Does God speak to you?

I had often heard people say things like......"The Lord told me......" or "God spoke to me and said......" or "Jesus said for me to......". This used to bother me because I was never sure what people meant. Did they mean that the actual voice of God spoke in an audible tone? Maybe they just meant through God's word the Bible they received some significant direction in their life. Or did God send an actual messenger to speak to them. I was always confused and admittedly upset by words such as these. I guess I was sorta jealous and judgemental and felt like if it didn't happen to me than these people must be crazy. I must not be spiritual enough or maybe I just wasn't worth His time. But what did these people have that I didn't and if this is real, how could I get God to speak to me? So I tried to figure out, for a long time. I started taking informal polls of people asking them How they really knew if God was speaking to them. Some of the peoples answers surprised me. Some actually told me they heard a voice. Some said God speaks to them through the Bible. Some even said that God will lay it on someones heart(friends, family even strangers) to deliver His message to them. Well all of this sounded great, but there was no tried and true formula. Everyone had a different scenario of how God spoke to them. So I began to understand something for the first time. God is personal!!! He speaks to all of us on our own level and understanding if we are His.
There was one common bond between all the people who claimed that God spoke to them.............They were all listening.

God spoke to me for the FIRST time, not long after that. He sent a message to me in a very strange way. He used a torn piece of a laffy taffy wrapper. Who said God doesn't have a sense of humor? Yes God spoke to me, not in the conventional way, but make no mistake.... He was talking and I was listening. Now if someone asks me the question of "How does God speak to you?" I have to tell the "laffy taffy" story and trust that they won't laugh. Sometimes we are to quick to pass judgement on someone else and their relationship with the ALMIGHTY ONE. God can speak to you in an infinite number of ways, and I believe He wants to.

"Are you listening to me, really listening" Matthew 11:15 the message