All About Jesus

Introduction

I think it would be safe to say, that Jesus is one of, if not the most misunderstood person in existence. Some think He was a philosopher, some think He is a fictional character, others think He was extremely intelligent but would have known more if he only knew our science. Some think He is a monster and seem to try to misrepresent his metaphors and make the stories of His parables into His personal declamations of an explicit manner. Some say He was an idiot for believing the Old Testament and Genesis, and others say that He is the Son of God, and as the Jews in the Gospel knew of that phrase, equal to God, and therefore, God.

Yet there is even disagreement among Christians. Was he really God in the flesh? How could you be the son of God and God at the same time, is it to be poetry, complexity, or contradiction? Was He Michael the Archangel? Then we could disagree about his characteristics. How would he have handled certain situations? What does it mean to be conformed to the image of Christ? What about professing Christians that commit atrocities? What about His spirit and person? Does he care about what I struggle with? Does He speak to people today, or are those people imaging fantasies in a psychological delirium?

What is the truth, and what is the most coherent solution to our problems? How can the disagreements be explained in a way that coheres to history, philosophy, experience, science, and all other types of observation, questioning, and evidence?

~ Altar to an Unknown God ~

The Starting Point

I think there are really two ways to attack this problem. One way is to use concrete, observable, verifiable, experiential, experimental, and empirical human knowledge – history, science, philosophy, anthropology, etc – to analyze these claims. We must be wary though of those claiming certainty in these fields from gross extrapolations, that have neither probability nor any real evidence on their side. The second way is to actually test out the claims of the Bible as far as communicating with God. This is really the end all be all claim after human knowledge. Is he really there to those who humble and quiet themselves and seek Him with their whole heart? In such a case, what would He have to say about Himself, you, and other things, and how would that compare to what others say about Him?

My Part in Answering the Questions

I will, in these websites, pursue as much as possible the two roads I mentioned before. I will try to traverse as much concrete, observable, verifiable, experiential, experimental, and empirical human knowledge as possible as well as experiential knowledge from interacting with God and angels, that I will put on thirstyforlivingwater.com as well as an awesome new website, still to be created, whose name I am not yet revealing here (I love surprises).

I challenge you before reading the rest of this page to let go of every preconception you have about who this person is. There are some who go completely against His wishes in His name, and many who slander His name and create such false thoughts and mountains of confusion, that it will keep many from seeing clearly, at least for a time. Many, including me, say that He actually responds to prayers and talks to us. What then, in those situations, is He really like? What does He say? Is He love, really, not loving, but love? What if He was love beyond our comprehension of all reality and possibility, love beyond anything we have ever experienced? What would that even mean?

My Research

I’ll start with some intellectual ideas, before getting into super-exciting (and supernatural) experiences! What are the main intellectual objections to Christianity? Let’s see, they usually are, a loving God is philosophically inconsistent with this type of world; science disproves the primitive ideas of the Bible including Adam and Eve, the flood, the world being created in six days, and so on; the claim that God is morally reprehensible; the claim that the Bible contradicts; the inkling that a world where one non-contradictory worldview exists and everything contrary would be false is too harsh a view of reality; and a view that miracles are hogwash and should stay in fairy-tales with the princess and the pea. I think that about covers it.

Now I will address my claims to the contrary.

It is totally philosophically consistent to say that a loving God created and is guiding (at least part) of this world. If you watch Ravi Zacharias videos on YouTube long enough, I am sure he will address this many times. Here is one such occurrence. I think it has to do with a correct understanding of Genesis, the original intentions of God, and the fact that without God and a transcendent moral law, morality becomes a matter of opinion, and bears the ugly fruit of such a view as we now see abundantly in our world and on the news. The real surprise is that historically and anthropologically it seems that when this view of morality being a matter of opinion didn’t try to reign supreme, life was much more moral, beautiful, peaceful, and safe. What does freedom really mean when we want to use it to redefine what is good and evil and then dance on any side of the line we choose? What do we say to those who want to dance far on the wrong side, harm people greatly, and then say that your opinion of morality doesn’t apply to them, that as long as they don’t get caught, they win?

Science, oh, science. I think many people worship at the altar of science and PHD scientists so long that they neglect to realize that we must separate observational, experimental science from COLD BLOODED PURE EXTRAPOLATION. Everyone seems to be pointing at everyone else, claiming that the other guy with the PHDs must know, while no one seems to know, and many seem to put a blindfold on and make wild (unobserved) guesses that everyone must accept. How could you dare oppose the extrapolated prophetic words of the PHD scientists! Do you hate science? Do you want to go back to a world without light-bulbs?

Alright, that is a good introduction, Drew, but how does that relate to the topic at hand? I’ll explain. I claim that every science topic that disagrees with the Bible does so based on pure unsupported extrapolation. Not observation. Not experimentation. Guesswork. Pure unadulterated guesswork.

There is quite a lot of material to address here, and in time I will address it in great detail. I could write an entire large article (or many, and definitely eventually a book or two) on this topic alone. The claim that I would make here in the next two paragraphs may at first seem unbelievable to you, but if you really examine everything including evidence, non-contradiction, what people used to think, probability, and the current state of the love of money with corporations and governments who are waiting to walk down the aisle together and say their vows, you could see that this view explains reality so well that it is practically a miracle. I have done much of my homework for nine years. I am not saying this from reading one article on the internet and then guessing the rest. I would want to flesh this out in it’s entirety including the plethora of evidence for it, the history, and how many people in the past believed this, as well as how this worldview simply explains things that wreck the minds of current scientists and others. However, if I did that as much as I wanted, you may struggle to finish the breadth of this article, so I’ll try to do it simply as possible.

What do you get when you put together the archaeological findings of Ernst Sellin (time to study some German!), John Garstang, Timothy Mahoney, and David Rohl (accompanied with the documentary Patterns of Evidence: the Exodus); with the observation in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ancient Languages that we have no written documents (even by their extrapolated means of analyzation) earlier than the fourth century BC, so that we use complete guesswork to create earlier versions of languages in accordance to a theory called “the comparative method of historical linguistics;” with the alleged geological formation of structures thought to take millions of years in weeks from the eruption of Mount Saint Helens; with an article like this; with findings that seemingly destroy everything we seem to know about the preservation of biological material; to the complete lack of any real evidence whatsoever for the existence of people and their thoughts and deeds before about the fourth century BC in the books I read all those years about nutrition, the history of glass-making, the history of mathematics and the sciences, the history of textiles, and much more; with the great evidence of a lack of consistency in carbon dating (evidence 1, 2, 3, 4 [evidence four is from one of my favorite science presenters, he said he carbon dated specimens A and B that upon retest, specimen A got B’s age and B got A’s age when they were said to be in each other’s rock layer]); with the advent of the Shannon theory of information, coupled with information theory, probability, and the idea that quantifiable information does not arise by itself in matter, taught by Werner Gitt and A.E. Wilder-Smith (and 1, 2, 3, other A. E. Wilder-Smith Links [a man with three PHDs]); with the opposition of the laws of Moses by Charles Lyell; to the existence of catastrophic geology and the alleged details of the Christian beginning to the scientific revolution; with the seeming virtual probability impossibility of life coming from non-life regardless of the Miller-Urey experiment; to the healthy communication violating, contradicting claims that we must accept the extrapolating opinions of scientists as truth; to the witnesses of genetic entropy (I like deifinition #2) from Dr. Weston Price, Dr. Pottenger, and John Sanford; to moral and moral origin problems of naturalism and the alleged inflation light travel problems of the big bang model; as well as other things?

Before I answer the question I posed, I’ll speak of a quick side note. I have a lot more of the science details to look into, even though I have spent extensive time in mathematics, probability, and statistics. However, through analyzing the claims of many and some of the evidence I am still able to make rather strong claims, that I intend to make stronger. However, in considering all of these things, I believe that when you put together all of these things, you not only get a worldview where there are no contradictions with the Bible as a history (as especially a mind-mindbogglingly accurate archaeology book) but that scientifically, when we take out all extrapolation, I not only see nothing to contradict the Bible, but I see great support and no contradictions in taking this view as far as possible. I may overlook something somewhere, and I have to pray more about this (update: I believe that I am being led to this interpretation through prayer), maybe there is more time somewhere, but I currently believe, that all of non-contradictory reality bears witness to a view that isn’t very widely known, a view that if it were true, would give the greatest non-contradictory explanation of the entirety of reality, a view that abounds more than any other view in insane moral beauty and overall aesthetics, a view that would turn the greatest of confusions into easy explanations, and a view that would bear great fruit and answer so many of our problems. The view …………………………………… that not only ……………………………………… are the days of Genesis …………………………………………… A LITERAL SIX DAYS ………………………………………………………. but that ……………………………………………….when you add together……………………………..all of the genealogies of the lives in the Bible………………………….you get a world…………………….. that is from SIX TO TEN THOUSAND YEARS OLD.

Let people stone me and attack me. Let them call me stupid, uneducated, and insane. I have studied relentlessly and have found nothing to contradict this view and every reason to accept it (here are some of my FAVORITE creation science presentations – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Even better, this view has much more of a historical, global, and intellectual backing than seemingly any other view that has existed. If one reads old public domain books from before 1964 into antiquity (especially archaeology) this can be seen. What should I do? Cower in front of extrapolating PHD scientists as the verbally attack me, or stand for what I see to be a consistent explanation of reality, that leads to a beautiful worldview, that shines over the others in evidence, non-contradiction, and experiential relevance? Do their opinions matter more than non-contradictory evidence? Can PHDs erase the falsehood of the the contradictory views that the holder of the degree has?

Now since I am taking way to much space on this previous argument, I’ll make the next ones rather short. As far as God being morally reprehensible, I’ll simply say for now, that this requires extrapolation. You would have to claim you know much more about these stories than we do. You also need to already judge that God was wrong in instances where a possibility for Him being right exists. In other words, you can have a prior commitment to the view that God is a monster and write entire books from single sentences in the Bible. I talked to a very influential and prolific writer of five years of articles against Christianity as an atheist (after I spent maybe 15 hours debating his readers on his blog) once about our lack of knowledge of many of the details, motives, circumstances, and God’s knowledge of the future in regards to many of the events in the Bible including the Old Testament (one of the main places atheists try to convict God of evil). You know what he said? I still can’t believe it. I’ll quote some of the exchange here for you.

Me: (part of my comment) We don’t know the circumstances and details behind God’s actions. What earthly judge would condemn someone without knowing any of the circumstances or motives of an action? Someone killing another person being the only evidence without details would not warrant a conviction. Was it in self-defense, hatred, to protect the life of a family member, national defense/security, other things?

Him: He quotes me saying, “We don’t know the circumstances and details behind God’s actions.”
Then he replies: Not really, but let’s forget that [my emphasis]. No one says, “Well, God’s a complete [expletive that insults God] in the Old Testament as far as I can see, but since I can’t prove that he’s fiction or that he didn’t have good reasons, I’m obliged to believe that he does exist and that he does have good reasons.”

Me: (part of my response) You admitted that we don’t know the circumstances or motives behind God’s actions, and you said that there is no point in assuming he has good reasons. Then is there any point in assuming that he has bad reasons?

Him: “I don’t know God’s motives for sure. Maybe he has good reasons that we don’t understand, but how is that relevant? He hasn’t bothered to help us understand, so we’re stuck with what we’ve got.”

Did you just read that? I was blown away at his responses. Here is someone admitting that he doesn’t have the details and motives behind God’s actions and that a possibility of Him having good motives exists. Then after countless hours of writing back and forth with him and his readers with them saying constantly how much of a “diabolical monster” God is, he says the statement, “I don’t know God’s motives for sure. Maybe he has good reasons that we don’t understand, but how is that relevant?” How is that relevant?! Isn’t that what we just spent fifteen hours talking about?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! The ultimate take away is that God hates and judges sin, and without the details of the situation it is hard for us to understand his exact judgements. A possibility for him acting righteously exists, as we have just seen. I plan on showing that in all probability of reality, God acting righteously in these situations is the most plausible and I plan on giving seriously good answers to all of the objections, especially in the Old Testament, not only with insane research and thinking, but I plan, to also have the influence and guidance of the brilliant and loving the Holy Spirit in my answers (see the quote from the book of Acts after the next paragraph!).

I say that there are only seeming contradictions in the Bible. If we trust God and seek after answers, I have never seen that there were questions I could find an explanation for. I am currently working on a large list of about seven-hundred supposed bible contradictions. I plan on explaining them all, which shouldn’t be hard; some of them are very silly. Some are a little harder, but I am working on them, and I know they will come through. I have reasonable evidence based faith that I can explain all of them, not only through what I have uncovered so far in research, coherence, and the spiritual presence and person of God, but also because God has helped me explain many of them (and has given me general evidence) in the past through His supernatural voice, presence, and interactions that defy probability to such a strong amount, that I know would be crazy to deny Him. I have explained very seemingly strong “contradictions” of the Bible after days of prayer and intense research. These seeming contradictions were so strong that I know that it shook the faith of certain Christians and could and probably still does lead to ridicule by atheists. Except, there are real, consistent explanations. God revealed answers to me in the past. As I claimed that we can hear the voice of God, that being true, all of these “contradictions” can be explained. They are simply houses of cards waiting for the hurricane of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 6:8-10 (NIV) Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. 10 But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

Alright, here is the last set of explanations (I’ll go as quick as I can!!), and then I’ll move to awesome experiences!!!! Lastly I’ll address the idea that one true worldview that makes everything contradictory false is too harsh a worldview, and that miracles are hogwash. First off, I have talked about it before, if you want to be able to point to someone else and say what they are doing is evil and that they must stop, you need to assert an absolutely true worldview of morality that everyone must bow down to. You cannot say that everyone can make their own version of good and evil and then attack those who do “evil.” Sure you can say that you have feelings that certain things are morally beyond reproach. That is very good. I am just saying that worldviews that say that everyone has their own truth cannot create an intellectual framework where “your truth” has a basis to be enforced on those who disagree, as ugly as the disagreement is.

Next, the idea that Christianity can’t be as true as Jesus said, because then what would happen to all the people who never heard about Jesus, is a seeming contradiction that too can be explained. I think Ravi Zacharias gives an phenomenal explanation of this here, as does William Lane Craig. Dr. Michael Brown and Todd Wagner give great ones as well. As far as my words, I think this kind of a false view leaves a lot unconsidered. I think I’ll address three parts of this: first the idea that those before Jesus are all damned, second the idea that those who never hear of Jesus are equally damned, and lastly, that a view on the truth of Christ creates violent evil evangelism like that of how the white man treated the Native Americans, and that the singularity of truth in regard to God is too ugly and creates too many historical and moral monstrosities to be plausible.

It is categorically, demonstrably false that all those who were alive before Christ were damned to hell because they never heard of His name. I think the easiest evidence of this is Enoch from the Old Testament of the Bible. Enoch was taken up to heaven before He died, and he was alive before the time of Noah, Moses, or Jesus (Hebrews 11:5 (NIV)). The Bible says that he pleased God and was taken up to heaven without dying. He did this before Jesus was born. Therefore, not only can we guard against contradictions in the words of Jesus, but we also have a clear counterexample to saying that all those alive before Jesus went to hell. One down.

There is a plethora of evidence that many people are learning about God through visions and more, and that many people, before having heard about Jesus, not only worshiped a single one true God, but that they had knowledge that helps to reinforce the Gospel as well. One such book is, Eternity in Their Hearts. What a book it is. Combine what is in this book (and others like it) with what I just said about Enoch, and the entire objection of God being unjust by sending those before Jesus or all those who never heard of Jesus to hell is totally destroyed. God will do that which is right. He is more just than you or I (Job 34:12 NIV). If He treated those before Christ justly, surely He can treat those who never heard of Christ justly (Jeremiah 9:24 NIV) (Genesis 18:25 NIV).

Also, Eternity in their Hearts talks about Melchizedek, who was mentioned in the Bible. He called God by a different name (El Elyon) than Abraham did, received a tithe from Abraham, and blessed Abraham! He was the King of Salem, a place that archaeologists tell us was in or near Canaan, and that from the language of Melchizedek’s name and the words he used, it very strongly appears he was a Canaanite! Here we have someone who is hailed as a priest of God who not only came before Jesus but also in a different line than Abraham’s descendants whom God promised would be a blessing to the world (Genesis 22:18 NIV)! Paul says that he was a priest not based on his ancestry, but on his indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16-17 NIV)! Talk about giving a credence and blessing to all people on earth! Eternity in their hearts shows much promising evidence that the gospel isn’t a mean-spirited, violent replacement of the cultures of people, but rather a fulfillment of their culture, and a gift beyond their wildest dreams (it also explains situations where this seems not to be the case with shocking new insights)! It gives great evidence that provision was given to everyone regardless to where or when they were born.

Eternity in Their Hearts covers many ancient civilizations that worshiped a one true God that had striking characteristics in common with Yahweh! The names of God in some of these cultures included Shang Ti, Viracocha, Thakur Jiu, and many others. Many of these people were in remote places far away from the Israelites! Also, many of them had a remembrance of the creation of two people who originally ate something they weren’t supposed to, and many recalled a world-wide flood. If these things only happened around four thousand years earlier (as can be taken from the Bible), then it would make sense for people to remember these details! I can’t wait to look into Wilhelm Schmidt more, who apparently wrote eleven volumes worth of anthropological evidence of this “native monotheism” throughout the world. I will definitely keep you posted after I find and read his German books on the subject! Also, for another look at a similar topic, check out this book! It is awesome beyond words. I read it and I am still recovering from what I read. Also, the idea of Christianity being false because so many Christians teach different things can be explained as well. It has to do with us relying on our own brains and not on the actual tangible guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we relied on the Holy Spirit, we could then fulfill 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NIV).

Personally, I cannot believe that Atheists still come up with the following objection. It is so obviously false and contradictory, that I can’t believe that it hasn’t been abandoned in search of stronger arguments. It is very crazy. Anyone who thinks that violence is called for in the New Testament obviously has not read the New Testament with an open mind and a heart that is not hard. Also there is no way Christians can justify violence today with the Bible and the understanding of the New Testament. It simply can’t be done. Therefore the idea that violence today in the name of Jesus proves the Bible is wrong and that it leads believers to commit violence is crazy. The only logical conclusion to make is that “followers” of Christ who murder people relentlessly, are departing from God’s will in doing so.

Lastly, I will talk about miracles. I won’t go into too much detail, but to say that it is crazy to believe in miracles is equally contradictory to what was written in the last paragraph. Life coming from non-life (not that I agree that it happened spontaneously all by itself) by all terms of probability is a miracle. The universe had to have had a non-material first cause outside of time; the materialistic theories of how the universe began obviously mathematically contradict. Therefore, another miracle stares us straight in the face. Also, to say that miracles never happen is to claim infinite knowledge about all of reality. This argument simply cannot be made and painfully contradicts. I think the contradiction becomes more painful in proportion to how much insisting on it is mixed with extremely angry immovable conviction. Personally, I think when one mixes obvious philosophical contradictions with extremely angry conviction, a certain psychological tendency becomes hinted at in infinite spades…denial.

My Experiences

Can you believe that I finally finished the section on research and analyzation of claims?! If the answer is “no,” then I agree with you! Anyway, I finally made it (and so did you by reading this, congratulations)!

In many other places I talk briefly about my experiences of God in general terms. If you would like to read more of a general overview, please check out this crazy awesome post I wrote. Here (in this post) I will mention a lot more of the exact exciting details, experiences, prophecies, and occurrences. I am so excited, let’s go!

So I have to start at the beginning and then work my way through to some of the really exciting experiences. I’ll skip some of my early experiences (maybe I’ll touch on them at the end of this post). I’ll start with the more tangible experiences that I’ve had, starting with the baptism (maybe one before) that I spoke of a little bit in the article I mentioned in the last paragraph. I’ll mention a little more of the detail here.

Quickly as a side note before I go on, I want to highlight two very important concepts both in this section and Christianity as a whole. Whatever supernatural experiences one may have there are two important things to remember. The first is love. Below I will talk about this in more depth, but the love of God is unbelievable to those who experience it, something that could not be imagined ahead of time. I have learned that this love is really to be one of if not the main theme of supernatural experiences. It has the power to transform the world. Many Muslims that come to Christ from dreams, do it because of the love they feel in their dreams from Him, something that doesn’t make sense for them to imagine given their worldview.

Second, one would wonder how to get miracles and supernatural occurrences to be greater in power and scope. There is a lot to say about growing faith, and this is a complicated topic (I have started reading this book about it which I like), but I think that one of the main concepts here is that the closer we are to God (remembering that grace [his supernatural empowerment] makes us holy not our own striving apart from God), the more powerful miracles become. This is like saying that the result of an intimate relationship between a husband and wife is children, in the same way the result of an intimate relationship between man and God is miracles (I will share a link below that expands more on this). Let us seek to know Him first, and I am sure miracles will follow. I am headed on that journey, and I hope you will follow! Although, lastly, don’t constantly worry that you are not ever close enough to Him. You can just pray that He will help you be so, try your best, and relax and realize God is in control, He loves you and will help you, He can carry those burdens, we cannot. I will pick up on my experiences and story in the next paragraph.

If you want a full explanation of what went on and how I got here, I explain it all in my Christian Biography post. Here you can see a full explanation of my main journey in Christianity. In the next paragraph I will quickly summarize that post and after that I’ll give specific examples of what I experienced, most of which I didn’t include in my Christian biography post.

A lightning fast summary of my Christian Biography is that I first grew up in Colorado with a Baptist church without really knowing what was going on. I then moved at the age of ten. From ten to seventeen I never thought about the Bible partially because society doesn’t mention it much. I then read the Gospel of Christ when I was seventeen and freaked out at the words of Jesus; I couldn’t believe the wisdom and goodness in His words. I also started to sense the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit. I then continued my journey of learning everything I could in existence for the next four years. After these years I started wondering about the miracles in the Bible. I learned of The Last Reformation, Sid Roth’s Show, Pete Cabrera Jr, and much more. I was then baptized by someone who was part of The Last Reformation. What ensued was unbelievable.

This is really the beginning of my significant encounters of the Holy Spirit (at least that I was very consciously aware of). Before I cover what I supernaturally experienced after baptism, I will cover one thing that led up to it. I saw many people in the videos I watched speak in tongues. This is when the Holy Spirit inside a believer prays in an unknown language to God. It appears in scripture that there are different tongues, some are when no one understands what the Holy Spirit says, and other times, the Holy Spirit speaks in languages that the person speaking doesn’t know, but others around might! This might be perfect French used to tell things to a person next to you prophecies directly from the Holy Spirit! John Bevere tells a story of an occurrence like this.

So, after seeing these things but not yet the video of John Bevere, I was curious, and I prayed that the Holy Spirit would pray in tongues through me. A little bit of something came out. It was weird and I didn’t know what initially to think of it. I just put it on hold. I then got baptized and when that happened, I started to experience so much more. As a quick side-note, I have always studied psychology and tried to be the healthiest, most productive, and happiest kind of person possible, so I have an extra witness that this isn’t insanity which is the only naturalistic explanation for it. This is an experience that any sane person could have. As soon as I was baptized and came up out of the water, I started to experience many things that I at first did not understand. I understood much more later.

The first thing I felt was a giant presence of God similar to what I originally felt when I read the Bible, but it was much much bigger. I then noticed something really incredible. I felt as if water was coming out of my stomach and going through my esophagus and mouth, as if my mouth was a faucet. Fused inside this water were the tongues of the Holy Spirit. However, this wasn’t like my first experience where I had only a little bit of confused tongues. In this instance, the tongues were coming out faster than I could say a tongue twister. I was also not mentally strained at all, and there is evidence for this lack of mental strain. Speaking in tongues is like a total mental relaxation as the Holy Spirit prays through you. It was three months later that I realized what these tongues/water actually were.

To quickly finish up this evidence before sharing others, I later realized what this meant as I was sharing about my experiences with one of my friends three months later. I was reading something from John 7:38 (KJV) when I finally realized the connection of what it said to what I experienced. Here is what the scripture says (Jesus’ words), “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” I noticed in other ways that in many places it seems God will give us a revelation of something spiritually that reaffirms itself in the Bible.

I will cover a couple more experiences in some detail. I have however experienced way too much to put in this article, So I am sure I will put much more in thirstyforlivingwater.com as well as some books I will write in the future.

Next, I wanted to experience what the Bible calls “words of knowledge.” This is spoken of more or less (or at least in a similar way) in 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 (NIV). So I prayed to the Holy Spirit with a lot of questions, very many of which I got answers to, and I wanted to tell people things that I heard from Him that I could not have known, so that they would say in a similar way, “The true God is really among you!”

At first the messages I received were either circumstances, the physical guidance of the Holy Spirit, feeling His feelings in mine, single words, dreams and visions, and sometimes many words or complete sentences, all accompanied by the presence of God that I grew to know. I also learned that when you start hearing the voice of God, you also will start hearing the voices of demons. Some people would just say I am crazy, but these situations are clearly witnessed in the Bible, a book that seemingly (according to some statistics) is taken seriously by a third of the world. I think those who violently attack all ideas of God, and all spiritual things have not taken a serious look at atheism. To everything I have ever encountered, Atheism is seemingly contradictory beyond repair to the highest degree of probability and in many ways very silly. We need to start talking about the idea that our intellectual resting place of atheism is just as ridiculous as many of the ridiculous claims of many other worldviews.

Anyway, I started receiving messages, realizations, and answers to prayers that were crazy. Many people at my work after hearing of this wanted words of wisdom and started to have serious conversations with me about God. They took it seriously. As a quick side note, I heard many of these first prophetic voices in short words, vision, or phrases, and I know of others who hear God in paragraphs and see huge visions. I am not there yet, but that is where I am headed. I know that one of the most important things is to know God (talk to Him, etc), and that miracles are the offspring of a close relationship to God. Anyway, I’ll go back to the occurrences. I prayed about one of my friends. I had a vision of two people. One person who was a man (I forget the name I got let’s say it was Fred in this instance) who loved another man in a way that goes beyond friends and an woman named Mary who played with him as a baby. He was shocked and said that he had an uncle named “Fred” who “came out of the closet,” and a grandmother with a family nickname of Mary who would have played with him as a baby. I also had a very high probability of the visions I saw being accurate as I was learning to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit.

I prayed for another person at my work and I saw a pumpkin and a hockey stick. She was very shocked and said that her sister (I think it was her sister) died right near Halloween and that her sister’s son had his first hockey game that day. When I prayed for another young woman at my work I saw a vision of her playing with her son in a giant cardboard box. He had darker hair of a certain length. I asked her if this meant anything to her, and she said, “Yes!” She said that she loved playing with her son in cardboard boxes. I said, “They are really big boxes right, like big enough for him to be completely covered in right?” She said yes, and when I saw her son later, his hair matched what I saw in the vision. I have many of these stories, but I’ll end with one more before finishing this section with a couple more observations. I was friends with someone in New York City, and we would pray and talk together. One day when I was driving home, I prayed to God what I should pray for her. He said the word, “sentence.” I saw her a couple of days later and asked her if that meant anything to her. She was taken by surprise and said yes! She said that she was in an acting class and that a sentence or a few of them were giving her trouble because she didn’t think they were OK to say, and she wanted help.

I’ll leave you in this section with a few other things. When I heard God’s voice initially, I recognized certain characteristics about it (he can speak in different ways when saying words). I recognized them as being outside of my own thoughts, and many times they were off beat with my thoughts, as if the thought came out of absolutely nowhere. Also, I felt he would light up or grow dark within me according to what he liked or disliked, which I think may very well be similar to what Paul wrote in Romans 8:16 (NIV). Also, I won’t going into detail now, but as I study psychology and observe people, I see the book of Proverbs and the truths in the scriptures manifest themselves in reality to me in a way that is shocking.

After quickly saying that I think that cessationism is unable to be defended, I have two last occurrences to share (even though I have so much more to say that I’ll share in the future)! This first, which I will share right here has MONUMENTAL importance. When I first, listened to the audio book Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby, I heard Him mention the term God’s will a ton on times. At first I thought he almost presented it in a way that made it sound like we would be robots, and I returned the book shortly after. This was before I was baptized. About eight months after I was baptized, I as praying to the Holy Spirit, when something awesome happened. As a quick background, I learned earlier that He would also guide me with His presence and it would seem that He would light up with joy when He agreed with something I said, or He would darken when I asked Him if something was OK and He would say no. I think it also has to do with John 10:1-6 NIV and learning to discern His voice from other voices, of which I am sure I will write about more later.

Here is the first occurrence. I was praying to the Holy Spirit and I said something to Him that I think He agreed with so much (this happened to me once before but not with the same insight) that He flooded me with a giant amount of His presence and love. I analyzed what it was like and I couldn’t believe it. I wrote a sort of poem about it. I need to get better at poetry (I want to write like one of my favorite poets who wrote this poem), but I still think what I have to share is pretty cool. I might make it into a much more awesome poem in the future, but I think it is worthwhile to share what I have now. Trust me, you won’t want to miss this one. When I think of God’s will, I think of this poem representing what I experienced, something beyond the word awesome:

I was praying non-stop for a couple days a little while after I was baptized. I also did this for hours while I was driving in the car. I had a lot of questions for God and I wanted to make sure that my life was going in the right direction and that his will for my life would be fulfilled. After all of this praying, I felt like my face was shining (and I had no reason to expect or imagine this ahead of time). This is significant, because Moses experienced this after spending a lot of time with God – Exodus 34:29-35 (NIV). I then walked into a store (to buy some organic raw milk) and a woman immediately came up to me and said, “You have such a presence about you!”

God is so amazing and perfect. I am so glad, that out of everything I have considered, studied, and experienced (studies that I set out on without a prior commitment to anything but truth), I found so far to astronomical amounts of probability, logical consistency, and experiential relevance that everything bears witness of Him. Hallelujah!

My Claim

I plan for the human and experiential evidence I spoke of before to cement the claim I make now. The claim to which I have already traveled so far down these roads for. The claim that the living, breathing, loving, unknown to many, powerful, wise, and misunderstood person of Jesus Christ is God, that He is the truth, that His word is true, that His love and power is waiting to be unleashed with those who believe, that the lies about Him and His word are just that, that the perversion of His name is just that, and that every human being that is willfully separated from intimately knowing His as their infinitely loving, living creator through conversational prayer and otherwise is separated from Him based on lies and false extrapolations that must be destroyed and damned to hell.

He isn’t a character in a fiction book. He is a real spiritual being, the undisputed king of the spirit world, the creator of the universe, who is waiting, yearning to spend time with you to talk to you and to fill you up with His love. This way, you can be best prepared to store up treasures for eternity, and after being transformed by His love and power, be the answer to the world. A love and power that is not known by a world who doesn’t believe the Holy Spirit is alive, speaking, and acting.

Thirsty to get started?

Would you like a chance to go after what I speak of here? Feel free to try out some of the following resources!

Lastly, if you are ready for the following and want to dive right in, I would say not only to talk to God if you want (He would love to hear from you), but also feel free to pray a prayer, that you pray for His help, supernatural empowerment (also known as grace), and lead to completely turn from and repent from evil (so that we can choose what is right, not what is wrong, and choose Him for eternity, not the alternative), that you believe in Him, His words, and what he did on the cross, that you accept Him as the Lord and perfect authority over your life, and that you pray to know Him, to experience Him, to talk to Him, to understand His beautiful and perfectly fulfilling will and identity for you, and to abide by His will.

Don’t be afraid! He is better than you could possibly think, and does not do any wrong by those who love Him and trust in Him. I am almost certain that you are unable to grasp just how reasonable, beautiful, inviting, supportive, and loving his will truly is. I was shocked how much the Holy Spirit supported me and the things I worked hard at after I was baptized! He doesn’t destroy freedom and happiness, he increases it without bounds! We are told the lie that being bad is fun and that holiness and innocence are restrictive and boring (innocence also allegedly means to not harm others when you go back to the ancient Latin [nocere and innocente])! God gives us freedom from evil, whose only fruit is death and destruction, with at best the short and very false illusion of something good. Take the leap of faith! You definitely will not regret it! This is however a hard journey, especially in today’s world, but I hope to help! Also, definitely be patient! God is working even when it doesn’t seem like He is!

Of course, I will definitely give you the advice that my father first gave me. That is to simply read the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Bible, which includes the books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. After I first read through the gospel, I then read through the New Testament, and lastly through the Old Testament. I think this is the easiest way to understand the Bible.

If you are super excited, after reading the Gospel and have already prayed the prayer I wrote out two paragraphs ago, then feel free to read through and then pray the following sentences in this next paragraph. These are some of the most powerful prayers I know to pray (also, you don’t suddenly become a robot by asking for God’s will, you become the best version of yourself)! Also, if you would like, feel free to read the prayer before praying it! That way you can pray it not just simply repeating my words, but with all your heart and mind!

Dear Lord God, I pray that my life would be a complete expression of nothing but your perfect, beautiful, and amazing will. I pray to know you as best as I can know you and to please you as best as I can please you. I pray to finish the race and to receive the full reward, and I pray that for everyone else who wants it and who You would want me to pray it for. I pray that you would make it impossible for me to sin. I pray that you would teach me everything you want me to know. I pray that you make me perfect with your supernatural empowerment and grace, and fill me up so much with your spirit and love that no evil can make a dent in my heart. I pray that you would give me peace beyond understanding and that you never let me be separated from you. I pray that my heart would love what you love and hate what you hate. I pray that you would help to teach me who I am in you and to never give me more spiritual power than I am ready for in terms of holiness and intimacy with you. I pray that you teach me to have a perfect conscience in grace and power not in earthly wisdom, and to help save all souls. I pray that the bride of Christ would become one in unity and that we would all be a powerful expression of your love. I pray Lord God, that you would never let me be fooled by the evil one and that you would help me when I am struggling in this world, and to be strong enough to overcome everything I need to. I pray Holy Spirit to be as close to you as possible, and to talk to you, and experience you and your guidance each and every day. I pray that you would fill me with living water in my inner most being and to help me to always be refreshed in Your love and to always have my feet washed, just like the disciples, so that this world and its negative forces never overcome the love that you shed abroad in my heart. Thank you so much for everything you have done and how much you have and will love me. I pray to be a beacon of your love in this world and that you would never let me hold unforgiveness or hard feelings towards another. I pray that you make it impossible for me to fail and enter into perdition, and I pray that you pull on my arm if you ever would like to spend more time with me than I am giving you. I also pray that after I am transformed to your image and love, that I overflow with power and grace. I pray to flow in the grace, and power, and gifts of the Holy Spirit that I am ready for at the moment I am in as I continue to grow into a full mustard plant. Thank you, Abba Father. I finish by saying,

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Conclusion

No matter who you are, and what you think, I welcome you to stay tuned to the incredibly awesome content that will go through my websites. I have no previous commitment to any ideology or claim in a way that supersedes truth. I simply will to search after the concretely true and the awesome. Even if you do not completely agree with my sentiments here, you can still of course enjoy so many of the awesome things going through my many websites! I spent basically a decade searching for the most awesome things in this world (I just happen to think that Jesus is the most awesome!). I definitely have a lot to share to try to improve many parts of this world. Thank you so much for stopping by to visit and read!

God bless,