Humans are the only creatures made in the likeness of God. This means we have unique capacities to choose, to create, and to communicate.

And right from the start, God is communicating with us beloved image-bearers: ​“God blessed them, and God said to them, ​‘Be fruitful and multiply…’ ” (Genesis 1:28).

In time, the revealed word of God went from oral tradition to written text. God’s people through the ages recognized the authority of certain writings and formed — through much struggle — the complete canon of Scripture we simply call the Bible.

And this authoritative text records God speaking to all kinds of people — Abraham, Hagar, Jacob, Rebekah, and Joseph, right on to Zechariah, Mary, Paul, and many more — in a variety of ways including thoughts, dreams, and emotions (people are ​“cut to the heart” by Peter’s message in Acts 2, for example). It also reminds us that Nature itself is a word from God (Romans 1:20).

In short, Scripture testifies — along with the deep longing inside every human — that we are made for relationship with God.

And since two-way communication is at the heart of relationships, that means we are made not only to talk to God, but also to be with God and hear from God — this God who in Christ, incredibly, lives inside anyone who invites him in (Ephesians 3:17). 

Some Christians believe that once the canon of Scripture was completed, God ceased speaking to people directly and now speaks exclusively through the Bible.

But even the staunchest adherents to this view will say things like, ​“The Spirit convicted me,” or ​“I felt moved to tell that person about Jesus.” I’d suggest they are hearing God.

We’re finite; God is infinite. We’re flawed; God is flawless. For a variety of reasons, we’re going to mishear. So it’s absolutely true that Scripture, taken as a whole, is the necessary authority by which any word we think we hear from God must be measured.

Not only that, but being saturated in Scripture enables the Spirit to surface timeless truths to our conscious mind in the moment we need them.

So, yes, Scripture is the essential and primary mode through which God communicates with us. But God also speaks with us directly in Christ, who, as the old hymn goes, walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am his own. Richard Foster writes:

The wonderful news is that Jesus has not stopped acting and speaking. He is resurrected and at work in our world. He is not idle, nor has he developed laryngitis. He is alive and among us as our Priest to forgive us, our Prophet to teach us, our King to rule us, our Shepherd to guide us.

Unjust and bloody wars have been waged by people claiming to hear from God. Marriages and careers have been brought to shambles by false prophetic words. And many of us, in small or large ways, have experienced the pain of thinking we heard the Divine Whisper only to find later we mistook our own projections for God’s leading.

With all that, is it worth even trying to discern God’s voice?

In a word, Yes.

With human friendship, it takes work to learn the nuance of nonverbal and verbal communication with the other person. The risk of misunderstanding is real but authentic connection requires it.

With divine friendship, there is of course no problem on God’s end. Still, it takes work on our end to learn God’s vocabulary and God’s movements, to discern how the Comforter comforts and the Shepherd speaks. This learning requires community and humility — submission to the wisdom of elders and the grounding of Scripture. It’s worth the effort. It’s worth the risk. Jesus died to call us friends and to send his Spirit to be with us forever. It’s our honor and gift to learn to hear what he’s saying in the ways he says it.