Having little expression of Christ in our lives

[AnOrangeCat]

On 1/24/2024 at 1:51 AM, D. Adrien said:

A very nice post Sower ! I certainly empathize with your view. My position is that as a natural person, prior to being a Christian and born again, I despised having a Christian proselytize me in any way. looking back I realize it was due to being convicted of my blatant sinning and the way I lived life. Having been raised with a Christian mother and a severely PTSD suffering father I just didn't want to hear it and would ridicule the Christian proselytizer. And this is why to this day I remain quiet unless an obvious opening is granted to me. I can be very thick headed and not notice an obvious opening until after the fact, when my opportunity has passed.

I take a somewhat similar position, albeit for a different reason. The way I see it, living in the western world means most people you'll encounter already have some basic familiarity with the message of salvation. Repeating it to someone whose heart is already hardened is going to annoy in most cases and won't tell them something they haven't already heard. But over the course of knowing someone there are times when it becomes relevant and thus less intrusive, and they get (hopefully) a net positive Christian influence in their life. That's the sort of situation where I feel most efficient. Naturally it can be different for others, and that's okay. It's one of those things where Paul's body of Christ analogy is very applicable.

[Sower]

3 hours ago, Neighbor said:

Hi, I suggest that funerals are a toss up as to how much of the gospel of Yeshua might be shared with any effect, positive or negative

So far in just my family, those seeds sown into my wife and I, our children, their children, some relatives, some strangers, and an unknown amount of sown seed, has yielded all these and what is yet to come, from that one seed, one voice at that funeral for Jimmy.

There is no negative effect of the gospel. It's called the GOOD NEWS, brother.

PS Edit;
The parents (believers) of buried Jimmy were excited that my wife and I had received the good news at their son's funeral. The mother was instrumental in bringing my wife to the saving understanding of that good news preached. For that alone I give praise to God for that old faithful preacher whom I hope to meet some day in glory. 

[Neighbor]

1 hour ago, Sower said:

PS Edit;
The parents (believers) of buried Jimmy were excited that my wife and I had received the good news at their son's funeral.

Hi Sower, Yes many a funeral service is used by  those that do believe on Jesus as Lord God and personal savior in  an attempt to share with those that may be present that do not as of that time know Jesus as their Lord. It is so very often the written request that had been made by the now deceased individual themself, or more often the next of kin.

HOWEVER obviously not every decedent nor next of kin arranging a funeral is Christian. And so the next of kin will not be especially receptive to having a gospel message as a key component of any funeral  that is arranged for their own deceased loved one who was not a Christian either.

The presentation of the gospel done in a gentle manner at a funeral may indeed bear good fruit, but the browbeating diatribe  of" you must turn about and now!" will not be received well at all. Least that is my own experience.  

In the enthusiasm for the Lord one may do  as much harm to the cause as good. The witnesses testimony is a long slog more often than a moment's hype. It taking often years and even decades before there is that break through moment where the HolySpirit intercedes in the turning about of a person's heart  mind and indeed spirit/soul.

That moment could occur at a funeral, however I do think there would have been many a time of sharing by many other saints prior to that moment. It is all in our LORD's good timing. In my case He had to get me away from funerals altogether and away from pastors priests rabbis  monks and zealots of many sorts. He put me in a hotel with 145 bibles and two tv stations, one with a puffy haired Christian  that did the typical tv sharing routine. 

Even then I had to be turned about by  an angel challenging me personally. All in answer to years of prayer by individuals for me.

There just doesn't seem to me to be a one size fits all manner of being turned about to God from sin against God.

 

[Neighbor]

On 1/23/2024 at 9:21 AM, Vine Abider said:

"But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know." 1 John 2:20 (NASV)

The anointing is simply the movement of Christ, the anointed One, within us. The anointing abides in our spirit. So in our spirit we are living with Jesus, with His nature. In our spirit we are partakers of the divine nature and we are begotten of God. Thus, whenever our emotions are not compatible with His life and nature, there is movement in us.

Many times we do not interact with the Lord in that movement, or anointing. Instead we go to our mind and reason. We make excuses, we push down the sense coming from God's life. We cope with it somehow. In other words, we handle it ourselves. Consequently, we may go for years in the same way, having little expression of Christ in our life. 

(from "The Supplied Life")

Getting back more on track  to the word  "anointing". Perhaps the way threads on message boards wander is evidence that it is almost natural for the mind to drift towards what  is already known rather than reaching upward and outward toward better understanding of God's precepts and commands. The teaching  of which some are anointed to do and others not so much having other God given gifts.

I personally sense anointing to be a formal recognition of an attribute given by God  to an individual. Something done as a brief ritual or stamping of a seal of approval, a real physical act.

[Know Jah]

Matthew 28:18-20 I believe all believers have the responsibility to spread the word.

[Vine Abider]

18 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

Getting back more on track  to the word  "anointing". . .

I personally sense anointing to be a formal recognition of an attribute given by God  to an individual. Something done as a brief ritual or stamping of a seal of approval, a real physical act.

Thanks for getting us back on track!  I see the anointing as a verb of Christ, who lives in us.  That is, the Greek word for anointing is "chrisma."  Strong's says the origin is: "From chirio; an ungent or smearing, i.e. (figuratively) the special endowment ("chism") of the Holy Spirit."

My experience is that the Anointing (which I often capitalize, as I believe this to be the person of Christ in us) has spoken to me internally, truths I need to know, and also gives me certain impressions of things in my daily life.  For instance, when I received the flooding of the Holy Spirit when I was 18, the Anointing spoke very clearly in me a couple things.  One was, "I Am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" and another speaking was "I is dead" [sic].  I knew very little of scripture at the time, and this speaking in me showed me (and is still showing me) that He is the God of both the Old and New Testaments.

These days, I haven't heard those kind of words in me so much as I have impressions to do things like pray for a fellow saint or some situation, or to do certain things (or not do them).  "My sheep hear My voice . . ." 

[Starise]

My wife just ordered me a few books that were recently discussed in a bible study about hearing the voice of God and the different ways God speaks to us. I have been hearing His voice for a long time, but I think this will be an interesting read from other perspectives.

That " My sheep hear my voice" passage was one I recently pulled to describe how we know we are God's children. For me it has been a 'voice' or a leaning. If it's His voice there is no doubt. I also like your word 'impressions' to do or not do something. I get those as well.

I have also had people being used to be God's voice. In one recent instance, I had two different people confirm to me the same thing.

 

[Neighbor]

2 hours ago, Vine Abider said:

These days, I haven't heard those kind of words in me

Perhaps I understand that sense of state of being. Perhaps not.  I find myself this day using the word euphoric a word not a general portion of my own vocabulary nor nature.

 I am lifted to a fuller high this day for the reading  of Genesis of all things. I just evidently had never read it with all that much enlightenment flooding me with  what is another confirmation of what I have been led into for some 40 years, from the day the Holy Spirit turned me about.

Is that being anointed? I do not know!  As I stated before my own understanding of anointed is limited, limited to the physical anointing of a physical body  regarding a spiritual matter or standing granted through God's will that it be so.

That does not at all mean anointing must be what I presently understand it to be, it is only a statement of my present limit of understanding.

 I almost always benefit for the being stretched out from my own present limits. So I am enjoying this thread. Hoping to read more too.

[Vine Abider]

1 hour ago, Neighbor said:

 I am lifted to a fuller high this day for the reading  of Genesis of all things. I just evidently had never read it with all that much enlightenment flooding me with  what is another confirmation of what I have been led into for some 40 years, from the day the Holy Spirit turned me about.

Is that being anointed?

I believe it is --> The Anointing is God's new covenant way of the Spirit interacting in each person!  It's that still, small voice in us that leads us into a closer relationship with Him (i.e., abiding).

[Sower]

11 hours ago, Neighbor said:

Is that being anointed? I do not know!

Believers in Christ have been anointed once, and that's forever.

  Jesus..
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.

  Us..
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead **dwells in you**, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and ** has **anointed us

But the anointing that you received from him **abides** in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

 

                But you have been anointed by the Holy One,

It's a done deal, not needing to be 're anointed'. The spirit lives in us. Forever.
We do not loose him. We may quench or grieve him, but he does not leave us.
The more we obey the louder the voice. No magic. The word.

I have no idea what is being discussed here. It's implied I have gone off the OP.
We are anointed with the spirit upon belief in Christ, once and forever. We live in the period of grace, the new testament. The old testament people had the spirit upon them, temporarily, not within them, permanently. We are different. As is many scriptures referred to in OT.

My understanding. Welcome corrections of any of my miss-understanding......

If a charismatic replies, I'll still listen...