When God Is Silent
Why God Is Silent Sometimes and What to Do When He Is
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed and told God, “I’m willing to do whatever you say, just tell me what you want me to do.” Every now and then I get an immediate and clear thought from God that is on target.
However, most of the time I get silence or a variety of thoughts. I’ve talked to enough people to know I am not alone. After asking God for guidance, it is not unusual at all to get thoughts of “Yes, do it. No, don’t. Yes, you should. Forget it and go eat some cake.”
God has the ability to communicate directly with every person alive individually, all at the same time. Christian Astrophysicist Hugh Ross explains using the laws of physics how God can do this in some of his books.
So, if God wants me to know His purposes, and He promises to teach me, why doesn’t He always answer my sincere prayers and answer them quickly and clearly so there is no doubt I am on the right track?
Why Is God Sometimes Completely Silent?
Some teach that God is always talking, so if we’re not hearing, then we’re doing something wrong. There is no doubt that we can hinder our ability to hear through certain attitudes and actions, but many biblical writers, particularly in the Psalms talk about times when God is silent.
And some of the most mature, committed, full-of-love-and-faith believers and well-known teachers have talked about seasons of silence in their God journey.
So, if you’re going through one of those times, let me encourage you that literally EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE, goes through this. The Bible gives some helpful answers as to why this happens.
So let me give you a few reasons why God is sometimes silent and follow that up with a few suggestions on what to do on your purpose journey when that happens.
- We are Not Ready to Hear Yet.
In Jeremiah 42, a group came to the prophet Jeremiah asking him to get guidance from God for them regarding a really big decision. Verse 7 says, “Now at the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.”
Ten days? Jeremiah had a proven track record of getting clear words from God. So why so long? Was God trying to figure out what to do? Obviously not.
God was giving the people seeking guidance time to prepare their hearts.
We can easily block the voice of God if we don’t want to hear what He has to say. More than one of us has rebuked the Holy Spirit’s promptings as having been from the devil if it’s something we don’t want to do.
How many times have we blocked guidance to “pray for the blessing of that person who has done you such harm. Give money to that jerk down the street. Fast for a few days.”
When it’s something we don’t want to do, we can block God’s voice and it seems as if He’s being silent.
Unfortunately, the people who came to Jeremiah rejected what God had to say, and it cost them a lot.
2. God is Training Us in Stewardship and Leadership
When your kids are little, you give them direction and guidance on just about everything because they need it. But the older they get, the more freedom you give them so that they can learn to make decisions.
Wise parents train their kids to be wise adults, and to do that means teaching them personal responsibility and decision-making.
Likewise, God does not tell us everything to do because He is training us, growing us up, and maturing us, and He wants us to learn to think and make decisions. God will rarely tell you what clothes to wear, what to eat, or that the air-conditioner is going to break down this week
The Bible is really, really clear that learning to manage or steward what God gives us is a major emphasis of His. The parables of the stewards, the city managers, and the wise and foolish virgins all emphasize us learning to think, show initiative, and manage well what God has given us.
He is using life to train you for eternal-reigning-with-Christ endeavors, and that means decision-making. He will communicate with you consistently, but it is not always about “what to do.”
3. He is Building Faith and Trust, Which Will Lead to Long-Term Benefits.
Waiting for something we really want or need is really, really hard. Guidance is one of those things.
Since we are the kind of people who prioritize God and don’t want to live out the desires of the flesh or invest our time in something He doesn’t desire, waiting on His word is agonizing, especially when we need to make a decision right away.
One more reason God is silent, even when the need for guidance feels pressing, is that he is teaching us to trust and believe even when He doesn’t seem to be talking or doing anything to help. This will, in time, lead to big, big benefits in your life.
Just about every major figure in Scripture had at least one round of heavenly silence combined with waiting. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, and the prophets all had long seasons of waiting, with no recorded messages from God during the wait time.
Unfortunately, part of the faith-building process — and faith is how just about everything in God’s kingdom works — only comes to fullness through longer periods of waiting on the promise. We have to work through our doubts and get to the point where we say, “God, you are faithful to your words, and I stand on them no matter how long it takes.”
When you get to that point, you have entered a much greater realm of possibilities and God power, which will enable you to experience and do much more than before.
Again, just think about how it worked out in the lives of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David. After their seasons of silence-from-heaven waiting, they stepped into a much greater measure of God’s power and their purposes.
4. To Get Us To Press in More.
Experts tell us that one of the reasons we have trouble making changes in our lives is because our brains, in a sense, like to be lazy. They want to conserve energy and make things as easy as possible.
It’s probably a result of the fall, but all human brains are wired like this, which means we all deal at least some degree with the temptation to keep things as comfortable as possible.
God obviously knows this, and He also knows that for us to live all of His amazing purposes we must grow in many areas of our lives. So to help us keep pressing on for more, God will at times be silent until we take that next needed growth step.
1 Samuel 1:5 says that the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, even though “being fruitful” (having children) was a promise of God to His people. When Hannah got to the point of being willing to dedicate any child God gave her to God’s service, she got pregnant. God released the promise when she was ready to take that next step of growth. The result was the prophet Samuel, and God then gave her several other children once she took that step.
God had a nation and history-changing prophet He wanted to birth through her, but He needed her willingness to take that big step before He could birth Samuel into the world. Sometimes God needs us to sacrifice something, get rid of something, or take a step of faith in order to release His promise or His word, His next level of revelation and guidance to us.
So What Do You Do When God Is Silent?
- Prayerfully think through these issues and respond accordingly if one or more of them stands out to you.
- Stay in faith through thanks and praise to God for His faithfulness to His words. Win the faith battle through verbalizing thanks and Scripture.
- If God doesn’t give you a clear directive, think it through as best you can, pay attention to your sense of peace or “rightness” in your soul, get wise counsel, and then make the best decision you can.
Proverbs 16:3: “Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.”
Ecclesiastes 11:6: “Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing (this or that sowing) will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.”
I wish I could say that if you pray and listen, God will always give you a clear sense of what to do. Sometimes that does happen, but fairly often, it doesn’t.
Proverbs 25:2: “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
A big part of God’s training program is us searching searching and sowing and then evaluating and learning as we go. This is one of the biggest ways God communicates with us.
I don’t want to belabor the point, but I have heard so much teaching on the theme of “don’t make your own plan, don’t create an Ishmael” that has paralyzed people from taking action. It has led a lot of people to wonder, “What’s the matter with me?” “Why can’t I hear God” condemnation.
For that reason, I’m staying on this. 2 Timothy 1:6 Paul gives Timothy the examples of soldiers, farmers, and athletes to explain spiritual realities. In verse 7 he then writes, “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
Through reflection and thinking about something everyone understands: soldiers, farmers, and athletes, God would give Timothy understanding — thoughts he could grasp.
This would not be a vision or an angelic visitation or most likely not be some powerful feeling. It would most likely be “Yea, that makes sense, how should I respond to this?”
Let me sum this up one more time. If you are not getting clear direction from God, it doesn’t necessarily mean there is some big sin or blockage in your life.
If you’re praying and you’re yielded and open and what you’re considering is not against the clear teachings of Scripture then… Make the best decision you can with the information you currently have.
Then stay teachable and stay the course until you see you need to adjust. Sometimes God conceals things so we will dig deeper. Sometimes we don’t know if sowing in the morning or evening or both will be successful; we simply have to try and see.
Stay prayerful, stay open to God because as you take action He may then speak to you or give you greater clarity. God seems to like prayerful actions…not just prayer, and not just actions, but prayer and actions.
If you blew it, there is no condemnation in Christ; you learn and go on. I know for a fact that God likes it more when we take prayerful action, even if we mess us, than if we let fear of getting it wrong stop us from trying.
If it’s a good decision, praise God, learn, and keep seeking God because at different times He will give you clear directives — and His clear directives trump everything else.
If you want more resources on how to receive guidance from God and live a Jesus-centered, Jesus-empowered life take a look at www.TruVineMission.com
If you want to learn more about clarifying and then accomplishing your God-given purpose in work or ministry check out www.MarkFurlongCoaching.com.
