Why I know God Exists.

This is the best shot I can give for explaining what I know to be true.
I know he is because of the forever overlapping layers of “good luck” and coincidence I have lived through. By the accidents I have been “miraculously” saved from. I should have been dead twice. Once in a car accident that left the engine in the driver’s seat and me crumpled on the floor in the passenger’s seat. A shipwreck, or rather, a “boat wreck” that left me in 36 degree water between Islands and the boat that happened upon me hadn’t even heard our radio call. My body was frozen; I couldn’t move or speak at that point. That’s a needle in a haystack BTW. I had an experience (due to my stupidity) during the gulf war that could have had me on al-jezeera as a kidnapping or even worse.

But there’s more. My children had medical complications, were “miracle children” by all rights and are healthy and strong now. I get a dream job someplace far away form home and love it immensely. I take a home sight unseen and it’s beautiful. I get here and find out I live in the only state that has Home Schooling as a right written into its constitution. This place was made for my family. I met none of my co-workers while interviewing, yet now I work with the most pleasant teammates I’ve ever known.

You could go through this SMALL list of what has been delivered to me and work out the coincidence of each one individually, as I did for years. Now I see that it is the continual protection and blessing that is poured out on my life. If one was able to “run the odds” of my life, I believe it would show I am quite a good bet, an obscenely lucky guy. But I know it’s not luck.

I know when God talks to me. I have grown to know “the still small voice” that indicates the direction I am to go. Is it “intuition”? Sure… am I to suppose that I am an “intuition master” that knows without a doubt which way to go? Does your intuition say “do this not this” or does it say “that might be right, but then again maybe, well, here I go hope this works…”? But don’t think it is without fear. Direction itself does not belay my forever nagging paranoia and fear. That’s all mine to bear, and has not been lifted from my person. So I walk into something full of fear and anxiety, but in the end I was protected, it was the right path, I made it through, and I’m on my way to the next day.

I am not anywhere as brilliant and successful as my life would seem to appear. No way. I have been protected for the sake of my family despite myself. My life has been made beautiful despite my every bumbling effort to live it. That is the beginning of why I know God exists.

Feel free to comment. Admim please move or remove if this is not of value.

They say that "no man can see the face of God and live," yet, if God so desires a man to see him, he can. I had an experience that removed any doubt in my mind. I was fully awake and alert and was not taking any "mind altering" substances.

There was a time in my life when I doubted God's existence, no more. Do I believe there is a God? No, I Know there is.

[edit on 5-11-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

How perfectly arrogant to believe God is 'favoring' you in some way as to bestow you with all this wonderful luck and satisfaction in life. Don't get me wrong, I am not begrudging you any of these experiences. I wonder though, if you have stopped to think about all the people who wind up on the wrong side of those circumstances and lose their life or their loved ones as a result? How do you suggest God feels about them?

Skunky, why put it in such terms? What makes you think that I think "I'm favored." No where in my post did I insinuate such... Any such insinuation is a configuration of your own mind, not mine.

reply to post by SpeakerofTruth


Apologies - I was referring to the original post. If it comes across as unreasonable, it is meant to in the best of terms in the context of this thread, that being: 'We know God is real, we don't need proof, our pleasurable/fortunate/incredible life experiences are proof enough.' This I take argument with in a civil manner

Originally posted by Skunky
How perfectly arrogant to believe God is 'favoring' you in some way as to bestow you with all this wonderful luck and satisfaction in life. Don't get me wrong, I am not begrudging you any of these experiences. I wonder though, if you have stopped to think about all the people who wind up on the wrong side of those circumstances and lose their life or their loved ones as a result? How do you suggest God feels about them?

I thought my post was clear in the fact that I have done nothing to deserve anything. Please rethink the arrogance tag. What I know is that i have sought, and I believe I have found God. If you have not sought or asked for this guidance, it is reasonable to believe you are not recieving said direction. I seek, therefore I recieve.

Sorry... Not to mean you personally, I just mean whomever seeks...

BTW. As to others? I am not them. I am only responsible for my own life, and that of my family. I do not know "others" standing in life or relation to God. It is indeed a cold hard world we live in.

[edit on 5-11-2007 by jaywoo]

Skunky, I think I, at least, made it perfectly clear that any man/woman can experience it. However, considering the Cartesian, materialistic society that we currently live in, it's not that much of a surprise that most people never experience what I have.



[edit on 5-11-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

reply to post by jaywoo


So are you inferring that those that don't seek - on the context of your original post - can expect God to neglect their troubles and that they are more likely to lose loved ones to illness or not survive a car crash? I was not suggesting you are arrogant, but the point of view you express, even though you claim you do not think of yourself as favoured, suggests you have been favoured by God in response to your seeking of guidance. My question is - what about people who don't believe in God?

Originally posted by jaywoo
If one was able to “run the odds” of my life, I believe it would show I am quite a good bet, an obscenely lucky guy. But I know it’s not luck.
I know when God talks to me.

It's nice for you to think that, but it really is just luck. How do I know? Because it will eventually run out. At some point in your life, some really horrible things will pop up, and there won't be any miracles. There will be sadness and misery and things will go horribly wrong. And to be fair, you'll have to attribute those to God, too, right?

So if good things happen and bad things happen in pretty much equal measure, then there's really no evidence of God in the mix, is there?

Another thing. Ever notice when God "saves" somebody, it's always only temporary? God may miraculously cure the cancer, for instance, but never forever. And nobody's living to be 1,000 years old by the grace of God, either. You can pretty much count on dying miserably pretty much at the same age everybody else does, barring accidents.

Besides. The way you seem to define your God is a little limited and egotistical, don't you think? I mean, why would this entity, if that's the way you want to look at it, which is infinite and omnipotent, care a tiny little iota what happens to you? Such a creature would have no needs at all, including a need to make sure you're happy.

Honestly, talk of you being so important to God that this infinitely powerful entity would intercede in your tiny life borders on blashphemy, if you think about it. Blasphemy in the worst case, rampant egotism in the best.

reply to post by Skunky


I believe that we all experience what's needed to give us the best possible chance of knowing God. For some it is joy, for others, pain. We are all individuals so life's experiences will vary. In the end, it's not your experiences that matter, but your perception of the experience. What do you take out of it?

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world”
-C.S. Lewis

Some people need only hear whispers, others....

Your other misconception is that the OP's pleasure and joy somehow subtracts from your own. What bearing does his life have on yours, or on others? If he experiences joy, do you suffer? If he has his house taken away in fire, will you profit? If not then be happy with the happy, and shed tears for the sad. Deny neither the experience.


[edit on 5-11-2007 by dbates]

reply to post by Nohup


Also, does God wave his hand and 'save' people from things like cancer and tornados that he has put there in the first place?

Wow, some of the responses here are rather amazing to me... It's fine and dandy for some "intellectual" elitist to come on here and spew his unfound theories and quote trite circumstantial "findings," as proof of his theory. Yet, someone can come on here and speak of a personal spiritual experience that ACTUALLY happened, and they are "arrogant," "Repugnant" and all other demonizing things you can think of. It's amazing to me, it really is.

Why do you insist that "My luck will run out?" I see no reason that it should? My time to die will come when it does. Did God get me into my troubles? I think not. He just lifted me out of them. I know he did.

Will he help others not in a life with him? Absolutely.

Did God save my best friend from High School from dying in a car accident on his wedding night?

No.

Why?

I don't know. But he did not. He was twice the believer i am.

[edit on 5-11-2007 by jaywoo]

reply to post by dbates


You are missing the point of my reply, which was to ask the OP what his thoughts were about those who do not seek guidance ? What his thoughts are about what God had in store for those that die of cancer or in a car wreck. As for my life and his, yes, up until now they have not crossed paths. His experience is not shared by me directly but we are able to relate each other's point of view. As for my happiness, I never suggested I was unhappy or that I am an less able to attribute the peaks and troughs of my life to factors which may or may not be in my control. I do not begrudge anyone their happiness, wether they have faith in God or not.

You seem to be suggesting that pain is God's way of making a point, drawing our urgent attention to him in some way. A loving creator wresting life and happiness from a cancer patient just to attract their attention? Pain is the best way our heavenly father has of attracting the attention of those that do not hear his 'pleasurable' whispers (i.e. those without faith)? Are you suggesting people suffer at the hands of God because they do not believe in him? I would expect a more reasoned analysis from a moderator of a web forum such as this.

It's always been up to the individual to become right in the eyes of God. But yet, people still think other people are in "favor" more so than themselves and they get upset cause other people like sharing the Grace that God has Blessed them with. Why is this so wrong in the eyes of those that don't believe? Because they are ignorant to the need cause maybe they feel foolish in trying to live within the Grace cause maybe it doesn't fit into their way of life or maybe cause their klick would disown them. You must put forth the effort to live in the abundance of His Grace. Give and you shall be rewarded. Not just money but also in the way you give happiness to those around you, and especially to your enemies.

Do harm and everyone blames Karma. Even though Karma may as well be the Grace of God working, whether you choose to do good or bad, Karma will come back to haunt you... you just have the Will that has been blessed upon all men/women of this planet in hopes you choose to do good for those and all those around you.

I think it's awesome that God has Blessed the OP and others that have posted their beliefs here on this thread and on other threads. Just as we should always forgive those that stab us, beat us down and want to torment us with their harsh words cause they just don't understand or that they do not wish to understand how the Grace of God works in EVERYONE.

[edit on 5/11/2007 by wyldwylly]

Originally posted by jaywoo


Did God save my best friend from High School from dying in a car accident on his wedding night?

No.

Why?

I don't know. But he did not. He was twice the believer i am.

[edit on 5-11-2007 by jaywoo]

So, back to your original point, that you know God exists because your life has been, in your perception lucky, how do you account for your friends sad death and his faith? Surely the same spiritual machinations hold true for all of God's followers?

Some of you act as if the faithful aren't supposed to die... What do you base your conclusions on? Skunky, you keep bringing up the death of the OPs friend.. What, his friend wasn't supposed to die just because he was faithful? Please do tell...

[edit on 5-11-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

jaywoo, some will say it's foolish to thank God for good things and excuse God from the bad. Of course you already seem to know the solution to this paradox. In the end, who's perception is it that counts? It's foolishness to believe what you do, but not foolishness to God. That's the solution that some will never understand.

Does God provide miracles? Of course. Does God protect his children from every harm and heal every sickness? If he did the apostles would still be alive today. But then isn't that something a blessing instead of a curse. Why do you think that God put guardians around the Tree of Life in the Garden? Because it would be a curse to live forever in the state that we are in.

What should be the outcome of positive experieces? Thanks to God of course. You've done well to give credit where credit is due. There's no harm in that.

reply to post by jaywoo

Again, who's to say he wasn't saved?
Maybe it was his Time to go home...
I feel this life we live here on this planet for the short, short time we spend here is only a stepping stone to our home.... in faith.

My mother passed away due to a bad judgement call from a doctor after she fell off a ladder... but she was one of the "Good children" of God, why did He take her away from me? She loved God so much, and gave and gave and gave... I think (after 3 years of thinking) that it was just time for her to go on, she mended most of the family and now that we are closer together (the family) her job on this planet was finished and then it was time for her to go home to God's home..... - that's just how I feel about that atm.

[edit on 5/11/2007 by wyldwylly]