"Hearing" from God

I was reading Young's "The Shack" earlier today and a concept he introduces really grabbed me. I'm still reading, so this isn't about my overall opinion on the book, just the concept of how God communicates with us. The main character receives a note in the mailbox that appears to possible be sent to him from God, so the concept of whether or not God does send paper mail comes into the discussion. In the midst of the discussion, Young suggests that in modern religious expressions we've been taught to believe that God only communicates to us through scripture and maybe the occasional thought we get.

I guess I've actually been toying with this concept over the past few weeks, but it was articulates so well in this fictional story. Did God ever tell us that he no longer speaks to us as he did to His children that came long before us? or did some human decide that God no longer communicates in ways of Bible times and thus its become part of our basic beliefs?

Sure I know God has guided me as I've been studying scripture, and there's been the favorite of modern day evangelicals open and closed doors, and there's been the occasional waking from a solid sleep w/ a heavy burden for a friend. But are there messages that I've received that I've brushed off as something else or missed it entirely.

Audible calls from God - Samuel's life story is one of my favorites, so as I think back to God calling him and Eli sending him back to bed. I've never heard my name without explanation in the still of the night, but could some of those times I thought I heard someone call me from a crowd - could it have been someone calling another "Kari" as I've always explained it, or could God have been calling me and I failed to recognize his voice? Or more realistically some combination of the 2...

Dreams are the subject I've been thinking most about lately, does God still speak to us through dreams? I've met a few people who claimed to have had God inspired dreams which became fodder for many chuckles and conversations of others, but were they really out to lunch. Really, let's think back - Joseph's tales of his dreams weren't exactly welcomed with encouragement from his brothers. I'm not questioning the prophetic nature of every single dream, but the ones that stand out as different from your average dream, the ones that I wake up from and think - if I didn't struggle with the mysterious nature of "deja vu", I'd think that might have been the precursor to a "deja vu" experience yet to come. In modern times it seems that concepts such as "deja vu" which could be either good or evil has been wrapped up in the "Crystal Ball toting, fortune telling, palm reading, etc." evil spirituality. No, I'm not suggesting that all of the aforementioned aren't evil, but why is it that we've decided that we need to run far away from all things that we can't explain because we've seen some impostors and some truly evil beings take advantage of other people through in those cases evil means.

Back to the subject of dreams and well to add to it prophecy. If God used prophets and dreams of every day people to speak to His people long ago, why wouldn't he do it today as well? Yes, I agree that because we have the Holy Spirit (a mysterious and spiritual concept as well) in order to be continually connected to God, so we no longer need the "holy of holies" concept of communicating with God and that's clearly told in the Easter story, but what I haven't found is where God said, "no I will no longer meet you as a blinding light in the midst of journey, or give you a glimpse of times to come in dream, or call your name out loud, etc."?