In response to my last post on the Holy Spirit and listening to God’s voice, a reader and commenter, Josh, wrote:
But there’s a difference between obeying the Word of God and living what it says and claiming that you get personal guidance from God outside of reading his Word.
He also wrote this:
I don’t have to seek God’s will in the air bro. because its all written down in The Book. Thats about as personal as it gets. You want to “know and do God’s will”? Open up His Word and read it. It’s all laid out for you.
Dorcas Hawker added in: “Therefore, the Spirit’s role is to point us to Jesus and Jesus’ word,” after quoting from John 16. I will tell you that Josh’s comments at best confuse me. I believe wholeheartedly in God’s Word and its sufficiency, but I also believe that God speaks to me personally. He will never contradict His word, and His personal word to me will never be the same as the written revelation, but it is His voice for me nonetheless and I can test it against His written word and the Holy Spirit who lives in me.
Here’s what I really don’t understand, if the Holy Spirit does nothing but point us to the Word and we need nothing but the Word, then why do we listen to preaching? What do preachers do? Shouldn’t they just read the Word and say nothing else?
Why would we need to pray?
And, how are we supposed to live by the Spirit or be filled with the Spirit?
Does it just mean that we should be great students of His Word and memorize as much of it as possible and that by so doing we are filled with the Spirit?
Does that mean that great faith and great Christianity is reserved for those who are more intelligent than others and who can better understand the letter of the Word?
And, does this mean that I and millions of others who believe that God speaks to them on a personal level are deceived? Whose voice are we hearing? If we are deceived would those who would argue what Josh has presented say we are not believers?