Does God Speak Today?

Yes, God speaks.

The universe exists and remains, therefore God speaks, and His Word is heard by things having no ears, hearts or minds at all.

But being human, we do get confused about so many things. Is there anything at all that we do not get confused?

I can walk across a room and when I arrive not know why I went there. I can look at a green light and think it's red -- without being color-blind. I can think that a comment is meant one way, when the speaker really meant something else. I can think one thing and write or speak another.

Our own state of mind, our own preoccupations, our fears, our ideas about things, our belief system(s), our desires at any given time -- all this and more can keep us from seeing, hearing or thinking clearly. We’re creatures not designed to know and rule the whole universe, or to know “all things” in our present state. We seldom know what to eat for breakfast.

And being fallen, we’re not very accustomed to listening closely to God when He speaks. We do not listen because we seldom plan to obey. A habit that we develop very early in life.

Even as believers, more often than not, the voice of God breaking into our busy thoughts, our busy plans, our busy hopes and ambitions and desires (etc. & etc) is a distraction, opposing our own thoughts, and even offending us if we’re really set on doing whatever it is we already want to do.

But God speaks anyway. And He often will say things that really challenge us in significant ways.

When Abram was busy mourning his lack of an heir, his old age, and his wife’s infertility, God told him the most impossible thing that Abram could have heard. God told him, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

When The Lord visited with Gideon, who was hiding in a winepress, trying to thresh wheat, He told Gideon the very opposite of what Gideon and his family were thinking. God’s message: "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!"

When God told Samuel to anoint David as king in Saul's place, it’s very possible that Samuel wondered until his death if maybe he'd made a mistake, since only trouble seemed to come from that move. Had he really heard God that time?

And what about Able who was led of God to offer a sacrifice, and who died for his trouble. Or Noah who spent many years building and sealing a box big enough for all the animals in the world to float in -- many years before there was any hint of a flood that could require such a box.

And what about Jeremiah who prophesied all his life, and was often laughed at, & thought crazy, and even worse, a traitor to Israel. And even after some of his prophetic words came to pass, he was still not believed when he spoke for God among the remnants in Jerusalem, and was hauled off to Egypt by the unbelieving Jews.

And only trouble seemed to come from those dreams that Joseph had -- especially when he told Jacob and the family. For many years, things just got worse and worse and worse. You can’t get much lower in life than a dungeon in ancient Egypt. How many times did Joseph wonder about those dreams, and think that maybe he should've kept his mouth shut? Only after many years did he finally see God’s true hand in the events of his life.

And another Joseph, in the first century BC, was also told the opposite of what he himself really felt and believed. He dreamed impossible things. And the result was that he had to flee into Egypt with his wife and her child. And returning, years later, he continued to live far away from Jerusalem.

What about Jesus, our Lord, whose words and actions were almost never understood during his time on earth -- not even by those who loved Him and believed in Him. And there is Saul of Tarsus, When the Lord spoke to Ananias about visiting Saul, this godly man felt compelled to remind the Lord of who and what Saul was.

And Peter had to remind the Lord that his lips had never touched any unclean thing, when God gave him the vision of all kinds of creatures lowered in a sheet. But long before that, a more interesting situation. God is giving Ezekiel instructions on how to act out the fall and ruin of Jerusalem. In Ezekiel 4:9-15, we see God (the Author of the Law of Moses) telling the prophet to cook with human dung as fuel. But Ezekiel protests, that he cannot eat any defiled thing, and the Lord relents, allowing him to cook over cow's dung.

And so on.

In 2 Kings 5, the word of God to Naaman was simply unbelievable and highly offensive. By the same prophet, (2 Kings 7) God spoke to the king of Samaria about a sudden reversal of a famine brought on by the siege of the city by Syria. It was unbelievable, and one officer said so. But outcast lepers “had an idea.” Acting on a “hunch” they walked right into the enemy camp -- against all common sense, except the kind that comes down to us from heaven when God is directing our steps. And so the message of God proved true and the city was saved.

Jesus rarely told people what they expected to hear, what they wanted to hear, or even what they could understand, much less what they could readily accept or believe. Not only was this true before He was crucified, it was also the case as soon as He rose again, and even after He had ascended into heaven.

How might we have responded?

How well would we do, telling people -- even good religious people -- that the guy we had been following, the criminal who had been executed a number of weeks ago, was not only alive, but had also risen by some unseen power or force, right up into the sky until no one could see Him anymore? And then we could tell them that He would soon come again right back out of the sky. This same guy that everyone had seen in the streets and in the Temple area -- that this very man would return to earth, splitting the sky wide open with all manner of radiance and power, to rule over all things.

It’s often pretty easy for us to accept what God said and did long, long ago, in some other, far away place, among a people we have never known. That way, it's like a nice bedtime story that we might tell our children. We can see the lessons in the story, and its moral. But it can become very difficult for us when we are suddenly placed by the same God in the hot seat. For now we have the same difficulty that those long ago people had to deal with.

We may smile to think of Gideon trying hard to believe that this stranger is really God or an angel of God. We may chuckle to think of Joshua challenging a man outside of Jericho, and then falling on his face when he learns that this “man” is the Captain of God’s hosts come to give the real "battle plan" for taking the city.

But when we’re the ones who must believe God, when we are hearing God and trying to make up our minds if this could really be God -- the living God who rules all the universe -- speaking with us -- with me, right here and now?

The most troubling thing, for me, about the voice of God in my life, is that I know with all that I am, that it is the Lord. And He rarely intervenes in some clear way, some obvious way, just to tell me to have a nice day.

For God to break in and speak in an absolute way -- where there is no mistaking His voice -- often means that I have already ignored the "still, small voice" that should have directed me into His will. I have ignored the gentle leading of His Spirit, the unseen and unheard prodding & prompting of my heart -- or worse, I have been ignoring the very clear teachings of Scripture.

Anyone at all can and will hear God's voice. Not just prophets and terribly important saints of God. To hear the voice of God does not mean that you are spiritual or obedient or godly at all. It does not even mean that you are physically alive. It simply means that you exist -- that you're either a living creature, or a dead one waiting to be raised up again. Or you might even be an atom, a rock, a galaxy.

Likewise, to speak clearly what God wants you to say, as we all should know, could even mean that you are a donkey or a mule. It does not mean that you’re godly or more spiritual than others. Even Balaam, a man eaten up with greed and treachery was able to speak the profound truths -- by God's Spirit -- words still appreciated and quoted very often today.

Words like, "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Num 23:19)

Fear God and do not think to add to His words. Do the best you can to honor the Lord in all that you do and say -- following the words and examples and teachings of Scripture. Never wrest the words of Scripture around to please yourself or to try and approve your own actions, ideas, or feelings. Never think of yourself as "the one person” in your family, your area, or your fellowship, who hears and knows God.

That would be my advice to anyone who wonders if God is speaking to them. Because He is always speaking, I believe, to all of us -- to the saints and to the sinners. Always remember that the Lord can use anyone and anything to get His will across and to accomplish His purposes.

The real question is: Who is listening to the voice of God?

Who among us spends time alone with God, just to receive His good counsel, and to know His good will? Who seeks God for Himself, to simply have God's Presence -- and not always to get some answer, some gift, some miracle or sign from God? Who loves God and pants after His good Presence with all their heart?

The Lord knows that I myself am often guilty of wanting some THING from God, and I seldom take to heart how wonderful it is just to know Him, just to be alone with Him, to have the Lord Himself and nothing else. May the Lord forgive me for so often being as hard-hearted and unbelieving as any unsaved sinner walking the earth.

Even so, the Lord is gracious and kind to us all, and He woos each of us ever closer to Himself. And in Him, under His wing, we have perfect shelter in every difficulty of life and death. In Him we have peace and joy forevermore. In the Lord is abundant goodness and mercy to go around for every human soul that thirsts and hungers for more of Him.

And so we sometimes become aware that we have heard the voice of God.

Jim Sutton