Holy spirit handouts, and the magical prayers only the Witnesses get answered.

by msconcerned 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  msconcerned

  Jehovah, please allow our house to sell so we can go preach in another country where the need is great.

  Jehovah please help me get that job where i dont have to work shiftwork anymore and i can make all the meetings.

  Jehovah we need $200 so we can go to the convention, please look after us.

  Ah yes, the prayers of the faithful one. How we look at these and feel our hearts swell with love for our God. Many of us at one time or another have asked for things such as these. How did we feel when God answered our earnest prayers? I know for one prayer, that was answered for me, i felt that finally God and his spirit noticed me. Well to my dissapointment, "Satan must have got in there and messed things up". Yes that wiley guy screwed me after only a few months of my answered prayer. To be honest i wonder now if it was an answer or just plain life in motion, or unforseen occurance.

  I had a conversation with a long time pioneer who studys deeper than most. She had a bible study who said that she prays for help to quit smoking. Well this sister and I had a great 45 min discussion on how absurd such notions are. I mentioned to her why would God help a person quit smoking when there is widespread famine. Surly God would save some poor kid whose body is literally eating itself rather than some ragged ass whiner who smokes. Where is the heavenly consistancy?

  Talkin with the elders a while ago, i told them that i dont feel the holy spirit helps us today. When i gave examples such as the ones above, they had nothing to say. Come on! I want to believe, but if i can see flaws in the logic then something is wrong. I am inclined to think either God helps noone or only his true followers (not an identifiable religious group)

  Note what the holy spirit does for us in our day:

  If you read the Bible and apply what you learn, God’s spirit can help you to grow in wisdom, knowledge, insight, judgment, and thinking ability. King Solomon received “wisdom and understanding in very great measure and a broadness of heart” because he sought to please God rather than men. (1 Kings 4:29) Since Jehovah gave holy spirit to Solomon, surely he will not withhold his holy spirit from those seeking to please him today.

  Ok sounds good, because he gave it to solomon he will give it to us! There has to be some evidence of this. And here it is;

  As a group, Jehovah’s Witnesses are well-known for their preaching activities. Under every imaginable condition, including risking their lives in war-torn areas, they courageously raise their voices in support of God’s Kingdom. Their zeal for the Christian ministry gives powerful evidence that holy spirit is in operation today. And it is obvious that Jehovah God is blessing their efforts.

  Thoughts please.
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  Zoos

  Back when I was trying to get reinstated I tried and failed for 5 years to quit smoking. Prayed my fool butt off. I was trying to be a good boy - there was no reason why God should withhold holy spirit. Then one day I joined a smoking cessation class being offered by the local health department and they gave me a prescription for Chantix. I had my last cigarette about one week later.

  Nevertheless, it always made me uncomfortable to give credit to the counseling or the Chantix.

  "How did you finally quit, Zoos?"

  "God's holy spirit, you know."

  I'm not prepared to write off the possibility that God helps out in some way to help a person get on his feet spiritually, but stating that Their zeal for the Christian ministry gives powerful evidence [of] holy spirit is a pretty far fetched conclusion.
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  Julia Orwell

  Thoughts? Well, we can believe we are at the mercy of supernatural forces ie pray enough and get a reward or pray but have a supernatural bad guy mess it up just to gve you a hard time, or make your own destiny. Sometimes things go well for us by accident and sometimes go pear shaped by accident. Sometimes things go well for us through our own hard work and effort, and sometimes our less sensible decisions and actions make things make things suck for us. So do whatever you can to make good decisions and take positive action, rather than being pushed, pulled and rewarded by invisible beings who in all likelihood don't exist.
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  steve2

  This nutty and narcissistic notion that a supernatural being answers personal prayers whilst allowing untold millions, if not billions to live oppressed and exploited lives is widespread among the religiously inclined. I had a colleague who espoused beliefs from the pentecostal school of religious stupidity. She believed that her Lord and Savior found her a parking lot everytime she needed one. I once questioned her about the intense interest this Lord showed in her whilst appearing indifferent to the plight of young street kids who were at the grim mercy of drug dealers. Sadly, she could not see further than her own enriched life. She was like a princess whose special relationship with her "Prince" shielded her from any empathy she might feel for those who do not have recourse to special favors to find parking lots. Her heart wasn't so much the problem as was her pea-sized brain that enabled her to build her self-centred religiosity around a narrowly "protected" existence.
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  msconcerned

  You know, i think the key is personal resposibility. These are my actions and thoughts and good or bad i choose where my life goes. I think we need to look at it like this. And yes Julia, posative thinking and actions will go a long way in helping to determine our lot in life. As far as the zeal for the ministry goes, i have always hated the ministry. I have aux. pioneered many times all the while saying it was great, but i really did hate it. So someone looking in would say i had the spirit, if they only knew.
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  Julia Orwell

  Lol I think that would go for a lot of people! I only auxed twice when I had nothing else to do and I didn't mind the galivanting and socialising, but talking to actual house holders whether aux or not always sucked and I always wished they weren't home. You're supposed to pray for spirit to help you talk to people but I never got given it either. Yet people thought I did pretty well...guess it goes to show that it doesn't take much to look holy.
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  prologos

  Witness' prayers often are not just requests but done with slight feelings of entitlement, after all have I not done all these things, consented to be baptized into the SPIRIT - directed organisation? given time, energy and unrighteous riches, (or prospects) thereof? They know God is real, after all, they are giving to him, talking to him, right?. If the request is ignored, delayed, the fault can not be with the all powerful listener, but his higher knowledge to test, encourage even greater works of service, right?

  One smart - alec reply to questions about the many unanswered prayers of suffering individuals I heard was: well, if Jehovah answered all these prayers and identified himself as the benefactor, everyone would stream into the TRUTH, and the society could not handle the studies, training, expansion needed that this would impose on us. God wants--- God does not want----.
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  msconcerned

  prologos - One smart - alec reply to questions about the many unanswered prayers of suffering individuals I heard was: well, if Jehovah answered all these prayers and identified himself as the benefactor, everyone would stream into the TRUTH, and the society could not handle the studies, training, expansion needed that this would impose on us. God wants--- God does not want----.

  LOL, Are you serious? That has to be the most absurd thing ive heard. When you really step back from the JW mindset and look at things....wow nutjobs we are!
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  Splash

  In the UK last week Ukranian Pavlo Lapshyn was convicted of murdering and bombing against islam.

  One bomb detonated outside a mosque one hour before prayers began. Because it was Ramadan the prayers were to start an hour later than usual, otherwise the mosque would have been full at the time.

  Someone from the mosque commented that Allah had saved many lives that day.

  Splash
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  ambersun

  One smart - alec reply to questions about the many unanswered prayers of suffering individuals I heard was: well, if Jehovah answered all these prayers and identified himself as the benefactor, everyone would stream into the TRUTH, and the society could not handle the studies, training, expansion needed that this would impose on us. God wants--- God does not want----.

  Ah right, so instead of giving everyone in the world the opportunity of salvation (which is what the world wide preaching work is supposed to be about), Jehovah actually doesn't want to make the preaching work TOO successful by lending a hand and answering a few of the worldly prayers, as he is more concerned about imposing too much work on his chosen few and would rather leave the vast majority of poor unfortunate worldlies to their horrible fate at armageddon instead.

  I don't know whether to laugh or cry after reading this. I have heard some jaw droppingly outrageous JW reasoning in my time but I think this gets a gold star for sheer eye rolling stupidity!

  Don't these people actually stop and THINK about how ridiculous they must sound, or are they really that brainwashed that they just can't see it?!