Also @BrianMeir , next time make sure you DON'T open any bible-related topics in the Singles forum so we don't stress out Lynx. 
Talking with Jesus
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Didn't Jesus say that we have to worship Him in truth? Everyone of us is sinful in some way and no doubt some have a massive ego. You have to be transparent with that when you come to the Lord.
The tree of the knowledge teaches us to be "like" God. We can act pious, we can put on an act, we can act humble. But it is hypocrisy.
Oh absolutely and i agree with you and this again is linked to free-will which God gave us. So, in this short journey here we have some choices to make and when we face God we will know how we did.
"The pleasure of the Lord showering upon you" is a way I have heard it described as well.
Blessings
I thought this thread would be about Jesus now it has turned into an inquisition about Brian's views on Paul, This saddens me greatly.
I find in circumstance, and often talk to Jesus about this, that in my family I was not the firstborn or in a position of privelige. For those who are firstborn, they often have NOOO idea how their place affects the rest of the family. How can they, they have done everything first and got the lions share, or they have been in the most diffcult circumstances and the younger siblings now have it easier because someone has forged the way before them.
I find it interesting that Jesus immediate family (he had brothers and sisters) is not mentioned that often in the Bible nor his teen years. He would have grown up with them, but chose none of them to be his twelve disciples. Jesus was closer to his cousin John than his siblings. Imagine how devastating it was for Jesus when John was beheaded.
What happened to Aunty Elizabeth and Uncle Zachariah, and his grandparents etc.
Jesus is the big bro I never had. Hes also taught me a lot about Jewish culture, which can be similar and to chinese culture in that it is family orientated. Adapting to western ways can be difficult, but I still live in a world that is neo-liberalistic and run by mammon and I cant do anything about that. However theres some good advice is to make friends with unrighteous mammon so they can let you in their lasting habitations.
Feeding enemies is also biblical advice. Imagine if Jesus had not satietiee his hungry crowd with the loaves and fishes, they would have been so hangry at him.
I find it interesting that Jesus immediate family (he had brothers and sisters) is not mentioned that often in the Bible nor his teen years. He would have grown up with them, but chose none of them to be his twelve disciples. Jesus was closer to his cousin John than his siblings. Imagine how devastating it was for Jesus when John was beheaded.
What happened to Aunty Elizabeth and Uncle Zachariah, and his grandparents etc.
Jesus is the big bro I never had. Hes also taught me a lot about Jewish culture, which can be similar and to chinese culture in that it is family orientated. Adapting to western ways can be difficult, but I still live in a world that is neo-liberalistic and run by mammon and I cant do anything about that. However theres some good advice is to make friends with unrighteous mammon so they can let you in their lasting habitations.
Feeding enemies is also biblical advice. Imagine if Jesus had not satietiee his hungry crowd with the loaves and fishes, they would have been so hangry at him.
Thank you all who have expressed kindness here on my thread. This morning I spoke with a couple intelligent men about hearing the Lord speak to us through the Word of God, personal revelation, and to an extent, other Christians. One said that one condition of knowing if a personal word from God is real or not is if it fits your circumstance in a way that you can act on it. I think he was right. I think that for Christians successfully living close to Jesus and listening to His guidance on a regular basis, He does speak reasonably. If Jesus is not speaking reasonably, then something is wrong. In my life I have greatly erred by acting on unreasonable things I heard from Jesus. I think that if I hear Jesus say something unreasonable to me, then I need to rely on wisdom instead of simple risky action. This has been a really big challenge for me, because I have done too many major drastic things based on what I heard Jesus tell me that have really hurt me. I appreciate the balanced and mature advice of Christians I am meeting who don't just act impulsively based on the words they receive from the Lord. And in this case when I say words, I kind of extend that to the written word as well because a lot of things Jesus said were hyperbole.
Book Of Proverbs is the go to book for any believer seeking wisdom...Solomon was only in 12 when he ascended the throne (became King) and needed all the wisdom he could get!
Jesus favourite book though was Deuteronomy he always quoted from that one.
When Jesus was 12 he was already conversing with the scribes and doctors in the temple, he was wise beyond his years. Today we would probably recognise Jesus as sheer genius or child prodigy, he would have been a bit like Greta Thunberg (who is most hated btw) for standing up to the establishment.
Jesus favourite book though was Deuteronomy he always quoted from that one.
When Jesus was 12 he was already conversing with the scribes and doctors in the temple, he was wise beyond his years. Today we would probably recognise Jesus as sheer genius or child prodigy, he would have been a bit like Greta Thunberg (who is most hated btw) for standing up to the establishment.
Personally I'm emotionally constipated - I find it hard to give a crap.Also @BrianMeir , next time make sure you DON'T open any bible-related topics in the Singles forum so we don't stress out Lynx.
But Brian did say, multiple times, that he wants this to be a thread about talking with Jesus, not a thread debating the theological merits of Paul. As the OP, that should be respected.
Yeah, well... Welcome to Christian Chat Forum. :-/
When I look back over 50 years there has not been any lack of Jesus speaking to me. The problem has always been that either He is telling me something I don't want to hear, or not telling me something that I want to hear.
Anyone can dive into spiritual books, into the Bible, into prayer, into worship, into Bible studies, listen to Bible teaching, etc.
So, based on my own personal experience, whenever I see a thread like this it seems the person wants the Lord to say something that He isn't saying or they keep trying to get Him to stop saying what He is saying.
I created this thread for positive reasons, the most prominent of which is to gather people to share what the Lord is speaking to them today, right now. I have already shared two private prayer times I had since I created this thread in which the Lord said small, encouraging things to me. I wrote about how I accepted what He told me with contentment. I really don't appreciate your unwarranted cynicism, Mr. ZNP. Instead, feel free to contribute with a positive, useful anecdote of your own prayer time.
Dear Lynx, I have been able to tell you are "emotionally constipated," or as I would say, jaded. I get the impression you have seen a lot of disappointing interactions here and they have made you cynical, hence your propensity toward humor and sitting on the sidelines making comments about what the argument is going to look like. (I think the smell of #2 is brown.) But I also want to tell you that I really appreciate your fairness and willingness to stick up for me. I think that you still have a spark of hope in you, and we can see real positivity happen here, and the Lord can turn these petty discussions into an oasis. I really feel a very happy hope that you are going to prove to us all how insightful and useful you are. I just have the impression that your cynical humor is a measure of your intellect, and I know that once in a while the light does actually break through the darkness. Jesus is working in my life, and right now with his Spirit I believe that his Spirit can thaw you too. I know darkness, and I know that it typically wins out, and that the light usually only comes in short stints and often doesn't show up when we think we need it to. I have gone for 13 years without spiritual refreshing, but despite the direness of my living situation right now I feel that Jesus just might be willing to meet me, and you, in this time. I really feel for you, sir. I just want you to know that.
@BrianMeir , what's your take on conversations? Do you want them to be strictly on-topic or do you want them to be free-flowing and then come back to the OP once in a while? This applies in real life too.
Thanks.
Thanks.
I have been praying for insight into the rapture. In Colossians Paul said that the appointed feast days were a shadow of things to come. The Old Testament calls them "dress rehearsal" We saw that five of these feasts were fulfilled to the minute, precisely (Passover, Unleavened bread, Firstfruits, Shavuot and Pentecost).
Therefore I have been looking for a shadow of the rapture in the Feasts, that has been a constant prayer.
About a week ago I learned that the High priest changes into a linen garment at twilight (twinkling of an eye) and then goes into the temple chamber where he is guarded for seven days until the Day of Atonement. This reminded me of the reference to the rapture in Isaiah 26. It also answered another question, why would God rapture the believers. However, yesterday I got a much bigger answer to my prayers.
On the Feast of trumpets they blow the shofar for 100 blasts, the 100th blast is called "the awakening blast" which sounds like the trumpet blast that wakes the dead. However every fifty years we have the jubilee and then the Feast of Trumpets is celebrated on the Day of Atonement and the 100th blast is the blast that sets the prisoners free. This is when the jubilee goes into effect. This trumpet blast is called the "passover blast". Very few translations will say that, they will call it a loud blast or something like that, but the Hebrew word is the same word for the Angel of death that passed over the homes that had the blood on them. The word means to be translated, to vanish, to pass over, to pass through, to pass from one realm to another. When Abraham bought a cave to bury Sarah in the translator said he used "current money" but the word was this word, he used Passover money. He was paying the price for Sarah to go from one realm to another. This Trumpet blast is clearly referring to our Passover whereas when the Bible talks about the Passover feast it calls it "the Lord's Passover". Not only so but the exact same day that Jesus resurrected from the grave is the same day that the flood waters began to assuage in Noah's flood. It says the winds "passed over". The Lord's Passover and our Passover both refer to resurrection and the rapture (when Jesus rose from the dead others rose as well).
But then the big question is "what is the last trumpet". According to Paul the dead in Christ will rise at the last Trumpet. Is it the 100th trumpet blast? No, these are dress rehearsals, so even if you have the 100th trumpet blast it isn't the last one because next year you will do it again. Is it the last trumpet on a jubilee year? Again, no, because the theory is that God creating man in 6 days is a reference to six thousand years, which is 120 jubilee years. But suppose we are talking about the last trumpet on the last jubilee year? That could be the last trumpet, the awakening blast and the Passover blast.
But how do you know when the jubilee is? Well thank you Lord, He answered that question as well. Yesterday or the day before I saw a video that I was led to by a brother to my knowledge I had never seen his videos before. He showed that in Leviticus you begin counting the fifty years for the jubilee when the Israelites go into the land. Then he showed that the Palestinian Mandate was made in 1922 saying that a certain portion of the land was for the Israelites to go into and they went in during September of 1923. That means we begin counting the fifty years then and in 1973 it was a jubilee year. The same year they had the Yom Kippur War. That means 2023 is a jubilee year, and it means that Israel is now 100 years old, the same age that Abraham was when he had Isaac.
This is the main thing I enjoyed from the Lord yesterday.
Well, I used to lead a life group a very long time ago. I was extremely inexperienced, and each week I would have a serious discussion prepared, and then a group of charismatic people would come in joking and take off with things. But fortunately they were decent enough to eventually give me control of the discussion. For a long time I felt so very awkward, but after a while I came to realize that they actually appreciated the way I directed their focus to the serious things. I felt so different from these friends, but ultimately we achieved a really nice balance. I think already on this thread we have achieved a healthy amount of balance. People like you are conscientious about the topic of talking with Jesus, and other people have very positive thoughts to share, despite not being direct answers to what I originally asked, and others are sticking up for me when I get criticized. At this point I feel the love of the people like you who are supporting me, and I think that there are enough positive posts to outweigh the bad ones. I think the free-flowing way we have mostly experienced this thread so far has been very good, much like that life group I was in a long time ago, and I like it when people try to get back to the main topic as much as possible. I for my part am trying to post topic-relevant posts, but I am doing this with the deliberate responsibility of being the OP. I have to say that this thread wouldn't be successful if it weren't for the conscientious input from people like you, so I try to stay hands-off when people are positive, except to express encouragement when I think you guys are headed in the direction I like. In real life, I think respect has to be earned as opposed to demanded, and leadership is a combination of forging a path and listening to others.
I had a very interesting Dream -- (September 18th)
12 Now when Jesus heard that John [the Baptist] had been arrested and put in prison, He left for Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth, He went and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the country of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee [in the district] of the Gentiles— 16 “The people who were sitting (living) in [spiritual] darkness have seen a great Light, And for those who were sitting (living) in the land and shadow of [spiritual and moral] death, Upon them a Light has dawned.”
I have been praying and seeking for the signs we will see right before the tribulation begins. I have come to see that the Antichrist, a counterfeit of Jesus Christ, will have a ministry that in many ways mimics or imitates Jesus. One of those ways is "John the Baptist". Just as John prepared the way for the Lord's ministry I see Elon Musk having prepared the way for the Antichrist. He is a Satanist, and he has put everything in place for the mark of the beast.
In my dream I heard that Elon Musk had been arrested. It was so compelling that I got up and checked the news around 3 am this morning.
But if you look at the Lord's ministry this is the event that immediately preceded His ministry beginning.
12 Now when Jesus heard that John [the Baptist] had been arrested and put in prison, He left for Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth, He went and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the country of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee [in the district] of the Gentiles— 16 “The people who were sitting (living) in [spiritual] darkness have seen a great Light, And for those who were sitting (living) in the land and shadow of [spiritual and moral] death, Upon them a Light has dawned.”
I have been praying and seeking for the signs we will see right before the tribulation begins. I have come to see that the Antichrist, a counterfeit of Jesus Christ, will have a ministry that in many ways mimics or imitates Jesus. One of those ways is "John the Baptist". Just as John prepared the way for the Lord's ministry I see Elon Musk having prepared the way for the Antichrist. He is a Satanist, and he has put everything in place for the mark of the beast.
In my dream I heard that Elon Musk had been arrested. It was so compelling that I got up and checked the news around 3 am this morning.
But if you look at the Lord's ministry this is the event that immediately preceded His ministry beginning.
Wow, ZNP, that is really cool and interesting. I really don't know much about the rapture, so I was unfamiliar with Isaiah 26:
"Come, my people, enter into your rooms
And close your doors behind you;
Hide for a little while
Until indignation runs its course.
For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
And the earth will reveal her bloodshed
And will no longer cover her slain."
— Isaiah 26:20-21
This definitely seems in line with this Hebrew "passover" word you discovered.
One of my favorite worship songs is a black gospel song that goes like this:
"My God is awesome
He can move the mountains
Keep me in the valley
Hide me from the rain."
I like the reality of saying "he can" rather than "he will." You know, the Israelites suffered a whole lot in Egypt before their first Passover came. Christians around the world suffer a whole lot of persecution even now, too. Someday God will deliver us from our tribulations, but he surely allows us to experience a lot before the day of rescue. I don't know if you are pre-trib or post-trib, but either way things will go awry for many Christians before (if) they are delivered from it. But I really like it when I pray, not knowing for certain if the Lord will intervene in a difficult situation, and then He answers "yes." When He does hide me from the rain.
Thank you very much for being willing to be vulnerable and share what the Lord has been sharing with you recently, sir. I really am grateful to have you on my thread.
Elon is an interesting guy. In some ways he is a friend toward Christians, like trying to use his influence in Twitter to keep conservative voices heard, and resisting the actions of the present leftist government. He also supports spirituality, which is an important representation from someone in the scientific, engineering, technological community, many of whom are trying to establish the absence of God as mainstream science. Engineers tend to stand as a vanguard against those kinds of scientists on behalf of the status quo, because engineers by definition use science that works. He definitely presents himself as a friend to Christians, though not decidedly a follower of Jesus himself. I am an engineer, and I recognize ingenuity in him due to his preoccupation with science. His agenda to save the planet through engineering seems ingenuous to me, because what I can tell from a guy who spends 18 hours a day working, while sleeping in the office or on the couches of friends' houses, is more focused on engineering than on a covert scheme. He clearly has foibles, but I think these make him more human than antichrist. His beliefs about AI are a little sci-fi for me, since I tend to believe that computers will always be dumb, but his concerns about regulating AI to avoid unforeseen problems (like advising a certain young man on how to commit suicide) are well-founded. Personally from what I can tell, Elon has the kind of personality that would be more inclined to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior, compared to the average person. I think this because he is a disingenuous person often confronted with his own flaws. I bet he would listen if Jesus were to speak to him directly. Such can be the case with hard-working, well-intentioned people. Maybe your dream about him being arrested was a warning that the forces of evil are coming after the allies of good. Finally, Jesus's words come to mind: "Whoever is for us is not against us," and, "Whoever is not against us is for us."
As far as the fore-runner of the antichrist goes, it is described by the Bible passage in the book of Revelation describing the Beast of the Earth. According to the passage, the person has great influence, from acts of power to persuasive words. The Bible says this person will deceive everyone, so I strongly suspect that we ourselves will not suspect the person or spirit propagating its message at all. I actually have a fringe theory about this. When John had his vision about the beast deceiving everyone, what if what he was seeing was in his present day, and that person was none other than Paul, who came after Jesus, creating a perfectly convincing and lasting impression of Jesus that was taking pre-eminence over the understanding of Jesus according to the people who knew Him in the flesh? The "image" of the beast was the "image" of the invisible God proposed by Paul... I know it is a far fetched theory, but the redeeming value of the theory is that the threat is closer to us than we realize, much more subtle than we realize, something not easily overcome with reason or all the faith we can muster, something so insidious whilst unexpected that the only way to pass through the judgement is to remain fiercely loyal to Jesus, allowing His spirit to wage the battle we cannot see, and protect us from a similar-looking spirit that is almost as good but is not Him. I mean, suspend your disbelief in my crazy idea about it being Paul for a second and think, what if the enemy were working through someone that close, that familiar to us, that we were to miss it entirely. Would we still prove faithful to Jesus in the end? Now I don't really believe my hypothetical idea that Paul was the beast of the sea, but I just wanted to mention it as an example of what I think a real spiritual threat would be like. After all, the spirit of a person lasts through their words long after their body has passed on. Alright, now I know what I said is wild, so I apologize and I hope it doesn't cause too much of a knee-jerk reaction in people.
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Nah, I'm not cynical and jaded. Even the emotional constipation was a comedy line.
But I do remember what this forum was like a few years ago. Convivial banter was the order of the day, about every day. Currently the forum is nothing like it used to be. You can't start a thread about "Chocolate is good" without people trying to castigate you for being addicted to caffeine, claiming you are defiling the temple of your body with candy, etc.
So when someone like you gets a lot of backlash and instead of arguing back you try to get the thread back on the topic of talking with Jesus (which IMO is much better than arguing) I try to be supportive.