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Thoughts on God Speaking

God speaks.  Not often, in an audible voice from the sky, but he does speak.  In the Bible he spoke with a voice, he showed pictures and visions and dreams to people.  Today people speak of impressions in their spirit or mind, which was not talked about in the Bible.

Today, I believe that people claim God speaks much more than he does.  The primary reason I say this is that God does not need to speak at all.  God has said all that is needed in his Word, the Bible.  We have everything that is required for life and godliness in the pages of our Bibles.  Bibles are not hard to get, except in anti-God countries, yet we still manage to smuggle them into every country and people group.  

For those that claim God is a veritable chatterbox I have to wonder what value that brings to their life.  People who claim to hear God’s voice all the time do not seem to have greater biblical understanding.  In fact, people who hear God’s voice all the time tend to be less educated in the theological truths of Scripture, and tend to function at the fringes of orthodox Christianity.  This is why it is dangerous.  

Another reason that it is dangerous to claim that God speaks all the time is that it shuts down all conversation and discussion.  When I have met with pastor groups and we get talking about outreach or some other evangelical topic, and someone simply says, “God reveraled to me that we need to do this.”  The discussion is over.  No Christian will have the courage to say that God did not speak, because we all believe he can.  No one will say that what God said is a bad idea, because God never has any bad ideas.  The result, usually, is that the person claiming revelation then takes control of the topic and we all end up doing what they want or people lose interest and nothing gets done.  

Life would be easier if people who claim to hear God speak would take what he says and apply it to themselves only.  To bleieve that God spoke to a single person and that vague word applies to every pastor in a meeting or a town is ludicrous for one simple reason.  If God is going to change the direction of ministry for 12-15 pastors, why wouldn’t God tell everyone, or at least two people.  In the Old Testament, God made it clear that 2 or 3 witnesses were required for a testimony to be believed.  We seem to have forgotten that.

For me, God speaks through his Word and answered prayer.  That is it, and that has worked well for me and my Christian growth.  Back in 1984, God called me to the ministry in a dream.  I presented the dream to other Christians I know and to some pastors I called out of the phone book.  God has never spoken to me in a dream, vision or words since.  

I also consider that the longer a person has been a Christian, the more their mind is being renewed by the Holy Spirit.  One author said that Christians, after a few years, learn to think God's thoughts after him.  If we are thinking the thoughts that God has thought, he does not have to speak at all.  Just stay in his Word, let your mind be renewed and think godly thoughts.


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