Dr Paul Allen

What does God sound like? Of course, we can never know, this side of heaven, what God’s voice sounds like exactly. But Scripture tells us clearly that God does speak to us. He has spoken through the prophets and through His Word, and most perfectly through His Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1–2). The question, then, is not whether God speaks but whether we hear Him when He speaks. If we ever hope to leave our cave, we must learn to recognize the voice of God when He speaks to us. We cannot hear God’s voice clearly or experience His presence personally until we step out of the insulation of our cave. The first question God asked Elijah was, “What are you doing here?” But the first action God asked Elijah to take was “Go out.” God called Elijah to step out from the depths of the cave to a place where he could experience the full impact of His presence: “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by” (1 Kings 19:11). Sometimes...

How do angels interact with believers today? Are angels involved in our daily lives? Should we expect to hear from an angel? And would it even be possible to have an ongoing dialogue with an angel? Could a believer, claiming to talk with angels, actually be talking to a demon?” Yes, it is possible that a person who claims to be talking to an angel may be talking to a demon. And the reason I say that is because the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11:14,  “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”  In other words, it’s part of Satan’s very nature that he’s deceptive and would love to distract the saints (at best), and delude them and destroy them (at worst), by drawing off their focus from Christ to angels. It is also possible that a person who claims to be conversing with angels is simply conversing with images or voices in his own head that are not in fact either demons or angels. Four Reasons for Caution But my main concern with people who clai...

“Love…is not easily provoked” (1 Cor. 13:4,5). Often we think of love in terms of a feeling or emotion. But here, God describes it as a demeanor in which we are not easily provoked towards potentially irritating people and circumstances. This is tough. Life is never lived in the sterile confines of a sinless, utopian laboratory well-removed from the Curse’s numerous provocations. This side of heaven, we are either about to be provoked, being provoked, just having been provoked, or some combination of the three. Everything inside and outside of us has the potential to provoke in one way or another. The inspired word, translated “provoked,” means “to stir to anger ,” “to be irritated,” or “incensed” (TDNT, 5:857). It carries the idea of a tendency towards irritability, petulance, or annoyance . This is the individual whose external, or internal, demeanor tends towards exasperation, irritation , impatience, or resentment in response to people and circumstances. This could include some...