Armando V. Munoz

S.C.F. Ministries, Youth Outreach

July 13, 2014

God is Real

To the young people Called and Chosen of God to be the People of God:  to carry His Light into the Kingdom of Darkness and plunder the treasures of the evil one.  Your experience is your mission.  Yet, you are in need of the basic assurance of the reality of God and His Kingdom.  I have agreed to answer your questions and the one most pressing is, “How do you know God is real?”  Through God’s grace and mercy and the power of His Spirit we can bring this seemingly transcendent truth into a tangible reality so that all doubt can be removed.

First, please join me in prayer because the Bible says that the devil or the god of this world blinds the minds of unbelievers so that they will not believe the Gospel and be saved (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).  Seeing that you may have doubts about God’s very existence, if in fact you do have such doubts, God is proven true and real in that your mind has been blinded at least to a degree.  This proves 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 is true.  Let us pray:  Dear Lord, I pray right now that the enemy would be bound and that each one listening/reading would have the veil removed so that today they might see you, feel you, and sense your presence as a present reality.  I know you exist and that you are a rewarderof those who believe you exist and who diligently seek you (Hebrews 11:6).  According to the truth of this Scripture, I am seeking your grace in this area for the hearers of this message.  Thank you Father for hearing me again.  Amen.

Now, many people say, “I prayed and God did not answer my prayer.”  Well to this specific position the answer is easy.  The Bible is clear.  No one can see the Kingdom of God which is God’s rule and reign (evidence of God’s existence) unless they are born again (John 3:3).  Moreover, if you have been born again, it is accompanied by a transformed life as the proof (2 Corinthians 5:17).  So, by your refusal to repent, it is clear that God was under no obligation to answer your prayers (1 John 3:22-23; James 4:3; Isaiah 1:15-20).  He tells us clearly in 1 John 3:22-23 that if we obey His commands and do those things that are pleasing in His sight, whatever we ask in prayer will be answered.  Then He defines His commands as we should believe in His son and love one another.  The things that are pleasing in His sight are those good works that flow from a right relationship with God.  So if we come asking for things selfishly (James 4:3) and fail to repent from the heart (1 Corinthians 6:9-10), we are not truly seeking God (Hebrews 11:6) and His will for our lives (1 John 5:14).  As such, God is under no obligation to hear or answer our prayers (Psalm 66:18).  As a matter of fact, Isaiah tells that He does not hear our prayers because our sins have separated us from God (Isaiah 1:15).  So because we have not repented and dealt with our sins by seeking deliverance through belief in the Name of Jesus Christ, our sins remain as evidence by our continued practice of sin (1 John 3:9).  Rather than convincing one that God does not exist, unanswered prayer for the unbeliever actually shows that God does exist because it validates His Word as truth.  For those prayers that God did answer was all mercy.  This also validates His word because He says in Exodus that He will have mercy on whomever He wants to have mercy (Exodus 33:19).  So then the grounds relied on by individuals who argue against the reality of God based on unanswered prayer is inadequate to support a position that God does not exist.

The next position I was asked to address is that of the one who read the Bible and yet declares that God did not do anything for them.  First of all, the Bible is full of things that God did for all of us.  He created an environment in which we can live.  He gave us the very right to choose to believe or not believe.  He will not make you choose Him.  You will either say to God, “Not my will, but your will” and as a result,enter into the Kingdom now and ultimately walk into heaven and live in His presence forever.  Or, God will say to you, “not my will, but your will.”  As He honors your decision, you will attempt to fulfill your own righteousness to no avail.  You will continue to grow worse and worse.  You will find no rest for your soul in this life or in the next.  You will grow all the wearier.  Why, because we were not created to bear the burden of sin, guilt, shame, and all of the burdens of the curse.  If you read the Bible, you will know this is true.  Moreover, He does not promise a blessing to those who read only, but to those who meditate on and practice the Word of God which also includes repentance and abstinence (Psalm 1).  At the end of this age, the person who has read will be accountable for what he/she has read, and if we insist on our own way and reject the only way to the Father, He will honor your decision and permit you to experience the consequences of your choices.  The Bible declares the final destination for such a one is the lake of fire that burns forever and ever.  This person will not be annihilated; they will experience every bit of suffering for eternity.  Please do not let this person be you; take the hand of the Lord today and walk with Him as He leads you into His everlasting presence where there is fullness of joy.  To the one who has read and did not practice the Truth, you know you have no right to the blessings of the reign of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:5).

Now, if you said there is no gold in the United States of America, it would require you to have absolute knowledge of the existence of every micro spec of all the soil content of all the earth in the United States.  You would have to have equivalent knowledge of every rock and stream in the United States.  You would have to have absolute knowledge of every person, every cubic inch of ground from coast to coast with a depth to the center of the earth to definitively say there is no gold in the United States.  You would also have to have knowledge of every individual residing whether legal or otherwise in the United States as well as what they personally possess.  You have to have absolute knowledge of every traveler passing through the United States as well as what possessions they are carrying.  Do you have such knowledge?  Similarly, to say that God does not exist you would have to have infinite knowledge about the universe in every dimension such as its length, height, width, depth, time, and any other dimensions necessary to make such a statement.  You would also have to have intimate knowledge of everything within those confines.  Do you have such knowledge?  Presuming with a rebuttable presumption your answer is no.  Then I can safely say, you cannot say with any certainty that God does not exist.

How do I know God exists?  The Bible says that God is Spirit (John 4:24).  Spirit in the Greek is the word pneuma.  It means wind or air.  Do you believe in air?  Do you believe in wind?  How do you know?  Have you ever seen air?  Wind?  No, yet you can feel it. You can see evidence that it is present when you see clouds moving across the sky.  When you see fallen trees, houses, or light poles, you know a wind storm may have been there.  You could feel the wind blowing, although you cannot see it with your eyes, but you can perceive its presence.  God is the same.  God’s reality can be proven by the things you see (Romans 1:20).  When you see certain things, you know God has been there.

When we look at creation or anything that exists, we know that someone or something created it.  You might argue that we were all an accident, “The Big Bang Theory.”  Yeah, okay!  That takes entirely too much faith.  This is what I believe is blind faith, under this theory we are expected to believe that a completely random and chaotic event (an explosion) that occurred because of an orderly process (all the elements necessary for an explosion and life were present) resulting in order throughout the universe (the solar system, our galaxy, our planet perfectly situated so as not to freeze or burn up), the world (self-contained in an ecological system with a multitude of symbiotically living organisms), and every form of life in it (plants, animals, insects, sea creatures).  This is simply too complex for such a proposition to be true.  If you doubt the existence of God, I doubt you have enough faith to believe in this unproven theory.

One creationist broke down the scientific odds of such an event actually occurring.  I do not recall the astronomical equation or the odds of it occurring once much less recurring (to be a fact it would require repeated tests with affirming results).  However, he compared it to placing a 747 jet in an airplane hanger,then deconstructing the airplane into single parts so that no two were joined together.  Then setting off a bomb in that airplane hangar with the doors shut expecting that when you opened the doors the plane would be put back together and be fully operational.  Just thinking of the precise torque required and other hyper-technical processes to put a car back together, I cannot conceive this to be remotely possible.  Without doubt, it takes too much faith for me to believe such a thing.  Creation with a creator is more likely, probable and clearly evident by the world we live in and everything that we can see with our eyes.

Everything we see in our life experiences has a creator.  This is not a theological idea it is a logical and reasonable fact.  When you see a soda can, you know someone made it.  When you see a cellular phone, you know someone made it.  When you see a painting, you know someone made it.  When you see a motorcycle on the highway, road, parked, or in a driveway, you know someone made it.  Why?  Well, there are several reasons.  First, there is a logo or an image that indicates on each item the identity of its creator.  Nike uses a Nike symbol.  Honda has a Honda symbol.  Each maker has a symbol that shows who the maker is.  Next, the greater the technology the more intelligent is its creator.  Now God is the giver of life so we see that everything that has life points to God as its creator.  Even Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).  We never look at anything and think it just simply appeared, everything has a creator.

God is the creator of everything as demonstrated in the creation account of Genesis (Genesis 1, 2).  The proof is that everything He says He created is in existence today; the Sun, the Moon, the stars, the animals, the sea, and people who were created in God’s image and likeness.  He even tells us about sin and how we fell (Genesis 3:1-14).  He tells us about Satan’s rebellion against God in the heavenlies (Isaiah 14:12-17; Revelation 12:709), and Adam and Eve’s rebellion which led to the state of the world we live in today (Genesis 3:16-19).  He tells us of His planned redemption from the beginning that He would send a Seed to pay for our sins and restore us to right relationship with God.  He confirmed it through Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3), and the patriarchs.  He brought new revelation that it come through the Tribe of Judah and would be through the Son of David (2 Samuel 7:12-13).  Then He came and fulfilled His word approximately 4000 years after His first prophecy (Genesis 3:15) and approximately 750 years after His prophecies in Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14; 11:1-5; 52:13-53:12; 61:1-3).  Faithful to His word He arrived bringing with Him the presence of the Kingdom of God declaring and demonstrating His authority over all of His creation (Matthew 1:1, John 21:25).  It was so significant that Time stopped and started over again because eternity had invaded time and space bringing and ushering in a new order.  It was the Kingdom order.  In His death, He defeated His enemies by paying the penalty for our sin, thereby,loosening us of the power of sin.  Then by rising and ascending to the Father, He demonstrated that He is God and our sins are forgiven as He paved the way for us to be reconciled back to the Father.  Death was finally defeated and He gives His everlasting life and power to overcome all our enemies through Him to all who would receive Him.

By accepting Him we become His children (John 1:12).  We become heirs of the Kingdom, i.e., the blessings of God’s reign in our lives.  We become part of the Body of Christ.  We become God’s people.  We become soldiers of God.  We become ambassadors for Christ.  We receive and are empowered by the Holy Spirit and can walk in unity with Him.  Now, we have a future that is eternal where all of God’s enemies will be defeated and we will be with God and all our fellow believers forever.  We no longer need to fear death because when the believer dies, he is immediately transported into the presence of the Lord.  Now God is inviting you to partake of His Kingdom presence and power.  We will still suffer in this world because we live in the enemy’s territory, but we will have victory all the way through Christ who dwells in us.  You now have a personal invitation.  All you must do is repent, accept, and declare Christ as Your Lord (Romans 10:9-10; Acts 3:19).

If any of you still have doubt, I give my own personal revelation of the reality of God.  I had been running from God for several years.  I heard the Word of God preached many times and even accepted Him as my Savior, but not my Lord.  I wanted fire insurance, as if there were such a thing.  However, on May 18, 1996 I ran right into Him.  I had exhausted all my sin and had become abhorrent before God.  I did not know, but I was a walking curse.  I was the epitome of evil.  I had received warnings through two events and finally from my mom.  She later told me that I was gone; it was as if I were no longer there.  She prayed not for God to protect me, but for me to be saved no matter what the cost.  Of course, I thought I had my whole life under control.  I ruled the world.  Within two months, I ended up in a situation where my life appeared to be in danger.  I was not afraid of dying; I wanted to be remembered young.  May 18, 1996 my day came, I was 25 just like I would have expected.  I was filled with an overwhelming fear.  I immediately understood that if I died I was going directly to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200, straight to hell!  My lifestyle was not one of giving life or showing mercy, but one of disregarding life and showing no mercy.  I began to cry out to God, but no answer.  I kept crying out, but no answer…  Time was pressing and God was not answering so I fought not to live, but to not go to hell.  As a result, I killed an innocent man and almost killed two others.  When fleeing the scene, I was losing blood because in the process I had been stabbed and now began to feel like I was losing consciousness.  I rolled the vehicle I was driving and immediately it felt as though I was no longer alive as we know life.  My hands were covered in blood and God was not responding to my cries.

When the unbeliever dies, he immediately goes to a place of misery and suffering until the final resurrection where final judgment and eternal damnation will result.  I believe that is exactly where I was.  I could not feel my body as if it was numb.  It was a soulishsuffering.  My mind and emotions were out of control.  My will was desire with no fulfillment.  I wanted out to no avail.  I felt agony and pain in my mind and heart.  I would hear all the people in my life at that time that I had caused to go to hell because I did not tell them the truth (the Gospel) instead with my lifestyle I preached a different gospel.  This would go on and on until I thought I would go insane.  Then it would stop and begin all over again.  I would call out to the Lord and beg and plead for one more chance, but then, I would hear myself reject all the chances I had in this world.  The Lord would say, “You had your chance, but you said ‘No!’ This is what you wanted.”  Finally I said, “I will do anything!”  Suddenly everything stopped and He said, “Anything?”  In the distance, I began to see a light drawing near and getting brighter as it did.  My first thought was “I am going to get even with the person…” and the light began to fade away along with the peace.  I said, “I cannot help how I think, You have to change how I think…”  He said, “Open your eyes.”  I was in the ambulance.  In time I began to understand the Word as I read the Bible and God transformed every part of me.  It is all real.  I promise you there is nothing that is not real.  Heaven is real.  Hell is real.  It is all real.  Do not be like me, one who must experience great suffering and hardship before surrendering to His Lordship.

The Bible says every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Lord.  The question remains then, will you do it on the day of final judgment when it comes with no reward?  When it is all done it will have become evident to all, and He will say, “Depart from me worker of iniquity, I never knew you.”  Or will you be one who surrenders now and allows His Lordship to manifest in your life whatever that may mean, and when all others are saying “Lord! Lord!”  He is turning to you and saying, “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into your rest…”  There are many depicted in the book of Revelation who will suffer and refuse to repent no matter what they go through, but for them the end will be worse than the whole of their suffering on earth.  For us in the family, it will never be worse than it is here, we cannot be threatened with heaven.  The Bible says when one sinner repents all of heaven rejoices.  Let us rejoice together.  In Jesus’ glorious Name!  For He is real!  Amen and Amen.