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Sinners Prayer

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gmik:
In 1973 My apartment was robbed and for weeks I was scared to death!!!  I kept all lights on and wouldn't go to sleep until about 4:00 (I naively thought "Who robs this late?").  Then I got up at 6:00 and went to school.

This went on for weeks!  Finally, I did the "I don't know if YOU are real but if You are I need to know" speech.  A presence came into my room and gave me PEACE.  I was giggling, and jumping around the room, and I jumped into bed and fell asleep like a baby.

Next morning I found a Bible, started reading it and have never stopped!!

Scoff if you wish, I know that I know.  I was THAT way, and then I was THIS way. My life changed completely that night.  Old friends-gone.  Old habits-gone.  Old lifestyle gone. (Now of course new ones came, old ones resurface over the last 33 years ;) Happiness that I never knew I could have.  I couldn't believe it.

I believe too that HE meets us where we are when He calls us and gives us what we need.  I NEEDED to FEEL He was real, then thru His word I KNEW it.

That is the truth! :P

carol70:
I cannot recall an exact moment when my journey began.  It wasn't with a presence or becoming filled with a spirit while sitting in church or listening to a sermon.  It was very gradual.  It started sometime in my early 20s when I began acknowledging there was more to my life than just...life, if that makes sense.  Over the years I slowly but surely began seeking Him more and more. 

I had been deceived all my life into thinking I had to go through a water baptism before I could "be saved" and join a church, so that's what I eventually did.  But my walk started long before that and my participating in the physical rituals was something I thought I was required to do.  It had no bearing on my spiritual growth whatsoever.  It sure didn't make me feel or act any different about myself or God.  I basically felt relief that I had "followed the rules" and that I had been "saved". 

I had no idea God was working on me and dragging me to Him the whole time.

sasscell:
O.k. I think I am seeing what you are saying more clearly now Rodger, thank you, and thanks to all who are seeing what I'm trying to say.  Rodger is closing me in on a few things and that is good.  I'm not sure if I am ready to agree that a form of sinners prayer is anti-christ though.  Not that manufactured tickets out of hell aren't though!!  I am speaking only of a genuine "I see that I am a sinner in need of a Savior prayer".  Agreed that our walks don't start at that point.  However, from OUR PERSPECTIVE, AT THAT TIME, they did.  Anyway, I still feel that that genuine outcry to the Lord was in response to His work, possibly inspired of Him....anti-christ you say?  I think we need to be very careful in this area.  I am open to learn Rodger, what say you?

chuckt:
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 :P :-*



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 :o

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

carol70:

--- Quote from: sasscell on July 21, 2007, 06:49:14 AM --- Agreed that our walks don't start at that point.  However, from OUR PERSPECTIVE, AT THAT TIME, they did.
--- End quote ---

From my perspective, AT THAT TIME, I thought I was obeying a God-given command.  Even back then I did not feel that my walk started at that moment.  I had been seeking God long before I got up in church and did the sinner's prayer.  I was striving for obedience.  I thought it was something I had to do along the way in order to be saved. 

For me, I think the beginning of being called out was the day I "heard" a voice say "Go to church."  Hmmm, I guess I did have a visitation after all!  But this was about a year or so after I began actively seeking God.  I found a church and within a few weeks I became a regular visitor. 

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