"I will question you, and you shall answer me!"  These are among the first words that God makes in reply to Job in the ancient Hebrew book of the same name.   Job was severely tested by God to prove to Satan that Job would be faithful to Him even in extreme adversity.  Job and his friends wrestled with the question of why a man who loved and obeyed God would suffer such affliction.  They believed that only those who had sinned against God would be punished as Job had been.  However, after a long silence, God finally spoke.  God's oration proved that such puny questions as Job and his mortal friends had asked paled in comparison to the majesty of His sovereignty.  God answered none of their questions, but only replied with more questions, none of which Job or his friends could answer.  Thus Job was vindicated in his faithfulness to God, and God was duly revered. 

     The story of Job is an example of how God communicates with his people.  In this case, there was heavenly silence until the right time.  However, when God finally spoke, it was loud and clear.  Anyone who has studied the Hebrew Scriptures knows that God spoke to His people Israel "Though the prophets at many times and in various ways" (Heb 1:1).  Countless examples could be cited of The Angel of The Lord appearing to the patriarchs, and the visions and utterances given to the prophets, from Samuel through Malachi.  Even if by some chance the Prophets could not clearly hear God's words to them, they never showed that uncertainty when proclaiming His messages to the nation of Israel.

     Is this also the case for our day and time?  Is God most often silent, only speaking at just the right time, and then clearly, as with Job?  Or must we strive to listen to his voice before we can hear?  Certainly, the Hebrew Scriptures advocate listening.  For example, the Psalmist exhorts his listeners, "When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent" (Ps. 4:4).  King Solomon urges the followers of Elohim to "Guard your steps when you go near to the house of God.  Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools...do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.  God is in heaven, and you are on earth, so let your words be few" (Ecc. 5:1-2). 

     Then there is the famous story in 1 Kings 19 that is often used when talking about listening to God.  This is when the prophet Elijah has just defeated the prophets of Ba'al (The chief deity of the pagan peoples in Palestine).  However, he still fights great discouragement, and flees to "Horeb, the mountain of God" (v. 8).  A great fire, a powerful earthquake, and a mighty wind shook the mountain, but "The Lord was not in" any of them.  The Lord finally spoke to his servant through a "Gentle whisper".  The Lord encouraged Elijah, who after this incident went to call Elisha to him in preparation for further ministry. 

     Certainly, there are other relevant passages in the Hebrew Scriptures.  However, we live in the 21st century western world, having inherited Greco-Roman thought patterns, and not in the 8th century B.C. Near East.  Our lives are radically different.  Further, those of us who profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior now live under the covenant of His blood, and not under the old Hebrew covenant.  Thus, the important question here is this:  How did God's communication with his people before Christ relate to his communication with his people now?  Certainly, God is not a man, that he should change his mind! (See 1 Sam. 15:29).  While we know that the God of the Hebrews spoke to them in various ways, were any of those ways uncertain or subjective?  Or were they more objective and clear, perhaps even auditory?  It's not entirely certain how God spoke to the prophets.  However, it seems clear that while being quiet and listening are advocated, when God wished to speak to his people the communication was clear.  Of course most of the time they didn't listen, but that was due to their hardness of hearts, and not the difficulty of perceiving the message itself.      

     Fast forward to the New Covenant Era, specifically the present church.  Does God still speak to us today?  If so, how?  If not, why not?  I have heard many different voices in the Christian community today telling us that we must take time to "Listen to God."  Some say that he "speaks" through friends, media, circumstances, the Scriptures, books, and more.  Now, certainly nobody means to say that God speaks audibly in any of these sources.  However, it seems that God is somehow trying to communicate through these mediums.  Is this really the case?  If so, is it working? 

     First of all, we know for certain that "In these last days [God] has spoken to us through his Son" who is sovereign over all the universe.  Thus, Christ is a message directly from God.  By reading through the gospel narratives about Jesus, it's clear that this message is one of love, redemption, forgiveness, and life.  Eternal life.  A holy life.  Jesus' life and mission are about as clear of a message as we could get.  God becomes man, makes radical claims, dies, and comes to life again.  What could be more clear that something amazing is happening here? 

    The issue becomes when many try to take this message meant for all who believe in Christ and try to make it deeply personal.  Who in the church hasn't heard phrases like, "I believe that God is telling me to do this or that..." or "God told me just this morning that..."  or "I just think that through such and such a medium God is telling me such and such..."?  Does God give us such specific guidance?  Or is the message of his written Word (where there can be no doubt that he has spoken clearly) and his Son sufficient?

     Let us ask a few questions to assess this.  First, we know that when God spoke to the prophets long ago, His words, through their mouths, were written down as inspired Scripture.  Certainly, if an all-powerful God has really spoken, it should be written down right?  Who doesn't want to know what God has said?  (Of course, sadly enough, many don't)  If the bona fide words of God were written down and recorded as such back then, should not the same be true in the New Covenant era?  So, it must be asked:  For those who claim that God "spoke" to them and said such and such, if He really said this, why not write it down and equate it with the rest of Scripture?  The same goes for modern prophets who claim to have "A word from God".  However, are these written down as Scripture?  Of course not!  The idea seems absurd.  The Bible is a closed canon; nothing more can be added to it.  If nothing else, shouldn't these supposed messages from God be widely circulated to prove their trustworthiness?  After all, in the OT times, if a prophet claimed to prophecy in the name of the Lord, yet his prophecies did not come true, he was a false prophet and was to be stoned.  To death.  Apparently God didn't care for people misrepresenting him.  For those of us who believe that, "God is not a man, that he should change his mind", it makes sense that He still does not care for misrepresentation.  So, we don't want to go around saying that God is saying lots of things that he isn't really saying.  Make sense?      

     So what does the New Testament have to say about how God speaks to his church?  Because the Gospels are before the advent of the Church, we must start with Acts, the book that chronicles the rise of the Church.  Further, "Though the book of Acts is only one book of twenty-seven in the New Testament, it is virtually the only one that gives evidence of this kind of thing." (Koukl)  In this book, there are 14 times that God directly communicates with somebody.  (8:26-29; 9:10; 10:11; 10:22; 12:7; 13:2-4; 15:28; 16:6; 16:10; 18:9; 21:4; 21:11; 22:16; 23:11).  How exactly did God speak on those occasions? 

     "Of those fourteen, three were visions, two were angels, three were prophetic words, and four were Jesus either speaking or appearing. Finally, on two occasions the Holy Spirit spoke in some manner that we're not sure of, but in those cases He did speak very clearly in at least one of the cases. The other one we're not sure of because it just said He prohibited Paul from entering Asia" (Koukl). 

But the most important point is that, "In virtually every case the communications from God were clear. The recipient did not have to develop an ability to hear" (Koukl).  Further, on two of these occasions the recipients were not even believers!  Neither Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus nor the gentile centurion Cornelius knew God when he spoke to them, one by an angel, the other by a vision.  Not only that, but Saul was vehemently opposed to God!  If God can speak to those who hate Him, certainly he can speak clearly to his servants.  Finally, it seems that messages by angels, visions, and Jesus' words are clear enough to be without ambiguity to the recipient.  Who would doubt God's message today if an angel appeared to him?

     It appears that there is little precedent in Scripture that one has to exert one's self to listen to God.  Rather, it seems that when God wanted to tell somebody something, he did it.  It was clear.  No questions asked. 

     Let us put this in another light.  We believe that God is all-powerful, that is, omnipotent.  We also believe that He used mortal, fallible men to write his unerring, perfect Scriptures.  Now, men make mistakes.  However, if God is all powerful then certainly he can use that power to help imperfect men in a perfect task.  Agreed?  Now, for those who say that we need to be quiet and listen to God, why is that?  We have seen that, from Acts, when God wanted to speak, it was almost always very clear.  And most of the time, people were not actively listening.  So, if we say that we can't hear God because we're not listening, does that mean that God is not powerful enough to be heard over the rest of our world?  If God is trying to speak to us but cannot be heard, then that implies that God is not all-powerful (Koukl).  Certainly, an all powerful God that can create the universe out of nothing, manage legions of angels, become a man, raise himself from the dead, and start a worldwide movement could also communicate with us clearly. 

     "If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, He never "tries" anything. He never makes an attempt, in the sense that He gives it a go to see if it happens. No. Whatever God purposes to accomplish, He accomplishes. He knows all the facts and has the power to complete what He sets out to do" (Koukl). 

Thus, if God wants to speak to us, he will.  Clearly.  Greg Koukl, head of Stand to Reason, concludes that,

"The New Testament records nothing like a still, small voice that whispers gently in our spiritual ear. Nor does the Old Testament, as far as I can tell. Instead, we focus on the only Word of God that we are commanded to seek, that we are commanded to understand, and that we are commanded to obey."

     Perhaps when people say that "God is speaking" to them, they only mean to say that they are seeing God's truth in a situation, and not really hearing something new from God.  For example, if somebody is watching a movie, and there is a scene that powerfully depicts forgiveness at a time in their life where forgiveness is needed, it will seem that God is "speaking" to them through this movie.  However, I think it makes more sense to say that that movie, more than likely coming from ungodly minds, still has sufficient glimmers of truth to grab ahold of for those who already know the truth.  Only one who knew of God's perfect forgiveness would think they heard His voice when they saw that scene.  The same goes when reading books, or speaking to others, and other means of communication.  When we are dealing with issues in our lives, we look for answers.  When we have a framework of the Word of Truth in our minds, we can then take specifics from books, people, etc that fit into this framework.  However, if we did not know the truth, then these very same situations that now may be said to "speak" to us would mean nothing.  Both logically and personally, I believe this is shaky ground.  In the end, there seems no conclusive evidence that makes "Hearing from God" in these situations any more than subjective and emotional, even a form of wish-fulfillment.       

     On another note, however, what about those times when it really feels like the Spirit is speaking to us or giving us special insight?  Is it just emotion, or perhaps is there something more?  I will give a few personal examples of when I felt like God was trying to say something.  Whether he was or not, I don't know; perhaps it was only a reflection of my knowledge of the Truth in my present situation.  Regardless, I will desribe them. 

     The first was one day before a small group meeting.  I believe I was in the apartment, getting ready to go to campus.  However, not long before I left, I got an unexplicable urge to simply be quiet, and pray.  Pray for what I had no idea.  However, that urge seemed almost undeniable.  Rationally, I don't know why that would have been.  Regardless, later that evening, we found out that one individual was experienceing great emotional agony that was before unbeknownst to the group.  It was almost like that pain was reflected and I felt it - though shadowy - a couple of hours before. 

    The second was when I was in prayer one night, struggling over different aspects of my future.  I again had an unexplicable feeling that somebody (An angel perhaps?) was putting his hand on my shoulder and saying something to the effect of, "Wait, my child, be patient.  The time will come.  In the meantime all things have their reason.  Do not be anxious."  Now, all of that is general truth found in the Scriptures, so it could have easily been generated by my own frusterated mind looking for comfort.  But that was not the effect that I got at the time. 

     Those two examples are my subjective side of the argument.  However, in light of Scripture and reason, it appears that God speaks almost exclusively through his Son and through his Word far more than any subjective, "Spiritual" experiences. 

     Finally, if God can speak to us, can the opposite also be true?  Can Satan speak to us as well?  Certainly there are many lies in this world, and many temptations, though James says that, "Each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is dragged away and enticed..." (1:14).  But if Satan is competing for our souls, why wouldn't he try to speak to us as well?  Of course, Satan is not omnipresent and cannot speak to everybody at once as God can.  However, I'm sure that his minions are suitable for that task.  Thus, if we are quiet and "listen", how do we know that what we think we're hearing is from God and not Satan?  We know because we have already heard God's voice in His Word, the Scriptures.  Even if we can subjectively hear from the spirit realm, we should use objective truth to interpret it.  God has given us wisdom.  That, coupled with the divine Word, can powerfully amplify the voice of God. 

     Is it possible that God speaks into our spirits in unique, personal ways?  Sure it is.  God can do whatever he wants.  However, I find it harder to believe that God speaks to us in this fashion.  If God is all powerful, and wants to speak with us, he will.  If he does, we won't have to wonder.  If we're really wondering if something is from God, and it doesn't line up with the Scriptures (At times even if it does), then it is very doubtful.  Do you want to hear from God?  Who doens't?  Certainly, the practice of solitude is powerful and beneficial.  However, I don't think I'm going to spend much time in silence simply for the reason of "hearing" from God.  If God wishes to speak to me, he will do so in a manner that I cannot deny.  Until then, if I'm wise, I will study and learn to obey the holy, precious words that he has given us, and to use the wisdom and discernment that he has given me otherwise. 

     Friends, search the scriptures.  That's where you'll hear God's voice.  As St. Augustine said, "All truth is God's truth", and this is the bedrock upon which that house of truth can be built.  Know it well.  "Do you best to present yourself to God as one appoved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, but who correctly handles the word of truth." 

Other than the Scriptures, my primary resources in this essay were articles by Greg Koukl, on the website www.str.org.  The specific articles are called, "A Private Hotline to God?" and "Acts and the Voice of God."