so if God were to answer, how would he do it?

Here is a list of possibilities I thought of while sitting in the club sauna this morning. If God were to answer a prayer of mine, he might...

1) speak aloud and I would hear him like I would hear another person speaking.
2) speak to me in a still small voice, still audible.
3) 'nudge' me, emotionally or intellectually, in a certain direction.
4) create a circumstance in my life where the answer would be obvious.
5) send an official emissary, like Gabriel or Michael (or Clarence), to speak for him.
6) speak through another human being in such a way that i would know it was not just that person speaking.
7) answer with silence, which means i would never know if he ever answered or not.
8) answer in some sort of encoded way that depends on me being spiritually tuned in to the right wavelength in order to get it.
9) communicate to me in a dream.

can you think of some others? any opinions on this list?

a presupposition on bible interpretation

in What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza, the author mentions three ways to interpret scripture: literally, figuratively, and contextually. having been trained at the masters level in biblical exegesis, i am familiar with all three. i believe that any person who quotes scripture in an authoritative way vascillates between all of them, often without careful precision. of the three, context is by far the most neglected. if one selects literal or figurative as the only valid way to read the bible, all sorts of problems come up. if any one passage from scripture is examined currently, there are both visible and invisible criteria used to determine whether the message applies literally or figuratively. i am questioning the criteria we use to decide what applies (now) and what does not. the neglected method, reading in context, merits more exploration. and here is what i mean. could the context of the bible as a document be more limited than first thought? using prayer as a vehicle, could 'ask and ye shall receive' exist as a valid instruction only in the context of the time it was written? and could we admit that our knowledge of that context is limited? paul once made an unambiguous statement (at least to us), 'women should keep silent in the churches'. the reality is, no one has ever applied this text completely. given the way it appears in I cor 12-14, so me it has to mean something other than what we think; it had a context, and maybe that context is lost to us?

james 5:15 the prayer of faith

here is the text for james 5:15: "And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven."

question one: how much faith is enough to satisfy the requirement?

question two: why doesn't this work today, every time?

james 1:5-7 when you ask, do not doubt

here is the text of james 1:5-7: "if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. but when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. that man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord..."

first question: concerning doubt, is it doubt that God CAN, or doubt that God WILL?

second question: is it a requirement to have the perfect absence of doubt in order for a prayer to be answered?

third question: does this prescription apply only for petitions for wisdom and not for a good parking space?

ask/receive explanations: option 8

when it comes to true honest-to-god faith, christians today live in apostasy.

'ask/receive' - option 7

option 7 - 'ask/receive' does not mean what we think it means. thoughts?

explaining 'ask and ye shall receive' - option 6

reiterating my suggestion for explaining how one can ask but not receive..."option 5: those statements on prayer were meant for a specific place and time - theirs, not ours." stuff happened in the first century that does not happen now; maybe divine response to prayers was one of them. we assume 'ask and ye shall receive' applies to us...does it? we already make similar judgements about bible content, such as women's veils or greeting each other with a holy kiss. where do we draw the line?