I’ve heard the stories for years. People come to me and say something like this: “I don’t know how you do it. You make it sound so easy. I try to hear God’s voice, but I hear nothing. I feel nothing. I’m so frustrated.”
Today’s message is for you. I’ve been through seasons when I heard nothing, too. They’ve been some of the hardest times in my life. Let’s consider together what’s going on with you.
First of all, there IS something called “the dark night of the soul” when a person who is consecrated to the Lord, free from unrepentant sin, and full of God’s Spirit, but they still don’t hear God speaking to them. If that is you, remember, God isn’t a God of feelings. He is God of Truth.
Keep believing, keep doing what you know to do, and press on. Keep learning and growing in your faith. The dark night of the soul won’t last forever. God knows your heart and sees your need. He has never left you. Even if you feel nothing, keep talking to Him and listening for His answer.
There’s a book called The Dark Night of the Soul, by St. John of the Cross, that you might find helpful. It’s very old and the language can be difficult, but the message is full of hope. (I've linked an inexpensive paperback version for you.)
If you aren’t sure if you’re in a dark night of the soul or there’s another reason you don’t hear God’s voice, here are a few ways to clean off your receptor sites.
1. Unrepentant, deliberate sin.
If you are living in deliberate sin, that is the place to start. As a Christian, you should not be living in open rebellion against the laws of God. It is the human condition to sin, and it is the attitude of the heart that makes the difference.
King David was a terrible sinner (murder, adultery, fornication, etc.), and yet he was a man after God’s own heart. He was humble before the Lord, repentant, and genuinely tried to do the right thing. God severely punished him for the worst of his sins, and he received the punishment in humility.
Consecration isn’t about perfection. It's a posture of praise and submission. When we continuously praise the Lord, it keeps our eyes on Jesus and not on the wind and waves around us. It fills us so full of the Lord that there isn’t much room for anything else. It displaces sin in our lives!
Imagine an old clawfoot bathtub in the middle of a garden, full to the brim with black water and muck (sin). When we praise the Lord, it’s like a faucet is turned on (reading Scripture, fasting, praying, meeting together with other believers) and the black water that remains is eventually made clear as it mixes with the fresh water and spills out over the sides. Soon, the tub is overflowing with fresh, clean water! The growth around the tub becomes lush and green, like what happens when those who hear God’s voice and do what He says come into contact with the world.
2. What is the last thing you heard God say?
If you’re sure there’s no unrepentant sin in your life, ask yourself what the last thing you heard God say to you was. Was there a command in it? Have you done it? Sometimes, the problem is that God has already told you what to do but you haven’t done it. Maybe it seems so wild and ridiculous that you don’t imagine it’s actually His voice speaking to you.
If it lines up with Scripture, take that question you have to a mature believer – your pastor or another minister or mentor in your life. Ask them to pray with you about it. Seek clarity on it together. There’s so much power in praying together!
Discern together if God has given you this direction to walk in, no matter how unconventional or out of character for you it may seem. Have courage! If it’s His will, He will take care of the details you’re afraid to face. Be bold! Be obedient.
3. Covenant Prayer
It’s time for covenant prayer if there’s no unrepentant sin in your life, you’ve done the last thing God told you to do, and you still aren’t hearing Him speak. Covenant to pray together with another person or group of people until you get a breakthrough. Covenant prayer is powerful.
To covenant together to pray means that you set aside a specific length of time to pray together and you don’t break the covenant, no matter what. If you do break the covenant, you start again. For example, you might covenant to pray together from 8-9am every day for 7 days. During that time, you do NOTHING else, not even drink water. You just pray. If someone gets sick, you pray anyway. If something happens to your child, you pray through it. There is nothing that can prevent you from praying.
These days, I wake up every morning at 5am and pray until 6am (EST). If you’d like to covenant with me to pray during that time, let’s do it together.
Lastly, please remember: a relationship with God is just that – a relationship. There’s no one formula that works for everyone. What I’ve offered here is a great starting point, but it’s certainly possible what’s going on in your life is different. I offer spiritual direction as part of my coaching service. If you’d like help to look into this issue further, email me and let’s set something up. You don’t have to do this alone.
Love,
Kimberly