SEEDS IN SILENCE

The age-old question came up during philosophy class in my second year of college. “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” The class started murmuring their opinions, but I just listened. As people gained followers learning toward their conclusion, they would confidently pipe up, “Sound is a vibration that has to be interpreted by the ear, if there is no ear to hear, there is technically not sound, but vibration.” A rebuttal would commence, “A vibration is the definition of sound, so technically a sound is made even with no ear to hear it.” I honestly didn’t know, and if I don’t know something, I usually stay silent.

“Silence is golden” is a term quoted in favor of the listener, as they have to hear no sound. I hear this phrase used a lot from other teachers. Silence is that one rare golden moment where all their students are on task and quiet. However, the proverb is, “Speech is silver, silence is golden.” The phrase refers to silence being more valuable than speech.

Since moving to Alabama in 2020, and now Florida in 2022, I feel the Lord has had me on silent. Especially throughout the year 2021, I didn’t post many quotes or inspirational things on social media as I tend to do. Blog posts were rare, and even my ministry seemed to be silent. I wondered if it had something to do with marriage. (It’s true what they say about not having much free time after marriage, but it’s worth it!) Or, did it have something to do with my spiritual condition?

Early on, the Lord let me know that my relationship with him would change within that year, but I wasn’t sure how. Usually, one of my spiritual giftings is the word of knowledge. I will often feel something about someone or know something about them as soon as I see them. Most of the time, I do not say anything to them, but occasionally the Lord will impart to me a word for them. In 2021, I felt like I had lost that gift. Not only was the Lord not speaking to me about inspirational things to share online, but he also was not speaking to me in my areas of gifting. I know the gifts and callings are without repentance. One of my favorite teachers from the past, Billy Cole, teaches that God will not remove a gift from you. You will be used in that gift unless you lose the people’s confidence. I’m not talking about losing a spiritual gift. I’m talking about God putting blinders on my spiritual eyes and muffling my ears.

Side note: I love listening to teachers, but I always line up teachings with the word of God while remembering that God deals with everyone in a unique way. The way he uses or grows someone else will probably be different from how he operates and develops me.

Job 23:9 says, “On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:” I have often found that the time God is WORKING on me is the time I cannot behold him.

2021 was a phenomenal year of ministry and evangelism with my husband. God allowed me to be used mightily in the gifts three, maybe four times. I can only remember three, but I’m hoping I forgot one, and it’s actually four. In those circumstances, someone was in desperate need of a word or miracle. God didn’t use me because I had been an obedient spiritual dynamo. He used me because he loved those people. Because of that love, he would temporarily break my time of silence.

I quit studying to speak because I rarely spoke. I quit studying to write because nothing came out when I tried to write. I quit praying for a word for someone else because there wasn’t even a letter for me. I quit praying to be used in the gifts and started praying to hear God. “Speech is silver. Silence is golden.”

When I accepted silence, the Lord began to download and impart things into my spirit that I WASN’T SUPPOSED TO SHARE! What? Wait… Would Jesus tell me something and ask me not to share it? Yep! #shocked

What about my 13.2 followers on Instagram? What about my top 5 friends on Myspace? (JK) God wanted to birth some seeds of revelation into my spirit so they could grow and develop in me! He had to trust me to keep those seeds on the inside and not share them prematurely. An apple seed doesn’t produce an apple. An apple seed germinates, develops, and creates a tree that produces apples. Too often in ministry, we try to give away seeds of revelation that God is trying to grow and develop in us. Once we share it, we think we are finished with that word. That word wasn’t about sharing. It was about growing and developing you so that YOU could produce new seeds.

Don’t despise silence. Silence is the time God plants the seeds in you. Don’t despise the day of small things. Small doesn’t mean small in stature; it means beginnings. Don’t despise the beginning, the seed, the potential for greatness, and depth. The greatest preachers of our era have to constantly have new seeds planted in them to allow God to germinate and grow revelation.

We’ve all heard one of our favorite preachers give a flat sermon or say something in their message that you could tell by their face didn’t receive the response they envisioned. Why does that happen? Honestly, I don’t know. This is a blog, not an epistle. I do believe; however, one reason is that they gave away a seed trying to preach a “homerun message” instead of keeping that seed in silence so it could grow.

There is a time to speak! The bible lists how there are times and seasons for various purposes. You will repeat seasons throughout life as well. You may have a season of silence every three years or ten. (Or if you are a talker like me, it may be more frequent. Sorry, God!) I want to validate that there is a time in which God may not be opening the windows of Heaven, pouring out his revelation, or providing an opportunity to share this revelation. He may want to work on you through a time of silence.

After prayer the other night, I told the young people. There are times that we pray and cry and even mourn or shout. However, there are times that we should be silent and learn to hear the voice of God. The most powerful moments in my prayer time are not when I’m speaking in tongues. After speaking in tongues, I become silent, and God speaks to my heart. I usually weep uncontrollably because the weight of his presence during my silence is so overwhelming. It’s a conversation. I talk to him, and he talks back. If you’ve never felt that still small voice, then maybe you should stop talking when you pray and have some time in silence.

Silence doesn’t mean stepping out of ministry or not being active in church; it means being conscious of what you are sharing and what you are allowing to take root so it can produce multiples later.

There is power when we speak, but there is revelation when we listen!

Be blessed in your time of silence,

Bek