Word of God Speak

by Keith Gardner

Revelation 16:17-21  The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, "It is done!" Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.

John, in his book on the end of our times, describes a scene that is so horrific and terrifying that the men of the times curse God. A loving God would never do such a thing? What was it that John saw? How does a first century fisherman describe a twenty-first century nuclear explosion; if that is in fact what he was describing? And how can I make any sense of what the Bible means with such illusionary language?

There is the unseen that binds a man of faith to his creator. There is the knowing Jesus the Son and His father God that extends beyond the physical. John 20:27-29 Then he [Jesus] said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."  I can believe that God is real without ever seeing Him. He has, and still does makes Himself known. The knowing is recognizing when He speaks to us.

A timeless method of God revealing Himself is through His Word. There is the written word that when illuminated by the Holy Spirit becomes living. 2Ti 3:16 - 17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We can read it and it becomes alive with understanding and we are drawn into spiritual application – a new way of thinking, and living. There is also the spoken word that comes to us as we pray and learn to listen to the instructions of the Holy Spirit. 1Co 2:9-16  However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"— but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. Through time, testing and training we grow accustom to listening and following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Those hidden things, the confusing Word of God become clearer and clearer as we learn to walk in the application of its understanding.