God has spoken

Have you ever used the phrase, “God called me to…,” “God told me to…,” “God directed me to…,” or “God said that I should…?” How do you think that those statements are interpreted by those who hear you?

Have your church leaders ever prayed, “God, help us to know and do your will?” When a decision was made, did they announce, “God has led us to this decision?” Or talk about God opening a door or closing a window?

How does God guide us or help us with our decisions? I have heard many people talk about their feelings and interpret them as God’s call to do something or to be something. But emotions and feelings are an unreliable test of the presence of the spirit of God. After all, despite the completely fictional and Christ-denying history and doctrine of the Mormon church, when you witness to them, they will reply that they don’t care if the book of Mormon is historically accurate or not, they had a burning in the bosom, so they know that Mormonism is true.

The book of Hebrews begins, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son.” In the past, in the Old Testament era, God spoke through dreams and visions, in burning bushes and with the mouth of a donkey. In the New Testament era, the “last days,” he has spoken by his son. That is a perfect tense, indicating completed action with an effect that endures into the future. We should not expect God to “speak” to us in any other place than in the Gospel. Christians ought to strive to hear the voice of God in the words of Scripture, and nowhere else.

Not every thought that occurs to us is to be interpreted as the voice of God. If I pray, God, I can’t decide what to have for breakfast, and I open the cupboard and, lo and behold, there’s a box of Cap’n Crunch, I’m not going to say “God told me to have Cap’n Crunch for breakfast.” What if that was a temptation of the devil, and God really wanted me to have a low-fat muffin? The truth of the matter is, there are many decisions in which God leaves it up to our personal liberty, and no matter what we decide, we can be sure that God has led us to it, even if he didn’t appear to us or give us a sign beforehand. (If, that is, it is truly a choice between two God-pleasing paths.)

This week, an article appeared in the British press in which a Palestinian leader, Nabil Shaath, related the following anecdote about President Bush.

Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

Abu Mazen was at the same meeting and recounts how President Bush told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state."

President Bush has denied that such a conversation ever occurred. So has Shaath's fellow Palestinian, Abbas. But that doesn’t mean that the press will pull the story from circulation. No, one more thing to make Bush look like a fool. After all, only a fool would hear the voice of God, wouldn’t he? And when you’re the most powerful man in the world, how dangerous to lead the world into war at the behest of the voice in your head! Here's a sampling of such thought, if you can take it.

I have no doubt that the President is a man of faith and a man of prayer. I believe he prays for God’s strength, but that he makes decisions based on what is right and wrong and in the best interest of the nation and for the good of his fellow man, no matter what race and no matter whether they are hurricane victims in the US or earthquake victims in Pakistan. I believe that he is convinced that, like Esther, God has brought him to his position “for such a time as this.” I do not believe that those things equate to a crazy man listening to voices in his head.

Much better and profitable for “growing in grace” is to study and know well the message of God in the Bible. Here God speaks clearly and unambiguously. Too much falsehood has entered the Christian church via those who went beyond Scripture, adding their own feelings as a guide. This is what our year’s annual theme verse means, when you see it in context:

“(Paul’s) letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”