'When God is silent': what counts as hearing from the Lord?
- What does it mean to 'hear from the Lord,' and how often should we expect it?
Mike brings a question from his Bible study, whose paragraph heading was 'when God is silent': the author wrote that he experienced God's silence for a couple of weeks and freaked out, and Ben expected a relatable years-long drought story — 'Oh, two weeks. I thought you were going to be like years, you know, like the rest of us.' The hosts debate what 'hearing from the Lord' even means: Mike admits he had a hard time reading Nahum and Habakkuk ('Lord, I just don't know what you're trying to communicate to me here') and counts maybe two to three real 'movements' a year; Silas says if you count little daily convictions — 'my road rage has been checked in the last three weeks' — then 'I hear it from the Lord all the time.' They discuss whether conviction of sin and a verse standing out counts as an experience with God, note Philip was only called to the desert road once (a capital-letter experience), argue over whether creation 'does the talking' apart from the Spirit's help, and land on stories of kids who heard it all growing up until a real encounter made everything make sense — and the unanswerable question of why God withholds that.
Clips from this
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When God feels silent for two weeks
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How often do you actually hear from God
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The moment faith finally clicked
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More on Discernment
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Mike frames the question: are more people hearing from God?
- Does it seem like more and more people are hearing from God — and is that real or a lie and a huge distraction?
Ben asks Mike for a two-sentence framing; Mike says listening to the book of Job while mowing made him furious when Bildad 'received a word from the Lord,' turning a bad human argument into an unarguable divine claim.
From No. 597 · Maybe A Word From God
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Does God speak more now? Indwelling Spirit versus prophets
- Does God talk to people as much now as he did in the Old Testament or New Testament?
A host asks whether God talks to people as much now as in the Old and New Testaments. Ben's key distinction: the indwelling Holy Spirit means more people can have the experience…
From No. 597 · Maybe A Word From God
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How to tell your voice from God's: the Bible test and leniency
- How can you tell the difference between you speaking and God speaking?
Ella distills the question: how do you tell the difference between you speaking and God speaking? Her first answer: we have a Bible — what God is telling you is probably already in it ('Ben's gonna have a proud papa moment').
From No. 597 · Maybe A Word From God
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The big question: high-point experiences and everyday faith
- Why don't high-point religious experiences translate into everyday faith, and should they?
- Does everyday faithfulness ('sheep in, sheep out') go together with actively listening for what God is doing, or is it a change?
Ben frames the night's big question: why don't high-point religious experiences — camps, Promise Keepers, big conferences — translate into normal everyday life, and should they?
From No. 596 · Mr. Prayer Closet