“Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” – Psalm 10:1

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” – Psalm 13:1

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.” – Psalm 22:1-2

David was a man familiar with the feeling that his prayers were going no where; that when it came to him, God decided to be quiet.

How many of you have felt that God has chosen to remain silent when it comes to your prayers?

Sometimes it can feel like everyone around us has “heard from the Lord”, but we seem to get nothing but silence.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never experienced God speaking like He did to Moses (burning bush) or Paul (flash of light), but I have shared David’s frustration of what seems like God being silent.

I don’t claim to be an expert on prayer, in fact compared to most I’m still a novice. But, I’d like to share with you some things that I have learned and am still in the process of learning about prayer and about listening for the voice of God.

The Deeper Purpose of Prayer

In thinking about this topic of hearing God, I’ve learned that it is important to first look at the deeper purpose of prayer.

People today approach prayer in many different ways:

• Gumball machine – do/say certain things to get what we want
• Duty – just another item to check off our to do list
• Ritual – a meaningless “spiritual” practice that we do to make God happy and be a good Christian

The heart of prayer is more than these.

At the heart of prayer is relationship. Prayer is a relational conversation.

At the heart of prayer is union with God.

“The closer we get to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ.” Prayer is where we continually are reshaped by God.

We are meant (and even told) to ask for things (whether they be for ourselves or others) in prayer, but getting things is not the primary purpose.

James 5:16 - “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.”

Righteousness is a relational word. It means that a person is in “right relation” to another – in the case of prayer, relation with God. And that is why the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective, because of the “right relationship.”

Relationship with God is at the very core of prayer. As Richard Foster writes, “real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth but from falling in love.”

As Julian of Norwich says, “Prayer unites the soul with God.”

Prayer is not just about getting things to happen. Prayer is about change – when we pray, we change. Little by little when we come to God in this relational conversation our hearts our changed and come more in line with His heart. Our desires are transformed into His desires. We come to desire relationship with Him more than for the things we ask Him for.

The deeper purpose of prayer is the building of a relationship with God.

Hearing God - Listening for the Still Small Voice

Another thing I have learned is that God tends to dwell and speak in the quiet stillness.

1 Kings 19:11-13

“sheer silence” “a soft whisper” “a gentle whisper” “a gentle and quiet whisper”

Notice that God was not in the loud and booming, but in the quiet.

We are told throughout Scriptures to wait in the quiet silence for the Lord.

(Job 13:5, Psalm 46:10, Psalm 62:1,5, Psalm 131:2, Lamentations 3:26)

We live in a noisy world, both externally and internally. We are surrounded by noise at every moment of the day.

The noisier it gets, the harder it is to hear.

To wait in silence gives God the space to speak. God can still speak when and how He chooses, but by quieting ourselves down we are able to more fully engage in listening for the gentle whisper, the still small voice.

Since prayer is a relational conversation, not just a gumball machine / duty / religious ritual, listening is just as important as talking, if not more.

Have you ever been in a conversation with a person that is clearly not listening? It can be very frustrating, but how often do we do the same thing in our conversations with God?

In our world of “say whatever is on your mind” we desperately need to practice this “verbal fasting”. Silence is like a humbling of our tongues.

In order to hear the voice of God, we need to be still and quiet long enough to really listen. God speaks in the silence and stillness.

How God Speaks

I’ve also learned that as we quiet ourselves, and engage in listening, we can find the voice of God in several places. Again, God can choose to speak whenever and however He pleases, but it seems that most often He does so in several ways.

Scripture -

Throughout history we see the Word of God being manifested in 3 primary ways – The Spoken Word (Creation), The Word Made Flesh (Jesus), and The Written Word (Scripture).

In seeking to hear God’s voice, we need to remind ourselves that He is constantly speaking through the Scriptures. This Word is living and active (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

In seeking to hear God’s voice through Scripture, we need to approach it in a different way than we might usually.

Often, we read with an approach of study. We try to understand the verse, the culture, the context. Study is important, but there is a different approach I’d like to suggest, not in place of study but in addition to.

This approach is one that is more concerned with the Scriptures getting through us, than us getting through them. It is a reading with the heart, not just the head. It is an approach in which we submit ourselves to the Word and allow the Word to wash us and transform us. We leave behind our biases and simply meditate on the Word and let the Word speak.

Psalm 1 says “blessed are those who meditate on his law day and night.”

The Spirit -

Another way that God speaks is via the Holy Spirit within us. This is not simply the “human conscience”, it is God’s Spirit that dwells in our spirit.

This inner voice, or “inner testimony” as John Calvin called it, will often come as thoughts, “inklings”, and urges. Promptings and movements of the Spirit leading us to either repentance, love, or action.

Throughout the Bible and especially in the New Testament, we see people who are filled with and led by the Spirit. These were people who were continually attentive to the guiding voice of God.

We too can be a people that are attentive to that Voice.

Many times the problem isn’t that God is not speaking, it is that we are not listening! When you feel a prompting, do you ignore it? Is your mind so totally consumed with the tasks at hand that should a gentle nudge from God come that you wouldn’t even feel it?

If we practice being attentive to the Spirit, we will become more and more familiar with it. As Jesus said, “my sheep know my voice.”

Other People -

God not only speaks to us, but He speaks through us.

The whole Bible is an example of God speaking through human beings. We should not think of this form of communication as second rate to hearing from God directly for ourselves, for this is a normal means through which He delivers His messages.

This is just like God too.

Unlike other religions, our God (the only True God) wants us to not only have relationship with Him, but He also wants us to have relationship with other people. In fact, our relationships with others demonstrate our love for God (James 1:27)! God desires for people to be a unified loving community (John 17:21), so it is comes as no surprise that He would use people to deliver His messages.

This again takes a sensitive attentiveness to the Spirit to not only receive God’s word through someone, but also to be the one through whom God speaks.
Creation -

Romans 1:20 - “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.”

Two of my favorite things to do are quietly gaze at a dark sky filled with stars or sit on a beach and watch the sky fill with color while the sun sets.

We can experience the beauty and wonder of God in His creation. We can worship and connect with God as we recognize the “works of His hands”.

Psalm 19:1-4 - “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they display knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

Next time you are outside, take a moment to be silent and allow God to speak to you through His creation.

When God is Silent

Sometimes, it seems that no matter how hard we pray and no matter how hard we try to listen, God remains silent. We pray and pray and pray but get no answer – or at least not the answer we want.

Another thing that I have learned is that God knows best and we don’t.

Now this does not mean that we can simply reduce our prayers to “whatever you want God” (that kind of prayer does not grow the relationship) but it does mean that our prayers may not always be answered in the way that we hope or expect.

Why is this?

Wrong motives -

James 4:3 - “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.”

Dallas Willard writes, “If you’ve ever found yourself in a position of saying, God has never spoken to me, then you might ask yourself, “Why should God speak to me? What am I doing in life that would make speaking to me a reasonable thing for Him to do? Are we in business together in life? Or am I in business just for myself, trying to use a ‘little God’ to advance my projects?”

What are the motives behind our prayers? Why do we ask for certain things to happen?

1 John 5:14 - “if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us.”

We must always include in our prayers of asking God for things, an increase in discernment. When we do this, sometimes our prayers will change as they come into line with His will.

Not Seeing the Big Picture – The problem of short-sightedness

God sees the bigger picture that we don’t.

An answer to our prayer may bring hardship to someone else. A seemingly harmless request could cause things to happen that we aren’t even aware of, therefore God cannot give us what we ask for.

And sometimes we may not be ready for what we are asking for. God knows us better than we do, so in our prayers we must cultivate a trust in God and in His wisdom.

Putting It Into Practice

In your times of focused prayer, take time to be quiet and listen. Don’t talk, just be still. This can be hard at first, but don’t give up. Take control of your thoughts and quiet them. Start with just a few minutes of silence.

Incorporate regular times of being still and silent into your day. Perhaps try and have a few moments of silence at the same time every day instead of a coffee break. On the ride home, instead of listening to music or your favorite talk radio, take the opportunity to be silent and welcome God into your car. At the beginning of the day, before the hustle and bustle, take a moment to enjoy the silence – and at the end of the day, slip outside and gaze at the stars and soak in the quiet of the night as you end your day.

However and whenever you do, remember keep it simple. Just be still and quiet, and simply invite God in and listen. He may speak, he may not. But by cultivating this habit of stillness and attentiveness and silence, we are creating the space for God to speak when He chooses. Remember the problem isn’t usually that God is not speaking, it’s that we are not listening.

Listen to the talk:

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