God Speaking

(Caption: Greg Koukl, founder and President of the Christian Apologetics organization Stand to Reason.)

Last week I was listening to a great lecture on “Decision Making and the Will of God,” given by Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason when this summary of some of his material jumped out at me. It is so insightful that I couldn't help sharing it with you.

To setup his comments, Mr. Koukl had spent the previous hour discussing the idea, much touted in the Christian community today, of listening for God’s private, personal messages and guidance when it comes to everyday decision making (should I marry this person, take this job, buy this house, etc.).

After exegeting numerous Biblical examples of God speaking, Mr. Koukl deducted several key points of commonality from the texts regarding how God speaks and the nature of messages He communicates when He does:

1. It’s very rare – There is no indication that God’s intervention to tell a person do something particular is the standard way of doing business in the Bible (think Peter’s dream on the roof top).


2. It’s an intrusion – You don’t see Paul or any of the Apostles stuck where they are, waiting to hear from God so they can know what do next. It always happens while people are on the move. God stops them, and redirects them in some fashion.


3. It’s supernatural – It’s a voice out of Heaven, it’s Jesus appearing in a vision, it’s an angel tapping you on the shoulder (literally).


4. It’s Clear – Whenever God speaks, the audience gets the message. It’s never up to us to listen carefully to try to hear what God is saying (often we are told that we don't hear from God because we are not listening). It’s up to us to obey when He does communicate. You can’t obey an unclear message.


5. It’s often against wisdom – If it was with wisdom the followers of God would (hopefully) be doing it anyway, they wouldn’t need to be told by God.


6. It becomes God’s moral will for you – It must be obeyed.

Now for Greg’s summery:

"Frankly, I don’t think we really take our own belief in God speaking very seriously. I had to speak at an engagement once and the person in charge of was giving me some information about the details, and I said “Well, what should I speak about here?” And the person said, “We prayed about it and we think that God wants you to address this topic or that topic. But you can do whatever you want.” By the way, this from a very spiritually mature and astute person. And I questioned that; I said “If God said it, then how is it that I have the liberty to ignore it?”

We do that all the time, as I mentioned before; “God told me to do this" one day and the next day they were doing something opposite. We don’t really take it seriously. I don’t know if you realize how serious a claim it is when you tell others that God told you to do something. When the prophets in the Old Testament did that they put their lives on the line. Step back just a minute from Christian lingo and just imagine, is it a serious thing to say that God told you to do something? I mean, is that serious or what?

But these kind of words trip out of our mouths every single day and we don’t give it a thought, and then we hear someone say “Oh God!” and we say “How dare you use God’s name in vain!” Yet you have been vainly spewing out the name of God on a regular basis with damage! “Oh God,” that does no damage, the other does. Stop it! It’s misleading to young Christians it’s destructive to all Christians."

By the way, if you haven’t ever checked out the articles and resources on Stand to Reason’s web page, I highly recommend it. It’s very left-brained kind of stuff (which is why it appeals so much to me), and it is some of the best stuff out there on the topics they cover; hard-hitting, well thought-out, clearly communicated, easy to understand, and solidly grounded Biblically.

Check them out.