| Author | Message | ||
| Philharris Registered user Username: Philharris Post Number: 170 Registered: 5-2007  |
Spokenfor, I will be praying, now and tomorrow. There was a time when I was afraid to go to sleep even when others were with me, so I know what to pray for. Your guardian angel is with you now and will not leave you...ever. Phil | ||
| Patriar Registered user Username: Patriar Post Number: 384 Registered: 3-2005 |
Grace: Well said. Thank you. And I agree. The further into Truth that God brings me, the more I realize the depth of deception and yes, bondage that defines Adventism. Patria | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 4254 Registered: 3-2004  |
Spokenfor, I have prayed for you before I wrote this. I have asked God to hold you in His awesome arms until you can identify why you feel this way and can let go of it and give it to God. I have had God hold me in His arms for 5 years and I did not know it at the time. God is with you and He is protecting you. Diana | ||
| Snowboardingmom Registered user Username: Snowboardingmom Post Number: 331 Registered: 11-2005 |
Spokenfor, I'll be praying for you tomorrow night. Begin praying in preparation that God will hold your heart at peace, and calm your thoughts and mind. Trust and know that He is with you; He's IN you protecting you both on the inside (your mind, thoughts, emotions) and on the outside. When I encounter fears or worries, I've learned that it instantly calms me to sing and begin praising God. Just a few weeks ago, I was overcome with fear over a situation. The song, "Made Me Glad" just kept coming to me: I will bless the Lord forever, I will trust Him at all times, He has delivered me from all fear, He has set my feet upon a rock, I will not be moved, And I'll say of the Lord, You are my shield, my strength, my portion, deliverer, my shelter, strong tower, my very present help in time of need. Singing that song just helped calm me. Find a song that you can sing, or a scripture you have memorized that can bring about that faith and trust in Him that is deep within you that no one or no circumstance can take away. Spokenfor, He is mightier than all of our fears, and His love and care for us is greater than the memories (conscious or not) that have caused them. I'm praying for you. Grace | ||
| Lori Registered user Username: Lori Post Number: 69 Registered: 11-1999 |
He has promised to keep us in PERFECT PEACE if we keep our minds stayed on Him.--Isaiah 26:3. There are many precious promises in His Word that we can claim for a good night's sleep: I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety."--Psalm 4:8. "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."--Exodus 33:14. "When you lie down, you will not be afraid: You shall lie down, and your sleep shall be sweet."--Proverbs 3:24 When at night you sleepless lie, And the weary hours drag by-- Lift your thoughts to God above, Bending down to you in love! Feel His presence by your bed-- His soft touch upon your head. Let your last thought be a prayer, As you nestle in His care! Ask Him all your way to keep, Then--why then--drop off to sleep! God bless you! Good night and SWEET DREAMS! | ||
| Spokenfor Registered user Username: Spokenfor Post Number: 80 Registered: 12-2003 |
Phil, Diana, Grace and Lori -what precious friends in Jesus you are! Thank you for your words of comfort, your prayers and the scriptures, songs and verses you've given me. I will print each of them out and keep them nearby to read if fears should come. I think the ideas of singing praises to the Lord and repeating scriptures that bring me comfort will truly fill me with His peace tomorrow and the two following nights when I will be alone.Diana, thank you for praying that He will reveal the cause of my fear in order for me to understand it and let it go. I KNOW God is faithful, He is mighty and He has promised never to leave me -- tomorrow the rubber will meet the road so to speak and I am believing I will see His power at work. So, I thank you all again, from the depths of my heart and I will write again and let you know how it goes. This is huge for me and right now I almost can't wait for tomorrow night, not to get it over with, but so that I can experience the amazing peace that only my Lord can give. God bless each one of you and good night for now. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 6722 Registered: 12-2003  |
Spokenfor, I am also praying for you. Several years ago I finally asked God to send away the spirit of worry that was paralyzing me and to place His Spirit in the place that worry had been. He is faithful. He heals our deep, even unremembered wounds when we submit them to Him, and He really is all we need. The automatic temptation is there to fall into fear—but Grace's suggestion of praising God and singing is extremely powerful. The Bible's consistent commands to give thanks, to pray, and to praise God in everything are God's own provision for our weakness. Remember that God told Paul, when he begged three times for Him to remove the thorn in his flesh, that His power is made perfect in our weakness. I will pray for you, Spokenfor. God is faithful. Colleen | ||
| Larry Registered user Username: Larry Post Number: 146 Registered: 5-2007 |
Spokenfor, I was just yesterday searching google for strongholds and came up with a pretty good link here One of the ideas was: The ultimate stronghold in our minds is our fear of death. (Message edited by LarrY on September 04, 2007) | ||
| Patriar Registered user Username: Patriar Post Number: 385 Registered: 3-2005 |
Spokenfor: I am praying for you. I'm anxious to hear how it went for you last night? In Jesus, Patria | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 4257 Registered: 3-2004 |
Spokenfor, I learned in my 12 step program that we cannot hold a positive and negative thought in our mind at the same time. You fear is negative and singing praises and praying is positive. Keep praying and singing praises. You are in my prayers. Diana | ||
| Leigh Registered user Username: Leigh Post Number: 186 Registered: 2-2003 |
Dear Spokenfor, I too, have dealt with paralyzing fear. About 10 years ago, my husband was out of the country for about 6 weeks. I was alone with my 2 young children. Every night I would be awake until 2 AM terrified at every noise and letting my imagination run wild with all sorts of things. A friend of mine gave me a verse to read at night - Ps. 4:8 "In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for thou alone, O Lord, makest me dwell in safety." That night I read the verse over and over but I was still paralyzed by fear. I again fell asleep exhausted around 2 AM. That night I had a dream. I was being chased by some beastly creature/person. I was so afraid. All of a sudden I had a golden sword in my hand. I turned and faced my pursuer. In my dream I did not feel any more fear and my pursuer fled. When I woke up, I looked up the armor of God text (Ephesians 6:13-17). At the time, I wasn't very familiar with the Epistles and I couldn't remember what the sword was. I know now that the sword of the spirit is the word of God. I use the Word to fight the fear that still tries to raise its ugly head. My weapons of choice lately (especially when I fly) have been these two verses: I sought the LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4 In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul. Psalm 94:19 Praying for you tonight. Leigh | ||
| Toria Registered user Username: Toria Post Number: 200 Registered: 2-2006  |
Spokenfor, Tonight my prayers are with you. Know that many folks are lifting you up to our Lord this night. Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day. Psalm 91:5 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1 God Bless, Toria | ||
| Blessed Registered user Username: Blessed Post Number: 89 Registered: 1-2007 |
Spokenfor, I have lived so much of my life with fears - fears of staying alone, fears of driving on the highway and having an accident, fear of drowning in water, etc. etc. When I accepted Christ and left Adventism I started to realize where the fears were coming from and gradually through the years the fears have lifted. Adventism is filled with fear - fear of the end times, fear of seeing Christ and not being perfect enough, and the list goes on and on. Today 37 years later I have been released from so many fears - I actually have stayed at my cabin by myself which is in a fairly remote area - I took the boat out by myself while I was staying alone, and I travelled to and from the lake on the highway without any fear - Thank You Jesus. And the end times - thanks to Beth Moore's study of Daniel I now no longer have a fear about the end times. It is so wonderful to be released. I am thrilled that you and the Lord are taking a further journey together and I know that He will be with you. And isn't it wonderful to have such a super FAF family to pray through that journey. As Diana says - The Lord is truly AWESOME. | ||
| Spokenfor Registered user Username: Spokenfor Post Number: 81 Registered: 12-2003 |
Thank you all SO much for being so wonderful! I am overwhelmed by the support I have recieved here on this forum. I can feel the effects of your prayers tonight - I have not felt nervous or afraid at all. I am so amazed at God's faithfulness. The scriptures you have all shared with me are so powerful - thank you for taking the time to write them out. There is a very real power in praying these verses and replacing the fear thoughts with the words of scripture is the reality of the sword of the spirit. I am also very encourged to hear the stories of how many of you have overcome your fears - our Lord is so faithful. I feel blessed beyond measure this evening and I thank you again for being a huge part of that! As an extra bonus I received the new issue of Proclamation today so I have something wonderful to read! Thank you all again for caring enough to pray for me in my time of need. I will never forget it. | ||
| Spokenfor Registered user Username: Spokenfor Post Number: 82 Registered: 12-2003 |
Thank you for that link Larry, I am checking it out as fear of death has been the overriding fear of all my fears. | ||
| Pheeki Registered user Username: Pheeki Post Number: 889 Registered: 1-2003 |
Blessed...I also grappled with intense fears all of my life. I was terrified I couldn't stand in the time of trouble...and my mother-in-law even told me I had to be prepared to let my children die for the Sabbath! How could I do this? I feared I wouldn't grow up...I feared traveling...I feared people who weren't SDA...the list goes on... I have gradually been released from the fear...it has taken a while but I no longer live in fear of the end times or other Christians, etc... greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world!!! I cling to that!!! | ||
| Jorgfe Registered user Username: Jorgfe Post Number: 703 Registered: 11-2005 |
Pheeki, I was thinking yesterday, "What is at the heart of the difference between the way a Seventh-day Adventist views salvation, and the way a Christian views salvation?" My dialog with Seventh-day Adventist friends increased my awareness of this aspect. As a Seventh-day Adventist, I had one "heart" -- filled with sin. It was my job to try to eliminate all the sin in it and make it "perfect". Only if I succeeded before my name came up in the Investigative Judgment would I be "good enough to make it to heaven. Even then I would have to go through a "Time of Trouble" which Ellen White said she was shown would be far worse than anything we could even imagine. I imagined the worse torture I could think of, and shuddered to think that this would be even worse. Our own friends and neighbors would be hunting us down to torture and kill us for keeping the Sabbath. You know all the rest of the gorey detail. I just hoped that if I was good enough, maybe I and my loved ones would die before then. I imagined being asked to sacrifice my dear children in the most cruel manner for my Seventh-day Adventist beliefs. For sure, it be no time to even consider having children. And since 1844, we were long overdue. In fact Ellen White even stated that in emphatic terms. So the Adventist view, as promoted by Ellen White, was that acquiring a "clean" heart would be like taking my car through a carwash, and removing the mud and dirt. It would still be the same car (heart), but it would be "white as snow" -- totally clean, but only if I didn't for even a second think "worldly thoughts". No. my view was not distorted. That is what Ellen White teaches. My dear Adventist friends even tell me now that in the New Covenant time period that it is the same old law (the Ten Commandments) that is now "written in the heart" -- the same old heart! In reflecting yesterday about what is so different, and emotionally freeing, about being a Christian instead of a Seventh-day Adventist, is that as a Christian we don't have an old heart that we wash and wash and wash, trying in vain to get it clean! The Holy Spirit comes and takes out our old heart of sin, and replaces it with a totally new heart -- one that is programmed in accordance with New Covenant principles. The old heart of sin -- a heart in bondage to Law of Sin and Death -- is totally removed. Our new actions are the result of our new heart, and not of our own righteousness. Meanwhile Seventh-day Adventists refuse to acknowledge that when the Holy Spirit dwells within us he brings with Him a new heart for us. They reject both the Holy Spirit (replacing it with the Sabbath), and a new heart! What a profound thought. What a tragedy! Seventh-day Adventists will never understand the New Covenant (new heart) experience, while clinging to their old sinful hearts, and trying in desparation to make them clean. The New Covenant conversion by the Holy Spirit makes no sense to their old heart. The mind-numbing assault of Ellen White's abusive advice has dulled their senses to the point where they are brain-dead. Gilbert Jorgensen It has been 162 Years, 10 Months, and 14 Days since October 22, 1844 | ||
| Patriar Registered user Username: Patriar Post Number: 386 Registered: 3-2005 |
Gilbert: That reminds me very much of something else I've read.  Colossians 2: "9For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. 11In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature,[a] not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, 12having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature,[b] God made you[c] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.[d] Wow! Praise His holy Name! Patria (Message edited by patriar on September 05, 2007) | ||
| Jorgfe Registered user Username: Jorgfe Post Number: 704 Registered: 11-2005 |
Patria, what a wonderful promise! I also like the part, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form". What blasphemy Ellen White wrote in belittling Christ to a mere angel, or a weak "Adventist Jesus"! Gilbert Jorgensen | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 6733 Registered: 12-2003 |
Gilbert, you said that so well! I'd never thought of it in those terms before, that Adventists think of the new heart as being the 10 Commandments written on the old heart. You are so right! I've realized that they deny the new birth by refusing to acknowledge that humans have spirits that can be alive in Christ or dead in sin, that it is the spirit that knows God—but I'd never thought about them writing the LAW on the "old heart". Very insightful. Patria, that passage in Colossians has been extremely impacting to me as well. His circumcision of the heart literally removes our intrinsic sin. The Holy Spirit in us places us in Christ, and we are seen by God IN JESUS, and we are no longer considered sinners, even though our mortal flesh still is not glorified. It's so amazing...it's hard to articulate. Colleen |
