Just a few excerpts:
“If there was one thing in which I was completely secure, it was that I would never adhere to any religion – especially to evangelical Christianity, which I held in particular contempt,”
“I tried to write off the experience as misfiring synapses, but I couldn’t shake it. When I returned to New York a few days later, I was lost. I suddenly felt God everywhere and it was terrifying."
In a Fox News Channel interview with Howard Kurtz, Powers explained the revelation to her “wasn’t a one-moment-kind-of-thing. It was something that over a year probably of going to church and studying the Bible and a lot of different things".
What Kirsten began to "see" after her encounter with Jesus Christ personally, was God working in her life..... "a lot of different things"; as she puts it. New believers, those on their way to being believers, and eventually old-time believes are all alike in their astonishment at God's attention to detail in their lives. I've personally noticed that when God's moves in my life, he'll always tell me at least twice. If it's really important, he'll tell me thrice.
The fact that when she called to tell her boyfriend about her encounter with God, it was at that moment BEFORE she cold tell him, that he related how he had been praying and felt led to break up with her because of the uneven yoking thingy....is just exactly the way God works. Bam, Bam ... right in a row to try and get your attention.
“In even describing when I became a Christian, I just gave in. It wasn’t courageous. I didn’t have any choice. I kept trying to not believe and I kept just couldn’t avoid it. If I could have avoided it, I would have. There’s nothing convenient about it in my life in the world that I live in. It’s not like living in the South or living somewhere where everybody’s Christian. I live in a world where nobody’s a believer.”
That is EXACTLY what happened to me. Irrestible Grace. We are saved by grace, through faith. One is the work of God, the other is the work of man. It is the "work" authorized by Jesus for Salvation.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. - Mark 16:16
Acts16: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. - John 3: 18
Once a person surrenders to Jesus, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within the believer and bears an internal permanent witness to the believer:
The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
This is a precious knowing that the believer receives as a gift that comforts him throughout his/her life. It is totally different than the conclusion that an unbeliever may reach based on selective reasoning that "there is no God".
Faith is not a conclusion as atheists judge it to be based on their own experience. It is a knowing. I believe this knowing irritates atheists and unsaved religionists alike.
