We have more than one respected family member who don’t believe that God directly speaks to or influences His children through any means besides the Bible. By respected, I mean, you ought to respect them. By speaking beyond the written Word, I mean the sort of speaking that you might hear someone say about “feelings” in their spirits. Not to say that it may be impossible to discern what is emotion and what is spirit. In any case, some of those feelings might be described as “feeling led, feeling convicted, feelings of affirmation, feeling a closed door, etc.” Not to mention, “coincidences” that are answers to prayer or modern day laying out of fleece.
Certainly, the believer is refined and changed throughout their life (sanctification). But how? Through reading Truth (the Bible) and applying the truth to our hearts. And God says He gave us the Spirit. So maybe we can’t know what the Spirit is doing in our hearts, but I believe He is ACTIVE in us! He, like the word of Truth which was inspired by God, is alive in us! We are His temple. I don’t believe that it is just our mind that is a home for His Spirit-inspired Word. I believe the actual “person” of the Spirit of God resides within His people.
I have been studying this and have found it to be more difficult than I thought to work through. There are so many pieces to this understanding of God and how He works in us and through us. I am convinced that God is for us. I am convinced that because He is for us, we can depend on Him and trust Him in OUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES. Meaning, I believe God still has an active hand in this world. I don’t believe that He has given us His Word and then stepped back to observe His people and wait. His Word says something of the opposite. (sorry, just writing this off the cuff this morning, and don’t have a verse for you)
It also seems clear to me that God wants us to step out and love others and serve others. These joyful and eager desires to love and serve others come, I believe, from His Spirit working in us. (the hope of glory!) Why do some people step out to do things that are beyond their obvious means? This is a question I am trying to answer. Some people do things that are beyond their means. They do things that seem unwise. And they do them, because they believe that God wants them to. Did God tell them? Does God tell us to go out on limbs? My thoughts on the matter are all scrambled in my head.
More later. Feel free to share your thoughts and Bible verses on the matter.