Does God still speak directly through prophets or us today?

Does God speak as He did with Noah, David, and the apostles. Through our spiritual gifts?

Has Special Revelation ceased, or does God still communicate to people through prophets, dreams, visions, and audible encounters?

Our experience usually trumps everything else. Sometimes maybe it should, Maybe God is speaking to you strongly through your experiences.

Our experiences and Scripture don't speak exclusively on this issue.

Three positions:

Continuationism – The view that miraculous signs gifts are still being given and, therefore, God still speaks directly in various ways today. Adherents; Wayne Grudem, Jack Deere, Craig Keener, Jack Hayford.
Acts 2:14-21, in fact All Scripture supports the idea that it is God's nature to work in supernatural ways. The New Testament never explicitly states that the supernatural sign gifts would cease. Abuse of these gifts does not led to rejection of the continuation of gifts. Just because it is abused doesn't mean it is false.

"If you were to lock a brand new Christian in a room with a Bible and tell him to study what Scripture has to say about healing and miracles, he would never come out of the room a cessationist". Jack Deere

Hard Cessationism – The view that miraculous sign gifts ceased with the death of the last apostle and the completion of the New Testament. Therefore, God does not speak directly to people today. Adherents; Charles Hodge John MacArthur, majority of Church History. this has been the orthodox position of the Church since the 2nd century. Eph. 2:19-20; 2 Corth. 12:12; Heb. 1:3-4. Miracles and wonders always point back to the authority of the giver. Christ is the author and gave His authority to the Apostles. To bring glory to God, and to establish Christ's authority. The gift of apostleship is no longer given. The apostles could use them at anytime to authenticate their message. A prophet must establish himself as a spokesperson of God, Did he predict any future events, authentic miracles, signs of wonders in the sky? If one is to speak for God he is the mouthpiece for God. Deut. 18:20-22.

If one were to examine the Scripture closely, it becomes evident that God's direct intervention through prophecy and supernatural signs and wonders was not the norm as it may seem. The Bible, as theological history (not exhaustive history), only records the times when God does intervene, thereby giving the impression that God's direct encounters through prophets, dreams visions, etc, are God's modus operaudi when they are not.

In early church history most Christian believed that the signs and wonders had ceased. They had no agenda, they believed that it just died out. These are the same people who would have qualified as a prophet but claimed they were not.

The early church had no N.T. but the words of the apostles and Christ for their foundation for signs and wonders.

The Bible implicitly supports the idea that the supernatural sign gifts were for the establishment of the Church era.

Soft Cessationism – The view that the miraculous signs could still be given today, but believers need to be careful about outright acceptance of people's claims of possession. Neither side's arguments are conclusive. We must therefore proceed with great caution. While it may be true that Church history has not seen the continuation of God speaking directly, this does not mean that it is not possible.

Those who adhere to a futuristic interpretation of Revelation must concede that there are going to be prophets in the future as represented by the Two Witnesses (Rev. 11:3) possibly, the 144,000 Israelites (Rev. 7:4), Therefore, we must be open to further direct revelation from God.

Guiding Principles:

God's Word is not something to be trifled with (Ex. 20:7).

If you are a prophet you must show me convincing signs of a prophet (Deut. 18:15-22).

If you are a prophet you must have orthodox theology (Deut. 13:1-3).

If someone believes that they have a word from the Lord, they had better be certain and be ready to live according to the consequences if it turns out false.