I can think of no better way to explain it than the fact that I too had to ignore what my brain was telling me in deference to what my heart wanted to be true.

Thanks for letting me know I am not alone.

I would say that if you step back and look at the wider picture, a perfectly plausible explanation is already available.

This is, of course, the only rational position for you to have if you have not directly experienced it yourself.

However, given the specificity of many offerings (where not talking Jesus is Lord brochures), the immediacy of the offerings (the first person I run into at a mall after asking in my car) and the uncanny regularity (several times a month) that these things happen to me I cannot have that opinion.

See, I’m not talking about a “short enough time period”, in many cases I mean the shortest possible time period.

(i) there’s a lot of people walking around saying stuff like “Here, God want me to give you this” (and myriad other variations. I have had people say something broadly like this to me dozens of times), when handing out religious or otherwise inspirational literature.

(ii) there’s also lots of people that pray in silence and solitude. Millions every day.

Given that, the number of people to which something like (ii) happens, and then something like (i) happens within a short enough time period that they’d be able to draw a connection will be quite large.

There’s no denying that this kind of event could have a large effect on many people, particularly one that is searching for answers.

There are in fact scientific explanations for why people find this kind of event as convincing as they do.

Jews, Muslims and Christians all ultimately believe in the same one God.
I don’t care much about the denominations of faith because I think they only occur out of our human weakness. In fact, I believe in a broader universal church.

BTW, I was not raised in a faith. I was a practicing Buddhist before I became a Christian and have studied a multitude of religions in a more-or-less “scholarly” way. So, my faith is not “right” because I was born into it. But, I do see that kind of position for many people who don’t care to know their faith very deeply.

While I understand you second paragraph and can at least empathize with your decision. I do need to ask, did you ever consider posing your concerns and questions to someone that was deeply involved in the faith, that was well studied and seemed to live the life of Christ out if front of you?

Here is why I ask. I have had experiences that science will never be able to explain in a fundamentally believable way (sort of like the origin of the conscious and consciousness). I have prayed in silence and solitude then, the very next moment I was in public, had people walk up to me and literally say. “Here, God told me to give this to you. You asked for it and He wants you to have it.”

Now, I know you could and should never accept that as anything but my story. That kind of thing can never come close to being proof for anyone but the person that it happens (often) to. My question is this. If that kind of thing happened to you what would you think?

I whole-heartedly disagree with Martin Luther.

It was the moment I finally admitted out loud (though I was the only person present) that I really no longer had any belief at all. Given that I had been calling myself agnostic for a while before then, that might not seem like much cause for relief, but it was amazing how much relief I felt at the time. It was like a weight that I had never realized I had been carrying was suddenly lifted from me!