Ok, I pm'd that guy that gave me the [sight unseen diagnosis if ever there was one] scathing rebuke and invited him to come over to this thread and argue his points... not likely that is going to happen but you never know... Basically I know people that have a prayer meeting in a church basement once a month and it's quite stunning what happens, it has to be seen to understand it at all, but getting people to get off their little intellectual posteriors and take a look is impossible. Bikers, drug addicts, quasi psychos like myself, passersby, hollywood celebs sometimes, and occasionally a preacher [God forbid they should stray into a prayer meeting !!].. they will go and check it out and nobody gives it a thumb's down, not even the preacher folk that really know their bibles... but the intellectual types that aren't of a mind to go and discern the spirits because they are already the pinnacle, the very be-all and end-all of spirituality.... well.... you know...
just to let you know if you read your bible enough, you might become a theologian. You might also find yourself asking questions. You may start searching for a concordance and reading what experts in other languages have to say about the meaning of the passage. Before you know you might be an intellectual. Let me get you started with a baic question. What does Jesus say about receiving eternal life. Lots of people will quote a passage. What happens when you put them all together and read them in context. But, I suspect you might want to dig into the context of the answers. By the time you are done you may be a theologian.
I once had one leg shorter than another...made equal through a traveling preacher/healer. When I read your post, I was reminded of these youtube clips. Here Here2 What do you think? I have a simple rule of thumb for discerning spirits: The unholy spirit leads into and around the world...forever...if possible. The unholy spirit makes and maintains the world. The Holy Spirit leads out of the world...sooner or later...gradually...gently. The Holy Spirit unmakes it as fast as it is made. The Holy Spirit guides to the extent we are willing to be guided...and serves all...without discrimination. Meeting the insane where they are "at"...the Holy Spirit leads back to sanity. So the work is psychological. This has been going on since the beginning of time...which is the beginning of insanity. When the "work" is done, time will end. Christ!
That's the problem. Mad minds want to put Jesus into "con" text. Get it? Con + text = "context". Meaning, the text that surrounds Jesus words puts his message into a kind of prison. You are putting far too much faith in this book you call "holy". Of Jesus' words, less than 20% are in any way authentic. Try 5%. And of those, this one is an authentic sample: "The Kingdom of God is within you". If you really think about this one, it might just dawn on you just what Jesus was talking about. Beware, your pseudo-mind is set up to reject it, and rationalize it away. But if you can begin to grasp what it means, it's the beginning of your salvation. Put it into "context" and you imprison but yourself. Christ!
Good one! This is the only way an intelligent mind can be taken for a ride. I am reminded of the story of John Nash, brilliant mathemetician, a "beautiful mind" gone temporarily mad. In his biography, it says that he said his recovery began when he stopped thinking about politics and religion. Well, the world is politics and a kind of fanatical religion...and it drives a beautiful mind mad. And in its madness, it sees bodies where before it knew only pure Spirit. Likewise, our salvation begins when we start to stop thinking about the world. Nash called his method a kind of "thought diet". We must watch our minds vigilantly because the intelligence of a mind far more powerful than Nash's is intent upon deceiving itself...and as bodies, we are but images in its mind...pawns in its thought process...slaves to its slaughter of the Son of God. It helps to have a sense of humor. Keep it up! Christ!
The word "iniquity" derives from the root *unequal*. Iniquity is an attempt to be either greater than, or less than GoD. It is not possible to even pretend to be greater than GoD. So the world is all about being less than GoD. Hence, "the world" is the *sacrifice* of what is equal, and must remain so. Equality is the truth...all throughout the Kingdom of God. There are no "angels" either "good" or "bad" that are somehow less than GoD. There is nothing less than, or greater than GoD! Therefore, the world is nothing! Equality is the way of reality. Iniquity "kills" the truth...conceptually...hypothetically...magically... metaphysically...deceptively...illusively...delusively. Since sacrificing equality in favor of iniquity, you do not understand GoD, which knows only equals. Jesus understood this, and so, considered himSelf equal to GoD as a matter of fact. To go to GoD, you must go as an equal, for that is all GoD knows. That is how Jesus went! How can you claim to "follow" Jesus to the "place" where he is, and share his glory...if you deny yourself equality with him and with *Our Father*?! But for iniquity, you would understand what I am explaining to you. Iniquity has dumbed us all down - temporarily - for all of time. But we are not time-creatures...nor is our genesis germain to geography. This is not only "my" knowledge, it's *your* knowledge...written on your own "heart"...at the core of your being. When denial is not longer your desire, you will "hear" the knowledge (gnosis) of which I speak. And you will learn to trust it. For nothing else makes any sense whatsoever. Forgiveness is simply to let the truth be true. Forgiveness washes away sin because universal innocence is the truth! And because the world is a sin (a lie), the truth washes away the whole world...from within your own mind. For that is where it is...a fact only insofar as you are thinking about it. When you stop thinking about the world...when you *overlook* the world...you are truly forgiving the world. Forgiveness restores your true birthright back to you...restoring everything you threw away in favor of iniquity. So, as you "give" forgiveness, you will "recieve" it. To recieve it fully, you must give it to all...fully. Meaning, if you would receive everything, give everything. The Kingdom of God is all you can give, and all you can recieve. You cannot give more...nor can you really give less. Let the Kingdom of God be true...for your neighbor...and so for you. Iniquity is the domain of the unequal, the different, the separated and the special. This describes the entire world. And it is this you must overcome, including all of the deceptions that would hold you imprisoned within it. It is not a sin to be one with GoD. It is a sin to be "as gods"...plural! Sin is all about the *many*...the *multiple*...the numbers...the different...the hierarchy. And all this for what? To be special! [translation: pride] Since equality is the truth, sin must begin with lies. Get it? Lies "kill" the truth that lies may "live". So it is, that the world "lives" as Christ "dies". But that is false salvation! True salvation dawns when the lies "die" that the truth may live...as it was...as it is...as it always shall be. And what is the truth? Life! Christ!
your new post manifests an almost complete 180 from the teachings Jesus in the 4 gospels of the new New Testament. as I pointed out before your teachings seem very closely aligned with the snake in the Garden. Eat from the tree of knowledge and you will be like God. I do not want to be like God. I choose to serve him. You are really hanging out on a limb when you begin to trust a gnosis made up out of thin air and confirmed by your heart. Good luck with that. I am not saying you have to believe the bible... but calling yourself Jesus or "I am" is at best a joke and at worst sinister.
In his biography, it says that he said his recovery began when he stopped thinking about politics and religion. (I'll toss in a dose of finance to make it three). --------------------- I might check this guy out for the simple reason of this quote. I have gone into Borders and after ten minutes I felt like puking. Oh yea, plenty to read but the shit will drive you nuts. I leave empty handed. Of course, I do not know what I'm recovering from- maybe nothing, maybe denial.
Things slip by Intellectual-Theologians [IT's] like "the Word is spiritually discerned"... I find that one can defend from scripture the idea that spirits of people exist with God before they come to earth... that will get the IT's mad, anything that doesn't fit their notions will get them mad at me I find... you can also defend the notion that we are not born sinners from scripture. In our prayer meetings we find that many people experience rejection in the womb, their parents discuss whether to abort them or not and their problems actually start there... so the passages that say we are born sinners can mean that we are infected with rejection and all the evil that follows it in the womb, not born sinners... for God's sake, people punish babies for yelling because they see them as being selfish and born sinners... psychology doesn't bear out the idea of punishing kids that early in life AT ALL... The guy that runs the prayer meetings, the ones where we get over so much stuff, developed a few ideas that are counter to the mainstream theology, from his experience in the meetings actually. None of these ideas are crucial to the ideas of salvation, they just don't agree with the mainstream and they can be defended by scripture.. that makes IT's hopping mad... they will eventually be dropping the insinuations that people like me aren't saved, another reason to want to blow chunks... when I first got saved I learned that a lot of people that ran churches could make me want to blow chunks... They provided some sick moments and gave me some bad advice, after a few weeks I vowed to follow the scripture and let the Holy Spirit be my teacher, the IT's have built a nice foundation but it's got a few cross beams that are crooked and it's missing some skylight frames... I just keep my trap shut nowadays, if somebody is open to ideas, they will likely be a blessing to me, no reason to hork that up.... I like very much to take the Bible first literally. I learned that if I want to think that God made the universe a few thousand years ago I owe nobody an apology on any level, all theories of origins cannot be proven no matter how many times we hear "billions of years", there is zero actual proof of those ideas and in fact, the evidence doesn't bear them out... God provides proof that he exists and his word is true, He even says that is what he is doing in one of the books of the prophets.. the proof is that nobody else can predict the future... so he does so with some stunning accuracy.. nonetheless people come out of college saying "you can't prove the existence of God"...... The Chinese have developed Tai Chi, a powerful fighting art that is based on breathing energy... I have stood in the middle of the Karate school, dropped my weight, and a construction worker could not make me move in any direction, and I'm skinny too... but there always seemed to be an element of Voodoo to that stuff, so the Holy Spirit, being the great teacher that He /She is, led me to a passage that said to be thankful for breath. That's the answer to capturing the energy properly, actually take a deep breath and be thankful to God for it... no more voodoo.... and you probably won't be looking for somebody to fight either !! The literal level is a good place to be sometimes... IT's don't go there very much... it literally says in the book of Jude to get together regularly and confess faults one to another and it unequivocally says if you do that you will be healed... so I found a few people that have been doing that for a few decades already and it works fine !! IT's rail at the idea that simple, obedient people can get blessed mightily and pass quietly on with their lives... not my problem at all.... I've found that the Holy Spirit can lead me to resources of learning that are a little hidden, a little out of the mainstream, there only for folks like me that really just want to know things in a big way... I can read the book of Revelation all the way through and "pretty much get it"... all these Bible school IT's I see on tv... wow, they don't get it, they have the timeline all off in the future, it's been going on for 1700-1800 years or so... It's like a mystery story, when all the pieces fit the puzzle, well, sleep on it a few nights and see how it all looks, if it's still ok, it's solved.. It's not an intellectual process really, it's a spiritual process... you have to pass some little tests then you find yourself at a much higher level and God can be so generous, so incredibly nice to a person, it's all worth it... He can treat a person like they were the only person in the world sometimes...
Things intrigue me... the second chapter of Revelation talks to the seven churches. Most theologians agree that they were actual existent churches of the day, and that the writing is prophetical... seven churches and seven ages of the church... Chuck Missler analyzed those stories and found that he could make a matrix, fill in what was said about each church [age] that was good, and what was bad.. when each age ended, and the three that still are with us, where they end, two go sailing right into the tribulation.... the Philadelphia Church had nothing bad written about it, the last one, the Laodecian one, had nothing good said about it... what is the last incarnation of christianity... what could be that Laodecian church... not hot or cold He says... sort of locked into something that isn't love, isn't hate maybe, sort of locked into an odd place, sort of in a bad place but oblivious to it.... personally I think it's the Charismatic church. I've seen too many of these folk up close to not see that they think they are the be-all and end-all.... and that their lives are sometimes horribly messed up and they seem powerless to fix it all... sometimes they have huge and prosperous churches with lots of fancy cars in the parking lots too... still somehow, I like them as people... but I think that God is telling them they need to wake up to something...