029: When God is Silent: 5 Reasons He’s Not Answering Your Prayers and How to Hear His Voice
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Show Notes
Are you praying about a decision but feel like God is silent? In this episode, we dive into five biblical reasons you might not be hearing from God—and what you can do about it. You'll learn how God speaks today, ways you may have already heard from Him without realizing it, and practical steps to tune into His voice.
This teaching is pulled directly from my Divine Discernment Workshop, which walks you through how to seek and discover God’s direction for your decision. If you want the full 45-minute workshop + worksheet, grab it at anchoreddecisions.com/ddworkshop.
Whether you’re overwhelmed by a big decision or just unsure how to hear from God, this episode will give you biblical encouragement, practical tools, and renewed confidence to walk in faith—even when the answers don’t come right away.
Links From This Episode:
✨ Divine Discernment Workshop: anchoreddecisions.com/ddworkshop
✨ Decision-Making Guides: anchoreddecisions.com/shop
✨ YouVersion Bible App
✨ Episode 26: The Single-Most Important Factor in Your Decision Making www.anchoreddecisions.com/26
✨ Show Notes & Links: www.anchoreddecisions.com/29
Bible verses mentioned:
📖 Isaiah 30:21 – “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”
📖 John 10:27 – “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
📖 Acts 16:6 - “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.”
📖 1 Corinthians 15:33 – “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’”
📖 Romans 12:2 – “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
📖 Isaiah 59:2 – “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
📖 Psalm 66:18 – “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”
📖 Proverbs 28:9 – “If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.”
📖 James 4:3 – “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…”
📖 Proverbs 21:13 – “Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered.”
📖 1 Peter 3:7 – “Husbands… be considerate… so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”
📖 Isaiah 1:15 – “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you…”
📖 Jeremiah 14:11–12 – “Do not pray for the well-being of this people… I will not listen…”
📖 Acts 16:6 – “Paul and his companions were kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.”
📖 Habakkuk 1:5 – “I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”
Key Points:
🔑 5 reasons God may be silent when you’re praying over a decision
🔑 How to tell the difference between God’s voice, your own thoughts, and the enemy
🔑 Real stories of how God has spoken to me in my own life
🔑 Ways God speaks today: Scripture, inner peace or conviction, sermons, worship, wise counsel, The Holy Spirit (still small voice), circumstances, dreams or visions (less common, but still possible)
🔑 How to identify how God uniquely speaks to you
🔑 Reasons God may be silent when answering your prayers: Sin, closed doors, timing, he already spoke and you just haven’t obeyed, he may be giving you the freedom to choose
🔑 What to do when you’re given the freedom to choose and want to choose wisely
🔑 The importance of daily time in prayer and the Word
🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe for more faith-based decision-making tips!
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Check out my website and decision guide shop:
www.anchoreddecisions.com
www.anchoreddecisions.com/shop
Transcript
Have you been praying over a decision and feel like God's been silent? If so, today's episode is for you. We're gonna dive into five reasons why God might not be answering your prayers several ways God speaks to people today and how you can hear from God.
This is pulled from my Divine Discernment Workshop: How to Seek and Discover God's Direction for Your Decision.
I did that workshop live early in March this year. But the replay is available for you to hear the entire 45 minute workshop with time to pause and answer some reflection questions so you can really get to know God's will for your decision, hear from him, and take action.
The workshop comes with a free worksheet to follow along with, as well as some other free resources to help you be able to set the foundation for a strong faith-based decision. So if you're facing a big decision and want to catch that workshop, find it at anchoreddecisions.com/DDworkshop.
But for now, we're going to dive into just a portion of the workshop on why God might be silent, even if you've been praying over a decision.
So if you feel like you've been doing all the right things... you've been connected to God through daily prayer and Bible study, you've been seeking and asking him for direction, and yet you're still not hearing from him as you pray over a decision or pray over anything at that, there could be something hindering your prayers. Or it could be part of God's bigger plan. So stay tuned as we distinguish why you haven't heard from God.
Intro: Welcome to the Anchored Decisions Show. I'm your host, Lauren Black, the world's biggest overthinker turn decision coach, all by the grace of God. Now I'm on a mission to help you make easier decisions, discover God's will and live with purpose. Tune in weekly to hear real life decision stories, expert insights, and faith-based strategies to help you navigate your decisions with confidence, so ditch your pros and cons list and learn to make better decisions without asking your mom or losing another night sleep. Let's go.
Connecting with God in Order to Hear from Him
All right. All right. I'm excited for today's topic because I feel like I have been really diving into how to connect with God recently in order to hear from him in your decisions. It's such a key component to making faith-based decisions because God doesn't have the same values as the world, so you can't just turn to the world for what they think you should do. And God often presents us with things that are either really bizarre, like Joshua, walking around the city of Jericho seven days and then giving a shout, and that's what caused the walls to crumble and for them to defeat the city of Jericho.
Or Elijah asking the widow to make him some bread before her oil and flour ran out, that she thought she would make her last meal for her and her son, and yet because she was faithful, the oil kept going. The flower never ran out until the drought was over. So when we are faithful, when we are tuned in to God's will and his ways and his voice, then we're able to see miracles happen.
We're able to take the path that is incredibly more amazing than what we could ever choose for ourselves. And there's so much God teaches us along the way when we learn to tune into his voice.
And I love the passage in John where Jesus talks about being our shepherd. He says, my sheep know me. They know my voice and they follow me. And what's so important about that is that back in Jesus' day, people would've known what that analogy really meant. The shepherds would sometimes gather multiple flocks together, and they also would have hired hands that would be there to help.
And so when it was time to separate the flocks, go their different ways, the main shepherd would call out to his flock, and because his flock knew his voice, they would only follow him. So that's what Jesus is saying, that when the world starts to overcrowd, when you start to struggle with distinguishing God's voice from your own thoughts, from the devil's deception, it's so important to be so connected with him that you are able to distinguish, yes, that is my Jesus, that is what he's telling me, and I need to follow him and Him alone.
Funny Example of Knowing Someone by Their Voice
When I was in probably late high school or early college and home on break, I was just working out at home, exercising, minding my own business, and all of a sudden my mom comes to my room and she goes, “Hey, you have some visitors.” So in walk these two girls completely decked out as clowns where they've got wigs on their head, full face paint. You cannot tell who these people are. And so I'm trying to figure out like, okay, who is this in my house stopping by in clown costumes? And I say something that makes one of them crack a smile and give just the tiniest little chuckle.
And it was that smile and that little chuckle that made me know exactly who that friend was because I knew her so well that even if I couldn't distinguish her by her face, because it was so disguised, that little chuckle of hers was enough to give away her identity. And so that is how we need to be with Jesus, that we know him so well, that the littlest tiny voice, the littlest sound, the littlest nudge, we can detect that that is Jesus.
So the first thing to know is to go back and listen to episode 26, where I dive into the number one most important factor in your decision making as a Christian, and that is your relationship with God. Because until you're connecting with him daily and knowing his voice and really spending time with him in prayer and Bible study, in fellowship with other believers going to church so that you can be poured in by a pastor, by someone who is knowledgeable in the word, then it's going to be really hard to start to distinguish his voice.
You have to be connected with him on a deeper level, but sometimes even when we're connected with God, he can be silent. And that can be really discouraging for us who, we want immediate results. We wanna hear from God, now. We want to open our prayer journal or sit down to pray and the first time we ever pray, we want an answer.
And that's not how God works. God's timing is perfect. He teaches us lessons along the way, and then there's sometimes things that we're doing that could be hindering us from hearing from God. Including if we have let our prayer life and our Bible study and our connection with God slide.
So today I am, as I said before, diving into some of my divine discernment workshop. Pulling the exact audio from that on reasons why God could be silent and how you can hear from God and know that he's talking to you.
I love this verse from Isaiah 30:21, “Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it.”
So when you're tuned in to God and his ways, when you've got that strong relationship with him, you've been in prayer, you've been seeking him in his word, you've been going to church and hearing sermons and worshiping. That's when you'll hear that voice behind you. That's his Holy Spirit speaking to your heart saying, this is the way walk in it.
So here are some ways that God speaks today
He speaks through his scripture. He speaks through inner peace or conviction. He speaks through sermons, worship songs, wise counsel from others, or word from a friend. He speaks through the Holy Spirit, which is often just the still small voice in your heart. And he can often speak through circumstances. So you might see a billboard that has a word on it, or you might, you know, have some coincidence happen that's more than just a coincidence, it's a God ordained setup for you to run into a certain person at the store, or, you know, someone mistakenly sends you the wrong book, but it's a book that you need.
And there are so many other ways that God speaks to us. These are just some typical ones that I've seen, but he still does speak through sometimes dreams and visions. Those aren't as popular these days. Mostly he speaks through his spirit in these different ways.
How God has Spoken to Me in the Past
Now, I'd love to share a few ways that God has spoken to me in the past, but I do not want you to take these as ways that he might speak to you because God speaks to all of us so differently, and it can be really dangerous when we are seeking out hearing from him in a way that we've heard him speak to someone else instead of how he speaks uniquely to us.
So I want you to listen to these just as inspiration or for you to maybe cross reference any experiences you've had that you might think like, oh, I didn't realize that was from God, but maybe it was, and it was how God spoke to you.
So when I was debating what college to go to, whether or not to go off to the University of Florida, join my sister there who was already up there and I knew she was in a sorority, and so I was kind of questioning whether or not I should join the sorority as well. I was in a worship session at camp and I just felt God's peace as I was thinking about that decision and felt God just saying, yes, it's okay. You can join. You can go off to UF and you can join the sorority. So I did go off to UF and I did join the sorority and I was trying to do some ministry work there within the sorority.
And three years in, I felt God’s still small voice leading me to then leave the sorority and drop the ministry work I was doing there. And so I wanted confirmation from him, even though I felt that nudge. I prayed. I didn't turn to other people at this point. I just prayed, God, I need to confirm that this is your will. And so while I was praying over confirmation, soon after that, the same Bible verse came up three times. Once in my personal Bible study once while at church and once in my Bible study group with other believers, and that verse was 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Bad company corrupts good character.”
And so right then and there, after hearing it that third time, because God often does speak in threes, that's his holy trinity number. I knew exactly what I needed to do and I left the sorority. Now, one time God spoke to me in a different way where I was praying over my roommate in college and I just felt God leading me to.
Say something in the prayer that I would've never said myself, and so I prayed that over her and afterwards I was like, that was totally the Holy Spirit. And she looked at me and was like, that's exactly what I needed to hear. And so I was just tuning in to God's nudge.
Then there was a time recently where I was at a conference and I prayed, God, would you just lead me to talk to the right people that you want me to connect with today? And literally the moment that I finished praying that in my head, quietly to myself, the girl that I had been talking to said, well, I think I should get going, and she got up and left.
Someone else came and sat down who happened to be a Christian, and I had been praying over actually whether or not Anchored Decisions should be a faith-based business, serving and helping just Christians, or if I should serve anyone and just try to throw in here and there some of the Christian messaging and not make it a focus of decision making because I do feel that I have a lot that I could help just general population with. But at that moment when that girl who was a Christian came and sat down, right after I prayed, God help me to connect with the right people, and we got talking about whether or not my business should before Christians or just general, and that was a confirmation for me that he literally answered my prayer the second that I prayed it.
And so when you start leaning into these nudges from God, it can make it really exciting, first of all. And then it gives you the encouragement to tune into that the next time and lean into it and see where God takes it. Because you've seen him be faithful in the past.
And how God has spoken to you in the past is often how he'll speak to you again in the future. So that's why it's important to recognize how he speaks directly to you so that you're able to look for it again in the future. You're able to keep your eyes out and be able to distinguish, is this God or is this not God?
Because if he's spoken to you the same way over and over, then chances are then when you experience that again, it's probably from him.
And if you think that he has never spoken to you before, that you've never heard from him, if you are a saved Christian, then at some point he spoke into your heart that he is real and that you wanted him as the savior of your life and you invited him into your heart.
So obviously he spoke to you in some way, showing himself as real in order for you to accept him. So even if that's the only thing you can think of that he's spoken to you, write that down. But think of other circumstances of choosing a job or maybe feeling at peace about who you're marrying or having kids.
And has there ever been a time when something just kind of came together, right? And you're like, wow, that was such a God thing. So how has God spoken to you and worked in your life in the past?
All right. So you might be saying, but Lauren, what if I've been doing all the right things and still haven't heard from God? And that is the age old question, right? That is why some of you are here because you might have a super strong relationship with God and you've been praying over your circumstance and you still feel like God has been silent.
And this is where we get overwhelmed by our decisions. We get anxiety. We want God to light the path in front of us and just give us the answer instead of learning how to trust the small steps.
sometimes God's silence is intentional
Sometimes there's a reason behind God’s silence.
Sin Could be Hindering Our Prayers
So one could be the presence of sin in our lives. One could be God closing the door. Another is that God has you in a waiting season. Another is God has given you an answer, but you just need to act and obey instead of trying to seek more and more confirmation. And finally, God might be giving you the freedom to choose. So we're going to dive even dive deeper into each of these.
Under the category of sin, there are a lot of scripture verses on God holding back from speaking to you and answering your prayers because of sin.
Unrepentant sin - Isaiah 59:2 and Psalm 66:18
Ignoring God's commands - Proverbs 28:9
Selfish motives - James 4:3
Mistreating of others - Proverbs 21:13 and 1 Peter 3:7
Empty religious rituals - Isaiah 1:15 and Jeremiah 14:11-12. Where the people would make these sacrifices and come to God with their actions, but their hearts weren't in it.
So even if you feel like that last one doesn't relate to you, that, "Oh, I'm, I'm not, like sacrificing cows and sheep and all that,” there are ways that we could have our hearts misaligned with God's.
God is Closing the Door
All right. The next reason that God might be silent in our decisions is because he is closing the door. So if you have a blocked opportunity, maybe you felt like God was leading you towards this specific job and then you didn't get the job. That is a closed door. Maybe you have a lack of peace in your heart and you just feel like, okay, something's not right here, that could be a closed door. Or if something contradicts scripture, which is once again, why it's so important to be involved in God's word so that you're able to discern what is scriptural and what's not.
And even in, in Acts 16:6, Paul was blocked from preaching in Asia, and we never know exactly why Paul was not allowed to go into Asia. So sometimes these closed doors are not for anything that God is going to even reveal to you the reason why, but it just means he has a different path for you. And it's often what's better because God's will is best.
It’s Not God’s Timing
The next one is God has you in a waiting period. It might just not be God's time for you yet, or God could be preparing you for something.
Sometimes he lays out these little stepping stones and you have to take each of those little steps before you can get to the big thing that he has planned for you. Or he's trying to teach you something in the meantime, in order for you then to be prepared for what he has for you down the line. And maybe in this waiting period, you have heard something from God, but you haven't been given the green light yet. It just hasn't happened yet, and that's goes back to God's timing. So Abraham had to wait 25 years for him to have Isaac. And so sometimes God's timing is so different than ours and he's quiet as we wait. But if he has given you a word and it hasn't happened yet, sometimes we just need to wait. And sometimes that door ends up being closed, but he taught us a lesson in the meantime and will redirect us.
So that's the thing with when God is quiet or when he closes the door, he will open the right door for you. And that's why it's so amazing that God has a plan and he sees our future where we cannot. And so he is able to direct us down these different roads because sometimes it's like in Habakkuk. He tells Habakkuk I am going to do great and unmeasurable things that you would not believe even if you were told. So sometimes God's silence is because he's preparing us for something that if he told us now we, A we wouldn't believe it, B we might try to figure it out on our own instead of depending on God or C we might see all the obstacles in the way and back out and say, no way, God, I can't do that.
And so this way it builds our faith. It builds our trust and allows us to depend on him and keep seeking.
God May Have Already Given You Instruction, You Just Need to Obey
One other way that God is silent is because maybe he has already spoken to us. So sometimes we hear something from God and we don't act and we don't obey. Maybe you're just not accepting his direction because you don't like what he said, and you're hoping that he'll change his mind if you hold off on obeying. Or maybe you're just struggling to trust and take action because sometimes God leads us to scary places and things that are uncomfortable, things that we feel very unqualified for, and so we don't want to take the action because of those reasons.
Or maybe like Gideon, you desire more confirmation. So sometimes we just, we hear from him once, and we start to question, was that really God? I have done this. I did this with Anchored Decisions like a year in to building this business, started to question, “God, did you really call me to help people make decisions”, a year into this.
And then I started looking back on the circumstances and the ways that God spoke to me and how he had confirmed things for me. And I was like, yes. Yes, this was a calling from God and I need to continue to pursue his path to be in his will.
God Might be Giving You the Freedom to Choose
And then finally, one of the reasons God can be silent in our decisions is because he might be giving you the freedom to choose.
So if you don't have unrepented sin, if you've been earnestly seeking and praying, if you haven't faced any closed doors, and if your options align with scripture and are wise. Then God could be giving you the freedom to choose. Just like a good father, he wants you to have some choices. He wants you to give you the desires of your heart.
And so that's when often he's quiet, letting you make the decision. You know, pick what you want. And that can be frightening for us. Romans 12:2 is one of my favorite verses on this. And it says, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. So when you have the Holy spirit within you, he gives you wisdom.
He gives you discernment and he often gives you the freedom to choose.
So that wraps up the section from the Divine Discernment Workshop where I go over how to hear from God, how he's spoken to you in the past.
Think Through How God Has Spoken to You in the Past
I invite you to pause and reflect on where and how God has spoken to you in the past. Really think through any major decisions you've made or any calling that he's given to you, and how did he work in that? How did he speak to you? Was it a still small voice in your spirit? Was it through worship? Was it through reading the word?
Was it through a word from someone else? Maybe a combination of all of those, maybe something completely different. These are just some of the ones top of mind to me, because that's how God's spoken to me. So really hone in on what he has done to speak to you and so that you can be looking out for ways that he'll speak to you again.
What to Do if God is Giving You the Freedom to Choose
And if you are struggling with a decision that you feel, God is giving you the freedom to choose, that is what Anchored Decisions is here to help you with, to help you feel confident in making those decisions on your own with God, by your side. So definitely head to anchoreddecisions.com. Check out my blog, my other podcast episodes or any resources I have there.
I have decision guides available to you to help walk you through any major decisions step-by-step, so that you feel like you are covering all aspects of it and don't feel so overwhelmed facing this big decision on your own. You don't have to go through it alone. So thank you for being here. My one action step for you today is to dive deep into the word and prayer on a daily basis.
And that way you're connecting with God in the places where he speaks the most. And also you'll get to know his voice better.
And so let me close us out in prayer.
Father, God, I thank you so much for all of those listening. I pray that you would reveal to them the way that you speak to each person individually, that they would remember and connect with how you've spoken to them in the past, and that their eyes would be open to when you're speaking to them in the future.
Help them to discern what your voice, God from their own and from the devil, and so they're able to follow and find your path for them, God. Give them peace in their journey as they go on the way knowing that you are guiding them.
So we lift this all up to you, all of our decisions. In Jesus' name, amen.