There are many ways God speaks. His speaking voice resounds across the nations and generations.
There are many ways God speaks. For millennia, His speaking voice has resounded across the nations and generations. Many in the Church believe God spoke and then He stopped. I will go on record: I do not believe that view is correct. God spoke, and God still speaks. His method has changed: “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.” (Hebrews 1:1,2 CSB) God speaks through scripture, He reveals Himself in Creation, (see Romans 1:19,20 and Psalm 19:1) and He reveals Himself in the person of Jesus. Jesus is the exact reflection of God (Hebrews 1:3), and the image or expression of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). God gave us His Holy Spirit with the promise that the Holy Spirit would lead us into truth (John 16:13), remind us of the things Jesus taught (John 14:26), and would be with us forever (John 14:16). He didn’t stop speaking after Genesis 1, He didn’t stop speaking after the resurrection, and He didn’t stop speaking after Bible (in any form) was established. God uses all these ways and more to speak, make known, make plain, unfold, explain, unveil, guide, and direct.
Introducing you: God's target recipient.
The point of communication is to transmit information from one to another. If one speaks, another must be able to receive (or hear), otherwise communication has not occurred. We have a Creator who speaks, and we have been given ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to receive the spiritual things He imparts. Everyone cannot discern His wisdom and ways, but only those who have decided to follow Him. There’s an open invitation to every person, but not every person responds with a yes. This is why many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:14)
The ways, wisdom, and purposes of God are great beyond our wildest imagination or expectations. And He is stoked to be able to share them with us, if we would only listen!
Consider this passage:
“But as it is written:
‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the [d]Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-16 NKJV)
The first verse refers to our physical flesh. No natural eye has seen, and no physical ear has heard, and no beating heart has perceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him. But God chooses to reveal them to us through His Spirit. The passage goes on to explain its His Spirit who searches the deep things of God, and no one can know those things except His Holy Spirit. Since we have received the Spirit of God, we can now know the things that have been freely given to us by God, which we previously could not know with our natural ears, eyes, and hearts. Through His Spirit, God gives us eyes to see what Jesus taught and what His Spirit still reveals today of the heart and plans of the Father. Without the Holy Spirit, things of the Spirit can’t be discerned.
God has prepared things for those who love Him. Jesus is explicitly clear when He talks about those who love Him. Multiple times, Jesus says some form of, If you love me, you will keep (or obey) my commandments. (John 14:15, 21, 23, 24; 15:10, 14)
The Lord connects these two ideas: If we love Jesus, we will obey; and God has prepared things for those who love Him. Obedience is connected to receiving the things of God that we can’t even imagine. The plans of God for you and are beyond our ability to dream. “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV) The NIV puts it this way, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20) Exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask? Immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine? The plans of God for us are so big that if we can imagine it or ask it, He wants to give more. But. We have to love Him. How do we love Him? We obey Him.
We get to learn to hear Him and respond with obedience.
Remember in the movie “A Christmas Story” when little Ralphie waited and waited for the decoder to come in the mail so he could discern the coded message that was transmitted on the radio show? When the decoder came, suddenly he could read what he couldn’t see before. I know, the message was dumb, “Don’t forget to drink your Ovaltine,” but the principle is the same. Without the Holy Spirit, we can’t decode the messages we receive in the spiritual realm. God speaks to our spirit. We need Holy Spirit to help us receive and perceive His messages. We really shouldn’t get upset with unbelievers for not being able to perceive, because they physically can’t until they get born again and receive His Spirit. Our natural bodies made of skin, bone, and blood can’t receive spiritual things, because spiritual things are discerned by the Spirit. If we don’t have the Spirit, we can’t know the things the Spirit wants to reveal. (1 Corinthians 1:14) “Now it is God who makes both us and you to stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (1 Corinthians 1:21,22 NIV) When we believe, we receive a measure of His Spirit. Paul reassures the church in Ephesus with these words, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession - to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13,14 NIV)
God’s desire is this: His children will develop ears to hear and eyes to see and devote themselves to obey what they hear and see. When we have hearts turned to Him in dependence and obedience, He gives us discernment and we can receive the things He has prepared for us. Those things which the “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered the heart of man.” (1 Corinthians 2:6 NIV) He leads those of us who love Him into these things “which have been freely given” (v12) to us. God does all the work. He prepares them for us, then He prepares us to love Him. He unveils them through His Holy Spirit so we can be led into the depths of God (v10).
The doorway to all God has for us is ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart tuned to respond in obedience. He always leads us away from things which are not good for us, and toward Himself.
If we ignore those eyes and ears, and we allow our hearts to be hardened towards responding to God, we become blind and deaf. When we choose any way other than His way, our vision becomes darkened. When we choose our own way over His, or when we choose the ways of the world around us instead Godly ways, we choose blindness. “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” (Psalm 135:15-18 NIV) Did you notice the last verse? Those who make idols will become like them. When we treasure something else in the throne of our hearts above God, it becomes an idol. Our spiritual senses begin to fail as we treasure other things. Psalm 115:3-8 shares the same idea. God does what pleases Him, but those who create idols have mouths, eyes, ears, noses, and hands, but they can’t speak, see, hear, smell, or feel. Again, “those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” (v8 NIV)
King David laments, “Troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.” (Psalm 40:12 NIV) He attributes sin to his blindness. Not only that, it didn’t happen all at once, the sins stacked up against him and overtook him, causing the blindness.
We must always remember, God has prepared amazing things for those who love Him. He knows how to take care of His kids and cause us to thrive! Whether we access it or not depends on what we do when we hear. I challenge you to ask yourself, “Do I habitually obey Him or do I mostly go my own way?”
What I do with my spiritual senses determines the direction of my spiritual walk. Will my vision grow dimmer and dimmer until I’m blind? Will I be able to perceive His voice in my inner self? Will my heart grow hardened toward Him until I no longer love Him? Or, will I set my heart, eyes, and ears on Spiritual things and allow myself to be trained in obedience so I can walk in the greatness and fullness of His plans and purposes for my life and those around me?
Prayer
I pray that as you think on these things, God will begin to show you places in your life where these principles are true. I pray He will unveil, reveal, make known, and make plain where He has tried to guide you and you have chosen your own way. Grace to you from your Father in heaven, who will grant us each a heart to turn from following our own ways and follow Him, giving Him glory and honor. Lord, help us to walk in Your plans and purposes. Lead us away from our own ways and into Yours. Your way and will for my life is so much bigger than we can ask or imagine. Have Your way in my life!
Thanks for coming along, leave a comment, complaint, or testimony below! Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series if you're interested in learning more. Or check out my book, Belief Rehab.
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