How revelation works:
I was trying to be flexible, but my mind was being stretched out of shape. Some days I would doubt the voice. It was, after all, in my head and talked a lot like me. But I was told,
My words are coming to you for a reason. Do not worry that it (My voice) sounds like you.
It is bound to sound like you (and to use) your vocabulary, your concepts. That is how revelation works. But notice that what you are now writing is completely different from what you believed prior to prayer—so different, much of it is profoundly uncomfortable and disturbing to you.
“Well, then, it is not just my own thoughts projected through Your voice.”
As you press ahead and pray more, and read reverentially and in conversation with Me, more revelations will come to you, and you will doubt less. Just relax, and put yourself in My hands.
But being reassured by the very voice I was doubting seemed circular. How can you tell whether a message is really from God? Without mentioning my personal story, I sought advice from a philosopher I knew at Calvin College. Did he know of any writings about how to tell if an answer received in prayer is really from God. I learned that my question had an official name, the Problem of Spiritual Discernment, and that indeed it had been addressed. Now I would get to the bottom of it.
God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher – is the true story of a philosopher’s conversations with God. Dr. Jerry L. Martin, a lifelong agnostic. Dr. Martin served as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Colorado philosophy department, is the founding chairman of the Theology Without Walls group at AAR, and editor of Theology Without Walls: The Transreligious Imperative. Dr. Martin’s work has prepared him to become a serious reporter of God’s narrative, experiences, evolution, and autobiography. In addition to scholarly publications, Dr. Martin has testified before Congress on educational policy. He has appeared on “World News Tonight,” and other television news programs.
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Listen to this on God: An Autobiography, The Podcast– the dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.
He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.