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Have you ever felt so distant from God that you sometimes can’t hear His voice? We’ve all been there. As a person in full time ministry to draw people to God, I used to have times when I wondered whether I was leading people to a silent movie. God can be silent at times, but it’s not because He doesn’t speak. The numerous times God remains silent is when we fail to listen.
Have you ever had that friend that never stops talking? They may not necessarily be a bad friend, but it’s hard to get a word in edge ways when that friend of yours just keeps going on and on. What do we usually do? We remain silent.
It’s not any different with God. God is a respecter of conversations. Many of us have a view of God that places Him as a strict ruler who yells “SILENCE!” when in reality our time spent with Him has us dominating the conversation most of the time.
The Bible portrays God as a friend who loves to do one thing – listen to us.
There are over ninety scriptures that tell us that God listens. God loves to speak to us, but He also loves to listen. So it’s not in question whether God speaks or not, but rather the question that we must really ask ourselves is this: Do we allow God to speak or do we do most of the talking?
And because God is a God who listens when you talk, He stops speaking when you start talking, but the question is do you take time to stop talking and start listening? Because when you do then God will speak. The problem is not that God has no voice and doesn’t speak to us, but that we aren’t putting ourselves in a position to listen.
1 Kings 19:11-12 says, “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”
Why would God reveal Himself to Elijah in a gentle whisper and not in a mountain, great wind, earthquake or fire? It’s to show Elijah and consequently us today that God is not interested in imposing His voice over us as a strong force all the time, but most often would want us to learn how to bend down, quiet our souls and listen to His still small voice.
The main goal for every believer is to grow in our relationship with God and growing in our communication with Him is vital for our relationship to flourish. But let us remember that communication is never a one-way exchange. There is a time for talking and there is a time for listening. Do you do both? Because to do just one would not be a conversation, but a monologue. God is not interested in monologues. He would rather have an intimate exchange that leads to a deeper relationship any day.
