Did I hear wrong?

[nebula]

Have you ever gone through the experience of believing you were following God, but then everything fell to pieces or you found yourself crashed and burned - and you were left wondering what happened, where you went wrong, did God let you down, . . . ?

I have a friend right now who is going through this struggle, and I would like to encourage her by collecting testimonies of others who have gone through such an experience - specifically, how they got through it.

How did you pull through such an experience? What did you learn? How did you regain or confidence in hearing from the Lord, if at all? Or what else you can share?

Thanks!

[anitarose]

I have felt like that for DECADES, Neb....I thought I heard one thing and it turned out to be either the devil or my own fleshly desires gabbing in my ear. The latest is that I'm a worthless piece of scum who should never have been born and that God doesn't love me in the least. I KNOW for a FACT that all of that is a LIE. It's difficult for me to accept, however, because that's all I was told when I was growing up. I should never have been born, my brother and I were mistakes, they were going to stop after my sister, I was worthless, useless, not worth a dime, almost killed my mother when I was born, etc. All LIES.

I go back to the Word. God's not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. Believe it or not, those words were first spoken by Baalam, of the donkey fame. I go back to what the Word tells me I am, and who I am, and more importantly than all of this, WHOSE I am....

It's not easy to go through stuff like that, but I have been there and seen the other side. While you're going through, it hurts, but once you go through it and get on the other side, you're going to look back and say wow, God brought me through that. I didn't have to do anything---God brought me through it.

a.

[Guest Reini]

Hey Nebula. I had a girlfriend not so long ago, and believed with all my heart that she was my soul mate sent from God. To make a long story short, she fell pregnant with another guys child. I was completely and utterly distraught. And it happened at a time when i was closest to God than i've ever been. I lost so much touch with Him. But all things work together for good to those who love God. I felt so empty at that time, but it was awesome, coz i filled up with God. Spending time with the Word is really what got me through. Psalm 27:14 says wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He will strengthen your heart. Thats really all i can say. God promised never to leave us. Draw close to God, and He will draw close to you. I hope and pray all goes well with your friend.

[Constant615]

Have you ever gone through the experience of believing you were following God, but then everything fell to pieces or you found yourself crashed and burned - and you were left wondering what happened, where you went wrong, did God let you down, . . . ?

I have a friend right now who is going through this struggle, and I would like to encourage her by collecting testimonies of others who have gone through such an experience - specifically, how they got through it.

How did you pull through such an experience? What did you learn? How did you regain or confidence in hearing from the Lord, if at all? Or what else you can share?

Thanks!

Well..last year I "thought" I accepted God into my life and when my world came crashing down on me..I have doubts about His love. I turned my back on Him but still prayed that he would make everything better. Over time I realized that by turning away from God,made me feel worse and I realy had to evaluate my life and who I was and where I was headed.

To make a long story short....God was there w/me through the bad times though it didn't feel like it. He made me a stronger person and never again will I turn away from Him. Always keep Him w/you even when bad things are happening around you! He will help you through it and He did w/me.

[Grace1479]

I feel like this a lot lately. I got an opportunity last year to take this current job, while I have a full time job. I asked God if it's His will that I must have this job, He must give it to me or He must show me the way. I received the job offer with a much higher salary that expected, and took it, although it was a temp job. I asked God that He must ONLY give me the job if I ill have a job after my contract expired.

Well, My contract expires in 2 weeks time, I can't get a job, went for so many interviews without sucess. Now I wonder if this was really God's will. but I also heard that my previous boss said the other day, that if I didn't resigned, he would've made my life a living hell so that I would leave on the end of the day, cause my personality is to strong for him.

Maybe it was God's will, maybe not. At least I know, God still have 2 weeks left and His always on time, even if it is a wee bit late according to us. He showed us this a zellion times before, so I trust in Him to get us through.

[OneLight]

Neb, I have one in particular that may help.

When I was first a Christian, about 1 year into my walk, I was being taught the Bible by an old Lady, in her late 60's I believe, who was blind, but could tell me when I read the word wrong and corrected me. We use to study starting at 5:00 AM and go until 6:30 every weekday. We did this for some time. One day, she approached me about starting a house that would minister to the lost. She knew of a house that her daughter had which became vacant. She had already talked this over with her daughter, and her daughter gave her the go ahead. She told me that I was the one who would run the house, for I had gained wisdom and God told her that I was His choice. She, being able to teach the word as well as she did while being blind, left me believing that she was a special person in God and I should follow her lead.

Within a month, my family, my wife and three children, and I were all moved in. Her son was living with us, who loved God. When one of us found someone in need, we would discuss the issues and vote on it as a whole. At that time, the only ones who were voted into the house came from the direction of this lady, otherwise, one or two people would vote against a person for one reason or another. During this time, we also started a home church called the Redeemers Fire. I was to preach because this lady said that her son was not gifted to do so, even he had far more knowledge in the word then I did.

As time went on, I could feel that this was not of God, for this lady stated insisting on how the house was to run. When I finally was convicted enough on a certain matter, and stood up to her My family and I found ourselves without a home within a couple of days.

You see, pride had entered my heart without me knowing. I had placed my belief in this lady and not so much in God to lead us. As I now look back, there were many things wrong that I will not get into. At the time, I did feel that I was lead to do such a thing, for I had a deep desire to help others in need and this seemed like a door that God opened for me to do His work.

God Bless,

OneLight

[message]

HI! nebula..

Well, we do not have to crash down for long..we can have little crashes, can't we..I have had some long blank dark tunnel crashes....

But, after trying to think what one I would send you...The Lord suggested one,

to me.. And its this one..[Might help her smile, if nothing else.]

Anyway, the Lord already knows what her reaction's will be..So here we go.. It happened several years ago,

When I was looking after Mum, who had dementure...

I have always been a placid (patient!) sort of person...........

It happened, during one warm summers afternoon...I had been seeing to my Mum.. who I loved very much..We were fan clubs, of each other..really....

Well Mum and Dad, had to wait 10 years before they had me....

Anyway it all sort of whelled (h?) up inside me.. all those emotions of heartbreak, and that one never, ever thought, thought one would ever see, ones Mum, so Ill..most of the time so quiet too, not talking...Her little hands all screwed up almost in a ball,with arthritis, in fact she couldn't open and close her hands, they were just stuck like that however..She had a lot of arthritis all over her.. and in her knees too..I often used to rub cream in her legs to sooth the arthritis......

She had always done whatever she could for us.. When knitting came into being.. she used to knit things for us. all....

We were never a rich family.. but we had riches, far beyond the monetary means..

Anyway.. I went into our garden.. and sat down on the garden seat..

Yes! I felt all in.. and out of strength..

During the morning, I had been out in the garden with my son..That boy knows a lot about most things..and he is so interesting too.. he must have been about 11-12 years then...I had really enjoyed our talk, we had gone all over our small garden, in fact I felt like, I knew the garden, a whole lot more, since listening to him..

One of the things we had spoken about at length, was about ants, and he explained , a lot of their process of life..a lot of different things that they did for each other....Our English garden ants, are only tiny. All doing little jobs to help each other .. it had been such mind blowing stuff...to learn in such a way...

So as I sat there that afternoon...resting, from my tiredness and worry about my loved one's..I found my self deep in thought about the Garden ants......

As I sat there, I saw an ant, walking, it seemed to walk quiet quickly, but it must have really have been 'Many Ant Miles', really....

As I watched it, I got so really engrossed, the world had seemingly 'gone away', and it was, 'Just The Ant And I', together......I just kept watching it, walking it had something on it's back too, which seemed so heavy and hard to manage..

It was a leaf on its back with something else on the leaf..

And then I remembered something that my son had told me in the morning, during his talk on the ants.....He said that Ants were very tidy things..some had different jobs to do.. some he said , had to help clear their home out..

[forgotten what he called it! It is where they live..] And he said if any ant had died, they had to take that away from the home..

Then I knew without a doubt, that the story about the ants, had all been in Gods plan.....

I started watching it again.. It had gone about halfway, many times, or even less.. then just as he was getting there..a sudden breeze had come, where

there had not been a trace, of any, before.....He had had to pick up his load and start all over again....

I found I had become the ants cheer leader, and how I had become, to love and care for that little ant, and was praying for it for ages....

I tell you it was really quiet an Experiance...

The times that Ant, put his lot down, only to have another gust of wind, blow it back, almost to where the ant had first started from, in the first place....

I was whispering to it.. go on, don't stop, how many times it takes..keep on, try, try, and try again.. you must take that dead ant, away from your home..

It's part of your Job..................

I watched the ant.. and after all that, no breeze came , and he put it down on the earth, which was opposite where it had come from....

I whispered to my ant..and the Lord..Hallelujah!! thank you Lord, thank you.

And I realised, that God might have put on this little show,for my sake ..

I sat there, for a moment...Thinking about Mum, and how much I loved her, and how helpless she had become.. .. She and Dad, had never let me down, they had always been there for me.....

I went back indoors.. feeling rested and also strengthened (?)

By an Ant.. And I just could not forget those words..

Try! Try! and Try again!!!

I went into the room, where my Mum was sitting, just looking straight ahead..

And gave her a kiss on the cheek, and a little hug..She didn't even turn around.. But I just whispered to her..I love you Mum.........Amen.....

[Fraught]

this will probably not help your friend but who knows, right? so far, i still have a roof over my head, i'm not hungry & i can stay cool in the summer, warm in the winter & i have this good computer, cable tv, & gas in the car, tho the car itself belongs to someone else as does all the furniture. none of my family are going thru any traumas or health issues at the present time.

what i have to question is the question. what is it that we expect when we choose to follow God? why do people assume everything will go right & they won't have any problems? is God like a fairy godmother or a genie in the bottle that will grant us our wishes? this is not a rhetorical question - i really don't know exactly.

all i do know is that i choose God. sometimes when i am under the influence of the fairy godmother God, i can only answer like the disciples did when Jesus asked them if they were going to leave him too. "to whom would we go?" my expanded version is "would my life be any better if i chose to leave?" the answer is probably not and so far as i know, it could very well be a lot worse. if i look at my life and wonder why God hasn't seen fit to improve my situation, how do i know it isn't improved? how could i ever know what it could have been like? that's just it. i can never know. but thankfully God can and so i guess that's what he means by trust.

[jwj]

hello

[Matthitjah]

Grace to you,

Neb, awesome thread.

I went through this when I partnered with a now dear friend in a business. Every sign of confirmation was there. Yet a year and a half later a tragedy struck for this gentelman and the business fell apart.

I went to the Lord in prayer and sought out why.

I really thought I was in the right place at the right time.

The answer I got back was something akin to, "Who ever said it was about you anyways?" The thing I can conclude very clearly now is that it was about Him, the Lord, and that He gained all the Glory through my further education and the witness that this business witnessed to.

Yet, it was about me too. It was about the Lord and then me. It was about this other man too.

I know I'm not making sense but a year later I can say with certaintly that I was very clearly in the Lords Will. I just misundertood the end game and motives of the lesson learned while walking out this Faith. I often hear the Lord and think one thing and believe with certainty that I have it all figured out. Then the Lord hangs a Louie and asks me where I'm going. It was His intent to do it this way all along and it was His intent for it to end in this result. Lesson learned and I will praise Him both on the mountaintop and in the Valley, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

The reason I misunderstand is because I hear and then assume the rest. What I should be doing is walking it out because everyday with the Lord is a marvelous Journey and I can Trust in Him.

I like this scripture to round this out;

Jas