I’ve been asked this question many times, in many places—hospitals, trains, cafes, homes, clinics, kitchens ——by people like Marie, a twenty-year old alcoholic, who captured my heart in a clinic in Bavaria.
Emotionally scarred from severe early abuse and deprivation, Marie never let anyone hold her. Until one day…when she sat in my arms while I’m on the floor talking about my God experiences with a group of woman who wanted to hear why I knew there was a God. When I finish, Marie looks up at me with wide eyes and says, “I felt something come from you to me when you were talking, Judy. Was it God?”
Later, she gave me a picture she had painted: hands held a heart containing light.
Grieving mother
Sometimes questions are not asked, but sensed. One lady was Nora. She told me about her son who’d committed suicide as a patient in the clinic she’d sent him to. Now, she suffered deeply. As we spoke together, I could feel her unasked questions: Is there a God who cares? Can he heal my broken heart?
I told her a bit about my experiences with God, then prayed with her. As I prayed, peace flooded her face. The next day, with her eyes filled with light, she was telling other patients what God had just done for her.
Loss of Mother, Father, Brother
At the request of her therapist, I met with a young woman in her twenties. Recently she’d lost both her parents from cancer, and now her brother was dying of cancer too. “How can there be a God,” she asked through an interpreter. And through the interpreter, I shared with her the love and power of God. I told her of a God who could make sense out of tragedy, who had comforted and sustained me when our son died.
And most of all I told her of Jesus. I told her why He is so important; He is the only one who had defeated death; He alone has resurrection life and bring us out of our caves of darkness and despair. Through the interpreter she prayed with me to receive God’s Son into heart. I had the joy of seeing the darkness leave her eyes and the light turn on.
Sex-aholic receives revelation of Jesus
A young man had come from the northern part of Germany to attend a reunion of former patients at the clinic. He attended my Bible Study that evening. I read Romans 6:4-9 and someone translated. Suddenly this man broke into tears and wept with joy. “Now, I see”, he said, “Jesus has truly done it. Not only have I died with Jesus, but I’ve been resurrected with Jesus.”
Then he shared his problem, he was a sex-aholic. I gulped, who was sitting beside me, I wondered? But this man was being set free from the guilt and bondage; he’d had a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Question: 90% of adults who report that they have been in the presence of something larger than themselves have never told another person of their experience (Andrew Greely). If you have experienced God in your life, have you ever told anyone about it?