Do You Hear the Voice of the Lord?

Romans 15:4 - "For whatever things were written before, were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."

Does the Bible teach that we must learn to discern the voice of the Lord individually for ourselves to live optimal Christian lives? The answer is no it does not teach that. So when someone teaches that you hear the voice of the Lord individually for yourself for optimal Christian living as a Christian discipline, this is not a Biblical discipline, ladies and gentlemen. It is not in there. Are there incidents of God speaking? Yes, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the discipline of learning to discern the voice of the Lord for myself to live optimally as a Christian. It's not there.

Does the Bible teach that we are to seek this kind of guidance? The answer is no. It does not teach that we are to seek this kind of guidance. Does the Bible teach that we are to expect this kind of guidance? Again the answer is no. And since the Bible doesn't teach that we have to learn this skill, since it doesn't teach that we are to seek this kind of guidance, since it doesn't teach that we are to expect this kind of guidance. I don't know what all the hubbub is about. Well, yes I do.

This teaching that God will whisper in your ear all kind of particulars that pertain to you and His will for your life is very appealing to Christians. Even though when you look at the Scriptures, the specialized directions are rare. They are unusual. They are usually unsought. And they are always crystal clear. None of this "I think the Lord is telling me" business. People are still gravitating to the suggestion that we can develop a sixth sense that can tie us into a hotline to God so that we can have certitude about the things of life and the decisions we ought to make. Why is this appealing? Because it's easy. You know Americans are given to quick fixes and this is the American Christian quick fix. We are also given to individualism and this is the American individualistic view of Christianity--guidance decision making. It fits the American mentality, not the Biblical mentality, not the Christian mentality, the American mentality. And that's why this point of view is distinctly American. It's a quick fix. It's an easy way out. It's kind of like Cliff Notes, only worse.

What happens here is that people don't do the hard work of learning. Part of my conversation last evening with a friend who is a very gracious person dealt with the issue of anointing and filling and I made the comment that I'd never been anointed by the Holy Spirit in my life, nor was any Christian ever anointed by the Holy Spirit. When I said that, jaws dropped. When I said that it was like I had said Jesus is a demon or something. "How could you possibly say this? Haven't you ever felt the Holy Spirit well up inside of you?" I said, "Yes, I have." And they said, "Well, there you go. That's an anointing." I said, "That's not an anointing. That's a filling of the Holy Spirit." There has not been any anointing since Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) because the Holy Spirit is not on the outside, He's on the inside. There is a distinct difference between the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and that of the Old. The New being the fulfillment of the promise of Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 37 and following in Joel and a number of other places of the giving of the New Covenant.

Now, here is what is interesting to me. I was having a conversation with a friend who was espousing this other point of view, at least in some measure, asking questions about it, and challenging me on it. She believes that this is an appropriate thing for Christians, yet at the same time this person didn't have a clear understanding of the difference between the old covenant and the new with regards to the working of the Holy Spirit, which is fundamental in understanding how to look at Christian life.

This is my fear, ladies and gentlemen, and I'll end with this point. This skill is being offered, and what it ultimately involves, what it ultimately ends up being is a short cut to the real McCoy of knowledge and spiritual growth. Instead of investing our time learning the truth from the word and working at making it a part of us so that we have a good understanding of the truth from the front to the back, from the beginning to the end, from Genesis to Revelation, we opt out for an easy way out, which is to let God just tell us and therefore we are not equipped.

Not only that, but a lot of times when God tells us what He tells us is false because it's not God telling us. So we've got a lot of screwball things going on with people who believe this kind of thing, and instead of being devoted to developing spiritual maturity and attaining Scriptural knowledge we want the quick fix, and then we call the quick fix spiritual maturity and knowledge. And instead of developing mastery we want the Master to be sitting next to us during the tests of life whispering His answers in our ears. Do you know what that's called, ladies and gentlemen? That's called cheating. And there is no guarantee and no teaching and no instruction in the New Testament or Old that this is the way that we are to live our lives on a day to day basis under the new covenant. The only Word of God that we are ever enjoined to listen to is not the word that comes into our spiritual ears, as it were, from the spiritual ozone, but the Word that comes from the Scriptures. That's the one that we are told to learn, listen, heed, abide and hide in our heart.

By Greg Kouki
Stand To Reason
2013