I feel uncomfortable at times with preachers who are always saying, "The Lord told me," as if they had just heard from God directly. They give the impression that we must believe that everything they say is true. After all, how can we argue with God.

In contrast, I have often been deeply moved when people in great sorrow or battling a grave illness have told me that the Lord had spoken to their heart and made Himself very real to them. I have come away with the sense that they truly did experience God's unseen presence.

G. K. Chesterton, trying to think of an analogy to what these believers feel, wrote: "Plato has told you a truth; but Plato is dead. Shakespeare has startled you with an image; but Shakespeare will startle you no more. But imagine what it would be to live with such men still living, to know that Plato may break out with an original lecture tomorrow, or that at any moment Shakespeare might shatter everything with a simple song."

Jesus is alive in every sense of the word and He is fully aware of each of us and our needs. As we live in obedience to Him, we can expect Him to keep His promise to manifest Himself to us (John 14:21). Then we can say with humility, "The Lord spoke to me."
  — Herbert Vander Lugt