fusionatl

Here's one to get us going again...

Is God ever silent... period? Not that God is whispering or that we aren't listening. Is God ever completely silent?

Do you mean in our lives or do you mean to the world?

i think that He is silent at time with me personally and with the world in general.

I don't believe that God is ever silent, after all there are only 3 Billion+ people for him to have to deal with and speak things into being.. and giving orders to the angels etc..

I guess the implied thought of the statement was, "Is God ever not speaking to you?"

Our idea is that God is always speaking to us but we just can't hear, aren't listening, have sin, etc. I know we've been talking about it off & on throughout this series, but I think it bears discussion.

With that clarification made.. I would say that he speaks to us from time to time but we are not always in the zone that would otherwise allow him to speak.. He knows if we cannot hear him because we are not listening or sin etc.. so why would he speak to a wall to put it figuratively. In this case he will be silent towards us. IMO.

I would say that their are times when is is not speaking per-say But I don't think there is ever a time when He doesn't want to Commune or spend time with us

I would say definitely, yes and no. First,I don't think God has to always speak to us in a manner where we feel we heard a word from God. I say no b/c of the gap b/t the old testament and new testament. In that time span we don't know of any prophets, kings, etc declaring the will of God for his people. I also say no b/c even when Jesus was walking the earth the Bible doesn't say he had regular conversations with the father(prayer Yes 2-way conversation No). What I believe you were getting Wednesday, it's very rare that God just holds conversation with us.
That's my No analysis.

For my Yes--God has left his word the Bible for us. There really isn't much that it doesn't cover. Whenever we read the word its like God is talking to us. I think that people are too caught up with the "Show" to notice the simple. We expect a Jesus on the Mt. of Olives or the Isrealites in the desert type of experience or maybe a Moses and the burning bush.

I know this may be way off base, but I'm going to say it anyway. If you were God and you left a set of directions which explains life and it was easily accessible to people, and they were aware of it, but always wanted the easy way out by asking you directly instead of searching in the directions. Would you always say something? I know when I was growing up, if I had a question that I could find the answer easily for myself and asked my mother instead; she would first tell me to look it up. If after searching I couldn't find it, she would provide the answer.

So to answer your question...yes God is always speaking, but no he doesn't have to provide a special "showy " experience to us.

Just my 2cents.

That's good Eddie. I agree with the idea that if God has already told us through the scriptures that He probably isn't going to boom through and tell us again audibly.

There's definitely a "growing up process" with God... much like what you described with you & your mom.

i believe that there are numerous times when God doesn't speak. however, i believe He is always communicating something.

i think that often we believe that the only way God communicates with us is through words, but sometimes communication is more powerful in the nonverbal. there's some kind of statistic out there that says something along the lines of 15% of what we interpret is through verbal words while 85% is through nonverbal actions or communicators. i may be off on those numbers, but it is definitely an alarming contrast (i know that part for sure).

i think words just don't do God justice. they can't, right? all the angels just sit there and cry holy and bow and bow and bow and whatever else they do.

can words really explain Him? (i borrowed that idea from Rob Bell's "Velvet Elvis")

in the same way that words cannot justify our God, i believe that words cannot justify what He is communicating through His Presence.

so in that Presence, sometimes words just aren't enough...at least ones that we would be able to understand. for this reason, i believe God chooses to be silent. He chooses to point us to something else...something other than words.

I don't think God is ever silent, I just don't think we are in position to listen. This by itself could be the result of many factors.

When we don't hear something from God it may be because he has already answered the question. A lot of our questions are already answered in the bible. And if we are literate of His word, when we pray according to His will, it will lead us back to what His word says.

We should also learn to draw on community more. We can't know all there is in the word, but our family may have the answer that we do not have.

I believe that we too often desire the "experience" of God speaking directly. It may very well happen, but the Christian life is very practial in many aspects. We keep asking for directions to our destination from God, when He has put the road map (Bible), in our hands. It is still Him talking. These are His words.

One other possibility is that we ignore the answer we get hoping God will change it, and then blaming Him for being silent when he doesn't.

So Wendell, what do you mean by "I don't think God is ever silent"? Because then you say, "When we don't hear something from God it may be because He has already answered the question."

So, in essence you aren't saying that God is never silent... you are saying that God has always, at some point in time, provided an answer?

Yes sorry about my mix up in statements, it was late and I was unclear. I should have said that we do not hear God in the way that we want. We all have a preconceived idea of what "hearing God" means to us. That breeds misplaced expectations. It could be hoping for an audible answer, a prophetic answer, or tossing out a fleece. We want the answer to come in a specific form. But the truth is we can not control how God answers us. The way He does answer is ultimately a part of whats best for our growth.

But your last statement sums up what I was saying, I believe that God has at some point provided an answer.

I think we come to God, thinking he's never heard our question before.

I've been reading everyone's thoughts and I admit that there is no definitive answer we can all come to agree on. I think that God tries to communicate with us probably more than we try listening to Him. I also think that 'hearing' God isn't nearly as complicated as we make it out to be. I’m not saying that every time I ask for an answer I get one, I just think we get so focused on listening for an answer we forget who is speaking. Sometimes I think God withholds answers so we refocus on His face. When I am in a conversation with someone who isn’t looking at me for whatever reason, sometimes I will stop talking so that the person will look at me. He knows the answers to all of our petty earth-shattering problems, and He knows that most humans would probably treat Him like a magic 8 ball in the sky if He didn't withhold some of those answers so that we focus on who He is, not just what He does.

Thoughts?

That my sister is some real talk...
Especially the example of when you are talking to someone and they aren't paying attention to you. I do the same thing!
But when I began to think about it in terms of our Father I can't fathom how much He wants to tell us. But we start paying attention to other things so why is He going to keep talking.