Scripture Or Direct Speaking: Where Is A Deeper Relationship Found?

Last week I preached a message on what it means “to have a relationship with God.” While we hear that phrase frequently, it really is a stunning thought. My message was from Psalm 21 and it dealt primarily with how God maintains His relationship with us. What I didn’t deal with was the whole idea of communication. Communication stands at the heart of every relationship. However, this is an area of debate among Christians. How does God communicate with man in this epoch of time? Can we have a deeper relationship with God if He speaks to us directly, than if we only read His words in the scripture?

While it is a massive topic that books have been written on, I would like to add a short blog to the discussion. I take a cessationist position, believing all supernatural giving of revelation (such as tongues, prophecies, words of knowledge) has ceased. God does not speak to people in unmediated ways today. An answer is often forcefully demanded by the non-cessationist as to how a relationship with God could even exist if God does not speak to His children. Let me respond just as forcefully, and graciously, with two answers; Holy Bible and Holy Spirit. The Bible is the living Word of God that is powerful and effective. The Holy Spirit is the active agent that opens hearts to hear and love and respond to God’s authoritative, inscripturated Word. God “speaks” when the Holy Spirit enables (or illumines) the child of God to see the beauty, power, riches, and promises found in biblical truths, and how they apply to him.

I believe that you can see this dynamic at play in a prayer Paul prayed in Colossians 1:9-12 . While there are other passages that are crucial to this discussion, I believe this passage fits well into the cessationist view (which also accords with the sufficiency of Scripture) and highlights the illuminating work of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is the communication key for a relationship with God.

The starting point of Paul’s prayer is that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. We are repeatedly told in Scripture to be filled with the Word of God so that it dwells in us (Col. 3:16), abides in us (Jn. 15:7), fills our heart and life (Dt. 6:6-9), and is treasured up by us (Ps. 119:11). The prayer to be filled in such a way means God is not nearly as concerned with conveying sound-bites as He is in transforming His people. He wants to make you a wise person who skillfully applies His Word in all of life. This is what it is to be filled with the knowledge of His will. It is to handle individual situations with a full-orbed biblical worldview that can apply all the ways God thinks about an issue.

Paul qualifies this knowledge two ways. This knowledge is to be in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. What is this? This is the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. Paul prays for this same thing in Eph. 1:17-18 when he asks that they be given a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, and that the eyes of their heart may be opened to various realities. This is what the Spirit does. There is no need to communicate new truth, or give prophecies. That has already been done through the apostles and prophets. What the Spirit is doing now is giving us spiritual eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear the living Word that was written for us. He gives us wisdom to see Scriptural truth for what it is. He reveals to us the majesty already contained in God’s written word so that, as Ephesians 1:18-19 says, we hear massive hope and see glorious riches and seize upon mighty power. If the Spirit of God does not do this in you, then the will of God will not be good and acceptable and perfect in your sight (Rom. 12:2). It will be fearful, repulsive, and absurd. So the Spirit’s illuminating work is the guiding of His children into all truth, applying it to their lives, and causing it to bear fruit to the glory of Christ. This illuminating is the communication that God does with his people.

In case you think that having God speak directly to you makes for a more meaningful relationship than the Spirit illuminating the Scriptures, then consider this thought. In both ways, direct speaking and Scripture reading, people have continually disobeyed God and rejected His Word. We see this over and over again in the Israelites and in the gospels. The depth and meaningfulness of the relationship does not hinge on the type of communication, it hinges upon the condition of the heart of man. Once we are finally perfected at death or in the end times, God will speak face to face with us. But until that day, the issue isn’t primarily how God speaks, but how our hearts receive what has been said. This is why Paul’s primary concern is that when you are filled with the knowledge of his will, it is according to spiritual wisdom and understanding. If the Spirit does that, then it doesn’t matter how God spoke, only that He has spoken and it has captivated you.

So, not only do I see no evidence in Scripture that we should expect or look for unmediated, direct speaking from God, I also don’t see any need for this since our hearts wouldn’t responded differently if it did happen. As Abraham told Lazarus in Luke 16:31, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.”

Paul’s prayer goes on to describe all the wonderful effects that come from being filled in this Spirit-illumined way: walking worthy, pleasing Him, bearing fruit, increasing in the knowledge of Him, strengthened in all steadfastness and patience, and giving thanks. My prayer is that the church would move back to the sufficiency of Scripture and a reliance upon the Spirit so that all the fruits of Colossians 1:10-12 would come forth to the glory of Christ.