If I may share my experience? And we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the [Holy] Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language [to those who possess the Holy Spirit]. 14 But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated. 15 But the spiritual man tries all things [he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things], yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one [he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get an insight into him]. 16 For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart. 1 Corinthians 2.13-16 (Amplified) If you do not have the Spirit of God on the inside of you it will always just be religion to you. Probably the reason why so many people and Christians are confused about Christ/Christianity. You cannot just have God and not the Spirit, you cannot just have Jesus and not the Spirit you need to know all three personalities. Somebody told me this once "God send Jesus to get to the people and the people created religion to get to God". So true, you will never find the truth in a place that dictates things over you of what you need to do to get to God. Reminds me of the Pharisees in the Bible. Don?t get me wrong, I am all for a place (Call it a Church if you want) where Christians get together and fellowship and share about their relationship with God. It is a great place to get encouragement and support from others. But like any other environment, there will always be fruit and nuts running around that you would want to stay away from. You don't just get the Spirit of God on the inside of you, it is time spend on your knees and through obedience to his calling on your life. I always say I am not doing God a favor by being a Christian, I do myself a favor. God doesn?t need me, I need Him. I spend time with Him because I love Him and I want to. My life was touched by God directly and not by other people that stuffed God down my throat. "Preach the Gospel, and if necessary use words" - Anon. I was touched by someone that had God's Spirit on the inside of her. It happened in Asia of all places and she did not speak a word to me until I walked up to her in my drunken state and the first thing I said to her was "You are a born again (Accepted a new life and are filled with the Spirit of God) Christian??. She replied ?Yes, I am? I was drawn to the light inside of her and was nearly knocked off my feet as the power of God came over me. Interestingly enough, in this country i was in, evangelisation is banned like in most other asian countries. You are not allowed to walk up to someone and evangelise the person about your faith. But anyway she was probably a bit freaked out why I did not ask her name first or why I did not introduce myself. Maybe she could see I was drunk. At that time of my life I was in a severely back slidden state, in other words I allowed my carnal nature to take over and my relationship with God deteriorated over time but I could still sense the Spirit of God in other people. So all this young lady had to do to touch my life was just to appear. Because of her relationship and the Spirit of God insider her she did not have to preach anything to me, she just had to appear. I befriended her and we still keep in touch. I have been in many strange scenarios and have been fortunate to see God's light and Spirit work in so many different ways. From being inside an exploding Boeing 747 in mid air to getting freaked out when I was 4-5 years old from seeing scriptures on the walls that my mother had to interpret for me. I am not proclaiming to be the most holy one, I am a sinner and human like everyone else. I do my best and ask God for direction and forgiveness regarding things that hinder our relationship. I am not here to judge anyone, you can judge yourself. After all my experiences and the revelations I have had I do not have enough faith to be an atheist. keep it real epoh! epoh2008-07-04 03:15:03
