Okay, so I listened to a sound byte the other day from “The View,”
Basically the lady said that Jesus hearing from you is prayer, and you hearing Jesus/God’s voice is a sign of mental illness.
So, what about Abraham and Moses? What about all the prophets and men of God in the Old Testament? What about Peter at Joppa in the book of Acts?
When we deny spirit, we deny reality. There is a spiritual realm as well as a physical. Spirits/Angels do talk to people. Some people who hear voices are mentally ill, but how do we know for certain whether or not they’re being oppressed by demons, or hearing angelic messengers, or whether it’s a misfiring of neurons?
Well, I think there’s some easy ways to tell. The girl with the divining spirit (demon) that harrassed Paul in Acts most likely heard its voice (or it had complete control over her).
I have a great friend who, has heard the voice of God twice in her life. Once when she was called to be baptized, and another when she missed an opportunity that was God’s will in a crucial circumstance.
I have another friend who is schizo-affective and hears voices. He’s on medication, but it doesn’t entirely clear them up. So, he prays for the gift of discernment, the ability to distinguish a good spirit from a bad one. I believe in that gift, and believe it’s necessary for every Christian to possess it to some extent, and especially Christians suffering from schizoid-related illnesses.
Maybe it’s not either or. Maybe it’s both. Spirits affect the human brain by altering it, the brain, having synapse firing and containing energy, respond to “energies”, and I cringe using that term. What i mean by an “energy” in this case is a spiritual being made not of matter but of energy.
I believe I’ve heard God’s voice at least a few times, but I’ve had a vision of Jesus when I was near death, and I’ve experienced supernatural things such as the presence of what I believed to be a ghost when I was a child.
Well, my friend certainly has an interesting life, but it’s balanced by his medicine but also, and this is essential for him: viewed through the perspective of his faith. Prayed about continuously, and believing the bible that, if we believe it is more than just fables, presumes that angels, demons, and God, all spirits, exist.
Secularists would deny this, that all physical matter is all that is. And Christians don’t have to prove anything to them. Atheists can believe this lie to their detriment. But even the electron is more energy than particle, even the sun produces all manner of radiation other than UV light and the visible spectrum.
So, since I believe the bible, let me offer this. In Acts, Paul, alone in Athens, preaches to the Aeropagus as to the nature of God. (Acts 17:16-34) God is not like an idol, a physical collection of matter. And in this sermon, Paul quotes no scripture, but rather a secular poet.
Better yet is Romans 1:20
“For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
So, then, there is enough evidence in nature and creation that atheists and secularists have no defense or good, legitimate reason not to believe in spirit and God. The burden of proof, then, is on them. Not to us, but to God on the judgment day when God will judge the secrets of all men.
Hope that helps.