Exodus 25:1: And the Lord spoke to Moses saying…
If you have been keen to our generation, you will realize that there are too many voices who claim: the Lord told me this, the Lord said to me that…I was shown etc.
Ever since we started reading the Bible from the book of Genesis, God has been speaking and interacting with saints, but my question is. How does he talk? And how do I know it is him talking?
What we know as the fall of man affected most of all, our (God and humanity) communication. Sometimes our communication with God is like that of our innovations in telecommunications technology. Sometimes when the NETWORK is broken, you hear each other but breaking or sometimes you can’t hear the other caller, yet they don’t. Or sometimes it is the PHONE that has a faulty mouthpiece that cannot pick your voice, or on the other end, it is the earpiece broken that cannot pick the sound, and communication fails.
We fail to hear God speak because we don’t know how he speaks. We assume he has the same speech pattern like that of ours and that is how we missed out his voice and he fails to communicate to us.
I don’t care what your Church prophet, pastor or miracle workers says God said, I want you to know that the speech pattern of God is within two modes of revelation.
- General Revelation Speech
- Special Revelation Speech
This is important to note before I explain each, General Revelation speech pattern is subject to Special Revelation speech pattern. What I mean is that what you hear and see in the General must be coherent with what the Lord says in the special. Let me unpack each.
God speaks to all of us generally, through his creation and through nature (Romans 1:20). As a conscious being, when you look at nature you see an intentional, intelligent and purposeful designer behind it. We make sense of this nature and creation though unfortunately sometimes we end up worshipping the created at the expense of the creator. Still, under this, God speaks to us through our circumstances.
What happens to us, communicates much to us, we ask why and struggle to make sense (Book of Job, and Book of Psalms, Romans 8:31-39). It explains our history, defines our present and shapes our future. What happened to the Israelites on Mount Sinai influences the idea of the Tabernacle and more. Problem with us is that, when these circumstances happen to us, we miss God’s voice and become superstitious.
Again, under general revelation speech, God speaks to us through other people (elders, parents, teachers in schools and institutions, experts and believers Romans 10:14-15, Acts 8:30-39, Book of Proverbs, and other Books). All this is how God tries to reach you and am sure many successful people attribute their success to what was disclosed to them by a certain individual.
The things you know in life and even about God are to a certain percentage attributed to word of mouth or you read it from a book written by someone. God speaks through people and am praying he speaks to you through me today.
Generally, again God speaks to us through Music (Ephesians 5:19-20, Colossians 3:16-17, 1Corinthians 14:26, Psalms 40:3). Music is the only agent participating in all spheres of our being. In war we sing, weddings, funerals, birth, and death, etc. There are songs that don’t make sense until you are in a position that relates to the song. Next time you are in church, I want you to read the words and write them down and see what God is saying to you in those lyrics. No wonder the devil’s most serious industry is music and entertainment. Emotions and excitement are crucial communication skills. Martin Luther once said:
Next, to the word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world
If you want to hear God, focus on what is happening generally. However, to understand him, always subject to the scrutiny of Special Revelation all that you gather from General Revelation speech. I will explain more in the next episode.
I want you to know that whether you believe it or not, understanding it or not, there is a being speaking to us through:
- nature and creation
- other people and their works
- our circumstances
- music
And we need to establish two things:
- Who is that Being
- What exactly is it saying
God bless you.
Pr. ITM White
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 