Does God speak? By PH Lawrence
As soon as mankind appears, God speaks to them. He speaks to Adam and Eve and to their family; He speaks to Noah, Abraham, and the patriarchs. From Moses to Malachi, the prophets thunder, “Thus says the Lord.”
He speaks to the world through Jesus, the Word of God. The writer to the Hebrews says, “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb. 1:1–2 RSV). On the day of Pentecost the Spirit of God was poured out for all believers: “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39), and it is through the Spirit’s gift of tongues (languages)—God speaking—that the world is alerted to this truth.
Paul assures us that God, the God who loves to speak, is now dwelling in every believer by His Spirit. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Rom. 8:9). “We were all baptized by one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13); “You are the body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27). The gifts of the Spirit that Paul talks about are nearly all gifts that enable us to hear God speaking or discern what He is doing. And the final book of the Bible continues on the same theme: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7).
This revelation about God is present from beginning to end of the Bible—and it is present as a powerful truth. If we compare the statement “God speaks” with other biblical statements like “God heals” or “God loves” or “God forgives,” we can appreciate its strength. Anyone who says “God heals” has to have something to say about the plagues He sent upon Egypt (Ex. 9:8–11; 12:29), the leprosy He gave to Gehazi (2 Kings 5:27), and the blindness He gave to Elymas (Acts 13:9–12). Even in Revelation, John tells us that at the end of history God will not heal everyone (Rev. 20:11–15).
Anyone who says “God forgives” has to have something to say about “God judges,” and those who claim “God loves sinners” can never forget that “God hates sin.” It is far easier to claim that God “speaks” than that God heals, forgives, or loves. Whether He is saving Daniel (Dan. 6:22), killing Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5, 10), forgiving a woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8:11b), urging the stoning of a man to death for collecting sticks on the Sabbath (Num. 15:32–36), whipping the money-changers with cords (John 2:15), or accepting lashes Himself (Mark 15:15), God is speaking. Even when He is silent, He communicates: “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites” (Judg. 6:1). Verses 7 and 8 continue, “When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian, he sent them a prophet.”
There are times in Scripture and in the history of the church when the word of the Lord has been rare (e.g., 1 Sam. 3:1), but it seems to have been the result of people’s sin rather than God’s unwillingness to speak (1 Sam. 2:12–36). In Genesis 1—2, Adam and Eve had fellowship with God, but after they sinned in chapter 3, they hid from Him. It appears that sin causes us to turn our backs on God, while the saving activity of God enables us to turn around, face Him, and call Him Father. God has recalled us into fellowship through His Son, Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:9); Paul prays for the “fellowship of the Holy Spirit” to be with the Corinthians (2 Cor. 13:14); and John says, “Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). God’s desire is to have fellowship with His children, and salvation through Jesus restores us into that fellowship. A God who creates us for fellowship—and calls us back into fellowship through repentance and faith—is a God who loves to communicate with His children.
Jeremiah 10:10 says, “But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God,” and Paul teaches about God’s spiritual gifts that enable us to discern His activity and hear His voice.
The God of Isaiah (Isa. 37:17), Jeremiah (Jer. 23:36), Daniel (Dan. 6:26), Hosea (Hos. 1:10), Jesus (John 6:57), Peter (Matt. 16:16), Paul (Acts 14:15), the writer to the Hebrews (Heb. 12:22), and John (Rev. 7:2) is a “living God.” He is not a dumb idol but a God who speaks. If we accept the biblical revelation, it seems we are on firm ground when we claim that the living God, who lives in all believers by His Holy Spirit, is a God who speaks.
Does God Speak Today?
In a world of changing pressures and insecurities, the Bible has always been very precious to me. Ever since my conversion at fourteen, the foundation of my Christian faith has been the Scriptures, and I firmly believe the Spirit speaks to us today through them. Every day I try to spend time reading from the Bible, asking the Holy Spirit to speak to me through God’s Word.
Most Christians accept that God communicates through the Bible, but some go on to say that today God speaks to us only through the Bible. It is this “only” that concerns me. I was brought up to believe in a God who has spoken and will one day speak again, but for the present speaks only through His written Word—lest we should be tossed about by every whim and fancy. I believe the main way God speaks to us today is through the Bible, but I do not believe it is the only way God speaks. I spent some time thinking about this and found three reasons why I could no longer accept that the Spirit speaks today only through Scripture.
Historical and contemporary experiences support the view that God did not stop speaking upon the completion of the New Testament. George Fox, founder of the Quakers; Evan Roberts, whom God used in the Welsh Revival of 1904; Smith Wigglesworth, who brought Pentecostal revival to many; and David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world’s largest church, in Korea, are just four of the many people who have claimed the Spirit of God spoke to them with signs following. The faith of all of these men was rooted in the Bible; Smith Wigglesworth would read no other book. All four were Bible-based believers, teachers, and preachers, but none were “Bible-only” advocates. Their experiences validated the Bible, and the Bible validated their experiences. They all encountered the Spirit who speaks in the Bible and in their own Christian lives.
The Bible
Biblical Christianity is about being sons and daughters of the King, being the bride of Christ, having communion with God, knowing God, and being known by Him. Through the Spirit we may know God (Heb. 8:11), know His voice (John 10:4), know the truth (John 16:13), and know the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). I was unable to find anything in the New Testament to suggest the promises God made to the disciples and the early church are not meant for us as well. After the Spirit speaks on the day of Pentecost, Peter promises that the gift of the Holy Spirit is “for all” (Acts 2:39). When we see God face-to-face, then the spiritual gifts will cease, but the New Testament gives no indication of this occurring before then (1 Cor. 13:9–10).
The canon of Scripture is closed. This means the promises and teachings of the New Testament must apply to us today, otherwise we would need a third set of canonical writings to explain the new rules. The people in the Old Testament lived under the old covenant. The people of the New Testament lived under the new covenant. As there has not been a third covenant between God and His people, it is right to assume we also live under the new covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ. This must surely mean the promises and teachings of the new covenant apply to all Christians today.
To say the New Testament teachings no longer apply to us is to add a new interpretation of Scripture, invariably based on experience—or lack of it—rather than what the Bible teaches. “I have not heard the Spirit speak,” so God does not speak. “I have not healed the sick,” so God no longer heals the sick. “I do not speak in tongues,” so the gift has died out. At the conference in Sheffield, John Wimber exposed the woolliness of this thinking when he said, “We do not seek to bring Scripture down to our experience, but rather we seek to bring our experience up to Scripture.”
This is what the Bible encourages us to do. It teaches us that anyone who has faith in Jesus will do what He did (John 14:12); the Holy Spirit is promised to “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord … for you and your children and for all who are far off” (Acts 2:21, 39); all under the new covenant will know God “from the least of them to the greatest” (Heb. 8:11) and receive His words in their mouths:
“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,” says the LORD. (Isa. 59:21)
I believe in the Bible. I believe God speaks to us today through the Scriptures. I believe God also speaks to us today by His Holy Spirit.
In What Way Does the Spirit Speak Today?
After deciding I believe in a God who speaks today, I began to feel the ground shaking a little beneath my feet.
- If God speaks today by His Spirit, does this undermine the authority of Scripture?
- What is the relationship between the written Word of God and the living word of God?
- Does a word from the Lord today equal the importance of the Bible?
I recognized some of the dangers immediately.
In the last book of the Bible we read these words: I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (Rev. 22:18–19)We should be very cautious about anyone who claims to have subsequent revelations from the Holy Spirit that either add to or take away from Scripture. Muhammad and Joseph Smith claimed subsequent revelations from God that produced the Qur’an and the Book of Mormon, respectively, and the list of today’s self-styled cultic prophets who seek to lead people away from God’s truth is endless.
Heeding the New Testament’s warning against adding to or taking away from its message, I turned to that message again in an attempt to understand the relationship between the Word of God and a word from God.
The holy Scriptures … are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:15–17)One of the reasons the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of Scripture was for the purposes of doctrine and teaching, especially the way of salvation through faith in Jesus. This is the Word of God. It is God-breathed and therefore carries the authority of God Himself (cf. 2 Peter 1:20–21; 1 Cor. 2:13). But there is another reason for treating the Bible as authoritative:
We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.… We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. (2 Peter 1:16, 18)
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. (1 John 1:1)
The second letter of Peter and the first letter of John appeared at a time when false teachers and prophets were becoming active (2 Peter 2; 1 John 4:1). It was no longer sufficient for the disciples to say their writings had the authority of the Holy Spirit, because many other heretical teachers were claiming the same thing. The unique authority of the New Testament writers came from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and their credibility as eyewitnesses to the earthly Jesus. They could match up the words of the Spirit with those of the earthly Lord Jesus whom they had known and loved. Until the second coming of Jesus, this authority will remain unique.
The canon of Scripture is closed because it carries the unique authority of Jesus Himself. The Old Testament anticipates and prepares for His coming, the Gospels describe His coming, and the Epistles testify to the effect of His coming. The Gospels and Epistles have authority because they came from those in touch with the early disciples who knew the earthly Jesus.
In Acts 1, Peter outlines the necessary requirements for election as an apostle:
It is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. (Acts 1:21–22)
An apostle therefore had to be an eyewitness of the life and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were the special people whose role was to teach (Acts 2:42; 4:2) and to be guardians of the faith (e.g., Acts 15:2). There are obviously no such eyewitnesses alive today, and the canon of Scripture is closed.
Paul’s writings were accepted into the New Testament because others who knew Jesus gave them authority. Although we believe that Paul did not know the earthly Jesus, Peter authenticates Paul’s letters as Scripture.
Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures. (2 Peter 3:15–16)
If for no other reason, then, Paul’s letters stand as the Word of God because those who knew the earthly Jesus, such as Peter, validated them. He described them as “Scriptures.”
This means the Word of God has the authority of the earthly Jesus, plus that of the Holy Spirit who inspired their writing. The same Holy Spirit is present among us today, as He was in the early church, but the earthly Jesus and witnesses of His earthly life are no longer present to check things out. Jesus is here by His Spirit, but not in the flesh; we cannot see Him face-to-face, so we cannot test words from God except by Scripture. Thus a word from God today must not contain any new teaching; neither must it add to or take away from the doctrines of the Bible. It seems right to say that a present-day word from God may therefore illustrate Scripture, help to apply Scripture, authenticate Scripture, and enable Christians to fulfill the commands of Scripture, but must always be tested by Scripture. This enables us to understand the different purposes behind the Word of God and a word from God.
In Romans 10:9, Paul writes, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” This is doctrine and teaches us the way of salvation. Such teaching is one of the main purposes of the Word of God.
In Acts 8:29, we read, “The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.’” Although it is part of the Word of God and teaches us the value of letting the Holy Spirit direct evangelism, this also provides an illustration of a word from God. It is a piece of local and particular guidance given to Philip by the Holy Spirit for one man in one place at one time. It is a word from God that enables Philip to fulfill the Word of God, going to that chariot, witnessing to that Ethiopian, and leading him to faith in Christ.
Through the Bible God speaks about the way to be saved and to live as Christians, and through His Spirit, God applies that truth to the right person in the right place at the right time. We could say a word from God released by the Holy Spirit supports the Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit, helping Christians to live out its principles.
The example of a word from the Spirit that I witnessed in Sheffield illustrates this. The Bible tells us to proclaim the kingdom, heal the sick, and cast out demons. The Spirit’s word about Linda helped John Wimber do those very things, in the name of Jesus, on the first night of the conference. The Bible gives doctrinal truth and general guidelines, whereas God sends a specific word by His Holy Spirit to give particular guidance. We should therefore keep, study, and regularly teach from the Bible, but discard words from God once we’ve acted upon their messages. The Bible teaches us doctrine and basic truths, and the Spirit speaks today to help us put those biblical truths into practice. Anything that contradicts Scripture or takes away from it is to be rejected at once as not of God, but a current word or nudge from God by His Spirit can help us apply the teaching of the Bible to our daily lives. A word from God can be expected to support the Word of God.
My thinking and sermon preparations were now complete. Biblically, logically, theologically, and, in a limited way, experientially, I knew God to be a God who speaks. I knew that God wanted me to proclaim this truth when I went to my friend’s church in January.
Notes
1. Stuart Y. Blanch, The World Our Orphanage (London: The Epworth Press, 1972), 7.
Lawrence, P. H. (2011). The spirit who speaks: god’s supernatural intervention in your life. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.
