Have you had a God encounter?

[Maxmars]

Yes? No? Maybe?

Excellent idea to explore... many have accepted that such a thing has happened to them... many 'decide' what it was, or write it off to incidental synchronicity... a fair bracing emotion that overcomes a circumstance... a moment of unexpected rescue from some 'in your face' pain, grief, or even imagined threat.

Those who are still listening for an idea in the events in their lives will often attribute it to God... but the most firmly faithful realize that even if it wasn't "God" ... it was still God.  (Dissenters back away here... faith isn't anchored in reason.)

The short (stop laughing) answer is "Of course."  But the explanation for the notion is not relevant to the 'dissent' about laughable faith.

We choose to believe, we craft and or adopt narratives to support our choice...

Now, to render an account might be problematic....

Just as an example... when I met the young child suffering from tuberculosis, who volunteered that she was terribly sad because she was moving to Flagstaff Arizona "for her health," was it God that suggested I say "Hey, I have a cousin who lives there..." which led to her actually meeting them and become the best of friends in her new school.  

Was that God? .... of course it was.  Of course, it wasn't...  who will choose ... and could we just 'forget about it as silly?"

[Thoughtful3]

I had an experience with God which i believe was real. I was driving my motorhome alone with my children through Kansas.
It was at night and suddenly the Motorhome stopped. I pushed the gas pedal to the floor and nothing. 
Suddenly I heard a loud voice saying get out of the motor home- NOW!
I opened the door and suddenly a tornado came upon us. I grabbed the children, one a baby and with super human strength I lifted them up, managed to get across a cattle crossing and into a ditch. I kept the baby under my body so she wouldn't be sucked up.
I felt the hand of God cover us and the Tornado went right over us. One child was harmed but not seriously.
She was sucked up and was almost out of reach when one of my children held on to my leg and with his other hand reached and grabbed her by the hand. 
I imagined the motorhome would be gone because the force of the wind and the train like roar was so intense and powerful. Amazingly it was sitting on the side of the road, untouched.

Suddenly two men in a pick up truck stopped and helped us get to a hotel and a clinic to get stiches.
That was amazing timing.
We were a mess. Covered in cow manure, mud, soaked and freezing.

It was a serious tornado. One boy was killed, trees were ripped out by the roots and looked like kindling wood. The hotel was damaged as well.

What would have happened if we had stayed in the motorhome? Maybe we would have panicked and tried to flee but them it would have been too late. So I believe it was a miracle.

[ntech]

I did.  Silly me I did something stupid in the last months of 2001.   Went to the twilight zone and picked up a souvenir from the souvenir shop. 

But I'll tell you a little story of what I saw from my Daniel class religious experience.

I figured out what the magic words were and then I did something really stupid.  I said them out loud.  And that's when all Holy Hell broke loose. Harry Potter would have proud of the fuss I caused.  

And here's what I saw.

I heard a ding in my ears like a hearing test.  Then my vision quit on me leaving a dark gray screen to look at.  Then I wasn't in Kansas anymore.   It was like being propelled upwards at high speed.  Like the old Starfield screensaver from Windows 3.1.   There were dots and streaks of light and oddly enough numbers. The number 2 to be exact.  And then after a few seconds it stopped and I was drifting in space looking at the stars.  But. This was a very strange space and very strange stars.  

What I saw was the words of the prophecy I had been working on glowing faintly against the darkness of space.  And scattered among the words were numbers. The #2 actually scattered around the words showing the points of duality in the prophecy.  Then after a few seconds of that then the focas of the vision changed.
I was back in my body with this extremely bright picture of the starfield from before in my head.  And it seemed to be expanding outward. And there was pressure in my head and those #2s were burning holes out to my skull.   

Then it was all over leaving me with a headache for the rest of the day.

And my souvenir?  Well, I got a picture of it.  Makes a nice avatar doesn't it?

And it appears I have one more task to do possibly.   Jewish temple maybe?  But then I haven't been asked or told to do it. 36er and possibly a branch?  Hmmnn.

Or am I just crazy?

[midicon]

Have you ever had an encounter with God?
I'm not talking about being moved during a church service.
I'm not talking about getting emotional viewing a grand nature scene.
I'm not talking about an encounter with ghosts or spirits.
I'm talking about direct contact with God Himself ... a true miracle ... actual communication?
Something that can't be possibly written off as coincidence or a trick of the mind?

I've had little things happen that I can't explain and that answered prayers.
And I've had an idea pop into my head from nowhere that suddenly solved a problem.
I've considered these communications from God and miracles.
But I've never had absolute undeniable overwhelming proof of God in an encounter.
Have you?

There is only me Flyers.

[Redchad]

We know hardly anything about God but if he/it exists it is not found in the bible. If anything, we find in the bible many different seemingly superior beings named Elohim. in fact there are lots of Elohim, all of which have been mistranslated and called God or Gods. Ask any translator of ancient texts and writings, they will confirm the translation of Elohim is not known and has been argued about for thousands of years. It’s thought to have been leader, great one, judge, warrior, healer, teacher, farmer, lord, emperor king etc etc. One thing the bible does tell us, is that they are mortal and do die, but have exceptionally long lives. In the region in question there were many Elohim such as Chamosh Elohim of the Moabites, Rimmon the Damascus Elohim, Ashtoreth Elohim of the Ammonites all followed by various tribes, peoples or groups. As the saying goes history is written by the victors, and seen as the only written record of the ancients is the bible then the line of Abraham became victorious. Their Elohim has a title which again is untranslatable, the word is a Tetragram something similar to a hieroglyph no one knows how it sounded when spoken as consonants were a later use in words. But yet again the ancient scholars made a word up which is commonly used today as YAHWEH. it is noticeable in the Bible that YAHWEH tells his followers to kill anyone, even Moses told them to kill their brother, family and friends if they follow one of the other Elohim. So for thousands of years the Bible was the only source of ancient history. Up until the nineteenth century when man had educated himself enough to want the answer to the question of life and creation.  As a result archaeologists and historians began the investigation. One of the cities discovered was Ur in old Mesopotamia, Jews, Muslims and Christians (who know religious history) will know this as the birthplace of Abraham and the place where God (sorry not God another mistranslation) actually El Shaddai came to him in his tent in the form of a man and told him he was to gather his people and leave. The city of Ur we are told was occupied by the Sumerians when actually we don’t know who they were. They were named Sumerian later because the city of Ur is in Sumer. In 1835 John Taylor started excavating the city and found thousands of tablets written upon in cuneiform writing. Fortunately for us the Sumerian’s wrote everything down recipes, menus, building instructions, mathematics, maps of the stars, and their own creation story.  Surprisingly most followers of the Abrahamic religions will recognise much of the Sumerian creation story, the making of the Adamu a slave race, the Annunaki, nephillim, the women of men mixing with gods, giants and of course a flood story including doves and ravens. Only the hero of this flood is Utnapishtim not Noah and this flood came a thousand years before Judaism. They also make reference to a God who lives in the heavens (not heaven) this god has a wife and two sons unlike the bible. Enki & Enlil, it was Enlil who decided to destroy the earth with a flood. It was Enki that wanted to save mankind and instructed Utnapishtim to build a boat to save his family, other people and his animals (not two of every animal). Surprisingly modern man allegedly educated and intelligent, still buy into the Bible narrative. Their ancient ancestors who put the texts together also knew the contradictions but the religious leaders basically said we’re going to pretend none of these contradictions have occurred and preach our story. Which brings us to the present, with people still ignoring the facts and still pretending none of these contradictions are present. All the above information is available to anyone who looks, it does take a lot of time and effort to join the dots and the chapter above should be told at length but with the evidence to prove it would fill many books.

[IceHappy]

Yes!!! 6 years army 1970-76 and at 72 years of age many times spared by invisible hands.  Enough said!

[Maxmars]

Yes!!! 6 years army 1970-76 and at 72 years of age many times spared by invisible hands.  Enough said!

And... thank you for your service...

I picked up for 12 years active duty a bit after you left.... at 66 I will never deny, I died or should have stayed dead at least 4 times....  strange to  think 'that's no evidence of God."

But as for actually ''meeting'' my mental pen-pal? 
I'm pretty sure I couldn't stand the attention.

Me, as my own judge before God frightens 'the hell' out of me...

[ARM1968]

Once. On a slightly hazy sunlit hilltop surrounded by fir trees in Rhodes.

[LightAngel]

Yes!!! 6 years army 1970-76 and at 72 years of age many times spared by invisible hands.  Enough said!

I'm so curious now. 

Sorry, I know you would have shared more if you felt like it. 

I will control my curiosity. 

[chr0naut]

Have you ever had an encounter with God?
I'm not talking about being moved during a church service.
I'm not talking about getting emotional viewing a grand nature scene.
I'm not talking about an encounter with ghosts or spirits.
I'm talking about direct contact with God Himself ... a true miracle ... actual communication?
Something that can't be possibly written off as coincidence or a trick of the mind?

I've had little things happen that I can't explain and that answered prayers.
And I've had an idea pop into my head from nowhere that suddenly solved a problem.
I've considered these communications from God and miracles.
But I've never had absolute undeniable overwhelming proof of God in an encounter.
Have you?

I don't know that it is a direct encounter with God. I think that the Biblical assertion that no human can look at God directly and survive sounds quite reasonable.

But I have had a recurring 'numinous' dream since childhood that I am being sent to Earth for some purpose. I have been told (somehow) that I won't like what I must do, but it is important, and so I have assented to it, but the exact nature of my mission has been blocked from my recollection, so that I won't mess things up by trying to avoid it.

Then I am travelling and there's like a barrier or wall with coloured lines at all different angles across it. There's also 3D to it, the lines aren't all on one plane or parralel. I think the lines are intelligent too, but I don't know why?

I also feel that I once was 'bigger', or 'more expansive' (cosmically?) but after the memories were taken, I am more focussed and limited.

Then there is the Earth and whoever is with me is showing me lots of people who will possibly become my parents, and i make the choice.

Then I am being born and it's a terrifying experience of claustrophobia, panic and asphyxia. Then I breathe and I can see the nurses and a doctor, then I can't focus anymore but I can feel my mother's skin and hear her heartbeat, and everything is comforting and I sleep.

There has also been a lot of odd things through my life that don't have a naturalist explanation, too.

I also have the belief that humanity is part of a spiritual continuum of elevation. The angels were to help us "up" and in turn we would help other species "up", as they would lead others - forever.