Introduction: Have there been times when you wished that you could
sit in the same room with God and talk with Him about your situation?
Most Christians would undoubtedly say, “Yes, I would love to talk
directly with God!” What if we asked God this same question and He
responded “Yes, I would love to give you some better guidance!” Does
this raise a new issue? Is there some aspect of your life about which
you are completely satisfied to be “unclear” when it comes to God’s
opinion? This is the first in our series of lessons by which we will
learn more about the ways in which God communicates with humans. Our
goal is to help to increase our awareness of God’s will. Let’s dive
into our lesson!

  1. Direct Revelation


    1. Read Genesis 3:8-13. How would you like to be in the place
      of Adam and Eve right now?


      1. Would they have any doubt about what God wanted them
        to know?


        1. Would they rather not know God’s thoughts?


      2. What was God’s reason for wanting to talk with them?


    2. Read Revelation 12:7-9. Why were Satan and his followers
      tossed out of heaven? (There was war – a conflict between
      God and them.)


      1. What would be your best guess as to the relative
        timing of Revelation 12 and Genesis 3? (Since Satan
        tempted Eve, logically the battle and the “toss” of
        Revelation 12 comes before the temptation in the
        garden.)


    3. Step back a minute and think about this. If you are God,
      and your enemy is running around on the same planet as
      your new creation, would you want to have clear lines of
      communication with your creation?


      1. Why would God put us together with Satan and his
        angels? (I don’t know. Clearly God wants clear lines
        of communication and clearly this world is the
        battleground between good and evil.)


    4. Read Exodus 33:17-20. Are God and man still in
      communication?


      1. What has happened between the time of Adam and Eve
        and the time of Moses that face-to-face conversation
        with God no longer possible? (Sin entered the world.
        Part of the judgment on humanity seems to be that in
        their sinful condition they could no longer see God’s
        face.)


    5. Read Exodus 3:1-6. How can you resolve this conflict? This
      makes it appear that Moses could have seen God in the
      burning bush. (Read John 1:18. After humans were banished
      from the Garden of Eden, God never directly speaks to them
      in His glorious “God form.” God either appears in human
      form(as He did in Jesus) or in the form of an angel.)


    6. Read 2 Samuel 23:1-3. King David says that God spoke to
      him and through him. What does this suggest about other
      ways that God has revealed Himself? (God gave messages to
      humans through King David. In addition, God is directly
      speaking to David in some way which does not present God’s
      glorious “God form.”)


      1. Read 1 Chronicles 28:11-12. How does this show us
        that God spoke to King David? (Through the Holy
        Spirit.)


    7. Read John 16:7, 12-13. Do you have to be a prophet to have
      the Holy Spirit speak to you? (No. The Holy Spirit can
      speak to us directly or through another person. He speaks
      to the entire world to convict us of sin.)


    8. How would you summarize the transition in the way God
      directly speaks to humans after sin? (God never again
      speaks to us face-to-face in His glorious God form.
      However, He does speak directly to us through the other
      members of the Trinity – Jesus and the Holy Spirit.)


      1. Whether God the Father speaks to us, or Jesus or the
        Holy Spirit, is it all direct revelation? (Yes. If
        you believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, then any
        one of these forms of communication is a direct
        revelation from God.)


  2. Indirect Revelation


    1. We have seen that God speaks through humans to other
      humans. The law ranks the reliability of information.
      When making a determination of what is the truth, the law
      prefers hearing something directly from the speaker rather
      than indirectly. What is the potential problem of speaking
      through others? (In court, direct testimony is always
      better than second-hand testimony because it is more
      accurate.)


    2. Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17. What other source of learning
      about God’s will do we find in this text? (The Bible.)


      1. What does it mean to be “God-breathed?” (Read Acts
        1:15-16. This gets back to our discussion of speaking
        through King David. This is an example of the Bible
        being composed of writings of men which found their
        source in the Holy Spirit.)


        1. Is the Bible direct or indirect revelation?
          (Unless the person is acting like a pen or
          merely a transcriber, then the law would look at
          this just like any other indirect communication.
          This is a subject we will discuss in greater
          detail in later weeks.)


    3. Which would give you the most accurate information about
      God’s will for you: 1) Reading the Bible to see what God
      has revealed about your situation; or, 2) Having God speak
      through a messenger to you about your situation? (If God
      has given a specific message to you, that would logically
      be more accurate because it would cut out the problem of
      you figuring out which Bible advice best applies to your
      situation.)


    4. Read Acts 16:6. What other way does this suggest that God
      can communicate with humans? (Arranging circumstances to
      block certain actions.)


  3. Catching the Revelation


    1. As you consider the ways we have learned that God can
      speak to humans, how would you rank them in terms of
      reliability?


      1. Would you agree that face-to-face conversation is the
        most reliable way to get the word from God?


      2. Would you agree that next in line is direct
        revelation – the Holy Spirit speaking directly to
        you?


      3. Would you agree that the next in line is God speaking
        a message to another human to give specifically to
        you? Or, would a silent “block” be next in line for
        reliability?


      4. Would you agree that last in line is God speaking to
        a messenger who then writes down God’s words for
        others to apply to their specific situation? For
        example, the Bible?


    2. Are you comfortable with this logical ranking? Many
      Christians (including me at this point in our study)
      consider a clear statement in the Bible much more
      persuasive then what someone tells me that God said to
      them. Except for face-to-face conversation, I have been
      conditioned to accept the Bible as the highest form of
      communication from God.


      1. Read 1 Kings 13:18. You are welcome to read this
        entire astonishing story. The point for us is that
        one prophet lied to another about what God had said.
        What does this do to our ranking? (Any time God is
        supposed to have spoken through another human, it
        injects the problem of the quality of the messenger.)


      2. Read Jeremiah 23:25-26. Aside from deliberate lying,
        what other reliability issue arise from indirect
        revelation? (These prophets are called liars, but the
        text suggests that they are deluded – meaning that
        they might not realize that they are lying.)


      3. Read Jeremiah 17:9. What does this tell us is a
        potential problem with direct revelation? For
        example, the Holy Spirit speaking to us? (Our hearts
        are evil. We would be inclined to twist what we
        heard.)


        1. Read Isaiah 6:9-10. What arises from the problem
          of an evil heart? (We have trouble hearing or
          understanding the message given to us because we
          want a different message.)


      4. Read Genesis 3:1-5. Assume what would be equally
        possible, that the serpent did not appear at all, it
        was just a voice. What new issue arises about direct
        revelation from the Holy Spirit? (You have to know
        who is speaking to you. If you have an evil heart (as
        we all do), then we might easily be deluded into
        thinking that the Holy Spirit was speaking when in
        fact Satan was speaking.)


    3. This is just an introduction into our study for the rest
      of the quarter. We are not going to resolve the best means
      of communication today. However, before we end I want us
      to look at another form of revelation.


  4. General Revelation


    1. Read Psalms 19:1-3. The Bible tells us this is
      communication. What kind of communication is this? (This
      would be “general revelation.”)


      1. What is the purpose of general revelation? (For me,
        its greatest importance is to prove the existence of
        God. That there really is a God would want to
        communicate with us.)


    2. Friend, would you like to know God’s will? If so, let’s
      continue on this study to determine God’s best means of
      communicating with us.


  5. Next week: The Prophetic Gift.