Can we hear God’s voice today?

Can we hear God’s voice? If so, how?

According to my tradition there are two books by which God speaks to us:

The book of creation is something we read all the time. Theologians call this general revelation. We know from this book that there is a God because of the intricacy, design, complexity, vastness, power and magnificence of the things He created. We also know that there is such a thing as right and wrong and must question how we know this. There is obviously endless information we can learn from this book as well.

The other book is the Bible. This is called special revelation. This book is considered, according to my tradition, the primary means by which God speaks to mankind, especially to His chosen people. We do not believe that our interpretation of them is infallible, but that the written Word itself, is so. Thus the Scriptures are the highest authority for us to understand God’s voice to us.

Now the Scriptures themselves declare that in the these last days God has spoken to us by His Son. (See Hebrews 1 in any version) All traditions agree, within Christian discipleship, that the Person of Jesus Christ is the primary head of the Church and the Way that leads us to know God. The question for each tradition is how Jesus exerts His authority and voice on Earth to mankind and His chosen people.

In Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition it is believed that Christ exerts His authority primarily through the Church and its traditions. In Charismatic and some Anabaptist traditions (such as certain forms of Quakerism), He exerts this authority by the inner voice of God’s Spirit to believers themselves. And as stated previously, in Protestant tradition He exerts that authority through the Scriptures primarily.

(There is a new reformation happening currently that seeks to claim Christ’s authority through general revelation and particularly through science and human rights as the primary way in which Christ’s speaks, but we will pick up that topic in a couple weeks.)

All three of the classic traditions of the church are true and important. We might call the older traditions the Crown of Christ, the Protestant tradition the Sword of Christ and the Charismatic/Contemplative tradition as the Torch of Christ. After all the Scriptures were compiled through the authority of the Church and we believe that the Spirit of God was leading the Church through that process.  We need the Crown, the Torch and the Sword to hear God fully.  But I believe the Scriptures are the primary authority by which Christ speaks on Earth, and thus I am a Protestant.

The problem with all three traditions is that they involve human interpretation. The Roman and Orthodox Church interprets Christ and Scripture by its own traditions. Charismatics and Contemplatives are interpreting what the Spirit is saying to their minds to the best of their ability. And Protestants are interpreting Scripture, but not infallibly so. Probably the best thing we can do then is to approach our traditions with humility and admit that we “…know in part, but when perfection comes (we) shall know fully, even as (we are) fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12b New International Version)

Yet can God speak to us as with an inner-voice of His Spirit, individually and corporately as believers in Christ? Yes, I think so, because the Scriptures themselves tell us so.  There are countless examples of this and no reasoning given from Scripture itself that this has ceased to be the case.

So next time we’ll consider how it is that we might know if God is indeed speaking to us in this way…