God Speaks with His Children

 July 24, 2024

Wednesday

There are some people that believe that God no longer speaks to His followers except directly through the Bible. In other words, the words that they read are the messages that God has for them. They make some great points but I have had other experiences when I know that God was speaking.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that God has ever contradicted the words in the Bible. He hasn't and won't. However, experiences need to be discerned. We may end up wondering if it was God when it wasn't or saying it wasn't God when it was. So, how do you tell?

The first way has already been stated. God will not violate what He has already said. At this point someone will say that God did that when He told Peter to eat foods that had been considered unclean. While that is true, the point of the Acts story is that the Gentiles would be offered salvation without first becoming Jews. The Christian Jews struggled with that concept. Their practice as Jews made it seem like this could not be the case. It took the Apostles to straighten all of this out. So, what do we learn from that story? As long as God was making a people unto Himself, He had strict dietary laws. Once the gates were opened to all peoples, He relaxed those laws.  

The great difference is that we have a completed Bible today. It has the Old Testament and New Testament intact. There will not be any more Bible written. The Bible is a settled issue as the word of God and will not be added to.

However, once we get beyond right and wrong, does God say more to us individually. Yes, is the answer. How can you say that Jesus wants a personal relationship with us and also say that He never speaks to us. Often we will hear God when we pray. Our spirits listen to His Spirit. He made our spirits alive when we trusted in Christ. His Spirit is made to live in us and will be with us always. Often the Spirit clarifies a scripture. Often that scripture is applied to us. Often we are told exactly what we must do without our names appearing in the scriptures.

I also have stories of godly people coming to me to give me a message from God. I have also heard sermons when that has happened. God uses godly people like He did in the scriptures to come to His people to tell them what they must do.

Lastly, God speaks through circumstances. It is here that we must be the most careful. We can interpret everything as God's message if we let this one go to seed. There is nothing wrong with asking God for confirmation here. However, God aligns circumstances to produce the message He has for us. We need to ask the question: What events am I sure that God has been working? When we know the answer here, we can go forward to see what He is doing. You will see that God has prepared you for this moment. You act because He has prepared you.

I know that God speaks to you if you know Him. 

Jeremiah 33:3 (NASB 2020) ³ ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’