For today, we're taking questions.
Question 1:
Is God ever silent or do we just fail to hear Him at that time? I mean you hear stories of Pastors saying “God was silent regarding this.”
Answer:
Is God silent?
I will rephrase the question a bit to this:
Can God be silent on a matter?
The answer is Yes.
Is God Silent? Like has He generally gone quiet and stopped speaking with His audible voice?
The answer is No.
A statement I love to use is this:
Silence is an answer. Silence is a complete answer, and your interpretation of it as a believer matters.
Silence does not mean Yes
Silence does not mean No
Silence is simply silence
I think what we struggle with as believers is activity; we cannot stop doing.
We must be comfortable with the silence of God. We must learn to sit with it.
God has not said anything yet is as simple as exactly that.
We must not feel inadequate because of this.
We must not be forced to interpret His silence.
Saul is a good example of this:
“And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets.” [I Samuel 28:6 NKJV]
God did not answer him.
And for some of us, silence can be an indication that we are in disobedience to a previous word.
Saul here had failed to do the last thing God asked him to do, yet out of fear he is back asking for a new word.
There is a danger in wanting a fresh word when we have not obeyed the previous word.
So for another set of people, the question is not "God why are you not speaking?" But "What have you already said Lord?”
My advice to us will be this:
When you are met with the Silence of God on a matter, do not fill in the gaps. Do not make assumptions for Him.
Pray in the spirit if you must. Check if you are not hearing because He already spoke or because your heart is hardened or bent on a particular answer.
When you've done your checks and you are sure, then simply wait.
“I don't have a word concerning this YET,” is a complete statement.
For every time you are agitated or restless about this statement above, it is a pointer to earthly pressure. It is a pointer that you are running with the timing of man, because why are you in a hurry?
It is certain that He hears us. If He has not said anything, simply means there is nothing to be said yet.
And again, thank you for this lovely question. It is a very important one because I have seen even Pastors fall to this. You see people asking for your counsel on a matter, you have prayed but God has not spoken. But because the people want an answer and are in a hurry, you have to say something.
Ehnehn. You don't!
Be comfortable saying: I don't have a word from God on this yet.
It doesn't make you less child or less anointed.
Your own job is to keep praying.
“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.” So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. Now the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.” [Exodus 24:12-13, 16 NKJV]
I love this scripture.
Moses was on his own o, then God called him to come. They climbed the mountain and for 6 days, he stood there with Joshua just waiting.
It was only on the 7th day God spoke.
Imagine that after Day 3, Moses had said to himself:
“Maybe God is silent because He doesn't want to speak again or because something is wrong.”
Imagine that he had misinterpreted the silence.
Silence in this scripture in Exodus was simply the space between the last time God spoke and the next time God spoke.
Simple!
Your job is not to interpret God’s silence. Your job is to remain in the place of obedience until He speaks.
Stay where the last instruction left you.
There is this statement I love from the popular hymn, God moves in mysterious ways by William Cowper. It says:
God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain!
Question 2:
Prayer is communication with God? So what if on a normal day, you have a terrible communication pattern, won’t this affect your communication with God? Like myself, I’ll rather sit and listen to whatever anyone has to say than talk(I’m working on this ) . So doesn’t it affect it?
Answer:
Let me tell you something I learnt from one of my Pastors, your general behavior and attitude in life is an indication of what is going on Spiritually.
Yes.
If you are a very defensive person naturally, I can put a penny on it that you do the same to your Lord and personal savior. If you are a stubborn person according to people around you, if we check the Spirit ehn, we will find that it do usually take the Holy Spirit ages to convince you to do anything. I have proper research done on this, so I know what I'm saying.
If you talk too much in real life, you most likely talk too much to God too. And I dare say that all of our real life excesses are even more excessive in the spirit.
Multiply that your stubbornness by five, that is what you are doing in the Spirit.
We all have different personalities and they shape how we communicate but we must be careful that this doesn't affect our relationship with God.
Imagine that you are married to someone that talks too much and never listens. Is this not a problem? Marriages have ended because of this.
Now imagine that you are in a relationship with somebody that doesn’t like talking.
You send long paragraphs and they respond with “Okay” or “Thanks” 🌚🌚🌚
One word answers.
This can kill the vibe of a relationship before it even starts.
I have a friend that stopped talking to someone because they are not good conversationalists.
“She can’t hold a conversation”
“She is boring 😭”
Nothing my ear didn’t hear 😭
Our personality can influence how we communicate with God, but we must not allow our personality to become an excuse for poor communication with Him.
If I naturally talk too much, I must learn to listen.
If I naturally don’t talk much, I must learn to express myself.
If I am easily distracted, I must learn attentiveness.
If I process slowly, I must learn to create room for response.
I absolutely love the concept of love.
If you've been in love before, you can attest to this; love changes you.
You will see yourself doing things that you thought you never could do.
Love compels you to do. It makes you want to do things you’d not ordinarily do.
What we’ve been called to is a love relationship.
You are literally called the bride of Christ.
What is expected of people joined together?
And I tell you that this class is not just about Hearing God.
I know that’s why we applied, but at the end of it, you’d have learnt what it means to build a relationship with God. What it means to call God friend and Father.
So yes, the answer to this is:
Come as you are. But as you continue in your relationship with God, allow love.
God doesn’t want you to be like me with Him. He wants you to be You, growing everyday and loving even more everyday.
One day you wake up and you just realize that this relationship has changed me completely.
Be open minded with this your love relationship with God.
Do ALL to make it thrive, one step at a time.
Again, God knows you.
He goes out of His way to meet us where we are at because He wants it.We too must meet Him somewhere as we continue to walk with Him.
There is a hymn that puts me in reflection a lot (PS you’ll find that I have a strong love for hymns as we continue this class. You may learn one or two while we are at it too 😃)
The title of the hymn is:
"I Gave Myself for Thee"
Here is stanza 1:
I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou mightst ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead;
I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou done for Me?
I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou done for Me?
"What hast thou done for Me?"
This is Jesus asking
Permit me to rephrase, what can you do for God?
It should be anything and everything.
The apostle Paul puts it clearly:
“and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” [II Corinthians 5:15 NKJV]
Put in place structures that help. Go on dates with God (we will touch this in one of the classes)
Journal if it works better for you>
Be expressive, God is willing to walk with you.
Finally, I’d say take it one day at a time. There will never come a time when there is nothing to grow in love. There is always something that can be improved.
Allow yourself to be immersed in this journey of love.
So for someone like you who naturally listens more than speaks, the question isn’t necessarily, How do I become more talkative with God?
It may be:
Can I become increasingly honest, expressive, attentive, and responsive with God?
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