God still speaks – Part 1

God isn’t dead! He’s alive and well, and still ready, willing, and able to speak to His children—and He wants to speak to you.

“How can that be?”you may ask. In order to comprehend the answer to that—how the great God and Creator of the universe could communicate directly with you, or why He would even want to—you must first understand how much God loves you. He loves you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for your sins so that you could be forgiven and receive His gift of eternal life in Heaven, simply by believing in Jesus and receiving Him as your Savior. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, but He would have died for you alone. He and His Father love you that much!

In His love, God also gave you the Bible, through which He tells you how to live in love and harmony with Him and others. God’s Words in the Bible are an inexhaustible source of faith, comfort, encouragement, instruction, wisdom, and spiritual strength.

But God didn’t stop there. He loves you so much that He not only wants to communicate with you through His written Word, but directly. He takes a loving personal interest in you and wants to be involved in your life. He knows that you have questions and problems, and He wants to give you the answers and solutions. He also wants to speak personal words of love and encouragement to you, to boost your faith and reassure you during those rough times. Most of all, He wants you to know how much He loves you personally. So He created a means of two-way communication, a channel between Him and you, so that you can talk to Him in prayer and in reply hear words He gives specially for you.

But what if you don’t consider yourself very spiritual or close to God? Well, you’ll be happy to know that God will speak to anyone who has a little childlike faith. He wants to speak to you, to give you a chance to experience His infinite wisdom and boundless love. He wants to lead you step by step into a closer relationship with Him and a greater understanding of His will and ways.

God may speak to you in a number of ways: As you read the Bible, He may cause a particular passage to stand out to you and show you how it applies to your situation or how it answers a question you may have. He may not even use words; He may just give you an impression or inner conviction, a sort of intuitive knowledge about a particular situation. He may speak to you through vivid dreams or visions. He may speak through others—godly counselors whose wisdom and experience you can benefit from. But of all the ways God is able to speak to you, perhaps none is more wonderful or of greater practical value than the gift of prophecy.

Did you know that the principal dictionary definition of the word “prophecy” is not “a prediction,” but rather “a divinely inspired utterance”? In other words, prophecy is receiving a message directly from God. Whenever you hear words in your mind that you believe are from God and you say them or write them down, you are prophesying.

You can hear from Heaven! Put God to the test! See if He will not open to you the windows of Heaven and pour out such blessings on you—the treasures of His Words for you personally—that you will not be able to contain them all!

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Hebrews 2:4 (ESV) while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Ephesians 4:29 (ESV) Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.