Since most people are looking for God’s audible voice, they question whether he ever speaks to them. When they hear someone say, “God told me . . .” they feel inferior, wishing they could hear the Lord’s powerful voice thundering from the heavens. But they’ve never heard it. Next, they question whether that person or anybody else has really heard God, and that thought leads to the tragic idea that God might not even be real.
Anybody can say, “God told me,” and for that reason, saying so is not convincing at all. To make our message believable, we must give details that show the truth. Just saying it’s true doesn’t make the truth believable.
If we want to help those who haven’t recognized God’s voice, we need to accurately express how God speaks to us.
In his book Let There Be Light, Joe Giovanelli superbly described his struggles and how he came to know the Lord. Here are the last words of the last chapter, in which he says God spoke to him:
The last time I prayed for sight, I heard God speak to me, “Joe, it’s best that you do not see. You will glorify me far more by being blind and showing that you have a full life. When you show people your love for Me by word and action, I will be glorified.”
I do not feel I need sight. I am completely at peace.
After hearing his life story, most readers would believe he really did hear from God. Yet we can make his message even more believable by avoiding “God said” and let the details lead our audience to that conclusion.
Let’s look at one way we might do that:
The last time I prayed for sight, my thoughts were as if God was speaking to me.
Joe, it’s best that you do not see. You will glorify me far more by being blind and showing that you have a full life. When you show people your love for me by word and action, I will be glorified.
I do not need eyes to see. If I did, he would have given them to me. I am completely at peace.
Logic behind the changes:
- “I heard God speak to me” suggests an audible voice. If it was, we need more details to make that claim believable. By saying, “My thoughts were as if God was speaking to me,” we let readers decide where the thought came from. In this sentence, we do want “as if God was,” not the subjunctive “as if God were” which suggests a condition contrary to fact.
- Because God’s words are thoughts, not spoken dialogue, we want them in italics, not quotes.
- We can say a little more about Joe’s conclusion, why he realized that not having physical sight was God’s blessing. “If I did, he would have given them to me.”
- We don’t have to capitalize “Me” when referring to God. That’s a practice of religious tradition, which most modern translations don’t follow. The Chicago Manual of Style and The Christian Writers Manual of Style says we should not
