Let me be honest with you. The most challenging part to me about being a believer is having a relationship with a God who never interacts with me on a tangible level. He’s never spoken to me in an audible voice, I have never felt his physical touch and I have never seen him with my eyes. I can tell you that this is a HUGE obstacle. Of course, I still believe in Him and know He can speak in other ways.
I only know of two people who have heard God speak to them with an audible voice and it profoundly changed their lives after that experience. I went through a period of time when I was on a desperate mission to have God speak to me in a tangible way. Let me tell you that you can’t force God to do that. I don’t know why He didn’t do it but I am confident that if there is a time where God feels it necessary to speak to me in an actual voice that He will do it.
So why doesn’t He? Didn’t He speak to people in the Bible? Why did He stop?
Let’s start out by understanding the fact that God isn’t human like us. He is a spirit. (John 4:24). God must be a spirit in order to be an infinite and omnipresent God. He could not do that if He had the limitations of a human body with human characteristics. Yes, God created us in His image but that doesn’t mean we are exact copies of Him.
To communicate with God, it must be done on a spiritual level. Do you know how difficult that is? Have you ever tried to hear without using your physical ears or relate to God on His level? It isn’t easy. To do it, we have to be quiet, still and meditate. Doing this is difficult in our lives because there is so much going on and so much noise around us. If you don’t know then you should try to sit in silence for a few minutes. I recently enjoyed time at the lake, and it was almost peaceful but even there I couldn’t enjoy meditation because there were jets flying overhead and people around talking or playing music. Finding silence isn’t easy and that’s how you get access to communicating with God.
So why doesn’t God speak to us today like He did in the Bible?
I honestly don’t know the answer. I know the lame answers Christians like to offer such as “we have the Bible now and He has said everything that we needed to know.” Well, I call bull on that. This doesn’t answer it so easy for me. Others will say that He still speaks to us but in different ways. That's true but that’s not a good answer for me. I did a Google search on this subject and there were much of the same reason everyone gives. There really isn't a good reason I could find to explain why God doesn't speak to us audibly or in some 3-D way.
You would think that people would be eager to believe in Him if He did right?
There is no Biblical reason that I can find as to why God doesn’t speak to us audibly today. I don’t know why He doesn’t. I suppose He has His reasons. I know there are people who come around saying that they have a “word from the Lord” or say that “God told me…” but I am ultra-suspicious of such claims and have seen much abuse by these claims.
Jesus isn’t walking around here on the earth but before He left, He told Thomas “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me but still have believed.” (John 20:29)
When the physical Jesus returned to heaven, He sent us the Holy Spirit to help us but - again - we have a spirit form but not a human form that we can relate to. I’m not trying to be difficult here but I’m trying to be real about the single most difficult part of being a believer. This is the subject that no one talks about. I have to say that I have experienced many times when I really could have used a physical Jesus to talk to or to interact with.
Some would suggest that because God doesn't interact with us like we do with each other that this is proof that He doesn't exist and that we are just operating on the same level as children who have an imaginary friend. I would counter that by saying that I have, in fact, felt the presence of God many times in ways that I can't explain. He is real but he's not my personal genie who I can willingly pull out of His bottle to act in ways that I command. That's not how He works. I don't understand it and He doesn't explain it to me, but I trust there is a reason for why He does - and doesn't - do things. I don't need God to do anything to prove His existence in the 3-D world.
