Random thoughts...

THE sure fire way to hear from God = read His written word

crucifyd wrote:THE sure fire way to hear from God = read His written word

Amen.

Honestly, I tell you guys of the miracles I've seen and the response is "Peter, do you think there's anything besides God that could be talking to you and enabling you sums of money?"  Seriously?  And some of y'all are insulted by my response?

As for the "hubris" part, that wasn't hubris.  That was showing you towards what ends it was going.  It wasn't to my church where they are reinforcing these beliefs saying I need to give it to them, it was instead to someone who's on a completely different continent.  And I'm sorry if me telling you that I was guided to do this, likely by demons for all we know, ruined your illusion that God very well may have been directing funds as He saw fit.  Again, sorry to burst your bubble and let you know demons may well have been behind this.  I hope me doing the work of another and not God did not ruin your day again.

The most annoying part is honestly, I can tell you I don't have schizophrenia anymore and that's not enough.  I don't see the blurs; I don't hear my name yelled; I don't hear the voices laughing at me and mocking me for every little thing I do; nor do I see the visions of hell that would haunt my dreams and make me struggle to sleep.  I am free.  I got a free mission trip, I get free food, I get to bless people and the response is "Because I've never experienced this with God means this doesn't exist!  I'll ignore you following biblical standards, referencing Bible verses to test the spirits and instead assume it's not by God, but by voices that you are being blessed!"  I would wager the man who told Jesus it was by satan that he cast out demons would agree with the above sentiment.

My friend who was hit by a car wobbled when he walked everywhere.  Last week or so, he was healed.  He can walk perfectly normal.  Do we then question that healing and say it was by a means other than God that this was performed?  Is the miracle that he went through any more legitimate than the one that was done to me that ridded me of schizophrenia?  Or was it by other means he was healed?  I think the best part is, two friends took another who is orthodox and doesn't believe in miracles out on a prayer walk in order to see a miracle and God, or another of course, told me the day before "Someone's leg will be healed."  I told that to my friend who organized this and when he came back after it he said he'd know who it was when I saw him.  Another friend was healed!  But by God, or not?

The end result of this all is still the same: it's completely and utterly insulting.  So, I say, with all this here, is what I am going through schizophrenia?  Is it voices talking to me?  Or maybe, just maybe, is the righteous hand of God moving through people here on earth who are willing to come to God to have a relationship with and ask to be used by Him?

As for hearing from God?  I read the Bible every day and spend a good hour, at least, with Him listening, worshipping, and doing as He wants.

Peter, what has a doctor said?

I'm glad you're my brother in Christ, and I'm glad to know you, but I'm also glad I got out of churches like yours years ago. God's mode of operation today, in the Body of Christ, is not to speak to us directly and is not to heal our physical bodies. Our gifts and blessings are in Heaven, not on earth, and we have no hope here.

And regarding the will of God, it is laid out clearly in Scriptures:

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Peter who was Vaak wrote:Honestly, I tell you guys of the miracles I've seen and the response is "Peter, do you think there's anything besides God that could be talking to you and enabling you sums of money?"  Seriously?  And some of y'all are insulted by my response?

Come on man. You are the only person in my life currently who says what you say and I'm willing to bet that the same holds true for the rest of the forum members here. What you say isn't normal and you have to know that. So, when any of us question it, you ought to be showing a lot more grace a patience with us than you have been. I'm mean really, we don't have enough faith? I'm not insulted by that, but I reject it as false logic. That's the same old nonsense I've heard from my Pentecostal buddies saying, 'you don't speak in tongues, you're not as spiritual as we are; you lack faith.' Pride on top a false premise...

As for the "hubris" part, that wasn't hubris.  That was showing you towards what ends it was going.  It wasn't to my church where they are reinforcing these beliefs saying I need to give it to them, it was instead to someone who's on a completely different continent.  And I'm sorry if me telling you that I was guided to do this, likely by demons for all we know, ruined your illusion that God very well may have been directing funds as He saw fit.  Again, sorry to burst your bubble and let you know demons may well have been behind this.  I hope me doing the work of another and not God did not ruin your day again.

Whether the voices told you to give to your Church, Antoine, or Las Vegas doesn't qualify them being a revelation for God. I didn't hear an audible voice from God to tell me to give to him, but I gave because I read the thread, accessed his situation and did it out of a desire to honor God and love my neighbor as the Lord has commanded me in His Word. My day isn't ruined like Adam's but I think you are missing the point made if that's all you understood from his post. The point is that you revealing your gift that way looks like you want the glory which doesn't fit the character of someone who hears God talking to them audibly on a regular basis.

BTW, why are you talking about hearing from demons when no-one else has been talking about them? Do you think you may be hearing from them?

The most annoying part is honestly, I can tell you I don't have schizophrenia anymore and that's not enough.  I don't see the blurs; I don't hear my name yelled; I don't hear the voices laughing at me and mocking me for every little thing I do; nor do I see the visions of hell that would haunt my dreams and make me struggle to sleep.  I am free.  I got a free mission trip, I get free food, I get to bless people and the response is "Because I've never experienced this with God means this doesn't exist!  I'll ignore you following biblical standards, referencing Bible verses to test the spirits and instead assume it's not by God, but by voices that you are being blessed!"  I would wager the man who told Jesus it was by satan that he cast out demons would agree with the above sentiment.

My friend who was hit by a car wobbled when he walked everywhere.  Last week or so, he was healed.  He can walk perfectly normal.  Do we then question that healing and say it was by a means other than God that this was performed?  Is the miracle that he went through any more legitimate than the one that was done to me that ridded me of schizophrenia?  Or was it by other means he was healed?  I think the best part is, two friends took another who is orthodox and doesn't believe in miracles out on a prayer walk in order to see a miracle and God, or another of course, told me the day before "Someone's leg will be healed."  I told that to my friend who organized this and when he came back after it he said he'd know who it was when I saw him.  Another friend was healed!  But by God, or not?

The end result of this all is still the same: it's completely and utterly insulting.  So, I say, with all this here, is what I am going through schizophrenia?  Is it voices talking to me?  Or maybe, just maybe, is the righteous hand of God moving through people here on earth who are willing to come to God to have a relationship with and ask to be used by Him?

As for hearing from God?  I read the Bible every day and spend a good hour, at least, with Him listening, worshipping, and doing as He wants.

Again, if you find our concern and questioning insulting, you may want to take into consideration that what you describe is not normative and give us a break.

d@v!d wrote:
Come on man. You are the only person in my life currently who says what you say and I'm willing to bet that the same holds true for the rest of the forum members here. What you say isn't normal and you have to know that. So, when any of us question it, you ought to be showing a lot more grace a patience with us than you have been.

I wasn't going to go there, but d@v!d, you're absolutely right.  I've never known anyone personally to have a realtime commentary from God on the mundane... well, except my schizophrenic uncle of course.

You know what's also outside the norm?  Being cured from schizophrenia.  There is no known medical cure for this, and without proper treatment, its chronic and progressive.  Peter, I understand that miracles happen, but you must also understand that further experiences and Bible verses from you won't convince us of ANYTHING if you haven't been cleared by a medical/psychological professional regarding your condition!

Having God tell you your cured is not going to convince any person here, not while you're currently hearing voices.

...so quit dodging the real question here (Have you seen a doctor?) and PLEASE at least get checked!

You know what?  You're right.  I'm not used to other Christians challenging me like this and that's why I am like this.  For that, I do apologize.  I, honestly, thought these were beliefs widely shared.  I'll admit, I am down with the whole gifts of the spirit(1 Corinthians 12), but not everyone has the gift of tongues.  Francis Chan, a guy into this stuff, doesn't have it and not everyone does.  

If you're interested, I can say watch this and I can confirm this happened.  She goes to my church, her name's Courtnee, and I went to Germany with her, among many other people.  She's freaking crazy smart, went to Harvard, and had crazy awesome miracles happen to her after her body all but gave out.  

The friend walking?  His name's Christian Bennell.  He's on facebook, but never on there.

My roommate?  Formerly transgender, God cured him of it.  Crazy smart guy too, physics Ph.D. student.  He feels God is leading him to prove his existence through science, which is why he feels called to study biophysics.  

If you go to my church, you can see plenty of people who have experiences of God performing a miracle for them, whether it's the girl who got a scholarship for school the day she needed it despite having applied 5 months late; the friend who gave english names to Chinese people who accepted Jesus that day, naming one Joseph because God told him he had many brothers and sisters, turns out that guy's dad was a high ranking communist party member and thus had many kids(The craziest part is, it took him about 5 minutes of talking to get them to invite him to their dorms because neither of them spoke the others' language, but when they were there, they had no difficulties at all and afterwards my friend couldn't recall what language he was speaking); my former roommate who healed a guys hand with prayer in Cambodia; and on and on.  The other day I hiked up ASU A, a mountain here and twisted my ankle at the top real bad.  I was limping for a bit.  I prayed that God help me and bam!  Got home no problem.  Started hurting much later, but after that and on the walk home?  No problem whatsoever.

I mention demons because I had gone through the list above, either me(internal), or external(demons or God).  If me internal had guided me to the homeless man I had given pizza too a while ago, how did I know where to turn?  Had I not turned at this point, as instructed, then how would I have met said man?  How did the internal voice know?  It couldn't be me.  Thus that leaves two others, divine or demonic.  Why would demonic want me to bless a guy with a pizza?  Thus, that leaves only divine and thus God.  I can, of course, reference the guy I gave rodeo burgers to.  How would I have known he enjoyed them?  They were his favorite, but something, obviously not me, told me to get those for him.

And Adam, I don't know what type of church like this you went to, but I assure you, this one is the real freaking deal.  I'll never forget, my friend, the physics guy up there, told me to ask God for a dream of the future.  I got a dream and wrote it down.  It was interesting, but I forgot about it.  A few weeks later I opened that book and laughed.  I threw it to my friend and he said laughing "NO!  Your dreams are more prophetic than mine!"  The dream was a man walking to my ceiling fan and ripping out the cord for the fan saying "You don't need this anymore."  A week or two prior to seeing that again, I had accidentally pulled it out.  The chain gave way, so now it's stuck.  Was that me subconsciously doing that?  Perhaps, but what prompted the dream?

I do not agree that God is no longer active.  Jesus said in John 14:12 "Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."  Was he speaking to just the people who heard Him say this vocally?  If so, then what of my friend Courtnee there?  What of my friend Christian?  My formerly transgender friend?  

What I am saying is not new revelation, what I am saying is that Jesus is here, living, breathing, moving around with us and if we do as He commands, we will see amazing things happen.  It might be a crazy thing to wrap your mind around, but I was there, sort of, two years ago when I started going to church on my own volition two years ago.

As for having seen the doctor, no, I haven't.  The truth is, I sort of self-diagnosed(The therapist asked me what I thought I had, I said schizophrenia and she confirmed it then referred me out, it wasn't her specialty).  I got the medication and haven't had the problems.  I took a few, but one of them gave me extreme vertigo(not fun).  I've told you the symptoms, the problems and I don't have them.  The diagnosis was more me telling him the symptoms and him saying "Yep, you got it."

But on the chronic part, what of my friend up there, Courtnee?  What she had was chronic, yet cured.

The "hubris" comment had nothing to do with money, or how you gave, or the fact that you chose to reveal a little information about it.


It is ENTIRELY to do with the fact that a few of us spoke up about something legitimately concerning to us about your behaviors, and your IMMEDIATE response is to turn around and indict our degree of faith as being lesser than your own.  That is a fine example of what hubris is......

Look, earlier you said you had a situation  where you had 2 people confirm something, and one person say "no" who then changed their mind.  What you've got right here, right now is no fewer than FIVE people telling you something ain't right with things.  That SHOULD be more than enough to give you pause at this point.

Peter who was Vaak wrote:You know what?  You're right.  I'm not used to other Christians challenging me like this and that's why I am like this. 

Oh no, please don't tell me that you're playing the CMR (PC/ Safe-Spaces) card?

For that, I do apologize.  I, honestly, thought these were beliefs widely shared.  I'll admit, I am down with the whole gifts of the spirit(1 Corinthians 12), but not everyone has the gift of tongues.  Francis Chan, a guy into this stuff, doesn't have it and not everyone does. 

The Pentecostal / Charismatic movents beliefs are widely shared, believers hearing the audible voice of God talking them through mundane day to days things like 'ordering a pizza' aren't not widely shared. In fact they are an extreme rarity. Don't confuse the two.

If you're interested, I can say watch this and I can confirm this happened.  She goes to my church, her name's Courtnee, and I went to Germany with her, among many other people.  She's freaking crazy smart, went to Harvard, and had crazy awesome miracles happen to her after her body all but gave out.  

The friend walking?  His name's Christian Bennell.  He's on facebook, but never on there.

My roommate?  Formerly transgender, God cured him of it.  Crazy smart guy too, physics Ph.D. student.  He feels God is leading him to prove his existence through science, which is why he feels called to study biophysics.  

If you go to my church, you can see plenty of people who have experiences of God performing a miracle for them, whether it's the girl who got a scholarship for school the day she needed it despite having applied 5 months late; the friend who gave english names to Chinese people who accepted Jesus that day, naming one Joseph because God told him he had many brothers and sisters, turns out that guy's dad was a high ranking communist party member and thus had many kids(The craziest part is, it took him about 5 minutes of talking to get them to invite him to their dorms because neither of them spoke the others' language, but when they were there, they had no difficulties at all and afterwards my friend couldn't recall what language he was speaking); my former roommate who healed a guys hand with prayer in Cambodia; and on and on.  The other day I hiked up ASU A, a mountain here and twisted my ankle at the top real bad.  I was limping for a bit.  I prayed that God help me and bam!  Got home no problem.  Started hurting much later, but after that and on the walk home?  No problem whatsoever.

Theologically, I'm open to God doing whatever, whenever, including some such things as you mentioned, but in my many experiences with my Pentecostal / Charismatic friends and others who make similar claims is that they are almost all the most flighty and unstable people I've met outside of stoners. The purpose of miracles as seen in the Holy Scripture has always been to validate the messenger or to preserve his life so that he make give his messages that is God communicating through him. Is there any new revelation that we need in order to know God and glorify Him? I think not. Can God do miracles today? Of course. But take this into consideration, God glories in the hidden. He isn't showy. So, if He's doing that to some people, it isn't going to be broadcasted all about.

I mention demons because I had gone through the list above, either me(internal), or external(demons or God).  If me internal had guided me to the homeless man I had given pizza too a while ago, how did I know where to turn?  Had I not turned at this point, as instructed, then how would I have met said man?  How did the internal voice know?  It couldn't be me.  Thus that leaves two others, divine or demonic.  Why would demonic want me to bless a guy with a pizza?  Thus, that leaves only divine and thus God.  I can, of course, reference the guy I gave rodeo burgers to.  How would I have known he enjoyed them?  They were his favorite, but something, obviously not me, told me to get those for him.

That's good deductive reasoning, but I could make arguments for the internal and even for demons (which I don't really think is the case) and I won't as I see it as immaterial. I brought up the question because there's an element of self-confession in you bringing it up before any of us had done so. I wonder if perhaps your conscience is telling you something about this isn't right.

What I am saying is not new revelation, what I am saying is that Jesus is here, living, breathing, moving around with us and if we do as He commands, we will see amazing things happen.  It might be a crazy thing to wrap your mind around, but I was there, sort of, two years ago when I started going to church on my own volition two years ago.

Christianity isn't about seeing "amazing things happen." It is about us communing with our Creator in righteousness, honoring Him in our thoughts and actions. The true 'amazing things' that happen these days and anytime are when a person like myself repents of his self-centered, immoral, anti-God ways having his stone hard heart softened by God so that he may believe in God's propitiation for him (Jesus) and live the rest of his life for God's glory.

d@v!d wrote:Christianity isn't about seeing "amazing things happen." It is about us communing with our Creator in righteousness, honoring Him in our thoughts and actions. The true 'amazing things' that happen these days and anytime are when a person like myself repents of his self-centered, immoral, anti-God ways having his stone hard heart softened by God so that he may believe in God's propitiation for him (Jesus) and live the rest of his life for God's glory.

True. In the grand scope of what God's done and doing for us, free food and money isn't really that amazing...  Even luck or a demon could do that.

Peter who was Vaak wrote:
I've told you the symptoms, the problems and I don't have them.  The diagnosis was more me telling him the symptoms and him saying "Yep, you got it."

Diagnosing schizophrenia isn't exactly arduous.  The symptoms range from being apparent to profound.  If you made it as far as pills and a referral, that's plenty of evidence right there that you need treatment.

The issue is, even though God talking to you about a pizza and garlic bread isn't a problem per say, that LOOKS EXACTLY like a symptom of schizophrenia.

God talks to me too, but if I heard a voice saying "Tom, this is God.  Walk down to Locals today for some free ribs.", I would drop everything that I'm doing and call my doctor.  Voices leading to free food has NOTHING to do with faith and everything to do with psychological well-being.

Schizophrenia treatment isn't exactly fun, but I think you really need it Peter.

So what's the plan here guys?  Are we just gonna keep badgering Peter until he shows us a doctor's note saying that he's fine or are we gonna figure out where he lives, throw him in the trunk of a car and drag him to a doctor and hold him down until we get a diagnosis?  Or are we gonna say "Hey, I'm concerned," pray for him, and back off to allow God to work?  So far it looks like we are going with option A, but I think C might be a better choice.

I think C is really the ONLY way we can go here.i'm sorely tempted to button this up simply so that it doesn't turn into something it doesn't need to be.  Concerns have been voiced, and it's probably best to keep things at the level of "concern" and not escalate things the wrong direction.

How about we talk about Velvet Elvis.

I like Weird Al. He's actually just a really likeable guy and a music making machine!

Driven wrote:How about we talk about Velvet Elvis.

 

I've owned this album since 1998.

I just realized this song was a style parody of The Police two years ago.

Driven wrote:How about we talk about Velvet Elvis.

Personally, I would have gone with Outdoor Elvis

Oh no Veronika and I are hosting out "post-wedding celebration" this Saturday at the park and it's set to rain!!!  The rain is my favorite weather... but not for parties at the park...  We've got people coming from as far as Florida and Oregon for this and I really hope it goes well!  Prayers appreciated!

Kerrick wrote:Oh no Veronika and I are hosting out "post-wedding celebration" this Saturday at the park and it's set to rain!!!  The rain is my favorite weather... but not for parties at the park...  We've got people coming from as far as Florida and Oregon for this and I really hope it goes well!  Prayers appreciated!

Estuvo bien chévere al pesar del tiempo.

Anyone heard from Peter? I know some of you guys were connected with his Facebook...

It was a beautiful 85 degree day here in Tennessee on this 2nd day of November.  If this is global warming, I can sure get used to it!

@Thomas: Not, he is not posting since like a month.

Tried equivalent of our Christmas exchange on another forum, very few people want to try and answers are always the same : "i prefer by it for myself!", "i Will receive bad album!" "I have too much stuff to listen, not interested!".

I think forum's spirit are dead.

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