Ever had something happen to "enhance" your faith?

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I am going through a very tough time these days dealing with spiritual issues that I feel no better about than I did when I was much younger. I would like to believe... more than anything but I guess you could say I'm "agnostic".

I have read numerous times how someone has had something happen to them in their life, be it a NDE, sensing or seeing an Angel of some sorts... perhaps some kind of "vision" or just something that improved their faith and they can't fully understand and explain it.

Have you ever had any such event that strengthened or enhanced your faith? And how.

Thanks in advance

Lost_TeddyBear (David)

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I recently saw the face of one of our A2K posters in my stool......

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On a serious note I have had several such experiences in my life but they are much too personal to discuss.....

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exactly the opposite actually, an experience i had when i was about ten completely erased any ideas i might have had about "faith" (in a strictly religious sense, i still have faith in people, well some faith, in some people)

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Lost TeddyBear- Welcome to A2K!

There are lot of things that human beings do not yet understand. There are human abilities that are largely untapped. (Think of the kinds of things that the yogis can do, for example). Just think about the things that we understand now, that would have been unthinkable a century ago, and considered "miraculous".

For many, it is so much easier to ascribe happenings not understood to supernatural forces, than to accept the fact that humanity is still in its infancy with regards to understanding the forces of nature in general, and the workings of a human being, in particular.

As far as I am concerned, faith is a cop-out, a way of not dealing with the much more difficult job of attempting to think things through, and figure things out.

You are not lost.......you have simply come across some ideas that you don't quite understand, and are toying with the idea of laying it all on "faith". IMO, you need to keep on thinking, and not simply accepting perfectly natural phenomena as supernatural. That is the only way that humanity will continue to evolve.

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I have had so many experiences with my 25 year Buddhist practice it boggles the mind. I recall when I first began chanting the extreme joy and happiness that snuck up on me like the sun suddenly illuminating the darkness. It was at that moment that I realized I was never turning back.

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Any instances to enhance my faith? Too many to count. Very Happy

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I have had a number of experiences that the religious might have called "supernatural". I have brought myself to a state of ecstacy through yoga that some might call a "religious" experience. It wasn't. I have been brought to what some might call "a higher plane of consciousness", through a certain form of breathing, which would have scared the hell out of the superstitious. I just enjoyed it, for what it was.

They were simply physical manifestations of something which I had heretofore not been familiar. Once I understood how and why these things happened, it was just as engaging as before I understood it.

I am very curious of the nature of near death experiences of someone who is totally unfamiliar with western culture. I would suspect that they might be very similiar, the differences being an alternate "cast of characters". Anyone know of any studies of this?

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Yes, occasionally when I pray at the Mosque I get this feeling of utter comfort and bliss within me (hard to describe). It just relaxes my whole body, mind and soul at ease.

One thing that did strengthen my faith is how a friend explained to me how once while flying on airplane and the man next to him was literally dieing. As he was choking on his last breaths, my friend told to him to say 'There is no God but Allah' (but in Arabic) but the man couldn't and kept telling him 'Give my briefcase, give my briefcase!' and when my friend grabbed him and told him to say it. The man cried out 'I can't! I can't!' (although he was Muslim), his tongue just wouldn't utter the simple 4 words because how much he sinned.

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sorry, I'm having a hard time dealing with someone named David calling himself "lost teddy bear"

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Re: Ever had something happen to "enhance" your fa

Lost TeddyBear wrote:

I am going through a very tough time these days dealing with spiritual issues that I feel no better about than I did when I was much younger. I would like to believe... more than anything but I guess you could say I'm "agnostic".

I have read numerous times how someone has had something happen to them in their life, be it a NDE, sensing or seeing an Angel of some sorts... perhaps some kind of "vision" or just something that improved their faith and they can't fully understand and explain it.

Have you ever had any such event that strengthened or enhanced your faith? And how.

Thanks in advance

Lost_TeddyBear (David)

Yes, after praying specifically about something I often see God's answer coming in ways that I could not influence or control.

I would encourage you to make specific time to pray each day.

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Raul-7 wrote:

One thing that did strengthen my faith is how a friend explained to me how once while flying on airplane and the man next to him was literally dieing. As he was choking on his last breaths, my friend told to him to say 'There is no God but Allah' (but in Arabic) but the man couldn't and kept telling him 'Give my briefcase, give my briefcase!' and when my friend grabbed him and told him to say it. The man cried out 'I can't! I can't!' (although he was Muslim), his tongue just wouldn't utter the simple 4 words because how much he sinned.

Raul, if you don't mind telling me how it strengthened your faith
while your friend was grabbing a perfect stranger in a plane and
forcing him to succumb to Allah, and more importantly, how did
your friend know that this poor man sinned? Shocked

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CalamityJane wrote:

Raul-7 wrote:
One thing that did strengthen my faith is how a friend explained to me how once while flying on airplane and the man next to him was literally dieing. As he was choking on his last breaths, my friend told to him to say 'There is no God but Allah' (but in Arabic) but the man couldn't and kept telling him 'Give my briefcase, give my briefcase!' and when my friend grabbed him and told him to say it. The man cried out 'I can't! I can't!' (although he was Muslim), his tongue just wouldn't utter the simple 4 words because how much he sinned.

Raul, if you don't mind telling me how it strengthened your faith
while your friend was grabbing a perfect stranger in a plane andforcing him to succumb to Allah, and more importantly, how did
your friend know that this poor man sinned?

Hi Jane,

It strengthened my faith because I realized how dangerous the matter is, I used to think that if I just died a Muslim I would go to Heaven but this is not the case at all or I use to procrastinate and say 'I'll become a true believer when I grow older'. You need to stick with your Faith during thick and thin, remain steadfast and patient as you never know when the Angel of Death might be sent to take your soul and from that point on there is no repentance and all you take to your grave are your good and bad deeds. Nothing else remains.

As for the poor man and my friend trying to force him. Being a Muslim you watch out for your brother, thus you try to help him anyway you can. You aren't gauranteed Paradise if you practice your Faith alone and leave your fellow brothers behind - that's selfish.

...To be one of those who believe and urge each other to steadfastness and urge each other to compassion. Those are the Companions of the Right. (Surat al-Balad: 17-18)

Part of your religion is to practice it and part is to strengthen it in others. If that man died with those 4 words on his tongue he wouldv'e been gauranteed Paradise; however, as easy as it may seem he just couldn't utter them. As much as he wanted to say it - he couldn't. A well-known scholar then told him the reason is because he was detached from Allah in his daily-life and from how much he sinned.

There a similar story of a teenager who couldn't say it Saudi Arabia, while the doctor (who was a Sheikh) told him to say it; all the teenager could say was 'I can't! I want my girlfriend!' until he died.

Sad but it teaches us an important lesson.

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Raul-7 wrote:

One thing that did strengthen my faith is how a friend explained to me how once while flying on airplane and the man next to him was literally dieing. As he was choking on his last breaths, my friend told to him to say 'There is no God but Allah' (but in Arabic) but the man couldn't and kept telling him 'Give my briefcase, give my briefcase!' and when my friend grabbed him and told him to say it. The man cried out 'I can't! I can't!' (although he was Muslim), his tongue just wouldn't utter the simple 4 words because how much he sinned.

Maybe his medication was in his briefcase???

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Re: Ever had something happen to "enhance" your fa

Lost TeddyBear wrote:

Have you ever had any such event that strengthened or enhanced your faith? And how.

Yeah, basically, when I first figured out that there was no version of evolution which was workable or believable.

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Raul-7 wrote:

Yes, occasionally when I pray at the Mosque I get this feeling of utter comfort and bliss within me (hard to describe). It just relaxes my whole body, mind and soul at ease.

One thing that did strengthen my faith is how a friend explained to me how once while flying on airplane and the man next to him was literally dieing. As he was choking on his last breaths, my friend told to him to say 'There is no God but Allah' (but in Arabic) but the man couldn't and kept telling him 'Give my briefcase, give my briefcase!' and when my friend grabbed him and told him to say it. The man cried out 'I can't! I can't!' (although he was Muslim), his tongue just wouldn't utter the simple 4 words because how much he sinned.

I seen you say some things I've found pretty appalling before Raul, but this one takes the cake.

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NickFun wrote:

Raul-7 wrote:
One thing that did strengthen my faith is how a friend explained to me how once while flying on airplane and the man next to him was literally dieing. As he was choking on his last breaths, my friend told to him to say 'There is no God but Allah' (but in Arabic) but the man couldn't and kept telling him 'Give my briefcase, give my briefcase!' and when my friend grabbed him and told him to say it. The man cried out 'I can't! I can't!' (although he was Muslim), his tongue just wouldn't utter the simple 4 words because how much he sinned.

Maybe his medication was in his briefcase???

No, the man told him 'I want to say it (Shahada), but I can't'. The man was still young; he was in a suit. But death knows no limits and the tongue is mankind's biggest backstabber.

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Raul-7 wrote:

Yes, occasionally when I pray at the Mosque I get this feeling of utter comfort and bliss within me (hard to describe). It just relaxes my whole body, mind and soul at ease.

I have had the same experience........................at a fine classical musical concert, and walking through some of the wilder parts of the southwest U.S. For each person, bliss is a purely personal affair. It is lovely that you find that bliss at prayer, but that feeling has to do with YOUR perception, not anything outside of yourself.

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Ever had something happen to "enhance" your faith?

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