The pride of men

[Karl Peters]

One of the things about the Lord is that He is the Teacher. So as the LORD OF LORDS and our Lord, we get instructions from Him, and as The Teacher, we also get teachings from Him. And for the teachings, He often gets me up in the middle of the night so I don't get distracted. Now this morning He got me up in the middle of the night to post a teaching He gave me, which is really from a series of teachings He has given me, with a bit more given about them. This came up on another thread, but He wanted it to have it's on thread.

The first teaching He gave on this subject was about the difference between pride and confidence. I had only known the Lord a year or two when I decided to ask Him about the difference between pride and confidence. They seem so similar but in the Bible it seems pride is a bad thing. So, He took me on a walk and explained it.

He was telling me that pride cause us to want more. For example, because of pride we feel we need to have more than our neighbor. The old 'Keeping up with the Jones' phrase us a perfect example of how pride works in our lives. Because of pride we need a nice car, or a nice boat, or a nice house, or a better job, or more prestigious position.... Pride causes us to want more and more and more, and we can never get enough!!

Prov 27:20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied,
Nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.

Because of their pride both angels in heaven and men fell from grace! And the sign that they have pride is that they are never satisfied. Does that not remind you of the rich person who can't be rich enough, and the politician who can never have enough power over others? That is pride at work!

Now the Lord continued on the walk with me, and then discussed confidence. He explained that all true confidence was confidence in Him!! That is to say the confident man believes God made Him, proves for him. So the truly confident man understands that since God made him he must be good enough to do what God asks of him, and since God proves for him he must have or be getting what he needs. Therefore, if his neighbor gets a bigger car and he didn't then he doesn't need the bigger car, the new house, the more prestigious position. That results in a satisfied man, and a very confident man, because he understands that God is with him and is in control.

The Lord was telling me, 'That with confidence in Him, you understand that you don't even need the car, because God can find a way to get you around. You don't need the house, because God has a place for you to stay. And the Lord told me, that with real confidence in Him you understand that you don't even need the air you breath, because He has a place in heaven for you and He will get you there!! Remember that Jesus did not have a place to lay His head, but was lead by the Spirit. And that Jesus ascended to heaven when His body was killed. So He demonstrated what real confidence can look like.

And the Lord continued saying something like "So if God gives you a car, He has a purpose for it. And if God gives you a house He has a purpose for it. And if He gives you a palace with a calm sea in front of it, then He has a purpose for that too." Therefore we need to ask the Lord for the purpose He has for what He gives us, and what we need to do with it! We need to stop just asking for more and more and more - but if you don't see what you need to accomplish, ask Him about that. Perhaps you have what you need already, or there is a place to go and get it.

Now that is the teaching He gave me on pride and confidence, and the 'Pride of men' teaching builds on it. Now while the pride of men has something in common with the pride of Satan, it is not the same. The pride of Satan caused him to go before God and ask that Job be delivered into his hands in order to lie, cheat, steal, and kill. The pride of men may result in the same things, but the pride of men causes men to not go before God!!

You see, Satan already knew the Lord so his pride caused him to think he could trick God to get His power and authority, because Satan could not deny the existence of God. Whereas men from birth don't yet know God so men think they can just deny the existence of God and that will mean they have the power and authority of God. That is to say that pride always leads us to wanting the ultimate in power and authority, meaning we (men and Satan) want to be God instead of serve God!! The difference being that Satan speaks to God to trick Him, but men seek to deny the existence of God so they are unwilling to hear from God!!!

Therefore the sign that a man has pride is that He does not seek to hear from God!!!!

A man might say in his heart that God is either dead or in some far-off place called heaven to return some day. That way the prideful men might take the things of God to declare himself to be God. Yet as for today the prideful man must conclude that God can not be with us to be heard from!

That is the pride of men, that they will not seek the voice of the Lord our God!!

Let me give a couple of examples from the Bible of men with pride, and men with confidence.

The Pharisees and Sadducees are the classic example of the pride of men. They picked the Scriptures, and the traditions of the time, and made themselves out to be the experts on God, though they never heard from Him. Therefore when the LORD OF LORDS AND KING OF KINGS, showed up before them in the flesh, they did not know who He was. And because of their pride that put themselves in fine clothes and nice places.

Contrast them with John the Baptist, who knew even before Jesus walked up to him in the flesh, knew that One was coming whom he was not worthy to even tie is sandals. And when Jesus did walk up to him, he saw the Spirit come down on Him like a dove. John heard with his spiritual ears, and saw with his spiritual eyes, because He sought God as opposed to trying to be God! So, John was out to serve God even if that meant being in the desert with poor clothing and food.

Now a mistake I saw in the other post is a common one. Both pride and confidence can make a man bold!! Indeed, the truly confident man can be much bolder than the prideful man!! John the Baptist was very bold, even in, and especially in the face of that Pharisees, saying things like:

Mat 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Mat 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Of course, only God would have warned them of that, but since they didn't seek the voice of the Lord and even denied Him, they could not answer John's question to them?

And the question still is there to read today!! So it still needs and answer from us. Do we, because of our confidence in God, seek Him and so have heard the voice out of the cloud saying, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

Of so, we are humble men leaning in our confidence in God, so we point people to Him. like John.

The prideful man, God resists, and they don't hear from Him or even seek to hear from Him, because they want to be God instead of serve God! They too might appear bold, but their boldness is based on their own pride so not on the Rock who is our Teacher! They assume a bold person is a prideful person because that is what they see in themselves. They can't even see in the Bible that humble men like Moses, Elijah, and John the Babtist were humble men but very bold men!! Confidence in God will make you bold, but that in order to being other men to the Lord and get them listening to Him!!!

 

[Cassandra]

That is the pride of men, that they will not seek the voice of the Lord our God!!

Let me give a couple of examples from the Bible of men with pride, and men with confidence.

The Pharisees and Sadducees are the classic example of the pride of men. They picked the Scriptures, and the traditions of the time, and made themselves out to be the experts on God, though they never heard from Him. Therefore when the LORD OF LORDS AND KING OF KINGS, showed up before them in the flesh, they did not know who He was. And because of their pride that put themselves in fine clothes and nice places.

Oh, so the folk who only hear God through the Word are prideful, and like the Pharisees??
There is a huge difference between the Pharisees and those who love the Lord and diligently seek what His word says. Love the Lord--that is the difference.

Do you ever hear from the Holy Spirit or is it just God the Father? Many times, I'm sure, most of us have heeded the promptings of the Spirit. He is what Christ promised us

John 14:26
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

Why do you need the Spirit if God the Father is talking to you?

 

[friend of]

@Karl Peters

Do you hear from God audibly? If so, what's your secret? Inquiring minds would like to know.

 

[Karl Peters]

Oh, so the folk who only hear God through the Word are prideful, and like the Pharisees??
There is a huge difference between the Pharisees and those who love the Lord and diligently seek what His word says. Love the Lord--that is the difference.

Do you ever hear from the Holy Spirit or is it just God the Father? Many times, I'm sure, most of us have heeded the promptings of the Spirit. He is what Christ promised us

John 14:26
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

Why do you need the Spirit if God the Father is talking to you?

First - God is spirit - therefore we hear God with our spiritual ears!

Second - Jesus Christ is the Word of God - not the Bible!! The Bible is the Sacred Writings or the Scriptures. The Greek word use for "Scriptures" is Graphe and is not translated "Word" in your Bible! Yet thru Isaiah God explained that if we don't listen to Him, then the word of God to us will be "order on order, line on line, and little here and a little there" and that so "That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive."

Is 28:12,13 He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,” And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen
So the word of the LORD to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,”
That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive.

This is why we see people calling the Scriptures "The Word of God"! They don't listen to Him "So the word of the LORD to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” - that is to say the Scriptures!

Now even John the Baptist, who Jesus talked about being the greatest born of women, was compared to a reed blowing in the wind, by Jesus! So one of the things that happen is that we people, after hearing that small voice of the Lord speaking to us, will recognized that Jesus Christ is the Word of God and we get excited for Him - yet then demons (the birds of the air' will come along and tell us the Bible is the Word of God and that you have to live by what is written in it - so we go back to calling the Scriptures The Word of God - forgetting that Jesus Christ is always with us to be heard from!

Rev 19:13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

We need to remember that Jesus Christ is the Word of God, because He talks to us via the Holy Spirit and gives us the words of God which the Father gave to Him as a possession!

Now with that said - let me go over 'dull of hearing"!! If a person is new to the Lord and/or does not practice hearing the Lord like they should, their hearing is dull!! When that happens they tend to say things like, 'I kind of get a feeling or an unction' that the Lord is talking to them. Therefore, they are aware that the Lord is speaking to them, but because their hearing is dull, His speaking to them does not come across in words but kind of a vague feeling!!! That happens to me also when I get busy with the things of this world, like my business where I make the money with pays my expenses, and it also happens when I have not been paying attention to Him for a while (like a dozen of more hours) and it can also happen if I did something wrong and a really don't want to hear Him. Yet, normally I hear from Him a dozen times a day and I pick Him up in words via His small voice which comes via His Holy Spirit.

We are preaching Jesus Christ and Him as the Word of God, so we need to expect to hear Him in "words" not through a feeling of unction!! That often is what happens when a person feels they heard from God when reading the Bible! Which is to say they read the Bible, and the Holy Spirit might have indeed talked to them, but because they are dull of hearing they don't actually hear the words of the Holy Spirit!! And it is also important to note, that Satan also quotes Scriptures, and the testing the spirit requires that you are able to hear the confession of those spirits as to whether Jesus Christ came in the flesh! A person who is dull of hearing can not even use the test!

1 Jn 4:1-3 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

How can you test the spirits if you can not hear whether they are confessing Jesus Christ or not? You can't, so you are not able to discern good from evil!!

Heb 5: 11-14 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Now God loves the new Christian - and they do need to read through the Bible and study! Yet the Bible tells them to seek the Lord and listen to Him, so it is expected that they will start actually seeking Him (The Word of God) and listening to what He says! Yet the book of Hebrews was not written to new believers who had no knowledge of the Scriptures, it was written to a people (the Hebrews) who had been brought up with the Scriptures! They had never figured out the "elementary principles of the oracles of God"!

So why and what am I having to write about here and now?? Is it not there very elementary principles that the Lord speaks to us? That His sheep hear His voice, and that it is that small voice which we hear in our hearts and sometimes coming our out mouth!! Yes, Yes, Yes - that is the Word of God that am preaching!! That the word is found near us, in our hearts and mouth, so not in a book, even the Bible!! The Bible was written by people like Moses who heard from Him! And so they explained that the word was near them, but because of their pride, that lead to them not wanting to hear from God, they were unwilling to hear from the Lord themselves, and made the writings of Moses their god. They told themselves that their reading the Bible would save them and replaced Jesus Christ as the Word of God with the Bible as the Word of God, failing to even realize they were making and idol out of their Bible!!

Now you mentioned another thing that proves you don't listen enough. You are confused about God and Him being ONE GOD!! And that because, as mentioned above, you don't understand how the words of God come to us!!! Nobody knows the Father except the Son!!!!!
Therefore nobody hears directly from the Father except the Son!!! But the Son is the perfect image of the Father and the Son does and says only what the Father tells Him. So the Son is like a perfect mirror image of the Father!! So when we hear God we hear from the Son, which is why His name is called The Word of God!! Indeed the Father loves the Son so He gave all things to Jesus Christ, including all the words from God. And if your father on earth gives you a gift, is that gift not then yours? Therefore the words of God we hear, if we hear, are the words of Jesus Christ, The Word of God!! Yet we hear them from the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit does not speak on His own initiative, but as He hears He speaks!! So the Holy Spirit acts kind of like a phone or a computer streaming a source!! When talking to your brother, you don't say the phone is telling you this and that do you? No, you say you are on the phone, or in the Spirit, but you are talking to your brother and hearing His words, right?? Therefore when you hear God you hear the words which came from God the Father, through God the Son, via God the Spirit and so God is One God!!!!

Should not a person who regularly hears and learns from the Teacher have come across that information?? Maybe they are dull of hearing?

 

[Karl Peters]

@Karl Peters

Do you hear from God audibly? If so, what's your secret? Inquiring minds would like to know.

No we don't hear sound waves - aka "audibly"

The word of God we preach is found in our hearts and even sometimes coming out our own mouth. That is because we hear the Holy Spirit speaking to our spirit!!

And as for the secret, have we not read:

Prov 8:17 “I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me.

Jer 9:13 ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Mat 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

How can we say it is a "secret" when it is written over and over and over again??

The problem is not that it is a secret, but that it is hard to believe that the Lord is with you to be heard from. Therefore it is written:

Jn 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

So do you believe that Jesus Christ is there to be heard from?? If you are not sure, seek Him!! Ask Him how He feels about you??

Go ahead and ask!! Find a quite place if you need to and pray, "Jesus Christ, how do you feel about me?" And consider what come back to your heart??

I have ministered to a hundreds and perhaps thousands of people getting them to simply ask Jesus Christ how He feels about them! And when they ask they start hearing from Him inside them!

And yet I have also come across sooooo many Christian who never thought to just ask Him that question and listen by faith for His answer inside them!! And that is not to say I am upset with anyone of them - because indeed was not the church responsible to make this clear to them!!! The church is supposed to edify - that means teach religious principles - so how is it that even understanding that God speaks via His Holy Spirit to our spirit still seems to be a mystery to so many Christians!!

Did not God write, through John, to all seven churches in Revelation, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches"

They read but they didn't obey. They deceived the children of God and He will takes His vengeance out of them! But as for me, I have been told by Him personally, "Karl, I want you to preach the Word, but not as it is so often preached today. I want you to preach I AM the Word of God". So I do that and try and help people seek Him and His voice!

 

[friend of]

No we don't hear sound waves - aka "audibly"

Right. That's what I meant. Hearing spiritually.

And yet I have also come across sooooo many Christian who never thought to just ask Him that question and listen by faith for His answer inside them!!

Do you think Christians would overlook to do something so simple as ask in prayer for Him to be more intimate and communicative? I've asked many times for Him to reveal Himself and His will for me more directly. Sometimes He does and I figure out what path to take, sometimes I get silence. I think there's more to communicating with God than you're letting on. Not to fault you or anything.

They read but they didn't obey. They deceived the children of God and He will takes His vengeance out of them!

I think Revelation is just as relevant today than it was back then. But I'm digressing now.

 

[Karl Peters]

I envy people who are able to read 2 and half pages of written material online! I have a learning disability, so maybe that is why I have trouble. Or maybe it's my blood pressure medication making me feel drowsy. At any rate, I had to copy this post into my word processor, and then print it. Then I had to spend time reading it, until I understood it. That's a lot of work for just one post! All I get out of it, is if you can't hear from God then your prideful like the Pharisees! I guess if the OP is right then that means a lot of Christian people are in trouble! Makes me think that hell is going to be full of believers. In my EXPERIENCE, people who can claim to hear directly from God are odd balls. They may start out sounding ok, but usually sometime down the road, they will say or do something that is way off, and claim that God told them. I just hope that if your someone that says "I'm hearing from God" that you really are hearing from God and not something that is fooling you into thinking it's God when it isn't.

I'm wondering if you, OP, thinks that anyone that doesn't hear from God is not a true follower, and thus going to Hell. If that is the case then you might need to go back to square one. The Bible tells us that we must believe on Jesus Christ to be saved. It does not say that we must hear from God to be saved.

* I've been told by people who have NEVER met me(ONLINE) that I'm full of pride. But I have NEVER been told by people who know me face to face that I'm full of pride. Interesting how people who have never met you think they know more about you then those who never even seen you or even tried to get to know you.

OH MY - what a sad story. Not so much that you can't read but that you don't hear from the Lord!!

And the pride problem is a problem for all men kind, even from the time of Adam and Eve. So don't think you are unlike any other person. Still you have to overcome, and seek the voice of the Lord and listen to Him!! It is written that His sheep hear His voice.

So hear is the Good News to all man kind!

Rev 3:19,20‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

You are an "ANYONE" so you too can pick up the reproof He has for those He loves, like you, and repent for not seeking Him sooner, then seek the voice of Him who has been waiting from the very beginning to be able to talk back and forth with you personally!!

It takes just an extremely small amount of faith to believe He is their for you, but just enough faith to ask Him a question and seek the response that He sends back via His Holy Spirit to your spirit!

I wrote to another person in this thread to ask Him how He feels about them? Try that question. Get in a quite place if needed, and simply ask - 'Jesus Christ, how do you feel about me?' And consider what comes to you inside.

Really, we already know the answer to that question, simply because you are here inquiring. Yes, He reproves you for not listening to Him, but that is because He loves you!!! So we know He loves you - or else what spirit did bring you to this Christian forum to be told to seek Him and His voice. The devil doesn't want that, my friend!! So He loves you, but you need to hear it from Him!!!

You need to start a personal relationship with the living God, and the Word of God (Jesus Christ) is alive and active. He is just standing there waiting for you to want to get to know Him! So ask and listen. And ask some more, and listen! And start walking with Him to hear what He has to personally say to you. Yeah - He will have some reproof but that because He loves you!! And I tell you truly, you cannot fathom how deep His love for you is!!!!


The first time I heard Him tell me, "Karl, I love you." It brought tears to me eyes. And those words are still the most common words that I do hear from Him!! So if you have not yet done so, ask Him, "Jesus Christ, how to you feel about me," and listen inside!! That is a start! Do that for 20 plus years and you will know how I feel.

 

[Karl Peters]

Do you think Christians would overlook to do something so simple as ask in prayer for Him to be more intimate and communicative? I've asked many times for Him to reveal Himself and His will for me more directly. Sometimes He does and I figure out what path to take, sometimes I get silence. I think there's more to communicating with God than you're letting on. Not to fault you or anything.

They do, and it is written to encourage each other Today, as long as Today is Today!!

So even if they heard from Him yesterday, they might not Today!!!

And I have soooooo many examples of Christians not hearing Him, I can't help from being amazes how we don't seek Him Today!!

Let me give you a couple of them.

I know a Pastor of a church with a doctorate degree from a well know Christian seminary school, who while taking to I found out that he had heard the voice of the Lord but the last time he had heard the Lord's voice was over 17 years ago!!! Still, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, he supposedly brought a message from God to his church??

And you are asking me if I think "Christians would overlook to do something so simple as ask in prayer for Him to be more intimate and communicative?"

Another example:

I worked in a Christian healing ministry, per the Lord, for five years, One day a lady came in for prayer because her shoulder was hurting. She did go think it could be healed at her church but she had heard about our healing ministry. We prayed for her should and instantly it was healed. But then I heard the Lord ask me to find out if she heard from Him. So I did. it turned out that she had been a Christian for most all her life, and indeed she was the secretary to the pastor at her church which she had gone to for over 30 years. Yes, she was an older lady with grey hair, and been in church for that long, and even the secretary of that church, which was not a small church in town but one of the bigger churches is town, and one of a well known congregation. But she had never heard the small voice of the Lord, only about it.

So right then and there, we lead her in a prayer asking Jesus Christ how He felt about her, and she heard Him speak to hear for the first time via His small voice!!

I can tell you that while I have seen hundreds and maybe thousands of healing the God did while we prayed for people, not one of them excited me as much as when someone hears form Him for the first time!!

It is better to have a sore shoulder and know the Lord, than to have it healed by the Lord and not know Him!!! Knowing Him is worth that much, and soooooo much more!!! So, seek Him and if He is willing, He will also heal your shoulder! Of course He might heal your shoulder to get you to seek Him.

 

[friend of]

I can't help from being amazes how we don't seek Him Today!!

The issue isn't that we aren't seeking God. The issue is that many many Christians today (on this forum even) are striving to have Him be more intimate and vocal in our lives, but it's not happening. We yearn for a deeper relationship. I do not believe it is a lack of earnest seeking on our part, for the most part. Rather, a relationship with God is not transactional (I.e. we do this and God is obligated to respond in such and such a way). No. I have also learned that there are periods of silence that Christians do go through, and it's not up to us. We don't know everything that's happening in the spiritual realm. The teacher is silent when the exam takes place.

So if you hear from God all the time, great. But just remember, if God always agrees with everything you say, do and think, well, you just might be in communion with an idealized version of yourself.

 

[Cassandra]

Now you mentioned another thing that proves you don't listen enough. You are confused about God and Him being ONE GOD!! And that because, as mentioned above, you don't understand how the words of God come to us!!! Nobody knows the Father except the Son!!!!!
Therefore nobody hears directly from the Father except the Son!!! But the Son is the perfect image of the Father and the Son does and says only what the Father tells Him. So the Son is like a perfect mirror image of the Father!! So when we hear God we hear from the Son, which is why His name is called The Word of God!! Indeed the Father loves the Son so He gave all things to Jesus Christ, including all the words from God. And if your father on earth gives you a gift, is that gift not then yours? Therefore the words of God we hear, if we hear, are the words of Jesus Christ, The Word of God!! Yet we hear them from the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit does not speak on His own initiative, but as He hears He speaks!! So the Holy Spirit acts kind of like a phone or a computer streaming a source!! When talking to your brother, you don't say the phone is telling you this and that do you? No, you say you are on the phone, or in the Spirit, but you are talking to your brother and hearing His words, right?? Therefore when you hear God you hear the words which came from God the Father, through God the Son, via God the Spirit and so God is One God!!!!

Sez you, God his a trinity, imo. The holy spirit was given to comfort and to instruct.
The sure word of God is the scripture. Do you disagree?
I have seen healings on TV, that aren't--so i don't believe that. but you are entitled to have your experience.
I haven't told you that you don't listen enough, and again I don't know your experience.
I haven't said you have pride because you extol your verbal relationship with God., have I? Or that you must be holier that the lot of us because you have personal talks with the Lord/ So does Kat Kerr, Kenneth Copeland, and a plethora of odd people who show up on Sid Roth's program.

This is what I believe: We pray to God, in Jesus name, and the Spirit comforts and instructs us.

 

[Cassandra]

I envy people who are able to read 2 and half pages of written material online! I have a learning disability, so maybe that is why I have trouble. Or maybe it's my blood pressure medication making me feel drowsy. At any rate, I had to copy this post into my word processor, and then print it. Then I had to spend time reading it, until I understood it. That's a lot of work for just one post! All I get out of it, is if you can't hear from God then your prideful like the Pharisees! I guess if the OP is right then that means a lot of Christian people are in trouble! Makes me think that hell is going to be full of believers. In my EXPERIENCE, people who can claim to hear directly from God are odd balls. They may start out sounding ok, but usually sometime down the road, they will say or do something that is way off, and claim that God told them. I just hope that if your someone that says "I'm hearing from God" that you really are hearing from God and not something that is fooling you into thinking it's God when it isn't.

I'm wondering if you, OP, thinks that anyone that doesn't hear from God is not a true follower, and thus going to Hell. If that is the case then you might need to go back to square one. The Bible tells us that we must believe on Jesus Christ to be saved. It does not say that we must hear from God to be saved.

* I've been told by people who have NEVER met me(ONLINE) that I'm full of pride. But I have NEVER been told by people who know me face to face that I'm full of pride. Interesting how people who have never met you think they know more about you then those who never even seen you or even tried to get to know you.

Thanks for your insight. you say it so well.♥

 

[Nancy]

Oh here we go again! The OP wrote me some "stuff" without knowing two important pieces of information. This is what you get when you don't ask another person questions before you let out your views.

1) At the age of 6 I asked Jesus into my heart. Not long after that I began hearing a voice in my head. As I look back into my past, I think this voice came to be out of a physiological problem. I get scared of doing things wrong. This could be because of my learning disability causing something known as anxiety, and anxiety causing obsessive compulsive disorder. What I mean by this is, when I decide to do something, or buy something, or whatever else, sometimes I will over analyze what I'm doing because I'm scared of doing something wrong, or having something bad happen because of it. A voice, which is probably my voice, or it could of been from a demon, I don't know, would invade my thought process and it would tell me something like: "If you pick up that object then you will get sick" So I would try picking up another object and that voice would make another threat until got so anxious I could hardly get anything done! Clearly this voice was not from the Lord! It felt more like Satan was picking on me. And guess what, sometimes, something bad did happen to me, and then I would remember what the voice told me! I went to my pastors and told them about this problem. I went forward at Church got anointed with oil and prayed for. But that didn't make the voice go away. I saw some psychiatrists and they tried me on some medication, and that didn't help either!

My whole life I prayed. I asked God to help me over and over and over again, but that never made the voice go away either! You want to know what finally shrunk that voice? I had a nervous break down! In order to learn how to keep myself calm, I had to learn that whenever I hear that voice, that I must remind myself of the nervous break down. I say to myself, "do you want to go down that road awful road again?" My reply is "absolutely not!" Then I just put a stop to it! Over the years that threatening voice began to get smaller and smaller. Now it doesn't bother me much anymore. I probably go almost an entire day without hearing it at all! Thank goodness!

When you got an issue like that going on in your head, how on earth are you supposed to tell God's voice? I've never had a kind loving voice in my head!

2) You act as if I don't talk to God. Granted I don't talk to God as often as I probably should. But there are days when I just sit in my car and talk to God for a good half hour! Really how many hours does one need to talk to God before he answers back?

Like I said, this is helpful information to know before you start blabbing your views at me.

--------------------------

* Also I was picked on heavily at school, while my learning disability made it harder for me to learn. So that could of been a contributing factor as to what got all that started too. But I'm not here to write a book about my life.

* The professional opinion about the voice, is it something in my head. My own thoughts just getting out of control. Probably caused by a chemical imbalance. Since it's harder for me to process things, it was created in my head to help me process things. Eventually it got out of control.

I think we all have our own voice in our heads. It can be godly if it's full of God's love. But it can also be Satanic if it's full of negativity. Don't ask me how God works through this stuff. God is complicated, and I just do my best get through. But I already can hear someone tell me. "Lean not on your own understanding" or "Take every thought captive". Yeah I've read and heard that stuff before. My guess is those verses are taken out of context and then weaponized. I hope that defused that weapon before it gets used against me. Anyways, I have already been open in the prayer request thread that I do have some mental illness such as depression etc.

You are more honest than most on here AOAJ. I appreciate that! And, it might bring others out of their shell and share also.

We aren't clones of one another, we have different backgrounds, upbringing and so on. There is a whole lot of presumption with the human race!

There's a kind of love that God only knows YouTube - Google Search

 

[Nancy]

Oh, so the folk who only hear God through the Word are prideful, and like the Pharisees??
There is a huge difference between the Pharisees and those who love the Lord and diligently seek what His word says. Love the Lord--that is the difference.

Do you ever hear from the Holy Spirit or is it just God the Father? Many times, I'm sure, most of us have heeded the promptings of the Spirit. He is what Christ promised us

John 14:26
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

Why do you need the Spirit if God the Father is talking to you?

Also, The Father speaks to us through other people allot! Can't forget the entertaining of angels unawares! I wonder how many angels we have conversed with on this Earth? Probably tons. SO for me it's prayer, other people and the scriptures and perhaps a small voice when my conscience is being tested like, watching certain movies. But I do believe it is my own voice, and the guilty feeling is that I know I shouldn't watch such a movie with the constant cursing and using the Lord's Name in vain, as well as all the other garbage against what He would approve of. Speaking of movies, for the last 5 or so months, I don't even want to watch any American made movies, I've been watching all foreign ones, and they are wonderful! Probably won't ever watch another American made "movie"

 

[Karl Peters]

The issue isn't that we aren't seeking God. The issue is that many many Christians today (on this forum even) are striving to have Him be more intimate and vocal in our lives, but it's not happening. We yearn for a deeper relationship. I do not believe it is a lack of earnest seeking on our part, for the most part. Rather, a relationship with God is not transactional (I.e. we do this and God is obligated to respond in such and such a way). No. I have also learned that there are periods of silence that Christians do go through, and it's not up to us. We don't know everything that's happening in the spiritual realm. The teacher is silent when the exam takes place.

So if you hear from God all the time, great. But just remember, if God always agrees with everything you say, do and think, well, you just might be in communion with an idealized version of yourself.

Have we ever seen the acronym WWJD? Jesus does set the perfect example for us, not that we are going to achieve that, but this is the high and lofty goal - that we try to be like Jesus who did and said only what the Father told Him!!! It is not going to happen, but that is what Jesus did.

Paul wrote about pressing on towards the goal, and also about not considering ourselves to have achieved it!! So we keep seeking Him and His voice. Maybe there are things about that we have not yet learned??

So, now concerning Christians finding periods where the Lord seems to be silent - why is that?? I mean it happens to me too, so I looked into it by asking the Lord about it when I was hearing from Him well. I figured that must be what others did also when that happened to them. Didn't they too want to know why that happens?

What I found out was that He has a number of reasons for letting that happen in our lives, and not one of which is that He is not there to speak to us!!!

Now it maybe that we absolutely want an answer for a particular thing, but the answer is not available to you yet! By that I mean God has a reason for with holding the answer to our specific question. The thing to do then is change the subject and ask Him a different question. Indeed, He might need the topic changed! Perhaps He has something else for you to do at that time?

Daniel 12:9 He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.

The case above is a good example of what I am talking about. The words for the answer were concealed and sealed up for now, and Daniel had other things to go and work on. Note: the Lord would still be with Him for those things too!!

Another common reason is that He wants you to press into Him more, and pay closer attention to Him!!

He once told me: "Karl it is not easy listening to a rock. You have to listen very close."

There is a reason that He doesn't usually just talk to us in a booming voice like the Israelites heard coming from the Moutain of God. That tends to shake people up and scare them. And it does cause them to seek Him closer but rather to say, 'Let not God speak to us least we die' So if He wants you to pay closer attention, He draws in your curiosity and barely whispers to you. So the question as to whether we are going to press in and earnestly desire to hear from Him, or are we going to just say that God doesn't want to talk to us and stop seeking Him?

For me, perhaps the most common reason for Him seemingly going quite is me getting busy with other things!!! I hear from Him everyday called "Today", but I have to admit that in the middle of the day, while I am working on my business, I am really bad at seeking Him!! So He seems to go quite, but that is not His fault but totally my fault!! And I should know better!!! Because during those times, if I remember to seek Him and His advice, I hear Him giving me advice about me work. He will help me with the prices I put on my products, the order to do things so I save time, the way to answer customers, and He even finds time to give me teachings while I work.

Look, I could say a lot more about this, but if we are pressing in we will find Him!! It is after all still written, 'seek and you shall find' so is that now a false statement or are we not really seeking Him who is always with us like we should and could? For me personally, I believe that if I seek Him I will find Him!!

That then brings me to another problem that might be causing us to not hear Him like we should, and that is the battle with the dark forces of this world. Again, it is still written seek and you shall find, so we will find Him, but there are those like that snake in the garden who say "Did God really say?"

Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

It might very well be that a doubting spirit like that snake of old, has been telling you that God is not going to speak to you!! That snakes first attack on us is to get us to doubt God will talk to us. This can also be a reason that is seems God went quiet. And again the correct answer is to seek the Lord for comment and again listen for Him with your spiritual ears. Eve and Adam did not do that! Instead they turn to leaning on their own understanding and even their own "pride"!!! So don't do that - instead when that happens press into the Lord all the more, and don't consider that you have already achieved!

Phil 3:5,6 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

We have to keep living by that same standard of hearing the Lord by faith. Oh - we are already counted as being righteous, because we believe in Jesus Christ, but are we continually pressing into the faith in Him or not? As for me, I have not yet achieved it, but that does mean I don't know that is what I am trying to achieve - which is a closer personal relationship with Him by hearing with faith!

 

[MatthewG]

Its not a bad thing to have pride. There is good pride and bad pride. The only bad thing is when you become so callous to others you start to not care, who you may hurt to get your way, that needs to be looked at ( the heart ). Humble before the Lord is what James suggested and to pray but not selfishlessly pray (worldly things, pleasures) or be double minded, or be doubtful but trust God will provide you by the spirit.

 

[Karl Peters]

Also, The Father speaks to us through other people allot! Can't forget the entertaining of angels unawares! I wonder how many angels we have conversed with on this Earth? Probably tons. SO for me it's prayer, other people and the scriptures and perhaps a small voice when my conscience is being tested like, watching certain movies. But I do believe it is my own voice, and the guilty feeling is that I know I shouldn't watch such a movie with the constant cursing and using the Lord's Name in vain, as well as all the other garbage against what He would approve of. Speaking of movies, for the last 5 or so months, I don't even want to watch any American made movies, I've been watching all foreign ones, and they are wonderful! Probably won't ever watch another American made "movie"

Ok - God can and does use other people!! But even if they have a word they got from God and the instructions to tell you what they heard, that is still them speaking and not Him speaking through is Holy Spirit!!!

Jesus said, "“I do not receive glory from men;" (Jn 5:41) He didn't lie did He??

Therefore we should understand that if we are told anything by any other person, we are to take it to Jesus Christ for and explanation!!

I write, because He asks me. Mainly it comes under the heading of preaching the Word of God, and that to mean Jesus Christ and that we need to listen to Him!! Yet in so doing I often have things He specifically told me to do. In the Op you will find out that He got me up in the middle of the night and told me to write that OP. It is not a word for word instruction, but rather He has been giving me that teaching and wanted me to share it. What the other Christian then need to do is ask the Lord about it, so He can talk to them about it. He might tell one person that it is not for them at this time, and to another He might expand on the topic, and to another He might just be using it to get them to seek Him and His words to them personally. My part is to do what He asks of me, and it is the same for all other beings on this planet!!

What if our President Biden did that, and our news media did that, and Putin did that, and so on? But does He not come to His people first and do we not need to be the first to seek Him and keep the instructions that come from His voice. There is a promise to His people and it is this:

1 Sam 12:14 “If you will fear the LORD and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the LORD, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God.

If we Christians did do the above as Samuel say per the Lord, then we even today would not have the problems in this country and indeed on this planet that we do!!!!!!!!!

So yes - God can and does use other people, but as for us Christians, we need to "fear the LORD and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the LORD"!!

 

[Karl Peters]

Its not a bad thing to have pride. There is good pride and bad pride. The only bad thing is when you become so callous to others you start to not care, who you may hurt to get your way, that needs to be looked at ( the heart ). Humble before the Lord is what James suggested and to pray but not selfishlessly pray (worldly things, pleasures) or be double minded, or be doubtful but trust God will provide you by the spirit.

No, that is wrong!! Pride is bad!!!! Confidence in God is good, because only God is good!!!

And have you not read that God is love!! So you are not God and your leaning on your own understanding is never going to result in your righteousness!!!

If indeed a person does humble himself before God, it means they sought Him, and His voice!!! Anything else is their selfishness and their double mindedness, and their lack of trust in God, and is not their hearing Him via His Holy Spirit, who does not speak on His own initiative but as He hears He speaks!!

Therefore the bad thing is to think you are good, when only God is good, and to think you are love when God is love, and that you know what is right when God is righteous in all He does!!

Our pride tells us we can be God, but our humility tells us we need God and what He has to say to us!!

That is what this thread and teaching from the Lord is about - that the pride of men get men leaning on their own understanding and so thinking they are smarter than God, instead of seeking God to serve Him!!

Have you not read where God killed them and they sought Him?

Ps 78:34 When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and searched diligently for God;

or

Mat 18: 9 “If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

Certainly you must have read:

Rev 3:19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.

Nobody wants to be reproved or even disciplined, but it is better that happens even if it hurts you feeling, than to not seek the Lord and what He has to say because of your pride!!

So stop the pride and the thinking that men can be smarter than God, and start actually humbling yourself and thus seeking the voice of the Lord that you might live!!!

Rev 3: 20-22 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

What we overcome is our pride and that thinking that we don't need to hear from the Lord via His Holy Spirit!!

 

[Cassandra]

What we overcome is our pride and that thinking that we don't need to hear from the Lord via His Holy Spirit!!

Whoop! there it is! Yes the Spirit is our instructor and comforter--that was never in dispute.

 

[Gottservant]

One of the things about the Lord is that He is the Teacher. So as the LORD OF LORDS and our Lord, we get instructions from Him, and as The Teacher, we also get teachings from Him.

[...]

Confidence in God will make you bold, but that in order to being other men to the Lord and get them listening to Him!!!

Here ends the lesson of the Holy Spirit!

What a clear exposition of the need for confidence in the Lord!

 

[MatthewG]

I think you are just looking to far into it @Karl Peters.

I said there is good pride and bad pride.

I would define one as you can be proud of things you accomplish on your own without the need of others validating you. Also by giving yourself over to be proud of the accomplishments of others in which maybe your the dad and they need validation they need encourgament or whatever.

The other is being proud of yourself as though you are better than others; and you demean them in your mind and thoughts even in front of them…

Having confidence in God is good; givi g him credit as he helps you along the way is good; but having good pride is not bad; like bad pride that looks down the snout of ones nose to others.

God gave us these things didnt he; to have a mind/will/emotions?

The only good things that come from heaven those is and only by the spirit that is given by God; but here is the “morality” part of us and maybe your right but; anyway just wanted to address that small section of chatter.