What to do When God Is Silent!

I want to speak on the subject of “The God of Silence”. In a normal relationship with Christ, you would expect He would speak to us. It is right for us to expect this, just consider the verse that says “My sheep hear My voice” (John 10:27). Also, consider John 16:13-14 – “He shall reveal me to you”. That being said I suspect not all believers are really hearing from Him. They may feel an impression here and there or a verse that stands out once in a while but are they really listening and hearing His voice. As believers we should expect our hearing would eventually rise above the level of just once in a while and we are right to ask Him to speak clearly to us. This is not said to bring anyone under condemnation it is only meant to establish this is something we should expect in our relationship with Him. I recall recently my daughter and I were praying in our home and she revealed to me she knew He was standing at the end of my bed. At that same time He was revealing to me that we were being discussed in heaven at that moment. We should expect Him to reveal Himself to us. Now, that we have established this should become the norm in our life we will also affirm there are times of trial when the Lord is silent and the question is what do you do when God is silent? Let’s begin with establishing some reasons why God might be silent: 

• Our Adversary – First of all let’s consider our adversary as one the reasons. We know that God can speak from heaven and yet the enemy can, for a time, with-hold the answer. Recall the words of Daniel in Daniel 10:11-13, the answer to Daniels prayer has been sounded out of heaven and yet it was hindered from reaching Daniel for some time (21 days). And so the enemy can be one reason why, even after we seek the Lord, the answer is not coming and it seems God is silent.

• Unrepentant Sin – Another reason He could be silent may be sin in one’s life; one who has unrepentant sin in their life certainly cannot expect the Lord to be induced to speak to them. David said it best in Psalm 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.” I do want to add one cautionary remark; we must be careful here, we must not to quickly conclude that God is mad at our sin and therefore He is silent. I have seen God speak profound things to people in periods of great failure in their lives (to encourage them to stay in the fight and not give up; He is so very desirous that we should make good). However, we also must be careful to deal with sin in our lives and take it very seriously; God does not bless irresponsibility with our walk.

• Trials – Another reason (probably number one reason) is trials. In fact many times what makes the trial hard to bear is the fact that God is not speaking. We can generally bear just about anything when we are hearing from God but remove the sound of His voice and we can feel quite alone. Job said this in the midst of His trial:  Job 9:11 “Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not”. Also, he said Job 23:8 “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him”. This can very painful and hard to bear.

And so now that we have established that God generally wants to speak to His people; we have also concluded what all of us already knows, that there are periods when God wishes to be silent. The scripture gives us advice as to what to do when we find ourselves in this condition. If God is being silent because of sin, we must repent and put things right with the Lord in order for us to expect Him to start speaking with us. Let me give you some general other guidelines if you find yourself in either under resistance from the adversary or you find yourself in a nasty trial.

We will start off with the advice of continuing to seek Him, learn to look past the present resistance and employ Heb 11:6 – “He that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is rewarder of them who diligently seek Him” The best advice ever is found in Isa 50:10 “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow”. Also, Habakkuk had good advice when He was waiting on an answer from God; Habakkuk 2:1 “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved”. In short, when God is silent continue to walk in all you know to do, all you know pleases Him and continue to seek Him as one who rewards (always) the diligent seeker. I have had occasion over the last 30 years to employ these methods and I have found that God is impressed with those who continue to seek Him in the darkness and eventually He brings them forth to the light. And so in conclusion; “Let him stay upon His God”. Do not lose heart, hold steady, hold fast to that which you know is true about God; He rewards the diligent and the faithful!