“Nope- not joking in the slightest- Voices? No- Inspiration that is directed directly by God? You betcha- Answers to personal very specific requests that would blow your mind at times? You betcha- Could you move a mountain? I don’t know- how great is your faith in God?”
********************************************
See, this is why it is hard to take people like you (people who claim to talk with God, or have a “personal relationship” with God, whatever that means, etc.) very seriously. You claim apparently to have had some kind of divine intervention in your life that non-believers don’t have, and that the divine intervention “would blow my mind.” Yet, you have no proof — you have just your assertion that you got what you wanted or needed because you had supernatural help. Sorry, I’m not buying that.
You also imply that I could literally move a mountain if my faith in God is sufficient. Again, this is a ridiculous claim. Jesus is quoted in the Bible as stating that I can move a mountain, literally, from one place to another, if I have sufficient faith. Baloney. You claim to have strong faith. Please move a mountain for us to show us whether Jesus was right.
[Please move a mountain for us to show us whether Jesus was right.]
If I had thAT kind of faith I wouldn’t be sitting here arguing, and there would be no question about God’s existence.
You can find many many personal testimonies to God’s personal intervention in people’s lives, and I could explain all sorts of direct answers to very specific prayers. For instance, this didn’t happen to me, but My pastor needed a computer for his job, and he prayed very specifically, asking for a certain model, speed, memory etc, and didn’t tell anyone of this prayer, nor did he tell anyone of his need for computer. A short while later, he got a call from clear across the country from a person who had come to his church in the past, and the person was upgrading hteir computer, and wanted to know if the pastor could use his older computer- Well guess what? It was the very computer he had prayed about and needed for doing graphics work. Then there are the answers to prayer for God to intervene in a person’s health that are granted and doctors can’t explain how hte person was healed- you can find many testimonies of this.
I’m sure you’re aware of folks who have been in danger, prayed, and had folks appear of of the clear blue to help them only to turn around and not be able to find hte person to thank them- I won’t say this is ‘proof’ per se, but it can’t be simply written off either.
[Yet, you have no proof — you have just your assertion that you got what you wanted or needed because you had supernatural help. Sorry, I’m not buying that.]
You’re darn right you’re not buying it because it isn’t for sale- you MUST experience it yourself or have faith that the millions of people who express their personal experiences aren’t all lying to you- people from all walks of life, from all countries, from all cultures, all testifying to their personal experiences with God some of which are quite mind blowing, some more commonplace answers to specific prayers. You’ll find testimonies about people who needed gas, didn’t have the money, and having a complete stranger coem up and hand htem money saying “The Lord layed this on my heart to give you this” when the person in need gave no indication that they were in need.,
I had a very personal experience happen to me- It wqas late at night, I was walking home, and had to walk past a friends house. As I waled past, I just kept getting this overwhelming feeling that I should stop- I tried to brush it off, kept walking, but this feeling just got stronger. I spoke a quick prayer to God, telling Him I didn’t want to stop- it was late, I’d see hte personm the next day. The Holy Spirit kept prompting me, finally I turned around- grumbling, and felt that hte person probably wasn’t even up anymore. I went to door, knocked soft incase they were sleeping- and heard “Who is it?” Anyway- I went in- we talked for a bit- nothing seemd out of the ordinary, and I felt stupid, feelign I had just imagined the sense of urgency I had felt. As I was leaving, the friend stopped me, and said “You see that shorgun by the chair?” pointing across the room. I said “Yeah” The dude broke down and just lost it. I had absolutely no idea the friend was going through any problems. “He said “God must have sent you here tonight because I’ve been sitting here trying to get up the courage to kill myself.”
Now, you can brush this off, or even try to explain it away by claiming perhaps it was some ‘psychic preminition’ or whatever you like- but I’m telling you there are thousands and thousands of testimonies of very similiar experiences where people ‘heard’ from God, didn’t want ot obey, but did and were as floored as I was when they discovered just how personal and caring a God God really is.
And by the way- 15 years later, this fella that I stopped by his place, his brother committed suicide- His brother was a friend of mine as well, nice guy, but troubled as long as I knew him. He had claiemd to be saved, and I hope he was, but it seems that sometimes we can’t see the glories of God because we’re too selfish and demand that God do htings our way, and when He doesn’t, we get all self absorbed and self pittying. I’m not undermining the seriousness of what this freind went through, but we had many talks about God before he killed himself, and it was apparent that he wanted God to be there for him in ways that were- to be quite frank, not honoring to God.
Christ Was illiterating two great truths here- one, if we but had the faith of a size of a mustard seed, we could very weel order supernatural event to take place, and two, He was pointing out the truth that all we need do is have faith, pray, believe in the Lord, and if the moutnain needs moving, God will enable us to do so naturally by giving us hte help we need to move that mountain physically. Chrst’s words were to point out two htings, one that nothign is impossible with the Lord (Even the winds obeyed His commands) and two, that although we don’t even have the faith of the size of mustard seed, we can have enough faith to count on the Lord to enable us to do what seems impossible, yey entirely possible in the natural world- that mountain can be moved by you, should God decide it prudent to have them outnain moved. You could have faith, pray about it, and The Lord might very well lay the need to move the mountain on the hearts of an army of people, and that mountain shall be moved. We think “I need the mountain moved, but I’m just one person- it owuld take an army to move it, but I don’t know that many people and couldn’t raise the army to do so, and we lose faith and becoem discouraged, and fail in our faith in God to provide what is needed.
Quite frankly, I don’t have the kind of faith it would require to trust god to rasie an army to move that mountain- I’m easily discouraged and lose faith quickly. My faith isn’t even a fraction of the size of hte mustard seed.