In this post, I will use material from the Convergence conference sponsored by Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City. Sam Storms was the pastor in 2018 at the time of this conference. Dr. Storms's teaching is similar to Dr. Jack Deere's, Dr. Wayne Grudem's, and Dr. R.T. Kendall's. Storms, Deere, Kendall, Grudem, and Dr. Craig Keener are my 'go-to guys' - when I study spiritual gifts. Some may view the ways God spoke to people in Scripture as something he no longer does. Those who God chose to write Scripture indeed had a high level of gifting. That being the case, God still desires to communicate with his children through personal guidance. As I stated in a previous article - this guidance we receive from the Holy Spirit is not on the same level as sacred Scripture.
Below is an abbreviated list of ways God speaks from, The Convergence: Equip Workbook.
The Variety of Ways in which God speaks to His Children The God of the Bible is a speaking, communicative, ever-revealing God.
1. Scripture – We hear God’s voice preeminently in and through the written Word of the Bible. On occasion we discover the Spirit speaking directly to our circumstances by alerting us to a text in which a biblical character was facing a similar challenge or decision. At other times the Spirit speaks more indirectly. That is, he alerts us to a principle or ethical truth that informs our decision-making process.
2. Audible voice – Among those who heard the audible voice of God are Abraham (Gen. 22:1-2,10- 12), Moses (Exod. 3:3-6), the nation Israel (Deut. 5:22-24), Samuel (1 Sam. 3:1-10), Elijah (1 Kings 19:11-13), John the Baptist (Matt. 3:16-17), Peter, James, and John (Matt. 17:5-6; cf. 2 Pet. 1:17-18), the general public (John 12:27-30), Paul (Acts 9:3-7; 23:11), Peter (Acts 10:9-16), and John (Rev. 1:9-12).
3. Internal Audible Voice – In such cases we genuinely “hear” a sound in our head, a voice that is decidedly not our own. But in this instance no one else would be able to hear it with their physical ears.
4. Angelic messengers – God also speaks to us through angelic messengers, as he did to Joshua (Josh. 5:13-15), Samson's parents (Judg. 13), Isaiah (Isa. 6:6-13), Daniel (Dan. 9:20-27), Zacharias (Luke 1), Mary (Luke 1), Philip (Acts 8:26), Peter (Acts 5:19-20), and others (see esp. Heb. 13:1).
5. Dreams – God also communicates through dreams (Gen. 20:3; 37; Dan. 2,4,7; Matt. 1,2; Acts 2,10). Consider especially the overwhelming evidence that many Muslims are coming to faith in Christ by means of his appearance to them in dreams.
6. Visions – See Num. 12:6; Dan. 10:1-9; Acts 2:17; 9:10-12; 10:1-6; 10:9-16; 16:9-10; 18:9-10; 22:17- 18.
7. Creation – See Ps. 19 and 104 and especially Rom. 1:18ff.
8. Spiritual Impressions – These are “gracious incursions into our souls” (Willard, In Search of Guidance, 19). God often puts words, phrases, sentences, images and the like into our minds, stamped with the indelible print of his voice. Although undeniably subjective and occasionally slippery, “impressions” are a valid means of divine communication in our heart.
In spite of the inescapable “subjectivity” of impressions, I believe we may justifiably expect that when God wants to tell us something, he will not be unduly obtuse. His purpose isn’t to mislead or confuse but to guide us clearly and carefully. Whether through thoughts or perceptions that we intuitively recognize could only come from him, he makes his heart known. When God communicates he does so with specific information, often times in propositional utterances.
People in biblical times were not left to wonder about “hunches” or “impulses” or “feelings”. If God’s voice is occasionally “vague” it is to awaken us from slumber or perhaps alert us to our presumptuous attitude, or perhaps challenge us to press into his heart ever more intensely. I agree with Willard who said, “It is to be expected . . . that if there is something He would have us know, He will be both able and willing and will in fact plainly communicate it to us, if we are but open and prepared by our experience to hear and obey” (219). Even in the case of visions, dreams, and trances, there is verbal communication.
9. Providence – God may also communicate to us through providential guidance or by means of events that clearly reveal his will.
10. Sympathetic physical pains or sensations – On occasion, God will communicate his desire to heal someone by stirring in your body a pain or sensation that corresponds to the affliction that another is experiencing.
11. Other, unidentifiable modes of communication in which the Spirit (or an angel) simply “speaks” by some means not otherwise specified. There are numerous texts in Acts where God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or an angel is described as speaking to or saying something to someone – Acts 8:26, 29; 9:10; 10:7; 10:19; 11:12; 13:2; 16:6-7; 18:9; 20:23; 22:21; 27:24. 12.
The directives of the Holy Spirit are practical, suggesting what to do, where to go, and with whom to speak. They are not ethical principles. The rules and regulations that bind our conscience and carry absolute and universal moral authority for the Christian are provided only in Scripture.
Whereas the Spirit will often lead us in the daily application of biblical principles or how to wisely navigate the confusing waters of human relationships, he will not dictate new laws of right and wrong. Rather they are words that concern the “here and now” of people and their actions; often divine directives concerning ways in which God’s people are to fulfill the mandate to preach the gospel to all nations (what might be called "divine appointments”
Source: Convergence: Guidebook, page 5.
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