“The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.’ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ Philip asked. ‘How can I,’ he said, ‘unless someone explains it to me?’ So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.”
Acts 8:29-31
A common problem I hear from Christians in every church that I have served is that God speaks to other people but not to them. It is understandable that Christians want to hear from God. They read about God speaking to people in the Bible. They read stories of Christians hearing from God in devotionals. They hear the pastor speak from the pulpit of how God answers prayers. What they don’t get is a personal experience of God actually doing any of this for them. This is frustrating to say the least. Really, it is even more dangerous than that as it can feed into the lies of the devil, like “God doesn’t love me,” or “I can’t trust the Bible.”
It is by faith that we are saved through the grace of God, and I have yet to hear a salvation testimony that included the voice of God as a precursor for believing on Christ Jesus. Yet, the devil will try to get us to ignore the simple fact that we don’t believe in God because he speaks to us, instead we believe in Christ because he is the way, the truth, and the life. We should not listen to the lies of the devil, but we should be listening for the voice of God, and when we don’t hear it, it is understandable that we can become sad. After all, we simply want to hear from our Father.
While I was on a patrol with my platoon during a deployment to Haiti, we found ourselves walking through the city of Cap Haitian. We were hot and sweaty and tired, and we were doing our best to keep our senses alert for anything hostile or suspicious. On this one particular patrol, my attention was drawn over and over to a tense conversation between my Lieutenant and his radio operator. After hearing my Lieutenant’s angry voice a few times, I was able to understand what was happening. Our patrol was spread out over more than two blocks, and in the urban environment the Lieutenant couldn’t see his squad leaders because they were often too far away and around a corner, so the only way he could keep track of his whole platoon was through radio contact. Only, the radio wasn’t working. All the lights and sounds that it makes when it is working properly were there, but there was no response from any of his squad leaders. In his frustration, he turned to the one person who was by his side specifically for the purpose of keeping communication up between the Lieutenant and his superiors as well as his subordinates.
The frustration that my Lieutenant felt then is similar to how Christians feel at times when they try and try to hear from God, but there seems to be no response. We do our best to pray to God in spirit and in truth. We pray individually and together with groups. We pray through the Holy Scriptures. We pray in the place where we come to worship God. We pray fervently, and with love and true desire to connect with our living Lord. We read up on how we are supposed to pray. We have devotional groups and Bible studies because we want to pay special attention to how we pray. Yet, over and over, we don’t hear anything back from God.
I’ve given the advice, and heard other pastors admonish Christian as well, to stop talking and to listen for God. Fasting and meditation are great for this. Through these the Christian can demonstrate their love and devotion, as well as purposefully set aside a time and space in their lives to listen attentively for God. From some Christians, I’ve heard that even practicing this hasn’t resulted in hearing from God. I can understand and even empathize with the sense of frustration stemming from a real desire from my brothers and sisters to hear a word from their Father in heaven.
It’s not a perfect analogy, few rarely are, but when my Lieutenant had tried all the avenues he knew to fix his communication problem, he turned to the person standing right next to him, who was there for the primary purpose of helping him communicate. I remember the sense of urgency and exasperation in his voice as he turned to his soldier and said, “My squad leaders are not responding to me. What should I do?”
God gave us pastors for many reasons, but if we look to the conversation between Jesus and Peter, we find that Jesus gives Peter these instructions before Jesus ascends into heaven: “Take care of my sheep.” This, of course, means giving a proper exposition on the Holy Scriptures, but it is so much more. In this case, it means helping you open the lines of communication, and going with you and on your behalf in prayer to God. It means giving Scriptural counseling so that you can grow in your assurance and trust in God that even when you cannot hear Him, He is with you. It means giving pastoral counsel on how you might amend your prayer habits or make new habits to listen for God.
However, like I said, this analogy of a radio not working isn’t a perfect one. Hearing from God does not involve following a flow chart in a technical manual to diagnose the problem and follow a new set of steps to remedy the situation. The Bible isn’t a technical manual, and God’s relationship with you doesn’t operate like a vending machine. Likewise, you pastor is there to give the best Scripturally based counseling that he can out of love for you and love for God whom he serves by caring for the flock he has been given.
Here is some counseling from this pastor on the problem of not hearing from God.
First and foremost …
remember these things: Jesus love you, the Holy Spirit is with you, your Father in Heaven hears your prayers, regardless of how you are praying God will never leave nor forsake you.
Second …
remember that God is sovereign, and that His plans are perfect, and His ways are above our ways. Whether or not you hear a voice from the heavens, or a burning bush, or a still small voice in the silence, keep moving forward. Christians can get overly fixated on doing the right thing, or doing God’s Will, or receiving answers before continuing on with their lives. God doesn’t want you to stop doing good things, or to let your fear of doing the wrong thing to keep you stuck in one place.
Do all the good you can,
John Wesley
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.
Third …
take time to stop and listen. This is the one piece of pastoral counseling that I give that I get the most pushback on. Some Christians seem to want to keep at arms length or more to the word meditate. This is so odd to me mainly because Scripture specifically tells us that we are to meditate on His words, and we have an example in Elijah of the prophet going away to listen to God. For a people who claim to love the Lord and want to be in His presence, we spend a lot of our prayer time talking at God and little to no time listening to Him.
Consider the last time you prayed. Was it a few moments ago, or earlier today, or maybe yesterday evening? When you finished your prayer, how much time did you give between your last word our thought and Amen? Again, we claim to have a relationship, not a religion, but what kind of relationship is built on one-way conversations? I’m not saying all this to shame anyone, but to bring to light a change in our patterns of prayer. Sure, there are times when we simply need to cry out to God in our prayers and move on because we are right in the midst of a situation that requires our attention. However, consider how many more opportunities we could give God to respond to us if we just stayed quiet for a few minutes during our “conversations” with God.
Fourth …
consider all the ways God has spoken to His people, and sometimes others who were not children of Abraham, throughout the Bible. Then ask yourself, am I limiting how I expect God to speak to me? What does it look like, in your mind, when God speaks to you? Is it a voice from the heavens? Is it a voice in your head? Maybe it is an impromptu word from a friend, relative, or even a stranger? Something like a coworker saying, “God told me to say this to you.” I imagine most Christians today are not expecting a miraculous event like a burning bush, and I don’t think Christians expect God with walk up to them like He did in the Garden of Eden. So, how is it you expect to hear from God? This is actually a good exercise for Christians to go through to help them open their eyes to how God may actually be speaking to them all the time, but they simply aren’t open to hearing God in ways He is speaking.
If you are going through a time like this, or maybe you feel like you’ve never heard from God, first and foremost remember that the very words of God are contained in Scripture, and in there you can hear him saying, over and over, I love you.
Faith Of The Centurion 