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<\/a>Tanya Luhrmann is a psychological anthropologist who has written a very interesting book concerning the American evangelical and their relationship with God.\u00a0 In her book, When God Talks Back, she gives the clearest most positive review of life as an evangelical through the lens of the Vineyard movement.\u00a0\u00a0 The language used in her book is inquisitive in nature, as a new outsider examining something with power and intrigue, but not sure of the reasoning behind it.\u00a0 In here introduction her description of a Vineyard service was spot on and very descriptive.\u00a0 She approached \u201cevangelical\u201d this way; \u201cThe term evangelical is hard to define precisely.\u00a0 It is typically understood as implying three commitments: belief in the literal or near-literal truth of the Bible; belief that one can be saved only by choosing a personal relationship with Christ, or being \u201cborn again\u201d; and belief that one should, to some extent, evangelize and share the new of salvation with other.\u201d [1]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Such clear language is refreshing and life giving.\u00a0 She did describe the wide range of evangelical from snake handlers to those who want to have a personal walk with Jesus.\u00a0 In the mix, she includes Jimmy Swaggart to Rick Warren and reviews the \u201cgreat awakenings\u201d of the church.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Her look at the power of the Holy Spirit and the phenomena that surrounds it; from messages in tongues to the infilling of a person was very well documented. This theological explanation of the American journey of faith is clear and very thorough.<\/p><\/div>All leading to this thought, Does God still speak? How?<\/p>\n God speaks through thoughts and we must learn to discern between our thoughts and His thoughts.\u00a0 The authors wrote about developing a \u201cnew theory of mind.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 This concept of hearing things that are perceived is a very clinical perspective of how God speaks.\u00a0 Learning to really trust the \u201cthoughts\u201d as being God\u2019s word directly for the individual is part of the exercise of being a believer.\u00a0\u00a0 The quote from C.S. Lewis what explains that some things in Christianity can be understood from the outside but most things are understood after \u201cgoing a certain distance along the Christian road.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 So how do you even begin to identify the thoughts that are really God or how to pull out what is God from the ordinary static in your mind?[4]<\/a>\u00a0 The art of hearing God is still something that resonates within Christianity today.\u00a0\u00a0 Prayer as the way to talk to God but also to listen to him can be confusing.\u00a0 Her explanation of prayer is quite interesting \u201cpeople must learn to treat some inner mental phenomena as heard by an external presence and other mental phenomena as not their own but as emanating from that presence.\u201d[5]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0The honesty of this complication I believe mirrors what many have discovered about God.\u00a0\u00a0 There is still something of a mystery when interacting with God and the incredibly exciting thing to me is that he does it personally with individuals.<\/p>\n So, does God still speak? \u00a0One of the fascinating things about this book is all the interviews and personal first hand stories that the author tells of individuals who experienced God speaking, God directing, God preventing and God leaving alone in the \u201cwilderness\u201d or isolation.\u00a0 As I was reading, the thought kept coming to me that this is simply an extension of the book of Acts or a further reading of the experiences recorded in the Bible.\u00a0\u00a0 It does take a great amount of faith to believe in God.\u00a0 It does take a great amount of faith to believe that God wants to and does speak to individuals today.\u00a0 The synergy of this book makes me want to know God even more personally than I do and gives me a greater picture of who God is. \u00a0There are so many dimensions and this book explores them with great insight and with great questions.<\/p>\n Even in the chapter on darkness: \u201cwhen God doesn\u2019t come through\u201d, the explanation of \u201cname it, claim it\u201d is very matter of fact and from an outsider\u2019s perspective crystal clear.\u00a0 From \u201cdoubting Thomas\u201d to the miracles that Jesus performed, all of this walk of being a Christian is about faith.\u00a0\u00a0 Is it real or is it not real?\u00a0 When things do not go our way is God still God?\u00a0\u00a0 Do we trust him even in the moments of darkness?\u00a0 What about when things do not change for a long time?\u00a0 Does God still speak when he is silent?\u00a0 Can Christians become mature in their faith that when things don\u2019t go their way that they still believe?\u00a0\u00a0 The author pointed out that this is basically the story of the Gospels as well.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The problem of faith is not finding the idea of God plausible but sustaining that belief in the face of disconfirmation<\/em><\/strong>. [6]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Inside the reality of real world fact is where this faith and belief in Jesus become reality.<\/p>\n So, does God still speak?<\/p>\n I know my own personal story, just like the ones in the book, includes God speaking to me directly.\u00a0 I know without a doubt that in a prayer meeting at the front of Central Assembly in Muskogee at the age of 16 God spoke to my heart to serve him with my life.\u00a0 I agreed.\u00a0 I know without a doubt that at the age of 20 God spoke to me, through his word Mark 16:15-20 to make disciples.\u00a0 It was in my bedroom at my parent\u2019s home in Kingston, OK at 1 in the morning.\u00a0\u00a0 I was trying to figure out what to do, go back to OSU or what?\u00a0 He brought a person across my path whose dad happened to be a Bible university president.\u00a0 I went to that school to learn to make disciples.\u00a0 While interning in London, I went to Birmingham, England to a conference on the Holy Spirit with a new evangelist by the name of Reinhardt Bonnke.\u00a0\u00a0 He was preaching and during his sermon, God asked me to preach for him.\u00a0 I told God yes, but I needed a sign to confirm that request.\u00a0 Reinhardt, who is from Germany, said that he was going to pray in person for everyone who felt called to ministry in his altar call.\u00a0\u00a0 He stated that he was going to do it by country.\u00a0\u00a0 I spoke to God that I would run to the front if he called USA first. \u00a0I figured in my human reasoning that we are in England, he is from Germany, that request was a pretty safe bet. \u00a0 Of course\u00a0he called USA first, I jumped over people to get to the front to respond.\u00a0\u00a0 At the front of the auditorium, Reinhardt simply walked by praying for people, not taking the time to lay hands on them or anything. \u00a0I found myself on the floor as he passed by.\u00a0\u00a0 God spoke to me then of things that I was going to do in my life for him.\u00a0 He has fulfilled most of those things in my life.<\/p>\n So, does God speak?\u00a0 What about today? \u00a0\u00a0I sensed him calling to me again this past week when I was hearing about ministry in Cuba.\u00a0\u00a0 It is not all happy and feel good moments because there has been loss, heart break and heart ache along the way or darkness as the author labeled it.\u00a0\u00a0 I have felt lost and abandoned in moments but I have also felt incredible jubilation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yes, I do still believe that God speaks.\u00a0 God does talk back and for me, I decided years ago to be a Christian and to simply believe that I can take God at his word and \u201cat his word.\u201d\u00a0 I have many more stories that I could tell but that would simply bore you\u00a0but I know God is still speaking.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> T.M. Luhrmann, When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God<\/em>, (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2012), 13.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Ibid., 40.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid., 45.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>One last speaking moment, twelve years ago, I was in Limerick Ireland walking down a city street when I felt <\/a>God calling me to do a work in that town. \u00a0For the first five years after the moment that God had spoken to me, I pursued doing\u00a0ministry with the local church in Limerick, but was politely rejected each time.\u00a0 But on the sixth \u00a0years attempt, my team was received and our partnership has started a revolutionary change in the town.\u00a0 I have been back seven times and now\u00a0on the street\u00a0where God spoke to me, there is going to be a church housed in what at that time was a toy store. It is right across from the police station and on the main intersection in town.\u00a0 There are so many stories I could tell of just this one miracle. \u00a0Being persistent with what God is calling you to do is the lesson that I learned.<\/p>\n