P
Pax
Guest
What do we do during a spiritually dry period in your life when we you don't hear clearly the voice of God?
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Somebody compared God to a parent who leaves his child for a little while in the yard and watches from out of the room what the child will do - will the behavior be the same when the parent is seemingly absent?
I've found that just waiting and trusting during these times and reading the Bible is pleasing to God. Sometimes it can trouble when God seems so far away. But ultimately God is God, He speaks when He wants and also goes silent as He sees fit. There is no merit of ours that would make Him speak to us.
However, sometimes demons are confusing us and blocking out God so He just seems silent. God is able to holler through, but He wants to teach us to fight these communication disruptors. He revealed to us in the Bible a way that works against them and also allows us to always have Him closely. Just praise Him. Our praise should never stop.
Psalms 22:3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
I've found that just waiting and trusting during these times and reading the Bible is pleasing to God. Sometimes it can trouble when God seems so far away. But ultimately God is God, He speaks when He wants and also goes silent as He sees fit. There is no merit of ours that would make Him speak to us.
However, sometimes demons are confusing us and blocking out God so He just seems silent. God is able to holler through, but He wants to teach us to fight these communication disruptors. He revealed to us in the Bible a way that works against them and also allows us to always have Him closely. Just praise Him. Our praise should never stop.
Psalms 22:3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
P
Pax
Guest
Truly one would be inclined to wait, and it might be a long wait patiently though out of hope and faith. The tough part of life is figuring out what to do during the years of silence… during the years when God is seemingly nowhere to be found.
1 Kings 18:1: “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”
A man of Elijah status, holding on to his faith in God, for it was not his desire that there be a famine in the land. Out of a situation that one has been made privy of "can't it be hurting when you see colleague going something that you know the end result (Sin)?".
Well when that has happened to me usually I have been the one that walked away from God and silence is what I chose to hear. I didn't want Him telling me what to do or do things that I thought were too hard to do. Thought I'd be loosing a piece of myself and instead I made many mistakes that have had a lifetime of consequences. Doing things my way was not a good thing and then later I come limping back to God to ask Him to help me clean up the mess that I made....Doesn't seem quite fair for God does it?
He arranged eternal life for me from the get go and I walk away from it and then I wonder why I don't hear God? Because I put ear plugs in my own ears and didn't want to hear Him.... I am not saying this is what anyone else has done I can only speak for myself.
But now that I have turned around and started walking toward/with God instead of breaking rank and trying to run ahead or away from Him my life has certainly gotten better. As I know all along even when I was head strong wanting to do things my own way Dad was there patiently waiting for me to realize that I NEEDED HIM TO LIVE A FULL LIFE. When I did the about face He was there to catch me and let me Fall into His OPEN ARMS OF LOVE that were there just waiting and longing to catch me and help me stand on my two feet in HIS STRENGTH not mine. God loves us so much and just wants us to get it that we can't live this life on our own that we desperately need Him to make it day by day moment by moment.
Satan is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and God is waiting patiently for us to seek Him out and cry out to Him for help and He hears us and runs to our aid to save us HE LOVES US WITH HIS LIFE/DEATH and RESURRECTION.
S
sassylady
Guest
It is a very difficult time to go through, I have been there many times at what seemed to be the worse time to not hear from God. One Sunday when I was at church the pastor had a word for somebody who was in a very dry place, and said "God speaks to you by the Grace He gives you to get through what you are doing". I cried because I knew it was for me and I think about that a lot when I go through another period like that.
This is hard for me to understand because He is never silent as I read His word. His words are always reaching my spirit.
But if I ever go through a difficult time and feel His silence, then I just fill that silence with MY words of a continual chain of thanksgiving for what I can honestly give thanks for (like my big toe feels good
), and praise for all of His attributes. Soon I begin to sense His presence more powerfully and receive His thoughts back to me.
Praise does release and magnify His presence. And when you don't feel like praising, it is what is called "the sacrifice of praise" and God is pleased with that. He will respond.
But if I ever go through a difficult time and feel His silence, then I just fill that silence with MY words of a continual chain of thanksgiving for what I can honestly give thanks for (like my big toe feels good
), and praise for all of His attributes. Soon I begin to sense His presence more powerfully and receive His thoughts back to me. Praise does release and magnify His presence. And when you don't feel like praising, it is what is called "the sacrifice of praise" and God is pleased with that. He will respond.
I guess I've misunderstood the OP, forgive me.
I've never experienced God not communicating ANYTHING to me and Him not to be found AT ALL, being a believer or unbeliever. I have a strong sense of God creating all things with a purpose and being present by His messages in things around us (not in pantheistic sense but as in, creating all things with beauty and purpose). It is enough to look at the sky or stars and remember, He made this, so amazing, or taste a yummy fruit and say thanks God for this being so yummy, or listen to how joyfully birds sing and think of life and Heaven. That right there is a message. God talking to every man. We also have His Word written down for us to comfort and counsel us even though we do not "feel" He is there at the moment. So probably that's why I cant really feel His silence, every morning when I wake up that is because God raised me up, that's talking although it might not be in words. He could have killed me, but He raised me up. That really speaks to me. I have struggles in my walk just like everybody else, but that is not silence either, it is chastizement. God does not give silent treatments. He always makes Himself clear. He just wont nag.
In the past I thought I experienced silence simply because of my ignorance about God. It took me a while to understand how non-confusing His nature is and that is why He is not talking all the time. He would just confuse us by giving instruction non stop. I actually imagined being guided by God something frantic like this:
"Okay, get into the car now. Go right, twice! Now go left! Keep it straight... some more... just a bit more, pass that building... now right again at the corner! That's right, that's the building... you're there!"
Not really. Instead I heard something comparable to "Go west. You know where the west is."
I am a detail-oriented person and this made me feel lost and frustrated. God is all about the big picture. The thing is I was relying on myself too much, instead of letting Him guide the way He does.
He gives clear, non-cluttered guidance, once, then sometime reminds, we can also look into the Bible to be reminded, He also gives a lot of freedom in love, but He does not hand us to-do lists for every day... which I expected of God for quite a while and thought for years that He was being silent because that laundry list of things I was supposed to do was just not popping up to me! Well, maybe God doesnt want a robot.
I was mainly talking about this in the upper post... that I would have periods in the past when God would stop giving revelations to me, the sake of testing - would I seek spiritual experiences rather than Him? I just read the Bible and waited on Him. Revelations are nothing and God is everything so every way He talks or chooses to be present in is priceless. My point is, we sometimes put hindrances on God in regards of how, when and why HE "should" talk. We do not know about Elijah's spiritual life during that time, but even if there was complete silence, he was being preserved all that time, in spite of the famine. It is a way of communication too, at least in my eyes.
I've noticed lately as I've been praying throughout the day that Gods been speaking to me in visions, pictures in my spirit that speak to me, an answer to what I'm praying about rather than vocally. So perhaps those times are a time to learn to listen to God in another way.