OK, a three more questions.
How did you receive the baptism of the Spirit?
What did you experience?
Which of the gifts of the Spirit have you experienced? 1 Corinthians 12 , 1 Corinthians 14
Feel free to PM me if you prefer :)
Blessings,
Stephen
The Born Again Experience
by leavingwt 63 Replies latest jw friends
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PSacramento
Those are very personal dude...
To be honest Stephen, I don't feel I know you will enough to share that with you and I have some concerns in regards to your motive to ask these things, no offense.
But I will say this:
The experience was far more beautiful than I can descrbe in words and I received it By Jesus in a way that I never thought possible.
As for gifts I have experienced, well...again very personal, at least for someone like me, but I have been shown things that I asked to see and even a few that I wish I hadn't, but I have never spoken or understood things in "tounges", when I ask for guidenc eit is there, when I ask for clarification , it is there, in short, the gifts I have experienced have been enough for now and I think My Lord for that.
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Chalam
PS, fair enough, hence I suggested to PM.
My motivation to ask you about you experience of these things was to try to understand why you 'don't place your stock in prophecies and speaking in tongues'.
You don't see to be an outright cessationist like JWs but neither do you seem to "eagerly desire" these gifts like Paul instructs us.
Here's one to leave you with.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-20 (New International Version)
19 Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt.
Blessings,
Stephen
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PSacramento
Oh, I don't treat them with contempt at all, but I am painfully aware that those with them can feel far more special than they should, that with these gifts, at times, comes a very high price, but also because I feel that, at times, they get far more "press" than they deserve.
As Paul says, "If I have all these things. but I don't h ave Love, I have nothing" ( paraphrasing), it was one of the first messages I received from My Lord and one that stuck with me, " No matter what I may show you and give you, never forget that without love, there is no Us".
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PSacramento
Looking back over the last few posts, I don't like the tone I am puting out there, I am sorry Stephen.
What I am trying to say is a PERSONAL view of mine, in regards to the gifts of the Spirit and in regards to being annointed, I am trying to make a distinction between the Christian annoiting by the HS and Christ being THE Annointed One.
The Jw's tend to seem to make their view of annointed as virtually on Par with Christ, being of a "christ class" if you will and I disagree with that.
I just don't think I am conveying what i am trying to say the WAY I want to and I apologise for that.
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Chalam
Hey dude, cool-no stress :)
Blessings,
Stephen
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Lozhasleft
I'm not claiming to be on any kind of equal level with Christ - please dont think I'm saying that Psacremento but just as Christ means anointed one and he was anointed by HS so were we.....the HS that anointed me came 'through' Jesus Christ -and its the bible who tells us we are a part of Christ in that respect....
1 Corinthians 6 v 15
"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!"
Loz x
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Lozhasleft
Bump (BTTT) for Psacramento...
Loz x
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millions now living are dead
Here's my take. Find a good Qigong/Taoist teacher. They have this stuff down to a science if you find "the real deal" The warmth and cooling, etc is what the Taoist call Qi. It's actually easy to experience if you find the right teacher. They use Qi to release old "software" and reprogram new "software" inside us. The practicioner does this consciously. What Born Againers are feeling is the release of the old "programming" and there is a feeling of newness. Unfortunately, when done in ignorance, when the cup is empty, they fill it with their new "programming" which may or may not be healthy for the individual. The group energy replaces the old and it feels good too. Sort of like instant "love bombing" in cult language. It's at this point the tentacles are put in, if the new programming is unhealthy. Out of the frying pan into the fire, no?
Becoming an Athiest and feeling this feeling is because the old idea of "God" has been purged. It's great! However, the new collective Athiest belief system may come in and simply be a flip side to the old. A rebellion. It needs the "other" to exist. I'm not saying this is bad. It certainly can be better than many religious belief systems. If it works, use it!
The true Taoists teach ( and I would argue all original spiritual teachings) that we can program ourselves new beliefs to the mind/body that reflect our true nature. This true nature they call Virtue. Virtue is who we really are. It just needs to be discovered.
Just my opinion,
Mil
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PSacramento
Here's my take. Find a good Qigong/Taoist teacher
Having done MA for over 30 years, including Chen Taiji and many sub-sytems that really heavily on Qigong I can honestly tell you, from my experience, it is not even CLOSE to being the samething.