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Why God Allows us to “Miss” Him

Why God Allows us to “Miss” Him

Last updated on: September 16, 2026 at 12:00 pm by Lee Ann B. Marino

Why God Allows us to “Miss” Him 2026-08-24T00:44:33-04:00 Lee Ann B. Marino

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Have you ever been in a situation where you swear you heard from God…and you didn’t? I know I sure have. Even though it hasn’t happened for awhile, I can think of a few times I swore I knew where God was leading me, only to find I was wrong. Standing there, holding the metaphorical bag as I missed God was a spiritual sight to behold. These incidents make me wonder, why does God allow us to miss him? Why is missing God part of our spiritual walk?

open book

Photo by Nitin Arya: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photography-of-book-page-1029141/

Disclaimer

I want to start off by saying that this column isn’t meant to be a theological tome. Missing God is an experience, something existential as pertains to our relationship with God. All of us have a direct revelation with Him, especially as we strive to develop a better sense of finding His direction in our lives. The direct experiences we have as we grow in Him and work to develop the gifts He has placed within us don’t always take us to nice, neat, uniform directives. In fact, if we are to be honest with ourselves, much of what God reveals and how God deals with us doesn’t fall within the comfortable parameters we’re taught. God goes beyond what’s standard and challenges us in many ways.

It’s within this reality that God allows us to miss Him. It’s not comfortable nor something we are prepared to handle…but like it or not, here we often are.

A brief understanding in spiritual abilities

A very key understanding to why we miss God is simple yet overlooked: Our spiritual gifts aren’t for us. We don’t have them to show how “anointed” we are. They don’t exist for our self-esteem. Spiritual abilities are trained and honed through years of varied experiences, ones both in and out of church throughout life. To understand this better, we need to look no further than the prophets of the ages.

From Old Testament times, the prophets (many of whom were also types for Ephesians 4:11 ministry to come in the New Testament) were all anointed. They were people with gifts and abilities that cause many of our own vague and leading prophecies to pale in comparison. There was never a Biblical prophet who made a beginning of the year prophecy that natural disasters would happen, because that’s a big “duh” message. Meteorologists can tell you that will happen without being prophets. Nobody sat around and debated politics via prophecy. There were no “words” asking where watchmen were when calamities or wars arose, because people accepted things sometimes happened.

Prophets didn’t arrange marriages or tell people who their future spouse was to be. Nobody called out social security numbers, bank accounts, or online passwords. The things we consider “word” today would have been considered words of none effect, not meeting the standards of the ancients, because they were made by observation. Being enthralled with being “gifted” and expecting that to suffice in the face of everything to the contrary, we have dumbed down prophecy. Puffed up self-righteousness doesn’t come close to the true glory and splendor of God reflecting through us.

The humble shall see their God at work for them. No wonder they will be so glad! All who seek for God shall live in joy. (Psalm 69:32, TLB)

A need for connection

In the Old Testament, God’s prophets went through not one year of training, or two years of training, or even ten years of training. At minimum, they went through 30 years of training. Have you ever considered why that is? Why was the training detailed and excessive? In the Old Testament, the Israelites didn’t worship and receive instruction like we do today. The system of teaching in modern Judaism emerged later in history. It does not serve the same purpose as the “schools of the prophets” did. In fact, the schools of the prophets were nothing like sacrificial offerings, festival gatherings, or other periods of study and group worship.

They were 30-plus years long instructional experiences. Studies included:

The prophetic
The voice of God
God’s movements in history
The way God moves and speaks through His creation

In the experiences of life and the problems of living and surviving, the prophet needed to recognize that the prophetic word of God and the way God moved through people and through circumstances would seem different, evolve, change, and develop in a deeper way. What they “felt” was God guiding them in a situation a few years earlier might seem or sound different as they grew as a prophet.

Pride leads to arguments; be humble, take advice, and become wise. (Proverbs 13:10, TLB)

Missing God through human nature

In other words: the prophets were still human beings. Their spiritual gifts and anointing did not make them sinless, nor perfect, nor infallible, nor divine. They were given a specific mandate: to speak for God, delivering His Word. It was possible for them to have their “misses,” meaning they misjudged something as being from God when it was not. When this happened, they were accountable for that misspoken word. The Mosaic Law made no allowance for false or misspoken word to the people, especially when it was spoken in the Name of God (Deuteronomy 18:14-22). False prophecy was grounds for being put to death, because it caused confusion and easily led the all-too-eager to sin Israelites right into a place they needed not to be.

The long-term school of the prophets proved that being a prophet was a life-long calling, one that also demanded a long-term commitment out of an individual. It wasn’t just get papers and run like we do today, but the continued dedication to understanding and discerning the voice of God as a trained group of people surrounded that individual to create accountability and help through those periods where they “missed” God. Such a long-term experience helped keep the prophets humble and from allowing false teaching to permeate the wrong ears and infiltrate the camp. In other words, it stopped the problem of missing God before it ever started.

But those who think themselves great shall be disappointed and humbled; and those who humble themselves shall be exalted. (Matthew 23:12, TLB)

Creating accountability

I believe we can achieve this kind of purpose without having to have a 30-plus year training session with leaders today. It is created through the continual accountability we are all called to develop with our leaders. It also starts as we stop insisting we are always right and always hearing from God. Not every every thought, feeling, vision, dream, or experience we have is divine, Likewise, not everything we think or experience should always be shared. Despite the harsh penalties for missing God in the Law, Bible history is full of people who prophesied and missed God on matters.

David fell into sin with Bathsheba
Abraham and Sarah brought forth Ishmael out of impatience
Jacob led himself into all sorts of mess with his own family (especially his brother, Esau) and then with Leah and Rachel

Their survival and longevity proves to us that while missing God was a serious issue, it was something that happened.

God allows us to miss Him, even today. I wonder if there is a reason for it. Perhaps God allows us to miss Him sometimes on things, especially important things, so we will remain humble. It is God’s desire that we know and listen to His voice in all things. we must be sure not to overestimate our abilities. It’s important to be able to see where we get in our own way of hearing Him when we must.

For everyone who tries to honor himself shall be humbled; and he who humbles himself shall be honored. (Luke 14:11, TLB)

Being accountable when God allows us to miss Him

We must be accountable for what we say and teach. May we never be too proud to listen to wise and discerning counsel. This includes word from good leadership, mentors, friends, and even those we teach. We must accept that sometimes we miss God and need to pay that much more attention to listen to Him better in the future. For our own sake, God allows us to miss Him.

Haughtiness results in humbling. The worse we get, the more opportunities we will find to miss God as we pursue our own course and refuse to heed the wise counsel of those we know and trust. Accountability comes through those relationships, formed in those we trust to teach us. We see God’s hand on them and their work. Those who we know God’s hand is upon by their history of experience with Him.

If you will humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in His good time He will lift you up. (1 Peter 5:6, TLB)

A final thought

Everything we experience as Christians isn’t as deep as some big, grand revelation. Some of our dreams, thoughts, experiences, and feelings come from overwork, worldly influences, the results of personal choices, or our opinions. Everything we do, say, think, and feel is not always there by divine revelation. This doesn’t make these things wrong or evil. It does mean they lack the divine quality to count as revelation or word.

Take a deep breath and allow God to show you where you are missing Him in your life. Get with someone who can help you in honesty to accept His revelation. This way, you can hear from Him in a deeper way for your life and ministry.

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About Lee Ann B. Marino

Dr. Lee Ann B. Marino, Ph.D., D.Min., D.D. (”The Spitfire”) is “everyone’s favorite theologian” leading Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z as apostle of SAFE Ministries. Her work encompasses study and instruction on leadership training and development, typology, Pneumatology, conceptual theology, Ephesians 4:11 ministry, and apostolic theology. She is author of over thirty-five books, host of the top twenty percentile podcast Kingdom Now, and serves as founder and overseer of Sanctuary International Fellowship Tabernacle - SIFT and Chancellor of Apostolic Covenant Theological Seminary. Dr. Marino has over twenty-five years of experience in ministry, leadership, counseling, mentoring, education, and business. You can read more about the author here.

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