The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum How to hear God's voice

Dear Friends,

In my short story called 'Abraxas to Jesus', I said that Jesus spoke to me and said, "I love you" I have had mixed responses since I declared from the rooftops what He said to me in secret. It does hurt a little when I get the Bible thrown in my face, creedal whippings and the like but I am not alone in this matter. Through out the Scriptures there is a God who speaks and there are those who heard His voice.

I get all sorts of interesting reactions, I get links to articles teaching me what I know already, 'read your bible' 'pray more' 'read this, read that' etc. etc. These are sweet sentiments and I have been doing these for close to thirty years, but it was not until one day as I sat alone in my room and also alone with the silence of my experience of God that I began a journey that took me about eight months, in which time I went from a severe student of the text and robotic prayer machine, to a real listener to the Lord Jesus.

Now it is my time to give y'all a book to read, seeing as y'all have been so generous with your books ref's and articles. (The nice thing is you get to watch an online video first.)

How to hear God's voice

<img src="/forum/images/graemlins/chatter.gif" alt="" />

I know I said that I was going to stop communicating with you but I lied.

If you want to hear God's "voice" why don't you do something novel and start believing in God's words as well as just reading them?

I always thought it strange that the mice tend to come out at night.


Denny

Romans 3:22-24

Straw,

A "red flag" immediately rose to the top of the pole when I not only read the information provided at the link you provided, but especially after doing a search on Google for "Mark Virkler" and reading much more of his teaching(s). One in particular is most salient which I will quote below:

What should be apparent is his faulty hermeneutic and exegesis of the Habakkuk passage. He, like so many who embrace and espouse error wrongly "divide the Word of Truth" to their own destruction. There is no warrant to take this passage of Scripture which is specific to Habakkuk, an ordained Prophet of God who was one of those "holy men of old" who was set apart to be part of God's plan to record His will in writing and which would eventually become part of the Canon, and use it to make a universal truth that applies to everyone. It isn't what happened to Habakkuk, i.e., God speaking directly to him that is relevant but rather the result of that encounter that is relevant and applicable; the result being the book of Habakkuk which we find in the Bible.

The writer of Hebrews makes the point in a much more succinct way when he wrote:

And the Apostle Peter, standing upon this truth wrote the following to emphasize that that communication which even he experienced, i.e., hearing an actual voice from heaven; God the Father, is "inferior" to that which came thereafter, i.e., the inspired, infallible, inerrant written Word of God:

That some assert that they hear the voice of God or Jesus or the Spirit is true; i.e., they do "hear" something/someone. But that it is God Himself is what is questionable and repudiated by Scripture and the long history of the Christian Church.

In His grace,

Bravo!

If one cannot believe and discern that God loves his elected children through the perfect life, substitutionary death and resurrection of His only human Son, then may God help him.

Hearing the "voice" of God outside of the fulfilled and final Scripture, no matter what the content, can only eventually lead someone away from His words to the place where Eve had her fateful conversation with the serpent. In a single word, "heresy".


Why did these men believe in such "dogmatic" statements? To answer my own question, it was because they believed heart and soul in the Scripture in which you have just quoted.

Denny

Romans 3:22-24

Sounds like John Piper! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Mark Virkler, brings back memories. He is way farther out than Piper. Virkler has a school where you can get a degree in Prophecy (train up to be a false prophet C. Peter Wagner style, www.cluonline.com). Virkler is a C. Peter Wager disciple I believe.

I was once a Virkler fan, got those books because my prophecies were failing, figured I needed "help" to hear the voice of god.

He has a book out called "Am I being Deceived". In it he admits his techniques (guided visualization, meditation to clear your mind, dream journalling) are the same techniques the New Age uses, but according to him, since we contact the true, and they do not excercise discernment over what "spirits" they contact, that makes it ok. He claims the methods to contact the "spirit world" are valid for the Christian, as long as discernment is used.

I seem to remember the Bible forbidding contact with all familiar spirits however.

And his argument in retrospect to me reads like "I know it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, but trust me, it isn't really a duck."

Now thats discernment indeed.

- Kurt

Straw

You and I have more in common than you know, or should I say used to have more in common.
What I am talking about is I am a former Charismatic, who over a period of time started realizing that I interpreted Scripture through experience and what my Pentecostal pastor taught.
When I was challenged by people who really knew the Bible, though sometimes I had an answer because of what I had been taught. I came to realize that in a lot of cases, my understanding of certain Bible verses didn't hold up to context of the passage in question.
I must admit that this realization was in many ways depressing because when I prayed in the spirit i.e. tongues, I felt so close to God. In fact I could pray for hours at a time, because I was high on God.

I want to challenge you to not think of what we are trying to do as creedal whippings, etc..., for they surely are meant to draw you to Scriptures.

You might think that many of us here have a dead orthodoxy, but I assure you we do not. The Holy Spirit uses the Scriptures to grow each and every one of God's children.
I could say a lot more about that, but I think it has been done already.

Tom