How Does God Speak to Us?

Like fish arguing about the nature or existence of water, we often talk about God in ways that must be quite silly. “Is God there?” is a nonsense question if, as the Apostle Paul once said, “In him we live and move and have our being.”

But even if we believe that God is there and our very existence depends on him, that fact alone does not give us a personal relationship with him. Even if we exist in God, like fish in water, it is natural to want to see and experience him more clearly. Does God care about your or my struggles? Is he trying to say to something to either of us, personally? And how does God talk to his creation, anyway? Those are not silly questions.

Here are five ways that God speaks and reveals himself to us.

God speaks through his creation. “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 display knowledge.” How can we not marvel at the beauty and intricacy of the things made by him who “has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand” and “marked off the heavens with the breadth of his hand?”

God speaks through people. Every time someone helps you when you are sick, lonely or scared, they show you a bit of God. And when you love another person, you help them to see God. To adapt Victor Hugo’s famous phrase, to love another person is to show the face of God. From our parents’ love to the inspiring lives of great people throughout history, God reveals himself to us in the words and actions of people. We constantly need each other and earn about God from each other.

God speaks through his son. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus said. This incredible statement is either outlandish or true. To believe in Jesus is to believe that, when we read the gospels and look at Jesus, we are seeing God. Whenever you begin to doubt or wonder what God is really like, turn again to consider Jesus. Time and again, that clarifies matters for us.

God speaks through Scripture. To quote again a letter attributed to the Apostle Paul, “There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.”

God speaks through his Spirit within us. Describe this however you like. Scriptures describe the Holy Spirit as Helper, Comforter, Counselor, Advocate. There are times when a “still, small voice” whispers softly in your heart. That may be God speaking directly to you. Are you listening? I believe that the Spirit sometimes prompts and instructs us in this way, and that we must tune our hearts to hear it.

In each of these ways, and no doubt in many more, God speaks to us. Sometimes powerfully. Every day, if we are listening. We must be humble and discerning to understand what he is saying.

Scriptures quoted here are Acts 17:28; Psalms 19:1-2, NIV; Isaiah 40:12; John 14:9, NIV; 2 Timothy 3:15b-17, The Message; John 16:7; 1 Kings 19:12. Some of these thoughts were prompted by Charles L. Allen, God’s Psychiatry (1953), pp. 97-99.