In what ways might God choose to communicate with us?
Let’s explore how God might choos to communicate with us. We can assume God meant to interact with us, and God didn’t seem to choose verbal communication as a main method of interaction with us. That is, at least when we initially begin building relationship with Him, although it does happen sometimes.
Do you see God talking to non-Christians regularly? What other ways might God communicate with us? What methods might He be using to reach out to us at first? It would have to be something universal so that any person could comprehend his communications with us. What about the written word?
The Written Word
Suppose God could inspire people to write down His words, or He wrote them down for us with people witnessing that fact, or maybe a combination of both. The written word is a valid form God may use to communicate with us.
The written word is the best way to ensure that any communication from God is preserved as He intended for as long as the text is maintained.
Is the text reliable?
Preserving the original message not only requires God Himself to communicate that message, but a process that reasonably satisfies the need to ensure the text remains the same from original to copy, and from copy to new copy. The process has to be reliable. We will examine a way to test ancient manuscripts to verify the veracity of a text when the original is not available. This is the science of Historiography.
Manuscripts are a good reference point to go to for understanding. They don’t change. The only variable is how we comprehend and interpret them. Unless God oversees his written word, the message might be very different from Oral Tradition to the written word. Relying on Oral Tradition for accuracy, like with the Whispering Game, is only a reliable method for understanding the original message if the original sender is there to verify the message.
The human mind is capable of thinking of all kinds of theories concerning how to communicate with God. But none of those theories are worth anything if they don’t lead us to God. Another criterion will be be, “Does God Himself guide us?“.
The Transition From Oral Tradition to Written Communication
Pictured is a Bronze age religious rock carving or petroglyph – “Ship Carrying Sun”. Oral Traditions were preserved through pictures, songs, and stories before the written word.
At the beginning of human history, we had only “Oral Traditions” to record our faith since we hadn’t developed the written language. At that point, we would have had to rely on verbal communication, which is subject to error.
Or we could make up stories, songs, and draw pictures to relate our faith to be as consistent as possible. But there is nothing to refer to as a reference for teaching those stories and songs. Petroglyphs are subject to interpretation and aren’t mobile. You have to be where the carvings are to benefit from them.
Because of that, we would expect to see reference, in the written story, to a time when communication from God would have been verbal. We might even expect God to validate the Oral Traditions, referenced in the written word. Religious artifacts might refer to an initial point when God gave us the written word. Or they might include flashbacks to a time before the beginning of the document’s story.
A reference in the written artifact to a person or event at a time before the written word would help establish a timeline, because of the reference to the time before written communication. This is another good criterion to use in our search. So let’s look at which religions have written artifacts, and the integrity and relevance of those artifacts as a criterion for good candidates.
The Holy Spirit Is One Way God Communicates With Us
This part of the page discusses the Spirit of God as a method of communication with us. It doesn’t matter if you believe or not because we are exploring! The important thing is that we understand this process as laid out in Judeo-Christian Scripture.
Scripture tells us that God is Spirit. In fact Scripture tells us that we are spirit too. Why is this important to know when discussing how God communicates with us? This is one way God communicates with us.
Take a look at the following three excerpts from Scripture:
- John 4:24 tells us that “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”.
- 1 Corinthians 2:11 says, “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?”
- Romans 8:9 tells us, “… you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
God is Spirit
If you go out to a Bible website http://biblegateway.com, and you search on the word “spirit” you will get hundreds of hits. That should tell you how important the spiritual is to God. The Judeo-Christian Scriptures talk a lot about the Spirit. It’s because God is spirit, and though we are temporarily in physical bodies, we are housed inside these bodies, and we are also spirit.
Looking at the three Scriptures above, We can see that God’s Holy Spirit resides inside the true believer.
Now consider this passage from the Judeo-Christian Scriptures:
John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
Jesus said these words as He was about to ascend into Heaven. In these words Jesus was saying that the Holy Spirit of God was going to co-habitate our physical bodies with our spirits and teach us all things. The idea is that His Spirit will speak to our spirit.
God’s Spirit Communicates With Our Spirits
The idea that God can live inside us and influence our thinking with His Spirit is at the crux of the Christian belief that the Bible is truly God’s Word. It is through the Holy Spirit that the writers of Scripture were inspired, and through that same Spirit that the “books” were selected to be in the Bible. The belief that God inspired the written word collected as letters and journals into the Bible is the basis for our beliefs as Christians.
God doesn’t speak audibly to most of us – not that He wouldn’t if He had a need. Usually it’s an inner unction that seems like thoughts inside of us. But the reason we know they are God’s thoughts and not ours is that they cover things we don’t know and wouldn’t have thought. Or we might have known it but didn’t connect it the way it connected and we wouldn’t have come onto that thought on our own. The test, of course, whether it is God’s thoughts or not, is that it aligns with His written word.
God Speaks Through Circumstances
There are a number of accounts where Jesus healed people, even raising a couple of people from the dead. Many today experience healings simply through prayer. There is an undoubtable signature of God in these circumstances.
People have had out-of-body experiences, coming out of their physical bodies and watching what was happening in a hospital bed where their lifeless body lays. Later describing what the doctors were doing in detail while the machines registered lifelessness. Some of those accounts include visits to heaven – even meeting Jesus.
Accidents where someone miraculously survives to find out someone had prayed for them at the same time they were involved in that serious accident.
A battle rages. One side is an imposing army and the other side a rag-tag group. Common sense shows the rag-tag army doesn’t have a chance, yet they come out the victor. A number of accounts of this nature are recorded in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. Israel’s account in 1948 and 1967 of coming out on top against far greater numbers with far more weapons is another account. With God directing the battle, Israel always won. When Israel went against God, they were exiled from their homeland.
All of these things collectively point to God interacting with us and communicating with us from a higher dimension – the spirit realm.
You will have to decide for yourself if these things are true or can be explained another way. These things are all decisions that are part of your testimony.
But realize you can’t just do these things like they are steps to interaction with God. You have to be genuine in your pursuit of God. Scripture has the answers and you can get to know God.
Send your thoughts and questions on how God communicates with us
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