God speaks today! His Word

Does God still speak to people today? And if so, how do we hear from Him? How do we discern his voice? 

So often in Scripture we’re encouraged to recognize the presence of the Lord when he is with us and to just seek to listen to the Lord. But often we don’t slow down enough to actually do that. But we took time to do that. And that raises a question of does God speak? Actually in those moments?

Some people long to hear the voice of God and are just saying I’ve never heard Him speak, so how can I know that he’s speaking and how do I know that it’s his voice and not my voice? And all of those are important questions. When in Scripture we read about God speaking audibly to a group of people or to a person, the question is raised can God still speak audibly to somebody today? And I think it would be foolish of us to ever limit God and say that this is something God cannot and will not ever do. 

But certainly God can do anything and speak to us however he wants to speak to us and use whatever means. More often than not, what I found is that the way that God speaks to us is primarily through his written revealed Word because God has used that to direct us and direct us to Him. And God will never speak to us contrary to what is in His Word. If you’re hearing a voice saying something that is contrary to God’s word, then you know that that’s not the voice of God. God only speaks inconsistency with his word.

But God can also speak through events into your life, he can speak through other people into your life, through pivotal circumstances into your life, through serving others into your life. And in each of those situations, it’s not necessarily God speaking audibly, it’s usually God’s spirit speaking into your spirit. Because God is at work to conform our mind to his thoughts. That’s what Romans Twelve Two helps us to think about where we are, to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but we’re to be renewed in our mind and in our thinking in order to be able to test and approve what God’s perfect will is for our lives. And so we need our minds renewed, and that’s how God speaks to us.

So how do we know that though it’s God speaking and not just simply our voice or someone else’s? Voice again, god will never contradict His Word. One other way that we can know that it is God speaking is asking the question of do you really belong to Him? In John, chapter ten, Jesus talks about how he is the good shepherd and how he gives his life for his sheep and that his sheep, his people know his voice. And so if you are a child of God, if you are someone who has professed faith in Jesus and made a decision for salvation by leaning solely in Jesus finished work on the cross as the penalty and payment for your sins, then you are one of God’s children, you’re one of his sheep, as it were.

And it’s God’s people who hear his voice. If you are not walking with the Lord and you are not in a relationship with the Lord, god’s spirit speaking to your spirit may be less likely. God can certainly do it. But certainly God’s children his sheep hear his voice. And one of the things that I’ve learned from just wonderful people who’ve walked with the Lord for a long period of time is that the more that we spend time with God, seeking to listen to him, the more that we will recognize his voice the more that we will be able to discern his voice from the world’s voice or from our own voice.

And so the encouragement is to keep pressing in and to keep seeking and being still, just seeking the will of the Lord and God speaking into your life. And so here’s what I would just recommend to you on a practical basis. If you want to hear from the Lord for maybe a decision that you’re making or something that you’re going through or just needing some direction in your life or just in your own personal devotional time or worship, I would start with worship. I would start with reading God’s word and then asking God to speak to your spirit and then just being still. That may take a while because right, we have so much noise in our lives, it’s hard for us to slow down enough to actually be still and to sense the Lord’s presence, but ask Him to speak to you and just continue to just rest in the knowledge that God desires to speak to you.

Confident that God can that God is going to and you’re not willing it to into existence, but trusting that as his child, god, as your Heavenly Father, wants to reveal Himself to you. So just be still and make that a daily practice, make that a discipline that you are intentional about in your life. God can certainly speak it through the busyness of life too, but often it’s in those still moments that God, that God’s voice is louder than ever. Even if it’s just a still small voice, it is loud and resounding in your spirit. While we do hope, friends, that that is something that you’re able to experience in your life.