Rev. Paul Woodburn is the pastor of our home church in Toronto. He wrote a great congregational letter in January. With his permission, I am sharing it here.
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophecies,
but test everything; hold fast what is good.
Abstain from every form of evil.
1 Thessalonians 5:19–22 (ESV)
Example 1
“God told me,” the visiting evangelist said, “that there is someone here who is suicidal. If you come forward for prayer right now, God will set you free.”
What he didn’t know, could not know, was that afternoon a woman had come early to the tent to speak with him. Instead of finding the semi-famous evangelist, she had found me. I was a twenty-something-wet-behind-the-ears, tired and frustrated volunteer worship leader setting up equipment for the evangelistic service scheduled for later that evening.
There is no way he could have known that she had slit one of her wrists before noticing the ad in the paper advertising the crusade. No one told him that her afternoon search for him was her one final, desperate lunge at hope.
But I knew.
The moment the evangelist spoke those words I began to scan the faces of the crowd. It was the after-service prayer-time and I was at the piano gently playing background chords. Given where I was sitting on the stage, I had a clear view of the crowd that had gathered that night in one corner of the parking-lot of the local fair grounds. I finally spotted her tucked into the shadows. She was standing just outside the tent as though frightened of what she might find inside.
As the evangelist continued his call two or three people stepped forward for prayer. Obviously, in a crowd that size there would be many people wrestling with suicide. I freely confess, that as he prayed with those who had come forward, I thought, this woman, still hiding in the shadows, had lost her chance to receive a miraculous touch from God. But when he had finished praying with those who had come forward, the evangelist continued to call.
“There is someone, God has told me, a woman, you’ve come here desperate. God can change all of that.”
My intent is not to argue the point. I am not going to try to explain it. I am not going to debate with you whether God still speaks to His people or not.
I have seen it. What’s more I have lived it. I know it’s real.
But…
Example 2
“God told me.” That was his reply as he sat confronted by the leadership of the church. Some were confused, some were angry, most were hurt.
Their pastor had been having an affair with a married woman.
“How could you?” they wanted to know. Probably not the best question to ask given the situation but understandable given the circumstances.
His answer?
“God told me to.”
God told me…
I don’t know what it is with Christians. We like to argue in extremes. Then we love to make our extremes normative for all people, for all time, in all places. One side argues “God speaks to people! Look at the proof!” The other side argues, “It’s a manipulation tactic used by people who simply want to have their way! Look at the proof!”
Couldn’t both be true? Couldn’t it be true that God still speaks to His people AND that there are people who attempt to use “God told me” as a means of manipulation?
So what do we do? How do we know?
Check out 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22.
Did you catch it? In the New Testament Church hearing God speak is not an “individual sport”. It requires the discernment of the Body. The BODY!
What if instead of saying, “God told me we need to do this NOW!” We were to say, “I think God might be leading us in this direction. Can we exercise 1 Thessalonians 5:21 together? What do you, my brothers and sisters in the faith, think about this direction?”
Using my opening examples, the first, “God told me”—with the evangelist and the suicidal woman—would have been (and was) affirmed.
The second “God told me” of the adulterous pastor would have been challenged. Two families, a church body, and an entire local community could have been spared immense sorrow and deep wounds.
Maybe God was onto something when He called us to interdependent, covenant community!
