Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, January 27th. Do you feel like you call out to God, but it seems like He's too far away to hear you? Today, you'll be reassured that even when God is silent, He is very active in our lives. Have you ever felt like God was giving you the silent treatment? I mean, you prayed and asked Him to give you direction for your life, didn't hear a thing. Maybe you are going through some physical illness and sickness and you are asking God to heal you and somehow nothing's happening.
You see your kids heading in the wrong direction. You're praying for God to speak to their heart. You don't sense anything's going on. You just feel like God's giving you the silent treatment, that He's out yonder somewhere, over here, but somewhere along the way, you've missed Him.
How do you respond when you have those feelings? Do you really believe that God is just, is not interested? Do you think that somehow He's really distant from you? Is it that you're just feeling these things or is it that God really and truly doesn't care? But in your mind and your heart and your emotions, you believe, you feel somehow God is giving you the silent treatment when you really and truly need Him. Well, God is sometimes very silent and it's difficult for us to accept it, especially when we are hurting. I think that's the most painful time. If you're physically hurting and nothing's going on, it's very, very discouraging. Well, does He have a purpose for it?
Yes, He does. Is there a certain way you and I ought to respond? There is a better way. And so, how do you respond? Do you take advantage of it? Do you learn something from it? Or you just let it go by and say, Well, you know, I went through one of these circumstances and God didn't answer my prayer.
He just ignored me. Well, I want you to turn, if you will, to the eleventh chapter of John. And I want us to read these first fifteen verses and it's a passage that most of you would be familiar with.
So, let's begin in verse one. Now, a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So, the sisters sent word to Him, saying, Lord, behold, He whom you love is sick. But when Jesus heard this, He said, This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister, Mary, and Lazarus.
So, when He heard that He was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was. Then after this, He said to the disciples, Let us go to Judea again. And the disciples said to Him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?
So, they expected Him to get killed on this occasion. Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, but he sees the light of this world.
But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light's not in him. So, the disciples then said to Him, Lord, if He's just fallen asleep, He'll recover. Now, Jesus had spoken of His death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep. So, Jesus then said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
And I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe, but I will not be there. So, the disciples said to Him, Lord, if He's just fallen asleep, He'll recover. So, the disciples then said to Him, Lord, if He's just fallen asleep, He'll recover. So, the disciples then said to Him, Lord, I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe, but let us go to Him.
Here's a good example. Somebody Jesus loved and they knew that He was a dear friend of theirs because it was His house that He would go to often and just sort of relax and they sent word to Jesus and say, God, I'm not going to stay. And then, on the other hand, they would speak to Him and say, Well, I'm going to stay.
And then on the other hand, it stays two days longer. Now, if somebody did that to you and me, we'd think, well, you know what? I thought they loved me. We'd just, we'd have a real problem because we felt like that they acted one way and yet on the other hand, they felt some other way. Well, it's certain that Jesus does speak today. In the Old Testament, He spoke to people. Well, sometimes God is silent, and more than likely, all of us have experienced that in our life when we've prayed and we've asked Him for something and nothing happened. And we kept on praying and nothing happened. Sometimes we said it was maybe a time of sickness or loss or you're trying to find the will of God. Lord, I want to do whatever You say, why don't You tell me?
Let's get with the plan. And somehow, you know what, He's not disturbed by that. Have you ever been angry with God?
A few of you say you have, the rest of you know you have. So, you know, at some point or the other you said, maybe you weren't angry, but you were a little discomforted by things when you really wanted to do His will and He didn't show you what was going on in your life. So, what we have to ask is in those kind of situations, God, what are you up to?
But you know, if you can go from the Old Testament to the New Testament and even in the book of the Revelation, listen to what the Scripture says, during the tribulation period. When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for half an hour. Now, somebody says, well, you know, I want to know about God speaking to me, not being quiet to me. But there's a whole aspect of God's silence that is very, very good. And what causes us to be perturbed sometime and impatient and wonder why and question a lot of things about God? I want you to see that His silence is very, very good. And yet, if the only thing I care about God is getting my information and my desires and my request answered, then I'm going to miss some of the greatest blessings I can have in the real life of God's will and purpose and plan for a life.
So, let's think about it in this light. And when I think about silent moments in my own life that I've had to struggle with, I think the most significant one, the first one in my life, the first one that I remember, I was a college student and I was a senior. And I was asking for the Lord to show me His will about something very, very significant in my life for the future. And I remember walking into my dorm room, getting ready to pray that night like God was gone. And I had this sign on the wall when you first opened my door.
It was this big sign in a blue background and yellow print. It said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God. And so, you know, I was committed to the Lord walking in His way and I was asking for direction. And I got down to pray that night and nothing happened. And the next night, nothing.
Next night or day and during the day in the morning, nothing. And finally, I got out the hymn book one night and just started singing, I wasn't singing, I was reminding him of some songs that we have that promise answered prayer. And I was also reminding him of some Scriptures that here's what you promised and where are you? I can remember how perturbed I was. It happened to be an exam week. I got a seventy-five on my major test. I failed a trig test. Every grade that week was terrible.
It just so happened that I had good grades beforehand or I'd have been in a mess. God was nowhere to be found. But on a Saturday night, God did the most awesome thing in my life, one of the most awesome things I have ever experienced in my life, that gave me unmistakable, clear guidance and direction that set the whole assurance of the Lord. And I don't think that God's going to have any problem with that.
But God has the great assurance in my soul of what God wanted to do and what He was going to do in my life. But when He's silent, it's very difficult. So, silent times oftentimes are God's preparation for something else. So, let's just think about it for a moment and let's talk about the reasons that He's silent. Sometimes when we're just going along and doing our thing and And so, sometimes He has to work in our life to get our attention. And one of the ways He does that is He's absolutely silent.
We don't hear anything. Then, of course, there's unconfessed sin. When there's unconfessed sin in a person's life, you're not going to hear anything. Now, unconfessed sin is not a God on demand that He just comes when I demand that He comes and He shows up and speaks when I want Him to. God is the sovereign of this universe and He's the one who is in charge. We're not in charge, He is. And He's the one who is in charge of this world. And so, He's the one who's in charge of this world.
And so, He's the one who's in charge of this world. And so, if you're in charge of this world and you're in charge of His life, you're not going to hear anything. Now, unless, listen, that is, you're not going to hear anything about other things. But if you start, if you're willing to deal with your sin, then He's ready to talk to you about that. But God isn't interested in all this other stuff that you're listening to.
He's not interested in all this other stuff, but He's not interested in all this other stuff that you're listening to. And so, He's the one who's in charge of this world. And so, when you're in charge of this world, you're not going to hear anything about other things.
And so, He's the one who's in charge of this world. And so, if you're willing to listen to Him, we're on our way doing our thing, heading in our direction. And instead of living sensitive to the work of the Spirit, instead of living, listen, tuned to God.
By your way, I want to use this, I want to use this, to say the word of God. So in the putting of your living equations, God wants what you're going to be. And He's coming across a few passages in the rule of God where He wants you to Moses. When he says, in the Moore's versus Universe, watch this now, over look His demand for holiness, over look His demand for obedience, over look His requirement to walk in His way and His will, and answer our prayer. Somebody says, well, I pray for things and sometimes I'm just about to have excellent and God answers my prayer.
No, He doesn't. The devil can help answer your prayer. will offer you some alternative, some counterfeit, anything to get you out of the will and purpose and plan of God, He'll help you. He'll help you in some way keep you out of the will of God. God is silent to get our attention.
And God hates sin in our life, doesn't want it in our life. And so, sometimes we're not able and not ready to listen. And then, sometimes, listen, He's teaching us to trust Him.
Now think about this. If every time I come to God and ask Him about something, and I have this conversation with Him, and I know that He's speaking to me, after a while, you know, it's not a matter of trust. But if I come to Him and God doesn't say anything, He's very silent, can I trust Him with His silence? Can I trust God when He's silent?
Or do I have to have something? Do I have to have some indication that He's listening? Can I trust Him that when He's silent, He hasn't changed? And so, silence sometimes is His way of teaching us to trust Him. That I don't have to see it, I don't have to feel it, and most people's religion is by their feelings.
Their Christianity is by their feelings. If I feel like He's here, then He must be here. Well, I haven't felt like God was with me. Listen, you may not have felt like God was with you at times in your life, but what does He say? He says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. So, can you trust Him when He's silent? Can you trust Him when He appears to be absent?
Can you trust Him when you don't feel anything, but when He says in His Word that I'll never leave you nor forsake you? Then of course, one of the significant things about His silence is this. Now, listen carefully. Listen and say, Amen. He wants you and me to learn to distinguish between His voice and other voices.
He wants us to learn to distinguish between His voice and other voices. You think about all the voices you hear on a given day. I can remember when I was a kid growing up when I'd come home from school every afternoon. I had about five buddies and we'd go down to this big field and play.
I can still remember this. We would play till suppertime as we call it in those days. The reason we knew it was suppertime is our mothers would call us. And all of our mothers would call us.
They knew where we were. I can hear my mother, Charles. Well listen, my friend's mother's voice was one voice. My mother's voice was another. All five of our mothers would call us. Even if my mother had never called my name and she'd say, It's time for dinner, time for supper. You know how I would know? I knew my mother's voice.
Even making news, how many mothers call? I knew Rebekah's voice. She was my mother. I grew up with that voice. I knew that voice.
And so, I didn't have to wonder if somebody else had called, it didn't make any difference because I knew my mother's voice. And you know, I think about people who get saved late in life and what they've missed. And I think about people who say, Well, you know, I want to trust God and I want to do His will and I, but how can I know when God's speaking and when I'm not speaking? And I do believe this is one of the most valuable lessons in life, because all of us probably at some time have been tempted to ask God about something and put words in His mouth. Haven't you ever done that?
Sure you have. Yeah, this must be what God's saying. And then you finally learn the difference between what you're thinking and what He's saying. You learn to distinguish and to identify the voice of God. You say, Well, does God speak verbally or out loud?
He might, never has to me. And my answer to that is, He's spoken far more clearer than something out loud. And so, we have to learn to distinguish between the voice of God and other voices. Lots of people will give you advice about what you ought to do, and then when you get alone with God in silence and you begin to ask Him, then you're able to distinguish between what He's saying and what other people may be saying. And so, when you get alone with God in silence and you begin to distinguish between what You say and what other people may be saying, then you're able to distinguish between what You say and what other people may be saying. And another lesson I've learned, that is, when I have gone through those times and every once in a while I still do, and I don't think there'll ever be a time in your Christian life where God says, Well, from now on, just call on me.
I have no problem. He's not going to do that. He's not going to do that.
He's not going to do that. And so, when you get alone with God in silence and you begin to distinguish between what You say and what other people may be saying and what other people may be saying, then you'll learn this lesson. When you feel like there's this wall between you and God, now listen very carefully, this is the way you bring the wall down. You just keep on praying and keep on talking to Him and keep on listening and just because He's silent. You don't quit because He's silent. Now, God will show you at some point, and do you say, Well, didn't you say that for about a week He was silent? Yes. Did I quit praying?
No. I prayed every day. I prayed every night. And I asked Him what in the world was going on, but I didn't quit praying till finally there was a breakthrough.
And our idea, most people's idea of God is He's sitting up there and they'll quote this verse that He ever lived it to make intercession for us. He certainly does, but there are times when He's silent. And what you and I must realize is His silence does not mean He's inactive. Because you see, when He knows that you and I have a need and we come to Him, He may be silent, but He's already working on getting it done. We have to trust Him. You can't live in a relationship to God and grow in your Christian life if He has to be always God on demand to answer your petitions. So when He's silent, there's a reason for it and it's a very specific reason and listen, it's always for our good. Thank you for listening to today's podcast titled When God is Silent. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
