When Was The Last Time You Heard God Speak?

It saddens me when I hear Christians comment that they don't know how to tell when God is talking to them.  Far worse is when I hear a conversation between two believers and they state that they are unsure if they have ever heard God speak to them.  If you feel like you fit into one of these categories please keep reading.

I find prayer to be so important to my personal walk with Christ that I own several books that discuss prayer and how God communicates with His children.  One of those books is Hearing God: Developing A Conversational Relationship With God.  I am currently reading this book for the second time.  I would like to briefly describe how Dr. Willard explains how God communicates with us.  First off God has and I believe continues to communicate through dreams, visions, and angels.  However, I do not believe that we always know that we are entertaining angels when it happens.

   “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2, ESV)

  Also, another warning is that dreams, visions, and angels are not the norm for God communicating with His children.  Instead, Dr. Willard explains that these forms of communication are often not very clear.  Moreover, he goes on to say that God tends to use these fireworks of communication when a person is still young in their faith and/or to bring others to faith in Him.

He argues that the primary way that God communicates with His people is not through these kinds of spiritual fireworks, but instead through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer.

   “And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”” (1 Kings 19:11–13, ESV)

With that said I would like to begin a weekly conversation with you concerning how you can better hear that still small voice speak to you and know the difference between hearing God and hearing yourself.  So please leave comments and/or questions below or on my Facebook page and I will do my best to answer them with the help of scripture and a few favorite books of mine on prayer.  

Heaven Is For Real

As a pastor I get the privilege to pre-screen movies from time to time.  Recently I was given the opportunity to see "Heaven Is For Real" adapted from the book with the same title.  So a couple days before the screening I picked up a copy of the book and read it.  Before reading it I was a bit skeptical of a 4 year old boy taking a trip to heaven.  However, as I read the book I was impressed with how much scripture his dad backed up his little boy's experience with.  By the end of the book I felt encouraged, inspired, and was reminded of the importance of an eternal perspective: Especially that it is o.k. to read about and ponder what heaven will be like.

But then I went a saw the movie.  I was initially excited to see how it was going to be put on the big screen.  Than slowly my hope turned to sadness.  It began with the realization that the movie had been produced by Sony instead of a faith based movie.  Still my hopes weren't dashed as I have seen some like Fox Faith make quality faith based movies.  However, my hopes again were a little dismayed when I watched a message from the director which ended with him stating that after watching Heaven Is For Real that you would leave with the mindset that heaven is possible.  Still not enough for me to totally abandon my hopes for a great adaptation.

Then the movie began and as it continued I found myself shaking my head in disapproval several times.  The makers of the movie added drama where there was no drama to be found in the book.  This took form in both mom and dad fighting about whether or not their son Colton had gone to heaven and in the church not supporting him, even threatening to fire him.  They added a sexual innuendo teaching that it is o.k. to use sex to get your way.  There was also a mixed reaction to their daughter getting into a fight over her little broth
er with one parent praising the fight and the other despising it.  Neither of these incident were in the book.

With that said I would not recommend the movie with
the exception that you have a friend that is a unbeliever and you could look past the negative elements added to bridge a conversation about Jesus with him/her.

In the end it is not surprising to see what happened to this book.  It was much like the movie "The Vow" which was based on true story also with the same Title.  The difference is that the movie took everything about God out of the movie.

However there are two recent movies based on true stories that I can recommend to you.  They "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story" and "Amazing Grace" the story of William Wilberforce.  These movies do great justice to the source material including allowing God His rightful place in the story.

So my final recommendation is to read the books and skip the movie versions of "Heaven Is For Real" and "The Vow".   Both "Gifted Hands" and "Amazing Grace" will greatly bless you!