CBE1

Mt 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. It seems like according to the Scriptures, desire to be perfect is from God? Yet maybe not the guilt for not being perfect.

I deleted most of your post just for the sake of space. Can you show me a definite scripture where it is stated that the Holy Spirit has given us all the gifts without us praying and asking? Here is one that rebuts your contention... Rom 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Rom 12:4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, Rom 12:5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Rom 12:6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; I also disagree that prophecy holds any more tenure than does, say service. In no place in the NT does it state that one gift is more, or less important than another, just as no believer is seen differently in God's eyes from another. The Lord sent the Spirit [you have read this] and the gifts are from the Spirit [which we have]. So in that sense, we have all the gifts with us, however we can only use them as the faith proportion to us allows us. [check the Scriptures you quoted above] That we have any faith at all, is because of God's grace. Therefore, since the Spirit has the gifts and we if we have the Spirit with us, we have the gifts, but because we have not all been given the faith to get at those gifts, in that sense we do not have them, even though the Spirit that has been sent to us does. Now we are told to desire the gifts, and it is explained in the the Gospel of John that if we abide in Him, and His words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. Jn 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Now if you are abiding in Christ are you going to just go around naming it and claiming it. If you are doing that, it is doubtful that you are abiding in Christ. Yet if you are abiding in Christ and it is written in the Scriptures that the Lord had written, to desire the gifts, then aren't you going to start desiring those gifts if you are abiding in Christ. That is what happen in my life. The Lord came into my life, I started talking to Him as much as I could get myself to do. The first thing He ever said to me was, "Read Your Bible'. And in my Bible I notice where it said to desire the gifts. Now someone might say that it does say in the Scriptures that we can have all the gifts, but neither does it say that we can not have all the gifts. And again, it does say to "dsire the gifts", thereby not excluding any. Now He has given me all the gifts, and I found it interesting that all the gifts are design to bring to the Word of God [Jesus Christ]. If you have the gift of prophecy, that does not mean that I can just say something and it will happen. It means that occasionally the Lord will give me prophecy to give. To recieve the prophecy from Him, I hear Him talk to me, and He tells me. So that gift is a gift of faith, which allows me to believe that He can give me prophecy. Concerning the gift of healing: I don't have the power to heal someone that I know of. But He has given me the faith to pray for someone as He instructs and I have seen Him heal them. Again, the gift is a gift of faith to believe that He can tell me that He is willing to heal someone if I pray for them. Concerning the gift of tongues: For me the Spirit seems to activate it. I will be just going along and suddenly feel like a burning feeling inside and I just have to start praying in tongues. However note: that it was written that if you pray in tongues, ask for the interpretation. If I am speaking in tongues, I don't even know what I am saying, and this cause me to wonder about what I am praying for. So I turn to the voice of the Lord and I hear the interpretaion from the voice of the Lord [Word of God]. So over and over we see that the Spirit is indeed working to bring you to seek the Word of God [Jesus Christ], that is what the Spirit does. He draws you to the Lord. Rev 19:13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. It seems that all the gifts are gifts that require a proportion of faith. And if you want more faith, you can ask the Lord for that. Yet if all have not asked the Lord for that, the lack of asking maybe part of God plan. Maybe they have not been drawn by the Spirit to ask for a particular gift that the Spirit of God that is with them has. Still, it is available for the asking. Further more the Scriptures tell you to desire them, so shouldn't you desire them. Shouldn't you ask? He wants you to desire the gifts!! One more thing: The Lord does not give me the same thing to do as every other member of His body. For example, I do not run a healing minsitry, but does that mean that I shouldn't have the gift of healing? I was running a Christian bookstore, when my friend came by because he was feeling bad that his landlady that he loved was about to die. So we prayed and asked the Lord to help her. So the gift of faith to believe that the Lord could heal even to the point of rasing the dead if we asked, did turn out to be important. My point is that, no matter what you are doing for the Lord, the gifts of the Spirit are important to have. Ps I'm not sure that prophecy is more important than any other gifts either. Yet it was singled out and did seem to get listed first amoung the gifts, so where it is or isn't may not be important, but desiring that gift must be of more importance.

The gifts are from the Spirit of God, and since the Lord has sent us the Spirit, all the gifts are available to those being lead by the Spirit!! However not all have been given the grace by God to believe this. That is; not all have the faith porportioned to them by God to believe for certain gifts. If someone writes: ' I do not believe that we can have all the gifts', then by their own confession, they don't have the faith porportioned to them by the grace of God to recieve all the gifts. Though they wouldn't be able to understand this or else they would have the faith to get the gifts. We are men of little faith, as the Lord explained. If we had great faith we would operate in all the gifts of the Spirit simply because we have the Spirit that works all things out. What is amazing, is that we will at one point state clearly that all things are possible with God, then in the next moment we will state that God will not give us all the gifts with so much convition, that clearly we have limited the Lord. It's incredible when you think about it logically. Why would the Lord have written to desires the gifts, and not be willing to give them to you? Note: It isn't written to desire some of the gifts but not all, instead it is written to desire the gifts, thus making it all inclusive. And to emphasize it more, it is mention to especially desire prophesy, which seems to be the greatest of the gifts. Of course the Lord knows this and can increase your faith as He needs for the purposes He has. He can enable you to believe for all the gifts, and cause you to ask for them, then give them to you to meet His purposes. He is still the Lord and in control. The more you listen to Him the more you understand this. And since faith comes from hearing, the more you listen the more faith you will have. And since it is the Lord that gives understanding, and wisdom and knowledge come from His mouth [Prov 2:6] then listening to the Lord is them one thing truely necessary. Yet what can someone say, if another hasn't yet been given the understand that truely all things are possible for the Lord. Including giving someone all the gifts. The Spirit of God within you has them. So you have them. Yet not all believe and ask for them. Not all can accept this. Ok, I have testifed that this is true, because I have seen Him do it in my life. I testify to give glory to God. It was all Him. And except of asking for them according to what He had written in the Scriptures, I did nothing to deserve them that I know of. They are gifts, not a payment for anything I did. Still someone comes along and thinks that by testifing to God, I am braging and have vainity. Some will say that I don't have the gifts, though I have not only seen them, but had them explained to me, and have been brought up in them by the grace of God [ not that I still don't have a lot to learn]. So I say that all things are possible for God, because I have seen Him do such incredible things in my life. Yet I too am human and come to doubt Him at times dispite the fact that I have seen such incredible things. So I can understand how our human side will at one moment say all things are possible with God, then the next moment we say that He wouldn't give us all the gifts even though we are told to ask for them. We are indeed men of little faith just like He said, and we don't even seem willing to believe Him on that sometimes. How ironic.

quote name='OneLight' date='Feb 9 2010, 08:52 PM' post='1503190']Sometimes when we ask not out of selfish reasons, they still are not in accordance to His will and He will not give us what we ask. When Jesus spoke the words that you are referring to, He was teaching about being in the will of the Father and meant that if we are in His will, then we will be asking accordingly to His will; therefore, being in His will, He will give it to us.? Jn 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done. Asking and recieving is for those abiding in Him, but it is whatever you wish!! Just as the Scriptures explain. He once told me: "WHEN WE TALK TO GOD, GOD TALKS TO US

Of course the Lord can give as He wishes, but isn't it written that if those that know the Lord ask for anything, that the Father will give it to you, provided we are not asking for selfish reason. And as you mention, the Scriptures tell us to desire the gifts. If you desire the gifts, even out and especially when we ask out of obedience to the Scriptures, isn't the One who had it written 'to desire the gifts; going to give you the gifts? I found out that He did in my life, when I went through the gifts and asked for them. He gave them to me according to His timing and in His way, but he did not hold back any from me. Still, as He once pointed out to me, having a gift and knowing how to use it are two different things. He made a comparision to me, as if giving a Nientindo games systems to a kid for Christmas. The kid has the gift as soon as you give it to them, but knowing how to use it takes making time to read the instructions and a lot of practice. And since the gifts are gifts of the Spirit, I would recommend talking extensively to the Spirit about them. It also seems important to note that some seem to operate with certain gifts more than others, and this seems to be according to the purpose and design of the Lord our God. Also our desires do make a difference. He once talked to me about running a healing ministry, but I don't get all that excited about that. My personality, and the Lord knows what my personality is more than I do, is just not the same as others. It's not that I wouldn't like to seem less people hurting in this world, but I think the answer comes in getting them to believe that they too can talk to and get to know the Lord. If they do that, won't He provided the healing they need. People don't follow the Lord because He healed them, but because they like having conversations with Him. Getting the gifts of the Spirit do not directly lead you to following the Lord. Talking to Him does. So desire the gifts. You will get them [all of them], but love is more important, and God is love, so we need to listen to Him above all.

Many times churches chase the spiritual gifts instead of the Giver of the gifts. When they have it backwards as such, they are then breaking God's 1st and 2nd commandments. Serving another god, and chasing after the idol being "gifts." Generally if not all of the time, Satan is the one to answer folks like this with his "lying signs and wonders" and all the while calling it "God." When one has a "true" word from the One True God, it will ALWAYS line up with the Word of God. Folks that are in this place, always humbly place God first and foremost in their lives. When and if he should bring a Word through them, they are looking for Him alone to be glorified, and what they say will glorify Him and His Word will be rightly divided. God does not add or take away from His Word EVER. Rev 22:18-19 (18) For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: (19) And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. The Comforter (Holy Spirit) will ALWAYS point men and women to Jesus Christ and His Word: Joh 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: (The 'me' being Jesus Christ and His Word.) As Christians we should all get to know the God of the Bible as much as the Bible of God. We will then be able to discern Truth from Error and do away the false prophesies, preachings, and teachings that have permeated many a church in this day. Pray and show them according to God's Word they are wrong. Present it to the leadership on paper perhaps. Bring about their need to repent of following after their own vain imaginations, all the while calling it a "word" from God... When the Truth has been presented, and still not accepted.... Run!!! There are a few very good points here, but the final conclusion may not be good. We need to be following the Lord and checking the spirits. So it's spirits we are checking!!! Too often we get to thinking we are battling with people and not spirits. If we are following the Lord, how then did we wind up at this a church like this? If I was following the Lord then I would have been at that church because He took me there, so do I just run? At all times we need to be communicating with the Lord, however we don't always do that. So why the question: "What would you do if you were in my situation?" The answer is obvious. I would start up a conversation with the Lord. Perhaps He would want me to say of do something, or perhaps He wants me to stay and just observe and learn, or perhaps He might want me to inter into some type of spiritual warfare and prayer of that type, or perhaps He didn't want me there at all and was just showing me that I need to listen to Him more. How do we know if we are not turning to get advice from Him? Ok, maybe these people that were gathering together to worship the Lord, but were not listening to the Lord as they should of. Yet how did they differ from the person that went their and wasn't listening to the Lord either? Neither were listening to the Lord like they should. So then we have one Christian person, finding fault with another Christian person, when we are all not listening to the Lord like we should!! Where is the forgiveness? Where is the understanding? Where is the Lord in all this? I don't listen to the Lord as much as I should, so shouldn't I be understanding of those that are like me, even if that fault shows up in different ways? I do a lot of telling people to listen to the Lord, and a big reason for that is that I need to hear it myself. [if you teach don't you teach yourself] In Hebrews it is written that we need to encourage each other as long as today is called today. But encourage them in what way? In Hebrews it is written 3 times, "Today if you hear His voice." So we are encouraging each other to hear His voice today.

If you are listening to the Lord, you will know when to go, when to leave, when to turn to the left, and when to turn to the right. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out... [Jn 10:9] Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it", whenever you turn to the right of to the left. [is 30:21] If He is leading you like that, what concern is it if someone is a prophet or false prophet? My message is listen to the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ until that day comes when all are hearing from the Lord. You are assuming that everyone is in perfect harmony with His Spirit that they will hear His leading every time He speaks, which is an extremely dangerous assumption. You need to realize that everyone is not in the same place in their walk, some are babies in Christ and other are elders. False prophets are warned against all through scripture and we should be very concerned about them, pointing them out to others when they are discovered so the weak in Christ will not fall for their lies. Not doing so is showing an extreme lack of love for your brethren. To say that we are not to judge others is judging scripture as being bad. Scripture tells us to test all spirits to see if they are of God or not, and to warn of false teachers, false preachers and false prophets. I am not assuming that everyone is in perfect harmony with His Spirit at all. What I am saying it that if you seek Him you will find Him!!! That is what is written in the Scriptures. So the problem is that we are not seeking the Lord Jesus Christ!! What is God going to give you if you asked Him for bread? If you ask God for the One who took on flesh and was born in Bethleham [the house of bread], you will get Him. That does not mean that we should not check the spirits as mentioned in 1 Jn 4: 1-3, but only that if you seek the Lord you will find the Lord. As far as me needing to realize that everyone is not in the same place in their walk; I realize that. That was the point!! I repeat: "If there is a Charasmatic church that is thinking better of themselves because they have gifts from the Spirit given to them, then will not the Lord deal with them?" Concerning "To say that we are not to judge others is judging scripture as being bad" How can that be we the Scriptures say "Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Mt 7:1 If the Scriptures plainly say "Do not judge", how can you possible think that my quoting the Scriptures as saying "Do no judge" is judging the scriptures as being bad? That just doesn't make sense at all. Concerning "False prophets are warned against all through scripture and we should be very concerned about them, pointing them out to others when they are discovered so the weak in Christ will not fall for their lies. Not doing so is showing an extreme lack of love for your brethren." It is ours to follow the Lord!!! We are to be aware of false prohets, but do you not understand that our battle is not with flesh and blood but with powers and principalities? It is the spirit of false prophecy that we looking out for!!! That spirit might indeed be coming through others, but it might very well be attacking you directly. Paul explained that he took all thoughts captive to Jesus Christ. We are checking the spirits, not the people!!! Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out in to the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. [1 Jn 4:1-3] When you go into a Christian church (whichever church it maybe) and see that they are praising the Lord Jesus Christ and preaching about Him, then hear things that don't seem right, do you not realize that there maybe a spirit other than and in addition to the Lord opperating there. It is the evil spirits we are looking for and battling with. We have to seek the Spirit of God that confessing that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, and to find out what is happening and what needs to be done on our part if any. We should not be looking to take what ever action we think is right, nor make judgements on our own reasoning, but rather turn to the Lord, test the spirits like we are told to do, and get a righteous judgement from the Lord God. You can not use the test above in 1 Jn 4: 1-3 if you are not listening with your spiritual ears. And you won't find the answers you need if you are not turning and seeking the Lord!

If you are listening to the Lord, you will know when to go, when to leave, when to turn to the left, and when to turn to the right. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out... [Jn 10:9] Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it", whenever you turn to the right of to the left. [is 30:21] If He is leading you like that, what concern is it if someone is a prophet or false prophet? My message is listen to the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ until that day comes when all are hearing from the Lord.

That should get their attention....! It is not the Bible that saves you!!! You will have all you need when you are listening to the Lord? "Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple" Jn 8:59 Are you allowed to stone them? Jesus said that is without sin throw the first stone. He was the only one without sin yet they were trying to stone Him. Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Mt 7:1 No one has to go to a charismatic church to find the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said His sheep will hear His voice, not necessarily have all the gifts of the Spirit as listed in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12. And clearly Paul wrote to them that love was the most important thing. Still Paul also wrote: Purse love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially tht you may prophesy. [1 Cor 14:1] You are right that you have the Bible, and that Bible is good for reproof. 1 Cor 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous... If someone, anyone is jealous of someone else for whatever reason, including having gifts of the Spirit, it is the person that is jealous, not the person with the gifting that is wrong. Now we are supposed to be listening to the Lord, and testing the spirits. If anyone is listening to the Lord and testing the spirits as instructed, they can always ask the Lord about any message given to them by anyone, and at anytime. So a false prophet or a real prophet of the Lord accomplishes the same purpose. For those that know the Lord, both a false prophet and a real prophet of the Lord turn back to the Lord and ask Him about any message that is given to them by someone else in the name of the Lord. For those that don't know the Lord both a false prophet and a real prophet causes them to start judging what was said according to their own understanding, and we are not to lean on our own understanding. So for those that love the Lord, all things workout for good, and for those that don't know the Lord, they comdem themselves by their own judgement. For since the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know the God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. [1 Cor 1:21] He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. [Mt 10:41] Do you not know that there was only ever one truely righteous man, and that those that believe in Him are not righteous because of their deeds but because they have receive the righeous man's reward, as it is written "Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness [Gen 15:6] So then do you not see also that there is only one true prophet, and that those that believe in Him are only called prophets because they have listened to Him, not because they know the future themselves? How can it not be? If you are having conversations with Him, and He knows the future better than you know the past, will not the conversation turn to events in the future at some point, just like a conversaton with another person will at some point turn to topics of the past? If you become friends with Him, we He keep hidden from you what He plans to do? The Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do..." [Gen 18:17] There was a man in the camp of Moses that received a dream and prophecied, but Moses was a friend of God's and spoke to Him face to face. So not all that get the gift of prophecy know the Lord, but all that know the Lord get prophecy because they believe in a prophet. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. [Jn 15:3] ... If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. [Jn 15:7] If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love...[Jn 15:9] Nebuchadnezzar had a prophetic dream, and Belshazzar the king saw a prophetic vision, but it was Daniel that seeked after the Lord and listen to the voice of the Lord, and he wrote,"To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him; not have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets. Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice...[Dan 9: 9-11] If someone, anyone, is prasing and giving honor to the Lord, should I come against them? I need to , and we need to look to our own walk with the Lord. I need to, and we need to be seeking the voice of the Lord, and desire the gifts just as it is written. It is not for me to throw the first stone, but if I am acting out of love, then I need to be seeking the Lord and listening to Him. I don't have it perfect, but so you know. It was my Lord that asked me to write this evening. The teaching about how both false prophets and prophets of the Lord cause us to turn to Him if we know Him, was a teaching He had given me in the past. He also gave me the teaching about how there is only one truely righteousmas and one true prophet, and that He is that One. So those others that are righteous or are prophets are so because they get the reward if they believe in Him. My Lord is almost always calm and peacful, but I have heard Him angry, and it has almost always been because His people are fighting amoung themselves. If there is a Charasmatic church that is thinking better of themselves because they have gifts from the Spirit given to them, then will not the Lord deal with them? But if there are those judging them by leaning on their own understanding, and against them only because they have gifts of the Spirit, who now will the Lord judge? We need to be listening least we find ourselved opposing the Lord. Moses did not quite the man with the dream in his camp.

I presume you were speaking to me Alan. The Lord has spoken to my heart and spirit about this, and Scripture confirms it for me. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Psalm 118:8 And that is all I have to say about it. Blessings, Hi Nikki, Nobody is saying to put any trust in man. Man, in the natural state is lost. Nobody lost knows the way. Yet, if they are His and have His Spirit, obedient to the office Christ gave them through the Holy Spirit, you are no longer following man, but Him who is in them. I am not trying to convince anyone to follow someone on TV, but bringing light to the fact that we can not say that those who use TV are all bad. Fear can stop people dead in their tracks, even if they are on the right road. Don't fear what the enemy can do, but trust that the Lord will show you the way. Debating over something that is so literal is just Thanks for the clarification, but I cannot understand why you think fear has anything to do with this. Fear nor judging has has never entered into this decision. How about just taking the Lord at His Word and being obedient to what he speaks to one about? That is fairly simple to understand.... for me anyways. Blessings, I wasn't going to respond but I just want to share why I am in the same boat with Nikki. The Lord basically has been speaking to my heart about this issue. I was the kind of person (and in some ways still am) who would go out at seek people more spiritually advanced than myself to learn from them how God want's me to operate. It got to the point where, the Holy Spirit spoke to me through several people in an angry tone because I was ignoring Him! Can you imagine, someone living with you, eating with you, sharing the same bed and body with you but you never speak to them. Never say hi how are you? Never even acknowledging they are there? So that's what happened. I realized how the Holy Spirit is a real person and has feeling and emotions just like us. So I deeply hurt him when I kept doing this. We need to be listening and following the Lord, but isn't it wonderful that there are people on TV telling the world about Him. They are not right all the time, and sometimes have picked up different things from the Scriptures than I have picked up. But it is written that we all know in part. Also that there are different members in the body of Christ. I praise God for Televangelist, although admittedly I spend very little time listening to them. That doesn't mean that I never have though. I have picked up some very good teachings from many of them. Even from some that didn't really seem to be hearing from the Lord at all. It just doesn't seem to me that Satan would really want Tevevangelist in general. May he might they to mess up a message given by them, or even mess them up. Maybe Satan would even try to raise up one to discredit the Lord, but if they are telling people about our Lord, we don't want to stop them do we? And if we see hundreds of people being healed or even claiming to be healed in the name of Jesus Christ, is that really something that Satan wants? If they are praising the Lord, is that something Satan wants? It is not about trusting televangelist, but thank God for them.

I understand that not everyone picks up the Lord exactly the same. That is to say that some get more visions and dreams and to some His voice comes across as more just impressions than a still small voice. And with all He can do what He wishes, but we also see that things happen according to our believe. So many times He said 'according to your faith let it be done." So if someone thinks that to hear from the Lord they must fast and pray for a week or so, what is going to have to happen for them to hear from the Lord, according to their faith? I hear from the Lord ten to 20 times a day. I used 1 Jn 4: 1-3 to check the spirits. That test does not need a week of fasting and prayer. And what is prayer, if not a conversation with the Lord? And He said that He would never leave us. Do we act like we believe this? More often than not I find that the Lord tells me things about others to help me understand what is happening, so I can learn from it, and not so that I have to get involved or even mention something to them. That does not mean that He hasn't reveal others secrets to me because I need to bring a message of take some type of action. Yet even in those cases when I need to bring a message or take some type of action, I often just get the instruction of what to do without information of why what I am doing is important. If a person is stealing from the church, do I need to know? Why? The Lord knows. He can easily figure out something for me to do or say, that causes the person to be aware that the Lord knows, without me even understanding that what I am doing or saying is drawing attention to it. On the other hand, He has often told me that something was happening, and that He was going to take care of it, so the only reason He told me was that I could learn from it. How can we really follow the Lord, if we believe that we can only hear from the Lord after extensive prayer and maybe fasting? How can we really learn from the Lord if we can only hear from Him after extensive prayer? He said that a certain type of demon would only come out with fasting and prayer. It was a deaf dumb spirit. Yet concerning finding Him, He said seek and you shall find. And isn't it written that God is not slow to respond like we think. We have got to stop thinking that way. Isaiah wrote that in the day we would hear a voice behind us everytime we turned to the left or right. I think we need to start believing for that type of relationship.

Nice post. "Wondering from the truth" is much more accurate and does not sound so accusing as "Backsliding". As sheep we do all tend to wonder away from the voice of the Lord. He of course is the truth, because what He says is truth. "Backsliding" sounds more intentionally rebelious, and does not really accurately depect what is usually happening. Those that know the Lord, often get side tracked and busy with other things like Martha, instead of sitting at the feet of Jesus. In those cases we just kind of wonder off spiritually instead of intentionally turning our back on the Lord. Not that someone might get mad at Him for whatever and do that also. But I do think that more accurate term is "Wondering from the truth". Again, nice post.

I once had a man tell me that he turned a deaf ear to warnings because he knew where he stood with the Lord. I had reason to believe that this man could hear from the Lord, but I was hearing the Lord telling me to have him read Malachi Chapter 1 and the first few verses in Chapter two. That was why the man told me that he turned a deft ear to warnings! That got me thinking afterward if I every do that. We are supposed to want His reproof, and there are plenty of warnings in the Bible. I have been wondering if I am missing them because I don't want to hear them. So do you think that since I hear from the Lord, I would hear them, and would have to ignore them?

I think we try to help those, and especially brothers in the Lord right. In Matthew it has a kind of procedure. Talking to them, taking someone else along, then then bring it to the attention of the church. Paul even seem to turn them over to the devil so that they might come to a realization. And prayer does work doesn't it?