How does God speak to us today?

Yes, God speaks today. He has not gone quiet since the Bible was finished. But the way He speaks is more specific, and more available, than many people expect.

The short answer is this: God speaks supremely through His Son, Jesus Christ, and through the Scriptures that bear witness to Him. The Holy Spirit takes those written words and makes them living words to you. Around that center, God also speaks in secondary ways, through creation, through conscience, through the counsel of wise believers, through circumstances. But every one of those must be tested by Scripture, because none of them carries its authority.

That is the answer. If you are waiting for a voice from the sky before you believe God has spoken to you, you may wait a long time while a Bible sits closed on the shelf. He has already said more to you than you have yet heard.

He has spoken by His Son

The letter to the Hebrews opens with the clearest statement in the Bible about how God speaks.

On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.

— Hebrews 1:1–2

Many ways in the past: dreams, visions, a burning bush, prophets. And then one way that gathers up all the others. Jesus is not one more messenger. He is the message, God’s Word made flesh. When you want to know what God is like and what He wants, you look at Jesus.

That is why the four Gospels are not merely history. They are God speaking to you in the fullest way He has ever spoken.

He speaks through Scripture

How do we hear the Son? Through the Scriptures, which are God’s own breath.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

— 2 Timothy 3:16–17

God-breathed. Not inspired in the way a poem is inspired, but breathed out by God. When you open the Bible you are not reading about what God once said. You are reading what God says. And fully equipped means there is nothing you need for a godly life that is not there.

This word is not dead on the page either.

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

— Hebrews 4:12

If you have ever read a verse and felt it read you, you know what this means. That is God speaking. It is also the ordinary way He does it. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). A lamp, not a floodlight: enough for the next step.

The Spirit makes the word alive

The Bible is not a manual you work through alone. Jesus promised the Spirit for exactly this.

However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.

— John 16:13

The Spirit does not bring a different message from the Son. He takes what is Christ’s and makes it real to you. When a passage you have read a hundred times suddenly lands, that is His work. When Scripture convicts you, comforts you, or gives you a clarity you did not have a minute ago, that is Him.

Paul says the Spirit also speaks to who you are.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

— Romans 8:16

This is deep, quiet speech: the assurance that you are His child. Many believers hear God most clearly not in instructions but in that assurance. And “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Being led by the Spirit is not a rare experience for a few. It is the normal life of a Christian.

Jesus put it in the language of the shepherd.

My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.

— John 10:27

Listening and following go together. You do not get to hear the Shepherd’s voice as a spectator. His voice is recognized by those who are walking behind Him.

He also speaks in secondary ways

Creation speaks.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.

— Psalm 19:1–2

Paul says God’s invisible qualities have been “clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship” (Romans 1:20). A night sky or a mountain can tell you that God is great. But creation does not tell you His name, or that He forgives, or how to be reconciled to Him. For that you need the Word.

Conscience speaks, too, though it can be dulled, so it must be shaped by Scripture rather than trusted on its own. Wise believers speak: a pastor, a mature friend, your church. Circumstances speak, in a limited way. An open door is not always God, and a closed one is not always no. Jonah found a ship going exactly where he wanted to go.

Then there is Elijah on the mountain.

Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice.

— 1 Kings 19:11–12

Elijah expected the spectacular. God came in a whisper. This does not mean God speaks mostly through inner impressions. It means He is not obliged to be loud. Most of the time, the still, small voice you will actually hear is the one that meets you in an open Bible in a quiet room.

The test for all the secondary ways is simple. Does it agree with Scripture? If it contradicts the Bible, it is not God, however strongly it is felt. If it agrees, Scripture was already saying it, and you have been given a reminder.

How to begin

Open the Bible expecting God to speak. Start with one of the Gospels. Read a short passage, a paragraph or so, slowly, and then read it again.

Before you read, ask the Spirit to open your eyes. It does not need to be elaborate. A sentence will do.

As you read, ask three plain questions. What does this say? What does it show me about God? What does it ask of me? Write the answers down if it helps.

Then do what it asks, today. Obedience sharpens hearing. Jesus said His sheep listen and follow; the following is part of how the listening grows.

Talk it over with someone. If you sense God is saying something specific to you, say it out loud to a mature Christian and let them weigh it with you against Scripture. You can think it through with Companion as well, and then take it to the LORD in prayer, but a person who knows you is worth more.

Where Christians differ

Faithful Christians differ on whether God still gives specific words, impressions, prophecies, or visions today, beyond what is written in Scripture.

Some, often called continuationists, believe the gifts of the Spirit described in the New Testament, including prophecy, continue in the church today. On this view God may give a believer a specific impression or word, always subject to testing by Scripture and never equal to it. Others, often called cessationists, believe those revelatory gifts belonged to the founding era of the church, and that God now speaks through Scripture alone, illuminated by the Spirit, with wisdom and providence guiding the rest.

Both views hold that Scripture is the final authority and that nothing God says today will contradict it. Both are held by people who love the Bible and pray, so hold your view with charity toward those who differ. In practice the gap is smaller than the argument suggests. Everyone agrees that the surest place to hear God is the open Bible, and that any impression must be tested there.

A warm word to end

God is not hiding from you. He has spoken in His Son, He has written it down, and He has given you His Spirit so that the words come alive. That is a great deal more than a voice from the sky. It is a voice you can return to every day.

So tonight, or tomorrow morning, open the Gospel of John and read the first few verses. Ask Him to speak. Then listen, do what you hear, and bring it to your church and your prayers. He has been speaking all along. You are only now starting to listen.