Gentle Whisper

 

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

          Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. (I Kings 19:11-13)

 

          After arguing that God can, should, and does speak to us, Professor Willard moves on to the subject of the medium. He notes that God is not limited to one medium. He can speak through events, prophets, Scripture, nature, visions, voices, dreams, ordinary and extraordinary events. In terms of significance, what He has said through the written Word, and through the Living Word (Jesus) are the most authoritative, the whole point of a book called Hearing God is that there are other ways that God sometimes used.

          Willard mentions the scene in I Kings 19, and I am struck by a word he uses to describe God’s gentle whisper: unobtrusive. A possible parallel word comes to mind: noninvasive. Those aren’t the words we want to use with regard to God speaking to us. We want lights, sirens, burning bushes or mountains, or at least pillars of clouds of fire. We might pay attention if He sent a plague or two. A friend told me she wanted a note lowered from heaven on a fishing line. I have a sneaking suspicion I wouldn’t notice the note unless the hook got stuck in my hair or my skin.

          We don’t want unobtrusive. We want a show-stopper. But when God isn’t unobtrusive, we shout, “Don’t yell at me!” or “Don’t tell me what to do!” That’s the problem – in our fallen condition, God can’t win. We don’t play fair. It’s like the joke of a guy asking a gal what she wants for dinner. She tells him she doesn’t care, and he can decide. But each thing he suggests, she says, “No…”

          This is why, when we want to hear from God, we often have to be very quiet. We have to stop lecturing others, tattling to God about others, whining about this, that, the other, and four more things that just came to mind. We have to stop telling Him what a lousy failure we are, or about the problems being faced by those we love. We have to get past everything else.

          When I was jogging, it took me half my run to get to that point – about 30 minutes. Thirty minutes of sweating, feet pounding the pavement, and doing all the stuff I’ve said we have to get past. If anything unusual happened, I might have to start over. Fifteen minutes plus a trip to the kitchen for coffee plus fifteen minutes may or may not work. Three ten-minute intervals punctuated by Facebook definitely doesn’t work. Neither does 25 minutes followed by a moment of glaring at the chrysalis from which the expected butterfly has not emerged. We have to work our way through the threats from Jezebels, through the long trips and “angelic” ministries. We have to get past climbing the mountain, the earthquake, and the fire. That’s when we can finally hear God’s voice.

          The sooner, the better.