When God Is Silent

"He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.  He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings"  (Job 33:14-15, NLT). "He is there and He is not silent."  (Francis Schaeffer)
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pain."  (C. S. Lewis)

God is not obliged to answer all prayers the way we want.  He reserves the right to do His will, regardless of our desires or plans.  Prayer is only for the believer, it's not a way to win over the lost by granting their desires as you pray for them--the only prayer valid for the unbeliever is his salvation, God only promises to meet the needs of His children, but not necessarily their felt-needs or wants.  Playing God or Santa Clause to the infidel or even to the carnal Christian who needs repentance doesn't fly with God.

Our prayers must be explicit and specific to leave God the opportunity to answer them; this means not being general or making requests that one cannot know whether they can or will be answered (like God bless the people in Africa!).  How are you going to find out if God ever answers such a prayer?  "God is good" to all in some ways, and to some in all ways, known as general grace, but He's not obliged to show special grace to any (or it would be justice, not grace), which results in salvation (cf. Psalm 145:9).  My rule of thumb is never to utter a prayer that its answer cannot be validated or verified.

Before one engages in big prayers, one should be proficient at the small ones--this is common sense.  For an example of my point, George Mueller recorded over 50,000 answers to prayers he had made during his life devoted to prayer.  I'm not saying you cannot pray for the impossible (Cotton Mather prayed hours a day for 20 years for revival and the Great Awakening didn't happen till the year he died!), but know that no request is too small for God and no need too great, for His love reaches out to all our needs and His omnipotence or plenipotence is never challenged by them.

When it's hardest to pray, we should pray the hardest!  We ought always to pray like it all depends on God, but do as if it all depends on us.  We are exhorted by Jesus in Luke 18:1 always to pray and never to give up or faint--to persevere!   We are never out of our league in prayer, because we have an Advocate in the Holy Spirit putting our requests into perfect, heavenly diction.  God's power is best demonstrated through weak vessels who will give Him the glory!  Never think that a prayer ministry is a small one, for there are few so inclined that it's vital to the body to have prayer warriors.  Also, remember that practicing the presence of God entails constant prayer and communion or fellowship with God.

Ending a prayer "in Jesus' name" is not a magic formula, but to remind us that we are praying God's will, not our own, and relying on Christ's merits, not ours to enter the throne of grace.  God does promise to answer a prayer agreed upon by the body of Christ (two or three gathered in His name), but the assumption is that it's in Jesus' name, to bring Him glory!  The more adept we become at prayer, the more we sense God's will and pray accordingly.

You can judge someone's prayer life (have a litmus test for it), by how in sync they are with God's will and how much they depend upon the Spirit to guide it, being sensitive to His promptings and on the same page as God.  Prayer is not a wish-list to present, but dialogue with God--the purpose of prayer is prayer, not to get our will done in heaven, but God's will done on earth.  Christ's motto was "Thy will be done," and this is the key to pleasing God and seeking His presence in prayer, not a cop-out or excuse if the prayer's not answered, and certainly doesn't indicate lack of faith.  The key to understanding prayer is to know that God has ordained prayer as the vehicle for doing His will; both the efficacy of prayer and the sovereignty of God are at work and both taught in Scripture.

By and large, God is always at work speaking through His Word and Providence, and even circumstances.  In passing let me mention an oft-quoted word to the wise:  "Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when he sees, the weakest saint upon his knees!"  To sum up, God is never silent--we need to listen up--sometimes He chooses to say "No" and teach us a lesson on His will.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Issues Concerning Hearing God

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams" (Joel 2, Acts 2).
We cannot be dogmatic about a lot of issues concerning someone who says he hears God. First, was it with his ear as an audible voice, or an inner voice? The Bible gives no examples of someone hearing an inner voice and the still, small voice that Elijah heard was audible, though quiet. When one hears from God he can quote God verbatim and has no doubt it is God--there is no mistake. Sometimes we tend to say that we think God is telling us something. Does it contradict Scripture or is it in line with sound thinking?

To be sure, we must realize that God has chosen to speak through His Word and we are to learn to depend on this medium. However, there are exceptions to the rule and we cannot preclude God doing whatever He chooses to and breaking the mold, so to speak. Heb. says that God has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. I believe we live in the latter days, though I do not necessarily believe the rapture is imminent because of the revived state of Israel, among other fulfillments of prophecy. John says, "...it is the last hour" (cf. 1 John 2:18).

I believe that the prophecy of Joel 2 was fulfilled at Pentecost as Peter asserted. However, the closer we get to the 2nd coming of Christ, the more we may see these phenomena again. I do not believe God has retired dreams or visions and have had personal experience of brothers having these. We must remain skeptical, however, and be Bereans and not base any doctrine on them. I refuse to call some brother a liar, but still, take it with a grain of salt. The tendency is to jump to the conclusion that brothers who have so-called experiences in the Spirit are spiritual giants or have special favor from God--this is not so as they may be baby Christians even. God is God and can do as He pleases and what He wants and we must humbly accept this.

A Christian who has a vision or hears a voice may also be mentally unstable (mentally ill), may be deceived by Satan, a liar, or just honestly mistaken. Some people who hear voices are cured by medication and some are set free by prayer or intervention by Christians. If someone has a message from God, it cannot be a new revelation, as the canon of Scripture is closed and everything we need to know is the Bible. The people I have heard do not claim any of this but simple messages like "I want your cigarettes," "I love you this much...." If they said, "I have a new interpretation or revelation about the dinosaurs," I would be incredulous.

There are some Christian leaders today, a la John MacArthur and Charles Colson who have been called modern-day prophets; however, they are just redefining the term and these men are not the equals of biblical prophets. These men are not receiving messages from God, but are just gifted in spiritual insight. Being a member of a charismatic, Pentecostal church I recognize all the gifts of the Spirit except someone who says he's an apostle (the Bible says apostles are to demonstrate miracles and signs as verification). I have seen brethren prophesy or speak in tongues (glossolalia). My doctrinal interpretation is strictly experiential and not because I can prove or disprove it from Scripture--I am aware of the position of cessationists (who say this has ceased), like John MacArthur and their positions. I would simply invite him to visit a Pentecostal church and see if he can judge them.

To hear God, we must learn to listen to Him and realize that God doesn't make cookie-cutter Christians and treats us all as individuals and we must see how God speaks to us. The most obvious way with me is to have an existential encounter or "Aha!" moment with Scripture and the impression it makes on me is not in doubt. God speaks through preaching by convicting the sinner, et alia. I have many times said, "Boy, God sure spoke to me in that sermon!" Rom. 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing and by hearing of the Word of God." To be sure, no matter how clever the sermon or articulate the speaker, God honors His Word and we are to depend on that and not our own wording. I've heard it said that God can speak through the air conditioning vent if He wants to but count on Him speaking through the Word itself. The more we pay attention to the Spirit "speaking" to us the more sensitive we get and our spiritual ears are tuned in to God. Jesus said, "Let him that has an ear, hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

In conclusion, don't let someone bully you are spiritually one-up you by claiming so-called spiritual credentials of experience (though we all can experience God in a manner of speaking). I can fully understand why God treats me the way He does: He has given me a sound minc and expects me to use it. Would I rather me otherwise just to hear a voice? Jesus said to Thomas that they are blessed who have not seen and yet believe; it can be deduced that they are blessed who believe despite not hearing a voice.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Hearing God Part 2

Many Spirit-led believers get "impressions" or hunches from the Holy Spirit, but some actually quote "their God" verbatim, for instance, "Turn right at the next intersection!" One can be in a near death experience and explain how God saved him. They don't seem to be mentally ill, but I wouldn't rule out hearing voices like a schizophrenic person claims. I don't believe his experiences make him any better of a Christian and that this is highly unusual and not the norm. Our experiences are not the measure of our maturity, but our obedience is.

Some claim to have been "slain in the Spirit" (like falling backward in the power of the Holy Spirit). So they are really into having experiences and talking about them.

I don't think they claim to be prophets with divine revelation, just that God speaks to them with an audible voice on occasion with messages that have no doctrinal relevance. I don't buy into everything so-called self-proclaimed prophets say. Samuel, the founder of the school of the prophets, was the first "prophet" who talked with God as did Moses and Joshua and Gideon and the prophet Nathan relayed messages to David, the man after God's own heart, who was God's anointed, had great faith and also heard audibly from God on occasion.  Soli Deo Gloria!