Getting Closer to The Lord

[Psymind14]

Hi there. I was wondering, what do you do to get closer to the Lord? Pray and Read the Bible Are obviously two key elements to a christian's Life, but what else? i'd love to hear new ideas and suggestions...
Jason

[ibreakdrumsticks]

You need to spend time in God's presence. Not just at church but at home. Clear your schedule. Ask the Holy Spirit to posses you! You have to want it. Read the following testimony. Rin was desperate for God! You have to get desperate!

Joel's Army East Coast www.mattsorger.com

From the night of June 17, 2005

“Father, release the forerunners tonight.”

I started wavering under the power of God (I don’t do a lot of wavering) after answering a call for the forerunners, the trailblazers, the machete-wielding wild childs that were ready to blaze the path to revival among their generation if it was the last thing they did. I felt like I was going to eat the carpet any minute. The power of God was surging through my body it felt like pure 440V shooting power. It felt like my legs were going to topple and explode at the same time. “Here, go to her” I heard him say over the microphone. Wonder if that’s me… yeah, right. I had only received a few "words from God" and was always overly-skeptic about them just because of who they were coming from. God was talking but I still had problems letting go and listening. I told Him two weeks ago that I would not eat until He touched me and I was serious. I was desperate. The call on my life was so strong but to what I had no idea. I was in India in January and saw the great need for help and the even greater need for a loving God. But I wasn’t released to go back yet. I felt like I should be stamping my feet and yelling, “It’s not fair. I want to help!” I originally fought with God on going there; I was convinced He was off His holy rocker for calling me to India. Then, once I was over there I had to fight myself to get on the plane to leave. One look into a third-world street child’s eyes will wreck your life forever. “God, I know you’re doing something right now. Are you taking me back to India?” Just wait I heard in that “inner-audible voice” thing that was almost like one of my own thoughts but stronger and I could tell I wasn’t just thinking it.

“Her, right there.” I had been hearing those directions and incredible stuff all night from Matt to other people. I’d been standing there, unable to move for 45 minutes by that point. All of the sudden, I began to tremble. God, is he ever going to come to me? I felt something: the power- the pure, unaltered, unfiltered, very Presence of God. It felt like there was an angel standing in front of me, holding my limp body upright for just a little longer. “Fisher of Men.” My head snapped up. Is that to me? “Fisher of Men” again. I looked up and straight into pure fire. Matt’s eyes literally blazed with searing heat like they were looking straight into my soul and he was standing at least ten feet away. I felt like he just read my life-story in two seconds. I crumpled, almost ready to cry with no idea as to why. I've never done much crying. It’s been years since I’ve cried. Am I going to CRY??? “Stand up,” I heard him say. Bet me if I can stand up, I thought. “Get her up” he said to the catchers. I was dragged to my feet (which is not an easy task for anyone because I am not petite by any means). “You have an end-times evangelism anointing on you,” he said, emphasizing every syllable of every word. I know he said more and I can’t remember but my strength was gone again. I curled over, my hands feel like they’re going to catch on fire; I couldn’t look him in the eye anymore, just at his feet. “And there’s healing in your hands.” At the exact second he said those words, BOOM! My hands exploded with heat, pressure, and power and what felt like liquid heat starts dripping from them. “You’re going to have a healing ministry and evangelize with the signs and wonders that God does through you.” (paraphrased) I went down. I fell on my knees and start weeping. All the strength was sucked out of me and I was on my face. On my face, nose in the carpet, in the front of the sanctuary weeping, wailing, crying my eyes out in front of my friends who had never seen me shed a tear. There goes any shred of pride left in me… There were moments I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My hands were on fire, I couldn’t even get them near my face to wipe the tears and mascara running from my face into my hair and soaking through to the carpet (leaving a nice pink stain on my church’s floor from my bright red hair). Power was surging through my body and I felt like I was paralyzed. My chest was racked with huge sobs. I never cried like this in my life. I didn’t even know it was possible to feel this desperate, this sad, this overwhelmed with grief. “Why do I feel like this God? Shouldn’t I be happy that You’re giving me the opportunity to do evangelism and healing? Why on earth am I crying so hard?” My mind zipped back to when Matt said about the children in the Bronx that were overcome with weeping and crying for two hours. “It’s the spirit of revival being birthed in the most unlikely of children.” It’s the spirit of revival being birthed in you, the most unlikely, in the natural, of your peers to have a ministry. Don’t forget, I use the underdogs. “But why do I feel so sad and heartbroken? I can’t handle this much longer.” The sadness you feel now is nothing compared to what I feel when I lose one of My children. I remembered how earlier in the night, Matt said “Now some of you, God’s going to start breaking your heart for the lost.” That started a whole new round of overwhelming heart-wrenching sobs. “So what do we do about it, God?”

All of the sudden, I was in complete darkness and I was cold. (To anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m NEVER cold, ever. It’s rare for me to run the heat in Pennsylvania winters.) I was freezing and it was dark. A red glow was starting to light up and I was looking down into a huge cavern. The floor was moving and I heard a terrifying noise like a hundred freight trains screeching to a stop in the same place. My eyes focused and I saw that the moving floor was covered with thousands and thousands and thousands of naked bodies, broken, bleeding, missing limbs and hair. They were climbing over each other but they couldn’t see where they were going. There was red, icy flames coming from all over the place ripping pieces of flesh off of the bodies. They couldn’t dart them; they were blind. I was freezing cold by this point and all of the sudden I lost my vision and felt something rip into my arm and across my back. “God, what’s going on? Is this hell? Get me out of here!” But I heard nothing except the wailing of the people around me. Then, as soon as I was there, I was back on the floor of the sanctuary. My hands were on fire again, burning up like I had them in a vat of frying grease. (If you ever spilled hot grease on your skin, you know the burning stays on your skin for minutes after it’s washed off.) I was still crying out to God but now for a new reason. “God get rid of the pride that makes me think that I can’t talk to people about you. Break it off.” I just did. I was burning up again, even my feet were hot. I’m making you a fire. Forget ‘this little light of mine’ you’ll be a fire in the darkness.

This wailing and weeping went on for at least an hour and a half I was told. I don’t know, it felt like 15 minutes to me. I was so overcome with emotion (something that is incredibly rare for me, the token stoic of our little group of friends). I was just screaming inside my spirit for God to use me but I never knew what He wanted me to do. I felt like He was silent and wanted me to wait on Him. I did, and I feel like I really received some sort of a direction. When Matt said there was healing in my hands, it was the third out of four times someone said that to me within the last three months (the fourth was the next day). None knew each other or knew about the healings that I had been seeing. I don’t take subtle hints well so God was just having to drill it into my brain.

I was unable to move the whole time I was on the floor. My friend came over to me and said that our janitor had to lock up the church and we had to go. I just wanted to stay there, in His Presence, listening to Him and soaking Him in. (I think that if they hadn’t moved me, I still would’ve been there the next morning, weeping yet.) She brought me my cell phone to me so I could call the only person I knew would be up at 1:45am to come and get me. Thank God, he had just gotten home. He drove me home, dragged me up the sidewalk to my apartment, up the stairs, and had to drop me on the couch. I could barely move my arms at this point and was still crying. I could move around 4am enough to drag myself to my room. I had dreams that night, things were happening that I never imagined before. The clubs that I used to party in only a year ago were being shut down and made into homeless shelters, the bars into soup kitchens. Kids were playing on the streets at night in the Harrisburg ghettos with no fear of gun showers. It was incredible. I saw Indian and African orphan children dancing around in a circle and singing praise songs. He kept confirming to me that the experience I had was not to be taken lightly and that I really needed to start buckling down and listening to Him. It was beautiful though.

So that's my story. :)

His,
Rin Armstrong
Philippians 2

[HeavenBound]

Originally Posted by Psymind14

Hi there. I was wondering, what do you do to get closer to the Lord? Pray and Read the Bible Are obviously two key elements to a christian's Life, but what else? i'd love to hear new ideas and suggestions...
Jason

Some other things to get closer to God are: Fasting, Talking to God (kinda like praying, but you talk to Him like you do your friend), lead others to Christ, and the list goes on, but you get the general idea.

[christsgirly]

I think fasting sounds like a great idea.Try it,and I garuntee that you'll get closer to the Lord.

[joy-girl]

i know this is the guys sight... but here R some thoughts


get brutally honest with yourself. tell God everything...


fast AND pray. always pray when U fast...

stay up all night in prayer.


so basically to sum it up...


pray pray

pray

pray
pray pray


pray pray pray....

i think you get the point ...


and then seek God to get filled with the Holy Spirit, and speak in tongues. you will be closer to God than ever...