GOD IS NOT WITHDRAWN AND UNCOMMUNICATIVE

"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds." (Hebrews 1:1-2)

The first two verses of the book of Hebrews tell us very loudly and plainly that, "God has spoken!" God is not silent. God is not withdrawn and uncommunicative. These verses teach us that God has spoken in two phases: before the coming of the Son of God into the world, and through the Son of God's coming into the world.

GOD SPOKE

He was not silent. God communicates. He means to connect with us. He is not an idea to be thought about. He is to be listened to and understood and enjoyed and obeyed. He speaks! There is no more important fact than this. He is a God who speaks that we might know him and love him and live in obedience to him. If we're going to know anything about God we'll learn it from what He has revealed in the Bible.

GOD SPOKE BY THE PROPHETS

This means that God's typical way of communicating with his people as a whole was by inspiring human spokesmen as go-betweens, His communication channels. Through the ages He has raised patriarchs and prophets to be His spokesmen. He would inspire them to speak and to write to the people what He wanted said. But don't miss what this text says: When God spoke to the fathers in the prophets, God spoke to the Fathers! When the fathers heard and understood the prophets, they heard God speaking. God used chosen, inspired human instruments to speak to the fathers. But it is God speaking to the fathers when the prophets speak and write. A prophet is someone who God speaks through. A prophet is the mouthpiece of God.(Deut. 18:18-22).

GOD SPOKE AT VARIOUS TIMES AND IN VARIOUS WAYS

God spoke to the fathers is referring to Old Testament believers in general. "Various times" is the Greek word polumeros, which comes from plus, meaning: "many" and meros, meaning: "parts." The idea of the word is: "many portions." "Various ways" is the Greek word polutropos, which is from plus, meaning: "many" and tropos, meaning: "manner of fashion." The idea being: "different manners or many ways."

This is where we see that God is not withdrawn and uncommunicative. This verse stresses the variety of God's communication: "God has spoken in many times or places and in many ways!" This is a great comfort and encouragement, God has spoken.

JESUS - GOD IN HUMAN FORM

When we open the pages of the New Testament and read the four-fold picture of Jesus Christ, we find that all the Old merges into one voice, the voice of the Son. The syllables and phrases by which God spoke in the Old Testament are merged into one complete discourse in Jesus Christ. Therefore, God's word to man has been fully uttered by Jesus who was God  Himself manifest in the flesh (I Tim. 3:16, Col. 2:9, John 1:14). There is nothing more to be said. Jesus Christ is God's final word to man.

Jesus was heaven's thoughts, words, principles, plans, and pattern of living made visually and verbally manifest on earth. Though the Old Testament prophets had prophesied in part, often speaking words they themselves did not fully comprehend, Jesus was more than a prophet.

THE BIBLE - GOD IN WRITTEN FORM

After Jesus ascended into heaven, the world was no longer able to see the fullness of God in the flesh. But God sent us His Spirit, and through the Holy Spirit wrote in the Bible the guidelines and standards by which He can be fully known and understood. Rightly understood in its full dimension, the Scripture is sufficient to give us knowledge of all we need to be in our time of mortality and into eternity. The Bible is the revelation of God, all the sacred writings we will ever need to do the whole will of God.

THE PROPHET - GOD'S SPOKESMAN

 

Today, through the Bible and the Holy Spirit, God desires to walk and talk with us in an individual, personal, intimate relationship. Yet not all believers understand how to recognize the voice of God. Even when they do recognize it, many do not know how to respond to it. God has set within the Body the ministry of the prophet as a special voice; He has established the gift of prophecy as His voice in the midst of the congregation; and He has sent the spirit of prophecy to give testimony of Jesus throughout the world.

PROPHECY - THE VOICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The coming of the Holy Spirit and the writing of the Bible did not eliminate the need for the prophetic voice of God; in fact it intensified that need. Peter insisted that the prophet Joel was speaking of the Church age when he proclaimed, "I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17). Paul emphasized that truth when he told the church at Corinth to "covet to prophesy" (I Cor. 14:39; Eph. 4:11).

God still wants the revelation of His will to be vocalized. So He has established the prophetic ministry as a voice of revelation and illumination which will reveal the mind of Christ. He also uses this ministry to give specific instructions to individuals concerning His personal will for their lives.

PROPHET MINISTRY - FOR ILLUMINATION, NOT ADDITION

The ministry of the prophet is not to bring about additions or subtractions to the Word of God. Any new additions accepted as infallibly inspired would be counterfeits, false documents which would contain delusions that lead to damnation. Instead, the prophet brings illumination and further specifics about that which has already been written. And the Holy Spirit's gift of prophecy through the saints is to bring edification, exhortation, and comfort to the Church (I Cor. 14:3).

PERSONAL PROPHECY BRINGS CONFIRMATION AND WITNESS

The Holy Spirit whispering the thoughts of God within a believers heart is obviously God's divine order for communication. But what the individual has sensed in his spirit must be confirmed. God's counsel is that every word needs to be witnessed to and confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses (II Cor. 13:1). This is a critical role that can be fulfilled by the prophetic voice.

Personal prophecy must never become substitute for the individual's responsibility and privilege of hearing the voice of God for himself. God is not pleased when we allow anything to hinder an intimate relationship and personal communication with Him, even if the it is from a ministry He Himself has ordained. Personal prophecy must not take the place of our duty to fast, pray, and seek God until we hear from Him ourselves!

At times, many people cannot hear, or will not take time to hear, what God want to say to them. When this is the case, God often uses the voice of the prophet to speak to individuals, congregations, and nations.