“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me and saw My works forty years. Therefore, I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So, I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’” (Hebrews 3:7-11).
A great Bible question is: “Does the Holy Spirit still speak to people today?”
The Bible answer is a resounding “YES!”
The passage above declares such to be so. “Says” is in the present tense and active voice; this means it can be correctly translated “is saying” (i.e., a continuous action).
The power and profundity of this truth must not be missed.
Hebrews 3:7-11 contains a quotation of Psalm 95:7-8. Though penned by an unnamed scribe hundreds of years before the first century A. D., the Holy Spirit—who moved this unknown penman (2 Peter 1:21)—is still saying the same thing to God’s people centuries later.
This is an unchanging characteristic and wonder of God’s inspired word. God’s message to every generation is consistently identical. The written Scriptures are how God revealed His mind and will to humanity. Once written, they communicate God’s mind and will unceasingly.
The Holy Spirit speaks to God’s people in the first century and the 21st century alike—via the written Scriptures.
