Vanity - Have you had a personal experience with God?

Google search "Leap of faith" ^

[gondramB]

I was raised Baptist - a mixed marriage- Southern Baptist and Primtive Baptist. I never belelived in God until was 18.

My personal experience came just as I was studying science -and beginning to wonder about the patterns in the world and the universe and how they could have been there by chance.

I went to a revival I did not want to attend. I had a mohawk. I went to the church in a black Leather Jacket with Highly Toxic and a skull and corss bones painted on the back in flourescent orange on the back. The people at the irst baptist church of Atlanta acted like it was wonderful to find someone who dressed differently - they made sure I was comfortable and then left me just enough alone.

I heard the voice of God. It was was like thunder in my head but it didn't give me proof to carry to others. I was told that I was loved. That I should learn more about God and that I should treat others well. I guess this doens't sound much like a revolution but it was all I coud handle.

Since then I have never doubted in belief but I struggle for direction and have a hard time with what many others tell me God wants.

Is there anyone else who would share their eperience with God that I might learn from? All I can offer is that I will share too.

I don't remember anything the preacher said except he talked about Kierkegaard - what I got was that Kierkegaard said we can get only so close to God by logic and then there is a leap of faith required. I remember feeling as if I was on an edge where I been a hundred times before. It was a nice safe ledge. But I stepped off and stll felt totally safe. It was over in an instant. My tiny little revelation from God.

I met a Christian teacher on the way home - I would have avoided him normally. He asked me how I was and I said wonderful but confused I thought that he thought I was stoned. But he never mentioned it or acted like he was there whenever I saw him. I wonder if it was really him.

[Quix]

Have you ever read

PILGRIM'S PROGRESS?

The Slough of Despond strikes most earnest believers sooner or later.

Tests abound in this life. This is Boot Camp.

But we CAN overcome by The Blood of The Lamb and the word of our testimony.

BTW, I've been through more utterly despairing situations than most people I have met or known in my 59 years.

God IS faithful . . . in His ways, in His time.

He's not a vending machine.

He insists on being boss, thankfully.

[.30Carbine]

I started reading Simone Weil this morning, Waiting for God. I haven't even finished the introduction but have been so moved by the evidence in her life of the Fellowship with Christ in His Suffering.

I was outside looking up at the stars and praying, so overflowing with wonder, love, and joy: "Oh, Jesus! Oh, Father! Oh, HOLY Spirit! Thank You for fellowshipping with us in our suffering, and thank You that we may fellowship in Thine."

[Quix]

Amen!

Though I still flinch, often enough, at the pain . . . plenty of times.

HE IS

Worth it! And, the sense of identification with Him is worth it.

Thx.

[Quix]

I'm increasingly of the opinion that

religion

is a vaccination

AGAINST

authentic spirituality, authentic relationship with God Almighty.

[bonfire]

I am beginning to think you are correct on that, Quix.

[Scutter]

I was a volunteer fireman in the county in which I used to live. One day we got a call to a small baptist church for a woman who was having a seizure. I responded to the call in my car as did the folks in the fire engine. When we got there, there was a woman on the floor, her seizure pretty much over. People who have seen this know that the it's almost like watching a person's brain reboot (like a computer). She was laying there and gradually became aware of what was around her.

But what was really interesting was that when I went in the church, and saw all the people standing around in concern, I got this feeling. It is hard to describe. It was like an inner warmth and a feeling of absolute peace.

Anyway, as she woke up she for some reason fixated on me and looked puzzled (like "who is this guy?"). I am just a First Responder, and there was a Paramedic and EMT there and I figured I was just in the way, so I left the building. I've never been back there, but I've always wondered if I went back would it feel the same way.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Yes. "In Him we live and move and have our being."

[DarthVader]

ping for later.

[Quix]

Was listening to Chuck Missler on C2CAM . . .

He mentioned that encoded under the surface text of Isaiah 53 were all the names of those present at The Cross (I gather even standing afar off) in terms of the Disciples . . . though one name . . . which statistically because of it's shortness and other qualities tends to show up plenty BY CHANCE and should have shown up at least once in Isaiah 53 . . . that name was NOT there--Judas.

Interesting, anyway.

[.30Carbine]

Far more fascinating to me is how powerful that passage is in removing the veil that keeps Jews from seeing the Messiah Jesus! It is the writing itself, and the "decoding" that occurs as the mind, the will of man, embraces the Truth - that Christ/Messiah/The Promised Deliverer has come and has been crucified, rejected, spurned by His own People, killed, buried, resurrected to Authority - and that the promised deliverance was not (as expected) from a particular political world leader (Herod, Pilate, Rome, etc.) and not necessarily deliverance from social oppressions (slavery, dictators, injustice), but from the enemy Satan and the oppressors Sin and the Fear of Death leading to peace, joy and praise forever!

The words themselves, the Word of God where His Spirit hovers, are the beauty, the hidden-in-plain-sight mystery, the knowledge worthy of investigation! No "code" is needed (and can in fact get in the way of Real Discovery!); only a willingness, an honest searching for Truth, a straightforward reading and questioning of the text is required, and faith in the Word leads to salvation, amen.

Isaiah 53 (NASB)
The Suffering Servant
1Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
6All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
7He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
8By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
9His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
11As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.

I do not read anywhere the command to preach codes - is this code found in every translation as indeed the Power of God is? Only the Good News that Jesus Christ the Unblemished Lamb has come just as foretold, has paid the penalty for our sin just as foretold, has risen from the dead just as foretold, and He is Lord, King, and God just as promised - faith in these facts are become Salvation!

[Quix]

Thanks for your kind reply.

You might find this thread of some interest:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1742763/posts

= = =

Of course we are not instructed to preach codes . . . though perhaps in a sense we are when we preach the Whole counsel of the whole of Scripture as Scripture's surface text also is encoded as Christ mentioned such that the pharisees et al would not see and understand.

But in terms of the ELS(Equidistant Letter Sequence) codes, they are calculated on the most widely accepted Hebrew version.

Interestingly, given some accusations that one letter difference would throw the whole thing off--and there are different versions from antiquity--they have begun experimenting and finding that God has left evidence of His Majesty to set such things up in more than one version, as I understand it. Awesome. But that's just a beginning exploration almost as an idle curiosity.

The vast bulk of the research has been done and is done with the most widely accepted (by Jewish scholars) Hebrew version.

I see the codes as something like the stars and Heavens declaring the Majesty of God. "Just" another clue to His Majesty and power.

They have affirmed that Christ came in the flesh and all the basic doctrines of the faith.

And, they are now so statistically out of the ball park of due to chance--they are well beyond any galactic cluster known, so to speak in terms of being unlikely due to chance. The statistics are incredible. I think in some cases, they are beyond the capacity of Micrsoft Xcell to calculate.

It used to be that they thought they might have someting significant at 10 letters. Then they discovered that wasn't really that significant. Too much could still occur by chance. Last I heard the minimal statistically significant code has to have AT LEAST 30 characters in length.

That rules out a LOT of fly-by-night websights and Drosnin's junk.

But then along comes things like 125 and this latest 296 letter long code--that's left everyone in the dust.

It also appears that some of the statistically insignificant length codes may well be valid because their keywords cross keywords about the same thing in the surface text and because there are clusters of them around the key phrases in the surface text. When a collection of sometimes artfully arranged individually too short codes are collected together around a key word/phrase . . . then those can become statistically awesome as a collection.

But there's also a phenomenon which is kind of awesomely beautiful. There is a code which in Hebrew forms a cross. I forget the term. I think it's 3 letters across and 3 letters down. Could be 5. Anyway--it's statistically insignificant. It occurs quite frequently by chance alone.

HOWEVER, in at least one main region of the Old Testament text where the surface text is predicting the crucifixion, the cross, there's massively more such little crosses than chance would predict, clustered around those surface text passages and through them. There's no explanation if it's all chance. And the difference in frequency of the crosses appearing in those passages is significantly above chance.

I see it as God laughing at the super rationalists. I see it as Him playing with man. I see it as Him having man's intellect in derision.

He's already made fools of the two most publicized naysayers. They were caught in serious deception and their statistical design etc. has been proven not only faulty but ridiculous compared to the authentic codes now found to be so long. There's NOTHING their design or anyone else's design can discover in unencoded Hebrew Moby Dick or anything else which can come remotely even close to the same region--the same galactic cluster--the same ball park.

I see the codes as a kind of God inspired gilding, illuminating--kind of like the ancient illuminated manuscripts--awesomely beautiful Godly doodling in the margins so to speak. Though it's not in the margins.

The codes are woven into the woof and warp of the fabric of Scripture--the foundation of Scripture itself at the letter level. That's why it's utter nonsense to label it numerology or any other evil thing. Doesn't fit the definitions by a googillion miles. But Holy Spirit inspired each word. Jews believe God dictated the 5 books of Moses letter by letter. No way would God allow satan to corrupt His Word at such a level.

And, as Christ said--they attest that He came in the flesh and the basic doctrines of Scripture.

Anyway--I don't consider them more than an added fascinating embellishment God has provided for this era of computers to reveal yet more of His TIMELESS power and majesty. I think it MAY BE TRUE THAT THIS IS THE UNLOCKING OF THE SECRETS DANIEL WAS TOLD TO LOCK UP until the time of the end.

[Quix]

but I've always wondered if I went back would it feel the same way.

= = = =

Hard to say.

Quite likely not. But possibly similar.

1. If a church/congregation stays close to The Lord and worship is authentic, heart-felt and Spirit-led, you might feel quite similarly or more so walking into the building. That, sadly, tends to be a big "if."

2. God seems to have an aversion to doing the same sort of 'supernatural' confirmation thing over and over in the same way and the same place. Kind of like He doesn't want us addicted to the phenomena but in love with HIM AS HE IS vs merely in love with such side effects so to speak.

3. The situation would be different and the focus would be different. That setting was being compassionate, supportive, nurturing etc. to a sister who was having a difficulty. Next time, the pastor could be in the midst of a declarative sermon against sin. The subjective atmosphere of the place would likely be different even though Holy Spirit could be intensely there in the midst of such a sermon.

4. IT IS a GREAT clue, as Scriptue indicates, TO FOLLOW AFTER PEACE--AND THE SORT OF PEACE YOU FELT. That's a good rule of thumb about following an inner still small voice that one might wonder if it's Holy Spirit, or not.

May God lead you and all you love into deeper and deeper intimacy with Him.

[tonyamendola]

Hello all

I wanted to post my experience on here as its quite unusual as you will perhaps see

I have always felt there was a "God" although i have never got much past God is Love in the Bible.
Some of the loving comments Jesus has made rang true.
In my early teens I used to dream sections of my future that would then "happen" and was able to prove this to my parents by describing events they then witnessed although it has to be said i felt this was "normal"
As you can appreciate I knew what i was seeing wasnt the complete story

Aged 37 and a few months after my Nan had passed away I had been asking some deep questions - I cant say praying but more thoughts in mind
My thoughts led me to begin to see the healing of love and of forgivness - perhaps more accurate to say i was being led in thought and became very forgiving and compassionate for all - people society judged good and bad like saddam and those terrorists that killed the children in Russia
It was like i was led to realise i did not know there minds - yet also that our minds were the same with a few switched flipped the other way - hope that makes sense
Anyway - i suppose i came to the conclusion that love was the most important thing to me.

I sat down with my wife and watched a film called Bruce Almighty - a tounge in cheek comedy about God

As I watched the film i had a comentary running in my head - realising i did so many things the character in the film was doing - yet it wasnt judgemental it was loving guidance.

Towards the end of the film there is a part where the man in the film realises he just doesnt know and then goes on to pray for his girlfriends happiness whatever that may mean to him - unconditional love
On that emotion i can only describe rising without body instantly into perfection - golden light - then infinity and all knowing
Being told in mind how perfect we are, how loved and cherished, how we are grace and that there are no exceptions to this - all of us regardless of "our judgement"
It is simply undescribable and yet so simple - it is a remembering of self and not a learning.

This event changed my life completely - from BMW driving executive to someone who only wants to spread the message of Love to all.

My problem then was how to communicate this message - after all what Jesus tells us matches my experience but certainly the OT doesnt so the Bible and the fearfull messages it contained just didnt fit ?

About a year after my experience I was given a book by a dear friend who has been in and out of my life since i was a child - she told me what i was describing was within its pages and I read about 400 pages in three evenings nodding and smiling with joy - this was indeed what i had been shown in words 0 the indescriable described.

About a year after this I managed to get to page 415 "The Forgotton Song" and within it was my exact experience in every detail - only God himself could know this as it was he who i shared it with

We do indeed worship God because he loves us so greatly - beyond anything we could every humanly imagine - it is not a slavery worship but a in awe of love worship - awesome

Anyway - to the point , the book i was given is called "A Course In Miracles" and should you be interested it is free to read online if you do a search, however it may not sit comfortably with the Bible Religion has taught and it is my intention to bring anyone interested Love not fear - so i will add that ALL paths lead to God in the end
We are all completely safe in God for eternity

God bless you all and I pray you will all read this with an open mind and an open heart - God is after all "All knowing" and as such we should all make space for what he knows and not what ANY religion or belief would tell us we should know - including mine - Ask God and be open to HIS answer whatever that may be and he will tell you :)

[gondramB]

First I really appreciate you and everyone else who has been willing to share on this thread.

>>I sat down with my wife and watched a film called Bruce Almighty - a tounge in cheek comedy about God<<

I feel some commonality with your experience. God seems not to worry about manner of dress or joking a bit about religion or listening to loud music etc... it sounds from talking to many people about this that the key is moment of openness to hear Him.

Thank you again.

[derllak]

Hi Motleygal! How have you been, long time no see! Not that I'd ever forget a nice person like you. :) I saw your reply and your tagline on the "experience with God" thread. Kinda made me sad. I know what you mean about people though. The whole dang world seems so cold sometimes. Makes me so mad when good things happen to nasty people and the nice ones are left to suffer sometimes. I don't know, it's just so screwy sometimes.
I just saw you and thought I'd pop in to say hello and give you a warm ((hug)). There are nice people out there, just a little hard to find sometimes. Take care, hope to see more of you, MG! - Gina

[gondramB]

I had reason to look back at this vanity thread today.

And it made me want thank those who posted to it - the thread was deeply personal for me.

But we’ve lost a lot of Freepers this year and I didn’t want to be insensitive by pinging those who are no longer here. So I went through the thread and found that every single person who posted still has an active account. And I wonder if that says something.

Not about me. And it certainly doesn’t stop us from disagreeing about other things. Or from disagreeing with the mods etc.

But I wonder if it doesn’t say something about those who have had and chose to share a personal experience that we all wound up tolerant. Tolerant enough to avoid getting so wrapped up in the conflict that we could no longer find a place here.

Anyway, I appreciate you all.

Paul

[gotribe]

Hey likewise! Thanks for your post. I went in without thinking about it, read down it and learned things new, again.

[Quix]

THANKS FOR YOUR KIND WORDS.

John and Paula Sanford write in their

TRANSFORMATION OF THE INNER MAN or some such title

TRUTH WITHOUT LOVE IS BRUTALITY.

LOVE WITHOUT TRUTH IS (useless) SENTIMENTALITY.

I think that’ strue.

Christ brought us both in Himself.

[gondramB]

And thank you. Its nice in the middle of the conflict that fills the world to find instances of kindness and sharing.

[Quix]

True, true. Thx.