Because I have to share: This is a conversation between two evangelical women in reply to my comment. I kid you not!! I copied and pasted.

Eve 1-
Once during an especially traumatic time, I actually heard the Holy Spirit comforting me (it came as a thought but I know it wasn’t mine because it interrupted me).

I was grieving very deeply and the voice said, “It’s ok. It’s going to be ok.” And I stopped and stood there for second, jolted by what I just heard. The voice was so loving and deeply comforting.

Then I heard, “If you didn’t experience times like this, you wouldn’t be asking the kinds of questions you’re asking now.”

And that’s when I thought, what’s kinds of questions am I asking? And that analysis of myself gave me more insight.

Questions lead to understanding and growth, etc.

And the journey revealed more of God’s personality to me and underscored Biblical principles in a way I hadn’t understood them before.

He didn’t cause my pain but He definitely worked through it. “God is close to the broken-hearted.”

Eve 2-
Lyn, that is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing your own personal story. To me, that is the beauty of our relationship with God, it is completely unique and personal to each one of us. An atheist could never convince me that the things I have experienced with God have not happened to me. I'm sure you would say the same things. I have had very similar experiences where something came out of my mouth that I knew did not come from me. It was too profound for my simple mind to formulate.

When my son died, the book "The Shack" came out. It helped me understand the Trinity in a way I had never understood Before. I could feel God wrapping me up in His arms like my loving Heavenly Father. Jesus was the friend who would let me share MY true feelings like no human friend could ( humans either want you to stop grieving because it makes them feel uncomfortable or they try to rush you through the process by telling you what you SHOULD do as a "good Christian",) and the Holy spirit was that the voice/spirit that would bring insight/blessings/mysteries to me in such a way that I knew that it was real.