WHEN GOD SEEMS SILENT

Practical Ways to Overcome Doubt and Hear God Speak

Have you ever made a decision that felt so right in the moment, only to find yourself second-guessing it later? Maybe you’ve even been sure you heard from God, but then wondered, ‘Was that really His voice?’ It’s frustrating how one moment of certainty can turn into a spiral of confusion and doubt.

Chronic second-guessing (self-doubt) is so common and debilitating for people that psychologists have conducted numerous studies to explore this problem and found that this mental pattern leads to lower esteem, higher rates of anxiety and depression, and higher occurrences of procrastination (https://www.apa.org/monitor/may03/chronic). When this spills into our relationship with the Lord, it can be even more frustrating!

Second-guessing our spiritual identity and our ability to discern the Lord’s will is something that every believer, at some point, has faced. While there is a learning and transformational process involved in the development of our spiritual discernment, when we constantly wonder and doubt that we can hear the Lord’s voice or discern His will in a matter, it can paralyze us and leave us unable to function confidently in our callings!

Self-doubt stems from a lie

Why do we struggle to trust that we can hear and follow God’s voice? Often, the root is a carefully packaged lie from the enemy, designed to shake our confidence. He knows that if he can get us to doubt what God said, he can derail our faith. This strategy isn’t new—it’s the same one he used with Eve in the garden and even tried on Jesus in the wilderness.

Satan asked Eve this question after God instructed her not to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree (Genesis 3:1). Satan likely posed this question to Saul immediately after Samuel anointed him as the Lord’s chosen man to be the king of Israel, leaving Saul so confused and worried that he hid among the baggage when it was time for him to be publicly revealed as king (1 Samuel 10:21-22). Satan also asked a form of this question to Jesus in the desert (right after God, the Father, had said that Jesus was His beloved Son) when he started with, “If you really are the Son of God…”(Matthew 4:1-11).

It’s one of the enemy’s most effective tools to neutralize us as Christians. This doubt gets a foothold in our minds when we entertain spiritual lies about God’s love and grace for us-ultimately leading us to believe that we’re incapable or unworthy of hearing His voice. This lie takes root, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of doubt that renders us ineffective in our walk with Christ. As self-doubt grows, it leads to hesitation in obeying God, self-sabotaging behavior, and poor judgment. Ultimately, it can even cause us to avoid seeking or listening for God’s voice altogether.

Doubt is a form of self-sabotage

Doubting ourselves allows fear to creep in, whispering that we’re incapable of hearing and obeying the Lord. But Scripture tells us otherwise—‘God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind’ (2 Timothy 1:7). Yet, when we let doubt rule our thoughts, it shapes our behavior, causing us to self-sabotage and miss God’s leading.

One of the ways God enables our minds to learn is by gathering information and forming beliefs through the observations we make about environment. Of all the observations our minds are programmed to continually make, some of the most important are the ones we make about ourselves! We observe ourselves acting and thinking in certain ways and then form judgments about ourselves based on what we observe. These judgments shape our sense of identity. This identity then serves to guide and limit our future decisions as we subconsciously behave in a way that lines up with who we think we are.

Therefore, by consistently doubting my ability to discern God’s will on a matter, I am teaching myself that I am incapable of knowing God’s voice and making good decisions. The next time I have to make a decision, I have already learned that I can’t hear God’s voice so I have prepared myself to fail before I even get started!

To add to that, through an effect known as the confirmation bias, our brains look for and process information that supports our existing beliefs. So, even if I do make a good decision about something, I have already primed my brain to only focus on my failures and poor choices and ignore any evidence that is contrary to this view of myself. This creates a self-perpetuating cycle in me where my beliefs affect my behavior, which only serves to reinforce my belief!

While we won’t always make the right choices, the Lord has given His children everything we need to follow Him and be transformed by His voice in our lives (2 Peter 1:3). When we doubt our capacity to walk in this empowerment, we inadvertently assume an identity of incompetence and live up to our own expectations of failure!

Doubt may lead to poor judgment

Self-doubt can also impair our judgment! When we doubt our ability to follow God’s leading and hesitate in our decisions, we have a tendency to get trapped in thought loops in our minds. This confusion and fixation can cause us to ignore our God-given intuition and sensitivity to the Lord’s voice, blinding us to answers that may have otherwise been obvious.

In one study on the effects of self-doubt, it was found that individuals who second-guessed their initial “gut reaction” on a bet they placed through a popular sports betting website experienced a 17% decrease in the accuracy of their bet whenever they second guessed their initial choice and changed their bet (https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/trust-your-gut/). In this case, over-analyzing their decisions caused the betters to lose confidence in their judgments, which ironically led to worse judgment!

When we take our focus off the solution to a problem and instead focus on our imagined inability to know the solution, this clouds our judgment and can quickly become a hindrance to the move of God in our lives.

Doubt may lead to avoidance of God’s voice

When we are entertaining doubt in our minds and don’t know if we should act on what we believe is God’s leading, we often times experience some distressing confusion and doubt about our relationship and standing with God. When experienced consistently, we may begin to associate trying to hear from God as a negative experience, leading to dissociative tendencies. In these cases, we withdraw emotionally and avoid any processing of thoughts that could lead to further distress and confusion.

If every time I talked to a certain friend, our interaction made me doubt myself and go through intense periods of uncertainty, shame, and confusion-you can bet that I would start avoiding that friend after a while! The same can be true with the Lord when we find ourselves locked into a pattern of self doubt when speaking and receiving from Him!

Unfortunately, church studies have shown that 30% of adults who experience doubt about God will stop reading their Bibles and praying, 25% of people will stop talking with family and friends about God; and nearly 45% of people who experience doubt will choose to just leave their church or worship gatherings entirely ! (https://www.barna.com/research/two-thirds-christians-face-doubt/) Doubt, in all forms, can play a huge role in people closing their hearts to God!

Overcoming self-doubt is crucial for us to be able to confidently function in our God-given abilities and talents.

Four Steps to Overcoming Self-Doubt

Step 1: Understand that God speaks in many ways

God speaks to His children in many ways! When I was young, I expected God’s voice to be an audible sound in my ears; or at least a deafening, electrifying thought that had the power to jolt me to attention. Yet, I came to realize that this is not usually how God speaks to His children.

Sometimes the Lord will speak through a quiet thought that suddenly pops into our head and gives us an unexpected solution to a problem we’ve been facing. Sometimes, His voice can be found in our dreams at night; through the symbols, imagery, and pictures He shows us. Sometimes He’ll speak through an innate feeling or sense He gives us. Other times, He may speak through the people around us; in the piercing words that someone says to us right when we need to hear them. Still, at other times, it may be through a scripture in the Bible we read that touches our hearts and resonates with us in a way that we know He was speaking directly to us! (Isaiah 30:21; Job 33:14; Acts 2:17; Numbers 12:6).

By expecting to hear the Lord’s voice in different ways, we can prepare our hearts to recognize Him more easily and be careful not to hinder our spiritual discernment.

Step 2: Know that you can hear God’s voice

As God’s children, we have been given everything we need to follow Him. His Spirit gives us power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Jesus also promised us that His Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth (John 16:13). This means that we are fully equipped to hear God’s voice, make sound decisions, and be transformed by His Spirit!

A lie that we must consistently fight is the one that will challenge this central truth. The lie may try to tell us that we haven’t earned the “right” to hear our Father’s voice, that only certain people can know His will, that He doesn’t love us enough to speak to us, etc. Yet the truth remains that we were all created to recognize God’s handiwork and
voice (Romans 1:20-21; Proverbs 20:12).

By learning to listen for His voice, recognize Him, and obey Him, we are transformed into who He has called us to be. We don’t have to be fully transformed before we can follow His leading, any more than we must be perfect before we can come to God!
However, the more we yield to the transforming and renewing work of the Holy
Spirit in our lives, the easier it will become to discern God’s voice and will
(2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 12:2).

We must also keep in mind that sometimes the Lord waits before
He answers us. Trusting that His timing is perfect, we can keep our faith
strong by simply waiting in anticipation for His direction
when it comes!

Step 3: Seek confirmation of God’s words

There is a Biblical precedent for seeking confirmation when we believe we have heard the Lord’s voice (1 John 4:1; Judges 6:36-40).

In fact, confirmation is so important that many times in the Bible, the Lord offered unsolicited confirmation of His words to prove that it was indeed Him who was speaking (Exodus 7:10; 1 Kings 10:2-7; 1 Kings 13:1-3).

When we have received a word from the Lord that we feel requires our obedience and action, it is always wise to ask Him for confirmation. For starters, any word that we hear from the Lord will never contradict what He says through His written word: the Bible. Taking time to ensure that what we heard does not contradict any instructions in the Bible is a great starting point when we are checking to make sure it was the Lord’s voice we perceived!

Further confirmation can come in the form of any of the ways the Lord speaks to us, including words from someone that confirms His message, and the incomprehensible peace of the Holy Spirit. If we don’t receive any confirmation of specific words we heard, it is safest to put such a word “on the back burner” and not act on it.

This has happened to everyone who actively tries to hear and follow the voice of the Lord! We should not let this discourage us as this teaches us to fine-tune our spiritual ears to the Lord’s voice (Hebrews 5:14). When this happens, we can take heart and know that we may be one step closer to accurately discerning God’s voice as we have learned what His voice may not sound like.

Step 4: Obey in faith

When we have accepted the truth that we can hear from the Lord, have heard something from Him, and have received confirmation of His words, it’s time to step out in faith! We must walk in obedience to the Lord’s words, even when our circumstances don’t immediately fall into line.

The Lord will often ask us to take a step of faith even before anything in our environment changes. Many times, in the Old Testament, we see that after the Lord gave His children instructions, He waited for their obedience before He fulfilled His words on their behalf (Judges 4:14-15; Joshua 6:16-20; Judges 7:22).

It was the moment after they stepped out to obey, that God then moved and changed their circumstances. Our obedience might be an action or even a state of mind, but it may just be what moves the hand of God in our situations.

When we stand firm in God’s truth and listen to His voice, we can walk confidently in our calling, free from the chains of doubt. God has equipped us to hear Him, and through faith, we will see His promises unfold in our lives!

Hi! I’m Bebe!

I’m dedicated to helping believers walk in the freedom that comes from renewing their minds in partnership with God. With a background in psychology and a deep love for scripture, I help bridge the gap between spiritual growth and practical mental health strategies. Check out our podcast, videos, and other resources and join me on this journey as we explore how to truly unlock the peace of God in our lives!

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Bebe Shearer

Bebe Shearer

Bebe Shearer