Does God Verbally Speak to Me?
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00:00:06.000 | Ryland, a podcast listener, writes in to ask this, "Do we need to be listening for God's
00:00:11.000 | voice to speak to us outside of the Bible?
00:00:14.120 | Does He desire to speak to us audibly like He does to certain people in the Bible?
00:00:17.660 | And if so, Pastor John, how do we know if it's God's voice we're hearing?"
00:00:21.280 | I really want to say something positive here and not just negative.
00:00:25.840 | In fact, most of what I have to say is positive.
00:00:30.480 | And the first and main thing is to say, "God really has spoken."
00:00:38.880 | And this word is living and active.
00:00:41.960 | It's not a dead word.
00:00:43.560 | He really speaks today through the inspired scriptures.
00:00:49.960 | He really, really does, Ryland.
00:00:52.540 | He really does.
00:00:54.200 | Not just with information, but with Himself, by His Spirit.
00:01:00.300 | First Samuel 3:21, "The Lord appeared at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at
00:01:08.740 | Shiloh by the word of the Lord."
00:01:12.020 | That really happens.
00:01:14.020 | God stands forth from His inspired word as we read it prayerfully and dependently.
00:01:25.360 | And I would add this, that word in the Bible is more sure than anything you can hear outside
00:01:34.120 | the Bible.
00:01:35.120 | I base that on 1 Corinthians 14, 37.
00:01:38.660 | If anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am
00:01:45.420 | writing to you are a command of the Lord.
00:01:48.940 | If anyone does not recognize this, he's not recognized.
00:01:54.420 | That's amazing.
00:01:55.420 | Paul is saying, "You can call yourself a prophet and get messages from God.
00:02:00.680 | You can call yourself spiritual and be tuned in to God.
00:02:04.220 | But if anything you say doesn't accord with what I say, you're not recognized."
00:02:11.060 | Which means that outside the Bible, we have fallible, uncertain impressions and messages.
00:02:20.100 | Inside the Bible, we have rock-solid, dependable messages.
00:02:25.720 | So there are treasures and wonders and glories and dimensions of God to be seen in the Bible
00:02:31.620 | that we have scarcely seen.
00:02:35.340 | It seems to me to be folly to crave the lesser authority and the lesser riches outside the
00:02:45.340 | Bible than the riches and the greater authority that we've barely tasted, let alone digested,
00:02:54.540 | inside the Bible.
00:02:56.180 | Now, having said that positive thing about the Bible that I love, I just love the Bible
00:03:01.820 | so much and I know that after, what, 60 years of reading my Bible, I've barely scratched
00:03:09.220 | the surface of glories.
00:03:10.980 | So I kind of get ticked, frankly, at myself and others who are craving stuff outside the
00:03:17.620 | Bible as though there's something better to be had out there.
00:03:21.600 | Having said all that, I don't see anything in the Bible that would say God can't communicate
00:03:28.260 | with us in extraordinary ways outside the Bible.
00:03:31.700 | He can.
00:03:33.280 | And if He does, we should test it by His infinitely authoritative written Word, and we should
00:03:42.380 | commend it to those whose lives show a deep, long wisdom in Christ.
00:03:50.740 | There's this community dimension to testing all things.
00:03:55.180 | Like Paul said, "Don't despise prophecies.
00:03:57.460 | Test all things.
00:03:58.900 | Hold fast to what is good."
00:03:59.900 | That's just not a private thing.
00:04:01.900 | That's something we do with others as well.
00:04:05.260 | But I'll close with this.
00:04:07.980 | Beware, Ryland.
00:04:10.820 | Beware of craving the sensations of a voice.
00:04:16.620 | Jesus warned against those who seek a sign.
00:04:21.340 | So here He is.
00:04:22.500 | He's standing there in front of the Pharisees and scribes, speaking.
00:04:28.900 | And they say, "Give us a sign."
00:04:33.020 | What does that mean?
00:04:34.020 | It means that the voice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, wasn't adequate.
00:04:41.220 | They needed something more.
00:04:42.740 | They needed to feel more, touch more, see more.
00:04:45.700 | They wanted more, and Jesus wouldn't give it to them.
00:04:51.020 | And I think we're in a situation today not unlike that.
00:04:55.540 | We hear more of the Son of God than anybody in Jesus' day ever heard, because we have
00:05:05.100 | all four Gospels, and those people got it in snatches.
00:05:09.460 | Therefore, we have the wholeness of the revelation that Jesus meant to communicate, and it's
00:05:15.660 | speaking to us every time we read the Bible.
00:05:18.700 | And if we turn away from that and say, "But I need a sign.
00:05:21.460 | I need a sign.
00:05:22.460 | I need a voice.
00:05:23.460 | I need a tree to fall down in the woods when I'm talking.
00:05:27.300 | I need something."
00:05:29.020 | We're putting ourselves in the position of those who demanded a sign.
00:05:34.900 | Instead, I think our heart should be, "Oh God."
00:05:40.140 | This is the way Paul taught the Ephesians to pray in chapter 1, verse 17.
00:05:44.700 | "Give my heart's eyes sight.
00:05:50.740 | Open my eyes to your power.
00:05:53.100 | Open my eyes to your wisdom.
00:05:54.780 | Open my eyes to your inheritance.
00:05:56.660 | You say stunning things that should blow me away, and give me a sense of your worth beyond
00:06:03.220 | anything any message outside should give.
00:06:05.660 | So Father, if I'm not seeing, if I'm not hearing, have mercy upon me and open my eyes."
00:06:12.980 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:06:14.140 | And on a related note, see Pastor John's article, "The Morning I Heard the Voice of God," which
00:06:18.700 | was published back on March 21st of 2007.
00:06:22.620 | A provocative title and a provocative thought.
00:06:25.460 | You can find it at desiringgod.org, along with thousands of free books, articles, sermons,
00:06:29.980 | and other resources from John Piper.
00:06:32.180 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:06:33.180 | We'll be back tomorrow.
00:06:34.180 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John Podcast.
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