How do you know God is real?

Some basic questions: How do you know God is real?
Does God communicate with you?
Do you know God, and not just about God?

I think there are various levels of knowing.

I can look at creation and know God is real.
I can read His Word and know He is real.

But this type of knowing is by reason and explanation.

I know God is real because of His work on my life. He has changed me. That is experiential and cannot adequately be communicated.

A good comparison would be knowing a fire is hot because you saw people cooking on it and believed those who told you it is hot verses actually feeling the heat.

Good is real to me because…

1. Miraculous answers to prayer.
2. His gift to me of a gorgeous, godly, thoroughly Christian wife for 21 years, who wanted to marry me even though I was at rock bottom.
3. The Bible resonates in my heart as the true voice of God.
4. Holy Ghost hunches — inner advice that goes beyond what my intellect could achieve or my senses could perceive.
5. His frequent protection of me in very dangerous situations.
6. Evidence of the vast complex universe He created, that could not have spontaneously originated out of nothingness.

easternstar said:

Some basic questions: How do you know God is real?
Does God communicate with you?
Do you know God, and not just about God?

Click to expand...

I can only answer this personally. I can't speak for others. Here's how I know that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are real.

(A) This may sound weird, but ...... I taught science [life, earth, and physical] to junior high students for many years. I was already a Christian and the more I taught science, the firmer my faith became in the reality of God and all that the Bible teaches. There is too much order, too much beauty, too much unexplainable, too much overwhelmingly profound for there not to be the LORD in charge of it all.

(B) I believe what the Bible says - in faith - about everything. Parts, I have struggled with, had to dig really deep for understanding, and even some has put me to sleep. But, in faith, I believe it all to be the truth.

(C) Yes, God does speak to me. He chastises me, helps me greatly, reminds me, teaches me, loves me, and through the LITTLE things, God does these things.

(D) To know God, you and I must behave as if we are in a holy and divine relationship. We must talk to him, read his word, be obedient to it, love others as ourselves, give thanks to him, bring our burdens to him, and make this relationship the priority.

Thanks for all your replies so far, very good ones indeed. I have strongly believed all my life, but now in my senior years, I am struggling to keep my faith. I feel that God does not communicate with me. The Holy Spirit is supposed to be in me, but I feel nothing.

easternstar said:

Thanks for all your replies so far, very good ones indeed. I have strongly believed all my life, but now in my senior years, I am struggling to keep my faith. I feel that God does not communicate with me. The Holy Spirit is supposed to be in me, but I feel nothing.

Click to expand...

The Holy Spirit is not a feeling, but I know what you mean.

When my wife died a year ago, and my intense, ferocious faith failed to result in a miracle healing, my faith was damaged in an unexpected and dismal manner. I was a million percent sure she would be delivered because “by His stripes ye are healed”, etc. So I too struggle to maintain my faith in the midst of anguish, confusion, despair, loneliness, mourning, and grieving brain fog.

Just days before she took her last breath, my beloved wife declared “God is in control” — a constant theme in her Henry Blackaby training. I am disoriented, fearful, incompetent (she managed nearly all aspects of the home and our life together, while I coasted), and now even feel condemned by many Bible passages that I neglected to live up to.

But I feel God will honor my efforts to trust Him, in the midst of my excruciating emotional pain, and in spite of my hatred of being a widower and the devastating loss and nearly delirious depression.

easternstar said:

Thanks for all your replies so far, very good ones indeed. I have strongly believed all my life, but now in my senior years, I am struggling to keep my faith. I feel that God does not communicate with me. The Holy Spirit is supposed to be in me, but I feel nothing.

Click to expand...

Everybody on this board has had dry spells of feeling absolutely nothing. Thank goodness our faith is not about how much we "feel". Nothing wrong with feelings. God has feelings. He created feelings.

But feelings shouldn't take the lead. Belief/faith takes the lead.

It's like a train. The engine, the faith/belief car, pulls the train down the track and leads. The middle cars, our life, follows the engine - the faith.

Our feelings are the caboose. When led by the faith engine, feelings have no choice but to stay on the track and stay where they should.