Category: Friendship

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Conversation with God Friendship Hearing God Holy Spirit Jesus Jesus's Communication Ministry Prayer

Hearing and Seeing What God has to Say with a Spiritual Director

Help Hearing God

A Spiritual Director or spiritual friend has a simple job: to help you hear God for yourself, with greater confidence and clarity, joining in a conversation that God is already having with you.

When you want to receive what God has to “say” (it’s not always in words), a spiritual director can sometimes be mighty helpful. I know, because I’ve been helped this way. Often.

Why and how can this be? What goes on? I’m still figuring this out, but my current understanding is something like this:

“Hearing” God can be hard, because:

-Our own opinions, beliefs, personal history and other “stuff” can sometimes make it harder to hear God by ourselves.

-A lot of us still need a lot more practice trying to hear from God. (Hearing is a metaphor that can include words, still knowing that is pre-verbal, seeing or feeling something, noticing thoughts in our mind that might be from God, and lots more. Whew! No wonder we can use help!)

-There are many ways God “speaks” to us, and the methods God uses have useful side effects to help us. For more on this, see: https://ministermorelikejesus.com/voices-of-god/

A Spiritual Director or spiritual friend can sometimes help:

-Your issues are not felt so deeply by another person, are not so personal, making hearing easier.

-Someone with practice hearing from God, and whose abilities complement yours can be a wonderful partner. Especially when

-They care. When you and they have a “heart connection”, connect well.

-Having someone who listens deeply and well, with their heart, helps us all clarify issues and be clearer and more ready for fresh insight.

A Spiritual Director of spiritual friend has a Helper, Holy Spirit, who

-Is the same Helper and Comforter who is helping you! We have Someone in common.

-The two humans can have a conversation, which is private and aimed at helping, and both of us have the same Holy Spirit who is communicating with you.

A Spiritual Director or spiritual friend has had lots of experience receiving such help. Knows what it’s like. Can be sensitive to issues about spiritual direction and to what may matter to you.

A Spiritual Director or spiritual friend has a simple job: to help you hear God for yourself, with greater confidence and clarity, joining in a conversation that God is already having with you.

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Conversation with God Disciple Making Discipleship Evangelize Faith Friendship Getting Help Gospel Jesus Joy Kingdom of God Ministry Prayer

There are Multiple Biblical Ways to Salvation

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Those of us who use even a somewhat Evangelical approach to salvation have a few prayers that we encourage so that someone can experience salvation.

The Bible takes a different approach. So much so that the most frequent method to attain salvation in the bible is one I’ve never seen or heard of being used with a potential convert. By hindsight, this is a bit astounding.

Yet in real life, it makes perfect sense. And the usual prayers are used for several good reasons.

It really is wise and good that we get to know more consciously about Jesus, and Jesus as our Lord. And that this be expressed clearly in our prayer.

So what is this most frequently mentioned method of achieving salvation in scriptures that is so unused for making converts? It’s actually a method frequently used by the rest of us.

A very common prayer, used by many of us when we need help, when we need and want to be saved. Just seldom used to help someone become a convert to Christianity.

What is this frequently used approach for getting help when most needed, but seldom if ever used to help someone become a convert?

It’s simply this: call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved.

Biblical theology is probably wider and more inclusive than our theologies. God is certainly more broad minded than we are.

And this illustrates very well how some things are taught about to us and for us in scripture from many angles, in many ways. And we tend to focus on one way, sometimes proof-texting, yet even so, we tend to focus on one very good way. But God and scriptures offers more options than we often think about and sometimes more options than we even normally trust or believe in.

Thank you, Lord, for being so broad minded, for thinking differently than we do, for being more loving and generous than we yet are able to grasp.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us eternity to continue to get to know you and your love. We need you. And we need eternity to explore and learn about your love and your depth. Thank you, Lord!

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Emotional Pain Empath Friendship HSP Missing the mark: Sin Pain Tribulation

Please Be Careful What You Say….

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Imagine, if you will, being an Empath (feeling what others feel, or even feeling things around you – which can make you a gifted mechanic if you can feel what car parts are like – or skilled with plants or with animals – maybe even gifted with people), and highly sensitive (noticing and responding deeply to all sensory input). These are wonderful and powerful gifts, though not always appreciated by today’s macho, rationalistic society.

(There are Empaths in this world. Most of them are people who are highly sensitive. Some researchers suggest 20% of the population is gifted this way, and they are useful to the rest of us because they notice things we have overlook. Such gifts are especially useful for leaders, for people-groups of all kinds; useful for counselors, healers, and intercessors. For teachers, and all who are gifted leaders in church who help prepare the saints – that’s all of us – for service.)

Imagine being asked to study propaganda in depth, a long series of very convincing videos that explain how a particular group of people (another political party, of course) is full of child molesters, and even people who drink the blood of babies. Seriously. A long series of videos to show and prove how such things are actually real.

And then later being told by others that since you do not happen to appreciate, laud and love a particular politician, you must be one of these awful people you have had rehearsed so much through studies friends repeatedly ask you to engage in.

Imagine, if you will, being sent videos (and very convincing ones) about a vaccine, and being told it is dangerous not only to you, but to people around you.

So dangerous are you assumed you will be, if you take such a vaccine, that a good friend will no longer tolerate being around you or be in your presence because you are so dangerous.

Most people who send such videos and propaganda for you to consume do so with deep sincerity and the best of intentions – to protect you from such horrors.

Some creators of such propaganda also have good intentions, to share an important message. Even when some knowingly and systemically exaggerate to make their point stronger. (When I was younger and more insecure, I used to do such things myself. I understand!)

Imagine, if you will, that you happen to rather strongly suspect that some people are purposely propagating lies. Sometimes for their purposes that they deem good. Others, perhaps, love to share mischief or even wilful evil.

Imagine, further, being told by someone else that your choice to do such a thing as to have this dangerous, killing vaccine – that is so dangerous to yourself and to others – if you make such a choice, this amounts to a decision to be a serial killer.

Remember – as an Empath and highly sensitive person, you imagine and feel the message, it’s details, it’s intent — deeply. Very deeply. Even if you decide for yourself that this propaganda is not real. You are still affected. Even if you happen to believe this is all based on lies being propagated for political purposes. Lies, lies, and more lies – or so it seems to you. Imagine experiencing such things as these.

And you are considered to be the equivalent of a serial killer whose very presence is considered dangerous and unwanted. And you are one of the people in this world who when told they are unwanted, you tend to automatically feel this too much. (I think a lot of us are like this.)

Now that you’ve imagined all this as if you were a highly sensitive Empath (thank you for going along with this), and you’ve taken these things in very deeply – let’s consider something more.

Can such things be real? Maybe all these messages are genuine and always sincere! You just happen to be highly sensitive and empathic.

Nah! Such imaginings are unrealistic and unplausible. Such things cannot be real. No one would communicate such things on purpose, would they? But some people do communicate such things. And many who do so do this with the very best of intentions!

What do you think? What kingdom do these stories and messages come from? The Kingdom of God?

Really?

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Discipleship Faith Friendship Getting Help Pain Purpose

Improve & Transform Terrible Memories

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Father and son observing Comet Pan-Starrs in Massachusetts

There is a straightforward way to transform terrible memories, which I just recently discovered and noticed through a Facebook friend, Henry Kanu, who lives in Sierra Leone.

This works so well for me because I already have experience with and belief in a particular promise of God: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good”, Romans 8:28a., ESV.

Henry Kanu and I were discussing and exploring this promise, when Holy Spirit prompted me to test this out and prove it to myself – even further.

So I thought of two memories that I considered terrible memories of things I had experienced. (My wife’s unexpected death and a painful childhood time.) Then I applied God’s promise to those two memories.

Remarkably, they no longer seemed like terrible memories; there were just precursors – things that happened first, before God tuned those experiences into good things – which I can now easily notice and appreciate. I am grateful for what has happened.

Applying God’s promise literally transformed the memories from being of things I felt were bad – into memories of how God made good out of those things. I literally remember and experience the blessings that God gave as a result of these experiences.

They no longer were terrible memories for me.

If you have enough experience &/or enough trust in this promise from Romans 8:28a, I believe this transformation can easily happen for you, too.

And if you need more experience with this promise, I recommend you do two things. First, meditate on God’s promise. Second, remember some specific things that are terrible memories, and notice how God turned these experiences into something good for you.

After doing this for a while, see how the promise may help you transform a memory of something that felt bad, and that you thought of as a terrible memory.

I believe you will notice as I have, a memory of something you thought of as being bad and that felt bad – can be transformed by applying God’s promise of Romanss 8:28a.

Oh – and it’s an excellent idea to give thanks for the improvement and transformation to Jesus. And to praise him for this. Which will have the side effect of nailing down the transformative experience of a bad memory into being the start of something good that God has done for you.

Thank you, Henry Kanu. And most of all, thank you, Jesus Christ!

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Freedom Friendship

Gaining Freedom from Fear

I have a brilliant friend who recently dealt with and took care of fear. Including fear that he was not sure of the origin of. He has had outstanding success.

I asked him about this, and what he said was a major insight and illustrated well a powerful and effective way of dealing with such experiences.

He said,

The more appreciation I show, the more gratitude and blessings I bestowed onto the fear, the lesser the grip or contraction of the fear.

Only then can I fully feel into the sensation.

We have to anchor ourself in strong positive emotion or power before we should approach fear. Otherwise we could get paralyzed and stuck.

From my friend, Yk Liu, a doctor in Hong Kong and a student of all kinds of healing.