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)
Support Deeper Waters on Patreon!
