I Have to Know if God is Real

By Bruce Williams and Alta Ada Williams

The book contains seven chapters. The first chapter gives an introduction for analyzing ones thoughts. Thoughts come from a variety of places. They come into the mind from both our inner man, the spirit; and from our flesh. Thoughts are prompted by external information coming from our physical senses. 

Man is a hybrid of two people in

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lititz Institute Publishing Division
• Release date: Nov 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781732286993

Bruce Williams

Bruce was born and raised in eastern Kentucky. The Williams family was Roman Catholic. Bruce grew up as an altar boy and felt the calling to become a priest at an early age. Turning away from the Church and God as a young adult, he sought to become someone in the world. Politics, business, and education became more important than God.While in college a philosophy professor posed the philosopher Pascal’s Wager. “Is it better to believe in God and there not be one or to not believe and there be one?” A few years later Bruce answered that question and found God.Bruce has been a businessman, and a Minister of the Christian Gospel serving as Pastor, Evangelist, and student of the Bible. He has traveled overseas many times to Ukraine, Russia, Mexico, and India to spread the Gospel.Bruce and his wife Nina Swartzwelder, a Christian writer, have raised ten children who are all grown today. Both Nina and Bruce have published Christian books and articles for many years.

Book preview

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I Have to Know

if God is

Real

Bruce Williams

with

Alta Ada Williams

I Have to Know

If God is

Real

Bruce Williams

with

Alta Ada Williams

Lititz Institute Publishing Division

©2019 by Bruce and Alta Ada Williams

Published by Lititz Institute Publishing Division

PO Box 3310, Sequim WA 98382

www.lititzinstitute.org

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book; except for brief quotations.

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition November 2019

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Williams, R. Bruce

I Have to Know if God is Real Richard Bruce Williams

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-7322869-9-3 (ebook)

1. How to find God

2. How to determine Truth

3. Man is a hybrid of spirit and flesh

4. Taking Thoughts Captive

5. How to acquire the Second Birth

6. The Spiritual Realm

All Scripture quotations are taken from The Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible, or The New King James Bible

Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the understanding that the Holy Spirit has given to Alta Ada and me over many years, I could not have contemplated this book. Faith has to be fulfilled by a personal interaction with the deity worshipped; otherwise faith is placed in sociocultural expectations. The reader will find out how to have that personal meeting with the God who authored the Bible. The information is for people of all faiths. If one follows the text, he or she shall come to the foot of the cross, and will receive the Second Birth into the entirely different Spiritual Realm; where none of the laws of science hold.

I give great thanks to Alta Ada, my wife. We have walked together for many years. Together we grew closer to God; loving Him and feeling His love for us. I thank God for sharing Alta Ada with me for many joyful years. I thank Alta Ada for her sacrificial love for me.

I thank my long-standing friends, Dr. Ken Sarkies, his wife Sue, and his son, Tim. Ken was instrumental in my search for God; seeing the huge change in him over the course of the summer in which God gave him the Second Birth. While far apart geographically, we have remained united in spirit.

Preface

This book describes the Biblical basis for how one comes into a personal relationship with God, the author of the Bible. Through reading the text, and performing the suggestions, any person should be able to communicate with God; talking to him, and listening to Him.

Four biblical themes are developed in the book.

1. The hybrid nature of mankind: two people in one body; spiritual and natural.

2. The existence of two realms: the natural and the spiritual; and how one interacts with each.

3. The structure of the inner man, and how this spirit functions.

4. Taking thoughts captive: the mechanism to relate to God and to follow His wishes; and one of the mechanisms for spiritual maturity.

November 25, 2019

Sequim, WA

Introduction

Chapter One

Is God real? An often-asked question. It will be helpful to be quiet. As one contemplates this material there will be spiritual realm angels, evil spirits, and God Himself, observing and taking an interest in the outcome. We too have a spirit, and through our spirit are connected to this spiritual realm. This allows us to communicate within this realm, with variable effectiveness. In selecting what to discuss, I have assumed those reading have minimal if any knowledge of God, the Bible, or the spiritual realm. Even if someone has had limited experiences with contacting this realm through various kinds of fortune telling, tea leaf reading, and Ouija boards; he or she will have only been given mis-information, and will have been deceived.

My goal is to reveal God’s plan for each of us throughout this age and the ages to come. We will find that God is transactional; He tells us what level He will bless us in the ages to come. The blessing is based on our actively seeking His salvation; a free gift, followed by how much we will work with Him to be conformed to a similar character, and abilities, as His only natural son, the Lord Jesus Christ has. It has to be transactional, otherwise God would have to use favoritism, which He will not. We are adopted via a new birth into the spiritual realm. As one is conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, he or she will increase in creativity, spiritual realm power for implementing creative projects, unconditional love for others, and a desire to work together toward common goals. For God’s plan for this age to succeed in one’s life, it is necessary to understand that each of us was created to be a specific individual, made in the image of God. Due to the sin of Adam and Eve, we are no longer born in the image of God; but in the image of Adam. We are born in a state of sin which separates us from God forever, unless we accept His free gift of salvation. There are only two destinations after death, Heaven with God, or the Lake of Fire with Satan and the evil angels. Unless we actively accept God’s salvation at some point before our death, then we will end up in the Lake of Fire, conformed to the personality and attributes of Satan. The degree to which we are conformed to the image of Satan will determine our everlasting destination within the Lake of Fire. Satan has no creativity, no truth, relatively little power, and no love. We will have none of these attributes either. There is little sense of community, all being self-focused spirits. All of this should be clear by the end of the book; I know it is new to many.

We need to be able to focus and concentrate in order to contemplate the subject, and examine our thoughts. We do not want anything to do, at all, with performing chants, mantras, or other self-hypnotic activities; in these we will be duped by evil spirits. We actually want the opposite; where our mind is very focused, and contemplating every bit of information in our thoughts. We want to be very alert. It will be helpful if one has a Bible to read the wider context of the inserted Scriptures; the New King James Version is the best pick for most of us. I shall quote from it or the original Authorized King James Version; there are good reasons for these choices, and I shall give those later.

I will declare the truth that I have come to know using a conversational tone, and show that we have always had this same truth inside; and how one can know the reality of Christ in us; the hope of Glory. I will elaborate upon any new terms as we talk. In this chapter we will look at some foundational issues and terms which anyone seeking God has to understand.

There will be seven chapters. In each I shall answer common questions that people have asked. The sixth chapter will discuss how one can determine the truth of the content in this book; and the last will show the path forward for those interested in living with God in the eternal ages to come. I shall not deal with comparing religions. There is only one true and living God; I was blessed to come to know Him through seeking truth, with no assumptions from prior experience about who He might be.

To find out if God is real, and if He is real, then what He is like, takes time. God tries during each person’s life to draw them into a relationship with Him. He probably does this more than once; or maybe just starts over where He left off. Since we usually cannot see God, or hear Him with our natural realm eyes and ears, we need to be looking for something else. In coming to know about God, and to know God, two vastly different tasks, one needs time to sit down and meditate (contemplate) on the information. People become interested in God for as many reasons as there are people. God created people to become mature spiritual children of His, relating as family members. There are inbuilt features in us that make us want to know Him; we have to make sure we do not get decoyed to finding a false god; for there is only one true and living God. I shall suggest, in various places, that one empathizes with God, pondering how he or she would have accomplished making a creation, and administering it. This is a good way to find answers to questions troubling us.

Reading the Bible can be challenging at first. One problem is there are many seeming conflicts with sometimes apparently polar opposite statements. The Bible is still the world’s best-selling book; and the most widely distributed. Google world’s best-selling book, or similar. There are many places in the Bible where one can find almost polar opposite statements. An example below shows this, regarding things which are possible for God.

Matthew 19:23–26 ²³ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. ²⁵ When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? ²⁶ But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

Hebrews 6:4 ⁴ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.

Mark 9:23 ²³ Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Hebrews 6:18 ¹⁸ That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.

Here we have four statements regarding what is possible with men and with God, and that God cannot lie; seemingly there is conflict. It seems all things are possible and yet not all are possible for God, and for men. Usually such conflicts can be resolved by understanding the point the writer is trying to make at that point in the narrative; one cannot keep anything short and still cover all of the possible implications of any statement. As one grows in Biblical knowledge; which will only occur when one also grows in a personal relationship with God; the statements above are quite readily understood with no inconsistency. The Bible has multiple purposes, and is written to be valid for all ages, and all people. I have become absolutely convinced that in it I shall find the answer; or the pathway to finding the answer, to every question I will ever have. Infrequently that answer will be that this information is not going to be revealed in this age.

Personal Narrative

Over the last forty-seven years, gradually regretfully, I have been able to open my heart to God; the author of the Bible. He has now become to me as real as any person I have known. He is found through both our spiritual realm and our natural realm senses; we are all born with these spiritual realm senses, although in a weak or atrophied state. They have to be awakened. I can chat with God for as long as I wish, at any time, about trivia, and about important issues; it is different to speaking with a person. He is always available to talk. The ability to converse regularly was something that only developed recently; and was quite disconcerting initially. I am still becoming used to it.

One lady I met recently plays solitaire with Him. I am not quite sure that I am ready for that interaction, but I tell this to share the beauty of the scene. She lives alone, is elderly, frail, and has had very many emotional hardships. This is the preferred temperament of God, who wrote the Bible scriptures. He is loving, kind, gentle, and patient; but He can become angry if sufficiently provoked; and then it is a fearful thing to be under His wrath. He has much the same set of emotions we have. When He becomes angry it is short-lived, and only with much sustained provocation. We will become angry sometimes with little or no provocation; when we are tired, fatigued, give way to impatience, and when our pride is threatened. God’s anger is only to judge violated righteousness, ours is usually not righteous. God allows us to be angry for righteous causes, telling us to be angry, but sin not. Righteousness is a state of being morally right, or virtuous. To avoid being judged by God as not worthy to be with Him in the eternal state; Heaven, we need to be in a state of righteousness before Him. We shall discuss how later. We will review conditions to expect in both heaven and hell; they are nothing like the cartoon caricatures, being much better and much worse respectively.

The richness and joy of life with God is not learnable theoretically; it can only be understood experientially. One has to walk with Him in many situations. God will teach us how to overcome and defeat evil spirits, who war with us from the moment we are birthed until we die, with some periods of rest. Even with war on the outside (in our body), we will find how to be at peace, with joy, on the inside (in our spirit).

The need for scripture references

I am going to use a lot of Scripture references throughout this book. If I were physically present, we would look in a Bible together. The reason for the Scripture, in addition to conversing, is that the Word of God is alive, and it very intelligently interacts with our spirit and soul as a sword.

Hebrews 4:12 ¹² For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It penetrates deeply and reaches into our spirit, heart, and mind; it is actually God speaking to us as we read. He can speak with all of us much more penetratingly than any person can. The actual mechanism by which He does this is understandable. God knows every thought all people have had, are having, and will have.

Isaiah 66:18 ¹⁸ For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

God uses His knowledge of our thoughts only to teach us, assist us, mature us, and in love.

Jeremiah 29:11 ¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

The devil, Satan, and his army of evil spirits also know, or come very close to knowing our thoughts; they use this knowledge only to harm us.

I am often asked about the divine inspiration of the Bible, and people