To see does not compel you to reveal. To hear does not require you to speak. To understand does not mean you should explain.
Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
Matthew 7:6
There is a time to seal up what is given:
The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.
Daniel 8:26
There is a time to deliver what is seen:
On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicean.”
Revelations 1:10
There is a time to speak out what is heard:
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
John 11:41-42
There is a time to remain silent, no matter what the cost:
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
Isaiah 53:7
Finally two came forward and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’ ” Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent.
Matthew 26:60-63
Sometimes the pressure to speak will be immense:
Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?”
Matthew 26:67-68
Often God’s test for a prophet is his or her obedience to silence.