‘Lord, Talk to me.’ And He does.

Steve Brown:
Lord, Talk to me. And He does. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you’re sick of guilt and manipulation, and if you’re looking for an honest and thoughtful presentation of Biblical truth, you’ve come to the right place. This is Key Life with the founder of Key Life Network, Steve Brown. Keep listening for teaching that will make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. You might want to have a Bible handy because I’ll be looking at a number of different verses. And we’re going to be doing that throughout the next few weeks. Next week, Dr. Justin Holcomb is going to be with me and we’re going to look at some of the theological and existential realities of the Holy Spirit and the practical outworking of it. We are now, and we’ve talked about you’re going to get better, and we’ve talked about how the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, confirms and conforms, but the Holy Spirit also communicates. There are those theologically minded who say that God has stopped talking. The reason they say he has stopped talking is because he talked once and said it once in the Scripture, and that’s enough, and that’s all he’s going to say about the subject. I personally think that that is spurious, that’s just not true. God speaks to his people. He communicates to his people. I remember early on when I was a young pastor on Cape Cod. And I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know Jesus very well. I’d gone to a very liberal graduate school where they didn’t believe anything, and I went there because I didn’t believe anything either. But I was beginning to see as I was studying, the Scriptures, and as I was serving as a student pastor of a small church on Cape Cod in East Dennis. And I remember one day I was driving from somewhere back to my office at the church, and I drove by a particular house. And I felt this unbelievable feeling that I needed to stop. And I said, liberal that I was theologically, must be indigestion, and I kept on driving. But the further I got away from that house, the more the feeling was hitting me, go back and spend time at that house. And so, I turned around at the top of the street, drove down the street and in the driveway of a house of a woman I knew. She was an elderly lady and she was very faithful as a member of the church. And pastors in those days visited often, so it was no surprise when I knocked on the door and she said, oh pastor, come in. I came in and she gave me cookies and tea and we started talking. And she began to talk about, I am really afraid of death. And I knew enough to begin to give her some assurances that came from Scripture and experience. Some truths that God had given her to give her promises about eternal life. And she was so grateful when I left. You know what happened? Shortly after I left her house, she had a stroke. She was taken to the hospital where she died two days later. And when I think about that, I think, who told me to stop? What was that about? Why did I do that? Let me tell you, because God still speaks to his people. And he still speaks to you. Now, you have to be careful about this. There are those leaders who will pretend that they have God in their back pocket. And they, God generally communicates to them in their own language and tells them exactly if they’re to turn left or right or who they’re supposed to be friends with or what kind of ministry they have. Be careful of people like that because God comes in a quiet voice. He doesn’t bang us over the head but he reminds us and he communicates and he’s still doing that and he’s doing that in your life. And so, it’s important to talk about how the Holy Spirit communicates. Listen to John 14:15 through 17.

If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him or knows Him.

That’s the Holy Spirit. John 16:12 through 15.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak of His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak. And He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said to you that he will take it and declare it unto you.

And so, does God still speak? Of course he does. Does he still communicate? Of course he does. Does he still lead his people? Of course he does. Now, you have to be careful that you don’t get presumptuous about this, because that can be quite dangerous. Don’t think that God is whispering in your ear directly from his mouth. He doesn’t do that. But in the quiet, he affirms. In the worship service, when we know truth. In the times in our lives when we have been led, and don’t understand how we’ve been led in a particular way. In almost every experience where the Christian is involved, the Holy Spirit, I said almost, I should have said in every, in every place, God’s Spirit who dwells in you will communicate.

Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

You think about that. Amen.

Well, we have a little time and on Wednesdays when I do, I take some time to answer one or two questions. As you know, Pete Alwinson will be in with me on Friday. And Fridays we spend the entire broadcast answering questions and we love to get your questions and I really mean that. You can ask a question anytime you want by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE 1 800 KEY LIFE and follow the instructions. Ask the question and don’t preach. Ask the question and sometimes we put your voice on the air. Or you can send your questions to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
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if you live in Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

And, by the way, if you can help us financially, please do. We’re a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And they go over our books to make sure that we’re ethical. But we were ethical before they came along. But we’ve joined, and I promise we’ll be as faithful with your gift as you were in giving it. And if you can’t, we understand. Do say a prayer for this ministry.

All right. This is an e-mail question. In the Bible, in the Book of Job, it tells about how Satan has access to heaven. So, is Satan able to hear our prayers when he’s in heaven? Well, the first thing I would say to you is please don’t worry about it. Satan is God’s lackey. We have this idea that the Christian faith is dualistic, and you say, what in the world does that mean? Well, that there are two powers in the world, one’s evil and one’s good, and they’re constantly in a battle with each other, and we’re not sure who’s going to win in the end. That’s not the Christian faith. Satan is a created being, created by God, because God had a purpose for him. He is God’s lackey. And in the Book of Job, Satan, you will remember, comes in to speak to God. And he speaks to God because God gave him permission to do that. And God says to the devil, What you doing? And the devil says, I’m going to and fro on the earth. And then God says, have you seen my servant Job? And that was the beginning of some really bad things that happened to righteous Job. Now, I want to be good, but I don’t want to be as good as Job. Frankly, I don’t want God and devil having a conversation. And God saying to the devil, have you seen my servant Steve? I want to be on this side of sin so that that never happens. Does Satan hear your prayers? Yeah, and he trembles. He can’t do a thing because of your prayers. God is the only one. God is in charge. God is sovereign, and He is good all the time. Okay, another e-mail question, very quickly. What in the world is quietism? Well, it’s a heresy. It’s a 17th century heresy by a Spanish monk by the name of Molinas. Quietism says you don’t do anything. You just sit there and God will do everything. So, you don’t have to go to church. You don’t have to be compassionate. You don’t have to give. You don’t have to read the Bible. You don’t have to do anything because God’s going to do everything, and that’s what quietism is. It means do nothing because you leave the driving to God. And that sounds really cool. Let go and let God, but it’s not. The Bible is never passive. It is always active. For instance, Paul says.

This one thing that I do.

And then he tells how he’s following Christ for the upward call of Christ. Jesus said, go into all the world and make disciples. Paul and the Scriptures over and over again tell us to do things. And thus, quietism is a heresy. Don’t believe it. Now, you take the first step, God will take the second. By the time you get to the third, He really did it all. Got to go. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.