A Change Of Heart?

City Bound · #1 03/03/12, 02:24 AM

My question is for people who are spiritual or religious and not an open ended invitation for critics and quarlersome individuals to join in, so if you disagree or wish to toss in your "Two cents" as if it were a projectile weapon please go somewhere else.

A Change Of Heart.

Regardless of all our different religions and spiritual paths, I would like to ask all the people who have experienced a devine inner transformation that lead to a change of heart, or who are in the process of such a transformation currently, about their experience. I know that ones relationship to the devine is a private and intimate relationship and I do not seek to pry or to hear private candid details of your experience, just a general brief picture will do. It would help me a lot to know that others have experienced a tranformation, or are in the process of a transformation, that has lead, or is leading, them to a change of heart.

Any bible verses, or verses and ideas from various religions and paths that highlight or validate the reality of an inner change leading to a change of heart are very welcomed.

Thank you.

naturelover · #2 03/03/12, 03:04 AM

Without seeking to pry or to hear private candid details of your own, would you mind explaining briefly why you're asking other people to tell you about their own experiences in spiritual transformation?

If you and I were sitting face to face having a conversation it is something I would be willing to discuss with you, but it's not something I'd be comfortable relating online here as it is private for me. But I'm interested to know if you think you may be going through a transformation of your own.

.

Coloneldad5 · #3 03/03/12, 06:13 AM

A couple of things come to mind up front. The verse Matthew 7:7, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" and James 1:5 "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and up braideth not; and it shall be given him."

When I truely seek knowledge and understanding from on High I am opened up to divine inner transformation. When I recieve this, my heart begins to fill with unexpressable joy and peace and I am taught from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes these experiences can be significant and grand other times they can be small and incrimental but in sum total to a great transformation to a better person. Anything that brings me closer to Christ is an inner transformation.

Most often these events are not monumental, "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:" (Isaiah 28:10). True growth and transformation takes time and work. As someone builds their character and testimony of Christ over time they will find it is rooted in solid ground and sturdy, whereas many who try to build it upon one event or in some grand step often loose it as their memory fades with time.

DanielY · #4 03/03/12, 07:15 AM

Revelation, inspiration, turning point, epiphany, change of heart, gaining knowledge, A new understanding, Spiritual growth, or just call it a light came on. They are all pretty much the same thing. They all require effort and contemplation on our part.
I once read in a book that symenary students would sleep with a bible under their pillow with the belief that if they prayed and desired it with a pure heart, that God would just transfer the information in that book to their minds while they slept. It does not work that way. And it does not work to just get on your knees and pray about anything else either. Prayer is just one of many elements involved.
Reading, Learning, Study, Meditation (deep thought), Conversing with others, Guidance, Leadership of others, Prayer, Praise , Worship among others are all other elements of contact with anyone. Including God.

Look at any relationships you have with other people. Some are distant and some are close. What makes the difference? Knowing a person well opens up many opportunities for deeper relationships. Knowing some one well enough to trust them is a big step in having deep friendships. There are many many elements to a relationship. Some make that relationship more valuable. others make them less.

Of the list above Prayer, Praise and Worship are three that are used in context with a relationship with God. In fact we are directed to use Worship in regard to no other relationship. Why? If worship of another would bring us closer and make a relationship more complete is that not a good thing? It is common for couples that go into marriage counseling to be given as a first assignment to make a list of things they like or admire about there spouse. This is tapping into the power of praise and how it effect the individual in a relationship. To praise our partner is a way to remind ourselves why we go through it all. The same is true when we praise God. But Worship is something different. It is deeper. and it is something that is only between you and God. It touches us deeper and it brings to life things that can only be trusted in the hands of God.

God created us like himself, a triune creature. God is Father, Son and Holey Spirit. He created us Body, Soul and Spirit.

Our Body we are most familiar with. We are aware of it from the moment we are born. We set out almost immediately to discover understand use and nourish our physical being. Nearly every waking moment for years is spent just mastering the use of our physical bodies as we learn to crawl, walk, speak and experience touch, look, sound smell and taste of everything around us. At the same time but much slower we also become aware and familiar with our Soul (thoughts and feelings). We learn to express ourselves through our soul by expressing sadness, happiness, pain, joy etc through this mechanism that lives within us. It is here that you speak of change of heart. So what alters our soul? Belief, knowledge, trust, faith, experiences and many others. But it is made up of what we believe about the world around us based upon our experiences. We can recognize a hard object by looking at it. And we know it is hard. We also think we know many other things such as relationship hurt etc based upon what we have experienced in the past. and there is no less doubt about bad relationships than there is about a hard plastic ball. Our soul simply knows these things and guides us to avoid those things we do not desire. Likewise it guides us toward those things we do desire. "I want that, I love that, That is good for me". The problem is the Soul is not real smart and does not always lead us in the direction we should go. " I know this is bad for me but I love it so much I just can't resist". The soul is sinful and deceptive. Said another way, Does anyone really know their own heart? Is it always wise to pursue that which your heart desires? What are we to do? all of this lifelong learning, wisdom and experience cannot always be trusted. It will still lead us into trouble if it is not watched carefully. if we do not often use ever bit of strength we have to resist it. to tell it no when it starts telling us to go after those things we know or suspect we should not go after. yet it persists and nags at us. Ah this corrupt little guidance Councillor, how can we ever trust it? Truth is, we can't it is broken just as our bodies are broken. it is infected with this thing called Sin. and it desires the things that sin desires. It is repulsed by the things of God. it desires separation from God and elevation of itself. It wants to be god and in control. We tend to like that idea as well. We want to be smart, capable, wise, and admirable. In short we like to look good.

So what is the answer for this misguided guidance? That is where the spirit comes in. When we are born our spirit is dead, it must be resurrected. And this happens at the moment of salvation. But just as our physical bodies take years to know and nourish. Just as our Soul required even more years to understand utilize, listen to and get some degree of control over. So our spirit must be discovered, used, nourished and understood. SO where is the play ground of the spirit? How is it nourished? How do we discover it? How do we strengthen it?

Reading, Study, Meditation, Fellowship, Praise and Worship. This is the banquet table and gymnasium of the Spirit. You can do all the above with any teaching or philosophy you choose, and they will have the same effect. But only the truth will guide you flawlessly. Only truth will keep your Soul from leading you astray. And just like any other part or our being. many mistakes will be made along the way. We fell far more often than we walked in the beginning. But eventually with practice we walk without thought. At one time it took complete concentration just to pick up an object. but as we grew it became something that we don't even think about. In fact it happens with nothing more than a thought on our part. we thing scissors and the hand reaches for scissors.

As our Spirit grows and matures we find that things that used to be alluring to us have become undesirable. This is the true Change of heart. It is not a willful thing. it is a transformation. We change. Our desires are guided by another force. A force that is outside ourselves that are based upon principals that are not rooted in our desires.

I have chosen to focus my Reading, Study, Meditation, Fellowship, Praise and Worship on the Holy Bible and the God that it teaches. In my effort I have come to know that God and that He is real, Living and directs me specifically and personally.

I have a couple of amazing stories of just how real this guidance is. they where witnessed for years by many fellow believers as well as non believers. many laughed just as Noah must have been laughed at. But God proved to be right in the end. Those stories will be saved for possibly future comments.

City Bound · #5 03/03/12, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by naturelover

Without seeking to pry or to hear private candid details of your own, would you mind explaining briefly why you're asking other people to tell you about their own experiences in spiritual transformation?

If you and I were sitting face to face having a conversation it is something I would be willing to discuss with you, but it's not something I'd be comfortable relating online here as it is private for me. But I'm interested to know if you think you may be going through a transformation of your own.

.

Yes, I am going through a transformation and I want to nurture it. Like you, I do not want to get into personal revealing details.

Old Vet · #6 03/03/12, 09:37 AM

What other people believes in religion are their own personal believes and mine is my own. I have enough to to keep my believes to myself and not force them on anybody else. No body can save another person only support them.

Txsteader · #7 03/03/12, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coloneldad5

When I truely seek knowledge and understanding from on High I am opened up to divine inner transformation. When I recieve this, my heart begins to fill with unexpressable joy and peace and I am taught from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes these experiences can be significant and grand other times they can be small and incrimental but in sum total to a great transformation to a better person. Anything that brings me closer to Christ is an inner transformation.

This sums up my experience as well.

I would point to 2 Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

And 2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Yvonne's hubby · #8 03/03/12, 10:06 AM

I went through my "transformation" somewhat gradually. All through my childhood there were small experiences that told me there was more to the world than we normally see. As I grew older these various events became more pronounced, and more convincing. When I was about 30 I had an experience that pretty well explained all the others, and I was made aware of the reality of God in such a way that His presence and power simply cannot be denied. At least not to me.

willow_girl · #9 03/03/12, 10:11 AM

I "hit bottom" as an alcoholic and drug user on a night when my husband at the time beat me up and I attempted suicide for the second time in 5 years.

I'm still not sure how I survived -- the amount of drugs I had taken should have killed me. I woke up the next morning with the conviction that I must have been allowed to live for a reason, to accomplish some good in the world. I also realized that the path I had been on would surely kill me if I kept it up, and I had to radically change my life if I wanted to live.

I spent the next 2-1/2 years in a 12-step program, which I'm convinced saved my life. Because all of this happened at a young age, and there was no genetic underpinning to my addiction, eventually I found I was able to live like a normal person and even have a drink occasionally. (I would not recommend this to anyone with a family history of alcoholism!) I still use the stuff I learned in the program, though.

I'm not much of a mystic; I regard my Higher Power as the collective good in the universe. That's the side I want to be on. And that's as much as I need to know on that topic.

Edited to add: May I recommend the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius for your perusal? They are the most valuable piece of philosophy I have found: http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html

beccachow · #10 03/03/12, 10:41 AM

I was born into a Christian family; it was only natural to grow up believing in God. Like a lot of those born into the faith, I did stray when I got out on my own. I watched God perform so many miracles, fell into so many traps and pits, that I came back on my own.

I am not sure you can do what I do as a career path and NOT be forced to face the fact that there is something bigger than all of us. From the workings of the human body itself to the miracles I see every day, someone has a hand in this.

My transformation is a gradual, ongoing process as I take what I believe and strive to live it more fully. I am not perfect and always will be flawed, but my God made me and He will care for me, always.

Ohio Rusty · #11 03/03/12, 11:22 AM

I didn't have one of those divine transformations ... where you started speaking in tongues, or had a great spritual orgasmic revelation, or felt faint and started hearing voices from heaven and saw glowing cherubs flying around ..... Nor did I get that divine 'makes you feel warm and fuzzy feeling all over' and instantly felt the tug of heavenly strings on my soul ........

Mine was .... I was driving down the highway headed home ..... God at that moment decided to take me out behind the woodshed and whoop me to get me right. ..... For a few long moments .... God showed me what he wanted me to see: I saw and felt the absolute horror of hell. There is nothing to describe the atomicly-intense claustrophobic aloneness and seeing the thick encompassing darkness I was shown as to what was to become of me if I didn't straighten up.

Hell is not a good place .... Imagine youself dropped down a deep well thousands of feet down. So dark you cannot see and the walls pressing in on you everywhere so tightly you cannot breathe. Now imagine going thru that hell for an eternity.... forever...24hours a day, 7 days a week.... Never to sleep, No one to hear you, No one to get you out, no one to save you.....

I am 100% flesh, so I constantly make mistakes that I know makes God roll his eyes and wonder what kind of idiot I am..... I don't obey and submit as I should as the things of the world seem to have their way with me. Maybe someday I'll be more what I'm supposed to be ....

--- Yo Lord ...... I'm trying .... I really am !!! ....... (And the Lord shakes his head and sighs loudly..........)

Ohio Rusty ><>

There is someone inside my head,
Who is looking at someone inside my head,
Who is looking at the someone who is looking at someone inside my head ....

beccachow · #12 03/03/12, 11:49 AM

By the way, I don't mind sharing at all how I came to be where I am. If you want to PM me, feel free. I am sure most of us feel the same way. To believe is a different kind of peace. Yeah, bad things will still happen to good people, God never said we were immune from heartache. This song says it all, if i may?

Natalie Grant-Held

"This is what it means to be held, how it feels when the sacred is torn from your life and you survive. This is what it is to be loved and to know that the promise was when everything fell, we'd be held."

If you have never heard the song, you should. It colored my world when I first heard it, put things in perspective.

City Bound · #13 03/03/12, 01:29 PM

Thank you becca, but I just needed to hear that other people have had a change of heart and mind and that it is a real thing an not just some figment of my imagination.

For me, it is what it is and it will be a long time before I am guided and educated to the time of arriving into greater awareness of god's love, friendship, and ever well wishing.

One thing i have noticed is that no man, no government, or church can free my soul. God can encorage me, try to do damage control, attempt to educate me, and punish me, but god can not forcefully make me love him or to accept liberation. Love is given and received only through freewill. Using my freewill to invite god into my life and to ask for God's help is a new idea to me.

Ohio Rusty · #14 03/03/12, 01:55 PM

City Bound wrote:
but god can not forcefully make me love him or to accept liberation.

You know .... it is alot like being a parent ..... kids can be hard headed, refuse discipline, love, guidance and everything else a parent tries to get thru their thick skill ..... We can't make or force a kid to love us either. That kid might go on that way for years until later in life, they start to change. Age and wisdom changes all I think. We are Gods kids and we all can be hard headed and hard hearted. You can tell a kid till you are blue in the face not to go out and play in the road as you know what would be the consequences .... and amazingly you can see it ahead of time, but the kid continues to be clueless as what the outcome might be and continues to try and go out in the road.

God is like that also ... he sees way ahead as to what we will probably go thru but we can't see it ahead of time. We see one day at a time in our busy lives. One thing I can say for sure ..... it doesn't matter if you don't care much for Gods givings .... because God cares about you, just like a parent cares about your well being whether you want the parent to care or not. God will treat you better than any person ever will .... that is a gimme .........

Ohio Rusty ><>

Remember when an Apple meant fruit, a Mac was a truck, Windows meant the glass on your house and Blackberries are what grew in the field behind the house ......

**fordson major** · #15 03/03/12, 03:07 PM

for me it was a gut feeling to be somewhere at just the right time. has happened a few times, one sent me down the path, the others have helped me find others that should be on the path and i needed to find them.