God Speaks
Jesus said, “My sheep hear My Voice.” and “Whoever is on the side of truth listens to Me.”
(some caveats about hearing God’s Voice)
That doesn’t mean that everyone who follows Him hears an audible voice, though I have known some to have that experience. It doesn’t mean that everyone will dream dreams or see visions, but many do have this experience.
God speaks through the Bible in 1 Corinthians 12 that God is not like the mute idols that are incapable of articulate speech, but no one speaking by the Holy Spirit can call Jesus accursed and no one can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit. Of course, prophecy is God speaking through His people. True preaching is God speaking through His people, however, much of what is called preaching is not the same thing that the God tells us about through the Bible. But we are all commanded to speak as the oracles of God, that is, the very mouthpiece of God. The Gospel is not a naturalistic message. God is supernatural.
- Does God speak?
- If He is Lord, He must be leading.
- If He is leading, then He must be communicating His will
- God speaks. That is the very method by which faith comes.
- How does He want us to respond?
- I can’t hear You?
- I’m not doing that?
- Help me, Lord?
- Help my unbelief?
- What is it called when we don’t respond in submission?
- Sin
- Wickedness
- Evil
- How does God speak?
- through the Bible (we don’t worship the Bible but God speaks to us through it.)
- through His people
- the spiritual senses
- the creation
- through other Christians
- How can we know it’s God’s Voice?
- God never contradicts Himself, so He will never direct you in a way that is contrary to what He has already spoken in His written Word (Utterance), the Bible.
- Don’t be over confident. The human mind is easily fooled by Satan and social pressure.
- Walk close to God. A lukewarm mind will dull your senses.
- Obey those things of which you are certain (walking away from evil, doing what is good, those things that conform to Scripture, etc.). Discernment is made more keen by repeated obedience to Him.
- Discern between the message of this current age and the Voice of God. “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right (observing the divine laws), whatever is pure, whatever is lovely (leading toward love), whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy”
- God has restored the office of apostle. There are also false apostles. They have one doctrine. They are in unity and in submission to each other, being governed by each other with authority. They are set to equip the saints until we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to one totally complete Man (Christ the Body in total submission to Christ the Head walking in total order and unity) unto the measure of the stature or the fullness of Christ. God leads anyone who truly seeks Him to those He has chosen for this and shows those false apostles to be false to anyone who is sincere.
What does the Bible say about God speaking?
If God were not to speak to each of us individually, there is no way that anyone could possibly know that the Bible is the Word of God without error.
If any person claims that God does not speak to them but that the Bible is the Word of God that person is forced to use circular reasoning. If God doesn’t speak to us, then the atheists are correct in saying that we are guilty of circular reasoning in saying that we say that we know the Bible is without error because it says that it is. No. God is speaking to us through the Bible and God is telling us that the Bible is without error. God is speaking to us through the Bible He is telling us that He speaks. We know that the Bible is the Word of God without error because the Holy Spirit teaches us this fact in our innermost minds and confirms it by His very Utterance through the Bible. Below are only a few of the many verses through which God is declaring that He speaks to His people.
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by [the] word (Greek: rhema = utterance) [of] God.
2 Timothy 3:16 ESV All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (this is true when it was written and whenever it is read or remembered)
John 10:27 My sheep hear My Voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
John 18:37b Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this purpose: to affirm the truth as an actual witness. Everyone who is on the side of truth hears My Voice.
Hebrews 3:15 While it is said, “Today if you will hear His Voice, don’t harden your innermost minds, as in the provocation.”
1 Corinthians 12:2-3 2 You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these mute (incapable of articulate speech) idols as you were led. Therefore, you must understand that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus cursed and that no one can say that Jesus is the Lord, except by the Holy Ghost.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when you received the utterance of God which you heard from us (the apostles), you received it, not as human utterance, but as it is in truth, the Utterance of God, Which effectually works also in you who believe.
1 Peter 4:11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the very mouth of God…Luke 10:16 He who hears you hears Me; and he who despises you despises Me; and he who despises Me despises Him Who sent Me.
Proverbs 30:5-6 Every Utterance of God is refined; He is a shield to those who flee to Him for protection. Don’t’ add to His Words, lest He reprove you, and you be found a liar.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, Who is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you.
John 15:26 But when the Comforter has come, Whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me:
John 16:13 However that may be, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all Truth: for He shall not speak separately Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come.Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit, Himself, makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.
Numbers 12:6-8 6 And He said, Hear My Words now: If there is a prophet among you, I Jehovah will make Myself known to him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all My House. With him will I speak Mouth to mouth, in a way that can be seen, and not in something that must be guessed, and he shall look at the form of Jehovah. Why then weren’t you afraid to speak against My servant Moses?
1 Kings 19:7-13 And the angel of Jehovah came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” Elijaharose and ate and drank and walked in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mountain of God. He came to a cave and lodged there. The word of Jehovah came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” And Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for Jehovah God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and slain Your prophets with the sword; and I’m the only one remaining, and they seek to take my life.” And Jehovah said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before Jehovah.” And, Jehovah passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke the rocks in pieces before Jehovah, but Jehovah was not in the wind. And after the wind an Earthquake, but Jehovah was not in the Earthquake. And after the Earthquake a fire, but Jehovah was not in the fire. And after the fire a still small voice. Elijah listened in obedience, wrapping his face in his mantle. And he went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And, a Voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Romans 1:20-21 For that which cannot be seen of Him is clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, not only His eternal Power but also His Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, when they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor were they thankful, but they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish innermost minds were darkened. ]
Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day to day utters speech, and night to night shows knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their measuring line has gone out through all the Earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the Sun,
1 Chronicles 16:30-34 Dance before Him, all the Earth: the world also shall be stable so that it is not moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the Earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “Jehovah reigns.” Let the whole sea roar. Let all the fields rejoice. Then the trees of the wood shall give out a ringing cry of praise and exultation at the Face of Jehovah, because He comes to judge the Earth.
Extra-biblical revelations:
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (This would apply to all the reasonings of men in trying to understand Scripture and also to those who claim special revelation but are being deceived by their own minds. For instance, God may speak to you and tell you to help some person, but God will not tell you to commit a sin.)
Galatians 2:2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. (Paul knew that he must check the revelation that he had received with the revelation that the other apostles had received. He could not establish doctrine on his own.
Peter, though God had given him such a vision and confirmation of the vision, did not try to establish doctrine on his own but went to the other apostles in Acts 15. Note that doctrine was determined not by rationalization mixed with logic but by revelation through apostles.
Some try to limit God to speaking through the Bible, but the Bible says that He speaks through many means. God is not limited by human theology that proclaims a human-generated gospel that is not in the Bible. When someone claims that God only speaks through the Bible, that person is claiming that the Bible is incorrect. They limit God’s ability and denigrate what God is doing among His people. There have always been false prophets and false teachers, but these never negated the true and the real. In fact, the persons who limit God have actually made themselves false teachers who teach something that the Bible does not teach.
On the other hand, there was once a person who would ask God which way she should turn at each intersection when going to work every morning. See how different that is from being in an attitude of prayer and attention to God while driving to work every morning. There was a man who had trouble with his truck. He took it to a qualified mechanic who changed a part, but the trouble continued. The mechanic tried something else that didn’t work. And the mechanic tried a third cure the didn’t work. As the owner of the truck was driving along, he suddenly knew the solution. The mechanic reluctantly tried the simple solution, and the truck was fixed. The man was bragging to his wife about how he had figured out the problem when the mechanic could not. His wife said to him, “That didn’t come from you. God showed it to you.” She was right. The man was not a mechanic and had no way of knowing the way to fix his truck. We ought to live in expectation for God’s leading. If we don’t know what to do, we ought to be praying to God for the answer. Often, God makes the answer obvious before us, but we ought always to remember that all knowledge, wisdom, and understanding comes from Him.
Let God be true and every man a liar. Believe God. Don’t limit His power. Beware of false prophets and false teachers. Beware of lying spirits.
