Divine Communication

"Does the Lord still speak to us nowadays?"

I often ask God this question. When I pray, is it only me who speaks?
I believe God hears but does He respond?

Most of the time, especially when I'm down, I think God does not want to speak to me.
I can't hear His voice. I can't sense His presence. And worse, it makes 
me reflect on how sinful and unholy I am. Why do other Christians hear from
Him and I don't? Why can other Christians boldly say "I heard from the Lord"
or "the Lord told me to."

I am somehow thankful because I have not reached the point where I ask if the
Lord is really alive.

I still firmly believes He is. He is alive, well, and outrageously active in my life.
But why can't I hear from Him? Have I silenced Him? Or made me dumb
from hearing Him?

"My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow Me." John 10:27

I am surely one of His sheep....So, why can't I?

For God may speak in one way, or in another,
Yet man does not perceive it.

In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falls upon men,
While slumbering on their beds,

Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction.

In order to turn man from his deed,
And conceal pride from man,

He keeps back his soul from the Pit,
And his life from perishing by the sword.

“Man is also chastened with pain on his bed,
And with strong pain in many of his bones, Job 33:14-19

Then, it hit me. I cannot put God in a box. Maybe, I am expecting

God to respond only in ways that I can think of, forgetting that

He is God and He can choose to speak to me through other ways.

It can be through His Word, 

through a preaching I "happened" to watch, 

through a random someone talking to me, 

through the advice of my parents, friends or colleagues, 

through a poster I "happened" to look at,

through a stat message in FB,

through a song I "happened" to be listening at the moment,

even through a disease (why not?),

through a random dream!

There are tons of ways God can speak to us. We just need to watch out

for it. We need to free our mind from clutters that we may be able to

meditate on His word and receive from Him. 

"But how do you know it is God?"

I cannot answer this specifically. All I know is, you will just feel it. 

Try to remember the questions you asked God before and watch

out everyday. When people speaks to you, try not to ignore what

they say. Try not to easily ignore the events in your life and you

will be surprised. 

And funny thing, I found out that He speaks to me using the most

familiar method I know because I do this everyday -- imagining. I thought I control

my imagination or the train of thoughts that I meditate on the way to work.

Turned out, God uses them to teach me, warn me of future things, disclose

to me something important and many more.

A lot of times I miss it. But, it's not too late for us. 

Believe that He speaks. He speaks to you as a father speaks to his child, 

a groom speaks to his bride, a friend speaks to another, and

a master speaks to his servant. 

After all, what is a relationship without communication