WHEN GOD IS SILENT
Dr. D. K. Olukoya
There could be worrying occasions in a believers prayer life when it appears that God is silent. Our message this week focuses on the possible reasons this may be so. I therefore would like you to open your hearts as you prayerfully read along. As our working tool, let us consider three different texts from the scriptures. Psalm 28:1 says,
"Unto thee will I cry, Oh Lord my rock: be not silent to me lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit."
Psalm 83:1 says exactly the same thing, "Keep not thou silence, Oh God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, Oh God."
Psalm 50: 16-22 says, "Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statues, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence: thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver."
Beloved, I have heard many sermons in my life, but very few were as moving as the one I heard over 20 years ago titled, "God’s lamentation and failure over His creatures." The preacher took his text from Genesis 6:5 which says, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually". The summary of that particular message was God’s decision to wipe off man from the surface of the earth as a result of man’s refusal to hearken to His voice. So once the words of God does not change a person and the person stubbornly sticks to his opinions and ways, the end is always destruction. The word of God did not change Adam and Eve and that is why the whole of humanity is in trouble now. The word of God did not change Cain, hence he became the first murderer. The word of God did not change Lot’s daughters though they received angelic visitation. Korah, Dathan and Abiram also refused to be changed by the word of God and became the first people to go to hell fire without dying, they were swallowed alive. God lamented in so many places in the scriptures.He also laments when His words do not change men. However, God may even choose not to speak at all. Let us examine some of the possible reasons He may take this line of action:
1.When He is not happy with you and has forsaken you. It was God that chose Saul, installed him as king over His people and helped him win his battles. But he disobeyed God and God refused to have any further dialogue with him, either through prophecy, vision or dream. Saul eventually fell and died with his three children the same day. Eli and Samuel were sleeping in the same environment, but God chose to speak to Samuel because Eli’s activities had since evoked the displeasure of God. So when you are not hearing again from the Lord, you probably have started doing some things which have evoked His displeasure and He has therefore forsaken you. At this juncture, pray to the Lord like this:
"Any sin blocking my ears, any sin scaring God away from me, depart from my life now, in the name of Jesus."
2.When He is speaking to you but you are not hearing His voice. He is talking but somewhere along the line, your own frequency is different from His own. If God is speaking to you and for some reasons something is in your life and you are not hearing Him, it is as if He is silent but He is speaking. You just cannot pick it up. Most believers are very good at talking but their ability to listen is under- developed. Most Christians have become experts in using their mouths and have rejected the act of hearing. In the present world there is so much noise and to be truly silent is very hard. This is the reason some people go for retreat to get out of the crowd and create a conducive atmosphere for hearing from God.
I Samuel 3: 1 says, "And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision."
In order words there were not many people around that were attentive enough to hear what God was saying. To many of us, God’s voice is either indistinct or does not exist. Many people walk according to their minds. Anything their minds tell them they will do even though the minds, whose dictates they are following, are unregenerate, dirty and polluted. Certainly such minds can not produce anything pure. Isaiah 55: 2 says,
" Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And you labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live."
Our blunt refusal to incline our ear to hear therefore may be construed to mean silence from God, for Jesus says, "Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hears my voice and opens the door I will come in."
3. When what you are talking to Him about is not His will for your life.
If a person decides to convert personal and selfish ambition to a prayer point God remains quiet.
A fornicator who has just committed sin with a sister and thereafter approaches God to find out if the woman is God’s will for his life, will hear nothing from God. Even if you receive any answer in this sinful nature, the answer will be in accordance to the idol in your heart. Anytime we therefore decide to embark on a course of action that is at variance with His will for us, the reward from God may be silence.
A sister prayed about somebody to marry, but the trouble with this would -be husband was that he smoked marijuana a little bit. But outside the marijuana smoking, he was a perfect gentleman, very nice, sociable, and respectful. The mother of the sister liked the man and wanted him to be her son-in-law. This sister new the sin in the life of this brother and had the knowledge of the scripture which forbade believers from being unequally yoked with unbelievers. Yet because of what she wanted which is not what God wanted for her, she decided to go on three days dry fasting to inquire of the Lord if she should marry that brother. She heard nothing from God!
4.When He has nothing to say. Maybe you are doing very well and He is pleased with you then he will be silent . For God is the Almighty and the sovereign. God is not like the microphone you tap and you say hello! hello !! testing ! testing !! testing !!! Neither is He a toy. Our God is not talkative. Neither does He speak for fun. The president of a nation only addresses his subjects on matters of national importance. In the same vain, our Sovereign Father will only speak to us when there is the real need. Psalm 62: 11: says,
" God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God."
God speaks once but if He decides to repeat a thing, the implication is that it is a serious issue. The recurring dream that some of us are having maybe as a result of our refusal to hearken to His voice for He will continue to bring such to our notice till it is addressed. There- after, He keeps quiet. It is doubtful if most of these so-called "Thus says the Lord" from the same person every prayer meeting day is truly from God. He does not waste His words.
5.When you are living in any known sin. The Bible says the time of ignorance God winked at. But when you are committing the sin willfully then He will remain silent. Isaiah 59:1-2 says,
"Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear, But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear". Iniquity drives God far away. If God the Father can abandon Jesus Christ on the cross when He was bearing the iniquities of the world, then He would not hesitate to distance Himself from any one living in sin. Grace can not abound and the scripture is very clear about this. It is no use saying I will repent after this particular one. God cannot be mocked as your thoughts are known to Him. Beloved, if there is a request you have been making to God and it appears He is not talking to you about it, you may need to seriously search through your own life to see if you are living in any known sin. Deal with that first and the result would surely amaze you.
6.When you exercise incomplete obedience.
God does not want people on the fence. You are either for Him or you are for satan. God prefers you to be absolutely disobedient than to be partially obedient.
In Genesis 12 : 1, God gave an instruction to Abraham;
"Now the Lord had said unto Abraham get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house , unto a land that I will shew thee."
But Abraham obeyed partially and took both his father and Lot along. Let us read further what happened to him in Acts 7: 3-4:
"And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Charran and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell." Abraham did not make much progress until his father that he carried along died. And he started hearing from God again only after Lot was separated from him. Perhaps there is a lot in your life right now that you are carrying about as a luggage. God will not speak when that extra luggage is there because as far as God is concerned, that is partial obedience. When your obedience is complete, God speaks to you clearly. God will speak today as clearly as it was in the Bible days He has not, and will not change. The problem has always been with the hearers.
7 When He has spoken to you and you thought that it was an ordinary man that spoke to you. A clean case of this situation was what happened in Acts 27. Paul was in a ship en-route Rome. As they were about to set sail. Paul said, "Brethren, I perceive that this journey will be dangerous not only for our luggage but our lives as well." They refused to listen to him being a prisoner. But that landed them in trouble. The Bible says almost two weeks they could not even see the sun. There was confusion. They could not eat again because they refused to listen. God spoke through Paul but they thought it was Paul speaking. Many times, we discountenance the fact that the Lord can use anybody to speak to us. In most cases, this is due to pride, stubbornness, rebellion or familiarity. It was with the same contempt born out of familiarity that Christ was held - "Is this not Joseph’s son?" It is very dangerous to neglect the voice of God because of the kind of vessel being used. A command from God, mistaken can cause you your life. Remember the story of the young prophet in the Bible. God sent him to Bethel with a clear message to Jeroboam. He was not to eat or drink and not to return by the way he went. And the prophet went there as God instructed. He met the king at the altar and just pointed to the altar saying, "Altar, altar, hear the word of the Lord, by this time next year instead of the bones of animals that are here, it is the bones of these priests that will be on you." The man prayed and left after a successful outing for the Lord. But on his way back he met an older prophet who made him to disobey the clear command from God. He had a devastating end. Mistakes like that could cause a person his life.
A girl was told by a servant of God not to travel, but she disobeyed the word of God and went ahead. As she was getting to the airport, the plane she was about to enter was departing. So she missed that one, but still went to board a train. That plane eventually crashed but sadly the train she eventually boarded also crashed. So she ended up dying all because of the contempt with which she held the voice of the Lord.
8. When the voice of your own life is TOO loud for Him. Many lives are conditioned to noise. In this noise-dominated world, it is sometimes difficult to live with silence. Noise seems to be the characteristic of our time. If you go to a campus, you would find students claiming to be reading their books with disco music or noisy programmes on TV and radio. So when you are too loud like this, when will God talk? This is why the only free time God has to speak to many of us is in our sleep. This is why many of us are dreamers. Because you are not quiet enough for Him to talk and the only quiet moment is when you are sleeping. Sometimes God speaks in a still small voice and if you are too busy, or you are too noisy you would not hear him. Sometimes the voice of God in a meeting maybe coming from the most inferior and insignificant person, but that person maybe the one the Lord wants to use. One good thing about Namman was his listening to good advice. A small girl told him to go to Israel for healing, and he listened and got his healing. Saul on his way to Damascus was going to destroy Christians. In that furious state, it was impossible for God to speak to him. He was thereafter knocked down with blindness to quieten the voice of his own life. Then it was possible for him to hear from God. I want you to close your eyes and pray aggressively like this:
"Let every distraction preventing me from hearing God clearly be destroyed, in the name of Jesus." This is the reason sometimes God allows sickness to hit people because that is the only time he can talk to them.
9. When He has set an appointed time to answer you. He has decided that this is the time answer will come for your prayers. Aggressive fire prayers may not help in this situation, because He has set an appointed time; the time He knows the answers will benefit you.
Let me share with you the testimony of this sister. Before she got born again, she used to pray, "Oh Lord, I want to marry a pilot." And so she got one. But the problem with that pilot was that he beat up people. He used to give this sister serious beating that sometimes she jumped the fence to escape. Later, the sister became serious with Jesus and went into three days dry fast and prayed, "Oh Lord, this man is beating me up and preventing me from serving you. Please do something about it." On the third day of the fast, Jesus Himself appeared and said, "My daughter, before I address what you are praying about, let me first of all show you something that I have done for you during your fasting programme". She saw a little boy in her hand and a boy of twenty standing close to the little boy. The Lord said, "That is your boy when he would twenty, something has been planted in his life now which will not manifest until he is twenty. But because of the prayers you are doing now I have removed that one. But for your husband, do not talk to me about that man again because he will change at the appointed time. But if you find that the beating is terrible, pack your things and leave."And as a matter of fact, the beating got worse, and the sister left. Then somewhere along the line, God met this man and he wanted to go into full time ministry. The first question they asked him was the whereabouts of his wife. He couldn’t answer and they told him to go and fetch her. He went to his wife and apologized. They reunited and not only did the beating stop, the sister also had the freedom to worship her God with her husband. Her appointed time had come. I pray that your own appointed time will come, in Jesus’ name.
10.When He wants to multiply the punishment of the enemy. A sister came to me saying, "I am disappointed with God. I mean this is unfair." Our discussions revealed that she had lost three of her elder sisters to a witch in their family who had confessed to be responsible for their death. She was therefore wandering why God had not done anything about it. I was able to convince her that the silence of God did not mean inaction. He was just keeping quiet to multiply the affliction of this witch. God said to Abraham, "Say to the son of the Ammorites that in the fourth generation they are coming back here because their cup of iniquity is not filled yet." That means in two hundred years time they would coming back to suffer for what they have done because their cup was not filled yet.
11. When He is reserving His anger for the enemy. Nahum 1:2 says, "God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies."
12. When He has given a person a period of probation to change.
God is not slack concerning His promise according to 11 Peter 3: 9 which says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness but is longsuffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." God does not want anybody to perish. So the fact that a sinner is "enjoying" himself and God seems to be doing nothing about it does not mean God is weak. No. He is watching because He has given a period of probation.
13. When He has done all you want Him to do. If this is the situation, all you need to do is to wait for the manifestation. All further requests beyond this will be met with the Almighty’s silence.
14.When He wants the testimony to be complete. Peter was in prison and people prayed that the Lord should release him. The absence of Peter drove the Apostles into night vigils and prayers. God waited until it remained a day for Peter to be killed before He brought him out to make the testimony complete. The prison doors opened of their own accord and Peter got out. His glory He will never share with anyone.
15.When He is waiting for a crucial period to do a thing. It is only when a thing is needed most that God acts, just like He did for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. When Nebuchadnezzar was making noise and threatening these three men, God could possibly have slapped him then but He waited until the crucial time. It was only when they were thrown into the fury furnace that the fourth man appeared in the fire. The king had no option than to decree immediately that every one must serve the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
16. When He wants an audience of unbelievers to demonstrate His power.
The Bible says, "Thou prepareth a table for me in the wilderness, in the presence of my enemies.
17. When you give room to discouragement. When you are discouraged, you cannot hear anything. Discouraged people do not hear from God. A discouraged and a distracted heart will not hear God, so ensure that you do not enroll in the school of cold water ministry.
18. When He has something better to offer you than what you are asking . He knows your needs more than you do. When you are asking for something inferior to what He has in stock for you, He will be silent.
19. When He wants to test your loyalty. The Lord allowed the devil to toss Job up and down; testing him. Thank God the man passed.
So what do you now do to prevent confusion? The Bible says, "Be still and know that am God." We must learn to be silent before God. We must have the quiet mind , the quiet heart and the quiet tongue. We must rearrange our lives, we must discipline ourselves. If you are a believer and do not observe quiet time you better start now. We must learn to be quiet before the Lord. It can be tragic when God comes to you and cannot find a quiet place to stay. You must be willing to change your character, your direction and your values, so that God will start talking to you.
Remember that Pharisee and the tax collector. Both of them went to seek God. One was humble while the other was proud. And the Bible says that the humble man went home justified than the other. We need to pray very well because the way to spiritual growth is the ability to hear what God is saying. Anything preventing us from hearing God is our greatest enemy.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Every seed of spiritual deafness, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.
2. Oh Lord, do not be silent unto me, in the name of Jesus.
3. Ask the Lord, to open your ears so that you can be hearing from Him.
4. Oh Lord, do something in my life that will change me, in the name of Jesus.
5. (Lay your right hand on your head and pray like this). Any Symbol representing me in the dark world, be destroyed, in the name of Jesus.
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