Is it insane to claim a person can talk to God?

from the old testament

• Exodus 3:4 shows God speaking directly with Moses: “When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’” The Bible presents Moses as sane, an exemplary servant of God, and one who talked with God.
• Similarly, Samuel, a wise and discerning prophet, spoke with God, as seen in 1 Samuel 3:10: “And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant hears.’”

from the new testament

• Romans 8:26 indicates that the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, indwells and communicates with believers: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
• Philippians 4:6, like many other scriptures, exhorts believers to talk to God through prayer: “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
• First John 5:14 qualifies what the content of requests via prayer should be: “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (emphasis added). Prayer is a means for communicating with the Lord, but believers are to submit to His will in all things—including our prayer requests.
• When someone says the “Spirit has led them” to do or say something, believers should follow the example of the Bereans, who were commended in Acts 17:11: “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Paul not only did not get offended that the Bereans tested his words against Scripture, but he praised them for it. Anyone who claims to hear something from God should not be offended if others do like the Bereans and test those claims against Scripture.

implications for today

In the age of cell phones, friends are more accessible than ever. Talking to coworkers is as convenient as going to the office coffee pot or water cooler. Talking to someone important, like the CEO of a company, is harder; we usually have to go through a management hierarchy, and even then, we may not succeed. The more important the person, the more unlikely we are to talk to him. But Christians have a direct line to the most important being, and He wants us to talk to Him. God has told us to communicate with Him through prayer. He has spoken to us through His living Word called Jesus, through His written Word called the Bible, and through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Best of all, when we want to talk to God, we’ll never get a busy signal, be left on “read receipt,” or passed off to middle management. God knows what we want before we ask for it, but He still wants us to bring our petitions to Him. Isn’t it a privilege that we have an open invitation to talk to the Creator of the universe? Believers have the privilege of talking to the Lord and knowing He hears us.