Does God Really Speak Today?
One of the questions I get asked from time to time is “Does God speak to us today?” There are two camps of people within evangelical circles in this debate. One group says yes and one group says no. There are very mature Christians who find themselves on opposite sides of this question. My own answer is an unhesitating YES.
I am sure we could all think of a wierdo or a TV preacher who says that God is speaking through them when we know it isn’t true. However, just for the sake of the argument, let’s throw that out and discuss the matter sincerely as people who really want to know the answer. In fact, let’s get a little more specific. Let’s ask, “Does God really speak to Christians today apart from the Bible?”
The group that says “no” usually points to examples of people who have been hurt by those that said that God was speaking through them. When a life is hurt because another person told them something supposedly from God, it seems to give God a bad image to the person who was hurt. But as powerful an emotional argument as that is, is that still any reason to believe that God doesn’t speak to us today?
Consider this: throughout time, God has used two tools in the life of his church. The Bible and the Holy Spirit. We all know people who interpret the Bible wrongly but we don’t throw it out because of that. Just like this, some people don’t know how to interpret what the Holy Spirit is saying or doing, but we shouldn’t come to the conclusion that he doesn’t speak anymore because of this.
The Holy Spirit and the Word of God work together in our lives. We don’t have a fool proof method of interpreting either of them to solve every ethical or moral question. We do disagree about what they say at times. But just becuase we disagree doesn’t mean that God is silent. People disagree about all kinds of stuff. The fact that there are disagreements or abuses doesn’t mean that we should shut our ears and believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, no longer speaks to us.
A scripture regarding this is John 14:6 ?I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.? If the Holy Spirit is inside of us, then he still speaks to us. If the Holy Spirit speaks to us, then God still speaks to us. It’s not a good argument to claim that God has given us his Holy Spirit, but that God doesn’t speak to us. The Holy Spirit is our comforter, advocate, helper, etc… Does it make sense that he does all this without saying anything to us?
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