I was studying Galatians this morning. In the first couple of chapters Paul is presenting his faith journey during his early years as a Christian. In Galatians 2:2 you can find a brief statement that says that he “went up by [or because of] revelation” to Jerusalem. In other words, Paul went to Jerusalem because God had revealed to him that he should go there.
There are some theologians who debate whether such revelation happens today or whether the only revelation of God to Christians is the written Bible. Some would say that such special revelation was for the apostolic times in the first century after Christ’s resurrection to help the Church grow. Even just this week someone told me that it really troubled them when someone uses the terms “God told me….” And, of course, it is frightening because the person saying such could be misled or could be using such terminology to justify evil or control others.
But, should our fear of the evil of humanity drive our understanding of God?? Or should we simply have the faith in God to reveal Truth and fakery for what it is, allowing the written Word of God to be the standard against which any other revelation must be tested (God won’t tell us to do something that is inconsistent with His Word or His character as revealed in that Word).
If it were true that God does not speak directly to our hearts today about every day things, how is that we are supposed to “do” the “things that [we] learned and received and heard and saw” in Paul? Philippians 4:9. One of the things we see him doing throughout his ministry is following God’s voice in his life, just as we see in Galatians 2:2.
If such opinions were true, how is it that by presenting our requests to God (praying), we are supposed to receive His peace? Wouldn’t it require the ability to hear His voice? Why would we pray?
If such opinions were true, why would Jesus tell us that we, as God’s sheep, can hear and know the shepherd’s voice? John 10.
Why would Paul pray for the Colossians that they “may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding [and] increasing in the knowledge of God”? Colossians 1:9-10.
Why would we listen to anyone preach; instead, why wouldn’t a “sermon” simply be someone reading the Scripture? And why would a preacher pray about what “God is leading” the preacher to preach next?
Yes, we can know God more through knowing His written word more and more, but does the God who spoke all the world into existence not speak to our hearts and minds directly today? Does the God who made us fearfully and wonderfully, ordaining all our days before the beginning of time, giving us a purpose and plan, not communicate that purpose and plan to us today? Psalm 139.
Is it possible that we hesitate to listen for the voice of God because we are afraid of what He might say and therefore we develop a theology that says He isn’t speaking?
Posted by: Bryan Riley
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