Answering the Hard Questions
Every sincere question deserves a sincere answer. That is the conviction Dan Murphy brought to this episode, and it is the reason I think it is one of the most important conversations in the whole series.
There are questions that believers carry quietly for years. Questions about tongues and whether it is still for today. Questions about why they asked and nothing seemed to happen. Questions about whether what they have seen in certain charismatic circles is genuine or emotional. Questions from people who have been told that what Dan teaches is wrong or even dangerous. These are real questions, held by real people, and they deserve to be answered honestly rather than deflected.
Dan has spent decades in ministry across multiple countries and cultures. He has sat with more of these questions than most. And in this episode he answered them, one by one, with the gentleness of someone who has walked this journey with many people and understands what is at stake in each question.
On cessationism, the belief that tongues was only for the early church and ceased with the apostles, Dan turned to Acts and let the pattern speak. The promise of Acts 2 was for all flesh. Peter said it was for you and for your children and for all who are far off. There is no grammatical, textual, or historical basis for inserting an expiry date into that promise.
On the experience of asking and feeling nothing happened, Dan spoke with particular tenderness. He said that God is not withholding. He said that receiving is not the same as achieving, and that the feeling of nothing happening is often the doorway rather than the closed door. He has watched people receive who had been asking for years, and the receiving, when it came, was quiet and real and unmistakable.
On the believer who has been in church their whole life and was simply never taught any of this, Dan’s response was the one that stayed with me most. He said that God’s patience is longer than our confusion. The invitation is still open.
I asked Dan how he responds to someone who has been told that what he teaches is wrong or dangerous. He said he simply asks them to read Acts and tell him what they find. That answer struck me. Not because it is clever, but because it is honest. The text is the text. Read it and see what it says.
Is there a question about the Holy Spirit that you have been carrying quietly? What would it mean to bring it into the open and let Scripture answer it honestly?
YouTube: Watch the full Episode HERE.
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Buy the Book – Entering the Covenant: Books.by.