The Speaking Voice

The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer

Chapter 6 - The Speaking Voice

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." - John 1:1

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As a child I was taught a very healthy respect for the Bible. From my first day in 4th grade until I graduated college it was a constant presence in my daily life because it was one of my text books I had to have with me for school.

For a time though I stopped reading Scripture. I had my reasons, a "holy rebellion" as one friend called it. My Bible was always near by. I still carried it to church. It in class or a study when someone else was reading it out loud I would read along with them and I even opened it up when one of my kids had a question. But very, very rarely did I ever pick up the Holy Scriptures just to read them for the sake of getting to know Christ, learn something new or be fed. I just stopped reading Scripture.

I never stopped hearing the Voice of God.

For someone who grew up with the belief that God spoke only through His written word, the Bible, it was somewhat confusing to hear the voice of God while not reading the Bible. I think that is why the following passage moved me this morning -

"I believe that much of our religious unbelief is due to a wrong conception of and a wrong feeling for the Scriptures of Truth. A silent God suddenly began to speak in a book and when the book was finished lapsed back into silence again forever. Now we read the book as a the record of what God said when He was for a brief time in a speaking mood. With notions like that in our heads how can we believe? The fact are that God is not silent, has never been silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second Person of the Holy Trinity is call the Word. The Bible is the inevitable outcome of God's continuous speech. It is the infallible declaration of His mind for us put into our familiar words."

There is a part of me now that grieves the time I lost in Scripture because I am learning how rich, deep, alive and amazing the written word of God truly is. And yet God showed great mercy and great grace to speak to me even when I would not read what He wanted to tell me. As Tozer also says

"God did not write a book and send it by messenger to be read at distance by unaided minds. He spoke a Book and lives in His spoken words, constantly speaking His words and causing the power of them to persist across the years...The tragedy is that our eternal welfare depends upon our hearing, and we have trained our ears not to hear...Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that , size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God. But we may take heart. To a people caught in the tempest of the last great conflict God says 'Be still, and know that I am God,'..."

I am not advocating here to not read Scripture. Again, I lost much by giving up that part of my walk with God. But I also give up something if I limit myself to believing that the only way to hear what God has to is say is through that avenue. Without the Scriptures I will have no way to judge if what I hear is the Voice of God. But without the Voice of God, I will have nothing to hear.