The Cessationist Professor
Jack Deere describes his own journey from being a cessationist seminary professor - one who believed God no longer spoke directly to people - to experiencing God's voice for the first time.
As a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, Deere had been taught and taught others that the gift of prophecy ended with the apostles. God only spoke through Scripture now. Then he met John Wimber and witnessed things that challenged everything he believed.
An Unmistakable Voice
The turning point came when he was praying and sensed God speaking clearly to his heart about a situation. It wasn't an audible voice, but it was unmistakably specific and unlike his own thoughts. The impression told him something he couldn't have known naturally, which later proved true.
"I was terrified," Deere writes. "All my theological training said this couldn't be happening. But it was happening. God was speaking, and I had to choose whether to listen or explain it away."
Learning to Listen
He chose to listen. Over the following months, he learned to recognize God's voice - sometimes through impressions, sometimes through dreams, sometimes through Scripture coming alive in new ways. His theology changed, and eventually, so did his career. He left academia to pursue a ministry built on hearing God.