Once In A Lifetime?

[SingerOfSongs]

Several years ago when I was a 'seeker', I started visiting the local Christian bookshop

Long story short, one day the proprietor invited me up to his flat above the shop and offered to pray for me

During his prayers I began to experience something that I'd not felt either before or since. It's hard to describe, but it was as if I was being surrounded by a feeling of complete and overwhelming love. Like a 'presence' was giving me a big, reassuring hug. It was amazing!

But I've often wondered since if what I experienced was wish-fulfilment or whether it was, in fact, God

What do you think?

 

[Willie T]

Could have been one and the same.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

If it changed your life it was most likely of God. If it was just a feel good moment that came and went and had no consequence in your life it was probably just that, a feel good moment.

 

[for_his_glory]

You said you was seeking and in that moment of prayer God revealed to you His love that is overwhelming as there is no greater love than the love He gives. I'll never forget the day that God revealed His love for me. It was the most beautiful feeling that I will ever experience. I pray you have found that which you were seeking and have become one of His own now seeking truth through His word.

 

[SingerOfSongs]

Thanks for the replies

Like I said, it was quite an amazing experience. I genuinely felt that I was in the presence of something 'other'. Unfortunately I didn't really follow it up, and now I find myself in a weird kind of limbo. I believe but I don't act

 

[for_his_glory]

Thanks for the replies

Like I said, it was quite an amazing experience. I genuinely felt that I was in the presence of something 'other'. Unfortunately I didn't really follow it up, and now I find myself in a weird kind of limbo. I believe but I don't act

Just don't let yourself stay in that limbo and keep seeking as you set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, Colossians 3:2.We are ever learning and always drawing ourselves closer to God seeking His face daily.

 

[SingerOfSongs]

Just don't let yourself stay in that limbo and keep seeking as you set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, Colossians 3:2.We are ever learning and always drawing ourselves closer to God seeking His face daily.

I envy you. You seem very secure in your faith

 

[AirDancer]

As a continuous seeker of more knowledge & a deeper relationship with our Lord, you will experience that amazing feeling of pure love over and over again. His pure love is with us always...it's just that we allow elements of life to sort of get in the way of feeling that love on a regular basis. But as we read & study Scripture, and spend time in conversation & prayer with our Lord, the more we feel His love & presence.

 

[for_his_glory]

I envy you. You seem very secure in your faith

Please do not envy me as it took me many years of misery and trials before I became secure in faith which is not mine, but Christ Jesus that builds on my personal relationship with Him as I draw closer to know Him even more today than I did yesterday. You started out by being a seeker when you entered that particular bookstore and that was the moment that God showed you His unconditional love towards you. Was it by chance you entered that bookstore, I believe it was the Holy Spirit guiding your first steps into knowing God is love and wants you to also have that special personal relationship with His son Christ Jesus. Now it's up to you to continue seeking to know Christ and build your relationship with Him. Never be afraid to ask us questions, even if they sound stupid to you for that is how we learn by sharing the word of God, but most important that you get into the word and ask the Holy Spirit teach you all truths and He will.

I have a website you might like to check out where I have several classes teaching on the word of God. Just click the link at the bottom of my post.

 

[Christ_empowered]

My best guess is that God gives a lot of people--you included--some wonderful, intensely emotional moments in an effort to draw you nigh unto Him.

 

[SingerOfSongs]

Please do not envy me as it took me many years of misery and trials before I became secure in faith which is not mine, but Christ Jesus that builds on my personal relationship with Him as I draw closer to know Him even more today than I did yesterday. You started out by being a seeker when you entered that particular bookstore and that was the moment that God showed you His unconditional love towards you. Was it by chance you entered that bookstore, I believe it was the Holy Spirit guiding your first steps into knowing God is love and wants you to also have that special personal relationship with His son Christ Jesus. Now it's up to you to continue seeking to know Christ and build your relationship with Him. Never be afraid to ask us questions, even if they sound stupid to you for that is how we learn by sharing the word of God, but most important that you get into the word and ask the Holy Spirit teach you all truths and He will.

I have a website you might like to check out where I have several classes teaching on the word of God. Just click the link at the bottom of my post.

Thanks very much, and I've just had a look at your website - interesting stuff

 

[SingerOfSongs]

As a continuous seeker of more knowledge & a deeper relationship with our Lord, you will experience that amazing feeling of pure love over and over again. His pure love is with us always...it's just that we allow elements of life to sort of get in the way of feeling that love on a regular basis. But as we read & study Scripture, and spend time in conversation & prayer with our Lord, the more we feel His love & presence.

Thank you

 

[SingerOfSongs]

My best guess is that God gives a lot of people--you included--some wonderful, intensely emotional moments in an effort to draw you nigh unto Him.

Thanks. I hope so

 

[Blake]

It wasn't once in a lifetime.

 

[LoveOnDisplayNetwork]

What I feel and others who have replied also mention is the relationship is what you need to focus on. The same way you would pursue a girl that caught your eye court Jesus. He's far less expensive but his value is immeasurable and he makes you priceless. All he wants is you. Seek him through his word and grab a copy of Rick Renners' Sparkling Gems Devotional. As you begin to truly accept him as your Lord and Savior, making him the absolute authority over your life. The relationship you've cultivated to get you in that place consistently will teach you how to usher in his presence at all times so it's no longer something you're seeking but you're now introducing to others who are where you once were..

 

[SingerOfSongs]

It wasn't once in a lifetime.

 

[SingerOfSongs]

"What I feel and others who have replied also mention is the relationship is what you need to focus on. The same way you would pursue a girl that caught your eye court Jesus. He's far less expensive but his value is immeasurable and he makes you priceless. All he wants is you. Seek him through his word and grab a copy of Rick Renners' Sparkling Gems Devotional. As you begin to truly accept him as your Lord and Savior, making him the absolute authority over your life. The relationship you've cultivated to get you in that place consistently will teach you how to usher in his presence at all times so it's no longer something you're seeking but you're now introducing to others who are where you once were.."

Thanks for that!

For some reason I can't quote your post, so I've copied and pasted it

Nice vid, by the way

 

[th1b.taylor]

Several years ago when I was a 'seeker', I started visiting the local Christian bookshop

Long story short, one day the proprietor invited me up to his flat above the shop and offered to pray for me

During his prayers I began to experience something that I'd not felt either before or since. It's hard to describe, but it was as if I was being surrounded by a feeling of complete and overwhelming love. Like a 'presence' was giving me a big, reassuring hug. It was amazing!

But I've often wondered since if what I experienced was wish-fulfilment or whether it was, in fact, God

What do you think?

SoS,
That feeling is often lost after the Salvation Experience but though we might grow so accustomed to it that it becomes normal, there is, really, no reason to loose it. There is the instruction that we should always remember our first love that is seldom studied but should be studied without end.


When you experienced that love from God you were seeking, pro-actively, to know God in a personal way. I have continued to seek to grow, ever, closer to God since 1/1/'90 and God has continually poured His blessings over me and my family, evoking that warm, cozy, feeling of love, often. To this day my desire is a closer relationship and I am pro-actively seeking Him, still.

 

[Via Cassian]

When I attended a very small Evangelical church that was not Charismatic in any way we had a fairly steady stream of visiting pastors and missionaries. Once during a Sunday evening prayer session with a visiting pastor who had retired and was elderly, four of us were sitting on metal folding chairs in a small circle. His face had deep lines of a long life preaching the Bible to poor congregations. After our prayers when we were just chatting about the Christian path, the life in Christ, he reached out and put his hand on me. I think in his mind it was just a gesture people often do during conversations -- ie he was not thinking about the laying on of hands -- but that was 25 years ago and I still feel it and remember his face. He is the only such visiting pastor I remember from those years and the only time anything like that has happened to me. Part of what made the event so unusual was that it was so unintentional on his part -- just a passing gesture -- but instantly I said in my mind, "that was the Holy Spirit."

LOL, I bet all the good Charismatics will reply, "see what you have been missing by not attending a Charismatic church that's filled with the Holy Spirit!"

 

[Blake]

When I attended a very small Evangelical church that was not Charismatic in any way we had a fairly steady stream of visiting pastors and missionaries. Once during a Sunday evening prayer session with a visiting pastor who had retired and was elderly, four of us were sitting on metal folding chairs in a small circle. His face had deep lines of a long life preaching the Bible to poor congregations. After our prayers when we were just chatting about the Christian path, the life in Christ, he reached out and put his hand on me. I think in his mind it was just a gesture people often do during conversations -- ie he was not thinking about the laying on of hands -- but that was 25 years ago and I still feel it and remember his face. He is the only such visiting pastor I remember from those years and the only time anything like that has happened to me. Part of what made the event so unusual was that it was so unintentional on his part -- just a passing gesture -- but instantly I said in my mind, "that was the Holy Spirit."

LOL, I bet all the good Charismatics will reply, "see what you have been missing by not attending a Charismatic church that's filled with the Holy Spirit!"

I know what you mean. Sometimes I am humbled at how I experience the presence of God far outside the realms of my imagining. One morning as I was eating breakfast in a BK parking lot, a woman approached my truck and asked if I had 55 cents I could help her with so she could pick something up at the gas station she was short for. I gave her a breakfast sandwich and a 5 dollar bill. My heart lit on fire, I felt it flowing from my heart to my fingertips as I was washed in the Spirit and I was overcome with joy. We both had tears in our eyes. I didn't intend on feeling any such way about it, just fulfilling my Christian obligation, but she and I both had tears in our eyes after that. I told her I love her and God loves her and we went out separate ways. Glory to God.