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The Different Ways God Talks To Us

Discussion in 'Other Christian Denominations' started by mojoala, Jul 28, 2006.

  1. mojoala

    mojoala New Member

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    Heres a fun experiment... Go out and ask 100 evangelicals to explain how God talks to them.

    Here's what 99% of them will say "I don't hear an audible voice but its that still small voice inside me" Uh yea thats called your own thought process you should try to use it more often! (The actual distribution may be something closer to this):

    Christian Men Who Believe
    God Talks to them Using An Inaudible Voice: 67 out of 100

    Christian Women Who Believe
    God Talks to them Using An Inaudible Voice: 98 out of 100

    Well we have all heard many different ways in which God speaks to us. Lets summarize a few of them. He talks through burning bushes, He talks through an audible voice that sounds close to a human voice (see Samuel's story), He blinds us unexpectedly and then speaks to us, and He uses a 'still small voice' inside our head to communicate with us. Now all of these methods have one thing in common: Biblical examples of occurances. Oh wait! Not all of them have been recorded in Scripture as a way in which God uses to speak to us. Can you guess which one has no known occurances in Scripture?

    In every Biblical example of God communicating with man in which we know the means He used to communicate, it is an unambiguous (often intruding) experience in which the listener has no question in his mind whatsoever that God has spoken. Quite often in fact, His voice is accompanied by a miraculous sign (such as the burning bush or the blinding of Saul) and apparently, it's usually audible. The only uncertain occasions (and these are very few) are the post-ressurection New Testament occurances in which the Holy Spirit is said to have "told" or "led" someone to do something. With the few unknown occasions, doesn't it make sense to assume that the methods used would be similar to the methods used in the many known occasions?

    The danger in so many people claiming that God speaks to them through some 'still small voice' is that it put these individuals up high on their own little pedestal. Suddenly, their thoughts and opinions become equal with God's Word. (Here lies the problem in general but I digress.)

    My uncle is a professional pianist. He told me how once, early on in his career, he had auditioned/interviewed for the pianist position at 4 different churches in one week. Each of them got back with him and told him that they felt "God was calling him to their church". So now we see the danger of where this kind of lie leads to. Without realizing it, the sentimentalist is now claiming God's authority on their own trivial feelings, opinions and desires. This is very dangerous. This even becomes a way of speaking. "I feel God leading me to... " or "I feel God calling me to..." have now become part of the sentimentalist's vocabulary to the point where there are merely replacements for what an atheist might say: "I want to do this..." but there is no supernatural in most of these cases I'm sure.

    Another pathetic line I hear a lot is "you just have to learn how to listen". If you, a fallen man, can communicate to me without any problems, then why is God having such a difficult time getting in touch with me? Can't He just learn to speak how I will understand? Did God speak to Moses in Swahili and expect Moses to learn it if he wanted to understand? Did He speak to Saul in a still small voice disguised as Paul's own thoughts and feelings & Paul just had to learn to recognize those 'special feelings'? God always has and always will speak to us how we are already capable of understanding. We needn't help Him out in any way. He is fully capable of delivering His message.

    Now I am by no means claiming that God cannot / does not speak to us. This article on Greg Koukl's website was pretty interesting. He writes:

    I had a friend once that told me about how she really felt God wanted her to go and talk to a friend of hers who was a non-Christian that she worked with and tell him that God loved him. After much consternation and fighting she said, "Okay, God, I give in." She got up out of bed in middle of the night, drove to his house, knocked on his door. He answered the door and she said, "Well, I just have to tell you that God loves you"--she felt pretty silly. The guy broke down and cried--he had been contemplating suicide. In kind of a last ditch effort at contacting God he said, "God, if you don't stop me I'm going to kill myself tonight." Then he gets a knock on the door; this woman says, "God sent me over here to tell you He loves you." Pretty remarkable!

    I reccommend reading the entire article. I certainly believe that they happen but that they are special instances... not some every day occurance. The Holy Spirit indeed leads us and speaks to us through various circumstances etc... but don't confuse His voice with your own opinions and thoughts!

    Here's my conclusion on the matter: God’s voice is not a ‘still small voice’ inside you. God is not a cosmic machine that is constantly trying it’s hardest to make contact with man. Man needs no training, practice or spiritual gift to hear the voice of God and God needs no help to make His voice heard. If man be competent to communicate with another man, how much more competent is the Creator of man? Furthermore, the Holy Spirit can never contradict Himself.
     
  2. mojoala

    mojoala New Member

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    Just in case you were to lazy(you do know that laziness is a Sin>) to click on the link:

    Hearing God's Voice​


    Gregory Koukl
    Should you be trying to find out how God may be speaking to you so you can make sure you do the right thing? Maybe not. [​IMG]

    I get a lot of unusual and interesting things in the mail. I received a fax with eight sheets. The cover sheet says, "This fax is for Greg K.-- eight pages --who does not believe that God communicates with people today outside the pages of the Bible. Please read this paper, Greg. Thanks." It's signed Clem, and Clem, thank you for this communique.


    As I have skimmed through this and read some of the examples there are eight pages typed of illustrations that apparently come from Clem's life about God communicating with him. He's got two cases. He's got a case here: "audible in the outer ear, audible in the inner ear; dreams; strong impressions or thought; testimonies of others; the Bible; answered prayer and other ways." Some of these are very interesting. It would be kind of fun to read some of them, but I'm not going to because we don't have time.

    I've actually heard some really remarkable stories where it's absolutely obvious to me that God is speaking to somebody, He's doing something supernatural in directing. I had a friend once that told me about how she really felt God wanted her to go and talk to a friend of hers who was a non-Christian that she worked with and tell him that God loved him. After much consternation and fighting she said, "Okay, God, I give in." She got up out of bed in middle of the night, drove to his house, knocked on his door. He answered the door and she said, "Well, I just have to tell you that God loves you"--she felt pretty silly. The guy broke down and cried--he had been contemplating suicide. In kind of a last ditch effort at contacting God he said, "God, if you don't stop me I'm going to kill myself tonight." Then he gets a knock on the door; this woman says, "God sent me over here to tell you He loves you." Pretty remarkable! Gee, what do I say about that?

    Frankly, that's the way that this conversation usually goes when I make my point about guidance and God speaking to you, which is different than what Clem says my point is and I'll get to that in just a moment. Usually someone says, "What about this?" and then someone tells me their story. I was talking to some friends after service last night at Hope Chapel and it was the same thing--"Well, what about this? How do you explain this other thing?"--and someone gives me their personal account.
    [​IMG]
    I don't believe that God won't or can't or does not speak to us outside of the scriptures-- certainly He does.
    [​IMG]

    I have two responses to this. First of all, Clem, what you said that I believe is not what I believe. I do not believe that God only communicates with people today through the pages of the Bible and that any other communication is illegitimate. I do not believe that. I have never, ever said that. I'm not surprised that you think I said that because people consistently misunderstand me on this point. I'm a bit mystified by it, to be honest with you, because I have spoken about this so many times and I have taken such great pains to be clear about it. I have gone through such great efforts to be precise about my language. I suspect that maybe people just aren't listening to the words, the specifics. I'll give you some of those specifics in just a moment.


    I don't believe that God won't or can't or does not speak to us outside of the scriptures--certainly He does. In fact, the Scriptures make that point very clear. Someone asked me the question, "Do you believe God speaks to us?" I said, "Well, it kind of depends on what you mean by that." If you mean that God convicts us of sin through the Holy Spirit, which is an experiential thing, then yes, in a way. I mean when we are convicted by sin we feel that kind of "zap" that gets us. We're walking into the liquor store, guys, and there's this rack of magazines (you know what I'm talking about) staring you in the face as you're trying to buy your soda or whatever it is and you feel this little something inside of you--call it a voice, call it whatever you want--saying, "No, don't do that." That's conviction of the Holy Spirit and we might say that "God spoke to us," although it wasn't a voice, but that's the way God communicates to us. I believe in that because that's in the Bible, it's very clear.

    What about when we read the Bible, or anything for that matter, and we have this kind of quickening in our minds or in our souls of an awareness of a truth. We are zapped. We're punched. We're popped. It cuts to the quick of our hearts and we're aware of it. Clearly it's not something that we've conjured up, it's something that we are aware that God is doing in our heart. We sometimes say, "That's God speaking to me about this issue." I say, "Okay you can use that terminology." I agree with that kind of thing, whatever you want to call it, because the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit counseling us and the Holy Spirit teaching us. It also talks about the Holy Spirit comforting us, and there's a sense that's existential and experiential where we really sense God's particular comfort in our heart and we sense His nearness. We sometimes say that God showed me or told me how much He loved me and it's an experiential thing. Sure, I have no problem with any of that. All of that is taught clearly in the Scripture. But that's not usually the kind of thing that's in question when I have these kinds of discussions with people about God speaking and directing and leading and all of that.

    That leads me to the next point. The first thing is that that isn't what I believe. Secondly, what's interesting to me is look at the way people try to prove this idea that God is talking to us. They tell me their experience. Now their experience may be wonderful, but do you see how such a thing is circular reasoning? For me to say the Bible doesn't teach this and then someone to say, "Well, here's what happened to me." All they are telling me is what happened to them. They are not proving to me that God was involved with it just because it happened to them. That's precisely what's in question. I'm not questioning the experience, I'm questioning the source and the validity of the experience. Experience is not authoritative to me. Do you see that, ladies and gentlemen? I don't know why this doesn't sink in deeper with folks and they think that I'm denying the obvious.

    I'm just simply saying if the question is "does God speak to us today," then for you to say "God spoke to me" is not a compelling argument because you are assuming what you are trying to prove--that God is speaking.

    What is compelling to me is to go to the Scriptures and to show in the Scriptures where such a thing is a discipline.


    Keep in mind now that I have agreed that there is a way in which we can say that God speaks to us and those ways are clearly outlined in the Scripture. He convicts us of sin. He comforts us. He teaches us through the Holy Spirit. He also answers prayer, which is one of the things that was mentioned in Clem's fax. He mentions a time when God used a verse to teach him something. I don't take exception with this. It doesn't count as evidence against my view because my view doesn't conflict with that particular point.
    [​IMG]
     
  3. mojoala

    mojoala New Member

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    Instead of devoting ourselves to developing real maturity and attaining genuine Scriptural knowledge we go for the quick fix

    [​IMG]

    Here is my view. Does the Bible teach that we must learn to discern the voice of the Lord individually for ourselves to live optimal Christian lives? Does the Bible teach we must learn to discern the voice of the Lord individually for ourselves in order to live optimally as Christians? The answer is no it does not teach that. So when someone teaches that you hear the voice of the Lord individually for yourself for optimal Christian living as a Christian discipline, this is not a Biblical discipline, ladies and gentlemen. It is not in there. Are there incidents of God speaking? Yes, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the discipline of learning to discern the voice of the Lord for myself to live optimally as a Christian. It's not there.


    Does the Bible teach that we are to seek this kind of guidance? The answer is no. It does not teach that we are seek this kind of guidance. Does the Bible teach that we are to expect this kind of guidance? Again the answer is no. And since the Bible doesn't teach that we have to learn this skill, since it doesn't teach that we are to seek this kind of guidance, since it doesn't teach that we are to expect this kind of guidance, then I don't know what all the folderol is about. Well, yes I do.
    This teaching that God will whisper in your ear all kind of particulars that pertain to you and His will for your life is very appealing to Christians. Even though when you look at the Scriptures, the specialized directions are rare. They are unusual. They are usually unsought. And they are always crystal clear. None of this "I think the Lord is telling me" business. People are still gravitating to the suggestion that we can develop a sixth sense that can tie us into a hotline to God so that we can have certitude about the things of life and the decisions we ought to make. Why is this appealing? Because it's easy. It's easy. You know Americans are given to quick fixes and this is the American Christian quick fix. We are also given to individualism and this is the American individualistic view of Christianity--guidance decision making. It fits the American mentality, not the Biblical mentality, not the Christian mentality, the American mentality. And that's why this point of view is distinctly American. It's a quick fix. It's an easy way out. It's kind of like Cliff Notes, only worse.

    What happens here is that people don't do the hard work of learning. Part of my conversation last evening with a friend who is a very gracious person dealt with the issue of anointing and filling and I made the comment that I'd never been anointed by the Holy Spirit in my life, nor was any Christian ever anointed by the Holy Spirit. When I said that, jaws dropped. When I said that it was like I had said Jesus is a demon or something. "How could you possibly say this, Koukl? Haven't you ever felt the Holy Spirit well up inside of you?" I said, "Yes, I have." And they said, "Well, there you go. That's an anointing." I said, "That's not an anointing. That's a filling of the Holy Spirit." There has not been any anointing since Pentecost because the Holy Spirit is not on the outside, He's on the inside. There is a distinct difference between the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and that of the Old. The New being the fulfillment of the promise of Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 37 and following in Joel and a number of other places of the giving of the New Covenant.

    Now, here is what is interesting to me. I was having a conversation with a friend who was espousing this other point of view, at least in some measure, asking questions about it, and challenging me on it. She believes that this is an appropriate thing for Christians, yet at the same time this person didn't have a clear understanding of the difference between the old covenant and the new with regards to the working of the Holy Spirit, which is fundamental in understanding how to look at Christian life.
    This is my fear, ladies and gentlemen, and I'll end with this point. This skill is being offered, and what it ultimately involves, what it ultimately ends up being is a short cut to the real McCoy of knowledge and spiritual growth. Instead of investing our time learning the truth and working at making it a part of us so that we have a good understanding of the truth from the front to the back, from the beginning to the end, from Genesis to Revelation, we opt out for an easy way out, which is to let God just tell us and therefore we are not equipped. Not only that, but a lot of times when God tells us, what He tells us is false because it's not God telling us. So we've got a lot of screwy things going on with people who believe this kind of thing, and instead of being devoted to developing spiritual maturity and attaining Scriptural knowledge we want the quick fix, and then we call the quick fix spiritual maturity and knowledge. That's what is ironic about it. Instead of devoting ourselves to developing real maturity and attaining genuine Scriptural knowledge we go for the quick fix, and instead of developing mastery we want the Master to be sitting next to us during the tests of life whispering His answers in our ears. Do you know what that's called, ladies and gentlemen? That's called cheating. And there is no guarantee and no teaching and no instruction in the New Testament or Old that this is the way that we are to live our lives on a day to day basis. The only Word of God that we are ever enjoined to listen to is not the word that comes into our spiritual ears, as it were, from the spiritual ozone, but the Word that comes from the Scriptures. That's the one that we are told to learn, listen, heed, abide and hide in our heart.



    [​IMG] This is a transcript of a commentary from the radio show "Stand to Reason," with Gregory Koukl. It is made available to you at no charge through the faithful giving of those who support Stand to Reason. Reproduction permitted for non-commercial use only. ©1994 Gregory Koukl
     
  4. BobRyan

    BobRyan Well-Known Member

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    You seem to be downright alergic to God's Word!!

    Why not try scripture "For a change"??
     
  5. LeBuick

    LeBuick New Member

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    Mojoala, you ever believe in giving us a summary? Getting right to the meat? Getting to the point? Being more specific?
     
  6. BobRyan

    BobRyan Well-Known Member

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    Or maybe - having "some value for God's Word"??!!
     
  7. music4Him

    music4Him New Member

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    The Lord also speaks to us through dreams. :flower:
    Num 12:6
    And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
     
  8. PastorSBC1303

    PastorSBC1303 Active Member

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    I think it was Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God where he says that God normally speaks to us in three ways:

    1. The Bible

    2. People

    3. Circumstances

    Obviously #1 is the major way that God speaks to us. But I do not believe that God is limited to only that way. He can speak to us in any way that He desires.
     
  9. JFox1

    JFox1 New Member

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    God does speak to us through the Scriptures, circumstances, other people, dreams, and visions. He can even move us without saying a word.

    During the spring of 1985, I was in the library reading a Bible commentary, which stated that Christianity is a movement and that people should go to church. I'm an individualist and thought I didn't need to go to church. I worshipped at home.

    While walking down the street, I thought about what that commentary said. I thought, "Maybe I should go to church. I dunno." Suddenly, I felt a warm, loving Presence. I felt the presence from within, but mostly from without. I was moved. I then knew it was time for me to go to church.

    I looked up different denominations and what they teach in a book and checked the church listings in a newspaper. I decided to go to a local Methodist church. The pastor said he was starting a membership class the following week.

    Not only does God communicate without words, He also has excellent timing! :thumbs:
     
  10. Brother Bob

    Brother Bob New Member

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    He might have to drop you off a tall building on your head to get you to listen that to speak 2 or 3 words in the Spirit is worth more than ten thousand in long posts.
     
  11. mojoala

    mojoala New Member

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    This type of incident recently happened to another Christian musician I know. Except it was 5 Baptist Churches, all saying the exactly the same thing. All of these Pastors are just exhibiting that Mormom "Burning in the Bosom" feeling.
     
  12. mojoala

    mojoala New Member

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    God does not speak to us the way he did in the Bible. There is no evidence of God speaking to us other than in a manner that leaves us with no doubt that it has happened. Even in a dream it has been dramatic.

    Remember Paul says in 2 Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.


     
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