In biblical times, although it wasn’t too frequently, there are a number of occasions when God was audible. Today, is it different?
Others tell us about their personal revelations and phenomenon such as a NDE, OBE, drugs, visions and dreams being another way of God getting his message across. Perhaps others only rely on holy writs. Regardless of the method, could you elaborate how he talked to you, and how you determined it was God?
We often hear the message coming out is that he loves you. Is there anything else he has shared with you, anything useful, a great discovery of sorts, and has he ever given you bad advice?
I do know people who claim they have personal communication with God. They don’t have “speech” in the ordinary way, as you might exchange a few words with a convenience store clerk. It’s all abstract and remote; they “sense” what God has to tell them. Sort of like a party game of “warmer…colder…”
One friend of mine saw an Angel – but the event, as described, is exactly like a sleep-paralysis hallucination, so that’s what I think it actually was.
Some would say that God has “communicated” with me, when I read the Bible. (And the Koran.)
The way God talks to me is simply to allow myself to eliminate a lot of the motives that I might have otherwise taken into consideration when making decisions on things. I already know the answers but by talking to God for advice I am more likely to be honest with myself. Talking to God does not mean he neccessarily talks back.
I don’t see any hard-core witnessing, so no need for anyone to freak out on me just yet, and send this thing to defcon 2 just because God is in the title. Not carrying a gun, or anything. Just looking for others opinions on what they experienced, not really interesting in debating myself, if others wind up doing so, or if it turns into a witness fest, no problem, send away then.
According to one blog I read it quoted a study that said roughly 10% of Christians have claimed to have had an audible experience with God. I imagine it is more popular with evangelicals, but dunno. If it is 10%, that leaves 90% not hearing anything or relying on other means that I mentioned in the OP.
HoneyBadgerDC, I think this is similar to what my cousin goes through if he has tough decisions to make. He’s the preacher at a very large church where I live. We haven’t had that many talks on it, but he says he asks God about things, prays on it, reads the scriptures, and it helps him make decisions after going through this process, and somehow he knows it is God guiding him. I wanted to ask him if after going through this process if it ever led him to a bad decision he later regretted, but I didn’t. I imagine he would have taken the wrap for it by saying he didn’t fully understand what God was trying to tell him at the time. Don’t know what he would have said though, just a guess on my part.
This is a really good answer and mostly how I feel. On occasion, I think God “talks to me” by presenting me with opportunities or when other people mention something I’m thinking about. It’s hard to say. I’m pretty casual in my conversations with God and I think he’s casual in how he gets back to me.
Burning bush or oracle. Occasionally via postcard. Lately it’s been an incessant “Build a biiiig boat, get some animals.” Over and over, and I’m like dude, I’m trying to get the laundry done.
I’ve always found it strange how divinities throughout history always seem to have such problems communicating. Some stone tablets on a mountaintop every now and then, a few oracles speaking in riddles, the odd vision or mystical experience. Yo, God (or gods): If you have something to tell us, try making it clear, would you? Send an e-mail or something, like a normal person, if you’re so freaking all-powerful. Jeez.
I find this works in a secular sense. I was torn on a difficult decision, and asked my sister what I should do. By the time I’d finished laying out the arguments – and before my sister had said a word! – I figured out what the answer was.
Fiddlin’? I’m doomed. Can we go a couple rounds of dirty limericks?
I have a special music folder containing the Voice of God. Whenever I feel like receiving a special message, from God’s warty lips to my ears, I press the shuffle button a random number of times until a message appears. Here’s what God has to say today:
I AM THE ONE, ORGASMATRON
THE OUTSTRETCHED GRASPING HAND
MY IMAGE IS OF AGONY
MY SERVANTS RAPE THE LAND
OBSEQUIOUS AND ARROGANT, CLANDESTINE AND VAIN
TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF MISERY, OF TORTURE IN MY NAME
HYPOCRISY MADE PARAMOUNT, PARANOIA THE LAW
MY NAME IS CALLED RELIGION - SADISTIC, SACRED WHORE
I’m envisioning a scenario where you’ve got the (wo)man over, the lights turned down and the candles all aglow, gettin’ it on music playing in the background, feeding each other fondue and giggling softly…then as you set your glass of cabernet down and lean in for a kiss, Al Green’s Love and Happiness ends, next up - TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF MISERY, OF TORTURE IN MY NAME!
I was looking for a bible verse and ended up browsing through Exodus, recently. Apparently, talking to God while seeing His face made Moses’s face glow, so that he had to wear a veil when he wasn’t talking to God, to keep from making everyone tremble and fall down prostrate and such.
I had never heard that. I can see why it doesn’t get talked up. I’d say that’s different.