Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
How does thinking Christ gets fused into your soul help you? In my experience it made me more passive. Much like OBW has argued, we are not to sit around waiting for God to move into our souls to change our behavior. We are to repent, which means to use our wills to change our thinking, BTW, and follow him. Sure, we have grace, thank God, but grace empowers us to use our wills to decide to be obedient. It doesn't take over and make decisions for us. God never forces himself on us.
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I don't think this teaching had this effect on me at all.
I changed many behaviors after being baptized. But I didn't try to change any of them, the Lord would speak a word and a shirt would go into the garbage, I would put on shoes, I would stop a bad habit, etc. I remember trying to stop a bad habit about 6 months prior to being baptized (my girlfriend's prodding). In my dreams I would be doing this thing, then wake up in a sweat realizing I had failed only to realize I had been dreaming. It turned into a nightmare for about a month before I just said forget it.
Then I came into the church, the Lord spoke a word, I dropped it, and never gave it a second thought. No dreams, no nightmares, just dropped it like a sack of sand being cut loose and falling into the ocean.
The point is, if you never had the slightest problem with wearing a shirt prior to being baptized, but now all of a sudden you take a look at that shirt and think "what is this?" How did that happen. If that is the Lord within you, then amen, throw the shirt away and move on.
When I first met with the church in Houston I was bare foot. I would sit on the front row of the meeting hall in bare feet. It never bothered me and no one in the church ever said it bothered them. One day I just felt I should start wearing shoes and did. Inwardly the saints in the meeting hall all said "hallelujah". I know this because the testimonies began to come out about a year or two later. Everyone sharing testimonies about how they were praying and then their prayers were answered.
There was no "waiting" there was trusting in prayer and trusting in the Lord.