There are some who admit they hear God speak. There are others who mock the very concept. The two main reasons for disbelief are lack of personal experience and errant doctrine. If you look closely at the popular passage used by believers in this errant doctrine, you’ll notice a major fallacy in this notion of cessationism:
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
Hmmm…. Let’s consider this a moment. Prophecies will cease. Tongues will be stilled. Knowledge will….. what? Pass away? Hmm….. I think it’s safe to say that knowledge has yet to pass away. That would mean that prophecy and tongues aren’t obviously a thing of the past either.
Let’s lay aside our preconceived notions of what the Bible says. In truth, most of us don’t live by what the Bible says. We live by what other people have taught that it says. We often live based on someone else’s interpretation. So our trust, in that most crucial moment, hangs on the infallibility of a fellow brother in Christ who is just a capable of sin and error as we are.
I don’t win anything if you agree with me, and agreeing with me is not my goal. We should ALL endeavor to agree with God, and with what HIS word says. I don’t need John Calvin or John Wesley or Martin Luther or Augustine to tell me what the Bible says. These men loved the word and did the best they knew how to interpret and teach what the Scripture says. But they weren’t always right. We know this, because they disagree with each other, and truth does not contradict truth.
Cessationism was not a belief based on Scripture. Instead, it was a belief based on a lack of physical evidence. Fewer and fewer men prophesied. Fewer and fewer men and women spoke in tongues. Fewer healings took place. As the church grew more into the role of a government than a biological body, the power and revelatory gifts of the spirit dwindled. In essence, it was Man who quenched the Spirit, not the Spirit who withheld from Man.
Let’s not make this a major point of contention. It IS possible for God to speak to men and women, and it IS true that he does whether or not you have experienced it yet. But I believe that ANY heart seeking God and asking for him to speak will encounter him directly. God is not a man that he should lie, and he said, “My sheep hear my voice.”
Yes, those of us who grew up being taught differently are scared. Heck, we’re terrified. If we admit that God can speak, then we are responsible to listen! And what if he tells us to do something we don’t want to do? Then we’d be in as direct disobedience as we can be! Or what if we can’t tell the difference between the still small voice of God and our imaginations? What if we say or do something because “God told us to” and we’re wrong? What if we look foolish?
God uses foolish things to confound the wise. There is no more humble a Christian than one who goes out on a limb to obey God and risk foolishness. He gives grace to the humble and resists the proud. Are you really worried about doctrine or your image? It’s a question worth asking, because in the end, we will have to give an account to our Father in heaven, and what excuse will we give for a lifetime of ignoring his voice? “I didn’t know,” just somehow doesn’t cut it. We have a lifetime to pursue the truth, and to pursue every angle that is necessary to say that we have full confidence that we have made ourselves available to our loving Savior.
It is the central message of this website. Many of you know it by heart in one translation or another. Let’s read through various translations so we can better understand the spirit behind the statement.
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. – NLT
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. – NIV
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. – NAS
Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. – Amplified
and be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, for your proving what [is] the will of God — the good, and acceptable, and perfect. – Young’s Literal
And do not ye be conformed to this world, but be ye reformed in newness of your wit, that ye prove which is the will of God, good, and well pleasing, and perfect. – Wycliffe New Testament
I like the New Living Translation, when it says: “Do not copy the behavior and customs of this world…”
The NLT does offer one specific change from the rest, in that it tells you to “let” or “allow” God to transform you, which is a permissive and passive verb, rather than the command to “be”, which implies more responsibility and “active” action on your part. Where other translations say “(you) be transformed by…”, the NLT says, “Let God transform you…”
There is a difference here between a leader and a follower. Most translations of this sentence tell us that we have a role as the initiator and leader, and the responsibility of transformation seems to fall on our shoulders. The NLT is the only translation I read that implies we are the follower, and that we are to allow God to transform us by changing the way we think.
Knowing that the NLT was retranslated from the original passages by scholars looking to accurately translate entire thoughts of the author, let’s not throw out this translation in favor of the majority. Rather than picking sides, let’s look for a way to blend the two.
“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” tells me that I am definitely a participant, and that the act of transformation and mind renewal will not happen without my participation. God will not just do this to me. I am not a victim of God’s transformation.
* all translations are provided by www.biblegateway.com
It’s like God flipped a switch in me this past week. I can’t tell you exactly when it happened, but I remember realizing it had happened. One day, I just realized that my countenance feels brighter, my head feels less topsy turvy, and my outlook is positive and excited. I’ve been talking like it’s going out of style.
Ten years ago, somebody gave me a word to study the mind of Christ. Oddly enough, someone else in our group had a study book on the mind of Christ, so I half-heartedly looked through it. I never finished the book, and I set the prophetic word aside. I was maybe 20 years old, and I was more interested in having a power ministry or being the prophetic guy everyone was awed by.
This summer, God brought me back. He started telling me to renew my mind. I held on to the word, this time, because I realized that He had given me a set of directives over the years that, had I followed them, would have amounted to mind renewal. This is obviously important. I got that much. So I agreed in my heart that this was that season.
As a prophetic act of agreement, I bought this domain name from a guy in Atlanta. RenewMyMind.com is now the place where I will chart the journey, the Scriptures, and the thoughts which lead to a renewed mind and my transformation.
So, as I was saying, it’s like God flipped a switch in me this week. And I noticed that the concept of renewing my mind has taken on a completely different feel. It is an opportunity now, not a duty. My desires have been transformed. Where once I looked at this as a command for all good Christians to work at, I now see it as the blessed opportunity to arrive at a stronger faith and intimate relationship with God. It’s a small change in some ways, but the effects are profound.
As Jack Deere says, a lover will out-work a servant every time. If we have a servant/slave mentality, we may work hard because we have to. But a lover, or one who enjoys the other, will work harder because they are compelled to do so by their love.
One thing I’ve wanted most is to experience that transformation of thinking from a man who has to do what God says because he is Lord to a man who gets to do what God says because he is the beautiful and precious Bridegroom.
