Featured Lets's talk about what the Holy Spirit feels like and means to us!!

What a lovely thread.

The Holy Spirit is wonderful and when you feel him with you it is awesome.

One experience of his presence I had was a few years ago coming home on cold, wet day on a crowded bus. I thought to myself that no matter how cold and wet I was Jesus was with me. So in my head I tried to determine where he was on the bus and wondered if he was sitting next to me. No, and he wasn't standing next to me either. Then my toes started to tingle and the tingle continued to travel all the way up my body and as I realised it was the Holy Spirit telling me he was in me I had to stop myself from laughing but couldn't stop myself from smiling all the way home.

 

Brilliant.

I remember one day when I had planned to stay at home and then suddenly felt a strong prompting from the Holy Spirit to go out. So I asked him what he wanted me to do and he told me to give some money to homeless children. So I went down the road for the bus and there was a lady waiting and we got talking and she told me her bag was heavy as she was taking her collecting boxes to the church. When I asked what she was collecting for she told me 'homeless children'. I was amazed and put everything I had in my purse into her box.

 

This reminds me of the first time I actually felt the power of the Holy Spirit in me.

I'd been praying one night, and felt God was directing me to go to a church about an hour and a half away, because that pastor would pray for me, and I would receive His power.

So I did, and he did, and He did.

I got back in my car and started to drive home. And the His power began to flood though me, and I know nothing would ever be the same again, and I started to laugh, and laugh, I was so filled with joy, I hardly remember the drive home, but I do remember I was getting close before I that laughter started to diminish. Not "holy laughter", mind you, just so very very happy!

Much love!

Great thread!

 

I love hearing testimonies. They bless, edify and encourage. It is great to hear about the power of Almighty God working in our ordinary lives.

 

This is something more recent for me, to just just patiently trust and to STAY in that patient trust, where money is concerned, especially. I have learned it, and almost everyday, I'm amazed that it took me so long to learn to just pray for what I need and then let it go.

 

Miss Hepburn, there is something in your above post that I cringe away from. I have no problem with asking for what I need. But when it comes to the believe you will receive it part, that's where I cringe. What if I ask for, say, a certain amount of money to keep something afloat, but it is not Gods will that I keep the certain thing afloat? Or what if I have a wrong motive in what I ask for? I know, also, that God will not let me starve. He feeds the birds, so how much more will He feed old ladies without husbands who trust Him? But I also know His ways are mysterious (for instance, God doesn't have to give someone more money to feed them or make food fall from the sky or make oil and flour not run out) and I know that I may very well crave and ask for MORE than I need or ask for something when God doesn't want me to keep that way and instead wants to move a different direction.

So...I guess what I'm trying to say is I try to go at prayer more this way: Lord, I need such and such amount of money, by this date, to keep this endeavor afloat. If it's your will that I continue in the endeavor, please provide, and if its not, don't provide it.

Have I been clear?

 

I don't think I am confused...I just think I don't always know what God wills. So if He does not give me what I ask, it doesn't mean He didn't hear me, it just means He is the one who knows what I need and what His plans are.

Do you remember when David said (about the man throwing rocks at him) no don't hurt him, leave him alone because God hasn't told me what He's doing. If he's throwing rocks at me its because God told Him to (or for some purpose of God's).

Have you ever been on another site by the name joannieMarie?

 

And I agree He doesn't give a stone when we ask for bread, but it really can appear so to us.

 

One more thing. I know many fathers, who if their daughter wanted a red convertible for graduation, they wouldn't give it to her, so...

 

One more question, do you listen to Joseph Prince often?

 

We as natural people in our flesh want comfort for our flesh... and often our God who loves us will give us the desires of our hearts, just so we remember to keep first things always first... even if our cup will include personal pain and suffering.

Jesus provides the example for your question when he as a man tempted in all points as any man is, asked that the cup he was supposed to drink be removed. Jesus knew two things when he prayed. One was that his cup consisted of pain and suffering on his way to physical death. Jesus the man, like any man, did not want pain and suffering, but he, like you, added to his prayer these words: "...nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." Matt 26:39

Some will look at that and want to argue that Jesus was the Word and/or that Jesus was God, but then I say look at Stephen who was most definitely of man of flesh as we are. Did he suffer physical pain as he was being stoned to death? Perhaps, but he was drinking his "cup" even as Jesus drank his "cup".

"But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Acts 7:55-59

Whatever our "cup" contains we must also drink it. Will it be as Jesus or as Stephen? God knows.

"But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.
And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father." Matt 10:2-23

But seeing what happened to Jesus and to Stephen and hearing Jesus' answer to James and John, we simply need to move forward trusting in God as our sister @Miss Hepburn really suggests. When we see what we consider a need, we ask God for help and if we are walking in Him, really, are we likely to ask amiss?

"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." James 4:3

Jesus prayed as you pray perhaps not because he did not already know the answer but so that we being more like James and John simply don't always know as much as Jesus did. Sometimes we are asking and an answer favorable to our flesh may go against the "cup" that God has for us to drink? God knows! If He shares the particulars ahead of time or not should never be a cause for worry. Simply take it as it comes and trust in Him:

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Prov 3:5-6

"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