Meanwhile, I was struggling with the fact that I really sensed God’s leading me to do and say certain things, especially when I was preaching at this little church on the weekends in Ripley, Oklahoma and that God was answering my prayers in ways that were outside of my prescribed theology. During this time I often got up to preach only to ditch my notes, and speak extemporanously on subjects I had not prepared. My good friend and neighbor at the time, Keith Brown, who is a fine preacher, used to go with me on some of my preaching trips just to hear what I would say without any preparation; he was a real encouragement to me. He would say, “Hal, I think you’re a good preacher but when you just go with your intuition over your perspiration I think you are the finest preacher I have ever heard.” (You know, Keith is just about the only one of my old Bible college buddies that still keeps in touch.) Despite my small box theology, God kept working with me, and eventually I began to let God show me just how he speaks today and to teach me through the Bible about how he does it. Today, I have lots of theology to explain how God speaks and I want to share a few things here with you about that.
HOW DOES GOD SPEAK?
Our tendency is to break this down into two artificial categories: Naturally and supernaturally. People put those distinctions on things to explain what we think is natural (i.e. normal) and what we think is super-beyond- normal. Actually, God speaks to us through five primary means: People, Prayer, Experiences, the Bible, and dreams/visions. Keeping in mind some people's presupositions about the natural and the supernatural in mind, this short blog post is going to explore each of these five means of God speaking, and address how it happens in both natural and supernatural ways to help those from a cessationist background get a hold of this teaching. I will begin with the Bible because it is the foundation of all our understanding, and should be the thing we can agree on most, regardless of church background.
GOD SPEAKS THROUGH THE BIBLE.
The Christian Church has always held the Bible to be God’s primary way of speaking to humankind. In fact, within church circles, the Bible is often referred to as the WORD OF GOD. The Bible refers to itself as the Scriptures, meaning they are a written record of God’s words, but if you look throughout the Bible the term Word is used in many different ways, referring not only to all kinds of speech, but specifically in John 1.1-14 the Word of God is Jesus himself. Since the Bible is the only recording we have of Jesus’ actual words, and because all Christians agree that God speaks to us through the Bible, it is often referred to as God’s Word. In truth, it reveals Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who is the Word of God, and it records God’s words to us.
The Apostle Paul said it this way to a young leader in the church in 2 Timothy 3.16-17: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Paul’s choice of words is interesting- it is God breathed! The Bible as the very breath of God; he spoke it. In some of the older translations the word “inspired” is used. Inspiration in the Bible is not limited to the literary sense in which one receives some kind of transcendent influence or thought, but it goes on to reflect the very intent of God. We can illustrate this in the playing of wind instruments. If the musician plays the very same song on several different wind instruments you will hear the song and know that it is the same song. Even though the same musician is playing the same song, with the same breath, heart, and intent, because the instrument is different, there is a difference between the instruments. In other words, a saxophone does not sound like a trumpet or a piccolo. In the same way, the Bible authors, as the instruments of God wrote down what was spoken through them, but they were different instruments of God. God spoke with the same breath, heart, and song through each author, giving continuity to the Bible, but because each author is a different instrument it also means that each author’s own personality and style of communicating comes out, too. It’s that harmony of different authors playing the same song that tells us God is speaking through the Bible, and it is a great comfort to the church.
Because of the Bible, I know that God wants me to live Holy, that he wants me to do good to others, to love everyone, and that I must come to him, those things are true for everybody. If you look at the great commission in Matthew 28.18-20 Jesus says to us, Go to all the nations, to the panthe ta ethne, meaning to all ethnicities, and teach them to obey all that I have commanded you. In that Jesus was telling his disciples that everyone needed his commands. The Bible is the collection of those things that we all need to know, God’s general will for all people. In our Western minds there is a natural edge to the Bible because it is a book and anyone can read it. Anyone that can read, can turn to John 3.16 and understand that God gave us his Son so that we could have eternal life. They may not accept what John 3.16 says, but they can read it for themselves. That seems natural! What we can’t account for is the influence that the Scripture has over people and how it repeatedly changes lives, and transforms people with its power; that is supernatural. Even in churches where they do not embrace signs and wonders as being for today they will sing a song about the miracle of salvation through Jesus Christ, every Christian can hold onto that, but when it comes to hearing God through the Bible more than that some will roll their eyes. Yet, it is undeniable the power that a verse of the Bible can have in someone’s life.
I am intrigued, too, how many times I have needed help and I have opened the Bible and my eyes focus on a specific verse that brings comfort to me in times of trouble, or clarity in confusion, or it gives us an example from the life of someone else on how to handle the situation. For instance, I have often found comfort in David’s Psalm 34.18 “The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in Spirit.” That is always true for every believer in Christ. On the other hand, God has touched my heart over and over again through the life of King David in a way if I tried to explain it to anyone else they would say that it was totally subjective, and in a worldly sense it is. But, I have watched over the years how God has brought those things to pass that I felt he was saying to me through the life of David. While I would not teach out of those kind of personal applications for the entire church, it has some great personal application for me. Here are some tests about personal application: First of all, does your personal application contradict the plain teaching of the Bible? For instance, the Bible says plainly not to commit adultery. If you ignore the plain teaching of the Bible and then twist some verse in the Bible around to justify your desire to commit adultery then that’s not hearing the voice of God. In John 14.7 it says that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and that he leads us unto truth. Since God is not a deceiver, and deception is the work of the Devil (he is the deceiver) clearly this would be a poor personal application. (We will be offering a course on how to read the Bible in the near future.)
GOD SPEAKS THROUGH PRAYER.
My friend, Tony Vaughn, once told a seminary class that didn’t believe that God spoke today, that the biggest difference between him and the other students was that when he prayed he believed that it made a difference, because he expected God to answer. Consider that we pray to God hoping he will guide us. By very nature we are expecting God to answer us in some manner. Christian prayer is not a psychosomatic cure for the weak-minded. Prayer is not just some kind of religious activity but a relational encounter with God. Look at this verse in Romans 8.26-27: Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
I guess I can get down on my knees and speak words and take some solace in that exercise, but prayer goes beyond that, because God wants to connect with us and even helps us pray. The translation here is a little on the weak side actually. In the original language it means that when all you have to offer in prayer is groaning, the Holy Spirit will interpret, and will help us to pray. The Holy Spirit will speak to the Father and translate those things that we don’t even have words for so that when you come to that place where all you have is a groan God’s Spirit will search your heart and present your request to the Father. Jesus said it this way in John 10.4 that we will hear his voice, His sheep hear his voice. It is his guarantee that he will speak to us. Sometimes he calls to mind a particular passage of the Bible, or we get a thought that is not our own. Sometimes he will bring other experiences into our path, or people, or events and so on. But God answers our prayers and we test the things we hear against the standard of the Bible. Do you see how this is all interlocking?
GOD SPEAKS THROUGH PEOPLE.
God does this in several ways. Sometimes God will bring good people into your life. When I came to Christ God used a man named Andy McCampbell to get me into the Bible. Later on when God was leading me toward the ministry of the Holy Spirit he used Don Finto to help me work through some doctrinal errors that I had been taught, but over and over these two men took me back to the Bible, and they gave me advice that was gleaned from years of reading the Bible. The interesting thing about Don Finto was that he sometimes in praying for me, or speaking with me, would share things with me that he felt God had told him; today I would call that prophecy. He did not claim to be a prophet but he knew things about my life that he could not have known through any natural means. He did not claim any authority over my life. He just shared with me what I already knew to be true about my life and then some principles from the Bible, and pulled it all together in a way that was very personal. I knew that it was God speaking to me through Don Finto, because Don Finto did not know those things about me, nor did he know the groanings of my heart. This type of prophecy is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 14.3: On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. It is very encouraging and it always agrees with God’s word if it is real. It is important to note that not everyone God speaks through is a prophet. Sometimes they can be real donkeys . . . Seriously! If you look at Numbers 22.28-31, you find Balaam arguing with his donkey because the Lord opened its mouth. The fact that Balaam argued with the donkey makes us ask which one really was the donkey, Balaam or the animal? The point is that if God can use a donkey to speak on his behalf, he could use anyone to speak to you, but just because God uses someone in your life to speak for him does not mean that they are anyone special, they are just a vessel, the only one who is special in that encounter is God.
GOD SPEAKS THROUGH EXPERIENCES.
This is a broad category that includes everything from blatant miracles to seemingly natural events. The Bible teaches us that God spoke through the miracles of Jesus, to which the Apostle John said in his gospel, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20.30-31).
When God was first inviting people to believe in his Son, the church was very Jewish in those days and there was no place for the gentiles. It is recorded in Acts 10 that God spoke to the Apostle Peter though a vision. Now a vision is like a dream, only you are wide-awake for the dream, and people experience them in many ways. Some see visions supernaturally imposed over their natural view, while others get them in their minds- eye. In Acts 10 it seems Peter’s vision was almost like a virtual reality, and that Peter was even participating in the vision. From that vision Peter was prepared by God to share the gospel with the gentiles so that they could be saved also. Then in Acts 11, Peter is standing before the leaders of the church to explain why he gave the gospel to the gentiles, which had created a huge uproar. In verse 18 Peter appeals to their shared experience of conversion and won the Jewish Christians over to his position. Then again when issues arise over the gentiles in Acts 15, what does Peter do? In verse 8 he appeals yet again to the events of Acts 10 as proof of God’s acceptance of the gentiles, then in verses 9-12 Paul and Barnabas share what God did through them on behalf of the gentiles. Thirdly, James, the pastor of the Jerusalem church, and brother of Jesus, in verses 13-18 cites Amos 9.11-12 as proof that the gentiles would bear God’s name, and argued, therefore, that based on the experience of the Apostles, and the proof of the Scriptures, that this was God’s desire. Experience played a large part of discerning God’s voice in the matter!
That, no doubt, opens all kinds of questions, but we are out of time, so if you want to know more about this subject keep reading through this series of articles. There are two more parts coming this week, and consider investing in some great study tools on the subject click on the links below:
http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Voice-God-Jack-Deere/dp/0310225582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430742339&sr=8-1&keywords=jack+deere+surprised+by+the+voice+of+god
http://www.amazon.com/Experiencing-God-Knowing-Revised-Expanded/dp/0805447539/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0APQBD35NHETW7SGA6ER
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