Faithful Stewards of the Spirit's Message

[00:00:00] Hello, whatnot podcasters. Wait a minute. What do we podcast? Theologians. It's Pastor Wolfmuthler. God's peace be with you. A quick episode this week thinking about how to be good stewards of the messages that God gives to us now. Okay, here's how. I'm. I'm in Denmark straight, and I was up here at the Bible camp to talk about listening to God. And here's the main thing for listening to God, because so many Christians, I think most Christians are under the impression that they should expect God to speak directly to them, directly to their heart, to be quiet and listen, and that God will somehow answer their prayers in their hearts. And they're disappointed that that hasn't happened, that God hasn't given a direct message to them. [00:00:49] We want to realize that the Bible never promises that. [00:00:53] And while our basic prayer is always, but God, you promised. [00:00:59] Like Pastor Paul says, dad, you promised. This is the basic Christian prayer. It's very dangerous for us to ask God to keep promises that he's never given. In fact, this is what Jesus means when he says seek, ask, seek and knock. That if we ask something and it's not answered, that we go and seek and make sure that we're seek in the Scriptures to make sure that we're asking for the right thing, that we're asking for something that the Lord wants to give to us. [00:01:30] So we don't expect the Lord to give us a direct message. We don't ask the Lord to give us a direct message. We don't pray that the Lord would give us a direct message. [00:01:41] That's not how we listen for the Lord. We listen for the Lord in the Holy Scriptures. [00:01:46] That's where we hear his voice calling out to us. But the Bible does talk about the Holy Spirit giving messages directly to people. So while it's not the normal situation, it is a situation that can arise. And if that does happen, so in our normal Christian life, we're not expecting it or waiting for it. But if it does happen, if the Lord does give you a message, what do you do with it? [00:02:11] I'm going to give you four. Is this okay? Four pieces of advice for what to do with messages from God. Number one, to recognize it as a burden. In the worldwide Bible study we were reading, we're reading through Luther's commentary in Galatians, and there's a place in there where he talks about a vow that he made. This is. I don't know how or when or how this came about, but he said he. He's telling all the guys that he's lecturing to there at the seminary about Genesis, he says, I made a vow with the Lord never to give me visions or dreams. [00:02:49] And Luther explains why. He says, because it's dangerous. And he's seen how easy it is if someone has a vision or a dream to become a false teacher and lead people astray. In fact, it was Pastor Katchenmaier who, Who tracked this down. That Zwingli who taught that the body and blood was not in the Lord's supper, taught that because he had a vision of the Lord telling him what to teach. And Luther knew, and this is also a lot of the medieval theology. In fact, a lot of the doctrine of purgatory comes through visions and dreams. [00:03:26] So, number one, Luther knew the danger of having a false vision and a false dream. And the second is that he knew as a public teacher, his. His office was always to bring people back to the Scriptures, not to himself. [00:03:41] And he didn't want a vision or dream to cloud that or get in the way of that doctrine of sola scriptura Bible alone. [00:03:54] So we recognize that if we do have a message or a vision or a dream, that it comes to us as a burden. That's what it says in Amos. The burden of the Lord came to Amos. And we want to make sure that we talk carefully about it with our. [00:04:11] With our pastor, with our trusted Christian friends to let them know that you have a burden from the Lord, you have a message from God, and we don't want it to go wrong. So, first part, recognize that it's dangerous. [00:04:27] The second thing most important, recognize that it is under the word of God. [00:04:33] So that we test the spirits. This is how one John commands us. We test the spirits to see if they're of God. [00:04:41] So if I have a message from God in whatever form, I'm going to take that message and go to the Scriptures. [00:04:51] And I will find one of three things to be true. [00:04:55] Number one, that that message is contradicted by the word of God. [00:05:01] And then that's easy. I know it's not from God at all. I know it's a lying spirit. I know it's from the devil, and I throw it out. Pew, out you go. This is all this business of God wants me to be happy, and you get confirmed in a dream just the very thing that you want to do. But it goes against the commandments. I remember a guy came to me one time. He said, the Holy Spirit has convinced me that God wants me to be happy, therefore I should get a divorce. [00:05:28] And I said, well, why do you think God wants you to be happy? Look who he married you to. [00:05:34] That's a terrible joke. But this is the point, is that the Word says God hates divorce. Don't you know there's no biblical reason? [00:05:44] There's a couple of pieces of rationale that the Bible gives that sadly lets divorce be a permissible thing. None of those applied there. [00:05:54] So, no, you throw that word out, that's not from God, that's just your own flesh or whatever the demons deceiving you, out it goes. So if the message is contradicted by the Word, out it goes. The other is that the message is confirmed by the Word of God. [00:06:10] Maybe the. The message or the vision or the whatever the dream is confirming you in honoring your father and mother or confirming you in serving in your vocation or something like that. And then, you know, what you do is you gladly take up the Word of God and hold on to that word of Scripture and let the message go. [00:06:40] That message serves to bring you to God's Word. And then you can hold on to the Word of God so that the message is always serving the Word. And then you can follow with a good conscience the Word that the Lord has given. [00:06:54] But the third category, and this is the most difficult one for us to think about, I want us to think carefully. [00:07:01] The third category is when the message from God is not contradicted by the Scripture, but neither is it explicitly supported by the Scripture. [00:07:16] Maybe it's a detail, a specific detail of your own life work here instead of here. When we get these difficult decisions and we're praying to the Lord for wisdom, and that's our confidence. By the way, James 1:5 is, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all freely, and he will give it to them. Although let him ask without doubting. [00:07:39] The man who doubts is like a ship tossed to and fro in the sea. So we have the promise from God for wisdom. So when we need it, the Lord gives it to us. [00:07:48] And we lean on that promise in our prayers. In fact, this is, I think, our main prayer when we're trying to make these difficult decisions. Not Lord, show me what to do, but rather, because he hasn't promised that the Lord hasn't promised that he's going to show us what to do. Rather, lord, give me wisdom. [00:08:04] But when we're praying for wisdom and we get the idea that here's what the Lord wants me to do, and it's not against the Scripture, there's no command forbidding it. But Neither is it explicitly commanded by the Scripture. [00:08:17] Then we are free to follow that message or to not. [00:08:25] Now, we want to be careful lest we quench the Spirit. [00:08:28] But. And you know the Lord will get us where we want to go anyways. I'm thinking of Jonah, who the Lord says, hey, go to Nineveh. And he goes bewp the other way. Well, the Lord made him go to Nineveh. [00:08:40] Or Paul, who doesn't want to go to Ephesus. [00:08:44] Sorry, who does want to go to Ephesus Desperately. [00:08:47] The whole arc of the first missionary journey is Paul trying to get to Ephesus and the Holy Spirit preventing him. [00:08:54] But I want to read you this verse that I've been thinking about for some years. [00:08:58] And I think this is a very important verse. This is at the end of the third missionary journey. We're in Acts 21:4 and Paul is going to Jerusalem. And every time he gets somewhere they say, basically, look, if you go to Jerusalem, you're going to be arrested, you're going to be thrown in prison, you're going to be handed over to affliction. In fact, just a few verses down from what I'm about to read you, they grab Paul's belt and wrap it around them and say, their hands. And they say, so the man who goes to Jerusalem is going to be bound like this. [00:09:31] But explicitly, when Paul arrives in Tyre and he finds the disciples and he stays there for a week, it says this. They told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. [00:09:49] They told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. [00:09:54] And Paul goes anyway. [00:09:58] And as far as I can tell in reading the Book of Acts, that's okay. [00:10:03] It's okay that he does it because the Lord wants to prevent him from going to Jerusalem, he'll do it. But here comes a word from the Lord by the Spirit, don't go to Jerusalem. [00:10:15] And he goes anyways that this comes to us as advice. Now again, we want to be careful if the Lord is giving us a message and we decide that that's not for us for whatever reason, that it's subject to our wisdom. But this is again what Paul is teaching over and over, especially in his letter to the Corinthians. [00:10:37] Look, the Spirit comes upon you so that you're speaking in tongues. But if no one is there to interpret, quiet. [00:10:44] If two or three people have preached, quiet. [00:10:48] If someone else is already preaching, quiet. And he says, the Spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. The Holy Spirit comes and produces self discipline so that the Holy Spirit is also giving us wisdom. [00:11:03] Now, we are not free ever to contradict the Scriptures, to go against the Word of God. [00:11:10] But when the Holy Spirit comes to us in this way, we want to receive this message. But there's a careful stewardship that's called for there that it is not a binding message. The Scriptures alone are binding. [00:11:27] I think that's what's going on here in Acts. Okay, so the first piece of advice is recognize the danger of the message, vision, whatever. [00:11:35] The second piece of advice is know that it is under the Scriptures, always under the authority of the Scripture. The third piece of advice is that we remember that it's personal, that if it's given, if I. If the message is given for me, it's for me. If the Lord wants to tell that to somebody else, he can do it. [00:11:58] I remember one time there's a person who got a message from the Lord for me. [00:12:05] And the message was that Jesus was going to punish me. [00:12:11] And I said to this person, I said, when Jesus talks to you and tells you these things, could you tell him to let me know directly? Because you have the distinct advantage of listening to Jesus and I have to listen to you. [00:12:28] Now, this is the point of when a message is given for us, it is for us to know. [00:12:36] And this has to do. And this means that you are not a prophet. You're not called into that office. You're not to go and write books about the vision that you've given. If the Lord gives it to you, he's given it to you. He's not given it to everyone. It's the Scriptures. That's God's word for everybody, not the vision or dream that you have. That's why these books are so dangerous. And we ought to just simply reject them out of hand. [00:13:01] When someone has a dream about heaven and then they write it down and tell a book about it and go or tell stories about it, that dream is for them, not for us. [00:13:09] And if the Lord wants us to have that dream, he'll give that dream to us. Especially if the Lord goes, gives us a message or a vision for somebody else. [00:13:20] Now, we have to be very careful. We go to the Scripture, and here's what to do when that happens, is that we go to the Scriptures and find the Scripture that this message is pointing to, and we bring them that Scripture. Because just like each of us is called to submit only to the Scripture and to nothing else, so they are also called to submit to the Scripture and not to you. And if you can't Find a Bible passage. If I get a message for you, I have this idea that the Holy Spirit is telling me that you need to hear the certain thing. And I can't find a Bible passage that supports that, then I let it go. Or maybe I give you advice, but I don't come to you and weigh this down, weigh you down with this. This is here from the Lord rather, because I want the. [00:14:04] The Lord wants us always to be subject to his word and His Word alone. [00:14:12] So we recognize this is the third thing, that those messages. If the Lord gives you a private message, it's a private message. [00:14:22] The fourth thing, and maybe most important, is that we recognize the temptation that comes along with a vision or a dream or burden or a message from the Lord. [00:14:32] And there's a handful of temptations, but. [00:14:36] But one of them is it changes our perspective on the Scripture. As if the Bible is not enough. [00:14:41] In fact, I think that when we look for or expect messages from the Lord, that's the main thing we think, ah, the Bible's not enough. I need something more. The Bible is enough. The Scriptures are enough. It's all you need. [00:14:54] And if you never have any special thing from the Lord, that means that you're a normal Christian. [00:15:00] You shouldn't. There should be no sadness about it at all. [00:15:05] I mean, remember Luther's promise, Lord, don't give me those. [00:15:09] You've given me everything that I need in the Scriptures. [00:15:14] If we get something from the Lord, then we think, ah, the Bible's not enough, I need something more. And we start to look down in the Bible and expect. We don't expect the Lord to speak to us directly from the Scriptures, but some other way. [00:15:30] There's also the danger of pride. Ah, look, what the Lord has given to me must be very holy or special or. [00:15:38] And most often I think this is the case if that. If you get a vision or something and then that's it, nothing more, nothing else ever comes. You're always waiting for some other vision to come. And there can be despair, that there can be. [00:15:57] I think this is probably what happened with St. Paul when, remember when he first gets thrown in prison in Philippi and the angel sets him free, but then he gets thrown in prison in Caesarea and in Rome and then in Rome again. And he has to sit there for years in prison and he has to wonder, the first time I was in here, the Lord performed a miracle and set me free. And now the Lord's not performing a miracle, he's just letting me sit here in prison. Has The Lord forsaken me. And this is how we have to think that, no, the Lord is with us no matter what. According to his promise. [00:16:32] He's with us. He's hearing our prayers and answering them. He's blessing us and giving us his wisdom. He's showing us his ways. He's serving us and keeping us. [00:16:42] And if I don't hear another thing again from the Lord, if it's just back to the Scriptures, there's no despair. [00:16:52] I belong to the Lord. [00:16:55] We can't use again. This is the problem. We can't expect the Lord to keep promises that he's never given, that he's never given. [00:17:06] So this is a call to extreme care in these circumstances. So this is the stewardship of messages from God, that we recognize the danger, that we know that the message is always underneath the word of God, that it is private and that it comes with a great deal of temptation. [00:17:25] And we want to use if the Holy Spirit is coming to us directly to hand us something, we want to be good stewards of that great gift. Okay, so a couple of thoughts on. [00:17:39] On how to handle it when the Lord gives us a word. And really, hopefully this is comforting that this is not the normal state of things in the Christian life, but that the Lord is content to always call us back to the Word. The Word, the Word. So that when we open the Scriptures, we are hearing the voice of our good Shepherd Jesus, and he is ministering to us and blessing us and caring for us and serving us and filling us with his spirit and giving us his gifts and bringing his fruit to bear all that is there in the Scriptures themselves. So may God continue to open the eyes of our heart that we may know the wonderful things of His Word and see the depth and height of his riches and love for us. May God grant it for Christ's sake. All right, make that the podcast this week coming to you from Denmark. God be praised. Next week probably going to be on vacation, so probably nothing next week. We'll be back after. Back at it after that. Please, please keep sending those questions in. Wolfmuller Co. Hit the contact button. [00:18:48] I think I got 150 questions. You can keep piling them on. [00:18:53] That'll be good. [00:18:55] Young adult conference coming up at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas, October 3 to 5, 2025. [00:19:02] Information about that is also on the website Wolfmuller Co, including if you click on the I think it's on the about button, there's a little tab that says young adult and singles events. And there's a database there, so you can, if you're a young adult or single, you can find what's going on around you there. And if you know of something, plop that down into that database. That's super cool. All right. God's peace be with you.