This lesson explores why God doesn’t speak. The “How to Hear the Voice of God” school was held at Father’s Blessing Church.
Lesson 4. Why Doesn’t God Speak?
1. God Has the Right to Test or Try a Person
Above all, it is important to remember that God is an emotional Person. Do not think that God is interested only in prayer “without the heart.” What interests God most in prayer is the heart. He does not like a consumer approach to prayer, when we come to Him only to receive something from Him. That is why God may test or try us.
For a while, God may remain silent to see how serious you are and why you are seeking Him. Do you need Him like Google Search: “Give me everything I want here and now!”? Or are you interested in His Person and in walking before Him? Without a doubt, there is something more than simply receiving answers to your requests!
Here is what God pays attention to:
They did not cry out to Me with their heart when they wailed on their beds; they assemble themselves for grain and new wine, but they turn away from Me (Hosea 7:14).
Through the prophet Hosea, God shows how important it is to Him that people cry out to Him with their hearts, not merely with their lips. There is a difference between simply making a prayerful sound and turning your heart to God! So it turns out that crying out to God is not all we need to do!
“They did not cry out to Me with their heart when they wailed on their beds…” So, they did cry out; they did call on God, but there was no heart in it. Then the Lord says, “They assemble themselves for grain and new wine, but they turn away from Me.” This was God’s rebuke to people whose god had become their belly!
If you have lived for yourself for a long time and have now decided to draw closer to God and learn to hear Him better, be prepared for Him to test you. The Lord has every right to remain silent for a while. Take this positively, because God is a Person who longs for a close relationship with you and therefore tests your heart.
In other words, if you want to hear God, you must persistently move in that direction—whether or not you receive a quick answer from Him. Show God that you are determined! Show Him that you are not really the kind of person who cries out to Him today but turns around and leaves tomorrow. If you want to hear God, keep seeking His face, keep seeking, and keep seeking! Be persistent! Come to Him without making demands. Say, “Lord, I will still wait for You. I still want to hear You. I still hope in You.”
Perhaps the price you once paid to hear God is no longer sufficient. Do not compare yourself with the person you were five years ago.
As we grow, God expects more from us. If we once gave God a certain amount of time, He may now ask for more, taking into account our calling in His plan for our lives. Therefore, do not live on past accomplishments. It is not enough that you heard God’s voice well 15 years ago! You should learn to hear His voice well now. And, if necessary, pay a higher price for it! I am not talking about money, but about your commitment.
I received many useful and truly essential revelations during personal times of solitude with God, but they cost me time and money. Do not be afraid to pay a high price to hear God Himself! It is worth any amount of money and any amount of time. Then you will be one hundred percent certain where to turn, where to stop, and what God expects from you today.
2. God Has the Right Not to Repeat What a Person Already Knows
What has already been said by God and recorded in the Bible does not need to be repeated. If you settle this for yourself and it becomes firmly established in you, you will not ask God the wrong questions. Some people ask God ten questions, five of which have already been answered in the Bible. They waste their time. It is better to ask five questions that God will truly answer.
Do not ask God foolish questions—He will not answer them! This also applies when God has previously told you something and what He said already implies that it should be carried out.
The Bible contains stories and commandments. All the commandments recorded in the Bible imply obedience to them. Everything God has said in His Word is unchanging and continues to apply.
If you ask whether or not to forgive someone, do not wait for an answer. You are obligated to forgive. Do not tempt God with this question, acting deceptively: “God, if You tell me to forgive, then I will forgive. If You do not tell me, I will not forgive.” This may look spiritual, as though you want to obey God. But in reality, you are equivocating, trying to deceive the Lord and yourself: “What if God has other standards for me? What if He tells me, ‘Go and commit fornication. I personally permit you to do so.’” You must understand that this will never happen!
Be very attentive to what God has told you previously, because whether He answers you depends on it.
I return once again to King David. Notice that God did not remind David again that murder and adultery are sins. But through the prophet Nathan, He charged the king with precisely these offenses.
Why then have you despised the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in His sight? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own wife, and you killed him with the sword of the Ammonites… (2 Sam. 12:9)
Know this: if you have read in the Bible that you are commanded to do something, just do it! You do not need to ask God again whether you should obey or not. You must be a doer of the Word!
And finally, God may not answer you when it concerns simple family or everyday rules: you already know how to behave and what to do. For example, whether to love your wife or not, whether to care for your children or not. Do not wait for God to tell you this personally. Just do it!
3. God Allows People to Make Their Own Choices
God is not a puppeteer, and He never wanted people to be like robots. Back in the Garden of Eden, God gave people free will. And in Revelation 22:11, the Lord says: “Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the one who is vile continue to be vile; let the righteous continue to do right, and let the holy continue to be holy.” From Genesis to Revelation, we see that people always have a choice.
God truly gives us the right to choose. When it comes to simple everyday matters, God allows us to make our own decisions. If you ask God whether you should go to Egypt or Turkey for your summer vacation, believe me, He is unlikely to answer you—the choice is yours. Unless you are going somewhere on a mission to minister, but are simply going to sunbathe and swim in the sea, believe me, God will not interfere.
God does not answer questions like, “What color tile should I use for the kitchen floor?” He simply allows you to choose the tile according to your own taste.
How many times our family has asked God for advice about various household matters. To our surprise, the answers were usually something like: “You are the ones who will live there. Choose whatever you want and wherever you want, and I will bless you.” That is God’s character: in everyday matters, He leaves the choice to us.
Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but not everything builds up (1 Cor. 6:12, modern translation).
God teaches us to be adults and make decisions. He does not want to spend our entire lives telling us, “Stand up, sit down.” What did you do when your children were little? You insisted that they listen to you in everything, understanding that they were only learning how to live. But when they grew up, you began insisting that they take initiative themselves and not ask you whether they should wash the dishes, take out the trash, or make the bed. On the contrary, you ask them: “Can’t you see for yourselves what needs to be done?”
God treats us in exactly the same way. Therefore, as we mature, God allows us to make our own choices so that we can try, grow up in every area, and learn to make important decisions ourselves. He says: “Well done, son, you made a decision, and it worked out! I’m proud of you! You haven’t disappointed me!”
Seeking God’s leading in every matter is good! But if He does not answer you about simple things, relax and make the choice yourself.
4. A person is in a wrong position before God
A person may be in a wrong position before God because of pride, foolishness, disobedience, and other sins. But some believers do not see any connection between sin and hearing God's voice at all. They think that since they believe God exists, He is obligated to speak to them.
So Saul inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by the Urim or by the prophets (1 Sam. 28:6).
We must not allow sin into our lives, hoping that we will repent later and everything will be restored; confess everything and everything will be as before!
One person did something wrong, then repented, and everything was restored for him. Another person apparently did the same thing, and God accepted his repentance, but his life went downhill and everything fell apart: his ministry, health, and family. It is like roulette; you cannot play it hoping that you will get away with it… It is an enormous risk!
Let us return to David. So, he sinned. The prophet Nathan came to him and rebuked him. David realized his guilt and repented before God. Nathan replied: “The Lord has taken away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by doing this you have given the enemies of the Lord great occasion to blaspheme His name, the son born to you shall die” (2 Sam. 12:13–14).
David sincerely repented and was forgiven. But what happened afterward? Immediately after Nathan left, the baby became ill.
David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and spent the night lying on the ground (2 Sam. 12:16).
Fasting, lying on the ground in simple clothing, David cried out to God for the child for seven days. But the child still died.
Then David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went home, and at his request they served him food, and he ate (2 Sam. 12:20).
Think about the depth of David's repentance! What a sacrifice he made before God so that the baby might live! Yet throughout all that time, the Lord did not answer him even once or speak to him even once.
David sinned a second time when he took a census of the people. This was a sin in God's eyes because the king relied not on the Lord but on human strength. And although David again realized his mistake and repented, God sent a prophet named Gad to him, and Gad announced God's judgment to David (see 2 Sam. 24:13).
We can see how, despite David’s repentance, his sin affected his entire life and ministry. Whereas God had previously spoken to David directly, after his sin He sent prophets to him instead and no longer spoke to the king personally.
Yes, indeed, we do not know what the consequences of our repentance will be! David is an example of a man whose relationship with God was destroyed through sin. During David’s more than forty years of reigning, God answered him literally only a few times. And even then, it was a response to his cries, not God’s initiative.
This story is a warning to us, so that we think a thousand times before allowing sin into our lives. After that, we may simply never be restored!
I know that someone is thinking right now: “No, no! God forgives!” I am not saying that God does not forgive. He forgave David. It is simply that none of us can presume to decide for God what the consequences will be. No one can say, “I guarantee there will be no consequences!” That is God’s choice.
We can learn one more lesson from this story. Notice that in the cases mentioned above, God did not personally rebuke David but sent prophets to him. Yet most people who have fallen into the snare of sin say, “I do not accept rebuke from people! If God Himself does not tell me that I am a sinner, then everything is fine!”
More than once I have heard the following: “You simply have no love, which is why you rebuke me! God is not telling me anything in my heart. If God tells me, then I will accept it!” But God will not speak to you because you have offended His Holy Spirit! He sends other people to tell you about it, so that you do not think, “If my conscience is silent, then everything is fine.” God sends witnesses who will bring your secret sins into the light.
5. A Person Does Not Intend to Do What the Lord Tells Them
People can ask God for anything and promise Him anything. But if the Lord knows that a person will not fulfill what they have promised, He will answer with silence. We need to remember that God is a Person with definite principles and character, who can say, “This is what I believe, therefore it is right!”
And it came to pass, that as He called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hearken, saith the Lord of hosts (Zech. 7:13).
What does God hold against the people? “He called, but they would not listen!” In other words, God wanted the people to do something, but they did not respond. Therefore, when they—the people—called, He said: “I would not listen, saith the Lord of hosts.”
And it is not that God is offended by the people, but that this reflects His principles and character. He says, “I ask you to do something, but you do not do it. I give you a command, but you do not obey. Therefore, when you call, I will not answer.”
