From this and the rest of the post I can say I agree with you, I just needed some clarification on a couple things and you have provided that. I'll agree sorrow should not be named among us and we should be insulted when it is, so insulted that we feel the need to comfort the person feeling that sorrow and remind them of what Christ has done for them.
Of course, I've had that explained to me this way "God loves you right where you are, but he loves you too much to let you to stay there.". Thanks for the clarification, I agree with you here.
I should've clarified, I was using that as an example of how God could've been using Paul in prison all the other times. I was asking for a reference to a time where Paul was thrown in prison for ignoring God.
True, one is a selfish sorrow the other is a sorrow out of love for another. However I think this should be differentiated from clinical depression since when that is the case the brain has actually become sick and doesn't work the way it should, and there really is no reason they feel depressed except out of chemical imbalance.
Issue of semantics here, I'm assuming you mean God heard your prayer and stopped the tornado?
I'll address them real quick.
1) I feel sorrow for like the young man that blew his head off with those fireworks. It grieved me, because I know the spirit behind it, and I hate it. Even when people are wrong, arrogant but suffering, it still makes me ask the Lord if He wants to do anything, despite it being their fault. I am not a believer of making your bed and having to lay in it. Jesus bore our punishment so we don't have to.
As for me though, I don't get depressed, no matter what is going on. I have learned through trials that my experience is that God has never failed me one single time. Not saying God sends trials, but they do come.
2) Right, God does not love us for who we are, God loves us despite what we are. It's not His plan that we stay the way we were. (Say that real fast 20 times)
3) Paul, Disobeyed, ended up in prison.
And finding
disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.
(Act 21:4)
All the Disciples with Paul heard the Holy Spirit...... "Paul is not to go to Jerusalem"
Agubus..........The Prophet many days later...........(However you spell it.)
And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said,
Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only,
but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when
he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.
(Act 21:11-14)
This is what happens to a believer when they get their heart set on something and shut out the Holy Spirit. Paul loved his kinsman so much in Jerusalem, that he did not want them lost, and he had to go preach to them. We can see some of that in Romans 9. We know Paul did not get to do much work as He planed but was thrown in prison. Some folks say it was 5-7 years. Paul's ministry was not to Israel, but Paul being a pharisee and bound to the Lord Jesus, just had to go and try to share the truth, even if it cost him his life.
Praise God, that He is full of Mercy. Paul himself was warned, your going to prison.
That I have great heaviness
and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
(Rom 9:2-4)
Holy Spirit already warned Paul in Acts 20..........
And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
(Act 20:22-23)
Bound in spirit, is Paul's own spirit bound to his kinsmen in Jerusalem. He is set on going.
God warns Paul 2 more times. 1 time through the Disciples, the other through Agabus.
DON'T GO!!
I hope this helps.
4) Clinical depression: Chemical imbalance?
We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. Mental illness comes from thinking wrong thoughts, and people just don't wake one day a complete lunatic. It starts with a thought that needs meditated on, and the devil will continue with the same thought if we give it place.
Look at Job.The devil started with a thought............ "YOU know Job, if you curse God, you die. Job, your kids might be cursing God at those parties. You might loose you kids Job."
We see Satan use that theme with God.............. Job will curse you to your face.
We see Job's wife use that theme..............."Why hold onto your integrity.... Curse God and die"
This is how Satan had gotten a rightful place, Plus Job's constant fear of the Sabeans and Chaldeans.
Scripture says we are to cast down every thought and imagination that exalts itself against the Word of God and bring it unto captivity and obedience in Christ Jesus. (Not sure where that's at....... 2 Cor 10:5?)
If Scripture says we can cast down thoughts, and scripture says think on these things, what is lovely, and good report, and scripture says be ye transformed by the renewing of our mind........ Then it can't be about Chemical imbalances. There is nothing in Scripture God said do, that man can't do.
Now, if there is a spirit enforcing the oppression, this is where you and I come in, and tell it to go. That will allow a person if they want to recover themselves out of the hand of the devil, to be free enough to get some light and help..
5) Tornadoes!!!!
Tornadoes is not something you pray about. I did not pray to God, or ask God a thing. There is a time to pray, a time to command, a time to praise. Tornadoes fall into the command category.
Now your Lord stood up and rebuked the storm, saying "
Peace be still" BAM, all quite.
You see what your Lord did, he rebuked a storm as if it could hear him.
Now, that is your Lord, whom your going to be a minister for, and you ought to follow His example when things like tornadoes come up, or you could have a short time here on earth.
Peter's Mother in-law, Jesus Rebuked a fever. Jesus was under impression that fever's have ears.
There is a time to pray, and a time to just speak.
"
Lord, please protect us through this tornado" will most likely get you killed. Your not doing, what Your Lord showed you to do, So you won't get the results you were hoping to get.
We don't do things the way we want, we are suppose to follow Jesus. A lot of the Church is doing things they want through religion, and it is just powerless junk. We Obey, and follow him.
What I said......... "
Tornado, you go around all these trunks in front of me and behind me, you will not damage one truck, neither cause any loss of life or equipment in the name of My Lord Jesus."
What happened next, even shocked me, though it should not have. The trucks in front of me (I think about 8 on the side of I20) started yelling on the CB as the Tornado was only 50 yards from hitting them......
It vanished!!! The CB came alive. Where it go. The wind stopped, the hail stopped everything stopped.
Now, if there is any amount of fear in you..................... don't try it. Fear is the connecting force to Satan.
This is how it works, Jeff demonstrates the power of the word. Jeff told it to go over the top of his house. It did, but it wrecked havoc on the rest of the town.
