Faith & Doubt
People at church talk about God telling them things, and I have never heard anything like that. Does God still speak, and why not to me?
“And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”
Elijah has just won a public showdown on Mount Carmel and then fled into the desert wanting to die. God meets him at Horeb, the same mountain where Israel once got thunder and fire, and deliberately does not repeat the spectacle. What comes instead is almost nothing, a thin quiet sound. The most important word Elijah ever received arrived at a volume he could easily have missed.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:”
Jesus is speaking in the temple courts during a winter festival, using shepherd imagery his hearers knew from daily life. Sheep learn a particular shepherd's voice by being around it constantly, not by straining to hear it once in a crisis. Recognition here is the fruit of long familiarity, which quietly reframes your question from why you cannot hear to how the ear gets trained.
A path forward
Give God the quiet he tends to use. Ten minutes with the phone in another room, most days this week, is a bigger change than it sounds.
Read one gospel slowly and treat it as God speaking rather than as background. Most of the guidance people receive comes through scripture they already had.
Write down what you think you might be hearing and test it with two mature believers. Anything genuinely from God survives being checked against scripture and wise counsel.
Closing verse
“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”
- Isaiah 30:21
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