Listening to God?

[Saint]

The Holy Spirit seeks to bring us around to accepting God's guidance for our lives. "All those led by God's Spirit are God's sons" (Rm 8:14).

This is a stage in life which many Christians never attain - they are not Spirit-led Christians. They are led by self-interest, physical impulses, or by the opinions of others. They have not put themselves at the disposal of the Spirit to be led of Him in the details of their lives. Hence they lack direction and, therefore, a goal.

When Christians say to me, "The Spirit never seems to guide me," I usually reply, "How well do you listen?"The problem we face over guidance is not because the Spirit fails to lead us, but because we are not listening. We must be prepared to stop talking and wait before Him so that He can talk to us.

In this frenzied age many Christians have lost the art of listening. They are willing to spend time in prayer talking to God, but are not willing to spend very much of the time listening to God.

We must stop, wait, and tune ourselves in to the Holy Spirit's wavelength if we are to hear His voice in our hearts and feel His gentle impressions.

A Quaker woman inquired of a young man, "Hast thou heard God speak lately?" "No," said the young man. "Then thou hast forgotten to be still," said the woman. "Stop... and know..." says the Scripture (Ps 46:10). Be restless and you will not know. God guides everyone who wants to be guided.

I think the above writing is meaningless.
When did God speak audibly that i can listen to him?
Christians' thinking is rather subjective and self-righteous, they think everone must follow their way and set of value.
Am i goal-less if i do not follow bible's way?

 

[Cris]

Set your own goals. If there are philosophies in the bible that you find admirable, e.g. love your neighbor, do not murder, etc., then adopt those. Christianity isn't needed to achieve a moral life, it has no monopoly, and much of what it teaches is intolerance.

Set your own values and your own goals.

 

[Saint]

Set your own goals. If there are philosophies in the bible that you find admirable, e.g. love your neighbor, do not murder, etc., then adopt those. Christianity isn't needed to achieve a moral life, it has no monopoly, and much of what it teaches is intolerance.

Set your own values and your own goals.

Thank you, I agree with you!

 

[Hapsburg]

I agree. Everyone makes their own goals and ethics, their own sense of self and morality.
IMHO, those who claim that "god" told them something are either crazy people who hear things in their head, or they're just trying to get attention.

 

[The Evelyonian]

When did God speak audibly that i can listen to him?

Spiritual guidance doesn't always involve God speaking audibly. Being guided by the Spirit is different for different people. For some it may be something as simple as an urge to do good for someone else, For others when they're speaking with someone words will come that are not their own, and for a rare few it may involve God speaking audibly (I won't rule out the possiblity). If you want to be led by the Spirit then the best advice I can offer is to stop struggling. Simply say "God, I'm here."

Christianity isn't needed to achieve a moral life, it has no monopoly, and much of what it teaches is intolerance.

Please read the words of Jesus. He never says to hate anyone.

"But I say to you, LOVE your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you," - Matthew 5:44

 

[Cris]

The E,

Please read the words of Jesus. He never says to hate anyone.

But Christianity positively discriminates against Gays because of the bible - that is one example of intolerance.

 

[c7ityi_]

When did God speak audibly that i can listen to him?

god is the voiceless voice, kind of like the conscience. some people can hear it better than others. it's the voice of our higher/true self.

Am i goal-less if i do not follow bible's way?

of course not, how could anyone believe he must follow the bible. you can believe and follow anything you want. it's better to believe in yourself than god, although it's the same thing.... we always only believe in ourselves.

 

[Lawdog]

ice.

 

[Lawdog]

Saint, (as you title yourself in folly):

I belive that when a thread is submitted a question needs to be posed. You are asking if you are goal-less. Search the scriptures and you will find what God is asking of you. Be careful however, make sure that you submit yourself in humility to the study, else false doctrines will enter your mind. Always pray to the angels and saints for their help in interpreting scripture.

 

[The Evelyonian]

The E,

But Christianity positively discriminates against Gays because of the bible - that is one example of intolerance.

Christianity doesn't. Christians do. But not all, some Christians are of the mind "Hate the sin, love the sinner." In other words it means that, while I don't agree with the lifestyle, I see no reason to persecute someone because they do. I'm a Christian (there's a shocker) and some of my best friends are gay. They're also wonderful people who I could never hate or discriminate against.

When you say "Christianity teaches" you're looking at the actions of a few (usually the ones on TV) and saying "Well, they act this way because Christianity tells them to" when that isn't the case. Remember that not all Christians are intolerant.

 

[Lawdog]

A shallow message. the question is this: should the state tolerate their demands as a group, a false interest group, a minority. Of course not, no christian society should sanction laws that affirm their lifestyle.

 

[Satyr]

If you listen to another, then you fail to hear yourself.

The idea out of which a god speaks to his minions is bent upon the incessant whisper of cultural dogmas that echo in our brains.
Those monotonous herd drones of ‘Thou shall…’ and ‘Thou shall not…’ well-up inside our minds, from the depths in which they were planted and were allowed to flourish, and they feel like they are coming from alien mouths when it is really our own mind speaking to us using another’s words.

 

[The Evelyonian]

A shallow message. the question is this: should the state tolerate their demands as a group, a false interest group, a minority. Of course not, no christian society should sanction laws that affirm their lifestyle.

The question is different for me. For me the question is: Do they have the right to live? I believe they do. What the state does is not my concern.

 

[Cris]

The E,

When you say "Christianity teaches" you're looking at the actions of a few (usually the ones on TV) and saying "Well, they act this way because Christianity tells them to" when that isn't the case. Remember that not all Christians are intolerant.

No that's not what I mean. Christianity is itself intolerant because it erroneously labels some lifestyles as wrong as opposed to alternative. That you might condescendingly tolerate the Gay lifestyle and at the same time believe it is wrong is not true tolerance. Love the person and hate the sin doesn’t really work.

The concept of sin (disobedience of an authoritarian god) is an anti-social and divisive concept that encourages adherents to judge others on a moral code defined 2000 years ago by a culture no longer relevant to today.

A more appropriate code would be one of total freedom where everyone could do as they wish provided they did no harm to others. Within that framework true tolerance could meaningfully prevail. But Christianity isn’t a supporter of freedom.

 

[Cris]

Lawdog,

A shallow message. the question is this: should the state tolerate their demands as a group, a false interest group, a minority. Of course not, no christian society should sanction laws that affirm their lifestyle.

And there we have one of the basic pillars of evil portrayed by parts of Christianity. The encouragement of intolerance and discrimination by some people against others. World peace is impossible all the time religion asserts its ugliness.

 

[Satyr]

Damn!!! Last time I listened to God He told me to take off my pants and run down the street.
I’m still living that down.

Now He’s telling me shit about killing and maiming imbeciles….Man I ain’t listening to that fool no mo…..

 

[The Evelyonian]

That you might condescendingly tolerate the Gay lifestyle and at the same time believe it is wrong is not true tolerance.

The definition of tolerate is: "To allow (something that one dislikes or disagrees with) to exist or occur without interference." - Wiktionary

It doesn't mean that I have to agree with it 100% percent. I can believe the gay lifestyle is wrong and still tolerate it.

 

[Cris]

The E,

And the issue I have is that Christianity erroneoulsy disagress with it because Christianity is not a meaningful, informed, flexible, or adaptive philosophy.

 

[Lawdog]

Lawdog,

And there we have one of the basic pillars of evil portrayed by parts of Christianity. The encouragement of intolerance and discrimination by some people against others. World peace is impossible all the time religion asserts its ugliness.

World Peace? Yah right.

 

[The Evelyonian]

The E,

And the issue I have is that Christianity erroneoulsy disagress with it because Christianity is not a meaningful, informed, flexible, or adaptive philosophy.

The reason that the Bible disagrees with homosexuality is because in the Bible God ordained marriage as between a male and female. One of the purposes of this union was to create life. That is one thing a gay couple cannot do. A homosexual union cannot produce children. That is why the Bible calls it unnatural.