Did God Say?

Having happily lived in the Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition for the entirety of my Christian experience, I am used to people saying God said to them. I don’t doubt most people’s sincerity, and they rarely say anything heretical, but I must admit it does seem like the Almighty chats a lot, and that I am clearly a dullard because it isn’t my experience that God is talking to me as much as these people say he does to them. 

Some people claim divine inspiration for almost everything because it gives them a sense of validity or importance. The Lord told me to is their way of expressing a personalized spirituality; God and them are tight. Of course, this means these people are beyond the guidance or correction afforded to them by the church community they are in.  In fact, many of these people don’t belong to a biblically oriented church community - which makes them unable to learn in a way consistent with scripture and church tradition/history. 

Having a hotline to the Holy Spirit is the domain of God’s gathered people before it is an individual possession. See Acts 13.1-3 Yes, God does speak to individuals, but it should be ratified in community, in safety, as subjective experience is subjective and, therefore dangerous to be appealed to as a final authority. Others need to be able to confirm/judge something we feel God has said. Corinthians 14.26-32. 

One of the reasons for the trend of God said to me in Western Christendom is the toxic victory of individualism – something barely known prior to the Enlightenment. We are prone to promote the cult of personalised religion – one where I and my are supreme, unlike the culture of God’s kingdom, where we matters more than me.  In some ways what we teach enables the God told me culture.

Having said this, God does speak to us – unequivocally. He speaks in His word, by the Spirit, has spoken and continues to speak in and through Christ, by the Holy Spirit in community as we listen together to God in song, scripture, preaching, and prayer. These means by which God speaks are not particularly chatty, and they are largely external to us – not products of our imaginations, desires, wishes, or fears. Our danger is always in making God captive to our needs and desires – hearing him when we are really hearing ourselves.

Is it deceptive then to say God spoke to me? Not necessarily. The fact is God does communicate with his creatures, but probably not as often as some of these people suggest, in the sense that God is constantly chatting with them. If it isn’t necessarily self-deceptive what is happening?

I offer this possibility: we all have an internal voice that can be very chatty. It is a result of normal circumstances of experience, accrued wisdom (or folly), choices made, beliefs inculcated/nurtured (conscience) and scripture and other authorities adhered to. It speaks, cajoles, weighs, and informs us in ways that can be biblically oriented, or not.  It can have a godly imprimatur and assist us in making good decisions.  In this sense we might, at a stretch, say God told us. But this is not what is being claimed when God told me is appealed to.

People who aren’t believers in Jesus Christ also have the advantage of listening to themselves speak, of being guided by an internal coach (for good or evil). And they, as we, can make choices and feel guided in so doing. It is right to weigh things up and act using your experience, internal values, etc. This is an aspect of human maturity. But to say God told you is likely a step too far unless we attribute all good things as gifts from God in the first place – in which case God told you.