Bible stories are full of commands and examples of people who encounter God. Today those experiences would likely be considered signs of a mental illness, and some are because we have not learned how to distinguish between the two very different events.
As a Mental Health Professional and a Christian I have had to deal with some people who are so distressed and unbalanced that they hear voices and see visions of things that are not from God. I have also encountered people who did hear from God and see things in dreams and visions that were at least "Holy Spirit inspired".
Like St. Paul who was compulsed to go here and there as an evangelist until he heard from God to "Come over to Macedonia, we human Christians are a mixture of ideas from both the flesh and the Spirit. That makes the gift of discernment critically important. Unfortunately, because of our lack of experience and bad experiences with unbalanced "spirituality" we find i9t difficult to find people with enough maturity and wisdom to discern whether an experience is from God or man.
One of our problems is the tendency of the human brain to focus obsessively on defending ourselves not hearing God's voice. This means that the default position of the brain is divisive, angry and negative. That kind of over focus on the fallen world rather than God's word can block our ability to face God with love, grace and mercy. A negative focus is RUMINATION.
Rumination is my brain's desire to think on sin, temptation, condemnation, pain, failures and God's displeasure. Meditation focuses on God's love, mercy and grace. Read David's desires as stated in Psalm 27: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear.
If we meditate as David did on God's light and my salvation we will enjoy his positiver presence.
As David said, "I want to gaze on God". That will allow us to be built up in the Spirit not torn down in the flesh.
Christian truth, fruit and power. A mixture of research, Bible, stories,testimonies and fun.
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