I have been contending with the notion that, as a common, regular experience, people can expect the Holy Spirit to whisper in their minds, giving them instructions and special insights. Such a thing is never described in Scripture, nor is it ever taught as a common part of the Christian life.
1) First of all, you seem way too focused on the "whispering" modality of communication. Forget about "whispering". Let's focus instead on the broader concept, which is direct one-on-one communication between the Holy Spirit and the believer. This communication may happen by hearing and seeing in a dream or vision, by hearing a physically audible voice, by hearing a voice that only you can hear but not other people around you, via a whisper (if God chooses to do so), or even by taking you out of your body and transporting you to the third heaven, etc. Again, we are not to put God in a box. He may choose whatever means and modality He sees fit to send a direct personalized one-on-one message to someone. So we should be looking at the more general question instead:
is God still giving direct one-on-one ad hoc messages to people today?
2) I agree that the Bible never says explicitly that direct communication of adhoc messages from God to the believer's mind is something expected to happen frequently. But by the same token, the Bible never says that we should expect it to happen rarely either. What we can be sure about, though, is that, whatever the frequency, it is something that undoubtedly depends upon God's sovereignty first, but also on the spiritual stature of the believer. If Ananias had been a lukewarm carnal Christian, do you think that God would've asked him to go lay hands on Saul to heal his eyesight and have him receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit? Of course not. We can be quite confident that Ananias must've been living a holy, Spirit-filled and Spirit-led life, set apart for God. Likewise, I can only imagine the Holy Spirit frequently speaking and leading someone who is a vessel fully surrendered to the will of God and that God is actively using as instrument.
But, if you're, say, a Muslim in a Muslim country, cut off from all Christian fellowship and instruction, without access to a Bible and ignorant of the Gospel, then, I think, you're in a circumstance where God may act to direct you through a vision of dream.
I can second this. There is plenty of testimonies of this actually happening in Muslim countries. Check out this book for example:
https://www.amazon.com/DREAMS-VISIO...849947200/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Such an occasion would require the extenuating circumstances I described, however; dreams and visions are not necessary in places where God's word and His children are readily at hand to teach and guide.
This claim is unjustified and actually refuted by Scripture itself. Again, take the case of Ananias. He already was a believer, he for sure was well-versed in the Torah and had close contact with the apostles, and yet God still deemed useful to talk to him in a vision to lead him to Paul so he could lay his hand on him so that Paul could get healed and receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Or consider the case of Peter in Acts 10, where he received a vision of a sheet with animals from Heaven, and after the vision the Holy Spirit spoke to him directly. Peter was an apostle, he was already saved, he for sure was by that point very well-versed in Scripture. For sure he didn't need dreams or visions according to your flawed logic. Yet God still deemed useful to give him a vision.
Your position is based on a false dichotomy. You are essentially saying "either visions or the Bible". You are forgetting a third option: BOTH. Of course you can benefit tremendously from studying the Bible, no one is denying that, but in addition you can also enjoy the benefits of God-sent dreams and visions from time to time for particular purposes as God sees fit.
By the way, don't forget about the promise:
Joel 2:28-29
“And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
I am a soft cessationist. I don't think such gifts are active today, for the most part. They were necessary to the establishment and formation of the Early Church but are unnecessary now that the Church has been established and the full counsel of God given to it in His word, the Bible.
Who cares what you believe. What matters is what is true.
What do you make of passages such as Joel 2:28-29 that I just presented, or Mark 16:17-18:
17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well
Do we? To how many people does God speak directly in Acts, exactly? I can think of Paul, and Peter, and Ananias, but who else?
Philip, and also a group believers who were worshiping God and fasting, as indicated by Acts 13:1-3
1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
Is God speaking directly and audibly to folks a widespread thing in Acts? I don't see that...
You are making arguments from ignorance. The book of Acts is not an exhaustive account of every single detail that ever happened, you would need millions of pages if every single millisecond was recorded.
However, we do find Scriptural evidence that the Holy Spirit was actively involved leading and speaking and manifesting in and through the lives of the apostles and disciples who were
truly disciples (full of the Spirit, constantly praying and fasting, totally on-fire and sold-out to God). Of course, that level of spiritual maturity is far from being a widespread occurrence nowadays, so it shouldn't surprise you if lukewarm Christians who don't even believe in those manifestations do not experience them.
But the Early Church closed the canon of Scripture long ago, recognizing that the miraculous authority of the apostles was concluded [...]
Any sources to back this up?
Are we told that Phillip was instructed by a voice in his head to preach to the Ethiopain eunuch? No.
Again, it was either a direct telepathic message, or a physically audible voice, but either way it was a direct one-on-one adhoc message nonetheless.
I have no problem whatever with God audibly and directly doing such a thing today. But, He doesn't. Not typically. Instead, we have Christians proclaiming to one another, "God just gave me a word! Listen to me! Listen to God!" To which I say, "Oh, did He, now? I'm just supposed to take your word for it that God just spoke to you, eh? I think not. I have God's word in which He tells me everything I need to know to walk well with Him. If He has something else He wants me to know, I'll wait on Him to tell me Himself directly."
I just imagined you saying that to Ananias. Funny scene.
I'm not trusting such a thing to anyone else - especially someone who has not clearly established his/her authority to do so with repeated and well-verified miraculous deeds and a spotlessly holy life.
This requirement is absurd and unscriptural given that the gift of miracles is not for everyone. Someone who has the gift of prophecy does not necessarily have the gift of miracles.
1 Corinthians 12:27-31
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[d]? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
You downplay far too much how widely God's word can be successfully applied. In Scripture, I think God has outfitted us with spiritual principles, wisdom, commands and truth sufficient to navigate well 99% of life's circumstances.
Ok, then how do you use the scriptures to decide when is the right moment to start/end a fast, or when and where to hold an evangelistic crusade, etc.? As others have pointed out, there are many testimonies of evangelists who share their experiences about being led by the Holy Spirit to initiate fasts or go to specific places to preach the gospel backed up by healing miracles, etc. When you need specific instructions about when, where, what, for how long, when you need to do spiritual warfare and defeat a demonic stronghold, etc. you need specific guidance by the Holy Spirit. You won't find that level of micro-specificity in the Bible.
Why study God's word when the Holy Spirit will lead you about by the nose at every turn instead?
Again, you are posing a false dichotomy. You are saying: "either the Bible or the Holy Spirit". You are forgetting the third option: BOTH.
You will answer that question according to your presuppositions, I expect. The OT seems like God was acting in extraordinary fashion all the time. But the accounts of the Exodus, or of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, or Naaman bathing in Jordan, or the fall of Jericho are widely separated in time from one another. They are all crammed together in the record of the OT, but they didn't happen in rapid succession. And between the last OT book and the events of the NT there are hundreds of years of silence, of no record of God doing anything remarkable.
In short: argument from silence/ignorance. "There are long gaps between events which the Bible is silent about, therefore, nothing happened in between". This is just fallacious.
After the events of Acts, do we read of more wild, rapid-fire supernatural occurrences? Not really, no. Does Paul miraculously heal his sick traveling companion, Trophimus? No. He leaves him behind to get well naturally. Does he write to Timothy that he needs only to believe that his stomach complaint will be healed in order for it to be so? No. Paul tells Timothy to take some wine as a medicinal remedy.
You can't take these two cases and conclude that the gifts of the Spirit have ceased. First of all, we are never told the specific reasons why God allowed them to get sick in the first place. Maybe God had a plan for that sickness. Paul himself pleaded with God to remove the "thorn in his flesh" but God denied his request:
2 Corinthians 12:6-10
6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God could've had a particular purpose for those sicknesses and therefore denied miraculously healing them in those particular occasions. Who knows. You can't take those two examples and out of nowhere conclude that the gifts of the spirit have ceased. That's a non sequitur.
