Latest / Arise Women of God / Why Doesn’t God Talk to Us Anymore?
Transcript
- 0:00Have you ever looked at those stories in the Bible where God speaks to Moses in a burning bush or Elijah on a mountain and then looked at your own life and felt nothing?
- 0:11Maybe you're asking, why doesn't God talk to us anymore?
- 0:15Because you feel the heavens are made of concrete and your prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling.
- 0:21If you've ever felt that way, you're in the right place.
- 0:24And by the end of this episode, you will understand the three reasons for spiritual silence and how to tell if you're hearing a no, a yes, or a not yet, or perhaps if there's too much digital chatter in
- 0:38the way of you getting an answer.
- 0:40We're going to help you solve the pain of feeling ignored by God by sharing stories of some messy venting, housing, miracles, and the power of casting out the noise.
- 0:51We're moving from the frustration of crickets, the peace of a clear connection.
- 0:56Stay tuned.
- 0:58Ordinary women, extraordinary faith.
- 1:02When God calls, we say yes.
- 1:05The Arise Women of God Podcast.
- 1:07Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast.
- 1:11I'm your host, Tamara K.
- 1:13Anderson, and joining me today is Tiffany Fletcher, a member of our Women warriors of Light Advisory board.
- 1:20And today we are addressing the struggle of spiritual silence.
- 1:25First, let's kick it off by talking about a wrong question and a venting session.
- 1:31I think sometimes we might not be asking the right questions.
- 1:36Maybe it's because I've been trudging ahead.
- 1:39I get a direction in my mind and I go forward.
- 1:41And then I'm like, something's wrong.
- 1:44I'm not getting answers.
- 1:46And.
- 1:47And I almost have to back up and say, okay, God, I want to do this your way.
- 1:53I've been proceeding forward on this path, and I'm not hearing anything.
- 1:58I'm not getting what I need.
- 2:00Maybe I've been doing something wrong or I need to change the way I'm doing something, or something isn't right.
- 2:07I want to do it your way.
- 2:09Will you please teach me what that looks like?
- 2:13And so it's almost coming back and saying, I submit to your will what is best.
- 2:19And sometimes those prayers are some of the hardest to have honestly.
- 2:25And saying, this is what I want.
- 2:27This is what I want, this is what I want.
- 2:29And God's like, oh, I love you, but that's not the right thing for you.
- 2:35You know, I especially, I look back on that time when I was grieving to God about having two sons who'd been diagnosed with autism and.
- 2:44And just weeping over that fact.
- 2:47That was not what I wanted.
- 2:48And I'LL just be honest.
- 2:50I was mad at God.
- 2:51I was frustrated, I was mad, I was exhausted trying to parent them all day in and all day out.
- 2:57And I was not in a good place with God at that point.
- 3:01And so I remember just kneeling down one night and just venting, like getting all the emotions out, telling him all the hard things that had happened that day, you know, why can't we be a normal family?
- 3:15Comparing myself to other families and what I saw them doing and just venting, venting, venting.
- 3:20And it was like heaven was quiet for a while, while I got it all out.
- 3:26And then when I finally paused my sobbing long enough to listen, a very clear answer came and just God said, tamara, this is normal for you.
- 3:39And so for me at that point, that was the clarification I needed to help change my perspective.
- 3:45But I had been asking the wrong question.
- 3:48I had been asking him to help me heal my kids, to make them well for several years.
- 3:55That was what I wanted.
- 3:56And I didn't want to hear anything that was contrary to that.
- 4:01And so sometimes God is like, all right, well, if you don't want to hear it, you know, that's fine.
- 4:06And finally, when I had gotten all the emotion out, it's okay to vent to him all the things that you're feeling.
- 4:13He'll listen.
- 4:14But sometimes he's not talking because you're not ready to hear the answer.
- 4:20And when you're ready to hear the answer, when you're ready to change your perspective and are humble enough to hear it, then he answers.
- 4:28He listens to the venting.
- 4:30My friends, isn't that great to know?
- 4:33But sometimes the silence is a no that we simply don't want to accept.
- 4:39Tiffany is now going to share a story of a time she was fighting for a specific path that God was actually trying to steer her away from.
- 4:47I went to a two year college and I was so excited because I transferring to a different school and I was super excited.
- 4:53All my friends were going there and the only thing I hadn't done is I hadn't gotten housing there.
- 4:58And so my roommate, we made the long trek to the university and looking for housing.
- 5:04And the entire time that we were there, I'm driving around, I just felt so sick to my stomach, like, like, so sick that I was just, like, I was just nauseous.
- 5:14And the entire time the spirit said, this is not where you're supposed to be.
- 5:20I've already told you no.
- 5:22So I need you to listen.
- 5:25So I was like, but God, this is what I want.
- 5:28And he was like, I'm sorry, this, this isn't the direction that I need you to go right now.
- 5:34And he, you can go this direction, but you're not going to find happiness here.
- 5:38I was like, okay.
- 5:40I went back, I graduated from the two year college, I went back home, which was really hard for me because I had, you know, I had a mom who had mental illness.
- 5:47And so going back home was, was very challenging in that situation.
- 5:52And I went back to the local college that I went to many years ago when I first graduated.
- 5:57But the interesting thing is, is that within not even a month, I started going to the summer activities and things that they had there.
- 6:03And I met my husband and, and it was a blessing for me and I found happiness and I'm grateful that God directed me that way.
- 6:11And I.
- 6:11So I think I was so frustrated because up in that time I was like, God, why aren't you helping me find housing?
- 6:16Why aren't you, like, why aren't you doing these things for me?
- 6:18And sometimes the reason why God's not doing these things is because that's not where we're supposed to be.
- 6:22And if he did those things, then it would make it easy and we wouldn't listen and we wouldn't do what he wanted us to do.
- 6:28And it's not that he wants us to do.
- 6:29He's just like, I know this direction is going to make you happier and you're, you're okay going that direction.
- 6:34But if you want to know my opinion, this path is a better path for you.
- 6:39And so sometimes when we feel like those, and he's not helping, maybe it's because he's given us an answer and we're not willing to accept it.
- 6:46And so we need to go back and say, okay, God was the answer to that.
- 6:49No.
- 6:50If it was, just tell me now and I will accept it.
- 6:53And then please help me know the direction that you want me to go next.
- 6:56And I think that that takes humility.
- 6:59It takes a willingness to get out of the driver's seat and give the wheel over to Jesus.
- 7:04That song that says, jesus, take the wheel.
- 7:07Ooh, that's hard because sometimes we have to let him drive.
- 7:11But even when we're willing to follow, we often can't hear the directions because the GPS of our soul is being jammed by the world.
- 7:20And it all hinges on that little phone in our pockets.
- 7:24If you pause and look at our society today versus even 50 years ago or 100 years ago, the thing that is most present in all of Our lives is that beautiful little phone that we use so often.
- 7:40And so sometimes I think the reason God isn't talking to us is we're not pausing and having quiet time where he can communicate with us.
- 7:51There's always music going or a podcast going, or look at this funny meme, or we're scrolling on social media and there is so much happening all the time.
- 8:04I think that's one of the adversaries tactics in the latter days here, before Jesus comes again, is he wants to shut out every avenue that God could possibly communicate with us in.
- 8:20And we're so distracted with so many things that we just don't take time to be still and be present and pause the chatter, pause the social media and truly spend time with him so that we can hear him
- 8:38and communicate with him.
- 8:40And so if you're wondering why God's not talking to you and you've constantly got things going, maybe that might be the answer.
- 8:49Take time to be still and allow God to speak to you.
- 8:55It's not just the outside noise, though.
- 8:57Tiffany is now going to share how sometimes it's the noise in our head as well, the mental chatter that the adversary uses to distract us.
- 9:06It's like we can get really noisy inside of our head and the adversary is really good at trying to get that chatter in our head to be so loud that we can't hear the spirit through that chatter.
- 9:17And like, if you're not filling the spirit and you feel like God's not talking to you, one of the best things that you could do is cast Satan's influence out and ask Heavenly Father to open up and protect
- 9:28that channel of communication.
- 9:30And visualize the Savior standing next to you.
- 9:32Visualize yourself kneeling before Heavenly Father when you pray, because that is how you were going to get the answers.
- 9:39You were.
- 9:40If you feel a block, it's because one, either the adversary is there putting something in the way to block your communication with Heavenly Father, or because God has already given you his answer and you haven't accepted that answer.
- 9:54And I mean, there could be times when God is like, well, I'm going to give you some space, so just hold tight.
- 10:00I have an answer for you.
- 10:02But the answer is not right now or not yet.
- 10:04And so, I mean, those are the three instances that I can think of.
- 10:07And in which case we can be like, okay, Heavenly Father, is the answer no.
- 10:10Okay, Heavenly Father, cast Satan's influence out so that I can hear your voice.
- 10:14Or, okay, is the answer not yet?
- 10:17Okay, it is.
- 10:18All right, well then just let me know when the answer is there and I'll just keep asking you if that's okay or if we're doing something that's offensive to the spirit and God's spirit can't be with us.
- 10:28That is the other one.
- 10:29So just make sure that we're repenting, that we're asking God to forgive us.
- 10:33I mean, we don't have to be perfect because the atonement is there for us.
- 10:36But yeah, just do what we can to turn to Christ.
- 10:40God hasn't actually stopped talking, we've just stopped being still for long enough to listen.
- 10:46Whether you're hearing a no, a not yet, or just need to clear the digital chatter, he is waiting for you to turn the wheel over to Him.
- 10:55If you're feeling that spiritual silence today, we want to help you tune back in with two amazing free resources.
- 11:04The first is our Roadmap to Revelation Download.
- 11:08It will teach you six simple steps to help you hear God better in your daily life.
- 11:13And the second download is our Receiving Light and Revelation Audio meditation that you can download and use anytime you need to center yourself and hear God better.
- 11:25You can get those free on our Women warriors of Light website.
- 11:28The link is in the description below.
- 11:31So my friends, take five minutes today to pause the chatter, center yourself and and ask God, what is it you want me to hear?
- 11:40May you feel peace and hear his promptings is our prayer.
- 11:44And until next time, may you arise.
- 11:47Do it God's way.
- 11:48God strong.