Beware the Spiritual Panacea
Yes, you may think you are hearing a fantastic promise from God but if you think he is promising no suffering, no failure, and lots of prosperity, you are most certainly not hearing from God’s word. Perhaps you’ve heard the health, wealth and prosperity preachers. They make big money to drive big fancy cars and wear fine clothes and jewelry. After all, they know the secret, why not flaunt it to help you believe it.
Let’s recall the exchange between Jesus and Peter.
Matthew 16:21-23 (NKJV)
From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Peter was not happy about Jesus being killed (he did not understand the whole story yet, remember he was a little dense headed). This was Peter’s wishful thinking getting in the way of what the desire and will of God was from the foundation of the world.
Beware Satan’s imitation
Satan can appear as an angel of Light, or he can disguise his voice as that of God. When Jesus was tempted of Satan, you know how he knew he was wrong? Satan misquoted scripture. Jesus corrected him. How? because Jesus was quite familiar with God’s word. The only reason I make such an understatement about that (obviously Jesus knows the Bible) is to encourage you that you too can recognize Biblical truth.
What if we’re wrong?
Nobody’s perfect but one.
God’s Word is Key
Fredrick B Meyer’s says
The written word is the wire along which the voice of God will certainly come to you if the heart is hushed and the attention fixed.
Dallas Willard says:
Both in the experience of scripture and of other things—circumstances, our own inner thoughts and impulses, the reading of history or biography—God’s word frequently comes in a way that at least approximates the experience of an audible voice. When examined closely the data of Christian experience reveals that this is much more common than is generally thought. But the audibility of the voice is not anything essential to it, nor does it have any effect on reliability of our experience of the voice. The essentials The essentials remain, once again, the distinctive quality, spirit and content that we have learned through experience to associate with the personal presence of God.
Bottom line: All that is required for receiving salvation and a guiding word, is humility and openness before God’s Word recorded in the Bible. Be much occupied with that.
Last time I wrote about Hearing God, I discussed how there were three lights: circumstances, impressions of spirit, and passages of scripture that must somehow lineup without which, they tend to discount the veracity of whether such a message could be a “voice” from God for you at that moment.
The most important quality of knowing God’s voice is the same as knowing a person’s voice…familiarity. It is our familiarity with God’s voice that allows us to recognize it.
Song of Solomon 2:8; 5:2a (NKJV)
The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes Leaping upon the mountains, Skipping upon the hills.
I sleep, but my heart is awake; It is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying…
With a human voice, we recognize tone, modulation, style, and tempo. These would be characteristics of a voice produced by vibrating vocal cords. But as Willard says there is also a spirit in a voice that “would be passionate or cold, whining or demanding, timid or confident, coaxing or commanding.”
Matthew 7:28-29 (NKJV)
And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
E. Stanley Jones answers the question “how can we distinguish God’s voice from that of our own subconscious?”
The voice of the subconscious argues with you, tries to convince you; but the inner voice of God does not argue, does not try to convince you. It just speaks, and it is self authenticating. It has the feel of the voice of God within it.
Willard says the characteristic spirit of God’s voice is one of “exalted peacefulness and confidence, and joy, of sweet reasonableness and of goodwill. … any word which bears an opposite spirit most surely is not from God.
God’s voice has the weight of authority. God’s voice has energy packed power to effectuate supernatural events. But because God’s voice is so authoritative and powerful, it does not need to be loud.
Finally, content is king. Whatever that voice says, it must affirm
Christ and it must be in complete agreement with the Holy, inspired and inerrant Word of God.
Dallas Willard talks about three lights that form a sort of check and balance whether what we “hear” from God is true or not. They are:
It is suggested that when these three point in the same direction, we can be assured it points to where God would have us go. This perhaps sounds too much like a formula or a gimmick which we would not expect to be so simple but let’s examine it.
First of all, there is no doubt you must have a working familiarity and a confidence in the recognition of these “lights.”
What if you read a passage from the Bible, and you felt a clear impression of the Holy Spirit you should do something but the circumstances in your life either would not allow for it or were in some way hindering it. I think this would be a clear indication that God would have you to wait.
What is the biblical test of authenticity? I believe that it must contain a clear confession of Jesus Christ as Lord
1 Corinthians 12:3 (NKJV)
Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
1 John 4:2-3 (NKJV)
By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
I know that I have prayed a number of times for God to either open or close doors to make it clear whether to proceed or stop. But how do you know who is opening and closing doors? Is it God or Satan or another person? So Scripture and inner promptings of the Spirit must be a part of the analysis of such door opening and closing.
I think the point is that these three lights do serve to correct each other and perhaps are useful to only that extent. At any rate, these three lights seem to reflect the very things that must go on in our decision making process which is still necessary even when hearing from God.
I know I've made this point before in this series about "Hearing God" but I need to revisit it again because it is so important and fundamental. Everything we know about Jesus comes from the Bible. Most everything we know about the Holy Spirit comes from the Bible. I say most because someone never having heard God's word could still know his conscience is tugging him away from sin and that certainly would be the Holy Spirit. Most everything we know about God comes from the Bible. Again I say most because we can know His creative power by looking around us.
Romans 1:20 (NKJV)
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
So the reason I want to revisit this subject of Hearing God through the scripture is because the written Word is central to knowing God and knowing what He wants of us. Eagerly studying the word of God naturally and practically leads a person to knowing Christ and wanting to be like Him. I've seen the antithesis of this too, even in my own life. Disregarding the daily use of the Bible leads a person away from Christ. I can readily think of a number of individual people who, when I am around them, naturally draw me to Christ. Thinking about why this is so, I can easily point to the fact that they themselves are saturated in God's word, both devotionally and in their conversation. So, it is self-evident that God's word is vital to a close relationship with God.
Dallas Willard recommends reading the Bible with a submissive attitude. He says:
Study as intelligently as possible, with all available means, but never study merely to find the truth and especially not just to prove something. Subordinate your desire to find the truth to your desire to do it, to act it out!
That's the "how" part but regarding what to read, I know have used a "One Year Bible Reading Plan" before but I know I read much of it without absorbing it. On the other hand, I have struggled with the idea of just beginning to read whatever text my finger happens to open to. It's all good, right? Well, Willard has more good advice about "what" to read too.
We should begin with those parts of Scripture with which we have some familiarity, such as Psalm 23, the Lord's Prayer, the Sermon on the Mount, 1 Corinthians 13, or Romans 8.
Do not try to read a great deal at once...It is better in one year to have ten good verses transferred into the substance of our lives than to have every word of the Bible flash before our eyes...Do not hurry. Do not dabble in spiritual things.
The goal is for the truth of God's word to become part of us. That is to say, we need to assimilate the truth and to agree with it. Agreeing with the truth that we know well and can easily repeat is what it means to have the "mind of Christ." Willard gives five progressive steps as a process of attaining this goal when dealing with God's word:
Such use of God's word is a discipline. Ingrained habit and self-control are the keys behind such discipline. Everyday, devote yourself to this kind of exercise an you will find yourself being drawn close to God. Close enough to Hear from God.
This is a fascinating progression. Two can communicate but still be at a distance from each other, even disagree. But when communication becomes intimate, two can progress to a state of communion. Agreement becomes natural, thoughts are shared, one finishes the others sentences. Still, there is the awareness of two distinct persons sharing a common purpose for a time. Union is the ultimate stage of two becoming one, where oneness comes from total commitment and unselfish love and a desire to know and please the other. In union, there is no notion of "mine" and "yours"; it is all "our". This is the meaning of "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."
Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Trust is the key to confidence in such a union with Christ. Think about the disciples with Jesus on the sea of Galilee during the storm in that boat being tossed about. Jesus was asleep and the disciples were afraid and woke him crying for him to save them. Jesus rebuked them for their little faith and then calmed the storm. Knowing who Jesus was, and knowing they were in the boat with him, what was there to worry about? Would Jesus go down and perish with them in the storm? Jesus could sleep because he had faith that nothing would happen to him apart from the Father's will. No worries. Apart from falling out of the boat, the disciples were as safe as Jesus was. They could have derived all of their faith from Jesus' faith. They did not need to rely on their own faith because Jesus was in the same boat with them. In a similar way, the one who is in union with Christ can derive all of his faith from Jesus...not only faith but love, power, and peace of mind. Is this not what is meant by "having the mind of Christ?"
1 Corinthians 2:16 (NKJV)
For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
If Christ is in me and I no longer depend upon myself, then I don't just share the same thoughts with Christ, His thoughts are my thoughts. This is the ultimate in communication. There is no more medium through which the communication must travel. There can be no error in transmission.
OK, I must admit, all that seems high and lofty and not practical at all. But you'd say the same thing about a marriage between two lovers so devoted to one another they might describe their union in the same terms. It is the necessity of total surrender to another that is the barrier to believing this can be true.
Willard presents some very practical techniques for progressing towards this union. I'll be studying those next.
God's word has the power to create life. He made the plants and plant life is able to respond in that realm to the soil, sunlight and rain. God created animal life and in that realm animals can do much more than plants. They can eat, hear, and mate with each other. Plants are oblivious to the animal realm and in that sense are dead to animal kind of life. Humans live in a yet higher realm in which we can understand abstract thought such as mathematics, poetry, art and all manner of communication. The animal is dead to this kind of life.
There is an even higher kind of life that we as humans were meant to have--Eternal life. This is the realm in which we hear and communicate with God. God is eternal and to communicate with Him in that realm we must have an eternal kind of life. But since Adam we have been dead to this kind of life. How can we regain it? To enter any life you must be born into it.
John 3:3 (NKJV)
Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
The life creating power of God's word is what makes this new birth possible. Willard says "Without this birth we cannot recognize God's workings: we do not possess the appropriate faculties and equipment. We are like kittens trying to contemplate a sonnet."
1 Peter 1:23 (NKJV)
having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever
Don't think that God's "still small voice" is weak because it is still or small. This same voice created everything, all matter, energy and time and organized it all into the magnificent universe and the marvelous living chemistry of cellular life. How else would he have done it? He is not matter but spirit.
John 4:24 (NKJV)
God is Spirit
John 6:63 (NKJV)
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
Words are God's power and we have been made in His image and so when he gave us the ability to speak, He gave us a bit of that same power.
Proverbs 15:4 (NKJV)
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
My words can harm another person in terrible ways but my words can also build another person up.
If I invent anything or imagine a computer program that will perform some helpful task and then I take those thoughts and express them in words organized in a careful way then I have created something from shear thought and words. No matter how much material I had to push around or how much energy I had to expend, the fact is that the end product would not have exited apart from the original thought. When I speak it is the expression of the mind. In this sense all expressions of my mind are my "words" just as all expressions of God's mind are the "words" of God.
The ancient philosophers spoke of the "prime mover." It was an argument for the existence of God. The fact that things are in motion means that there has been a chain of events in which things are moved by a mover which itself was moved by a prior mover and so on. To avoid an infinite regression, there must be an unmoved mover or the first mover, itself unmoved; this prime mover is God. But how did He do it? He did not touch the thing because that implies a physical action of the mover contacting the moved. Since God is spirit, there is no contact. It was idea, thought, the mind of God, in essence the word of God which did the moving.
Willard speaks of our ability to have a thought and an immediate action. I am thinking as I type this sentence but I am not aware at all of how my fingers tap the keyboard. They just do; I think and they move.
Psalm 33:9 (NKJV)
For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
The greater the faith, the easier it is to exercise it. Think about that. With great faith, there is no need to bother with worry; your great faith keeps you from having to. With great faith, it is easy to believe. I am not talking about great leaps of faith. No a great faith must be in something that is dependable and sure. Does this not describe God?
Weak faith is hard. There is doubt and struggle. It seems as if you have to bolster it with determination and mustering. Who wants that?
Willard reminds us of the story about the Centurion who went to Jesus to ask him to heal his servant who was near death with sickness. Jesus was ready to go to his house to heal the servant when the Centurion spoke like this:
Luke 7:6-8 (NKJV)
Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, "Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
Jesus marveled at this man's faith saying verse 9 "I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!"
Why did Jesus consider this man's faith as great? It was because of the ease with which he believed that Jesus could heal from a distance by just speaking a word.
Of course, Willard's point is to point out the power of words and how that relates to the better desire to hear words from God and not just receive visions. Words created the universe. Words can build up and words can destroy. Because of the power of words, "that still small voice" of God is what we want to hear.
Dreams and visions can be interpreted in many different ways and Willard concludes that for this reason that these forms of communication are inferior to the “voice” of the Lord. There has some scriptural evidence for this in the following passage:
Numbers 12:6-8 (NKJV)
Then He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream.
Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, Even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?”
Now the context for this occasion was the jealousy of Moses’ sister and brother, Miriam and Aaron who wanted to hear from God the same way Moses did. Notice what God says about superiority of plain sayings versus dark sayings. If the message is muddled and unclear, it is not from God. If you hear God’s “still small voice,” it will be clear and articulate, you will have no doubt about the meaning. This will be the mark of a mature, conversational relationship with God.
Then what is the purpose of dreams and visions which may not be clear and precise in their meanings? Of course, not all dreams or visions are from the Lord. I suppose some might result from that late-night, fast-food meal you scarfed down right before going to bed. But God says he speaks in dreams and visions and we conclude that where the message is obscure that God is still communicating something. Think about what can occur from having such dreams and visions. I could be struck with fear or motivated to seek and investigate or even to slow down and listen more closely. Certainly these results can be the purpose of God’s working in the life of an immature believer or even an unbeliever. I can think of several unbelieving kings in the Bible whom God gave dreams and motivated them to cease from doing harm to God’s people.
Willard concludes that the “more spectacular is the less mature.” With maturity in the Lord comes that “still small voice.” Why should that be? It is only with maturity that the child of God can be entrusted with the more complete knowledge of the holy.
All this talk of hearing God could be dangerous. After all, it is possible to be mistaken yet convinced that God is telling you something. I have heard a number of "prophets" in Christian circles who had a message from God for the church. But the message somehow seemed out of character. Typically, this urgent message from an determined individual would emphasize one doctrine or particular phrase from scripture out of context and out of proportion from other balancing doctrines. Of course, this is exactly how cults get started.
So on the subject of hearing God as it relates to individuals, I think we are talking about a personal message for that person's edification or conviction of sin or of guidance. I think it can be a word for others as well but it will always be consistent with God's revealed word and the message transmitted to others in this way will be personal to these others as well.
But a leader in the church should never discourage one from hearing from God. The express purpose of Jesus leaving us the Holy Spirit was for such individual communication. Helping others to hear from God is a wonderful thing. Willard writes of Abraham helping his servant in this way:
How wonderful that Abraham could assure his puzzled servant that God was guiding him back to the city of Nahor to find a wife for Issac! How wonderful that the servant could come to an utterly new understanding of God because he did experience guidance and was indeed guided into knowledge of guidance itself!
Here are the first few verses of that chapter but go read the rest of this story, it will thrill you to see how the servant worked with God who guided him.
Genesis 24:1-7 (NKJV)
Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. 2 So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, "Please, put your hand under my thigh, 3 and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; 4 but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac."
5 And the servant said to him, "Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?"
6 But Abraham said to him, "Beware that you do not take my son back there. 7 The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, 'To your descendants I give this land,' He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.
So the upshot is that we need to help others to hear from God too. This is not a privilege which should be held close because it is too dangerous to be used by the masses. No, every child of God should expect to hear from Him.