Hearing God? Seminar — UPDATE

I am getting very excited as the days get closer and closer to the “Hearing God?” seminar. We now have a location and more details. See below.

Location: Steinbach Bible College Chapel

Time: Friday, 7-9 pm; Saturday 9-11 am (Q&A will follow each session)

*We will also be videoing the sessions for anybody who cannot make it.

Outline of the Sessions

Session #1 (Friday evening) – Biblical and Theological

Introduction

Dealing with the 4 big assumptions of listening prayer

The problem of terminology

The problem of hermeneutics

The relationship of Scripture and experience in interpretation

An introduction to literary context

Understanding Old Testament narrative

Understanding Acts

The major texts in question

The big one — John 10:27 (cf. vv 1-5)

‘Led by the Spirit’ texts

Various texts from the Old Testament

The so-called “examples” — Samuel; Gideon; the Apostles; Acts; Jesus

Session #2 (Saturday morning) — 15 Problems and Dangers of Listening Prayer

I have not yet finalized this entire session, but some of the things we will talk about will include issues like:

• The claim to receive revelation from God is a much weightier matter than what advocates of listening prayer make it out to be.
• The need for confirmation of whether or not God is speaking creates more significant problems than it claims to solve.
• Listening prayer devalues Scripture by treating it as a dead word.
• Listening prayer inhibits people from actually finding and doing the will of God.
  1. Scripture reveals that God has two wills:
     1. God’s will of decree.
     2. God’s moral will / permissive will.
  2. Does God have a third will? A ‘will for my life’?
  3. How do we find God’s will?
• Listening prayer devalues the work of the Holy Spirit.
• Listening prayer stunts spiritual growth and personal maturity.
• Listening prayer puts tremendous, and unwarranted, pressure on fellow believers.

We will also deal with some of the ways in which people answer objections to their belief in listening prayer. We will deal with issues like:

“What about all the people who claim to have heard God?”

“Everything people claim to ‘hear’ God say is tested by Scripture… so this practice is OK.”

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The current emphasis in North American Christianity on hearing God is dangerous, distracting and missing Christ; and it needs to be corrected. My prayer for these sessions is that we will grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ as we learn how to better read Scripture, pray, find his will and live in gospel grace.

Soli Deo Gloria