WHAT TO DO WHEN GOD IS SILENT BY APOSTLE JOSHUA SELMAN 2022 (Written Sermon)
It is true that there are times God can be silent.
As far as revealing his will over your life and destiny is concerned. I was led of the spirit to teach you this. Because I believe that there are many people who are in the season of the silence of God. There is something called the season of the silence of God. You pray, you fast, you do everything. And it looks like you are not hearing him. Let me tell you what that means. Every time God is silent, it means three things. Number one, it means he is working on you. That is the first thing. Every time God is silent and he withholds revealing his will to you. It can mean number one, that you as the vessel that will be used to do his will. There is a work that he’s doing in you.
And revealing his will to you will be a waste in that state. And so his silence means that you you should you know the training of the building until he makes you the vessel that is able to do that will you want him to reveal. please listen very carefully. God is speaking to someone right now. God, why have you been silent on me, my family, my destiny? Every time God is silent, number one, discern that his silence is a message. That I am making the vessel. Who I will use to achieve my will. Look up please. God was silent on Jesus for 30 years. Read your Bible. You don’t hear Jesus communicating with God as a small child. And yet he was God. From the time God spoke around his birth, you don’t hear any discussion again.
He went to pray, he went to learn. For 30 years, we don’t hear the voice of God over Jesus’s issue again. Every time God is silent, focus on you, not him. He’s doing something in that vessel. Jesus was in the temple at age twelve. Because as powerful as Jesus is, even though he was God incarnate. At that state, he would not be able to fulfill the will of God. He needed to learn. He needed to grow. Luke chapter two and verse 52.
Your Bible says in those moments of silence, Jesus increased. In wisdom, he increased in stature. He increased in favor with God and man. Don’t waste your moments of silence. When God is silent, rather than lamenting in impatience, focus on allowing him build you. Lord, I know that you have not spoken concerning this and that and that. It means that there is something.
The vessel that you want to use for that task has not yet become the version that necessitates the revelation of your will. Is someone learning tonight? Listen, what you are learning tonight, you are going to use it to help so many people. For some of you, this message now, you will call your loved ones and say, Ace, I came for I found the key. I found the key. While you have prayed and submitted your prayer here at Miracle Service. Prayer after prayer, vigil after vigil. Most people do not focus on God making them. They just focus on God revealing his will. Every time God reveals his will, there is a version that will fulfill that will. And if you have not become that version, he will withhold his speakings and focus on your training. powerful Another example, I use Jesus, let me give you one more. When Joseph had a dream, that was the end of it. There was nothing else he saw or had again. He just had a dream of his destiny.
The sun, the moon, 11 stars. When Joseph entered the pit, I’m sure he would say God, give me, explain to me why a righteous man will be inside the pit. By my own brothers. silence. When they were selling him to go to Egypt, silence. But was he ever out of the will of God? Please talk to me. Even in your confusion, God is still leading you. This is a powerful message tonight. As confused as you may think you are, God is still leading you. Let me tell you how God leads. Look at me, I want to teach you something powerful. if God’s desire is for you to go this way and enter a door, please watch me. If God’s desire is for you to go left and enter the door to your destiny, and in all honesty and sincerity of heart, believing him, you move right, he will remove the door there and bring it here. To make sure you do not miss his will. That is how determined God is. Believe this about God. Most of don’t know how powerful God is. Have you read the scripture that says all things work together, not for everybody. To them that love the Lord. So anytime you don’t understand your life, just ask, do I love the Lord? If your love is still in place, find rest. Trouble only starts when the challenges stole away your love, then you are in trouble. All things Interpreting the silence of God. Every time God is silent, number one, it means he’s working on the vessel. Joseph, look at the tragedies that follow Joseph’s life.
From the well, Joseph will get up, they sold him in prison. And he started serving, he became the head of the prisoners. Just when he was about to rest, Potiphar’s wife came with her own trouble. Are we together now? And then Oh dear. Look at what happened to Joseph. That he was in the prison there. And he was holding the cloth of Potiphar’s wife. How could you deny? He was holding the cloth of Potiphar’s wife. How would he ever explain to them Next stage, it went to the prison. And he was there in the prison. Do you know he had legitimate grounds to be offended? How in the world did I get here? Simply because of the dream, God is, is, is, is that, is not worth it. Please, carry it and give somebody. That’s what somebody wants to do here now. To say Lord, I am tired of this thing. Beware when God appears to you and say you are highly favored. Because sometimes what follows that statement is controversy.
Read your Bible. He said you are highly favored. You thought that immediately after that, you will see people who will come together with gift and say Mary, you mean God appeared to you. The favor of God can be very controversial and he calls it favor. How do you explain that you are pregnant? And yet you claim you are a virgin. And instead of God to now speak and defend you, he now keeps quiet. Learn how to live in the silence of God, my dear people. Joseph went to the prison and he stayed there. Even in his confusion and pain. He was in the will of God. And one day, watch this. He saw two people and he interpreted their dreams. And he said, please, when you go to Pharaoh, he didn’t say tell him to make me king. Ah ah. He said all I want is to get out of this place. Please, tell Pharaoh I’m innocent. And the man got there, guess what happened? He forgot him. 2 years.
If you are Joseph and you come out and become prime minister, who is the first person you are going to deal with? You will first deal with the wine presser, followed by Portiphar’s wife. When he became king, it was unnecessary. When, when the will of God is manifest in your life, there are battles that become unnecessary, you have won. Are you learning this now? So after 2 years impatience The voice of God was about to come. Let me tell you, even when you enter the season of his voice, you will not know you are that close. It will be one morning and then the king sent for for Joseph. Just like somebody came for koinonia here tonight. You don’t know that the the voice of his majesty. After 10 years, after 15 years, after 20 years, after 5 years, after 2 months, finally, his majesty is about speak. Sit down. Let me tell you how God speaks. When God is speaking to end your seasons, he does not come as a still small voice. Read your Bible.
When it has to do with bringing your season to an end, he comes in majesty. He will do things that will let them, he will be impossible to doubt that he is the one that came. Hallelujah. And on that morning, Joseph got up in the morning. How are you dear prisoners? How are you Joseph? God bless you. Ah. It’s been a long time. Two years plus, we don’t know how long he stayed in the prison. We know that the two years was from the time the wine presser left. So, X number of years plus 2 years. He didn’t know that that money he will be prime minister. The gate, the jailer did not know he was going to open the gate for his boss. Hear me. While you are praying and trusting God, Lord if you will only give me a job of two hundred thousand, I will be grateful.
The day the voice of God comes, to honor you for being patient through the season of silence. Somebody will call you and say I’m leaving Nigeria. I’ve been looking for someone to head my company. Can you come and do it for me? You will think it’s a lie. That when the Lord turn again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Please sit down. the king sent for Joseph and they brought him out of his dungeon. I’m sure his heart was beating. When he came to stand because they didn’t tell him why they asked him to come out. If a king should send for you from prison, you are either going to go back or you they were execute you. And I can imagine him shaking and standing before the king. Your majesty. And the king said, well, I slept and I had a dream.
And they say you can interpret dreams. He said well, it is not within my power, God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. This is what you saw Pharaoh. This is what you saw. So what is the solution? Gather 20% of all of this and save for 7 years. And when he finished, Pharaoh said, since God revealed it to you. Who else in Egypt is able to do this? I am Pharaoh. And it is only in the throne that you will be second to me. You become the administrator. Right away. Look up. are many things he would have done when he was in prison. When he was in prison, he probably would have been gathering some money to build his own house and make meaning of his life. Everything he would have done if you were not in the prison, came to him in one day. Read your Bible. A wife came in, he didn’t need to look for a wife. Potipharah, the wife of the priest, the priest of On, his daughter, they gave him free.
They changed his name. They put royal robe. Everything one day, can I tell you, while you are waiting, don’t be regretting what you would have been doing. It is already in the plan. The compensation is in the plan. Believe me when I tell you this. The compensation has already been built. Hear me. I know Ohana that you’ve been waiting a long time for a child. But be patient.
The child that is coming is not a normal child. He is the one who will anoint all the kings of Israel. So be patient. Hear me. Do you know why patience is powerful? Patience is powerful because it can help you. To be able to gather together the kind of compassion you need through your pain. So that you will sustain certain results when they come. When certain destiny things come too easy, there is no memory bank of pain. You will be careless over many great things. But when you, you think Joseph had the time to be careless, after spending X plus 2 years in the prison, the memory of his pain in the prison will not make him take his job lightly. That’s why some of us press into this thing of God because we know where he brought us from. Sit down, let’s wrap up.
When God is silent, number one, it means he’s working on you, the vessel. Number two, when God is silent, what does that mean? It means he is working on other factors. Needed to help you do his will. Look up please. The will of God does not only depend on your obedience. The will of God depends on the synergy of many other people and many other factors. And sometimes when God leaves you in his silence, is because he’s at the other end of your destiny. Rearranging the people and the conditions that must make you to walk in purpose. Let me show you one scripture. Very quickly. Luke chapter one from verse thirty-nine. Is God helping someone tonight? Luke chapter one from verse thirty-nine. This is the story of Mary. And Elizabeth.
If Elizabeth had a child before that time, there would be no occasion that will bring two of them together. And Mary arose in those days. The moment, watch this now. The moment Mary finish her interaction with the angels. She found out that her stomach started protruding. She was afraid. Because none else could relate with her situation. But she remembered there was Elizabeth. A woman who has also gone through that season. And so as soon as she went to meet her, do you know that one of the major reasons why Elizabeth was delayed? Was so that the timing of Jesus And John the Baptist, imagine if she gave birth and John did everything, roam around and died.
Do you know how frustrating? John would have, he would have been for John to be in the wilderness. All the while Jesus was growing, John was also in the wilderness. It was the moment he started his ministry. That was when Jesus was also ready to be baptized. If John were born, earlier than that time, John would not be able to have the patience to wait until Jesus grows. Imagine John as an adult and then Jesus will start growing. How old will it be when Jesus will be thirty. So for that sake, Elizabeth had to wait. There are times that the silence of God means he’s putting other things in place. That will need to the bone that will be joined to bone. To make sense of your destiny and purpose. Hallelujah. Are you hearing what I’m saying now? Yes Let’s finish up. Thirty-nine. Uh huh. 40 now. and entered into the house of Zechariahs and saluted Elizabeth. Verse forty-one. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the holy ghost.
I thought God was silent. So the holy ghost could still speak through Elizabeth. Why didn’t you speak for that long? I thought Elizabeth had backslidden that she would not hear the voice of God again. And the moment she met with Mary, the holy ghost came again. And she began to speak, thou art blessed among women. And blessed is the fruit of your womb. Uh huh. Next verse. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me. Are you seeing prophecy? Who told Elizabeth? That this young lady was carrying his Lord, her Lord. Forty-four. And Lord, as soon as the voice of my salutation sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in womb for joy, destiny had connected. Can I tell you this? For some of you, the reason why God is delaying you like this, is because the person in the blueprint of your destiny to connect you, the person just got born again. And that’s why God is anointing people like us to hurry up with the training of that person. So that the person will rise to a position where that destiny connection can happen.
Are you getting what I’m saying now? Imagine Boaz roaming around and asking, I am a responsible man. Will I not get a good wife to marry? Whereas something was happening at the back end. Ruth and Naomi, God was preparing the great grandmother of Jesus. And unknown to the man he would be a great grandfather of Jesus. Can I tell you this? Every time you don’t understand God, give thanks. And know that he’s doing something. Preparing a table. Fixing thing that you will never never need to have any trouble about again in your life. For many years in Zaria again, we’re looking for land for ministry. No ministry will stay that long without at least having a property to start building and all of that.
And we looked around for land, we looked around for land, I prayed and prayed and fasted. I said Lord, there has to be land in Zaria here for us. Every time you call people, you anoint them, there has to be. I mean there should be something. I prayed and prayed and but then when I learnt this, I knew that was happening and I kept quiet. One day, one thing led to the other, and then I go, I, I slept and I had a dream. And I saw directly opposite the teaching hospital. In Zaria, I saw myself standing there. And there was an empty land there. And the Lord told me, this is true. That one day this will be the place that you will buy.
They had done it an excavation there to fix the road. And so because depressed, I’m not sure most people could afford buying it and all of that. And that was where God kept that land. to get that much, that size of a land in Zaria is is is quite a big, 36 plots. And right there, God kept it. I’m sure the coat that was tied will be wondering, what am I doing here? My colleagues are moving around. Why am I being tied here like this? Not knowing that he was being tied there, even the owner did not, he said the code that no man had ridden on. That means when the owner bought it, he just felt something was leading him to tie it. I’m sure the colt will say, who did I offend? I’ve been here for a long time. Not knowing that you have the privilege to be the one to write Jesus.
The triumphant entry. But when the time came, Jesus himself said, now that I have come, all things are ready. Go and lose that cold. And if any man asks you, why are you now losing what you tithe before? Tell them, the master. For some of you, God tied you because of something great. He stopped you when other people were going forward, he kept you. And now he’s about to reveal you like a trophy. Because all things are ready. Is someone learning? Number three, When God is silent, what does that mean? The third thing that happens when God is silent is that it is possible that he is fighting unseen battles and averting certain dangers that may befall you. On your way to executing his will. He’s fighting unseen battles. And averting certain dangers. That the devil is already programming ahead of you. While you are up and doing. As far as his will is concerned.
This is very powerful. The third reason why God can be silent as far as revealing his will is concerned. is that he can be at the other side fighting battles unseen battles, look up please. when Satan tries to stop your destiny and he cannot stop it, when he knows that it is sure, you are moving the path of destiny. The next thing he does is to begin to program all kinds of wars. On your path to actualizing destiny. God seeing that can suspend that which is his will for your life. And then deal with the obstacles you will be waiting for in future. And then the moment that is done, he will release you to go. One scripture, Mathew chapter two and verse twenty.
The Bible says, when Jesus was born, Herold was angry, the spirit of the antichrist was moving through Herold to make sure that they will kill all the children and the angel told ehm, Joseph and Mary, he said run with this child and go and hide him. Now, do you know the hid Jesus there? And there was no manifestation of angel again. Or the voice of the it. Silence. They just went, remember where they ran to was a temporary place. When do we return back to live our normal lives? Silence. Verse twenty says, the angel now appeared and said, arise and now take the young child and his mother and go back into the land of Israel. Why? For they are dead which such the young child’s life. Now you can go back. It is over. All those who would have attacked him and frustrated a ministry. All the curses and the yokes that would have been waiting for you. While God is suspending the revelation of his will, he’s making sure that all those things are dealt with. When the road is clear, he says now you can go.
The path is clear before you. most believers are not matured enough. I hope that what you have learned tonight has helped you. So that you can give God praise even when it does not make sense. And with this understanding you can comfort many others. The silence of God is an advantage. Arise. Take your business now. Arise. Take your family now. Arise. Take your child. We’re about to pray but let me share a true life story. That happened to someone. I pray for a lot of people and a couple came and met me one time, true story. And the man was really lamenting. And he said, he was not able to have a child. Listen carefully. And ehm, there was a health problem between him and the wife and all of that. And I, I comforted him, I said we’ll pray. I know it’s not easy. I was even going to refer him, maybe you’ll see, I will recommend a doctor for you to see and all of that. And then true story. I held their hands to pray for them. And suddenly my eyes opened. This is a true story. If I’m joking, I will tell you I’m joking.
As I held their hands, the Lord open my eyes. And I saw a strange vision that will teach me a lesson. About what I just taught you. In that vision, I just saw the man enter a room. With the wife. And I saw children, three children. They were running around. And then in the sin changed and all of them entered a car. And they were driving and going somewhere. And then a truck or something like that, I can’t really remember, came. And just smashed everything. And all the children died. That was what I saw in my vision. I mean it. I stand by God to tell you this. All the children died. And I saw them wailing and wailing. And I came back to myself. And I said you say you don’t have children or you lost children. They say no, we’ve never had children. I said give thanks. You don’t know what God was stopping. Are you, are you getting what I’m saying now? It is see, when you work with God ba, when God says give thanks, just give thanks.
You don’t know the battles. Some of you here respectfully speaking not to get you emotional. Some of you have, you have prayed for God to open some doors. And the moment the door opened, the trouble that came with that door, it was almost not worth it again. And God is saying I don’t want that to happen to you again. Allow me with the battles that the devil has programmed, then it will be a triumphant entry for you. Is someone understanding what I’m teaching now? This is very very powerful. Very powerful. If you do not understand this side of God, you will never be able to give thanks. Even when you don’t understand him.
If God did not train Moses for the extra 30 years. And simply because of the pressure to make sure prophecy comes to pass. And he pushed Moses prematurely like that. He may have brought them out of Egypt. But they would all die. Even with all the training, it was only Joshua and Caleb in that generation that entered the promised land. So you would wonder what was a hurry now for? Did you read the story of the of ehm, of the, that was a Shunamite woman, right? The one who had a who later died. Remember, there was a time that the prophet will be passing and she would see him. And say please, let me honor you, I discern you a man of God. One time he said, okay. Because every time you honor a grace, you provoke something from that grace to bless you. He said what do I do for you? I have influence, should I speak in the to the government? He said no, I live among my own people. Do you have a child? No.
According to the time of life, you will have a child. I remember the day or I can imagine the day they were dancing with the child. Wondering. us sing hallelujah. Not knowing that a few moments after that, the child was going to die. And the child died, they brought Gehazi, his spirit didn’t allow the anointing work. He came with the rod and nothing happened because it’s not just in the rod. It your heart is the battery that powers that rod. If your heart condition is corrupt, you can hold a real rod and it will not wake anybody. And the prophet had to come himself. He was teaching us a lesson there. That when God gives you breakthrough, he takes responsibility for maintaining it. Can I tell you this? Look up. Now I want to tell you this as we wrap up. Every time through ignorance, you indict the integrity of God.
He will let you have your way. But you will be ready for the consequences of going out of his program. Let me repeat. Every time you insist and you put pressure on God. And you say Lord, I don’t understand this your thing, I have a will, you gave me a will. I choose to do things my way. God will honor you. The same way a sinner can stand and say I don’t care. Carry your cavalry there and go. I didn’t ask you to die for me. God will honor them to live their lives. But at the end of it, when they die, for sure, they are going to hell. It is dangerous to wrestle with God. It is possible to wrestle with God and you will be the winner. I hope you know that. It is possible to wrestle with God. And you will be the one who wins. But let me tell you this, every time your will defeats the will of God, start being afraid for yourself. It will take mercy to redeem you.
Tonight’s teaching is very serious. It will take mercy to redeem you. When you get out of the will of God. There are stories upon stories I can tell you. Of people who stubbornly push through. God I don’t care.