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His banner over me is LOVE.... My soul followeth hard after thee....Love one another with a pure heart fervently. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
To be a servant of God, it will cost us our total commitment to God, and God alone. His burden must be our burden... Sis Alvear
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His banner over me is LOVE.... My soul followeth hard after thee....Love one another with a pure heart fervently. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
To be a servant of God, it will cost us our total commitment to God, and God alone. His burden must be our burden... Sis Alvear
When you quoted my post mentioning the AofG, my hunch was that you were going to ask about Don't Call Me Brother, by Austin Miles, which I have read. So, I was going to respond something like this:
"Yes, I read it a few years ago. It's the autobiographical story of an Assembly of God preacher who finds himself in the inner circle - rubbing elbows with the big wigs, including Jim Bakker and the General Superintendent of the AG at the time (Zimmerman). He is appalled by the corruption at all levels, and strong-arm tactics, blackmail, debauchery, etc. etc.
"The book is one side of the story, and it seems that the author takes great care not to admit much (if any) fault in the things that befall him. It's possible that his memory is somewhat selective! I don't know how many detailed accounts are true (some of them seem far-fetched, and a number of them have been disputed, not surprisingly), but overall, in the big picture, it rings true.
"Last I knew, Austin Miles had returned to Christianity and the ministry, but stands by the stories in his book."
But you didn't, so I won't.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
Amazing story! Very interesting. I have not heard of or experienced anything like that, before.
Seems odd, though, that he would think of this, when it was over (that reminds me, I need to get back into my exercise program!), as a test or a lesson of some kind from God. Even during his time as an "atheist", he prayed and pleaded with God. And if the lesson he had to learn was that he couldn't have faith unless God gave it to him, what does that say about people who don't have faith? To me, it says either God chooses not to bestow faith upon them (certain ones, as He sees fit -- His ways are not our ways, etc.), or they, for whatever reason, choose to say "No, thanks". There doesn't seem to be any allowance for us working out for ourselves what to believe. Weird.
Now, I'm heading over to the treadmill. I'll let you know if the extra blood flow triggers a return to faith.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
Amazing story! Very interesting. I have not heard of or experienced anything like that, before.
Seems odd, though, that he would think of this, when it was over (that reminds me, I need to get back into my exercise program!), as a test or a lesson of some kind from God. Even during his time as an "atheist", he prayed and pleaded with God. And if the lesson he had to learn was that he couldn't have faith unless God gave it to him, what does that say about people who don't have faith? To me, it says either God chooses not to bestow faith upon them (certain ones, as He sees fit -- His ways are not our ways, etc.), or they, for whatever reason, choose to say "No, thanks". There doesn't seem to be any allowance for us working out for ourselves what to believe. Weird.
Now, I'm heading over to the treadmill. I'll let you know if the extra blood flow triggers a return to faith.
He's a Calvinist...so he fit the explanation of his loss of faith into his belief structure.
Personally, I think it was a lying spirit of some sort...a literal demonic spirit. After I had become a Christian and had experiences with God that convinced me that He was real and therefore the Bible was true, I constantly had to battle thoughts of unbelief. The same thoughts that had held me in blindness and hostage to atheism for years. I had to keep reminding myself of the things that God had done in showing himself to be real to me.
It may have been a test allowed by God. Afterall, everyone's faith is tested. But I think we've talked about this before in another thread.
__________________
His banner over me is LOVE.... My soul followeth hard after thee....Love one another with a pure heart fervently. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
To be a servant of God, it will cost us our total commitment to God, and God alone. His burden must be our burden... Sis Alvear
My soul followeth hard after thee....Love one another with a pure heart fervently. 
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