Only "Believe"

[waysider]

What's the craziest thing you ever tried to "believe for"?

Now, first off, I know that some of these might be quite painful or embarrassing.

So,it's okay to generalize.

In fact, My own experiences involved interpersonal relationships and jobs that, by all common sense and logic, were headed down the crapper. But crazy me. I figured I would could "fix" everything with SIT and "Release From Your Prisons" type magical believing

Just gotta get that camera in focus and stare at it, don'tcha know?

[cheranne]

What's the craziest thing you ever tried to "believe for"?

Now, first off, I know that some of these might be quite painful or embarrassing.

So,it's okay to generalize.

In fact, My own experiences involved interpersonal relationships and jobs that, by all common sense and logic, were headed down the crapper. But crazy me. I figured I would could "fix" everything with SIT and "Release From Your Prisons" type magical believing

Just gotta get that camera in focus and stare at it, don'tcha know?

Okay...your gonna laugh I was believing for a blue jeep CJ-5 with a white "holy spirit dove"on it instead of the eagles that use ta come on them in the late 70's.(now I feel ....embarrased hahahaha)

Edited July 23, 2009 by cheranne

[waysider]

Ok---there ya go.

(The doves are on the back side---You just can't see them.)

[polar bear]

Okay you asked for it.

We were throwing a "Halloween" party (you know what we used to call them) but anyhow we needed some hay. We had no idea where to look for hay ie-you can't find it under "hay" in the yellow pages. So we are driving down the road and low and behold a truck filled with hay goes by us. And what do you know a couple of bales are rolling along the top of the truck and fall off just as we pass it. We stop and the guy doesn't turn around. So we got our hay. "Hey" sometimes you do get what you are praying for. I believed in God before I was involved with the Way contrary to what many Way people think which is that God only works for them and no one else.

I never did go for the camera thing. That was eery. One thing I do believe is that it's up to God not up to us what happens in life.

Edited July 23, 2009 by polar bear

[Oakspear]

I knew two women who told me that they were believing for bigger breasts...I swear I'm not making it up. Actually, one of them, at an advanced class, told me that she had received bigger breasts because she knew it would bless her husband. The other one was single, had a nice body, but thought that she needed bigger breasts to "bless" her hypothetical future husband.

I was once "believing" for my eyes to be healed so that I wouldn't need glasses. My glasses had broken and I didn't get them replaced. Maybe laleo remembers the experience of riding in a car that I was driving without eyeglasses! :o

[Twinky]

Here's two:

1. I needed a new job but wanted to travel the world (not an easy thing with my sort of occupation). Then I decided I needed to develop my relationship with God, and wanted to be with some great believers (Way believers, of course!). Nothing was happening until I put God at the top of the list. I chatted with a non-Way friend about my plans, and do you know, the next week in the national newspaper was a job in another country exactly what I needed, 3 months paid holiday at the end of the job... and there was (I later found) a twig in that city.

As soon as I saw the ad (which my non-Way friend sent to me, because as a young believer I was expecting some bolt from the blue or who knows what???), I knew it was the answer to my prayer (the job was hopeless because the business collapsed, but the fellowship was sweet, the country great, and I stayed for many years).

2. One of the young men in my twig was under considerable family pressure and was very unhappy. He just disappeared and could not be found. I got very worried about him. My WOW family and I went out to search for him (where to start??). Yet we found him - in a city of over 1/2 million - within 20 minutes inc travel time. I felt we should go to a suburb where a lot of people of his nationality lived; then to a particular street; then up a hill; then knocked on the first door... and there he was. It was his cousin's house.

None of us knew the cousin lived there - or anything about this lad's family. I felt rather like Ananias going to find Paul, in Acts.

[Tzaia]

I do believe in "believing," but not the way TWI taught it. I'm a big believer that you create your own circumstances.

I was a dirt-bag magnet and was pretty fed up with how my life was going. I sat down and made a list of all the qualities I wanted in a future husband. Some of them were negotiable, like hair color. Then I said to God that s(he) would have to put that man on my doorstep, because I wasn't going to go looking for him. That's exactly what happened.

Things like that happen a lot.

[Bolshevik]

when was a kid at an ROA I remember two ladies talking as they sucked on cigarettes about how long they were believing to live for. One of them said 300 years.

Why stop at 300 I wonder?

[hiway29]

I never believed I could 'believe for anything, so I never really 'tried'-at least according to the way's formula. I had so many doubts, I just figured even if there was something to it, I wasn't getting to that 'level'.

Meanwhile, I watched my wow sister throw away her glasses because she 'believed' her sight would correct itself by her 'believing action'. I did begin to wonder how she got to that place, as she crawled around the grass the next day, trying to find her discarded glasses.

[George Aar]

I "believed" to have my carpal tunnel syndrome healed, and - lo and behold - it WAS! Unfortunately the "symptoms" returned quite quickly and I spent the next 15 years "believing" for them to disappear. Finally, after my hands and arms simply wouldn't work anymore, I went in for surgery. The doctor said I was tied for being the worst case he'd ever seen in his career (and he was a c.t. specialist). I'd done a lot of damage that never will heal.

Funny how when people had undeniable, OBVIOUS issues in their lives (i.e. blindness, paralysis, a missing limb, or - in extreme circumstances - a dead relative) that miraculous healing or raising from the dead NEVER happened. Those type of healings only occured in the "vanishing hitchhiker" sorta narrative. Lesser, more ambiguous healing issues WERE abundant though. Everybody had one of those in their repetoire. Always sorta made me wonder...

Edited July 23, 2009 by George Aar

[Shellon]

We spent our share of time believing for the bills to get paid by God, which always sorta cracked me up, but I played along. We also spent too much time believing for another baby and that one got EVERYone involved to the point where our private life was anything but and of course every lost baby or lack of a baby was my fault cuz surely I was doing something horrible to pi$$ God off that he didn't want me to have that baby. It took 11 years after all; what the heck was WRONG with me, right?

We did get the baby and the bills did stay paid but I figure that was 'cuz we worked and spent time alone together as man and wife.

Me having the baby probably was some miracle, really, though.

I liked the "believing images of victory" since it gave my brain something to visualize that didn't involve another meeting, confrontation or leader to contend with.

[Oakspear]

Then I said to God that s(he) would have to put that man on my doorstep, because I wasn't going to go looking for him. That's exactly what happened.

Did you have to explain to the guy what he was doing on your doorstep and who put him there

[Tzaia]

Did you have to explain to the guy what he was doing on your doorstep and who put him there

Not really. Since he was in TWI, it didn't seem THAT far out there.

It did make me look at whoever happened to show up at my door in a whole new way.

I did the list before I ever went to my first twig.

[leafytwiglet]

I actually did the believing thing a lot while I was in TWI...

I also got many of the things I asked for.. maybe because of what I asked for...THat I just asked for it not specified...

One time hitch hiking back from ROA with a friend after my WOW year we asked for a blue Kenworth that could get us almost all the way home.. I swear to you the very next Truck was a blue kenworth and it got us from Illinois all the way to Montana's southern border. we just needed to get a hop skip and a jump home.

I also had gotten a huge horrible canker sore in my mouth once and it would not heal.. I was at a branch meeting and hooked up with a different friend(this was when I was in Idaho) and we prayed about it.. Now I was in extreme pain from it and 30 minutes later the pain was gone and by the next morning it was completely gone.

I also tried to believe for God to heal my eyesight and also I have a hearing lose in one ear.. none of that got healed. Obviously my believing was not big enough :blink: :)

Edited for clarity

Edited July 23, 2009 by leafytwiglet

[Ham]

I "believed" for it to rain once, in a very specific way..

this one character I worked with at the time was ranting on and on how's there's no God and all..

I say "no God, eh? how about if it rains as far as the eye can see, except for this little block around us..

and it actually happened.. a person could see the downpour of water the next block over.. and it was perfectly dry where we were at. The character quit mumbling about there not being a God, and started babbling something about witchcraft..

no, I did not invite him to twig. Just seemed inappropriate at the time to hang some kind of advertisement on it..

[waysider]

One of my fellow laborer brothers had what started out as a fairly minor, treatable medical condition. Because of the nature of our program and the expectations that were placed on us, he tried to "believe" for healing. Long story made short, he got septicemia, spent a week in the hospital and darn near lost an appendage, not to mention, his life.

Another guy I knew from those days moved on to a position on staff at HQ. He developed a very serious, acute medical condition that can be treated if addressed in the early stages. He was ridiculed because he couldn't get his believing up.He died. That's the kind of "crazy" stuff I'm talking about.

Edited July 24, 2009 by waysider

[waysider]

Another time, our fearless FLO leader announced at morning fellowship that it didn't matter if we were only getting 4 or 5 hours sleep/night because, if we were speaking in tongues as much as we were supposed to and got our believing up, we could go on virtually no sleep at all. Guess who overslept through 5:30 fellowship the next day-- :P

[Ham]

Yeah.. that's crazy..

I've seen some things "happen".. but my experience.. if there isn't some kind of "grace" or something.. it just does not happen. And you can't put it on a schedule.. I don't think there's a single "law" or anything to rely on to make it happen either.

I think we were sold a bill of goods..

[Ham]

The real "miraculous" in my life happened about six years ago..

I went back to school..

who would have thought a profitable business would be driven into the ground by an absolutely asinine employer.. but somehow I saw this coming eight years ago.

so I went ahead and started planning. I really don't want to open another shop, Nor did I want to end up working for a similar "numbnuts" employer. The choice at the time- part time education.. I was in a chemistry curriculum at a community college. Then I came to be in a position scholarships and Pell grants did not apply anymore. The labs for the chemistry classes were only one credit of education, but the "technology fees" were just too horrendous to consider continuing.

So I gathered up my credits, and went to another university, a four year college.. and entered the math curriculum.

all the while, the amount of business continued, probably to the chagrin of the employer, to justify keeping the shop open. Until this year.

So.. in celebration of the inauguration of the new president, and *possible* new taxes.. he finally axed the electronics repair department. Fine. I continue school and graduate.. but nobody is hiring tv repair people at the moment..

Now.. I have barely enough unemployment payments to get me through until the fall. And in the fall.. I begin the graduate program. They are actually willing to PAY to teach me how to teach kids algebra..

and provide graduate level classes besides..

and I haven't even sat down for any kind of formal interview.

So if I don't find suitable employment by then.. I have suitable employment..

and in two years, god willing.. I'll have a masters degree in math, if not in applied mathematics. Along with teaching skills..

And with *possible* returning veterans seeking better employment than what the market has to have without some kind of degree.. they will return to school..

where will they start.. ah. Community colleges. And who will be in great demand to teach Algebra, Discrete math, calculus.. differential equations..

I just hope I live long enough.. it should be fun..

[Tzaia]

Yeah.. that's crazy..

I've seen some things "happen".. but my experience.. if there isn't some kind of "grace" or something.. it just does not happen. And you can't put it on a schedule.. I don't think there's a single "law" or anything to rely on to make it happen either.

I think we were sold a bill of goods..

I think you hit the nail on the head - the lack of grace.

[Shellon]

Anyone at the 1995 Advanced Class at Rome City, June?

I couldn't go because I was extremely pregnant with Kelly, but my husband went (which was another story in believing with him going across country while his wife was so close to birthin' a baby).

Anyway, that was another class where they got their anus's kicked cuz of excessive rain. What was wrong with their believing, they were advanced class students ferchristsake, blah and yada blah.

I can still see my husband's face when he relayed the story to me and still remember it as yet another incident of knowing we were in some bad shi+ even though we'd already been in that shi+ for 14 years.

I came across his (my husband) notes a few weeks ago on that class.............yikes.

It rained alot.

[Ham]

I may have been there.. I forget which year it was exactly, 95, 94..

must have been 95, I remember the rain. It rained so hard, we went out in the parking lot and rubbed soap on the car.. let the rain do the rest. Didn't need a car wash or anything..

[Shellon]

Yup, apparently was that kind of rain and the condemnation matched the downpour because it was the students faults. Seems to me if you got your cars washed, something good got done.

I took that class in 1992 and while it didn't rain, our embarassment as a class was being unprepared.

I'm still not sure what it is we weren't unprepared for, but our believing sucked nonetheless, according to the powers that spat.

[Shellon]

Then again, I fell off the top bunk in the townhouse room I was assigned, so I guess my believing was really bad.

[Broken Arrow]

The real "miraculous" in my life happened about six years ago..

I went back to school..

who would have thought a profitable business would be driven into the ground by an absolutely asinine employer.. but somehow I saw this coming eight years ago.

so I went ahead and started planning. I really don't want to open another shop, Nor did I want to end up working for a similar "numbnuts" employer. The choice at the time- part time education.. I was in a chemistry curriculum at a community college. Then I came to be in a position scholarships and Pell grants did not apply anymore. The labs for the chemistry classes were only one credit of education, but the "technology fees" were just too horrendous to consider continuing.

So I gathered up my credits, and went to another university, a four year college.. and entered the math curriculum.

all the while, the amount of business continued, probably to the chagrin of the employer, to justify keeping the shop open. Until this year.

So.. in celebration of the inauguration of the new president, and *possible* new taxes.. he finally axed the electronics repair department. Fine. I continue school and graduate.. but nobody is hiring tv repair people at the moment..

Now.. I have barely enough unemployment payments to get me through until the fall. And in the fall.. I begin the graduate program. They are actually willing to PAY to teach me how to teach kids algebra..

and provide graduate level classes besides..

and I haven't even sat down for any kind of formal interview.

So if I don't find suitable employment by then.. I have suitable employment..

and in two years, god willing.. I'll have a masters degree in math, if not in applied mathematics. Along with teaching skills..

And with *possible* returning veterans seeking better employment than what the market has to have without some kind of degree.. they will return to school..

where will they start.. ah. Community colleges. And who will be in great demand to teach Algebra, Discrete math, calculus.. differential equations..

I just hope I live long enough.. it should be fun..

That's great, Ham! Hats off to you!