{"id":1275,"date":"2012-09-09T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T14:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=1275"},"modified":"2012-09-08T22:49:03","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T03:49:03","slug":"god-spoke-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=1275","title":{"rendered":"God Spoke to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I must admit that I am always a little leery when people say God spoke to them and told them to do this or that.\u00a0 Now I do not doubt God has the ability to audibly speak to us, but I do doubt it happens as often as people claim in this day and age. \u00a0It gets a little tricky because sometimes what God supposedly tells one person contradicts what he supposedly tells someone else.\u00a0 And I really get irritated when those claiming to have audibly heard God\u2019s voice think those who haven\u2019t are lesser Christians.\u00a0 Some would have us believe that God speaking audibly to people should be the rule, not the exception.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t even really the norm in biblical times either.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Occasionally God did speak to individuals in the Bible.\u00a0 God spoke to Adam (Genesis 3:9). God spoke to Abraham (Genesis 12:1).\u00a0 God spoke directly to Moses (Exodus 4).\u00a0 God spoke to Joshua (Joshua 1).\u00a0 Of course, God also spoke to Balaam\u2019s ass (Numbers 22:22-40) which leads me to believe that if God were to actually speak audibly to us it might not mean we are all that special.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

If we listen carefully we find God has many different ways to speak to us other than audibly.\u00a0 Here are a few:\u00a0 He can speak to us through the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:12; 13:2) which might come as an inner voice.\u00a0 He can speak to us through a feeling of guidance (Isaiah 30:19-21).\u00a0 He can speak to us through the wise counsel of others (Proverbs 12:15). \u00a0He can speak to us through our conscience (1 Timothy 1:5).\u00a0 God can speak to us through events (James 1:2-5).\u00a0 He can speak to us through nature (Romans 1:20). \u00a0God can speak to us through circumstances (Mark 4:19).\u00a0 However when we let the circumstances or cares of this world overwhelm us they can choke out God\u2019s Word.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why is that so important?\u00a0 Because the main ways God definitely speaks to all of us is through his Word (2 Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 55:11; Psalm 119:105) and through Jesus, his son (Hebrews 1:1-2)!\u00a0 Unfortunately people are far too busy to read God\u2019s Word, the Bible.\u00a0 This is quite sad because everything we really need to know is in the Bible (2 Peter 1:3) and God has chosen to speak to us mostly through his Word.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If we do not know the Word of God how do we know who is speaking to us?\u00a0 How do we know it is the voice of God we hear?\u00a0 The newspapers are filled with accounts of people killing others because they heard the \u201cvoice of God\u201d tell them to do so.\u00a0 These people would hold fast to the claim that God spoke to them audibly.\u00a0 We forget Satan as well as God has the power to speak to us.\u00a0 If someone claims to hear the voice of God but brings a message that contradicts the Bible we need to beware for God tells us many will do that (Matthew 24:4-5).\u00a0 How will we know the message is from God if we don\u2019t know what the Bible says? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many times people don\u2019t really claim to have a message from God as much as God telling them what decision to make.\u00a0 I\u2019ve literally heard different people say God told them to take a new job, move to a different state, start a specific ministry, or marry a certain person.\u00a0 I never contradict these conversations.\u00a0 In fact, I marvel at them.\u00a0 How I wish God would tell me such things!\u00a0 I think it would be wonderful if God would do this for everyone.\u00a0 However, does that not take away the reasoning power God gave us?\u00a0 God gave us the ability to think, gather information, and process data.\u00a0 He even gave us the Bible to guide us into making wise decisions.\u00a0 It is so much easier to say, \u201cGod told me to do it\u201d than do the research ourselves and accept responsibility for decisions we make.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps we need to be cautious when we think we hear God\u2019s voice.\u00a0 Are we truly hearing God\u2019s voice or are we just trying to convince ourselves God approves of what we are doing?\u00a0 Remember the true voice of God doesn\u2019t always tell us what we want to hear.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s quite the opposite. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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I must admit that I am always a little leery when people say God spoke to them and told them to do this or that.\u00a0 Now I do not doubt God has the ability to audibly speak to us, but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}