Why can’t I hear God?
I often encounter questions similar to this: “Why can’t I hear God?” Generally those who ask these kinds of questions have been struck with adversity. They long to hear from God, but somehow they are unable to perceive His voice. They wonder if they ever will hear from Him again.
The answer to this is much more complex than we may think. In the upcoming months, we will explore the different things that can hinder us from hearing God’s voice. After all, our God is a God of love and He always has our best interest at heart. Throughout His Word, the Bible, He makes us aware of the many things that can cause our relationship to become estranged and what can be done to rectify this, but first we need to realize a very important truth: “Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.” (Eph 2:17-18, MSG)
We have never had access to God through our own merits. We are the ones who broke off our communication with God, wandering away from His love to pursue our very own interests. But God in His grace didn’t give up on us. Instead He pursued us with His love, willingly dying for us, so that our broken relationship could be rectified and we could experience God fully.
This is confirmed all over in the New Testament, in verses such as this one: “Don’t Throw It All Away. So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into ‘the Holy Place.’ Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The ‘curtain’ into God’s presence is his body.” (Heb 10:19, MSG)
Here is our first hindrance: If we foster anything that will separate us from our righteous God, we won’t be able to hear His voice any longer. “There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you. Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God. Your sins got between you so that he doesn’t hear.” (Isa 59:2, MSG) This is why it is so important to “Examine your motives, test your heart…” (1Cor 11:28a, MSG).
The same is true with any relationship. How close can a wife be to her husband if he never has any time for her? If his hobbies always seem more important to him than anything else? The same is true with our relationship with our loving Father in heaven. If we have nothing in common, if we show no interest in spending time with Him, there won’t be any intimacy.
For years my wife invited me to go for walks with her, and for years I had what I thought were very legitimate excuses: “Too hot”; “Too cold”; “Too rainy”; “Too windy”; “Too busy” (My most common excuse!) . . . and the list could go on. One day I woke up and realized that we had drifted apart. We had become estranged from one another. We still loved each other, but I had no idea what my wife was going through.
Around the same time I realized this, I was going through some tumultuous times of my own, with health concerns needing to be addressed. Walking was part of the cure, and I began going for a walk with my wife every evening. We began to get to know one another again, in the way we used to know one another, and romance began to come back into our marriage. I now know in detail what she is going through on a daily basis, her joys, her struggles, her hopes, and no matter what she is going through I am there for her.
We haven’t stopped walking since that time, and just recently we’ve found a way to make the walks even more meaningful: We involve God in our walks! This time we spend together gives us the opportunity to pray for others and for this ministry as well.
If we don’t foster a relationship, it’s inevitable that we will become estranged. Remember all of your friends from the past? How close can you feel to those you never stayed in contact with? Would they even answer a letter if you sent it to them?
Yes, the busyness of life can make us wander away from what we once considered to be a prized relationship. If we examine our motives and discover that we have wandered away, we have a choice to make: Either we continue our pursuits and forsake our relationship with our Maker and Savior, or we stop in our tracks and turn back, asking for forgiveness and once again hungering to romance the Lover of our souls.
You know what God says in such circumstances? “On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.” (1 John 1:9, MSG)
It’s never too late to rectify our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Now is our opportunity to start experiencing Him fully again. Start walking with Him. Try listening to His sweet loving voice. You will have no choice but to fall in love with Him once again, more than ever before, for He truly loves you. He loves you more than you love yourself! You are, after all, His child!
But there are many other reasons that can hinder us from hearing God. Next month we will discover another hindrance that may need to be examined a bit closer in our lives.
Remember that God loves you and will never stop loving you.
Will you go for a walk with Him?
Rob Chaffart
Part 2