Image123:
What does it matter if he was sure or nothing? Are many atheists not sure of their statements?

Is everything ok with you?

shdemidemi:
Is everything ok with you?

Yes, what do you think?

Image123:
Yes, what do you think?

What I think don't matter, allow the man answer the question directed to him.

I agree with Ihedinobi in principle, but maybe not with his characterisation of certain things - e.g. wanting things because of what people will say about us.

I think those classes of things may still fall within what Christ has come to do in the New Creation. For example some people may question your faith if your marriage has not produced children with the accusation 'where is your God?' as was depicted in Micah 7:10. Therefore even the desire to shut up the mouths of those saying things about you can be a legitimate desire in line with what Christ has come to do, but as you rightly said, the desire must be lined up in God's will.

This is further reinforced by James 4:

2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Bidam: Very nice thread bro..Ihe.. I believe God has blessed us as His children both spiritually and materially..But i discover in my little walk with God that not all Christians actually come fully to manifest the materially blessings, despite the word of faith being preached that if you believe you will possess.

One of the reasons is that scriptures are given to establish doctrine and mature us,to bring us into wisdom and understanding of the spiritual dimension in which we move. The purpose of God written word is to reveal God; to reveal His purpose in our life, to reveal unto us exactly what's going on so that we should not be ignorant, deceived and deluded, but that we should walk in light and truth, one graphic example i could glean from scriptures that evry believer has to pass through a wilderness experience.This is the place that God sometimes brings us to as we mature from one level to another, and funny enough i am not guilty of this, i find myself bitter with men and with God. I even walk in strife and disregard fellowship without realizing that what God really want for me is to FOCUS away from man, from things and from anything in my life that has a tendency to take His place.

Very important to note in this post is the part about the wilderness experience, it is in that place that God forms His Purposes into our heart desires. In the places where we suffer constriction and narrowinf and endure discipline from the Lord we are opportuned to learn the Lord and conform to Him.

It is in that place of privation, where it would seem that we have been stripped bare that the Lord can get through to us and show us Who He is. And when we have come to know Him in that place, we have a choice to accept His Ways at the cost of ours or reject them in favor of ours in that particular place. That choice is what changes us fundamentally either transforming us into the Image of Christ or leaving us needing to repeat the lesson.

If we accept God's Ways, His Purposes in that particular place or issue will be birthed in our hearts as new desires that replace our old carnal desires. These desires are the new things that will drive our prayers and bring God's Power to bear upon our particular circumstances.

shdemidemi: I haven’t always been a Christian. I didn’t go to religion to make me happy…I always knew a bottle of PORT would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly do not recommend CHRISTIANITY – C S Lewis

The Spirit's desires compete with those of the flesh. We cannot have both. It is either the flesh or the Spirit. And we know that the flesh is all about me as is the world too. Christ, on the other hand, is all about God. Therefore, Christianity always begins with a Cross and a Grave before the Resurrection. Anyone who is concerned about cost cannot follow Christ. Ib that Christ is very uncomfortable. He has zero tolerance for the flesh, so all that is pleasing to the flesh is at peril from Him.

But, the Cross is not all. When we have suffered with Christ, we will be glorified with Him. And this very life in this very world is a foretaste of the glory in view. Therefore we will first have a taste of that Comfort that will yet come right here on earth. This is the Promise of the Lord Himself. The reason for this is that we begin here to put on the New Man. And there is nothing negative in Him. As we put off the deeds of the flesh, we put on those of the Spirit and they are powerfully positive.

This means that when we have been taught of the Lord by experience the meaning of material wealth or riches, how they fit into Christ and are not mere possessions but tools to be harnesses for God's Purposes in the world then we will be ready to administer them. That is an instance. And we will graduate in ability to administer God's abundance, therefore, the wealth will grow as we submit to the lessons the Lord brings us to. Those lessons will cost us something, they will be focused at keeping us sharp in the ways of the Lord, but on the end, they will produce more than the cost.

In conclusion, comfort is not what Christianity is about although eventually we get that too. It is about ability and responsibilty.

debosky: I agree with Ihedinobi in principle, but maybe not with his characterisation of certain things - e.g. wanting things because of what people will say about us.

I think those classes of things may still fall within what Christ has come to do in the New Creation. For example some people may question your faith if your marriage has not produced children with the accusation 'where is your God?' as was depicted in Micah 7:10. Therefore even the desire to shut up the mouths of those saying things about you can be a legitimate desire in line with what Christ has come to do, but as you rightly said, the desire must be lined up in God's will.

This is further reinforced by James 4:

2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Remember some of Satan's ruses for getting Jesus to act irresponsibly: "if you are the Son of God..." It is a ruse that Satan has powerful mastery of. He would have us wasting God's resources trying to prove that our God is a better God than the others although God's not flexing muscles with anyone. He's in a building project. The kingdoms of this world have already been given to His Christ, what we are doing is breaking down the strongholds that keep them and rebuilding them according to the Design that He gives us.

Today, God's proof is simple: Jesus was raised from the Dead and that Resurrection power is at work in us. Ita work is to change us and then enable us to define the world around us.

So, when we pray for something, our request must be smack in the good of God's New Creation efforts. We must be producing materially what He is doing spiritually in the thing in which we are making requests of Him.

^^ I understand what you are saying, and I think we're saying the same thing - the key is that whatever we ask has to be in line with God's will.

We do this not by deceitfully trying to 'guilt' God into getting what we want, but by simply aligning our desires with His will. Where such desires do not line up with his will, we will need to set them aside.

Yes, we are, bro. I'm a bit rushed today.