Talk 9. How God speaks to us through the Bible (Part 3)
He directs us by bringing key verses to our attention
So far we have identified three ways in which God speaks to us through the Bible. He shows us what to believe and how to behave. Through the lives of God’s people in the Bible he teaches us what to expect. And he encourages us by the promises he has made. We now turn our attention to how God sometimes directs us by bringing key verses to our attention.
Now we need to tread very carefully here. We have already seen the importance of understanding Bible verses in the context in which they are written. Taking a verse out of its context can lead to wrong conclusions about what God is saying and even to seriously wrong actions if the following anecdotal story is to be believed.
A young Christian, who was feeling the need of encouragement, opened the Bible at random looking for a word from the Lord. It fell open at Matthew 27:5 where he read that Judas went and hanged himself. As he did not find this very encouraging, he thought he would try again. This time the Bible fell open at Luke 10:37 where to his dismay he read, Go and do likewise! So he tried again and read in John 13:27, What you are about to do, do quickly.
Now I’m pretty sure this story is apocryphal. If it isn’t, it’s to be hoped that the young man did not act upon what he read. However, I suspect that the story was made up to illustrate the danger of taking verses out of their context, and the point is well made.
Nevertheless, I’m sure that many Christians have had similar experiences to me, where God has spoken very clearly through Bible verses taken completely out of context. I’m now going to give you a few examples from my own experience and although, admittedly, I’m not sure we can find any parallel examples in Scripture, I hope to show you that there are times when God can and does speak to us in this way and I’ll suggest some guidelines on how to be sure we’re hearing the Lord correctly.
During my first year as a student at Oxford I was asked by my tutor to write an essay on the ontological argument for the existence of God. This was one of the arguments used, for example, by the philosopher René Descartes in an attempt to prove God’s existence. During the course of my essay I said something to the effect that although philosophy cannot prove the existence of God it cannot disprove it either.
It was at this point, as I was reading my essay to my tutor, that he interrupted me by saying:
Oh, I don’t know. I think if you mean by ‘prove’ what we normally mean by ‘prove’, and if you mean by ‘God’ what we normally mean by ‘God’, then we can probably disprove God’s existence. But perhaps we can talk about it another time
(which, incidentally, he never did).
This was the first time in my life that I had been confronted with such an outright denial of God’s existence, and my tutor’s statement shocked me deeply. It challenged everything I had based my life upon. I felt numb. As soon as he had left the room I instinctively wanted to call out to God for help. But what if my tutor was right and there was no God to call out to? But I called out anyway:
God, if there is a God, HELP!
And He did!
I walked into my bedroom and picked up my Bible and opened it. It fell open at Psalm 119, verse 99. My teacher had told me that he could prove that there is no God. Who was I to challenge the statement of an Oxford tutor? But in that verse the Psalmist said:
I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.
I came later to realise that by reading the Bible the most simple believer can gain more understanding of the things that really matter than all the intellectual rationalising of the philosopher. That verse brought immediate reassurance to my heart. It was not just the content of the verse that reassured me – though it certainly did – but the fact that, of all the verses in the Bible I should turn at random to that very one. This was surely no coincidence.
Just over ten years later, in January 1972, while I was pastoring a church in Basingstoke, I was also a visiting lecturer at Kenley Bible College in Surrey. The College later moved to Nottinghamshire and became known as Mattersey Hall Bible College where I eventually became the Principal.
During one of my fortnightly visits to Kenley I learned that one of the full-time lecturers was leaving at the end of the academic year. I naturally wondered who might be chosen to replace him. I was thinking about this as I was driving home that evening and I wondered for a moment if they might ask me. But I quickly dismissed the thought as I believed that God wanted me to stay in Basingstoke and build a big church. However, I said to God as I was driving along:
Of course, if ever You want me to move to the College and work there, I will. But please make it very clear that that is what You want me to do.
That night I woke up at about 2 o’clock in the morning with a burning conviction that I was going to the Bible College. I tried to shake it off, but the conviction would not leave me. I tried telling myself that there was a simple psychological explanation. It was because of what I had been thinking about before I went to bed. But I couldn’t get back to sleep, and remembering what I had said to God in the car coming home, I decided to go downstairs and pray.
I poured myself a glass of milk from the fridge and then said to God:
Lord, You know I need my sleep, so if You’re trying to tell me something, please talk to me quickly so that I can go back to bed.
Looking back on it, I’m surprised that I dared to talk to the Almighty like that, but that is what I said. Then, thinking that it might help if I read something from the Bible I opened it at random. It fell open at 2 Chronicles 34:22 which, in the Authorised Version of the Bible I was using at the time, referred to Huldah the prophetess who DWELT IN THE COLLEGE in Jerusalem.
I did not even know that the word college was in the Bible. But as I was seriously asking God if He wanted me to live and work at the Bible College, the first verse I turned to as I opened my Bible contained the words dwelt at the college. This surely could be no coincidence? Yet that is what at first I thought it must be. I couldn’t really believe that they would want me full time at the College. I had all kind of objections to the whole idea, not least of which was that I thought they would say I was too young. But as I made my objections, one by one God answered them by directing me to verses that showed me I had no good reason for making such excuses. By the time God had finished with me that night I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I would one day live and work at the College. But I did not know then that I would be its Principal for 27 years (1977-2004).
When the time came for me to retire from Mattersey and move on to an even wider international ministry, I was naturally concerned that the right person be appointed as my successor. During my principalship, with God’s help and the able assistance of a gifted and dedicated team, the number of students had more than trebled, we had erected a wonderful new Hall of Residence and a beautiful new chapel and classrooms, we were offering a range of university validated courses, and, most important of all, we had prepared hundreds of students to spread the message of the gospel throughout the world. It was, therefore, vitally important that the right person be appointed to built on the foundation we had laid.
But I had no idea who that person should be. I could think of a few names of people who might well be suitable, but who was the person chosen by God? I did not know. Surely this was time for a clear word from the Lord. However, the decision was not mine to make. I was one of a committee who would interview candidates and then recommend to the National Leadership Team (NLT) who should be nominated for appointment. Nevertheless, I was conscious that my opinion would be well respected, and I felt a burden of responsibility to come to a decision as to whom I would recommend if I were asked. But on the day before the NLT were due to meet I still had no clear word from the Lord. But then, why should I expect one as the decision was not mine to make?
Then something happened very similar to what took place in 1972 when the Lord first showed me that I was going to work at the Bible College. That night I woke up at about 2 a.m. and could not get back to sleep. The issue of who should be my successor was playing on my mind. So I said something like this:
Lord, I don’t know who it should be. I don’t even know if I need to know. It’s not my responsibility to make the decision. Please help.
Then I picked up a Bible. It fell open at the first chapter of the Song of Songs. In the version I was reading verse 8 says:
My dearest, if you don’t know, just follow the path of the sheep.
I felt the Lord was saying that, since I didn’t know who my successor should be, I should simply follow the decision that would be made by God’s people (the sheep) who were to be meeting the next day. The Lord then gave me Psalm 125:3 which assured me that he wouldn’t let the wrong person lead his people and Matthew 6:34 telling me not to worry about tomorrow.
Now I need to make it very clear that I do not recommend opening a Bible at random as a regular means of getting guidance from God. The Bible is God’s word and He does speak to us through it, but to understand what He is saying we should read it in context. I have spent the last 50 years of my life trying to teach Christians to do just that! But there are rare occasions when a verse of the Bible seems to leap out of the page at you and God speaks to you through it even though the original intention of the verse may have been entirely different.
But when this happens how can we be sure that we are hearing what God is saying correctly? We’re not now talking about the guidelines we gave earlier on how to understand the Bible correctly. Those guidelines relate mainly to what we should believe and teach. But when we feel that God is speaking to us directly and guiding us personally through the words of a Bible text, other guidelines are appropriate.
The basic principle is that we should not rely on the words we have read to guide us without seeking confirmation. This can come in various ways. Let’s use the example of the call to the Bible College that I received in 1972. The first thing to notice is that I already had an inner conviction that I was going to live at the college.
Secondly, the verse containing the words dwelt at the college was not the only verse God gave me that night. I was given several other verses that supported it.
Thirdly, my call to the college was tested by other people, first by confidential discussion with senior church leaders and ultimately by the vote of confidence given by a conference of ministers.
Fourthly, the task to which God was calling me was totally suited to the natural and spiritual gifts he had given me.
And fifthly, the calling was tested by time. It was not until five years later in 1977 that I became acting principal and not until 1978 that the appointment was finally confirmed.
These five safeguards will ensure that we are hearing God correctly when we feel that God has spoken to us through a random verse of scripture. You may not receive confirmation in all these ways, but at least you should receive it by some of them.
I will be developing these principles towards the end of this series when we talk about other ways God guides us.