How do we hear God?

I am in the middle of a hermeneutics course that has me baffled at times. (Hermeneutics is defined as the "art and science of biblical interpretation" for those like me who didn't realize that receiving truth from God's Word required such a thing.) The books and lectures from the class all want to make a really hard task of reading the Bible. They want you to go back to the original language, gather a storehouse of historical information, diagram sentence structures, and map out the literary genre. Sound like a daunting task to understand God's revealed message to humanity? It does to me. Now I certainly believe that we can be on a slippery slope if we allow ourselves an unfettered license to determine meaning in scripture...that is how most cults get started. I also know that having some historical information makes many challenging texts more understandable. However, when an interpretation lines up with the total truth of scripture and does not contradict the central tenets of the Gospel, there are times when your interpretation is just as valid as the next persons. I think there are some occasions where God just uses a passage of scripture to show a clear direction or provide guidance that might not translate to all people. I mean come on, not everyone has the same "life verse"!

Isaiah 65:1 proclaims, "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I.' " From the dawn of creation, God has revealed himself to mankind in amazing and marvelous ways. He is not hiding in obscurity but showing His glory every day. The truth that exists in His Word is no exception. It is a mysterious code only to those who do not desire to understand; those who have stubbornly resisted the call of the Lord to know Him intimately. It seems like sometimes we just make things too hard! God desires to speak to each person because He wants to have a relationship with everyone, not just the "religious elite".