Tuesday 15 December 2009

Sunday 6 December 2009

What is God's Will For Your Life?

Why Would You Bother about God's Will?

What is your motivation to know God's Will? Why would you bother?

1)
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him (1 JOHN 5:14-15)."

Who doesn't want to get whatever he asks? So, when you know what God's Will is, you will have whatever you ask; it's a good motivation, isn't it?!

For me this is enough to decide living according to the Will of God.

2)
"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:17)."

While knowing everything passes away, the only way to have eternal life is to do God's Will . How can you do God's Will if you don't know it?

Eternal life has no meaning without knowing everything else perishes and passes away.

3)
Jesus said: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21)."

When you know what Will of God is and you do it; you do enter the Kingdom of Heaven according to this verse. I am not sure what Christ meant by Kingdom of Heaven though. Understanding would make this a motivation.

4)
Jesus said: "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother (Matthew 12:50)."

People who love Jesus, would love to be considered Jesus's brother and family indeed. So this would be another potential motivation.

5)
"You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised (Hebrews 10:36)."

Another motivation to know and do God's will is that you would receive what God has promised to you. What are God's promises to you anyway?...

What is God's Will for Your Life Anyway?

If you say "I don't know what is God's Will", you are probably right because you might not know but Bible knows!

Let's see how much we can understand God's Will for our lives from Bible...

1)
"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen (Galatians 1:3-5)".

God's will for our life is that we are rescued! We are rescued from evil of the present age and sins of this world. That has been prepared by God sending Jesus to this world to save the world from sins. Why? What is the problem with sins and evil anyway? ...

2)
"For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:40)."

So, another aspect of God's Will for us is to have eternal life through believing in Christ Jesus.

Everything in this world will passes away and only those who believe in Christ will have eternal life according to Bible. What does this belief mean? What does it want from us? ...

3)
"It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4).

So God's Will for you is that you
  • Should be sanctified
  • Should learn to control your body in a way that is holy and honorable
  • Should avoid sexual immorality
4)
"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)."

  • Be joyful always
  • Pray continually
  • Give thanks in all circumstances
5)
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

This verse says that in order to test and approve God's Will, we should be renewing our mind. God's Will is different from pattern of this world! I am not sure what this means. Renewing our mind from what to what?

Does this mean that God's Will is always good, pleasing and perfect or only when we renew our mind we will approve God's Will as good, ...?

6)
"For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men (1 Peter 2:15 )."

So doing good is another God's Will. What is Good anyway? Good in our eyes or in the eyes of God, as they might differ sometimes?

Who are foolish men that talk ignorant? They should be silenced not by sword but by good doing.

Good thoughts, Good words and good deeds.

"It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit (1 Peter 3:17-18)."

Peter says that sometimes you might suffer for doing good as long as you are sure what you're doing is God's Will. This suffer is better than doing evil.

Well, this seems to be very challenging and hard to practice. Doing what is good in the eyes of God even if we suffer? sounds weird, hmm...

For instance, Jesus suffered and got crucified so that whoever believes in him is saved (God's Will). What about in our lives?

How can God's Will be good if it hurts you and you suffer by doing it? Is it like No Pain No Gain?

Friday 30 October 2009

I Gave You a Cup (of Wine) But You

Since I have decided to be more serious about some of my dreams I would like to share this story too.

About 5 years ago and few months after that event, one night I saw a dream. I saw Jesus coming to me in a room with 2 other men behind him. I don't know who the other 2 were but I recognized Jesus.

He was dressed very normally and there was nothing very special about his appearance to be honest. He wasn't angry but he wasn't happy either.

He told me this and left the room after a while:
"I gave you a cup (of wine) and you drank half of it but you throw away the other half and broke the cup."

I thought with myself that if I drank half of your cup (of wine), that was my decision and that was right and I have no regret. I am sure God has many more cups to give me if needed. I was rebellion in other words.

At the time I saw the dream, I hadn't read the bible, didn't know much about Jesus and didn't know anything about the story of Jesus giving wine to his disciplines at the Last Supper.

At the time, I ignored this and didn't think about it much. I am not sure what He meant by this.

I will write about the meaning of "Jesus Giving Cup of Wine" from Bible when I find some time.

Monday 3 August 2009

Holy Spirit Visited Me!

After about 7 years in 2009, I finally decided to write about this experience that happened to me in 2002 as I can't stop thinking about it.

This is about the story of an event which changed my life and thoughts and blessed me with certainty about God's existence.

Background:
I was born and grown up in Iran until the age of 24 where I was gifted to believe in God because of the society, tradition, etc.

Having said that no one was interested in religion in my immediate family and neither was I.

I lived many years on my own and alone due to family divorce and separation between the children also. 

In 2001 when I was about 21 years old, in my free time, I started reading Quran in Arabic for about 2 hours a day and I continued doing so until 2004.

Overall during the 3 years of daily reading, I read Quran 5 times and the more I was reading it the more I was loving it and understanding its spiritual values more deeply.

In October 2002, in a morning I got up and chatted with my younger brother who was in UK. I heard from him that Christians sometimes fast t in a way that they dedicate a day to God and just do good deeds, say good words and think only divine and positively (I hadn't read Bible but had seen a movie about Jesus and knew what Quran had said about Jesus). I found this type of fast interesting and decided to dedicate my tomorrow to God; not to seek my own needs but to serve, care and love others and God.

Dedicating My Day to God:
I managed to get a day off and I started my day by fasting and dedicating my whole day to God. I tried forgetting my own needs, my personal works, studies, University, etc as much as possible.

I forgave all people and purified my heart from all frustrations. 

I forgave myself and even the stuttering that I had been suffering from. 

On the day, I contacted most of my family, relatives and most of my friends and generally I was there to help, care and love wherever possible. I prayed for all people that I knew or event didn't know...

At night and my Prayer:
At night at about 1 am and while no one was at home but me, I tuned off all the lights at home and came to bed.

I lied down on my bed towards the sky and I remember I had a relaxed and cheerful smile on my face with closed eyes at all time. I had a great feeling about myself and God and my heart was enlightened and full of love.

I started praying, praising Lord and thanking for the day; I had so much love in my heart that I was greatly eager to see God's face. My prayer after few minutes turned to a situation where I was just insisting to see God:

Begging to See God!

"Lord, I love you so much. I know you're here and you are alive. I know you hear what I say and see me right now...I love you and I really want to see you Lord. I know that when I go to sleep, my soul will come back to you. Please bless me by letting my awareness and consciousness to be attached to my soul so that I can see you and remember you...I know you have the power and nothing is impossible for you... please let me see you my beloved... I love you with all my heart..." (I repeated this prayer for about 10 minutes and I was fully awake)

The Divine Visitation:
I can't describe it in the way I experienced it but I do my best:

I was fully awake but my eyes were closed. Suddenly, I felt something like a holy and loving Spirit came to my room and my room was shining with light.

The Spirit came over me and covered all my body.

I felt His warm and loving presence. It was marvelously and deeply full of love.

He called me by name:

"Pooya"
I immediately replied "Jonam?" (in Persian) which means "Yes my dearest?".
There was a silence with His presence for 30 seconds then he called my name again
"Pooya"

The voice was a warm voice of a man, so clear and gently full of indescribable care, love and kindness that words are unable to explain.

I felt He would like to tell me something but no other words I heard and the Holy Spirit was lifted up from me and the room became dark again after about 1 minute.

Then
I was still at bed for the next 3 minutes, then suddenly I became more aware of what happened to me. I scared as it was a very strange experience and I didn't expect it. I got up from my bed and turned on all the lights at home. I asked God not to appear to me again and only speak with me in my dreams and I will hear Him. I couldn't sleep that night until 7 am in the morning.

I shared this story with few friends after a year.

Certainties This Experience Has Given Me:
  • I don't know who God is or how He is but regardless of which religion or philosophy, I am joyfully certain that God exists. I feel this certainty is a blessing that gives me inner peace and trust.
  • There is certainly a connection between Heart and Love with God. Is God Love?
  • Certainly, the voice was either by someone from God or by God himself.
It implied that God said to me:
  • I know who you are and I know you by name
  • I heard your desire and insistence in seeing God.
  • I AM and I want you to have no single doubt about me forever.
  • I love you and you are special to me.
  • Perhaps I have a big job waiting for you! (don't know what and why)
Who was the Spirit?
For years I was struggling to understand who was the Spirit that visited me.
Was him an Angel? Was him a prophet (Mohammad, Jesus, etc)? Was him a past dead relative, etc? Was him God?

It took 17 years until 2019 that I stopped denying and doubting that God visited me himself.

The Holy Spirit visited me in person!

What a joyful experience!

His kind and lovely voice never leaves from my memory.

Thanks for the blessing my God.

Purpose
This verse of Bible has been brought to my attention that Jesus says "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:8-9) so my feeling is God invited me to see and learn from Jesus Christ as His mirror.

Biblical Research

1. God called Moses by name twice.
2. Jesus called Saul by name twice.
3. God called Samuel by name twice
4. God called Abraham by name twice
5. God called Jacob by name twice