The bear awakens

Seems Phillip Johnson has shaken off warm fuzzy holiday feelings to return to his more forceful writing style.

(Thanks to Glenn for tipping me off, because I'd gotten out of the habit of checking the Pyro on a daily basis).

Phillip has revisited, as promised, his series on modern-day prophecy, and makes six very strong statements about the topic. I want to highlight No. 6:

6. Thinking you can discern the will of God by your own feelings is not only perilous; it is positively, carnally sinful.

This was such a beautifully worded Biblical statement, I disregarded anything else he said. Of course, we disagree on whether God speaks to His people today, but that doesn't change that strength of that last word -- ironically, one that I feel is a prophetic statement to the Church today.

My own pastor -- I attend a Vineyard, which has been accused of being a feelings-based church -- has said basically the same thing from his own pulpit for 14 years:

We are not led by what we feel. We are led by what we know, he says while holding up his Bible.

Now, I still might say something like, "I sense God telling me ...," but that is not a normative statement. That is a statement being weighed, and not one on which I will make life decisions. Short of Biblical direction, however, I always try to leave room for such an occasion that God is leading me down a path I would not choose based on my own understanding of the world.

I say it this way because of my deep respect for the Word.