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[DWIGHT]

1Samuel 16:14
But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

Saul was the first king anointed by God over the kingdom of Israel.  But because he disobeyed the Lord, the anointing left him.  Not only did it leave him, but God sent an evil spirit to trouble him.

How awful would it be for the Lord to send me an evil spirit to trouble me?  Well, I can tell you it is awful, just look at what happend to Saul the rest of his life.  It was full of envy, jealousy, pride, cowardness, lying, unrepentance and unforgiveness.  He even went to witchcraft because the Lord would not listen to him because his heart was not right with God.

Hebrews 3:12
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

Hebrews 10:31
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

We just can't get away with things like we used to.  God has really been dealing with me lately and I must confess, nothing I do pleases Him except a broken heart and a contrite spirit. 

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Psalm 53:6

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Psalm 51:11

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psalm 51:17

In Him,

Dwight

[Jackie Lee]

Just Kind trying to learn as I go, why did God send an evil spirit?
Was this to teach him or refinement?

[Kat]

Hi Jackie,

Saul lived his life according to the purpose God intended.  He was the first king of Israel and in the beginning he was pleasing to God, how he lead Israel.  But later it was God's will that Saul serve another purpose and for that He sent an evil spirit.  Saul was never converted, without the knowledge of the resurrection of Christ no one in the OT will be in the first resurrection, they will all be judged in the Lake of fire.

mercy, peace, and love
Kat

[Deborah-Leigh]

Hello Dwight

You share that : nothing I do pleases Him except a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

That place is the sanctification of the soul in the furnace of His Consuming fire where the threashold to cross over is from Doing to Being. BE Still....Peace BE Still...and know....my dear friend.

Thoughts and prayers for your comfort, endurance and patience and peace....

Arcturus

 

[YellowStone]

Hi Dwight,

You wrote: "nothing I do pleases Him except a broken heart and a contrite spirit. "

And you quoted the following words of David

Psa 51:17 The sacrifices of God [are] a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 

I would like to comment on this if I may

David was still very much subject to the law, because the gift of the Spirit had not been given him. Paul speaks of this.

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

It is the heart of the yet carnal that needs to be broken and made contrite. I think many here, myself included have been subject to this somewhere in our past. Yet, now being the beneficaiaries of the Spirit we have become a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.  

Pleasing God requires that we: Love God with all our heart, soul and mind and our neighbors as ourself. (Mat 12:30,31)

And that we live accordingly .....

1Th 4:11  And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

1Th 4:12  That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and [that] ye may have lack of nothing.    (Psalm 23)

Our carnal heart must break so that we can begin the process of obtaining a spiritual heart that is pure and true.

2Ti 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
 
Hbr 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Please know, as our sister Arcturus stated, this is merely a process, albeit a very painful one. As Arcturus said: Be still......

Psa 46:10 Be still, and know that I [am] God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.  

May God provide you with all the comfort you need during this brother Dwight.

Love,
Darren

[Deborah-Leigh]

Dwight

I read somewhere that Ray prays for all of the Forum members.

I recall your email to Ray and not soon after you joined and added to our fellowship so for this reason I feel confident that you are in Ray's prayers too because you add and build and encourage the fellowship here.

This response from Ray from a person who also is suffering I believe can also touch you and be also for you too as much as the hem of the garment of Christ, though passing by, also was reached for and became the passage through which some poor believing soul received the nourishment of the power of Christ. May this be to you too as you read these words from Ray to his friends

 Prayers Please
« on: Yesterday at 02:50:45 PM » 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  Timothy Littleton was a Baptist minister who was forced out after
he learmed the Truths of God and began teaching them. We have been friends
for some years now since our Fort Walton Beach Bible Conference.


Hello Ray just asking you and the bible-truth family to keep us in your
prayers. I had to put Ruby in the hospital last week and just brought her home
today.She is doing fair. Hope you and your family are blessed. God bless you.
Timothy


Dear Timothy and Ruby:  Our prayers are for God to bring peace and health to your home.It does us well to remember Paul's faith when facing great trials as these: 

        "For we would not brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia [the Seven Churches were in Asia, and WE are in spiritual Asia today], that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead: Who DELIVERED us from so great a death, and DOES DELIVER: in Whom we trust that He will YET DELIVER US"  (II Cor. 1:8-10).
        God be with you both,
        Ray

[hebrewroots98]

Hello Dwight,

That situation (of God taking HIS spirit from me and replacing it with an evil spirit) is the scariest thing that I could imagine right now.  I actually can't even begin to think that He has brought us this far just to have His spirit taken from us...  surely His goodness shall follow us all the days of our lives!

His peace to you and our prayers are with you and your family!  Keep us updated on how everyone is getting along, especially you!  Your other family is here...

[Jackie Lee]

Hi Jackie,

Saul lived his life according to the purpose God intended.  He was the first king of Israel and in the beginning he was pleasing to God, how he lead Israel.  But later it was God's will that Saul serve another purpose and for that He sent an evil spirit.  Saul was never converted, without the knowledge of the resurrection of Christ no one in the OT will be in the first resurrection, they will all be judged in the Lake of fire.

mercy, peace, and love

Ok Thanks Kat, so there may be times we believe we are not in the will of God but we are living as God intended?
Is there ever a time when we are not living life as God intended?

Kat

[Jackie Lee]

Ooops what happened to my post?
Thanks Kat,
This makes sense about all in the OT.
I remember asking someone a few years ago why John the baptist was not in heaven?
Their reply was oh he is... even though the scriptures says he isn't.
Does anyone recall where scripture says there was no greater man than John the baptist yet he had not ascended to heaven?

[Kat]

Hi Jackie,

Here is the scripture you were looking for.

Mat 11:11  Truly I say to you, Among those who have been born of women there has not risen a greater one than John the Baptist. But the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

so there may be times we believe we are not in the will of God but we are living as God intended?
Is there ever a time when we are not living life as God intended?

Simply put, if God is sovereign then nobody can ever go against His intentions.
But to give you a little better perspective on this here is an email of Ray's.

http://www.forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,2885.0.html -----

Dear Ray,

I read with interest your paper about 9/11. However, I do have a question.

You wrote:

"Isaiah 30:1-3, 6-7”"Woe to the rebellious children [Israel], says the Lord,
that take counsel, but not of ME: and cover with a covering [Heb: make an
alliance or ratify a covenant, but not of MY spirit [Heb: against
My will], that they may add sin to sin ...

"And they reject the counsel of God. They go against Gods will in these
matters ..."

I thought no one COULD go against God's will. Please explain.

God bless,
Sandy


    Dear Sandy:  People go against God's will ALL DAY LONG. That's what most people's lives consist of--going against God's will. 
It is God's purpose, plan, and intentions that absolutely no one has ever or ever will go against. 

Listen:  It is God's purpose and plan that people GO AGAINST HIS WILL. He purposes for people to go against His will. It is God's will that we all become PERFECT as He is perfect, but it is in His sovereign plan that we all live very imperfect lives before God begins to change us into perfecion.

    God be with you,
    Ray
-----------------------------------------------------------

mercy, peace, and love
Kat

[hillsbororiver]

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psalm 51:17

In Him,

Dwight

Hello Dwight,

This is something I can truly identify with, from time to time I have started topics when I have felt as I perceive you to have been feeling lately.

A while back I wrote about the "Spiritual Pendulum" that I think many believers experience and perhaps you will relate to what we wrote of our own travels on this journey.

His Peace to you Brother,

Joe

http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,506.0.html

[Sometimes I recognize and identify with what I call the spiritual pendulum, what I mean by this is I see (and personally experience) this comfort and clarity of the Spirit within and I am figuratively shouting for joy.

 Psa 32:11  Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

This wonderful glorious experience is then followed by a period of anxiety where I feel the Spirit has withdrawn a bit and I am left to my own understanding with the resulting lack of clarity, not a loss of faith but the Words do not jump off the page at me as they do at other times. My feelings of remorse and regret for the many hurtful things I have done to others in the past return, I know consciously I am forgiven, but I am not really comforted in that knowledge.

Eze 36:31  Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

It is then that I pray for the increase of His Spirit, to once again feel His love and to let go of my guilty and confused state of mind.
   
Psa 51:12  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

This "pendulum" has not been swinging as far as it has in the past but there are still times when I am anxiously awaiting the restoration of His Spirit in me. It seems that tribulations do not necessarily have to come from external situations or problems although they certainly can and do. Again we come back to faith and patience.

Rom 5:3  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

I must admit I do not always have the "glory in tribulations" down pat, but it is a work in progress, the Lord is constantly strengthening me and this part of the journey is becoming more of a reality. Patience is growing.

Any comments or thoughts on this?]

[YellowStone]

Hi Joe,

It was great reading your "Spiritual Pendulum" post agian.

For one reason or another, God has blessed me his constant love and light. It was not always like this, yet over the years God has taken center stage in my mind and heart. This may sound somewhat crazy, but I have way more faith in him being there for me when I need him than I have for myself. 

I used to beat myself up for being so sinful and inadequate, yet now I know that I am is of God. Christ, the firstborn became the first perfect human; there were non prior or since. I am a living temple of God, as are you my dear brother. Yet I am a sinner, possibly the greatest sinner.

Yet Paul speaks of this so well, and I know exactly what he means.

Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that [it is] good.

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not.

Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Sadly, I cannot escape the sin that lives in me, but thankfully God has proven to me that he loves me and is with me always. I just have to trust him.

What I am going to say now may shock some, but I hope not.

The Scriptures are living, they apply today just as well as anytime in the past. They are God's word, yet they are not God. I have learned that if his "words" (scripture) grows quiet or dim, it is not because he is pulling away from me; rather, that he is pulling me to him.

Sounds crazy doesn't it.

But it is so true, for when I begin to get a little big for my pants and "think" I have handle on this "truth" thing, I soon learn that I do not. God is spirit and his Spirit is in our hearts, if I am to comunicate or learn from him, it has to be through the spirit and not my carnal attempts. God does not grow distant, it is I.

Jhn 14:17 [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

Learning this through the graciousness of our Father has been such a  comfort. The fine words of Christ (below) mean so much.

Jhn 21:19 This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.

Your brother in Christ,
Darren

[hillsbororiver]

Thank you Darren,

It is my belief that although we all have many similar experiences along our respective journeys we do not all have the same exact path. Yes, the path that leads to Him is narrow for each individual believer but I do not believe it is the same exact path for all.

Much of our experience on this journey is One on one with the Lord as He prepares His people (individually) for the unique place in the Body He has willed them to be a part of. As a potter uses different methods to create a variety of finished vessels and as the ear has a different function (and perspective/experience) within a body than does an eye His people are being groomed for a unique destiny and office within His Kingdom.

Look at the different route Peter and Paul took to Christ, remember even what was said about John when Peter inquired of the path he (John) was to take and what was in store for him?

Joh 21:21  Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
 
Joh 21:22  Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

His Peace to you,

Joe

[hebrewroots98]

Hello everyone,
I don't think that the highs and lows will ever cease;  only b/c they are the catalysts which cause us to become either so very joyous that we could shout from the mountaintops or else it causes us to become deeply  introspective.  There is a time and season for all that we experience in this flesh and without the highs and lows there would never be the balance that we need in order to survive as well as to experience in the contentful moments.

I agree that those lows times feel like they are the hardest blows to our spirits.  It never feels good at the time, but with HiS grace we are able to get through it and look back and say that it was  necessary wilderness to go through in order to come out stronger spiritually...just growing pains.

...and Lord forbid with any of us, but IF HE chooses to take HIS spirit from us and to ultimately make us a vessel of dishonor, then it was always HIS WILL and that is something that we cannot change.

[Deborah-Leigh]

Darren

You observed : I have learned that if his "words" (scripture) grows quiet or dim, it is not because he is pulling away from me; rather, that he is pulling me to him.

That is a gem. Thanks for sharing.

Great points Joe. Thanks ; I believe our unity should be in our diversity not in our likeness to one another but to the ever original Christ therein lies our distinction!

Peace to you

Arcturus