Salt Again

Many people want to know if God still speaks to us today. The Christian answer comes down to two simple alternatives: Yes or no. There are lots of intelligent people out there who disagree on this subject. My own answer is an unqualified YES. Allow me to tell you why.

I am sure we could all think of a wierdo or a TV preacher who says that God is speaking through them when we know it isn’t true. However, just for the sake of the argument, let’s throw that out and discuss the matter sincerely as people who really want to know the answer. In fact, let’s get a little more specific. Let’s ask, “Does God really speak to Christians today apart from the Bible?”

The people that answer “no” to this question usually cite examples of someone claiming that God spoke through them and it was wrong or it harmed a person’s faith. That is a powerful experiential argument. If someone claims to speak for God and they are wrong, it gives God a black eye in the minds of the people around that person. But that is no reason to believe that God doesn?t speak at all anymore.

Think about this: In the history of the church, God has used two instruments to speak to his people: the Bible and the Holy Spirit. We all know people who don’t know how to correctly interpret the Bible, but is that any reason to start believing that God doesn’t speak through the Bible? No way. In a similar way, some people don’t know how to interpret what the Holy Spirit is doing, but that is no reason to believe that he doesn’t speak to us today.

The Bible and the Holy Spirit work together in our lives. We don’t possess a 100% fool proof method of interpreting what the Bible says or what the Holy Spirit says, especially about thorny ethical or moral questions. But just because we can’t be 100% sure of what they say all the time doesn’t mean that they are silent. We can’t be sure of what our best friends say some of the time, but we don’t write them off because we can’t always understand them. The fact that there are abuses or disagreements about what the Holy Spirit is saying doesn’t mean that we should cut off all belief that he speaks today.

A passage from the Bible that supports the speaking role of the Holy Spirit is John 14:6. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads you into all truth.” If the Holy Spirit really is God inside of us, then God speaks to us. The Holy Spirit is our comforter, encourager and helper. If he fulfills all these roles in our lives, it makes sense that he speaks to us as he helps us in so many ways. Listen to his voice.