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“God has Never Spoken to Me” – Our Quest for God and Pride of Self
The atheist can’t find God for the same reason that a thief can’t find a policeman.
~ Author Unknown
Frederick Buechner once delivered a sermon entitled, Message in the Stars. He suggested that were God to write “I Exist” in the sky every night in different colors and languages so that everyone in the world has the opportunity to see the magnificent display would that be enough proof of God? Many people around the world saw it but one young man who turns to his father and says, “What difference does that make?”
It illustrates that for us fallen, prideful humans even God writing in the sky, or walking in the garden with us is simply not enough IF we decide not to believe or rebel.
You and I throughout our lives choose not to hear what is true or important. We have all done it and sometimes our choices lead to sin, injury, or death. Selective hearing is an accurate assessment of our plight.
For several years now I have watched and enjoyed the varied discourse with some of the best and brightest minds in the world on the TV program “Closer to Truth.” Its creator and host is Robert Lawrence Kuhn who among his accomplishments is a public intellectual, international corporate strategist, and investment banker. He has a doctorate in neuroscience and is the author/editor of over 25 books. Yet he states over and over on the series that he has spent 40 years looking for God. Kuhn has been doing this program for over 20 years and despite exposure to the premier Gospel expositors of our day including absolute atheists, we must conclude that either Dr. Kuhn is a firm agnostic, or he has decided to keep his true feelings to himself.
1 Corinthians 2:4 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
Paul argues the case that true wisdom is not the “wisdom of the wise”, the “wisdom of this world,” or the “wisdom of men”. While this was the sort of “wisdom” of which the Greeks boasted, genuine wisdom (divine wisdom) is found in the gospel revelation that pertains to the mission and message of Jesus Christ. The person who ignores this body of truth is not wise; he is a fool.
The Lord’s call to sinful humanity, as made known through the gospel (2 Thes. 2:14), would not appeal to those who haughtily perceived themselves as wise, mighty, noble, etc. Considering man’s arrogance against the Creator, complete humility is requisite to becoming a Christian.
The “spiritual” person is one who is supernaturally indwelt with the Spirit, and thus is qualified to bring those “words” which the Holy Spirit is teaching him. Whereas the “natural” man is simply the one who does not have access to divine revelation. He relies upon the “wisdom of the world,” and therefore knows nothing of the “things of God.” He has no ability to “receive” the sacred truths that issue from the “mind of the Lord”.
The Lord’s choice, therefore, of seemingly “weak” and “foolish” things in the plan of redemption was by design; it was and is a test of our faith.
People prefer the praise of men to a relationship with God.
The kind of pride that God hates (Proverbs 8:13) and the kind of pride we can feel about a job well done (Galatians 6:4) is different from the kind of pride we express over the accomplishment of loved ones (2 Corinthians 7:4).
Douglas Murray is a best-selling author, award winning political and social commentator. He was raised in a Christian home but lost his faith in his late twenties. He however continues to embrace the positive influence of Christianity and the teachings of Jesus. He refers to himself as a “Christian atheist.”
Many Atheists have realized like Douglas that restricting arguments for God’s existence to the philosophical, theological, and historical disciplines severely limits the Christian witness. He also acknowledges the powerful religious experiences of his friends and acknowledges that in Africa and the Middle East encounters with the divine are not uncommon and are considered acceptable evidence for the existence of God.
I have included a 12 minute clip from the longer 1 hour interview. The long interview is available below.
Videos from Unbelievable?
If many of the brilliant Atheists actually studied Christianity and the Life/death/resurrection of Christ and understood that God has made an appearance many times in many ways; Walked in the Garden with Adam/Eve, Appeared as a Pillar of Fire to the Israelites, appeared on Mount Saini, the Tabernacle, Christ rose from the Dead and appeared many times to people. Over and over God has appeared to unrepentant men and with the same result – we won’t believe.
In the world as it is now, we must work at it and even then, it is the power of the person of the Holy Spirit that prepares our Human Spirit for Christ to indwell us. God is always speaking through what we see in the world around us, in the cosmos over our heads, in the miracle of our bodies and the fact of our BEING.
More directly God also continually speaks in a still small voice. God’s voice is unwavering in the world around us. You will not hear God’s still small voice on demand. You must intentionally be still and get away from the world’s distractions. Elijah was sent by the Spirit forty days into the wilderness to Mount Horeb to hear the "still small voice" of God and get guidance about the kings of Syria and Israel and about his successor Elisha (1 Kings).
Ironically, many atheists dismiss supernatural experience as inadequate evidence for the existence of God, yet they require a supernatural experience as the only thing that would change their mind. The very thing that they claim would change their beliefs is not even allowed into the conversation. So we see here a decision to NOT believe or allow room for belief.
“The real attitude of sin in the heart towards God is that of being without God; it is pride, the worship of myself, that is the great atheistic fact in human life.” Oswald Chambers
One of the most important things we can do on any given day is to fight through the fog, against Satan’s great deceptions, and get into of God’s word. Cultivating the daily habit of enjoying “time alone with God” in the Scriptures feeds our souls and gives us our bearings for the rough and tumble of everyday life, whatever your vocation and state of family, church, and community responsibilities.