Excuses for fakes

[ProDeo]

Okay, after some hesitation I will tell a strange story that happened to me in June 2022, because it's on topic.

It was my 72 birthday and I was in the kitchen, probably making coffee when out of the blue a loud and devastating thought came up into my mind : this is your last birthday.

I was in shock and because of the intensiveness I wondered if it was God Who was telling me. I never had such an experience before. After a lot of thinking I more or less concluded that it was a random thought that scared me, but I also kept the option open that it could have been God after all. Very strange situation.

And I was pretty sure that in my early Christian days when I was vulnerable for these kind of experiences I would have believed it. Was God testing me? Or did He want me to prepare for the moment I would meet my Maker? Dunno... Anyway, while still thinking it came out of myself I intensified my (sloppy) prayer life in preparation to meet my Maker.

And the months passed and passed, it was impossible to share it with anyone. Imagine I would have told my wife, she would have been worried and then ask me 10 times a day, that's no life for both.

And it became June again, still alive and the night before my birthday I wrote an email to my wife in which I explained everything to her, just in case.... I assumed it would give her some consolation. I went to bed, woke up alive and well, another birthday.

So in the end I misled myself. Super-strong emotions are no evidence.

One thought crossed my mind I am still not out, can the devil (the liar) break into your mind and put such a horrible thought (lie) into you? I doubt it because as we believe we have the Holy Spirit indwelling. But your mileage may vary.

[RabbiKnife]

Satan certainly cannot make us think something, but on the other hand, Old Smokey has been watching us humans for a good long time now.  We are all universally— or almost all— really attached to this life regardless of our faith in Jesus and don’t want to die.

I don’t think Satan can read our minds, but I think he’s really good at reading our bodies and hearing our unintended communications.  And yes, I believe that he can whisper to our spirit and unconscious mind in ways we can’t comprehend

Which is why being filled with the Holy Spirit is so important

And by the way, brother. We’re glad you were wrong!!

😳

[ProDeo]

 

[IMINXTC]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/23/us-pastor-1m-cryptocurrency-scheme-christians-denver

"The Lord told us to’: US pastor says he stole $1m from Christians to remodel home..."

[RabbiKnife]

I saw that... makes me want to puke.  I can imagine what it makes God want to do.

"Any many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, I bilked your stupid sheep out of millions of dollars in your name" and Jesus will say, "Toast."

[Slug1]

One thought crossed my mind I am still not out, can the devil (the liar) break into your mind and put such a horrible thought (lie) into you? I doubt it because as we believe we have the Holy Spirit indwelling. But your mileage may vary.

One of the most preached about lesson's in the Bible is about satan tempting Jesus three times.

We also have Paul pleading with God three times to take away a "thorn" that is described as a messenger (or aggelos - angel) of satan.

I believe demonic spirits can and do lie to us in ways we don't fathom, but the effects of their lies, can affect us when we don't hold close to God's truth.

[Athanasius]

One thought crossed my mind I am still not out, can the devil (the liar) break into your mind and put such a horrible thought (lie) into you? I doubt it because as we believe we have the Holy Spirit indwelling. But your mileage may vary.

I'm glad to hear you were wrong.

Similar to what RK said, I don't think the demonic has any elevated access into our private thoughts, our mind, etc. However, I have no reason to think that they can't communicate with us if they were allowed to, or that we aren't so different from past generations that given enough exposure, an intellectually clever, immortal being who has been around us since the start, couldn't become exceptionally gifted at reading us.

After all, how long did it take to plant that doubt in the garden? I wonder if that was a transferrable skill.

When I was in my early 20s, I had the same nightmare every night for a couple of weeks. Without going into too much detail, the short of it was that I was sitting in a chair in a big, empty room. And I'd be sat there for a little while before the door to the room opened, and something resembling a man came in, and the moment he did I was filled with terror. I was paralysed: my skin goosebumps; my hair stood on end; my heart skipped a beat, and then sped up; I experienced a profound sense of dread as if I was about to lose my life. I tried to talk but I couldn't make a sound, and as I tried to say the name 'Jesus' all it did was circle around me, telling me all the terrible things that I had done, and all the ways in which I was a failure, and all the ways in which my faith had failed. It showed me things it said I desired. And those nightmares felt like they went on for hours, and hours, and hours, as I tried to say anything the entire time.

And they went on for weeks. Weeks of nightmares that amounted to psychological torture from a being my mind is not twisted enough to conjure up. This was no Hollywood demon. It wasn't my subconscious working through this-or-that. It was a thing I had no hope in myself against that for whatever reason showed me a depravity I can't put to words and wouldn't if I could. All it did was accuse, and it accused me until I managed the faintest whimper of the name 'Jesus', and then I woke up.

And then it happened again exactly the same, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again until it just stopped.

You know, maybe it was all in my head, but you kinda know when you're not dealing with yourself. And you know, for all the things that were said to me or shown to me, it did so, I think, to try to lead me away. It tried because Jesus loves me despite all that -- that's what I took away, even if I struggle with it. And I figured that if simply being in its presence effectively drained the life out of me, how much more powerful is God if after hours of talking, it left immediately at the quietest whimper of a name?

[RabbiKnife]

Amen.

And as Dumbledore said to Harry, "Just because it is all in your head doesn't mean that it isn't real."

[ProDeo]

@Athanasius

Sleep paralysis is a state, during waking up or falling asleep, in which one is conscious but in a complete state of full-body paralysis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

The last ~10 years I have periods of Sleep Paralysis, the mind becomes awake but has not yet control over the body. During that time you feel completely paralyzed as if your body is wrapped in duck tape. And the mind randomly starts to make up crazy things, from unable to put on my clothes, or being in a pool of water and unable to swim and thus drowning, or some some guy who wants to shoot me, etc.

That kind of fun.

[ProDeo]

BTW, speaking about sleep, any idea if there is a spiritual reason why the Lord has created us with the necessity of sleep? Surely God never sleeps and likely the heavenly inhabitants don't either.

So why?

Maybe there is no why and it's just natural.

[Athanasius]

@Athanasius

Sleep paralysis is a state, during waking up or falling asleep, in which one is conscious but in a complete state of full-body paralysis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

The last ~10 years I have periods of Sleep Paralysis, the mind becomes awake but has not yet control over the body. During that time you feel completely paralyzed as if your body is wrapped in duck tape. And the mind randomly starts to make up crazy things, from unable to put on my clothes, or being in a pool of water and unable to swim and thus drowning, or some some guy who wants to shoot me, etc.

That kind of fun.

I've had that, too, along with night terrors. It wasn't that.

[Athanasius]

BTW, speaking about sleep, any idea if there is a spiritual reason why the Lord has created us with the necessity of sleep? Surely God never sleeps and likely the heavenly inhabitants don't either.

So why?

Maybe there is no why and it's just natural.

Iunno, we're biological machines. I suppose it never used to be a problem that we slept 1/3rd of our lives.

[Sojourner]

@Athanasius

Sleep paralysis is a state, during waking up or falling asleep, in which one is conscious but in a complete state of full-body paralysis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

The last ~10 years I have periods of Sleep Paralysis, the mind becomes awake but has not yet control over the body. During that time you feel completely paralyzed as if your body is wrapped in duck tape. And the mind randomly starts to make up crazy things, from unable to put on my clothes, or being in a pool of water and unable to swim and thus drowning, or some some guy who wants to shoot me, etc.

That kind of fun.

I've had some experience with sleep paralysis/night terrors. I had episodes off and on for years before I knew what it was, and still deal with it now and then. I always experience the frightening "dark intruder" thing, like a shadowy, barely perceptible visage in my face. I've had hallucinations, where I've been touched or had the covers pulled off of me--only to have everything back to normal as soon as the paralysis dissipates. (I eventually learned to restore mobility by first wiggling my toes, then moving my legs). Weird stuff.

[Athanasius]

@Athanasius

Sleep paralysis is a state, during waking up or falling asleep, in which one is conscious but in a complete state of full-body paralysis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

The last ~10 years I have periods of Sleep Paralysis, the mind becomes awake but has not yet control over the body. During that time you feel completely paralyzed as if your body is wrapped in duck tape. And the mind randomly starts to make up crazy things, from unable to put on my clothes, or being in a pool of water and unable to swim and thus drowning, or some some guy who wants to shoot me, etc.

That kind of fun.

I've had some experience with sleep paralysis/night terrors. I had episodes off and on for years before I knew what it was, and still deal with it now and then. I always experience the frightening "dark intruder" thing, like a shadowy, barely perceptible visage in my face. I've had hallucinations, where I've been touched or had the covers pulled off of me--only to have everything back to normal as soon as the paralysis dissipates. (I eventually learned to restore mobility by first wiggling my toes, then moving my legs). Weird stuff.

I've had actual, wide awake, not asleep, "A Haunting" nonsense happen. Like, doors opening/closing, TV's turning on/off, furniture being tossed about. I once had my brother tell me about what I did at school, and he was home sick, and this was no "Oh I saw your so-and-so" heard it from a 3rd party pass it off as a parlor trick". This was when he was quite open about talking with a man who would sit at the end of his bed at night and tell him things. It's crazy talk until it's not.

I don't like talking about these things exactly because it makes me look crazy.

[Sojourner]

I've had actual, wide awake, not asleep, "A Haunting" nonsense happen. Like, doors opening/closing, TV's turning on/off, furniture being tossed about. I once had my brother tell me about what I did at school, and he was home sick, and this was no "Oh I saw your so-and-so" heard it from a 3rd party pass it off as a parlor trick". This was when he was quite open about talking with a man who would sit at the end of his bed at night and tell him things. It's crazy talk until it's not.

I don't like talking about these things exactly because it makes me look crazy.

I don't doubt the reality of your waking experiences, nor do I think you're crazy. We humans live in a dimension surrounded by supernatural beings and events which occasionally manifest themselves to us in ways that defy rational explanation. In its own realm, the supernatural is "natural". In our realm however, it can be difficult to grapple with.