Voices In Cornfields: Hearing God Speak?

You may recognize the reference in the title to the movie, Field of Dreams where a farmer, Ray Kinsella, hears a voice in his cornfield that says, “If you build it he will come.” He then takes the daring, risky, and completely illogical act of building a baseball field in his cornfield in Iowa. Later, Ray hears the voice again say, “Ease his pain” and this sets him off across country to find author Terrance Mann and take him to a game at Fenway Park where he soon discovers Terrance also saw a sign on the scoreboard that read, “Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham, Chisolm, Minn” and his major league stats: “One inning, zero at bats.” The voice says, “Go the distance” and Ray and Terrance go to Minnesota and discover “Doc Graham” died sixteen years earlier. On the way back to Iowa they pick up a young man looking to play baseball who happens to be Archie (Doc) Graham in his youth! I like the movie because I like baseball and the poignant theme of reconciliation to one's estranged father speaks powerfully to the father-son relationships of too many of us males! Yet, using its fictional genre, it promotes the concept of living by experiences - like listening to voices in cornfields and visions on scoreboards! Sadly, this actually appeals to many in our day who pursue the spiritual and mystical but not necessarily the God of Scripture.

Many Christians “live by experiences” and consider this the height of true spirituality and knowing God. As a new believer, I recall being interested in a young lady, who broke a bone in a basketball practice and that same evening around the same hour I suffered some pain. My young biblically illiterate mind considered a connection! So, I asked my Christian friend if he thought I may have suffered the pain “vicariously” or “in conjunction” with her! I'm sure he must have thought I was as crazy as the neighbors considered Ray Kinsella! He kindly said “no” and explained why he didn't think this was the proper interpretation of my experience. What a great lesson for me! It made me aware of the total subjectivity of “my interpretation” of my experience and our need to evaluate all experiences by biblical principles.

C J Mahaney in, Living The Cross Centered Life, in chapter two addresses the issue of “What You Feel vs. What Is Real” and makes many important observations but none more needed than, “Our feelings simply cannot be trusted.”i He writes, “It's a frightening experience to sit with individuals who actually insist that what they feel is ultimately more authoritative to them than what's written clearly in Scripture.”ii I sadly also have witnessed this in ministry. He reminds us that we either choose to live by listening to ourselves, that is, our constantly changing feelings about our circumstances, or we look outside ourselves to live by the objective, never-changing, completely true Word of God. We should have spiritual experiences and affections that arise from our relationship with Jesus but these should be the “inevitable effects of Scripture rightly understood and believed”iii and must never be allowed to take precedence over Scripture or be where we begin in our relationship with Christ.

So, you may ask, “What's the big deal?” The evangelical church is being inundated by a pursuit of “spiritual formation” courses, conferences, books etc that promote mysticism under the umbrella of “meditation or contemplation” as a means of drawing close to God and hearing God speak to oneself in “silence.” Well-known practices are “centering prayer” and “sacred reading” (lectio divina) and walking a labyrinth or prayer path. “Centering prayer” involves choosing a sacred word and silently focusing on the word as a means to draw God's presence into you for a period of about twenty minutes several times a day. This has obvious similarities to Transcendental Meditation!

“Sacred Reading” (lectio divina) is a slow meditative reading of Scripture that involves four stages of read/listen, meditate/reflect, pray/respond, and contemplate/rest. Sound good? Yet, P R Sterling notes, “The purpose of lectio divina is not to think about the meaning and application of a Bible verse or passage, but to gain an experience from it and even receive a personal word from God. There is a difference between reading the Bible to understand its meaning and apply it to our lives versus a method of focusing on a text to gain a mystical experience.”iv Many evangelicals promote mystic practices as a means to draw close to God including Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life, in chapter 11 where he encourages “breath prayers” and recommends Brother Lawrence a known Christian mystic writer. Mysticism promotes experience over Scripture in seeking to know God and can open one to spiritual deception, and produce physical, physiological and psychological symptoms.v

Have you ever witnessed to a Mormon? What makes it especially challenging is that Mormons place their experience above Scripture or logic when confronted with facts. Many evangelicals aren't much better and justify this with comments like, “I sense the Holy Spirit leading me.” Consider that people have argued that God “told them” to commit murder, a “logical” act if one's experience trumps Scripture's authority!vi There are only two references to being “led by the Spirit” (Rom 8:14, Gal 5:18) and when that is connected to a feeling, impression, prompting, or personal desire, the Holy Spirit is reduced from being a Person to a sensation.vii Paul isn't speaking of knowing God's will but rather of leading a godly life and of one's sanctification not God's “guidance.”

I was once told by a worship leader that God impressed upon that person that a certain song be sung and when I omitted it during the Sunday worship due to time factors I was queried whether God directed me to do so! Did I disobey God's will? I don't think so but this person was convinced God had indicated this song be sung!viii

Many popular authors promote experience in knowing God's will. Joyce Meyer says, “God delivers His word through signs, revelations, and internal confirmation. Ask God for the sensitivity to hear His voice.”ix K Hornok wisely asks, “If God’s revelation was cognitive, not emotive, then why should Christians think they can receive special revelation from God through their emotions or feelings today? Put another way, if God did not speak to Bible writers through their emotions before the completed Canon, why would He speak that way today when the Canon is complete? Therefore, in my opinion, since 'impressions' and 'inner promptings' cannot be proved as coming from God, it seems that they may be self-induced.”x We shouldn't put desires, impressions, promptings, and insights on an equal level with special revelation found in the Bible because our minds and motives are often flawed and affected by sin. Hornok cautions, “We are free to act on our impressions, ideas, or good desires if they do not violate Scripture. However, it must also be pointed out that we are never instructed or encouraged in the Bible to seek, listen to, or follow inner promptings or impressions" [his emphasis].xi

What is the biblical relationship between God's revelation in the Bible and our feelings and emotions? Hornok concurs with Mahaney that “Since all communication from God through the Bible is of a cognitive nature, it may well be that our feelings and emotions play a vital role in our response to that revelation. In other words, our intellect has the role of receiving and understanding revelation from God while our emotions have a role in responding to that revelation” [his emphasis].xii

Many either don't know, or ignore or don't understand the implication of Hebrews 4:12 “For the Word of God is living and active.” If we want to clearly hear God speak to us we need to listen to God speak to us through a proper understanding of the inspired, inerrant biblical texts. The writer of Hebrews teaches us that God continues to speak to mankind today, not in a cornfield but in the Bible! Are we listening?


Randy Mann

i (Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, 2006), 33.
ii Mahaney, Cross Centered, 34.
iii Mahaney, Cross Centered, 36.
iv “Christian Leadership And Mentoring: Contemplative Theology's Trojan Horse” JOTGES 20:39 (Autumn 2007), 33-34.
v Sterling, Trojan, 27-28.
vi Ken Hornok, “Does God Give Subjective Revelation Today? The Place Of Mysticism In Christian Decision Making” JOTGES 20:38 (Spring 2007), 18.
vii Hornok, Subjective, 26.
viii One can listen to a two-part series on “Knowing God's Will” on our website [Resources (Aug 26, Sept 2 2007)].
ix How to Hear From God: Learn to Know His Voice and Make Right Decisions, (Nashville: FaithWords, 2003).
x Hornok, Subjective, 23.
xi Hornok, Subjective, 24
xii Hornok, Subjective, 25.

Musings On Ethnicity

Growing up in rural Ontario, north of London, I had little exposure to ethnic concerns apart from what I saw or read in the news reports. I heard ethnic slurs as a young boy although I never used them but my first personal exposure to ethnic issues occurred as a young boy in 1967. In raising money for our baseball organization my coach promised to take whoever sold the most chocolate bars to a baseball game in Detroit. I'd never been to a major league baseball game and I was determined to win! My brother and I with the help of my father sold around $370 worth of bars at 50 cents a bar! My brother and I won and were promised we would be taken to a game but the ethnic based riots in July 1967 in Detroit led to postponing that promise until 1968.


There was no real ethnic diversity in the schools or churches I attended as I grew up. In the mid-1970's I attended seminary in Philadelphia and this was my first exposure to ethnic diversity. I lived in the dorms which were really only two floors of single rooms with a common kitchen and washroom facilities for all the men on each floor. We ranged in age from those still in their teens [like myself] to older men in their forties or fifties and we came from all parts of North America as was obvious by the various accents! There was also ethnic diversity and I thought nothing at the time of using the same common kitchen cutlery and dishes or washroom facilities. Strangely, I first noticed ethnic diversity driving home from church services on a Sunday morning. As the congregations gathered outside after their services I saw several different ethnic churches but none that were ethnically diverse! I knew even as a young Christian this wasn't God's intention and as churches we weren't fulfilling God's redemptive plan to unite all nations in Christ! My final two years at the seminary I worshiped in the small church that met in the chapel at the seminary. This church was ethnically diverse and eventually the pastor married a lovely young lady from that congregation uniting in marital communion their ethnic diversity.


As an avid sports fan, I was aware of the bigotry in major league baseball that arose in the late nineteenth century that Jackie Robinson became famous for challenging when he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As a Boston Celtics fan I was aware they had been instrumental in challenging the monolithic ethnic nature of the NBA. A recent book, Rebound! Basketball, Busing, Larry Bird, And The Rebirth Of Boston (MVP Books, 2008) even argues for the role of the Celtics in helping address ethnic issues in Boston. As a sports fan I've often viewed these ethnic issues through sports lenses.


In recent years, several sports movies have attempted to portray the ethnic tensions and prejudice that prevailed in North American society in the 1960's and 1970's. Glory Road recalls the struggle of the Texas Western College [now University of Texas at El Paso] basketball team to integrate their team and its impact on the small town of El Paso, Texas in the mid-1960's. The ethnic significance was that Texas Western started the first completely African American lineup and won the NCAA championship in 1966! In the movie, some of the controversial scenes of ethnic prejudice were Disney's “creative liberty” to enhance the theme of ethnic tensions. These “creative liberties” by Disney also are found in the movie, Remember The Titans the story of the 1971 T C Williams High School football team from Alexandria, VA who won the state championship. In 1971, three high schools in Alexandria were combined to form two junior high schools and one senior high school of junior and senior students at T C Williams. This required players from the previously ethnically segregated schools to now play together and compete for starting positions on the football team. Yet, T C Williams was previously integrated. As portrayed in the movie, African American Coach Herman Boone did get the head coaching job at T C Williams unexpectedly over Coach Bill Yoast and Boone did integrate the team by having them train at Gettysburg College. The success of the team did have a positive effect on the ethnic tensions in Alexandria.


In Acts 8:1 we read that persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem led them to scatter throughout Judea and Samaria and in this way the gospel spread. God can accomplish his redemptive purposes in many ways! I wonder if God is actively integrating churches in North America that have been slow to see His vision. A recent study indicates that churches are beginning to reflect more ethnic diversity. “We're far from a color-blind society, in religion or anything else, but there is some movement in churches as well as elsewhere,” said Mark Chaves, professor of sociology, religion and divinity at Duke University and lead researcher on the project. The study found that some congregations that were previously all-white now have a couple of minority families as members. Chaves said mostly black churches did not report a comparable change (Adelle M. Banks, “Churches More Diverse, Informal Than 8 Years Ago” Dec 26, 2008).

We are now witnessing greater ethnic diversity particularly in the major metropolitan centers of the world. D A Carson notes, “In some cities the pace of this change has been stunning. A bare three decades ago, Toronto was still largely white and at least substantially WASP. Now the United Nations says it is the most ethnically and culturally diverse city on the continent — and that includes Los Angeles” (“Challenges for 21st-Century Preaching”). While this stat has been disputed, Toronto is certainly one of the more ethnic diverse cities in North America and this has implications for churches and the gospel.

This provides for us in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) an opportunity to take the gospel to the “nations” that are literally in our neighborhoods! It also means our churches should reflect God's intent of unity in Christ with ethnic diversity as we seek to testify to the God who loved the world in all its ethnic diversity so much that he sent His Son, Jesus into the world to die to save sinners from every ethnic group (Jn 3:16). May our churches reflect God's eternal plan to gather people of “every tribe and language and people and nation” around His throne to worship Jesus (Rev 5:9)!


Randy Mann

Encouragement to Persevere from Hebrews

The readers of the book of Hebrews were tempted in their trials to live by their feelings and abandon Jesus (3:6). So the writer uses “truth” to warn them recalling Israel as an example of those who didn't walk in fellowship with God but disobeyed and provoked God (3:7-11). The emphatic use of “Today” (3:7) indicates that immediate action is required since God is speaking and they need to be listening!

The author speaks in chapters 3 and 4 of entering God's rest, which points to a place of blessing, peace and security in the presence of God. Disobedience cut Israel off from this blessing and we are warned lest we also miss this! Christians have been delivered from slavery to sin and are being led to our Promised Land [new heavens and earth] but we must also endure a period of testing in the wilderness of this world. Our wilderness wanderings “test” our faith as we face suffering, trials, losses etc. A W Pink wrote, “Testings reveal the state of our hearts – a crisis neither makes nor mars a man, but it does manifest him.”

From Israel's experience we are reminded that a complaining spirit is a sign of unbelief expressing doubt about God's wisdom and love. A complaining spirit reveals a heart that doesn't truly know God and His ways, that has not reflected upon His character and purposes and hasn't listen to God – in the Bible! If you read the Bible, what do you look for in it? Look for what it reveals about God! D G Barnhouse said, “How wonderful that when we are blinded by tears, we can nevertheless see our God...our tears...lenses through which he is magnified.” In Hebrews 3:12 the writer warns about having an unbelieving heart. How do we avoid it? We “fix our thoughts on Jesus” (3:1) in God's Word beholding Jesus' life, character, purposes and promises to us!

The writer argues in Hebrews 4:9 that Jesus gives “rest for men's souls” (cf. Mt 11:28-30) but like those who entered Canaan with Joshua [Gk “Jesus”] there were still enemies to fight and it's not a “completed rest.” We enter “the rest” [present tense in 4:3] but it still remains a future “Sabbath-rest” when all enemies will be defeated [sin, death, Satan] and we'll know a “peaceful rest”! God's rest on the 7^th day was one where everything was “good” [shalom] and for believers that “rest” is future as we're still in the wilderness! “The people of God” is an expression used only here (4:9) and in Hebrews 11:25 and refers in the OT to Israel and in the NT to Christian believers. God's rest is for “believers in Jesus” and others cannot and will not enter it due to unbelief.

We are to cease from striving to earn God's favor and rest securely on what Jesus has done for us in his life and death. In Hebrews 4:11 the writer urges that they make a quick and serious effort to enter the rest “so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.” How? By works? No, by faith in Jesus! How? Listening to and responding to God! Israel didn't listen to God's voice but hardened their hearts and didn't enter God's rest. “Delay hardens the heart, especially when we are fully aware that we have heard the voice of God in the inner soul. Every shrug of the shoulder that puts off acting on God’s urging for change, every toss of the head that says, 'I know I should, but I don’t care,' every attempt at outward conformity without inner commitment produces a hardening of the heart that makes repentance harder and harder to do” (R Stedman). So, how does one “make every effort to enter that rest”? By listening to God in the Word of God (4:12-13)! We are to listen both individually and corporately and allow God and his saints to use the Word to expose possible sin and hardness in our hearts (4:13). Jesus' heavenly high priestly ministry on our behalf (4:14-16) also is vital to our holding fast our confidence to the end as we pray to him and he prays for us!

The writer presents three “means of grace” to encourage perseverance. Fellowship and encouragement from others helps us to persevere (3:13) and God's Word is essential in revealing our sin and motives and stirring us to accountable living (4:12-13). The writer turns his focus to a third “means of grace,” the role of prayer, in 4:14-16.

Hebrews 4:14 says Jesus has “gone through the heavens” which points to Jesus' right to the supreme place in the universe at his ascension/exaltation, but there is more implied. Jesus was our High Priest appearing with his blood in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly tabernacle [God's presence] to obtain redemption for us (cf. Heb 9:11-14). We may approach Jesus confidently because he knows our weakness [human frailty] and can sympathize meaningfully with us. Jesus knows about physical weariness, hunger, physical limitations, human opposition and spiritual temptation - the very things we must endure. He “has been tempted ... just as we are” may mean “in the same way as we are tempted” or “by reason of his likeness to us” and both are true. With Jesus as our great High Priest, we can approach “the throne of grace” [used only here in the NT] that is into God's presence.

It is a “throne of grace” because 1) the one sitting on it is gracious, 2) we come to it by grace [Jesus' saving work on our behalf], 3) from it grace is dispensed to us. We experience grace a) as our sins are covered by Jesus' blood, b) the Spirit helps us with our faltering prayers (Rom 8:26), c) our sympathetic High Priest intercedes for us. We come boldly since Jesus and the Spirit intercede on our behalf with our Abba!

At this throne of grace we can find mercy, which we need because we have failed so often and we find grace which we need to be able to serve Jesus. C H Spurgeon said we go the “throne of grace” with 1) lowly reverence [in the presence of the great King], 2) great joy [we are welcomed and loved as adopted children in Jesus], 3) enlarged expectations [God is sovereign, powerful, good and loves us as our Abba!], 4) confidence [we will be received favorably and heard and answered in accord with the King's wise purposes for us!]

We are in a spiritual battle and must make every effort to enter “the rest” (4:11) but God has provided us with wonderful resources to enable us to persevere! Our salvation and our spiritual resources are all to be found in Jesus and so we must not hesitate to boldly go to and through Jesus, our sympathetic High Priest to find daily grace. Sinners and struggling saints must go to the throne of grace where Jesus will help us!

Randy Mann