How Jesus Speaks Through the Supernatural II
Series: Hearing Jesus Speak Today
September 12, 2010
Last week I started out with a statement of fact. God is supernatural, and so you would expect Him to speak and act in a supernatural way. In a way that’s beyond our physical senses of sight & touch. Jesus quoted Isa.6 in Mt.13:14-16 when he said…”You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. He’s telling us here that if we’re going to stubbornly insist on hearing and understanding God with our human capabilities, we’re never going to hear or see a thing! Instead, if we’re going to get anywhere with God, we’re going to have to depend on the spiritual, supernatural senses, provided to us by God!
So last week we started out by talking about how God is able to communicate and speak to us audibly when He wants to. We said that when God DOES speak audibly, He does it to make sure we understand exactly what He wants us to do Because it’s usually at critical turning point in our lives or in the life of His church. That’s why He spoke outloud, so everyone could hear him at Jesus’ baptism, transfiguration, and crucifixion . He didn’t want any confusion as to WHO Jesus was! That’s why He did it for Paul on the Damascus Road… this was a crucial juncture in His churches direction.
This morning I want to continue with 3 more ways that God can get a hold of us, when we let him. Dreams and visions, impressions and other people. Now there's a lot of confusion about how we receive dreams, visions, impressions and ‘words of knowledge” from God. Some people have a problem distinguishing God’s voice from a bad pizza they had the night before. Basically…there are two extremes you need avoid when thinking about God’s supernatural communications: one is the rationalist, & the other is the mystic.
The “rationalist” denies that God ever speaks to us through the mind. He says God only speaks through the Bible and never any other way. The “mystic” on the otherhand, thinks every little feeling they get is from God. And of course, that’s obviously wrong too. I think both extremes are unfortunate and unnecessarily confusing. The rationalist, who thinks "God never gives me a dream, impression or prophecy" misses out on God's counsel, His comfort, His care and concern. They miss out on God’s challenges and the adventure of His guidance through life’s maze. On the other hand, the mystic who thinks that every impression they get is from God, tends to make a lot of stupid mistakes and embarrass themselves. They say, "God told me to do this, or God told me that" and eventually end up chasing their own tail! Often, they’re too proud to admit they “missed it” when they go belly up. So, be very careful what you attribute to God’s name! I use the phrase, “God told me”... very rarely. because when you say that, you’re setting yourself up to be a false prophet. And the penalty for mis-representing God in the OT was a free ticket to a rock concert! …Only, YOU were the main event! You got ‘stoned”, but with real rocks!
So the 2nd way that God can supernaturally speak to us is when…
2. God speaks through DREAMS AND VISIONS
Let me distinguish between a “dream” and a “vision”…Dreams are images- that have thoughts and emotions attached to them. We actually “see” while we’re asleep. The images might tell a very clear story, or they might not make any sense at all. “Visions” on the otherhand are dreams that we have while we’re awake. For years when I prayed I would have these mental images come into my head and I’d get frustrated and a little guilty about them. I thought I was day-dreaming and I was ashamed of how they were getting in the way of my praying! It wasn’t until just recently, that I realized that I wasn’t day-dreaming…God was giving me visions! I was trying to ignore them, while God was trying to get my attention! McFLY!!! So I started paying attention and all the sudden I realized that these pictures in my mind were giving me insights and directions from God!
In the bible it was common for God to speak to people through dreams and visions. Especially the prophets. It was the regular way God spoke to them. (Num.12:6). In fact, the absence of dreams and visions in the bible was usually a sign of God’s judgment during a time of apostasy. (Micah 3:6-7) Unfortunately, today, many people when they hear that Jesus spoke to them using a dream, put them in the same category as a “palm reader” or some kind of “religious nut job”. Dreams and visions have fallen on hard times in our highly rationalistic, western world today. But dreams are more common than you might think. For example, did you know that the inventor of the modern sewing machine, (Elias Howe) credited his invention to a dream? The difference is… in biblical times, people knew that God spoke frequently though dreams and visions… so they took them seriously. Examples…Jacob dreamed about a ladder that went into heaven, Joseph dreamed about his future, Daniel dreamed about the future of our world. Peter had a vision about a sheet being lowered down from heaven…John had a vision about how the world would end…. and the list goes on and on. So dreams & visions have always been an important way God communicates with His people, the problem is… we’re not listening anymore! ( READ Job 33:14-18).
God uses dreams in a number of ways. Let me go through just a few…
1. To WARN me
Dreams can warn believers and (even unbelievers) about events that are going to happen. In Gen.41, Pharaoh had the same dream in 2 different forms. 1st he saw 7 fat cows, being eaten by 7 skinny cows…and then he dreamed of 7 fat heads of grain, being consumed by 7 skinny heads of grain. Joseph told Pharaoh that the reason he saw this dream in 2 different ways was because of it was a done deal! (Gen.41:32) God was telling Pharaoh that there were going to be 7 prosperous, fat years followed by 7 famine filled, skinny years…so you better get ready! There’s no changing those kinds of dreams.
On the otherhand, sometimes dreams warn us of potential events that can be averted if we’ll pray or repent. In Dan.4:16, God gave King Nebuchadnezzar a dream about a man who lost his mind and acted like an animal. It was about him! Daniel told him that it wasn’t inevitable if he repented of his pride and arrogance. God gave him a year…but He didn’t heed his advise, and sure enough the hammer fell and the next thing King Nebby knew, he was grazing with the cattle on the back 40! Most of the time, if you have a negative dream it can be averted by prayer and repentance. God used a dream to warn Mary and Joseph to “get out of Dodge” when Herod was about to massacre all children under the age of ____.
2. To ENCOURAGE me.
When the Apostle Paul 1st came to Corinth he went to the synagogue every Sabbath preaching the good news of Jesus. Eventually he was forced out by his Jewish enemies and hounded from town to town. It wasn’t long before he was stoned in Lystra and it was threatening to happen again in Corinth… so in Acts 18:9,10, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and this is what He said… READ. Would those kinds of words encourage you? It would me! And it did for Paul too! God gave me an incredibly encouraging dream when Matthew was in a coma and things were looking kind of bleak, that I want to share with you next week. It’s amazing because God knows you intimately and He knows exactly how and what to speak to you in a way that not only gets your attention but encourages you deeply. (ballerina pg.146)
3. To GUIDE me
Last week we talked about the vision gave Paul by “a man of Macedonia standing and begging him…’Come over to Macedonia and help us” –Acts 16:9 That was a critical vision to his future and ours as well. That one bit of directing eventually brought the message of Jesus to Europe, then England and eventually the U.S.! The reason God will use a dream or a vision is because they show us things we can’t see with our natural eyes.
4. To COMMAND me.
Sometimes the Lord will use dreams to give us specific commands. Jacob dreamt a dream in Gen.31:13 where he told him… (READ) When his uncle Laban wanted to hurt him, God came to him in a dream and said… READ Gen.31:24. When you get a dream like that…you better do what God tells you to do!
He gives us dreams to warn us, direct us, comfort us and encourage us… but we ignore them! If we’re ever going to hear all that God wants to say to us, we better start paying attention! How do we do that? Let me give you a few pointers for interpreting your dreams…
1. RECORD them.
Rule #1 is, you can’t interpret dreams if you can’t remember them! Dreams are fleeting things and can be forgotten easily. That’s why we read of people like Daniel who in Dan.7:1...”wrote down the substance of his dream”. If you find that God is using dreams to communicate to you…it’s a good idea to put a notebook or a voice recorder near your bed. You can actually train yourself to review your dreams the minute you wake up. If a dream wakes you up in the middle of the night, you should write it down, because most likely…it’s important! If it wasn’t, God wouldn’t have gotten you up.
2. PAY ATTENTION to them
We all have dreams that we know really don’t have any meaning. They’re just a jumbled bunch of impressions from our previous day. Or they’re expressing some deep fear we have. But other dreams have a powerful effect on us. We remember them and sense there’s more to them than just the food we ate last night. When that happens, many times God will use symbolism. The symbols cause us to depend on God for the meaning and prove that we didn’t make them up ourselves. Even though they’re harder to interpret… the most symbolic dreams are also the most meaningful dreams.
• Dreams of “clean moving water” often symbolize the power of the H.S.,
• “cars” may represent a particular ministry,
• “a faceless man” many times will symbolize the H.S.
Symbols also help us to look at things from God’s perspective, not our own. For example, the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about a giant beautiful statue representing world empires that would rise and fall. He was excited about it! However, when Daniel dreamed about these same empires… he saw horrible beasts. What a “tyrant” like King Nebby saw as something wonderful, and awe inspiring…God saw as something dangerous and destructive! So be especially aware of details that either fascinate you or stand out in some way. The fact that you remember them at all, should tell you that they’re important!
Also be careful to remember the feeling and the emotions you experienced in your dream. Visions and dreams can impact our emotions in a way that sermons and written words don’t. Your strong feelings are clues as to what’s important in the dream.
One word of warning before we move on…Dreams are never given to enhance your pride or give you control over someone else. There are some things the Lord will share with you are for “your eyes only”. You should keep it that way! Maybe God wants you to pray about a certain person or situation. So just because you have a dream doesn’t mean it’s meant to be shared. Joseph in the O.T. found that out the hard way! He had 2 dreams that showed that God was going to promote him above his brothers. But instead of keeping it to himself… he blabbed and bragged about it in front of them. That mistake cost him dearly! It landed him in the bottom of a well, and years of slavery!
3. God speaks through IMPRESSIONS
Many times Jesus will speak to us through impressions or inspiration. An impression is when the H.S. influences our feelings, physical senses or our minds. Impressions don’t come in complete sentences or even single words. But somehow Jesus is able to access our minds and give us direct knowledge without any rational evidence. Some of you are thinking, “Oh, yea, I know what you’re talking about…intuition.” Well, not exactly! See, impressions are different. Whereas intuition comes from within yourself, an impression comes from outside of yourself, from God. You’ve got to be careful not to confuse the two. In Nehemiah 7:5, Nehemiah talks about how God led him using an impression…”So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people…” Nehem. didn’t hear an audible voice, and he didn’t have a dream, but he DID have a strong drawing on his heart to register the people. Sometimes an impression can lead to a miracle. When Paul was preaching in Lystra, there was a man in the audience who had been lame from birth. As he looked at the man, he “saw that he had faith to be healed.” So Paul commanded the man to stand up and instantly he was healed! Now, how do you SEE faith? You can’t lit. “see” faith, but Paul had a spiritual impression about the man, and God gave Paul direct knowledge about what was going on in his heart.
When a paralytic was lowered down through the roof in front of Jesus in Mark 2… Jesus healed him, but the teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves…”Who does this guy think He is, forgiving sins?” They hadn’t said anything outloud, but yet the bible says that “Jesus knew in his spirit what they were thinking in their hearts”.-Mark 2:8 Jesus was received an impression from God, and all the sudden He just knew what they were thinking.
At other times, God will just drop ideas in our heads, that we know didn’t come from us. When the devil puts an idea in our mind we call that a temptation. But when God puts an idea in your mind we call that an “inspiration”. Sometimes we’ll say, "I was inspired. I got a creative idea." But where do you think that creative idea came from? It came from the Creator! God is the Creator, and the Bible says we're made in His image. So what do you expect? When you’re being creative you're acting like God. In John 14:26 Jesus said, "The Holy Spirit will be your teacher and will bring to your mind [circle this] all that I have said to you." When Jesus tells us that He will "Bring to our minds all that He’s said to us.”… He means that He gives us impressions about His revealed Word. He gives us ideas, hunches. He gives us these “gut feelings” we have many times. If you think about it… some of your most brilliant ideas weren't yours. They were God's. God was giving them to you… A brilliant business idea, a brilliant family idea, an insight on your marriage, the solution to a problem you’ve been struggling with. Where do these kinds of insights come from? I’ll tell you where… from the same God who loves you, who cares about you, who is infinitely interested in all the details of your life.
Remember pagers?? They were cool while they lasted. I remember being amazed at how someone could call me from anywhere in the U.S, and (through the miracle of tech.), a few min. later I feel this buzzing on my hip. Every time it happens, it’s unexpected and I kind of go… “OHHH!” But the message gets through. In the same way, God has installed a pager in your heart… it’s called your ‘spirit’, and when you come to Christ, He re-connects the link, so that He can get a hold of you anytime and anywhere He wants to. Many times, when He calls, you’re not expecting it… but it always brings a thrill! How do you know when Jesus is speaking to you? Jesus said in Jn.10:4 that “my sheep hear and know my voice”. Do you know the voice of your husband or wife? How? Spent intimate time with them…How do you know the voice of Jesus… by spending intimate time with Him!
Then lastly, I want to talk about the 4th way God can communicate supernaturally to us…
4. God speaks through HUMAN MESSENGERS
God can speak to us through human messengers. Hopefully you’ve had the experience of hearing Jesus speak through gifted teachers and preachers. When He does that, it’s called the “gift of prophecy’. We think of a prophet in the O.T. as someone who “foretells” the future. And God certainly used them to predict God’s future judgments and blessings… but more often He used them to “forthtell”. In otherwords to speak the words of God in the present.
Prophets can come in very ordinary packages – like a carpenters son who didn’t do anything really special until He was 30 years old. Other prophets aren’t so ordinary. They may even be a little weird. Jeremiah was depressed, Jonah had a bad attitude, Elijah had mood swings, Hosea married a prostitute, John the Baptist ate insects for breakfast and Isaiah went around naked for extended amounts of time! So you can’t always judge a prophet by the package He comes in. Instead, Jesus told us to judge them by the fruit they produce. (Mt.7:15) Things like…
1. They bring glory to God, not themselves.
2. They walk in humility and their ministry shows it.
3. Their teachings agree with scripture.
Today you can watch T.V. and you hear people saying all sorts of things that God is supposedly saying. A number of years ago when I was in college, I remember a well known T.V. evangelist, came out claiming that God had spoken to him, and told him that if he didn’t get the money he needed to get his ministry out of debt, that He would take his life. Now, I’m sorry, but that’s pretty off the wall! Even non-Christians could read the true motives behind that one, and as a result not only his ministry... but all of Christianity took a hit!
I’ve heard people say things like…Now, I sense there's somebody out there in the audience who’s supposed to give me a million dollars." Sure, I've had that vision too, a lot of times! But it wasn’t God!!! Some false prophets will use a method called cold reading or observing a “tell”. It’s an old gamblers trick for reading signs people give off by their demeanor or physical characteristics. For example, they might notice “cat dander” on a ladies dress and say to her, “The Lord tells me that you love animals”. They watch closely for body language that will give them insights, phrasing their language so the person will keep giving them clues without them knowing it. All the while, they’re saying “the Lord” is giving them a supernatural impression about them. It’s a total sham, and a lot of gullible people are falling for it today. But those aren’t the kind of prophetic words I’m talking about. I’m talking about the kind where God actually DOES give insight on a situation or problem.
Listen, there are a lot of ‘religious charlatans’ out there…but never let a religious counterfeit keep you from experiencing the real thing. Remember, any time you find something counterfeit, that’s evidence that there is a “real thing” somewhere. For example, have you ever seen a counterfeit $3 bill? No! That’s because before there can be a counterfeit $3 bill, there's got to be a REAL $3 bill! So, whenever you find a counterfeit ‘anything’… that means the genuine article is somewhere nearby.
• Wherever you find false teachers, that means there are also truly gifted teachers.
• Wherever you find false leaders, there are also genuine Christian spiritual leaders.
• Wherever you find false prophets, that means there are also real prophets.
The existence of something phony, only confirms the existence of the real thing! Satan is limited by the fact that he can only produce counterfeits…but God makes the real thing! The bible tells us in I Jn.4:1 to ‘test the spirits, to see whether they are of God’. So when you get an impression, or someone says to you…”God told me to tell you this…” and you want to know if it really is from God or not, there are a couple of things you can do…
1. Compare it to scripture.
Jesus will never contradict His own words found in the bible.
2. Ask God to give you wisdom and discernment.
Search your own heart. Is this something you want so bad that you’re listening to your own heart and calling it God? Put self in neutral. Say, “God if this isn’t you… stop me from going forward”.
3. Ask trusted and mature Christians:
If you don’t want to hear from mature Christians that you trust, that’s a good indication that you’re not hearing from God. Many times God will confirm it with the people who love and care for you the most.
4. Apply the “Principle of 2,3”…
God will let you know that it’s Him, many times by the use of 2-3 witnesses. In Dt.19:15…God established a principle that said, “Every matter must be established by the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses”. Jesus used this principle in John 8:17,18 to prove that He was from God. (READ) Paul used this principle in II Cor.13:1 to prove that his words were from God. And so many times Jesus will let you know that He’s speaking to you by using 2 or 3 other unrelated incidents or persons to confirm that what you’re hearing is what He’s saying. When Ru and I were going through our trial with Matthew, it was amazing how many times people and situations from totally unrelated areas would say the same thing we thought God was telling us. (more later).
So if you think God is speaking to you… keep your eyes and ears peeled for 2 or 3 other witnesses that will confirm it.
