Revelation:

One of the reasons many Christians don’t believe that God speaks to them is that they don’t recognize his voice when they hear it and don’t understand the ways in which the Holy Spirit reveals God’s heart to us.  Paul helps our understanding with the following passages.

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)

 In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul reveals the process through which revelation comes to every follower of Jesus. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit searches the mind of God and Christ, takes their thoughts or feelings relevant to us, and reveals those thoughts and feelings to our spirit.  Our spirit, then, opens up those thoughts to our conscious mind so that we can perceive the mind and the heart of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).  Because of that, we often hear the voice of God as a thought, an impression, a mental picture, a dream, or a vision that rises from our spirit into our consciousness.

Because this “download” from God’s Spirit to ours is experienced in the same way that we experience our own thoughts, we often dismiss a word of revelation from God as something we have intuitively known or discovered ourselves. Nearly every Christian has thought of someone spontaneously whom they had not thought of in days or weeks.  But suddenly, out of the blue, they think of that person and sense that they should give him/her a call.  When they do call, they discover that their friend or acquaintance was in desperate need of prayer or encouragement.  Then, that Christian goes on his way thinking about what a lucky coincidence all of that was.  What that person experienced was a revelation from God.  It was a “word of knowledge” about that friend and a prompting to make the call. God just spoke to that believer through the Holy Spirit but it seemed like an intuitive thought.

Many believers have had premonitions or foreboding thoughts about an event, an accident, or a disaster that they cautiously avoided.  They simply call it a premonition as if something had been floating around in the atmosphere and they had randomly sniffed a whiff of the future. What they actually experienced was a prophetic warning by the Holy Spirit.

Nearly all believers who study the word have had a moment when one scripture pointed to another and then another verse came to mind and suddenly a string of theological dots were connected that seemed like brilliant insight. What that person experienced was the Holy Spirit leading her into all truth and reminding her of things Jesus had said (Jn.14:26).  God had just spoken truth to that individual through the Holy Spirit.

My point is that Christians who don’t believe in the miraculous gifts of the Spirit or God speaking to his people today, have nearly all operated in those gifts themselves and have heard from God on many occasions.   They just call it something else because they have not been trained to expect the voice of God to come to them in a variety of ways.

The scriptures also tell us that God communicates with his people through dreams and visions. If we do not expect God to speak to us in those ways we will simply “write off” those dreams as something produced by our own minds and imagination.

If you, as a believer, have not been open to the voice of God coming to you, God has undoubtedly spoken to you or revealed himself to you on numerous occasions, but you simply did not know it was the Lord.  As a young man, the prophet Samuel heard God’s voice clearly and strongly on several occasions but believed it was a human voice calling to Him.  He finally asked Eli, his spiritual mentor, about the voice and Eli discerned that God Himself had been speaking to the boy.  It was then that Samuel began to recognize the voice of God in his own life.

As we come to expect God’s voice, we will learn that it has qualities that set it apart from our own thoughts.  Often there is a spontaneous quality when God speaks to us.  We simply know that the thoughts we are experiencing are not thoughts that have come from our reservoir of experiences nor are they expressed in ways that are common to us.  God speaks directly to us, not about us.  Dreams from the Father tend to be vivid and unforgettable.  Eventually, those who hear his voice on a regular basis will intuitively know it is God speaking to them as the Father, the Son or the Spirit.In addition to the inner voice of the Spirit, we may also hear from God in other ways as well – angelic visits, the audible voice of God, prophetic words, circumstances, dreams, etc. God desires to speak to his children in a myriad of ways and does so. .

Part of the joy of the Christian life is hearing personally from our heavenly Father in a variety of ways.I want to encourage you to begin to sense all the ways in a day that God has revealed himself to you and to begin to scan your own thoughts when you are in the Word or have been in prayer to sense the Father speaking to you.  Invite him to speak. Then listen.  Write down whatever you are hearing even though it will most likely feel like your own thoughts or imagination.  Tomorrow, I will talk about discerning whether what you hear is from the Lord or another source.

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?

Today I want to start a mini-series about Hearing God.  I will admit that when I first believed God still spoke to his people I listened for a God-like voice in my head.  I assumed his voice would sound like the voice in Cecil B. DeMIlle’s old movie The Ten Commandments with Charleton Heston as Moses – deep, thunderous, mysterious. So I prayed and listened but never heard that voice. I think many Christians who have hoped to hear God speak may have had similar expectations and found themselves giving up on hearing from the creator of the universe.  But take heart.  God does speak to his people through his written word but also apart from it.  If you are uncertain about hearing God, these blog posts over the next few days may be helpful.

Let me tell you quickly why this is important. It is important because God wants to speak to his children personally like any father. The Bible is like letters from a Father to his family.  He gives the family history and writes down guidelines and wisdom for how the family should live and treat one another.  He even tells them some things about himself. But every parent knows that children are unique and have a unique destiny.  A good father will want to speak to that child personally in ways that his child can receive. He will want to speak to that son or daughter and tell them why they are so special.  He will want to speak into their unique destiny or give them counsel for their unique challenges. God is our Father.  He wants to speak to us as a family but also as individuals.

In addition, many of us carry wounds that are kept from healing by lies that the enemy has sown in our hearts.  Just as Christ verbalized words of healing to those he touched on the earth, emotional healing comes when God speaks to us about our wounds. Hearing or experiencing God in some other direct way is the most healing thing I know.  So…please spend some time reflecting on these next few blogs and consider a life of hearing God.

Hearing God

The majority of churches in America teach that God only speaks to us through His written word – the Bible. Many of us have been taught that God spoke directly to his people only in “Bible times.”  We were taught that all that we can now know is God’s general will for our lives from studying his word.  Then, we are left to discern His specific will for us from biblical principles. However, there are times when we need more.  Sometimes we face critical decisions.  Biblical principles can narrow down our options but sometimes we need specific direction. If we cannot hear from God about that situation, we are on our own.  Sometimes we don’t need direction but we certainly need encouragement or the affirmation of a father.  Even Jesus needed to hear, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  Sometimes we just need to hear from God the Father or Jesus the Son.  He is pleased to speak to each of his children and express his love to every son and daughter.

The apostles themselves faced a situation in Acts 1:15-26 in which they needed direction from the Lord.  There we find the apostles searching for another man to replace Judas as one of the twelve.  Jesus had given them the qualifications for one who would be an apostle.  In the end, they had two men who met all the qualifications but there was only one position. The will of God that had already been revealed was not sufficient to make this final decision. The apostles prayed and asked God to give them specific revelation for that one unique situation.  The apostles prayed and cast lots and through that process God directed them to the one man whose heart qualified him to be an apostle.  In our own lives there are times we need a little more than biblical principles.  There are times when we need to hear from God about specific needs or situations.  God is longing to speak to us about those things and many other things as well.

The biblical record is that throughout the centuries God has not only revealed His general will to His people through the written word but over and over he has also revealed His specific will to individuals so that they might step into the destiny He had established for them.    God’s heart, as revealed in the Bible, is very clear.  He wants to speak to His people as a group and as individuals and has gone to great lengths to do so. He wants to reveal not only his will but himself to us because knowing him in a personal way is essential for love, intimacy, and friendship.  God has shown himself to us in numerous ways.

• Through His creation.  (Rom. 1:20; Ps. 19:1-2)
• Through His prophets. (Heb. 1:1)
• Through His Son. (Heb. 1:2)
• Through His written word. (2 Tim. 3:16)
• Through direct encounters. (Gen. 18; Ex. 3; Ex. 33:7; 1 Sam. 3)
• Through the casting of lots and fleeces. (Acts 1:26; Judges 6:36-40)
• Through dreams and visions. (Acts 2:18)
• Through circumstances. (1 Sam. 14:6-12)
• Through visitations by angels. (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:11, 26, 2:13, etc.)
• Through His people to one another. (1 Cor. 14:26-33)
• Through the Holy Spirit by prophetic words, words of knowledge, impressions, tongues and interpretation of tongues, etc. (John 16:13; Rom. 8:14,16)
• And more….

God wants a relationship with you.  He wants intimacy and for that to occur there must be a dialogue where both parties listen and both speak – sharing their hearts with one another. God has gone to great lengths to do so and continues to share his heart, his will, and his ways with those who will listen.