Session One - God Still Speaks

Introduction

Hi, welcome to this course. Over the next five sessions, we are going to be talking about Hearing From God. We are exploring the ways God speaks to us today, and how we can learn to recognise and respond to waht He is saying.

Two Super Powers Christians posess.

Prayer - Speaking to God. We can get amazing answers, miracles, breakthroughs and all the rest

Hearing God. What’s God saying to me?

- but it’s also our ability to Hear what God is saying to us.

You know, God speaks to everyone. Psalm 19:1 says

Psalm 19:1 ESV

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

All of creation is speaking to people, it’s saying “Hey, theres a God! And He’s amazing, and powerful, and Good.”

That’s the general voice of God. And God is constantly reaching out to people, calling them back to himself.

But, believers have something even better.

We have RECOGNITION - We are meant to know what God sounds like, so to speak.

And we have RELATIONSHIP - God has personal things he wants to speak to us about. Our family, our future, our decisions our hopes, our failures.

The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah, talking about what life would be like for God’s people in the future said:

Isaiah 30:21 ESV

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

When you turn to the right or left. That means all the time. That’s what God promised us. That we would be able to constantly, daily, hear His voice. And that, at least ideally, in everything we do, we could be guided by God.

Doesn’t that sound great! I want that, and I hope you do too!

BREAK

FOUR VIEWS.

Ok, so God is speaking. But How is he speaking? Dr Tania Harris outlines several common conceptions about the way God speaks today, and maybe you identify with one of them.

ONLY BIBLE

First, some people say “God only speaks through the Bible.”

You’ve probably heard this, or maybe it’s even what you were taught in church. If you want to hear God, read the Bible, study the Bible, or listen to Bible preaching and teaching. But, if anyone says, “God spoke to me in a dream, or a vision, or a prophecy” that’s wrong - it’s Bible all the way baby!

This idea is part of a way of thinking called “Cessasionism” - it’s basically the idea that supernatural gifts “ceased” after the 12 Apostles died. I haven’t got time to explain all the reasons Cessasionism is wrongheaded and foolish - but it is.

Cesassionism has two big roots. One is that some people are going to do all sorts of crazy and silly things and wrong things because “God told me to”.

Cessationism gets big in the Reformation, because the Roman Catholic Church had gotten super corrupt, but would often justify their way of doing things by saying, “look, we have all these miracles, and God speaks to us.” And today, all sorts of cults, and silliness is done by people claiming supernatural power.

So, many Reformers, and many people today, responded to people who were doing bad thigns and claiming that God was on their side by saying, “God doesn’t speak anymore.” It’s like, we are just going to take that option away.

Can I say, there’s a better option, and a more Biblical option.

1 Thessalonians 5:19–22 ESV

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

So, instead of saying “Prophecy” (Which means God speaking to and through people) doesn’t exist, say, let’s test it!

And what will we test it against? The Bible! But, more on that later.

Second, Cessationism flows out of the Enlightenment and a belief called Naturalism. The elightenment thinkers said, “All this supernatural stuff is just superstition, it’s anti-scientific nonsese, the only stuff that exists is Nature and science.”

So, if someone has a dream, people used to think it could be God speaking. But a naturalistic worldview says, well it can’t be God (because there is no God, and if there is, He doesn’t do anything), so it must have a natural explanation - like pizza. It’s the highly skeptical way of thinking that’s very common today.

And again, I haven’t got time to explain all the ways this is wrong. But I will say, that there are countless verified miracles and almost everyone has mysterious and unexplained happenings. But more, science categorically cannot disprove miracles (which involve the One who mad the Laws of Nature, breaking them), and it cannot disprove the Supernatural, because science can only comment on nature.

But more importantly, if you are a Christian, you must reject this way of thinking. Without the Supernatural, there is no BIble, there is no Resurrection of Jesus, or of us, and we are just in a silly club. The Enlightenment was a foolish rejection of God, and it’s been proved foolish. All of the modern reliance on science and reason ahs not cured humanity. In fact, it seems we’ve gotten worse

However, God does exist, and He does miracles and He speaks to people today! And not just through the Bible, but thorugh direct relevation. Sometimes the really supernatural kind, and other times through nature itself.

2. NO BIBLE AT ALL

Ok, so if some people think God Only speaks THROUGH the BIble, others think we don’t need the Bible at all.

This is less common, but there are people who essentially reject the Bible in favour of only seeking new revelation from God.

I’ll go into detail later about how we can use the Bible to ground us. But, suffice to say, this won’t do. If you reject the Word of God, you are going to end up in loony-bin territory.

3. THE ICING ON THE CAKE

A third way of thinking, is better, but maybe not quite where we should be. That’s to say, “Yep, God is still speaking”, but it’s 99% Bible and 1% other means.

It’s what we almost call, “Functional Cessationism”, like yes, I’m sure God can speak, but mostly he doesn’t, except through Scripture. And, if He does say anything, it’s probably not as important as what’s written in the Bible.

When we have this attitude, we don’t really listen to what God might be saying in our day to day.

4. THIS IS THAT.