When you talk to someone you usually expect them to respond. You want a reply and feel it rude if they don’t. “Hey, I’m pursuing this train of thought here, what’s your opinion?” Maybe they don’t want to jump on your thought train. Probably there are times you wish you hadn’t climbed aboard theirs. God is not bound by social conventions. He responds as He sees best.
Sometimes you get irritated with God. “I talk to Him but he doesn’t answer me,” you say. “I’m beginning to doubt He even exists.” That’s a tough one. Only occasionally does God speak to us verbally. “God, show me a sign.” Now that’s more like it. God speaks through signs and synchronicities. He speaks through your dreams, your body sensations and symptoms. And He speaks through the spontaneous images that rise up from your unconscious. When you think that God is not responding to you it could be because you are not familiar with His language.
Does God ever respond with silence, not even a yes or no? Suppose you are asking the wrong question? “God, should I become an accountant or a real estate agent?” What if you’re not meant to be either? “God, why don’t you listen to me?” In this case your question makes assumptions that God may not care to dignify. Maybe your question is really a statement. When you say, “God, why don’t you listen to me?” perhaps what you are really saying is, “God, why aren’t you giving me the answers I want?”
Sometimes you encounter silence in your questions to God because you are not yet ready to hear the answers. Is it God who responded with silence, or did you put up a protective wall? When you are ready for the answer, God’s response will be heard.