Does God still speak to his followers today? Bill Hybels, lead pastor of the trendsetting Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., says, “Yes.”

We talk to the leader of one of the country’s most attended churches and a bestselling author about why he believes God still speaks today and why many of us are afraid to listen.

Q Why do you think the fact that God still talks today is so controversial for churches and people of faith?

A Well, because it can be so easily abused. All you have to do in a Christian leadership meeting is say, “We’re going to go this direction because God told me we should...” Well, how do you trump that? Because it is so easily misunderstood and easily abused, most leaders want to stay away from the conversation.

But I can’t deny how often God has spoken to me. So, I just decided I’m going to talk about it intelligently. I’m going to talk about it with the right caveats and qualifiers, and I’ll deal with some of the messiness that comes when people don’t understand it and get carried away.

Q In your new book, “The Power of a Whisper,” you share numerous examples of God talking to people — audibly — in Scripture. Why do you think it’s such a difficult concept to believe God still speaks to us today?

A Fear. Just fear. If you open up that Pandora’s Box, all kinds of stuff is going to come flying out of it. Next thing you know, some Bible study group leader is going to say, “God told me to, you know, do this or that...” and then a staff member is going to say, “God told me this...”

When you’re running an organization, the last thing you want is a whole bunch of people running around saying, “God told me...” because it does get messy. Now, I should probably add, just so that I’m not disingenuous here, some people actually believe theologically that God no longer speaks.

You know that once the Scriptures were completed — that was it. I believe that’s a difficult position to hold theologically, but some people do, and so they shut down this conversation based on their theology, but the greater number of people, I think, shut down the conversation because of fear.

Q Often when God speaks to his followers in the Bible, there’s a high cost involved. Does it often work the same way today?

A Yes. We should never convey to leaders or teammates that when God does speak to you—that the direction he’s urging you to go is going to be successful and low cost. We have to be careful that we don’t romanticize the idea of promptings because many promptings are calls or challenges by God to do extremely difficult things — it leads you to sacrifice and hardship and invisibility, and the reward comes in the next reality, not in this one.

Q How do we know when it’s the voice of God? What are some of the filters that we can use to make sure we’re hearing God and not just manufacturing his voice to say what we want to hear?

A I go to considerable lengths to help people discern if something is from God.

1) Does it align with his attributes? Is it consistent with his character?

2) Is it scriptural? If you ever get an impression in your head to do something that controverts scripture, it’s not from God.

3) Is it wise? Sometimes we get impressions about things, saying things or doing things that are not specifically addressed in Scripture — starting a new ministry or shutting one down or moving from one locale to another, what school to put your kid in or something like that.

Would Jesus support such a decision? Jesus said be wise as serpents, gentle as doves. Is what you’re planning or thinking (this idea coming from God) wise?

4) Is it in tune with your own character and wiring pattern and giftedness?

5) Do other trusted people who love God and love you affirm it? Do they counsel caution? Do they say, “I think you’re off your rocker?”

Brian Orme is the general editor of ChurchLeaders.com, which aims to provide the best resources, trends and practices to equip the church to lead better every day. He lives in Troy with his wife, Jenna, and four boys.