what is divine grace? has any one experienced it?
342430
The words of the old Hymn writer John Newton put it better than I could expain it:\n\nAMAZING GRACE\n\nAmazing grace! How sweet the sound\nThat saved a wretch like me!\nI once was lost, but now am found;\nWas blind, but now I see.\n\n'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,\nAnd grace my fears relieved;\nHow precious did that grace appear\nThe hour I first believed.\n\nThrough many dangers, toils and snares,\nI have already come;\n'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,\nAnd grace will lead me home.\n\nThe Lord has promised good to me,\nHis word my hope secures;\nHe will my shield and portion be,\nAs long as life endures.\n\nYea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,\nAnd mortal life shall cease,\nI shall possess, within the veil,\nA life of joy and peace.\n\nThe world shall soon dissolve like snow,\nThe sun refuse to shine;\nBut God, who called me here below,\nShall be forever mine.\n\nWhen we've been there ten thousand years,\nBright shining as the sun,\nWe've no less days to sing God's praise\nThan when we'd first begun.
37102
I agree.  I have a multi-handicapped daughter who was transported to heaven in a dream.  She saw lions and lambs.  children,  Bright blue sky (but no sun) all kinds of trees growing side by side.  and a Man, walking with her.  yea,  i believe that this is a vision of heaven.
1015747
Your additional detail is interesting, and if I read that right, it poses the question that can our own spirit can control the force of nature?  I've heard about this phenomenon being an eastern philosophy, but is lost on the western world.  To furthur explain this, there is an idea floating around that western society has lost a certain mode of prayer, a prayer in which we pray of events of circumstances in a state of mind suggesting they have already occurred.  In other words, instead of praying for rain, pray in a way that you visualize that rain has already happened, and it will happen.  \n  That might of been way off topic as your original question dealt with wiccan religion, as I do not know if anything I have said previously can tie into that.  If you'd like to learn more about how this lost mode of prayer, and how it also physically affects even the tiniest particles around us, check out this link:  http://www.greggbraden.com/lost_mode.php3
1044178
I do experience true joy and peace...every day of my life. \n\nIt is your judgement that I live a lifestyle of immorality and darkness. It is my judgement that you live a life full of fear and ignorance. Who can say who is truly right? No one. That is a question that we can only answer for ourselves. \n\nI experience true joy and peace because I allow myself to simply be. I am a lesbian, a sister, a daughter, a student, a friend, a partner...I am many things and I allow myself to experience them to the fullest. I do not find myself full of immorality and darkness because I experience real and meaningful love...and isn't love the opposite of darkness?\n\nI appreciate the fact that you asked your question in this fashion. You were not derogatory or hateful. Thank you for that. I only wish you could accept this...that your god, my god (or my version, I guess...we all have  different version) would not creat something that wasn't good, wasn't needful for this world. Think about that for a minute. \n\nBlessed be
1023241
my favorite way to experience God is through a thunderstorm.. seeing that awesome power manifested in lightning and ground shaking thunder is so sweet.. sometimes just quieting my mind and listening to the nature around me and watching the breeze when i'm outside really make me feel at peace.. give it a shot :)\n\np.s. also quieting your thoughts when you pray to Him.. not letting your other thoughts distract you as you commune with Him.. that really makes a difference in my opinion
185361
Hope this helps: http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=ush-sbc-cityguides&p=divine+intervention
729408
I've heard of this, but don't know of 1st-hand examples.\n\nthe best part? you get to explore spirituality on your own terms, yet within a solidly self-responsible framework. It's quite beautiful and liberating.
633555
Yes, I have. Once when I was really upset I was talking to God and I felt someone hug me and I knew it was God. The inner pain I was feeling left and I felt much better.
873380
The adjective divine means \nHaving the nature of or being a deity. \nOf, relating to, emanating from, or being the expression of a deity: sought divine guidance through meditation. \nBeing in the service or worship of a deity; sacred. \nSuperhuman; godlike. \n\nSupremely good or beautiful; magnificent: a divine performance of the concerto. \nExtremely pleasant; delightful: had a divine time at the ball. \nHeavenly; perfect. \n\n"To divine" is to foretell or predict.\n\ns
913468
I never saw one but I felt one.\n\nSeveral years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away. \n\nWhile driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.\n\nThree days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to. \n\nI feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.\nDuring the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible. \n\nI can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.\n\n I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings. \n\nYour brother don
273404
You know, I just listened to a recording by Kishori Amonkar, a Hindustani singer, and it was one of her really good ones that just takes the soul to another level.  For a moment, I honestly felt like I was experiencing the most amazing thing.  Let me try to explain it:  Basically, it was like I had here on this recording proof that "humans" exist!  Try to imagine what it would be like to have a recording of gods or angels singing, and it was proof that those entities really did exist.  Imagine how you'd feel.  That's how I felt when I heard this singing.  It was like I was being priveleged to listen to something absolutely amazing and unbelievable.  It was like, wow, they actually DO exist!  Here they are, human beings, singing to God.  They are really there.\n\nOk, this is almost impossible for me to explain, and I'm sure I didn't do a good job.  But my point is that we think there are apsaras or angels whose job it is to sing to God, and in reality, we know that humans exist who do this very thing.  So humans are astounding.  We should remember to appreciate this.  Humans are absolutely amazing when you think about it afresh.
194122
I feel a little arrogant answering this question-- God has given me the gift of grace so all things I do are solely by his power... I feel the most memorable thing I have done is buy a young woman a bus ticket, she wasn't asking for it, she was trying to negotiate with the greyhound guy how to get a ticket to get home, her's was stolen, I was blessed enough to have just enough money in my wallet to buy her some help getting home, she cried\nIt was just paying forward all the things god and my family and friends and even strangers have done for me
518462
I have have many experiences like this, it's difficult to focus on one or two. I really wish I had more time to think about these things in the midst of a busy life, so thank you for asking this question.\n\nI had a near death experience, which made me more sure that there is something there after death. I saw a light, and found myself travelling towards it, and could hear the voices of loved ones who had died. Just as I seemed to arrive at a beautiful garden, it was as if I started travelling rapidly back again to the here and now - it wasn't my time yet.\n\nMeditation is a spiritual experience for me. So it prayer, although I don't belong to any organised religious group. And sometimes just walking in a beautiful place, or even sitting for a few minutes in a sunny garden. Or looking into the eyes of someone you love. Or sometimes a dream will take you to a spiritual place.I believe these are all spiritual experiences and they are available to us all, whenever we are open to them.
337518
My rebellious story......I was Catholic for about 35 years and had trouble in believing that an all loving god would condemn people to hell for what he determined to be indiscretions.  \nShoot...I love to master bate, have pre marital sex with men and women and sometimes a freak fest or two with a couple of friends of mine.  So I guess I was going down to the fiery brimstone pit.\nThe clincher for me was that I was signing up my kids for another year of CCD classes and they told me I had to pay $150 for the classes (which is about double what it should be) because I didn't use the "envelope system" every week, even though I was a registered member of the church and would throw in $1 or two when I would have it.\nI took the CCD applications and ripped them up into tiny pieces and threw one right at the lady and the other one I threw up in the air so it landed in a million pieces all over the floor.\nI've been a practicing eclectic witch, but lately I've been leaning more towards Hinduism and spirituality with a little bit of quantum physics
181326
Honestly?  No.  I have had a wonderful anointing most especially when I first received the Holy Spirit.  When this happened I was of course a believer, but I was not convinced that this whole 'baptism in the Spirit' thing was for real.  I've heard all the arguments against and hadn't heard many for, so was quite skeptical.  But the Lord knows what He is doing and arranged for me to receive of Him in a unique environment.  It was a private little Bible study and the participants were people from 'colorful' backgrounds.  Some would let a bad word slip from time to time, some smoked; how could these people minister the Lord to anybody?\n\nMy pastor had scheduled a speaker to come preach on the 'Filling of the Holy Spirit' and it just so happened without my asking or knowing anything of it, that he was scheduled to speak a week and a half after I'd been at that Bible study and had been encouraged to receive the Holy Spirit.  They'd laid hands on me and began to pray in tongues as well as English and being convinced that nothing was happening I began to get very concerned that they were full of Hooey.\n\nThen the guest speaker came to our church and preached every night for most of a week and had people come forward to receive the Spirit and not the same thing happened but it was similar.  So I began to doubt my church and pastor were on the right track.  But the last night that guest speaker spoke, he said the most common sense thing I've ever heard a  preacher say, "If you're not sure if you've received the Holy Spirit, or that this isn't real, just ask God to confirm it, or deny it."  God is faithful and He will make what is good and right your desire.  And He makes what is bad and wrong undesirable, but this only happens by spending time with Him.  \n\nWell, that made so much sense, I couldn't refute it.  So, I went home and began to pray for confirmation if it was of Him, and if it wasn't to put me in a church where I could be encouraged to seek Him in the right ways.  I prayed for a couple of hours and when I was frustrated at the lack of an answer, I got up and began to study the Bible. (it had become such a habit by that time I didn't know what else to do)  But when I opened the Bible, the first verse my eyes fell on were illumined, not literally but mentally my mind was opened to understand many ways this verse applies.  As an individual, it applies to me personally in my freedom and responsibility, as a man it applies to my role in society, as a head of household it applies to my leadership roles, as a worker and so on to the leaders of nations.  The order and simplicity placed such a peace in my heart and the knowledge that this was designed by the only true God, a God who loves each and everyone of us personally...  I was speechless, yet crying for joy, and laughing at the difficulty I'd had with understanding His order.  I had my confirmation!  \n\nIt wasn't until many months later that I understood why God wanted me to receive from those smoking and cussing Christians.  He wanted me to know that if He can use them to minister to me, He can use me to minister to others, because I too am an imperfect Christian.  After all, God used a donkey in the Old Testament to talk to one of His people.\n\nBack to your question, I've seen others receive the Spirit in such a powerful way as to be laying on the floor receiving a spiritually healing work from the Lord, still others have told me of the mighty rushing wind, and one more told me of a cleansing fire, but I have not felt the 'electric shock.'
611509
I have had near-mystical experiences (in addition to intellectual reasons) that have contributed to my commitment to God (through what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross).\n\nI have also had a hundred or more prayers answered by The Christian God (by his kindness and Grace).\n\nI used to be an atheist. Over a period of time however, I grew convinced of the existence of the Christian God, and ultimately committed my life to Christ. \n\nFor a draft-version of my journey from atheism to Christ, see http://www.godsci.org/gs/chri/testimony/seek.html\n\nThe near-mystical experiences are described at the link above (if you are interested).\n\nCordially,\nJohn
522168
to realise and have the presence of GOD within.Once when i was feeling very down, I just thought abt god.Though the feeling wasn't instant, i cud feel divine presence and my  prob was diminished.Tc and gd luck in life.