I think I make some people uncomfortable, with my renewed faith and spirituality. It's almost more like a 'new' faith and spirituality, because it's nothing like I experienced before when I was a 'faithful' Catholic.
I don't go around saying how great I am because I'm following God, nor do I spend my entire day speaking about how great God is. But if something comes up in conversation, and it feels 'natural' to mention that I prayed for something, or what I did the day before, which happened to be faith-related, I'm not going to hold it back.
Why do I think it makes people uncomfortable?
The way it's avoided or ignored by others. It isn't like I'm going up to others and asking them if they've accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Nor am I in 'insurance sales' mode, where everything I say or do has the ulterior motive of talking about God. (Hmmmmm, something to think about...shouldn't everything we say or do point to God?)
Why do we have no problem talking about how much we partied the night before, but if instead we spent the evening in adoration, we redirect the question? What about when we receive a gift from a friend, we tell others how much it's helped our life and they should get one, but not the Gifts from God? Why can we celebrate on Monday morning when our NFL team won, but not about the great sacrifice the Lord made for us that we celebrated on Sunday?
My story always starts with this: "I am a sinner. A HUGE sinner." I don't share in order to make you feel bad. I share in order for you to realize that you can feel good. That if I, yes, even me, can have the Love and Forgiveness of our Creator, our God, then so can you.
I think it even makes fellow Catholics nervous or uncomfortable. It's easy to feel jealous of that spirituality. I've had someone ask me why they, who have been 100% Catholic and followed the rules for their entire lives, don't feel the way I do. I see it with converts; cradle Catholics are envious or don't understand the passion of some of them, and therefore, don't find it 'true'. We have been warned not to be envious or jealous of others' spiritual Gifts.
I think one reason people are uncomfortable is because it makes them examine their own faith and life. No one wants to be found wanting, and it's easier to fool ourselves that we are doing enough. I know I have so much more that I can do, that I should do. Maybe following the rules, the letters of the Book, isn't enough. We also have to follow the Spirit of the Book, the Spirit of the Faith. It's not just black and white; it's also purple, red, green, orange, blue, yellow and every color imaginable.
Love your faith :)
ReplyDeletewell now that you are embracing the catholic system of salvation-- have you had a born again experience that leads you to function in the nine gifts of the spirit?
ReplyDelete1 Corinthians 3 KJ21 - And I, brethren, could not speak unto - Bible ...
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1...3...
BibleGateway.com
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with.
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as ...
www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1-Corinthians-3-1/
King James Version
1 Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [even] as unto babes in Christ. ... from the King James Bible ...
Published on Jan 3, 2014
Rev. Jesse Duplantis shares how Jesus Christ transformed him from a cold-hearted 1970s rock musician into the passionate evangelist some have dubbed "The Apostle of Joy".
http://youtu.be/EID6AQeDjsY
dave roberson
He has bypassed all the trash in the soul and the flesh and has deposited Himself in my
“power plant,” my spirit man.
Now He says, “I want to teach this man his authority in Christ.
He keeps praying in tongues, so he must want Me to teach him about it!
“So I’m going to bring his new nature forward with all the authority that has been given to
him. And anything in the flesh or soul realm that gets in the way is going to end up looking
like it’s in the undertow of the Titanic!”
The Four Ways The Holy Spirit Communicates
Having located the channel through which God speaks to us, let’s discuss the four basic
ways the Holy Spirit uses that channel to communicate.
First, He communicates by the
inner witness
. The Bible says that the Kingdom of God,
which is within us, is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14:17). The Holy
Spirit who dwells inside of us is a continual Source of absolute peace. He will continually pour
His peace throughout our being if we will let Him.
Therefore, the inner witness is often manifested as a disruption to that flow of God’s peace,
alerting us to a wrong turn, a problem, an obstacle, etc.
Second, the Holy Spirit communicates by
revelation
. The reason God communicates with
our spirit and not our physical mind or intellect is that our spiritual mind has the capacity to
receive and store millions of bits of information per second. That kind of reception is in God’s
class!
When the Holy Spirit speaks to us in our native language, He has slowed Himself down to
ultra-slow motion, such as the way a camera is set when filming a plant’s growth. That’s what
it’s like for the Holy Spirit when He has to slow down to speak to us in the language we under-
stand.
So the Holy Spirit loves to communicate by revelation. He likes to encapsulate an entire
revelation and send it through that same channel. All of a sudden, the revelation hits your
spirit and explodes outward. You receive the entire revelation in a hundredth of a second.
For instance, you may be praying in the Holy Ghost, meditating on the Word regarding a
pressing problem in your business. All of a sudden a revelation capsule explodes inside and
you exclaim, “My gosh! I know what to do for the next ten years! And I got it in half a second!”
So you call all your business partners together, and it takes you fifteen days to lay out the
plan you received in a half a second by revelation. Why? Because your spirit has to feed one
little piece of revelation knowledge at a time to your intellect, which then converts it to your
native language.
Do you want to increase these types of experiences in your life? Then spend time praying
in the Spirit. You will keep the channel wide open and promote peace and edification in every
area of life.
The Channel Through Which the Holy Spirit Speaks
91
Third, the Holy Spirit communicates by the
audible voice
.
Mark, thank you for visiting the blog! I'm not 'embracing the Catholic view of Salvation'. I accept and believe God's plan for Salvation, which is what the Church teaches. I have had encounters with the Holy Spirit. I have received gifts from God, and specifically, the Holy Spirit. Having received those Gifts, I know 100% that God wants me to be Catholic and that it is true. There is no doubt. There never has been, even when I was away from the Church and Faith of my own (wrong) choosing. I have a special relationship with the Holy Spirit, and I'm thankful for that. I do not write of many of these publicly, as there are not public encounters or revelations. Thank you for asking! God bless and keep you!
ReplyDeleteChristina