The Bible is not what scripture means by ‘the word of God’. Also, when people say that God speaks to us, it is not the same as what scripture means by ‘the word of God’. The words are not literally coming from the mouth of God except rarely it might be that someone, somewhere actually hears the words that come from God’s own mouth - the very Father’s own actual mouth. It is very rare for humans to hear such words, except Jesus and the Holy Spirit and angels do often hear such things. Often what people might say is God speaking to them might be their hearts being opened to something in their spirit, or still rarely, the Holy Spirit speaking. Sometimes an angel speaks to someone like when Mary and Joseph were told about Jesus before Jesus was born, as we see portrayed in Nativity plays. That is rare too. Sometimes people have a heavenly dream, like that Nativity dream when the wise men were spoken to about escaping the plot of Herod: That is not so rare. A minister preparing a sermon might feel led to say something particular ‘laid on their heart’. That is not at all rare. Think of all the millions of anointed sermons preached each week. The Holy Spirit awakens spirits of ministers to lead them in how to speak. Yet the word of the LORD coming to someone like to the young prophet Samuel in the Temple one night: That is very rare. In these cases it is what scripture calls the word of God. It is rare, which is why Samuel didn’t recognise what was happening. We need to be clear what we mean by the word of God. Scripture usually means literally things the Father has spoken from His actual mouth when it says ‘the word of God’. And almost never does scripture call a book of collected scriptures such as the Bible ‘the word of God’ or ‘God’s word’. That concept only started when Protestants started printing and selling and promoting bibles.
