List your miracles

I've read it too many times. I have had personal experiences that proves god is real.

Look, I've believed in things that turned out to be false. We all have. I'm telling you that there is nothing worse than believing in something for 20 long years, only to find out it wasn't true.

I took it for granted that the moon orbited the earth once a day. I believed this for 53 YEARS!

I had no doubt whatsoever that I was going to win millions in the lottery. I was SURE of it. Now, after spending hundreds of thousand of dollars over the last 30 years, I'm not so sure now.

I KNEW that if you put me in charge of the government I could fix everything. I could do this because I KNEW what the people wanted.

Yeah, I knew all of this even though I quit college when I was eight credits away from my Associate's Degree. I knew all of this even though I couldn't tell you the difference between a house majority leader and a whip. Whip (politics) And what fool doesn't know that the moon orbits the earth every 28 days?

See, I don't care what other people think; these false beliefs are an embarrassment to ME! I can't tell you how grateful I would have been if somebody showed me the truth.

And now, I'm offering a discussion (NOT a bashing) on how to look upon certain experiences in your life that you have credited god with, that MAY have a rational explanation. You can still believe it any way you want, but wouldn't you feel better IF you found out that maybe you weren't thinking too clearly on such matters?

listening to the jeopardy theme song and waiting for all the stories to come pouring in.

I have bad lungs, which requires me to have all sorts of tests periodically. In November 2009, I got a test that was indicative of early lung cancer, though it was inconclusive and needed to be confirmed six months later. I told my wife that we needed to write our wills and, while I could still honestly say that I didn't have cancer, get life insurance, because we had neither. We never did write the wills, but in January 2010, we got life insurance policies for each of us.

Towards the middle of March, I took the followup tests, and while my wife was out of town, I got the results -- no change in the spot they were looking at, so likely not cancer (and that has remained true through today.) I called her to tell her, and she said "that's the best news ever!"

A week later, she died of a massive heart attack.

That life insurance ensured that our daughter would be able to finish university without a financial struggle, because we were paying for it through my wife's income. It also allowed me to move to her hometown, to be near her family and mine, since it wasn't a good idea for me to be hundreds of miles away from family in my state of health.

Now, of course, I would have preferred that I would have been granted the miracle of her not dying, but as I've said before, I don't like it and I don't understand it, but I do accept it, but I view that false positive in November 2009 as a miracle -- there's no rational explanation for it, and had I not received it, we would not have had that life insurance in place, which arguably was a life changing thing for my daughter and I.

5 years ago I had a stillborn son. The doctor that performed my emergency cessation did a antiquated/ obsolete version of the surgery that left me a bit mangled. Following it all I suffered secondary infertility.

The following months and years were wrought with heartache, fertility drugs, and 3 miscarriages. Finally on my last round of fertility meds, I conceived. Went in for my hcg numbers and was told they were not increasing at all, and that miscarriage was immanent. A follow up ultrasound showed an empty sac, and again I was told that miscarriage was immanent. My six week ultrasound again showed an empty sac. A further scan a week later revealed a bitty beating heart. 30 weeks later, after worrying every day of the pregnancy, our little miracle was born via cessation (too risky for me to go to term with the type incision I had).

Our little peanut has done wonders to help heal our hearts and he is the joy of our family. I really don't know what we would have done if he hadn't graced us with his presence.

19 years and 11 months of life.

I kept a woman completely silent for over four hours.

That's certainly a miracle.

In the decades I spent in the church, I prayed for many people, and I was also the guy catching people being prayed for. I have seen some much that sustained my belief in god through those years.

I've seen migraine pain disappear immediately.

I've seen people who stubbornly refused to be "slain in the spirit" hit the floor before they knew what happened.

I know a man who used to wear coke bottle glasses, whose eyes were healed, and he never wore them again.

I have seen more than one case personally, where illnesses disappeared, and doctors verified they were gone.

I have personally laid hands on people who wilted like flowers, and said afterward they felt a surge of power go through them like they had never felt before, and couldn't remain standing because of it. I have also experienced the same.

I have been present when Benny Hinn laid out several people on the stage.
I have also been a catcher for other Evangelists and preachers.

And lastly, my ulcers were healed through the laying on of hands.

What I learned through all those years is: One mind is a powerful force, several minds in unison are a powerful force multiplied.

S&F.

Interesting how you seem to think that ATS members would be the only credible source of information when it comes to miracles.
I've experienced miracles, but if people won't listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rises from the dead.
Wisdom and understanding are a privelage, not an entitlement.

Life itself right here and now - although most people can't see it!

Also, God often works in the most subtle of ways, and when we participate, miracles happen, usually of the human psychological variety.

I like to think of God among other things as the ultimate therapist who can heal the mind, heart and soul of a person, even with the slightest touch of the spirit.

Originally posted by NOTurTypical
I kept a woman completely silent for over four hours.

That's certainly a miracle.

LL!!!! and a Blessing too!!


Peace!! ID

One day, when I was 10 years old or so, I was riding a bicycle down a narrow road on the right side, the road to my left, a ditch to my right (no sidewalk). Just riding along, not a care in the world. Then I heard a horn honk behind me, and I had the strangest reaction to it: I instantly ducked. I didn't move to the side, I didn't look behind me, I ducked. If I had done anything else, I would've had my head lopped off, because the horn belonged to a truck carrying a "wide load" of A-frame roof trusses. They went only a few inches over my ducked head. If I'd turned to look, like most people would've done first, they'd have smashed my face in. If I'd moved towards the ditch, I wouldn't have made it there before getting whacked. That non-instinctive reaction saved my life. Guess who I credit for that? Not me.

Another day, when I was 16, getting in some learner's permit driving practice, I lost control of the car (a 1971 Audi 100LS) and smashed it head-first into a large cliff face doing about 45 MPH. With no seat belt on. The cliff didn't give, the crumple zones barely crumpled, so my inertia was barely dampened. My injuries? A small bruise on my left knee. That's it. Didn't even lose consciousness. It was like Newton's laws went out the window for those few milliseconds.

Luck? I don't believe in it.

reply to post by jiggerj



A Daniel class religious experience. And a avatar to prove it.

Originally posted by NOTurTypical
I kept a woman completely silent for over four hours.

That's certainly a miracle.

Video or it didn't happen.
That would be the equivalent of my husband finding something he's looking for in a house that we share and both live in every single day. Yet, despite being surrounded by his own familiar possessions, he is still incapable of finding anything himself without my assistance, especially when it's something in the ever-elusive refrigerator, on the middle shelf in the very front, right smack dab in his face.

Originally posted by jiggerj

And now, I'm offering a discussion (NOT a bashing) on how to look upon certain experiences in your life that you have credited god with, that MAY have a rational explanation. You can still believe it any way you want, but wouldn't you feel better IF you found out that maybe you weren't thinking too clearly on such matters?

The words God and miracle are problematic. We can't just confine ourselves to what our local culture tells us those words mean, because miracles are found in every culture, every religion, and so is God. Behind these words is something, a powerful stimulus, that forces a culture come up with a framework for understanding them. All such frameworks fall short. The map is never the territory.

These cultural frameworks vary to such a degree that one might think they are referring to entirely different things. But comparative mythology, comparative religion, and comparative mysticism show that indeed they are not. All religions, all cultures, all people share a spiritual heritage, regardless of how popular conceptions of religion make it seem to the-man-on-the-street.

"No one, as far as I know, has yet tried to compose into a single picture the new perspectives that have been opened in the fields of comparative symbolism, religion, mythology, and philosophy by the scholarship of recent years. The richly rewarded archaeological researches of the past few decades; astonishing clarifications, simplifications, and coordinations achieved by intensive studies in the spheres of philology, ethnology, philosophy, art history, folklore, and religion; fresh insights in psychological research; and the many priceless contributions to our science by the scholars, monks, and literary men of Asia, have combined to suggest a new image of the fundamental unity of the spiritual history of mankind.

Without straining beyond the treasuries of evidence already on hand in these widely scattered departments of our subject, therefore, but simply gathering from them the membra disjuncta of a unitary mythological science, I attempt in the following pages the first sketch of a natural history of the gods and heroes, such as in its final form should include in its purview all divine beings--not regarding any as sacrosanct or beyond its scientific domain. For, as in the visible world of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, so also in the visionary world of the gods: there has been a history, an evolution, a series of mutations, governed by laws; and to show forth such laws is the proper aim of science."
-Joseph Campbell, Masks of God: Primitive Mythology

That means we have to expand our notions of God and miracles from the cultural to the cross-cultural. As someone who has done that, its difficult talking about God and miracles with people who haven't. They have no cross-cultural currency in their pocket.

The miracles that a Buddhist experiences are no different from those of a Catholic. They both share a spiritual heritage. God is one. Upon awakening, a Buddhist and a Catholic will both recieve spiritual graces. One will call them 'charisms' and the other will call them 'iddhis'. These are equivalent terms. Indeed there are such equivalencies in all mystical traditions. These are the 'miracles' that the science of parapsychology studies.

"I am well aware, however, of the danger of tying spiritual belief to any scientific system. . . . This is not to say that I consider things like the oracle and the ability of monks to survive nights spent out in freezing condition to be evidence of magical powers. Yet I cannot agree with our Chinese Brothers and sisters, who hold that Tibetan acceptance of these phenomena is evidence of our backwardness and barbarity. Even from the most rigorous scientific viewpoint, this is not an objective attitude. At the same time, even if a principle is accepted, it does not mean that everything connected with it is valid. . . . . Great vigilance must be maintained at all times when dealing in areas about which we do not have great understanding. This, of course, is where science can help. After all, we consider things to be mysterious only when we do not understand them. . . . . Through mental training, we have developed techniques to do things which science cannot yet adequately explain. This, then, is the basis of the supposed ‘magic and mystery’ of Tibetan Buddhism." -Dalai Lama

So, one need look no further than the massive body of parapsychological evidence, which has been accumulating for over a century, to see that yes, that which some people call miracles are indeed real. That which some call God and others call Brahman is indeed real.

Originally posted by Klassified
In the decades I spent in the church, I prayed for many people, and I was also the guy catching people being prayed for. I have seen some much that sustained my belief in god through those years.

I've seen migraine pain disappear immediately.

I've seen people who stubbornly refused to be "slain in the spirit" hit the floor before they knew what happened.

I know a man who used to wear coke bottle glasses, whose eyes were healed, and he never wore them again.

I have seen more than one case personally, where illnesses disappeared, and doctors verified they were gone.

I have personally laid hands on people who wilted like flowers, and said afterward they felt a surge of power go through them like they had never felt before, and couldn't remain standing because of it. I have also experienced the same.

I have been present when Benny Hinn laid out several people on the stage.
I have also been a catcher for other Evangelists and preachers.

And lastly, my ulcers were healed through the laying on of hands.

What I learned through all those years is: One mind is a powerful force, several minds in unison are a powerful force multiplied.

S&F.

edit on 1/16/2013 by Klassified because: (no reason given)

There is plenty of evidence that being "slain in the spirit" is a demonic manifestation, I believe that self control is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Also, Benny is an evil guy. Look it up if you care for the truth, your browser will not be biased in it's information.
Surely you must know that satanic miracles can be performed as well.

Okay, so I've decided to make this a little bit easier for you:
Satan's Miracles!

reply to post by Wonders

I'm aware of all the things you mentioned in your post. I'm not a Christian anymore. I haven't been for a long time now. I don't believe in God, or the Devil either. I'm an atheist, and happier now than I ever was as a Christian.

None of the church leaders are any better than Benny Hinn was/is. With the exception of a few maybe. Star for your sincerity though.

Originally posted by adjensen
I have bad lungs, which requires me to have all sorts of tests periodically. In November 2009, I got a test that was indicative of early lung cancer, though it was inconclusive and needed to be confirmed six months later. I told my wife that we needed to write our wills and, while I could still honestly say that I didn't have cancer, get life insurance, because we had neither. We never did write the wills, but in January 2010, we got life insurance policies for each of us.

Towards the middle of March, I took the followup tests, and while my wife was out of town, I got the results -- no change in the spot they were looking at, so likely not cancer (and that has remained true through today.) I called her to tell her, and she said "that's the best news ever!"

A week later, she died of a massive heart attack.

That life insurance ensured that our daughter would be able to finish university without a financial struggle, because we were paying for it through my wife's income. It also allowed me to move to her hometown, to be near her family and mine, since it wasn't a good idea for me to be hundreds of miles away from family in my state of health.

Now, of course, I would have preferred that I would have been granted the miracle of her not dying, but as I've said before, I don't like it and I don't understand it, but I do accept it, but I view that false positive in November 2009 as a miracle -- there's no rational explanation for it, and had I not received it, we would not have had that life insurance in place, which arguably was a life changing thing for my daughter and I.

Jeez, Adjensen, that is a horror story. I am so sorry to hear all that you've gone through. Other than calling it a coincidence, I can't touch this. I won't even give examples on how to prove it. You want to believe some force was setting you up to be able to take care of your child, you go right ahead and think it!

Originally posted by Klassified
reply to post by Wonders

 

I'm aware of all the things you mentioned in your post. I'm not a Christian anymore. I haven't been for a long time now. I don't believe in God, or the Devil either. I'm an atheist, and happier now than I ever was as a Christian.

None of the church leaders are any better than Benny Hinn was/is. With the exception of a few maybe. Star for your sincerity though.

I don't consider myself a Christian either, my conscience wouldn't allow it. I do believe that God and Satan do exist, due to my experiences.
I agree very much with what you've said about church leaders, and have seen firsthand their crude acts.

Originally posted by Klassified
In the decades I spent in the church, I prayed for many people, and I was also the guy catching people being prayed for. I have seen some much that sustained my belief in god through those years.

I've seen migraine pain disappear immediately.

I've seen people who stubbornly refused to be "slain in the spirit" hit the floor before they knew what happened.

I know a man who used to wear coke bottle glasses, whose eyes were healed, and he never wore them again.

I have seen more than one case personally, where illnesses disappeared, and doctors verified they were gone.

I have personally laid hands on people who wilted like flowers, and said afterward they felt a surge of power go through them like they had never felt before, and couldn't remain standing because of it. I have also experienced the same.

I have been present when Benny Hinn laid out several people on the stage.
I have also been a catcher for other Evangelists and preachers.

And lastly, my ulcers were healed through the laying on of hands.

What I learned through all those years is: One mind is a powerful force, several minds in unison are a powerful force multiplied.

S&F.

edit on 1/16/2013 by Klassified because: (no reason given)

I suppose atheists have beaten this challenge to death, but it's still thee number one absolute proof we need to see, and that is, to see an amputated limb grow back.