By Jonathan Faulkner
On our way to Texas over Spring Break my good friend and brother Josh made me aware of a subject that has gained much popularity and become somewhat of a mainstay in the theology of the church. The idea is that the God speaks only through scripture, that there is no speaking done by God outside of the word of God. As I think back upon my time in the Baptist Tradition I can see this teaching coming down, the written word, the bible was the source of answers.
To me this seems like a convenient way to ignore some of the spiritual disciplines, the one that specifically comes to mind is silence. If God only speaks through the bible then all we have to do is read through it and meditate on it and we'll get everything we're supposed to get. Yes we teach about meditation, but if the scripture is the only thing that speaks in that time, then what do we do with the other voice, the still small voice.
Two Types;
If you believe that God only speaks through scriptures I want you to stop, take a second and consider, in your quiet time have you really encountered God. Sure God meets us in scripture, it is our tool to know Him, or better yet to know what He's done, the special Revelation of God. But consider the Word of God, consider Moses encounter with God in the burning bush found in Exodus 3. Here Moses isn't reading from a book, instead he is actually getting a glimpse of God and he actually hears from God. "And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God" (Exodus 3:6 ESV).
Here are the two types, we have the written word of God, the bible and we have the Word of God. This is God's actual presence, His actual voice, or to be more specific the Holy Spirit which intercedes for us (Romans 8:25) and speaks to us, giving us discernment. John 1 gives an identity to that word, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men" (1-4 ESV).
We call John the Theological Gospel, this is because it explains why Jesus did the things that he did. Here in the opening we get a picture of a "Word" that isn't written down. John is equating this word to Jesus, saying that Christ is the word incarnate, that the word that was, is now among us. But that is not evidence in and of itself that the second type of the word of God still speaks. In fact Jesus has been off the Earth for years, at least as the incarnation of the word of God that John describes in the opening of his Gospel.
Living and Active;
In Evangelical Christianity we talk a lot about asking Jesus into our hearts, this is great, but it shouldn't be the end of our role in a persons spiritual growth. I can ask someone to accept me into their life as a friend, but if I don't put time into that persons life, if I don't seek to grow the friendship then the invitation means nothing. Yet this is what has happened, we have told young people to accept Jesus into their lives as Lord and savior and then left them on their own. The result is that we have a lot of Christians walking around who were never disciples and are extremely undisciplined.
This was my problem, I became a Christian at the age of 13 and then had no one take me under their wing on a one on one basis. So it wasn't until my summer in Denver, when someone cared enough to take me aside and work with me, that I really discovered the value in these things. Yes I spent time in scripture, but not to an extent where it spoke to me, and hearing from God, well I didn't know what that meant.
But when we apply disciplines, when we learn to discover that God is still speaking to us, when we drown out the noise and really focus on God we find something incredible, that the writer of Hebrews was right. What do I mean? Check out Hebrews 4:11-12; "Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (ESV).
Here the writer has been talking about the disobedience of Israel, and the rest of God. He is saying that entering that rest, that disciplining ourselves will keep us from disobedience, because "the word of GOD is living and ACTIVE." and it is sharper than a double edged sword, pierces and divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow and discerns the thoughts of our hearts. It is the voice of this word we need to learn to hear, alongside scripture.
The Work of the spirit;
Once I understood this I was free, suddenly the scriptures were opened up to me. This is the work of the spirit in our study time, remember again the story of the Eunuch and Phillip found in Acts 8:26-40. It wasn't until the Eunuch prayed to receive the spirit that he understood what he was reading from the scroll of Isaiah. As soon as he received the spirit however, he understood and believed. The spirit is how God speaks to us and how we speak to God, as well as through our relationship with Christ, who also intercedes for us (Romans 8:34).
So I encourage you to study the scripture silently, to learn to quiet your spirits and learn to hear the voice of God speaking to you. This is an act of faith, but God can speak directly to us, he can give us directly the discernment and understanding we are seeking. But first we must surrender our own understandings, to give up our ideas of scripture and discover the grace found in scriptures and in the voice of God.
May God bless you and you study and read His word and discover it's permeation into your soul. May you learn to love both the Word of God and the word of God, that you may hide them in your heart. May you enter His rest so that you might not be disobedient to His will, and may you discover His perfect will for your life through fervent prayer and meditation on God's presence.
Jonathan Faulkner is the Director and Founder of 10:31 Life Ministries
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