Quit Staring at God — Just Ask Him

Are you stuck on a decision right now?

House or no house. Job or no job. This opportunity or that one. And you’ve been staring at the ceiling, staring at the door, trying to read tea leaves and guess what God wants. Let me save you a whole lot of time. You don’t have to read His mind. You get to ask Him. And He answers.

Hearing God isn’t just for heaven — it’s for your actual life.

Let me tell you a real-life story. A few years ago, Terry and I had just refinanced our house to buy a new air conditioner. We weren’t planning on moving. We were just trying to keep our heads above water.

Then the Lord started dealing with me about buying a different house.

I didn’t even know if we could qualify. We had just refinanced. But it kept coming up in my heart. Day one, I told Terry, “Let’s contact a realtor.” We got busy. Two days later, same thing. Busy. Two days after that, I told her again.

She looked at me and said, “This is the Lord, isn’t it? You don’t usually stay on something like this.”

I said, “Yeah. I believe He’s telling us to buy a house.”

Here’s what you need to understand. Years before, we had taken our life savings — the money we were going to use to buy our own house — and sown it into our church’s new building. We hadn’t seen the harvest off that seed yet. But when the Lord told us to move, we moved. And the house He led us to? A foreclosure. Same floor plan as a $175,000 home, but listed for about $120,000, with closing costs paid.

Within a couple of months, we had nearly $100,000 in equity.

God was bringing in the harvest from a seed we had sown years earlier. But here’s the catch — if I hadn’t been able to hear Him, that promise never would have landed. You cannot receive everything God has for you if you can’t hear Him tell you where it is.

Your spiritual antenna has to be up.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Romans 8:14 NKJV

I was in position to hear God about that house because I was already expecting to be led by the Spirit. I had my spiritual antenna up.

If you’re walking around not expecting God to say anything, you won’t pick up anything. It’s not that He’s silent. It’s that you’re not tuned to His frequency. You have to know you’re supposed to hear Him before you’ll ever start listening.

And religion won’t help you here. Religion says, “You can’t really know the will of God.” Scripture says the opposite.

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

1 Corinthians 2:10 NKJV

God has given you His Spirit specifically so you can know what He’s already given you. You don’t have to guess. You get to know.

Life is an escape room — but only if you know there’s a way out.

You ever been to one of those escape rooms? They lock you in and hide clues all over the place, and you’ve got 60 minutes to figure it out.

Here’s the thing — if nobody told you it was an escape room, you wouldn’t look for anything. You’d just be sitting in a room. Bored. Staring at the walls.

But the moment somebody says, “There are clues hidden in here, and you need to find them to get out,” what happens? You start tearing the place apart looking.

That’s how it works with the Holy Spirit. He’s right there with you. He’s got direction, wisdom, answers, warnings, promises — all of it. But if you’ve been told “God doesn’t really speak like that,” you’ll never look for anything. You’ll just sit in a room with the Holy Spirit and go nowhere.

Change your expectation and you’ll change your outcome.

You’re supposed to be filled with the knowledge of His will.

Here’s the prayer Paul prayed over the church at Colossae:

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work...

Colossians 1:9–10 NKJV

Did you catch that? Not hopefully. Not maybe. Filled with the knowledge of His will. With wisdom — which is applied knowledge, the kind that tells you how to get out of the rain. With spiritual understanding.

Why? So you can walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him.

And before anybody pushes back with “Well, I’m automatically pleasing to God because of Jesus,” let me say it straight. God is in love with you. Always. But being loved by someone doesn’t mean they’re always pleased with what you’re doing. Any married person knows that. I love my wife. That doesn’t mean I’m thrilled with every decision she makes, and she’s not thrilled with every decision I make. Love and pleasure aren’t the same thing.

You don’t walk out God’s will to earn His love. You walk it out because you love Him back.

Quit staring. Start asking.

I’m taking Jeff out to dinner tonight, and we’re getting seafood. Why? Because Jeff likes seafood. How do I know? Because he told me. We have a relationship.

Now, here’s what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to drive around town staring at Jeff trying to figure out what he wants. I’m not going to stand in front of a restaurant door wondering, “Is this door open? Is this door closed? Should we go in?” I’m just going to ask him.

Do you know that’s exactly what people do with the Lord?

They drive around in life trying to read His mind. They stand in front of doors trying to figure out if they should walk through. They agonize over every decision, waiting for a burning bush. Meanwhile, He’s right there, ready to have a conversation with you.

Here’s a wild idea. Ask Him.

“Lord, should I take this job?” “Lord, should we move?” “Lord, what do You want me to do today?”

Then listen. He’s not hiding. He’s not playing games. He’s in relationship with you, and relationships run on communication — not guesswork.

Tune in. Ask. Listen. Obey.

Your life has meaning. You were born for a purpose. And God is not trying to keep that purpose a secret from you.

Quit treating Him like a stranger on the other side of the camera. Quit squinting at closed doors. Quit driving around hoping to stumble into His will. Turn your antenna on, open your mouth, and ask Him — then expect Him to answer.

Quit staring at God. Start asking Him. Fight To Win.