To the 21st century American the first reading today can come off as old fashioned or superstition with it's talk of the Holy Spirit not allowing them to do this and spirit of Jesus preventing them from doing that, and Paul's vision. And must confess that at a younger age I would not have put much stock in it myself.
But in the same way, the older you get the smarter your parents get, it is also true, the older you get the smarter the Bible and the Church get.
If we believe that what Jesus promises about the Holy Spirit is true,and what he promises about making his dwelling with us is true then why wouldn't they guide us as described above.
It seems to me that it is not that God has changed, we have changed.
First,we are less likely than Paul's generation to believe in the spiritual aspect of life. We will believe anything purported to come from a scientific study, but the bible...
Secondly, do we really want to be lead by the Spirit, or anyone really?
Thirdly, it takes practice to learn to distinguish the voice of God from all the noise around. Russian has hard and soft consonants. When I first started to study it, I simply couldn't hear the difference. a t was a t. What do you mean a hard t sounds like this and a soft t sounds like that? With practice one learns to distinguish, until they become to completely different sounds.mSo it is with hearing God. Sometimes it takes years of practice to become as attuned as Paul was to Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The good news is that we all have the presence of God, the presence of Jesus, the presence of the Holy Spirit. First we need to want to be guided, and secondly we need to practice listening.
