hi all and greetings.
well if im off topic here i apologize. i think it happens a little different to all of us.
i was raised catholic, so i always"beleived" in God. at age 24 after being a rebellious teenager
i knew somethng was wrong and there had to be something better, so one night i got on my knees and started praying, well i felt a "change" and started reading the bible vigorously and attending church again, then i got a great job in alabama and started going to a pentacostal church i was on fire!! after a yr i moved back to GA. and man was i on fire to save people from hell, looking back i can see how self righteous i was and so condeming of others i actually drove them away, well this was the point i was knocked down and thrown into the wilderness, oh i was a beleiver but could not let go of the flesh, i was literally tormented in the presence of the lamb for 20 yrs!!! all the while desperatly trying to be "good" and so after 20 yrs i cried out to God, show me LOVE what is LOVE, who are you GOD..etc.....after a few months of crying out to God he showed up!! YES he showed up for it was
time for my visitation!!there is much more to my story but looking back i can truly see it was in fact ALL the working of God all those yrs being prepared to deny freewill!! and to be ready to have scripture opened up to me!! how awsome is GOD!!!!
we tend to live in real time and cant really see till we look back do we understand whats ahead!!
while the term "sinners prayer" is a man made term, we all at one point have to go thru some form of it for it is the beginnig of being called out!!! for some it takes 20 yrs for others only days, God know when and where
the problem with orthodoxy;s sinners prayer is they leave you there in the dirt/carnal mind ((darkness/error))drinking milk.they dont tell you what you must go thru and prepare you that your not saved but being saved 90. Two Spirits
15 ...From the God of Knowledge is all that is and shall be; before they were, he made all their designs.
16 And when they come to be they testify to his glory as planned, fulfilling their deeds and changing nothing. In his hand
17 are all judgments, and he will support them in all their needs. And he created Man (enosh) for dominion
18 over the earth; and he appointed two spirits for him to walk in
until the time of his visitation. These are the Spirits 19 of Truth and of Error. Those born of Truth are in a spring of Light; and those born of Error are from a well of darkness. 20 In the hand of the Prince of Light is dominion over all the sons of Righteousness who walk in all the ways of Light. But in the hand of the Angel
21 of Darkness is dominion over all the sons of Error, who walk in the ways of darkness.
--- Dead Sea Scrolls, Community Rule (1QS) 3.15-21
be well and blessings in YESHUA
chuckt