Here’s your first point of misinformation – That God Only Speaks Through His Word…
God is a God that not only pursues us, He is a God that likes to be pursued. So if you want to hear God’s voice, you have to spend time in study and prayer and fasting. You have to turn your back off the superficiality of worldliness and Sin.
Steve Karma
The fact that God does speak through other means apart from His word doesn’t mean that you’re not supposed to know your bible well, nor that you are not supposed to saturate your mind with the biblical stories, and experience the emotions those stories are supposed to invoke. So, it’s not like God wants you to memorise the passage: “You worship me with your lips but your hearts are far from me.” But He wants you to feel the rebuke of that passage for all the times that worship has been an external ritual.
Where it becomes something you do, but not who you are. Look and live in the Word, memorise it, speak it out loud, pray it, sing it, meditate on it, study it, act on it, preach directly from it (so what you say and how you say it comes from the text). Which admittedly I am not always good at but, Life Group Leaders and Preachers especially, the type of literature you are teaching should shape the style in which you teach and (everybody) the way in which you hear.
- A story should be experienced as a story.
- And a prophetic rebuke as a rebuke.
- The Bible is the voice of God.
- And the sole authority for what YOU believe and how YOU live as a Christian, and how we do Church.
- But don’t think it is the only way that God speaks.
God spoke to Jacob in a dream, because the Bible had not been written yet. Also God does speak through visions and dreams and impressions and continues to do so.
Steve Karma
“God is a God that not only pursues us, He is a God that likes to be pursued. So if you want to hear God’s voice, you have to spend time in study and prayer and fasting.”
Steve Karma
- Because where does that leave:
- The illiterate.
- Those without Bibles.
- Or those who will die having never read Bible.
- Or how are you supposed to find direction on the things of life, not specifically found within the pages of scripture.
- Like what house you are to buy.
- Or what job you are to take.
- Here’s what the Bible says, Acts 2;
17 ‘And it
shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My
Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream
dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My
maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in
those days;
And they shall prophesy.
God spoke to Jacob in a dream, because the Bible had not been written yet. Also God does speak through visions and dreams and impressions and continues to do so.
The Psalms should remind you that the sky and sea speak of His power. And that God speaks in poems and songs. The Proverbs should remind you that God speaks through common sense and wisdom sayings. And the historical narratives like Genesis. Remind us that God speaks through the events of human history. And therefore, you can expect to hear His voice. Yes, in a way that is subservient to the teaching of the Scriptures.
Steve Karma
The question you may now ask is how might you experience that?
Be in a relationship with God
The bible says, “His sheep hear His voice.” And it says that “The Spirit will lead us into all truth.” You cannot walk in the Spirit unless you have been filled with the Spirit. And you cannot be filled with the Spirit unless you are born again in the Spirit. And you can’t be born again in the Spirit unless you repent of your sin and embrace God as your LORD and Saviour.
Devote Yourself to Pursuing God
James Montgomery Boyce said:
“We do not have a strong church today, nor do we have many strong Christians.
We can trace the cause to an acute lack of sound spiritual knowledge…
Ask an average Christian to talk about God.
After getting past the expected answers you will find that his god is a little god of vacillating sentiments.”
God is a God that not only pursues us, He is a God that likes to be pursued. So if you want to hear God’s voice, you have to spend time in study and prayer and fasting. You have to turn your back off the superficiality of worldliness and Sin. You have to allow Him to become that which you cherish more than life itself, and serve Him with all of your being. Some of you are far too cool, or far too important, or far too busy to have this experience. That’s for the keen or the young, or you would never say it. But, the losers and the nobodies. But Jesus said: “Those that want to be great are the ones that serve.”
Expect to Hear His Voice
The Psalms should remind you that the sky and sea speak of His power. And that God speaks in poems and songs. The Proverbs should remind you that God speaks through common sense and wisdom sayings. And the historical narratives like Genesis. Remind us that God speaks through the events of human history. And therefore, you can expect to hear His voice. Yes, in a way that is subservient to the teaching of the Scriptures. And yes in a way that needs to be confirmed and checked with others. And yes, it should be done in a humble way. But God speaks to you, and you just need eyes to see and ears to hear.
