Is God speaking to you? Part 2

By Elizabeth Prata

In part 1, I offered a short history of the “God told me” phenomenon (from my personal perspective). I gave some examples of highly platformed Christian celebrities who say they have conversations with God outside of scripture. Some of these ladies claim this constantly; and shockingly, very casually.

In this part let’s look at what hearing the voice of God means, if He is actually speaking outside of the Bible, and finally, how do we rebut the claim using scripture?

Most practitioners of God told me (GTM) would absolutely affirm that He speaks through scripture. But they claim He ALSO speaks individually to proffer advice for daily living, for decision making, or just for comfort, intimacy, or to have a chat.

People claim He does this through the “still small voice” of 1 Kings 19, visions, dreams, appearances, or whispers. Some even claim that it is necessary to be hearing from God outside of scripture in order to have a healthy, thriving intimacy in true faith. Others say that His personal advice is more of “an inner peace” that settled over them when making a decision or entering a crossroads.

As an aside, I’ve never been a fan of the inner peace. Some decisions are scary and actually roil the spirit with turbulence. In addition, the “inner peace” can be wrong- witness Jonah sleeping peacefully as he tried to go in the opposite direction of where God wanted Jonah to go. Some decisions may be costly, or painful for you or others. (Achan comes to mind). Of those decisions you don’t have peace about – but if your conscience is clear – then go ahead. It’s just not true that we have perfect peace all the time if we are interpreting an omen or sign correctly.

One must ask one’s self, “Why do I need to hear from God outside of scripture? What is lacking in my view of God and His word that makes me need to hear more?” Yet God already told us – in His word – that all scripture is sufficient.

All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17. This is the go-to scripture for the GTM rebuttal.

Let’s take the verse bit by bit.

All means in the Greek, all, every part, the whole.
God-breathed, meaning inspired from God. If it is from God, it is perfect.
Beneficial means useful, profitable
What is scripture profitable for? teaching (instruction), reproof (expose discipline), training (training of children, discipline), correction (setting straight),
righteousness– what kind of righteousness? righteousness of which God is the source or author, but practically: a divine righteousness.

What else IS there? Scripture does all that for us! One would have to ask the GTM lady, which part is NOT sufficient for teaching? Which part is NOT beneficial? Which scripture did God make a mistake on and has to subsequently correct, if it isn’t all God-breathed?

So that man may be fully equipped for every good work.” (“entirely outfitted”) is used in the passive voice in 2 Tim 3:17, stressing the end-impact of Scripture on the receptive believer. Indeed the Bible thoroughly fits (“furnishes”) each believer to live in full communion with God” says Strong’s Greek.

Why is the GTM lady needing more than that?

From Jim Osman in God Doesn’t Whisper, about Priscilla Shirer:

She believes subjective revelations through whispers and impressions are an essential way we enjoy an “intimate and interactive” relationship with God. She writes, “I mean, come on, do you really think He loved you enough to die for you, but not enough to talk to you?”[47] Given that she promotes private revelations in her books, it wouldn’t be unfair to say she means something akin to this: “Do you really think God loved you enough to die for you and then just leave you with the Bible?!”

Indeed, people who say they hear from God are not only angering God with their lies, but are dismissing the very Word He breathed into existence for us, preserved for us, nailed to the cross for us, shed blood over, raised up martyrs to get to us, and gifted to us out of His love.

What a slap in the face is direct revelation! What it actually is, is an attitude that God’s word is defective because it doesn’t hold personally tailored instructions for us in how to live our life in Him.

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15).

God’s word doesn’t contain instructions for how to an oil change in the car, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t perfect for instructing us in daily living. Scripture does that through principles, and also of course, its direct commands.

By this we read that there is a way to accurately handle truth, and intuit that there is a way to INaccurately handle truth. If we are to believe that people hear directly from God, we cannot test what they heard against scripture. And if this is so, there is no way to tell if someone is inaccurately handling truth.

“Proverbs 8 reminds us that wisdom is possessed by God and utilized and embedded in the depths of the Earth the heights of the mountains, the way things operate and even Transcendent over the dust by which man is Created from. So what does that tell us? That tells us that to make sense of anything in life and to rightly view everything in life you must have the scripture.” ~Abner Chau, ACBC, “The Sufficiency of Scripture, link below.

2 Peter 1:20 states that “no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.” Peter explains in the next verse that scripture was given by the Holy Spirit through men. Since Scripture is of divine origin, its meaning is fixed by divine intent. There is one interpretation based on the One author’s intent for us to know.

You can rely on the word of God which is transcendent and certain, or impressions and voices. Garry Friesen said in his book Decision Making and the Will of God, “If the source of one’s knowledge is subjective, then the knowledge will also be subjective—and hence, uncertain.”

Friesen goes on, “For in nonmoral areas, Scripture gives no guidelines for distinguishing the voice of the Spirit from the voice of the self—or any other potential “voice.” And experience offers no reliable means of identification either (which is why the question comes up in the first place). . . . Tremendous frustration has been experienced by sincere Christians who have earnestly but fruitlessly sought to decipher the code of the inward witness.“

For some, wanting to hear the voice of God personally tell them things is out of a sense of earnest obedience, though, going about it wrongly. For many others, however, it is a pride issue, an attempt to elevate themselves above the run-of-the-mill layman in having something special or extra to say. They claim to have an inside track.

However we are all grace-forgiven sinners at the foot of the cross. If you are in Christ, you are on equal ground with everyone else.

“Scripture never commands us to tune into any inner voice“, says John MacArthur. “We’re commanded to study and meditate on Scripture (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1–2). We’re instructed to cultivate wisdom and discernment (Proverbs 4:5–8). We’re told to walk wisely and make the most of our time (Ephesians 5:15–16). We’re ordered to be obedient to God’s commands (Deuteronomy 28:1–2; John 15:14). But we are never encouraged to listen for inner promptings.” ~John MacArthur

“On the contrary, we are warned that our hearts are so deceitful and desperately wicked that we cannot understand them (Jeremiah 17:9). Surely this should make us very reluctant to heed promptings and messages that arise from within ourselves.” ~John MacArthur

Conclusion:

Saying GTM violates the sufficiency of scripture, it takes God’s name in vain, sets up a two-tier system of hearers and non-hearers (a breeding ground for pride and resentment), it trivializes God, and it’s just plain wrong.

Please instead, read the word, pray to the Spirit to illuminate its meaning to you, and ask Jesus to rightly guide you into all righteousness. That is all we need, His word, prayer, and subduing the flesh.

If you want fresh revelation, turn to the scriptures with a fresh prayer coming out of your lips. Scripture never has an expiration date. The Spirit will illuminate the Bible to you.

If you reject the sufficiency of Scripture — or even if you simply look to supplement it with fresh, personal revelation from God — you cut yourself off from the only reliable source of God’s truth. ~John MacArthur

Further Resources

G3 Cessationist Conference Oct 3-5, 2024. More resources there! It is in conjunction with the Cessationist Movie.

Ligonier – Does God Speak to Christians Audibly?

G3- Please Stop Saying ‘God told me’

G3: Beware of lowercase r- revelation

Book – Decision-Making and the Will of God, Garry Friesen, J. Robin Maxson