God: Speaking and Guiding

"Maybe that was just God speaking to you!" Hearing these words I felt my heart start to pump faster, and my cool, collected interior begin to fester with some real theological emotion. Gladly, I didn't do anything I would later have to apologize for, nor did I engage in a conversation with this well-meaning but theologically simple brother in Christ. But, I've encountered far too many Christ-followers in the past year who use this kind of language, and apparently are quite unaware of its dangerous overtones.

Let me state my thesis: God speaks through Scripture; He guides through impressions, perceptions, sensitivities, circumstances, and other things meant to return our minds to the truths of Scripture that we know to be true, and follow them. They - speaking and guiding - are not the same. The Bible is clear that "speaking" is revelatory, while "guiding" is illuminating. The first gives truth; the second shines the light on it.

When He speaks, it is revelation of new and necessary information; when He guides, it is the Spirit using already revealed information to bring out hearts into conformity with revealed truth. When He speaks He is giving us new truth; when He guides, He is using previously revealed truth to harness our wills to obey. You may think the difference is trivial but I can assure you, in the history of revelation and religious experience, it is not. It is vital that we understand the difference, respect that difference, and contend earnestly for the fact that revelation has ended; God is not today adding to the Bible; He is not giving new and necessary information. Rather, He is guiding us to live our lives within the already revealed truth principles and guidelines of Scripture.

In the Bible, when God 'speaks' it is seen as direct revelation. Over 3800 times, the OT prophets preface their declarations with "Thus saith the Lord". God spoke to them, and they repeated it to their audiences. Yes, God speaks! And when He does, it is always understood to be His very voice. The prophet did not have to decide if it was God or not. God's speaking came with its own internal verification. Secondly, that which was spoken was immediately considered as authoritative, and the unquestioned standard for obedient living. Yet, today it is not the same when people say "God spoke to me". They often wonder if it was God; and they most often spend time testing it to see if it really fits into their understanding. Most likely, when folks today say "God is speaking to me" they are actually being really sloppy in their language without knowing the consequences. They most likely are simply referring to an ongoing sense that God is at work in their lives, shaping their decisions, their desires, and their overall direction. This is good! But, it isn't the same as the direct, revelatory work of God described biblically as God "speaking."

What's the harm you might ask? Aren't you just straining at a gnat David? Well, I might just as well respond that I ain't about to swallow a gnat either! But, actually, this is so much bigger than a little gnat. Its an elephant. Here's why:

If we continue to confuse revelation with guidance, we have no choice but to concoct some theology that allows for on-going revelation. We have no defense against those who would add to the Bible the "revelations" of their leaders. They heard the voice of God! God spoke to them! Worse, we have no defense against those who naturally come to place higher priority on the ongoing "voice" of God speaking to them through songs and poems and the wind and ... whatever! ... than on the voice of God speaking through Scripture. After all, Scripture is so old, and hard to understand, and takes too much work! When I sit on my porch at sunset, and hum my favorite praise song, its just so much easier - and personally comforting - to "hear God's voice." Worse still is that we have fundamentally redefined revelation as that which we are able to extract from God through means rather than what He alone initiates, and ends. Apparently, if I supply the music and the time and the quiet place, God is obliged to speak. Lastly, and by far the worst, by unknowingly believing that revelation is continuing, we have no assurance to say that the Bible is sufficient, or even authoritative. How do we know that someone, somewhere, hasn't had a direct revelation from God that supersedes what we have in the New Testament? Maybe God is giving a Newer Testament right now somewhere! In fact, if God spoke to you last night, I sure hope you wrote it down.

So, what do we do? Here's what I believe: Revelation has ended. God has spoken through His prophets and Apostles, and has preserved their written record. This is the "standard" and "treasure" Paul calls upon Timothy to "retain" and "guard" (see: 2 Timothy 1:13,14). This is the Bible. Through the Bible God continues to speak! The Bible is God's Word, His "voice" to us today. The Bible knows nothing of a secondary level of "speaking" or revelation. He doesn't have casual conversations which leave the person warmed, but wondering; when He speaks it is absolutely and undeniably Him, and unquestionably understandable and authoritative. That's what the Bible is, and why we need to protect it from anything that would lead people to believe that, like the World Book Encyclopedia, the Bible is incomplete, and needs yearly updates, and further material from God. Either the Bible is the "final rule and authority for faith and practice" as our doctrinal statements declare, or it isn't. And if you think that you need further revelation from God to live your life, and make your decisions, then in your mind, it isn't! And you better start apologizing to the Roman Catholic Church for sola Scriptura.

Secondly, God still guides. He made the mind and the heart. He has put His Spirit - the 3rd person of the Godhead - as a permanent resident in our hearts. The Spirit uses circumstances, impressions, memory, sensitivities, teaching, reading, meditation, and a whole host of other disciplines and mechanisms to continually illumine our minds to the truths already revealed in Scripture. Jesus Himself said that the Spirit would guide us into all truth by bringing to our minds what God had already revealed (see: John 15:12-15 in context). The Spirit is the agent of illumination, opening our eyes and hearts to understand the truth of God as revealed in Scripture. Guidance is great, because properly understood, we know that we must work hard to grow in grace and knowledge so as to understand more and more what God desire of us, what His good and perfect will is for us. When we try to downsize our personal responsibility in the process of guidance by thinking God will just emotionally or mentally "fax" us the answers we want, we do ourselves, and the theology of revelation a great disservice.

One last word: Peter, the great leader of the 12, and apostle to the Jews, was one of the 3 guys who accompanied Jesus up the mountain. Peter saw the veil of Jesus' humanity drawn back, giving him a glimpse of the glory of God (as did Moses on Mt. Sinai: see: Exodus 33,34). Peter also heard the direct voice of God, along with James and John, on that mountain. Late in his life, as he was nearing death, Peter wrote some letters to instruct his fellow Christ-followers on how they should continue once he was gone. Where should they turn for their authority? Should they look for another apostle? Should they expect God to "speak" directly to them? Peter answered their questions in a poetically worded passage found in 2 Peter 1:16-21. Peter explains that what he and the other apostles taught was not based on myth or fable; rather, they were eyewitnesses to the reality of Jesus Christ. Hadn't they been on the mountain? Hadn't they heard the audible voice of God? Yes! And then he makes this amazing, and clarifying statement: "But we have an even surer prophetic word" or possibly "And so we have the prophetic word made more sure". What does he mean? What could be 'more sure' than the audible voice of God? The answer is, of course, the Scripture, which was produced cooperatively as the Holy Spirit superintended the human authors so that what they wrote down what God was speaking. Get this: More sure, more reliable than even the voice of God you might think you hear in the shower is the written, preserved Word of God, the Bible.

So, help me out. Let's stop saying that God spoke to us. Let's stop giving the impression through sloppy language that we're the recipients of direct revelation. In so many ways, such talk actually appears to be self-promoting, especially to those Christ-followers who wonder why God isn't conversing with them. Let's admit that God speaks through Scripture, and then dedicate ourselves to the hard work of knowing the Bible. And as we do, God's Spirit will use what God has spoken to purify, guide, conform, transform, and mature us, by His grace, and for His glory.

Hope this helps,

David