Read This When You Can't Hear God's Voice Anymore

"Hello? Hello? Huh-llo???" I demanded finally through the Bluetooth in my car. 

Why wasn't the caller responding to me? Couldn't they hear me? Had they hung up? Or...was it that I simply couldn't hear them?

Technology, like anything else, is as good as our understanding of how it works. FAITH and our relationship with God are exactly the same.

I've been there. I'm guessing since you're still reading, you're there right now. You've come before God on your knees, face down, begging Him to reveal something to you. Anything. Just speak!


And I've waited. Patiently. Sometimes for minutes, for hours. Sometimes it's been days that eroded into weeks. And painfully, at times weeks grew into months. I was faithful to start my day right, beginning with prayer and meeting Abba Daddy in the Word. But He never spoke to my heart the way I longed for, the way I'd once experienced.

God became silent. Still. Distant.

At least that's what I thought back then. Now I understand what the problem was. I didn't understand relationship at all. And my relationship with God is no different than my relationship with my parents, spouse, or friends.

When I ignore others, they stop speaking.

There was a famine during David's reign that lasted for three years, so David asked the LORD about it. And the LORD said "The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites." (2 Samuel 21:1 NLT)

Bear with me here. I know a famine is different than silence. But I also know that David, Israel, and God had a different level of relationship than I experience most of the time. God loved His people Israel, and especially King David. But God removed the rain and the food crops from His beloved nation and their king. David knew this was an act of God.

So David inquired as to why. God answered, "You and the nation are guilty through the act of King Saul." David knew immediately what he needed to do.

Be obedient; make it right.

David calls the Gibeonites to ask how he may correct the broken treaty Saul had made with them. He recognized that only by making amends between Israel and the Gibeonites would there be peace AND blessing again:

David asked them, "What can I do for you? How can I make amends so that you will bless the LORD's people again?" (2 Samuel 21:3 NLT)

The rest of the story is pretty bloody, I'll admit. The Old Testament is filled with war, death, and the shedding of blood. While it's hard to stomach all the goriness of this period, I encourage you to become familiar with the history of Israel and the people of God because it is essential to understanding the sacrifice of Jesus' blood. (You can read the whole story here.)

So how does it end?

David makes the original agreement right through the sacrificial giving over of seven of Saul's descendants to the Gibeonites who then hang these men. I warned you it was bloody and hard to read. But before Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection, justice was always harsh--an eye for an eye, a life for a life. And really, this was kind compared to the destruction of the Gibeonites at Saul's hand. This was symbolic and not equal justice. But it pleased the Gibeonites which pleased God.

After that, God ended the famine in the land. (2 Samuel 21:14b)

I experience a similar famine in my spiritual life, in my relationship with God each time I fail to listen and obey. Like a wise mentor, God does not push Himself and His ways on me. He gives me wisdom and instruction as well as the free will to choose to do what He's revealed to me, or to instead ignore Him completely.

When I recognize that God has stopped speaking, my first question is always,

Abba, what did I fail to do in obedience?

I know that when I slow down to recognize where I failed to listen, and then go back to do what Abba Daddy instructed me to do, He always removes the famine of His Words in my life. 

Sometimes this is simple to do. Sometimes it's as simple as calling that person that the Holy Spirit had encouraged me to reach out to (for their building up, not mine). Sometimes it's excruciatingly difficult, like leaving an expert position to serve in ministry instead. 

Yet each time I realize I'm no longer experiencing God's voice speaking to me personally, I know that I need only go back to the last instruction that I was not faithful in. When I choose then to be obedient, Abba Daddy always picks me back up into His arms and whispers into my soul, 

"Well done, good and faithful servant.
I love you, my precious daughter!"

If this is you right now, pause and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you where you failed to be obedient.  What did He speak to you as a command but you chose to interpret as a suggestion?

Repent; ask Abba to forgive you for being stubborn, oblivious, or fearful. What do you need to repent of in this season?

Ask Him to give you the strength to be humble and the courage to do what you refused to do earlier. What do you need to be able to practice obedience in this thing? Ask the Holy Spirit to give you more so that you can be trustworthy, faithful, and obedient in this command. 

What is the result of your repentance and obedience? 

Let my teaching fall on you like rain; 

let my speech settle like dew. 

Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, 

like gentle showers on young plants. 

(Deuteronomy 32:2 NLT)

I'd love to hear how God begins to speak to you! Please comment and share this post with your friends.