Does God Speak to People Today?       Sept 2, 2007

All of us face many decisions in life.  Some of those decisions seem minor.  What will I eat for lunch today?   However, some decisions will make or break our lives.  Who should I marry?  What do I do with my work?  How do I raise my children?  Should I buy this house?  Everyday, Christians need a timely word form God.  Many people pray for guidance.  A few years ago, Newsweek Magazine featured a cover story entitled, “Talking to God.”  The article said that 78% of Americans pray at least once per week.  57% say they pray daily.  Even among the 10% of Americans who are agnostics, one out of five still prays often.  Many, many people speak to God, but often, they are uncertain about how to recognize God’s answer.  They may even doubt whether God speaks to them at all. 

This morning, we are beginning a seven week series on Listening to the Voice of God.  Through sermons, devotions at home, and small group studies, we want to investigate how we can hear God’s guidance.  But first we must ask the most basic of questions.   Does God still speak to people today?  This issue is at the very heart of the Christian life.  Life can be complex.  The best choices are not always clear.  Does God give specific guidance to people?  If so, how does God do this?       There are four categories of thinking on how God speaks to us today.  Let’s take a look.

   The first view is that held by the skeptics.  God does not speak at all.  Maybe there is no God or if there is a God, He is not communicating with us.  God has given us our five senses and our reasoning abilities and God expects us to use reason to solve our own problems in life.  Even many Christians seem to live by this view.  When they face a problem, they do not turn to prayer.  They use their own best knowledge and judgment.  Now, there are positive points here.  God has blessed us with intelligence.  Most of the time, our five senses and our brains are reliable to make decisions.  However, the Bible is also clear that our judgment is often clouded.  Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man but it leads to death.”  Numerous passages warn us against making decisions apart from God.  Even Jesus did not rely on His own best thinking but depended on His Father for Heavenly wisdom.  In John 5:30, Jesus said, “I can do nothing on my own.  Only as I hear from God do I make judgments.” 

   So if God does speak, then where do we find God’s guidance?  The second viewpoint on this question is that God speaks today but only through His written Word in the Bible.  Many Protestant Churches teach that God has perfectly revealed everything people need to know about the Christian life in the Bible.  God has no need to add a fresh Word today.  People should concentrate on studying the Bible and not seeking a personal Word from God.  The Protestant Reformation shouted—Scripture Alone.  They teach that any decision made within the moral teachings of the Bible is acceptable to God. 

    On a positive side, this view does point people to the Bible inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.  Protestants have long taught that the Holy Spirit inspired scriptures were the highest Word from God.   However, we need to see that the Holy Spirit not only inspired scripture long ago, the Holy Spirit wishes to apply the scriptures to our personal lives today.  The idea that God has said everything already through the Bible fails to consider the full richness of the relationship which God wants to have with us.  God has not merely left us His instruction manual behind and wished us luck.  No.  The Bible tells us that God wants to be involved in the lives of His people.  That is why God created you and me.  God wants to have a close personal relationship with each person. 

  A Third view, often taught within the Roman Catholic Church is that through the Church, the Body of Christ, we can know the will of God.   The traditions and teachings of the Church can best guide us in life.  Many abuses have occurred in history by those who claim to have had a direct Word from God.  This has led some Christians to be very wary of such radical experiences.  Therefore, it seems safer to stay within the fence of Church tradition; to follow the kind of Christian moral life that has been handed down to us by our parents and grandparents in the Church.

    On a positive note, living within the tradition can keep us from chasing every new fad or idea that comes along out of Hollywood.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said that he trusted the combined wisdom of all the Saints who lived before him more than he trusted his own knowledge.  However, living only by tradition can become a second hand, inherited faith.  Our parents, our aunt, our priest knows God, but we only know and respect those people.    We know things about God but we do not know God.  Tradition and teachings are so very valuable.  They inform and deepen our relationship with God, but they should never take the place of our relationship with God.

 A fourth view, popular with contemporary independent churches, is to seek a direct experience of God.  Feelings are very important and God guides me by this inner voice alone.  More important than the scriptures, more valuable than the teachings of the Church, God speaks to me directly all the time by my experience in my heart. 

 On a positive note, these believers are among some of the most excited and involved Christians whom I know.  They love God and want to talk with God every day.  They want to experience their lives close to God.

  However, there are many problems.  There was a young man named Vernon Howell who was a devout follower of God.  His grandmother reported how as a boy he prayed for hours by his bed.  He loved to be in his church and he knew the Bible.  However, in time, he became dissatisfied with traditional Church and the limits of the Bible.  He claimed God was guiding him into a deeper truth beyond the Bible and the Church.  He claimed that God spoke to him daily.  Eventually, he joined a group known as the Branch Davidians and he took a new name—David Koresh.  He led his followers with his message that the end of the world was near.  And in April 1993, he led his followers into a fatal confrontation with Federal authorities.

  History is filled with such stories.  Today, we need only tune into certain televangelists who nightly claim to hear directly from God.  So should we run in fear from seeking an experience of God?  Just study our Bibles and trust the Church to guide us?  No.

  In the 1700s, John Wesley faced the Church of England which had become dry and lifeless.  Oh, they held all the right beliefs about the Bible and the Church.  But it was not alive.  The people of England knew all the right things about God, and, by and large, they lived good lives.  But they did not have a personal experience of knowing God as a friend.  You see, the Christian life is like a bridge across a river.  There is the concrete reality of the bridge and that is like the Bible.  You can touch it with your hand.  Then there are all the people who have gone ahead of us and we can see them crossing the bridge.  That is like Church tradition.  I can examine the bridge and see that it is secure and will lead me the proper way.  That observation is our reason.    Now all that is vital.  But I must also have my own experience and I must walk across the bridge to discover God.

   So then, is this personal experience the most important?  NO.  Without the Bible and Church Tradition, I may walk across the wrong bridge.  My own intelligence is limited and my experience alone is not enough. Wesley taught that to fully seek God, we need a variety of means.  We need the Bible which reveals the Word of God.  We need Church Tradition as the Word remembered.  We need Human Reason as the Word confirmed to us.  We need Experience as the Word actually lived.  

  Does God speak to people today?  Yes, God does speak.  That is the whole meaning of the Christian life.  God wants to have a personal relationship with you.  And I know that many of you have heard God’s voice in your past guiding you.  Many of us are afraid to talk about our experiences of hearing from God.  It seems odd to us to talk about, a bit like saying you have seen a UFO.  But over the next weeks, we will look at the many ways by which God speaks.  It is not merely through one way.  In fact, that can limit our hearing and be detrimental, even dangerous, to us.  Many of us have failed to hear God fully because we have only listened by one means.  But when we learn to hear in many ways, then we will hear the voice of God.  We will commune with God.  We will know that God loves us and desires to be with us in life. 

This morning, let me ask you, when was the last time you clearly heard from God?  What did God say to you?  Has God spoken to you in different ways in the past?  If you have not heard God in your life, why do you think that is?  What do you need to do to better hear the voice of God?   Join me in prayer.

   Oh God, open our hearts and minds to hear you in many ways.  Through your Bible, in your Church, by the intelligence you have given us, and by more directly experiencing you.  In these coming weeks, speak to us God and we will listen.  Amen.