Listening for God—or Listening to Ourselves?
By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS: The passage rejects the idea that Christians receive personal “whispers” from the Holy Spirit. Criticizing popular Christian women authors, it argues that God’s revelation is complete in Scripture and that believers should seek guidance through prayer, biblical wisdom, and spiritual discipline rather than subjective impressions or inner messages.
Doing a scan of Twitter of the liberal women you will find a plethora of references to listening to the Holy Spirit’s whisper. And of course these liberal ladies have all sorts of advice on how to catch that breezy whisper so that you can hear it and obey it.
This lady says we have to be still to hear it.
Oh, no! I might miss it!
Ann Voskamp is kind of gross about the whisper madness.
Just…ew. That gal got some fetishes for sure.
Beth Moore wrote some years ago,
So Jesus tells us ‘now’. Now what, I’m not sure. But we must stay close because He might say it. And according to Moore, it’s better if He only has to whisper.
Lysa TerKeurst gives advice on how to make prayers powerful,
I thought what made our prayers powerful was because of the One to whom we are praying…But Caine says power comes by our listening for His reply, which makes the power emanate from us. I’ll just take my Bible, thank you.
So, IS the Holy Spirit whispering to us? Must we sit, or be still, or listen hard, or stay close, or press scars, or DO any other particular thing in order to receive this revelation all the other women seem to be receiving?
No.
First, the Spirit is now whispering to you. Ladies, you can relax from worry that you’re not doing something particular to tune in to the frequency that you fear you’re missing. There is no frequency that only a select few know and has to be tuned in just right. Remember those finicky rabbit ears before cable? With tin foil on the tips for that extra boost? It’s not like that. The reason the Spirit is not whispering things to you is that the revelation from Jesus Christ about Jesus Christ is complete.
Gary Friesen wrote in his book Decision-Making and the Will of God,
Question: God’s sovereign will seems so cold and impersonal to me.
The implied question seems to be, “If the decisions of my life are determined by some eternal plan I cannot know in advance, in what sense is God personally involved in guiding my life?”
For now, the short answer. Some people mistakenly equate God’s sovereign will with something akin to fate. That would be impersonal. But if you factor in a loving God dynamically “working all things together for good,” then it is very personal. That is what the Bible teaches. The traditional view may feel better to some because they imagine God whispering directions for their decisions. But it is better (and more reliable) to learn to recognize His involvement in our lives in the ways He has told us He is guiding us through His moral and sovereign wills.
In other words, if you want to do something and it isn’t sinful or illegal, then just do it. God works it all out. Do your diligences such as praying, repenting/confessing, attending church, reading the Bible…these normal spiritual disciplines will take you far. Whereas listening (in vain) for direct revelation will lead you down a thorny path or worse.
Rather than trying to hear a (non-existent whisper), Friesen advises to use wisdom gained from the Bible on your walk with God, and decide in wisdom:
The wisdom view better corresponds to reality. It recognizes that wisdom is gained progressively. God has not promised to whisper perfect plans or omniscience into the mind of any believer who asks. Accordingly, the apostles counseled that when a decision is required, those who are “full of…wisdom” (Acts 6:3) and “prudent” (1 Timothy 3:2) will do the best job. The church has not been told to choose as leaders those who are best at picking up and decoding inner impressions, but those who are mature and wise (1 Corinthians 6:5).
Phil Johnson has spoken several times about impressions and nudges. Here is one of those times he explains, from the Shepherds Conference 2002, “Super Seminar: Private Revelations” said-
Now, does the Spirit of God ever move our hearts and impress us with specific duties or callings? Certainly. But, even in doing that, He works through the Word of God. Experiences like this, impressions and all, are not in any sense prophetic or authoritative except as they echo what the Word already says. They are not revelation. Those sensations, those impressions, those feelings you get are not revelation, but they are the effect of illumination. When the Holy Spirit applies the Word to our hearts, and opens our spiritual eyes to His truth. And, we need to guard carefully against allowing our experiences and our own subjective thoughts and imaginations to eclipse the authority and the certainty of the more sure Word of God. This is a very practical application of the principle of Sola Scriptura. Think about this…to what ever degree you seek private messages from God outside His Word, you have abandoned the principle of Sola Scriptura.
Ladies, stay diligent in prayer, reading the word, thinking on things that are noble; all the things the scripture tells us will bring us along on our walk. Waiting for whispers, interpreting whispers, or teaching whispers is vanity itself.
