I would ask, though -- what was it that made you sure it was Christianity that this perceived God wanted you to follow, and not, say, Islam, or even Jove-worship? Direct perceptions of God do seem to come with, and I know this phrase was used for something different upthread, lots of baggage these days...

Excellent question. I'll admit I was brought up in a semi-Christian household. My mother was a fairly liberal Christian and my father was an atheist. I ended up following neither of them, though I did end up adopting something similar to my mother. She, however, wanted to meld Christianity with other faiths which didn't make sense to me. Coming to my current beliefs in Christianity was partially based on my experiences in the church in which I grew up and partly from looking at other religions teachings. I found that the church I was in didn't seem to be doing anything more than working out a religion that told them what they wanted to hear. Since I can do that alone and in my bedroom, I went seeking elsewhere.

Long story short, after prayer and seeking I came to the conclusion the bible was inspired by God, that I had a sin problem, and that Jesus Christ was the only solution for it. Though I didn't look at every other religion (there are thousands in the world) there seemed to be only a few different categories:

1. Salvation from sin based on grace. We cannot be good enough to redeem ourselves and require outside intervention. To my knowledge Christianity is the only faith that teaches this.

2. Salvation by works: We earn forgiveness by following rules and proving our superiority over others. There are many such religions, and time and time again people have tried to turn Christianity into this. Fighting this inclination was one of the major tasks of the early Christian church.

3. No salvation required. Self-explanatory here.

Of course this is an oversimplication of all religions, but I was inwardly convinced in my seeking that I had a sin problem (actually, I think had this innate belief before I ever started studying religion seriously) so that was the aspact in which I was most interested. Since #3 didn't address the issue, I was either left with trying to follow rules or embracing Jesus Christ as the solution. I found that I agreed in my heart with the biblical passages that told me God was interested in the heart more than following rules. Sure the rules were there, but they were pointing to a problem I had. God wanted to deal with my heart, not just my deeds. I can say a lot more now about Christianity versus other religions, but at the time I felt that Christianity posed a God who was intamently involved with His people and wanted to change them on the inside, not just the outside.

Once I started to follow Jesus, however, it became more and more obvious that I was following a real and present God. Through the refining in my moral character, unbelievable circumstances, and simply studying, worship, and experiencing God most of my doubts were eradicated. I must admit I sometimes question if it's all a grand dillusion, but when I look back at my life, or even around in my current circumstances the evidence is everywhere.

To all,
I'm sorry about this series of long posts. This is something that is obviously really important to me and I wish I could share with everyone. I think everyone should have an empeg, I hate it when people just don't "get it." In many ways, my faith in Jesus is the same only a billion times stronger!