Fulfilling Your Calling When God Is Silent

Have you ever felt confused about the future? Have you ever woken up with a sense of anxiety about the direction of your life? Do you want more for your life but feel lost in determining how to have more? Ever wonder what your next step is and why God’s “not speaking”?

After 15 years of helping people discover the answers to these questions, I’ve found questions like these continue to plague so many others.

If you have ever felt like God has given you something—a passion, dreams, gifts, abilities, influence, a certain context and more—and left you wondering what to do with it, then welcome to the club of humanity.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us that the kingdom is like a master who entrusts his servants with his possessions and talents according to their current ability (which can change). Then it says that “immediately [the master] went on a journey.” There are times in our life that God gives us things to steward and then is silent on the “how” (I’ll explain later why God does this).

Let’s first talk about what to do when God is silent about your current and future direction. You’ll be happy to know that the answer is a lot simpler than most people make it out to be.

Stop Waiting for God to Speak While Not Being Faithful to What He Has Already Spoken

In the process of desiring more for our lives and pursuing our destiny, we can start looking so far ahead that we forget about what God has already spoken to us. Did you know that part of your calling is wrapped up in being faithful with what’s already been given to you, so that you can receive more (Matt. 25)? But in the process of wanting more, it’s easy to forget what God has already spoken, and therefore stop being faithful to it.

Now there are two places God has spoken in our lives to which we need to be faithful.

First, we want to be faithful to any form of divine insight He has given in the past. God speaks to everyone differently, so there’s no one-size-fits-all here. The point is that there are times in our life that God leads us in a more direct way than usual. It’s in these times that we gain insight into things that we need to apply ourselves to.

Second, we need to be faithful with the abilities, dreams and talents He’s already entrusted to us.

Now, if you feel like God hasn’t spoken in your life, I can assure you He has. Everything was created by the Word of His mouth—including you. Your gifting, talents, passions, desires and so forth are all part of God speaking in your life, and they all give you insight into what your calling is.

Don’t negate what you already have in the name of “waiting on God.” Steward what’s been given to you in your dreams and abilities.

Step One is to make sure you’ve been faithful and are walking in what He last spoke to you. If you want more, you must be faithful with what you were already given.

Step Two is to begin investing the talents, abilities and passions you already have.

There are times when people find themselves in a place where God is silent about their future direction, and they think their only option forward is to sit down and wait for God to speak. But sometimes, this is the complete opposite of what the Lord is looking for. He’s looking for people who will take action and go searching for places to invest their talents to bear more fruit for His kingdom (Matt. 25).

If you’re a leader, to whom do you want to entrust more? Is it the person who waits for you to tell them what to do? Or is it the one who first does what you asked of them and looks for more ways to go above and beyond, who is ready to receive more? Is it the one who takes initiative? Is it the one who looks for every opportunity to shine their light so that others can see it and glorify God, instead of hiding it in the name of “waiting on God”? (See Matt. 5.)

Waiting for God to speak while not being faithful with what you have sets you up to decrease in your influence and responsibility (Mark 4).

If God is silent right now in your life, maybe He is actually calling you to take some action. Use these three simple steps to evaluate what could be your most fruitful response in this waiting season.

1. Recall what He has previously told you. Have you been faithful to that?

2. Take an account of the gifts, abilities, strengths, desires and passions in your life. Your life holds the fingerprints of God, so value and act upon who you are! Invest these in the area* you believe the Lord last lead you to.

*Side Note: I say “area” because outward jobs and circumstances can change, so don’t get tied to the outward expression. Just invest in the area you are called to, whatever it looks like for you personally.

3. What new desires and passions are being awakened in your life right now? If you have done or are doing Step One, then see if any of your talents can be invested in any new area of passion that’s currently being awakened in your life—no matter how small it may seem.

It’s really that simple! Just make sure you are taking action to steward what the Lord has entrusted to you. If you want to know more on why God does this, then keep an eye out for part two of this blog series, Fulfilling Your Calling: Times of Testing and Maturing.”

What step(s) can you take in fulfilling your calling? {eoa}

C.J. Reynolds is a professional speaker and trainer in the personal development arena. If you would like to know more on this subject see his class on “The 3 Keys To Unlocking Your Calling” and “Discover Your Destiny”. Both are designed to help people discover and live into the fullness that they were created for. Both can be found at CJ-Reynolds.com.

This article originally appeared at ihopkc.org.