"i Know The Plans I Have For You!" Does This Apply To Us?

Rebuking Aaron and Miriam for their insolence and the unjust complaints against Moses, the LORD revealed a startling truth that seems applicable to this day late in the Age of Grace. God said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream” [NUMBERS 12:6]. Thus, it should not be surprising that the Living God has in the past, and to this day, communicated His will through dreams and visions.

May I speak of an event from my own life? I have known of my call to divine service for well over fifty years. I was a godless young man intent on pursuing my studies in medical biochemistry when I came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was as Doctor James Higgs delivered the evening message in the Trinity Temple Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas that God directly invaded my life to appoint me to His service. As Doctor Higgs spoke that evening, I clearly saw in a vision the fate of lost people. The building in which I was seated with my wife and daughter disappeared. In the place of the building I had entered only a brief time before, I was suspended over a bottomless abyss. Somewhere from deep within the pit, flames were licking upward.

And though I saw no people plunging into the yawning shaft, I was conscious of the danger presented by that great abyss. Suspended over that massive hole I heard a voice demanding that I act to stop anyone falling into the pit. At that time, I was assured that God had placed His hand on me. I would serve God from that point, and I have.

Again, we know that God can provide guidance through training provided through other saints. The most prominent way in which this provision of guidance is witnessed is through Bible teaching or proclamation of the Word of God. This is undoubtedly a primary means by which God speaks to people. It is through the Word God has given, especially as it is faithfully taught by those whom the Lord has appointed as teachers and pastors. What must be faithfully taught is what is written in the Word of God.

Among the essential qualifications of those who are appointed to eldership is faithful adherence to the Word of God. Paul writes, “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” [TITUS 1:9].

In another of the Pastoral Letters, the Apostle has written, “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” [2 TIMOTHY 1:13-14].

To this same younger preacher, Paul commanded, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” [2 TIMOTHY 2:2].

There is a formidable responsibility resting on the shoulders of the one whom God appoints as a teacher or as a preacher. The eternal welfare of souls becomes the responsibility of that one who claims to provide divine instruction. What is said can set the direction of the soul, either to be sensitive to the Spirit’s pleas to receive the grace of God or to obey the leading of the Lord. The teacher who is false must bear the weight of the error that is disseminated for all eternity. How frightful is the prospect of facing the wrath of God because the teacher or the preacher spokes lies! The one who is unaware of this weight is a fool! That person deceives himself before he ever deceives others.