God Speaks: Billboards, Whispers or Pages

How Does God Speak to Me?

In 1998, I went to a conference that changed the way I live my life today. You may have heard of the Passion Conferences for college students and young adults. The theme verse then is the same almost twenty years later. Isaiah 26:8. It says, “Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you. Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.” That one verse has impacted my walk with Christ more than any other verse in all of Scripture. And it’s actually not even the whole verse, it’s the first two words. “Yes, Lord.” I’ll explain, but first, let’s look at a few other things.

In order to obey God, you have to know what He is saying to you. How can we know what God is saying to us? It’s an age old question, but the answer is simple. God speaks in two primary ways:

1)    God speaks through the Bible, His Word.

2)    God speaks through the illumination of His Word by the Holy Spirit.

So often we want to make it way more complicated than that. We look for “signs” from God, hoping they’ll be more like a billboard. We hope He’ll whisper in a still, small voice in our ears and wonder if we’ll recognize it if he does. The good news is that it’s not that complicated.

God speaks through His word. God’s Word is perfectly complete. He makes it clear that we are not to add anything to it or take anything away from it. (Deut 4:2, 12:32, Rev 22:18-19) Everything you need to know about His will for your life is found in the pages of Scripture.  Romans 12:2 tells us that we come to know God’s will by the renewing of our minds. We do that by reading His Word. God will never tell you anything that contradicts His Word. He will never tell you to leave your husband for another man. He will never tell you to murder your boss. God speaks through His Word so everything He says is complete and comes from Scripture.

God speaks through the illumination of His Word by the Holy Spirit.

For Non-Believers: The first thing the Holy Spirit does for the non-believer is bring about a conviction of sin. If you’ve never given your life to Jesus, gotten saved, asked Jesus into your heart…If you’ve never made Jesus your boss, there’s no time like the present. 

For Believers: Have you ever read a passage of Scripture that you’ve read a hundred times before, only to read it the 101^st time and learn something completely brand new? Have you ever had a teacher point out something from Scripture that you’d never realized before? The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truths of Scripture in new and fresh ways all the time. Sometimes you read something from Scripture that seems to apply exactly to the situation you are in at the time. This is the illumination that the Holy Spirit brings.

These are the two primary ways that God speaks to us today, but he uses many other ways to confirm what He has said to us in Scripture.  God confirms the truths of Scripture through these ways:

1)    Prayer

2)    People

3)    Experiences

God confirms His Word through prayer. Sometimes when you pray (and especially when you fast) you feel a prompting of the Lord to take action on a command of Scripture. For example, you won’t find “Go on a mission trip to Africa next summer” in Scripture, but you will find Matthew 28:19-20, which says “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” You can step out in faith if you feel a prompting during prayer to go on a mission trip to Africa because the Holy Spirit is illuminating Matthew 28 for you.

God confirms His Word through people. God often uses believers to encourage each other to obey the commands he’s given in Scripture. One way he does this is through the gifts of the Spirit. Romans 12:6-8 lists the gifts of prophecy, teaching and encouragement as gifts that are given to believers to edify the Body of Christ. God often uses people to confirm what He says in Scripture. Prophecy, encouragement and teaching are ways that God uses to confirm the Words He has already given to us in Scripture.

God confirms His Word through experiences. Have you ever stared at a beautiful sunset and felt a closeness with the Lord? Psalm 19:1 says “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Have you ever experienced new life coming into the world? Psalm 139:13 says “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Have you ever held someone’s hand as they took their final breath? Psalm 116:15 says “Blessed in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Sometimes as we go through life we have meaningful experiences that allow us to feel closer than ever to the Father. During these times we may feel a prompting that we would describe as His Voice. He certainly does use our circumstances and experiences as a means to confirm His Word to us. The Holy Spirit uses our circumstances to illuminate these Scriptures for us.

Obedience vs. Disobedience

So now that we have established how we can know what God is saying to us, we need to explore what obedience looks like. When God gives us a command, we have two options.

1.     Yes, Lord

2.     No

We can't say "No, Lord," because the word "Lord" is a word reserved for someone who has power and authority over another. You don't say "No" to your Lord! We either say "Yes, Lord" in obedience or a plain "No" because we choose not to obey Him as Lord.

A quick review of what we’ve established so far:

1.     God speaks to us through His word and through the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

2.     He confirms His Word through prayer, people and experiences.

3.     We can choose to obey or disobey.

We cannot ever expect to walk in obedience to the voice of the Lord until we understand what He is saying to us. Learning to hear the voice of the Lord and distinguish it from all of the other voices that speak to us is key to our obedience!