...? Do I have that right?

And so, the only things the Holy Spirit ever said to Paul are in the bible and Paul never heard anything from the Holy Spirit other than what's in the bible?

And the last man then, to ever hear anything from the Holy Spirit was John, around 90 A.D. and no man has heard anything from the Holy Spirit since then?
I'm saying there is no more special revelation today.