Is God talking to me and you?

The only time God isn't talking to me is when I'm not listening.

 

I agree,John...when we do not listen to God's perfect Word and allow it to have complete authority in our lives,we miss out on God's perfect plan for our lives.

 

Being a child of God, you have a new heart which God has filled with His special kind of love. If you are walking in the light of this love you don't need a commandment on a printed page to tell you to help a widow in need.

If you do, you are still a babe in Christ (I know you are not).

However, please don't take this to mean that I believe our Father in heaven doesn't want us to have His written Word to nourish spirit and soul and renew our minds.

HankD

 

I absolutely disagree,with all due respect. Yes,(I do agree with this part of what you said)we should love others because God has given us the ability to love,but we see how to live and what we should be doing from His Word...I happen to need His Word to guide me and show me His ways...otherwise,I am just acting on impulse. These impulses may cause me to do good,that is not the point...the source of my doing good should come from His Word,his commandments,His precepts,His laws,His warnings,His exhortations,etc.

 

Thereis a wonderful book entitled *The Chrisitian's guide on Guidance* By Jay Adams...it is exceptional.

We(my husband and I)growing up people in church saying that had felt led to do this and so on...it was very confusing because we were never sure of God's leading yet we did decide to do things that we thought were helpful to the body or a service to someone in need...mainly because of our love for others and trying to help others. There was no special feeling or certainty involved,just a willing heart wanting to please God.

As we sought the Truth,we became convinced that God does lead a guide us,but we can not trust ourselves nor our feelings when declaring that God was leading us to do somehing.

For example,say a pastor was asked to speak at a church in another town...one might say,yes,God is leading me to go there and preach...others may say,yes,I can do this...I have time,God desires for me to teach and preach,this would be a good thing to go help edify this particular body...there is nothing mystical about it...nobody has a special voice or direction from God,we all have His written Word,though. When someone says they were led to do something,it sounds as if they have actually heard from God on this particular thing,,,how can that be?Why not just say,God has given me this oppurtunity and I would like to do it. God can give us desires.

When he *calls*men to be pastors,it says if they have a desire to do this,it is a good thing. Obviously God can give us His will through His desires becoming our own. You can not base an importnant decision like that on your own interpretation of a *feeling of peace* or whatever.

I would recommend the book by Jay Adams...it was most helpful to us.

Molly

 

2 Corinthians 3:2
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

You've got a long way to go as a Christian Lacy.


IMO of course.

HankD

 

Being a child of God, you have a new heart which God has filled with His special kind of love. If you are walking in the light of this love you don't need a commandment on a printed page to tell you to help a widow in need.

If you do, you are still a babe in Christ (I know you are not).

However, please don't take this to mean that I believe our Father in heaven doesn't want us to have His written Word to nourish spirit and soul and renew our minds.

HankD </font>[/QUOTE]I think I understand were you're coming from Hank, but when God tells you something, it must be in align with the word of God. As Molly said, God does not tell you to go to the store and get some groceries for a elderly lady, it is first in his word and then God might remind you of his word. But also, the Holy Spirit is there to help in your daily life.

 

Molly, I think you have a good point there about our feelings sometimes leading us and we can misinterpret them and think that was God when it was our own heart all along. Others have pointed out that we can read the very Bible and be mistaken in our interpretation of a particular passage. And we all know that we can reason and it is human for us to err within our attempts to use our only human reason and our only human wisdom - which is of course the only reason and wisdom we have got!

In my experience when attempting to discern the will of God it takes, ultimately, everything you've got - your reasoning powers, your bible interepretation, and yes, guidance from God through these and along side these. And even then in all sincerity it is possible to be in error.

But by using every option we've got, including our reasoning, our careful reading of God's word, and our heartfelt prayers for guidance, we can make fewer mistakes.

 

My two cents:

I believe God is still speaking to his people today, however I believe it is on an individual basis instead of a general one. The Bible is a general Book for ALL of us. We all need to read it, understand it and obey it. However when it comes to the specifics of what we do in our every day life, I don't need to know what God is telling YOU to do about whatever subject is concerning you at the moment.

I ask for and recieve God's direction every day. His is a leading I can feel. If I feel something that is contrary to his written word then I know it is not from Him. Does he speak out loud to me? Only once.

When I was a teenager my family life left something to be desired. Verbal and emotional abuse were comman. (these things were because of my mothers perscription drug abuse and mental illness) Physical abuse was less common but was happening more often. Usually from my mother who liked to reach out and smack someone(me) when she was frustrated. This particular time it was my dad that beat me with a stick at the behest of my mother.

I knew what I was supposed to do according to the Bible(honor thy mother and father), but things were getting worse and worse. The only way I saw out of this was to leave. And that is what I did.

A couple of hours after I left(in the middle of the night) I found a place to sit and rest for a while. I wasn't a happy person right then. I was hurt, angry and even a little guilty. While I was resting there I HEARD the Lord tell me to get up and go back home that things would get better. I got up and went home. The promise God made me was kept. After that my parents rarely touched me and though the verbal abuse continued it wasn't nearly as bad as before.

All that to say this: When the Lord speaks to you, you will KNOW it. There will be no doubt.

You can call it talking, or the impression of the Holy Spirit or whatever you want to call it.

None of what I was told had any application to anyone(or everyone) else's life. It was specific to me. Now the Lord could have just said 'well she knows what the Bible says' and not given me a direct word. But I know that without that word I would have continued on my way and not looked back. If I had, I would have missed out on a lot of blessings I have recieved since. The beginning of the promise was kept as I told you above. I haven't seen the end of the promise yet, but it was impressed upon me a while back that the blessings I am recieving NOW are a result of my obedience then.

If you listen, you will hear the Lords voice, but you have to be receptive to Him.

 

Are you saying it was in an audible voice?

Maybe you were very emotional at the time and God recalled those verses to you that prompted you to do what was best for you at the time.

I'm sorry for what you went through and I know God helps those in distress. I do not believe God speaks in an audible voice,though.

 

I read it.

But God doesn't need for us to read the Scripture to save us. Do you believe in infant regeneration should they die before accountability?

Some believe that God regenerates us without the Word, then we are reborn, then we understand and believe the Scripture.

How about John the Baptist who was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb?

HankD

 

Wasn't no verse recollection. Nor was it an audible voice such as between two people talking. More of a tremendous impression that I felt and heard with my entire being, not just my ears.

God, by the way is not limited to what we believe he can/will do.

 

I'll just add a reminder that Satan wants to be like the Most High ... he masquerades as the Most High ... he's also a master of deceit, just look around.

Kathy
&lt;&gt;&lt;

P.S. Amen Molly! Agree totally with you!!

 

God is the Logos. I have been talking about the written word.

So what? BTW, I don’t equate myself with John the Baptist because I have a higher calling. I am one with Christ. John the Baptist is simply an example proving that God is able to do what He wants when He wants without consulting our theology books or asking our opinion or permission.

God through His Holy Spirit is dealing with every human being on earth. “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world”

No, I didn’t say that you just said that.

So what? Mine says the same thing.

How do we find out about being born of the flesh? Our awareness of this world grows until we have self-identity. So also in the spiritual world. One does not need to know all about the processes of digestion and assimilation to eat a meal. I became a new creature in Christ the day I was saved. I didn’t know exactly what happened but my whole life was turned around and I loved it and Him.

True, it is His interpretation unless of course one has deluded one’s self into thinking it is His when it is really an admixture of His and one’s own interpretation.

Jeremiah 17
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

HankD

 

I'm getting the feeling that some of you don't believe that a Christian has the ability to understand the difference between what God has/is telling us and what Satan might be trying to tell us.

For that I give you John 10:14, the words of Jesus himself, "I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep and am known by My own."

And again in John 10:27, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me."

Now you may say I am taking these verses out of context. But I don't believe I am. These passages are all about the job Christ was sent to do, why He was sent and HOW we are to know that He was sent. I believe that when we hear his voice calling us to salvation and we accept that salvation(thereby becoming his sheep) that we never forget what His voice sounds/feels like. We might lay the knowledge aside because we don't want to hear what he is saying, but I don't believe we forget what it sounds like.