Does God still speak to us today?

Hi, staff had posted something he believed to be a prophetic encouragement, so just wanted to address this question : 'Does God still speak to us today?,'

I want to say that I understand the desire of some believer's hearts in not wanting to go beyond what's written in God's word. We need to base our doctrine, our core beliefs about who God is on His unchanging word, the Bible. Without God's word being our foundation..we run into all kinds of trouble. So thank God for this emphasis within the church!!

But with love, I'd urge brothers and sisters as well to consider that God is a 'Living God'. He is the same God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, of Ruth and Esther..and Paul...and He still has a heart that beats for his people and for the lost...As such, he still desires to communicate to us today...in a real and tangible way..to guide us and to direct us. Usually He does this through making his Word come alive to us. But some times, He can have a specific word or message that He wants to speak to us for the day and age and the moment in which we live ( and of course this will never contradict his revealed Biblical revelation)

Sometimes it seems that we could learn a lot about questions such as, 'How does God communicate?' by looking at how God operates during times of Revival...As Duncan Campbell, a pastor used of God during the Hebrides Revival, put it.. revivals are times when "God comes down". So how does God act during times such as these.. ?

The following web page gives an account of what God did during this glorious revival, in Campbell's own words:

 http://www.revival-library.org/index.php/pensketches-menu/historical-revivals/the-hebrides-revival

Please notice dear friends, some of the things Campbell writes about that deal with how God communicates during these special times when his Spirit is poured out...

Duncan Campbell writes:

"Two old women, one of them 84 years of age and the other 82-one of them stone blind, were greatly burdened because of the appalling state of their own parish......

".....They were so burdened that both of them decided to spend so much time in prayer twice a week"

Duncan Campbell writes further :

....."One night, one of the sisters had a vision. Now remember, in revival, God works in wonderful ways. A vision came to one of them, and in the vision she saw the church of her fathers crowded with young people. Packed to the doors, and a strange minister standing in the pulpit. And she was so impressed by the vision that she sent for the parish minister. And of course he knowing the two sisters, knowing that they were two women who knew God in a wonderful way, he responded to their invitation and called at the cottage"

(Sometimes during Revivals God will 'speak' through visions. And of course this vision came to pass and Duncan Campbell was the strange minister foretold by the ladies' vision)

There's another example of how God spoke to these 2 precious sisters....When they became convinced that Duncan Campbell was the man God was choosing as a human instrument to use in the Revival, they had their church send a letter to request Duncan Campbell to come to their island. Unfortunately, he was already engaged in preaching and evangelism on the island of Skye...So he told the ladies he couldn't come.

To this the ladies responded ,"...that is what man is saying. But God has said something else and he will be here within a fortnight" ( And this is just what happened...Duncan Campbell cancelled his other engagement and came to their island to preach)

( It seems like the question that needs to be asked here : Did God 'speak' something into the hearts of these 2 older ladies..that caused them to make such a bold prediction...?)

These and other examples from Revivals show  us that God still does miracles today and He  still communicates to us in a very personal way at times. Praise God!!

I love the verse that lead those 2 ladies to pray and to lay hold of God's promises as they did:

"I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground."  Isaiah 44:3

John

Hi Needhim,
You know when I posted that I wrongly assumed that almost all born again ,spirit fillid Christians did think that God speaks to them today.
A few points to consider
1 How do we know we are saved unless God enlightens us or tells us.The bible is just words until God highlights or lifts something off the page for us.
2 If God doesnt communicate with us then how can we say God is a personal saviour or a friend.
3 If God's Holy Spirit is in my Spirit how can he not communicate with us?
4:Its almost impossible for meetings to operate if we dont have this verse.Without revelation all we have is ritual.

1 Corinthians 14:26 What then shall we say, brothers? When .
When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, ... When you meet for worship, one person has a hymn, another a teaching, another a ... Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs

5:Why would I ever listen to a teacher who just reads from the bible without revelation in their teaching otherwise they are only rehashing someone else's explanation without getting insight from God
God is the same today as yesterday ,unchanging and he revealed and talked to people in the old testament ,how much more then when all the barriers to God have been obliterated by Jesus and he went and the Holy Spirit was sent.
I understand the divisions in the body regarding the obvious things like Post or Pre ,Salvation once saved or not ,can a Christian have a demon etc but if we are truly saying God cant give a message of repentance or a message of encouragement or edification to a person individually then all the other problems with Theology are like a grain of sand ... staff

If some believe that God doesn't communicate with us, I would like to know who's leading them. Also if God doesn't communicate with us, and everything he ever wanted us to know is in his word, well then, why would he need to even communicate with us, it's in his word already, we could just read the Bible. The God I know, we have a personal relationship, I talk to him and he talks to me all the time, if the only communication we had with God was in reading his word, why would we need his spirit to come into us.

God is not a man, He is a living spirit, it's through the spirit of a woman or man that we communicate with God. Once our spirit is made alive again through the born-again experience we can now know, see and experience the things of the spirit. I personally believe, the Holy Spirit is co-equal with God the Father and God the Son and is of the same essence. Scripture describes the Holy Spirit in personal terms, not as an impersonal force, when it says that He teaches, guides, comforts and intercedes, He possesses emotions, intellect and will.

Personally, I believe God even speaks to the unbeliever, the Holy Spirit plays a major role in the application of salvation to the individual, it is the Spirit who brings conviction to the unbeliever and causes him to see the truth of the gospel in a clear light.

MrBillPro,

If it is this David you are speaking of the very last thing I wanted to do was put you under condemnation for posting. If my wording or whatever was wrong in anything I said it surely wasn't my intent. Just the opposite. If I have done a wrong here how can I undo it?

Some good comments from John.
Just a few points to clarify
I never said God can't speak in any other ways.
I said that stuff is free to believe that God has given him those words.
I also said that we have no obligation to accept it.

Every word in the Bible is inspired by God and therefore true.If someone hears words that are not in the Bible then I will make the decision myself if they are from God or not.
Nobody can tell me i should accept them as perfect words from god.

The Bereans searched Scripture daily.
It is extremely important to know scripture and to test everything.
But most Christians don't care that EP changed God's word when he wrote the Message.
Something to think about (Genesis 3:1)

May this help some other Bereans to see the utmost importance of God's word.
I will not continue in this discussion, time is too short, we are now on the way to Babylon

Will still try and write about the Gospel.
Then I will decide if I should spend more time here or not.

David, it's been a sort of busy day, so I just went back reread your words, and there was nothing wrong in what you said. If you see my response, you will see that I said "Thank you Brother David, I appreciate your edifying and encouraging post. God Bless!"

I guess when I reread it again later on, "when I was really tired" I got a different take, I'm very sorry. I will edit my post on this thread.

deogloria said:"If someone hears words that are not in the Bible then I will make the decision myself if they are from God or not. Nobody can tell me i should accept them as perfect words from god."

I totally understand this, not one of us has to accept the words that someone told us God spoke to them, thats a given. I think the issue was, your disagreement/doubt when you probably just should have said nothing, but us Christians we like to debate. :-) By the way, I hear words from God everyday "that are not in the Bible" as he leads me in his personal will for my life.

I said this in my post on the other thread:
"I've came to the conclusion long ago, that I will never personally disagree/debate anything someone says the Lord spoke to them, why? because I'm not supernatural. Also I have a free will to ponder this within, and pray about, and let the Spirit guide me."

No problem MrBillPro. I did see that other positivd reply from you. I'm not even sure you need to delete
anything. Thank you for your response.

Blessings.

Especially for the "reformed” brethren here on SI, tho all can enjoy the message-

https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/god-who-speaks/

Ok, this is the God's honest truth, I have no clue what the meaning of a "reformed” brethren is, could someone please explain this to me in the simplest terms, I would sincerely appreciate it. Thanks Bill

Generally it’s a doctrinal disposition relating, but not limited to, the sovereignty of God in His election of those whom will be saved because man has no free will with which to choose to obey God because man is totally depraved from the fall and as such rendered completely incapable of responding to God by any means other than God Himself "causing” it which leads to being elected by God to be saved and hence "reformed” -

The reason I posted the link with that distinction is a comment from Deogloria to me on another thread where he stated there is no scriptural reference to support the idea that the Lord speaks to us personally and directly on current terms- so having observed that Deo was most likely in the "reformed” camp, I was hoping he’d give it a chance since this brother is from the reformed camp as well :)

As a general rule - reformed camp is heavy on "logos” written word
- the free willers tend to be heavy on the "rhema” or revealed word

Hope that helps 🙏🏻
I’m sure there are other better suited to explain

Thanks for the explanation. So, if he doesn’t/can’t speak to us directly, does this mean there are no modern-day prophets? Do you believe the enemy can speak to us? When we make a commitment to Christ and the Holy Spirit enters us, doesn’t the spirit guide us? Can the spirit guide us without speaking to us? Didn’t God speak to Elijah in a still small voice? The reason I can perceive and receive thoughts of God in the first place is because my spirit is alive to him, and His Word dwells in me.

Of course, If we don't know His Word we will never know His voice, and of course if our spirit is to be a sure guide, it has to be seasoned with the word of God. I understand this, otherwise you'll never be able to distinguish between our own thoughts, God's thoughts, and thoughts from the devil. I know I have a lot of questions, but I feel my questions are good questions, I have just never heard, or been a member of any Church, that believed that God doesn’t speak to us outside of the word.

Yes we share a common understanding of this topic and as such both have questions that we believe are a good thing :)

In my personal experience the Lord speaks to me in a host of different ways and I’m convinced that there are more ways that He is speaking that I’m just too full, too distracted to perceive and understand... but He gives grace and will reward those whom diligently seek Him :))) "if anyone lacks wisdom, ask and the Lord will give generously”

It is a foreign thing to me that God wouldn’t communicate directly with His children... I mean in the Old Covenant there was a "priest craft” and in allot of cases the people were dependent on either the priest or prophet to know what God was sayin and these had to make sacrifices over and over so as to enter into that holy place but we have a High Priest that has made a once and for all sacrifice that no tribe gives attendance at the alter and afterwards sat down at the right hand of God the Father and He (Jesus) ever liveth to make intercession for us - so that we can be in fellowship and communion with the Lord :)))
"And this IS ETERNAL LIFE, that they KNOW YOU the one true and living God”
How can we be in fellowship much less communion without reciprocal communications??
Does not the testimony of the scriptures themselves bear this out??
"My sheep will hear my voice” = Jesus

Honestly brother Bill, I don’t know how I’d make it if I didn’t hear and be led by His voice! It is literally my spiritual food! Without which I would starve to death ... even in the times where the Lord has be quiet, hiding Himself as it were, I initially panicked and got a bit freaked out but over time realized He was using this to grow me in Him and Him in me, by faith... 😇🙏🏻

I would argue the most basic aspect of our faith,... even grace itself being the divine influence of God on our heart is itself a means of Him speaking ;)

Wow! awesome response, and I could tell it was from the heart, thank you so much!

Laos: Former Soldier Jailed for Christian Witness

This eye-opening documentary features the inspiring testimony of Bounchan who was imprisoned and tortured for his Christian witness in the Southeast Asian nation of Laos. Instead of food, what he wanted more than anything was a Bible. Prior to finding Christ, Bounchan served his communist country as a soldier and later as Assistant District Governor. The following powerful re-enactment demonstrates his overcoming faith and perseverance in the midst of persecution, while highlighting the importance of writing letters to those imprisoned for the sake of Christ!
Length 5:30
From The Voice of the Martyrs USA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbqgssIKx_U

Edit:
just like to add Greg edited my original post

Just wanted to share this wonderful video of how God used a cleaner in the life of a man who had Covid 19. God Bless! :)

https://youtu.be/Pp98cK4YIoM

There are all kinds of reasons why Jesus has been given a gag-order. No speaking to anyone, no 'voice' no conversation, no commands or instructions. Jesus spoke through the apostles and that's it.

So, as this works out...

They that want guidance cannot believe God to speak to them. They must believe only in man speaking.
They that need instruction cannot believe God to give wisdom, only to seek out some man for wisdom and he must speak.
They that need correction cannot believe God to correct them, they must believe man alone corrects.

All of this is because if God speaks, somehow that means they are receiving revelation=scripture outside of the bible and therefore automatically adding to the word of God.

I will say without hesitation their conclusions are utterly false and should be deemed false teaching.
I will also say that such conclusions demands that Christians do not learn from the Holy Spirit instructing them but from the approved interpretations and doctrines of various men.
Those same men will exclude you from the Church, from the righteous and from salvation if you disregard their teaching on this subject.

It boils down to a very simple falsehood but well disguised in theological jargon, namely "if you believe God speaks to you, then you are believing in the teachings of men, and if you stop listening to what we say you are not listening to what God says".

The irony is sickening.

They have taken it upon themselves to be the 'voice of God' so long as they can quote a bible verse to keep you in line.

This kind of thinking I have refused and rebuked all my Christian life, stepping out of atheism into Christianity I learned God speaks directly to me about many things. I also learned that preachers and teachers of scripture can shut off the voice of God to them, tell me its out of love for scripture and expect me to put a gag-order on God in order that I may gain their approval.

*Does The Lord speak to us today ?

Surely,.. of course He does !!

Why else would He want us to have ‘eyes to see and ears to hear what The Spirit / He says ?

Mark 7:16 (KJV)
"If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.”

Revelation 2:7 (KJV)
"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto
the churches; ...”

Revelation 2:17 (KJV)
"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth [it].”
~~~~~~~~
*(God, is a Spirit, He speaks to us , we know, through The /His Spirit.)

~~~~~~~~~
Mark 8:18 (KJV)
"Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? "
~~~~~~
Luke 10:23-24 (KJV)
23 "And he turned him unto [his] disciples, and said privately, Blessed [are] the eyes which see the things that ye see:

24 "For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen [them]; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard [them]."
~~~~~~~
From the very beginning that His Spirit, that He begins to draw us by His Spirit of Grace,.. He speaks to us right then,.. calling us by His Name, calling us by His by His Word, to come to Him .( His Name is His Word , The Whole Word of God)
~~~~~~~~
The Spirit of Grace stays w/ us, to continue ‘His Work IN us.
( remember ,.. The Father did ‘The Work’ IN Him(Jesus)... Jesus heard His Father’s every Word. ( ears to hear)

~~~~~~~
Matthew 13:15-16 (KJV)
"15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and [their] ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with [their] eyes, and hear with [their] ears, and should understand with [their] heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

16 "But blessed [are] your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.”
~~~~~~~
1 John 2:27 (KJV)
"But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing
‘teacheth you’ of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."
~~~~~~~~
Revelation 3:18 (KJV)
"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”

~~~~~~~🙏♥️
elizabeth

Thank you brothers and sisters. Appreciate what you've shared from your hearts..what He has put on your hearts! I believe that God is wanting to communicate something to us during this present crisis..to draw near to him..to purify our hearts..to depend on Him alone. This was always why He sent/allowed judgements and corrections to His people Isreal..to show them the conditions of their hearts and to demonstrate the folly of their ways. To woo them back to their God who was always their only hope, and their first love.

1 Peter 4:17
"For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?"

Psalm 18:2
"The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold"

Luke 21:28
" And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh"

Praise the Lord. God bless :)
John

Elizabeth:

So the scriptures are not sufficient for you? You need to add to the word of God by hearing voices?

Are you an apostle?

Too many 'hear' God now, and they are false teachers, so many claim to hear God, are you like Joseph Smith or one of the false teachers getting visions and dreams that have long since passed away?

Now that we have the scripture we put away childish things, now we know because the perfect 'scripture' has come.

This kind of rhetoric is spewed upon anyone who claims to hear the voice of God speaking to them.
Ive had many a conversation with those of this persuasion, by the end, I am usually branded a false prophet/teacher, I am adding to the word of God, I am hearing voices...and from some I have been accused of being demon possessed.

I sat down years ago and thought through their accusations against me and against any of my brothers/sister who are persuaded God speaks to them
I recognized blatant hypocrisy and contradiction
I recognized blatant interpretational error
I recognized blatant logical fallacy
I recognized blind adherence to an over-realized eschatology that not only deprives them of a personal walk with Jesus but anyone else seeking that intimate and close walk with God.

I am reformed in theology...but its a sad sad sad thing many of those reformed believe the non-sense I mentioned above and just as quickly condemn me as false as soon as I don't fit their paradigm.

And today Children of God, Mr. Bill will give you another one of his own "Common Sense" personal Devotionals. :-)

I have come to the conclusion that sometimes the best reply is no reply at all. Many of us spend a great deal of time at a computer terminal already, like for work. When I get tired, I am more apt to bark or bark back at someone's post. A good time to get up and go for a brisk walk or short jog around a block or two before returning to that computer screen.

This virus pandemic should not be allowed to affect our mental wellbeing in addition to our physical state. There really are more important things in life than posting our views and opinions. Not much chance we are going to move the needle one way or the other with our posts. I think posting serves as sort of a vent for many of us but, making one another mad is detrimental to all of us. Just not worth the time and effort.
God Bless!

Brother,
(Re:Marvin)
Please!!
I hope you did not think that I was slamming or referring to anything that you posted,🙏
I had no nothing thought of that at all.
~~~~~~~
What I posted was only from my heart and what The Lord has taught me through my relationship w/Him, through the years.
Man has not taught me ,.. and I do not claim to be passed learning from Him , through His Spirit.
We will never , in this life, learn it all that He has,.. but He teaches us though The Spirit, then as we are taught, we go to the Scriptures ,..it must be Line up w/ The written Word.... (it must confirmed from the Scriptures)

And He has been faithful,always.

Jesus said, He would send back the Holy Spirit ,and it would teach you all things,.. it is The Spirit of God that speaks w/ us, draws us, guides us into all truths.

And since it Is ‘The Spirit’ that teaches , it must be Spiritually decerned.

John 6:63 (KJV)
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 (KJV)
"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.”

~~~~~~~~
When The Lord reveals His Word to us,... and by NO MEANS, do we deserve this,,... He is speaking teaching, drawing, guiding us into all truths.

Matthew 16:17-18 (KJV)
17 "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
~~~~~~~~
Bro. Marvin,
I have appreciated many of your writings,
It was not my intention to offend you.
My intention is to speak the truth in the love of God.
.... I can do no other way.

””””””””””-♥️
elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth:

My post was rhetorical, no cause for alarm. I took the stance of a gag-order advocate and came at you with it. I wanted it to have the effect that it did...cause the readers to step back and look at an accusatory spirit trying to defend the closed canon of scripture vilifying someone who believes it is closed.
In short...shooting someone on your own side.

We are in full agreement Elizabeth on the topic and no, neither you nor did anyone else slam me or my beliefs.

I do have a rather harsh opinion of 'silencing the Spirit of God speaking'. Why? because in the end, to silence the Spirit of God speaking to us leads to two things.
1. We must now trust a self-appointed Man to tell us what to do, where to go, what to believe. This is cultic.
2. One of the most precious parts of living for Jesus is 'hearing his voice' as any Sheep belonging to him can do, must be silenced robbing us of that real actual and personal God who has saved us and loves us.

I am sorry if you misunderstood my way of writing to you.

Sorry Brother,

~~~~~~~~
Perhaps I did not understand?

Sometimes I am slow to understand.

don’t worry, ..I’m ok.

””””””””””
elizabeth

Was thinking this morning of Paul's benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."

As I thought about the phrase, "communion of the Holy Ghost", it made me interested in understanding a bit more about what the word 'communion' meant. One definition found was, "the sharing of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level." The word, 'communion' seems to relate to the word 'communication'.

This got me to thinking more about what happens at communion. During this time, all of us who know Christ come to the cross. We focus on it and we think about what Jesus did for us on that cross, by paying the price for our sins, through the spilling of his precious blood. The cross is the 'common leveler' for all of us, because through it, all Christians may receive both forgiveness and cleansing from sins. Then the pastor asks us to consider our standing before God, and to think about whether there's anything in our life, that stands between us and God, which might hinder our fellowship with God or with man.

Was thinking more of this connection between 'communion' and 'communication'. One explanation was this: "Communion is a joining together of minds and spirits while communication is the act of communicating anything through transmission." So, it seems like in the act of communicating with God in prayer, during Communion, and having him search our hearts, we can greater communion, greater fellowship, with God and with our brothers and sisters.

Do these ramblings make sense lol?

Take care and God bless :)
John