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I've heard people say, "God has spoken to me." In the OT there were prophets proclaiming what God said. Sometimes in the Bible God speaks audibly (e.g. to Samuel).

But today: in what way does God speak to people today?

*Related: How does one know if God is talking to him?

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    Can someone please explain the close vote? Aug 25, 2011 at 11:40
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    Someone voted it as "Not Constructive". I've seen these types of votes going around a lot on questions that are very practical, useful, and answerable. I think it's just a rogue VtC'er.
    – Richard
    Aug 25, 2011 at 12:51
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    I'm going to go with "subjective" as well. Aug 25, 2011 at 13:06
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    I'm not your rogue, but before you accuse voters: The explanation for "not constructive" votes reads as follows: This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. I think this particular question fits many of those descriptions. In order to survive this QnA format it should be broken up into much smaller pieces that more carefully avoid being polls or soliciting opinion and extended discussion.
    – Caleb
    Aug 25, 2011 at 13:24
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    What about a reworking of the question that solicits not answers drawn wholly from personal experience (as this one does), but rather answers drawn from, for example, published literature on this topic? This is an important question but the asker probably wants more from a response than personal anecdotes from someone he doesn't know. Would something like "What is the predominant Christian view on whether and by what means God still speaks to people today?" be a more acceptable alternative?
    – user175
    Aug 31, 2011 at 15:18

2 Answers 2

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God speaks through multiple ways. This includes everything from audible voices to suggestions from friends and family.

However, by far, the most common way that God speaks to us is through His Bible.

In fact, if we think that we're hearing God in any other way, we need to go to the Bible and verify that what we think he's saying actually lines up with his will.

And while oftentimes the bible isn't clear about some decisions (such as which car to buy), God will use the Holy Spirit to guide us. We need to listen with our ears, with our hearts, with our minds. But most of all, we need to listen to the Bible.

That's why it's so critical to read your Bible daily.

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  • Though you still have Peter being commanded to eat what, to a law-abiding Jew, was unclean food... to Peter, this went against God's recorded will. Aug 29, 2011 at 14:16
  • @Jürgen: It went against the still incomplete revelation (that is, the old-testament); we, however, have the complete revelation of God and it elucidates many things in the light of the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ which were previously unclear.
    – user32
    Jan 20, 2014 at 20:16
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God has spoken to me in the past

  1. with an audible external voice,
  2. with a distinct voice inside my mind,
  3. by a vision in my minds-eye,
  4. by opening my eyes to a song or scripture I was singing or reading in a way I had not seen before,
  5. through Godly council and direct prophecy of other trustworthy believers,
  6. by my conscience, and, of course
  7. via systematic study of his Scripture which guides my life-system.

These are listed in order of (exponential) increasing frequency, and are just what I've personally experienced.

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    Software Monkey has a pretty good list but I'd like to add, God speaks to me often in dreams sometimes very clearly as in an angel appearing during the dream and sometimes less clearly where the dream is more symbolic in nature.
    – Andrew
    Aug 25, 2011 at 14:06

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