How Do We Know We are Hearing From God?

If you haven't read our earlier blog entry titled "Who wants to talk about the things of God" please take the time to go back and read it as the initial story in it is also related to this post. You can click through to it here: http://likeflint.blogspot.com/2011/10/who-wants-to-talk-about-things-of-god.html

Now allow me to share a brief story which I heard from someone else so I am taking it at face-value and I have no reason to disbelieve it. There was a Christian man who while driving his car thought he heard God telling him to close his eyes, let go of the sterring wheel, and put his faith in God. I am sure most readers will know what the outcome was; he had an accident. Was he foolish to do that, was he lacking in faith or is there something else going on?

I think this story and the one from last week demonstrate that there are a number of believers in the Church today who have little understanding of God and clearly do not read or understand His Word. Sadly, I could have chosen a number of other stories to demonstrate this but I think these will suffice. Also, as it appears to be the norm with our blog, there is so much we could discuss here, but with a view to keeping things short, lets look at just one issue; How do we know we are hearing from God?

How do we know we are hearing from God? How could our car-driving fellow-believer have avoided an accident? Well to begin with, believers are cautioned to test the spirits (1 John 4:1-3) to see whether they are from God. When we are dealing with anything of a spiritual nature we must use some caution. So many people (authors included) have foolishly followed after false teachings/teachers without consulting God's word and have ended up in "spiritual car crashes". I strongly urge readers to become "good Bereans". This means that after you listen to your pastors/preachers/speakers/friends or whoever, or when you read this blog/that book or whatever, you will search the scriptures to see if what is being stated is true (Acts 17:11). We ignore this advice at our own peril. It is that serious.

Now what about my friend (from earlier post, see above) who told me he doesn't need the Word because he follows the Spirit? He only has part of the truth. Jesus said "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come" John 16:13 (See also John 15:26). Now we know that Jesus is both the Truth (John 14:6) and the Word (John 1:1 & 1:14) so it is my contention that the Spirit of God will lead you to both Jesus and His Word (The term translated 'word' here can mean both 'word' or 'the indpendant personified expression of God' see BDAG, 'logos', or any decent Greek Lexicon). It is my belief that God's Spirit will guide you to the truth that is to be found in Jesus and the Scriptures (see 2 Tim 3:15,16).

So how do we come to an understanding of how the Spirit of God operates in our lives? How do we know we are hearing from Him? We turn to His Word; "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" 1 Peter 2:2. We believe God does speak to us via His Holy Spirit today, but We also believe He will absolutely not contradict what is written in His Word. So for us to avoid spiritual deception or even physical harm, we must study His Word. What advice did Paul give to young Timothy? He wrote "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" 2 Timothy 2:15. Shame on us if we ignore this exhortation. If we do, we will wind up making foolish statements like my Christian brother did when he told me he has little need for God's Word. Not only that, but we disrespect our Lord Jesus who said "Heaven and earth will pass away. But my words will never pass away" Luke 21:33.

We all need to seek God through his Spirit and His Word. We believe that if we seek God's Spirit, He will lead us to His Word. We also believe if we seek God in His Word, His Word will lead us to His Spirit. What do you think?