Does God speak to us directly from the
Bible? I mean, does He outright tell us specifically
what to do or what He’s going to do in an actual situation?
In my early years as a follower of Jesus I was often a bit skeptical when someone claimed that God told them
something specific when reading the Bible.
Not that I hadn’t often sensed His presence and clear guidance from reading
a passage that directly applied to a situation or need of my own. Certainly, the Bible is given to us for our comfort, as well as for our instruction, training and correction of wrong behavior and wrong
thinking. But what about grabbing a verse that sounds like what we want to hear
to support us in a particular situation?
That can be very risky.
Maybe you’ve heard that old story about the man who used to randomly put his
finger on a verse in the Bible to get his daily guidance. One day as he did this, his finger landed on
the verse that says, “And Judas went out and hanged himself.” Not feeling good about this, he tried
again. This time the verse was, “Go,
thou, and do likewise.” Frustrated, he
tried a third time only to hit the verse, “What thou doest, do quickly.” Well, now, you say, “That’s a bit extreme!” Yes, that’s a bit extreme, but it makes the
point that there is extreme danger in lifting any verse from the Bible out of
context. It’s been well said that a text
without its context is a pretext!
Yet, having said all this, I cannot deny that God sometimes does use a verse or
passage to speak to us. In context it
may not apply to us directly, but God can bring us to it at just the right time
to assure us that He intends it for us. After
all, God is sovereign and can do as He chooses!
He can certainly make a portion of His written word come alive to us in
our time of need.
Well aware of my skepticism, God went to extremes to convince me that He had a powerful
message for me in the verse, Jeremiah 29:11.
The verse says, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the
Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
future.’” Let me explain the reason for
my conviction, so you can judge for yourself.
On October 12, 2011, just a few weeks before my scheduled lung surgery Jeremiah
29:11 appeared in my email inbox sent from a daily Bible verse subscription
service. Now, I realized that this was a
promise given to Israel in a particular situation. However, what it revealed was an amazing aspect
of God's unchanging character to love us even though we're unworthy, and I
believed (and still do) that it could generally be applied to all who put their
trust Him.
About one week later a close friend sent us an email of encouragement citing the
same verse.
Later that same evening, Sherril and I sat down on an extremely rare occasion
to watch a movie on DVD. She had waited
for months to see Soul Surfer, the true story of Bethany Hamilton, who lost
her arm in a shark attack. In the early
part of the movie a verse was quoted that would prove to encourage Bethany during
her long and remarkable recovery process. Yes, it was
Jeremiah 29:11.
The next morning, I decided to turn to that verse in my Bible and try to
understand the context a little better. Tucked into that page was an outline of sermon
notes on the entire passage that I had written and saved. It was dated July 17, 2011, when we had visited
a church while we were on vacation last summer.
One week later, we received another email from the same friend who had sent us
the earlier message of encouragement.
She told us that their son had brought home a paper from children’s
church with a memory verse they were to learn in November: Jeremiah 29:11. It had brought her to tears.
Then, a day before the surgery one of our nieces who knew about the impact that
Jeremiah 29:11 had been having in our lives came to the door and presented us
with a small gift. It was a framed copy
of Jeremiah 29:11. She had taken the
liberty of substituting Sherril’s name and mine written into the verse in place
of “you,” making it speak directly to us.
It’s clear enough to me that God had started to prepare us for a difficult road
ahead, beginning quietly even before we knew of any problem. As the time approached, He touched many
others to share in what He was about to do.
So convinced that He would fulfill the promise of Jeremiah 29:11
(whatever that might mean for us), we decided to make bookmarks with that verse
printed on it to give them to those who might come to
visit.
But wait! Even that is not the end of
the story. Last week, (six months after
the surgery) I saw a friend of the family that I had not seen since before I
went into the hospital. As we were
rejoicing together about what God had done, she told me how she had tried to
text Jeremiah 29:11 to me the night before my hospitalization.
Thinking she knew about the role that verse had played in our journey, we offered
her one of our bookmarks. Suddenly, we
realized that she was unaware of how God had been using the verse and that she
had simply been impressed to send it to me as a text message. I had not received the message because I had
already put my phone away before being admitted. Here was yet another independent confirmation of God's speaking through that verse.
Now, you might be tempted to say, “Too bad you missed out on that one.” No, God never wastes anything. In His infinite wisdom He knew that we had enough
evidence to convince us that He would be with us going into our time of trial. He also knew that six months down the road
when I was still struggling with getting my breathing and physical stamina back
to normal that He would encourage us by reminding us that He was still with us and that His
promise was unchanged.
So, what do you think? Does God
sometimes specifically speak to us through His Word? For this one-time skeptic the answer is
obvious.
To Christ be the glory!
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. -- Isaiah 55:11 (NKJV)
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