Who's Talking, God or Me? Pt. 1 of 3

JG strikes again!  She made a comment in the Jer. 29:11 series that raises a whole new issue.  She wants to know if God can direct you using a passage that "isn't particularly relevant to your situation, but the wording is such that it seems to grab your attention.  Maybe there are words or phrases that describe what you are feeling or dealing with, words that only you and God would recognize as significant."

The short answer is, "Of course, He can!"  God is perfectly capable of guiding and directing us through an infinite array of methods.  A burning bush, a talking donkey (not from Shrek!), and handwriting on a palace wall come to mind.  So if God is able to use shrubs, livestock, and billboard calligraphy to get our attention, it seems perfectly reasonable that He could use a passage from the Bible to direct us, even a passage that was written for a different purpose to a different people facing a different situation.  God does not answer to us, and He is free to use His Word as He sees fit.  God is able to provide individual guidance for us on His terms and to crystallize that guidance in language that echoes biblical terminology from passages only indirectly related to our situation.

God's ability, however, is not the problem.  OUR ability is.  How do we KNOW that God is the One speaking, when "the wording is such that is seems to grab [our] attention?"  Yes, God can speak through a passage in the manner JG describes, but how can we distinguish the times when He is speaking from the times we mistakenly think He is speaking?  There are quite a few threads we must trace to unravel this ball of string. 

Let's start with a sober assessment of our capacity for self-delusion.  It is possible to be absolutely convinced that God is saying something to us and to be wrong!  Let me bring a few sample verses and comments to the table as evidence.

• Prov. 14:12 - There is a way which seems right to man, but its end is the way of death.  We are capable of believing that we are making a right choice when, in fact, we are progressing down a path that moves us away from God.  (This is the meaning of "the way of death" in Proverbs.)
• Jer. 23:25 - I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, 'I had a dream, I had a dream.'  It is possible to have a dream and to use that dream, either unwittingly or consciously, as evidence that "God has spoken to me."   By such means, a man attempts to put words in God's mouth. 
• Jer. 5:31 - The prophets prophesy falsely, . . . and My people love it so!  It is possible for men to applaud when God's words are misrepresented; they actually prefer a message other than God's.
• Jer. 42:6 - Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the Lord our God.  This really sounds convincing!  But in context, these words are the people's mis-representation of themselves.  They didn't want divine direction, they wanted God's endorsement.  This little charade was a means to get God to back a plan of their own invention, to get his stamp of approval on what they had already determined to do (see Jer. 41:17-18).

The bottom line is that verses like these tell us about what men are capable of, and it's not pretty.  We have every reason to distrust our ability to identify God's voice.  So let's start our discussion (more next week) by affirming this, JG.  God can speak to us as He chooses, but we have good reasons, biblical reasons, to be suspicious of our ability to distinguish His voice from the desires of self.  There is something inside us that wants to cloak personal desires in robes of respectability by draping them with biblical terminology.  Proceed with caution!

Comments

[jg]

Thanks so much; this is a big help to me. I can't wait to read parts 2 & 3. You might be planning to answer this question I have later on, and if so, just tell me to wait. :)

Your examples seem to all deal with people who leaned toward self in their attempt to discern what God was saying to them. Can the Holy Spirit convict us of righteousness (maybe like Job?) and help us determine if our heart is right with God, and therefore, if we are truly putting His voice before our own? Please don't misunderstand me here--I in no way claim to have my heart in the right place before God all the time, and probably not even most of the time. But I just wonder if you can be sure that you are in the right place and are therefore able to be sure of God's voice.
This might be easier to discuss in light of a case where what you believe you are hearing from God is something you don't want to do, or something that is in some way negative about your future. In a case like this, is it also possible to be deluded? I read somewhere a long time ago (it might have been Elisabeth Elliot) that if you feel God is telling you to do something and it's something you really don't want to do, but you're not sure if it's His voice or your own, you probably need to do it. I think her reasoning was that it's unlikely that a person will be harder on himself than God is on us, if that makes sense. A situation like that reminds me of Abraham's sacrificing Isaac. If God isn't really calling you to do it, He can redirect you, but it's better to err on the side of obedience to what you think He's calling you to do than possible disobedience.
What do you think, and thanks for putting up with my scrambled thoughts?!

[jg]

After I read my last post, I thought I had better clarify the last part. It's not that Abraham made a mistake in believing he was supposed to sacrifice Isaac; God really was calling Him to do it. I just mention him because his situation is a perfect example of what I was talking about: God asking you to do something you really don't want to do.

[Jim Fleming]

JG,
Great comments! I would like to finish the next two installments (Monday and Tuesday) and see if they don't address your questions. If not, then we'll go from there.