God Speaks

Here is an interesting chapter Job 38. God speaks out of a whirlwind to Job and his three friends. Probably 90 percent of the time God speaks to us through his word. But there are instances when God speaks audibly. God spoke to Moses from the burning bush in Exodus 3. In Exodus 19 God speaks to Moses from the top of Mount Sinai. In Acts 9 a risen Jesus speaks to Saul later called Paul. God spoke to the child Samuel in 1 Samuel 3.  But most of the time God speaks through his word (The Bible). If we think we are hearing from God, if it is God it will agree with the written word 100 percent of the time.  God can speak to us through dreams and visions as God spoke to Joseph in Genesis.  God spoke to Ananias in a vision.  Any time God speaks it will agree with the written word.  I was praying about my situation years ago. I didn't know what to do. I was married to a woman that was cheating on me or at least I thought so. I was praying about it. I said things like God I know you hate divorce but here I am and this woman whom I believe is cheating on me does not want a divorce. I was willing to put aside divorce action that day because I knew God does not like it. But I was hurting and didn't know what to do. God I can't see what you see, I think in my heart she is cheating on me. I think cheating on a spouse is about the most hurtful thing you can do in a marriage. As I was driving along praying, I came up to a stop sign. I was about 4 cars back. I saw my wife at that time walking across the intersection in front of me. I watched as she walked to a gas station and into a white ford van that belonged to the man I thought she was cheating on me with. I could see the license number, I had it memorized. It was then I felt God spoke. It wasn't an audible voice, but this thought came into my brain. That thought was, now I showed you this so you would know, don't go over there and make a fool of yourself. That was the only time in my life when something like that happened. I believe to this day that it was God. God does not like divorce but has allowed it because of the hardness of people's hearts.  He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Matthew 19:8  I do have to say God speaks through his word the majority of time. I am not sure why God did that in that situation. A minister had advised me, you have grounds for divorce, you can go through this as many time as you like and we will support you. If you want to go through this hurt again and again, it is your choice. But I still struggled with it, it was not my first divorce either. If the same thing keeps happening again and again, you need to check it out, why does this keep happening. Some times God uses other people to speak to us. In another troubled marriage, I had moved my spouses stuff out of the house when I learned she was living with another man. I was o so very angry, and I was headed up to where my spouse and this man lived. I had a tire wrench in my hand intending to break out windows in either their car or their apartment or both. As I was walking my cell phone rang and it was my son Jeremy calling, Dad what are you doing? As I talked to him, he talked me out of my foolishness and I went back home. Jeremy never calls me but that day he did and I believe it was God intervening in my heart and life. Sometimes God speaks through a vision or a dream. In Genesis 28 Jacob had a dream from God. In Genesis 37 Joseph had a dream from God.  In Genesis 40, 41 and 42 were more dreams that God spoke through. I had a dream one time that I felt God spoke to me some thirty years ago. In this dream I saw myself hanging my toddler son on a cross. This was some years later when he was no longer a toddler, but I saw him at the age we called him Tikey Turkey. I felt God spoke to me in this dream and said, this is what I did for you, I gave my precious son on a cross for your sins. It was some weeks later when I turned my heart over to God.  But this was maybe the only time God spoke to me through a dream. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God does speak through his word but we must read it for God to speak to us through his word.  I feel like the incidents above align with the word of God. God does not tell us anything through another person or through a dream or in our thoughts that does not align with his words.  We need to check it out for ourselves when someone says what God says. It must agree with the word of God.  God bless, LVZ.