"GOD TOLD ME": ABOUT THOSE WHISPERS TO THE HEART... By Elizabeth Prata

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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It mystifies us how someone can hold a doctrinal position without quoting a single Scripture. She references several, but not one of them establish or even suggest that God does not speak today. 

Pitiful.
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*This essay first appeared in July 2018 on The End Time. I have edited it and updated it. Enjoy.

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What is a women to do when it seems like everyone is hearing directly from God...and you're not? It seems like so many women say they hear audible voices, still small voices, whispers in the heart, voices from the sky...

For example, Joanna Gaines of the popular HGTV television show Fixer Upper said she heard God's voice clearly. Jennie Allen who founded If:Gathering, said a voice from the sky directly told her to start that organization.

Bill Hybels wrote an entire book teaching how to hear a whisper from God. He wrote:

"On day three of my writing, the Holy Spirit impressed the following message on me: "'...I am going to release you from the responsibility of leading this youth group so you can start a church...' (Ok, so apparently none of these people heard from God. The author now has the burden to biblically demonstrate her assertion.)

Since this essay was originally written, we can add Franccis (sic) Chan to the long list of teachers in Christendom who claim to hear directly from God. Chan said that his "theology left some room for hearing directly from God," and it seems that God entered that room and now regularly speaks to Chan. He uses charismatic language to describe personal revelations from God. "On the plane here, it was revealed to me..." He said the Lord began instructing him to give away specific amounts of money, $50,000, $1M and so on. (Hmm. It can't be God, because God would never tell someone to give away money. Only satan would do that, right?)

During The Send pre-rally in January 2019, Chan said he was given a room for an hour alone to commune with God in scripture and prayer. It was during this meditative moment that Chan divulged exact words God said to him.

Ladies, beware of how dangerous it is to claim to have heard directly from God and put quotes around the 'message' and use the pronoun "I". Hybels there is actually speaking FOR God. Putting words in God's mouth is not something you want to do. (We have many examples in the Bible of people speaking for God. Would it be too much for the author to provide some biblical documentation, please?)

(...)

The kind of utterances people say they hear lack authoritative command. (Perhaps the author might indicate to us where the authoritative command is in these:

Lk. 1:3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus...

Ac. 15:28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements...

(These are clearly impressions.)

They also tend to focus on the comfort and well-being of the person receiving these revelations.

(1Co. 14:3 But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.)

As Tim Challies noted in his essay 10 Serious Problems with Jesus Calling, Her tone does not match the Bible's. It can't be denied: The Jesus of Sarah Young sounds suspiciously like a twenty-first century, Western, middle-aged woman. If this is, indeed, Jesus speaking, we need to explain why he sounds so markedly different from the Jesus of the gospels...So, no, Jesus is not calling or talking or teaching or delivering new revelations or meeting you with dates or smiling in a silent whisper. (A conclusion based on Sarah Young? What about the Bible?)

As the noted preacher and discernment lecturer, author of the excellent lesson Clouds Without Water, Justin Peters said,

It's hard to understand how so many women can be wrong, but they are. They are either deceived, deluded, or lying, (Or mistaken. Or... they are right...)

but they are not hearing directly from God. (And the author knows this how?)

We begin Genesis 3 with a woman accepting extrabiblical revelation, (from the serpent) (Ho boy. Would the author care to enlighten us as to which Scriptures were in existence in the Garden of Eden?)

and we end the scriptures with God charging a church for tolerating a false prophetess Jezebel. (Revelation 2:20). (The existence of false prophets implies the existence of true prophets. But Ms. Prata cannot even get this one right. Let's quote the verse:

Re. 2:20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

What was Jesus' complaint? Was it false prophecy? Nope, it was false teaching.)

There is a reason satan targets women in deceiving them they are hearing from God. We are easily deceived (Is it at all possible the author is herself deceived?)

and we must always be in the word ourselves, be with our husbands or fathers in the word, and be in church listening to the word.

The years upon years of Christian teachers and other leading women normalizing direct revelation has had untold and devastating effects on the faith. (Left untold, of course.)

Books and teaching material aimed at women usually create a scenario where God's voice appears in a more romantic than biblical way.We read of 'gentle whispers' or moon-soaked walks where the quite voice enters one's heart, and the like. Yet is that How God speaks? Once in the Bible he came in a whisper, and to prove a point to Elijah. (Which apparently means it can never happen again.)

Mainly (Weasel word.)

when God speaks it is in a THUNDER!!! (Exodus 19, Exodus 20, Job 37:4-5, Psalm 18:13, Psalm 29:2-4, Revelation 14:2, Revelation 19:6, etc) (We quoted two Scriptures above which contradict this.)

And when the recipient hears that Godly thunder, they fall down as if dead! Here is Forerunner Commentary on Deuteronomy 4:32-36

What power! Those people were terrified when they heard the voice of God. It shook them to their very being—and that was God's purpose! This, of course, "is written for our admonition," as Paul says in Romans 15:4. Moses writes this to impress upon us the connection between "voice," "words," and "power." So powerful is the voice of God that it is a miracle that they lived through hearing it! (And apparently this is the only way God can communicate... We picture the writers of the NT attempting to write down their thoughts, laying in the dirt unable to get up, because God always must thunder when He speaks. 

Of course this is ridiculous.)

Yes so many of these modern day false prophets claim to have heard God while shaving, driving, eating, etc, and they take it casually and go on with their day.

So we need to remember that Sola Scriptura is not merely the sola but also the Scriptura. ~Abner Chou, July 3, 2018 (Scripture which the author has yet to quote.)

We know the Scripture is rich and deep (Ps 119:18). Verbal plenary inspiration demonstrates that every word is inspired, God’s very own communication (2 Tim 3:16). The biblical writers exhibit this as they show how individual phrases (Rom 4:3-12) and words (Gal 3:16) of Scripture bring forth its sublime truth. The clarity of God’s Word leads to its precision and profundity. All of it, down to the word, is useful, powerful, and binding.

In light of this, the question is whether we have done the hard work. Have I really studied a passage and understood the background, context, point, structure, theology, and applications of a text down to the detail of every word? Can I put all of this together so that I know precisely all the author has willed in this passage?

Doing that takes hard work but that is the very nature of Scripture and what it demands (cf. 2 Tim 2:15). The reason that sermons, Bible studies, Sunday school lessons, or devotions lack depth is often because we haven’t spent the time and effort to go beneath the surface.

Think about it. You can study the Bible by looking at "background, context, point, structure, theology, and applications of a text down to the detail of every word" or, you can simply be like Beth Moore and have God supply you with unsolicited data dropped directly into your head. (The author offers a false binary choice.)

Which is more prideful? Laboring in sweat and tears in a small room by lamplight, obscure and unknown, or sit and wait for God to directly whisper something to you, so you can say later 'God is talking directly to MEEE.' (Apparently we have only two choices: Be like the author or be like Beth Moore.)

Ladies, there is no still, small voice you're missing out on. (Undocumented assertion.)

You're not unworthy because it seems that God chooses to speak to so many other women and not you. (Who has claimed this?)

If you never say "God told me" you are doing more than you know to uphold the faith. By saying "The Bible says in verse such and such" you are contributing building blocks for others to stand on. If you rely on His word as written in a good translation, you aren't undermining scripture but instead you are honoring Jesus.

Saying "God told me..." is saying "Scripture is deficient." (Undocumented assertion.)

By relying on the Word alone, you are relying on the Rock, that shall never be undermined.