Is God Giving Direct Revelation? Part 3
By Elizabeth Prata
Is God Giving Direct Revelation? Part 1
Is God Giving Direct Revelation? Part 2
I am publishing a 4 part series on Direct revelation. This is part 3. Part 4 will be tomorrow. Next week I have some different topics to cover. People in greater numbers, not fewer, are still claiming God spoke to them personally, or directly. This is known as direct revelation.
Throughout the Bible from Adam to Noah to the Prophets to Saul/Paul tot the Apostles even John on remote Patmos, God and Jesus spoke directly to people to communicate His word. He also spoke through angels, a burning bush, and even a donkey.
When the Bible was completed, he ceased speaking directly. We have the word of God now as the final communication from Him.
Yet with the plethora of people claiming God still speaks, even some claiming He speaks to them, offering encouragements and making promises, I am examining whether those claims can be true. Despite the stern warning in Revelation 22:18-19 and despite the clear statement in Hebrews 1:1-2, people are alleging ‘God told me’.
I bear witness to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. (Revelation 22:18-19).
God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, (Hebrews 1:1-2).
After Revelation when John penned the words of Revelation, the final book, God concluded that the revelation was complete.
Some people, when they claim God has communicated with them, say they felt a sense of peace about the issue which they discussed. Is a feeling of peace a sure way to determine that a message from God was real?
Is having peace about something a fool proof way for Christians to know God’s will?
No. Firstly, founding any decision or action on a feeling is unwise. Feelings are fleeting. Feelings are deceptive.
Secondly, since we have already determined that God is NOT speaking directly to people these days, therefore any feelings that are evoked from a lying action are also suspect. The ‘peace’ they are feeling could easily be a deceptive feeling of peace, brought on by a seeming affirmation of what their flesh wanted.
People in the New Testament didn’t usually feel ‘peace’ when they communed with God. Peter shrunk back in the boat and pleaded with Jesus to ‘go away from me!’ Isaiah said he was undone. Even the gentle scene with Hagar, she was told to go back and serve abusive Sarah, was not a decision that would have evoked a peaceful feeling. Paul was told to stay in Corinth and keep preaching, that polluted city of licentiousness and blasphemy.
Not that communication with God audibly was never peaceful, but usually in these communications, God is telling people to do something either countercultural or counter to what the flesh wants. These are difficult things that normally evoke other feelings besides peace.
Further, Paul learned peace. Philippians 4:11, Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
He had to learn it. He learned it the hard way, being beaten in every city, jailed, hounded by false teachers accused of preaching false doctrine, slandered. He learned contentment. But he didn’t start out being peaceful with every situation. He learned it. So must we.
You can be anxious about a path you know you should take but still be confident in the LORD, but not have peace in ourselves. We often DON’T have peace, because the Gospel and holy living we are called to do is oppositional to our flesh, which still is infused with sin. That there might be an unpeaceful battle in our conscience or our heart about a particular decision is by no means indicative of its error. Though sometimes it is, like everything with the Bible, we don’t determine holy standards by our feelings or experiences.
