Is God Still Speaking? // How Can I Hear God Speak To Me?, Part 1

Let me ask you a question – is God still speaking to us here and now Today? And if so – how? Well – what are the answers? If God is indeed still speaking, shouldn’t we be listening? Imagine what a difference it could make in our lives, to know His will for our lives. Now here’s a question that these days pretty much divides the church down the middle. Are you ready? Here it is. Does God still speak today? Whoa. The controversy that that little question creates, the division it creates, is huge. There are some who can tell you that the only way that God speaks today, the single only way, is through the Bible. Read the Bible, that’s God’s Word, that’s how He speaks. Then at the kind of opposite end of the spectrum we have Christians who claim to have seen signs and wonders, to have so called words of knowledge and prophecies over their lives. I even know one man whose pastor constantly claims to have visions of Jesus. Well, man, what do you do with that? How do we understand that? And then there’s little old you and me. And if you’re anything like me, deep inside there’s a desire that burns for God. Something that’s hard to explain, a hunger after God Himself, and a yearning that can’t be satisfied by a dry, academic, cerebral answer to the question, "Does God still speak today?" You won’t be dismissed by shallow responses either and nor will sensational claims quench the thirst I have after Christ Himself. And so that’s why this week and next week on the program we’re going to explore this question: "Does God still speak today and if so how?" I don’t know about you but I do hunger after God. I ache to know Him, to experience Him, to hear Him speak into my life and I know that there are many, many more people on this earth who feel exactly the same. I want to live my life out completely for Him; everything that I am, everything that I have; all my hopes, all my dreams to serve Him with the absolute complete lot. And it’s not because I’m some great guy. Believe you me, I’m not. It’s because I’ve tasted the sweetness of God’s love – "the many splendid love of Christ" as A. W. Tozer calls its. I’ve tasted His goodness and His joy and His peace and you know what? I want more. And so I want to hear my God speak because any relationship that means something, that has value to it, is based on communication. And not just one way communication, it has to be two way communication. A marriage is headed for divorce when there’s a stony silence between husband and wife. If all they do is to communicate on a transactional basis about the mundane things of life and they no longer communicate heart to heart, then friend, unless they do something about that their marriage is headed towards divorce. That’s because a rich relationship is founded on intimate communication. It’s true in a marriage and it’s true in our relationship with God. So the question is: is God still speaking today? Well, over the coming couple of weeks as we explore that, let me tell you where I’m coming from. In my experience God speaks to me and to others in many different ways. In fact I’ve grouped those into nine different ways that God speaks today. But experience, you see experience isn’t the be all and end all. We have emotions: they go up, they go down. Sometimes we’re at the top of our game and yet others days, well frankly, let's be honest, we’re off with the pixies. So whilst we may experience God speaking through prophecies, through signs, through dreams, all sorts of different ways, I believe with all my heart, the truth, God’s chosen way of revealing Himself to us, of providing us with a rock solid basis for understanding Him and understanding our experience of Him is His Word. This thing they call the Bible is inspired by Him, written through human beings for sure – each of the 66 books of the Bible are written in different times in history and under different circumstances and for specific purposes, but together those 66 books are the inspired Word of God. It is God speaking to the generations that have gone before us, and to us and to the generations that will come after us. And you see God never contradicts Himself. He never says one thing over here and does something else over there. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. So if anyone whether it’s me or anyone else, claims to have heard from God in a certain way, then: a. Does the Bible say that’s how God communicates with us, because if it doesn’t then friend, at the very least, I am very, very suspicious this person has indeed heard from God at all. b. If this person claims to have heard from God and acts on it or shares what God has allegedly said to Him or to her, is it consistent with the Word of God, the whole counsel of God? Because if God says one thing and some so called prophet comes up with some so called revelation that contradicts God’s Word, then forget it. That ain’t God talking...