How Does God Speak?

The idea that God speaks today in any way other than through Scripture is very scary to some people. They are afraid that people will come up with all sorts of strange teachings and practices based on the untestable idea that God has revealed these things to them. There are, unfortunately, those who lend credence to this idea. Now I believe we should reject claims which are contrary to Scripture (Isaiah 8:20; Galatians 1:8,9; Deuteronomy  13:1-5). I would go further than that: the Scriptures are sufficient for faith and practice, and any clearly new thing, in terms of doctrinal and moral principles, is suspect (Jude 3; 2 Timothy 3:16,17; Hebrews 1:1,2). But the problem with saying God does not speak to us today on the purely practical level is that it has no basis in Scripture and contradicts the experience of a great many Christians who show no inclination for doctrinal or moral innovation. It also lends credence to what those who deny God speaks today oppose, for when it is found there is no strong case for totally rejecting God speaking, there is a tendency to embrace the opposite opinion that all such claims are correct. What we need, rather, is the position that that all such things should be tested carefully (1 Thessalonians 5:21,22; 1 John 4:1-3; 1 Corinthians 14:32). For only by this can we stand firm against the extremes.