“How does God speak to us today?”

Interesting way that this lesson topic was given to me. A Facebook friend posted this today. Her two year old son “woke up from his nap and said, "Jesus talk to me", "I talk Jesus." My answer was “Wow”!. The mom then messaged me and asked what I thought about this. My answer was that I totally think that there is no reason that Jesus would quit talking to little children since he loved them and talked to them so much when he was physically on earth. Matthew writes “One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” (Matthew 19:13-14). Luke also relates this incident in Luke 18:16, “Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.”


Just for a moment let’s look at what Jesus meant by “For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.”. I believe that he means that if we don’t come to Jesus as a child, trusting in Him even though we can’t see him and don’t understand everything and “believe in Him” by FAITH we will not inherit the Kingdom of God.. This little 2 year believes that Jesus talked to Him and he talked to Jesus. Do we have this faith?

Soooo, this just “stuck” with me all day and I kept thinking about “How does God speak to us today?”Us – Hebrews 1:1-3

If you have any type of a relationship with another person – be it husband-wife, be it parent-child, be it friend-friend – how is it that you come to know that person and become closer to them? You communicate with them – you talk and express thoughts and feelings. And, very often, when the relationship breaks down, there has been a problem in communication. Communication is the primary way by which you know somebody else. You gain knowledge and become more intimate with another person through communicating with that person. Communication is an act whereby a person reveals themselves to you and you reveal yourself to them. Now, in a very real sense, knowing God isn’t much different in principle. We start with the question, “How does God speak to us?” because all of our knowledge about him, and all of our intimacy with him comes through communication with him. Communication is fundamental to any relationship – and if we are going to know God, we have to know how he communicates with us. We all have this innate desire to want to get in touch with God, know him better. We all really want God to speak to us in a very personal way. So, how is it that God speaks and communicates to us? How has God revealed himself to us?

Christian teaching says that there are two ways in which God communicates himself – two ways in which he reveals himself to us. The first way is what is called “general revelation.” “General” here means how God has communicated himself to everybody who has ever lived. And the primary way God has communicated himself generally to all people is in the creation itself. Romans 1:20 tells us that God has communicated himself to all people through the creation; people have been able to perceive God’s eternal power and divine nature simply by looking at the creation. Psalm 19 also tells us about God speaking to all people generally through the creation: “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.”

Do you see the connection between the creation and speech? If you want to know more about God, go look at the creation and hear the words of creation. So, the first way God communicates to us is through general revelation.

But, it is the second way of God communicating to us that we want to focus on. The second way Christian teaching describes God’s communication to us is “special revelation.” Whereas general revelation is God speaking to all people who have ever lived, special revelation is God speaking to his own people – first to the nation of Israel and then to Christians. God communicates to Christians not only generally in creation, but also in a special way. And here in this passage we see how God specially speaks to his people. If you want to know how God speaks to you as a Christian, here it is. “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:1-3)

This passage shows us the two primary ways that God speaks to Christians: 1) Scripture; and 2) Jesus Christ. God communicates to us, reveals himself to us, speaks to us specially in Scripture and in the person of Jesus Christ. Both the person of Jesus Christ and the 66 books of the Bible are the ways God speaks to Christians specially.

Now, very practically, what does that mean? That means if you want God to hear God speak, open up your Bible! These are the very words of God. This is God speaking specially to Christians. When we ask the question, “What is God’s will about x?” we go to the Bible because the Bible is his word. The Bible is fundamental to your relationship with God. He communicates to you through the Bible. God expresses himself through the words of scripture. That’s why, as we begin thinking through the truth about God, we need to go to the place where he has communicated himself. That is the Bible. This is why we confess that we have a high view of scripture – these are the words of God. God has revealed himself and communicated to us in the Bible.

Second, God speaks to us in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” This is not referring to only the words that Jesus spoke while here on earth. It doesn’t mean less than that – but it means much more. What does it mean then? We’ve all heard the phrase, “A picture is a thousand words.” What is that saying meant to convey? It’s meant to convey the idea that if you look at a picture of something, you see much more meaning and communication in the picture than if you were to merely speak words about whatever is in the picture. Pictures tell the whole story without words – and often, they communicate something more complete than words can communicate. And, that is getting close to what the Hebrew writer is saying here. The word “by” his Son can also be understood as “he has spoken to us in his Son.” When God wanted to communicate to us most clearly who he is, what he is like, when God decided that he wanted to completely open himself up and reveal the very heart of who he is – he didn’t communicate it in words only – he provided a picture of himself. That picture is Jesus Christ. He has spoken to us in everything that Jesus is, does, and said. The whole person of Jesus – his person and work – is the ultimate way that God has specially communicated to us. Do you see why John will describe Jesus as the “Word?” “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus is the ultimate expression and communication of who God is.” (John1:1)

Third and very important , God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. Before he left the earth, Jesus promised His followers that God would send “the helper, the Holy Spirit,” and he “will teach you everything”. (John 14:25)

He promised that they would never be left alone. He will send in his place the best of friends, the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells his disciples (and this applies to us as Believers because the Holy Spirit comes to “live in us” when we accept Christ as our Savior.) three very important things about the work of the Holy Spirit -- to convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. The original word for convince also means convict. The Holy Spirit is our Sanctifier. He makes us holy as God is holy. He does this first by convicting us of our sin and by bringing us humbly to the foot of the Cross. The Spirit convinces us of God's love and forgiveness and of our utter dependence on God for his mercy and grace. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us from the error of our sinful ways and to show us the way of love and truth. We just need to listen.

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.” (2 Peter 1:3) So why would we need anything else from God? The answer is simple: we don't! We have all we need to live a faithful life to the Lord. People need to stop wondering when God is going to tell them what to do and look at what He has told them to do through His word. When Jesus took Peter, James and John up on the mountain “a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.” (Matthew 17:5b).