Did you ever experience the phenomenon known as “déjà vu”, or have you ever thought of things, or dreamed them, only to have that event happen, either to you or to someone around you?

I want to tell you a story.

This is my story, it is personal and it is amazing. I am not going to tell you the names of the other people involved, because they are still alive and I don’t want to embarrass, or provoke, them. This actually happened to me…

When I was around 12 years old I picked up a book at our church. It was called “Tortured for His Faith” by Haralan Popov. It was the story of a Christian pastor who was imprisoned in Bulgaria and tortured until he confessed to crimes he hadn’t committed. If I remember correctly the communist party had asked him to spy on the members of his congregation, and he refused. Shortly thereafter he had a knock at the door, in the middle of the night, and thus began thirteen years of imprisonment and torture.

Just as an aside, leftists are always the same, and the ongoing “Impeachment” sham in the USA against president Donald Trump, and the Israeli indictments against Benjamin Netanyahu are in the same vein, fake charges of fake crimes, but without the torture… yet!

Now I had thought I was a Christian at the time, though in hindsight I don’t believe I was, but I thought that I needed a plan in case the Communists ever took over in Canada, and it became illegal to be a Christian here. I thought I needed a plan, and I didn’t think Mr. Popov had a very good plan! (In hind sight he did the right thing, but that’s another story)

So, my plan was, and remember that I was 12 years old at the time, that I would go across country, and I would have to change my name. So I thought “How could I make up a name that I would remember. We have all seen TV shows and movies where a person makes up a fake name, and then forgets what he called himself! It could be very embarrassing, and a give-away that one was using an assumed name.

So I thought I would use my middle name as a first name. Most people don’t frequently share their middle name, and everyone remembers theirs; so my middle name would become my first name.

Now, for a last name I couldn’t use my own surname, because then I would have the same name as my father, so I figured out a simple formula; I would remove one letter and double another letter and the result would become my last name.

So, to summarize my thought it would be like this; If I was running away from the police, because I was a Christian, I would replace my name with a name made of my middle name and a modification of my last name. This was a name I would not forget.

And, I didn’t forget that name, and fifteen years later a police officer with that exact name entered my life and married my ex-wife! I was replaced in the life of my ex-wife, by a man with a name I had planned to use to replace my name with! What are the odds of this?

You can be sure I didn’t like this fact one bit. I tried to pass it off as a coincidence, but it has always been a nagging fact in the back of my mind.

Since I had this thought when I was 12, I never told anyone this story, until this year. I never told anyone even a part of it! To be honest it was a little frightening.

I have thought about this event quite a bit this year. I am convinced that this is no coincidence; there is no such thing as a coincidence! This had to be of God!

There are many places in Scripture that say that God knows our thoughts. Here are just a few of them;

And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. I Chronicles 28:9

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5

But he (Jesus) knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. Luke 6:8

There are many other places in Scripture where it says the same thing; that God searches the hearts of men. He knows our every thought!

In fact there are many places where Scripture teaches that God will judge us for our thoughts! Here’s one from the ten commandments;

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. Exodus 20:17

Most people focus on the wrong things that people have done, but God declares that He has a right to Judge us just for thinking the wrong thoughts!

Look at these passages from 1 Corinthians and Revelation, and see how many sins of the mind are included here;

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. I Corinthians 6:910

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Revelation of John 21:8

Covetousness, fearfulness, and unbelief are three of the many thought sins which will condemn people to the Lake of Fire! You don’t even have to do anything to merit such punishment! Fearfulness is not the fear of God, but the fear of man; very often we fail to do, or say, the right thing out of the fear of what people will think or say!

Of course Jesus also said;

But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Matthew 5:28

I’m sure you have heard people say “Its Okay to look, but just don’t touch”! This is bad advice! Jesus can and will throw people into the Lake of Fire for just looking with lust in their hearts!

Indeed, how many of us have not committed these thought sins at some point in our lives? This is a universal problem!

But back to the story I started this with; I was reading Amos chapter 4 last week and verse 13 hit me in a way I had never thought about it before, and it explains what happened to me;

For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name. Amos 4:13

A lot of bible translations make this phrase say “and declares to man what is God’s thought”, but this is incorrect! In the previous chapter Amos wrote “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7) So if God declares to His prophets what His secret is that He is about to bring to pass, then “declareth unto man what is his thought” is not saying that He shows his thought to man in general. What He is saying is that God reveals himself by showing us that He knows our thoughts!

What happened to me is that God showed me that He knows my thoughts! He has done similar things quite often in my experience.

What Amos is saying is that God intervenes this way with everyone! He finds ways of showing each of us that He knows our thoughts, but most simply shake their head and say “What an amazing coincidence!” and then they go back to sleep!

The verse just before is very important for setting the context;  This is important for the time when you meet God!

12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

Yes I know it is about Israel, but in fact it extends to the whole human family.  Each of us will meet God one day soon!  We need to be prepared for that event!

We have so many “coincidences” in our lives, that if we were to add up the odds against these things happening it would be astronomical! No! They are not coincidences!  God is always working all over this planet in the lives of each of Adam’s descendants! All seven billion of us!

We all have these amazing events happening in our lives. This is His way of saying “See, I know your thoughts! You need to know that I will hold you accountable for your thoughts. On Judgment Day you will be judged, for your thoughts as well as your actions!”

Our only hope is Jesus Christ! How many fall on their knees, call on the Lord, and confess they are sinners? With these people Jesus takes all their sins, even their sinful thoughts, and nails them to His cross, and He gives them His Righteousness in exchange!

Everyone else has had these experiences, and they have no excuse at all! They had personal evidence that He knew their thoughts, but they did nothing about it!

If you have never done it, I urge you to trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour today!  He will take all of your sins, even your thought sins, and put them on His cross, and give you His Righteousness, without which you cannot enter Heaven!  Trust His promises!

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans 10:9