When God Feels Silent: Breaking Through the Blockages

I spent the first five years of my spiritual journey convinced that God wasn't speaking to me. I'd lie on my prayer room floor for hours, reading every book on prayer I could find, crying out to hear His voice. My heart was pure. I wanted to make sure it wasn't me blocking the communication.

But here's what I discovered: God was speaking all the time. I just didn't know how to recognize when it was Him.

The Truth About God's Communication

God is not failing to communicate. He's the sower in Jesus' parable, and the seed—His word—is constantly being scattered. The issue isn't His speaking; it's the condition of our hearts to receive what He's saying.

Sometimes we miss His voice because we're simply unaware of how He communicates. But other times, there are genuine blockages that need to be addressed. I've been teaching people how to hear God's voice for 20 years, and I still encounter blockages in my own life.

Common Blockages That Block His Voice

Unhealed Trauma When trauma is left unhealed, that part of the heart gets walled off and stays walled off until it's addressed. Time doesn't heal all wounds—that's a myth. If something remains hidden and unhealed, it creates blockages in our ability to hear God clearly.

The word "integrity" doesn't just mean honesty. It comes from "integers"—and it takes all the integers to make a whole. If we leave parts of ourselves walled off because of trauma, we're not authentically present, and that affects our spiritual receptivity.

Unforgiveness and Offense Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. When we harbor unforgiveness, we're actually partnering with the enemy rather than with God. We think we're protecting ourselves, but unforgiveness ties our hearts like a black chain to people and events that were never God's will to begin with.

Offense is literally the bait of Satan—a stumbling block designed to trip us up. We believe we're protecting ourselves or others when we take offense, but we're actually agreeing with the enemy instead of bringing God into our circumstances.

Fear and Anxiety Fear is actually faith in a negative outcome. If our faith matters so much that Jesus taught "may it be unto you according to your faith," then fear—which is faith in the wrong direction—can actually work against us.

Perfect love casts out all fear. When we're anxious about outcomes, we're saying we can't trust God with our circumstances. This creates static in our spiritual reception.

Hidden Idols An idol isn't just a carved image. It's anything we put more trust in or value more than God. It's anything that captures our affection or attention more than Him.

Money, success, approval, control—these can all become idols that steal our trust from the Lord and create interference in our ability to hear His voice clearly.

God Doesn't Turn Away

Here's something crucial to understand: sin separates us from God, but the separation is on our side, not His. In religion, I was taught that God turns His face away when we sin. But Scripture tells a different story.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid. God came looking for them. When Cain killed Abel, God came to Cain. When Jesus encountered the woman caught in adultery, He didn't walk away and leave her to be stoned—He stayed and protected her.

God wants to heal the root issues that create our desire to sin in the first place. He's not the kind of Father who gives you the silent treatment when you mess up.

The Path Forward

If you're struggling to hear God's voice, don't accept condemnation. Ask Him to search your heart and reveal any blockages. He's willing to help clean up any issues if you'll partner with Him.

Sometimes the answer is simply learning to recognize how He's already communicating. Other times, it's removing the barriers that have built up over time.

Either way, remember this: He's closer than your skin, He loves you deeply, and He's always willing to communicate. The question isn't whether He's speaking—it's whether we're positioned to hear.

If you'd like to dive deeper into learning how to recognize God's voice and remove common blockages, I offer a comprehensive course that walks through practical steps and biblical foundations for hearing Him clearly.

Blessings,
Susan Dewbrew