The View From Here - When someone shares a testimony...

When we hear a testimony, how do we respond? How should we? Do we, in the words of Romans 12:15, "rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep?" Do we let the Holy Spirit encourage us and even convict us? (We need both!) Do we sometimes feel a bit envious, wishing that God would move in our lives the way He did in the life of the person who shared? Do we ever find ourselves judging their theology, even discounting or rejecting the testimony completely (not because it's heresy, which should be rejected!) but because their spiritual experiences don't mirror ours or we don't share the same exact interpretation or understanding of some non-essential debatable matter? (see Romans 14) Let's look at some scriptures that lay some groundwork for us on how we should respond to a Christian brother's testimony and how we should how we should think about our own.

When somebody says, “The Lord told me….”, or “I heard the Lord saying…”, or “I felt the Lord leading me to ... or showing me...,” it raises red flags for many people. Depending on your faith background, (if any), doctrinal stance or personal experiences, phrases like that might make you uncomfortable. It might make you jealous, wondering why God never seems to speak to you like that; it might make you question the speaker’s orthodoxy … or even their sanity!

First of all, we all need to acknowledge that as humans we all have a tendency to fashion our theology around our experience. In other words, we assume how God moved (or didn’t move) in my life must be the way he always moves! Of course, that’s not the case. In fact, the Bible shows over and over that our immutable never-changing God who is the same yesterday, today and forever- our God who never alters his perfect nature, character or attributes - often chooses to do things differently using differing methodologies to accomplish His fixed purposes. For example, look at the many different ways Jesus, who always did what he saw the Father doing and always said what he heard the Father saying, chose to employ when He healed the sick or drove out demons, sometimes speaking a word, sometimes touching with his hands, once even spitting on the ground and making mud! God’s purpose (setting captives free from bondage) never changed, but the ways He accomplished it were so varied that it necessitated constant direction from above and constant obedience from below! The Lord taught his disciples with his words and with his example to constantly be seeking God for fresh guidance. We should be very careful not to "throw out the baby with the bath water" when we harshly judge someone's personal experiences. At the same time, we need to be just as careful to not let any experience take precedent over the perfect, eternal standard of scripture.

Since God is never wrong and God can not lie, God’s Spirit will never contradict Himself.

(1John 2:27) We can be assured that the Spirit will never speak a word to one of his children now that is opposition to what he has already spoken in the past to all of his children in His authoritative God-breathed word, the Bible. (2 Tim 3:16-17) I’ve had people tell me that the Lord was speaking to them, impressing on them that a certain behavior that God has plainly marked as sin in scripture, was “ok” for them to engage in. That voice is not the Lord's. (James 1:13) On the other hand, we read in scripture of many times when Christ-followers needed, asked for, heard and received specific direction from the Spirit in answer to specific time-sensitive questions, such as: “Must gentile believers be required to keep the Jewish law?”, “Who should we appoint as deacons, elders or missionaries?” “Where is the next place we should go to spread the gospel?” Often, God gave answers to specific questions, or direction and revelation about what would take place in the future, or ways to deal with a dangerous or immediate situation in the present. In some cases, the answers the Lord gave and the process by which the answers came are recorded in scripture for us to study and apply. Other times, what is preserved for us in the biblical record is the simple fact that the Spirit’s directions had been given and were to be followed. It’s abundantly clear from scripture that God speaks to his children. Jesus said that his sheep listen to, know and follow his voice! (John 10:3-17)

How can a believer hear and know the voice of the Lord? To hear and know His voice we need to know what He has said in scripture. Jesus told his disciples that one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to “guide you into all truth.” The Holy Spirit is the believer’s teacher who, like Jesus when he was on the earth, will not speak on his own, but rather only speak the words of the Father. (John 16:13) The Spirit teaches us all things and brings to remembrance what Jesus has said. (John 14:26) If you are a Christian, you have already unquestionably heard the Holy Spirit speak to you! Jesus said that no one can come to faith unless first the Spirit of God “draws” them. (John 6:44) How does the Spirit draw us? He convicts us of sin and righteousness and judgement to come! (John 16:8-11) If you’ve been born again, there was a time when God’s Spirit spoke to your heart, convinced you of the truth of the gospel, convicted you of your own sin and need for a savior, filled you with godly sorrow over your sin, and led you to repentance, pointing you to Christ’s available love and forgiveness. Every Christian has heard his voice and every Christian has the Spirit of God living in them! (Rom. 8:9) After you were saved, you heard his voice again, His Spirit testifying to your now-alive spirit that the salvation work has been done and you are now God’s child! (Rom. 8:14-17)

Learning to recognize and obey the voice of the Lord is a matter of practice. The more familiar we are with his word, the more familiar we will be with his voice and the quicker we are to respond in obedience, the more often He will give us timely direction. When we come to faith in Christ, we are made spiritual alive and God’s Spirit within us gives the ability to “spiritually discern” – to recognize God’s voice among other competing voices that are constantly blaring from our own human flesh, the world and the devil. (1 Cor. 2:10-16) God can, and sometimes does, speak in a way we hear physically with our ears like little Samuel did as a boy in the temple, (1 Sam. 3:1-21) but most often God speaks to our heart and we “hear” His voice as a thought in our mind or an impression in our emotions, like we did when the Spirit convicted us and drew us to Himself. It’s important to remember though, that other opposing voices “speak” to our minds as well. For example, when a temptation comes, it comes to our mind. Likewise, discouragements or condemnations will flood in as thoughts coupled with emotions. These opposing voices are the ones that Paul tells us to “take captive to the obedience of Christ” – ideas, thoughts, imaginations and pretentions that are in opposition to the knowledge of God. (2 Cor. 10:3-6) We need to know what God has said in His word so we can recognize both the voice of the Lord and the opposing voices too! We “test the spirits,” discerning their voices and evaluating their direction by measuring them against God’s word. (1 John 4:1-3)

Does what I perceive as the leading of the Spirit in a particular instance line up with God’s already revealed purposes? If I were to move in faith and obey that leading, would it glorify God? Would it accurately reflect his character? Would it show the world God’s heart and help lead people to faith in Christ? Would it help make known and expand his Kingdom? Hearing and discerning God’s voice is both a spiritual gift given by grace and at the same time, a spiritual skill that can be honed and disciplined, practiced and improved by faith.

I think one of the saddest things that I hear from many sincere Christians, is the faulty belief that their Heavenly Father will not speak to them or that if He ever did, they could not hear His voice. God wants to communicate and convey the transformational truth of his love to his children. He desires relationship! It was the purpose of creation! Over and over, in the Old Testament and the New, He foretold and then revealed and executed His plan to redeem us and complete an epic rescue that would enable “the Lord to be our God and us to be His people.” He sent his only Son to die and rise again to accomplish this bold restoration of relationship. It is inconceivable that, having gone to such great lengths, God would then choose not to communicate with the very ones He rescued nor participate in the relationship that cost Him so much to regain, restore and reestablish!

Since relationship and communication are so highly valued by God and bring the Father what He greatly desires, Satan wants to block it at every turn. The devil uses all the tools at his disposal to keep as many people as he can from coming to Christ and when someone does come to faith, the enemy tries to keep them from believing they can hear God’s voice.

Many years ago, I owned a book entitled something like, “How to Hear and Know the Voice of God.” It was stored away in a box, on top of a pile of other books, shoved in the attic and left to lay there undisturbed for several years. When the time finally came that the box was pulled from the attic, I was shocked to see a fairly large snakeskin lying up on top of the book! It’s a shock to know that a big snake has been hanging around in your attic! But it was also a shock for me to see something that I considered to be a graphic illustration of a spiritual principle: the snake’s shed skin had rotted away and left an indelible stain on the book’s cover making it almost impossible to see the title. Here was a clear picture of the serpent’s work! The devil is doing whatever he can to keep believers from finding out or believing that they truly CAN hear and know the voice of their Good Shepherd!

The Lord speaks to his people! Expect it!

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Next up: More thoughts on discerning God's voice and how God uses our testimonies to help each other and to defeat the enemy.