How do YOU know God exists?

[Roos]

I have been learning about God and the Bible for quite awhile now and even though I believe and have actually had things in my life happen that I believe was God helping me, how can I know that it is not coincedence and it is really God??

 

[thereselittleflower]

Ask God to show you . .

How do I know that God exists? Once God has revealed Himself to you, you know that you know that you know, and nothing can move you from that knowing . .




Peace in Him!

 

[chilehed]

Sounds like you've asked two different questions:
1. How do I know God exists?
2. How do I know the He's acting in my life?

There are philosophical arguments that logically show that an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient being must exist, and that if He did not exist, neither would anything else.

There is historical evidence, to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, that He has acted in history in the person of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus (who is God) said that God is aware of every hair on our heads, and takes a personal interest in each of us.

 

[Rafael]

God watches over and nurtures those that belong to Himself. Sometimes, such as in my case, it takes along time for one to realize the blessings and advantage they have received in life. I know that I had to learn thehard way, but can not deny what incredible kindness and gentleness was extended to me through this life, as I look back upon it. Some people, such as yourself, may be fortunate enough to have the good sense to act upon the conscience God has given you and not have to learn the hard way.
Existing inside of God and not perceiving Him is and has been the amazing fact that has gone on in the dimension of time and death where we, mankind, presently live.
As the earlier people have posted, be sure and ask God to be the guide of your life and that He would help you gain a deeper fellowship with Him in order to do His will in the short amount of time we have here in this temporary dwelling place.

"Earth is crammed with heaven; And every bush aflame with God; But only those who see take off their shoes"
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 

[wonder111]

I sometimes say give me some proof that there isn't a God, I can't find it. Just look at the perfection of nature and the design of the human body. When i see something that is created, i know there is a creator.

about knowing whether its him or not. My signature says it for me. The more quiet time you spend with Him, believe me He will become a reality in your life in HUGE ways. God is love, power, peace and a whole lot more that our minds can not comprehend, but His spirit is available to you. As you grow with Him you will be able to know Him all day.

many blessings!

 

[deu58]

This is a very good question. In todays world most people want scientific proof of everything. But the scientific method cannot prove that a person had cereal for breakfast this morning.

A doctor does an autopsy and finds cereal in a persons stomache, now Science has proven that some time within the last 24 hours this person has eaten cereal. now we need to apply the historical method to when and where this person ate cereal. We go to the persons house and in the kitchen we find a box of cheerios. aha now we have it. we contact the doctor and tell him what we have found and he says the cereal in the persons stomache was not cheerios, it was corn flakes. well, back to the drawing board.

We question people who knew the person, sifting through the historical data.
we find the person went to his brothers house so we go and ask some questions there. Yes my brother came to see me yesterday afternoon. We watched the game together. we wanted a snack but did not want to miss anything while cooking so we had some cold cereal together. What kind? cornflakes.

Science can show us if it is possible for God to exist using the criteria of scripture. God says he has no beginning and no end. Is this scientifically possible? Yes it is. We see many different manifestations of the power of God.
God has the ability to effect change dirictly by focusing his will upon what ever he has choosen to effect. We do the same things indirectly by inventing tools and machines to effect the desired changes we wish to make.

Using the historical method we now begin to look for data that shows if there is any evidence that such a being has ever interacted with man in the past and the present. There is an abudance of evidence to support both. This is the very same method used by the courts to prove their cases today.

The greatest manifestation we have of God directly interacting with man is Jesus Christ. For an extensive study on the historical accuracy of the bible I would recommend Josh Mcdowells Evidence that demands a verdict series.
What ever you may think of Josh Mcdowell personally, The books are excellent. I mention this because I have noticed some websites that do not like Mcdowell. But the criticism seems to directed at him and not his books.

One thing that is very significant in the ministry of Christ is even his enemies acknowledge that he performed great works. But they beleived he was a sorcerer{MATT 12:24} There is also a mention of him in the Babylonian Talmud. Jesus was surrounded by spies, false brethren and others sent by the religious leaders of his day looking for anything they could use to destroy his ministry. They found nothing.

The greatest testimony to Christ being God in the flesh is the resurrection.
If some one could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the resurrection did not occur that would be the end of Christianity. Eat drink and be merry for tommorow we die. Paul testifies to this in 1Cor15: 12-19

Lets say I am planning to overthrow the Government. I make many promises to my followers telling how wonderful their lives will be once I am King. But I am captured by the Government and pubicly executed for all the world to see.
where are my promises now? what good is your hope and faith in the dead promises of a dead man?

And yet on pentecost we see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, from the mouths of a few a message goes out to the entire word, Men and women
who risked and lost their lives to tell us of the great promises given to us by God. Nobody in their right minds would risk thier lives for a dead man.

But this is just some of the physical evidence. The most important evidence is the spiritual. Your relationship with Christ. How do you know it is real? In the Gospel of John 6:37 Jesus states that all that the father has given him will come to him, and if you come to him you will not be cast out. You need to believe this is true and build on it. Good solid bible studies, a solid prayer life and membership in a church where the pastor still believes the Word of God is true. If you want to know some one you need to spend time with them and get to know him.

But be aware that we live in dangerous times and there are many wolves among us claiming to be servants of the Living God. The bible tell us we must put our faith and trust in what we cannot see. This is the most difficult part for many of us. So we put our trust in what we can see and when it fails us we think God has failed. And if you trust in a man, somewhere somehow someway that person will fail you. {Jer17:5} because even the best of us are not yet perfect. I do not mean to say that every pastor or evangelist or teacher is false. There are still many who are loyal to their calling and they love you and the Lord with all their heart. But even these are only human and capable of error.Trust God. Study and memorize 1john 4:1-6.


yours in Christian love
deu58

 

[qbanmike]

I desperately want to believe there is a GOD but I find myself shifting gears more often than I want to . I can see the smile on my son's face and realized the awesome power of creation but then I read about some poor people in Africa dying because of a draught and I wonder. The Holocaust, the many tyrants oppressing and killing people daily. I don;t know what to do. I was raised Catholic and have some friends who are now Christian Reformed and we have our pow-wows every week. I want to believe but my intelect gets in the way, and shutting it off is not an option as I won;t be true to myself.

 

[Jinn_Ku]

To answer the question asked, I know because I have seen things that cannot be explained any other way (demon possession for one).

I wondered how I could logically attribute anything to Him if it could be explained by natural means. Then I just started attributing everything to Him. Remembering food in the oven BEFORE it burned, a sunny day when I wanted to go for a walk, ect. I noticed the more credit I gave Him, the more things went my way. So I guess the short answer to your question is "personal experience."

Remember, the God of the supernatural is still the God of natural as well.

 

[wonder111]

I desperately want to believe there is a GOD but I find myself shifting gears more often than I want to . I can see the smile on my son's face and realized the awesome power of creation but then I read about some poor people in Africa dying because of a draught and I wonder. The Holocaust, the many tyrants oppressing and killing people daily. I don;t know what to do. I was raised Catholic and have some friends who are now Christian Reformed and we have our pow-wows every week. I want to believe but my intelect gets in the way, and shutting it off is not an option as I won;t be true to myself.

I hear you! Here we have this incredible gift of free will and have obviously abused it. It's obvious to me than humankind is not entirely loving. In fact, sometimes I wonder what is the point here. I think the only thing that really matters in my life is my relationship with God. I do believe that we as humans have seriously turned away from God and as a result, we live in the world we do. As Christians we have to go against the worlds ways and show what love is.

 

[SolomonVII]

I hear you! Here we have this incredible gift of free will and have obviously abused it. It's obvious to me than humankind is not entirely loving. In fact, sometimes I wonder what is the point here. I think the only thing that really matters in my life is my relationship with God. I do believe that we as humans have seriously turned away from God and as a result, we live in the world we do. As Christians we have to go against the worlds ways and show what love is.

Rather than cause despair, your ideas give us reason for hope. If we can project the evils of the world onto the actions of men, then the possibility that our obedience to the will of God may lead to a better world. As Paul states in Romans:

[font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]5:18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.[/font]
5:19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.


So, to answer the OP rather than just engage in apologetics, I know that God exists in the same way that I know that love exists. Love, and the values based upon love, don't lend themselves well to empirical study because they are not of this world but are gifts of the Spirit. To believe in the gifts is to believe in the Spirit that sends them. And to willingly accept these gifts and allow ourselves to be vehicles for them to be expressed in this world, the message of despair that the world affords us may be transformed into a gospel of hope.
Even if our knowledge of God transcends how we empirically know the world, such a belief is nevertheless rational as it is based upon what we know in our hearts to be true. If on the other hand we cannot accept that our heart and our emotions can be truly give us a true picture of what is real, to go on and arbitrarily decide that the values that make our life meaningful in fact do exist becomes in fact an inherently irrational conclusion. Such a conclusion cannot logically follow from empirical study alone.

 

[Serapha]

I have been learning about God and the Bible for quite awhile now and even though I believe and have actually had things in my life happen that I believe was God helping me, how can I know that it is not coincedence and it is really God??

Hi there!




Well, the Bible tells us to test the spirits, so test it.

1Jo 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.


Also, the Bible tells us to keep the good...

1Th 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
As someone already told you, ask God. God is not going to lead you to do or say wrong or to go against any biblical teachings.


~malaka~

 

[laura_lynn]

Something that I won't back up with biblical information, because I am typing this in a study break and don't have time - what I do is just sort of keep my eyes our for signs of him throughout the day. Little coincidences become a lot more visible, and circumstances sort of fit together in wacky ways. For a little while when I started doing this, it was ridiculous how many coincidences were happening when I was "looking for God". For one, when I was watching tv and remembered that the next day was my "start day" for going to the YMCA. And then right at the same time, two seconds later, the YMCA song came on the television show I was watching. Or, one time I was walking downtown in kind of a gross area and prayed, "God please let me be able to show some of your love, give me the opportunity." And out of nowhere (the streets were deserted) this guy starts asking me where the nearest shelter was. Coincidences like this are my physical "proof" when I feel like I need it, when my beliefs don't feel like they can stand on their own very well at certain points. ... oh and I wish I had time to tell the miracle of my little brother born 3 months mature (god spoke to my mom, and et cetera) but homework calls! Ohh dear college, how I love thee.

Keep seeking, keep struggling, keep praying, above all just keep THINKING of him. Our faith journey isn't a stable one, and we are going to have our trips and times when we think our faith has been stretched too thin to be relied upon, but just keep thinking about everything. God will be there to catch you, you can trust him with that.

 

[SolomonVII]

Something that I won't back up with biblical information, because I am typing this in a study break and don't have time - what I do is just sort of keep my eyes our for signs of him throughout the day. Little coincidences become a lot more visible, and circumstances sort of fit together in wacky ways. For a little while when I started doing this, it was ridiculous how many coincidences were happening when I was "looking for God". For one, when I was watching tv and remembered that the next day was my "start day" for going to the YMCA. And then right at the same time, two seconds later, the YMCA song came on the television show I was watching. Or, one time I was walking downtown in kind of a gross area and prayed, "God please let me be able to show some of your love, give me the opportunity." And out of nowhere (the streets were deserted) this guy starts asking me where the nearest shelter was. Coincidences like this are my physical "proof" when I feel like I need it, when my beliefs don't feel like they can stand on their own very well at certain points. ... oh and I wish I had time to tell the miracle of my little brother born 3 months mature (god spoke to my mom, and et cetera) but homework calls! Ohh dear college, how I love thee.

Keep seeking, keep struggling, keep praying, above all just keep THINKING of him. Our faith journey isn't a stable one, and we are going to have our trips and times when we think our faith has been stretched too thin to be relied upon, but just keep thinking about everything. God will be there to catch you, you can trust him with that.

Carl Jung termed such meaningful coincidents as syncronicity, and I am personally aware of such events as well. For myself, it is usually nothing spectacular but more like a gentle spiritual nudge. In my more skeptical moods, I acknowledge this is nothing that would serve as an absolute knowledge, of 'proof' of the nature of God, but then again I tend to believe that an attitude of faith is what is most essential.

 

[seebs]

I have been learning about God and the Bible for quite awhile now and even though I believe and have actually had things in my life happen that I believe was God helping me, how can I know that it is not coincedence and it is really God??

You can't. This is why we call it "faith", rather than "well-supported empirical confidence".

 

[SamIAm2]

If you want to prove that God exists, then think about it the opposite way? How can he NOT exist? If God didn't exist, you wouldn't be alive to think about how he did exist.

 

[Shekinahs]

I have been learning about God and the Bible for quite awhile now and even though I believe and have actually had things in my life happen that I believe was God helping me, how can I know that it is not coincedence and it is really God??

Blessings,

God saves, blesses, and protects. When something happens in your life and your first thought is "that was lucky". Then know that God just moved in your life.

 

[Jesus_Freak4]

If I wanted to, I could argue that most of the things in my life that "proove" God's existence are just plainly coincidence - maybe I have a lucky life, but it doesn't happen to anyone else. But after reading many of your posts I have come to realise (well I may have already known) that God works in similar ways in a lot of your lives too - I know that if it were all coincidence, it wouldn't be happening in other peoples lives. And I couldn't agree more - the more time you start to spend with God and the more you thank Him for things, the more you will know that He exists.

I have no doubts.

 

[KGirl]

There are so many things that seem to be impossible to me if there wasn't a creator. I mean, if certain things were different, things would be way thrown off. For example.. what if we didn't have a certain body part that helps us digest food?

We not only have the right body parts to reproduce, but it also is a great experience, and we're able to love the person.

Everything just has this order to it.

Yes, some of us have it much better then others, but some of the rich kids in the US can be miserable, then some poor people overseas are happy (some missionaries have seen some of the happiest people overseas as a result of Jesus). I highly recommend the movie "The Other Side of Heaven" based on a true story. Also, that's where we come in. If we work together, things can go alot better. We have people sending items to the poor, and some places simply have bad leaders (or some did), then some don't have the opportunities yet. Not everything's gonna go right. It's how we grow and mature.
This isn't like me bc I'd normally post some of my personal experiences that have shown God exists in my life to the point where I wouldn't be able to say He doesn't exist. But I felt the need to post about the other stuff instead..

 

[aggie03]

So god is luck and circumstance? When your in a soup line and its your turn, and they have enough food left only for you, yet everyone else left will starve, that luck was gods doing?

God is not chance and luck. Chance and luck are simply that - things that could happen at any time to any person.

Ecclesiastes 9:10-12 ASV

10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither thou goest. 11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. 12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

Time and chance happen to all people. However, the providence of God is something all together different - and not very easy to explain at all. The understanding thereof is not, however, integral to knowing that God exists, in my opinion. If I happen to be wrong, let me know and we can talk about it more

 

[CHATTINCHIC1]

Me, personally, I know God exists because I can feel His presence.