| Teaching the Truth: Studies |
 Hearing God Just recently a message, entitled Hearing God’s Voice, was preached at our
church by one of our own pastors. He cited Is 50:4-5, “4The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to
know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens
my ear to listen like one being taught. 5The
Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not
drawn back.” (NIV) All verses read by him were read from the NIV. His
first point was that we should hear God for ourselves before we can hear God
for others. This he got from Is 50:4-5. I
am not against prophecy, if it is from the Lord Himself. It must not be some
concocted idea from our own minds. Hearing from God is a sovereign act by God.
Amongst the prophets, the majority (if not all) heard God when He sovereignly
spoke. It was not a case of waiting to hear what God had to say, but rather God
intervened when He wanted to speak. In this verse, if it is read without the
usual charismatic preponderance to the dramatic, it is made clear that it was
the “Sovereign LORD” that gave Isaiah an instructed tongue; it was the
“Sovereign LORD” that woke his ears to listen. A sovereign act of God Himself! To
corroborate this idea of hearing from God for ourselves first, from the New
Testament, this pastor quoted 2 Cor 1:3-4, “3Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and
the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our
troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we
ourselves have received from God.” I
have to be honest, how he got these two different passages to say the same
thing is beyond me! The only way these two passages could corroborate each
other is by preconceived ideas inducted into these passages by eisegesis,
instead of proper Biblical exegesis! Next,
the preacher wanted to drive home that we have God’s prophetic Word in our
heart and in our mouth. What Scripture passage did he use? Rom 10:6-8, “6But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do
not say in your heart, `Who will ascend into heaven?' " (that is, to bring
Christ down) 7"or `Who will descend into the
deep?' " (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is
in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are
proclaiming.” A
little simple exegesis would have made clear just what the word was that Paul meant here. Again, preconceived ideas made the
preacher see things in the passage that did not exist in the passage. What word did Paul mean here? Well, the
passage at hand tells us! It tells us that the word that is in our hearts and in our mouth is “the word of faith
we are proclaiming.” What is “the word of faith we are proclaiming?” The
gospel! This is spelled out clearly in verses 9 and 10. “9that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10for with the heart a person believes, resulting in
righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Does God reveal mysteries? Naturally.
He did to Daniel. The next verse the preacher used was Dan 2:28, “8but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.”
Daniel had just revealed to king Nebuchadnezzar the dream he had and the
meaning of the dream. To back up the mystery revealing God from the New
Testament, he used Lk 10:21, “At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy
Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you
have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little
children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.” What is this verse telling us? Is
this saying that God reveals prophetic type mysteries to children and not to
others? No, it tells us that God’s kingdom is not revealed to those who seek it
by pure logic, but that God is the revealer of His kingdom. In our own wisdom,
we cannot reach God’s kingdom. Only by God’s revelation of His kingdom, can we
know about His kingdom. This revelation of God’s kingdom is clearly set out in
the Scriptures, the Bible! Later in the sermon, the preacher
referred to Mt 11:25-26, “25At that time Jesus said,
"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden
these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. 27"All things have been committed to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the
Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and
learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is
light."” Again, what has this passage got to
do with anything prophetic? Nothing! This passage has nothing to do with
spiritual revelation or the prophetic! The
next statement the preacher made he based on Mt 4:4, “4Jesus answered, "It is written: `Man does not live
on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"” The
word used for word in this passage,
is the Greek word rhēma (rhma). The preacher made the usual
charismatic comment about this word, that it means the spoken word as opposed to the written word which they say is logos (logoV). This
difference in the meanings of these two words are totally unfounded. If we
bother to study the various instances of the uses of rhēma and logos, we will discover that
there is no reason for us to speak of rhēma as the spoken word of God, and of logos as the written word of
God. Both have the potential to be used in either way. For a more complete
study of this issue the paper at http://teachingtruth.cjb.net/studies/rhemaandlogos.html
may be studied. The next point made by the preacher is that
our imagination and our spiritual eyes reside in the same place. How did he get
to this? Hab 2:1, “1I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.” The
claim here is that we must look into the spiritual realm with our spiritual
eyes to see what the Lord wants to tell us. The NASB puts it this way, “1I WILL stand on my guard post And station myself on the
rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I may
reply when I am reproved.” Is the point of this verse really to exercise
looking into the spiritual realm with our spiritual eyes to see what the Lord
wants to say? Or, is the point of this verse rather to be on our guard to hear
when God speaks? What was Habakkuk waiting to hear from God? The first two
chapters of Habakkuk are about Habakkuk’s argument with God over God’s
unfathomable ways, which even seemed unjust to Habakkuk. Does this mean that
Habakkuk said that we should now practice hearing God’s voice by looking into the spiritual realm? Not in
the least! It simply recounts Habakkuk’s struggles with what seemed to be an
unjust God. Before
the preacher gave over to the head pastor of our church, he told how he would
hear from God in his practice sessions. He tried to make the point that God
mostly spoke through visions. What he would do is to imagine he was back on the
farm where he grew up. Then he would imagine that Jesus would be sitting next
to him. At this point he would just sit and watch Jesus. Then, Jesus would
start talking to him about things. The final few minutes were handled by the
head pastor of our church. In this time he made a big deal about the fact that
God uses our imagination to speak with us through visions. He then made use of
what the previous preacher taught about how he uses his imagination to start
seeing visions. At church we have two huge overhead screens. He had four scenes
beamed onto the screens. We were told to watch these scenes—each of which were
left on the screens for a few seconds—and then to see what the Lord will tell
us about those scenes. This
is a clear case of trying to induce visions! This is definitely more the art of
suggestion than hearing God’s voice or seeing visions! Were these actions
Biblical? I do not believe so! Does
God speak to us today? Yes! Can we induce it? Undoubtedly not! Whenever God
spoke to the prophets—Old Testament or New—He spoke sovereignly. They never
tried to make God speak with them. Whether it was the prophet Isaiah or the
apostle Paul, God spoke to them when He needed to say something important. What
is God’s primary method of speaking to us today? I believe it would be the
Scriptures. Does God speak in any other way? Yes, he does. However, the method
God uses is up to Him, not us! He chooses how to speak and when to speak. When
God speaks, we will not be in doubt that God spoke. Do
we have to hear from God everyday? Definitely! We need to read the Bible and
study it everyday to know what God’s Word says to us. It is as we get to know
God’s Word that we will know how to conduct ourselves in this world and what
God expects of us in different situations. There is no bypassing the
Scriptures! Try to bypass the Scriptures and you will simply land into all
kinds of deceptive ideas like trying to induce visions or God’s voice. Let
us rather get back to the reading and studying of God’s Word, the Scriptures! Copyright © 2004 [Teaching
the Truth]. All rights reserved. Revised: May 05, 2004
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