As a believer, some of the hardest seasons I’ve walked through in life have been the seasons where it feels like I’m not hearing from God. What are the reasons You’re not hearing God? It’s not because God isn’t speaking. Let’s talk about this.
There are occasions when God is silently calling us to a deeper trust in Him. My mom used to have this saying, “The ship can’t sail unless it leaves the harbor.” Sometimes God’s silence is calling us to leave the harbor so to speak, to put up our sails so that the wind of His spirit can direct us where we are to go.
However, I believe these times of silence are rare. What I’ve found is that most of the time, when I’m not hearing from God it has more to do with me, not God. The following 5 reasons you’re not hearing from God are not a list of condemnation. This list is my assessment to see whether God is calling me to a deeper place of trust or if I’m limiting His words to me.
You’re not hearing from God because You’re not Seeking Him
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
Matthew 7:7-8, ESV
You won’t find something that you are not looking for. If you want to hear from God, you need to seek Him. God to Him. Talk with Him. Expect His answer. He wants you to seek Him, but He is not playing some celestial game of Hide and Seek. Scripture promises that we will find him when we seek Him.
Jesus promises, in the sermon on the mount, that the one who seeks will find! God even told the Israelites during their exile in Babylon that they would indeed find Him if they sought Him (Jeremiah 29:14). God wants us to seek Him because He wants us to find him.
James 4:8 is often used to encourage us to seek God. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Sometimes drawing near to God is as simple as tilting your tired head onto His shoulder (He’s sitting right next to you). Other times God calls us to follow Him and seek Him as we are going. Either way God’s promise remains the same, if we seek Him we will find Him. As we draw near, He will draw near.
You’re not hearing God because you aren’t listening
One day as I was walking through the house I saw my 4-year-old sitting next to something that needed to be put away. Though I can’t remember what it was, I’m pretty sure it was something like the kid scissors they often use for crafts. Since I also have a 1-year-old, this is something I don’t want laying around where she can pick them up. I called his name, to which he responded, “what mom?” I then asked him to pick up the scissors and put them away. He went back to what he was doing. I called his name again. Again, he answered, “what mom?” I asked if he heard the instructions, I had just given him. He responded, “I didn’t hear you.”
As a mom, this was frustrating because he was looking right at me when I asked him to put the scissors away. I knew he heard me, so that wasn’t quite what he was saying. What he was saying was that he wasn’t listening to what I said.
There’s a difference between hearing and listening. You can disagree with me here but there are plenty of conversations that I’ve been a part of that I’ve heard the conversation, even looked people in the eye, and failed to actually listen to what they said. I’m not saying this because it’s ok, it’s certainly not respectful, but I’m being honest. I’m as guilty as my 4-year-old when it comes to hearing but not listening sometimes.
Sometimes we talk to God and go about our business, living our life. We’ll hear him, but if we are not intentionally listening to what He is saying, we will continue to feel like he’s not even speaking to us.
You may not hear from God because you’re afraid of His response
Sometimes we seek God or ask something from Him, but we’re afraid of His response because we want a yes and we think there’s a possibility he might say no. In this case, we can convince ourselves we’re not hearing from him, but in reality, we’re just not hearing a yes from him.
I get really sick of hearing Christians say, “I want this, therefore God isn’t asking me to do that thing.” We talk about the idea of dying to ourselves and sacrificing what we want most for what God has. Sacrifice is a good thing we are called to. But this type of thinking limits our trust in the God who created us for good works. The kicker is, God might actually be saying yes. God might be trying to give you direction and clarification on what He has already called you to do. We’re so scared that God’s going to take away what we want that we often don’t trust Him with what He’s already given to us.
We need to go to God with an open hand, ready for whatever His response will be. Easier said than done, I know! There’s wisdom in praying before you work and praying as you work. Because through prayer we are seeking God’s will.
You may not think you need to hear from Him.
Maybe you’ve sat under great teachers, and had amazing and well-written bible studies (there are so many good ones). But nothing can take the place of hearing from God himself.
You can determine if you’re hearing God’s voice by taking it back to scripture. God often speaks through scripture. But what I’ve seen and experienced is that God will be trying to speak to me through scripture but instead of wrestling with a passage or meditating on it in prayer, I immediately run to my favorite theologian, commentary, or preacher to see what they think about the passage I’m reading. Instead of turning to the Author of the Bible, I turn to man’s opinions.
While these can be excellent tools for understanding scripture they can’t replace what God wants you to hear by replacing it with what other people think. Even worse, you may think you already have all the answers. There may be pride in your life that has you thinking you know best. When we approach God like we know what is best and don’t need him to answer (unless he agrees with us) we’ve demoted Him and set ourselves up as God. This is nothing short of Idolatry. How can we expect to hear from God if we don’t think we need to?
We need to understand our need for God. He is our creator, the giver of life, and the very air we breathe. We need our king, our savior, our leader. Without God, we are hopelessly lost. Without God, our own plans and direction won’t get very far.
You may have already determined what he will say.
I’ve seen this one several times. It’s easier to recognize it in others than to recognize it in myself, but if I’m being honest I’m guilty of this too.
This goes hand in hand with the previous point. Sometimes we get so determined by what we believe or our own interpretation of scripture that we can’t hear from God because he isn’t saying what we think he should say so we dismiss it as not hearing his voice.
Other times, we are convinced we know what his answer will be to the question we want to ask so we never even ask. I heard someone essentially say in conversation, “I’m not going to hear from God until I’ve determined what I think about this.” We can all take a judgmental position against this statement until we realize we’ve all probably had this thought or view about something at some point in our lives.
Again, we can easily demote God and set ourselves up in His place (this has been an ongoing sin and temptation since The Garden of Eden). If we’re not careful our hardness of heart will get in the way of hearing from God. Idolatry will always be a struggle in this life. We have to be aware and constantly be bring our idols (even ourselves) back to God in prayer and repentance.
God wants us to hear Him
I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again and again because I need to hear it often. God is not trying to hide his voice from us. God wants us to hear Him. He wants us to find him, listen, hear him, and follow Him.
The best place to hear God’s voice is on our knees. Lifting our hands to Him in humility. I love David’s prayer in Psalm 139. This is the Psalm with the well-known passage that reminds us God intricately created us in our mother’s womb (verses 13-16). God knows us better than anyone else. But David prays at the end that God would search him, know his thoughts, look for sin or error in his life, and then lead Him.
When we seek God, we are seeking the one who intricately wove us together. When we hear God we are hearing the one who knows and sees the deepest part of us. It is a humbling thought to realize we are known so well. We couldn’t even understand the depths to which God knows and loves us. The closest relationship we have on earth cannot begin to compare to the way God intimately knows us. He wants to lead us. God wants to direct us into all he has for us. But we have to be willing to humble ourselves, trust him, and listen closely. He’s whispering in your ear. Do you hear him?
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