Hi there. I read you are a new moderator and thought I would see why Bsh1 was so impressed.
Prayer is a communication with God. I pray to Him every day.
What's this experience like? Is it one-way, where you're sending God prayers, or does God ever touch your mind in response? If there is a response, what is it like? Does God respond in words? Is it just a feeling or emotion, like a wordless sense of wellbeing or reassurance?
God communicates to us by His Word (and Jesus is described as the Word of life -
1 John 1:1), His Spirit, and His creation. Sometimes God confirms in the believer's heart and answers prayer by circumstance confirmation. It is not like it was when the Gospel was being established before the OT economy came to an end. At that time God used visual miracles to acknowledge His existence. There was physical evidence during the OT, such as a pillar of clouds by day and a pillar of fire by night that accompanied the Israelites on the Exodus to the Promised Land. The disciples/apostles were granted miracles to confirm His word and spread the Gospel. Now, God leaves us His word of/in truth. With Christians, His Spirit speaks to our spirit through His word. His word has what is necessary for us to know God. Along with this circumstances lead us to faith. I could give you my personal journey if you like.
My experience of God as far back as I can remember was my mother kneeling with me at my bedside and reciting a simple prayer, "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon this little child. Pity my simplicity and suffer me to come to thee." Then we would ask for a blessing for our family members. I did not question God at this young time in my life. I knelt in reverence before Him. Then I remember my Grandmother. She was old and she scared the life out of me, but she was also a professing Christian. I think I developed this fear from my mother about her. My mother lived a pagan life (both parents were alcoholics although my dad jokingly called himself a bush baptist since we live in Africa at the time. My Grandmother sent me a Bible that I still have to this day with the quoted words of Jesus inscribed in it, "Suffer little children to come unto Me." So I know she prayed for us.
Many years later, when my father died in 1979, I started to question existence, and if there was any ultimate meaning in life or just what we invented that meant nothing in the big picture. I went back to Africa where it seemed that I was constantly coming in contact with Christians. My uncle, who I stayed with until I outlasted my welcome used to take me up the mounts around the Cape of Good Hope where we cut down a tree that was destroying the local fauna because it spread so vociferously. During our climbs, he would utter verses from the Bible like, "As you sow, so shall you reap." So I moved on to the Transvaal where I got a job in a private game reserve. My roommate was a "born again Christian." Maybe about six months into our new jobs we took off for a weeks vacation and drove to Durban, Natal, where he took me to a tent revival. (Can you believe it?) I kept telling him it was not for me and eventually managed to get him to leave. There was also a family of Christians and an older Christian lady that worked in the reserve. The owner sent me into the nearest town, Hoedspruit, for supplies with three others one day. On the way home, we hit a truck (I don't really know whether I got drowsy or a truck fixing the road backed into us). The result was all four of us received injury. None of us wore seatbelts. I got pinned behind the wheel and broke my hip. The African was partially paralyzed in one arm. The bosses son suffered minor injuries but his friend broke his neck. I blacked out. On the drive to the hospital, they revived me. By the grace of God we all recovered. Now I look back on it I think those Christians who befriended me also prayed for us. So, that was my introduction to Christianity in my adult life. My one year visa expired and I returned to Canada. I decided to look into the matter further and attended a church where I heard God's message and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
I wasn't until about nine years later that I started investigating the Christian faith seriously. God keeps confirming in my mind His word as truth. I started work with a person who claimed to be a "Word of Faith" or "Name-it-and-claim-it" Pentecostal believer. He told me I could lose my salvation, not that God would take me out of His hands but that I could take myself out of His hands. We had about a year's worth of conversation, exchanging biblical verses and supporting our contrary beliefs. I also kept asking God in prayer all through this timeframe to show me His truth because I was convinced Bob, this professing Christian, was misled. One day, out of frustration I sat down and read the NT from cover to cover. I kept seeing verses jump out at me that showed who was doing the action and who was receiving it. It was God who was saving. It showed that faith in God is by Him from first to last. If God saves you, you cannot lose your salvation because He cannot fail. I can demonstrate this very satisfactorily by using Scripture and reasoning it out. God has confirmed His word like this on many occasions. It takes work. You have to study to understand.
