God Really Does Speak

JOHN KIMBALL, DIRECTOR OF CHURCH DEVELOPMENT

The year was 1993. I had been in my new pastorate for about a year when a friend introduced me to a Bible study that was growing with explosive popularity — Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God. Over the next 5 years I had the pleasure of leading more than 100 people through this study and watched as God used it to change them forever.

There are many things I could say about those years, but for me personally the most critical lesson I learned was to discern God’s voice in my life. Our CCCC Faith Statement on the Holy Spirit, “We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by Whose indwelling power and fullness the Christian is enabled to live a godly life in this present evil world,” became so real to me during that time.

Blackaby takes his readers to the Scriptures to show that God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, other believers and circumstances to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways. I knew the Holy Spirit doctrinally, but it was in this season of my life that I came to know Him personally. I had encounters with Him in the Word. I sensed Him inhabit my times of prayer and intercession. I heard His voice in the voices of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I even began to recognize Him in circumstances — both positive and negative. As all these things increased, our faith statement took on a new and fuller meaning for me than ever before

I’ve had the privilege of watching this truth “dawn” on many Christians over the years. Admittedly, I’m still growing in it myself, but I am also regularly grieved when I meet parishioners and sometimes congregations who have not had such encounters with the Holy Spirit. For many, there is a fear that an “experience” may trump doctrine. I think such fear is unfounded because I cannot find an encounter with God in the Bible where there wasn’t some kind of emotional response. Sound doctrine and emotions are not mutually exclusive — the key is that both be used by the Holy Spirit to guide, shape and grow us.

God does still speak to His children today by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s indwelling Presence is not just for salvation and eternity, but for this life as well. My prayer is that you will learn to recognize His prompting — His voice — if you haven’t already. And that, once you recognize it, you learn to pursue it passionately so that you can live the life He intends for you all the days He gives you.