God speaks through His word, the Bible. That is primary and authoritative. No means of ‘hearing from God’ can be contradictory to the Bible. The Bible is the standard, it is the gauge. If you ‘hear from God’ and it contradicts the Bible? That wasn’t God, it was a deceiving spirit.
One of the amazing privileges of being a believer is how God will speak directly and clearly to believers, through the pastor’s message, when he exposits the Bible on Sunday.
That being said, the Bible indicates that God speaks to His children actively:
- Through prayer. Usually the “still small voice” of God teaching and guiding us.
- Through dreams and visions. The Bible explicitly shows that this was the case at the beginning of the church age, and also states that at the end of the age it would happen again – as we are nearing the time of Christ’s return.
- Through other believers who have:
- the gift of prophecy
- the gift of a word of knowledge
- the gift of discernment
I list these three this way, because we are taught, by the Bible, to discern whether spirits be from God (meaning spiritual messages). There are deceiving spirits that speak through people. How do you discern those message from the true? We see this in the Book of Acts, and it is taught in the other letters of the New Testament. We test those messages by scripture.
One of the key points of gauging prophecy is in scripture in Deuteronomy 13 – where it points out two ways to know if someone is giving a false prophecy:
If they lead you to turn away from the truth of God as you have received it from the Apostles (the Bible). Paul explains this in the letter to the Galatians. Anyone preaching a different Gospel is accursed (from the devil) and we are to reject them entirely – not to entertain their doctrines no matter how friendly they may seem to be.
If they give a foretelling prophecy that does not come true they way they say it – Then they are a false prophet and you are not to hear them nor to fear them. No matter what authority they claim. In OT times, they were to be stoned to death for giving false prophecy.
There have been many false prophets in recent ages and in the modern age who lead people away from the Apostolic teachings (the Bible), and/or who make false prophecies that do not come true. Sadly, they still led (lead) millions astray who do not test their message by the Bible.
Does Jesus still speak to us today? I’m convinced, by experience, that He does. However, i’m equally convinced by the Bible (and experience) that we must test all claims of prophecy and all “dreams” and “visions”. You may have just eaten bad pizza and had a nightmare. One of the ways I know when a dream or vision is from God is how the exact points of the message stick with me, even years later. Ordinary dreams do not do that. Ordinary dreams, no matter how profound, become fuzzy very quickly – the details fade. A message from God sticks with you, usually verbatim, and the Holy Spirit will often bring it back to your remembrance so that you do not miss the point He was making for you.
Jesus reaches out to us today
One of the amazing privileges of being a believer is how God will speak directly and clearly to believers, through the pastor’s message, when he exposits the Bible on Sunday.
That being said, the Bible indicates that God speaks to His children actively:
I list these three this way, because we are taught, by the Bible, to discern whether spirits be from God (meaning spiritual messages). There are deceiving spirits that speak through people. How do you discern those message from the true? We see this in the Book of Acts, and it is taught in the other letters of the New Testament. We test those messages by scripture.
One of the key points of gauging prophecy is in scripture in Deuteronomy 13 – where it points out two ways to know if someone is giving a false prophecy:
If they lead you to turn away from the truth of God as you have received it from the Apostles (the Bible). Paul explains this in the letter to the Galatians. Anyone preaching a different Gospel is accursed (from the devil) and we are to reject them entirely – not to entertain their doctrines no matter how friendly they may seem to be.
If they give a foretelling prophecy that does not come true they way they say it – Then they are a false prophet and you are not to hear them nor to fear them. No matter what authority they claim. In OT times, they were to be stoned to death for giving false prophecy.
There have been many false prophets in recent ages and in the modern age who lead people away from the Apostolic teachings (the Bible), and/or who make false prophecies that do not come true. Sadly, they still led (lead) millions astray who do not test their message by the Bible.
Does Jesus still speak to us today? I’m convinced, by experience, that He does. However, i’m equally convinced by the Bible (and experience) that we must test all claims of prophecy and all “dreams” and “visions”. You may have just eaten bad pizza and had a nightmare. One of the ways I know when a dream or vision is from God is how the exact points of the message stick with me, even years later. Ordinary dreams do not do that. Ordinary dreams, no matter how profound, become fuzzy very quickly – the details fade. A message from God sticks with you, usually verbatim, and the Holy Spirit will often bring it back to your remembrance so that you do not miss the point He was making for you.
Published in Commentary, Practical Living, Prayer, Prepared Warriors and Teaching