Let me ask you a question – is God still speaking to us here and now? Today? And if so – how? Well – what are the answers? If God is indeed still speaking, shouldn’t we be listening? Imagine what a difference it could make, to know His will for our lives.

 

Is God Still Speaking?

Now, here ... here is a question that these days, pretty much divides the church down the middle. Are you ready? Here it is: does God still speak today? Ooooh ... the controversy; the division that that little question creates, is huge. There are some who contend that the only way that God speaks today; the single only way is through the Bible. Read the Bible; that’s God’s Word; that’s how He speaks.

Then at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, you have Christians who claim to have seen signs and wonders; to have so called, "words of knowledge" and "prophesies" over their lives. I even know one man whose pastor constantly claims to have visions of Jesus. WOW man, what do you do with that? How do you understand that?

And then there is little old you and me. If you are anything like me, deep inside there is a desire that burns for God – something that, well, it’s hard to explain – a hunger after God Himself; a yearning that won’t, that can’t be satisfied by some dry, academic, cerebral answer to this question: does God still speak today? It won’t be dismissed by shallow responses either. And nor will sensational claims quench the thirst after Christ Himself.

And so that’s why these coming weeks on the programme we are going to explore this question: does God still speak today? And if so, how? As I said, I ache to know God; to experience Him; to hear Him speak into my life. And I know that there are many, many more people on this earth who feel exactly the same. I want to live my life out completely for Him – everything I am, everything I have, all my hopes and all my dreams, to serve Him with the lot.

And it’s not because I’m some great guy – believe you me, I’m not. It’s because I have tasted the sweetness of His love – the many splendored love of Christ, as A.W. Tozer calls it. I have tasted His goodness and His joy and His peace and do you know what – I want more!

And so I want to hear Him speak because any relationship that means anything; that has any value to it is based on communication – and not one way communication, two way communication. A marriage is headed for divorce when there’s a stony silence between husband and wife. If all that they do is communicate on a transactional basis, about the mundane things of life and they no longer communicate heart to heart, then friend, unless they do something about that, their marriage is headed for divorce.

So the question is: Does God still speak? In my experience, He does, in a variety of ways. But experience ... experience isn’t the "be all and the end all". We have emotions – they go up, they go down – sometimes we are on the top of our game, other times, frankly, let’s be honest, we are off with the pixies. So whilst we may be experiencing God speaking through prophesy, through signs, through dreams ... all sorts of different ways, I believe with all my heart, the truth, God’s chosen way of revealing Himself to us; providing us with a rock solid basis for understanding Him and understanding our experience, is His Word, this thing we call the Bible.

Inspired by Him, written through human beings, for sure – each of the sixty six books of the Bible, written in different times in history, under different circumstances, for specific purposes but together those sixty six books are the inspired Word of God – God speaking to the generations that have gone before us and to us and the generations that will come after us. And God never contradicts Himself. He never says one thing and does the other. God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

So if any one, whether it’s you or me, claims to have heard from God in a certain way, then the question is: does the Bible say that that is how God communicates with us? Because if it doesn’t, then friend, at the very, very least, I am very, very suspicious that this person has indeed heard from God. And secondly, if this person claims to have heard from God and acts on it or shares what God has allegedly said to him or to her, is the message consistent with the Word of God – the whole council of God? Because if God says one thing and some so called, "prophet" comes up with a so called, "revelation" that contradicts God’s Word, then forget it. It ain’t God talking! Does that make sense?

When we step into the realm of God speaking with us about specific things happening in our lives or in the lives of other people, then we are stepping into territory which is rich and fertile on the one hand – if God is indeed speaking. I for one would want to hear but on the other hand, it’s open to manipulation and to error.

This approach is summed up in this Biblical principle – it comes from First Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 19 to 22. Have a listen – it says:

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.

In other words, don’t ignore God speaking through His Spirit. Don’t despise the words of prophets, but at the same time, sift it; test it – hold onto the good, ditch the evil. So, is God still speaking? Absolutely! This is what Jesus said: John chapter 10, beginning at verse 1:

Truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and – listen to this - the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.

Again John 15:26 :

When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.

And again, John 16:14 :

He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Is God in the business of still speaking to His people through His Spirit today? Absolutely! That’s exactly what Jesus promised would happen – over and over and over again. It’s promised in the Bible. But as we read back in First Thessalonians – whilst the Spirit is at work, speaking, declaring and we shouldn’t quench what He is doing. When people claim to be speaking on God’s behalf, then we had better test it to make sure that it’s from God. And I guess that’s at the very heart of what we are going to be talking about over the coming weeks – discovering how to hear God speak into our lives. It’s powerful stuff!

 

The Word of God

I remember when I first gave my life to Jesus – I had such an incredibly strong sense of God’s presence. He wrapped His arms around me during a particularly difficult and painful time in my life and yet I was full of the joy of the Lord. And a dear friend of mine, Phil, the pastor of the first church I attended sat me down over a coffee and he said to me, "You know Berni, it’s not always going to feel as good as this."

And whilst in one sense, he was right, there was something inside me – well, it made me angry. I thought to myself and I said this to God, "If I can’t have a close, intimate relationship with my God, each day; if I can’t experience His joy and His peace, each day, then you know something, Lord, I don’t think I want You." It’s pretty radical stuff! And to be sure life has had its ups and downs. Sometimes circumstances are against us and sometimes everything is rosy. Sometimes our emotions are up and sometimes they are down.

In those early days of becoming a Christian, they told me; Phil told me that I should read my Bible every day. Can I tell you what a turn off that was? Can I tell you what a burden it was to think that I would have to open this old, stuffy Book; this huge Book; seven hundred and seventy five thousand words, thirty one thousand, one hundred and seventy three verses, one thousand, one hundred and eighty nine chapters in sixty six Books. Written in times and places and cultures that were completely unfamiliar to me.

Who or what, for instance, is Ephraim? And why was everyone sacrificing bulls and goats and doves and stuff? You get the drift! But Phil, my pastor, was a persuasive guy – real salt of the earth kind of guy and when I listened to him preaching on Sundays he made an enormous amount of sense to me.

So I did something back then – I established this pattern of getting up early in the morning; something I have been doing since I was a small child anyway, because I am an early riser – while everyone is still asleep – and spending some time in prayer and reading the Bible. I was surprised – God’s Word made a lot of sense. A lot of it was confronting – it was like shining a really bright light on my own immaturities and the things I was doing that weren’t pleasing God.

And day after day, month after month, year after year, here’s what has happened to me – it’s changed me. I open the Bible these days and it is God speaking to me. Now there aren’t fireworks and clashes of thunder and great amazing revelations each and every day – it’s not like that. Little by little, God’s Word has become part of who I am. I’m not go