Does God still talk to people?

God speaks to all His children. When Jesus compared Himself to a good shepherd and His followers to sheep, He said (John 10): 

2  The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.
3  The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 

He also said: 

14  “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me--
15  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16  I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 

It would be very hard to imagine knowing the voice of Jesus if He never speaks to us.

When Peter talked about some of the things people would be able to do when they received God the Holy Spirit into their lives, he said this (Acts 2): 

16  No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17  “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
18  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” 

Prophecy is receiving a message from God to give to someone else. Visions are seeing messages from God in picture form, as are dreams. Prophetic words, dreams and visions are ways God speaks to people, in this case, “all people” who belong to Him and have the Holy Spirit.

Finally, what would Hebrews 3:7[1] and 15[2] and 4:7[3] possibly mean when they say “Today, if you hear his voice”, if God is still not talking to His people?

In fact, God does speak to people, but people often don’t hear, or rather, they don’t know that they are hearing God. So let’s look at some of the ways God speaks so we can pay closer attention to what His voice sounds like and can hear it more. 

(1) Remember back to when you understood that Jesus was calling you to receive Him into your life as Lord and Saviour. You came to Jesus because you heard the Father’s voice. 

John 6
44  [Jesus:] “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
45  It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 

(2) The only way you were able to understand that Jesus is who He said He is was that You heard the Father tell you that. 

Matthew 16
15  “But what about you?” he [Jesus] asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17  Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 

(3) When you understand what you read in the Bible, you are hearing God. 

1 Corinthians 2
12  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
13  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
14  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 

(4) Every time you feel the prick of your conscience telling you to confess to God because you have just sinned, you are hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit: 

John 16:8
When he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 

(5) Wanting to obey God is evidence that God is working in you and you are responding. 

Philippians 2
13  for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. 

(6) You hear God when someone gives you a prophetic word and you are strengthened, encouraged or comforted by it. You also receive the same reward for receiving the word as the prophet does for giving it. 

1 Corinthians 14
3  But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.

Matthew 10
40  “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.
41  Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. 

(7) When you see something in God’s creation and respond with a “wow”, you are hearing God speak through His creation. The Scriptures, especially Romans, is very clear that nature is one of God’s languages. 

Psalm 19
1  The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
3  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
4  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun . . .

Psalm 69
34  Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them . . .

Psalm 148
3  Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars.
4  Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.
5  Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created.
6  He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away.
7  Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
8  lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding,
9  you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
10  wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds . . .

Romans 1
20  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 

(8) Sometimes you realize how God is working in your circumstances, and that is another way He speaks. 

Romans 8
28  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Then there are the dreams and visions, and just hearing His still, small voice speak into your spirit, giving truth that is personal to you. But it would be an error to confine God’s voice to those experiences which are evidently supernatural, when God speaks daily in so many ways that we are already used to, that feel ordinary, but are equally as supernatural and divine in origin.

            In the next lesson, we’ll look at some things you can do to begin experiencing that quiet inner voice of God.

Sharon Currens