Asking God

[UndRenovation]

Recently a freinds husband and i were having a discussion about god and the bible(she is a christian and only recent and he is an athiest until proven otherwise).He was angry at the thought that god might give her a passion and vision which would lead to her being asked(by god)to leave him and said "oooh i would love to have a convesation with him and give him a run for his money;-)
My response was that god would not only not be suprised by anything he had to say whether positive or negative but would actually love to hear from you and he should give it a whirl.He then made a joke and proceeded to smoke his cones.I decided to leave it there.
30 minutes later he brought up the subject again and was concerned that god wouldnt answer and that would just confirm for him that god doesnt exist and wouldnt want to talk to him.
I encouraged this guy in his own time to simply talk to god like he would to any1 in a normal conversation and ask him to reveal himself and that god would do just that in some way.Since then he has said he has spoken and asked god at least twice to tell him or show him that jesus is real and he has heard nothing and i continue to pray
Can we say with confidence that god will answer in some way if a non believer is seeking him out?
Is there anything else we must say when we are encouraging some1 to seek god out and ask him to reveal himself?
Are there many verse's to back us up with this and what about other verses especially like- gods ways are not our ways that could get in the way of our faith?
I would love to hear peoples responses as i dont just want to be a plastic witness but a witness with a faith that believes he can say something like this to a non believer and know God is da boss and will do something.
thanx

 

[greatkraw]

Many people claim to be looking for God but already have their own preconceptions about him which he will not fit.

In this situation I might ask God to work in his life in such a way as to be irrefutably of him.

It is important not to tell God how to do such a thing or put him on a deadline.

 

[Thaddaeus]

I think you may have made things worse. yeah, the Bible teaches us that God is manifested to men. but even this manifestation is of faith, if God reveals himself physically or through signs, to where there is no doubt that it is God then where does faith come in. our faith is that when someone gets healed from cancer that it was God, but can this be proven without a shadow of a doubt, if so then it is not faith but actuallity.

Heb 11:1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
of all who eye witnessed the miracles of Jesus some Believed that He was of God some said that he was of the devil. for example I believe in the gift of tongues and prophecy, I have a close friend that does not , and says the reason that he doen't believe that God is still giving these gifts out, is that he earnestly prayed and asked God, IF He was still giving the gift of tongues, then he wanted this gift. do you see the problem with his prayer? he didn't say God I believe but rather God IF, would you think that God would save You if you had prayed God IF you can save me then please save me. even with the conversion of saul into paul , paul had to have faith that it was Jesus in the light that spoke to Him , I mean it could have been that Paul believed that it was something from outer space, he could have believed that is was a demonic being, a witch or whatever. see if your friend is praying but does not have the faith that God will answer that pray, then will God answer that prayer? if the most righteous person ever prayed without believing, that God can hear and answer prayers , would God hear their prayer. God reveals Himself at times through the changed life of a new Christian, but even this could be explained by some factor other than their new religious belief. I think you may need to go back to this person and say I may have messed up for My God works by faith and if there is no faith then God may not show Himself to you. you could use the Human body as complexed as it is, there would have to be a higher power to design this, explain to Him that it actually requires more faith to believe that there is no God than to believe that there is a God . I mean to believe that God created or to believe that this all came forth of it's own out of a big bang. take Him outside or somewhere that you all can see the stars and ask do you really believe that all this just happened without a higher power. then share Jesus with him

 

[imoss]

I think its a condition of the individuals heart... he wants to be right, he doesnt want to know God or seek him at this point. Why would God reveal himself to him at his request when in his heart he truly doesnt want God and in his heart wants to be right about there being no God. I think continue in daily prayer for a softening of his heart towards God & for the right people to be placed in his life at the right time. And as far as a threat that God will ask her to leave her husband... why was this even spoken to her husband? It was a hypothetical was it not?? I think this was a mistake that cant be undone. Why are you... a friend of a woman spending time speaking between the wife and husband. Is there a reason for this? I would think if you were the husbands friend it would have been received better than you being the wife's friend. I think this will create a jealousy between the husband and his wife over your relationship with the wife. I think this may be hard for you to read but you need to stay out of the relationship between them. And only because of your gender and spiritual connection to the wife. Again continue in prayer for their marriage and try not to do anything else to create a bigger chasm between them on their faith issues. I rebuke you in Love, just so you know. I would be mad and very defensive if a gf of my husband gave me the info that God would ask my husband to leave me... try to place yourself in the skin of the unbeliever. Anyway... his not hearing from God maybe a rebuke to you in a way to as you do not give God a timeline and this is about the individual & God's relationship. If he is genuinely not seeking God then thats the way it is. As for your friend the wife... her husband will see Gods work in her life, her light will shine and she can do all things through Christ who strengthens her, including staying married to an unbeliever as she prays daily for his salvation. As far as his lifestyle and smoking... his wife will not change that no matter how hard she wants to, all she can change is how she reacts to it and how it impacts her personally... ie get out of the room. Do continue in prayer for the husband but please never ever again speak to him about "GOD" breaking up their marriage because that is between the three of them & doesnt involve you.

 

[Tegelik]

I think its a condition of the individuals heart... he wants to be right, he doesnt want to know God or seek him at this point. Why would God reveal himself to him at his request when in his heart he truly doesnt want God and in his heart wants to be right about there being no God.

That's exactly what I was thinking. That might be the reason God is not answering him.

 

[Graybeard]

Imos basically said it, I don't think he is asking God with a sincere heart, more like tongue-in-cheek, sort of "well let me test God"

 

[UndRenovation]

well non of us can truly know weather he is asking god from his heart-thats between him and god.anyway its been awsome seeing your responses.lots of stuff has happend since i wrote in the forum and i believe he is really genuinly seeking god out.And he is very threatened by god as he can see some hard core changes in his wife and is pretty scared;-(