Him coming into my life was not like I thought it would be:

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Karl Peters

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My parents took me to church as a kid. I had to listen to what they taught me. The only encounter I had with the Lord's Holy Spirit was when I was extremely board, sitting next to my parents, when I was about 10. Suddenly I felt a really neat, peaceful feeling, It reminded me of a nice day fishing and skipping stones on the river. Then while having that neat feeling the pastor was talking about the Holy Spirit, and I realized that was the Holy Spirit, and the pastor went right into making an alter call, so I responded and got baptized. Yet that was the only time.

They said lots of things, but that was the only time I saw anything of God. In high school I started getting out of going to church, except maybe holidays and such. Then I had what could be called a very normal life. I got a college degree, worked, had a normal bachelor's life until I got married at 30. I wound up with a nice looking and smart wife, and 2 wonderful kids. I even had a 2 story 4-bedroom house with a pool. Of course, I had to work a lot, but I liked working. Then I had what might also be considered normal. I had a problem with my marriage. Perhaps I worked too much. Perhaps my wife just got tired of me. She spent too much and put too much on credit cards. So, I tried to get that under control, but it is not easy getting someone to stop spending so much. Then a few things and problems at work, like the company making a few poor decisions and thus wanting more still from the employees. So more stress, and such. My wife wanted a divorce. So despite my best efforts, my life was going where I did not want it to go. Then God came into my life for real.

One morning, a voice suddenly spoke to me saying, "READ YOUR BIBLE". That hit me hard and surprised me more that I can say, so to keep it brief, I did read the Bible. I took me nine months and weird things started to happen - like dreams, visions, strange feeling, and premonitions. It really got strange, but knowing it was God, I went back to church. I told some people about that, and they were ok with that, but the Lord didn't stop there.

The really incredible things was that I wound up being able to converse with Him who told me to read my Bible. That just amazed me!! The church never explained that to me. Yet I liked talking to Him, and He was showing me so much. He started doing miracles around me. He asked me to pray for my daughter who had some swelling in her knees, so that my now ex-wife had me take her to the doctors. The doctor didn't help much, but just gave her a knee brace and told me that it would be better in a couple of years. Yet the Lord had my pray and while I prayed the swelling went down under my hands. He had me pray for my son, who had hurt his foot while playing soccer, and there was a twitch and the pain instantly left him. He had me pray for my mom's wrist over the phone, and though she had that problem for several weeks, the next morning it was healed. He had me pray for a lady with carpal tunnel in her wrist, and the Lord healed that too.

He had me take my kids to see my grandparents, and thus their great grandparents, because He told me that we was about to take them home. They were almost 100 then, and had been married 75 years. They lived a few states away, about 400 miles, and I had not seen them for probably ten years. So we went with my mom and my kids. A couple of months later my grandad died and less than a year later my grandma followed. There were Christians, and I told them that the Lord had come into my life.

The Lord would talk to me at work, at play, at the apartment I now lived it (because I gave the house to my ex-wife to raise the kids in), and He talked to me while eating, and all during the day. Oh - I got busy a lot, because I still liked working, and so I would often tend to forget to talk to Him, but Him and I, we became friends!! He told me that He would always call me His friend!!

You know, they never explained any of this to me at church, and I was going to church now. Honestly, it felt like I was living a different life that anyone at church!

He had me switch churches, and that was better! It wasn't that the other church wasn't a Christian church. It was! Even the Lord told me it was one of His churches, like one written to in Revelation. He compared it to the church of Philidelphia, which they themselves like to compare themselves to. Funny, they thought that was the best of the seven churches written to. Yet they had missed some things, like the lack of power and the open door!!!

Rev 3:8 ‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.

They were ok, but they didn't understand that above verse. Jesus Christ is the door, but you have to go through Him! So they really didn't see many miracles, and they didn't really hear Him very well, but they also didn't deny the name of Jesus Christ. Mostly they just leaned on their own understanding. But we all have our problems, and all of them come from not listening to our Lord.

So it was that I didn't expect to really have a friend in Jesus. I had heard and even sung that Christian song that goes, "What a friend we have in Jesus", but I rarely see many Christians who truly walk and talk back and forth with Him. Oh - some do, but you don't find them that often, even walking the halls of a Christian church.

I have now known Him for over 20 years, and He has taught me so much and showed me so much that I can't possibly remember that most of what all I got from being His friend. I have seen Him do hundreds, and probably over a thousand miracles around me. I have been taken out of my body, I have been kissed by a greenish colored spiritual cloud that formed into the face of a lady. I have seen that throne of God that you find in the Bible with the wheels and rainbow three times, though mostly faintly. Beside talking to the Lord everyday, He often sends me angels to talk to me. And yes, I also have to deal with the battle with the dark spiritual forces of this world.

Still - it is not about all those incredible things I have seen Him done - it is just about being His friend and walking and talking with Him. After over 20 years of knowing Him, it is honestly about just personally knowing Him!! Believe me on that, so believe Him so that you can have that. The rest just comes from being His friend and so doing what He asks you when He asks you.

Honestly - The best part about knowing Jesus Christ the Lord our God - is actually knowing Jesus Christ the Lord our God!!!!

That is what I learn from 20 plus years of knowing Him!!
 

Karl Peters

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Jesus is my friend too. I talk to Him everyday about everything. Amen, Halleluiah, thank you Jesus.
That is exactly what people need to know!! That we can talk to Him everyday about everything in our lives!!

I am convinced if people believe in Him, Jesus Christ, who said He would never leave us, then they would indeed talk to Him everyday about everything in our lives!

That would make them better people - less likely to do wrong things - be more likely to help others, forgive others, and so on. It would give them wisdom to better able them to run their lives better, based on His instructions, His teachings, His understanding. They could pass on and exchange the things they heard from Him. And He would even be able to use them to help others.

He once told me:

YOU DIDN’T MAKE ME AN AWESOME GOD, BUT YOU CAN MAKE ME AN AWESOME GOD.

We can make Him out to be an awesome God in people's lives just by pointing out to them that He is there with them always to be found and inquired of.

He also told me:

WE HEAR WISDOM, BUT IS IT THE HEARING OR THE ACTING UPON IT THAT MAKES A MAN WISE?

Wisdom is a name that we find for Him in Proverbs.

He also told me:

AS INSTRUCTIONS ARE GIVEN TO A SERVANT, AND WISDOM AND PARABLES TO A SON, AND AS JOKES ARE GIVEN TO A FRIEND, SO I LOVE YOU IS SAID TO A BRIDE.

It is a relationship with Him that we are looking for. That relationship with Him is like being a servant, a son or daughter, a friend, and even a bride! So we should hear instructions, bits of wisdom like these sayings He personally told me, even jokes and He will joke around with you like a friend if you get to know Him, and most importantly we will hear Him tell us that He loves us if we get into that close personal relationship that we want with someone we live together in the same house with. Being the temple of God means we live with Him, so we do need to "talk to Him everyday about everything in our lives!!"

And we are testifying to that, right?
 
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Karl Peters

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High probability < 1 year surviving spouse goes when married > 59 years.

Same with my wonderful grandparents.
Yes - but I would not have seen them, and neither would my kids, before He took them if not for the Lord coming into my life so that I could start hearing from Him. It was not but maybe 6 or 7 months from the time I got used to talking to Him and He started taking them away, and I had not seen them for well over a decade or maybe a score of years. And my kids were too young to know them the last time they saw them. At that time they were about 10 -13 years old. So they could remember, even if not too well. And I got some pictures. He handles these little things, which are not little at all. He handles the really important thing I talk to Him everyday about about everything- if we will only talk to Him, like [SIZE=4][COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)][B]Rockerduck[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE] wrote, "and I talk to Him everyday about everything."
 

Gottservant

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I found this inspiring.

I have only recently started to understand, that sometimes life with God is about praise and sometimes life with God is about enjoying work.

I am more of a power mad person, when it comes to the spirit, but your testimony has made me think twice about that.
 
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Karl Peters

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I found this inspiring.

I have only recently started to understand, that sometimes life with God is about praise and sometimes life with God is about enjoying work.

I am more of a power mad person, when it comes to the spirit, but your testimony has made me think twice about that.

Yeah - God of course has power! Indeed all power and authority, along with everything, came from Him. However, it is not about the power but the relationship with Him that is important!

In fact there are a number of things we find when reading the Bible that point this out. For example, Jesus did most of His miracles while on earth in the flesh in an area on the north side of the sea of Galilee. Many people came to Him there for miracles yet He later says about them:

Mat 11:20-24 Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. 24 Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”

He showed them His power, they went for His power, but that power was so that they would seek the words that He speaks through His Holy Spirit.

Jn 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

So it is hearing from Him, and thus getting to know Him which is the one thing important.

Luke 10: 38-42 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with [q]all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

I will tell you that He is always there with us to be heard from, but you will also find out that hearing from Him does not always seem that straightforward when you put it into practice. That has more to do with our faith or believe that we can hear from Him. We all have that issue.

For example: We often want to get the "BIG ANSWER", but that is usually the hardest answer to believe for. So in ministry I would come across a person who wanted to know what job, ministry, house, or person to marry. Yet from listening to Him, you find out that He like to guide your steps!! He will tell you what clothes to wear, when to get up, and even when to turn to the right or to the left.

Is 30:21 Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

It is not that He will never tell you something "BIG" that He is going to do with you, but you don't get from here to there except that you find out the next step you need to take.

Job 14:16 “For now You number my steps, You do not observe my sin.

So don't seek the miracle and power of God, but seek Him for Him to help you with your steps. Those who knew Him knew this about Him:

Ps 18:36 You enlarge my steps under me, And my feet have not slipped.

So you take the steps He tells you and you see them get enlarge - the miracles that He performs through you. But it was never about the miracles.

He once got me up in the middle of the night to tell me, "A mite is an animal that gets under the skin to get at the blood!"

I was sleepy and tired, but He got me up to tell me that??? "What was that about", I asked Him!

He then told me, "Karl, there is might in the blood but I want a more personal relationship than that."
 

Karl Peters

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Your God comes across as a powerful God, your talking to Him must have something to do with that?
Ex 3:14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

When you start getting to know Him you find out that the above verse has a whole lot deeper meaning than we can imagine. And the more you get to know Him the more you realize that you can never know the depths of that verse, and still He talks to you. And not only does He talk to you, but He likes talking to you!! And He who talks to you is God. Everything was created through Him, so even to describe yourself as a spot of dust on a spot of dust (the earth) going around a spot of dust (the Sun), that an extremely small part of a spot of dust (the Milky Way Galaxy), that is just a spot of dust in the physical realm (the universe) that He popped into existence with a single statement in a moment, does not come close to describing His power.

His power is much better described with the fact that He still has all the time needed to talk to you, if only we believe in Him and want to talk to Him - and He will talk to us like a close personal friend. Yeah - we might be able to imagine how someone called God could have created all things, but if we imagine that it becomes a lot more amazing to then try and imagine why He would talk to us. That is what we have trouble believing, because we know inside we know that we mess up things. Surely God would not talk to us. Not like a friend who really cares for us. But He just explains to us, if we listen to Him, that His love for us goes far beyond the size of the universe. Why did He create it anyway? Does He want the dust or want the relationship?

But just to be clear - He is the Lord My God, but He is not my God. He is God.

He once told me, "Karl, always remember that I am God of the whole earth - the whole earth, the whole universe, the whole everything, but especially the whole earth. Always remember that."

So what about the man worshipping a buddha statue? Well, He might not be that man's god, but He is God over that man! Sadly that man doesn't know Him. He could. He could seek the Lord my God and find Him, but how is he going to seek the Lord my God unless we Christians don't let that man know that God wants to talk to Him? And are we going to tell that man that God will talk to Him personally until we first get to know the Lord our God personally first? That is why I gave the testimony, and I didn't lie about it.

Honestly - The best part about knowing Jesus Christ the Lord our God - is actually knowing Jesus Christ the Lord our God!!!!

That is what I learn from 20 plus years of knowing Him!!

It is not that He doesn't want to talk to us, it is that we don't want to listen to Him!! But we should. Yeah - He has the power that created everything, and all He has to do is say something, yet He did so in order that we might have a personal relationship with Him. Indeed, He is just standing there speaking with His voice and if anyone decides to hear His voice and opens up to Him, He will come into them and eat with them and them with Him. (See Rev 3:20) That is not a lie either.

He talks to me most mornings as soon as I wake up, if I am willing to seek Him. Though, it doesn't always seem like I can hear from Him then:

I remember one such morning when I woke up and asked the Lord, "Are you there?"

He responded with a kind of joking response, "You beat ya!"

It made me kind of laugh. So, I went to joke back with Him saying, "Ok, what am I supposed to beat since I am beating?"

He told me, "You beat your life!"

That also made me laugh a bit. So I responded to Him, "Ok, if I beat my life that you are there, what do I get if I am right?"

He responded, "You get life and that more abundantly!"

The laughing went away and the incredible 'Augh' of God came over me. He gave me my life and He will give me eternal life and also life more abundantly now, and all I have to do is beat my life that He is there now. So are we going to say, "Lord, are you there?" and listen??

I beat my life on God being there. He was there. He was not there like I thought from listening to others talk about Him. It turned out that He was there as Him just being Him!!

That meant I could just talk to Him. It also meant that He could take me out of my body, which He did once only to ask me, "Karl, do you think I can take you anywhere I want?" He only took me a few inches above myself so I could look at the top of my own head, but since He could do that He could take me anywhere, didn't it? I literally have seen Him do hundreds of miracles. Legs growing out. Swelling decreasing in a moment under my hands. So many times he remove pain from people, that I could not possibly tell you all of them. He has knocked me over, giving me some powerful tingling sensations, told me that it was going to rain before it did, He even made it rain just on on me three times on hot cloudless days.... I just can't tell you all that I have seen Him do, but that is not what I am trying to tell people. I am trying to just tell them that He is there to talk to them. That is the important thing!! The rest is just the promise of life and that more abundantly!
 

Karl Peters

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You had an incredible faith.

What is the baby step, to talking to God? Is it different for everyone?
First - I don't have incredible faith!! I just don't!!

I do have a simple bit of logic - which I tried and it worked.

The simple bit of logic was - "What if God is really there, like so many, including those who wrote the Bible, said?"

It came first came into effect a month or so before I heard the first words He told me which were "Read Your Bible"

It happened after my wife told me she wanted a divorce. I was looking to find a way to save my marriage. My wife's birthday was coming up and I decide to use her birthday in an attempt to save my marriage. I planned a wonderful trip down the coast, hoping to see if that trip might change her feelings for me. So, I planned it out, and made arrangements for my parents to watch the kids.

Now my parents had planned a trip of their own, but they were planning to come back into town the afternoon before the day we were to leave. So that afternoon, after we had run a couple of errands, we went by my parents' house to see if they had returned. I drove up their driveway, parked, and checked, but they had not yet come back. So, I got in the car to go home, but my car would not start. It was working perfect, but now it wasn't. I sent my wife and with the kids walking back to our house, because we only lived a few blocks away.

I checked out the car some more, but still couldn't get it working so I turned to walk home but didn't get but a few steps before I suddenly got this weird feeling in my that caused chills, like goosebumps, to run down my arms. Then I heard a noise and my parents drove in behind me. I turned back, talked to my dad, who said he would check it out later (he was a mechanical engineer) and get it fixed for me. So, I walked home to get my other car ready for the trip.

I got home and started to get the other car ready, but now it would not stop either! I had 2 good cars working fine, now both would not start, and at this very important time. And that combined with that weird feeling I had gotten, had me thinking, "What if God is really there?"

That is not "incredible faith", but perhaps it is a mustard seed amount of faith, or enough to just get us seeking God. At that moment, it did get me seeking Him. But how do you do that? For me, at that moment - I decided to just talk out loud to God. I mean, I was in the front of my house and nobody was around me - so I just said clearly and out loud, "God, what are you trying to tell me?? I am listening! If you have something to say, say it!"

I listened and didn't hear anything!! I later found out my mistake, and so I will explain that silly mistake a bit later. Anyway, I didn't hear from God then, but suddenly my car in front of my house started working. I mean, I went to my car and started it. I had tried it a whole bunch or times. Had wiggled things around to make sure all connections were good, and that had done nothing. Now, though I did do anything to the car, but had just cried out to God, by car was working. Maybe God had heard me? Maybe the car working was His answer?

And not too long afterwards, my dad called. He had replaced my battery in that car and it was now working also. So I made the trip. The trip was awesome. The weather was perfect, the conversations between my wife and I had been wonderful. And so I parked the car overlooking a nice harbor and asked my wife if we could just get back together. We could spend the night there and enjoy the weekend. We could get our marriage back, I suggested. She told me no - she wanted the divorce.

So, I headed home. Silly me, I couldn't stop my tears from my disappointment. I had built up my plan, and it seemed to work, but my best efforts had not worked. I took off my wedding ring on the way home. It was a couple hour drive, and it wreck me emotionally. So where was that God I cried out to??? I found out later.

A month or so later that voice suddenly came saying, "Read Your Bible" - but that was not when I figured it out!! Nor did reading the Bible enable me to figure it out!! I figured it out a couple of months after I finished reading the Bible, and it again came down to the simple bit of logic - "What if God is really there?" That is not incredible faith!! That is a "what if" type of faith and that turned out to be the key to finding Jesus Christ personally!!

I have a little cliffhanger here - please go to the next post and I will tell you the most incredible thing that has ever happened in my life!!
 
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Karl Peters

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This is the testimony of the most incredible thing that every happened to me. It was when I started to get to know the Lord! It is the secret to knowing the Lord!!!!!!

This is it!! It is the secret to knowing God!!! And it is all based on that simple bit of logic that goes, "What if God is really there?"

I had hear a voice almost a year earlier telling me to read my Bible. I had done that. Lots of weird spiritual things had started happening in my life. I had even prayed for and gotten the gift of tongues, which is really weird. I had started going to church. I was reading my Bible. I was getting incredible spiritual things - Yet this was morning that really changed my life!! It was the morning that I really found the Lord Jesus Christ as the Word of God!! It was the start of my relationship with Him!! This was the start if my life with Him!!


I was driving to work, as normal, when I started thinking that nobody would put in a one-way telephone line. I was thinking that we all tend to believe that we can talk to God inside us and He will hear it. That is because God is spirit. We kind of no this, but do we consider it correctly? I decide to make a test. Now I had read that we should not test God, but I reasoned that this was only me trying to find out "If God was really there." I wasn't trying to tell God, do this or else, but I just wanted to find out if I could hear from Him.

So I decided to ask God which lane of the freeway I should be in, and then listen inside for the answer, and consider what I got. That turns out to be the way to know Him, but I didn't know that then. It was only what I was testing out.

So I prayed inside, "God, what lane of the freeway should I be in? And considered what I got back. I got back, "You're ok."

Well - that didn't help at all, did it? Yet I considered and why did the thought come back, "You're ok?" I mean, if it was my thought, should it have come back, "I'm ok." ??

Ok, that was inconclusive. But I tried asking again, and again I picked up, "You're ok." Hummm - I didn't know what to make of it. Yet a couple of miles down the road I saw a bund of big rigs coming down the on-ramp ahead of me. It was a 4 lane freeway and I was next to the slow lane, so I was thinking I needed to get over a lane to the left. Still, I remembered that game I was playing and decided to again ask, "God, what lane of the freeway should I be in.", not expecting much now.

What came to me was, "Get in the right lane."

Instantly I was upset!!! "I DIDN'T WANT TO BE IN THE RIGHT LANE@!! I WANTED TO GET IN THE LEFT LANE", went through my head.

Then coming back to me in a still calm voice was, "Well, do you want to listen to me or not?"

That silly test, which didn't seem to result in much, and had become almost like a silly game, suddenly and clearly separated my thoughts from His thoughts!!! I had read, that His thoughts are not our thoughts, but the importance of that scripture had never occurred to me until then. He was there, and had been there. The answer to "What if God is there?" was and had always been, "Yes, He is there." I had just not been thinking to ask Him questions!

Anyway, I got in the right lane. All those trucks came down the on ramp, and I was expecting to slow way down, but all the trucks had gotten over a lane. So every lane on the freeway suddenly started to slow way down, except for the right lane which now only had one car with one person in it. Of course that person was me, and I went by everyone else.

I was soooooo blown away with this that I started asking Him about all the little things in my life. What clothes to wear? What food to eat? What work to do at work? How to do the work I was doing at work? You name it, I started taking to Him about it. And it was all based upon, "What if God is really there?"

So my life change from leaning on my ways, and my best understanding, and my conclusions, to a life of asking Him for His plans, His thinking, His thoughts!! I tell you, that is a whole different way of doing things!!!!!! And it is all based on, "What if God is really there?"

It is not based on "INCREDIBLE FAITH", it is based on some mustard seed of faith! But it turns out that He is there!!

YET!!! AND THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! HIS THOUGHTS ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS!!!! THEY NEVER WILL BE!!

The instant you start thinking your thoughts are now His thoughts, is the instant you stop following Him!!! And you will think that, and you will stop following Him, so you need to keep turning back to Him!! So I preach turning back to Him, and listening to Him!! It is what I have to remember to do, and so I tell others what I have to remember to do myself!


There is more to explain, not that a person seeking Him would not find it all out. But perhaps all this should come with a bit of advice and warnings. So I will leave this with another cliff hanger - however I am not going to continue right now.
 

amadeus

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This is the testimony of the most incredible thing that every happened to me. It was when I started to get to know the Lord! It is the secret to knowing the Lord!!!!!!

This is it!! It is the secret to knowing God!!! And it is all based on that simple bit of logic that goes, "What if God is really there?"

I had hear a voice almost a year earlier telling me to read my Bible. I had done that. Lots of weird spiritual things had started happening in my life. I had even prayed for and gotten the gift of tongues, which is really weird. I had started going to church. I was reading my Bible. I was getting incredible spiritual things - Yet this was morning that really changed my life!! It was the morning that I really found the Lord Jesus Christ as the Word of God!! It was the start of my relationship with Him!! This was the start if my life with Him!!


I was driving to work, as normal, when I started thinking that nobody would put in a one-way telephone line. I was thinking that we all tend to believe that we can talk to God inside us and He will hear it. That is because God is spirit. We kind of no this, but do we consider it correctly? I decide to make a test. Now I had read that we should not test God, but I reasoned that this was only me trying to find out "If God was really there." I wasn't trying to tell God, do this or else, but I just wanted to find out if I could hear from Him.

So I decided to ask God which lane of the freeway I should be in, and then listen inside for the answer, and consider what I got. That turns out to be the way to know Him, but I didn't know that then. It was only what I was testing out.

So I prayed inside, "God, what lane of the freeway should I be in? And considered what I got back. I got back, "You're ok."

Well - that didn't help at all, did it? Yet I considered and why did the thought come back, "You're ok?" I mean, if it was my thought, should it have come back, "I'm ok." ??

Ok, that was inconclusive. But I tried asking again, and again I picked up, "You're ok." Hummm - I didn't know what to make of it. Yet a couple of miles down the road I saw a bund of big rigs coming down the on-ramp ahead of me. It was a 4 lane freeway and I was next to the slow lane, so I was thinking I needed to get over a lane to the left. Still, I remembered that game I was playing and decided to again ask, "God, what lane of the freeway should I be in.", not expecting much now.

What came to me was, "Get in the right lane."

Instantly I was upset!!! "I DIDN'T WANT TO BE IN THE RIGHT LANE@!! I WANTED TO GET IN THE LEFT LANE", went through my head.

Then coming back to me in a still calm voice was, "Well, do you want to listen to me or not?"

That silly test, which didn't seem to result in much, and had become almost like a silly game, suddenly and clearly separated my thoughts from His thoughts!!! I had read, that His thoughts are not our thoughts, but the importance of that scripture had never occurred to me until then. He was there, and had been there. The answer to "What if God is there?" was and had always been, "Yes, He is there." I had just not been thinking to ask Him questions!

Anyway, I got in the right lane. All those trucks came down the on ramp, and I was expecting to slow way down, but all the trucks had gotten over a lane. So every lane on the freeway suddenly started to slow way down, except for the right lane which now only had one car with one person in it. Of course that person was me, and I went by everyone else.

I was soooooo blown away with this that I started asking Him about all the little things in my life. What clothes to wear? What food to eat? What work to do at work? How to do the work I was doing at work? You name it, I started taking to Him about it. And it was all based upon, "What if God is really there?"

So my life change from leaning on my ways, and my best understanding, and my conclusions, to a life of asking Him for His plans, His thinking, His thoughts!! I tell you, that is a whole different way of doing things!!!!!! And it is all based on, "What if God is really there?"

It is not based on "INCREDIBLE FAITH", it is based on some mustard seed of faith! But it turns out that He is there!!

YET!!! AND THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! HIS THOUGHTS ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS!!!! THEY NEVER WILL BE!!

The instant you start thinking your thoughts are now His thoughts, is the instant you stop following Him!!! And you will think that, and you will stop following Him, so you need to keep turning back to Him!! So I preach turning back to Him, and listening to Him!! It is what I have to remember to do, and so I tell others what I have to remember to do myself!


There is more to explain, not that a person seeking Him would not find it all out. But perhaps all this should come with a bit of advice and warnings. So I will leave this with another cliff hanger - however I am not going to continue right now.
What a mighty God we serve.! Let us always give Him the glory!
 
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Karl Peters

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"Fulfilling the times, because the days are evil"

That just popped into my head.
Yeah - He often just pops things into your head. He had me open up a Christian bookstore for Him once, and a lady who came in called what you are talking about as "popcorn" :)
 

Gottservant

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Yeah - He often just pops things into your head. He had me open up a Christian bookstore for Him once, and a lady who came in called what you are talking about as "popcorn" :)
Actually I think its "redeeming the time" isn't it?

I'm fortunate enough to have premonitions of my day; I suppose if I linked premonitions with talking with God, I would have premonitions about what God will talk to me about?

Give God space, and He will give you Time!
 
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Karl Peters

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Actually I think its "redeeming the time" isn't it?

I'm fortunate enough to have premonitions of my day; I suppose if I linked premonitions with talking with God, I would have premonitions about what God will talk to me about?

Give God space, and He will give you Time!
Redeeming time?

He did once talk to me about Him being able to make time, yet it didn't turn out like I though He was say. It turned out that if I listened to Him closely, and would keep listening to Him, then He would keep guiding my steps. When He did so, I became extremely efficient. So I think you might have that backwards. Which is to say that I believe that if you give God you time and attention, He will give you His time and attention, which will give you more time back and space back.

It is written that we have not because we have not asked, and I asking should mean listening to Him for answers, right?

So if we are having trouble getting the time and space to accomplish what needs to be done, and to also enjoy the time and space we have, the solution is to turn to the Lord and listen to Him for answers!

Thus, the problem I see with people is often they are just going around thinking they are open to letting God do what He wants to do, as opposed to actually seeking Him and a close relationship with Him. There are verses about walking with God, and that means a close relationship. There are verses that talk about following Him, but like sheep who He guides around, or who often tend to just drift off.

I do that drifting off part sometimes, but that happens when I just kind of forget about Him and His instructions.

Now as for "premonitions", which are thoughts, should we not take them to the Lord? One of the things that happens with me, is that if and when I start drifting off into my own ways, He will come back looking for me. Yet because I am not actually listening for Him, His voice does not come across clear to me. So I get a feeling, or premonition if you will. Yet that is Him trying to get my attention!! What I have found out is that I need to take that thought to Him and ask Him about it.

I have a couple of kids, and my son is bad about just blowing me off. I will try and tell Him something, but it is like He heard it but was not really paying attention to it. He doesn't respond and ask questions that he might have. I sometimes treat the Lord like that, and He is called the Lord for a reason. He gives instructions, and we need to make sure we understand them. And my son it not unusual. I spent most of my life as a retail manager. So I was in a position of giving others instructions, but so many would shake their heads, yes, but then just go about doing whatever they wanted. So how did my instructions come across to them?

Now there is another verse about waiting on the Lord, but He once explained to me that it's meaning should be taken more like waiting on the King! Waiting on the King does not mean just waiting around and doing nothing, it means listening to Him and doing what He askes, because He decides when and how things should be accomplished. So it is not that we are 'Waiting for God to do something that we want done', but rather we are serving the Lord by listening to Him and accomplishing the tasks He gives us servants of the King. That is what it means to be waiting on the King.

A lot of people either don't believe that I hear from the Lord everyday, or perhaps they wonder how it is that I do. Yet it is not because I have great faith, it is because I do seek Him and what He has to say to me. How else our you to serve Him? If I am waiting on the King as my Lord, it means I am getting my instructions from Him. So if I get a feeling that He is calling me, like a premonition, an unction, a feeling that He is trying to talk to me, then I need to go running to Him (spiritually speaking) to make sure that I clearly have the information that He is trying to get through to me, don't I?

So if I get a premonition I ask Him, "Lord Jesus Christ, what are you trying to tell me", and I listen for that small voice of His which I pick up in words. If I get a dream when I am waking us I ask Him, "Lord Jesus Christ, what are you trying to tell me", and I listen for that small voice of His which I pick up in words. If I get an unction or feeling that He might be speaking to me I am waking us I ask Him, "Lord Jesus Christ, what are you trying to tell me", and I listen for that small voice of His which I pick up in words. So I am preaching the Word of God as He told me, which was, "Karl, I want you to preach the Word of God, but not as it is so often preached today. I want you to preach I AM the Word of God."

I am not preaching premonitions! I am not preaching dreams! I am not preaching visions! I am not preaching an unction or a feeling from God! Yeah - He uses all of those, but isn't it to get our attention and pull us into a closer relationship with Him? Isn't it to get us listening to Him. He sheep hear His voice, and He said His words were spirit and life. We want life, right? And that more abundantly, right?
 

Karl Peters

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Reminds me of this great song..:)-

That talking to Jesus everyday, is exactly what it is about - yet I just want to point out something that He once talked to me about.

Once day, when I was just walking and talking to the Lord, He asked me, "Karl, is it better for a person to talk to Me or better that they should listen to Me? And that question got me thinking and has stuck with me!

Is it better for us to talk to Him, or listen to Him??? Think about it!!!

I can find pray books giving me all kinds of advice on what to ask God for, but the Bible is mostly about listening to Him, isn't it?

Ps 81:13 “Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!

Deut 8:20 “Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.

Does He not know us personally better than we know ourselves? Does He not know our situation better than we know our situation ourselves?

Now I like Johnny Cash, and I love that song, but Johnny Cash is probably better know for other songs, like 'A Man Named Sue', which is a ballad about and unforgiving man looking for his father to kill him. That is definitely not the type of actions the Lord is for. Those thoughts come to our mind also, but we don't want to listen to those spirits, and how can we if we are talking actually listening to the Lord. We can only listen to one side or the other at any point in time. So which side do we want to listen to at this moment in time, is the question we need to be asking ourselves. Still, like Johnny Cash, I don't always go with the Lord, but I know it is right to walk with the Lord and talk with Him. So I tell people to seek the Lord, because that is what I try to tell myself. Still, I find that rebellious part inside me too.

Romans 7:21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

I have a choice to me everyday called 'Today'. Do I want to listen to Him or not?
 
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Gottservant

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The Lord said "in weakness my strength is made perfect", I feel like God needs to weaken me, before I will hear Him.