"Faith is believing what you know ain't so" (Mark Twain).

[MA2444]

Continued...:

It was after that episode of Angel at the garage sale that I said to myself. Ok, let's run with this. It was true. I didn't see anythig spiritual but that cash sure was real! SO I started calling on the Lord more often and with smaller problems and questions and stuff and the Lord would respond to my faith quite a lot. Not to everythig, but many things nonetheless. I inceased my efforts to draw closer to the Lord because the Lord revealed to me through His help that He really is real, and interested in "me"! Little ol me. How about that? I'm nobody of any prominence. And a funny thing happened. When I drew closer to the Lord, He drew closer to me. He started teaching me and helping me. I have a plethora of testimonies!

He taught me that he wanted for me to learn to hear His still small voice and to instantly obey. So He wouldnt have to prove Himself to me all the time with miracles or overwhelming sense of His presence. He said He likes to save the miracles to do in front of large crowds so that there will be many conversions.

That made sense to me. But I didnt know where to start. Draw even closer to Him? Sounds like a new game is starting! Lol. So I started inviting the Lord to go with me to work and I would talk to Him all day long between jobs. Like He was riding in the truck. (He was).

It was hard at first. Staying focused that my friend who is closer than a Brother was really with me. You dont forget that your best friend is with you and ignore Him, you just dont. The game goes like this. I talk to Him (prayer as if He is right beside me and in me and I in Him. So whatever I ask Him, then I stp and pause and listen for His answer, The very first thing that pops into my head after I ask and pause. Sometimes it was a scripture. SOmetimes something that seemed like a thought...but it answered my question and was something I hadnt thought of yet! SO I ask something else. Immediate response. Do this not that. Not what I wanted to hear at the time, lol. So that wasnt me, lol.

And so, the floor is lava, right? So I rolled with it and continued to speak to Him in this way and turning inward for the answer. And I kid you not Brother, it turned into a regular conversation. So we spent days together with me as a little child playing this game, but taking it seriously at the same time. Then it was weeks that I had been doing this. Focusing on the Lord and spending the entire work day with Him. We even talked about inconsequential things, small things. And over time I was able to recognize that He spoke differently than I do. He speaks differently than I think. He has a different speech patterns I guess you could say. No one talks like He does. He didn't answer all my questions. Sometimes He would be silent. SOmetimes He would change the subject! SOmetimes, He wakes me up at night! Sometimes, He says things that, I dont want to hear or do. That adds to it another level of realized Truth in the unseen. And not only is He unseen, but He is a nice guy! So it was impossible that I could pretend anymore.

One time driving, in a weak moment, I switched on the Radio. Maybe I can find a Christian station? And the Lord said, please turn off the Radio...

I bought peed my pants lol. I did shut it off and havent turned it back on since! It was like He turned the volume up on His voice and I could hear Him better. I was used to His voice now and could recognize it. And I realized that, I had learned to hear the still small voice of the Lord on the inside of me. And I remembered He said He wants me to learn that...and instantly obey! So if He wants it off, it stays off.

So I would suppose that I very much fit the bill as one of those literalist inerrantist typpes now because the Lord has revealed to me that it is true.

Mark Twain may have been right nevertheless. Because he spoke from a worldly perspective and from a worldly perspective we believe what we can see.

But Brother, I am here to tell you that, there is more. I'm guessing the world which we can see has 5% truth in it. And 95% of spiritual truths are realized spiritually. So yes, look to the unseen.

 

[Peterlag]

Maybe half the evangelical community? Ken Ham and Ray Comfort, of course, are superstars. But listen to American Family Radio for a week and you'll find most of the hosts are Young Earthers. David Wheaton of The Christian Worldview thinks you are not a biblical Christian unless you believe the earth is "more than about 6,500 years old." Alex McFarland, who is very prominent and seemingly intelligent, is a firm Young Earther. It's like some sort of virus, a litmus test as to whether you're a "real" Christian. I may start the Infant Earth cult, whereby all of reality sprang into existence 30 seconds ago. Hey, prove it didn't if you can!

Any scientist and there are many good ones and I don't even know if you have to be a good one to know the Earth is very old. All those preachers are doing is turning people away from Christianity.

 

[St. SteVen]

You sound like me some years ago. I thought exactly how you do here. How can I really believe if I have never seen anything manifest and convince me beyond a shadow of a doubt.

This is a good point about box size. @O'Darby

Question for @O'Darby
Have you had an supernatural events in your life?
The events in my life have had a great impact on my box size.
They helped me to have even greater faith the possibilities,
or should I say "impossibilities"? (re: the LC quote)

I don't recall if I have shared with you the miracles and divine appointments I have experienced.
Maybe only a few of each that I can relate. (recall sufficiently)

/

 

[St. SteVen]

Scripture also says, that unless we become as a little chile that we we wont see the Kingdom of Heaven, right? ...
Now the childrens games have rules and if the game is the floor is lava, then I act like the floor IS lava. ...

Little chilies? Are those the REALLY hot ones?



/

 

[BlessedPeace]

No, no, no. Lewis Carroll and Henry David Thoreau are two of my longtime pet interests (and almost household gods). Carroll was deeply religious: https://www.youtube.com/@lwfministries/featured. There is even a spiritual biography of him, Formed By Faith ("For Lewis Carroll, a deacon in the Church of England, faith in Christ and belief in a loving God stood at the core of his being, but little has been written about what the church or faith meant to the celebrated author of the Alice books.").

I don't believe child-like was meant to imply simple-minded. It's the trust that a young child has in her parents. It's a willingness to say, "I don't understand a lot of this stuff, God, and some of it is a great and even unappealing mystery to me, but I will continue to follow the path with trust that I will see in the end how it is worthy of the Being I believe you to be."

Again, however, the child-like faith is in God, not a book - unless you believe the book is in fact God. That's the real issue: looking at the Bible as though it were essentially God and for some reason thinking this is required to have "real" faith and be a "real" Christian.

I was mistaken about his being atheist. My apologies.Thank you for your correction . . Great post.

 

[St. SteVen]

So I would suppose that I very much fit the bill as one of those literalist inerrantist typpes now because the Lord has revealed to me that it is true.

Are you sure you want to claim that?
Believing in miracles and hearing the voice of God doesn't make you a literalist inerrantist type".

/

 

[quietthinker]

The thread title is a famous quip by Mark Twain, who was not an atheist (more of a deist) but wrote scathingly about what "Christianity" had become even in his day (“merciless, money-grabbing and predatory").

On Amazon, I was struck by the honesty of an atheist's review of a scholarly work of theology that I had also read: "I read this, just as I've read many works of Christian theology and apologetics. And yet I remain an atheist. I can't simply make myself believe things I don't believe."

My own faith must at least fit within the four corners of what I'm capable of believing. Those four corners are what science has discovered about reality and what I have experienced and observed about reality. Just to cite an example, you could put me in front of a firing squad and I couldn't will myself to believe the earth is 6,500 years old. I could pretend to believe this to keep from being shot, but I could never make myself believe it.

In the 50+ years since my conversion experience, I've seen the evangelical community move in the direction of what seems to me a bizarre literalist, inerrantist understanding of Scripture. There is no such thing as being too extreme a literalist inerrantist. How extreme you claim to be is some sort of litmus test as to whether you're a "real" Christian.

What is this mindset and how does it work? I couldn't live in the state of cognitive dissonance it requires. Is it all pretense, some notion that pretending to believe what you know ain't so is somehow pleasing to God? Is the idea that human life is some sort of test as to whether you're a "real" Christian who accepts the Bible at face value or a doubter who trusts your own lying brain and eyes?

I do think there is a huge amount of pretending, for whatever reason. But this can't be the sole explanation. Some Christians - many, even - do manage to sincerely believe things that strike me as preposterous and that fly in the face of what science and scholarship have established to a level of certainty.

I suspect that most who hold the literalist inerrantist positiion would say the truth of their position is something the Holy Spirit has revealed to them, that it's an indication of a deeper and stronger faith than mine, but I wonder: How many mature Christians have evolved from a position like mine to a positiion of extreme literalism and inerrantism? How many have evolved in the opposite direction? My guess is, the results would be very lopsided. How many, as @St. SteVen suggests in his brainwashing thread, have been indoctrinated into an extreme position and have simply never questioned it or whether they really believe it or are merely pretending?

As I said on another thread this morning, I have found it extremely liberating and beneficial to my mental health to accept that the Bible is the word of God in only the broadest sense of expressing a core message and essential spiritual truths. Trying to read it literally; obsessing over obvious scientific and historical inaccuracies; attempting to reconcile inconsistencies and contradictions; wondering why so much of it doesn't speak to me as enlightened or spiritual at all; yada yada - this is just no longer part of my faith at all.

Can the literalist inerrantists say anything new or convince me I'm wrong? Or will you simply ignore this thread because to you "thinking" is antithetical - dangerous, even - to "believing"?

'The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men....' I Corinthians 1:25
Having pondered on the nature of the foolishness of God and its manifestation and that of the wisdom of men, this brown duck can't escape the conclusion that the reality of Jesus exposes both. The question how this is to be understood is a personal journey as presented in the parable of Jesus of a sower going forth to sow seeds.

 

[St. SteVen]

The question how this is to be understood is a personal journey as presented in the parable of Jesus of a sower going forth to sow seeds.

That's an interesting angle to view this from.
Not sure how much of this topic you have read, but...
How would that relate to box size? (read my posts)

/

 

[quietthinker]

That's an interesting angle to view this from.
Not sure how much of this topic you have read, but...
How would that relate to box size? (read my posts)

/

We are 'Queen Mary's' so to speak, each having its own inertia and requiring our own space to turn with only God knowing the accurate details of what generated that inertia and what promptings are required to shift the trajectory. Consider Paul's dramatic experience on the Damascus road, however it still took time for him to grasp its implications (three years in the desert) as an example......and I can imagine the revelations kept coming.

 

[MA2444]

Little chilies? Are those the REALLY hot ones?

View attachment 43181

/

I fixed it, lol.

 

[MA2444]

Are you sure you want to claim that?
Believing in miracles and hearing the voice of God doesn't make you a literalist inerrantist type".

/

It led right into it though. And as I continued to draw closer to the Lord, things that I had saw in scripture that I thought were contradictions, were not. And it really meant exactly what it says. It's like, one long conuous teaching and where it led me was into reading the word more literally than I had been before.

Ponder that sometime. What if, every single word of scripture was true? Is it possible? If it turns out to be possible, then I dont want to be the one that dont believe it. And the Lord was helping me (still is in fact!) and the Lord was teaching me. Sometimes I would choose the topic, and He would speak to me about it. Other times He'd be like comsider this...and make a better point which changed the subject.

We all speak so shallow on forum boards for the most part! No one talks like the Lord does. He always says just the right thing (well, most times!) But He says them in such a way that it's, just the right way and builds me up. He has a good sense of humor too.

I have to be careful though in a way. I can't just get on a forum and start saying, thus sayeth the Lord...people will think I am nuts! I am the one who hears voices in his head. Sometimes my heart. But I do feel bound to speak the truth, there is more. You must turn yourself inward and come before the Lord in spirit and praise.

Do you know why the Lord left us so many questions unanswered in the Bible? I do. The reason was two fold. One, so the unbeliever could not understand it. Two is, he left out many details so that we might come to Him and ask Him about the details. He loves to talk to us for hours. He gives me the details on some stuff. (some stuff He doesn't!) But He loves the conversation and time with us.

All it takes is approaching Him inside of yourself. In spirit. He told me one time that all prayer is actually, worship. I'm glad He told me that cuz I had been thinking I might be bugging Him too much with petty stuff? So I dont hold anything back now!

Scripture tells us all of this. We must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. This is not carnal (of the 5 senses) it is inside of you and is your spirit. The carnal man can not approach the Lord. So turn inward and approach Him. He wants to hear from you. If you've never approached Him in spirit, then you may be in danger of hearing I never knew you?




What if it turned out to be true that every single word in scripture was true? Everyone will stand before Him one day. I thought, what if He asks me if I ever read His book to me? So I read it cover to cover!. I do it every year now. (3 chapters a day avg takes you through the entire Bible in one year.) I havent stopped learning yet. I got so used to being able to hear His still small voice that I can never get away from it now I think. He's just, there. In me. Beside me. He goes before me and is my rear guard. That's an awesome feeling. With God for us, who can stand against us? I believe that, if we walk with Him and are in constant conversation with Him...we walk with His protection. I wonder if we dont walk with Him in this way do we not have His protection? Perhaps.

Maybe that's what that scripture means, after an evil spirit is cast out of someone it will come back and if he finds the house unoccupied (The Lord not there!) then he goes back in the person, with seven other spirits stronger than himself...!


Jesus said, He only does what He hears the Father say, He only does what He sees the Father do...So Jesus was talking to the Father quite a bit. No wonder He told us to pray without ceasing!!! He told me that He prayed scripture at times during His walk on earth. I asked why and was told that, because He couldnt improve upon it...!

So this stuff is real. It is spiritual and very real. I'm not bragging. I dont think I'm better than anyone. I am a nobody. But I witness to the fact that these things are real, the Lord is real. And He moves supernaturally every day somewhere. He wants to walk, talk and help you too!

 

[MA2444]

Are you sure you want to claim that?
Believing in miracles and hearing the voice of God doesn't make you a literalist inerrantist type".

/

How's this one?! I was out of coffee one time and I thought about prayig for it. Some work or money or something. But I remembered the scripture that says, Worry not about what you will eat or drink for the Lord knows your needs before you even ask. So I thought, huh. And so I put it out of my mind and I didn't pray for it. I was accidently standing on the word instead of (worrying about it and asking for more, like it says not to!) So less than 30 minutes later I have a knock on my door, and it is my friend come to visit and he handed me a 2 LB bag of gourmet coffee beans as a gift! He didnt know I was out of coffee!
That was the Lord. He responded to my faith in standing on His word by not praying and that is an act of faith. So He responded to that and had coffee delivered to my house. It got there at the exact time that another pot should be put on. I just finished the last cup!

He's like that a lot I notice. Last minute, never late. There's quite a bit more to this testimony but I'm prolly typing too much, lol. but this is the short version.

I think about what happened that day. The reality of what happened was that the God Almighty, Creator of the Universe, sent me some good coffee as a gift. Me! That just blows my mind! How cool is that? I'm nobody special and God did this for me. If He will do it for me then He will do it for you. Just ask Him! Or not, as the case may be, lol!
I asked my friend why he brought me coffee and he said he just felt like he wanted to.

Soo....Thanks Lord! Right on time!

 

[Aunty Jane]

The Young Earth issue is an interesting example because the Bible doesn't have to be read this way. It's not just that a 6,500-year-old earth is scientifically preposterous, it's that one arrives at a 6,500-year-old earth only by the most literal, wooden reading of the text.

I’m glad you raised this issue because it was one that stuck with me through my adolescence when the theory of evolution was making serious inroads in science and undermining the faith of a lot of the youth that were taught it at school.

I knew that the Bible could not be incorrect, but I also knew that science is based on provable facts…..what was I missing? The more I studied, the clearer the picture became…..
There are two branches of science involved in their 'theory of evolution'…..and they first of all, had to change the definition of a "theory" into something that sounded like it was actually fact, because it was a “scientific” theory….but was it based on provable facts?

It was presented as such, but the more I studied the evidence, the more I realized that what they were proposing was based on supposition, suggestion and inference….no actual provable facts were involved in their “theory” at all....., so #1...science has to be identified as to which category it falls into…provable science or theoretical science. The two are not the same but presented as if they are.

The second thing I researched was the meaning of the Hebrew word “day” and again, there emerged a critical factor in undoing the YEC's beliefs. They insist that the creative “days” were 24 hour periods and that God “spoke” creation into existence in 6 literal days. But the Hebrew word “yom” (day) can mean “a period of undetermined length”….we use the word ourselves in this way…”in my grandfather’s day” or "in its heyday” not meaning a literal “day“ but a period of time…an “era”.

What does the Bible say to confirm this fact? Firstly that God is a “Creator”, not a magician. And secondly that all that he purposed for each creative period was carefully planned. Each “day” could have been millions or even billions of years in length and still in agreement with the Biblical account....time is irrelevant to an infinite being.......its all in the way you read it.

So to blend these two facts now, I reasoned that both are somewhat speaking about the same event. What science calls the “Big Bang” was actually the birth of the Universe, with all that is discernible being a single act of immense power…beyond our imaginings.

Science knows that the Universe had a beginning and the Bible confirms that in a simple opening statement…”In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”….but it gives no timeframe between that cataclysmic event and the preparation of our tiny earth for future habitation. That in itself could have been billions of years. Science could well be correct as to the age of the earth, without arguing with the Bible at all. Truth has to harmonize with itself and I believe it does.

The YEC’s have no answers for for all those extinct dinosaurs that were long gone before man’s arrival on earth. There were no dinosaurs on the ark….and these creatures were obviously part of God’s creation and plan for the era that they were created for. But they were not to be around when humans walked the earth because we would have been like insects underfoot for them. They served a purpose and when that was accomplished, God allowed them to die out before he moved on with the next phase. Each creative "day" was declared "good" by the Creator, who was completely satisfied with his achievements as each "day" ended.

On completion of his creative works, God began his "rest day"....not because he was tired, but because he also set aside time to test out everything he had put into operation. Free will was dicey, and he had to allow enough time for all the "contingencies" to surface and to be ironed out before the next phase of his creativity could begin. The 7th day has not yet concluded because there is no declaration as to its successful completion. When the 7th day ends after the 1000 year reign of Christ, all will again be declared..."very good". (Isaiah 55:11)

 

[Peterlag]

Here's some data for the big boys...

From the context in the Bible, this word “faith” means believing, a firm confidence, trustworthiness, and certainty. I am not trying to say such words do not define the word “faith” because they do.

However, when it comes to the faith of Jesus Christ, we must understand the relationship Jesus Christ has with God to have this faith. It's beyond just trusting God because of the acceptance of the new established covenant that demands obedience to God’s testimony. Faith is not a leap in the dark, but a leap through the dark into the light. It's the intelligent acceptance of the report of a reliable witness that would persuade one to accept something as the truth in the reliability of the testimony. The faith of Jesus Christ is the relationship existing between God and Christ in the bond of the covenant between them. To recognize and acknowledge the relationship God has entered into with Christ, we must first understand that God is the originator of the covenant relationship, and God is the one who brings into being things that did not previously exist. This is His oath, His covenant, and He can be relied on to keep His part of the contract because He guarantees it, and this is His truth.

Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son who is expressing the acknowledgment of his Father’s promises and power. As I stated earlier, the faith of Jesus Christ is the relationship existing between God and Christ in the bond of the covenant between them. The faith Christ has is his faith because of his acknowledgment and acceptance of his Father’s new covenant. Thus, the “gospel of Christ” is born. This faith Jesus Christ has is solid because it's the trust Jesus Christ has with God, who brought him into this special relationship that created the bond of the new covenant between them. We can tap into this faith by our believing and walk and live within the power of the Scriptures because we are connected to the faith of Jesus Christ. It's not our believing that makes us righteous, but the faith of Jesus Christ, whereby we not only have our standing, but also have access to the high and holy privilege that comes with that spiritual standing.

 

[JBO]

Here's some data for the big boys...

From the context in the Bible, this word “faith” means believing, a firm confidence, trustworthiness, and certainty. I am not trying to say such words do not define the word “faith” because they do.

However, when it comes to the faith of Jesus Christ, we must understand the relationship Jesus Christ has with God to have this faith. It's beyond just trusting God because of the acceptance of the new established covenant that demands obedience to God’s testimony. Faith is not a leap in the dark, but a leap through the dark into the light. It's the intelligent acceptance of the report of a reliable witness that would persuade one to accept something as the truth in the reliability of the testimony. The faith of Jesus Christ is the relationship existing between God and Christ in the bond of the covenant between them. To recognize and acknowledge the relationship God has entered into with Christ, we must first understand that God is the originator of the covenant relationship, and God is the one who brings into being things that did not previously exist. This is His oath, His covenant, and He can be relied on to keep His part of the contract because He guarantees it, and this is His truth.

Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son who is expressing the acknowledgment of his Father’s promises and power. As I stated earlier, the faith of Jesus Christ is the relationship existing between God and Christ in the bond of the covenant between them. The faith Christ has is his faith because of his acknowledgment and acceptance of his Father’s new covenant. Thus, the “gospel of Christ” is born. This faith Jesus Christ has is solid because it's the trust Jesus Christ has with God, who brought him into this special relationship that created the bond of the new covenant between them. We can tap into this faith by our believing and walk and live within the power of the Scriptures because we are connected to the faith of Jesus Christ. It's not our believing that makes us righteous, but the faith of Jesus Christ, whereby we not only have our standing, but also have access to the high and holy privilege that comes with that spiritual standing.

Faith is used in at least two different ways in the Bible. The most usual way in which it is used is in the sense given by Hebrews 11:1. In that sense, faith is believing in something that cannot be proven to be true: " Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." The other sense in which the word faith is used is with reference to the religion presented in the Bible, that fundamental set of beliefs and practices set forth by God for the correct relationship between God and man, the system which God has put in place establishing that relationship.

There is no way to ascribe to Jesus as having faith in the first sense, namely the definition or sense given by the definition int Hebrews 11:1. It is only in the second sense that one can ascribe to Jesus, the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, as being the faith of Jesus.

 

[St. SteVen]

quietthinker said:
The question how this is to be understood is a personal journey as presented in the parable of Jesus of a sower going forth to sow seeds.

We are 'Queen Mary's' so to speak, each having its own inertia and requiring our own space to turn with only God knowing the accurate details of what generated that inertia and what promptings are required to shift the trajectory. Consider Paul's dramatic experience on the Damascus road, however it still took time for him to grasp its implications (three years in the desert) as an example......and I can imagine the revelations kept coming.

Makes sense.
I thought you might relate soil types to a person's box size.
Or how soil types affect box size. (or proportion) - LOL

/

 

[JBO]

That wouldn’t be faith then, that’d be belief(s).

There is considerable confusion in what faith is because of the two different English nouns "faith" and "belief". The verb forms in English are to have faith and to believe. In the NT Greek, there are not two words; there is only the single verb πιστεύω [pisteuō] and the single noun πίστις [pistis]. In both English and Greek, to believe is to have mental assent of something or someone. That is, one can believe something to be true and one can believe someone to be truthful. In English "faith" is having mental assent plus having or placing trust in that something or someone, that is, believing in something or someone. That is actually the same for the Greek; it is just that there is not a separate word for it. Believing in something or someone is expressed int the NT with two words such as πιστεύω ἐν [pisteuo en] meaning "to believe in" or πιστεύω εἰς [pisteuo eis] meaning " to believe unto". And sometimes, when the meaning is apparent, the second words "in" or "unto" are assumed or implied.

Faith is belief. To have faith is to believe in. Actually there is only one place in the NT where the word "belief" appears and that is in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 and that is only with some English versions. In other versions it is translated/interpreted as "faith"; but they are all translated from the same Greek word "pistis".

 

[St. SteVen]

It led right into it though. And as I continued to draw closer to the Lord, things that I had saw in scripture that I thought were contradictions, were not. And it really meant exactly what it says. It's like, one long conuous teaching and where it led me was into reading the word more literally than I had been before.

Thanks, that's good to know.

Ponder that sometime. What if, every single word of scripture was true? Is it possible? If it turns out to be possible, then I dont want to be the one that dont believe it.

That's a whole topic right there.
Most Christians don't know where the Bible came from.
When, why and how we got it.
But like so many others, you aren't one to question such things.

We all speak so shallow on forum boards for the most part!

Agree.
Not everyone, but too many do.
Most only want to argue denominational doctrine or their OWN biblical understanding.

Do you know why the Lord left us so many questions unanswered in the Bible? I do. The reason was two fold. One, so the unbeliever could not understand it. Two is, he left out many details so that we might come to Him and ask Him about the details. He loves to talk to us for hours. He gives me the details on some stuff. (some stuff He doesn't!) But He loves the conversation and time with us.

That's interesting.
That conclusion I arrived at was that it takes faith to be a believer.
For that to happen, there HAS to be a few loose ends.
If it was conclusive BEYOND any doubt it wouldn't require faith.

All it takes is approaching Him inside of yourself. In spirit. He told me one time that all prayer is actually, worship. I'm glad He told me that cuz I had been thinking I might be bugging Him too much with petty stuff? So I dont hold anything back now!

He even helps me find a parking spot. - LOL

What if it turned out to be true that every single word in scripture was true? Everyone will stand before Him one day. I thought, what if He asks me if I ever read His book to me? So I read it cover to cover!.

Yes, cover to cover.
Surprising how many Christian haven;t done that.
But that may be a personality thing. Some really can't.
I think God wired them differently than I.
Their giftings fill in where mine don't.

Jesus said, He only does what He hears the Father say, He only does what He sees the Father do...So Jesus was talking to the Father quite a bit. No wonder He told us to pray without ceasing!!! He told me that He prayed scripture at times during His walk on earth. I asked why and was told that, because He couldnt improve upon it...!

That's a good observation.
I think the person that approaches their day asking themselves what they can do
for God today doesn't understand that dynamic. Wait for direction!

So this stuff is real. It is spiritual and very real. I'm not bragging. I dont think I'm better than anyone. I am a nobody. But I witness to the fact that these things are real, the Lord is real. And He moves supernaturally every day somewhere. He wants to walk, talk and help you too!

Thirty years ago my sister gave me a letter from God on my birthday.
I was half accepting and half skeptical at first. Then I sat down and gave it a hard analysis.
My sister couldn't have authored that. It was deeply personal.

One of the things in the letter...
(remember, this was written to me.
I'm not trying to saddle anyone else with this,
even though I think it's good advice)

One of the things in the letter was that He longed to walk with me every day,
but I needed to ask him every day. So, I have made that a habit, when I remember to.
Life can be very distracting at times.

When I did that, like you, I imagined God in the passenger seat.
And we talked.

Occasionally I also talk to my physical father that has passed on.
Usually about something I would have shared with him if he was still here.
Or something that reminds me of him. I think he can hear me. I'll say,
"Hey Daddo, look at that. reminds me of the time..." - LOL

/

 

[St. SteVen]

How's this one?! I was out of coffee one time and I thought about prayig for it.

I had a similar experience on a missions trip in England.
I needed some vinegar for the meal I was preparing for the team in the church kitchen.
I walked out into the sanctuary to pray for it.
The thought came that "I'm not going to find it in here."
So I went out the front door of the church to the sidewalk thinking, "Now what?"

Just then a lady from the church walked by on the opposite side of the street.
She called out to me, "How are you getting along?" I replied, "I need some vinegar,"
Stopped in her tracks; she asked, "What?" - LOL

She brought me the vinegar I had prayed for.

/

 

[St. SteVen]

Good post. Thanks for joining the discussion.

There is no way to ascribe to Jesus as having faith in the first sense, namely the definition or sense given by the definition int Hebrews 11:1. It is only in the second sense that one can ascribe to Jesus, the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, as being the faith of Jesus.

My understanding is that even though Jesus was deity,
he laid that aside when he became human. Scripture below.
Meaning, he didn't take advantage of his deity.
Even the miracles were done in his humanity, not in his deity. IMHO

POINT BEING:
He wasn't omniscient as Jesus the man.
He only knew what the Father was speaking to him moment by moment.

Philippians 2:5-8 NIV
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

/