Aug 22, 2009

God speaks through more than the Bible

From CREATIVE PRAYER by Chris Tiegreen

"So how do we communicate visually with God? How about asking him to engage us in that kind of conversation? We ask him for other kinds of guidance with the expectation he'll give it. Why limit the media through which he speaks?

A frequent rebuttal to such questioning is that God speaks through his Word and only through his Word. While we can be certain that God will not contradict his Word in the ways he speaks to us, nearly all who claim that his only mode of expression is printed words on the Bible's pages are not being honest with themselves.

How do I know? Because nearly every Christian is willing to accept the testimony of a pastor who says he was called into ministry through a combination of personal convictions, open doors of circumstances, the affirmation of others, and the inward guidance of the Holy Spirit. Nearly every Christian will attribute guidance to God when it comes in the form of an inward push or an inner peace, the counsel of godly people in conjunction with open or closed doors of opportunity, or a phrase in a conversation that seems to speak louder than the amplifiers at a rock concert and comes at exactly the right time.

Again, we wouldn't follow any guidance that contradicts Scriptures, because we know that's not from God. But we've already opened the doors of our hearts to biblical principles of counsel and accountability, circumstances and opportunities, personal convictions and the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. Those can be pretty subjective media, but when we submit them to the authority of God, ask him to lead us, trust that he will do so, and see that the guidance seems to converge in one specific direction, we feel pretty safe that we've heard his voice."

1 comment:

dave said...

preach it~