What makes God real to you?

[JoeMo]

That story is definitely a "miracle" story.  People can come up with any alternative story they want, but their alternative would be more coincidental than the miracle.

About 5 years ago on Christmas Eve, my wife had been so sick she wanted to die.  We went to bed and I laid hands on her and prayed for her healing until she was a sleep and breathing easy.  I then prayed that God would give her a sign that He was with her and would heal her.  The next morning (Christmas), she got up around dawn to let the dogs out to potty.  Their was a bald eagle standing on our back porch, wings fully spread, looking in our window.  When my wife opened the door, the eagle just backed off and watched her for a few minutes; then calmly walked off the porch into the back yard and flew away.  My wife took that as the "sign" we were praying for.  In the 18 yeard we have lived here, that was the only time we have seen a bald eagle; and he was on our porch looking in the window.  We remembered the verses in Isaiah talking about mounting up on eagles' wings.  Coincidence?

[Gregory Matthews]

I also would be if it happened to me and I would be giving 'God thanks.

 

[Charity]

What makes God real to me - not a simple question for me and I don't have a simple answer.  But I know He is real.  In my heart.  In my mind.  In my relationship with my children.  In all my everyday experiences - I sense His presence.  He communicates to me in ways that let me know it's Him - like when He told me that my son would return home and when I asked Him to reassure me that it was Him telling me that - He brought my son home that very weekend. Or when we needed $10,000 for the balance of my daughter's tuition to graduate from medical school and He impressed the mother of one of her friends to offer to pay it for us.  Or the many other times He made the impossible a reality.   I know that my experiences are not coincidences because for them to be coincidences a number of things would have had to happen simultaneously to produce the outcomes. But most of all.  I agree with everyone else who state that nature (including humans) testify of God's existence - the heavens declare the glory of God ...

[BlueBoy1844]

Surely the most obvious way to know that God our Saviour exists is when we ask for deliverance from a temptation and immediately receive it from Him! 

Then the next way would be in occasions when we are protected as 8thdaypriest has shown us.  God protects all, good and bad, as much as He can, but when He answers prayer for deliverance then it is intensely personal.

[Geoarrge]

It's easy enough to recite the cosmological and biological evidence for the existence of God, but that by itself is largely academic.  Is God actually there, now?  Does he care about us personally?  The Bible offers promises and invites us to put them to the test.  But what are we supposed to say when things don't happen?  Keep telling ourselves to be patient and persevere, through a decade of no discernible progress whatsoever?  Bottle it up and conceal our doubts for the sake of those weak in their faith?  Praise the Lord for all the miracles that happen to other people and learn to accept being passed over?  Bite our tongues when others throw around assurances of deliverance as though it's physically impossible for it not to happen? What am I supposed to say if someone confronts me and asks what my experience has been?  What if it's an unbeliever whose salvation might depend on one last random encounter with a Christian? God help them if it's me!

I want to say that I've experienced nothing, which is perhaps not entirely true. After having to leave school I was unsuccessful finding a job for several months, fell into deep depression, and in all likelihood, might have turned suicidal in another few months, but I did find a job and in a general sense got better.  So, as far as that's worth anything, praise the Lord.  But I have to say my life hasn't really gone anywhere since then. I'm not getting enough hours to fully support myself, and my efforts to practice my art skills, so I can begin drawing an income from that, increasingly seem to degenerate into aimless frustrated idle doodling.  So until I have some professional skills to offer others, I can't expect anyone to be interested in what I do. I can't expect to be seen as someone who can provide for a family, so forget finding a wife in the near future.  And while I fail to do anything with my life I get to watch my dad lose two brothers and wonder, regarding his sons, if his family has hit a dead end.  So, yes, I wonder now if that first job was really Providence or just a spot of good luck with no larger meaning.  Every day for the last ten years, although lately I've probably missed some days, I've asked God for help and tried to act on the opportunities I've been given. And that has resulted in repeated disappointment, until I hardly expect anything anymore. I find myself hardly caring whether I do anything substantial with my life anymore, which I intellectually understand is very bad.  But that is where my experience with God has brought me.  

[phkrause]

Does Job come to mind Geoarrge??

[debbym]

When i exercise faIth God seems more real.  my faith can fluctuate... but when i gaze on trees, the starry night sky, people... the wonders of creation by faith i acknowledge the power and wisdom of God as creator and sustainer. 

when i pray God seems real... when i am in conviction of my need for God, God seems real.  When i enjoy self control... that i have not had ... and deep peace... God seems real.

[JoeMo]

Geoarrge,

I find you post very sad; but yours seems like a common experience (or lack thereof) concerning God.  One of my daughters claims the same thing (although her life is going well - she'll be a physician).  She grew up SDA and reached out to God throughout life; and feels like she never got an answer or any divine guidance.  I disagree with her; and claim that many of the successes she has had in life (brilliant academic life, brains, beauty, charm, enough money to be debt-free and have a guaranteed job after medical school) were at least partially arranged by God; and not 100% by her own effort and luck.  She now claims to be an atheist.  Are you now an atheist or an agnostic?

Edited July 18, 2016 by Tom Wetmore
No quoting please....

[8thdaypriest]

Abraham WAITED 15 years from the day a son was promised him through Sarah.  He watched her go through menopause.  Nothing happened.  He gave up hoping and waiting, and followed Sarah's advice to use Hagar.  Before we judge Abraham - do we stop and think about how long we could wait - and still BELIEVE the promise we heard??

I made some BAD choices back in the day.  Any one of those choices could have brought seriously BAD consequences, yet I was somehow shielded.  I believe now - that it was because of my mother's constant prayers.  Shortly before her death, she made me promise that I would never stop praying for my sister and brother (both still atheists at this point).

I have personally experienced over 20 miracles - real miracles.  Yet I've had chronic migraines since I was 19, and have never yet been healed.  I was born with a serious malformation of my skull and upper cervical vertebra.  Now my neck has bad arthritis and I have degenerative changes.  I also had viral encephalitis back in 1980, and was left with simple partial seizures.  I still take meds for that.  God has healed nothing.  The one thing I want most - is denied me. 

So Geoarrge, I am VERY familiar with chronic pain - a real faith tester, if ever there was one.  When I meet my guardian angel, I'm gonna ask him - WHY?  WHY did He leave me with the pain?  Who knows?  Maybe it was just to keep me humble.  Maybe He knew I'd get a "fat head" if I had nothing to hold me back. 

To me - the terrible pain suffered by millions of human beings in this world IS the biggest roadblock to belief in a God who "is Love".  See - believing "God" exists, is not the same as trusting that Being.  Some folks who have suffered a lot, or have been frustrated for a long time don't really want to "believe" that God exists, because they feel - deep down inside - that they would not be able to "love Him" or "trust Him". 

Now - I do have faith - because of the miracles, and the evidence of science, and the evidence of prophecy, and just the real difference I see in people who "know God" vs people who do not. 

But I understand the struggle. Believe me. I do. 

[joeb]

I've experienced God in my life since my childhood.  He's saved my life several times through direct intervention.

In the last couple of months God has performed two miracles at my request.  Both involve the health of my dog.  The first time I had taken my dog to the vet to get his teeth cleaned (small dogs have major problems with their teeth).  The vet has to put him to sleep so I have them run blood tests on his kidneys to see if they will take the strain.  The test came back that his kidneys were failing and he didn't have long to live.  I took my pup home and started praying about it asking God to spare his life because of what he means to me.  I took him back to the vet two weeks later and had his kidneys retested.  The test came back normal. 

The second thing involved an injury.  I take him up into a wildlife refuge and let him run on a back road where there isn't any traffic.  He was stopped messing around out of sight at the right front corner of the car.  This road is a two-track road.  The right tires in one track the left tires in the other.  Grass grows up on each side of tracks and in the middle.  I could see the grass moving off to the right side of the track and assumed that's where my dog was.  I started the car rolling forward very slowly and suddenly there was a yip from my dog.  I got out to see what happened and he was standing in front of the car on three legs.  He was holding his right hind leg off the ground.  I picked him up and put him in the car with me and started driving forward to a place where I could turn around and my dog was whining to get let out so I figured nothing much was wrong.  I opened the door and he got out and trotted on ahead of the car.  However, every once in a while he would stop using his right hind leg and let out a little yip of pain.  So, I picked him up and put him back in the car and closely examined his leg and paw.  I couldn't find anything wrong..

He usually jumps up into my lap when I'm sitting in the house but now he was unwilling to try to jump.   I figured something had just gotten wreched(sprained) a little and he'd get over it in a day or two.  However, two days later he was worse and unable to use his leg at all, and his tail, which he normally carries curled up over his back was trailing on the ground at all times.  So, I got worried and did a physical examination of him.  Running my fingers down each side of his spine I found a spot just in front of his hips in which his spine wasn't even close to straight.  It was at least a 1/4" out of alignment. Oh, and he was carrying his hips so that they were tucked up underneath him, not his normal way of carrying them.  I tried to gently turn his hips back to there normal position and I got bitten before I even knew what happened.  It was before my dog knew what happened too because he acted so sheepish afterward that I knew it wasn't something he thought about doing.  It just hurt him so bad when I gently tried to straighten his hips that he bit me by reflex.

I got really worried now because of that abnomality in his spine.  I started praying once again and asking God to heal him.  I told God I'd pay for a vet bill if I could but that He knew I didn't have money for surgery.  I told Him it was my fault my dog had gotten hurt.  I just hadn't been careful enough and I just couldn't stand to see him crippled up because of that.  I asked God to please heal him because being a God of love it was unlike Him to see my dog have to suffer for my carelessness.  I reminded God that He could heal my dog with just a word, that that was all it would take to relieve his suffering.  I thanked Him and went to sleep. 

The next morning I woke up and my dog was completely back to normal.  He jumped off the bed and his tail was curled up over his back once more and his jaunty little trot was back.  I checked his spine and it was once again aligned the way it was supposed to be. 

God has answered so many of my prayers over the years that there is no doubt in my mind that God is real and that he answers prayer. 

[phkrause]

Here's a great article by Jill Morikone of 3ABN, that I thought spoke to this subject:

http://www.adventistreview.org/1606-55

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

pk, remember, this is Original Thoughts.... no quoting...

 

[phkrause]

You know, after I posted, I thought about it! But I also thought I read once that links were ok? Probably not I guess?

[Tom Wetmore]

A link is OK sometimes, sort of like a reference.  But the nature of topic question calls for ones own personal experience. The link in this case doesn't do that.

[tigerwillow]

When my beliefs (head knowledge) about God translate into life-changing experiences, He becomes very real to me; to the point where my beliefs are no longer just some empty values I hold, but are real principles that shape who I am and how I choose to live my life.

For example, my beliefs turn into life-changing experiences that make God very real to me when I am minding my own business and all of the sudden an impression will pop into my head out of the blue to pray for someone near me who I never interacted with before.  Or, when I am struggling with something in my life, and an impression comes up from seemingly nowhere (I am usually not thinking about that thing at the time) that makes something clearer than it had been before or directs me to a path I had not thought of before.

[debbym]

when i pray and exercise my faith, and experience being renewed, and empowered to seek God... i believe this is a blessing from God that i could not generate on my own.  when i was depressed for years, there was an interruption in the exercise of faith... i was too low to effectively exercise my faith... but in that time a scripture was spoken to my heart, that Jesus knows everything from the beginning to the end.

when the day came that the darkness and immobilization of my depression lifted, i just thanked God that he saw this day when i would rejoice to be alive, and have back my exercise of faith.  It meant so much to me, the thought that as he saw my season of depression he also saw my restoration, and when i stepped into it, it just affirmed my faith in Him.

these words so feebly express the experience.

[8thdaypriest]

Thought I would post an answer to prayer.  If you remember I posted that I have suffered from barometric migraines for some 45 years.  Four months ago, I was reading on migraine.com (a website/forum I follow) an article about vasomotor rhinitis (an auto-immune disorder).  Folks with this have VERY sensitive nerves in their sinuses.  They react to just about everything (falling barometric pressure, chemical smells, a visit to Walmart, etc. etc.).  A doctor had written an article about how vasomotor rhinitis could trigger migraines.  His recommendation was to use Flonase faithfully twice a day, and if that worked, then cut to once a day.  I followed his advice, and I am VERY happy to report that my headaches have improved at least 75%.  My life is truly changed.  I can now make a lunch date and actually expect to keep it.   Thank you LORD!!

Now I'm going to post a promise that I believe the LORD spoke to me.  I am posting this in advance, so that you can share the experience. 

In June of 2016, I had an idea for a toaster accessory.  See, I like just ONE piece of toast in the morning (with olive oil butter and chia seeds) with a cup of tea and a few almonds.  As anyone who has used a slotted toast knows, the side of your bread that faces the empty slot will be browner (or burned) than the side facing away from the empty slot.  I would always watch the toaster, to make sure my toast didn't burn.   I complained about this one day to my husband, and his retort was, "Well invent something!".  So -- I contacted a design engineer and paid him to come up with a prototype of what I call the "Toaster Mate".  I now hold the non-provisional utility patent, and also the trademark of the name.  But let me tell you about the miracle part.

On July 22nd, while praying out loud about whether to pay $5K for a design engineer, and a patent search, my prayer was interrupted by what I have come to call "The Voice".  The Voice is very strong.  I don't believe it is audible.  It just feels audible.  Anyway. The Voice said, "Go forward Rachel.  I am going to bless you."   So I paid the money, and also have paid a patent attorney. 

When the USPTO sent "actions" (meaning objections) to some of the claims in my patent application, I was about to give up.  Every time the patent attorney files an answer to one of those "actions", it's another $500.  The Voice said "All is not lost" several times that day.   The USPTO granted my patent in 5 months.  THAT is very unusual. 

So - Now I OWN the patent, and I OWN the trademark.  Now I am searching for the right marketing agent.  See - large manufacturers and retailers don't want to deal with inventors.  They want to deal with agents (like the Shark Tank stars).  Inventors are usually too emotional about their inventions.   I have prayed about this also.  I believe the LORD will connect me with the right agent. 

I am telling you about all of this now - before I get a contract - before a company buys my patent and my trademark.  I'm telling you about this now - before it happens, so that YOU can experience the miracle with me.  I believe totally, that the LORD will find a buyer for me, and I will earn royalties.  I have promised the LORD half of any profit I am paid (after taxes) from that contract.  Any profit that comes to me will TOTALLY be a miracle. 

I do not know WHEN this will happen.  I just believe it WILL happen. 

The picture below is my hand, putting my prototype into my toaster.  I've been using that prototype for the last 8 months, and it works beautifully.  No more burned toast.  The Toaster Mate is made of unglazed ceramic and weighs about 3.5 ounces. 

[BlueBoy1844]

Hi Margie,

Thanks for your “like”.  Sorry about the delay in noticing, but I am new to this forum so had to be notified before I realised how it works.

[BlueBoy1844]

Hi phkrause,

If I read your reaction to my post correctly, then you are saying that you are “confused” over it.  I am sorry about that and because there may be others in the same boat I’ll try to expand it. 

I must admit to being very surprised at most of the posts which seem very far away from the question which has the word "real" in it.  I read in my library (without quoting) that while our Saviour often has to delay answering our prayers for a variety of reasons, He never hesitates when it come to deliverance from sin and temptation.  So it seems to me that that must be the best way to know that He exists and is listening to us.  I know it works.

Miracles and other kinds of deliverance are all good, of course, I am not downgrading them as facts, but surely they are secondary and apply to every human whether they are Christians or not.  But Christians, as children of God, must expect more specialised attention?  Except Paul, who actually had his request for healing denied, but doesn’t seem to have come back with the question, “What can I do that will allow You to heal me?” for God does not unilaterally refuse to heal – there has to be a reason – one that only we might know, but if we ask we will be told about. I don’t mean like Job’s “comforters” but a few straight words (convictions) from the Spirit.

As to Job and his experiences, it seems to me that very few people read on and find Elihu’s take on the situation – it is quite different from what I hear many people saying.

Hope this helps.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

yes, it's still in force... I think it's just too much effort anymore to keep editing the posts of folks who don't pay attention in which forum they're posting  (and I'm included in that group sometimes)..

[D_Bishop]

I had gotten out of the military & I was living in Houston. I was living in a small three room house behind my grandparents.  There was a big recession, I couldn't find a job.  So I worked as a day laborer.  I also joined church for the first time, the sda church.  

I would take the day off from time to time and ride the bus down to the state employment office. They would have job listings, or day labor assignments, but you had to get there early. If you showed up at 9 or 10am all the job listings for that day were gone.  I would go back to working as a day laborer at the labor pool  the next day.  

I developed a habit of sleeping with a pillow and or the covers pulled over my head.  As if that would protect. me.  I didn't believe in ghosts, but I knew angels and demons were real.  My uncle, who introduced me and others to adventist doctrine, would tell me these stories about the unfore seen world of angels.  He was a bit too zealous in telling these stories cause he would scare the heck out of me.  That's why I pulled the cover over my head.  I was a grown man in my 20s.  I'm in my 60s now and I still sleep that way.

One day I decided to sleep in.  I had been working and searching for a month or so. I was sort of fed up with the process. It was still early, about 7am or so.  It was too late to go to the employment  office. You had to get there early. So I laid my head down sideways on my pillow and went to sleep. 

Suddenly this spirit being penetrated by mind, my brain.  He did so in a manner that would not frighten me. I feel certain it was my guardian angel.  The angel told me in an inaudible way, to get up and go to the employment office.  I knew this was a message from God.  So I got up and went.  When I got there it was about 11am or so, much too late to get a good job assignment.  

The employment counselor told me about a job working as a courier for this successful real estate corporation.  Job duties would include processing and delivering mail interoffice.  Making bank deposits.  Stock work, etc.  He had already sent 80 to 100 people to interview for this job.   I went to the company and interviewed with them.  They told me they had talked to one hundred or so prospects.  Of all those prosects I got the job.   Before this I used to occasionally entertain thoughts that this whole God and religion stuff could possibly  be not true.  After that experience with the angel telling me to go look for that job that morning i knew for sure that it is all true.  I'm convinced there is a God and a devil.  There are angels.  Heaven is real.   The bible is true.

[8thdaypriest]

UPDATE:

My patent attorney told a marketing agent that he likes about my invention.  He has called, and really wants to license the Toaster Mate to a company.  He of course will take 30% of any royalties I am paid.  He talks at DSL speed and I think at modem, so mostly I try to get him to write, rather than phone.  Anyway. 

I paid my design engineer to make a couple of small changes to the Toaster Mate design.  He has made new models, and now another fellow has made new plaster slip molds.  I found a ceramic expert at Ft Worth (2 hrs from me).  She is experimenting with colors, adding small amount of pigments to the slip (liquid clay) trying to come up with a good color for the Toaster Mate.  So far - no success.  But she will keep trying.  She has told me that she is considering expanding her ceramics business into manufacturing.  She actually presented an invention of her own to the Walmart folks up at Bentonville 2 weeks ago.  She is waiting to hear back from them. 

She was told by the Walmart folks that they will be going to all USA made soon.  They did not tell her that was a secret, so I'm guessing the word is already out on that.

I would love to have the Toaster Mate made in the US.  I searched for 2 years for someone to manufacture it - without success.  Almost all manufacture of ceramics has moved to China.  Now here comes Jill at Texas Pottery.  So - we will just have to see how it goes.  I have told the marketing agent to wait until we get a good color, and I have at least a couple dozen Toaster Mates to use as samples.  If Jill wants to make them - fine.  But Jill's production capacity will NOT enable mass marketing. 

I don't know HOW the Toaster Mate could be mass-marketed anyway.  The process for making something ceramic is multi stepped, and takes time, and something mold-poured takes even more time. 

I'm beginning to think the LORD chose something for me that involves a journey with many challenges.  So very like HIM - to teach me patience. 

I can invest more to get that going, but it will have to start small and grow from there.  I'm thinking we could sell them at specialty bread bakeries, or those small cooking appliance shops (the ones with kitchen towels and the like).  The Toaster Mate is not a plastic kitchen gadget.  It's more like functional art. 

OK.  Will update when I know more.  Rachel

[Gail]

@8thdaypriestYes, please!

[8thdaypriest]

 I learned yesterday, from my patent attorney, something I SHOULD HAVE had explained to me a year ago.  Or I should have researched the whole patent infringement thing myself, until I understood.  I AM blaming myself, but I'm also blaming my patent attorney. 

I thought that the patent holder could sue anyone who copied any part of his design.  That's wrong.  One can only sue for infringement, only IF the copier copies every claim of claim #1 (the summary) of the granted patent.  

This means that the Toaster Mate can be VERY EASILY pirated.  Another company could make a toaster accessory that looked different, maybe had horizontal groves or didn't have the slots up through the lower section, or even looked like a waffle.  I could not touch them.  Hence the reason why no company would license or buy my patent.  It's not worth much. 

A couple who owns a small ceramics business in Ft Worth, wants to make Toaster Mates.  They will sell for $15 retail.  She will pay me  $00.50 for each one she sells, after the first six months.  She wants to make them, and I hate to see the whole idea die.  I'm sure - if the Toaster Mate is a success - some big company will have them made in China and flood the market, but for now Jill wants to make them, so I told her OK.

I still believe the LORD is going to bless me through this process, but maybe not in the way I first imagined.   I know that when all seems lost, that is when HE likes to act - just so we know that we had very little to do with the success.  Abraham waited 15 years from the promise of a son, to the birth of Isaac.   I must be patient.   Rachel

  

[Gail]

Rachel, I am sorry that you have this headache! May you be blessed!