The Kingdom of the Heavens > Background Information > Personal Background

Personal Background

Deals with those aspects of my personal history which led to the creation of the site and my perspective on the issues discussed in it

You Are Not the One to Build, Part 6B: Spiritual Gifts: God Works through us for His Purpose

September 4, 2023 1 Comment

The modern emphasis on first identifying my “gift” so that I may then “help” God develop it gets the matter exactly backwards. The important thing isn’t identifying my gift, it is offering my body as a living sacrifice so that the Spirit may exercise any gift He chooses through me. Then any gift I am observed to be actually exercising can be identified as my gift, and its exercise will be genuine and have God’s power.

A God who Speaks, Desire to have our own way, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, God Speaks to Us, God's purpose for us, Historical Background, In the Church, Meaning of Unity, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Personal Background, Personality cults, Prophecy, Through others, Through teachers, Through the church, To be his ambassadors, To bear fruit, To live in unity

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You Are Not the One to Build, Part 1: God’s Work, God’s Reputation, and My Acclaim

July 9, 2023 4 Comments

The first of a series of videos about God giving people things to start which he does not then permit them to finish. God does this for his own glory, and, sometimes to protect his own reputation, as was the case in King David’s preparations to build a Temple–and also in my own life.

Background Information, Confession of Sin, Consequences, Desire to have our own way, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, Personal Background, Pride in accomplishments as our own, self-serving worship, Sin, To be his ambassadors, To bear fruit, To live in unity, Trusting sight over God's words, What is sin?

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A Poem and a Hymn About Futility, Death and Hope

January 18, 2021 1 Comment

I am posting a new poem I recently wrote, the most complete text I am able to find of an old Isaac Watts hymn, and some related scriptures, all on the subjects of death and the futility of “success” in this life. God is our only hope.

Background Information, Eternity, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Personal Background, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, Victory

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Answers to Some Reader Questions about Prayer, Prayer Burdens and National Sins

June 7, 2020 2 Comments

A reader recently asked some very perceptive questions about my views concerning prayer, prayer burdens, and prayer for national sins. Here, I am publishing my answers to those questions. (The reader also asked some personal questions, which I omit from this posting): You asked:  “Also that what matters is your relationship with the Lord not what denomination someone is or…
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A God who Speaks, An abuse of God's image, Conversation with God, Emotions, Events and Signs, God Speaks to Us, God's rationality, His Children, His Friends, Human Rationality, In prayer, Language and Speech, Personal Background, Prophecy, Rejecting God, Replacing Relationship with Morality, The Bible, To live in unity, Trusting sight over God's words

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Friends, Angels, Perspectives and Overcoming my Prejudices

April 29, 2020 2 Comments

Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Hebrews 12:1-3. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves…
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Emotions, Events and Signs, God's rationality, His Friends, Islam and Christianity, Personal Background, Through others, Through the church, To be his ambassadors

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Resuming my Gifts and Callings, which were Not to be Hidden under a Bushel

April 28, 2020 1 Comment

The restoration of my callings, after the break to pursue my own pride, was started, ironically, by the Board’s expert psychologist at a Board of Law Examiners’ hearing in December 2006–near the beginning of the four year break. He testified that my condition had been under medical control for over 20 years, and there was no reason I shouldn’t be…
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Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Personal Background, Restoration of God's Image, Through the church, Trusting sight over God's words

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The Period of High Creativity that Followed, 2000-2006

April 27, 2020 2 Comments

He wants to talk us through doing his will, instructing us every step of the way, as we learn to trust him. He is the one with the whole picture. Learning to hear his voice and trust him is the whole point of our friendship (the word “relationship” is entirely too sterile) with him on the present earth. This is what restores his image in us. Accomplishing his work is only a by-product.

A God who Speaks, Conversation with God, God Speaks to Us, On speaking terms again, Personal Background, Prophecy, Restoration of God's Image, Social control and statecraft, The Bible, The place of visions, To be in his image, Trusting sight over God's words, What is God's Word

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God’s Initial Response to my Strange Prayer for the Gift of Prophecy

April 26, 2020 2 Comments

God said “yes” to my request in the year 2000 to exercise that gift. The prophecies I was given were intended to, and did, awe me into recognizing the seriousness of prophecy–and even more so as they seemingly have been fulfilled in the 20 years since.

God Acts by Speaking, God Speaks to Us, Language and Speech, Personal Background, Prophecy

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My Strangest Prayer and My Personal Experience with Prophecy

April 26, 2020 3 Comments

My personal journey from a liberal church that had little belief in spiritual gifts, through local churches of various other flavors, to the point of praying for prophecy, as 1 Corinthians 14:1, 12 and 39 seemed to say was appropriate.

A God who Speaks, Conversation with God, God Speaks to Us, God's Voice, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Personal Background, Prophecy, To be his ambassadors, Uncategorized, What is God's Word

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Young children as mystics

April 14, 2020 5 Comments

Confusion, and the need to find what I believed around people who did not believe precisely the same things I believed, has characterized a good deal of my faith journey in Christ. I have frequently associated with churches, not because of their formal doctrinal stance, but because of the people who were there–because I felt God had called me to…
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Conversation with God, God Speaks to Us, Personal Background

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