Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 13

Are we being disobedient to the Lord? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Shirer shows us the danger of her idea of hearing the voice of God early on. She does not think she is doing that, but she is. She talks about her friend Monica who seems to have things work out for her. What does Shirer say?

And while every account is unique, each one is woven together by a similar theme. A consistent thread. She and I have often talked about this—why some believers like her seem to experience God’s supernatural power more often than others, while many Christians can live their entire lives without really witnessing God’s handiwork. Her soft, humble answer is this: “I think the reason I see God’s activity so clearly in my life is because I’ve decided that the only appropriate response to Him is complete obedience. I am committed to obeying His leading, no matter how illogical His instructions may seem to be. From giving when I didn’t have enough, to making an effort when I was completely out of strength, I’ve just chosen to do what He says.” He speaks; she obeys.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 182). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Wonderful.

So are we to say that the person who loses a child to cancer is not living in complete obedience?

Are we to say Christians being martyred all over the world are not living in complete obedience?

Are we to say that a couple struggling with finances or infertility or anything else is not living in complete obedience?

It’s sad that Shirer has the exact same mindset as Job’s friends. See how well Monica’s life is turning out? She hears. She obeys. The implication is that if she disobeyed, her life would not turn out well. Shirer would likely never say that, but it is an easy conclusion to reach from her methodology.

Yet she goes on later on in the chapter to take this further.

God, who knows our hearts, doesn’t do much speaking into a person’s life who isn’t dedicated to obeying Him.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 183). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

You don’t think you’re hearing the voice of God? Obviously then, you’re not obeying Him.

So if you’re crying out in pain and the heavens seem silent, you’re being disobedient.

I have had someone contact me before about marriage difficulties. Seeing as I have walked through divorce, I strive to help other men hopefully to save their marriages, but if not, then through divorce. This man told me about the heavens seeming silent. I told him he should not expect to hear the voice of God. We had some back-and-forth, but he did respect that I stuck by my guns.

Had I had Shirer’s mindset, I would have thought that my friend was being a disobedient Christian obviously. A guy who has a marriage falling apart does not need more guilt heaped upon him, but it is the outcome of what Shirer says. Not hearing from God? You’re the problem!

Not only that, the whole thing is just wrong. Paul was busy trying to destroy the church and God spoke to Him quite clearly. On the other hand, it was quite clear that God had spoken in the contest of Elijah at Mt. Carmel, and yet Jezebel still wanted to kill Elijah.

The Scripture makes clear, over and over again, that the prerequisite for experiencing God is obeying Him.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 185). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

I dread the thought of anyone going through a hard time in this book thinking they need to feel the love of God and life seems cold and reading this. Shirer is not a wise writer. She is heaping stones on people who are already suffering. Not only that, but again, it’s wrong.

For one thing, not all experience of God is good. You can experience judgment and you certainly aren’t obeying God then. Moses had the experience of hearing God describe Himself as “I am” when all he was doing was just being a shepherd. Meanwhile, Joseph was obedient to God and wound up being thrown in prison for two years.

Now Shirer tells us again about, surprise once more, herself! She talks about a time her son had a horrible cough that was keeping her and her husband at night and at 4 AM, she woke up to it and was under the impression she should go and personally pray for her son. Okay. I do not have a problem with praying for your son, but notice what she says here.

For ten minutes or more I debated with God on the wisdom of this strategy.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 185). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Whoa.

You think you are talking with God and you are debating with Him?

How arrogant must you be!

We can say Moses and Jeremiah offered pushback, which I think could have been Semitic humility, but Shirer goes beyond that. She is debating. It is hard to not see this as her thinking she is more wise than the one who is Wisdom. Besides, I thought obedience was necessary to experiencing God and hearing His voice. Here she is arguing with Him and still hearing His voice apparently.

Now she does say that after the prayer, the cough went away, but again, was that God? Maybe. I don’t know, but I do know there is not a guarantee, or else St. Jude’s would have a whole lot less sick children today.

On the other hand, believers who always have an escape plan—another option waiting in the wings, a plan B to revert to—are what the Scriptures call “double-minded” (James 1:8). And they can never expect to fully know and experience the power and presence of God. They can never experience the full disclosure of divine activity that is available to those who are all in. They shouldn’t even anticipate that they will “receive anything from the Lord” (verse 7), not the least of which is His continued direction and guidance. So if you aren’t hearing from God very clearly or regularly, ask the Lord to reveal whether or not any double-mindedness is the culprit—any sense of holding back, any initial resistance that blocks your full acceptance and obedience of His message to you.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 187). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

If Shirer was heaping stones on the reader before, now she is throwing them in the tomb and burying it. Sorry Shirer, but you should always have in mind what to do if a plan fails. Read Paul’s letters. In the end, he will often talk about what he wants to do, but he has other things in mind if they do not pan out.

Remember that story about how she argued for ten minutes with God about something? This is the same lady who in this same chapter says this:

We’ve talked before in this book about when it is appropriate to delay an upcoming action or decision until you’ve heard from the Lord. There’s much biblical wisdom and prudence in that perspective. But once you’ve heard from God, delay is no longer an option—only instant obedience is.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 188). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Ten minutes of arguing doesn’t sound like “instance obedience.” Maybe Shirer is an exception.

And yet on the very next page:

When the Lord gives me directives that I don’t particularly care for or I’m afraid to carry out, the last thing I want to do is get up “early in the morning” to do them. I procrastinate. I think about it. I pray about it. I talk to friends about it. And if I’m not doing any of those, I usually just try to ignore it.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 189). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

This doesn’t sound like instance obedience.

And in one final example from this chapter, she writes about continuing a pursuit of higher education at Dallas Theological Seminary.

But while I was driving to the seminary to hand in my application, the Holy Spirit spoke clearly to my heart. “I didn’t tell you I wanted you to go back to school,” He seemed to be saying. “You came up with this idea all on your own. I have other plans for you.” Whoa. Wasn’t expecting that. I mean, here I was, on my way to campus, my crisp packet of materials resting in the seat beside me, and now I was being met with an about-face directive from God that was so strong, I had no doubt He was speaking to me. Caught in the moment, I thought about just going ahead and dropping off the application anyway. After all, I’d come this far and could always call back later and request that they disregard it. Once the stuff was turned in, I’d go home, talk it over with Jerry, and if we came to this same, unexpected conclusion—even at this late date in the process—I’d call and cancel it. No problem. But if, on the other hand, we determined that I was mistaken in what I thought God was saying about changing course, then finishing my errand would save me another trip out here and I wouldn’t miss any deadlines.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (pp. 190-191). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

So let me get this straight.

You have no doubt that God is speaking to you, but you think you need to go home and discuss it with your husband and see if you two reach the same conclusion. How does this work?

“Honey. I am absolutely sure God was speaking to me.”

“What did He say?”

“He does not want me to continue higher education.”

“Okay. I think we should discuss this message you are absolutely sure is from God and see if we agree.”

“Yes. No need to rush on this. We should make sure God is right before we proceed.”

Oh. Not only that, it looks like she has a back-up plan in this as well.

Rules for thee, but not for me.

This chapter does not tell me a lot about God.

It tells me a lot about Priscilla Shirer and none of it is good.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 12

Does God have a plan for your life? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I work at the Post Office at my seminary and many times, new students come in to get a Post Office box. I often ask them what they plan to study. Sometimes, they do not know. They just want to go “Where God leads them.” I instead ask them, “What do you want to do?”

This is a far better question to ask because the former tends to assume God has a plan for your life and actually, for everyone’s. God has a blueprint laid out and you need to follow it for optimal living. I would hope many of us would realize in a momentary reflection that if such a plan existed, we have already messed it up. Not only that, but by messing it up, we have messed up everyone else’s plan that involved us. If one person marries the wrong person, then exponentially going down, no one can marry the right person.

Yet do not count on Shirer to recognize this. She is still caught up in this idea that God has a plan for your life. She quotes John 7:17 in the NLT.

Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.

The NLT is a paraphrase, but even then, Shirer is doing massive eisegesis. The will of God Jesus is talking about is not an individual will for your life. A look at BibleHub shows several translations of this verse. The idea is that if people really want to do what God wants, they will recognize Jesus as being from God. This is a verse about Jesus. Shirer makes it a verse about us.

Shirer then goes on to talk about waiting on God to do things in His “perfect timing.”

But, boy, it hasn’t always seemed like God was operating with perfect timing in my own life. I’ve sulked and fumed more times than I can remember when I’ve needed clarity about a specific circumstance yet felt as though He wasn’t providing it.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (pp. 173-174). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

In reading this, I just see Shirer as a petulant child whining. It is quite a pathetic claim to read. Shirer. God does not owe you anything. Instead of whining, why not do what Scripture says and redeem the time and follow the path of wisdom?

She then quotes John 16:13 saying the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. First off, this was said to the apostles. Second, are we to think that this would mean the apostles would become omniscient? After all, would not all truth mean all truth? Of course not. Jesus has in mind that which is relevant to their high personal calling that Jesus Himself gave them.

The same does not apply to Shirer.

Let me reiterate: on the occasions when you are pressed for time and a decision has to be made “by noon tomorrow,” choose the option that, to the best of your knowledge, will give God the most glory and cause your relationship with Him to flourish.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 178). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Sigh.

So if God does not show up on your timetable, just do what you think based on what you know will give Him the most glory.

The problem is that should be what is said EVERY TIME!

Shirer misses it. She is so caught up in her ideology that she does not see what is going on. Would that she spent as much time cultivating wisdom, which Scripture tells us to do, as she does using an unscriptural methodology that Scripture nowhere tells us to do.

Oh. If you want to know what God’s will for your life is, it is really simple. It is to conform you to the likeness of Christ.

Do what you think will get you towards that goal.

Two more chapters to go!

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 11

What does God sound like? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Initially, I somehow hadn’t highlighted anything in this short chapter, so I decided to look through again.

The things I do for you people.

At the start, Shirer asks what it is that God’s voice sounds like. I don’t know why this is a hard question. If you think you are hearing from someone regularly, how can you not know what their voice sounds like? Then again, in this crazy system, Shirer has it that the voice could be the voice of the devil or your own voice.

Kind of sad when you don’t know where the source of that voice is or how to recognize it. Especially considering how different the first two should sound.

Shirer talks about why God speaks and one reason she says is God wants to have friendship with His people. I wish she would say what exactly this means. After all, do we mean to say that God was lonely and just wanted someone to hang out with? If so, that’s pathetically weak. After all, am I to think that the company of the Trinity is insufficient for the Godhead? Can I supposedly meet some lack that God cannot meet in Himself?

Historically, Christians have held there is no real relation, in the sense that God produces a change in me and I produce a change in God. I cannot change God. My honoring, worshipping, and loving Him does not change Him one iota. I cannot benefit Him in any way. I can be of service to the Gospel, but I cannot improve God at all nor can I worsen Him.

This does not mean that He loves me. If anything, this means His love is the least selfish of all as He gets no benefit from it. All of our loves we have on Earth to some extent will be beneficial to us, and that’s not wrong. God is the only one who breaks that rule.

This means that anything we hear from God will be designed to glorify Him and reveal His very nature to us. Absolutely nothing we hear from God through the Holy Spirit will contradict His nature or His Word or seek to detract from our intimacy with Him. His personal word to us will inevitably reveal who He is.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 158). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

And once again I come to my refrain. I know Scripture comes from Him. I know that is trustworthy. I do not have any reason to think that what Shirer presents is. Since this is the case, why should I focus on the uncertain and unfounded claims when the certain and reliable ones are right there?

Shirer says God speaks so we can experience Him and know Him. Am I to think that Scripture isn’t sufficient? Remember, Peter had a great experience on the Mount of Transfiguration, but then said “But we have the word of prophecy made more sure.” Shirer would likely have the reverse. She could say “I have what Scripture says, but then I got the transfiguration so I could experience Him.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I think I’ll side with Peter.

She then talks about a lady she knows going through a divorce and says she’s the innocent party and says God is leading her to pray  for her husband and that he’ll come back home.

Well, as one who has gone through divorce, this really hits hard, and yet I have this idea. You really need a personal revelation from God to know to pray for your husband who has wronged you? We are already told to pray for those who hurt us. I still pray for my ex-wife and for her blessing and it’s not because of a personal revelation, but because I find that’s biblical. It also helps me to release any anger I have towards her. It’s hard to be angry with someone when you’re praying for them.

Shirer says she doesn’t know how this will work out. It may work out in her friend’s favor or it may not. Now were it me, I would tell her friend to get a good lawyer anyway and get herself involved in DivorceCare. I have no problem with her praying for her husband in this time. I commend that. I think she should be taking steps of preparation just in case, and you don’t need a divine word to know that. You need wisdom, something we’re told to have anyway.

But that could lead to a question in an unknown situation. Do we have a plan to follow? (By the way, was her friend “led” to marry a man who would treat her in a way that would end in divorce?) Let’s discuss that next time.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 10

Does a subjective voice have authority? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

So Shirer starts off with another story about, surprise, surprise, herself! Her experience is meant to tell you what is really going on in Scripture. Want to know the basis for knowing how God speaks to you? Shirer tells you from her experience.

She does get to Scripture later on. Let’s see how she does.

Truly, you can distinguish the voice of God from any other voice by the powerful influence it carries in your soul.

My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned.
Psalm 39:3

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 146). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Does she really want to use this Psalm? This is about David struggling with a sin and the burning is not a good burning. It is his wrestling with what he has done wrong. Unfortunately, Shirer gives no context. It’s as if she looks through and says “I could possibly twist this in such a way so it fits with what I want to say so I will go with it!”

Just last week, I was a bit overwhelmed by the pressure I was feeling. There were three—count ’em: one, two, three—specific problems that were pressing in on me. I felt like I was staggering under the weight of the burden of these difficulties and prayed specifically that God would give me the knowledge on how to deal with them and the power to do so. My Bible study reading that particular morning was 2 Chronicles 20:12, where King Jehoshaphat prayed, “O our God … we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” I began to feel the soothing comfort of God’s Spirit wash over me as this verse became a personal prayer from my own heart and I began to focus my attention on Him as instructed in this passage. Intrigued, I looked back to the beginning of the section of Scripture to read more, and I was quickly captivated by the fact that the “great multitude” Jehoshaphat was praying about was composed of three—that’s right—exactly three different armies. I knew God was using His Word to speak directly to me.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (pp. 149-150). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

And once again, Shirer uses her personal experience to interpret Scripture. Since she had three problems and Jehoshaphat had three armies, obviously this was God using the text to speak to her.

But what about all the times that that doesn’t happen?

Never mind that I think this is horrible eisegesis on her part, but it’s easy to say something like this works if you look at only the times that something like this works. What we would need to do is measure out Shirer’s days and see how many times she goes to the Bible and really thinks she finds something specific to her personal circumstances going on right then. WIthout that data, I remain unconvinced.

Again also, her shoddy eisegesis doesn’t help her case.

Then as we close, she has this:

I can assure you—from the evidence of Scripture, from the centuries of accounts of men and women who have followed Him, from even the limited experience of my own life—He will speak. And you will know. When the Bible talks about us having freedom in Christ, this is at least part of that glorious privilege and spiritual abundance we’re allowed to walk in by God’s grace. There’s no need for you to be burdened by or gripped with a paralyzing fear that you are not in God’s will. If you are seeking Him and being obedient to what He has placed before you today, then you are in His purposes for now, and that is all He is asking of you and of me.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 152). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

From all those centuries! Cool! Well I have been going through the church fathers and I remember reading in Justin Martyr of….oh wait. He never described this. Well St. Augustine talked bout how God told him to….oh wait. Not there. Thomas Aquinas…..nope. It’s hard to find this until you get to modern times. It’s almost as if God decided to become a chatterbox when we all became individualists.

Funny, isn’t it?

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 9

Does God speak truth? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Oh, Priscilla Shirer. If only you focused so much on what you said at the start of this chapter. If only you would make that your focus. What you say is true and yet at the same time is tragic.

He speaks principally through His Word. And His Word is always true.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 127). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

This is absolutely true. I even agree with the principally part. Obviously, the best revelation of God ever was in the incarnation, but we don’t have access to that directly. We only know that through the New Testament writings. There is also general revelation that speaks to us of God, but the best place to go is still Scripture.

My ex-wife used to wonder about a dream she had. She would wake up from a strange dream and wonder what she was to learn from it from God. I told her the same thing always. “If only you spent as much time interpreting Scripture which you know is from God as you do dreams which you don’t know are from God.”

Now I am not at all saying God cannot speak through dreams. I am thankful that this is happening in the Muslim community and usually, those are quite clearly divine dreams. I am saying that it is not normative for us and unless we have strong knowledge somehow that a dream came from God, it is best to not fixate on it. I have no problem with seeing if we can learn something about ourselves, but it could just be that we had that dream because we ate too much pizza the night before.

The problem here is that Shirer tells us that God speaks principally through His word, but then has a whole book here dedicated to understanding messages that we have no way of knowing if they are from God and which I generally doubt are. She is taking her audience away from the sure thing and focusing on the possibly thing. It is a great neglect on her part. I do realize she has written other books going through Scripture, but she should stick to just Scripture.

She tells the story of a man who wanted to leave his wife who claimed to be a Christian and without knowing the details, we are going to give the benefit of the doubt to Shirer that the grounds were unbiblical. I am even quite sure she is right on the grounds. Scripture is clear on the grounds for divorce. She has to argue against him when he says he is positive God has given him an okay for this and he really feels led to do this.

Miss Shirer, isn’t that what you have laid the groundwork for? I am not at all saying you would advocate for this, but this is the kind of thinking that your approach leads to. You can say all you want that Scripture forbids this, but for all you know, this man can just say “God has shown me I am an exception.” Maybe he will compare himself to Hosea?

For me, I would just say “I don’t care what you think God said to you and I don’t care about how you feel about it. I just care about what the Bible says.”

There really isn’t much else worth commenting on in this chapter, but overall, it’s a tragedy. The chapter on truth should be all that needs to be shown to show how far Shirer has stumbled from it. We are all better off if we stick to what we know is from God.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 8

Will God’s voice challenge you? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Early on in this chapter, Shirer presents a list of challenges people were given when God spoke to them. One mention is notable and that is that Esther was asked to plead her case before the king.

Really?

Esther is actually my favorite book of the Bible. It reads like an adventure novel which made it so exciting for me the first time I got to it. It’s also a book where you see God behind the scenes. God nowhere shows up explicitly in the narrative. This might sound pedantic, but if Shirer is not even getting basic facts about Scripture right, how can I trust her interpretation on more complex matters?

Shirer then goes on to say that one of the ways she’s learned how to tell God is speaking to her is when she does something that is a challenge to her pushing her beyond her boundaries. Unfortunately, there is no Scripture for this. We are just to trust what the nature of God is like based on Shirer’s personal experience.

Yet she goes on to say this:

I’ve learned, however, not to tell anyone else ahead of time what I’m planning to talk about, because more than once the Lord has decided to change things up on me. Hours before, sometimes minutes before I’m ready to take the platform, He will impress on me the need to address an entirely different topic. Based on what He’s been doing at the event, He leads me in another direction than the one I’d been planning to go.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 120). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

She follows this up with saying that that’s scary. She is right, but not for the reasons she thinks she is. It is scary because first off, this means you can’t trust Shirer to speak at your event because you could hire her to speak on X and she will speak on Y instead. Second, what she is saying is that whatever she is speaking on, God has told her to speak on it, and hey, who are we mere mortals to judge?

Oh. She also describes this as “Winging it.”

For some reason, I can’t imagine Moses getting up before Pharaoh and “winging it.”

Then, she goes further and kicks it up a notch and says explicitly so if you think I have misinterpreted her, think again.

But I can testify to you from firsthand experience that every time I’ve responded to that Holy Spirit inclination, every time I’ve thrown myself headlong into His power and anointing, it hasn’t been comfortable, but the words have come. Maybe not as fluently or articulately as I would have preferred, but they’ve come. And instead of just being my well-planned words, they were His words, flowing strongly and supernaturally through a person who could not have done that on her own. God gives me the courage. God gives me the power. And I kick at another little piece of that cocoon until, wouldn’t you know it, I’m flying on the wings of His supernatural strength. (emphasis mine)

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 120). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

You hear that? Shirer is speaking God’s very words to you? Now in Old Testament times, she would have been putting her very life on the line. In modern times, a lot of Christians will read that and not consider the seriousness of what is being said and encourage other Christians to read Shirer.

We do not live in a culture that takes God seriously if we can speak so flippantly about Him.

So what about the question from the last blog?

Interesting, isn’t it, that the teaching of this chapter comes on the heels of our talking about God’s voice being characterized by “peace.” So which is it? When I’m trying to hear God speak, do I expect a sense of His peace, or do I wait for Him to scare the living daylights out of me?

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 122). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

So how? Unfortunately, I read the section and I’m still not sure how Shirer reconciles these. She tells us the way of God will work, but it will also not be the easy way. Could it be, and this is just me thinking out loud, that we have a hard time saying what Scripture says on the matter because this is a matter that is foreign to Scripture?

Christians. Avoid people who speak about God flippantly. Do not take people lightly who take the idea of God telling them something lightly.

Next time, we’ll talk about what it means for God’s Word to exude truth.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 7

Does God’s voice bring peace? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Shirer starts off this chapter talking about a couple that went into ministry. There were all kinds of warning signs and reasons why it wasn’t feasible, but they thought God was calling them and they had peace. Today, they have a successful ministry. Unfortunately, we are not told who this couple is, but are we to believe that because they had a successful ministry, it must be God told them to? It couldn’t be just that they worked hard and had a passion for Jesus that caused them to do great work.

Besides that, there are many unseen concerns with thinking like this.

For one thing, what about people who pray about matters, and have peace about them, but then those matters lead to a disaster? Unfortunately, we do not have exhaustive records from Christians on this. Shirer points to one example and considers the case settled.

Second, this is a form of thinking known as affirming the consequent. What if I told you this:

Mormon missionaries want you to pray to see if the Book of Mormon is true. If the Book of Mormon is true, you will get a burning in the bosom when you pray. You got a burning in the bosom when you prayed, therefore the Book of Mormon is true.

It doesn’t work that way, but then consider this in light of the above story Shirer gives.

If you have a feeling of peace about a ministry decision, then success in that ministry is a sure sign God has called you. You have success in that ministry showing God has called you. The form is really the same. You either accept both or you reject both. for my part, I reject both.

Not only that, but what about people who do not have successful ministries, at least at first, but years later do. Adoniram Judson spent years before he had his first convert in a foreign land. However, he did get the Bible translated into another language for the people and today, we look back and realize he had a successful ministry.

It is true that God called people like Paul and Moses and Isaiah and others, but you are not them. Moses did not show up in Egypt saying “I feel like God is leading me to rescue you Israelites.” Paul did not show up to meet Peter and say “I feel like God has called me to this work.” No. They had clear indicators that God wanted them to do something.

I can tell you I have heard a number of pastors who were sure they were called to preach and they were horrible preachers. They had a lot of passion, but no knowledge of the gospel. Also, that excitement would wear off and then burnout and then all of a sudden, they’re strangely no longer called.

Shirer goes on to say that:

When God speaks, you will feel a surety about His word to you and the benefits of being obedient to it. You’ll feel a peace about it. Think of it as getting a “green light.”

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 108). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Scripture for this? None. Perhaps we could point out that Shirer quotes John 16:33 at the start of this.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

This is Jesus talking to His apostles, but He is not talking about personal decision making. He is talking about facing hardships in the world. He is giving them assurances for difficult times. Not only that, but He is saying this to THEM. It does not follow that it extends to everyone beyond them. Certainly Christ can be with us in our struggles, but we need to be careful in the Upper Room Discourse that we don’t take what Jesus says to the apostles and treat it like a personal message to us.

To help, Paul told them, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called into one body. …” The Greek word for “rule” is significant. It means to act as a judge or umpire. So Paul was telling the church that in the same way a modern day baseball umpire manages a game according to the rules, the Holy Spirit was to serve as the “umpire of their hearts,” and the Colossians were to make decisions in accordance with His calls.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 109). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

But again, this is not about personal decision-making. As Ben Witherington says:

V. 15 says that the peace of Christ should not merely exist in the hearts of the Colossians, but should either rule there or preside as a judge in their midst. By this Paul does not advocate some sort of passivity or calm but the concept of shalom—well-being and wholeness. Nothing should be allowed to interfere with the well-being of the body of Christ. Peace must be the ruling principle. In an agonistic culture where rivalry and competition for honor was a part of everyday life, the audience must be reminded they are called to peace. These general ethical principles of faith, love, peace and the like are enunciated first and then are applied in the household code which followsin vv. 18ff.

Ben Witherington III, The Letters to Philemon, the Colossians, and the Ephesians : A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Captivity Epistles (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007), 180.

Even if decision-making is in mind, it is not individual decision-making. It is the church as a whole. If they can come together in peace on a matter, then they can go ahead in that matter.

I want to be certain that I am clear about this fact: as believers, we can never lose the God-given peace that accompanies our salvation. It’s ours eternally, perpetually. But in the ball game of daily life, the Spirit is making calls for us all the time that we can hear and sense in our own spirit. If we’re contemplating something that isn’t pleasing to God, His peace will not rule. If we’re heading down a path—in life, with the kids, in marriage, in business—and we’re wandering even by accident out of the path He’s set for us, His peace will not rule. If we’re moving forward prematurely and ahead of His timing, His peace will not rule. Even with ultimate peace in Christ concerning our relationship to Him as a son or a daughter, we won’t at that moment have peace in terms of this particular circumstance.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 110). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

But again, no Scripture is given for this. Many of us have made decisions that we were quite anxious about at the time. Those decisions sometimes worked out fine. Sometimes they didn’t. Again, it’s easy to say peace is the answer if you only take the cases that fit your narrative. Shirer doesn’t interact with anyone who says otherwise. My fear is people can make disastrous decisions and do so based not on sound reasoning and Scripture, but how they feel which can be influenced by any number of factors.

I am remembering when I was eighteen, I had my wisdom teeth taken out. I remember it was a hard time in my life, but after I came out, I don’t know what they gave me, but I was in a peaceful high for a week or so. I tell people you could have told me a meteor was heading towards the Earth and we couldn’t stop it and we would all die and I would have just said “Oh. That’s nice.” Should I have trusted every decision I made in that time because I felt peace about it?

Looking at the next chapter, the claim is that God will challenge you. We’ll see how Shirer reconciles all of this, at least within her system. Thus far, she has failed at reconciling it with Scripture.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 6

Does God communicate personally? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Shirer again opens up the chapter with Scripture. This time, it’s Isaiah 45:3.

I will give you hidden treasures,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the Lord,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

This is a moving passage isn’t it? Doesn’t it feel great to know that God calls you personally by name? It would sure be nice if we knew what those treasures in secret places were. Let’s see if the surrounding context can help us out.

“This is what the Lord says to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut:
2 I will go before you
and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.
3 I will give you hidden treasures,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the Lord,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.

Well, this is awkward. It looks like the passage is dedicated to someone named Cyrus. Not only that, the person spoken of is someone who does not acknowledge God, something God says twice. If Shirer thinks this applies to us, does that mean she thinks we’re Cyrus and that we do not acknowledge God?

Interesting.

Shirer says the Bible doesn’t address every situation that will come up in our lives directly, and this is true. There are many issues that we struggle with today that were unheard of in the times of the Bible. For this, she says, we need a personal message from God.

Or we could, I don’t know, use the wisdom that He gave us and make a sound judgment and go to places like Proverbs.

Shirer thinks we have to have a message from God for so many decisions. It’s a wonder to me how she even gets out of bed in the morning and decides what to wear. That might sound pedantic to you, but what if someone’s salvation depended on Shirer dressing a particular way, such as to appear professional or not cause a man to stumble?

Shirer says God has mapped out a path that is distinctly ours.

If God had done that, I can easily say that every single one of us has already blown it. If this is the case, then God’s plan for humanity has already utterly failed. Fortunately, I don’t buy into this kind of thinking so it’s not a problem for me. For Shirer, I think this would only lead to one having perpetual anxiety over decisions.

When a message or inner voice you are sensing makes you feel condemned or burdened by a cloak of guilt, then it is probably not from God. If the foundation of the conviction you are feeling or the direction you are sensing stems from fear or condemnation, then you can be sure the Enemy is behind it.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 98). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

So apparently, not only is God speaking to us, but the enemy is speaking to us as well. This kind of thinking makes God and the devil practically counterparts. Not only this, sometimes, if God was speaking to us, we should hear things that lead to guilt. The Scripture says if we are in Christ, there is no condemnation, but that does not mean there is nothing that can be condemned. We do wrong things. Are we to think only those good and positive vibes are messages from God?

Pretty sure David had guilt after being told by Nathan, “You the man!”

Shirer tells us that we will know the Spirit is speaking to us about sin when we don’t have a feeling of despair, but rather we have a fresh desire for holiness and purity.

And the Scripture to back this is? Oh, that’s right. It’s not there!

She also says we can tell God’s voice by His loving personal tone.

For a Scripture reference for this, she goes to….

Nowhere.

Why can’t you go to Scripture for something like this? Because it is not in there. It’s a dangerous movement the church needs to abandon entirely.

Next time, we’ll hear what Shirer has to say about the voice of God and peace.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 5

Is God a baritone or a tenor? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Shirer begins this section with Scripture. Yay! Let’s see what she says!

Psalm 62:11-12

11 One thing God has spoken,
    two things I have heard:

Wait. That’s only one verse you quoted! Indeed, because that’s all that Shirer quotes. Now why would she do that? Let’s look at the rest of it and see if we can figure it out.

“Power belongs to you, God,
12     and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
    according to what they have done.”

If you look at the passage, this is not about God speaking to an individual person. It’s about the Psalmist trusting in what he has heard about God in his difficulty. This is the way Hebrews talk, but it looks like Shirer doesn’t care about that. Just look for where it says God has spoken and throw a personal idea on to it.

She says Revelation 3:20 can be applied as a call to salvation, but these are people who already trust in Jesus. Fair enough, but at the same time, she misses the point. She says it is about persistence, and it certainly is, but the persistence is apparently that God is trying to speak to you individualistically and you need to hear it.

Which is why this is in a letter read to churches from someone taking the role of a prophet. Got it.

Never think that the circumstances in your life have nothing to do with God’s will. They have everything to do with it! When you’re seeking His guidance, you should always reflect on the events the Lord is allowing to occur in your life. Persistent, internal inklings matched by external confirmation is often the way God directs believers into His will.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (pp. 81-82). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

This piece of advice is backed by the Scripture of….

Oh wait. There’s nothing here.

Nope. Shirer thinks that every single bit of events in your life is arranged in a specific way because God is trying to give you a specific message. I am not denying that God works everything according to His will, but I am against trying to approach reality with a decoder ring.

Here’s my suggestion. Try to interpret Scripture as what God is telling you instead of your circumstances. For your circumstances, see how according to Romans 8, they can be used for your good if you love the Lord. They’re not about God trying to give you a message.

She then quotes Ecclesiastes 5:1 asking where this verse had been hiding all her life. I dealt with it before, but I will do so again.

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

This is about going to a worship service or to offer a sacrifice and to be stingy with your words. Heed what your priest says. Speak too much and you can bring judgment on yourself. If this was about God speaking individually to you, why do you need to go to the House of God? Can’t He do that just as well anywhere else?

Even when you hear incorrectly, God knows your heart well, and He honors the person whose sincere desire is to know and do His will even in their imperfection. “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God” (John 7:17 ESV).

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 88). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

So if you think you heard from God and you heard wrong, God knows you are trying to do right. Look! There’s a Scripture to back it!

Except this is Jesus talking about Himself and how people can know His teaching is from God and that He is from God.

How reliable can a teaching be if you have to mishandle Scripture so often to get to it?

So in the end, I still see nothing here. Next time, Shirer will tell us how God communicates impersonally. We’ll pick this up next week.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Discerning the Voice of God Chapter 4

How does God speak? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I was pleased to see this short little part toward the start of this chapter from Shirer:

Often the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly how He chose to speak, only that “the Lord spoke,” and those who heard Him weren’t in any doubt about who was talking or what He was saying. Whether He spoke to reveal His character or to give specific direction, His voice was clear. Unmistakable. From the very beginning of time, and no matter what the method He chose, He has spoken in ways that could be plainly understood, revealing His deep desire to make sure that communication between Himself and His children was possible.

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 64). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Yes. In the past, God spoke in these ways. People knew for the most part that it was Him speaking. We don’t know how, but it was clear and it was specific. Now, He has upgraded to…

Speaking through emotions, feelings, and an inner voice that is hard to discern from the voice of the devil or your own voice, but that’s how He’s chosen to speak…

Of course, we all know this is Scriptural. As Hebrews 1 says, in the past, God spoke to our fathers in various ways but in these last days, He has chosen to speak to us by the voice of the Holy Spirit…

Wait a second…

It says He has chosen to speak by His Son.

Maybe Shirer missed that part.

Instead, she says that after the Son departed, the Father has spoken by His Spirit and has attempted to reveal God to every saint who has been willing to listen. We can certainly agree that the Spirit is to be a fixture in our lives. We cannot agree on the idea that He has been trying to speak throughout history.

When the early church held their councils on the doctrine of Christ, we do not see anyone standing up and saying “God has told me that XYZ” and that that settles everything.

We do not see Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas claiming divine revelation for the knowledge they shared with the church.

We do not see Martin Luther standing up and saying “God has told me that the RCC has it wrong!”

If Shirer wants to say this has been going on throughout church history, it would have been nice to, you know, quote church history.

Shirer later says:

But consider this. While we often wish we had what the people of God enjoyed in Old Testament days, I think they probably would have preferred what we have today—the special blessing of the Holy Spirit. They had no choice but to rely on prophets and visible signs since they did not experience the Holy Spirit as fully as we do in this age of the church. We possess a blessing they could only hope for—direct, personal contact with the living God. Even though His voice may sometimes be hard to discern without careful, deliberate discipline and self-denial, it’s a gift that ages past would have envied. That’s why we find the psalmist pleading, “Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11 NLT).

Shirer, Priscilla. Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When He Speaks (p. 68). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

I do not doubt they would have wanted the Spirit that we have today, but not for the same reason. They would relish knowing that by that, they were part of the covenant people of God. They were certainly not thinking about individualistic questions. For instance, most of their marriages were arranged before they were even born. It’s also so fascinating that Shirer misses that in the past the message was clear, but today, it isn’t.

To top it off, this is not what is being talked about in Psalm 51. In Psalm 51, David has realized his sin with Bathsheba and is in repentance. He is not saying “Please don’t take away my source of guidance.” Nathan was the one who told him what God wanted him to do. He was saying “Do not take salvation from me.” It’s a shame that Shirer takes the giver of salvation and turns Him into personal guidance.

Shirer later tells a story about going to a new Bible study and the leader saying to her that he was just thinking so much about her and that God had given him this message. She told Shirer she believes God wants to do something new in her life. She needs to embrace it and then referenced Isaiah 43 with saying to forget the things of the past. Something new is coming.

Problems. First off, this is so generic it could apply to anyone and how do we know this guy didn’t say this to most every new person who came in? Who wouldn’t want to hear a message like this? The problem with generic messages is like reading your horoscope and taking it seriously. You can interpret anything as a fulfillment.

Second, this isn’t even what Isaiah 43 is about. Isaiah 43 is not about forgetting an individual’s hard past, as wise as that might be at times. (Not only that, but I think when the Bible speaks about forgetting and remembering, I think it is not about mental states but focus. To forget the past is to not dwell on it and to remember is to dwell on something again.) God is saying in Isaiah 43, remember all that stuff I did when I led you out of Egypt? You haven’t seen anything yet! Forget that stuff of the past! Don’t focus on that! I’m about to do something even greater!”

But for Shirer, who cares about context as long as it makes you feel better? The problem with this kind of material is that it really only serves to feed the ego. “Dear reader! Look at this story! God had a personal message for me!” One wonders what happens to all the people who are going through hard times and saying “Wonderful. Where’s my personal message?”

She also quotes Romans 8:14 saying all who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. Paul is not saying “All who are guided in personal decision making are the sons of God.” The leading by the Spirit is righteous living in contrast to sinful living. Just look at the surrounding context.

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

This is not about decision-making aside from the decision of living holy lives or not. This is about being children of God. This is about putting to death wicked desires. You don’t need a personal message from the Holy Spirit to know about that.

Next time, Shirer will start looking at how to recognize the voice of God. We’ll see if she has anything concrete.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)