Does God still speak today?

Does God still speak today?

I post these social media interactions because they are a great source of Q&A. It also helps arm us believers with how unbelievers, or even uneducated babes in Christ, think or reason out spiritual matters.

SOCIAL MEDIA QUESTION:

• Tell me this…how come God no longer speaks to man and no longer manifest himself. I know many claims God speaks or have spoken to them but realistically the person speaking is your inner thoughts. It’s always humans making claims for God not God himself. You’d think an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-present god would make his presence known to the world and not in visions and dreams of charlatans. The world is in crises all over. He is needed more than ever. Where is Christ in all of crises?

MY REPLY:

The bible tells us why. I’ll explain it in summary. It all has to do with a God’s overall plan to restore heaven and earth to its former glory under Christ.

In the past, under the dispensation of prophecy, God showed Himself to Israel by mighty miracles. This dispensation is earthly as its end is to redeem an earthly people to restore the earth, thus God shows Himself by mighty physical works. He made a covenant with Israel that He would prove Himself with signs and wonders, Ex.34:10. So, all through the bible, up until Paul, God did signs and wonders by His prophets and apostles so that the nations can recognize Israel as His chosen people and see the hand of God upon them and get saved. But, because Israel did not believe in their Messiah, God put them aside, and through Paul, He turned to the Gentiles under a completely new dispensation, the dispensation of mystery. 

Thus, you and I today are in a dispensation of mystery, Rom.16:25-26, which operates under different stipulations; not by God’s mighty works through Israel, but by faith through His written Word and in the heart of man, 2Cor.5:7. In this dispensation, God has provided us His written Word and it is our duty and privilege to study it and apply it in our lives. We need to believe God’s message given through Paul, 1Cor.14:37, the words of God for us and trust that God is saving us and readying us for a heavenly purpose.

Where God operated in the physical realm through might works to Israel, today, God works through faith in the heart of man. The dispensation we are in is one of faith, not sight. God requires us to believe that He exists and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Once this dispensation ends, God will again show Himself in the physical realm as He will resume with the prophetic dispensation for Israel to fulfil all prophecy. The time of the tribulation and the subsequent Millennial Kingdom will be a time when God is back on earth and reigning in great power and glory. But, up until these days come, you and I need to believe God in our heart and diligently study His word and wait for Him to take us home.

This is highly condensed, but I trust it provides a basic outline to answer your question why God appears to be silent in the world today. I pray that you will pick up a bible and start to read it to confirm this for yourself. Only God can convict you of truth, but it starts by reading His words.

ADDITIANL SHORT QUESTIONS (AND ANSWERS):

• Dispensation of mystery…. sounds like God is an invisible and imaginary trickster.

Dear reader, it is necessary that you read the Bible to learn what it says before one makes uneducated remarks. Let's have a look at what Paul says here,

Rom.16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

Mystery simply means that God did not reveal it in prophecy. The first time the secret dispensation was exposed to man was when God used Paul to reveal it. There are 20 entries in Paul's epistles that speak of the mystery doctrine. I encourage you to search them out and read them so that we may have a more edifying communication.

• Who is to say this period of dispensation will not last for another 2000 years or more?

We do not know the day and hour, but there is a LOT more prophecy that speaks of the “day of the Lord” and the end times. By studying the Bible, we can plot a timeline of God’s dispensations and clearly see a pattern in how God is executing His plan. Also, in prophecy, we can see that this dispensation is nearing its end because of an alignment and convergence of events that are foreshadowing these prophetic utterances.

• If another 2000 years elapse what good is your piety?

Even if that is so, my ‘piety’ is not my own. The Bible tells us that when we trust in the gospel of Christ, we are sealed into Christ and saved eternally. Our salvation is eternal because we are imputed the righteousness of Christ. As for piety and good works, we cannot do these ourselves. All our righteousness is filthy rags before God, Isaiah 64:6. What God expects of us is to grow up, or increase in knowledge of His Word, to gain understanding in His will, His ways, His judgements. As the Word renews us and influences us, we start to live and walk by His spirit, and the works that come from this are God's good works. It is God which works in me both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Even if millions of years go by after I die, when I am judged of God, he will see the Word of God engrafted in my heart and the eternal works of His Son accounted to me, not my own pitiful works of vanity. It is these works that are rewarded in God's time.

2Cor.4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

• When will God deliver the world a message directly and not thru human?

Tou do not want to be asking this if you are not filled with Christ. The next time God delivers a message will be judgement upon Israel and the world. The day of the Lord will be a day of great vengeance and terror, of darkness and gloom. God’s righteous judgement will be upon all men who rejected the gospel of Christ and who scorned at His cross. I do not wish this day even upon my enemies. This day is at hand based on God’s timeline and the events happening in the world today.

• Rather many are walking away from religion and church doors are closing.

I agree. There is great apostacy in the world and sad to say, but many are being deceived into lies and even believers who are not knowledgeable in the truth of the written Word are falling away. But we must realize that our relationship with God is not dependent on either religion or church buildings. Christianity survives and thrives in times of hardship and is dependent on our love for God and our love for our brothers. Weakening religion and empty churches are indicators of deception, not indicators of the welfare of the Body of Christ.

I pray that you will come to know the Creator of the universe by the gospel of Christ. As Paul says,

Phil.3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,