How do I hear/feel God?
by doinmypart 473 Replies latest jw friends
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myelaine
dear cofty...
God created you with an everlasting spirit (genesis 2:7)
...He sent man out of the garden (His act of confining all under sin/disobedience romans 3:9). He set a point, edge, or line beyond which man cannot or may not proceed without being born of the Holy Spirit (genesis 3:24)...your everlasting spirit will reside with those everlasting spirits of satan and his angels if you aren't born of the Holy Spirit.(john 3:3)
God created animals for us to tend and enjoy...it was man's downfall that led to the need for the sacrificial offerings that were portrayed in the OT. God's judgement necessitated a life for a life and because His creation...man...is more important and valuable to Him, He chose an animal life as a propitiation for the sins of the hebrew people...to put the life of an animal on par with the life of a human is pagan...they don't have an everlasting spirit...their flesh goes down to the dust. (ecclesiastes 3:18-21)
many of the wars portrayed in the bible between the hebrew people and the nations illustrate Gods overwhelming desire for His people to be spiritually "clean"...without influence from foreign "forces"...this is also why marrying foreign wives was strongly discouraged (1 kings 11:1-3)...the false ideas of foreign "forces" were kept from (wholesale) infiltration into the worship of God so that there would be a pattern for future generation to look back on...a foundation on which to draw parallels and see where "the faith" came from and more importantly progressed from the shedding of the blood of bulls (for the flesh) to the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ for the redemption of body and spirit.(1 peter 1:2; hebrews 9:11-15)
if you can't see/hear the genuine love of God in the above biblical references there is nothing more that I can say to help you see/hear, though I continue to pray that the "forces" between you and a revelation of God's love would be broken through.
love michelle
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myelaine
dear cofty...
did you know that the bible itself OT and NT was a revelation of what is happening in the spirit realm...things and events unseen to a carnal eye...
so even if satan hadn't "showed up" in the OT (at all) but only in the NT it is still an unveiling of the hidden "things" of this world.
love michelle
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cantleave
God created animals for us to tend and enjoy
One of my favorites is this leech...
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King Solomon
To the OP's question, I remember as a kid being filled with joy, knowing that my day was spent in service that pleases YHWH (just like Little Caleb in that cartoon feels happy knowing He made God Happy, not Sad....). However, in looking back at my own experience, it's pretty clear that any sense of satisfaction and joy was being created by ME, an internal emotion of MY own creation.
That's the problem with externalizing one's happiness to others, including imaginary beings: anything act that is good is robbed from the individual, who cannot say "I did that of my OWN accord", but must say "Was that good enough?". It robs individuals of their power and their responsibility to do things simply for their own sake, not out of following orders to save one's own skin.
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I'm reading a FASCINATING book written in 1940 by RB Orions, called "The Origins of European Thought: About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate". It's a deep scholarly work (600 pgs, with plenty of footnotes) that examines beliefs of ancient men, be it Greeks, Romans, Babylonian, Assyrians, Hebrews, etc.
(Disclaimer: JW's needn't bother, as such secular study and independent thought/ applying logic is heavily frowned upon by the GB. You are FORBIDDEN to learn this kind of stuff, per your last DC, as it's defined as "testing God" to do so).
So, it turns out that the authors of the Bible relied quite heavily on the worldly knowledge of the other cultures' in their vicinity, be it for their understanding of astronomy, anatomy, origins, or common folk-lore/myths. In fact, the cosmology depicted in the Pentateuch was/is based on Egyptian and Babylonian beliefs of the period (1,000 BC) which are still seen on tablets, even to this day. Interesting, as you'd expect a book that supposedly was "inspired by God" would NOT contain errors that are obvious to any modern kindergartener today? The anatomical ignorance is simply inexcusable, given that the book claims to be inspired by the One who made men.
One element Onians writes about are words people toss about, without thinking of their origins; eg "inspired", or "Holy Spirit".
In a pre-literate World, ancients believed thoughts and ideas were formed in the lungs, not the brain (there's no mention of the brain ANYWHERE in the Bible; also why Egyptians didn't bother saving it with the mummy: they didn't know what it did, and hence discarded it). The word 'spire' is still with us today in reference to the lungs, eg 'respiration' (breathing in and out to let oxygen in, CO2 out), 'respirometer' (device used to measure lung function), etc.
So ancients believed that ideas were transmitted to others by the act of exhalation while talking. The theory worked for them, and it made some sense: you need to exhale as you talk (try to talk as you inhale: you cannot do it, as the vocal cords don't work that way). So they believed ideas left the lungs, travelled thru space, and were received into the lungs of listeners. This theory had to be modified once writing came on the scene much later, but it worked to explain communication.
Greeks and Hebrews also believed that GOD(S) could directly and silently inject their ideas into the lungs of chosen individuals, via "inspiration"; YHWH does the same, using the medium of his "Holy SPIRit" (there's that word again, spire), the vaporous matter that contains ideas.
It should be apparent saying "inspired by Holy Spirit" is circular logic, at it's best.
PS God also breathed spirit (Hebrew word "ruah") into Adam after he fashioned his out of earth, giving him life/soul (Hebrew word is nephesh).
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jamesmahon
Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
No. Nothing about an everlasting spirit there.
Romans 3:9
What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.
? So everyone sins. See nothing about them being 'confined under sin' here.
Genesis 3:24
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way of the tree of life.
No mention of being born of holy spirit here.
1 Kings 11:1-3
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray
Maybe having to 'service' one thousand women led him astray. Nice to see that god puts such a high value on both monogamy and, lets face it, women.
1 Peter 1:2
who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Chosen according to foreknowledge? Ah, nice calvinistic view of the world then. Makes no difference what anyone does because we are fated to be chosen or not. Thanks god. Genuine love that.
No. Sorry, don't see any loving god in any of those passages.
And what about Cofty's original point about when the idea of Satan originated?
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NewChapter
if you can't see/hear the genuine love of God in the above biblical references there is nothing more that I can say to help you see/hear, though I continue to pray that the "forces" between you and a revelation of God's love would be broken through
On the contrary. I find rhe above references demented and disgusting, and a true perversion of the definition of love. I know that perverse kind of love makes some people feel they are happy---because they don't expect to be on the judgement end, and because they were not part of nations that were doomed to genocide---but I would never trade my freedom today for those sick and twisted beliefs of my yesterday. As I've said before----so very, very sad!
NC
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cantleave
The bible demonstrates God's love for us....
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cantleave
Another example of God's love for us.....
