Some ask for objective testimony of events I have received that gave me both subjective and objective proofs of the existence of firstly God, who the one we know as Jesus Christ called The Father, then secondly Jesus Christ my living Lord and Master, then thirdly the Holy Spirit. It all started when I was a child and kept asking in prayer to see God. I read the Bible a lot so I heard about God and the Son of God and the Spirit of God. I got prayers answered all the time so I knew He loved me but my father was a pastor and my grandparents missionaries and I was under pressure to preach. Even when I received the Holy Spirit it was in a vision telling me to 'build the Temple' or as I regard building the new covenant temple or Body of Christ - to preach and prophesy. So I took it on as a calling to preach. Yet I complained to God a verse in scripture shamed me by the phrase "they do not know what ... they so confidently affirm" and over and over I prayed to God to show Himself to me and since I believed in there being Father and Son and Spirit I asked to see Father and Son and Spirit enough to preach with true knowledge. I did add that seeing Jesus with my eyes would reduce my blessing because Jesus had said "You believe because you have seen me; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" so I wanted to not see with eyes but be shown without actual physical seeing. John taught in the Gospel of John that Jesus promised to those who obey His commands and teachings that He Himself and the Father too would show themselves to those people so I audited my life against His teachings to check I obeyed. Then I kept asking God for these revelations and from the Spirit too who I knew could be manifested in gifts like speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues. Eventually I think it was the end of 1994 or the start of 1995. Before the second Gulf War. I was earnestly asking to find the right wife too. One night after praying for this I had a vivid dream more vision than dream. One like a man or like one of those ancient Greek gods you see in films stood there before me in a long robe to His feet and said "I am God". He told me the next day at work a document of sorts with many names on it would be put on my desk in front of me (this would never normally happen because I simply dealt with invoices and they were put in my intray not on my desk) "Look at it!". The feeling of certainty it was God the Father was great so this was subjective proof to me of His existence and knowledge of Him but objective proof came in the day. At the end of the day around 4pm with few left in the office a girl brought a card and circulation envelope with many names on the card signing it as a greetings card and on the envelope to go around all the people in the office. I knew it was the dream fulifilled. I barely remembered to look at it closely but when I did I saw a note saying it had to be back to Janet so-and-so by 4pm. I remembered the dream somehow had mentioned her name too but I didn't know her. ai rushed it to her. Last minute! she said. It had to be back so she could get it to the man (a marvelous prophetically gifted man who worked next door and wowed us with poetry from time to time) who was getting married and the bank holiday was next day. It saved the day that I got it to her. God saved the day. Then a couple of weeks later I was reading a Psalm about going out and seeing the works of God, the destructions He has wrought. There were floods of the nearby River Severn (UK - I lived in Bristol). The River Avon went near my house and I thought it my be flooded too. I had read God "Presides over the floods" so to obey the psalm I went out in torrential rain to look at the river to see it in flood and think of God. A large golfing umbrella held off the torrential rain. Yes it was in full flood. I marvelled at the power to affect ordinary lives and judge and thought Jesus is now judge over all and presides over judgments of God. As I walked back up a hill from the river - Blackswarth Road I think it's called - a powerful voice of authority spoke clearly in my mind (not audibly) "Put down your umbrella!". So I did as commanded and as I put it down (cars driving past me in torrential rain on s busy street) the rain stopped so quickly it was like not a drop would have touched me. I just knew, subjectively, it was Jesus Christ, thinking immediately how the Gospel of John says after His resurrection He did something just like that to show Himself, risen and well and still the same with all the more confident power, to His disciples as they fished and He stood on the shore and commanded them from the shore. This was Him! I knew it. I wanted objective certainty because it might to others and to me questions later be an angel and not a humdred percent certainly Jesus Himself so I said later as I went to bed that night I wanted proof confirmation objectively. There was a dressing gown hung on a nail in the wall and nothing else in the room. I had moved into the house quite poor with few possessions. The dressing gown had always been on that nail and never off it to use it. If it was Jesus may it be off the wall by the morning. I went to sleep in peace assured He could do it to prove it was Him who had spoken to me. In the night I suddenly awoke with utter compulsion deep in my deepest psyche to get up immediately. I got up and started leaving the room and for the first time since moving into that house took the dressing gown off the nail in the wall. As soon as I did it I remembered the sign I had requested. I knew not only was it Jesus I had encountered but His power to awaken me like that was what made people call Him Master and Lord - He certainly is. I had utter certainty inside. Objectively I know all this happened too. Now weeks went by and I was occassionally going to church but didn't like the hypocrisy and lack of faith. I repeatedly told people I was seeking greater power of the Spirit in a church I might find as the epistles of Paul demonstrated to me. Then a visiting leader of both churches and local governments in the area visited and maybe was told what I was saying but he ended up telling me I should come with him to a church where I would certainly find the Holy Spirit. He took me out of Bristol to a Pentecostal church. As he drove me there a heaviness was filling me with seriousness. I reckon the Spirit was upon me. I the service a leader spoke into a mic. It was other worldly how he spoke during the worship time after singing led by a music group. It was tongues. It was clear words but of angels not men. Unlike earthly languages but real sentences easily distinct and miraculous sounding. As I listened it welled up in me as spirit within. I started to see a vision. I heard English words within. Not words I ever heard before but in line with the vision running across my mind. Words of mystery and power from heaven and God it seemed. Objectively there was proof. The speaker switched to English and his words were a perfect match in meaning to the words and vision within me. Further proof was needed - spirit yes, miraculous yes, but certainly of God? The proof was in the words - they were didactic. Teaching a mystery not in the Bible per se. This was not cribbed from a Bible passage I knew coming back to me and to the speaker simultaneously. It was new truth to me but scripture proved it true by saying a spirit telling people Jesus is Lord is a spirit from God. The words were along these lines (vision of trees budding) "Look at the trees how they bud and put forth their leaves: They do so by the power and authority of the Name of the Lord Jesus" It went on with a bit more I forgot in my wonder. Now I was assured of Father and of Son and of Holy Spirit. Around that time I started courting the lady who would become my wife too. God had answered all my prayers. Now I must proclaim Him and His truth - subjective and objective.
