When God speaks to us

God speaks to us most commonly as we read His word (Ps.119:105). People refer to it variously as receiving light or revelation, the word becoming alive, God speaking to us personally etc. The Bible, the word that God has given to us as a gift, is very precious for this reason. But even the people who take the trouble to read it carefully often respond to it in different ways. Many people read it as a religious requirement, without expecting to hear anything from God. For some people, it gives them material to prepare a message or article for other people. A few people do research to find out different details about its origin, cultural and political background, etc., and assume they are scholars. A most common mistake seems to be to apply it to other people to judge them. They either share it with them or wish that they would see it somehow! But in all this, the main purpose of the word, which is to give light to our path, gets missed, because the readers are occupied with many other motives.

People have different concepts even about salvation. For many it is to be saved from hell and to go to heaven. For many others it is about forgiveness of sins so that they can go to heaven when they die. Because of a watering down of the Gospel, many are not even aware that salvation is meant to deliver us from all the effects of sin (Mt.1:21). When we first come to Jesus repenting from our sins and asking for forgiveness, our past sins are immediately forgiven and our punishment taken away. As we walk in obedience to Him in daily life, we can increasingly experience freedom from its guilt and its power in daily life (Lk.9:23;Ro.6:14). The various consequences of our past sins will get fully removed only in eternity, but we can experience the beginning of this here in this life itself.

In order to experience salvation the first thing is that we must be open to the conviction of our sins from the Holy Spirit working in our heart and mind. But Satan is working hard to prevent this from happening. One way he does this is to confuse people into thinking that conviction of sin is actually condemnation. But conviction brings us a desire to set things right, while condemnation takes away hope. Many Christians who have fallen into this trap try to avoid seeing their own sins and mistakes, seeking to avoid condemnation. Satan also tells people that 'introspection' is a bad thing! So people try not to apply the truths in the Bible to themselves, but they go after promises which, they hope, will make everything right.