HeIsRisen wrote: ↑Sat Aug 05, 2023 8:18 am
Do you believe that God speaks to people privately outside of the revealed Word? (Example: God put on my heart, I heard God point out, I saw a sign, etc etc.) Do you think he speaks to individuals frequently, or is it a rare event?
If yes, how does one distinguish the Spirit from a strong emotional feeling or personal conviction, especially when it's on a liberty issue? Would it be sin to disobey the revelation (if regarding a liberty issue), and if one thinks it's really from God, does that elevate ones private revelation to the level of Scripture. Is that a problem?
Excellent question. I think it is very hard to distinguish the Spirit from strong emotional feelings or personal convictions, or basically personal wants and desires. It is next to impossible to figure out one's own motives, let alone those of others, but often what people seem to "hear" God say appears to jive very nicely with things they just want to do.
I view things that happen that are outside of my control as being things that God either appointed or allowed, and therefore are things that he has "spoken." I view advice given to me by respected people as being things that God is potentially speaking, but the fact is, I often choose those people and the advice could have been different had I asked someone different.
I can hardly credit God for thoughts that come through my mind. And yet, thoughts that have come into my mind have had significant ramifications in life. Did those things originate with God? Obviously he can put thoughts into our minds, but to say for sure that "God put on my heart," who can tell?
Believers in Jesus are promised the Holy Spirit, so I believe God is present with me in that way. I do not hear him say specific things to me, but his presence in me does influence me. I don't believe in "signs." I think there are way too many ways for our human minds to misconstrue events and circumstances to be sure that certain things were signs from God.
I am highly skeptical that God is actually speaking even a small percentage of thing things that people think they are hearing from him. The best clue about whether what we are "hearing" from God is actually his words is whether they align with what we know for sure is the word of God. And for those things, hearing something extraneous from scripture is actually not all that necessary. How often do you hear someone claim to have heard God speak directly to them that they should not steal or commit perjury or envy? No, people who claim to have been spoken to by God are usually saying he has directed them to do thus and so that is not addressed in scripture, or given them some special knowledge or something.
Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily. -Heb. 13:3