It escapes people that I am so weird--I only want to talk about Bible stuff--because it is real. Not just to me; the world the Bible is about is real to all of us whether any one of us likes it or not. THAT world is the constant; this world is the aberration. We were kicked out, remember? The spiritual realm of God, the Miltha, His Christ, and etc. in the Bible, is real fact. THIS world is fully subject to that one. The Bible explains this relationship, but I and my ilk do not believe the Bible because it is convincing, we believe it because we have found EXPERIENTIALLY that it is real. We are not philosophically convinced; we are victims of experience. We cannot not believe. I have used the illustration of being whupped up alongside the head with a two-by-four; nothing in the world is going to convince you that it didn't happen, that it wasn't real.
That world is real. My first conscious encounter with a demon convinced me of that. Because of that, and my best friend being healed of a horrendous migraine, I went to a church and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Nothing happened to me at that moment, but later when I asked for the gift of tongues and nothing happened, I was crushed. I entered a trance or dream state and my flippant prayer was flipped to a serious prayer, wherein I sincerely surrendered and submitted myself to God. Then, fully subjected to Him, He said (and I heard it), "Remember this, and it is all right." I was accepted! And my bowels felt the infilling of the Holy Ghost, Life, and the Holy Spirit spoke using my body in a tongue I didn't otherwise know. Although I was ecstatic, I just observed my mouth being used by another force completely independent of my control. "That world is the real one," I thought to myself. "THAT world is what is really going on."
In another trance or dream state at church I saw Jesus scourged and made to carry the cross until he went into shock. I was trying to trade places with him, for it was my sins he was dying for. My mind said, if it were you, you would only be dead, for the wages of sin is death. You owe God a complete life for the life He has give you. Only Jesus has no sin, so only he can pay your debt. I saw Jesus, his back torn up like hamburger, made to lie on the cross. His arm was pulled out and a stake placed to fix it to the cross. He turned his face to me and said, AUDIBLY IN MY MIND, "Come unto me." I HEARD it as I would hear any other voice, but it hadn't entered through either ear. It transcended from his spirit being to my physical being.
After hearing Jesus, I wanted to find out what else he had spoken to other men (and/or to women). I didn't qualify for any college, university, or seminary, yet somehow I got accepted to an experimental program at a Charismatic theology school (if you saw my high school record, you'd see the miracle). Among dozens prayed for at ne time by Charles Hunter, I WATCHED my shorter left arm grow out about five-eighths of an inch. Five-eighths of an inch isn't very long, but to WATCH my finger tips move out at the name of Jesus, well, I was whupped with that two-by-four again.
It is real, and because I KNOW it is real I believe the experiences of others of this ilk. I absolutely believe Dr. T. L. Osborn's experience of Jesus walking into his bedroom at six o'clock in the morning in the air. Just as I believe God speaking to the tribes of Israel from Mount Sinai (Exodus 20), or of His standing before Abraham at Mamre (see Genesis 17 and 18). For God is also the Milta, the Manifestation of Himself. Two of the same being(!), and as multitudes of the One. The Milta is becoming, and he is here, and THAT is what all of tis is about. THIS world is THAT world's project in process. IT is becoming; THAT is happening here.
Do you want to know if it is real? PRAY! Pray engaging sincerity, submit yourself to faith, not "If you are real," but believing He IS real. Praying to Him says, "I believe you are real" Believe He hears you. Be serious, humble, submissive. This isn't an ancient idea you are talking to, but the Sovereign Lord of the universe AND BEYOND. Be real, get real, because it IS real, and is as near as the attitude of your heart.
God's name, by the way, as I just wrote about in Exodus 3:14, is "I am here for you." "I am here for you," He says. "Come and call on Me."