John Bevere - Frustrated by God's Silence
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Welcome to another lesson on hearing God. You know what a privilege it is, when you think about it, to hear from the one who created the universe. I’m so glad that you are investing time into this course because I believe with all my heart it will change your life forever. In this lesson, I really want to talk about what hinders us from hearing God. There are things that can literally block us; I mean, God can be speaking, but we are not hearing, so we must eliminate those barriers that keep us from hearing His voice. There are five major ones I’m going to discuss. Now, don’t get me wrong; there are many other areas I could cover. This is not an exhaustive list, but these are the five big ones I have found to be most relevant today.
Number one is distractions—or let’s put it this way, busyness. We live in a busy, busy world today. When you think about it, a couple of hundred years ago, people lived on farms; they got up without a lot going on. They didn’t have iPhones, televisions, iPads, or computers; they weren’t receiving emails. But we have a lot to deal with in our day and age. God has chosen not to be a God who shouts; He is a God who speaks in a still small voice. First, let’s address the busyness we experience.
We can see this in scripture with Martha and Mary. Martha is the one who invites Jesus to her house; they are friends. Yes, Jesus had friends—a lot of people don’t think that through completely. This family was one of those groups, along with Lazarus, whom He later raised from the dead. Martha invites Him over. Now, here comes Jesus; they know He is the Messiah, alright? She prepares a feast, but what is Mary doing? Jesus is in the living room, sitting there and talking; He is the living Word of God. Everything He speaks is rich and full, and Mary is just sitting there, listening to the Creator of the universe. But Martha has to have the meal ready—she’s banging pots, throwing in food, and getting angrier by the moment because her sister has left her with all this work and is just sitting there while Martha feels responsible for getting the whole dinner ready.
Finally, she can’t stand it anymore and storms out to say to Jesus, «Hey, will you please say something to her?» I love what He says to Martha: «Martha, dear Martha, you are worried and upset about all these details. There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.» I want you to hear this: when God speaks to you, it can’t be taken away unless you allow it. If you allow the enemy to steal it, it can be taken, but Mary has that passionate hunger to know God. Jesus said it would never be taken from her, and that endures forever.
What is interesting is that the New Living Translation of the Bible says, «But Martha was distracted.» We are loaded with even more opportunities to be distracted today. What does «distracted» mean? It means having your attention diverted so that your focus is not where it should be. It is important to be diligent in our daily activities. God speaks very clearly about laziness; He actually calls it out of order. We are told to labor and to work hard, but we must also make time to pull aside. As I said, God is not a shouting God. He doesn’t say, «Hey, you’re too busy; I want to talk to you!» He doesn’t do that.
Your wife may, your husband may, your parents may, but God doesn’t because He wants to be known in the realm of the spirit. We will discuss that in another lesson, but He’s not going to shout; He will let you keep being distracted. Thank God, Martha came to Jesus and at least said something. It may have been the wrong thing, but she said something, and it gave Him the opportunity to address her. If she had stayed in the kitchen banging pots, the Lord of Glory would never have come in to say, «Hey girl, what are you doing? You’re missing it right now; I’m preaching a good message in this living room!» He wouldn’t have done that. At least she gave Him the opportunity. Sometimes we’re so busy that we don’t even talk to God. I want to make this strong point: engage! Distraction will cause you to forget to engage, and so distractions are a big issue.
What are some of our most common distractions? Well, screens are number one. You have YouTube, emails, online shopping, and all the research we can do online. Kids today spend hours and hours just watching YouTube or surfing the net. We have got to get a grip on this. Interests and hobbies can also distract us. For me, my major distraction was golf. One day, God dealt with me about it while I was in my twenties. I would wake up at four o’clock to get a tee time in Dallas, Texas, because it was hard to get a time if you weren’t there by seven. That’s how popular the sport was in Dallas at that time. Yet, I struggled to get up to pray, not realizing what was happening. One day, while spending time with the Lord, He whispered, «Give your golf clubs to Pastor Matt.»
I had just gotten those clubs; they were brand new. Lisa and I had no money, and my old set had been stolen out of my garage, and the insurance bought the new set. I had only used them twice, and I was so excited about them. When He said to give my clubs to Pastor Matt, it took me four days to do it, but you know what happened? It opened up a lot more time for me to have with God. A year and a half later, I hadn’t played golf in that time, and then a golf professional put thousands of dollars of equipment into my trunk and said, «God told me to give this to you.» A month later, a pastor who had started a church with Dr. Cho in Korea threw his golf clubs in my trunk and said, «God told me to give this to you.» I asked God, «What do I do with all this stuff?» He told me, «Go play golf; it’s back in priority with you now. It’s not a distraction.» You have to identify what truly keeps you from being hungry and seeking God.
The second major thing that keeps us from hearing God is what I call competing voices. What do I mean by competing voices? Let’s talk about this. I’ve been in empty stadiums. One of my favorite sports to watch live is hockey. I’ve been in NHL arenas when everyone has left. I remember meeting Steve Yzerman, one of my all-time favorite players, and while we talked, I could hear someone a few sections over, but do you know that when 18,000 people were in that stadium during a game, I couldn’t hear anybody three rows away? Why? Because of all those competing voices. We have emails, cell phones, social media, and other forms of media. A recent study showed that people in America between the ages of eight and 18 spend seven and a half hours a day in front of screens.
That’s crazy! How in the world can you ever hear from your Creator when you’re spending that much time doing other things? You have to have time for school, chores, eating, and sleeping. When is your appointment with God? This is what I’ve learned: God is silent when we are busy, so we must carve out time for Him. You have to figure out when that time is. If you don’t make an appointment with God, your time will be squeezed out. For instance, if Lisa feels neglected, she will let me know, and I will adjust my behavior accordingly. But here’s the deal: God is not going to do that. God wants to be wanted; He wants to be pursued. The New Testament tells us that God rewards those who diligently seek Him—not casually seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). Remember, He loves to be sought after! God is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and truth. Worship doesn’t mean just singing slow songs; it means having a passionate heart for Him, desiring to exalt Him, honor Him, and be with Him. There is a life of walking with God that every one of us craves.
If you take a good look at those competing voices, after a full day of all that noise and distraction, do you feel fulfilled? No, you may have had a lot of fun and laughter, but you feel a little empty. Why? Because inside each of us is a desire to walk with our Creator. We have much to do; we are not to be lazy. It upsets me when I see young people not working, or older individuals not working. When I ask why they aren’t working, they say, «I’m just waiting on God.» No, you are not! You need to be busy, but you also need to make time to spend with Him. This is how I view it: if I make that time to spend with Him, my workday becomes much more productive. I want to encourage you, even if you’re watching this and thinking you don’t make an appointment with God, start with 15 minutes. You don’t need to start where I was in my twenties when I was doing an hour and a half a day. Start with 15 minutes—start with one chapter of the Bible. I am amazed at how many believers do not read their Bibles. What does that mean? They are easily deceived and misled, because their relationship with God is dealt with in the realm of feelings rather than truth. God seeks those who worship Him in truth.
Now, competing voices and distractions are very similar. I want to read to you Romans 13 from The Message Bible: «Make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-to-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing. God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work He began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute.» Listen to that; we can’t afford to waste a minute. That’s what Ephesians means when it says we should be redeeming the time. Don’t waste time! If you’re resting, rest; if you’re playing, play; if you’re working, work; if you’re spending time, spend time with God. What I find is that during idle time, we are just drifting through life, taking whatever comes along. Schedule your day; in that schedule, make sure you include time for God.
Then he goes on to say, «We can’t afford to waste a minute. We must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around, in dissipation, in bickering, and grabbing everything in sight. Don’t loiter and linger waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ and be up and about.» We are not of this world; we need to live as people who are not of this world.
The third hindrance to hearing God’s voice is an unprepared heart. When you look at Jesus, He talks about heart conditions and the seed being the spoken word of God—the written word of God. He talks about how the seed falls on the soil of our hearts. He said there is the wayside, which is hard ground. If I took the most fertile seeds in the United States and placed them on this wooden floor, I can promise you they would not sprout ten years from now. That’s how some people’s hearts are; they are unprepared.
No matter how great the anointing is or how powerful the message is, God’s word is quickly stolen away because the enemy comes and plucks it up. Then you have the stony ground. What is the stony ground? It’s soil, but it’s not very deep. What happens is you love being a Christian, you’re excited about it, but Jesus says they receive the word with joy. However, they don’t endure because they lack depth of heart. You’re all excited about a concert, but you leave the event, and what you felt doesn’t last long. Why? Because your heart isn’t prepared.
When Jesus says, «God’s worshipers will worship Him in spirit and truth,» «truth» means you worship Him from the depth of your heart. You cannot approach God superficially. Some people attend services because they feel obligated, and others attend joyfully because it is part of their life. If you were the rocky ground, you would have soil, and the roots would take, but it wouldn’t produce fruit. Then there are those whose soil is filled with weeds or tares, choking out the ability for the word of God to grow. Then there’s good ground, which produces abundance.
It is our responsibility to prepare our hearts. You do this through worship, through the reverential fear of the Lord, by spending time in the word of God, and through prayer, which keeps your heart soft and tender. Here’s the bottom line: Colossians 3:1-2 states, «If you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.» Then verse two says, «Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.»
Now, think about this: where is your mind set? If a thermostat is set to 70 degrees, but the front door is open in winter and the temperature falls to 60, the thermostat will bring the house back up to 70. You’ll see people go to church and be so excited about the service, but then afterward, all they can talk about is the NFL. Where is your mind set? During the week, they only discuss NFL stats. When your mind is not applied in a service or Bible study, it will drift where it is set.
How do you set your mind? Seek those things which are above. What you seek and what you spend your time doing is what your mind will be set on. The fourth hindrance is not having your heart in a neutral position. This is crucial. I want you to listen to Ezekiel. Some elders of Israel came to me and sat before me, and the word of the Lord came to me saying, «Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts.» God didn’t say they set up idols under a green tree or on a hill; He said they set up idols in their hearts.
This is interesting because most Americans don’t grasp what idolatry is. When you say «idol», they think of a statue or placing their favorite sports team above Jesus. That’s only about 20% of what idolatry is, similar to saying that every car on the road is a Honda or a Toyota. You’d miss all the other cars like Mercedes, BMWs, Fords, and Chevys. To understand idolatry, you need to look at two words. Paul says in Colossians and Ephesians that covetousness is idolatry. Covetousness means a strong desire for something you believe is good for you.
Eve coveted the fruit in the garden because she believed it was good. The other word to understand is stubbornness. Samuel looked at King Saul and said that stubbornness is idolatry. When we push back against what God has clearly said in His word to pursue what we believe is good for us, we put our will and desires above God’s, and that is idolatry. This idolatry could also manifest as giving our strength or love to something more than God.
So God points out idolatry in their hearts. These people really wanted something they believed would be good for them, and they weren’t willing to hear the word of the Lord. Remember, God is passionately in love with you; He is your Creator. He knows what breaks you and what fixes you. Eve was told by God that she could eat from any tree except for one. There were probably thousands of trees in the garden, and God wanted Eve to choose whether or not to have a relationship with Him. If she ate from that forbidden tree, she was saying, «I don’t want a relationship with you.»
Eve looked at the tree; God told her not to eat from it, but she judged it to be good and had a desire for it. That was covetousness; she wanted something God said wasn’t good. That idolatry began right in the garden. So you have these people come before the prophet in the Old Testament with idolatry in their hearts. «Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put before them that which causes them to stumble.» Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?
Now, listen to what God says. «I, the Lord, will answer him who comes according to the multitude of his idols.» If you have idolatry in your heart, it’s like Balaam, who God didn’t want to go speak over Israel. God said, «Don’t go,» but Balaam wanted to go because he wanted the money; that money was an idol for him. God finally said, «Go;» He answered Balaam according to the idols in his heart. For Balaam, it was recognition, fame, and money.
You need to be careful that when you approach God, this will hinder you from truly hearing His voice. If you go and ask Him about something you want, make sure your heart is neutral so you can accept either «yes» or «no.» Very important.
The final hindrance is, of course, sin. We will discuss this more in another lesson, but let me just say this: Hebrews says, «Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.» He’s speaking to Christians when He says this. Your heart can become hardened through sin.
I don’t want my heart hardened because that is where God speaks to us; that is where we hear His voice. I believe Jesus wept when He said, «Their eyes, they have shut; their ears, they have shut; their hearts, they have hardened, lest I should come and heal them.» You can harden your heart to the point where God’s voice is no longer there, but that is easily remedied through repentance. He is very quick to forgive. Jesus tells us that if your brother sins against you seven times in a day and comes back to truly repent, you must forgive him.
You don’t want to come under condemnation after this lesson, thinking, «Oh my gosh, that’s why God’s not talking to me.» Sometimes, God will allow you to go into a desert. Why? To strengthen you. Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, and God spoke from heaven, and then He went into the desert for 40 days without hearing from God, while being tempted by the devil. There are seasons like that, so don’t sit there trying to find sin in your life if it’s not there.
But let me tell you something: if you truly are a Believer and you are in sin, you know it. Take care of it, because God will be very quiet. If He told you to do something and you didn’t do it, go back, repent, and say, «I’m so sorry, three months ago you told me to stop hanging out with this person.» Then start focusing on developing other relationships. I don’t know why God told you that, but there might be something dangerous there.
It’s very rare for me to mention this, but it could be, «Hey, I want you to stop watching so much TV.» If you ignore that, He’s going to get quiet, and you’ll wonder why He’s not talking to you. Because you disobeyed, and that is sin. If you go back to the garden, Adam didn’t jump into bed with a prostitute; he just disobeyed what God told him to do.
Always be ready to obey—to obey, to obey! This is crucial. I want to obey, because I don’t want to lose that voice. As you become more mature in your walk with God, it’s not the fear of disobedience that terrifies you the most; it’s the fear of displeasing Him. When my children were toddlers, they feared me in a healthy way; they understood discipline wasn’t fun, and they wanted to avoid that. But my adult sons now don’t want to disappoint me.
So here they are: number one—distractions or busyness; number two—competing voices; number three—an unprepared heart; number four—having idols set up in your heart and not keeping your heart in a neutral position; and number five—sin and disobedience. Remove these hearing blockers, and you are going to have a wonderful walk with your Creator.