Who Can Hear the Voice of God (part 2 of 4)

Back in my Bible College days I belonged to a denomination that believed that God did not speak to his people anymore, because that had ceased with the passing of the Apostles, but they still taught me to pray and to expect God to answer, but they never taught me how, but they implied that God would answer me somehow. This created a lot of anxiety for me, and left me to wonder how would I know if it was God or just bad mushrooms on the pizza.

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:


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Who Can Hear the Voice of God (Part 1)

On April 1, 1996 I was returning from the Detroit area to West Michigan (Muskegon) with a van load of teenagers who had gone with me to Michigan Christian College (Rochester College) in Rochester Hills, Michigan for the day.  I had spoken at chapel that morning, and then later that I day I spoke in one of the Bible classes.  It had been a full day and everybody was talking excitedly about the days events and about how much fun it was to see some of their friends and so on.  I was just outside of Portland, Michigan when suddenly the car fell silent, a miracle itself if you have ever made a road trip with a van full of teenager’s before, but in the sudden quiet I heard a deep male voice call my name.  Startled I looked around the van to find everyone sound asleep.  I checked the radio only to find it turned completely off. A moment later I heard the voice again, this time much louder and clearer. I was stunned. My response was shaky at best but I inquired of the voice as to what was wanted of me.  I was then very clearly told that the Lord wanted me to get out of debt over the next six months, and then it proceeded to tell me how I could do it, right down to exact figures of how much to pay on what debts, and even how much to sell my van for.  As soon as I had taken down all the information the teens all simultaneously awoke and began to chatter in the same way that they had been speaking previously.  I was bursting on the inside to get home and share this plan with my wife.  I had no sooner arrived home than I told her the whole thing, which was met with a little skepticism. Dawn had been working on a plan to get us out of debt for sometime, and the quickest she could see clear of the debt was three years. How could we possibly do it in six months?  As I lay out the entire plan Dawn was somewhat speechless, in part because I had exact dollar amounts of what we owed.  Understand that at that time I had very little interest in our finances, and I did not know what all of our bills were, let alone any dollar amounts. In her quizzical response she asked me what the password was for the Quicken program;  I didn’t know. She then began to re-crunch the numbers and told me, you must have heard this from God. In the months that followed it was a really hard thing to do.  Honestly, I didn’t really want to do everything the Lord told me to do (like see the van) and in the end, because of my delay in doing some of those tasks, it took more like eight months to get completely out of debt, but we did it.  Had I not heard so directly from the Lord I probably would never have involved myself so deeply in our finances, nor would I have done anything so radical to get out of the debt, but getting out of debt the way the Lord had instructed me was what cleared the way for us to be able to walk away from my job, just over a year later, to begin the ground work on a church plant.  

When I explain those events to others some have asked me if it was an audible voice? You know, I am not sure, it seemed so but there was no one else who heard it.  What I can tell you is that if it was an audible voice that it was the only time God's voice has been audible to me. I have heard God's voice many times before in other ways, and after that event, but not the same way. Sometimes I hear more clearly, and other times ever so faintly, but what I have discovered is that the degree of clarity by which I hear his voice usually is directly proportionate to the task I must tackle. I don’t mean how hard the task is, some tasks like watching my youngest son Matthew go through heart surgery were more difficult, but rather the difficulty in my being able to follow through. It was not really a hard decision to have Matthew operated on, even though it was a painful decision, the alternative was to let him die. However, getting me to engage in the finances, be disciplined in my spending, and make the hard calls that I didn't want to make, and did not absolutely have to make . . . that was hard, but with Matthew I really had no choice, the circumstances dictated my response.

For some, what I just said is no big stretch, but for others that sounds too incredible.  Most of the time when we talk about God speaking to people we want to know what could be so special about that person that God would speak to them. Or even why God spoke to them but not to us. Let me address those two things. What is so special about the person who hears God’s voice that they get to hear God’s voice? Then second, Why do some Christians hear God’s voice and why do other Christians feel they do not hear his voice?

What’s So Special About The Person Who Hears God’s Voice?

The very nature of the question says more than the question asks. Our assumption is that God speaking to someone automatically makes them somehow better than those around them. In fact, one of the greatest turn off for many people is when they see someone who is a hypocrite saying that they have heard from God on something.  They immediately think how could that be?  For some of us that’s enough to write-off the whole idea of hearing God speak to anyone.  Just the other day I heard someone ask, what was so special about the Jews that they became God’s chosen people?  The answers to those two very different questions are really the same.  God does not arbitrarily choose people. God chose the Jews because Noah, in Genesis 6, chose God before the flood, and again in Genesis 9 after the flood. Then one of his son, Shem, chose God (Genesis 11) and then in Genesis 12, Shem’s Great, Great, Great, Great, Great grandson Abram chose God. Abram was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the Father of Jacob, whom God renamed Israel, and he chose God also. And to each of those men, and their families, God made promises to them based on their decision to keep choosing God in the same way that he chose them. (Not that they did it perfectly.) In fact, they did it quite imperfectly, as we all do, but it is better to choose God imperfectly, then to not choose God because we can do that perfectly. Right? Just to be clear, God did not just look down one day and pick a favorite nation or race. In fact, the Bible is quite clear on this topic in Romans 2.11, speaking of God’s relationship to the Jews as his chosen people, as well as his relationship to those who are not Jews, and it says, “For God does not show favoritism.”  God chooses those who choose him.

So then in John 8.47 it says very clearly in reference to hearing the voice of God, He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God (NIV84). Now with that verse some of you who are Christian's might feel as if you just came under a heavy judgment, but don't judge this yet. The point is that God speaks to his people, and that one must belong to Jesus Christ to hear God's voice. 

That brings us to our second point. Some of you may be thinking why haven’t I heard his voice? Without much explanation you might get one of two responses. One would be to question if you have ever really been saved (and for some people that could be a legitimate concern). As Rick Warren is fond of saying, "Sitting in a church house does not make you a Christian anymore than sitting in a hen house makes you a chicken" but don’t camp out there.  Another common response is to reject the idea that God is speaking today.  In other words, to let a subjective experience (or lack of experience) dictate what you believe. So if you think that you have never heard God’s voice then you conclude that God does not speak today. So the pendulum swings to two extremes? Consider these other options.

  

First, every Christian can and does hear the voice of God. You may need to get still and quiet long enough to listen but every Christian hears from God, but there isn't any second class Christians. Also, it is not an issue of maturity, or even some kind of second work of grace either. Every Christian church teaches Christians can pray, meaning they can speak to God, and expect that when you talk to God will get guidance from God. That’s why Christians pray! Christians expect that God is going to respond. Prayer for the Christian is not just some kind of mental gymnastics or meditation technique. The effects of Christian prayer are not just psychosomatic.

Christians pray expecting God to respond, because God cared enough about them to that Jesus died for them, and they assume that if God loves you enough to send his Son to die for you that God also loves you enough to talk to you?  Prayer is not just a formula, or method to manipulate God. Prayer is intimacy and relationship with God.  The point is that many Christian’s do not hear from God simply because they have never been taught to identify God's voice. There are other issues that can interrupt people hearing from God, we call those problems, SIN.  

Sin is a common problem in not hearing God. Just like those who do not know God are separated from God by sin, and therefore cannot hear his voice, sometimes Christian's wallow in their sin and can’t hear God either (God knows the proud from afar. 1 Peter 5.5) Being prideful in our sin, or being religious, keeps us at a distance from God. Consider the nature of God, Jesus became a man, and was born in a stable with the stench of animals, to reach us. God who had every reason to be prideful was/is humble. In contrast, if you look at pride, all the way back to the garden when the serpent told Eve, 'eat this and you will be like God'  nothing deafens a believer like pride.  Author, C. S. Lewis, once said, the hardest part about pride is that it is easy to see in others but to discover it in ourselves it must be revealed to us.

Another issue that can make believers spiritually hard-of-hearing is how they treat others. In 1 Peter 3.7 it warns the men to treat their wives with respect so that nothing hinders their prayers. The same can be said about how believers treat any human being. No one is exempt, male or female, from treating others with respect. 

So what if you are a Christian, and you are not wallowing in sin, but you still don’t think you hear God’s voice? The next few articles on my blog are going to be about helping you, so make sure to follow along through this series of articles on hearing the voice of God, because the primary reason some Christians do not hear God’s voice is because they have never been taught. Even Jesus' disciples had to ask Jesus, to teach them to pray. 

A Kingdom Life

One of the central tenets of Jesus' teaching while he was on the earth was that the kingdom of God was coming, and that the kingdom of heaven was near. The word in our New Testaments that we most often translate into English as kingdom literally means reign or rule. It is the picture of God as being sovereign (king), and that his ruling and reigning usher in true justice, righteous government, peace on earth, and freedom from sin, disease, sickness, and death.
For the Jews in Jesus' day, it was heavily tied to the hopes of the promise land, that a man, a messiah would come, and he would reign as the very vessel of God, bringing justice and righteousness to government, and that he would conquer all of Israel's enemies, and rescue them from the gentiles and their governments. As it turned out, his gracious offer was not limited to the Israelites but it was to be extended even to the gentiles, so that the promise God made to Abraham, that his seed would be a blessing to all people, would come to pass (Genesis 22.18). What is essential to our understanding of the kingdom of God is not location, or time, but rather the effect of God's kingdom. Choosing his rule, and submitting to his authority (reign) not only transfers our loyalty, and guarantees our ultimate redemption, but it sets us on a new course of living in this world, in step with kingdom of God living rather than kingdom of darkness living. Meaning, we start living in this world as if God's kingdom was already fully established, obeying God rather than men, and living victoriously rather than as those who are on the defensive. So then taking our eyes off of the world, what would it look like for you and me to live life victoriously?  
Living a victorious life means doing what is right without worrying about what others outside of the church are not doing right. (Not that I don't care but it does not control my actions or cause me to worry.) It means being stewards of God by fulfilling our original command to care for all of his creation (1 Corinthians 10.26). It means loving my neighbors, and not just those I like (Luke 6.32), and it means protecting the defenseless (Isaiah 1.17).
My favorite part about that message is that it's not defined by lists of do's and don'ts, it's not just rules and regulations of religion and restriction. Instead, its the invitation to do life better. Now that is something worth inviting your friends and family to experience; The kingdom of God is good news.