Hearing God Speak—Avoiding the Trap of Sensationalism

When it comes to hearing God’s voice, we must guard against extravagant claims.

It is not uncommon to hear preachers say that God is talking to us all the time. This says way too much, and by raising an erroneous standard, it can unwittingly burden the believer.

If this claim of nonstop communications from God is assumed to be true, the believer can then be victimized by a false guilt that chastises for not hearing God speak more frequently.

There is no biblical basis for this claim. When tracking the number of times God spoke to men like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it becomes clear that intervals lasting years were common to each man.

Besides, would it make sense to think that God is continually speaking to people who, for one reason or another, can’t hear him? Surely, God is more sensible than that!

Yes, God will speak to us sometimes—Scripture does affirm that fact—but the talk-a-thon God promoted by overly excited preachers is not to be found in Scripture.

Still, as A.B. Simpson pointed out, “God does not save us and leave us to trudge on our pilgrim way alone. He meets us at the gates of life, takes our hand and leads us all the way home.”

The way he leads varies in method and mode. But included in this variety of leadings, each suited to meet our need, is the voice of God to an individual, current in time and specific in content.

Dallas Willard correctly asserts, “Knowing the voice of God, having a practical understanding of that voice in our hearts and minds, is not a luxury for the people of God, not something to be allocated to those who enjoy spiritual high points.”

Thrill-seeking should never be our motivation for seeking the voice of God! A preoccupation with the supernatural can sometimes be a shallow pursuit by which the enemy of our souls leads us far astray.

Properly understood, the truth itself is sensational enough; and the way we got this truth—not by man’s reason but by divine revelation—is also sensational. But are we so addicted to the dramatic that we require more sensation in the manner and mode truth is obtained?

While clarity is welcomed, the vividness that thrills or terrorizes is not.

Those hooked by the melodramatic should not expect visions from God to indulge their inferior (if not questionable) desires. The palpitations of heart, the fluttering of eyes, the eeriness of tone are not from God.

In his book, Soul Food, G.D. Watson explained:

The light the Holy Spirit pours in us is pure and white, not a red, startling aurora borealis; the visions of God he gives us are lucid, wide, calm, elevating, sweet, restful, and loving, and not those complex, wild, and overstrained notions that are always indicative of fanaticism. 

Both the distinct voice and the spellbinding vision have the potential to diminish one’s faith if sense and sight are insisted upon, and faith is sent packing. 

The nineteenth-century American author, Hannah Whitall Smith, wrote:

It is not enough to have a “leading;” we must find out the source of that leading before we give ourselves up to follow it. It is not enough, either, for the leading to be very “remarkable,” or the coincidences to be very striking to stamp it as surely being from God. In all the ages of the world, evil and deceiving agencies have been able to work miracles, foretell events, reveal secrets, and give “signs”….

That the message was conveyed in an extraordinary manner proves nothing; it still must be subjected to the scrutiny of God’s Word. And since God will never tell us anything that competes with his Word, the highest evaluation criterion is the Word itself.

In II Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 4 and 5, we are expressly told to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. In this regard, Spurgeon’s goal for our blood to be “bibline” is certainly commendable.

Any thought in our brain that doesn’t line up with the Word of God must be dismissed upon detection so there won’t be any infection.

Sensationalism that reduces to goosebump theology is a false criterion God never intends to gratify, even during those times when he does provide extraordinary experiences.

Those addicted to the sensational are soon duped by the gullible. For these people: The more bizarre the account, the more likely their readiness to believe it.

Let us not follow them.