This is God, our God forever and ever.
He will guide us forever. Psalm 48:14
People
are meant to live in an ongoing conversation with God, speaking and being
spoken to. Rightly understood, this can be abundantly verified in experience.
God’s visits to Adam and Eve in the Garden, Enoch’s walks with God, and the
face to face conversations between Moses and Jehovah are all commonly regarded
as highly exceptional moments in the religious history of mankind. Aside from
their unique historical role, they are not meant to be exceptional at all.
Rather they are examples of the normal human life God intended for us: God’s
indwelling His people through personal presence and fellowship. Given who we
are by basic nature, we live- really live- only through God’s regular speaking
in our souls, and thus “by every word that comes from the mouth of God”(Matthew
4:4).
Should we
expect anything else, given the words of scriptural record and the heritage of
the Christian church? As Christians we stand in a millennial-long tradition of
humans who have been addressed by God. The ancient Israelites heard the voice
of their God speaking to them out of the midst of fire (Deuteronomy 4:33). A
regular place of communion and conversational interchange between the high
priest and God was established in the mercy seat over the ark of God (Exodus
25:22, Luke 1:11-22).
But the
individual with faith among the Israelites also cried out expectantly to be
taught by God: “ Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good
Spirit lead me on level ground!” (Psalm 143:10) Israel’s experience led the
prophet Isaiah- who also had firsthand experience of conversing with God
(Isaiah 6)- to describe conditions of the faithful this way: “ Then you shall
call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am….And
the Lord will guide you continually.”(Isaiah 59:9,11)
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