The first thing that one needs to establish is that God speaks. We first learn of that in Genesis 1:3, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light, and light existed.” Second, we need to know if God speaks to mankind. “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, ‘Of every tree in the garden you may freely eat’” (Genesis 2:16). Next, we need to know if God continued to speak with mankind after the first sin. We find the answer in Genesis 3:9, “Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” To keep the peace, we need to also see if God speaks to mankind now that our Lord Jesus has come and returned to the throne of God. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 9:4-5).

God spoke with the first of mankind, continued to speak with mankind after the first sin, and continued to speak with mankind after Jesus came to remove the penalty of sin from us. In the scriptures, there is no convincing argument to say that God has ever stopped speaking to mankind. With that said, I have every expectation that God speaks with us today. God has been faithful and speaks with me. It has nothing to do with me, except that I am the receptacle of what He speaks when He speaks to me. The only righteousness that I possess is what God, through Jesus, has given. The only cleansing I have is because of the word of God spoken to me, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15:3). He then told me to abide in Him, and He abides in me. He is my dwelling place and I am because He dwells in me; because He has spoken purity to me.

God is God without mankind; God chose to involve mankind. God chose to come and walk within mankind, in the form of Jesus. God chose to send His Spirit to mankind. God chose to speak with mankind, and to continue to do so. An attempt to deny that He speaks with us is an attempt to create God in an image that our finite mind can understand. God is God without our understanding of Him to be God. Misunderstanding God cannot recreate God in our own image of Him. God is not a boxed product we can put a label and ingredient list on, and sell as God. God is God without our listing of ingredients that we call God. The way to understanding anything about the infinite God is to have a relationship with God.

With the belief that God speaks with mankind, and the written word of God stating that we are already made clean by the word He has spoken to us, there comes a new understanding of His spoken word. Not everyone that hears from God is a prophet. God speaks to mankind for other reasons than to prophecy. Not every word of God spoken to one is to be repeated as prophecy. How do you know? Ask the One that spoke it to you. Ask God who He created you to be. He will tell you, and He may also send a prophet to confirm what He has spoken to you. If you have not opened your ears up to Him, a prophet may come and speak to you and tell you the answer. God is not restricted to telling you through a prophet; He can have a donkey come and tell you if He wishes to do so. Not everyone that hears the voice of God is a prophet.

In my attempts to know God, I only knew facts (called facts only because of repetition; someone said, and someone else quoted, and so on until it was accepted as fact), and not God. Could the information about God be trusted? There is no relationship between the “someone” and myself, so how can I know if they can be trusted. How could I trust the information about God, without knowing the intermediate source of the information? Preaches were no help – they repeated learned information, and mixed it with personal tales. They became another layer of intermediate sources; now one that I could see is unable to perfectly walk out what they shared. The only way to be sure, was to go to the source. Through a relationship, that includes conversations, God became to me what He has always been, a source that I could trust. God speaks to us so that we may connect with Him.

© 2008, Tim D. Coulter Sr.