OT Yes, God does speak to me (and others)

[GoBlueInAtlanta]

This thread was born out of a conversation I had with RABID in http://www.detroitsportsforum.com/showthread.php?t=12013
posts 6-10, 17 & 18.


I’ll start this by saying there may be someone who read that title and thought, “This guy says God speaks to him. Who does he think he is and why hasn’t God ever spoken to me?” There is a verse that says, “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” And another that says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” I have been seeking after Him for going on 40 years. The good thing is, it’s never too late to start.

Ok, so some background that will help this make sense:

My wife and I make homemade bread. (Why is this guy talking about baked goods? Don’t worry, it will all fit together). I mean real, made from scratch, ground in the mill*, sweet, whole wheat bread that’s as soft as Wonder Bread. Well, word has gotten around and we have several folks at church that we take bread to every Sunday. Two Sundays ago, we had three loaves and Mrs. GBIA went to deliver one of them. She came back and said, “Rosemary’s not here this week,” to which I replied, “Crap, she told me she wouldn’t be here this week, I forgot!”

Immediately, the Lord said, “Give it to Jason.” Not in an audible voice, but just as clearly. You (RABID) wanted to know the entire conversation. That was it, in its entirety. I think He knows I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so He keeps it simple for me. I repeated to my wife, “Give it to Jason.” So, off she went to give it to Jason and his wife.

At this point you’re probably asking, “How does he know it was God and not just a thought he had?” Good, reasonable question. Two reasons:

#1. I recognize His voice.

I know His voice due to practice (or maybe a better word would be experience, though there is certainly an aspect of putting in time and effort to listening for it). There’s a verse that says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” It’s true.

You may just flat-out not believe that, but, if I may, I’d like to interject a thought here. If I told you that I could do a windmill, two-handed, behind the head dunk, you’d probably not believe it. But what if I said I am 6’ 6” and my father was a professional basketball player who could actually jump for a white guy and he taught me how to do it? That would make it more believable, right? Well, I’m only 6’ 2” and dad wasn’t a pro basketball player, but he was a pastor and he spent his life teaching me how to listen for God’s voice. Dad passed away last October and I had the honor of speaking at his funeral. DVD’s are free upon request! :tup:


Reason #2. The statement goes counter to my natural way of thinking.

I would have thought about giving it to a young, struggling couple with kids or perhaps someone out of work to help them out. Jason and his wife are doing well, so they wouldn’t have fit into that category.

Or, I would have started thinking marketing. “Let’s give it to someone who hasn’t had our bread yet and maybe we’ll garner a new customer” would have been my natural thought. Jason had had our bread previously, so he wouldn’t have fit that group either, He’d a been outta luck if it were up to my thinking.


Ok, so here’s “the rest of the story.” Later, Mrs. GBIA says, “You have to go ask Jason about the bread.” So I did. He says, “My wife and I had been discussing for some time making a sizable donation to the church. She was really struggling with giving it and, finally, this morning went ahead and wrote the check. I told her as we walked out of the house, ‘God will supply our bread.’ . . . and here it is.”







So, if you’re a numbers guy, what are the odds that I just happened to hear this statement when all of these disconnected issues came into confluence? And that Jason would use those exact words to reassure his wife, “God will supply our bread.”?


This event not only confirmed to me that I heard correctly and Jason was the right one to give it to, but he, and even more so, his wife, got a tangible sign that they don’t have to worry about giving to Him because He will supply their need.

This is just a “little” story and the most recent. Stories like this happen on a fairly regular basis. After some discussion regarding this story, I could tell you about some that were mathematically impossible, such as how I got to Atlanta to begin with, how God once spoke through me, or how I came to marry my beautiful wife.

I will answer any reasonable questions.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

One time, when I was round 5, my mom was taking our van through the automated car wash and randomly I asked, "mom, what if the car antenna breaks off". I'm not sure why I asked this, I must have been looking at it and just wondered why it didn't break off. Well, she gave me some answer and that should have been the end of it. We started going through the car wash and about half way through, when those little rags swipe back and fourth over the car, SNAP - the antenna breaks off.

I went the other way with it. Clearly I was a psychic and a 5 year old genius.

 

[GoBlueInAtlanta]

One time, when I was round 5, my mom was taking our van through the automated car wash and randomly I asked, "mom, what if the car antenna breaks off". I'm not sure why I asked this, I must have been looking at it and just wondered why it didn't break off. Well, she gave me some answer and that should have been the end of it. We started going through the car wash and about half way through, when those little rags swipe back and fourth over the car, SNAP - the antenna breaks off.

I went the other way with it. Clearly I was a physic and a 5 year old genius.

Um . . . not sure how that fits this subject . . . but ok.

 

[hungry]

I hear voices, too.

 

[Monster]

Your brain is powerful enough to convince you of just about anything. Ask crazy people. They absolutely hear voices. And yes, i know someone who literally hears voices. They aren't real and she knows it when she is on her meds, but she swears that they are audible.

My wife and I were on a shopping trip one day. We had separated and I suddenly had an odd craving for Salmon. That's not something we generally buy, but I found some and walked around to find my wife. Couldn't find her after walking up and down the aisles so i bactracked and found her just as she was putting more salmon in the cart. "I had a craving," she said.

Look, my point is that weird coincidences happen on a daily basis and hearing a voice doesn't mean that you hear God. It means that you believe strongly enough that a voice becomes real. Your dreams provide audible voices, do they not? Well, you interpret them to be audible, anyway. No God needed to hear them, just a powerful brain.

Next time you get to speak with God, tell him to give us a holy book that isn't filled with so much hate and inaccuracies. Give us all one reason to believe in him over the dozens of other religions.

 

[Sbee]

W said that god told him to run for president. Either he was tripping or god hates us

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[Monster]

W said that god told him to run for president. Either he was tripping or god hates us

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

Every religion has people that say they hear the voice of their God. That their God directs them in life and guides them through adversity. Every religion, not just Christianity. So, unless every side is lying, or every God is real, it can be reasoned that people hear the voices in their head because they want to. It's their own mind telling them what to do, not some god.

I would love for there to be a god. I really would. Some atheists say they don't want to live forever, but why not? I'd love to go to a beautiful paradise like Heaven and live eternally with my family. I don't want to just fall asleep and never exist, again. Who could possibly want that? That doesn't mean I'm going to listen for voices and pray so hard that I convince myself that the world is 10,000 years old, humans rode on the backs of dinosaurs, and that somehow the Earth is actually the center of the Universe while the sun orbits us.

 

[GoBlueInAtlanta]

Your brain is powerful enough to convince you of just about anything. Ask crazy people. They absolutely hear voices. And yes, i know someone who literally hears voices. They aren't real and she knows it when she is on her meds, but she swears that they are audible.

My wife and I were on a shopping trip one day. We had separated and I suddenly had an odd craving for Salmon. That's not something we generally buy, but I found some and walked around to find my wife. Couldn't find her after walking up and down the aisles so i bactracked and found her just as she was putting more salmon in the cart. "I had a craving," she said.

Look, my point is that weird coincidences happen on a daily basis and hearing a voice doesn't mean that you hear God. It means that you believe strongly enough that a voice becomes real. Your dreams provide audible voices, do they not? Well, you interpret them to be audible, anyway. No God needed to hear them, just a powerful brain.

Next time you get to speak with God, tell him to give us a holy book that isn't filled with so much hate and inaccuracies. Give us all one reason to believe in him over the dozens of other religions.

You are free, of course, to believe whatever you like, but based on some of your comments, it would seem that either you haven't actually studied the Bible and are parroting what you've heard from others, or you read portions without understanding the context of all of the scriptures and how they fit together. As I said, I've been studying it for 40 years, so I will claim to understand it better, unless you say you've done so as well.

It's not what this thread is about, but never, not one, inaccuracy has ever been proven and there have been offers of hundreds of thousands of dollars for anyone who could, so it's not that there's been a lack of trying. hailhail and I had this conversation a while back with the same result as always, no inaccuracies.

Back to the subject - you mentioned ONE coincidence, you and the wife had a craving for salmon. Does that honestly come anywhere near all of the things that came together for this to turn out the way it did?

And, as I said, this was only the latest time and they happen on a regular basis.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

Um . . . not sure how that fits this subject . . . but ok.

You had a strange coincidence happen and attributed it to God, I had one happen and attributed it to my genius.

 

[lostleader]

Well said GBiA.

I didn't have time to read everyone's post, but I understand completely what you are trying to say, and have been through. (As far as following his word, it's a great thing)

I commend you for taking on the subject of God and religion on this board. Know you got someone who agrees with you.

DC 33

 

[GoBlueInAtlanta]

You had a strange coincidence happen and attributed it to God, I had one happen and attributed it to my genius.

No, you had A coincidence happen (and it was based on an observance, not hearing specific information), I had coincidence upon coincidence upon coincidence upon coincidence ... and then specific information, happen. I wasn't a math major, but I know that statistically the numbers grow exponentially when there are multiple "coincidences" involved. Anyone here a mathemagician? Where's Red?

 

[Monster]

You are free, of course, to believe whatever you like, but based on some of your comments, it would seem that either you haven't actually studied the Bible and are parroting what you've heard from others, or you read portions without understanding the context of all of the scriptures and how they fit together. As I said, I've been studying it for 40 years, so I will claim to understand it better, unless you say you've done so as well.

It's not what this thread is about, but never, not one, inaccuracy has ever been proven and there have been offers of hundreds of thousands of dollars for anyone who could, so it's not that there's been a lack of trying. hailhail and I had this conversation a while back with the same result as always, no inaccuracies.

Back to the subject - you mentioned ONE coincidence, you and the wife had a craving for salmon. Does that honestly come anywhere near all of the things that came together for this to turn out the way it did?

And, as I said, this was only the latest time and they happen on a regular basis.

Genesis 1:16 basically says that the moon is a source of light.

I'm not sure right off the top of my head where it is, but I believe it's in leviticus. But it includes bats as a bird, which we obviously know is not true.

There are numerous verses that claim the sun orbits the Earth and that the Earth is stationary, never to be moved. And that there's a body of water in the sky and that Heaven separates us from it.

Also, Noah's Ark. You can't possibly explain to me how two of every creature on Earth fit into that boat. They would have needed food for the animals to keep them alive and would have had to carefully make sure the animals don't eat each other. How could you possibly contain all of the insects and bird species?

I won't even speak about the treatment of women in the bible. It's just as disgusting as the Quran.

I may not have studied it for forty years, but I have read through it twice. It took me two times just to realize what I was actually reading. I don't think that Christians are evil or have bad intentions (not all of them, at least) but the bible and God can not be a moral compass that I would live by.

So, when you say that God speaks with you, it reminds me of all the times God spoke to people in the bible, commanding human armies to destroy entire cities, rape the women, rip the unborn children from their wombs, kill the animals, kill the men, and innocent children.

It reminds me of the time when God commanded a man to kill his own son as test. It reminds me of when God sent a bear to kill two kids because they were rude.

Yes, you can say I'm skeptical that you actually hear God. Usually when he spoke to someone in the bible, it didn't turn out so well.

 

[GoBlueInAtlanta]

Well said GBiA.

I didn't have time to read everyone's post, but I understand completely what you are trying to say, and have been through. (As far as following his word, it's a great thing)

I commend you for taking on the subject of God and religion on this board. Know you got someone who agrees with you.

DC 33

Cool. I welcome any incidences that you've had occur.

We need someone who can calculate the odds of all of these things coming together along with the specific information I heard, then compile the odds of all of the other times I've had similar and even more impossible occurrences. At some point even the biggest skeptic would have to say, Hmmm...

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

No, you had A coincidence happen (and it was based on an observance, not hearing specific information), I had coincidence upon coincidence upon coincidence upon coincidence ... and then specific information, happen. I wasn't a math major, but I know that statistically the numbers grow exponentially when there are multiple "coincidences" involved. Anyone here a mathemagician? Where's Red?

An observation of what? The antenna? It's not like it had a crack in it. My question came out of no where, just as you decided to randomly give those people the bread and they just happened to randomly say they needed it. In every coincident, there are multiple factors and events that lead up to the event if you really go down that road.

 

[Monster]

Cool. I welcome any incidences that you've had occur.

We need someone who can calculate the odds of all of these things coming together along with the specific information I heard, then compile the odds of all of the other times I've had similar and even more impossible occurrences. At some point even the biggest skeptic would have to say, Hmmm...

Well, if your friend was a religious man, God providing bread would be something he would think about, right? I mean, it's not like you went to some non religious person's house and gave them bread and suddenly they realized it was from God. Or if they were not religious, they knew that you were and might have been making a humorous comment. Bread is a very important symbol to the bible (at least it is to me) so I wouldn't say the odds are as terrible as you think.

I mean, I flew to Michigan with my wife back in 2001. In the airport, she saw her cousin. When we spoke with her, we found out that she was going to chicago on the same flight as we were. She was only a few rows behind us. We eventually parted in Chicago, she went to NY and we went to Michigan.

It was completely random and was one of the most unusual coincidences I've ever heard of. Especially for three people who rarely fly...if ever.

 

[GoBlueInAtlanta]

Genesis 1:16 basically says that the moon is a source of light.

I'm not sure right off the top of my head where it is, but I believe it's in leviticus. But it includes bats as a bird, which we obviously know is not true.

There are numerous verses that claim the sun orbits the Earth and that the Earth is stationary, never to be moved. And that there's a body of water in the sky and that Heaven separates us from it.

Also, Noah's Ark. You can't possibly explain to me how two of every creature on Earth fit into that boat. They would have needed food for the animals to keep them alive and would have had to carefully make sure the animals don't eat each other. How could you possibly contain all of the insects and bird species?

I won't even speak about the treatment of women in the bible. It's just as disgusting as the Quran.

I may not have studied it for forty years, but I have read through it twice. It took me two times just to realize what I was actually reading. I don't think that Christians are evil or have bad intentions (not all of them, at least) but the bible and God can not be a moral compass that I would live by.

So, when you say that God speaks with you, it reminds me of all the times God spoke to people in the bible, commanding human armies to destroy entire cities, rape the women, rip the unborn children from their wombs, kill the animals, kill the men, and innocent children.

It reminds me of the time when God commanded a man to kill his own son as test. It reminds me of when God sent a bear to kill two kids because they were rude.

Yes, you can say I'm skeptical that you actually hear God. Usually when he spoke to someone in the bible, it didn't turn out so well.

I could go through the whole post and show how it is incorrect (for instance, there's not one verse that posits geocentricity and women were elevated in the Bible from the status of being property. You are looking backward from the freedom which women now rightfully have due to Biblical teaching instead of where they were previously, treated like cattle), but those issues are not what this thread is about. Please address the story and how all of those things, not just one coincidence, could have come together AND that I heard the specific information that I did.

 

[Sbee]

Every religion has people that say they hear the voice of their God. That their God directs them in life and guides them through adversity. Every religion, not just Christianity. So, unless every side is lying, or every God is real, it can be reasoned that people hear the voices in their head because they want to. It's their own mind telling them what to do, not some god.

I would love for there to be a god. I really would. Some atheists say they don't want to live forever, but why not? I'd love to go to a beautiful paradise like Heaven and live eternally with my family. I don't want to just fall asleep and never exist, again. Who could possibly want that? That doesn't mean I'm going to listen for voices and pray so hard that I convince myself that the world is 10,000 years old, humans rode on the backs of dinosaurs, and that somehow the Earth is actually the center of the Universe while the sun orbits us.

Hey, im an atheist with an asterisk. Im not saying that there arent mysteries we dont understand, im just saying that anyone who says they have the answer is lying.

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[Monster]

Hey, im an atheist with an asterisk. Im not saying that there arent mysteries we dont understand, im just saying that anyone who says they have the answer is lying.

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Oh, I'm agnostic, too. I just think it's easy to figure out that these man made gods are just myths. I doubt that a god created us, but i wont say it's impossible. I just need more proof than a book.

 

[GoBlueInAtlanta]

An observation of what? The antenna? It's not like it had a crack in it. My question came out of no where, just as you decided to randomly give those people the bread and they just happened to randomly say they needed it. In every coincident, there are multiple factors and events that lead up to the event if you really go down that road.

You saw the antenna and the strips of material whipping around and concluded that it might break the antenna. It's that simple.

The couple didn't NEED the bread. The bread confirmed what he told his wife just half an hour before he received. You don't see the difference between your ONE observance and multiple converging occurrences paired with the specific information I heard?

 

[Monster]

I could go through the whole post and show how it is incorrect (for instance, there's not one verse that posits geocentricity and women were elevated in the Bible from the status of being property. You are looking backward from the freedom which women now rightfully have due to Biblical teaching instead of where they were previously, treated like cattle), but those issues are not what this thread is about. Please address the story and how all of those things, not just one coincidence, could have come together AND that I heard the specific information that I did.

Exodus 21:7

"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are"

Deuteronomy 22:28-29

"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."

1 Timothy 2:12

"I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet."

There's another about if a woman is found to not be a virgin on her wedding day, she's to be dragged to the house of her father and stoned to death. Just had a few things come up, so I can't post a dozen more verses that prove that the bible, as you claim, is not the woman-friendly book you say it is.

I understand this isn't what your thread is about, but when you claim God is speaking to you and that your friend said what you were thinking is proof of his existence (you didn't outright say that, but it's implied), I think it's going to get people to post things like I have. You just can't claim that God is this wonderful being when the bible says that he's not. And please don't tell me that he changed in the NT. A perfect being like God would not have to change.