An Honest Invitation

Before the session

Read this through. Bring the journal entries from week one if you kept them. Bring honesty.

Where we have been

We started this course with a question. Does God still speak today?

In week one we named the question, with care, in the company of every conviction in the room. We honoured cessationists. We honoured continuationists. We honoured the undecided.

In week two we walked the Old Testament pattern. The God of the Bible has always been a speaking God. Genesis to Malachi. From let there be light to the low whisper on Mount Horeb to the promise of Joel 2:28 that the Spirit would be poured out on all flesh.

In week three we walked the New Testament. Pentecost. Peter's this is what was spoken. Paul's earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. The Thessalonians' do not despise prophecies, but test everything. We saw what the New Testament writers actually expected of the believers they were writing to.

In week four we honoured the cessationist tradition. Calvin. Edwards. Warfield. MacArthur. Schreiner. We named what cessationism gets right and we agreed with all of it. The sufficiency of Scripture. The closed canon. The rigour about testing. The suspicion of charlatans. The protection of vulnerable believers. The centring of Christ.

In week five we made one careful distinction. Revelation closed with the canon. Illumination, the Spirit's ongoing application of the Word to particular hearts, has been confessed by the Reformed tradition for centuries. Calvin's internal testimony. Edwards's Personal Narrative. Spurgeon's personal preaching. Owen on communion with God. Sufficiency of Scripture and ongoing voice are not at odds. They are companions.

Tonight is the close.

The full testing framework

Before we walk to the close, we want to give you the full testing framework, in one place, written out plainly. This is the framework Doxa is built around. It is also the framework Paul gives the Thessalonians and the Corinthians. Test everything. Hold fast what is good.

Whatever you sense, in any week to come, however small, however dramatic, run it through these.

1. Scripture. Does it accord with the whole counsel of Scripture? Not just one verse pulled out. The whole. Does it agree with the character of Christ as the Bible reveals Him? If it does not, set it aside without offence. The canon is the plumbline. Anything that contradicts the canon is not from the God of the canon.

2. Spirit. Does it bear the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). The Holy Spirit's voice produces His fruit. If what you sense is producing pride, division, fear, manipulation, or self-importance, it is not Him.

3. Community. Does the gathered church confirm or caution? Bring it to trusted believers, especially mature ones who walk in sound doctrine. The New Testament does not give us a private hearing-God-on-our-own posture. It gives us a community that tests together.

4. Time. Does it endure or evaporate? Time is a quiet but reliable test. What seemed like a strong impression in the moment may fade in a week. What seemed quiet at first may grow stronger as you walk with it. Do not rush to act on something fresh. Sit with it.

5. Specificity. Is it the kind of word the New Testament calls prophecy? Upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation (1 Cor 14:3). Not predictive certainty about the future. Not new doctrine. Not infallible utterance. If what you sense is presenting itself as a guarantee of an outcome, be slow.

6. Fruit it produces in you. What does sitting with this word produce? Humility or pride? Worship or self-importance? A softer heart toward God, or a harder one toward others? The Spirit's voice softens. The enemy's voice hardens. Notice the direction.

If a sense survives all six tests, hold it as a possible word of illumination. Steward it carefully. It may be Him. Or it may not. Either way, you have honoured the process.

The risks both ways, honestly

It is worth naming, before we close, that this question carries real risks in both directions.

The continuationist risk is hearing too much. Becoming subjective. Mistaking impulse for the Spirit. Building a life on impressions that were never tested. Following a "the Lord told me" into a marriage, a job, a move, a divorce, a financial decision that the rest of life later shows was not Him. Falling for false prophets who confidently predicted what never happened. Losing the anchor of Scripture under the pressure of personal experience. This risk is real. The cessationist tradition has been wise to warn against it.

The cessationist risk is hearing too little. Treating Scripture as a closed library rather than a living word. Becoming purely intellectual in the Christian life. Dismissing the Spirit's ongoing work in others' lives because it does not fit the framework. Hardening over time into a defensive posture that finds it hard to receive a friend who says "I have been thinking about you, and this Scripture came to mind for you.” Missing the Shepherd's voice not because He is silent but because we have stopped expecting it. This risk is also real. The continuationist tradition, at its best, has tried to name it.

Both risks are pastoral. Neither is a small concern. The careful believer will guard against both.

Three honourable destinations

This is the heart of the close. We promised at the start of this course that no one would be pushed toward a particular conclusion. We meant it. The course ends with three honourable destinations, and every one of them is genuinely honourable.

Destination 1: settled cessationism.

You may have walked through six weeks and concluded that, on the whole, your tradition is right. You believe Scripture is sufficient. You believe the gifts ceased. You believe the Spirit's work today is through Word and sacrament, illumination and conviction, but not through prophecy as the New Testament practised it. That is a faithful place to land. You are in the company of Calvin (mostly), Warfield, MacArthur, and many of the wisest pastors in church history. Continue to honour Scripture. Continue to trust the Spirit's work in you, however you frame it. Be slow to dismiss what you hear in others, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Bless the believers in your church who walk a different road. They are your brothers and sisters.

Destination 2: an open hand toward the next step.

You may have walked through six weeks and concluded that you would like to take the next step into the practice. You have come to think that sufficiency and voice are not at odds. You want to learn, gently, how to hear the Shepherd's voice with discernment. The next course in this series is Hearing His Voice. It assumes the question this course has been asking is settled. It does not assume any dramatic experience. It teaches the careful, ongoing practice of attentive listening, testing, and stewarding. It is the natural next step for anyone who finishes this course wanting to keep walking.

If you take that next course, take it with the framework of this course intact. You have been formed in honour for the cessationist tradition. Carry that into the next room. Be slow. Be testing. Be charitable. Be Christ-centred.

Destination 3: the freedom to remain undecided.

You may have walked through six weeks and still not be sure. That is also honourable. Not every question needs to be settled in six weeks. Some honest questions take a lifetime. Does God still speak today? may be one of those questions for you. If you are not ready to decide, do not decide. Stay open. Keep walking. Keep reading. Keep praying. The Shepherd is patient. He is not in a hurry to be agreed with. He is mostly interested in being followed.

All three destinations are honourable. All three honour Scripture. All three honour Christ. We will bless every one of them tonight.

A word about what this course was not

Before we close, we want to say plainly what this course was not.

It was not a campaign for any particular doctrine of the gifts. It was not an attempt to persuade you to a charismatic experience. It was not a sneaky path into church practices you do not endorse. It was not asking you to dismiss your tradition. It was not asking you to pretend you have settled something you have not.

What it was, was an inquiry. One honest question, walked carefully, in the company of Scripture, with people you trust. Whatever you take from it, take it with our blessing.

An honest prayer

Here is a prayer to close on. Pray it tonight, alone, after the session. Pray it in your own words, or these.

Lord Jesus, I have sat with this question for six weeks. If You are speaking, give me ears to hear You. If You are silent, give me grace to wait. Either way, You are good. Either way, You are the Shepherd. Either way, I am Yours. Speak, Lord, Your servant hears. Or be silent, Lord, Your servant trusts. Amen.

That prayer is the posture. Hearing or not hearing, the Shepherd is the Shepherd. The relationship is not contingent on whether you receive a personal word this week.

A final scripture

We end where Samuel ended.

"Speak, Lord, for your servant hears." (1 Samuel 3:10)

That is the posture. Not certainty. Not technique. Not insistence. Just the willingness to say, with the boy in the temple, if You speak, I am here. Whether that posture meets the speech of God this week or this year or this decade is between you and Him.

A word to the pastor

If you are a pastor finishing this course with a small group from your congregation, thank you for trusting us with them.

If your congregation is mixed, you will now have people ready to take the next step into the practice and people who are not. Honour both. Do not let either group despise the other. The cessationist who declined to go further has not failed. The continuationist who wants to go on has not crossed a line. They are walking the same Lord at different paces.

Bless every honest destination. That is your work tonight.

Before you come to the session

Bring three things to the group.

• Where are you tonight? Settled cessationist, open to the next step, or honestly undecided? You do not have to defend it. Just name it.
• One sentence on what this course gave you that you did not have six weeks ago.
• One Scripture from the course you want to take with you into the next chapter.