Some people I have met claim that they have heard God speak to them audibly. One of these people, I believed. Here is the story:Re God and proof, since God is invisible and we can't hear him speak audibly , my question is aboutthe quality of the evidence that personally persuades each of us to believe in a God of the universe and a God who loves each of us individually.
A man, (I'll call him "Harley") and his brother were raised as atheists. I used to stay with Harley and his wife (a relative of mine) when I worked, as a young man of 19 and 20 in a particular town in North-Western Ontario. They were both fine people whom I liked a lot. I was impressed with their intense love for each other. The wife had been attending a Lutheran church. She knew I was attending a rather fervent Baptist church. After a while, she began attending my church, too. She became a Christian, and continued attending that church, bringing her children to Sunday School. Harley didn't object. He didn't think Sunday School could do his kids any harm. Sometimes Harley used to ask me questions about my beliefs, such as, "Do animals go to heaven, too?"
One day, much later, when I no longer stayed with them, Harley went to a pub with his brother (who was also an atheist, of course). They had just received their beer, when Harley heard a voice which said, "Harley, what are you doing? You shouldn't even be here." Harley looked up at his brother in surprise. "What did you say?"
"I didn't say anything."
"I thought I heard someone say something," Harley replied.
They began to sip their beer. As Harley lifted his eyes, everyone in the pub looked liked skeletons! Then Harley suddenly stood up and said to his brother, "I'm getting out of here!"
"Why? What's wrong?" his brother asked.
"God has spoken to me."
"What? Are you crazy? Well, I'm not going anywhere."
"I am," said Harley, and he got up and walked out.
His brother thought that something had gone wrong mentally with Harley, and so he went out after him to see that he got safely home.
After Harley, told his wife about the experience, she helped him to entrust himself to Christ, and that very night, he did so.
I had heard this account from someone else, but I wanted to hear it directly from Harley himself.
One day, Harley and his wife came to our house for a visit. I asked Harley about the matter, and he told it to me exactly as I had previously heard it. Then I said to him, "That must have been amazing! I have never heard God speak in an audible voice!"
Harley replied, "Don, you didn't need it. But in my case, I would NEVER have become a Christian, if He hadn't done so. Prior to that I had never seen the slightest evidence of His existence. But now!—all I want to do is serve Him!"