Dear People Who Keep Company With God,

I’ve gone through many seasons in my journey with the Lord. Some, where my heart was so sensitive to His voice, and it seems like I heard Him everywhere I would go. There were the times when He literally carried me on His back because I had nothing left in me. Silence PhotoThere were times that the only prayer in English I could muster was a cry for help because I had exhausted every prayer I knew. There were also times of joy because His Presence was so real to me. And then, there were times of silence.

We all have experienced those times. Sometimes it is our fault. We are off key with God and His people just enough that we are thrown out of rhythm with Him. But not always, sometimes it is by God’s design. It can be a season of waiting, occupying the ground we have and trusting in His goodness toward us.

There are so many stories in the Bible of God being silent. Job experienced His silence in the furnace of intense suffering. So did Abraham as he took that long, sorrow filled journey to sacrifice Isaac. We have no record God speaking to Joseph in that dark, damp dungeon.

It is evident that John the Baptist wasn’t hearing very much while he languished on death row. In my own life, and I think for most people we are not much different from John in how we respond to silence. We are tempted to doubt. In spite of John’s revelation and experience with Christ, he questioned everything about Him. None of it seemed very real in the prison of silence (Matt. 11:2).

Doubting is normal. It is human, but doubt can be really destructive if you allow it to run unchecked in your heart. It can fester into an offense (Matt. 11:6). You know, John had to be thinking if Jesus were truly the Messiah, He would deliver me from prison. When that didn’t happen and God chose not to explain Himself, the door was opened for an offense.

I believe God’s silence can be an invitation to a richer, deeper experience with Him in some surprising ways. Some of the biggest moves God has made in my life have come after a period of silence. When it seemed like God was doing nothing in my life, He was doing much.

I think Oswald Chambers captured this when he spoke of the silence Martha and Mary experienced when Jesus did not show up to heal Lazarus (John 11:6).

“Has God trusted you with His silence— a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany!

Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself.

Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation.”

Even in an eerily strong silence like many of the greatest saints experienced, we can be assured that God is looking to reveal Himself and His kingdom to you in even more significant ways.

Many Blessings, BW

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