THE GOD WHO SPEAKS
By Stephen Jones
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." (Romans 10:17)Faith. Everyone has heard about it, many have seen it, but relatively few have experienced it in any depth. Yet Hebrews 3 and 4 tell us that Israel could not enter into God’s Rest because they did not have the faith required of them to enter into that level of experience. But why? Had they not seen all the miracles Moses did? Had they not seen the parting of the Red Sea, the manna sent from heaven, and the fiery presence of God upon Mount Sinai? Of course they did, and they were certainly convinced that these things came from God. Nonetheless, they did not have the faith necessary to enter the Promised Land. The question is: Why not?There is a difference between mental persuasion and faith. One can be totally convinced of the authenticity of Scripture and that Jesus was the Son of God who died and rose again for us, and yet not have the level of faith needed to enter the Promised Land. If it takes faith only the size of a mustard seed to move a mountain, as Jesus said, then how little faith we must have! When we are confronted by mole hills, we are often frustrated and helpless to do anything. Or if we do, we seem to resemble the prophets of Baal in our antics as we try to manipulate God into doing something for us, rather than Elijah who simply prayed and got the job done.Prayer is something that most people do not really believe will work for them. For this reason, prayer meetings usually fail to draw more than a handful of interested people, and many of them seem to attend more out of duty and pastoral compulsion than from a genuine interest. Most are not excited by the prospect of a prayer meeting, because they do not really expect much to be accomplished by their prayer. Thus, only the dutiful and the disciplined are able to enter that labor, and seldom is it a joyous celebration of God’s interaction with men.Heb. 3:19 says, “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” The kind of faith mentioned in this verse is not the kind that is necessary to “get saved.” All Israel were justified by faith when they left Egypt at Passover. In observing Passover, they were proclaiming their faith in the blood of the Lamb, and they all believed God on this level, or else they would have lost their firstborn sons. This gives us the type and shadow of the evangelical Christians today who have left the world (“Egypt”) and are on their way to the Promised Land.The problem is that many Christians leave Egypt and even cross the Red Sea (that is, they are baptized—see 1 Cor. 10:2); but then they settle down on the far shore of the Red Sea, build a house (denomination), and assume they are in the Promised Land. In time, some become dissatisfied, realizing that there is yet more of God to experience beyond the Passover-Red Sea experience, and so they follow the Spirit (the pillar of fire) to the foot of Mount Sinai. This was the place where God came down as fire, and the people all heard the voice of God speaking to them in their own language. God revealed the Ten Commandments to the people on the day later celebrated as the day of Pentecost, or the feast of weeks.This was supposed to be the day Israel attained the second major level of faith on their way to the Promised Land. Paul says in Rom. 1:17 that “the righteousness of God (is) revealed from faith to faith.” That is, God reveals Himself to men from one level of faith to another as we hear His voice. As He speaks, and as we hear, we move from faith to faith. There are three main levels of spiritual experience and faith, each typified by Israel’s experience in the wilderness and commemorated by a Feast Day. They are Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.When Israel came to Mount Sinai and God revealed His character to them by the law, the people were too fearful to enter into the second level of faith. We read in Ex. 20:18-21,18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. 19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die. 20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. 21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick dark-ness where God was.Because the people were afraid to die, they ran from God and from hearing His voice. Thus, they were unable to enter into the Pentecostal level of faith that God intended for them. Their refusal to hear the divine law meant that the law would not be written on their heart, but would remain only on tables of stone. The Spirit of God would not work within them to begin changing their hearts, but rather the law would be imposed upon them from the outside and regulate their actions through discipline. So the fulfillment of Pentecost would be postponed for another 1,500 years until after Jesus death and resurrection. The disciples in the book of Acts gathered in the upper room for the purpose of hearing His voice and receiving the divine revelation of Pentecost. They did what their forefathers had refused to do on that same day many years earlier.Because Israel under Moses refused to hear the voice of God and allow the law to be written on their hearts, they were unable to enter the Promised Land the following year. The twelve spies saw that the land was bountiful, and as evidence they brought with them huge clusters of the first ripe of the grapes (Num. 13:20). This tells us that it was now the seventh month on the Hebrew calendar (about September). Ten of the twelve spies gave an evil report, reflecting the faithless condition of the people, and thereafter this day was observed as the Day of Atonement, a day of fasting and repentance for refusing to enter into the Promised Land. If they had blown the trumpet signaling their decision to get ready to enter Canaan, it would have been the trumpet of the Jubilee. This was, in fact, the 50th Jubilee from Adam, and they should have “returned every man to his possession” (Lev. 23:9-13).However, they did not have the faith to enter the Land, because they had refused earlier to hear the voice of God at the foot of Sinai on that first Pentecost. One cannot go directly from Passover to Tabernacles. One cannot go directly from Egypt to the Promised Land. One cannot bypass the revelation of the law at Sinai. Those who attempt to do this are called “lawless” (anomia) in the New Testament.It would therefore be profitable for us today to learn the lessons of these Old Testament types and shadows. We see from the biblical account that there are Christians having differing levels of faith, depicted by Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. In addition, from Moses to the Cross was a Passover Age. From Acts 2 to the present has been a Pentecostal Age. We are now entering into a Tabernacles Age. But in Jesus’ day, while most of the people observed Passover on a physical level, only a small portion of them actually had a revelation of Passover, which would have allowed them to move into the next level of faith: Pentecost. Most stumbled at the Cross (1 Cor. 1:23) and continued in the religious traditions of Judaism, unable to grow in faith.At our end of the Pentecostal Age, we find the same thing happening on the next level. Many have stumbled and failed the test of Pentecost and are therefore ineligible to move further into the faith of Tabernacles. How have they failed? Primarily, it is because, like Israel of old, they are afraid to hear God’s voice, or they are afraid to die to the flesh. Instead of stepping fearlessly into the fire of God, as Moses did, they run the other direction. God has never tried to hide the fact that drawing near Him to hear His voice will indeed kill the flesh. A true revelation of God will always require a sacrifice of flesh as God writes His fiery law upon our hearts. Paul died daily, because God spoke to him daily (1 Cor. 15:31).But today, many who consider themselves Pentecostal or Charismatic have been told that God wants us to be prosperous, and any adversity is certainly not of God. By this teaching, especially in America, we have come to think that we can enter God’s Rest without dying to the flesh, with no discipline, and in a lawless spirit. Such people may call themselves Pentecostal, but like Israel of old, they have come to Sinai in vain. They prefer the golden calf to the fire of God. That is, they prefer a god who promises them wealth and prosperity to the all-consuming Fire that kills the flesh as He writes His law upon our hearts. This is what is disqualifying the Church today from entering the Promised Land.An excerpt from HEARING GOD'S VOICE