This is the second part of a series about God speaking to his people. In Part 1, we explored the heart of God that deeply desires to reveal himself to his people and all the ways in which he has done that through the centuries. In this part we will discover that God’s word frequently emphasizes his speaking and our hearing in addition to reading the written word.
There are actually two Greek words that are translated “word” or “the word” related to what God says. Logos tends to emphasize the entirety of God’s written communication to his people which is the Bible. Rhema tends to emphasize a fresh word from God, which is not a binding revelation for all believers, but something that speaks to a certain situation or an individual. Both words are used in the N.T. and the natural reading of the New Testament would not suggest that God’s fresh word to individual believer’s or churches was confined to the first century. So, if you have been taught that God no longer speaks to his children apart from the written word, let me encourage you to take a fresh look at some familiar scriptures.
Although God speaks to us in many ways his primary agent for communicating with His people is the Holy Spirit. The written word of God is his most available communication to us but even when we are seeking to know God and his will through personal reflection on the scriptures, the Holy Spirit is the one giving us understanding and application of that word. We experience the Holy Spirit in those moments as insight or understanding, but without the Spirit “speaking” to our spirit, we could not even understand God’s word as he intends. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
But through the Holy Spirit, God also speaks to our hearts and minds apart from our reflection on the Word. Note the following scriptures and the words or phrases that have been bold-faced for emphasis.
The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep…He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…his sheep follow him because they know His voice … they do not recognize a stranger’s voice … I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep know me. (Jn. 10:2-5, 14-15)
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. (Rom. 10:17)
But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will only speak what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. (Jn. 16: 13-14)
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor. 2:10-14)
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (Rom. 8:16)
This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it – the Lord is his name. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jer. 33: 3)
Notice that these scriptures use words that signify direct communication between God and his people. It shouldn’t surprise us. From Genesis to Revelation, the biblical record is that God spoke to individuals face to face, through his Spirit as the word of the Lord came to numerous men and women, through dreams and visions, and through angelic visits.
God spoke in these ways in the Garden, from the Garden to the giving of the Law at Sinai, from the giving of the Law to the cross and, more than ever, after the cross and the sending of the Spirit by Jesus. Why would we assume he would suddenly stop speaking a fresh word to his people somewhere around the end of the first century when it is evidently the nature of God to speak to his children through his written word (whether the Torah or the New Testament) and through a freshly spoken word. Since, God is the same yesterday, today and forever should we not expect to hear his voice on a personal level since we are his children?
