Discerning God's Speaking

(Overcomer Wu)

“For God may speak in one way, or in another, Yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, When deep sleep falls upon men, While slumbering on their beds.” -- Job 33:14-15

Dissociation is a phenomenon of the mental state in which someone inhabits two worlds simultaneously. Many of us frequently experience this in its mildest form when we are driving for an extended period of time, especially on a long stretch of freeway: we can easily start zoning out and we miss our exit, traveling many miles before we even realize it. As Christians, we sometimes suffer from spiritual dissociation in that fail to realize that the Lord is speaking to us. Job 33:14 says, "God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not." Sometimes this is simply the result of spiritual immaturity, but often it indicates a perilous state of spiritual indifference... i.e. indifference to the Word of God. The priest and prophet Samuel failed to discern God's voice several times when he thought it was Eli calling him. And 1 Samuel 3:1 identified the problem: "...the Word of the Lord was RARE in those days; there was no open vision."

The problem was clearly the lack of the Word of God which enables Him to speak to us in a more definite and specific terms. There is surely a need to listen to the Lord's speaking to us through our spirit; however, if we are devoid of the word of God (the written Word), the Lord will be severely limited in being able to speak to us in a specific and concrete manner that we can understand.

It is tantamount to one speaking to us in a foreign language that we have not learn. In a manner of speaking, the Lord is not lacking in His speaking to us. What is lacking is His Word indwelling us. It is like trying to speak Chinese to a person who only understands a few vocabularies in Chinese. You can speak until your mouth is dry and he cannot perceive hardly anything that you're trying to convey to him. Your speaking is as good as falling on deaf ears. The Word of God is similar to the language we need to learn in order to understand His speaking within us. This is why Psalms 119:130 tells us that the entrance of the Word of God gives us light. One of the significance of this sentence is that the Word of God gives us the light which enables us to understand God's speaking to us. This accurate interpretation is confirmed by the following clause on the same verse, "it GIVES UNDERSTANDING to the simple." Phrasing it succinctly: the written Word of God enables us to understand the instant Word of God (through His speaking to us in our spirit).

How then are we to put this into practice? By letting the written Word of God dwell in us richly. This too is affirmed in the context of the verse we just quoted; for in verse 129 of Psalm 119, the psalmist said, "Your testimonies (referring to the Word of God); therefore doth my soul keep them." In fact, we are even commanded in the New Testament to let the Word of God dwell in us richly -- Colossians 3:16. Yes, commanded because the tense used there is in the imperative tense.

If we persist in a state of spiritual indifference to the Word of God, we also run the risk of becoming like the man who hardens his neck after much reproof and is suddenly broken beyond remedy. (Prov 29:1) In order to prevent this from happening, the Lord might even penetrate our slumber and open our ears in a dream or vision of the night (Job 33:15-16). Indeed the Lord may still speak to some in a vision, but that is the last resort if we do not have the Word of God abiding in us.

The sign of maturity is a transformation in our life from one who needs bit and bridle for guidance(as through visions or through our circumstantial arrangements) to one who can be counseled merely by a Word or a glance from the Lord (Psa 32:8-9). In fact, the very Word of God richly indwelling us facilitates the medium for the Lord to give us His instant Word to enlighten the path that He'd like us to go (Psa 119:105). May we all be richly in-dwelt by the Word of God so that we may be delivered from any spiritual dissociation and be brought on unto a mature discernment of God's speaking to us.