God is supposed to talk back after three days of isolation

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To be a pain in the ass.

Are you sure? There should be no voice at all, because the whole point is writing.

and well, seeings as you are the one writing back, meh, can't be bothered trying to make sense, brain is fuzzy tonight!

and LOL @ Misslizard PitA

I used to pray and then just listen. I assume the people writing are hearing a voice in return. I could literally ddo what they are doing with the pen but I don't see his it would be different.

yeah, that's kind just normal prayer isn't it.

Try this, follow the process, do the writing like it says. What do you have to lose?
A few hours, no money and use up some paper.

I've been going to churches since I was eight, few different varieties, have tried quite a few different ways to pray.

Despite that, and hearing about other people having religious experiences, I never had one until I started doing this.

Still didn't have any bold flashy lights or anything, but I'm pretty grateful.

It's used by lots of twelve steppers addicts like me too.

And like an archbishop I used to know said, there is a lot more spirituality in the groups that meet in church basements than the buildings above!

I didn't know anything about them in those days though.

Today it makes more sense to me, cos we need to depend on our connection with a higher power to stay alive, not just for our after-life.

meh, if you're looking for a connection, try it.

Blessings anyhow!

I believe it is always possible to hear God speaking. Three days isolation, fasting, praying, etc., will work if your mind and heart are open to the experience.

What does NOT work is praying, fasting, isolating thinking somehow that will magically invoke God’s presence on any other terms than His own. We imagine ourselves to be mystic conjurers, that we can bend God to our will. God is omnipresent and omniscient. You don’t have to torture yourself to “make” God show up and listen—He’s already there. What you need is to clear any distractions and allow yourself to hear what has already been said.

K thanks for the encouragement. I just had a dream where I was taking a bottle of milk from the window of a massive church building and then trying to put it back. The building was abandoned and locked up and i think I was about to open it.

I think the milk is to give a time frame. Milk goes bad in about two weeks, so I assume its saying that I'll be working in a Christian job within two weeks.

If i am working within two weeks then I would say I'm hearing from God in dreams

Why can’t God just tell you that you will be working in two weeks?

It seems kind of silly of God to speak in dreams/riddles that could be misunderstood or misinterpreted.

Actually it was misunderstood, I just found two milk bottles outside of an abandoned house in real life
So it was just a prediction of that.
I'm really keen to hear from God but keep being mislead.

In the bible it says God speaks in riddles to everyone but Moses, I don't know why!

I do have a prophet friend who keeps telling me I'm going to do some work related to Christianity, I'm really keen on doing something so that's another reason I jump the gun

Well, God spoke to everyone in riddles except to Moses because Moses was the only man at the time who was capable of understanding. The truth is God didn’t actually speak in riddles.

In our day in time, it’s highly “unscientific” to invoke God for anything because “no evidence.” But as soon as you quote evidence related to something God has done, the “science” crowd will stop up their ears and cry that’s not evidence. There’s little point in trying to prove God if a mind isn’t willing to accept any proof at all. For the Christian, there are no riddles. To the rest of the world, there’s nothing but riddles and myth.

As far as a Christian job goes, here’s my experience: when I first moved to the Mississippi Delta, I had a strong feeling—overwhelming—that I should go to a certain church. After 2 years, I accepted a staff position, which I held for nearly 15 years. The last 5 years I was there I was hired by a Catholic Church to run a school band.

Long story short, I accepted a different job in another town during COVID, and a few months later quit my church gig for another one. The way that came about was I’d had occasional days off when I visited a church closer to home. I didn’t know that the pianist in that church had died of COVID and by coincidence I was there the week after her funeral. I put in for the job and was hired on the spot (I was allowed a couple of weeks to settle things up with my former church).

That was the last two years. Then I felt called to quit my teaching job and look elsewhere. I ended up living closer to my mother, which is GOOD because she’s in poor health right now, not to mention there’s all kinds of drama with my stepfather. I quit my church gig mid-summer so they could quickly find a replacement. As it turns out, a friend of mine had just moved to the area, and both he and his wife were looking for a church gig. Idk if it worked out, but I felt it was best to get out of their way.

But due to circumstances, I am now both without a job and without a church. I don’t feel God calling me anywhere. I just feel…empty. And I’m not used to that. So I sat down with my wife, prayed, talked it over, and we decided if God wasn’t leading us to any one church, we’d just attend them all!

One church is very much a touchy-feely, rock-n-roll, contemporary style place. I actually like it, they have a lot to offer. But there’s no place for me there. Then we visited one called Berea. The pastor has been there for some decades and the congregation is pretty much just this one family. Next we visited my aunt’s church, which really impressed us. But there’s no big flashing sign that says God wants us there. There’s not even a small, still voice. So we’ll try something different next Sunday. What signs there are seem to point us in the direction of getting to know people and not settle on a single home right now. A time will come when we do settle and I have a church job. But for the time being, this is where we are.

Maybe you’re being called to explore and meet people rather than worrying about a job. The last thing I’m going to converse with people right now is about getting a job with these tiny churches. God will let us know when it’s right. I don’t imagine your situation is the same as ours, but it could be worth thinking in that direction—to go, to explore, to minister to people because people are important to you rather than because you want a job. Just think it over.

I would love to see evidence that’s not anecdotal or that can’t be proof of something else.

I guess it might all be anecdotal as faith plays a role.

Thanks angelrho for that, good to hear your experiences.
I'm in a similar spot to you but its been going on for four years. I go from church to church, I think sometimes I've found my home but no. I also went to a church that was a bit rock n roll and couldn't find a place there either.

Evidence depends on having a rational mind capable of perceiving it as being evidence. The presence of sin prevents the mind from being rational. Without faith that a perfect, all-knowing mind can reveal truth to a mind trapped in sin, there can be no knowledge in the truest sense. Evidence abounds that we have a Creator. There’s just no point in trying to explain it unless a mind is open to accepting it on faith. Can things be explained any other way? Not really. But the mind clouded by sin nature will always insist otherwise.

My experiences are just that: Mine. But I never discount the possibility someone else might be on a similar journey. Seems like you’ve been there longer than I have in this context. I know from experience it’s going to work out.

I’ve never been to seminary, which is part of why getting and keeping a good church job escapes me. I’m considering the possibility that I’m being called into an evangelical role rather than staying put. Where I come from, churches put too much stock in a minister’s qualifications rather than ability. So our pulpits are filled with Pharisaic academics that don’t really connect with their flock. They expect that from their worship leaders too. And in my experience, seminaries crank out a lot of church leaders more concerned with building résumés than real ministry. I understand that rigorous theology is important, but I tend to question the real value of diplomas in relation to other areas of ministry. I’ve known churches to prefer candidates based on a piece of paper rather than character, and it’s disastrous in the end.

As an example, I worked under a young WL who turned his job into self-promotion of himself and his wife. A couple of years ago he got caught in a scandal (after leaving our church) misusing a church credit card. One of the perks at our church was going to conferences paid for by the church. He and his wife would hop from one espresso bar to another and I’d rarely see him. When we go the news he’d been fired from his new gig, my wife and I weren’t shocked at all. We wondered why it took so long for anyone to notice. I only didn’t say anything when I worked for him because it would have been seen as “gossip” and landed me in hot water.

So it that’s what seminaries are churning out, I don’t want any part of it. The right church isn’t going to be concerned about my qualifications (I happen to have a master’s degree in music, btw). They’ll just want to know whether I can do the job and love the people I serve.

That’s all that really matters. If you’ve been wandering for four years, perhaps what you really need is to focus on your own personal ministry and build your own flock independent of an already-established church. I’ve been part of a church planting team for a few weeks back in high school, and if I were in a position to do it again, I’d try it out longer term. It’s hard to get anything that pays money for something like that, but it’s often worth it.

If evidence requires faith to be accepted, then it’s not good evidence.

I have no problem with faith, but I think that decent evidence should speak for itself.

The problem is ALL evidence depends on faith. You have to assume (circular reasoning) that evidence says what it says, or proves what it proves.

For example: the sky is blue.
Evidence: direct observation

This fails because one must assume that the senses are reliable.

Or you could observe the chemical makeup of the sky and say the sky is blue because ozone, but now all your explanations fall under the same circularity that “sky==blue.”

Trying to prove God using evidence to someone who refuses to believe God exists is like trying to prove to a blind person that the sky is blue. It’s not so much that a blind person lacks a concept of blueness. It’s that the blind person lacks a concept of sky. The blind person can’t use evidence of “blue” and “sky.” What the blind person needs is someone who is trustworthy enough to reveal those concepts. That requires assuming those things are reliable and correct based on her faith that her person is reliable and correct.

That’s what faith is. There is no knowledge of anything in the world without it.

I do not have "faith" that there is a God or gods, or spirits, or whatever.