How Does God Reveal His Truths to Christians?

Theology
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God almighty wants to regularly speak to his children, his disciples. How does he do this? As the Apostle John said, “There are three that bear record in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.” While Jesus was upon the earth during the First Century, the Father was in heaven watching, and the Holy Spirit also in heaven waiting to come to the earth when sent by the Father to do what Jesus said that God, Holy Spirit, the Comforter, would do when the Savior left the earth to go to heaven. Jesus stated the purpose of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to his disciples in John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

Hence, we may be further assured by the Savior of the purpose of the Holy Spirit in John 14:16-18: “And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.”

So, the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Savior to teach devout Christians EVERYTHING and to reveal truth to them. Jesus said clearly in John 14 that after he would leave the earth either the Holy Spirit or he, Jesus, would convey information to faithful Christians. Perhaps, Jesus was saying in verse 21 that if you hear it from the Holy Spirit you can be assured that it is from me: “He that hath my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

Now, we are told by Jesus and his apostles to pray with ceasing, or to keep a prayer in your heart constantly in order to be prepared to communicate with God the Holy Spirit when we want to know the truth about something. Will the Holy Spirit speak to a faithful Christian in music or by another means besides words in the language of the believer? I do not believe that God will convey his knowledge and truth to a person ambiguously. The Apostle Paul told his young brother Timothy that, “the Spirit speaks expressly,” I fully believe that the Holy Spirit does not sing, beat a drum, play a trumpet, or use any other medium besides words to convey its information to humankind, but speaks to the mind of a faithful Christian in words of the understandable language spoken and written by the particular disciple. I also believe that the Holy Spirit will never tell one faithful Christian one thing and another faithful Christian another different thing about the same issue. The reason I say this is that the wonderful example of the Day of Pentecost, when the Apostle Peter preached the Gospel of Christ to the thousands of people from many nations gathered together and they all heard Peter’s words in their own language and were of one accord, shows clearly that the Holy Spirit will direct the minds of all human beings who have the faith to receive him to believe the same thing.

The scriptures also reveal that Satan, the devil and the father of lies, and his angels go about on the earth seeking to deceive human beings into believing that they are hearing God speak to them, when it is really the disguised voice of the devil they hear. Satan has the power to appear to lukewarm Christians as an angel of light to deceive them into interpreting scriptures wrongly and bewitching them into believing false gospels, as the Apostle Paul admonished the Galatians, in Galatians 3. The scripture says that Satan goes about on the earth as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Christians must be humble and teachable in order to be taught by the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

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It’s striking how consistently Scripture ties “God revealing truth” to Him anchoring us back in what He has already spoken.

Jesus promised the Spirit would remind us of what He said, not start a new stream of information disconnected from it.

I’ve always noticed how often the Bible describes God’s guidance in ways that are rooted in:

• Scripture brought back to memory
• teaching through the body of believers
• wisdom sharpened through obedience over time

And Paul’s “test all things” assumes that whatever we sense is always brought back under the authority of what God has already made known in His Word.

To me, that seems like the pattern, the Spirit’s voice doesn’t float free.
He keeps pointing us to what God has already spoken.

3

Joh_17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

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Sometimes in the quiet with a whisper.

Sometimes by burning bush or dancing flame.

Sometimes by shadow or an affliction.

Sometimes with a dream or a vision, or by a plant that offers shade.

Sometimes a giant fish will catch you when you go off the rail.

Sometimes through a demonstration, an illustration, a metaphor, or a parable.

Or maybe the fish was actually a whale…

Sometimes through a poem or a song.

And occasional a prophet or a teacher will come along.

Sometimes He carves the writing by hand directly on to the wall. Illuminating it with a light for all.

Sometimes a man will walk across the sea, from some no where place called Gallilee.

And sometimes, when he really really really wants to get your attention, he talks to you through a donkey. Or knocks you off one. Drastically.

But no one ever accuses God of being unimaginative, now do they?

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@Tillman, in all those situations, his communication will always be in agreement with the Bible’s inspired teachings and history, won’t they.

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Scripture, that’s the most obvious and the de facto correct answer. Linked to that, we can trust in the Holy Spirit’s work down through the ages who, as the Spirit of Truth, preserves us in Christ. That is not a claim of divine inspiration for Tradition–but rather that we can see the faithful witness of the Christian faithful in the Church down through the ages, and in this way the Spirit has always been at work, keeping, preserving, and we can therefore take “the faith once and for all delivered to the saints” as true and reliable.

There is an axiom that I have long found helpful, St. Vincent of Lerins states that the whole Church ought to abide in the faith “believed everywhere, always, and by all”. This isn’t a “truth by democratic vote” but rather a litmus test: That there are things Christians have always believed, it doesn’t matter where they lived (Athens or Rome or Jerusalem), when they lived (today or hundreds of years ago), and is the proclaimed faith throughout the churches (“by all”). This establishes a solid footing, that we don’t go chasing after wild doctrines and for-profit prophets.

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