There are two instances in my recent life in which I had a thought going on and right in the middle of the thought God put a sock in it (so to speak) and immediately corrected my incorrect thinking. I did not hear His voice audibly, but I know the response was His just by the sheer revelation and shock I experienced when He spoke to me mind to mind. When God speaks to you in such a way, you'd better listen up!
.:: Parroting, God in a box ::.
Once upon a time I was parroting (repeating in my mind what I'd *heard* elsewhere that *sounded* right at the time) that the bible was written by many people and therefore fallible. Immediately God responded, and He was definitely annoyed, He said: "So, I can't get My word down to you in tact over the millennia? What kind of God am I to you?" Well, just wow! Talk about a slap down!
I realized at that moment that if God, Whom I had in a very small box, couldn't get His word down to me in tact over the past few thousand years, then He wouldn't be God ... would He!? He would be some being of my own imagination that has limitations. In truth, God has NO limitations and since He created all we see and know of and much more that we don't see or know of yet then He can certainly speak to mankind at certain points of HIS-story (history) and they will write. Just as I'm doing now.
God does speak and He speaks through those that are willingly obedient. Some people say they've heard Him speak audibly, but most just hear that "still, small voice" {1Kings 19:11-12} and they know it's Him. I now know that every word of my bible is true ... ESPECIALLY BECAUSE IT WAS WRITTEN BY SO MANY AND YET SO CLEAR AND ACCURATE ... and God has kept His promise to mankind {Hebrews 13:5}, none will be able to use this *excuse* against Him. It didn't hold up to honest scrutiny by me, and it won't hold up for you either. This is why I defend God's word and I quote it often when I write. God's word is truth {John 17:17}. And, God is not a man that He should lie {Numbers 23:19}.
You owe it to yourselves, and more-so to God, not to just parrot what others say; seek God out for yourself in earnest. For every negative argument, God has a correction, if you are willing to receive it.
"And ye shall seek me, and find [me], when ye shall search for me with all your heart." {Jeremiah 29:13 KJV}
.:: Standards of man -vs- Standards of God ::.
Another instance of God speaking to me was not so long ago, where I was thinking to the Lord that the world isn't such a bad place whereby my intent of the thought was to say that it could be many years before it gets bad enough for Him to return ... but He put a sock in it before I could finish the thought. He said to me, "According to who's standards?" Well, that was another major slap down! How true. I was looking through my puny human eyes.
I don't see the big picture, God does. His word is full of the sins of mankind and how He's forced to respond to those sins ... mostly He's patient and compassionate but when we don't turn from our sins, especially collectively, He is forced to take drastic action. It's always His wish that we do right, but we don't. We are truly in days such as the days of Lot (Sodom & Gomorrah), or the days of Noah. Mankind is full of himself and without God for the most part.
I was judging the world then (I think it was around 2012-ish) according to the standard of man, not the standard of God ... which is very different. He is Holy, we are not. His standard is documented for us in His word, see Exodus 20 (the ten commandments).
It won't be much longer before we force Him to respond as He did in the days of Noah, or the days of Lot (Sodom & Gomorrah). And we will have no one to blame but ourselves. Jesus warned of our day when He said ...
"And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed [them] all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." {Luke 17:26-30 KJV}
As I often say, life is full of choices but it really boils down to just two, as it's been from the beginning, way back in the garden of Eden: 1) God's way, the tree of life; or 2) satan's way, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Think on that.
{Curly Bracket comments within scripture are mine. Jesus words are in red. This article is Firefox Reader View friendly as of the date of it's posting.}
