AngelofAshes

Hey thank you guys for your advice! God has been leading me to fast and pray. If anyone wants to pray and fast with me please private message me. I would like a partner to pray with. I will pray over things you need as well.

Hey thanks for the responses! The crazy thing is my spiritual state is progressing rapidly while in this season. I wouldn't say I'm stuck spiritually at all, but I have been stuck physically in a place. After reading the responses, especially the last one, it might just be that God wants me to grow rapidly spiritually and emotionally so I'm prepared for what it is He has called me to do. I think I am just tired of being here. Growing can sometimes be uncomfortable, but I wouldn't say my life is bad. Most things work out favorably for me. In fact, I'm very grateful to God for what He's done thus far. Please pray for me that I discern God's will and be strengthened to trust in Him and endure this season. I'm, personally, not repeating spiritual tests, but I have seen others go through this and wanted perspective on what that was about as well.

Hey guys, What advice would you give someone who feels as if they've been 'stuck' in the same season for years? Meaning they have either been stuck at a place for years and have been wanting to get out, but cannot until they accomplish a requirement or they have moved a couple of times, but feel as though they are going through similar spiritual attacks over the course of 5+ years?

@everyoneelse To everyone who told me to run, I already did. Thanks for the confirmation! Please pray for me and that young man's soul as well. Thanks again!

Thank you for your advice! I'm glad I noticed things early on too, it would suck to be too deep into the relationship with a person like this. I let him go

I agree with the bolded. People do choose carnal things over developing and cultivating love. Sex and beauty cannot keep a marriage together for an extended amount of time.

This is some extremely POWERFUL and potent wisdom!! WOW! God bless you! I'm literally taking notes! You sound like an awesome dad This young man is experienced in dating and sexual activities. I noticed a LOT of other red flags about him, which is why I asked others just to get confirmation on my emotions and feelings. I ended up breaking up with him and just wished him the best. He said that a man would have to be gay to not say those things, and I understand beauty can do things to a man, but worldy men have shown more restraint than him. If he hadn't lied about the number of sexual partners he had and told me he was inexperienced, I would've been more lenient.

This is what I was thinking. Thank you for your advice and the scripture. I WISH he was this naive, he's not. I tried to give him multiple attempts to stop trying to steer me into sexual conversation. When he asked about my bra size and I told him that was unacceptable behavior he called me a 'fun killer'. I told him off and he said he will stop, but I'm seeing too much of a consistent pattern with this one. Thanks for your response! In the beginning, the conversation was not sexual at all, but more and more I think this guy is slowly revealing what he really wants. It's hard to stay undercover for long. Thanks for your input! Yeah, I really just needed a solid sounding board. I told him I felt disrespected. Every time I try to break up with him he will cry or keep asking for forgiveness. D: I agree. I told him I needed more time to get to know him, but he pretty much pressured, guilted, and rushed me into the relationship. It was my choice in the end, but I was wondering if I made a mistake. I don't have much dating experience, and he's my 1st christian guy that actually knows the bible and liked to pray and talk about God. So, I tried to give him chances, but I'm noticing too many bad behaviors. Blessings to you! .Alright. I don't try to change him at all. Thanks for the advice and sharing the article.

I have a question for godly men as well as women about courting. I understand that young Christian men can get excited with their attraction to you, but should the conversation be centering around sex? Like, asking inappropriate questions about your busts size, etc? I haven't dated a lot of Christian men and I honestly don't have a good feeling about this guy, but I want to know what are some Christian men thoughts as well as women about what is appropriate conversation between two christian young people who are pretty early on in a relationship. Thanks for any help.

Fasting is a concept that I feel most young people aren't told they should partake in. You don't have to fast from food if your parents won't allow it, but maybe spending time away from distractions like TV, social media, etc for a few days and dedicating time to reading the Word might help you move closer to God. It certainly helped me when I was a teenager. Also doing a specific study on your favorite story in the bible or scripture verse and relating how it effects your current life can help.

As someone who 'has/had' mental illness I have to say yes, it is demons for the most part. Demons can effect the physical plane and spiritual. I've seen gifted ministers heal people who had pain by casting out a demon involved in pain and it worked instantly. Remember the woman in scripture that had the back problems? That spirit that was on her and causing her physical issues was a spirit of infirmity. When Jesus laid hands on her and loosed the spirit it left and she could move again. What does that say? That since demons can physically alter a woman's back they possibly can cause 'chemical imbalance' in a person's brain or genes, etc. The more and more I have grown closer to Christ and getting used to casting out demons the less and less medicine I've had to take. I'm on such a low dosage that my Dr., who claims to be christian, does not understand how I'm functioning because he says my dosage should not be doing anything and he says he wish he could clone me so he could do further testing(literally he said this to me). He thinks it's in my genes--it's in my birth right as a Christian. My depression was cured within a day after fasting and becoming close to Christ. They do not understand why I'm not depressed anymore or struggling with work and school. I suffered from schizophrenia and all I can tell you is what this illness is, is you basically have the ability to hear demons that are latched on to you(if you're christian) or are inside you(if your a nonbeliever). I've been rebuking the demons so long that I do not hear them anymore. If you know a person with mental illness please rebuke these demons on their behalf if they don't know how/can't. These demons often talk about taking the souls of the people they are latched onto as soon as the person dies. " Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. " Be prepared to fight any demons you cast out though, if you don't have experience in rebuking them they will fight you hard at first. The more you grow in doing this, the more they will fear coming against you.

I am inspired by her, but I'm not married soo.. ^w^; However, I find a lot of women who are christian who are married feel like they have to keep up with the Jones'/the proverbs 31 woman/Titus 2 woman lifestyle and they find it exhausting or impossible. I just think they're looking at the book wrong. It should be inspiration to live out the basic concepts not her actual life. It's not a list of duties a woman should do, however, more so it's characteristics women who are godly and good to marry should have. Integrity, goals, wisdom, organization, fear of God, etc. I agree with the poster that said that this proverb is to men about how to find a good wife and what things to avoid as a ruler.

I usually take most prophecies with a grain of salt, but I think Mr. Wilkerson had prophesied these things nearly 4 decades ago, when there were no deep signs of these things happening. When I listen to the prophecy, which you can listen to it on youtube, most of all he says fits to a T of what's going on years later. That being said, I'm not saying all of it will be fulfilled, but it's pretty spot on thus far.

Yes, I've also noticed my prayers have gotten shorter as I've matured in God. I also think that circumstances/trials/tests are used to help change how we pray, at least that's what I've experienced this year. For instance, if you're going through a crisis you will start praying differently than when everything is calm.

Everyone said it pretty nicely. He makes us worthy. There's nothing we or anyone else can do that would make us worthy. That's why He gives us His love and salvation through His grace. Yes it is up to us to respond to Him accordingly.

Continue to give advice while continuing to live as a Christian. Ask God to fill you with wisdom and encouragement that they may wonder where you received it from. Sometimes if they ask you where it comes from you will be able to point out a verse of scripture where you got it from or that you got it from God. Now, they may not believe you at first, but it might spark enough interest for them to search the word themselves. When I was in high school I knew a couple of atheist. One girl in particular was angry at her father and continued to go into bad things like drugs in an attempt to get his attention. She had a best friend who was christian who would preach down her throat all the time and she also had me, who did not preach down her throat, but just was there for her. She knew I was Christian and would repeatedly tell me that she was glad I wasn't someone who did that, she enjoyed my advice(about her dad and drugs) and years later she got out of her drug habit and went to school to become a lawyer like her father. He and her eventually became on decent terms(funny how things work like that). I don't know if she has converted from atheism, as I have now lost contact with her since then, but I can see the advice I gave her definitely impacted her. Sometimes impacting people's lives in a positive way is a good way for God to lure them in because we might not be the ones that God uses to deliver the message about Him that makes them become Christian, you know? Sometimes we are just planting or watering seeds until someone comes along to witness the full harvest. My point is, don't put so much pressure on yourself to push them into christianity. Just by being there for these people and letting them know you are Christian is sometimes in itself sharing your faith. If you still feel the need to go further than what you've been doing while not coming off as others who have approached you in the past then just think about what would make you feel good about going to the faith if you were in their shoes and ask God about it. Know that when it comes to witnessing, God is the one that will open the door and prepare these peoples' hearts. I hope this helped in some way.

Well, the only thing I think that can contribute to our salvation is us saying 'Yes', to the invitation. God offers salvation through His grace, if we don't say yes to it then we rejected it and therefore don't have it as long as we reject it. However, there are things in the scripture that can argue against this thought(such as Romans 9).

It's not that the Pharisees turning the woman in to be stoned for adultery was wrong. It was what was in their hearts. One, they wanted to put Jesus in a corner and make Him trip up on something by asking if they should stone her, the second thing was that they intentionally brought the woman out in public to humiliate and look down upon her(and show how much better they were since they 'didn't sin'), third they let the man who was committing adultery with her get away(seriously, just think about this for a second; they might've known him), and lastly they themselves had big old logs in their own eyes since they had been committing possibly worse or similar sins as her as Jesus alluded to when He said 'He without sin cast the first stone'. The point was not that they were wrong for confronting her sin, they went about it the wrong way and also probably were committing similar or worse sins. It's okay to confront people about their wrong doings or turn people in as long as you go about it in the correct way, as the previous poster mentioned imo. 42How can you say, ‘Brother, let me take the speck outof your eye,’ while you yourself fail to see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Luke 6:42 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Galatians 6:1 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20

This is so very true. I'm so glad you brought this point up as far as pointing out the real deal from the counterfeits/those things in the world that cannot help in the long run. Because honestly what nonbeliever would still want to give, with wisdom, and do for others after being mistreated by them? What nonbeliever would show kindness when they themselves haven't been shown such things? What nonbeliever would give up the chance to gain their deepest hearts desires to stop and help someone else out? It's hard enough for some Christians to do this, and I cannot say I've ever seen a nonbeliever act these things out. So when I think about it I guess the kindness of a believer vs a nonbeliever would be really hard to compare if you look at it in the long run.

If you are scared the thrift shop will look through the pockets before putting the item out you could always tape it to the sleeves or inside the pant legs of the item. I agree with what others said though, many people who are not needy look through thrift shops just to find a deal. It's an interesting idea though.

I agree with this. When I was mentioning 'niceness' in this post I was thinking about people who I've talked with who were nonbelievers who believe being 'good' or 'nice' to people is all it takes in life and they didn't need a religion. It then made me think of Christians I see who focus very hard on being 'nice' only to the point where they don't feel the need to share the truth or get angry about sin when necessary OR they take on every problem, want, or need thinking this is the goal when they should be concentrating their energy in specific areas. Kindness is a fruit of the Spirit and I believe if you genuinely follow God, eventually this fruit will be a product in your life and it will be genuine. However, I think it's good for us as Christians to be aware that there are Nonbelievers who feel like being nice is all it takes to live in life and they think they can achieve this without a God. People look at good deeds in a positive way, so what would make a person who was on the fence of deciding to be Christian choose Christianity over atheism if they saw both of them do good deeds/be nice, if being nice is the goal? I hope people see what I'm getting at.

That's a really good point. I can see how anger and desire for power can definitely come into play when witnessing or preaching. I've seen some preachers take their complaints about how there were too little people helping out through a sermon(it was pretty hilarious and no I don't go to that church ^_^;;;) Even I sometimes can be filled with so much passion when witnessing or sharing my faith through my writings online that I have to slow myself down to make sure it's not from the wrong place in my heart. (geeze, I actually felt convicted reading your response >w< I gotta watch myself). Thank you, I hope so too and thanks for your response c:

I have my own opinions on the topic, my answer being no, but I would like to open some type of discussion on the issue of being nice as the rule of thumb for being a good christian or even a good person. From what I've read in the Bible, specifically stuff Jesus did, nice isn't good enough nor is it the goal. Sometimes you have to share the truth, in love, but still it will hurt. It will hit them right where it hurts especially if it's conviction from the Holy Spirit. And sometimes when you rebuke someone they definitely won't always see you as 'nice'. Now, of course we are to love our neighbors and enemies. We are to share our faith out of love, but does that mean we should really focus on just being nice, like I see some Christians often putting an emphasis on? Just want you all to share your thoughts and possibly see if a discussion can get going on. c:

You're welcome. Yes moving to a new town can be tough when you don't have family or friends around. Is there no public transportation that goes to that area from where you are at? If there is you might want to check that out until you can afford your own transportation or see if anyone from that church lives near the area you live(maybe ask someone who works for the church to do an announcement or if they know someone who goes there that lives near where you live) and see if they wouldn't mind doing a carpool and just allow you to help out with gas. I will keep you in my prayers. c:

Well, I had a divine encounter with Jesus, years ago where He told me to ask Him anything. I asked Him all sorts of questions and when I saw He wasn't judging my questioning or getting angry, I actually began asking real questions, see I was deciding to become atheist back then and just thought what I was experiencing wasn't real. Then the last day of this visitation Jesus asked me a question: 'Why haven't you forgiven your mother?' She had stolen my identity and had put credit cards in my name without my permission and I felt betrayed and angry, so when that question came I went off. Jesus quoted scriptures I did not know that were in the Bible about forgiveness and said if I didn't believe still that I was talking with Him I should look them up when I got home, well I did and every verse was exactly quoted as it was in the Bible. I wept that night because I knew I had pretty much disrespected God during His visit. I told God I would forgive my mother and I have successfully done so. My mom is now one of my closest contacts and when she saw the devastation she caused she immediately paid off all the debt she had caused, but this was only after I had decided to obey the command in the bible to forgive and forgave her. Soo, it's kind of hard not to believe after that. Personal experience is very powerful. But to answer from the bible, it's God who draws us to Him. He chose us. See, even though I did not want to forgive my mother back then, spending time in God's presence was enough to make me want to do anything He asked. In a short amount of time I grew to love Him and would be devastated if I was not in His presence. He drew me in and He didn't even say a word until the end of His visit. He's very impressive like that. God can draw you to Him with a simple answer, a simple prayer, and even a simple testimony. We believe because He pulled us in.