When someone says, “God told me to…” – what do you think? I must confess, my initial reaction is skeptical. We’ve all heard stories about people who are mentally unstable and claim to hear “voices,” sometimes even the voice of God. This is likely what the world thinks when they hear Christians refer to God speaking to them.
In the Church, in the context of Christian faith, people use phrases like, “God led me to…” or “God spoke to me,” etc. We often quickly follow with something like, “Not audibly, of course, but…” just to make sure that people don’t think that we’re crazy. On the one hand, most of us greatly desire, perhaps even desperately need to hear from God. On the other hand, we have carefully trained ourselves to believe that God doesn’t really talk to people (except maybe “in our heart” or something else vague). There’s only one problem with this “wisdom”; the Bible.
From Noah to the “apostolic age” (the time covering the ministry and death of the apostles) you have a period of 2800 years or so. In that span, God speaks clearly and audibly to a variety of people, but rarely. In the Old Testament, God speaks primarily to/through “special people,” like prophets, but there are exceptions. In the New Testament, the Lord gives each of His followers the Holy Spirit, and speaks primarily through spiritual means and His word (the Bible). Psalm 94:9 says, “Does he who fashioned the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see?” Logically, we could add, “does he who designed the mouth and vocal cords not talk?”
I believe that many (most?) Christians have resigned themselves to NOT hear the voice of God because, well, “that”s just for special people” (special can mean anything from prophets to psychotics). What if I told you that YOU can hear the voice of God? In fact, God WANTS to speak to you, personally. I would hope that you would be interested. How different might your life be if you could clearly and regularly hear from God? The problem is not that God is not speaking, but that we too often are not really listening.
