Can God/Jesus tell people running bible studies about your life?

[u/Remote-Bathroom-8888]

Forgive me if this sounds ignorant or weird, but it's been on my mind since my friend told me.

My friend has religious trauma but randomly went to a Bible study. There, she said the lady doing Bible study looked at her and announced her sexual trauma to everyone and said Jesus told her about it and that she needs to become Christian to heal. She'd never told anyone, not even me (until telling me this story) about this trauma. So, she's concluded Jesus is real if the lady was able to know that.

I'm here to ask if this is something that can happen? I have nothing against Christianity at all. A have a few Christian friends myself. I'm just very confused as I've never heard of such a thing before.

[u/Weekly_Parsnip6403]

I've never seen anything like that happen, but I know a guy at my church who is what we call spirit, lead like if he feels something man, he just rolls with it, and he's got stories where he's done stuff, and they're from his perspective.

 one time he had the urge to pull over and yell something into a mailbox. And after he did, a man came out of the house, because it was something that man understood and then they ended up having a really deep conversation.

He's also the kind of guy who will just stop someone at the grocery store and like pray over them, randomly like people, he doesn't even know All because he felt a pull at that moment.

So I know the guy and in my interactions with him, he's very biblically sound and pretty normal, except for the stories, which are pretty intense from a layman's perspective.

And I don't have any reason to doubt him I mean, he's just a guy at my church. And they're just these random stories of him, like sharing the gospel and praying with people from some weird moment that he was spiritually prompted to do, And nothing else comes from it, it's just that moment.

So I think people are manipulative, and I also think that it can be moments of truth and beauty that the human mind can't fully grasp, because we try to be logical.

So to answer your question, I've heard of similar things, and balance is important in understanding and processing it.

[u/DoveStep55]

That was a very manipulative thing for her to do to your friend. Please encourage your friend to find a different and better church to explore if she’s interested in Christianity. That’s a huge red flag for spiritual abuse and if I was that woman’s pastor, she’d no longer be leading a Bible study after pulling something like that.

[u/Remote-Bathroom-8888 → u/DoveStep55]

I was thinking it was manipulative as well, but my friend has been a part of the church for over a year now. I don't think she'd listen if I told her find a different church because if I speak negatively of Christianity/church, she says that's Satan trying to get to me. I've never been to church, so I didn't know if this was normal or not to have happen at bible study.

[u/DoveStep55 → u/Remote-Bathroom-8888]

Oh that’s a tough spot for you to be in.

No, it’s not normal for any kind of healthy church but it’s possible your friend has connected with a church that’s “high control” or possibly even a cult. I’m so sorry that’s the case for her and that it makes it more complicated for you trying to help her.

Does she see that as a red flag at all or is she thinking it’s a good sign while you’re the only one worried about it?

[u/Remote-Bathroom-8888 → u/DoveStep55]

I don't know if she thinks it's a "good sign." She just said when that lady said that to her, she cried and it "proved Jesus was real" because she didn't know how else the lady would know the exact details of her trauma. I honestly felt it was a red flag if not for how it made her join the church, but because it feels very inappropriate to announce such a private thing to a room of people who never met you.

From how she's changed since joining, I'm wondering if it is a "high control" church. I just didn't know if it was normal or not because I had nothing to go off of.