>How did you differentiate a god talking to you, and you talking to you? What evidence to you have for that? How can others collaborate your story?
These are good questions, and I've been thinking about how best to respond.
For one, I believe in the God of the Christian Bible. There are various stories of God interacting with people. The most common interaction for me and the people around me is for God's Holy Spirit to influence others.
His Spirit can speak through other believers via wise words or gentle reassurance. I've had (in limited situations) felt emotions that I ascribe to God.
When I differentiate guidance from God vs myself or other humans, I typically look for highly unusual coincidences or specific applications. Here's an example that took place near the beginning of the pandemic.
My wife was praying and asking God who needed to feel His love. She was felt the importance of asking our elderly neighbors if they needed groceries (remember, this was early pandemic, when elderly were highly vulnerable, masks were unavailable, and there were runs on the grocery store). She brought them a handful of groceries and left them.
Several weeks later, the neighbor's adult children came from an Asian country. I was wrestling with an opportunity to serve at our church in a place where I would likely get exposed to the virus - and I was praying for guidance. The neighbor's daughter came by with "thank you gifts", which included KF94 masks (similar to N95). The masks were a reassurance that I could go in public and be safe.
I don't know for certain that God was orchestrating the interactions, but the timing was incredible and the application was specific and helpful.
Ok, but don't you think this argument is circular? You start off by believing in the bible and because it says stuff that you believe is happening to you, you believe what is happening to you is true. What reason do you have to believe what the bible says is true? You likely will say you believe the bible because it's from God? But why do you believe that? Perhaps the answer will be because the bible says so. Again circular.
I would say anyone who is looking to help out other people will definitely find the opportunity and mechanisms to help other people. Good for you that you want to help other people, I applaud you. But i'm sorry to say, but from the outside, your account seems incredibly normal.
