"Divine Silence: Ep 5: The Power of Waiting on God's Voice"

0:00 Music. Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host, Connie Morris, where truth speaks, healing begins, and every word is rooted in faith. Before we begin, let us go before the Lord in prayer. Opening prayer, Father God, we thank you for this moment. We thank you for every listener, every heart, and every home represented. We invite your presence into this space. As we begin, we stand on the words of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4.10.

0:43 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, So that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. And God granted him that which he requested. Lord, today we echo that same prayer. Bless us indeed. Bless every woman listening. Bless her mind, her body, her relationships, her dreams, and her destiny. Let your blessing not only surround her, but transform her. Enlarge our coast. Stretch us beyond what we thought was possible. Expand our influence, our impact, and the reach of this message, not for our glory, but for yours.

1:27 Let your hand be with us. Go before us in every conversation. Guide our words, anoint our purpose, and let every episode carry your truth with clarity and power. Keep us from evil that it may not grieve us. Shield us from harm, from cycles of sorrow, from spiritual attack and emotional heaviness. Cover us in your grace so we rise in strength, not in grief, in wholeness, not in wounds. And just as you granted Jabez what he requested, Lord, granted unto us. Let this podcast be a wellspring of truth, a refuge for healing, and a launchpad for purpose. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.

2:10 Hello, and welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I'm your host, Connie Morris, and we're continuing our faith on the go message with when God wants to talk. We're in devotional number five, I believe, trusting God's silence. So today we're going to start off in Psalms 37, 7. It says, Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret when people succeed in their ways and carry out their wicked schemes. Silence, as we know, can be unsettling. When God wakes us in the middle of the night or in the stillness of the night with no clear words, no thoughts, or revelation comes, we may often wonder, did I hear him wrong? Why isn't he speaking?

2:57 Yes, silence is often a sacred space where God invites us to trust him more deeply. So if you have been waking up and you haven't heard God, that is still God. You know, God is pretty much saying, hey, I'm prepping you for something. I'm just seeing if you're paying attention, you know. And we know that God uses silence throughout the scripture. It's a powerful tool to prepare, to refine, and to strengthen his people. So consider the Israelites waiting in the wilderness or the 400 years of silence before Jesus was born. These were moments of abandon. They were seasons of preparation for something greater. So just because God is silent does not mean he is not working, that he's not doing something greater inside of you.

3:45 Just remember that if you wake up in the silent, just Lord, just say, Lord, speak. I'm listening and just wait because he is watching. He is paying attention. God's silence doesn't mean he isn't working. In fact, silence often signifies he is drawing us into a deeper level of faith where we rely not only on what we hear or see, but on his unchanging character. Psalms 46.10 reminds us to be still and know that I am God. Stillness allows us to rest in His sovereignty and trust that His timing is perfect, even when it feels delayed. In the quiet of the night, when the answers don't come, choose to sit with Him anyway.

4:30 Trust that His silence is intentional, that He is with you, even when you cannot feel Him. So going deeper, silence is refinement. Just as gold is refined in fire. Silence is often the season where God purifies and strengthens our faith. Ask yourself, what is God teaching me about trust during this time? You know, God has been giving me, been granting me these gifts of dreams and offering me like the words every day. But sometimes he does go silent and I'm like, Lord, where are you? But it's not like he's missing in action, right? It's more of another level. And so if he's not speaking, I'm always looking around like you never had your spirit just searching the room, you know, like what is God up to?

5:19 Because he is definitely up to something. He's refining you. And no sooner than I think that he is not speaking, things begin to happen where in the natural things begin to speak. For instance, I remember he was quiet and then I get a call into my boss's office and And he says, Connie, are you interested in teaching a class? Now, I understand I'm out of the university into a different arena where unless you have a degree in counseling or something, you don't really get opportunity to teach. And so my boss says, Connie, I'm going to send you to this particular training and you're going to get certified. And I'm also allow you to teach this particular thing.

6:03 And I'm like, wow. how God was silent, but then he was speaking through the people around me. So always, like I've been telling you, God is in the room and he's in the room. Either it's your bedroom, your living room, your back porch, wherever he's at, he's with you all the time, even at your workplace. So if you're not hearing him in the night, if you're not hearing him in a day. If you're not hearing him in your prayer, begin to search to listen to him speak to the people around you. And just recently, I just got another opportunity to teach. I wrote a training manual for our ushers in. I just got an email saying, hey, Connie, can you teach? Would you help me teach this class?

6:44 And I'm like, wow, you know. So remember, even though the silence, God is still on the move. Number two, going deeper, faith beyond feelings. Trust God's silence means believing in his presence, even when there's no tangible confirmation. You have to believe that when he says that, he'll never leave you or forsake you. that whether you've sensed him in the room, whether he's speaking to you in the room, whether it's silence, that his promises are always true. When we reflect on Hebrews 11, now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. So that means that we still have to use our faith, whether we feel him in the room, hear him in the room, or sense him in the room, that his promises, whether he said it, Remember his words carry weight that we have to trust that he will do what he said he will do. I love that.

7:43 Now faith is a confidence in what we hope for and the assurance about what we do not see. Going deeper, part three, it says wait with expectation. So silence is refinement. Faith brought beyond feelings. Number three, waiting with expectation. God silence doesn't mean he won't answer. It means he's working on something in his time. Lamentations 3.25 reminds us, the Lord is good to those who hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. So don't get that. You know, sometimes you ever know people, and sometimes our kids can be that way when they're younger. And even some adults can be that way. They can really be super clingy.

8:26 I didn't talk to you yesterday. Well, you didn't call me. That's like, hello. I mean, you are an adult. I mean, if I don't call you, it don't mean I need to talk to you every moment of every day. And God is that same way. As we are adults in the room, you see I'm using that a lot, then maybe he doesn't need to talk to you every day. But you have a great expectation that he will talk to you, a great expectation that he's working on something in his time, great expectation of hope and expectation, and that your faith and confidence is in him, and that there is a great refinement happening and that we have grown up that we are not walking by our feelings, but we are walking by our faith. Let's continue with Scripture.

9:11 Scripture insights for this devotional is, Why do you stand far off? Why did you hide yourself in times of trouble? Psalms 10.1. Even David questions God's silence, but always return to trusting in his faithfulness. You know, sometimes the silence can be long. I'm at 253 devotionals, and it seems quiet right now. But yet, he gave me a word, and it was just a word, and I was going to be a devotional. And so the way he begins to speak to us may be different. Maybe he's always spoke to you during your prayer time, but now he may speak to you in the night hour, the night watch. He may speak to you.

9:57 It's just, God is so multifaceted that he never wants you to get bored with him and get in routine and enter rituals. And so he'll change up on you. Same voice, same God, but he, and it might be kind of a similar routine, but he'll switch it up on you so that you can always be an expectation to always know that he doesn't have to speak to you on the left. He can speak to you on the right, in the middle, on the side, in the morning, in the evening, in the afternoon. He can speak to you when he desires to speak to you, not always at your time. So if you missed him in the morning, then you seek him in the evening and watch. He might have a new time for you.

10:40 Just don't get all freddy and clingy. Lord, I'm still seeking you. You might have changed it. A little bit, but I'm still going to serve for you. Psalms 27, 13 to 14, it says, I remain faithful in this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. So that's a lot because God always wants to speak, but are you willing to wait for him? Are you willing to wait? Like many times in many seasons, you'll get series and series and series of dreams. And then sometimes it seems like it'll go dormant. He hasn't changed his mind about you, just a new way he's doing things.

11:21 Just growing us up, right? Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Waiting is an act of faith that strengthens our confidence in God, in God's goodness. So waiting is kind of like lifting weights. You're lifting your faith weights, getting your heart strong so that when there's ever a sense of silence, you don't panic. You're able to still stand strong. And then we're going to continue with Habakkuk 2.3. It says, For the vision awaits an appointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it lingers, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay. I like that. God's silence often aligns with his perfect timing.

12:04 So God has a plan, but it says the vision awaits for an appointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. And I just always believe that, you know, maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, that the longer you wait for the Lord, the bigger that blessing is, right? If God got to baby you and coddle you along the way, you're getting your blessings right there. But if you learn how to mature in Him, then that blessing seems to be a lot bigger, right? Gives you a chance to mature in Him. God's silence often aligns with His perfect timing. So it always works in this perfect timing. And so what are some things you can do while you wait?

12:49 What can you do while you wait? Number one, you can wait in silence, sit in silence. Like tonight, if you wake and hear nothing, resist the urge to fill the silence with noise. I know I had a habit of doing that. I grabbed my little iPad and just started watching videos. And that's not how you wait on the Lord, by watching videos. That's a distraction. Instead, pray, Lord, I trust you, even in silence, and I know you are here. So you just trust that I know you're here, Lord, and I'm just going to wait in silence with you. Number two, seek his presence, not answers. You know, we come running to God with our hands out instead of with our hearts open.

13:32 Open these moments to focus on who God is rather than what he can give. Meditate on his faithfulness, love, and sovereignty. You know, think about how old that can get though. If we always run into God, God, I need, I need, I need. Can I get, can I get, can I get? Even if our kids or our husband, I'm not married, But if the person you're married to always want, want, want, need, need, need, that can get old real, real fast, right? But how about just seeking him because he is God? How about, remember I told you, if his words carry weight, think of what his presence carry. Because you know when he enters a room, you sense it. So he can just speak just because he showed up, you know?

14:13 So seek his presence, not always the answers. God just want to partner with us. He just want to be in the room without you asking for anything. Because remember, he knows what we need before we ask. Sometimes he wants us to ask. Sometimes he just wants us to sit in his presence, right? And number three, journey your trust. Write down a prayer of trust in God's timing and silence. Reflect on his strength and your faith. And sometimes, you know, if you wake up in their silence and you're sitting in silence, sometimes you can just pray in your holy language and just pray, you know. Seek God and speak to him in spirit to spirit. Remember, we that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

14:56 So now instead of sitting there because our mind can wander, we can just begin to focus and speak, pray out in our holy language, pick up our Bible. Sometimes it's kind of hard when you're sleepy that you want to pick up your Bible, but you can pick it up or you can just get up and just begin to pray. You know, Lord, I know you're in the room. I want to communicate you through my holy language so that you have woken me up. And I want to just know that I just thank you for your presence. And I just want to just hear your voice, but just know that I know that you're here, you know. So action itself is to sit in the silence, seek his presence and not answers and journal, journal your trust. Let's pray.

15:38 Father, I thank you for meeting me in the silence. Even when I cannot hear or see you, I trust that you are near and working for my good. Teach me to embrace your silence as an act of faith, knowing that your timing is always perfect. Help me to wait with patience and expectation, resting in your unchanging love. Amen. Challenge for the week. Practice resting in God's silence this week. Each time you're tempted to question or fill the stillness with distraction, pause and remind yourself, God is here even now. Keep a journal of any moments where you feel His presence or sense His presence in unexpected ways. You know, as you are in like a relationship for a long time, or you really know someone, you can be with your best friend.

16:24 Sometimes you can sit with your best friend and you guys don't have to say anything. You can just be together, right? And that's how God is. He just wants you to just learn how to be comfortable. In his presence. Not worry about what you say, what should I do, how should I move. We do too much of that performance. No performance. Just go ahead and just chill in the presence of the Lord. Amen. So if you've been blessed by this series so far, I'd love to just go ahead and share with a friend, leave a review, connect with us on Instagram or if I'm not on Facebook, Instagram or X, check my website, Dire Black Women, LLC.

17:08 I'm going to post some new devotionals up there so you can take advantage of. Stay tuned for more episodes and more empowering content and the more of what God wants through us. So remember, keep listening, keep trusting, and keep walking by faith. Till next time, God bless you. As we close this episode of the Diary of a Black Woman podcast, we declare the word of the Lord from Jeremiah 29 11. I speak this over every listener. You'll rise again. You'll recover what was lost and you'll walk boldly into what God has prepared with no shame, no fear, and no apology.

17:48 May every broken place become a place of breakthrough. May every delay become divine preparation. And may the fire of God stir up every gift lying dormant within you. This is more than a podcast. This is a call to arms. We're not just healing. We're rising. We're not just telling stories. We're building an army of women walking in truth, in power, and in purpose. This has been the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host, Connie Morris. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone God is calling higher. Visit www.diaryofablackwomanllc.com to stay connected, get resources, and join the movement.

18:35 And I'll see you on the next episode, because God's not finished, and neither are we. Music.