EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS – IS THERE A GOD?

This question came to my mind again this morning as I sang a worship song which was to the effect that God was the Lamb seated upon the throne and the only One who deserved praise and worship. As I sang that song, these questions came –

What if it all turns out to be a lie?

What if this whole God thing; the trinity and all the works was all just a product of an over-active imagination?

What if you die today and it turns out that there was no God, there was no heaven and there was no hell and it was all one big lie?

These are questions I often times find myself asking. And I know some people will say “oh my goodness GG are you backsliding?” LOL. Christian folks sometimes! (rolls eyes).

Now as the above questions cross my mind, an answer is given to it in the form of a reminder of what happened to me yesterday. It still feels something unreal. So yesterday morning I woke up from a very strange dream. In my dream, there was a friend of mine who I will call A, who had betrayed me with another friend who I will call B. Now I am estranged from both friends. I wrote B off because there was no remorse and I still have misgivings about her not just as a friend but as a person generally. Now A on the other hand I am trying to mend fences with and she’s shown some remorse by trying to reach out. Okay back to the dream. In that dream I had a date with A to just catch up on life; you know girl talk and all. So I got to our date venue and waited and waited and she did not show up. I even ordered while waiting and she did not show up so I decided to pack a doggy pack for the food. On my way out, guess who walked in? Friend A. But she was not alone – she was with ex-friend B. Now get this, she does not as much as offer an apology or even act as though we were supposed to be hanging out. She simply greeted me and walked in with ex-friend B. So I bid them both a good time and left. And then I woke up from the dream. I pondered over the dream asking myself what it could all mean. It left me all puzzled and confused especially because I had no thoughts about ex-friend B and the actions of friend A in that dream were repulsive. Anyway I pushed the puzzling questions to the back of my mind and went about my normal day. During the course of the day I met friend A in town and she reminded me that we had arranged to link up later on in the evening to catch up and the works. I had completely forgotten about that. So I was excited because it was the second weekend in a row we were meeting up so it looks like this friendship may be restored a lot faster than I thought right. Then comes evening and she did not show up. I even went to the place of our meeting because I did not think she would not show up. Half an hour into the scheduled time she sends a message that she could not make it so I left. And get this, she had no apologies for standing me up. I do not know if she was meeting up with ex-friend B or just genuinely could not make it. But as I left, I don’t know why, the dream I had in the morning jolted back into my memory. The only difference between my dream and the reality is I did not see this friend. But it was too surreal to ignore. And the Holyspirit in that moment says to me – “that dream was a warning to you to be careful of this friend because she is not as she seems; you could only get the message when the reality of it played out in front of you”. But the reality and the dream seemed so alike. It was the first time in a long while I had had a dream play out in reality in almost identical fashion as I had it.

How is the above experience an answer to the earlier questions I posed? Here’s the answer. If God was the result of an over-active imagination, then those people would definitely have amazing super powers to be able to create and bring to pass all the experiences I have had as a Christian. Those people who imagined Christianity would have to have such far-reaching powers and abilities to recreate in my mind the outworkings and results I have seen as a Christian. They would somehow know what to create and how to create them. That person would somehow know that I was meeting a friend yesterday and put a dream in my head to warn me about it. And then they would somehow have such powers to come into my mind and later tell me the things the Holy Spirit said to me yesterday. And I doubt very much that anyone on earth has powers and abilities of the sort.

Have I seen God? No I have not. But do I doubt the existence of God? Yes I have had my doubts. Yes I have had my questions. But none of those doubts and questions have ever led me to stop believing in His existence. It is in those moments of doubt and questions that He brings to my remembrance experiences that I have had; inexplicable and supernatural experiences that I have had to convince me more than ever before that the God I serve is a very real God. It is my experiences in life and my various encounters that reinforces my belief in the One and Only living true God that I serve. And I’ll share a few of those. To me those were mind-boggling experiences. If you don’t also find them mind-boggling I can’t help you lol.

The first encounter I’ll share relates to my post-graduate study. When I got to my fourth year of study I got a tad worried about what my future held since law school was coming to an end in a year’s time. That Voice in my head as the atheists would call it said to me “I think it’s time to start considering your post-graduate studies.” Sounded like a good plan so I decided to start looking up universities. That same Voice said to me “United Kingdom and Ivy League.” Who would quarrel with that right hahaha. So I went through Oxford University’s website and the same Voice said “Nope not this one”. Went to Cambridge University and He said “yup definitely this one”. I searched through the colleges and He said “Queens”. Did I get admitted into Cambridge and specifically into Queens’ college? I think you know the answer to that question but to put it beyond doubt. Yes I did. Did I pay to go to Queens’ College Cambridge? Nope. I did  not pay a cent. My study visa and school fees were all covered by the scholarship just like the Voice in my head had promised. Oh and that is the other thing I failed to mention; perhaps should have started with. When my dad passed away when I was 12 years old, one of the pastors in my church at the time told my mum to say “God is the Father of the fatherless and the Husband to the widows. Do not worry God will take care of your children.” And since then until today, God has been taking care of me and my siblings. He is the coolest Dad. My parents only gave me a hundred Pounds to leave for my Masters because I told them not to bother themselves as God has already taken care of everything. And He did.

Second encounter. As my Masters study was coming to an end I was broke; did not have enough petty cash to come back home with. So I prayed and asked God to please make some provision for me. The lady I was dealing with at the scholarship body wrote to me asking if I’d written a thesis because my thesis grant was still with them. So I told her that I did not write a thesis or term paper but if they wanted to still give me the cash I would not stop them. And she said to me that if that was the case then I could not get the money as it was mainly reserved for those who wrote a thesis so I said ah well no problem, that is understandable. But guess what, two days later she wrote back and said her superior had asked that they create an exception and give me the cash since in any event I did write an exam and bought textbooks and the likes. Does that sound like Divine providence to you? No? Well it sounds like that to me.

Third encounter. Still while studying for my Masters, I wanted to stay on and do my PhD. That same Voice said to me, it’s time to go home. I need you to get some things fixed on back home. I did not understand what. Oh and my efforts to get into the PhD failed too. But since I came home, I’ve seen and understand why He wanted me to come back.

Finally, the fatal accident I had in September 2015 that nearly took my life. Two weeks before that accident, my mum had repeated dreams of my death. I also had dreams of harm coming to me. The Sunday before the Tuesday that the accident took place, I was being choked in my sleep by some unseen hand. I shouted the blood of Jesus and woke up. At church that Sunday we prayed against the spirit of death. But on Tuesday thereafter, the 15^th of September 2015, I had a fatal accident. I’ve earlier discussed the accident in an earlier post last year. You can read about it here – https://myfaithjourney2016.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/april/

When I woke up from that dream the same Voice said to me – “You should be dead but I stood up from My throne and said ‘no!’ I told the devil, you can’t have this one.” As I pondered through it all, the same Voice said to me “You’d done something earlier in the year. You know what it is. The devil came for his pound of flesh because you’d always stood against him and when you did what you did which was sin, you stepped into his territory. I could not create an exception for you but what I could do was to control the impact and extent of damage.” And that is precisely what happened. An accident that was meant to paralyze me, did not. The location of the accident, the timing of the accident, the helpers that came to the site, the hospital and literally everything was lined up perfectly and arranged. Like I look back at that accident and I think that was the biggest indication to me that God exists and He loves me. And yes I knew what God was referring to and I also in that moment understood the concept of God being a God of justice. I knew in that moment that that quality is one of the things that makes God God and that made me love Him all the more.

So do I believe God exists? Absolutely! I have seen enough and keep seeing enough in my own personal life to know for a fact that there is a very real God who can only be accessed through His Son Jesus Christ and who has made His Helper the Holy Spirit available to me and that He has a real purpose for my life

And finally God always asks me this question and tells me the following –

“you ask the question of what if at the end of it all, it turns out to be a lie right? But let’s ask the inverse of that question shall we. What if you come to the end of it all and it all turns out to be true? Then what? What if at the end of it all there is actually a heaven and a hell, then what? Who would have lost out by choosing not to believe? You have nothing to lose by believing even if it all turns out to be a lie. But you have everything to lose if you do not believe and at the end it all turns out to be true.”

And you see that is the thing. Living a godly life where you believe in the One True God and live by His precepts and principles costs nothing. On the contrary if all of humanity were to live that way, there will be no crime on earth. There will be no heart-ache and problems because God’s precepts and principles are really life-giving. So you stand to lose nothing at all. On the contrary you stand to live a longer more productive and fruitful life. And the bonus of reality in heaven. But let’s assume for a moment that that bonus wasn’t real, would it change the benefits you would have derived in living according to His precepts? I do not think so.

I think the worst thing that can happen to anyone is coming to the end of life and realising they made a mistake not believing in and following Christ. It will be the worst thing to toil and suffer here on earth and continue the same in all of eternity. The difference is this – if there is an eternity, that would be much more longer than the present thing we call life. Can you imagine suffering for a period longer than you can ever fathom or imagine. One stands to lose nothing to believing in and following Christ but everything to lose if one does not believe and follow only for Christ to be the real deal at the end.