Where is God?

[primarymay]

I don't need a God who is aloof, who hides his face, who is invisible. A God who is real to my senses like you and I, would be better.

Why is this not the case.

 

[GirdYourLoins]

Please accept this as a loving response.

Because youre spirit is dead it does not recognise God who is spirit. This is the state we are all born into and it is only when we are born of the spirit that we recognise God. I am fully aware of God in my spirit and He is far more real to me than someone on an internet forum. I know His presence and I know His voice.

I often tell people who say things like you have to say a prayer as a starting point. It is to pray and ask God to reveal Himself to you. Tell Him that if He is there (which He is) that you want to know Him and want Him to reveal Himself to you and to lead you into a relationship with Him.

There are a number of verses in the Bible which tell us to keep asking God for things and to keep "knocking on the door". So I suggest you dont just say one prayer but continue to do so over a longer period of time.

 

[primarymay]

Please accept this as a loving response.

Because youre spirit is dead it does not recognise God who is spirit. This is the state we are all born into and it is only when we are born of the spirit that we recognise God. I am fully aware of God in my spirit and He is far more real to me than someone on an internet forum. I know His presence and I know His voice.

I often tell people who say things like you have to say a prayer as a starting point. It is to pray and ask God to reveal Himself to you. Tell Him that if He is there (which He is) that you want to know Him and want Him to reveal Himself to you and to lead you into a relationship with Him.

There are a number of verses in the Bible which tell us to keep asking God for things and to keep "knocking on the door". So I suggest you dont just say one prayer but continue to do so over a longer period of time.

Let's say I've done all this and more, why isn't this God real to me also. He's become less real not more.

 

[I'm_Sorry]

Let's say I've done all this and more, why isn't this God real to me also. He's become less real not more.

Do you believe you have committed sin?

 

[primarymay]

Do you believe you have committed sin?

As in doing things that are wrong, sure who hasn't.

 

[I'm_Sorry]

As in doing things that are wrong, sure who hasn't.

Who/what, judges/determines what is wrong?

 

[primarymay]

Who/what, judges/determines what is wrong?

Maybe nothing does.

 

[I'm_Sorry]

Maybe nothing does.

If that's the case why have you identified as having done wrong?

 

[Liza B.]

I don't need a God who is aloof, who hides his face, who is invisible. A God who is real to my senses like you and I, would be better.

Why is this not the case.

Partly, because we could not handle the fullness of God in the state we are now. You have to begin to understand Holiness to understand why this is so.

Consider this, as well. The Bible has this to say about God's divine nature being revealed through the senses in Romans 1:20:

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

 

[primarymay]

If that's the case why have you identified as having done wrong?

Because I had a strick upbringing, because I am molded by society's ethics, because I'm an animal.

 

[GirdYourLoins]

Let's say I've done all this and more, why isn't this God real to me also. He's become less real not more.

There are several reasons this could be the case. I think the biggest blockage n the modern world is unforgiveness. The usual way to talk about it is to find forgiveness for someone but I now view this as wrong, for me at least. I now see it that we are holding on to unforgiveness and we just need to let it go and not hold something against the person/people in question. And believe me I had a lot to forgive.

Another issue is unrepented of sin. Sin, as I explain it, is what comes between us and God. Again I tend to speak of it differently to how most do. I dont call it what we do wrong any more as for someone who is not a Christian it may seem perfectly acceptable and not wrong. So thinking of it as what God does not like is to me a better viewpoint. Is there anything in your life that God would not like that you are not prepared to even consider giving up with gods help? I was a drunk and recreational drug user when I got saved and sin was fairly dominant in my life, but I did not withhold it from God or try to deny it was sin.

Or maybe, as I said earlier, you have not been knocking on the door enough yet. Maybe you could pray what many call the sinners prayer. Once you can declare from your heart that you believe Jesus is Lord, died to pay the price for your sin and was resurrected victorious over sin and death you will be saved. Then ask God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

[Liza B.]

Let's say I've done all this and more, why isn't this God real to me also. He's become less real not more.

Should we SAY it or have you actually done it?

 

[GirdYourLoins]

Because I had a strick upbringing, because I am molded by society's ethics, because I'm an animal.

That is only a restriction in your mind, not Gods.

I was brought up in a strict and violent household where I was the youngest and therefore subjected to the most violence, which in turn led to me getting in with the wrong crowd and crime, I became a drunk and drug user, etc. I can guarantee I know Christians who were (and some who probably still are) worse than you in mans eyes.

As far as God is concerned just look at sin as sin, black and white, there is no grey area. It either comes between you and God or it doesnt. I was one of the most dislikeable, disgusting, emotionally damaged people I have even known and God still saved me. There is nothing you have done that can block Gods saving grace except to not receive it.

 

[xianghua]

I don't need a God who is aloof, who hides his face, who is invisible. A God who is real to my senses like you and I, would be better.

Why is this not the case.

why not? see one scientific evidence here:

the self replicating watch argument

 

[I'm_Sorry]

Because I had a strick upbringing, because I am molded by society's ethics, because I'm an animal.

Is your conviction for doing wrong a product of your environment along with our species predisposition alone, or is there something more to it e.g. a universal moral standard?

 

[Lucian Hodoboc]

Please accept this as a loving response.

Because youre spirit is dead it does not recognise God who is spirit. This is the state we are all born into and it is only when we are born of the spirit that we recognise God. I am fully aware of God in my spirit and He is far more real to me than someone on an internet forum. I know His presence and I know His voice.

I often tell people who say things like you have to say a prayer as a starting point. It is to pray and ask God to reveal Himself to you. Tell Him that if He is there (which He is) that you want to know Him and want Him to reveal Himself to you and to lead you into a relationship with Him.

There are a number of verses in the Bible which tell us to keep asking God for things and to keep "knocking on the door". So I suggest you dont just say one prayer but continue to do so over a longer period of time.

There are people who have prayed for many years, some were even preachers or priests, but in their later years became atheists stating that they simply did not receive any answers from God, so they lost their faith.

5 Religious Leaders Who Gave Up the Faith and Became Outspoken Atheists and Agnostics

 

[gym_class_hero]

There are people who have prayed for many years, some were even preachers or priests, but in their later years became atheists stating that they simply did not receive any answers from God, so they lost their faith.

5 Religious Leaders Who Gave Up the Faith and Became Outspoken Atheists and Agnostics

God doesn't owe us all the answers and it's addressed here....
1 Cor 13.9=12

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

 

[Liza B.]

There are people who have prayed for many years, some were even preachers or priests, but in their later years became atheists stating that they simply did not receive any answers from God, so they lost their faith.

5 Religious Leaders Who Gave Up the Faith and Became Outspoken Atheists and Agnostics

To be fair, the article doesn't really say they prayed and didn't receive answers from God. It paints a picture more of having doubts. I see a lot of faith built on feeling and very youthful experiences with not a lot of knowledge behind it...I always consider that dangerous. My own opinion.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I don't need a God who is aloof, who hides his face, who is invisible. A God who is real to my senses like you and I, would be better.

Why is this not the case.

Hi Primarymay,

This is not the case because, as some of the others have already mentioned here, most of us could not really handle the actual manifestation of God Himself--it would actual destroy our physical body. This is what the Bible teaches. It also impilies that even if just an angel were to show up, ipso facto before our faces, it would overwhelm our minds.

Instead, with the Advent of Jesus in the world, God has set in place a social and spiritual instrument, an institution, of 'ordinary' measures by which to affect His Will in the world, and that instrument is The Church.

Biblically speaking, the fact that Christians are here in the world (or on CF) to engage you in thoughts about God and Jesus His Messiah means that you are in a way also engaging with God's Spirit, and for you to move forward with God, you're going to have to come to a place that you accept this as a possibility.

Sure, I understand very well that talking with those who claim to be Christian is fraught with emotional and social freight: there are imperfections and disagreements in doctrine even among a variety of Christians, so it can 'feel' difficult to perceive that the things they say are coming from God. However, all of us who are Christian are trying to measure up to the stature of Christ, which none of us can fully do consistently, but even with that being the case, God's Spirit helps Christians to emulate Jesus and to be directed--and corrected--by His Spirit, as well as by the writings of the earliest disciples of Jesus in His Church.

So, God is not aloof. Rather, He is working in the world, but for you to engage Him, you're going to have to do it through: 1) Prayer, 2) His Word [the Bible], and through 3) His people [the Church]. If you can't come to a place where you can feel you can do this, then there isn't going to be much, if anything, beyond the ordinary that will be offered to you to experience or receive. Jesus also said that a sinful generation seeks a 'sign,' but that God would not provide them a sign other than "the prophet, Jonah," meaning that God engages your life if and when you encounter a person who, in the name and love of Christ, comes to you and says, "You need Jesus to be your Lord and Savior. Here, take my hand, let me help you find Him!"

Peace,
2PhiloVoid

 

[primarymay]

Partly, because we could not handle the fullness of God in the state we are now. You have to begin to understand Holiness to understand why this is so.

Consider this, as well. The Bible has this to say about God's divine nature being revealed through the senses in Romans 1:20:

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

How can I have a relationship with an invisible creator, what do I base my perspective on? How do I ascertain the facts around my understanding, if understanding this god doesn't require any.