God speaks to us mainly by His Word—the Bible. I believe God and His Word are one. In other words, the two always perfectly speak with one voice.
But that’s not the only way God speaks to us. He also speaks to us by way of the Holy Spirit. About that Jesus said, “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you….” (John 14:26, NASB). The more closely we walk with God, the more clearly we will be able to hear the “voice” of the Holy Spirit speaking to us.
Paul and Timothy’s Experience
Another way God speaks to us is illustrated in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Paul and Timothy tried to go to a couple of cities to minister. Each time, the Holy Spirit forbade them. Then, Paul saw this vision of a man in Macedonia asking him to come and help the people there.
“After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10, NIV).
In the verse above, a key to understanding how God speaks to us is found in the word “concluding.” It is the rendering of a Greek word that is pronounced (soom-bi-BA-zoe). It means to unite, or to put together in reasoning in order to arrive at a conclusion.
Got it? Paul and Timothy arrived at the conclusion they did by putting things together. For instance, they first tried to minister in Asia, but the Holy Spirit prevented them. They tried going to Bithynia, but the Spirit would not allow that either. Then they saw this vision of the man in Macedonia beckoning their help. Paul and Timothy arrived at their conclusion of the Lord’s will by considering all of this together.
We know the Lord spoke to Paul in an audible voice while going to Damascus to persecute the Christians. God may have spoken to him at other times to share so much revelation in his New Testament writings. Today, I believe God can and does speak to us and through us in extraordinary ways at times. But these are the exceptions and not the rule. God mainly speaks to us more in line with what has been discussed above.
The Order of the Ways God Speaks to Us
First and foremost, God speaks to us through His Word. Secondly, He speaks to us through the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, God can speak to us through dreams, visions and divinely-orchestrated events in our life. The Holy Spirit closed the earlier doors Paul and Timothy tried to enter before they saw the vision regarding Macedonia. Through the closed doors and visions, God was telling them that ministering in those places was not His will for them at the time.
Warning: The Holy Spirit is not the only quiet voice speaking to us. Our flesh also speaks to us. The spirit of this world is speaking to us also. But the voice of the Holy Spirit will ALWAYS be consistent with the Word of God. It will also be consistent with any events in our life God may be using to speak to us. Like Paul and Timothy, we need to consider all of this together. By and large, this is how God speaks to us.
Copyright © 2022 by Frank King. All rights reserved.