Friday 9 September 2016

The voice of God

If you've had a sneaking suspicion I might be off-kilter, unbalanced or dancing to the wrong tune, then this post might confirm it for you. The topic of this post is one of those ones that makes people seem weird, even for Christians. It's about hearing the voice of God.

The park

I was talking to a fellow Christian about why I decided to come to Cambodia. My response was "God told me." He looked a bit puzzled, so I elaborated. "I was sitting in a park. I prayed if I should go anywhere, and if so where. Then God told me "Cambodia." It was pretty simple." That is of course a somewhat simplistic rendering of what happened and the journey that led me to Asia, but, in a way, it was that simple.

However, I get the feeling that people (both religious and non-religious) are generally reluctant to believe that God speaks directly. Christians will say that of course God speaks to us! He speaks through the Bible, or in answering our needs that we have prayed about, or through other people, or through nature, or through a particular song. These are all true and important and are perhaps the norm. However, people don't seem to think God speaks directly to us today. That was for Biblical times not the modern age. I've even heard preachers imply (or say outright) that God doesn't speak in a voice today.

But that's not my experience. This makes me consider a number of questions. Am I crazy or is the rest of the world? If I'm getting it wrong, I probably need to know. If others are missing out, how do they hear God's voice?

So, it'd be great to know your thoughts on the matter.
  1. Do you believe God speaks to us? How does he do it?
  2. Why do some people have experiences of hearing God's voice and others don't?
  3. How do you recognise when God is speaking to you?
  4. Have you had moments when you felt God speaking directly to you? What happened?

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