Friday, February 14, 2014

God Still Speaks


The Richard Blackaby article I posted on Wednesday got me thinking and reading more on this subject.  The following article by Jack Hayford is one that he has used numerous times in various publications.  I find his list of the seven ways through which God speaks to be helpful. . . .

Through the years I have learned to respect Pastor Jack Hayford, author of the acclaimed worship song Majesty.  Internationally recognized as a shepherd of shepherds in the Body of Christ, the Lord has used Pastor Jack profoundly in this generation.  I first heard him in person in 1995 at an Atlanta Promise Keepers gathering.  Teaching from Exodus 3, he asked every man in the Georgia Dome to take off his shoes and get on his knees.  It was quite a holy moment in my memory.

Though I don't agree with all of Hayford's theological bents (nor would he agree with all of mine - but we can love and respect each other as brothers in the Lord), I respect him as a man of the Word, of prayer, and a man committed to walking closely with God.  Hayford through the years has challenged believers to prepare themselves to learn to listen to the voice of the Spirit, and he takes issue with those in Christ's Body who don't like the idea of the Lord speaking today or the Spirit leading His people.  In his book on spiritual disciplines, Living the Spirit-Formed Life, he includes "Committed to Hearing God's Voice" as the first discipline.

The following article, "God Still Speaks," appeared in Ministry Today.  The basic content has been used in several of Hayford's publications and sermons.

"Some say God speaks only through the Bible. But an honest look at Scripture reveals many ways God has chosen to communicate to His children.

Pardon my bluntness, but I'm really getting tired of hearing respected evangelicals attack anyone who says, "The Lord spoke to me." A growing body of verbiage today debunks the idea that God speaks personally to people any more. Although there is value in warning against kooks, I'm disturbed. These attacks seek to ban a biblical, privileged expectation of the redeemed and also level wholesale assaults on anyone who claims a word from the Lord or that God spoke to them in the privacy of their own walk with Him.

Let me shout it: Yes, God's Word is absolute authority! I don't know any spiritually alive or reasonably alert Christian--charismatic or not--who ever thinks otherwise. Whatever demographic studies may regrettably report of "Christians" who live according to their own subjective or relativistic values, they don't represent me, and I doubt they represent you."

Read the entire article by Pastor Jack Hayford here.

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