God’s Written Word and God’s Spoken Voice Part 1

GOD’S WRITTEN WORD AND HIS VOICE ARE NOT THE SAME     
Jews and Christians have a long history of believing that God’s written word (i.e. the Bible) has the same spiritual value as his spoken voice. This wrong thinking is the root problem of their religions. It orients people to using their minds for intellectual understanding instead of using their hearts to hear God’s spoken voice.

STUDY TIPS: See Bible History and How to Hear God’s Spoken Voice.

When religious leaders say, or write, “hear the word of the Lord”, they are equating the power of their spoken voice or their written words with God’s voice spoken to the heart. This is sheer arrogance in which  religious leaders lift themselves up to be equal to God. It can also be said of religious leaders that they are false prophets who boldly represent themselves to be true prophets. As the Bible puts it, they are impostors who, disguised as angels of light, deceive people into believing that faith and religion are identical. They couldn’t be more wrong. Faith and religion are not the same.

STUDY TIP: See Serpent, Devil, Satan, Adversary, Demons, Evil Spirits and Anti-Christs for more about people who claim to be equal to God.

When anyone says “I have a word from God for you”, or says anything else that implies that they have wisdom and authority to speak on God’s behalf, they, in effect, say that whatever you hear from me has the same accuracy, power and value as words spoken by God’s mouth. This too is sheer arrogance that places the speaker on a spiritual par with God.

COMMENTARY ON SPEAKING FOR GOD: It must be said that there are  people who do speak for God. Those who do reliably speak for God are true prophets/messiahs who are sent by God and anointed by God to speak for him. Jesus is the premier example of what it means to be a New Covenant disciple who is sent by God to speak for him.

People who believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him must know how to discern the difference between those who only claim to speak for God and those who do, in fact, speak with God’s authority. Much of the Bible is devoted to understanding these differences. Failure to discern between those who do have Godly authority to speak and those who do not have that authority results in deception and religion. See Bread, Food and Wine, FALSE PROPHETS and TRUE PROPHETS and COVENANT COMPARISONS: PURE RELIGION AND DEFILED RELIGION for insights on discerning who speaks for God and who doesn’t.

Religious leaders with and without titles (e.g. rabbi, pastor, etc.) and degrees who presume to speak for God are usurpers and imposters who represent that what they speak is equal to God’s spoken voice. They are, in their eyes, like God.

In God’s eyes, however, they are other gods, idols, evil angels, false prophets and Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil whose words seem good for food but yield forbidden fruit that causes death for those who eat it.

STUDY TIP: See Bread, Food and Wine and Wood (trees), Gold, Silver, Stone for more about Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Religious leaders are free to speak and write in this way, of course, just as people are free to listen to them and read what they write. In Biblical symbolism, people are free to eat (i.e. listen to and read) the words (i.e. evil, soulish food) of religious leaders just as they are free to eat (i.e. hear) God’s spoken words which are good, spiritual food from trees of life (e.g. true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, warriors).

Being free to choose, however, does not protect people from the wrong belief that their religious leaders (i.e. gods, idols, evil angels, false prophets, Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil) speak for God. Having a religious title or a degree or a name brand ministry is actually a sign that a religious leader is a false prophet — not someone who can be trusted to speak for God. The truth is that religious leaders speak out of the evil imaginations of their hearts — not for God. People who listen to religious leaders fail the test (i.e. temptation) that God has set up for them. In Biblical language, people who fall into such deception yield to temptation to sin. Consider the following study tip about temptation:

STUDY TIP: UNDERSTANDING TEMPTATION

Matthew 4:1-11: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Begone, Satan! for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'” 11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

COMMENTARY: This story directly follows Jesus’ baptism which represents his anointing as a messiah. This event changed everything about Jesus’ relationship with religion. Up to this point, Jesus a member in good standing within the Jewish religious community. He was a son of man biologically and he was a son of man in terms of his religion (i.e. he learned how to be religious from his parents and religious leaders.)

After his baptism he spent a period of time (symbolically represented as 40 days and 40 nights) fasting from religion. This is exactly what God commanded in the Fourth Commandment. In other words, everyone around him was practicing religion but he did not and could not practice religion because he knew religion is sin. Symbolically speaking, the baptism in water had cleansed him from religion.

The story begins with Jesus going into the wilderness community of Judaism. Being in the wilderness is a way of saying Jesus lived in the world of religion but not a member of the world of religion. It is important to note that Jews, Christians and Muslims live in the world of religion and are members of the world of religion. It does not matter which religion people practice, they are all in the world of religion. And so, they are members of the world of religion, but they are not like Jesus.

Next, we find a religious leader (i.e., the devil) from the world of religion meeting with Jesus. The goal of the religious leader is to convince Jesus that he should return to religion. He does this by quoting several literal scriptures to tempt Jesus to become religious again.

In each temptation, the religious leader (i.e. devil) implies that Jesus would receive a reward if he would interpret scripture literally and apply it literally in religious beliefs and practices. Because Jesus had practiced religion for the first thirty years of his life, he understood the temptations to become religious again and to make a name for himself through religion. But, because he was washed clean from religion, and because he was anointed by God’s spirit, he cannot be tempted to be religious again. In his “born again” condition he is now on a mission to destroy religion. To return to religion after being washed clean from it would be like a dog returning to its vomit.

Because Jesus understood that religion is based on the literal words of the Bible, he counters the religious leader’s temptations to interpret  scripture literally with the spiritual meanings of scripture revealed to him by God’s voice. He always listens to God’s voice and never yields to the temptation to apply scripture literally.

In the first temptation, the devil does not quote a specific scripture but makes a general reference to Jesus as the Son of God with the suggestion that he, being a son of God, has the same creative ability and power that God has. Jesus of course rejects this argument because he did not think of himself as being equal to God.

Jesus also knows that God is very comfortable being invisible (i.e. spiritual) and has no need or desire to display his power through physical miracles that appeal to man’s desire to see physical signs and wonders. Jesus, therefore, will not perform a miracle that would bring glory to himself. Religious leaders always do things that will attract people to them.  Jesus would never show off like that.

Jesus only did what he saw the father doing. That means Jesus does not do what the father does not do. Because the father would not do a physical miracle just to show off his power, Jesus also could not be tempted to do a miracle just to prove that he could do it. He therefore resists the temptation to do what the religious leader suggests.

The temptation do the miracle of turning a stone into bread agrees with Christian beliefs based on the literal Bible stories that God performs physical miracles (i.e. signs and wonders.) Jesus knew that the only miracle God performs is changing hearts. And Jesus understood that stories of physical miracles are only parables of the miracle of changed hearts. Therefore, he uses another scripture that makes clear the truth that God’s word is the only power that can create new life.

Jesus would not try to perform any kind of miracle (physical or spiritual). First, he does not consider that equality with God is something he can grasped. He understood clearly that he was only a servant sent by God, and anointed by God to speak for God.

Jesus knows that God does not alter his natural laws to do miracles that show how powerful he is. He knows that God’s power is only evident in the power of his voice to change hearts. To do a physical miracle would be against God’s character and his laws which do not change.

Furthermore, Jesus knows that the devil’s oblique reference to creation as a physical event is a deceptive temptation to be religious. Jesus knows that the creation story is a symbolic representation of spiritual re-creation — not physical creation.

In the third temptation, the religious leader (i.e. devil) demonstrates his authority over religious kingdoms. If he did not have that authority, he could not promise to give that authority to Jesus. The devil does not quote a particular scripture in this temptation, but he is challenging Jesus to violate the First Commandment regarding worship of other gods.

In all three temptations Jesus counters literal scripture with his paraphrased interpretations of Deuteronomy 6:13-18:

You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his name. 14 You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you; 15 for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. 16 “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land which the LORD swore to give to your father.

In his responses to the devil and his quoting of Deuteronomy 6:13-18, Jesus makes two important points about interpreting scripture:

First, he does not agree with the devil’s literal interpretation. Second he interprets the written word with the correct spiritual understanding. He does this by introducing subtleties and nuances that cannot be found in the literal words. These subtleties and nuances can be understood only when the law is written on the hearts of New Covenant disciples. They are spiritually discerned. They are possible only when there is a level of intimacy that allows knowing God face to face (i.e. spirit to spirit, his mouth to our ear, because God does not have a physical face). This is the essence of knowing God.

In making these interpretations, Jesus shows the serious problems people face when they listen to religious leaders and interpret the law literally. Basically, what happens is that they end up idolizing religious leaders who have tempted them to adopt literal interpretations of the written word of the Bible instead of listening to God’s spoken voice. In practical terms, they end up following religious laws based on the literal words of the Bible.

The story of Jesus’ temptation is a parable for how people become religious. The devil is a type of religious leader who insists on interpreting the Bible literally. The devil is an example of a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil who leads people to sin. Jesus is an example of a New Covenant disciple who resists the temptation to sin because he listens to God’s spoken voice and is not deceived by false prophets who promise rewards to people who follow their teachings.

This understanding of temptation leads us to the definition of sin. To understand this definition, it is necessary to first understand that, in God’s view, there are two kinds of food: Good spiritual food, and evil, soulish food. 

STUDY TIP: DEFINITION OF SIN

Eating (i.e. taking into your heart and mind) the spoken or written words of anyone other than God or his anointed spokespersons (i.e. true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, warriors).

Instead of listening to and obeying God’s voice, Adam and Eve listened to the voice of the serpent. This story is a simple picture of the introduction to the sin of religion:

Eating fruit from the trees of knowledge of good and evil instead of eating fruit from the trees of life.

In this definition of sin, we also have the justification for calling religion sin:

Religion always involves consuming (i.e. reading and/or listening to) the words of religious leaders (e.g. false prophets, Serpent, Devil, Satan, Adversary, Demons, Evil Spirits and Anti-Christs) who always interpret the Bible literally and never listen to God’s spoken voice which interprets (i.e. explains) the symbolic/spiritual meanings of mysteries, Symbols, Signs, Types, Parables, Copies, and Shadows found in scripture.

With these understandings, it can be said that eating (i.e. consuming) the written or spoken words of Old/First Covenant religious leaders constitutes sin in God’s eyes. These leaders/teachers are also called idols, False Prophets, Judas, Kings, Queens and Princes, Pharisees and Scribes, Serpent, Devil, Satan, Adversary, Demons, Evil Spirits and Anti-Christs, foolish, worthless, stupid shepherds. In modern times they are called Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Rabbis, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists

People who listen to these false prophets practice idolatry because they listen to and obey religious leaders instead of listening to and obeying God’s voice.

Listening to false prophets is the sin of idolatry. Since Religion is Idolatry, religion is sin.

This condition is contrast with New Covenant disciples who are anointed by God to speak on his behalf through the power and influence of his spirit. These are called True Prophets, high priests, messiahs, angels, witnesses and Warriors.

Because religious leaders (i.e. idols) do not speak for him, God will tear down the high places from which these self-proclaimed authorities speak and write. He considers these religious leaders to be his enemies.

Moreover God will not listen to anyone who listens to these other gods and false prophets. He is emphatic that he wants his people to listen to his voice spoken through his chosen true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, warriors. 

AUTHOR’S NOTE: We are well aware that throughout this website we have presumed to speak for God by interpreting the spiritual meanings of scripture. But, there are several major differences between what people will read here compared to typical religious teaching:

The issue of dependency on religious leaders for teaching about God is addressed throughout this website, but particularly in these pages:

This dependency on religion and religious teachers has had an adverse effect on Christians and Jews ever since God gave the tablets of the law to Moses. Since then, Jews and Christians have stumbled over the law by interpreting it literally instead of symbolically.

The stumbling block includes religious teaching that says obedience to the literal, written word of God as taught by religious leaders satisfies God’s commands to obey his voice and immunizes them from warnings about not listening to his voice.

People wrongly think, therefore, that, when God said ‘faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ,” he meant the following:

  • Hearing God’s voice means the same thing as reading words written by men on a page.
  • Hearing what religious leaders speak and reading what they write is the equivalent of hearing God’s voice.

These beliefs are both totally wrong. Religions that practice and promote  these beliefs have stumbled over the written law and they sin by listening to human voices — not to God’s spoken voice.

In their deception, people wrongly think that spoken messages (i.e. sermons) and books written by religious leaders have the same spiritual value as God’s word spoken to their hearts. These are lies perpetrated by religious leaders, speakers and writers, whose authority, status and income depends on the deception that God has chosen them to speak for him.

The truth is that religious leaders are false prophets who do not speak for God. They actually speak out of the imaginations of their minds. The same is true for any religious person who might presume to interpret scripture or speak a word of knowledge or word of wisdom. What they speak becomes the stuff of man-made religion which, in God’s eyes, is idolatry.

Religious leaders effectively create a religious business out of their interpretations of the literal Bible. And those who are not leaders with titles, but who still presume to speak for God, also  speak out of the imaginations of their minds. Thinking they are spiritually wise, they vainly chase after the wind (i.e. spirit) by displaying their worldly knowledge. Instead of instructing people with Godly wisdom, they deceive them with lies. When they speak and teach, they practice their righteousness so that others can see how spiritual they are. They are all false prophets who speak worldly knowledge — not the kind of knowledge that comes from hearing God’s voice.

True prophets, on the other hand, interpret the Bible symbolically — not literally — because they can hear God’s voice and are taught by the spirit of God. They  understand the mystery of Symbols, Signs, Types, Copies, Shadows and Patterns by listening to God’s spoken voice. They report what they hear without self-interest. When they do speak, their only desire is to set people free from captivity to religion so that they might worship God in spirit and truth. They preach three main messages:

  1. Religion is the sin of idolatry.
  2. Repent for practicing the sin of idolatry and turn back to God.
  3. Listen to God’s voice.

These messages are not the messages of Old/First Covenant religionists who do not speak for God but  speak out of the imaginations of their minds only for self interest. True prophets speak for God without self-interest with the sole purpose of doing justice by setting people free from religion. Their main messages are these:

These messages are not received quietly or complacently by most religious people who are convinced in their minds and hearts that they are true worshipers and that they know God because they read the Bible, quote scripture and follow religious laws. Religious people will be offended by these messages and will consider the messengers to be heretics. Religious people will go so far as to consider that true prophets are their enemies because they want to tear down their religions. That is why true prophets are warriors who live in constant conflict with religious people.

True prophets teach people to use their spiritual eyes and ears — not their natural eyes and ears — to listen God with their hearts. This teaching insures that people do not become dependent on human teachers which is what false prophets do when they encourage people to keep coming back to them for instruction.

God is very particular about the qualifications of the messengers he chooses to teach his people about him. He wants to do the teaching himself, and he can do that only through people who have his laws written on their hearts. That is what the New Covenant is all about. Anyone who teaches otherwise is God’s enemy.

Because of generations of false teachings about these matters, religious people do not understand that there is a big difference between learning about God from human teachers and listening to God’s voice. Because they have not been taught to listen to his voice, they do not know that God’s spoken voice has definite, discernible qualities that are not commonly known or understood. Thus, they do not experience the spiritual life that only comes from the mouth of God.

Here are a few rules of thumb to consider when trying to discern if we have heard God’s voice or not:

GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR HEARING GOD’S VOICE:
WHAT GOD’S VOICE IS NOT LIKE:
WHAT GOD’S VOICE IS LIKE (HIS SPIRITUAL LANGUAGE):

Of course these human words are inadequate attempts to explain totally spiritual events (i.e. hearing God’s voice). These human words are, nonetheless, useful guides to understanding when the event of hearing God’s voice has occurred.

STUDY TIP: Even though the Bible is full of dark sayings, proverbs and riddles, figures of speech, words of the wise and riddles, dreams and visions, enigmas, difficult problems, shadows, types and patterns, and symbols, signs and allegories, there are parts of the Bible that may be trusted literally.

Learning how to know which parts are to be taken symbolically and which parts are to be taken literally is the big challenge for Bible students/disciples/learners. But it is not a challenge that is conquered by sheer will and human effort.

It is impossible to instruct anyone about how to know which parts are to be taken symbolically and which are to be taken literally. Understanding is a gift from God. The challenge is complicated by the fact that some scriptures can be and should be interpreted both literally and symbolically. For example, scriptures about how to relate to one another must be interpreted both ways. The literal ways are found in God’s Commands About How to Relate to One Another, the Consequences of Failure to Obey all Commands, and the Blessings of Obedience. And the symbolic interpretations are found in Love, Loving your neighbor as yourself, this link, this link and this link. People who hear God’s voice in their hearts will obey the literal words of the bible and the spiritual intent of those words. But, if they do not first obey the literal meaning, they will not understand or apply the spiritual meaning.

Knowing, or not knowing, depends on God alone who gives us spiritual eyes to see what we read and spiritual ears to hear his voice tell us how to interpret what we read. This is the spiritual art of hearing God’s voice.

Knowing what parts of the Bible to interpret literally and which parts to interpret symbolically is an important practical application of the ability to know the difference between good and evil. The good parts are the scriptures that resonate as understandings of truth in the heart and as  “aha” moments in which the spiritual meanings of scripture are revealed to us. Suddenly, a scripture we thought we knew well because it has been quoted often in religious doctrine is understood in a new way that you know is truth. These scriptures  teach us how to recognize the differences between pure religion and defiled religion, they humble us, and drive us away from religious beliefs and practices.

The evil parts are the scriptures which are used to justify religion when they are interpreted literally. Evil scriptures inspire the flesh to participate in the sin of religion.

The main condition that prepares us to hear God’s voice is that we stop listening to the voices of false prophets who always base their religious teachings on the literal, evil words of the Bible. When false prophets say “hear the word of the Lord,” they report words that are only evil imaginations of their hearts and minds. They are not anointed to speak for God. See this link for tips on how to identify false prophets.

When God says “listen to my voice” and “hear the word of the lord” he really means listen to “his” voice and hear “his” spoken word exclusively. That means listen to God himself and/or true prophets whom he sends to speak for him. It also means do not listen to the voices of false prophets. See this link for tips on identification of true prophets.

People who aspire to spiritual holiness would do well to regard these statements from God as commandments on a par with the Ten Commandments that make the way for seeing and hearing with spiritual eyes and ears.

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