INTERVIEW. 5 Questions with Dr. Mark Virkler

Mark Virkler, Ph.D. and Patti Virkler, D.Min., have co-authored more than 50 books in the areas of hearing God’s voice and spiritual growth. They are the founders of Communion With God Ministries (www.CWGMinistries.org) and Christian Leadership University (www.CLUOnline.com), where the voice of God is at the center of every learning experience. Mark has taught on developing intimacy with God and spiritual healing for more than 30 years on six continents. The message has been translated into over 30 languages, and he has helped to establish more than 150 church-centered Bible schools around the world.

The Communion with God books and resources you developed have been read and taught worldwide through your ministry, what is the biggest hindrance you encounter to Christians understanding prayer can be a two way dialogue? Probably two issues: 1) the belief that God stopped speaking after He finished writing the New Testament, and 2) the fact that many Christians just do not know how to recognize God’s voice within them. 

To answer the first issue, the Bible clearly demonstrates that God spoke from Genesis to Revelation, and plainly says that in the last days, our sons and daughters will prophecy and we will see visions and dream dreams (Acts 2:17). So hearing the voice of God is found from cover to cover in the Bible, and is to continue on until the end of the age. In addition, our hearts hunger for intimacy with God. Our passion for spiritual intimacy is actually our hearts responding to the drawing of the Holy Spirit within us.

In answering the second issue, once I teach people that God’s voice sounds like “spontaneous, or flowing thoughts which light upon your mind” they come alive to the fact that they have been hearing God’s voice all their lives, and just never attributing these flowing thoughts to the voice of God.  So after being taught that they can quiet themselves down, fix their eyes on Jesus, tune to spontaneous thoughts and write, many embark on this new journey of spiritual intimacy and find their lives being transformed.

How have you seen the teaching affect individual's and church's prayer life once they begin hearing God's voice in prayer?

Thousands have testified that this is the most life-transforming experience of their entire Christian lives. Spiritual intimacy with God brings His unconditional love directly into their lives, as God tells us over and over how beautiful and special we are and how He has an amazing plan for our lives. Many believe, and begin to radiate a newfound glow in the Spirit. Some say this is too good to be true and back away, returning to legalism and separation, which is a terrible tragedy.

Here are a few responses that people have sent us: “My prayer life has become anointed and I have been receiving more visions then ever…” “It quadrupled my ability to hear God's voice…” “I have an awareness of God I’ve never had before…” “Worship has been enhanced so very much…” “God has seemingly released the prophetic in song and word in me…” “Through the adventure into the practices of journaling, vision, and unabashed praise I have come to feel closer to God than ever I have in my years of one-sided prayer…”

I taught the four keys last Sunday morning at Crossroads Church in VA, and I had people journal at the close of the sermon. The following journaling was sent to me on Tuesday. “Oh, Natalie, I love you so much and I’m so proud of you.  You are trying so hard to please me and I see all the things you are doing.  I approve of you and I love you.  I want you to trust me and I want you to love me back.  I am bigger than you and I know what I’m doing.  Hear me when I speak to you.”

Natalie writes, “Tears streamed and I soaked in the depth of his voice.  I was drenched in total love.  I couldn’t believe that He would speak to me in such an individual, intimate way.  I was filled and loved in a way that I’d never experienced before, not in prayer, not through sermons, not through reading His Word!  He spoke directly to me, all because I asked!  And then, an added blessing, to see that God spoke to my husband in the most perfect way drew us together into an experience that we could share.” 

Healed lives. Healed marriages. Isn’t that part of what the Kingdom of God is about?

Can everyone experience the flow of the Holy Spirit you speak of?

Jesus guaranteed that all Christians can hear His voice. In John 10:27 Jesus says, “My sheep hear My Voice….”  So yes, every Christian can hear God’s voice. It is sensed as flowing or spontaneous thoughts. Jesus said there is a river within us and this river is the Holy Spirit, and it FLOWS. This is not just theory. It is not just a nice verse to memorize. It is the reality of life. There is a flow within each of us. So we teach people to quiet themselves down, fix their eyes on Jesus, tune to flow and record the flowing thoughts and flowing pictures that come to them! This is the voice and vision of God, which is coming through the Holy Spirit from within our hearts.

 Why is it key to journal and write down what we sense God speaking to us?

Before I knew enough to write down what I was receiving, I would judge and evaluate the flow of thoughts while they were coming to me. I would be asking myself, “Are they coming from God?” I would be doubting, judging, testing and evaluating AS THEY CAME INTO my mind. This causes the flow to stop! The Bible tells us that when we come to God we must come in faith, believing (Heb. 11:1-6). Before journaling, I would believe for five seconds and hear one sentence from God, then shift from faith into a testing/doubting mode. This cut off any remaining flow that God was sending to me. The value of journaling is that I can stay in faith for as long as I want and simply write in faith, because I know that when the flow is done, THEN I can go back and test and judge and evaluate the flowing thoughts and pictures. I will not be cutting off the flow through doubt, because I have already written in faith until the flow was completed. So journaling lets me write in faith, knowing I can test it later and thus I can receive entire paragraphs and pages, rather than single sentences from Almighty God!

In terms of evaluating or judging the word for accuracy...how do you suggest we do that?

There are several things we do: 1) It must line up with the words and principles of the Bible; 2) It must line up with the names of Jesus and the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22), as these reveal His character and Jesus’ words always align with His character; and 3) We submit our two-way journaling to our two or three spiritual advisors, asking them if their heart bears witness that the journaling came from Jesus (Matt. 18:16).

For example, does your heart bear witness that the following came from Jesus? “Lord, what do you want to say to these readers?”

“My children long to hear My voice, and yet they are afraid to hear My voice. They are afraid of making a mistake or doing something wrong, and their fear keeps them captive and distant from Me. Oh, how I have longed to draw them unto Myself, as a mother hen draws her chicks under her wing, and yet they have resisted. My child, come to Me. Hear from Me. Listen to Me. Believe that all you have read in My Word is available to you and can be experienced in your life. IT IS available to you!!! My Word can be lived out in your life, if you only believe! Believe in Me! Trust in Me. Come to Me that your joy may be full. Come, and again I say unto you, Come! Come My Children, come. Please come and drink, that your hearts may be full and satisfied. Come, and again I say, come! Come, and again I say…”