Date: November 8, 2018 ()

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As you begin to walk with God, you get to where you can recognize when He is talking to you. Does God really talk to people today? Yes, He does. If you ask any Christian, “Oh yes, the Lord has talked to me. And He has talked to me in many ways.” But there is another time, another situation, another season with God that can be so difficult and that is when God is silent. Have you ever had those times where you just felt like screaming, God are you listening! Do you hear what I, do you see? Do you care? Tell me something, talk to me. And He is quiet and does not say anything. Why in the world would God do that when the Bible is full of God saying I want to communicate with you, I want to talk to you, my sheep do know my voice. They do hear me.

In John 10:27 it says, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.” You have to be in God’s pasture. You have to belong to Jesus. You have to be one of his sheep. But they hear the voice. You know if you can talk to people that have anything to do with raising sheep, sheep get where they know the voice of their shepherd and they do not follow somebody else’s voice. They recognize his voice and they go that way. It even talks in the Bible where it says, I believe it is in Isaiah, “I heard a voice behind me saying this is the way, walk in it.” So God does speak. There are songs, books and movies nowadays of God talking to people. There is a real learning process. But I am telling you, if you walk with the Lord very long, you are going to go through those times that no matter what, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how much you think I have got to know what to do, God does not speak. And he has good reason for it. We are going to talk about that.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever sat down and honestly thought about all of the different ways God has talked to you? Some people have even heard his voice, like and audible voice. Other people say, oh no, God cannot do that. Well, I have heard it. And it was a long time ago I do not guess you hear it often. But I’ll tell you about when I heard it, the audible voice of God. I was living in a town, Arlington, Texas and I had found the Lord like I did not even know you could find the Lord. I did not know you could know Jesus like that. And it was so wonderful and so life changing for me that I did not want to ever leave it. And God moved us a long way away and I was miserable. I was miserable. I wanted to go back. I prayed to go back. I was so unhappy. And one day I was sitting in a chair reading the Bible or the newspaper or something, I do not even remember. But just thinking about it and I said, “Oh God if I could just go back.” And I heard, right here, “It is not possible, Betty.” And I literally the hairs on my ear tingle. I heard the voice right here. I know I did. It is not possible, Betty. I did not know what that meant, but I knew it was God talking to me and I knew what he knew what he was talking about. As I have looked over my life in the 30 years since then, of course it was not possible. God had such a big plan for my life and I could not have done it anywhere but where he had moved me. Because I had prayed, put us where we can serve you the best.

(Look at this picture of this woman and how worried she is. And you can tell God is not talking to her. You can tell she is just, cannot figure out what to do.) I think that probably if you ask Christians they’ve all experienced days, weeks, months when God seems silent. There is a book out right now about Mother Theresa. It was almost like the author was hoping to expose her and say that we thought Mother Theresa was this wonderful Christian; but she never rarely heard God. It was like they were trying to expose her. But I am going to show you why that possibly happened to her. I want you to think about why it could have happened. The first thing I need to tell you is that God may seem silent, but He is always active. When you cannot trace His hand, you can always trust His heart. When you cannot hear His direction for you, look around you. Where do you see God working? Sometimes, He is not working with you right now. He is working with somebody else. Well, be happy for them. They are all excited God is talking to them and want to share it with you. Do not go over there and just be moany, groany, moody and say I do not want to hear about. No. You are supposed to weep with those that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice. You need to let them tell you, this is how God is working and I believe God has said this to me. And enjoy it with them. He is always at work. There is never a time He is not at work. And there are times that He does not always tell you what He is doing. I have had that happen. One time I went to the jail and I needed to hear God so much. I had this jail ministry. You would not think God would talk to you in jail, would you? Well, he did. But he did not talk to me personally; he was talking to somebody else. And what he had said to her was what encouraged me. Her name was Jimmy, and I said, “You know, I need to hear from God. I cannot hear from God. I need him to act, he isn’t acting. I do not know what. I do not know what to do.” She looked at me and she said, “Let me tell you something about God. He may not be early, but He is never late.” I still did not hear God talk to me after that. I still did not see God do anything after that that I thought he needed to do. But you think I did not live on that thought, that word from that lady? Oh, it kept me going.

What else can you do when you are having those silent times? There is somebody watching me right now. It is been, I just hear six months. It is been six months that you’ve needed to hear an answer from God and you thought I need to hear it. Every day you thought I need to hear it today; I need to hear it today. And God says I’ll tell you on the day you really need to hear it. Now does not that encourage you? That you haven’t heard from God and some lady on TV that does not know you, does not know where you live, does not know what look like, does not know if you are a man or a woman, does not know if you are in another country. I heard in my heart, in my spirit, six months someone’s been waiting six months because they thought they had to have the answer every single day. And God says not yet but I’ll tell you on the day you really need to know.

When you go through these difficult times, you’ve got to recall his past faithfulness to you. When has he spoken to you? When have you heard his voice? The most exciting thing about living in the end times, and we do all live in the end times, right before Jesus comes back, and he is coming back very soon for all us, is the move of the prophetic word. God said, way thousands of years ago in Joel, in the last days I am going to prophesy through men and women alike. And in Acts it was repeated again. It is going to happen, and it is happening. And there are people who can give you a word from God and it can be very reliable, it is not goofy, it is from God and you know it. It is trustworthy. Well, let me tell you, file those away and have them to read for the times that God isn’t speaking. That God is silent and you feel like, I need direction and I am not getting it. Go back and read those. I did that before I came down to film these shows this time. I got out all these prophetic words and I would read through them. I read one from 1993 and thought, “Lord you said that to me way back then? I’d forgotten you said it to me.” That is why it is so important to have some way of keeping records of his past faithfulness to you. There is time God has spoken to you in the past with a very profound word, very important, and because you did not write it down, you do not even remember he said it. I saw that myself.

God does have a time-table. He wants your faith to grow. No matter how much faith you have right now you wish you had more faith. That is just part of being a Christian. You want more faith. Well, one of the ways God grows your faith is by being silent. It is, do you trust me now? Do you believe I am working in your life now? Do you believe I will talk to you when you need to be talked to? Do you believe that? For you to get to the place of quiet and rest where you can say, ”Lord, you will talk to me when I need to hear it? So I do not have to worry because, looking back on all of these past times, that I have proof. I have a written record that you spoke to me just when I needed it.”

I want to tell you about another thing that happened to me. I have been walking with the Lord 37 years. Now, I have been a Christian 50, over 50, but I did not really get hooked into God, totally committed, completely sold out until I was 26 years old, and then I hit the ground running and have never looked back. At first, it seemed like everything I talked to God about, everything I prayed about he answered it. Bam, bam, bam. And it was just like, woo, this is great. This is great; God really answers your prayers. As I went along, I began to notice there were it was like, that thing I am telling you about, like in the wilderness, like in the desert. God where are you? Where are you? And I think, I must have done something wrong. I have done something wrong. Then I would start thinking, I have lost the Lord. That is what it is. I have lost him. I do not know how I lost him, but I have lost him. And the whole time God knew exactly what he was doing. He was sharpening me. He was refining my faith. He was causing me to realize more than ever how important it was for me to listen when he did talk to me. How important it was for me to write it down. There was a reason for that silence. But even then, I can remember the time that I went to a man of God that I knew walked with God. If there was ever a man that walked with God, and I am talking about in signs and wonders and miracles and hearing God and stepping out on the water and doing great things with God. I knew this man named John was a man that did that. And I went to see him. He lived in another town from me and I went to see him. And I said, “John, I am here because I am having a real problem, and I do not know what to do about it.” “Well what is it, Betty?” I said, “Well, you know I used to hear God talk to me all the time. It was so exciting. It was so wonderful.” And he looked at me and he said, “And it got less and less, didn’t it, Betty; further and further apart?” I said, “Yes, I am talking about hearing His voice in my heart. Now he talks to me every day. I read the Bible every day. And God talks to me every day in that word. I know that. I am talking about that inner voice, that I love it so much. I love to hear it.” He said, “Betty, it is that way in my life, too.” I said, “Are you serious? You mean it is not because I am sinning, I am doing something wrong?” He said, “No, the more you know God ‘s Word, the more you know the ways of the Lord, the more you know the less He has to tell you about because you know them.”

About that time, the Gulf War was going on and God just showed me a picture of it. They were in a great battle, and Schwarzkopf was the commander in chief but he could not talk to everybody anytime he needed to because there were times that he could not get through to the people. The warfare was intense. He had to know that his men were so highly trained in knowing how he wanted it done, his commanders, his leaders; that whether he got to them or not, they knew what he wanted done. God used that picture to show me, “Betty, you spend a lot of time with me. You know my voice. You do not have to hear it. You know what I think. You know what I want done and you follow that.” That is a level of maturity that you can get to that you do not have to have God just right there talking to you constantly. That is what I think happened to Mother Theresa. She is probably one of the most admired Christians of all time. She went to the worst, the least, the sickest, the poorest. When she poured out love on them, she said I always look to see Jesus in their face. I do it as if I were doing it to Jesus. Can you get any more godly than that? She did not say I know 645,000 verses; I know 1,300 songs. No. She said I go where the Lord needs me. When I help the people, I look in their face and I see the face of Jesus. She must have spent hours and hours on her knees. Tradition says that when the apostle, John, died he had spent so many hours praying that he had big calluses on his knees. I believe when we get to heaven we will find out why she did not hear God talk so much. Maybe she walked so closely with God His breath was her breath. That is a pretty good thing.

We are going to study a woman in the Bible. I like to talk about modern day people that are having to walk with God and learn things, and people in the Bible that had to learn the same things we had to learn, and yet it was two thousand years ago. Look at this Scripture in Matthew 15:21-24, “Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A gentile woman who lived there came to him pleading, ‘Have mercy on me, Oh Lord, Son of David, for my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.’ But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. She is bothering us with all her begging. Then Jesus spoke to the woman, but he did not tell her what she wanted to hear. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’” Tyre and Sidon, where this woman was from, are in Lebanon. I had a neighbor one time that was Lebanese and she was from Tyre. I said, “You mean it is still there?” She said, “Oh yes, I grew up in Tyre.” It is a sea-coast city. It is still there. People still there, gentile people still needing to hear from God. She was not even there for herself. You know she could have gotten mad at God and said; look I was not even here for myself. I was here for my poor demonized daughter. She needs your help so desperately, but she did not do that in anger, she asked for mercy. But Jesus was silent. Why? In that desperate of situation? When she had to hear from God, she’d come from a long way. She had to talk to him.

Actually he went to her place, but she had to go and find him. She had to go through a lot of hassle, problems to get to him. He still did not answer her. Then the disciples wanted to get rid of her; get her out of here, she is obnoxious. So what does that tell you she was doing? She probably was not saying, “Dear kind, sweet Jesus, please talk to me.” She was probably saying loudly, “Jesus! Talk to me! Jesus! Talk to me!” Do you not think she was probably really like that? She was desperate. He still did not answer. What was he putting her off for? Why did he do that? Because every time he did, her faith and her determination was increased. But there is another reason. When she went home and she encountered unbelief, she stood strong and did and what he said, believed what he said and maintained faith in him. There is a reason why God is not talking to you right now. It is not bad. It is good. He either has a timing and He is waiting on that or He is building faith and determination in you or He is building commitment. You are getting more and more commitment in you.

Here is the big question. Was God ever silent with Jesus? At the worst moment of Jesus’ life, this loving father, this wonderful relationship was silent. Completely silent. Look at this second Scripture in Matthew, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Why did he feel forsaken by God? God never leaves us, why did he feel that way? He had the sins of the world on him. You have to realize throughout all of eternity he’d never enjoyed anything but unbroken fellowship with God, never. He had never known God to be silent until he went to the cross. He got up early every morning and prayed. He stayed up late and prayed. He said I do not do anything unless I first hear it from the Father or see it from the Father, I do nothing. They have that kind of relationship. What in the world broke that? Sin. Now, you know how you feel when you sin? I feel horrible. The Holy Spirit convicts me and I just feel terrible. I feel lousy. I feel blue. I feel ashamed. I feel said. I want to make it right with God. How would you like to be Jesus Christ who, when he was hanging on that cross, was in a human being’s body and every sin, and those little ole piddley sins, still sent him to the cross. Those big, horrible sins that people aren’t even sorry they did, sent him to the cross. Every sin that is ever been done or is ever going to be done was on Jesus’ body, inside. The pressure was tremendous. Sin is vile. God had to look away. He did not go away, but Jesus felt like he had. And he said, “Why? Why have you forsaken me? You are my God, why?” And yet God was silent.

Think back to when Jesus got baptized. John the Baptist baptized him. He said, “I heard God say this is my beloved son in whom I am so pleased.” And yet, in his hardest time, the hardest one of all, his father was silent. Well, Jesus knows how it feels when you go through it. The Bible says that he is acquainted with everything that we go through. All the temptations, all the issues, he understands. That is why God sent him. Somebody knows what it feels like to endure the silence of God when you think you so desperately need it.

Here is another thing going on, and I want you to think about this. Just give this some thought. You are relying too much on an external witness when you have to hear all the time, over and over and over and over and over. God wants you to know Him so well that you know; I do not care if I can hear you or not, God I know you love me, I know you are working in this situation, I know you are helping me, I know you are going to show me the answer. For all I know God, you are working on people on the other end, they are not ready yet and I have to wait until they are even ready for me. Maybe it is something like that, but there is a set time. Here is the thing that you have to think about, God has strategic timing. So, everything that you need to have happen to you affects this person, affects this person, affects this situation, affects this situation and it affects all these other situations that are affected by the situations that affect you.

God has strategic timing that everything happens when it needs to. People had not heard from God for about 450 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament. God was silent. But the Bible says that in the fullness of time Jesus came. He knows what He is doing in your life. Another thing is, maybe you are looking too much to other people for answers and you need to learn how to do it for yourself. One time I said to the Lord, “Lord, there is a closed door. The door is closed. You want me to do that and the door is closed.” And that time I heard God, he said, “Then kick the door down.” I did not know I was supposed to do that. Sometimes you just have to begin to figure out things. But let me tell you also, there can be spiritual warfare attacks. There is a deaf and dumb spirit. Did you know that? And that can be hindering you. They are sent to hinder you. So, what are you going to do? Stick with the last thing He told you to do. Stick with what you know. What is the last thing God said to you? Just stick with it. How about this, you might be in a test. Are you going to pass it? Make sure you pass it.

Here is another one. This is a saying, “Do not doubt in the darkness what you saw in the light.” Do you like that? Here is another one, “Do not expect everything from God to be so dramatic.” You know Elijah went out and when he heard God, He was not in the whirlwind, He was not in the storm. He was in a still, small voice. Do not be overly complicated. Sometimes we can get complicated in the Christian life. We can over-analyze it. God is saying I want a simple faith from you. I want a child-like faith from you. Probably the most important thing is that God wants you to learn to walk by faith and not by sight. And sight can include hearing.

(Look at this woman is this picture now. This woman has heard this lesson on TV and look how happy she is. She got her answers. She is calm and at rest. Maybe she still has not heard from God, but she is in a better place). And I hope today you are. I hope today that you are no longer worried. That you are quiet and you are at rest. You know, God will speak to you when He is good and ready. And when he speaks to you, I hope you write it down this time. I hope you remember this lesson. I hope you think back to all of the times that God has spoken to you. He loves you so much. He cares about you.

I would like to pray for you right now. Would you close your eyes, and just let me pray for you: God, there are people all over the world watching this. I pray that their hearts are open to you. I pray that they receive you into their heart. And I pray they wait and trust during the silent times. Thank you, God. Bless this person, touch them.

QUIET TIME QUESTIONS

1. Why is God silent sometimes?
2. Why is it that it seems like God may speak to someone who is a new believer more than He does to someone who has been walking with Him for years?
3. When God seems silent, how may He be working in your situation?
4. What is the importance of knowing God’s Word in Scripture while waiting on God?
5. What should you do in the times when God is silent?

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