"God, if You really love me, You need to talk to me." Every human who has walked this planet has prayed these words. I really believe that. They may not have called it a prayer or even believed that someone is listening on the other side, but we cannot escape our nature. We want to be heard and known by some higher power. 

I want to talk with you about how to handle the silence of God! 

This series serves up the answers to my questions from a personal and even dark season in my teenage years where I struggle with praying one-sided prayers. I used to cry in my room, "Why can't I hear a reply? If God does talk, then why is He not talking with me? What is wrong with me?" Maybe you are tired of shallow conversations that leave you "guessing" what God is thinking about you? "I'm not crazy, I'm just hearing God!" details my battle with the silence of God. This series, "How to Hear God" is my way of reaching back into the fog to dissolve the haze and let you know that God wants a close and loud relationship with you! So, let's get started! You are not here by accident, you're reading into a God set up!

Back to the beginning... 

At the start of time, God said, "Let there be light!" And bam, it happened! Wow, these are the first recorded words we know God spoke. When God created the earth His words literally became our world. When God says something to you, He calls things that don't exist yet into existence. But this is completely opposite to the way things work in our logical world! We discover things and then name them, but God names things and they become real! God's language fills the void in our life! But what happens when God stops talking? Do things screech to a standstill? What happens if we cannot hear God?

Words or actions?

God shaped the earth and the galaxies with His words. But when God made Adam, He formed him with His own hands. And when Adam needed a helper God caused him to sleep and then fashioned a woman from his side. For five days, God spoke and things happened, but when God made humanity in His image He did it in person and in silence. This is revealing. Why? God does His most significant work in those times where it seems that He is silent!

I want to hear God 

One night I could not sleep. So I asked God to fill me up with His presence, to speak to me, and to teach me. The week before I had been asking God to show up in my life in a new and real way. But I did not feel the “God interruption” or “download of His Presence” I had been looking for. But late that night, it is like God turned on a light bulb so I could clearly see His agenda for me. God spoke in an still small voice, “You don’t see Me coming because I’m already here.” I had been asking God to come, to make a move, to fill me - But God taught me that He was already moving. He did not need to come because He was already here. I wanted to see Him running towards me, but I did not see Him coming from a distance because I was already embraced by His hug! He revised my vision and helped me understand that I was never alone. I just needed to learn to acknowledge His presence in my every day life.

As you look at the horizon, wondering when God will show up, He will remind you that He is already by your side! There are seasons in our lives where we feel like God is far off and distant. We all have felt this. We may even feel orphaned by God! But I dare you to have a better thought during those dark days! Maybe when God stops speaking He starts forming! When He stops creating through His words He transitions to creating through His process and begins to fashion your life with His own hands! When God is silent He is not angry with you - He is adoring you.

A tragedy in Christian circles is that many believers interpret God's silence as punishment. "Maybe someone sinned and God is putting them on the "time out" bench?" Or we fabricate excuses, "Only leaders in the church can hear God!"  

Kris Vallotton wrote, "If God is silent, it doesn’t mean that we’ve done something wrong. He is always at work in us." 

Even in the silence, God can communicate! 

A guy named Jacob was on the run for his life because he had betrayed his brother. His only comfort in the wilderness was a rock for a pillow. Talk about a bad hotel experience! Even worse, Jacob felt alone and disowned. But the Bible describes that when Jacob slept he had a vision of angles coming and going from Heaven above him. Jacob said, "God is with me and I did not even know it!" In our dark moments when God seems far away He is actually right there! He wants us to know that!  

God builds with His words but He also builds us through the process. The areas in our life which hold the fingerprint of God are the same areas where God is most proud of. Why? Because they are birthed out of intimacy with Him. When a master painter works on the finest details of their art, they do it in silence because all their focus and love is honed in on that one thing. You and I are that one thing to God. When God works in silence, He is doing attentive work on the inside, adding the details which will shape you into His masterpiece. God's hand-painted strokes in your life highlight the intimate things which He loves about you!

You have a say in this! 

Let me ask you a question, “What have you talked yourself out of that God is trying to give to you?" You and I have no right to doubt something that God said! We all have something we are talking ourselves out of! But just like we can talk ourselves out of it, we can talk ourselves into it! When God says something, He means it! He has not changed His mind.

I remember asking God, "Daddy, I want fresh encouragement from You!" But God confronted me, "Laurel, you don't need a fresh word from Me right now - you just need to go back to what I said before." We don’t need a new promise from God, we just need to believe what He said the first time! What is your mouth agreeing with? Our words really unveil what we believe about God. We cannot grow beyond what we believe. Our thought life will either be our prison cell or our liberty song. Go back to the promise God gave you and sing that tune!  

13 years of dead air

God gave Abram and his barren wife an audible promise that they would have a son together. After dropping this awesome news on them God stayed quiet for 13 years! I am not sure that faith is used as much when God is talking as it is used when He says nothing at all. When we are learning to hear God's voice, we must not only highlight the moments that He speaks, but also the moments when He does not. Can we walk with God even when He has stopped talking in the manner we have grown accustomed to? 

T. D. Jakes wrote, "What makes the speaking of the Lord so profound is the silence that proceeded it." 

God breaks the silence in our lives the same way God broken the 13 years of silence in Abram's life... with the reassurance of Who He is! "I am God Almighty! I will do what I promised you!" it says that Abram fell on his face and worshiped! (Genesis 17:1-2) 

Awkward silence 

How should we react to God's lack of action? We have to go back to the word He spoke before! Pick up where He left off. If God is silent, it is not because He is at a lost for words, no, it is because He is waiting for us to take Him at His word for what He has already spoken! God is always communicating! Maybe His silence is an indication that He is still on the same chapter and is not ready to move on yet? If we cannot hear Him in the manner we have grown accustomed to, then maybe we should rely on our relationship with Him instead of a formula? God does not want us to love the method more than the Message! But, if God is hiding, then that means He wants to be found! (Proverbs 25:2) God hides things for our benefit! Don't stop looking. Don't stop listening! Stay true to the course because the instruction and the direction never changed. When God showed up in Abram's life He renamed him to Abraham. Why? Because when God crashes into your life with a fresh word, He says, "This is who you are to Me! This is your identity. You can count on My promises! It will happen!" God's words always speak to your identity. And His voice lights your soul with a fire that can shake this world right side up!

Ready. Set. Go! 

Maybe you've just begun your conversation with God and don't have much to go by? Or maybe you and God are inseparable and you live this thing out? We all have different starting lines, but we are walking the same road and pass the same mile stones in our relationship with God. If you're in a silent season with God, go back to what He said before! Don't change the subject. And remember, these silent moments are just that, they are a moment. They are not meant to last forever!  God's silence is not a sign of His distance, it is a hint that He is doing a detailed work in the deepest part of you with His own hands. 

Do you have a story to tell of when God spoke with you? How do you handle seasons of silence in your walk with God? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! 

Love, Laurel 

Keys to hearing God!