Impact Magazine

10 REASONS CHRISTIANS DON’T HEAR FROM GOD

PART I

By ‘Muyiwa Omole

It has always been the desire and intention of God to speak to and with man.

In the Garden of Eden, He had an arrangement for having fellowship with Adam. And even since after The Fall God has been seeking to speak to Man. From Enough to Noah, from Abraham to Moses, from Isaiah to Paul till now. God still speaks today.

If God is still speaking why am I not hearing his voice? Let us examine 10 reasons we don’t hear from God.

1.       IGNORANCE (Hosea 4:6)

One of the reasons most Christians don’t hear from God is that they are ignorant about what it means to hear from God. Many perceive the word “speak” as being “audible words” coming from out of the atmosphere instead of God speaking to us through our own inner spirit. Since most believers have never heard an audible, deep, booming voice piercing the atmosphere, they assume God is silent. God uses different methods to speak to us today: He speaks to us through our conscience; through our inner man (spirit); He speaks to us using others’ counsel; through the vocal gift of the Holy Spirit; through visions and dreams etc.

2.       SIN

When you live a sinful life or persist in sinful behaviour; when you don’t acknowledge your sin and fail to live in a way that pleases God, you cannot hear Him speak to you. You cannot live in sin and expect God to speak to you. Although, there are occasions where God has to speak to a sinner or unbeliever (in cases of Adam, Pharaoh, Abimelech, Eli, Cornelius etc.) it is for the purpose of repentance, restoration or salvation. When you perpetually live in sin or fail to repent of known sin in your life your heart becomes hardened and it becomes impossible for God to reach you.

3.       DISOBEDIENCE TO PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS

It is difficult to imagine that God will continue to unfold the great mysteries of His Word if we have regularly failed to act on the revelation He has already shown. It doesn’t work that way. Until you discover where the axe head fell, you will not be able to receive help. Until Abraham fully obeyed God by separating from Lot, God did not give further instruction concerning his destiny (Genesis 15). Trace your steps back to the last instruction you received from the Lord and obey and you will see the heavens open once again.

4.       NOISE -  (I Kings 19:11-13)

By noise I mean anything that interferes with or reduces the clarity and accuracy of our communication with God.  In the world of Technology noise, we have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, MyTube and YourSpace or is it YouTube and MySpace? These plus the noises in our head, cultural noise around us make it very challenging to hear from God. In all these we need to learn how to be quiet and hear the still small voice.

5.       STEREOTYPE (OR FAMILIARITY)

When you think you have known God too well that He must always speak through a particular method, you might miss His voice when He is trying to speak to you through other means. Elijah made this mistake (I Kings 19:11-13). He was the “prophet of fire,” he was expecting to hear God from the fire, the earthquake and the wind. But God decided to come in that still small voice. We need to be open so that we don’t become like Balaam, who God had to by-pass to appear to his donkey (Numbers 22:22-35).

….to be continued