Does God Still Speak? His Teaching is Clear – The Evidence is Clear – God Still Speaks; Hear Him

GOD STILL SPEAKS. NEVER DOUBT IT. HE IS YOUR CREATOR, AND HE WANTS TO SPEAK TO YOU. HEAR HIM.  

Yes, He may speak audibly to us, but usually He speaks to us by His Spirit who lives in all who are born of Him. Let’s take a look at what He teaches about that, and the evidence as well. 

The Bible says God speaks to us in various ways.  

For example, He speaks to all people through His creation by which His invisible attributes are revealed (Romans 1:20).  

Also, God speaks to each person through his conscience, telling us right from wrong (Romans 2:15). That’s usually in the form of a yes or a no somewhere down in the inside of our being. In any case, it’s God speaking. 

And or course, God speaks through His written Word.  

• But the Bible doesn’t say, “Mark, I’m calling you to preach the gospel.” God speaks that through His Holy Spirit inside me, the same as He speaks to every one of God’s people about His gifts and callings for their lives.  

• The Bible doesn’t say, “Suzie, don’t fear, I’m going to take care of that situation with your son.” God speaks that through His Holy Spirit inside Suzie, or perhaps through another brother or sister in Christ by the same Spirit with a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge. 

• The Bible doesn’t tell us which car to buy, or whether to buy a car or not. It doesn’t tell us where to live or when to move, or any of ten thousand things we need to hear about from Him so that we can do His perfect will. The Holy Spirit who lives inside us is God’s voice to us for that.  

• We pray, asking God for guidance, instruction, a sure word of confidence, direction, etc. Sometimes He answers that in various ways, but He certainly speaks to us sometimes as well. 

However, in this article, I am referring to God speaking to His people through verbal language. From the beginning of creation we see God communicating with humanity through speech (Genesis 1:28-30;3:1-24).  

Indeed, communication through speech is a primary attribute that sets humanity high above all other creatures and, more importantly, gives us our ability to communicate with our Creator. This is God’s intent, desire, and design from the beginning. 

Our sin interrupted our ability to freely speak to and hear the voice of God, our Creator. Yet God continued to speak to mankind. 

The Old Testament references proving that God spoke by His own mouth through and to people are too many to list.  

• God spoke to Adam and Eve, the first man and woman. 

• God spoke to Cain and Abel. 

• God spoke to and walked with Enoch for 365 years straight. 

• God spoke to Noah. 

• God spoke to Abraham. 

• God spoke to Isaac. 

• God spoke to Jacob. 

• God spoke to Joseph. 

• God spoke to Moses. 

• God spoke to Joshua. 

• God spoke to Samuel. 

• God spoke to Samson. 

• God spoke to Deborah. 

• God spoke to David and to Solomon. 

• God spoke to and through all His prophets. 

And on, and on, and on, and on. 

To Old Covenant believers, God was neither deaf nor dumb.  

God often identified idols as deaf and dumb, distinguishing them from Himself on that very point – that He’s a God who speaks, and He hears the cries of His people. 

For the first 4,000 years God spoke off and on with man. All God’s people knew that He was a God who speaks. 

We do know that for 400 years, between Malachi and John the Baptist, God refrained from speaking because of the relentless refusal of His own people to obey Him.  

God began to speak again through John the Baptist, then through angels, then through His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). 

At the very end of Jesus’ ministry, just one day before He was crucified, Jesus informed His disciples of the One who would come after Him, the Holy Spirit (John 14-16). Of the several things He taught concerning the coming Holy Spirit, He said that He would teach, guide, and abide with us.  

Not even in the slightest way did Jesus indicate that what He was teaching about the Spirit was something reserved only for the disciples…  

…yet, almost since the inception of the Church at Pentecost, religious men have taught that God does not speak, not even through His Holy Spirit who lives inside and walks alongside everyone who is born of Him. 

Please read the following introduction Jesus gives His disciples about the coming One, the Holy Spirit. 

In John 14:15-18, we read where Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” 

Here, we see the Holy Spirit as: 

1. The Spirit, our Helper ꟷ so He is with us for every occasion; 

1. The Spirit who abides with us forever ꟷ so He is one with us; 

1. The Spirit of truth ꟷ so He tells us only what is true; 

1. The Spirit that we know ꟷ so we have a relationship with Him; 

1. The Spirit who dwells with us ꟷ so He is ever present with us; 

1. The Spirit who is in us ꟷ so He directs us and speaks to us internally; 

1. The Spirit of Jesus who comes to us ꟷ so He is Jesus Christ with us. 

• Why and how would He be all these things to us but not speak to us?  

• Does the scripture leave any doubt about His speaking to us?  

• And since the Holy Spirit is God, how is His speaking to us different than God the Father or the Son speaking to us?  

Jesus continues to teach us about our relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

In John 14:26, Jesus tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things,” and that He will bring to the disciples “remembrance [of] all things that I said to you.”  

• Likewise, He will bring to remembrance the scriptures we’ve learned when we need to know them. 

In 15:26, Jesus says of the Holy Spirit that “He will testify of Me” (Jesus). 

In 16:7, Jesus says, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” 

In 16:8, Jesus says, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment…” 

In 16:12-15, Jesus says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” 

Jesus’ teaching is clear.  

Imagine bringing this into a court of law and a God-fearing judge ruling against the claim that surely God still speaks. It wouldn’t happen. If one truly believes what Jesus taught, he must conclude that the Holy Spirit still speaks and is indeed relaying the will of God the Father and the Son. 

And just as our Lord had said that He would, the Holy Spirit spoke to and through the apostles and to others throughout the New Testament, including James and Jude, Jesus’ younger brothers. He spoke to and through the four virgin daughters of Philip, the evangelist; otherwise, they could not have been prophets. Then He spoke to and through the prophet Agabus here, and here, who was one among several prophets here, and here. Judas and Silas were prophets also, to whom and through whom God spoke. God confirmed His desire through the Holy Spirit to the Jerusalem Council and through His Spirit spoke to and through the prophets and apostles in Antioch; on and on, New Testament examples can be given.  

There is not a single Bible reference that in the slightest way says that God does not still speak to His people, or to whomever He wants to speak. Not one. 

And there are many references which clearly show that He still speaks to His people in whom He lives. For example, I Corinthians 12 and 14 plainly teach that God operates through gifts of the Holy Spirit in His people for the edification of all, and that includes speaking to and through us. 

The teaching is undeniable. The evidence is undeniable. 

God still speaks to His people, usually by His Holy Spirit who lives and abides with us as our Helper, our Guide, our Teacher, our Revealer, our Comforter, our Wisdom, and our Counselor too! 

To Early Church believers, God was neither deaf nor dumb. 

To think that God is deaf or dumb, like those false idols made with hands that He used to make fun of for the same, is to be woefully ignorant of the truth. 

One must learn such error from religious men. It is nowhere found in the scripture, and many times to the contrary. 

When we learn to love and abide in His written word, we’ll be able to discern His voice more easily for those specific things He wants to share with us. 

Finally, a few personal examples: 

• God called me to Himself through His still small voice inside me when I was only nine years old. 

• God spoke to me by His Holy Spirit living inside me ten thousand times ten thousand times since then. He’s speaking to me right now. 

• God told me to move to Argentina and that He would use me there. I did, and He did. 

• God told me where to go and what to do after I got there and what He would do. I did, and He did. 

• God specifically told me when to go and where to go from one city to the next, and one country to the next, and what He would do. I did, and He did. 

• God gave me words of knowledge and wisdom by His Spirit for many people in the places where He sent me, and they confirmed those words. 

• God spoke to me and through me countless times to His people where He sent me. Many times He confirmed His word with signs following. 

The half has not been told. 

I missed His voice many times as well. I did not always hear correctly or respond correctly. But He did speak, and He does speak all the time. 

He will absolutely speak to you if you belong to Him, and if you seek to do His will. Abide in His word and learn how He speaks, learn what His voice sounds like. You will NOT be disappointed. 

Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” 

Disclaimers:  

• Not everyone who claims to hear and speak for God does. 

• I’ve seen many a gullible Christian who would follow someone off a cliff if they heard someone else say “God told me…”; I AM NEITHER OF THOSE! 

• One can believe God speaks and know His voice without also being Charismatic or Pentecostal. I AM NEITHER ONE! 

• I am not always right about what I think He may be saying. No one is. 

• Usually I say, and I encourage others to say, “I think, or I believe, the Holy Spirit showed me or spoke this to me.”  

• Don’t be too quick to say that you “know” God spoke such and such a thing. 

• No, you are not cursed if you misspeak concerning what you think God may have spoken to you, any more than a faithful pastor is cursed if he fails to pastor correctly, or a faithful teacher is cursed if he unknowingly teaches wrongly, or anyone else is cursed who is seeking to know Him more fully and to do His will.