When God Seems Silent - Episode 4

Have you ever desperately needed God to speak—and heard nothing? You prayed. You waited. You asked again. Maybe you even said, “God, I don't need the whole plan. Just tell me what to do next.” But instead of an answer, there was silence. And if you have ever been in that place, you know that sometimes silence is harder than hearing God say no. At least a no gives us direction. Silence leaves us wondering. Did I miss God? Am I not hearing correctly? Is something wrong? Should I wait? Should I move? Should I keep asking? And perhaps the hardest question of all: Where is God when I need to hear Him most? Today's episode gives more understanding around seasons of silence and discerning what the silent is doing.

Want more on discernment?  Go to loisflewelling.com or Amazon to order your copy of Eyes to See - Walking in Wisdom, Discernment, and Spiritual Clarity.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:04

There's a level of walking with God that most believers never reach. Not because God is withholding it, but because no one ever taught them how to see what he's already showing them. You felt it. A moment when you knew something before anyone told you. A room that shifted the second you walked in. A conversation where every word sounded right. But something underneath it just didn't sit well with you. You've had access to more than you've realized. It just didn't have a name for it. It's called discernment. And it's the door to a new level. Welcome to A New Level Await You. I'm Lois for Welling. And if you're new here, this is a space where we can talk about what it actually looks like to grow. Not just in knowledge about God, but in nearness to him, clarity with him, freedom in him. Because I believe in everything in me that no matter where you are right now, no matter how far you've already come, there's always a new level available to you. Today I'm gonna do something a little different. I'm opening a brand new series, and it's one that's close to my heart. Closer than almost anything I call before. Over the next couple episodes, we're gonna walk through the subject of discernment. What scripture actually calls the gift of discernment spirit? I believe it's one of the most neglected, the most necessary gifts to the body of Christ today. This series is a companion to my book, Eyes to See. And here's how I want you to think about it. The podcast is the door, the book is the room. Each episode is going to open something up for you, give you real teaching, real scripture, real stories. But I'm not gonna hand everything over to you in these episodes. Some of what I've learned, some of what has changed my life, it's only in those pages. My hope is that this series creates a hunger in you that the book is written to satisfy. There is a new level of seeing available to you, and it starts with learning to trust what God has already been showing you. Well, welcome to A New Level Awaits You. I'm so glad you joined me again. We've been talking about discernment, we've been discussing how to recognize the voice of God, you know, seeing beyond what is visible and understanding that discernment is not just a feeling, it's actually a knowing that the Holy Spirit places inside of us. But today I want to take us on a different journey. And in this journey, we, you know, I was thinking about how often we have learned how to listen. We've we're seeking God with all of our hearts. We're praying, and yet you never hear anything. Well, what happens when the God you know speaks and suddenly everything seems just silent? Maybe you've been there and maybe you're there right now. You've prayed about a decision and you still don't know what to do. You've asked God for direction, but no direction seems to come. You've stood on a promise for maybe months, or even like with me, I've been standing on this promise that I've had for years, and nothing appears to be changing. You remember seasons when God's presence seemed so tangible, and his voice was so clear, but now you find yourself kind of wondering, Lord, where are you? Why aren't you speaking to me? These are a few things more difficult than wanting to hear from God and experiencing what feels like silence. You know, we can handle a yes when God says yes, we like that. We may not like a no, but at least we have an answer, right? Even weight becomes something we can hold on to, but silence silence can leave us wondering, did I miss God? Is there something wrong? Am I doing something wrong? Has he withdrawn from me? Have I somehow lost my ability to hear him? I want to begin with something that's incredibly important. God's silence does not mean God's absence. Hebrews 13 5 gives us this amazing promise. It says, I will never leave you or forsake you. That promise doesn't change according to how we feel, it doesn't become less true because we haven't heard God recently, it doesn't disappear because circumstances have become difficult. His presence is based upon his faithfulness, not our ability to perceive him. We need to understand this because one of the enemy's strategies during these seasons of silence is to cause us to interpret that God's character through these circumstances. We begin with, I don't hear God. But if we're not careful, it can become God isn't here. And then it becomes God doesn't care. And before long we are questioning God's goodness because we cannot perceive his activity. But there is a tremendous difference between God being silent and God being absent. There are seasons in our relationship with God when he speaks clearly and frequently, and there may also be seasons where he seems to say, now walk in what I've already taught you. Psalms 27, 13 through 14 says, I would have lost heart unless I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. David knew what it was like to wait. He knew what it was like to receive a word from God and then live through these circumstances that seemed completely contrary to that word. Samuel had anointed David as king. David did not immediately step into that throne. Instead, there was a long season between promise and fulfillment. There were caves, there was rejections, there was persecution, there were moments when David was running for his life. Can you imagine the questions he would have had? God, did I misunderstand Samuel? Did I misunderstand the anointing that you gave me? If you said I would be king, why am I living in a cave? But the cave did not cancel the promise. And I think sometimes we have to get this because I've gone through some of this and I question it. I question whether I've heard the promise or not. I question if it was God that was speaking to me. I questioned if because this seemed like the assignment was so big, the promise was so big. But what I began to realize that God was doing something in David that was just as important as what he would eventually do through David. I believe God was doing the same thing for me and is still doing that. And that brings us to one of the deepest truths about seasons when God is silence. Sometimes God is doing his greatest work in us when we can see the least happening around us. We tend to measure God's activity by visible moments. A door opens, oh wow, so we must be moving. A prayer is answered, so God must be moving. We receive a prophetic word, experience his presence powerfully, or suddenly understand something in scripture, and we say, God is really moving. But what about the seasons when none of those things seem to be happening? Could God still be moving? Absolutely. Some of God's greatest and deepest work happens beneath the surface when no one else can see it. And sometimes where even we cannot even recognize it yet. Think about Joseph. God gave him an extraordinary dream as a young man. He saw something of his future, but Joseph did not move directly from the dream to the palace. He went from dream to the pit, and then the pit to slavery, from slavery to pottery's house, from pottery's house to a prison. And then for a period of time, he was absolutely forgotten. Genesis 40 tells us that Joseph interpreted the dream of Pharaoh's cupbearer and asked him to remember him when he was restored to his position. But verse 23 says, Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Then Genesis 41 begins with these words. Then it came to pass at the end of two full years. Two full years. For two years, there was no recorded breakthrough. There is no explanation. There's no indication that Joseph understood what God was doing. He had a dream from God, but his circumstances looked nothing like that dream. Have you ever lived in that space? Between what God said and what you can see, that space can test everything in you. Yet God had not forgotten Moses because at precisely the right moment, Pharaoh had a dream. At precisely the right moment, the cupbearer remembered Joseph. At precisely the right moment, Joseph was brought out of the prison, and in a single day, everything changed. What looked like years of silence had actually been years of preparation. Now we don't like it. I don't like my years of silence or preparation. But I've come to realize that I needed more. God needed to work through me in many, many ways. You see, Joseph needed more than a dream to govern Egypt. He needed wisdom, he needed maturity, he needed humility, he needed administrative ability, he needed the character to carry the authority. God was preparing a place upon his life. The silence was not empty. God was forming Joseph to it and in it. Perhaps a better question is, God, what are you forming within me while I wait? We naturally want God to change the situation, but sometimes God wants to change us before He changes the situation. We want that door to open. But sometimes God wants us to change us before He opens that other side of the door. We want the promise fulfilled. Well, God wants to develop the very character necessary to carry that all out. We want an answer. While God is developing deeper trust, sometimes he allows us to wait or walk for a season without the reassurance we once depended on, because he's developing something deeper within us. And that is where discernment becomes extremely important. When God seems silent, one of the greatest temptations is to manufacture an answer because we are uncomfortable without one. We don't like uncertainty, we want resolution. I know I do. If God doesn't answer quickly enough, we begin looking everywhere for a word. Someone sends us a scripture and we immediately decide, ah, that's my answer. Someone gives us a prophetic word and we grab a hole of it because that's what we wanted to hear. A door opens and we assume this must be God. Something appears on social media that sounds exactly like our situation, and we think, ha, God sent that specifically for me. I know that's happened to me, and I'm sure it's happened to some of you. Well, perhaps God did, perhaps He didn't. But this is where maturity says, I would rather wait for God's clarity than manufacture uncertainty. First Thessalonians 5, 20 through 21 tells us, do not despise prophecies, test all things, hold fast what is good. I want you to notice the balance. Scripture doesn't tell us to reject everything spiritual, but neither does it tell us to accept everything spiritual. It tells us to test. When we are desperate for an answer, we particularly are vulnerable in hearing what we want to hear. Sometimes the most spiritual, mature thing we can say is, I don't know what God is saying about this yet. There is nothing unspiritual about that. In fact, I would rather say, I don't know, than put God's name on something he never said. If God seems silent, don't force him to speak. Don't make circumstances say something they aren't saying. Don't turn every coincident into confirmation. Don't assume every open door is God's door. And don't allow someone else's confidence to replace your own responsibility to seek the Lord. Psalms 130, verse 5 says, I will wait for the Lord. My soul waits, and in his word I do hope. Waiting is one of the disciplines of discernment. It teaches us to remain anchored when we do not have all the answers. It reveals whether our trust is in God's voice alone or in the Gods whose voice we are seeking. But there's another question we should ask when God remains silent. Has God already spoken? Sometimes we're asking God for a new word while ignoring the last thing He told us. We say, Lord, show me what you want me to do next. And perhaps heaven is saying, What did I already tell you to do? Has God already asked you to forgive someone? Has he told you to step away from something? Has he called you to begin something? Has he spoken to you about your priorities? Has he convicted you about an area of compromise? Has he given you an assignment you have delayed? Sometimes God's silence isn't because he has nothing to say. Sometimes he's already spoken it and we're waiting for a different answer. Psalms 119-105 says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. A lamp doesn't necessarily illuminate 10 miles down the road, it just gives us enough light for the step in front of you. We often want floodlights, but God gives a lamp. We want the five-year plan, and God says, take this step. We want to know how everything will turn out, and God says, Can you just trust me? That is why when God seems silence, one of the most important things we can do is return to what we already know. Return to scripture, return to the last clear instruction, return to the promise, return to the character of God. If you don't know what to do next, keep doing what you know is right, keep loving, keep forgiving, keep serving, keep praying, keep worshiping, keep obeying, keep your heart soft. Don't abandon, don't abandon what is clear because what is unclear is making you uncomfortable. There is another aspect of silence we need to consider, and it requires humility. There are times when we should invite God to examine our hearts. David prayed in Psalms 139, 23, and 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties, and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Notice that David didn't assume he could perhaps notice that David didn't assume he could perfectly evaluate himself. He invited God to reveal what he couldn't see. When God it seemed silent, it is appropriate to ask, Lord, is there anything in me interfering with my ability to hear you? Is there a disobedience? Is there unforgiveness? Have I allowed offense to settle in my heart? Am I so determined to have one particular outcome that I cannot hear anything else? Have fear, disappointment, or impatience distorted my perception? See, these are healthy questions because discernment always requires humility. But I want to add something very important here. Do not automatically assume God's silence means that you've done something wrong. Some believers immediately move into condemnation. God isn't speaking because he's disappointed in me. God isn't speaking because I failed. God isn't speaking because I haven't prayed enough. That isn't necessarily true. Job experienced what felt like profound silence. Yet it wasn't because he had abandoned God. In Jobs 23, 8 through 10, he says, Look, I go forward, but he's not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. And he continues to say, When he works on the left hand, I cannot behold him. When he turns to the right hand, I cannot see him. But he knows the way I take. And when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. I love that passage because Job is remarkably honest. He is essentially saying, I look for God in front of me and I can't find him. I look behind me and I don't see him. I look to one side and then I look to the other, and I can still not perceive. What he is doing. Yet, right in the middle of not being able to see God, Job makes a declaration, but he knows the way that I take. Job couldn't see God, but God could see Job. Job didn't know where God was, but God knew exactly where Job was. And sometimes that's the truth we have to hold on to when God seems silent. You may not know what God is doing, but God knows exactly where you are. You may not understand the season, but he does. You may not be able to see the next step, but he already sees the entire road before you. And that is where faith begins to deepen. There is a faith that rejoices when the answer comes. But there's also another kind of faith that continues trusting before the answer appears. There is a faith that celebrates when the door opens. But there's a deeper faith that worships while the door remains closed. There is a faith that says, I know God is good because I can see what he has done. And there is a faith that says, I know God is good, even though I don't understand what he's doing. Oh, have I been through that? But I believe some of the deepest spiritual maturity is formed in that second place. It is relatively easy to trust God when everything makes sense. It is much more difficult when obedience has not produced the outcome we expected, when the prayer hasn't been answered, when the promise seems delayed, or when God simply isn't explaining Himself. Those are the moments when we discover whether our confidence is based upon what God does, or upon who God is. Habakkuk came to that place. He was looking at circumstances he did not understand, and he brought the questions honestly before God. Yet at the end of the book, something had changed within him. His circumstances had not necessarily changed, but his perspective had. Once God answers this prayer, then my life can begin again. Once his door opens, then I'll know what I'm supposed to do. But what if that waiting is just part of the assignment? I'm right in a waiting period right now. I'm between things. And yet I'm beginning to recognize what God's doing in that waiting period. And I know it's good. Isaiah 40, 31 says, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up as sea with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They will shall walk and not faint. Waiting on the Lord is not passive. Biblical waiting is an act of trust. It's continuing to pray even when you haven't received the answer. Continuing to worship when you don't feel his presence. It is continuing to obey when you don't even understand the outcome. It is continuing to serve when no one seems to notice. It is continuing to believe when circumstances appear unchanged. But there's something that is formed inside of us while we wait. Waiting exposes our motives, it reveals our impatience, it confronts our needs for control. It teaches us dependence, it develops perseverance, and perhaps most importantly, waiting teaches us to desire God Himself more than the answer we want from Him. Sometimes we come to God saying, Lord, I need you to tell me what to do. But over time our prayer begins to change. Lord, you tell me today or six months from now, I just want you. I trust you. I will stay close to you. Something powerful happens when the answer stops being more important than the one who gives the answer. Doesn't mean we stop asking. We still ask, seek, we knock. But a relationship with God starts to change. It's no longer built just on receiving answers. It comes to this place where we can just sit with him without needing him to explain everything. Think about human relationships. You know, the deepest relationships aren't filled with constant conversations. You can quietly sit with someone you deeply love and never feel uncomfortable. Their presence is enough. You don't need them to fill every moment with words because relationship has developed beyond conversation. There is something here that is going on.

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God says, even when I don't hear you, I know you're here.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

Be still and know that I am God. Sometimes in the middle of all of this, when God seems silenced, we have to resist the temptation to make premature decisions simply because the waiting has become so uncomfortable. As the years passed, they tried to help God fulfill what he had promised. Ishmael was born. God has spoken, but the waiting was difficult. Isn't that often where we get in trouble too? We don't like how long it takes. I know I don't. I get frustrated with that. And sometimes we create an Ishmael because we become tired of the waiting for the Isaac. And what happens is we force a door, we begin a relationship, we accept a responsibility, we make a final uh financial decision that we probably shouldn't have. We change directions, we abandon an assignment. Not because God told us to, but because something feels better than doing nothing. But movement is not always progress. Keep that in mind. Isaiah 30, 21 says, your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right hand or to the left, if you've not heard turn, don't assume you need to turn. See, this requires trust because we want constant confirmation. But there are seasons when God allows us to walk on what He already has said. And I want to speak especially to the person who has been waiting for a long time. Maybe you've been praying for a child who has walked away from God. Perhaps you've been praying for restoration in a relationship. Maybe some of you have been believing for healing, provision, direction, or breakthrough, and you've reached a point where you don't know what else to pray. Don't confuse delay with denial. I cannot promise you exactly how God will answer your prayer. I cannot tell you when He will answer it. But discernment requires us to be careful not to make promises God Himself has not made. But I can tell you this: your prayers are not invisible to God. Psalms 56, 8 says, You number my wanderings. Put my tears into your bottle. Are they not in your book? Silence does not mean he has forgotten you. And while you wait, continue to worship. It's powerful. Anyone can praise after the breakthrough, but there's something profoundly powerful about worship before it. And I'll come to the end of this because I know it's longer than what I usually do. But I want to just share with you about Paul and Silas in Acts 16. They've been beaten, placed in prison, fastened in stalks. Nothing about their circumstances looked like victory. Yet in Acts 16, 25, but at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to him. I want you to notice this. It was at midnight, not after the earthquake, not after the doors opened, not after the chains fell off. They worshiped before anything changed. Then suddenly there was the earthquake. The foundations of the prisons were shaken. The doors opened and everyone's chains were loosed. We love the suddenly. I absolutely love the suddenly. But don't miss what's happening before the suddenly. There will be midnight seasons in our lives, places where we cannot see what God is doing, and we don't know when circumstances will change. But midnight worship says, God, you are still worthy. I can still trust you. I still belong to you. My circumstances do not determine your goodness. And finally, when God seems silence, stay positioned to hear him when he speaks again. One of the dangers of prolonged waiting is that disappointment can cause us to stop listening. We begin lowering our expectations, we stop asking, we stop believing, we stop watching because watching has become painful. But Habakkuk gives us another picture. Chapter 2, verse 1. I will stand at my watch and set myself on a rampart and watch to see what he will say to me. See, Habakkuk positioned himself. He didn't know what God was going to say. He didn't know what he would speak, but he remained expectant. I want you to understand that don't allow God's silence to become your disengagement. Stay in his word, stay in prayer, stay in worship, stay connected to healthy believers, stay obedient, stay tender, stay expectant. Keep your heart turned toward him. Because one day that silence is going to break. And when it does, you want your heart positioned to recognize his voice. I will tell you, God has not left you. He is present in the waiting. He is present when you feel him, and he's present when you don't. He is working in ways you can see, but he's also working in ways you don't understand. The silence is not empty. God may be strengthening your faith, purifying your motives, developing your character, preparing circumstances you cannot yet see. He may be positioning people you haven't yet met, or simply teaching you the priceless lesson of trusting Him for who He is rather than for what He can say or do.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

There are seasons when discernment means hearing the whisper of God and moving immediately.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

And there are seasons when discernment means recognizing that God has not given new direction and faithfully remaining where He last placed you. So if you're in that place today, don't run ahead. Don't manufacture a word. Don't allow disappointment to rewrite what you know about God's character. Don't interpret a silence as rejection. He's already done many great, wonderful things. Continue to do what you know to do and allow the waiting to deepen something inside of you. And you can say, Lord, teach me to trust you right here in this place where I am right now. Let's pray. Father, I pray right now for every single person listening who feels as though you have been silent. Some have waited for a long time. You know every question they carry and every prayer they've prayed. You know the places where disappointment has tried to enter and where hope has become difficult to hold on to. Oh Lord, remind them today that your silence is not your absence. Remind them that you have not forgotten them, you have not abandoned them, you've not lost sight of their lives. Lord, give them grace to wait without striving. Protect them from manufacturing answers simply because all this uncertainty is uncomfortable. Oh, give them discernment, Lord, to know that you are there with them. Protect them from condemnation and false guilt and teach them to recognize your presence even when they do not hear your voice. Strengthen every one of us who is tired of waiting. Restore hope, Lord God, to those who have stopped expecting. Remind them of your faithfulness in seasons past and give them courage, Lord. Courage to worship at midnight, to trust when the answer comes and to remain positioned for whatever you choose to speak next. Teach us, Lord God, to trust your heart and not so much your hand when we cannot figure it out. Thank you, Lord, that you are there for us. Thank you, Lord, that we know we're going to get through every season of silence because we can trust you more completely, we can love you more deeply, and we can understand, Lord God, that you are God. And that is so much more important as what you want to do in us and through us. And we give this all to you because we know you're going to do great and mighty things in your precious name. Amen. Well, I want to thank you again for joining me today on a new level awaits you. I just want to remind you again: if you're walking through a season where God seems silent, carry this truth with you. Silence does not mean absence. Waiting does not mean God has forgotten you. And what looks like inactivity may actually be one of the deepest seasons of preparation in your life. Keep listening, keep trusting, keep walking. God knows exactly where you are. Listening to this episode of Eyes to See. If something here has stirred you today, I want to invite you to go deeper. Eyes to See is available now on Amazon, and it's just one part, one book of my thriving and wholeness series. I've written five books to help you move from surviving to thriving in every area of life. Today's warrior gets my style. Freedom after betrayal for healing, trust, and freedom. Turn around. I have dated it. It's about divine encounters. It's about intimacy with the Lord. Encounters that will change your life forever. Book four is the one we're going through right now. Eyes to see for wisdom, discernment, and spiritual clarity. And book five, my latest one, my newest release, is intentional. And that one discusses how we can live every day with purpose and power. You can find all five of these books, along with many more teaching and resources.