Is God giving direct revelation? Part 2

By Elizabeth Prata

The answer to the question in the title is: NO. God is not speaking now apart from or outside of His written word. Take a look at Part 1 for scriptural explanation of this question and answer.

Of the many millions of ‘Christian’ teachers and authors out there who claim that God IS speaking today, they claim also to have the insider information on how to hear him, how to detect if the voice was from God, and how to communicate with him in return.

Again, no. But the question remains, that so many people unfortunately ask:

If we do hear a voice, how do we know it’s from the Lord? And if it’s not from God, then who is speaking?

It is not from the Lord. It is not. There is an entire sub-industry to the Christian Publishing industry of ‘how to hear from God’. Rick Warren, Priscilla Shirer, Joyce Meyer, Mark Batterson, Dallas Willard, and many others have written books and teaching curricula on this topic. The marketplace is flooded with books on how to hear from God. If direct revelation was such an important method of communing with God, why is it so lacking in instruction in the Bible? No, 2 Timothy 3:16 says, says All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness;

We can tell by comparing what was said by this voice and how the people reacted. First, the reaction of the recipient-

The Reaction

The true recipients of God’s word or even of His word through an angel was they all fell down, they were crushed and undone as Isaiah was. ‘The trauma of holiness‘, as RC Sproul used to say. An encounter with God always was a traumatic experience. Peter cried out, “depart from me for I am a sinful man!” They hear the word and obey immediately, because they know it is God speaking.

Yet these ladies who claim to hear from God flit around as if it’s a robo-caller on the other side of the phone. When Beth Moore receives a message, she argues with God, so does Joanna Gaines, who actually reported that she flatly told ‘god’ NO. Beth Moore even put ‘Jesus’ on hold saying she’d get to him in a minute and went on with what she was doing first! No, IF it was God first they would fall down in despair for their own sinfulness, and second they would be eager to hear and obey.

The Content

Next, you can tell the voice isn’t from God because of the content of the message. The women (and men) claim to have casual chats with the holy almighty. Sarah Young’s revelations are all things a woman would like to hear, and in a manner that doesn’t even sound like God is speaking, but a 13 year old girl mooning over a poster on her bedroom wall of the latest celebrity teen.

Many times, the content of the so-called message from God is centered around the person to whom God is supposedly communicating- their wants, their needs, their issues. When God communicated in the Bible with people, his messages were mainly concerned with proper worship, His glory, His prophetic plans, His commands, His judgments.

For example, in the New Testament God communicated with Joseph in a dream. In the dream, God told Joseph to take Mary as his wife and to flee to Egypt. He didn’t tune in to ask Joseph how he was feeling about Mary’s pregnancy.

In the Old Testament when He spoke to Hagar in such a personally compassionate way, He told her what to do and then uttered a prophecy about her son.

No, Jesus taught his disciples and by extension us, to pray. He didn’t teach us anywhere in the New Testament to seek His audible voice. (Matthew 6:9-13). All we need is in the Bible.

The Deception

People who claim to hear a voice rarely say that it could be a deception. They seem sure that it was God and only God who spoke to them. For example, Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s show Fixer Upper and the Magnolia Empire, said she heard God clearly in a garden no less, and he supposedly assured her that all her dreams of having a large platform will come true. It never occurred to her seemingly, that the ‘voice’ was indulging her flesh and that it could have been a deception. No, because she was being assured of her dreams, that seemed to cement it for her and she went on to tell this ‘testimony’ in a widely circulated video. Here is a sample:

“I hear God say very clearly, he said ‘Joanna if you trust me with your dreams I’m gonna take Magnolia further than you could have ever dreamed so just trust me.’ I remember hearing that and feeling completely peaceful about it…”

Of course she felt peaceful, she was just told by a voice she thinks is the creator of the universe telling her he will make her dreams come true. Wouldn’t YOU feel ‘peaceful’ about that?

Why do these direct messages – especially the ones to women – never seem to have anything negative to them? God told Hagar to go back and serve Sarah who hated Hagar and abused her. Not so ‘peaceful’. Did God tell the Angel Gabriel to tell Mary that all her dreams would come true? No, he told her what would happen to her body and what to do next. Rebekah inquired of God why her pregnancy was so painful, God told her that 2 nations were in her womb and one will be stronger than the other. He didn’t take time to assure her of her feelings about it.

That dreamy, sentimental faith which ignores the judgments of God against us and listens to the affirmations of the soul is as deadly as cyanide. Faith in faith is faith astray. To hope for heaven by means of such faith is to drive in the dark across a deep chasm on a bridge that does not quite reach the other side.
AW Tozer (Of God and Men)

If someone hears a voice it could be the devil or his unholy angels. Satan masquerades as minister of righteousness, after all, and so do his fallen angels. (2 Corinthians 11:14). Eve was deceived by satan masquerading as a serpent. Demons spoke through men, (Acts 9:13-15). There is such a thing as lying spirits who speak through the mouth. (1 Kings 22:19–23).

Peter said we have a “more sure word”. (2 Peter 1:19). You can be SURE that it is God speaking when you read His word. You don’t have to take courses to learn how to determine if what you are hearing is from God or not. (It’s not). You can be sure that His written word is sufficient for your life. Read it, enjoy it, be confident in it!