Silas
Beloved of All
Your desire to hear the Lord clearly for yourself, your family, your children, your friends, your leaders, your church and those who partner with you in prayer and ministry is a good and biblical desire. God is a speaking God and He has not stopped speaking to His people.
Scripture shows that He has spoken in many ways. He has spoken through dreams, as He did with Joseph when He warned him to protect the child Jesus, and with others like the wise men, and even with those outside the covenant like Abimelech and Pharaoh. He has spoken through visions, both by day and by night, as with Daniel and Ezekiel and Paul. He speaks through His Word, through the faithful preaching of that Word, through godly counsel according to Proverbs 11:14, through divine appointments, and through the quiet leading of the Holy Spirit as Romans 8:14 describes, and through the Shepherd's voice that His sheep recognize according to John 10:27. At times He has even used signs in the heavens as He did with the star that guided the wise men, and He certainly speaks powerfully through creation itself, in thunder and in quiet beauty, for the voice of the Lord is powerful and full of majesty.
At the same time, Scripture keeps the Word of God in the central place. Isaiah 8:20 calls us to the law and to the testimony, and the Bible itself is God's revelation of Himself to us. His final and fullest revelation came in the person of Jesus Christ, who showed us the Father's love, mercy and willingness to forgive and to give eternal life. That is why every dream, vision, impression or word of counsel must be tested by what is written. Not every dream is from God. The prophets warned that some speak a vision out of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord, and God called such dreams chaff. Chaff cannot nourish. If we try to live on excitement and spiritual phenomena alone we will not grow. People who chase only the spectacular often remain spiritually immature.
This does not mean God cannot still speak through a dream or vision today. The promise in Joel 2 and repeated in Acts 2 is that in the last days God would pour out His Spirit and sons and daughters would prophesy and young men would see visions and old men would dream dreams. There is a view that these gifts ceased when the Scriptures were completed, but Scripture itself holds the door open for God to use these means as He wills. We should remain open and humble, willing to hear, and not demand that God speak only in a loud or dramatic way. Often we expect an overwhelming audible voice, but God frequently speaks in gentle and natural ways that we might miss if our hearts are not attentive. We need to listen carefully, to be open to His voice however He chooses to speak, and to seek understanding with humility.
When God does give a dream or vision, it often requires interpretation, as it did with Joseph and Daniel, and that interpretation belongs to God. Joseph was careful to say it was not in him but God who would give the answer. That humility is a model for us. We also learn to look back and see God's hand. There are seasons in valleys where we cannot see far, and then there are high points where we can look back and recognize how the Lord was protecting, keeping and guiding us even when we did not realize it.
We join you in prayer for what you have asked. We ask the Father to keep you, your household, your churches, your pastors and your leaders from temptation, from deception, from fear and from the evil one, as Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:13 and John 17:15, and to guard you from lies and from the confusion of the world described in 1 John 2. We pray that as you bring your requests to Him with thanksgiving, you will know the peace that passes all understanding promised in Philippians 4:6 and 7. We thank Him that Jesus ever lives to intercede for those who come to God through Him according to Hebrews 7:25, that nothing is impossible with God as Luke 1:37 declares, that His purposes cannot be thwarted as Job 42:2 confesses, and that the light of Christ is stronger than darkness according to John 1:5.
May the Lord make His will clear to you through His Word first and foremost, and confirm it by His Spirit, by wise counsel and by any other means He chooses, all in agreement with Scripture, and may He keep your hearts anchored in Christ who is faithful and true.
Scripture shows that He has spoken in many ways. He has spoken through dreams, as He did with Joseph when He warned him to protect the child Jesus, and with others like the wise men, and even with those outside the covenant like Abimelech and Pharaoh. He has spoken through visions, both by day and by night, as with Daniel and Ezekiel and Paul. He speaks through His Word, through the faithful preaching of that Word, through godly counsel according to Proverbs 11:14, through divine appointments, and through the quiet leading of the Holy Spirit as Romans 8:14 describes, and through the Shepherd's voice that His sheep recognize according to John 10:27. At times He has even used signs in the heavens as He did with the star that guided the wise men, and He certainly speaks powerfully through creation itself, in thunder and in quiet beauty, for the voice of the Lord is powerful and full of majesty.
At the same time, Scripture keeps the Word of God in the central place. Isaiah 8:20 calls us to the law and to the testimony, and the Bible itself is God's revelation of Himself to us. His final and fullest revelation came in the person of Jesus Christ, who showed us the Father's love, mercy and willingness to forgive and to give eternal life. That is why every dream, vision, impression or word of counsel must be tested by what is written. Not every dream is from God. The prophets warned that some speak a vision out of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord, and God called such dreams chaff. Chaff cannot nourish. If we try to live on excitement and spiritual phenomena alone we will not grow. People who chase only the spectacular often remain spiritually immature.
This does not mean God cannot still speak through a dream or vision today. The promise in Joel 2 and repeated in Acts 2 is that in the last days God would pour out His Spirit and sons and daughters would prophesy and young men would see visions and old men would dream dreams. There is a view that these gifts ceased when the Scriptures were completed, but Scripture itself holds the door open for God to use these means as He wills. We should remain open and humble, willing to hear, and not demand that God speak only in a loud or dramatic way. Often we expect an overwhelming audible voice, but God frequently speaks in gentle and natural ways that we might miss if our hearts are not attentive. We need to listen carefully, to be open to His voice however He chooses to speak, and to seek understanding with humility.
When God does give a dream or vision, it often requires interpretation, as it did with Joseph and Daniel, and that interpretation belongs to God. Joseph was careful to say it was not in him but God who would give the answer. That humility is a model for us. We also learn to look back and see God's hand. There are seasons in valleys where we cannot see far, and then there are high points where we can look back and recognize how the Lord was protecting, keeping and guiding us even when we did not realize it.
We join you in prayer for what you have asked. We ask the Father to keep you, your household, your churches, your pastors and your leaders from temptation, from deception, from fear and from the evil one, as Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:13 and John 17:15, and to guard you from lies and from the confusion of the world described in 1 John 2. We pray that as you bring your requests to Him with thanksgiving, you will know the peace that passes all understanding promised in Philippians 4:6 and 7. We thank Him that Jesus ever lives to intercede for those who come to God through Him according to Hebrews 7:25, that nothing is impossible with God as Luke 1:37 declares, that His purposes cannot be thwarted as Job 42:2 confesses, and that the light of Christ is stronger than darkness according to John 1:5.
May the Lord make His will clear to you through His Word first and foremost, and confirm it by His Spirit, by wise counsel and by any other means He chooses, all in agreement with Scripture, and may He keep your hearts anchored in Christ who is faithful and true.
