Thanks for your kind comments. Regarding the issue of God’s voice and discerning it, I think there are no hard and fast rules. I’m still learning about this issue myself. I understand your friend’s concern – even as a charismatic myself, I have a lot of concerns too and am generally cautious. Just because someone said God told them this or that doesn’t mean I’ll believe it. The charismatic world has seen too much abuse. The solution is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but to be open but cautious.

I think very often there are very clear cases that God has spoken through someone. On the other hand, we see a lot of people speaking in God’s name when God probably has not spoken. If I were to try and convince a skeptic that God still speaks, the first thing I’d say is that I understand where he/she is coming from because I myself know that there’s been a lot of abuse in the charismatic church. But that’s not to say it’s all bad and that God’s voice can’t be heard. On the contrary, a clear study on this issue would make one open to the fact that God still speaks today.

There are many good academic and practical books out there. The non-charismatic church would try to make us believe that there hasn’t been “prophecies”, etc., since the Apostles’ time, but there are more and more books proving that God has always spoken throughout the history of the Church and before the Pentecostal movement came about. It’s just that these incidences of God supernaturally speaking to normal Christians down the years have been dismissed or ignored by the non-charismatic Church. Jack Deere has good book on this area. For the best practical book on hearing God’s voice, see Mark Virkler’s books. Mark Virkler’s Communion with God ministry is based around hearing God’s voice. His book on hearing God is one of the best I’ve read, if not the best. Check out his website because he has a lot of good resources like here! Hope this helps.

I have read some of your posts and understand where you are coming from.

While there are many doctrinal differences and interpretations of the scriptures i the church, I challenge you to read (if you have not) Chuck Missler’s book : The Kingdom, The Power and Glory”.

Chuck runs the Koinoinia House website (www.khouse.org) and he comes across to me as a very rational (and scientific) christian but rooted in the Word. His stand on Grace is similar to many grace preachers I know, but he goes beyond grace to assert that we must stay the course to be overcomers for the future millenial kingdom of which the faithful will be appointed for a role.

He defines salvation (all by grace) as a 3 step process whereby justification is the removal from the PENALTY of sin. Sanctification from the POWER of sin and glorification, from the PRESENCE of sin.

You may find this book very intriguing as it challenges alot of the doctrines that we have been taught.

God bless.

TL

Thanks for your comment. I can’t say I’ve studied a lot on spiritual covering so I’m not the best person to comment. But my position at the moment is that the concept is not biblical and lots of abuse have resulted because of it. There are many articles on the internet that deal with this topic – for example, this one: Uncovering the Covering Doctrine.

Shalom,
Patrick