If you claim God is speaking to you, you’d better be right
Does God speak to us? Most people would say yes. Even though very few people actually hear an audible, heavenly voice, we recognize that God speaks to us in other ways. We have the Bible, which we call the word of God. We also spend time in prayer to communicate with God, and it’s hard to imagine that’s a one-way street. We want to hear from God as well as speak to him. And I think most of us would affirm that even though God doesn’t audibly speak to us as we spend time with him, he communicates with us in some way, possibly by directing and guiding our thoughts to understand what he wants us to know.
So, with that in mind, I will sometimes hear people say, “God said to me…” or, “God told me…” Usually what follows is not some earth-shattering divine revelation, but something innocuous like “God told me to trust him on this” or “God told me to talk to that person” or “God told me not to eat meat.” But not infrequently, it’s something more specific, even prophetic: “God told me to go ahead and buy this house [I can’t afford], because he’d provide.” Or even, “God told me that you need to buy that house.”
It has always struck me that there’s something a bit off about that. Someone who says what they claim God told them is claiming that those words are, well, the words of God. And there’s only one certified word of God: The Bible. The Bible specifically declares that it’s inspired by God, and allows no other word or document that same guarantee. It’s not that God doesn’t speak to people today, but if you claim that your words are also from God, or that God told you something, you’re putting those words on a level with the Bible. If you claim that God told you something is going to happen a certain way, you’re taking on the role of a prophet. Attaching God’s name to your words is a big deal. It’s a very bold claim.
But such claims are common nowadays, from both laypeople and pastors in the pulpit. People put words in God’s mouth. It shows up in modern Christian literature as well. The famous book The Shack puts words in God’s mouth from cover to cover, not as a literary device to enhance a fictional story, but in a fictionalized attempt to explain very complicated theology. The popular devotional Jesus Calling is described by its publisher this way: “After many years of writing her own words in her prayer journal, missionary Sarah Young decided to be more attentive to the Savior’s voice and begin listening for what He was saying…In these powerful pages are the words Jesus lovingly laid on her heart.” The book then proceeds to speak for God in the first person, something that even the New Testament writers rarely dared to do unless they were quoting Scripture.
But is William P. Young sure that God would say that? Is Sarah Young sure that’s what Jesus is saying to her and asking her to communicate with others? Because if they’re wrong, then they’ve presumed to speak for God — or at least portray God as speaking — when he was not speaking. In ancient Israel they called such people false prophets. The third of the famous Ten Commandments says, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” That is, we cannot treat God’s name carelessly, or without due reverence. To do otherwise is blasphemy. And what could treat God’s name with less reverence than to try to appropriate his name to elevate our own words to divine status?
I don’t deny that God speaks to people today. I’ve never heard an audible voice from God, but I have heard from people who did, and I’ve got no reason to disbelieve them. But if we’re going to claim that God has spoken to us, we’d better be sure, because if we’re wrong, then we risk misrepresenting, even slandering, the holiest and greatest being in existence. And even if we’re right, when we say “God told me,” we still encourage others to view our words on a level with God’s. If these (unrelated) Youngs are wrong about anything God said — if William P. has misrepresented the Trinity or the character of God, or if Sarah has misrepresented the message of God — then they’ve falsely spoken for God and misappropriated his name.
Truly, I don’t think the solution to this problem is that complicated. I think if we just qualify such claims with “I think God told me,” or, “I feel God said to me,” then I think we avoid this problem, because then it’s clear that it’s our interpretation which may be wrong, as opposed to God’s words which are never wrong. Personally, I do this myself, even when I’m pretty certain God has communicated with me. I feel that I’ve been called to ministry, and I’ve spent three years as a youth minister. I’m pretty confident God has called me to it. But I could be wrong, and I don’t want to attribute to God something he didn’t do.
Likewise, if someone claims to have a word from God, we should always follow the principle Paul laid out in 1 Corinthians 14:29 for when prophets speak: “and the others should weigh carefully what is said.” Any claim that a message is from God should be scrutinized heavily, because, again, that claim puts whatever pronouncement follows on a level with Scripture itself. It must agree entirely with Scripture, add nothing and take nothing away (in the spirit of Rev 22:18-19). It must also be factually true. And if it’s a prediction of a future event, it must happen as predicted — all to even allow the possibility that the word is from God.
Speaking words from God is something that should be treated with the utmost care and fear. Words from God are powerful, fully reliable, mightily effective, and absolute prescriptions for how we ought to live and think. Not many people, I think, receive that privilege of communicating his words, unless they are the words already in the Scriptures. We ought to have enough reverence for God’s name that we don’t presume to speak for him unless we are 100% certain we’ve heard from him.
