God’s Word for You
Acts 18:9-11 Does God speak to us in prayer?
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, October 27, 2020
9 Now the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision one night: “Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking and do not be silent. 10 For I myself am with you, and no one will approach you to harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching the word of God among them.
Throughout Acts, the Lord directs Paul where to go and where not to go. Now he tells Paul to stay put. No more running for a while. The Lord says, “I have many people in this city.” This needs to be pondered. First, we understand that he means human people. It isn’t as if the Lord was saying, “I have many angels here to surround you, so that you will be safe.” The Lord has many angels all over. No, he is talking about the elect of God, people who were chosen in eternity to belong to God’s church, and now is the moment when they would be able to hear the word of God. So God told Paul to stay and preach.
What a relationship Paul had with the Lord. God’s messages to Paul came in visions, but they remind me of the way Abraham and the Lord spoke, or even Moses and the Lord, or Elijah. Our prayer life should bring us into close communication with the Lord, too, as long as we remember that he speaks to us in his Word, and we are the ones speaking when we pray. But as we have that give and take, which includes the confession and forgiveness we get in worship, we draw closer and closer to our heavenly Father. There are times in our lives when we ask the Lord for something in prayer, and he teaches us patience by letting us wait, sometimes for years and years. Other times, we hardly even think of asking for a thing or an event, and his response is instantaneous.
In our time, one of the most important things to learn from this passage is that God does not speak to us in our prayers. This is one of the greatest errors among Christians today, and it gets repeated so often that many of our own people have begun to believe it as if they were taught it from childhood. But God speaks to us in his Word, and not through a separate voice, as if the Spirit might buzz in our ears like swarms of flies or mosquitos. Since God has spoken to us in his Scriptures, we look to them for his message to us. Now, if a man prays for a wife, and the Lord gives him a wife, his prayer has been answered. But neither he nor his bride would be able to say that God had spoken to them. And if I ponder the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God for the sake of my sins, and I learn things by pondering and studying the Scriptures, things that I had not considered before, then God has spoken to me through the Scriptures, and not apart from them. What if I ponder a matter, such as the will of God in some part of life, apart from the Scriptures? Then any conclusion will not be directly from God, but from his handmaiden, which is my human reason. But I must never elevate the handmaiden of reason into becoming the Mistress of the house. That would be an abomination. God’s Word must reign supreme: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16).
If, on the other hand, I contemplate some matter and I am swayed by things I learned in the past, from preaching or teaching or the Catechism I memorized as a child or passages I have learned since, and I come to a conclusion about the matter, then God’s Word has still spoken, even though second-hand or from my memory alone. It is still God speaking through his Word. “From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).
There is not one verse or half-verse in all of the Bible that suggests or even hints that God speaks to his people apart from his Scriptures, directly into their minds as they pray. This is a terrible teaching, and we must beware of it. The devil can make us imagine all sorts of things if we begin to think that God will speak apart from his Word. “I gain understanding from your word, and so I hate every wrong path” (Psalm 119:104).
If I were to have a vision from God, I would be awed, terrified, and probably confused, so terrified that God would need to tell me to stop being afraid. I know that he would give me a clear, direct statement as he did here with Paul, then I would know it. But I would also be confident to say that it was a vision, and if I were to proclaim it in public I would put myself under the same judgment that Jeremiah imposed on the false prophets: “The prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true” (Jeremiah 28:9).
Don’t be jealous of Paul because God sometimes spoke to him in visions. Rather, be delighted that God has spoken to you directly in his holy Word. Spend your lifetime learning that Word, and subject yourself to it in every way, as the Holy Spirit enables you. Conform to God’s Word and God’s will, and then be generous as you share that Word and carry out that will in your life. His will is that you would be saved. That’s the message we take to the world.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.