Category: Podcast

An inspirational study into Luke’s repeated use of the phrase, “…with one accord,” in the book of Acts.

Preached live at Brixham Community Church.

As we embark on a new year, let us allow God to speak to us, however uncomfortable or challenging it may be, and resolve to let saying ‘no’ to God never be an option.

Dr David Petts preaches on Living in Victory!

For all podcasts visit https://www.davidpetts.org/podcast

Victory over the enemy – Lessons from the life of Benaiah

For all podcast episodes visit www.davidpetts.org/podcast

AMEN!

How often do we say the word, ‘Amen!’?

In this sermon audio, Dr David Petts considers:

1. It’s meaning and use
2. The value of saying it
3. Things we can’t say ‘Amen’ to
4. The greatest ‘Amen’ of all

Dr David Petts – Seven reasons for praising the Lord – sermon audio

How God speaks to us   Talk 22 Responding to God’s Voice (Part 2)

Receiving and using spiritual gifts

1 Corinthians 12:11 tells us that it’s the Holy Spirit himself who determines what gifts he should give us. But that does not mean that we cannot put ourselves in a position where we are most likely to receive them. As we draw this series to a conclusion, let me share with you five keys to receiving and using them. They are relevant, not only to spiritual gifts, but also to the whole question of letting God speak to us and through us.

Desire them eagerly

In 1 Corinthians 14:1 we are told to eagerly desire spiritual gifts. The Greek verb here is zeloō. Paul uses it three times in connection with spiritual gifts. Here, and in 1 Corinthians 12:31 where he encourages the Corinthians to eagerly desire the greater gifts by which he probably means those that are of the greatest value in building up the church. See 14:12 where he uses it again.

The verb is a really strong word – the KJV translates it covet earnestly – and is the origin of our English word zeal. You may remember that one of Jesus’ disciples was called Simon the Zealot (Matthew 10:4). The Zealots were a fanatical political group who were determined to overthrow the power of the Romans, no matter the cost. I mention this simply to emphasise the strength of the word that Paul uses to indicate what should be our attitude to spiritual gifts.

So, our starting point, if we want to be used in spiritual gifts, is to ask ourselves how eagerly we desire them. Then, the next step will be to stop making excuses.

Stop making excuses

I’m mentioning this because it’s amazing how easy it seems to be to make excuses for not doing the things we know we ought to do. Now I’m not suggesting that every listener will be making all these excuses, and it may be that you’re making none of them. But I know from experience that the things I’m going to mention are common causes of Christians not entering into some of the wonderful blessings God has in store for them.

Excuse Number 1   I’m not worthy

The first excuse is quite understandable. In fact, it sounds very spiritual. We know it’s wrong to boast, and surely, to say I’m not worthy is showing humility? But God doesn’t give us these gifts because we deserve them. They come from his grace. That’s why Paul calls them charismata (1 Corinthians 12:4) which comes from the word charis meaning grace.

In fact, everything God gives us comes from his grace. Even the gift of eternal life is a charisma. In Romans 6:23 Paul says that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And the word for gift here is charisma. We don’t receive eternal life because we deserve it, but because of God’s grace.

And the same is true of spiritual gifts. We receive them despite our unworthiness, or to put it another way, because we have already been made worthy in Christ. The Corinthians are a clear example of this principle. They were not lacking in spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 1:7), but this was certainly not because they were particularly good Christians[1]. So we should not hold back from seeking spiritual gifts for ourselves because we are conscious of our own shortcomings.

Excuse Number 2   I’m not suitable

This covers a range of excuses – I’m not talented enough, old enough, clever enough, and so on. It’s here that another word Paul uses can help us. In 1 Corinthians 12:1 he refers to the gifts he’s about to talk about as pneumatika. The basic meaning of this word is spiritual, but in the context it’s probably better understood to mean supernatural.

As we’ve said, all God’s gifts come from his grace, so they’re all charismata.  There are natural gifts and supernatural gifts[2].  Paul refers to the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 as pneumatika because these particular gifts are supernatural. That means that there’s no limit as to the persons God may give them to. They have nothing to do with our natural talents. And they’re available to all God’s people, irrespective of age, gender, or social status (Acts 2:17ff).

Excuse Number 3   They’re beyond my reach

Sometimes we’re tempted to think that the wonderful gifts we’re talking about are somehow beyond our reach. We’re conscious of our own humanity and spiritual gifts are manifestations of the supernatural power that comes from God himself.  God is in heaven and we are on earth. Surely they’re beyond our reach? But no, they are not. Spiritual gifts do not come from God in outer space!  They come from God who lives inside you.

This is where another word Paul uses to describe these gifts will help us. In 1 Corinthians 12:7 he refers to them as a manifestation. The Greek word is phaner­osis (v7). It comes from a verb meaning to shine and has been defined as a clear display, an outward evidencing of a latent principle.  

To understand this better, please think about a lightbulb. Electricity is the power at work inside it. The light that shines from it is the evidence that the electricity is there. It’s a manifestation of the power within. Now think of yourself as the lightbulb, and the Holy Spirit as the power at work inside you, and spiritual gifts as the outward evidence of that power.

It’s the Holy Spirit who gives these gifts and he lives inside you. He can manifest through you any gift he chooses. In verse 6 Paul also  calls them energemata, which literally means things worked inside. This means that potentially any of the gifts could be at work in you, because the Giver is already there! But, following our analogy of the lightbulb, it’s our responsibility to keep the electricity flowing if the light is to shine. We need to keep filled with the Spirit and the gifts will come. 

 

 

Keep filled with the Spirit

In Ephesians 5:18 we’re told to be filled with the Spirit. As we saw in an earlier talk, we can best understand what Paul means by this by looking in Acts at the descriptions given there of people being filled with the Spirit. These examples paint a clear picture for us of what Paul means when he tells us to be filled with the Spirit.

We learn from Acts that it’s a supernatural experience that is received suddenly rather than gradually and is accompanied by miraculous gifts that greatly empower our witness for Christ. Jesus’ first disciples began to exercise the gifts of the Spirit when they were first filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and began to speak in tongues (Acts 2:4)[3].  And if we want to be used in spiritual gifts it’s clear that we too need to be filled with the Spirit.

Now the fact that Paul tells us to be filled with the Spirit implies that there is something we can do about it. God’s Spirit is always available to us, but it’s our responsibility to be filled. In 2 Timothy 1:6-8 Paul says to Timothy:

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord…

There can be no doubt that the ‘spirit’ referred to in these verses is the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who gives us power and produces in us fruit like love and self-discipline. He also enables us to testify about the Lord (cf. Acts 1:8). So the gift of God that Timothy received through the laying on of Paul’s hands was the gift of the Holy Spirit[4].

But what does Paul mean when he tells Timothy to fan this gift into flame? The Greek word here is anazopureo. It literally mean give life again to the fire. We have the fire of God’s Spirit within us, but it’s our responsibility to keep it burning. Or, following the analogy we gave earlier, to keep the electricity flowing. And to do that, we need to pray, not only with our mind but also with our spirit, but that’s a subject for our next section.

Pray

Talking about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 14:12-15, Paul says this:

12 So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.

13 For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says.

14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.

In verse 12 Paul acknowledges that the Corinthians are eager to have spiritual gifts, but he wants them to concentrate on gifts that build up the church. He is emphasising something he’s already said in verses 1-5 where he makes it clear that prophecy is more valuable for the church than speaking in tongues. Tongues are useful for personal edification (v4), but prophecy will edify the church. However, tongues can be a means of edifying the church, but only if it’s accompanied by the gift of interpretation (v5).

So, in verse 13 he says that anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they are saying. That way the church will be edified as well as the person speaking in tongues. And, apart from anything else, this verse shows us that, if we’re eagerly desiring a spiritual gift (v12), we should pray for it.

Paul then goes on in verses 14-15 to tell us something very important about speaking in tongues. Although, as we’ve seen, it’s of no value to the church unless it’s interpreted, it’s of great value to the individual Christian. He says that when he pray in tongues we are praying with the spirit. This is different from praying with the mind which is what we do when we pray in English (or any other language we have learned).

So if we pray in tongues we are praying with our spirit. This is not a reference to the Holy Spirit, although of course it’s the Holy Spirit who enables us to speak in tongues. When I pray in English, I understand what I’m saying, but when I pray I tongues I do not. But, even so, Paul says it edifies me (v4).

So, Paul says in verse 15:

What shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, I will also pray with my mind.

This clearly shows his determination to do both. And if we are to fan into flame the gift of the Spirit, we need to too. Like Jackie Pullinger, who testifies that speaking in tongues for fifteen minutes a day has resulted in her seeing amazing miracles among drug addicts in Hong Kong, spiritual gifts will happen in our lives as we fan into flame the gift of the Spirit within us. We need to keep filled with the Spirit by praying with our spirit (in tongues) and praying with our understanding (in English) specifically asking for spiritual gifts, as Paul encourages the Corinthians in verse 13, for example.

But how do I know what to pray for? Aren’t the gifts distributed as the Holy Spirit determines? And what if I start asking for a gift that it’s not his will for me to have? These are the kind of questions my students often asked me, and I quite understand why. But the problem is, if we don’t know what to pray for, we probably won’t pray for any of them.

As I was thinking and praying about the best way to answer these questions, I felt the Lord say to me,

Tell them to pray for whatever gift they like. I’m delighted they’re praying for any of the gifts. I will direct them as they continue to pray.

I quickly saw the Lord’s wisdom in giving that advice. All God’s gifts are good, and it’s good to pray for any of them. But if the gift we’re asking for is not for us, the Lord will move us towards the ones that are. As we said in an earlier talk, God usually guides us when we’re on the move. Remember the illustration of the SATNAV?

It’s also helpful to remember that, when we don’t know what to pray for as we pray with our mind (in English), if we pray with our spirit (in tongues), not understanding what we are saying, the words we speak in tongues may well be voicing a request for the very gifts God is planning to give us.

Act in faith

So, if we’re eagerly desiring for God not only to speak to us, but also to speak through us, if we’ve stopped making excuses, if we’re keeping filled with the Spirit, and if we’re praying that God will give us these wonderful gifts, all we need to do now is act in faith.

Jesus himself said that gifts like tongues, healings and miracles would accompany those who believe (Mark 16:17-18), and the apostle Paul tells us that those who prophesy should do so in accordance with their faith (Romans 12:6). And James tells us that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). We have to do something. If we want God to speak through us, we have to speak.

An example of this is how I began to exercise the gift of interpreting tongues, which I’ve already told you about in an earlier talk. I acted in faith, despite my doubts. Nelson Mandela once said:

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not the one who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

Similarly, faith is not the absence of doubt. It’s overcoming your doubts by trusting the Lord. He doesn’t give stones or scorpions or snakes when we ask for the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:11-13) or when we ask for his gifts (Matthew 7:9-11). Trusting in these promises, we can act in faith, knowing that God will not let us down.

 

If you’ve enjoyed this series, you’ll want to get a copy of my new book,

The Voice of God – how he speaks to us today

 

Available from my website: www.davidpetts.org

 

228 pages containing all the teaching in the podcasts, and more.

 

£12.00 per copy (including postage)

How God speaks to us   Talk 21 Responding to God’s Voice (Part 1)

This series has been about how God speaks to us. In our last talk we were considering how to hear him. In this talk and the next – apologies for saying last time that this would be the last talk – we’ll be talking about how we should respond. It’s a wonderful privilege to know that the Creator of the universe has spoken to you, and our initial response may well be a mixture of surprise, disbelief, awe, excitement, gratitude, and worship. But after this initial reaction, two other things are absolutely vital. We must believe what God has said and do what he has said.

I mentioned disbelief as part of what might well be our initial reaction, because this was certainly the experience of many of the Bible characters God spoke to – Moses, Gideon, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, for example. So, an initial reaction of disbelief, often caused by a very real sense of unworthiness or inadequacy, is quite understandable. But, if we are to do what God says, we must put disbelief behind us and trust that God knows what he’s doing! We really have no excuse. Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17) and if God has spoken to us, it’s our responsibility to believe it.

But, of course, believing is only the starting point.  We must not only believe what God has said to us, we must do it. Four times in the Bible we read:

Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts[1]

which in the context relates to disobedience. If God has spoken to us we should not postpone our obedience to his voice. We should believe it and obey it today.

Of course, the specifics of what God says will be different for every one of us, but the things that God has said in his word he says to us all. And one of the great principles I see in Scripture is that God not only speaks TO us, but he also wants to speak THROUGH us. In earlier talks we showed how God can speak to us through spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues and interpretation.  And, of course, we could have also mentioned other gifts like words of wisdom and words of knowledge. But God can also speak through us by these miraculous gifts.

We said earlier that there’s a sense in which all God’s people are ‘prophets’. This doesn’t mean that we’re all prophets in the Ephesiams 4:11 sense (i.e. like Agabus), or that we all have the spiritual gift of prophecy, but we are all called to speak for God in one way or another. The Old Testament prophets spoke to God’s people, Israel. They also spoke to the heathen nations around them. In a similar way, as God’s people today, we Christians are called to speak on behalf of God, not only to our fellow Christians, but also to those around us who do not yet know Jesus. And through the infilling of the Holy Spirit we can receive gifts that will empower us to do that. In fact, without the Holy Spirit’s help, we are powerless. And that’s why I’m going to conclude this series by explaining:

• The value of spiritual gifts in encouraging other Christians
• The value of spiritual gifts in evangelism
• How to receive spiritual gifts (Talk 22)

The value of spiritual gifts in encouraging other Christians

In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 Paul lists nine supernatural gifts that are given to Christians as the Holy Spirit determines (v11). In the following verses, using the human body as an illustration of the church and the parts of the body as its members, Paul makes it clear that, though we all have different gifts, we’re all needed if the body, the church, is to function properly.

Within the context of the church, the value of these gifts is determined by the extent to which they edify and encourage the members. They are given for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). And in 1 Corinthians 14:5 Paul says that the person who prophesies is greater than the person who speaks in tongues, unless they interpret, so that the church may be edified. Similarly, in Romans 1:11 we read that Paul longed to see the Romans so that he might impart some spiritual gift to make them strong (Romans 1:11).

Now in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul makes it clear that, whatever gifts God may give us, they are useless unless our motive is love. He goes on in chapter 14 to emphasise that everything we do as we gather together in church must be for the edification of our fellow Christians (v26). Quite simply, if we really love people, we will want to bless them, and perhaps the best way to do that is to prophesy – to let God speak to them through us. That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:1:

Follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.

How glad I am for the people who allowed God to speak through them in this way that have proved such a blessing to me over the years. This has usually happened during the course of a service at church, but sometimes it happens privately. In June 2016, totally unexpectedly, Eileen suffered a severe stroke which totally paralysed the right-hand side of her body. Although she made some improvement over the first few months, despite much prayer, six years later she is still unable to walk, and, after the many miracles of healing we have seen, we naturally were asking, Where is God in all this? Why has she not been healed?

The answer came through our good friend Barrie Taylor. Barrie and Sandra are the parents of Richard, our daughter Sarah’s husband. We only see them about twice a year as they live at quite some distance from us. On one occasion, after a pleasant lunch in a restaurant near our home, Barrie said, Today I asked the Lord to give me a word for you, and he gave me this:

My Father is at work in your lives and situation, which he is using as a platform to display his sustaining grace.

It was just what we needed. Despite appearances, God was and is at work in our lives, and although we would love the Lord to heal Eileen – and I still pray that he will – we see regular evidence of his hand at work in ways that would not have been possible if she were fit and well. Each week we have some twenty different carers come into our home and with many of them we have had great opportunities to share the gospel.

But that leads us to the next reason why we should ask the Lord to speak through us prophetically. When we do so, it is not only of great value in encouraging our fellow Christians. It is also a vital component of our telling others about Jesus. And, as we shall see, the message of the gospel is best proclaimed, not only with words given to us by the Spirit, but also by miraculous deeds performed by his power.

The value of spiritual gifts in evangelism

Once we have heard and received the good news about Jesus, it’s both our privilege and our responsibility to share that good news with others. In John 3:36 Jesus himself gives this warning:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.

It’s our privilege to spread the good news that by believing in Jesus we can have eternal life, but it’s our serious responsibility to warn people of the dangers of rejecting him. Paul took this responsibility so seriously that he could say in Acts 20:26-27 that he was innocent of the blood of all men because he had not hesitated to proclaim… the whole will of God.

To use words like these, Paul must have felt his responsibility very strongly. No doubt he had in mind what God had said to Ezekiel when he told him that if he did not warn people of the danger they were in he would hold him accountable for their blood (i.e. their lives)[2]. And it’s surely right that we should take our responsibility just as seriously. If someone is lost, don’t we need to show them the way? If someone is in danger, don’t we need to warn them?

If we genuinely feel that sense of moral responsibility, we will surely want all the help we can get from God to enable us fulfil it. And once we realise that powerful spiritual gifts are available to assist us in this vital task of evangelism, we will surely want to know how to receive them and use them.

The value of spiritual gifts in evangelism is demonstrated very clearly in the Book of Acts. In Acts 2:41 we’re told that about 3000 people became Christians in a single day. This was in response to Peter’s preaching, but what had brought such a great crowd under the sound of the gospel was the miraculous gift of tongues (vv4-6).

In Acts 4:4 the number had grown to about 5000, which was the result of the healing of the man who had been lame from birth (Acts 3). In Acts 8:6 we’re told that crowds of people in Samaria paid close attention to what Philip said when they saw the miracles he performed, and as a result believed the gospel message and were baptised (v12).

Events like these were a direct fulfilment of Jesus’ promise in Mark 16:15-20 where we read:

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up Iinto heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Here Jesus promises that we can expect spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues, healing, and miracles to accompany the preaching of the gospel. The Christians in the early church recognised this when they prayed in Acts 4:29-31 that God would stretch out his hand to heal and that signs and wonders might be done in the name of Jesus so that God’s servants might speak his word with boldness.

And in Romans 15:18-19 Paul could speak of what Christ had accomplished through him in leading the Gentiles to obey God, by what he had said and done

by the power of signs and miracles through the power of  the Spirit,,, So from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ

which suggests that the gospel is not ‘fully proclaimed’ unless it is attested by signs from heaven.

Illustrations from WFP Burton, Reinhard Bonnke, Aimé Cizeron.

And although the New Testament largely records miracles that were performed by apostles like Peter and Paul, we should not assume that it’s only apostles who can expect to see miracles confirming the word. In the passage we’ve already quoted, Jesus said,

These signs will accompany those who believe (Mark 16:17).

As believers we are all expected to spread the gospel and we can all expect the Lord to work with us in some way, backing up what we say. As we allow the Lord to speak through us as we tell others about Jesus, we can expect him to work with us confirming the word through whatever spiritual gifts he chooses to give us.

Next time: How to receive spiritual gifts

 

IF YOU’VE BEEN ENJOYING THIS SERIES, PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR MY NEW BOOK ON THE SUBJECT: The Voice of God – How he speaks to us today

I hope to make it available before Christmas. Check my website for details:

www.davidpetts.org

How God speaks to us       Talk 20 How to hear his voice

Throughout this series we’ve been looking at the many different ways in which God may speak to us. But now it’s important that we consider two final things:

• How to hear his voice
• How to respond (which we’ll talk about next time)

Before we do so, however, it will be helpful to remind ourselves of what we’ve said about the various ways he speaks to us.

How God speaks – a reminder

In Talk 1 we saw that God speaks to all humankind by his creation. We said that the world we live in, and the heavens above, are clear evidence that a wonderful designer has been at work. We referred to passages like Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:20 to show that, as far as the Bible is concerned, we have no excuse for not believing in God. And the creation speaks eloquently, not only of God’s existence, but of his great and glorious power, his wisdom, his faithfulness, his beauty and his love.

In Talks 2-3 we saw that these divine qualities are seen much more clearly in the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom God has finally spoken to us in the person of his Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). God speaks to us:

through the person of Jesus revealing what God is like

in the words of Jesus teaching us what to believe

and in the actions of Jesus showing us how to behave.

In Talk 4-9 we examined how God speaks to us through the Bible.

In Talk 4 we gave reasons why we should believe that God speaks in this way.

In Talks 5-6 we gave important guidelines on how to understand the Bible correctly.

In Talks 7-9 we discussed different ways in which God speaks through the Bible, including how to identify, understand, and receive God’s promises. But there’s more to the Bible than promises. God gives us instructions, showing us what to believe and how to behave. He does this through the person, the words and the actions of Jesus, the direct teaching found in the New Testament, and by examples from the lives of God’s people. Finally, we discussed how God sometimes directs us by bringing key verses to our attention.

In Talks 10-14 we considered how God often uses other people to speak to us, including parents, other Christians, preachers and pastors, prophets and prophecy.

In Talks 15-18 we looked at ways in which God speaks to us directly without using other people. We gave examples from the Bible and, where possible, from personal experience, of God speaking with an audible voice, through angels, by dreams and visions, supernatural signs, and by promptings, the voice of his Spirit within us.

Finally, in Talk 19, we thought about some of the ways God guides us silently. We saw that he may do so through the trend of circumstances, by opening and closing doors, and through the gifts and talents God has given us. But ultimately, if we really want to discover God’s perfect will for our lives, we must make sure that our minds are constantly being renewed so that we think like God thinks and are willing to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to him (Romans 12:1-2),

How to hear God’s voice

Although the main purpose of these talks has been to answer the question, How does God speak to us today? an equally important question is, How can we hear his voice? The answer lies in much of what we have said so far, so my purpose now is to draw together some of those things and add a few further thoughts that I hope will be helpful. We’ll begin by outlining some basic facts that we should recognise, using the Bible as our basis.

Recognising the facts

First of all, it’s clear from the examples we’ve looked at in the Bible that God has a variety of ways of speaking to different people. Some heard his audible voice, others were visited by angels, while still others had dreams and visions, and so on. God deals with each of us differently.

Why is it, for example, that African Christians seem to hear God speak through a dream or vision more often than British people do? Perhaps it has something to do with our level of expectation. We’re all different and I believe that God usually speaks to us in ways that he knows we will recognise as his voice. This may very well mean that he won’t speak to you in exactly the same ways that he has spoken to me.

Secondly, the biblical examples we have considered show that the revelations people received were often totally unexpected and in some cases were, initially at least, unwanted! Many like Moses and Gideon and Zechariah were just going about their daily business when the Lord appeared to them. God may speak to you when you’re least expecting it!

And thirdly, it’s clear that most of the cases of God speaking to people in the Bible came at a time when God was calling them to some important task for him, or at key turning points in their life or even in history. Obvious examples are:

Zechariah in Luke 1 before the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner to the Messiah

Mary in Luke 2 before the birth of Jesus, the Saviour of the world

Paul in Acts 9 at his conversion and commissioning for service and in Acts 16 preceding the expansion of the gospel into Europe

Peter in Acts 10 opening the door of salvation to the Gentiles.

Even for great servants of God like these, such events were not the sort of things that happened every day. So perhaps we should not be too surprised or disappointed if God never speaks to us in such dramatic ways, or if the times he does so are relatively infrequent.

But, of course, there are ways in which we can expect him to speak to us on a regular basis. For example:

as we read the Bible at home

through the preaching or prophetic gifts at church

by the promptings from that voice of the Spirit inside us.

So, recognising these facts, how can we hear God’s voice?

Asking, expecting, and listening

Although, as we have seen, God sometimes takes the initiative in speaking to us, there are times when he expects us to begin the conversation with him. James tells us that if we lack wisdom – if we don’t know what to do – we should ask God and he will gladly give it (James 1:5).

I have already given specific examples from my own experience of how God spoke to me when I asked him to because I urgently needed to know what to do, and I’ve told you how he wonderfully answered those prayers. On occasions like those we may well need to make time for God to speak to us, but at others a quick prayer may be all that’s needed. Although prayer is important, hearing from God does not depend on how much time we spend in prayer. What matters most is how we are developing our relationship with the Lord.

I once heard of a young man whose pastor asked him if he thought God might want him to become a missionary. Oh no, he replied, God hasn’t called me. But then the pastor asked another question:

Are you sure you’re within calling distance?

If we’ve really given our lives wholeheartedly to God, and if we’re living in close relationship to him, it will not be difficult for us to hear his voice. We’ll always be within earshot. In fact we’ll be expecting to hear him speak.

Of course, as we’ve already said, God may very well speak to us when we’re least expecting it, as he did very often in the Bible, particularly when he spoke through an angel. But does that mean that we should not expect God to speak to us, but just wait until it happens? Not at all. I believe that every time we read the Bible, or meet together with God’s people, we should both ask and expect God to speak to us in one way or another. Sometimes we can miss God’s voice because we’re not expecting to hear it. And if we’re expecting God to speak to us, we’ll certainly be listening.

Have you ever been in the middle of an important phone call when it’s been difficult to hear what the other person is saying because something or someone is distracting you? Maybe you hear a ‘ping’ alerting you to some notification you’ve received. Or someone is ringing the doorbell, or someone else has turned on the television. It happens all the time. We’re all aware of distractions that prevent us from paying attention to the person who’s speaking to us. What do we do in situations like this? Well, if you’re like me, you go into another room where it’s quiet and free from distractions and where you can listen carefully to what’s being said.

I wonder if that’s why God so often speaks to us in the night. It’s the only time he can get our attention! He wants us to listen, and to do so without distraction. And, if we want him to speak to us, we must make time and find a place when we can pay God the attention he deserves.

Checking we’re hearing his voice correctly

Throughout this series we have seen many different ways in which the Lord may speak to us, but whichever way it may be, we need to check that we’re really hearing him correctly. This is because we’re fallible human beings and, although everything God says is right, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re hearing it right. Let me remind you of some of the things we’ve said in earlier talks.

When we’re reading the Bible, which is God’s word, we need to make sure that we’re understanding it correctly. We need to examine the context to be absolutely sure that the words we are reading directly apply to us. We’ve also talked about the importance of getting confirmation. In fact, no matter how God speaks to us, we should always look for confirmation that it’s really God. In 2 Corinthians 11:14 were told that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light and in Galatians 1:8 Paul says:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

These scriptures remind us that Satan is a deceiver and the only way to avoid being led astray is to test everything against the truth of the gospel as it’s revealed in the New Testament. God never contradicts himself, and nothing he says today will contradict what he’s already said in his word.

And that’s why what we’ve said already about understanding the Bible correctly is so important. It’s not enough to take a single Bible verse as confirmation that it’s God who is speaking. We must test it against the whole of Scripture. For example, let’s suppose that someone attacks you in the street and as a result you lose the sight of an eye. You’re understandably angry about this and a Bible verse comes to mind – an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth[1]. Does that mean that God is telling you that you should do the same thing to them? Of course not.

There are two good reasons why you should not. First, because even under the law of Moses it is unlikely that these regulations were intended to tell people that they must take revenge. It’s far more likely that the intention was to teach proportionate vengeance. If you’ve lost an eye, don’t take more than an eye.

And secondly, and much more importantly, the Lord Jesus said:

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you (Matthew 5:38-42).

This is a good example of how the whole Bible is to be understood through the lens of the New Testament and in particular in the light of the teaching and character of Jesus. So, if what we’re hearing is in keeping with this, then it may well be from the Lord. However, if it’s a very specific word of guidance, we need to be sure that it’s definitely for us. And, as we saw in earlier talks, further confirmation can come in various ways, including a strong inner conviction, and testing by other Christians, and by time.

So, to summarise, in seeking to hear from God, we need to:

Recognise certain facts

God may speak to you in a different way than he speaks to me.

Sometimes God speaks to us when we’re least expecting it.

He will speak most clearly at key turning points in our lives.

But we can expect him to speak to us on a regular basis

as we read the Bible at home

through the preaching or prophetic gifts at church

by the promptings from that voice of the Spirit inside us.

Ask, expect and listen

Sometimes God takes the initiative in speaking to us, but sometimes he expects us to ask him to.

If we’re living in right relationship with him, we can expect him to speak to us, especially as we read the Bible etc.

And if we’re expecting him to speak, we’ll put ourselves in a position to listen.

Check that we’re hearing his voice correctly

Satan can masquerade as an angel of light. We need to check that what we’re hearing really is the voice of God. We need to make sure that what we’re hearing is in line with Scripture and especially with the teaching and character of Jesus.

Next time, which will be the last talk in this series, we’ll talk about how we should respond when God speaks to us. He not only wants to speak TO us. He wants to speak THROUGH us.