Leading The Way

Dr. Michael Youssef: The important thing is for us as believers to discern the purpose of God's silence in the situation we're going through. And to be able to do that, you have to understand at least five times when God is silent.

Guest (Male): Many, if not all, have experienced times of deafening silence from God. Hello, welcome to Leading The Way with pastor and author of more than 50 encouraging and challenging books, Dr. Michael Youssef. Today on Leading The Way, words of comfort to help endure the seasons God seems distant and oblivious to the circumstances in your life.

And yet, as we'll hear in Genesis Chapter 17, even in deafening silence, God is always active. He is always working to redeem all for His glory. So listen with me as Dr. Michael Youssef continues his message series looking into the life of Abraham. It's called Counting Stars . . . Will Transform Your Life.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Proverbs said that silence is golden, but perhaps I need to hasten to say, not always. Whenever we are given the silent treatment and we feel—notice the word feel, it doesn't mean necessarily true—but we feel isolated and we feel confused. That's understandable in a marriage relationship.

But here's the problem: we tend to take this same experience, that same feeling, with our relationship with the Lord, and we misinterpret His silence. When you don't hear from God and you feel that God is silent, you think that God is angry with you, or God is mad with you, or God is giving you the silent treatment.

I think many of us, if not all of us, at some point have experienced the silence of God. Beloved, I want to share with you what I have learned from these experiences. God uses silence, and of course, God is always speaking to us through His word. I'm taking that for granted. But when you are praying specifically for a specific item, for a specific issue, and you feel that God is silent, just like words, they have meanings.

God uses silence for His redemptive purposes. The important thing is for us as believers to discern the purpose of God's silence in the situation we're going through. To be able to do that, you have to understand that I am boiling them down to five times when God is silent. Five times. If you're taking notes, I'm going to speak a little slowly so you can write them down.

Because I believe even in the times when God is silent, He is working on your behalf. He is working on our behalf. He is working on my behalf. Even when He is silent. Even when you say, "I can't hear You, God. Why I can't get You to answer my prayer? God, where are You?"

The first silence of God is what I call the silence of judgment. In fact, Jesus used the silence of judgment when they brought this woman taken in adultery. What did Jesus do? He was absolutely quiet. He didn't say anything. The Bible said that he just sat there and started writing something on the ground.

Some people think that he was writing the sins of the different leaders and the Pharisees who were coming in and ready to stone her. But whatever he was doing, he was silent. Out of that judgment, they felt so condemned that they began to take off one after another.

The second type of silence could be the silence of mercy. Notice I keep saying could be because I don't want you to think Michael said this. It could be the silence of mercy. By saying nothing, sometimes God is exercising mercy on us. He really is. He's exercising mercy to give us time to repent, to give us time to come under conviction, to give us time to reflect on His incredible grace and mercy and love.

So rather than you thinking God is angry with you or God is mad with you, He is not. He is giving you time to reflect. He's giving you time to relish in His mercy. You need to be grateful for that silence. As a matter of fact, Paul tells us in Romans 2:8, don't confuse God's silence of mercy with His tolerance of sin. Some people do. "Well, God didn't do anything, must be okay." No, it's not. That's the silence of mercy.

The third silence could be the silence of testing. Job suffered like very few people have ever suffered or ever will suffer. I know when people are going through tough times, they go and read Job and by the time they finished, they say, "Man, I don't have any problems." This man lost everything, and the pain and the suffering—physical, emotional, spiritual—he was in an absolute mess.

But I want to submit to you that Job's greatest pain was that God would not answer him for a long time. Sometimes that silence is a silence of testing. It's like Jesus said about the widow who kept on pounding on the door of the unjust judge. She kept on pounding on the door. He wants to see how long we're going to persist in trusting Him and keep on knocking and not give up.

The fourth silence could be the silence of waiting. Sometimes God waits. He waits until we become quiet so He can speak. We are constantly rushing and hurrying, running our mouths, and God says, "Okay, I'm going to wait until you calm down so I can begin to do My work."

I want to explain this to you. There is a difference between persevering, which is the silence of testing, and the silence of waiting, which is ceasing to strive. The difference between the two is our attitude. It really is. Do we keep on asking out of absolute faith, unshakable faith, that God will answer, or do we keep on hammering away, fearful that God will not answer? That's the attitude. That's the difference.

It's like the Canaanite woman who came to Jesus in Matthew Chapter 15, beginning at verse 21 to 28. She came to Jesus interceding on behalf of her daughter. Jesus kept trying to change the subject. She goes back to it. Every time Jesus tried to distract her, she went back to it until finally, Jesus said, "What a great faith!" She would not be deterred.

Then the fifth: it could be the silence of love. There are some occasions when words distract from a message. Often when God has no words of instruction for us—He always has that in His word, in the Scripture—but when we're specifically praying about something or seeking God for something and when there's no word of instructions for us, He wants us to rest in His love.

That's why He's silent. He wants you to rest and have confidence in who He is and what He's done for you, that He died on a cross to redeem you and save you eternally. He wants you to rest in His love. Now, I want you to turn with me to the word of God in Genesis 17. The first thing you notice is that God has been silent for 13 years.

13 years. We left Genesis 16 in the last message, where Hagar came back to live with Abraham and with Sarah. She was there for another 13 years because she came back a changed woman. God changed Abraham. He changed Sarah. He changed her. God changed everything. At the end of Genesis 16, the Bible tells us that Abraham was 86 years old.

Between the age of 86 in Genesis 16 and the age of 99 in Genesis 17, there is absolutely nothing recorded in the Scripture. 13 years of silence between Genesis 16 and Genesis 17. I'm so glad we have the whole Bible now. Remember back then, they didn't. Don't ever forget that. He didn't have the Scripture. He didn't have Bible teachers, radio, or television programs. He didn't have churches, fellowship, small groups, and home groups where you can encourage one another. They didn't have any of that.

We don't know why those 13 years of silence happened. Maybe it was because there was nothing important happening in those 13 years. Or maybe it was because God wanted Abraham and Sarah's faith to develop to such a degree that it became unshakable faith. Or it could be because Abraham had grown to believe that all was well in his life with Ishmael.

I think this is more likely the case because I'm going to show it to you from the Scripture. He basically thought everything is going well with my life. Everything is hunky-dory. "I got a son now, all the blessings will be on him, Ishmael, and everything is fine." Maybe God needed to wait until He could come in and shake Abraham out of his comfort zone.

Please listen to me. Smooth waters in our lives don't necessarily always mean that all is well with our relationship with the Lord. Conversely, problems, difficulties, tough times, when you feel the wind blowing in your face, doesn't mean that God is angry with you. Be very careful.

Now, these are circumstances and criteria by which we judge each other and deal with each other. Unfortunately, we take those same things and we impose them on God, but God doesn't work that way. The reason I believe that Abraham placed all of his future hope on Ishmael and not on God's promise that He was going to give him a son through Sarah is found in verse 18.

Let me give you a Youssef translation. "Ishmael will do. Oh, that Ishmael may be the one." Verse 19. I don't know how many times I have encountered God said again, "Read my lips." Again, this is my translation, it's not in your Bible. "Sarah's the one. She is the one who's going to give you a child because from the descendants of Sarah is going to come My beloved Son, the Messiah."

Throughout the 2,000-year history, people tried to eliminate the people of God, but God protected them because the Son was yet to be born in Bethlehem of Judea. God is saying to him, "I want to shake you from your satisfaction with Ishmael." The Lord had to reorient Abraham to the powerful truth of His covenant.

God had to reintroduce Abraham to how precise God is in His faithfulness with all of His promises. The Lord had to show Abraham that He does not work with the attitude that close enough is good enough. God doesn't work that way. God is a God of precision. Meticulous precision. Approximation is not good enough. We do that. Not God. Our God is a God of precision.

So on his 99th birthday, the Lord appears to Abraham and pays him a visit. Beloved, this is the first time that God identified Himself as El Shaddai. Can you say that with me? El Shaddai. This is the God of power and might. The God of power and might.

What is God saying to Abraham and why did He identify Himself specifically as El Shaddai? It is as if He said to Abraham, "Abraham, I don't need you to improvise on My plan. I only need your obedience. Abraham, I don't need you to improve My image to society like so many preachers are trying to do today. Just obey My word. Abraham, I am fully able to fulfill all of My promises. I only need your acquiescence."

Throughout the series of messages, I had people ask questions when I talked about how the covenant of God with Abraham was unilateral and how that covenant is eternal and how this covenant is out of the graciousness of God. The question that was raised was: what's our response? What's our part? You see, we always like to take credit for something. God can't do it all by Himself.

Salvation cannot take place without my cooperation with God. As I said, I'm so glad that question was asked because I love to answer it. Listen very carefully. On the one hand, our God is a sovereign God. He's a God who's in control. One of the verses that anchors me in the Scripture is Ephesians 1:11, that God accomplishes all things according to the counsel of His will.

On the other hand, God demands our response. In verse three, God said, "As for me, I will, I will, I will." In verse nine, He says, "As for you, you do this." There's another contrast here in Chapter 17. God said, "I will," seven times. Then He immediately says to Abraham, "You must."

Listen carefully because there are some lazy Christians who use the teaching of the sovereignty of God to mean that they sit on their blessed assurance and do nothing for God. "God will do it all." No, that is a false belief in the sovereignty of God.

When God said, "You must," He is not saying that His covenant depends on Abraham's action, but rather His graciousness compels us to respond. That is why God changed Abraham's name from Abram, the father of many, to Abraham, the father of multitudes.

Please understand. Abraham's obedience did not contribute to the covenant. Abraham's obedience did not contribute anything to the covenant. Can I get an amen? In fact, the opposite is true. The cutting away of the flesh signifies the renouncing of human effort.

The cutting away of the flesh signifies the renouncing of the work of the flesh and renouncing of identifying with anyone else except Yahweh. Verse one of Chapter 17 is really the key verse to the entire dialogue that has taken place between God and Abraham. "I am El Shaddai. Walk blamelessly before Me."

What does that mean? It means that God is asking Abraham, and I believe with all my heart He is asking every one of us here today, to trust in His words implicitly. To trust in His promises unconditionally. To trust in His plan completely. To stop trying to improve on God's plan.

But then in verse 18, he says to God, after God said, "I will bless you, I will do this, and I'll do this," he said, "Ishmael will do. Just bless him. He's already here." Until you get to verses 15 and 16, and God really keeps hammering away, and finally, after that, Abraham gets it.

Have you ever been in a situation where you are trying to explain something to a person and they are not getting it? Finally, all of a sudden they said, "Oh, is that what you mean?" This is what's happening here.

Guest (Male): So how many times have you said to God, "Oh, is that what You meant?" A powerful challenge from Dr. Michael Youssef on today's Leading The Way. And in just a moment, he'll return with follow-up content that you don't want to miss, so stay with us.

First though, this quick reminder that if you or someone you know would like to learn more about what it means to be a Christ-follower and how to grow in your faith, we've got a great place to learn more. Go to ltw.org/jesus. Dr. Youssef wants to give you a place to dig in a little more regarding the essentials of the faith. There are some great FAQs and other compelling content there as well. And if appropriate, you can fill out a contact form and begin your own conversation with a Leading The Way pastor or counselor. Again, start all of this by going to ltw.org/jesus. Now as promised, here's Dr. Michael Youssef and his practical conclusion to today's message.

Dr. Michael Youssef: It's amazing how God responds to Abraham's request of letting Ishmael be the one. He said, "Let Me say it one more time. As for Sarah, Abraham, my friend, where have you been? I've been trying to tell you this for the last 25 years. Abraham, when will you get it? How can I make it clearer for you?

When will you understand that I'm El Shaddai? That I'm the God of power and might? That I'm the God to whom nothing is impossible? I am the God of power and glory. I am the God who clicked His fingers and zillions of galaxies began to dance in their places. I'm the God who tells the rain to fall, the sun to shine, and the stars to move with precision in their orbits."

When Abraham gets it, God is going to give him a son through Sarah because that's how the Seed from the descendants of Isaac and Jacob is going to be no other than the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Billions of people throughout the world today identify with Him and are blessed because that blessing that came to Abraham has gone through the Seed of Abraham, Jesus.

Guest (Male): Leading The Way is listener supported. This worldwide gospel ministry is made possible through the prayers and generosity of people like you. Learn more about Dr. Michael Youssef and the global impact of Leading The Way at ltw.org.

Guest (Female): I thought that I had everything under control. I was controlling my life, and I thought that I was okay and happy and that everything was going according to my plans. That wasn't true. It spun out of control very quickly. I trusted people and they took advantage of me. I was feeling helpless. I went off on my own path and I hit rock bottom. I felt ashamed. I was embarrassed. I said, "Why is this happening?"

And I decided that God was calling me for a reason, for His purpose, and I laid my sins at the foot of His cross. I was riding into work, switching through radio stations, and I came across Dr. Michael Youssef's station. God said, "Here, Carmen, here is your encouragement." He's one of my true disciples. I'm so blessed to have Dr. Michael Youssef in my life.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Jesus is the Savior of my soul and the Lord of my life. Today you must answer that question.

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Learn more about the benefits of becoming one of Dr. Youssef's frontline mission partners at ltw.org. Well, that's our broadcast for today. Do make plans to join Dr. Michael Youssef right here next time for more Leading The Way. Also, remember you can always reach out to Dr. Youssef and the team by calling us at 866-626-4356 or visit us online at ltw.org. This program is brought to you by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect further with audio and video content at ltw.org.